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Now: Final Day Of Questioning For Ketanji Brown Jackson; Ukrainian Forces On Offensive To Take Back Ground From Russia; Crews Comb Through Debris After Deadly Tornado Hits Near New Orleans. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 23, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. A third day of hearings has begun for the historic Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. This is the final day of questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee after a marathon 13-hour session yesterday. Let me bring in John Biskupic, our CNN legal analyst and Supreme Court biographer and our Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Manu, let me start with you. So today, they have only 22 minutes, not 30 minutes, so maybe it'll be 10 hours and not 13 hours. What will we expect to see today?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the hope from the chairman is that some of those senators actually yield back some of their time and they can move to this quicker than they did yesterday, but this will still be a very long session. Already, right now Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia is questioning from, this is leftover from last night. He's part of the 30-minute round of questioning that's going to be followed by Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the Republican. And then there'll be down with a 30- minute round. Then all 22 senators will have that opportunity to ask questions for about 20 minutes or so and try to get through their round of questioning, expected to go around to the course up until probably about 5 or 6 o'clock this evening.

[09:35:20]

And at that point, then it's going to go into a closed session in which they will look at her FBI background check, make sure there are no red flags there, and then move forward. And what that means, essentially is trying to push ahead to that Committee vote which is going to happen in the days ahead. It has not been officially scheduled yet by the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, but that is expected to happen sometime soon. And then it will move on to the Senate floor in which just 50 members are needed to advance this nomination.

Kamala Harris, the Vice President, can break a tie breaking vote on the Senate floor. And at the moment, Democrats are confident that they can keep all 50 of their members in line even this the despite the very contentious back and forth among her and some Republicans yesterday, the trajectory that she is on to the Supreme Court does not seemed to be affected. The question though, Poppy, is can any Republicans break ranks in join her, the expectation is very few at the moment.

HARLOW: OK, Manu, thank you for that. And, Joan, I wonder what stands out to you most from the answers that she's given from yesterday?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST & SUPREME COURT BIOGRAPHER: Thanks, Poppy. She was a very calm, steady witness through most of it. You know, there she was sitting alone at that desk, facing the 22 member Committee. And overall, you know, as she was asked questions, she would pause, she would think about it, and then she would give an answer. And she tried to keep steering the questioning back to her role as a judge rather than as policymaker.

And just so our viewers can get a sense of some of the circus atmosphere that erupted. Let's listen to how Ted Cruz began questioning her in regard to Georgetown Day School curriculum, a reading list. That's where she happens to be on the Board of Trustees.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): One portion of the book says babies are taught to be racist or anti-racist, there is no neutrality. Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that the baby's a racist?

JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Senator, I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist. Senator, I have not reviewed any of those books, any of those ideas. They don't come up in my work as a judge, which I'm respectfully here to address.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BISKUPIC: Yes, so you can see that she kept trying to turn things back to what is she even up for confirmation for being a judge? She's, you know, stressed that she had nothing to do with the Georgetown Day School curriculum. And that very long pause at that moment, I'm sure was very mentally fraught in ways. But I think she handled herself very well. And it only came up one or two times toward the end of questioning, but it's not been the dominant theme. People don't -- the senators are not primarily looking at her extracurricular activities.

And as I said, she stressed, you know, she wants to stay in her lane as a judge. And as a lower court judge, Poppy, I just want to mention that she has not been someone who's known to try to challenge precedent.

HARLOW: Right.

BISKUPIC: She seems to be very much in the mainstream here. And I think that's how she's presented herself throughout.

HARLOW: But in the opinions that are about to come down this spring, that she won't be a part of will certainly see how far, you know, precedent is challenged from this current bench. Thank you, Joan, very much. Manu, thanks a lot.

[09:38:51] Ukrainians are really from all walks of life are taking up arms against Russian troops, and fighting to reclaim their homeland. Up next, what the situation is like on the ground from someone who is on the front lines of the fighting.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ukrainian forces are now launching counter offensive efforts north and west of Kyiv to take back towns that were seized by Russian forces. New video produced and posted by Kyiv Regional Police shows Ukrainian forces appear to be making some headway by regaining the city of Makariv about 40 miles west of the capital. This could help prevent Russian forces from encircling Kyiv and it could threaten their ability to resupply. And look at this.

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(Speaking in Foreign Language)

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BERMAN: Ukrainian forces and the Russian military near a train station in a village not far from Kyiv. I want to bring in Nazar Reikin, who is currently in Ukraine fighting for his country against the Russian forces. I really appreciate you being with us. You have been on the front lines. Just tell us what that has been like.

NAZAR REIKIN, MEMBER OF UKRAINIAN ARMY: Yes, it's kind of weird question because I can describe how it feels. But yes, of course you're in a dangerous, of course, you're like on a mission, of course you do your job. And yes, it feels a bit stressed because usually we are civilians. We are not military guys. And a lot of us we're just civilians guys before. But now we are in this situation. We are ready to protect our country. We are ready to protect our cities. So I think everything is fine with us, even though we were in dangerous, even though we were risking our lives, but that's the only one thing we can do now.

[09:45:22]

BERMAN: How do you feel that you're doing against the Russians?

REIKIN: In general, to be honest, I could say is that the Ukrainian army do their best, of course. And first of all, as I know, they had a plan to invade us in three days, something like that. But as you see one month, we are fighting, we're still fighting. And I think that Ukrainian army is just past army here, because, you know, the Russians, they had, like the third army in the world. And it's not an easy task to defend our cities when you're fighting against the third army in the world, but we do it and everything is fine.

I know that they want to make a circle, like around the Kyiv, and they do it slowly. But they have a lot of loss. They have a lot of like, dead soldiers, injuries, and yes, we do, we do what we can do.

BERMAN: I don't know how to ask this, but from your experience, from what you're seeing, are these Russian troops? Are they any good? Are they good at what they're doing?

REIKIN: Yes, to be honest, they are good. Because like, I had this experience before in my last mission, we were in a contact and that was kind of they did it professionally, I could say. So because they are scared, they are also like, on the enemy territory. Everybody here like is ready to protect, is ready to fight. So they -- I could say they have kind of weakest point. But to be honest, they are professionals. They are well trained. Not so, so well trained as we are, I could say but they have nice protocols. They know what to do. And they do it nice. They do it also like it is heavy. We usually, we are under heavy fire. But I could say that they have some problems with the tactic, with their strategy, I don't understand why they are not so efficient as they could be. But yes, they are professionals. That is definitely.

BERMAN: Nazar, I don't want you to give up any operational details or anything that will put you at risk. But describe what your interactions with the Russians have been like, describe what these battles have been like.

REIKIN: Yes, to be honest, I can describe a lot. Like I did my job as a reconnaissance, yes, to be honest, I'm a paramedic. So like, our group, just do their job. So yes, we have some tasks, and we trying to stop them from moving forward. But I can't describe anymore.

BERMAN: Well, it does sound like you're doing your jobs quite well. And as far as the Russians are concerned, to this point, unexpectedly well. Nazar Reikin, thank you for being with us. It is good to see you today. I hope you stay safe.

REIKIN: Yes, thank you for informing the world about this judgment in Ukraine. Thank you for your job.

BERMAN: Poppy?

HARLOW: John, that was such a -- I mean, it just so rare to hear from someone like that in that way. And also to tell you, actually, yes, the Russian forces are good at their job because it sort of counters a lot of what we've been hearing recently from some officials.

BERMAN: He says the Russians are good at their jobs, but he said we're better.

HARLOW: Right. An important note, John, thanks very much for that interview.

[09:49:16]

Daylight, bringing a clear look at the destruction left by a deadly tornado. Look at this overnight near New Orleans. We're live with the latest on that recovery next.

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HARLOW: This morning search and rescue crews are combing through neighborhoods near New Orleans that were devastated by huge tornado. The Arabi neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish was hit overnight, look at these images, powerful storm flipped cars over, ripped through homes, ripped some homes off their foundations. At least one person was killed. Multiple others injured. Let's go to our Derek Van Dam. He joins me live this morning from St. Bernard Parish. Derek, look, I mean, look at that scene behind you, it's just, you know, remarkable. I mean, I guess they don't have a final count yet. But still one life lost. It's horrific. I'm surprised it's not more.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the St. Bernard Parish President also saying to CNN earlier this morning, that it's a miracle that more people weren't injured. There weren't more casualties than what has been reported. I mean, when you look at the extent of the damage that we are seeing behind us, we have to use the words that the parish president used as well. It was widespread where the tornado actually struck.

He described scenes of entire homes being lifted and swept off of their foundation and lofted into the air and dropped into the middle of an intersection. What you're looking behind me is a full school bus that has either been flipped or pushed 100 yards from where it was actually parked earlier this morning. And I want to show you the indiscriminate nature of how tornadoes destroy and the destruction path that they leave behind.

[09:55:20]

Look at this house over my right shoulder, the entire roof has been lifted off of that home, and then I'll get my fantastic photographer, Taka (ph), he has been working so hard, I'm going to have him pan to my left. Look at the houses behind me, that's 100 yards behind me, and they are very virtually untouched. We did talk to some of the residents in this neighborhood that rode out the storm and they said it was like being in a real life movie.

They actually had the pressure in their ears dropped so much they felt like they were in an airplane. They started to feel like they were blocking out because the pressure in the wind became so intense. Fortunately, they are safe and sound from this monster devastating tornado. Poppy?

HARLOW: Wow. Well, thank you, Derek for you and your photojournalist and the whole team there on the ground bringing this to us.

Still to come, standing in solidarity with Ukraine knowing all too well the impact of a Russian invasion, the President of Georgia will join John live in the next hour to talk about Russia's threat to the region.

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