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Collins to Vote for Confirmation of Jackson; NASA Astronaut Returns to Earth; Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) is Interviewed about Ukraine Aid; Mother Returns to Ukraine to Rescue Her Son; Investigation into Hunter Biden. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 30, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: She's the first Republican to throw support behind President Biden's nominee, which now ensures Jackson's confirmation, which is virtually assured, but it insures that it would be bipartisan.

CNN's Manu Raju joining me now from Capitol Hill.

So, Manu, Senator Collins met with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for a second meeting yesterday. Is it the sense that it was that second meeting that secured her vote or was it something else?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and, look, Collins has been signaling for some time that she was likely in the yes camp. She did meet with her initially before the hearings of last week. She was positive after that initial meeting. She said she had some additional questions and -- which is why they met again.

She also was one of three Republican senators who voted to confirm her to the lower court, the D.C. Circuit, in which she currently serves. That vote was just last year. And in a statement today, she said that the reason why she voted for her is not whether or not she agrees with her on every single decision, it's because of the experiences that she had. She said the role of the Constitution assigns the Senate is to examine the qualifications, experience and integrity of the nominee, now whether a senator agrees with every single position.

Now, nevertheless, the Supreme Court process has become incredibly partisan over the last couple of decades and the expectation here in the Senate is this could essentially come down very close to party lines. Only a handful of Senate Republicans are at play to potentially vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson. In addition to Collins, potentially Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah, who told me yesterday after meeting with her he still is examining her judicial philosophy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): There are things that I'm spending more time looking at, but the place I'm really focusing, of course, is judicial philosophy and whether we're in the same page in that regard. And that's been the focus of my effort.

RAJU: Because before when you voted against her for D.C. Circuit you said that you thought she was out of the judicial mainstream. Do you still think she's out of the judicial mainstream?

ROMNEY: Well, as I look at the decision I made in the past, it was that our judicial philosophy was different. And that's something I wanted to dig into in more depth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, Erica, whether Romney or Murkowski or potentially another Republican vote for her could determine whether this could be tied with one of the closest votes ever for any Supreme Court nominee on the Senate floor in history. That was in 2018 when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by a two-vote margin. Will that happen here in the 50/50 Senate? Will it be 51/49, 52/48 or 53/47. That is still uncertain as we head into the confirmation vote next week.

Erica.

HILL: And we will be watching, that we know.

Manu, appreciate it. Thank you.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Given the war in Ukraine, a remarkable display of unity between Russia and the U.S. NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to earth just a couple of hours ago aboard a Russian spacecraft. That's a Russian spacecraft there. Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts departed the International Space Station early this morning. They landed there in Kazakhstan.

CNN space and defense correspondent Kristin Fisher joins me now to discuss.

I mean it's remarkable that -- I mean basically to get to and from the ISS, the U.S. depends on Russian satellite -- Russian spaceships still. Does that continue?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they do have the option of a SpaceX Dragon capsule sometimes.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISHER: But, today, the preferred method of transportation was the Soyuz. And, I mean, where else can you find this level of communication and cooperation right now on earth between U.S. and Russian government officials? This is exactly what the Space Station was built to do, transcend these types of tensions, geopolitical tensions here on earth. And it has done so successfully for more than 20 years.

But this war in Ukraine really testing it like never before. So much so that there was some real concerns that Russia might leave NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei up on the Space Station, not allow this moment, this landing today to happen.

Clearly, that did not happen. It was a safe and successful landing in Kazakhstan.

And just listen to what Vande Hei's crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, said yesterday on board the Space Station during this change of command ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTON SHKAPLEROV, RUSSIAN COSMONAUT: People have problem on earth. On orbit, we are, like, we are not like, we are one crew, and I think ISS is like symbol of the friendship and cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And he went on to call his crewmates "my space brothers and space sisters." It is very clear that the flyers, the astronauts and the cosmonauts, they want this U.S./Russian partnership at the space station to continue.

The big question, though, Jim, is will the political leaders back on earth allow that to happen? So far the partnership holds, but it remains to be seen if they can truly survive what's happening in Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, it's always remarkable to see them, they've been up without gravity, right, so they need help when they come back -- come back to earth.

FISHER: Yes.

SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE) I spoke to Bill Nelson a couple of weeks ago and he said, NASA administrator, that he expects this cooperation to continue.

[09:35:05]

And to hear that from the astronauts in space, it's nice to see.

FISHER: It is nice to see.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Kristin Fisher.

Erica, let's hope it holds.

HILL: Yes. We -- exactly. We will see.

Just ahead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is now calling on the U.S. to do more to help Ukraine militarily. Just ahead, we'll speak live with one of the senators who signed on to a letter demanding answers from the Biden administration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:05]

HILL: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle ramping up their calls for the Biden administration to provide more military support for Ukraine. Yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the White House requesting specifics about both the lethal and non-lethal aid being supplied to Ukraine. It's a follow-up to questions raised during a congressional delegation visit to Germany and Poland earlier this month. That letter also noting that success cannot be a Russia occupied Ukraine, it must be a free, independent and sovereign Ukraine.

Joining me now to discuss, Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada, one of the senators who signed that letter. She also serves on the Senate's Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees.

Senator, good to have you with us this morning.

Have you had any response so far to that letter, that request for more information?

SEN. JACKY ROSEN (D-NV): Well, good morning, Erica. Thanks for having me.

We just sent the letter. We haven't received a response yet. But what we're hoping to find out is that that $14 billion in aid that we voted in just a few weeks ago, we want to find out how much has been spent down, how it's getting there, how quickly it's getting there. Because when we were on our bipartisan CODEL, the one thing that the Ukrainian people that we met asked us is for as much help as we can give them as quickly as we can. Every moment that we waste having a discussion, more lives are lost by Vladimir Putin's brutality. We don't have time to waste.

So, we're just trying to find out how quickly, how much, and what else do they need. We have to stop this war. Give them the tools they need to win.

HILL: President Zelenskyy reiterating some of his asks this morning to Norway's parliament. There's a lot of skepticism which we have been talking about throughout the morning about these claims from Russia to be scaling back -- I put that in quotes there -- based on what is actually happening on the ground.

As I understand it, there is going to be a briefing this afternoon for senators. You serve on the Armed Services Committee. How do you read both the movements that are being seen and the language that we're hearing because the two don't necessarily meet up? ROSEN: Well, like I said, actions speak louder than words. So, Vladimir Putin is saying one thing. What's he actually doing? So, when we have our briefing this afternoon, first of all, I hope that we hear a little response to the letter that we sent, how much aid is going, military aid, humanitarian aid, how quickly it's getting there, how we're doing that, and then what we see in a classified setting for Vladimir Putin, what -- the movement of his troops because I don't believe we can believe what he says. We have to watch what he's doing. Is he regrouping? He's clearly still shelling Ukraine, sending those shells over from Russia. So, we have to watch him, see what he's doing and be prepared to help Ukrainian people win this war.

HILL: You're also concerned about the potential cyber -- the potential -- not just the potential but the cybersecurity threat. Your bipartisan health care cybersecurity act is aiming to beef up cybersecurity. President Biden has warned companies to be extra vigilant, as we know.

But looking at this specifically, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting Russian affiliated cybercriminals are expressing some excitement about plans to attack and disable hundreds, hundreds of U.S. hospitals.

When it comes to the infrastructure that's in place and the preparations that are there, you're the first and only computer programmer, as I understand it, elected to the U.S. Senate. What specifically keeps you up at night in terms of these vulnerabilities?

ROSEN: Well, that's a great question, and thank you for asking that.

We did have a classified briefing yesterday through Homeland Security talking about this very issue as it relates to critical infrastructure. And, of course, Senator Cassidy and I, he's a physician, I'm a former computer programmer, we were really concerned about our healthcare sectors. So this letter will ask Department of Homeland Security to pair with Health and Human Services to be sure that we shore up our critical health infrastructure.

We know that Vladimir Putin has the capability. So --

HILL: Can that --

ROSEN: Yes.

HILL: But can that be done in time? I mean we're talking about shoring it up now. This is a threat that has existed prior it Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as we know.

ROSEN: Yes.

HILL: So, how concern are you that this may be too little too late?

ROSEN: Well, I don't think it's too little too late. I think we just have to heighten our awareness because we've been doing these things through DHS, through CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. They have a Shields Up program. They have already been working with critical infrastructure. We've seen our hospitals already be attacked by ransomware. Our hospitals, our healthcare centers, they're no stranger to this. They've been working with our agencies already. This is just going to give them increased heightened awareness. We're going to be sure that they have every threat interceptor that they need, that we're putting everything on the radar so we can deter any potential attacks and we can be assured that we can recover from them.

So, we're just doing a little bit extra protection. It's been going on a long time, since the Colonial Pipeline.

[09:45:02]

This is long before (INAUDIBLE). We've seen as SolarWinds. These things have been ongoing. We just need to really ramp them up.

HILL: Senator Jacky Rosen, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

ROSEN: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: Of course, a mother's love knows no bounds. And for one mother in Ukraine, that includes traveling back into a war zone to try to rescue her son. We're going to have her story, and it's a moving one, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Throughout this war, and it's a bloody one, we've heard incredible stories of survival, sacrifice, and heartbreak as well.

[09:50:02]

That includes one mother's journey to reunite, to rescue her 12-year- old son.

Olena Sirotiuk says her son was staying with his grandparents near Zaporizhzhia when the war started. It's one of the hardest hit areas.

HILL: She managed to escape to Poland. Her son, though, was still in Ukraine.

Over five days, some 2,100 miles, she ventured into the war zone in an effort to get him.

Our John Berman back with us now.

This is a tough one, John, especially because we don't have the final ending at this point.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: No, not yet. And Olena lives on the far side of Poland, not just Poland, but by the German border. And her son was living with his grandparents in Anahodar (ph), which is all the way in east Ukraine. Now, this family, like so many Ukrainians, they didn't truly believe

that Vladimir Putin and Russia would invade Ukraine. They thought he was saber rattling. They didn't think it would happen.

And then when it did happen, she tried to go back and get her son. And she traveled more than a thousand miles for days and days by car, by train, by light rail, by bus. She got within two hours but couldn't get the final distance. It was just too dangerous. Bridges blown out. The fighting just too fierce.

And she told me about a text exchange she had with her son. She's communicating with her son the whole way. In one of the texts she showed us was from him telling her, I love you very, very, very, very much. And it just got me right here.

And now she had to go back to Poland because the fighting was just too fierce and she hopes that he's doing well with his grandparents. But her biggest fear is that her son will try to get out of the country on his own at just 12 years old.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLENA SIROTIUK, RETURNED TO UKRAINE TO TRY AND RESCUE SON: He's got one thing on his mind, how I can go and get him. He's not thinking of anything else. I'm trying to talk to him about other things, but he's only got one thought on his mind, so that I could come and get him, because a lot of young people have left already, his friends have left with their parents, they've evacuated, and he's sitting there alone. He's worried that he will be left alone. He's there with my parents, but I just can't go -- I just can't get him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And now he's in a town that is controlled by the Russians and "The Wall Street Journal" had a chance to talk to her and she said what she told her son was, if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. But she's very concerned because she's heard stories about Ukrainian children being sent over the border to Russia. And she just worries about what might happen.

Jim. Erica.

SCIUTTO: It's a moving story, and there's so many of them in Ukraine as the people struggle with this war.

John, thanks so much.

Coming up, even as Russia has been forced to move back from areas around the capital Kyiv facing immense Ukrainian resistance, it is showing no signs of deescalating its bombing campaign. Explosions heard throughout the region. CNN is live on the ground with what's happening on the front lines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:57:44]

HILL: CNN has learned federal investigators are ramping up an investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities. The Justice Department is examining his financial dealings dating back to when his father was vice president.

SCIUTTO: Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crimes. He has also denied any wrongdoing. Sources tell CNN that President Biden himself not been investigated as part of this probe.

CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez joins us now.

Evan, this is a wide-ranging investigation here on a number of fronts. How serious, potential legal trouble is he in?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is a serious investigation and it's been ongoing since 2018. But we've seen in the last few months activity pick up in this investigation, Jim. I mean we've seen witnesses go in to the grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, where this investigation is being run out of. And we know of witnesses that are being asked to come in for -- to answer questions in the next few weeks. So that tells us that prosecutors are trying to figure out whether there is enough here to perhaps bring some charges.

And this investigation right now, a lot of it is focused on Hunter Biden's work with this company called Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine. He was getting paid as much as $50,000 a month for the -- to be on the board of this company, during a time -- partly during which the vice president, Joe Biden, was in charge of Ukraine matters under the Obama administration. That raised concerns about a conflict of interest, obviously, that was -- that was an issue.

SCIUTTO: Right.

PEREZ: We know that the investigators have been looking at a number of things, including tax crimes, possible money laundering and foreign lobbying laws violations. So those are the things -- those are the big picture things that are being looked at. Obviously, the political part of this, there's a lot of politics involved here. Former President Trump trying to make this an issue in the 2020 election. But it is a serious investigation that's being handled now under Merrick Garland.

SCIUTTO: Yes. In terms of resolution, weeks, months, do we know?

PEREZ: We don't know. You know, we know that certainly a lot of activity has picked up compared to last year when we -- we -- from what we could tell there was not very much going on.

SCIUTTO: Clear they're taking it seriously.

PEREZ: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Evan Perez, thanks very much.

PEREZ: Thanks, Jim. [10:00:08]

HILL: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill.