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War in Ukraine: Graves Being Dug in Streets; Russian Advance Believed Stalled; Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson Gives Her Opening Statement. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 21, 2022 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of brand new hour here on CNN. I'm Victor Blackwell.

Two big headlines. First, the first black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. She's expected to give her opening remarks to senators this hour. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is facing her first day of confirmation hearings. We will bring you those comments as soon as she begins.

In Ukraine, both sides of the war are facing desperate circumstances. Ukrainians are forced to dig graves in the streets. The loss of life is overwhelming, some say. Soldiers on this scene say that bombings are happening every ten minutes.

Now, a senior NATO official says that Russia's campaign is getting particularly dangerous. It's also signs point to a stalemate. He says Russia is now resorting to less precise weapons that are even more brutal for civilians.

We're learning that at least eight people were killed after a giant -- look at that. Wow. A giant explosion at a shopping center in Kyiv. The blast was, as you see here, caught on security camera.

Ukraine's prosecutor general said it was so powerful that deadly shrapnel hit apartment buildings nearby. Our Fred Pleitgen has shown us that throughout the day. Even in areas already under Russian control, Putin's forces continue to attack Ukrainians.

This video shows what happened to protesters in Kherson.

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BLACKWELL: At least one person was wounded. You could hear the shooting. But we don't know which larger weapons were used there.

Let's go now to CNN's Don Lemon in Lviv, in western Ukraine.

Don, at the start of the war, the U.S. assessment was that Kyiv could fall in a day or two maybe and now going three and a half weeks in, Russia is getting more desperate.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST, "CNN TONIGHT": Certainly are. That's been an assessment from U.S. intelligence and, obviously, if you see -- look at those pictures, I mean, it looks like war zone because that's what it is.

A defense official is telling us that military leaders are desperate to gain any momentum -- Russian military leaders desperate to gain any momentum here, Victor. He said that Russia forces have not achieved any of what the U.S. assessed is their objective, especially controlling Ukraine's population centers like the capital center of Kyiv.

The official says that's why Vladimir Putin's forces are intensifying their long range missile and artillery bombardments targeting civilians. One Ukrainian man told CNN that the carnage of innocent people is worse than when than Germans invaded generations ago.

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VITALI, UKRAINIAN FROM POSAD-POKROVSKE: Civilians -- they (the Russians) killed all the civilians. These are bastards, reptiles, parasites. They don't fight troops, they fight people. Worse than the fascists. Yes worse, worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Reporting now in all of these, I want to turn to CNN's senior international correspondent Ivan Watson. He's reporting in the situation in Mariupol.

City leaders ignored a Russian order to surrender this morning, despite the unrelenting onslaught. Ukraine's defense ministry praising Mariupol's defender saying that they are saving Ukraine's capital -- Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, because by holding out in a siege that's gone on for weeks in this port city, it draws Russian forces away from the center of the country. The Russian defense ministry demanding, asking for Mariupol Ukrainian defenders to lay down their arms, promising them safe guarantees to leave the city if they surrender and the answer from the Ukrainian government, from the Mariupol city council was basically screw you, a Russian expletive.

Now, we've been in contact with some of the Ukrainian defenders of the city.

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Here's a message about some of the conditions inside that one commander sent us a couple of days ago. Take a look.

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MAJOR DENIS PROKOPENKO, UKRAINIAN NATIONAL GUARD AZOV REGIMENT: People are cooking food in the streets, risking their lives under the continued shellings and bombing, as the temperature is minus 5 degrees Celsius in the street. Killing the civilian, the amount which grows every day. Now it is more than 3,000, but nobody knows the exact amount because people are buried together in the same dump with no names. Many bodies just outside of the streets without being buried. Some people are under their ruined buildings, buried alive. Ukrainian army is trying to help civilians with food and water, but it's not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: And those grim descriptions I've heard myself, Don, from civilians who managed to escape, in the last couple of days. Now, in the last couple of hours, I messaged with Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol, and they sent a message saying, quote, the struggle for Ukrainian Mariupol continues. He claimed that in 24 hours, they destroyed two tanks there, killed 17 Russian soldiers and also sunk a Russian gun boat in the nearby Sea of Azov. We cannot independently confirm that.

Other grim news coming from a civilian official in this region is that at least two children are in critical condition. They were in cars trying to flee Mariupol today and they were caught in the cross fire. Children badly hurt -- Don.

LEMON: Oh, goodness. Ivan, thank you very much. Appreciate that.

The world knows that this is war fully belongs to Vladimir Putin but who is taking his orders and leading full command of Russian military -- the Russian military in Ukraine. Sources say the U.S. has not been able to figure that out. More than three weeks into the Russian invasion, what's more is that it looks like different Russian units are competing for the same resources.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis is breaking the story for us.

And, Katie Bo, tell us, what are you learning here?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Don, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell us that the United States has been unable to determine one single commander in charge of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine. The kind of theater wide commander that the United States would expect Russia or any other professional military to put in place to run a coherent war in Ukraine.

Sources tell us that -- sources tell us that in addition to this, Russia appears to be having sort of dramatic problems with its communications, with its secure communications with its troops in the field. In some instances, troops in the field and commanders appear to be using commercial cell phones and other unsecure channels that the Ukrainians have been able to intercept and use to build their own targets -- their own targets for counterstrikes against the Russians. In some instances troops out in field according to one source familiar with the intelligence have been cut off from communicating with their own senior leaders, with their own senior leaders. So, you'll have a unit that will go out on a mission in Ukraine, and

something will go wrong and be unable to radio back home to talk to -- to talk to the boss who is a bit further behind them. So, the bottom line is that when it comes to what the military refers to as command and control, according to our sources, the Russians have some pretty big problems.

LEMON: You know, Katie Bo, the Russians launched several hypersonic missiles that we have been talking about. Tell us what they are and what using them says about the Russian campaign?

LILLIS: Yeah, Don, so there's still a lot of questions right now about why Russia chose to use this munition on this target. A senior defense official speaking to reporters this morning said there's a couple of potential reasons here. It's possible that Russia is essentially attempting to build some leverage in events of ongoing negotiations or talks with the Ukrainians that is kind of an escalatory strategy in the middle of those -- in the middle of those conversations.

It's also possible that Russia is attempting to send a message to the United States and to NATO, a kind of deterrent message to sort of demonstrate their capabilities in this -- in this area and to kind of send -- to kind of a keep out message to Russia, to NATO, and to the United States.

It's equally possible, according to this defense official that Russia is simply running out of its so-called precision guided you in addition -- munitions which is the more -- munitions which is the more sophisticated weapons that Russia used pretty heavily in the beginning of the campaign before they turned to kind of less sophisticated, more indiscriminate so-called dumb bombs that Russia has really kind of laid waste to Ukrainian civilian infrastructure with over the past few weeks.

LEMON: We thank you so much, Katie Bo Lillis in Washington, reporting for us. Thanks again.

U.N. officials say at least ten million Ukrainians have fled their home since the war began.

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That's nearly quarter of the country's population. Millions who haven't crossed the border remain internally displaced. Several countries are taking in a flood of refugees. Poland, Romania, Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic top the list.

CNN's Melissa Bell is reporting from the Poland-Ukraine border.

Hello to you, Melissa.

These numbers are only expected to grow, correct?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. In fact, what we have been seeing the last few days at land crossings like this one, Don, where women and children mostly -- elderly people as well -- have been crossing on foot and that continues even at this late hour. What we've been seeing is really a tragic symmetry with bombing campaigns, increased violence in towns like Irpin, Sumy, Kharkiv, and as the people come in two or three days later, we hear they are coming from those very places.

These are essentially the people who held out. They wanted to stay in their country. They wanted to someday with their fighting age men. They've left reluctantly and they've left after a great deal of violence and trauma has pushed them out with their small children.

We expect those floods of refugees to come in. Poland has worn the brunt of this given its long border with Ukraine. More than two million of those refugees have really crossed into this country, the vast majority through this very border with Poland.

Now, that's one part of the story where we are, where the pedestrians are coming. Right next to that is where we're in the main artery, is going into Ukraine, the road goes. And that's important because this is a country that is increasingly cut off, of course, to the south, to the north. And this is these land roads from European countries like Poland especially that are allowing some of that much needed humanitarian aid to get to those very same cities, where besieged populations, Don, are in desperate need of medicine, food, clothing, drinking water, equipment to purify their water and it is through the roads, to these arteries that they are going.

It is also through these archeries and mainly through Poland, because Hungary has announced that it is not allowing for lethal aid to get through. Slovakia is a difficult terrain, because of its mountainous region. It's through Poland that so many of these weapons are also headed, the fear that some of these humanitarian convoys could be targeted by Russia because it's declared that any cargo headed in will be target as a result, Don.

LEMON: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you very much. We appreciate that.

And, Victor, you know, this is -- Lviv is usually a city of about 800,000 people, 200,000 plus more displaced people now added to the city. It is just bursting.

And you see Melissa Bell there on the Poland border. You're going to see more people, if these bombs keep going further into Ukraine, we're going to see more people spilling over.

BLACKWELL: All right. Don, we got to wrap here. We got to go to Capitol Hill.

LEMON: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Don for us in Lviv.

Let's go now to Capitol Hill. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is delivering her opening remark. She's being introduced by retired Judge Thomas Griffith and Lisa Fairfax, professor from the University of Pennsylvania.

THOMAS GRIFFITH, RETIRED JUDGE: And I come here as someone who understands that there are few greater responsibilities under the Constitution than serving as a justice on the United States Supreme Court. It takes a jurist of high character, keen intellect, deep legal knowledge and broad experience to ensure that the judiciary plays its unique role under the Constitution. To uphold the rule of law impartially and not to be, in the words of Justice Stephen Breyer, partisans in robe.

Today, I have the high honor to introduce Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a jurist who has all of those qualifications.

When President Biden introduced her to the nation a little bit three weeks ago, the American people caught their first glimpse of Judge Jackson's character. You may recall that she began her remarks with an expression of her faith in God and her gratitude for this nation, which she rightly observed is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. I first met Judge Jackson in 2013 after the Senate confirmed her nomination to the federal district court as a trial judge. Eight years later, she joined the D.C. court as affiliate judge after another Senate confirmation.

I had many opportunities to review her work and observe her work over the years as judge. On several occasions I reviewed her work on appeal. Although we did not always agree on the outcome the law required, I respected her diligent and careful approach, her deep understanding and her collegial manner, indispensible traits for success as a justice on the Supreme Court.

About her collegial manner, that important feature of the justice's work is often overlooked. Although appointed by different presidents, the justices have genuine fondness and respect for one another.

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We saw some of that in their expressions of admiration and love for Justice Breyer when he announced his retirement. The civil manner in which the justices debate the large and vexing issues before them is vital not only to the success of the Supreme Court but to the success of our nation. The Constitution requires that of all of us. It goes without saying that civility of debate and respect for differing views of other are sorely lacking from our public life. Judge Jackson's life has modeled these qualities. Perhaps most important, Judge Jackson is an independent jurist who adjudicates base on the facts and the law and not as partisan.

Time and again, she has demonstrated that impartiality on the bench. Sometimes ruling in favor of the government, sometimes ruling against the government. Sometimes ruling in favor of the individual, sometimes ruling in favor of the corporation. Her rule is simple, follow the law.

Now, some think it noteworthy that a former judge appointed by a Republican president would enthusiastically endorse a nomination to the Supreme Court by a Democratic president. That reaction is a measure of the dangerous hyper-partisanship that has seeped into every nook and cranny of our nation's life and against which the framers of the Constitution warned us. There should be nothing usual about my support for a highly qualified nominee who is demonstrated that her life's work, her commitment to the rule of law and an impartial judiciary.

My former colleagues in the federal judiciary, Michael Luttig (ph), Michael Chertoff (ph), David Levy (ph) and Andrew Gilford (ph), each appointed by Republican presidents and all highly respected judicial conservatives have voiced their strong support for Judge Jackson's confirmation.

There was a time, not so long ago, when bipartisan support of the president's nomination of a highly qualified jurist was regular order. Antonin Scalia was confirmed by the Senate, 98-0. Ruth Bader Ginsburg by a vote of 96-3.

The rule of law is a fragile possibility in the best of times. Today, it's literally under attack in Ukraine and is threatened around the world and in our own country by autocrats and their sympathizers who give lip service to the rule of law and then work to undermine it every time.

As Justice Scalia taught us so well for so long, an indispensable feature of the republic the Constitution created is an independent judiciary of judges who have taken an oath not to a president or a party but to the American people and to god that they will be impartial. Judge Ketanji Jackson Brown has demonstrated her unwavering commitment to that oath.

I applaud this exceptional nomination which I encourage the Senate to confirm. Thank you.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Thank you, Judge.

Professor Lisa Fairfax?

LISA FAIRFAX, PRESIDENTIAL PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CAREY LAW SCHOOL: Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the Senate Judiciary, my name is Lisa Fairfax. I am a president professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and co-director of its Institute for Law and Economics.

Prior to my academic career, I work at corporate and securities law at a large law firm. But before that, I was roommate and a very dear friend at Harvard College and Harvard Law School of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who I am so very honored to introduce to you today and to the American people.

Ketanji and I met during our first days of college nearly 35 years ago. Those first moments when you wonder if you belong, she's the friend that made sure we all did -- a woman of deep faith in God and unyielding love for family, Ketanji defines friendship. She's the friend you're immediately drawn to for their outgoing and friendly nature. As our circle of friends grew, she's the one who became the rock for

us all. Even though we're the same age, she's the role model who makes you believe in what she said. You can do it and here's how. And she showed us how, by the power of her example of hard work, preparation and excellence that transforms the seemingly impossible into the achievable.

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Together, we poured our souls into our studies, graduating college with honors and then doing it all over again when we enrolled and graduated law school with honors. We became sisters and saw each other's families as our own. We both met our husbands when we were students. And we were there for each other as we walked down the aisle, started our legal careers and eventually our lives as working mothers.

My husband, Roger Fairfax, now dean of American University's Washington College of Law has described Ketanji's impeccable credentials that distinguished her at every level of her professional career. He knows her as one of our children's most favorite people in the world.

Our college roommate, Nina Simmons (ph), a top corporate lawyer, has described Ketanji's unwavering work ethic. She puts her head down and gets it done even and perhaps especially when no one is watching.

Our other college roommate, Antoinette Copley (ph), a distinguished business law professor, has described Ketanji has a coalition builder. We knew early on that she could be anything she chose to be but also that she seemed destined to be a judge because of her ability to see all sides and render fair and level headed decisions.

But our tight group knit of girl friends knows there's so much more to Ketanji beyond her brilliant mind. There's her wonderful sense of humor, her gift of storytelling, her heart of gold that always shows up, from the first call you make for advice about your career, to the first knock you hear on the door after learning you're diagnosed with cancer, you never have to ask. She's always there.

Above all, Ketanji is humble enough not to pretend she knows how to have it all. But she does know how to give it her all. And what she gives to her family, her friends, she also gives to the law and to this country. A testament of her character is all the people of different backgrounds and beliefs who understand that essence of Ketanji.

We've seen that in her endorsements from bipartisan colleagues, from the bench and the bar, and from both civil rights leaders and members of law enforcement. And we will see it in the history she will make.

I know she is honored and humbled by significance of this moment. Not for what it means for her but what it means for our amazing country. Confirmation of the idea that America is a place in which all of us can feel a sense of belonging, and all of us can reach our fullest potential. While challenging, I would summarize nearly 35 years of friendship in

this way, by highlighting Ketanji's faith in God and country, her intellectual brilliance, her goodness and grace, and a work ethic that makes her perfectly suited for the serious task of serving on the Supreme Court.

It is with tremendous pride, love and gratitude for her willingness to serve that I introduce to you my dear friend, and an exemplar of the best of America's best, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Thank you.

DURBIN: Thank you both. Professor Fairfax and Judge Griffith, I'm sure that Judge Jackson and her family deeply appreciate your being here today, your kind words.

I want to add to the list of introducers, the man sitting behind you, Senator Doug Jones who has introduced Judge Jackson to many of us, not to the first time, maybe reintroduced her. But, Doug, thank you for serving in this cause and for helping the president and Judge Jackson. Thank you all three for being with us today.

We're now going to move to the next phase of the program and that is to hear from Judge Jackson. So, if we can set up a table --

BLACKWELL: Setting up that table.

DURBIN: Before you is sit down, I'm going to ask --

BLACKWELL: Watching the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Let's bring in now --

DURBIN: Please raise your right hand.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's pause.

DURBIN: Do you affirm that the testimony you're about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE: I do.

DURBIN: Let the record reflect that the judge has answered in the affirmative and having met that requirement, you may no proceed with your remarks.

JACKSON: Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley and distinguished members of the Judiciary Committee, thank you for convening this hearing and for considering my nomination as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

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I am humbled and honored to be here and I am also truly grateful for the generous introductions that my former judicial colleague, Judge Tom Griffith, and my close friend, Professor Lisa Fairfax, have so graciously provided. I'm also very thankful for the confidence that President Biden has

placed in me and for the kindness that he and first lady and the vice president and the second gentleman have extended to me and my family.

Today will be the fourth time that I've had the honor of appearing before this committee to be considered for confirmation. Over the past three weeks, I have also had the honor of meeting each member of this committee separately. And I've met with 45 senators in total.

Your careful attention to my nomination demonstrates your dedication to the crucial role that the Senate plays in this constitutional process and I thank you.

And while I'm on the subject of gratitude, I must also pause to reaffirm my thanks to God for it is faith that sustains me at this moment. Even prior to today, I can honestly say that my life has been blessed beyond measure.

The first of my many blessings is the fact that I was born in this great nation, a little over 50 years ago in September of 1970. Congress had enacted two civil rights acts in the decade before. And like so many who had experienced lawful racial segregation first hand, my parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, left their hometown of Miami, Florida, and moved to Washington, D.C. to experience new freedom.

When I was born here in Washington, my parents were public school teachers, and to express both pride in their heritage and hope for the future, they gave me an African name, Ketanji Onyika, which they were told means lovely one.

My parents thought me that unlike the many barriers that they had to face growing up, my path was clearer, so that if I worked hard and I believed in myself in America, I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be.

Like so many families in this country, they worked long hours and sacrificed to provide their children every opportunity to reach their God-given potential. My parents have been married for almost 54 years and they're here with me today. I cannot possibly thank them enough for everything they have done for me.

I love you, mom and dad.

My father in particular bears responsibility for my interest in the law. When I was four, we moved back to Miami so that he could be a full-time law student, and we lived on the campus of the University of Miami Law School. During those years, my mother pulled double duty, working as the sole breadwinner of our family while also guiding and inspiring 4-year-old me.

My very earliest memories are of watching my father study. He had his stack of law books on the kitchen table while I sat across from him with my stack of coloring books.

My parents also instilled in me and my younger brother, Ketajh, the importance of public service. After graduating from Howard University, Ketajh started out as a police officer, following two of our uncles. After the September 11th attacks on our country, Ketajh volunteered for the Army and eventually became an infantry officer serving two tours of duty in the Middle East. Ketajh is here today providing his love and support as always.

And speaking of unconditional love, I would like to introduce you to my husband of 25 years, Dr. Patrick Jackson. I have no doubt that without him by my side from the very beginning of this incredible, professional journey, none of this would have been possible.

We met in college more than three decades ago and since then, he's been the best husband, father and friend I could ever imagine.

Patrick, I love you.

William, Patrick's identical twin brother is here as well, along with his wonderful wife, Dana. Also here from Park City, Utah, are Patrick's his older brother Garthy (ph) and his wife Natalie.