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Hairstyle of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Examined; Russia Accelerating Missile Strikes on Several Ukrainian Cities Including Capital Kyiv; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy States Ukrainians Captured Russian Ceremonial Uniforms for Planned Celebration of Conquest of Ukraine; Video Emerges of Ukrainian Soldiers Shooting Russian Soldiers in the Leg; Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko Interviewed on Possible Outcomes of Russian Invasion of Ukraine; Will Smith Hits Chris Rock on Stage in Shocking Oscars Moment. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 28, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAUREN BUFORD, ATTORNEY: I just see a shifting in the tides, and it's great to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And acceptance is the overarching theme here. Historically black hair or natural hair has been viewed as unattractive. It's always been the straighter, the prettier. And for little brown girls and black girls and even women my age, hair is loaded with so many messages. It has the power to dictate how others treat you and how you feel about yourself.

We shot this story last week. I cannot ignore what we saw on a global stage last night at the Oscars when Chris Rock cracked that joke regarding Jada Pinkett's hair. This is from the same man who created the good hair documentary back in 2009, a documentary that explored how black women view themselves and talked a lot about hair. And in that documentary, I'm paraphrasing, Rock said he wants his girls to grow up in a world where they are viewed by what's in their head, not what's on top of their head. And we are seeing that with Judge Jackson. And she is giving women who have struggled with accepting their natural hair permission to accept who they are and accept the hair that grows from their hair -- from their head, excuse me -- without altering it. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Such a good point, Adrienne. That report was phenomenal and so important. I thank you, Adrienne Broaddus for bringing that to us. Thanks.

NEW DAY continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, March 28th. I'm John Berman in Lviv in western Ukraine, Brianna Keilar in Washington. Breaking overnight, Russia accelerating its missile strikes on several Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv. CNN's team on the ground there reports hearing a series of powerful explosions. We're also getting reports of explosions overnight in the western city of Zhytomyr, a Ukraine military official says a fuel depot was hit by a missile fired from Belarus.

A new round of talks set to begin in Istanbul. President Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader, says Ukraine is willing to accept neutral non- nuclear status under certain conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Our priorities in the negotiations are known. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory. Our goal is obvious -- peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The destruction in Ukraine is just stunning. Kharkiv is in ruins. Officials say Russian forces are now firing at a nuclear research facility in that city. Then in Mariupol, Ukrainian officials claim 40,000 residents have been forcibly taken to the city and transported to Russian territory, and that they've been placed in filtration camps. In the western city of Lviv just 50 miles from the border with Poland, the Russian military hit a fuel storage center with at least one cruise missile. Now Ukraine's military chief says he believes Vladimir Putin is seeking to split Ukraine into two, using the postwar division between North and South Korea as his model.

Then this morning, Ukraine is vowing to conduct an immediate investigation after video surfaced of soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, shooting Russian prisoners in the knees.

BERMAN: Joining me her in Lviv, CNN's Phil Black and CNN's Ed Lavandera. Phil, I want to start with you on what clearly is this Russian strategy now of attacking these infrastructure locations, whether it be the fuel storage depot behind us, or even overnight into this morning, sites in different locations in the country.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. So more strikes overnight, and at least one of those was yet another fuel storage site. This is, on this occasion, we're told it was missiles fired from across the border in Belarus. But what we're seeing for some days now is cruise missiles often fired from battleships in the Black Sea, essentially picking off and knocking out fuel storage sites, other logistical sites all across country. We saw that in Lviv on the weekend where that fuel storage site was knocked out. It's happened in Mykolaiv, near Kyiv, and so forth. They've also been hitting weapons depots as well. So a clear, concerted campaign to knock out the supplies that are, of course, obviously vital to the Ukrainians maintaining their defense. They can't move around, they can't shoot back, then their defense is under pressure, and it could falter.

BERMAN: So Ed, President Zelenskyy speaks almost every night, speaks to the Ukrainian people. And one of the things he's been suggesting is Ukraine is fighting back and this war isn't going the way that the Russians thought it was going to go. And one thing he just cited was the discovery of some ceremonial Russian uniforms. Explain this to us.

[08:05:01]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, so one of the interviews Zelenskyy did was with a group of independent foreign Russian journalists. This is an interview -- I think it's been somewhat contentious because it hasn't played in Russia, and Zelenskyy saying the Russian government is afraid. But in that interview he alludes to that -- there's not a lot of details, but alludes that they have discovered these Russian ceremonial uniforms, that it was, in his words, going to be part of a parade, essentially a victory parade in Kyiv within three or four days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And now we're clearly more than a month out for the initial invasion of all of this.

So he's saying it would be funny if it weren't so tragic. But he didn't give a lot of details as to where exactly the uniforms were found, what they look like, or showing pictures of them. But he's mentioned this anecdote in this interview with these independent journalists.

BERMAN: It's sort of tantamount to having the bottles of champagne chilled and ready to pop, but then not having the victory you planned for. That interview, you said, with the Russian journalist, fascinating because it was not played by and large in Russia. The Russians now claiming they're not scared of it, they're not scared. Well, if they're not scared of it, go ahead and play it to the Russian people. See what the Russian people think about Zelenskyy speaking to them.

Phil, one other development overnight, and this involves a video which shows potential misbehavior by Ukrainian soldiers. Explain?

BLACK: Yes, it's video we're not showing, John. But it's video that's emerged we believe from the Kharkiv region in the east, so this is based upon what the Ukrainian soldiers there are saying in terms of their location. But what it shows, some Russian captive soldiers being shot in the leg after their being detained. We've seen other Russian soldiers on the ground with serious leg injuries, implying that the same has already happened to them. There is some physical and verbal abuse in addition to that. It is, on the whole, a pretty ugly scene.

The Ukrainian government, or special advisers to the Ukrainian government, have said this is serious, this is wrong, we're going to investigate this. It's not acceptable. But the Ukrainian ministry of defense also says, without commenting on this video specifically, that Russians are making these sorts of videos, staging these sorts of events in order to discredit the Ukrainians as part of their information war.

But it's certainly an ugly video that points to potentially gross misbehavior on the part of these Ukrainian soldiers.

BERMAN: Certainly something worth paying attention to. Phil Black, Ed Lavandera, thank you both for being here with us. Brianna?

KEILAR: The head of Ukraine's military intelligence is warning President Putin could be looking to carve Ukraine in two like North and South Korea. So let's bring in retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, to talk about that. He's a CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel. I do want to talk about what that would look like. But first, can you just give us a sense of the state of play in Ukraine right now?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), FORMER AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: Sure, absolutely, Brianna. What we're seeing is you have the Russians say that they're going to concentrate in the east, they're going to look at this area right here. That's going to become important as we talk a little bit more about this. But what they're really doing is they're starting to strike targets here in Lutsk and Rivne and Zhytomyr. These areas are now being hit just like Lviv was earlier over the weekend.

And while all this is going on, they're still around Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, of course, is an absolute disaster, and we haven't heard too much about what's going on in Kherson, but there's a lot going on there because the Russians are stalled here, but they're still thinking about doing this, going toward Odessa. And with all of that, the theater of war that we're looking at here in Ukraine is still a very tense, very vibrant theater in the sense that it's going on in all these different areas. There's a lot of movement that is not being seen in the aggregate, but there's a lot that is happening in each of these areas because the Russians have not given up on their plans.

KEILAR: Yes. It's sort of messy everywhere, right, some places more than others. But can you talk about, if that Ukrainian military intel chief is correct in the hypothesis, that Vladimir Putin might want to be splitting Ukraine into two, how might that look?

LEIGHTON: So there are two possibilities as I see it. First of all, the Russian war aim was always -- as stated originally was to take this part of Ukraine and put that separate. There are two republics here that would basically be split like this. But this part would be the Russian-controlled area. That's the minor scenario.

The major scenario is that they go this way, if they capture all this territory, use the Dnipro River as the main area of division between western Ukraine and eastern Ukraine. This part would be an area that would be controlled by the Zelenskyy government potentially, or its successor, and the eastern part would be Russian controlled. And that is how they would want to divide it. This would be the maximalist approach if they divided the country.

[08:10:00]

Of course, the real maximalist approach is to take over the entire country. But if they do settle for a division, that's what the maximalist would look like. That is quite a change, it certainly is, though, Cedric. Thank you so

much for taking us through that. We really appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brianna.

KEILAR: Berman?

BERMAN: So the White House now trying to walk back this comment from President Biden in Poland during his high-profile speech this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So Ukraine's former president, Viktor Yushchenko, joined me earlier this morning. You will remember, he says he was poisoned while running for president in 2004 which he blames on Russia. This is our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: Mr. President, President Biden said that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. How do you feel about that statement?

VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, FORMER UKRAINE PRESIDENT, POISONED IN 2004 AS CANDIDATE (through translator): I think Ukraine and Ukrainians were waiting for a long time for such a statement. I think this statement is absolutely correct as to the challenges of our times. Before there were some words and statements that were not particularly diplomatic as to Putin and his regime, but I totally share this side of the story.

When President Biden says Putin is evil, and I think that this is a very correct statement. And it's aiming at understanding -- whether we're sitting in Brussels, in Washington or in Berlin, we should understand who Putin is. And apart from -- President Biden didn't say that, but I think not only Putin but the whole Russian people is a problem here. How would we live through the years and years ahead when in our neighboring country there would be this emperor, this czar who thinks he's in the 17th century?

If we stay in a month or two in the situations that we are in now, that we will have more than 40 million tons of Ukrainian grain staying in Ukraine, not being taken anywhere. And then we talk about famine. We talk about hunger. And so many sectors of the previously well- organized living are basically in tatters now.

BERMAN: How does this war end? How does this end? Will it end with Russians still occupying some of the eastern parts of the country? Should Ukraine be willing to negotiate along those lines?

YUSHCHENKO: I will repeat myself again. This war will end with one thing or another. It's either when the last Russian soldier will be killed in Ukraine, or when the last Ukrainian defender will be killed in Ukraine. There's no halfway through in this case, because we're talking about the principle of territorial integrity and the security policy, the military self-reliance.

BERMAN: Mr. President, we have time for just one more question. Mr. President, you met Vladimir Putin many times. You blame Russia for poisoning you, almost murdering you. Do you think Putin is capable or intends to use chemical or nuclear weapons in Ukraine?

YUSHCHENKO: If you ask me 10 days ago, I would say no, he wouldn't do that. Today, when his situation is deteriorating day by day, I would say today he's panicking. He's sacking the whole range of his henchmen around him. And I wouldn't be surprised if he will actually command to use that type of weaponry against Ukraine. When we talk about chemical or nuclear weapons, the whole range of planning how to activate this type of weaponry.

BERMAN: Mr. President, former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, thank you so much for joining us. Please stay safe.

YUSHCHENKO: Glory to Ukraine. Good luck to everyone.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: So two things struck me from that interview, Brianna. Number one, the idea that he doesn't think the war will end until the last drop of Russian blood or Ukrainian blood. It just goes to show that for a lot of people here, you can't just sign a treaty. You can't just shake hands and say OK, it's all done.

[08:15:00]

I mean, the Russians invaded. The Russians have bombed their cities, destroyed their cities, and the Ukrainians want to make sure that, you know that they get back what has been taken from them.

And just the other thing that was interesting, and I said this to you before, is universal here, the sentiment inside this country, I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong. I'm just saying here, they view what President Biden said about Vladimir Putin that this man cannot remain in power. Their response is, yes, of course. That's what we've been saying for a long time. We agree with that.

And you heard Yushchenko say the same thing.

KEILAR: Yes. And we are hearing -- I mean, for instance, the Ukrainian military Intel Chief suggested that Putin's aim may be to split the country in two. But I know, John, you know, that from the people you've been talking to, all the MPs out of Ukraine that we've been speaking to, not a single one of them appears to be on board with that or promoting that, if that is something that this could move towards, it seems that it is incredibly far off.

BERMAN: Yes, it'll be hard to negotiate around those terms for sure.

So we have new video just into CNN, our crews on the ground outside of Kyiv seeing smoke over the capital as the attacks there continue.

Plus, the moment everyone talking about this morning from the Oscars, Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage.

We'll talk about what happened before and what happened since. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:11]

KEILAR: It is one of the most shocking moments in Oscars' history: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith shaved head that Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith clearly did not appreciate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait it, all right?

(LAUGHTER)

ROCK: Oh. Wow. Wow. Will Smith just smacked the [bleep] out of me.

WILL SMITH, ACTOR: Keep my wife's name out of your [bleep] mouth.

ROCK: Wow, dude.

SMITH: Yes.

ROCK: It was a G.I. Jane joke.

SMITH: Keep my wife's name out of your [bleep] mouth.

ROCK: I am going, too. Okay.

Okay, that was the greatest night in the history of television.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: So just a short time later, Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He did apologize. He did not however apologize to Chris Rock. He apologized to the other nominees. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family.

I want to apologize to the Academy, I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees.

Art imitates life. I look liked the crazy father just like they said. I looked like crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams.

But love will make you do crazy things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right joining us now to talk about this and there is so much to talk about is CNN national correspondent and host of "The Big Picture" on CNN+, Sara Sidner and Eric Deggans, who is a TV critic for NPR.

Sara, to you first, how do you -- I just want to be clear, there are so many vectors in this story. And I wonder how you're making sense of it this morning?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I've got three words for you, use your words, Will. You are an actor. You are a rapper. You have people that write things for you. You're a smart guy.

Use your words, not your fist or your hands. It's that simple.

I think you sat there and watched that, and I think everybody was shocked only because they thought it was part of the skit at first, and did you notice, he was laughing at first until Jada clearly wasn't, rolled her eyes, and then he gets up and goes and does this.

But it really took away so much from everybody that was there. And from the moment -- I have to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed that I'm even talking about this right now. We've got inflation that is crushing families, we have millions of refugees who are running for their lives, trying to find refuge; mothers and children, and we've got Ukraine which is literally on fire and being bombed.

This was a moment that did not need to happen, and now, it is trending on Twitter instead of a thousand other things that are far more important.

So, that's where I stand on this. Watching that was really, really disheartening and disappointing.

KEILAR: I mean, look, it is a lighter thing, the Oscars in general, and those moments of achievement could be a light moment for people to revel in today. They aren't, that is for sure.

Eric, I wonder what you think of, of what you saw.

ERIC DEGGANS, TV CRITIC, NPR: Well, you know what elevates the story is the reaction of the Hollywood establishment. It was bad enough that Will Smith took it upon himself to physically attack Chris Rock because of a joke he told, but then, when Will Smith went on to actually accept the Best Actor award and receive a standing ovation from some people in that audience for what he did, the Academy put a short statement up on its Twitter page, saying that it didn't condone violence, but in this case, it did.

Will Smith was allowed to accept his award. He was given as much time as he wanted to speak, well over four or five minutes and as far as I can see, he didn't pay any real consequences for what he did. And I just wonder, there are so many people, now we are having these

conversations about cancel culture, but here is a situation where a comedian told a joke and then got physically assaulted, no one in the room really seemed to penalize Will Smith for it. The Academy didn't penalize Will Smith for it.

[08:25:10]

DEGGANS: The Academy didn't penalize Will Smith for it, the producers of the Oscars cast didn't penalize Will Smith for it. We now hear that Chris Rock is not going to press charges.

Who is going to ensure that someone pays a price for committing an act of violence on live television? That's the question I have is still today.

KEILAR: There is so much context here. And I mean, none of it excuses the use of violence. But I do just want to mention, for people who aren't necessarily aware. There was a joke that Chris Rock told back in 2016, at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith, and at the expense of Rihanna.

And also, it is important to know that as he made this joke about her appearance and about her hair, she has dealt with alopecia, the autoimmune disorder that's part of the reason as we understand it, that her hair is short, because it causes the loss of hair.

And Sara, I guess, you can obviously be against violence, and also look at what Chris Rock was saying. I know it's been dismissed by some people, as just a joke. But this is also someone who had a project, a documentary film back in 2009, called "Good Hair." You know, this idea of him joking about -- how do you make sense of these different things, not condoning violence, but also maybe acknowledging some of the context here?

SIDNER: Sure, I think that he could acknowledge it. But again, he's a comedian.

Literally going after people is what he does, and we saw that throughout the night. The comediennes who were there were taking digs at Hollywood, and why did they do that? Because these are people that have power, they've got money, they've got all the things they need to exist and be comfortable in this world, and this is a moment where you make people uncomfortable.

And by the way, G.I. Jane is one cool chick. So this wasn't exactly a really nasty thing to say. I get where he was going, and yes, the hair thing can be painful. This is something that she has gone through and she has discussed. I will not be surprised if this ends up on her show, "Red Table" and being discussed, because she does have a show and this is the sort of thing that they talk about.

But I do want to talk a little bit about something that Eric said and he talked about what's the consequence of this? Number one, the LAPD has said that there has been no report made by Chris Rock, I don't think he is going to make one. And there is a Code of Conduct though, that was spelled out very

clearly in 2017, after the Harvey Weinstein debacle and scandal, and they basically came out the Academy saying, look, there's no place for people that use their status, power or influence to crush someone else, or to use any form of abuse, harassment, or any kind of discrimination. And so you're looking at this going: Okay, Academy. So what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about this? Because clearly, there were no consequences that night. But are there going to be consequences going further?

Will they kick Will Smith out of the Academy? Highly unlikely, he is a huge name in Hollywood. I'll be curious to see where this goes.

KEILAR: Yes, where should it go, Eric? Should he be kicked out of the Academy? Should his Oscar be endangered?

DEGGANS: Well, you know, I felt the punishment should have been on site. He should not have been allowed to go on stage to make a speech. They should have explained that he wasn't allowed to do it because he attacked someone during the ceremony, and this is the problem that we have.

When institutions don't step up and do what they are supposed to do in the moment, then it creates a situation where an even bigger punishment is only available. I mean, kicking him out of the Academy, taking his Oscar away from him. These are pretty huge punishments, I don't expect that they will happen. He should have been punished in the moment.

But the Oscars cast producers didn't seem to have the will to step up and take the action that should have been taken in the moment. And even though Will Smith apologized to his fellow nominees into the Academy, he didn't apologize to, for example Questlove, the director of "Summer Soul" who received the Best Documentary feature that Chris Rock was announcing and everyone in the place was looking at Will Smith and talking about what had just happened and not paying attention to his acceptance speech.

And he didn't apologize to the families of people featured in the "In Memoriam" segment when the camera came back to start that segment. You could hear people in the room we're still talking -- buzzing about what had happened with Will Smith while they were paying tribute to people who had passed away over the past year.

So he disrupted the Oscars ceremony in a way that stole the attention and the consideration from honorees that truly deserved it, and some people may never get this honor again, and when someone has that much power, acts without realizing how much power they wield and how they can disrupt the lives of other people, that's the true tragedy.

And when they are supported by other people in the room, instead of reminding of the responsibility, to act responsibly and act like the role model they say they are.

[08:30:24]