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Final Day Of Questioning For Ketanji Brown Jackson; Longtime Putin Aide Resigns Amid Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine; Moscow Stock Exchange Reopens Tomorrow After Being Shut For A Month; New Orleans Tornado Confirmed As EF-3. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 23, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The high-end option -- and this perhaps not the likely simply because of its expense -- is the U.S. can possibly build another base, a traditional military base in Eastern Europe to sure up that eastern flank of NATO. So again, these are options being considered. What the Pentagon has drawn up as possibilities for Biden. But he'll discuss these with NATO allies.

There were certainly other options as well. For example, exercises that are more frequent, larger in scale and scope. A bigger cyber presence there. So, there are a number of possibilities on the table here. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julie Smith, has said nothing is off the table and they are looking for new ideas to flush them out, to discuss them.

One of those ideas put forward by Poland was a NATO peace keeping mission for Ukraine. Smith said that idea was dead in the water and there's more to learn about it as are looking for all sorts of ideas. Don, it's worth remembering that before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. had some 80,000 troops on permanent and rotational deployment to Europe. That number has gone up to 100,000. And by the looks of it, it may go up even more.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Oren Liebermann, thank you very much. I appreciate that. I'm going to get back now to Victor. Victor following some news all over the world really, Brussels, here, the death of Madeleine Albright. There's a lot happening.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Yes, Don, we certainly are focusing on Capitol Hill as well as we're now on round two of questioning on Capitol Hill for Supreme Court nomination Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. We'll bring you some key moments, next.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Why are you not allowing her to answer the question? There's not another Senator here you've not allowed her to answer the question. I'm not asking another question but allow her to answer the question Chairman Durbin.

Why do you not want the American people to know what happened in the Stewart case for any of the? Chairman Durbin, I've never seen the chairman refuse to allow a witness to answer a question. You can bang it as loud as you want.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): All I can just tell you at some point you have to follow the rules.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And that back and forth just happened on Capitol Hill between Senator Ted Cruz and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin. This of course is during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Cruz continued to question Jackson's sentencing record as a judge specifically in cases involving child pornography. Cruz continued to interrupt Judge Jackson when he asked her questions.

Let's consider this context. He was given 20 minutes to ask her questions. Repeatedly he interrupted her as she tried to answer. He waited until his time was up for that performance. And that's what it was. This is the final day for Senators to delve further into a record before voting on whether to confirm Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said that Jackson's hearing has been used as quote testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories.

Joining me, former Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms. She is now a CNN commentator. Also with us, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, she is a Harvard Law school professor and Dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Welcome to both of you. I want to take both the legal angle and the political angle of this line on sentencing for child porn defendants.

First, the legal question. The analysis of the sentencing in these cases, Dean, explain why this is a point of contention potentially and where this falls along with the other sentences that we have seen from judges in similar cases.

TOMIKO BROWN-NAGIN, DEAN, HARVARD RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE: Well, the reality is that the legal and the political are intwined here. There's been fact checking and what has been said by CNN, "The New York Times" and other outlets is that contrary to what is being said about Judge Jackson's sentences that they are in line with judge's throughout the nation.

Nevertheless, there is continual questioning about her sentences in child pornography cases and there is a repeated interruption of her when she is trying to indicate the factor that she and other judges consider when handing down those sentences. And also, the Senators are not really answering when she and others are saying, well, if Congress wants to change how this works, Congress is able to change how it works to make the guidelines mandatory. And so, clearly, there is political grand standing going on here to a degree that is remarkable, frankly. BLACKWELL: So, Mayor, let's talk about the political element here. On

day one of questioning, that certainly was a line of questioning from some of the Republican Senators but it has been the majority of what she's been asked about by many of the Senators thus far today. Still several to go. What do you think about what we're seeing on this line of questioning for the judge?

KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we are seeing politics at play and when you look at the performance of Senator Cruz, it gets him air time. The fact we are discussing his theatrics today is exactly what he wants.

[15:40:00]

I have to just give my hats off to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the way that she has handled his questioning. Women across America are applauding her and also recognizing these moments especially women of color when you are questioned about your credentials and your qualifications and when you have to resist the urge to be angry because you don't want to be labeled as the angry black woman. She has done a great job in being very graceful in stating her qualifications and answering these questions.

BLACKWELL: Professor, let me get your reaction to something that Judge Jackson confirmed during her engagement with Senator Cruz. That she plans to recuse herself if she is confirmed to Supreme Court from the lawsuit against Harvard over its affirmative action policies. Your thoughts on that.

BOTTOMS: Well, this has been an issue that's been brewing for some time with people asking if she would do so and she has decided to do so. And it ends the discussion. But I do want to say the power dynamics on the court do not change because there will be eight justices, we presume, deciding rather than nine justices. So, there will have to be some conservative justice who perhaps have been skeptical of affirmative action to change their viewpoint in order for the policies to have a chance to survive under scrutiny at the Supreme Court.

BLACKWELL: Mayor, let me show you a bit of the exchange between Judge Jackson and Senator Graham today. Senator Graham an interesting case here. He voted to confirm her to her current role on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer. Here is a bit of exchange in the second round of questioning.

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JACKSON: With one click, you can receive -- you can distribute tens of thousands. You can be doing this for 15 minutes and all of a sudden you are looking at 30, 40, 50 years in prison.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Good. Good.

JACKSON: But I understand.

GRAHAM: Absolutely, good. I hope you are. Good. JACKSON: -- allow you to do --

DURBIN: Allow her to finish, please.

GRAHAM: I hope you go to jail for 50 years if you're on the internet trolling for images of children in sexual exploitation. So, you don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's a horrible thing.

DURBIN: That's not what the witness said. She should be allowed to answer this question once and all.

JACKSON: Senator, all I'm trying to explain is that our sentencing system, the system that Congress has created, the system that the sentencing commission is the steward of is a rational one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: So, that also was on the topic of sentences for child porn defendants. I wonder, Mayor, what you think of this -- I don't know. It's not confrontational -- adversarial maybe a position from Senator Graham. He voted to confirm both of President Obama's nominees to the court. He voted for Judge Jackson for her current position. What do you think about what we're seeing if him in this confirmation process?

BOTTOMS: It's really unfortunate and what's most important is the attempt to distort the judge's record. She's done a great job of explaining to the public that when these guidelines were put in place, these not mandatory guidelines. When they were put in place, they did not contemplate electronic images. But what you see Senator Graham doing and many other Republican Senators is attempting to make this about child pornography and about her being soft on crime and it's completely inaccurate.

But again, it's the politics of it all. You need 50 votes plus, potentially, a tie breaking vote from the Vice President of the United States. It would be great to get bipartisan support for her confirmation. But it's my hope that there will be support from Republican Senators. But I certainly wouldn't count on Lindsey Graham being one of them.

BLACKWELL: All right. Former mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, thank you.

Well, after more than a month of detention, the State Department says that an embassy official was able to get access to U.S. basketball star Britney Greiner. We'll have more on her condition, next.

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BLACKWELL: We've got an update now on Britney Greiner. She's the American pro basketball player who is being held in Russia for allegedly smuggling drugs.

[15:50:00] A U.S. embassy official was allowed to see her on Tuesday. The report is that she is in good condition. Now Russia's new iron curtain makes this welfare check a rare glimpse inside the country.

Also, today a new report offers insight into the Kremlin. A long- standing Russian government insider has quit his job as Vladimir Putin special representative to the environment. CNN diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now. So, what's the significance of this resignation -- Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, it's certainly, what in the international community people have been looking for to see which of the oligarchs and key insiders might jump ship, if you will. The indications until now have been that some of the big names, Abramovich, for example, have been returning to Russia.

But Anatoly Chubais an insider, a longtime sort of political survivor in Russian terms. He worked for President Boris Yeltsin back in the '90s. Yeltsin anointed Putin, Chubais went moves to be -- to work for President Putin. But I think it seems to be an indication that there are those uncomfortable with what President Putin is doing in Ukraine and aren't prepared to stand by him.

But when you look at this, this is an isolated incident. This is far from an indication that the Kremlin is cracking. That people are flooding from a sinking ship. This is an indication really at the moment of really one or two key insiders moving out. And the indications are that he's been spotted in Turkey.

But people in his position -- Chubais' to hang around in Russia and to have an anti-Kremlin position would be extremely dangerous right now. Putin essentially trying to put a lid on any kind of dissent. So, potentially he may well be a wanted person, or a not wanted person, if you will, back in Moscow.

But an indication at least that there are those insiders who find what Putin is doing distasteful and are getting out of the way. Because it is not possible to voice dissent and change the course of the Kremlin. I think that's the reality. You cannot work, it appears, as an insider against the Kremlin. You just leave and get out and run for safety.

BLACKWELL: Yes, understood. One more thing. The Russian stock exchange is scheduled to reopen for the first time tomorrow. The first time, of course, since these stiff sanctions have been imposed. What's the significance here?

ROBERTSON: The Kremlin has had to keep the stock exchange closed for almost four weeks because when the war began, there was a run on the ruble. Its value tanking. The only way for the government to try to sort of get a handle on that was to close down the stock exchange. It's a partial reopening. A four-week delay is unheard of previously, so it shows the economic pain that the Kremlin is suffering.

They're opening trading in 33 different stocks, including some of the big stake companies, Rosneft, Lukoil, VTB Bank, Sberbank, to name but just a handful of them. It is banks like VTB Bank, like Sberbank in particular, big banks in Russia that outside of Russia, the EU and others are eyeing for potential sanctions in the future. So, it would be potentially an unwise investor to begin to look to those stocks that want to trade in them.

And of course, what Russia is absolutely concerned about is a flight of cash. And they've stopped any foreign business owner, or any foreign national from taking money, taking more than $10,000 out of the country. So, this is really the Kremlin beginning to crack open the door and see what happens when they allow some normality to return to economic life. And the likelihood is it's not going to look good for the ruble in all of this.

BLACKWELL: All right, Nic Robertson there for us there. Thank you.

Officials say the tornado that touched down in New Orleans overnight was an EF-3. The latest on the search and rescue, next.

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BLACKWELL: The National Weather Service confirmed a deadly tornado that struck the New Orleans area yesterday was at least an EF-3. One person was killed in St. Bernard Parish where several houses collapsed. Others were ripped off their foundations. Seven other people were injured. Now, in New Orleans, officials say there is some damage in the lower Ninth Ward. A second smaller tornado north of the city caused only minor damage. That storm system now is moving east. More than 65 million people along the Florida Panhandle, the Carolinas, southeastern Georgia, are under slight risk for severe weather today.

Moderna just released their interim results of its COVID-19 trial in children ages 6 months to 6 years and it shows that the vaccine performs as well in kids as it does in adults. Moderna says that two 25-microgram doses provided a similar immune response to two 100- microgram doses for adults 18 to 25.

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But the vaccine was not that effective in preventing infections cause by the Omicron variant. Despite that, Moderna now plans to ask the FDA to authorize the use of the vaccine for kids ages 6-11 in the coming weeks.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.