your country. i don't know if i got a full answer from you, and i'm just going to assume that president putin wants to scare the world and keep the world on tenterhooks. >> be sure to join me tomorrow for a special edition of "the situation room." we'll be live from brussels where we'll be covering the nato summit this week. >> thank for watching. erin burnett "out front" starts now. out front income, breaking news. the u.s. and nato warning another country is about to join russia's invasion even as putin's top spokesman says the war is going as planned. plus putin's nemesis and top critic sentenced to another nine years in a maximum security penal prison. alexey navalny's close friend is out front. the historic confirmation hearing from judge ketanji brown jackson. we'll take you there live. let's go out front sdwloo good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight, two majoric braing story, intense fighting

this hour in ukraine. we have new video of a fire fight with russians on the outskirts of the ukrainian capital. [ shots fired ] [ speaking foreign language ] [ shots fired ] there is taking place just about 18 miles from kyiv. this video coming in, obviously it happened earlier and it is dark there now, but you hear that gun fire and a man firing a shoulder-fired missile launcher. according to the ukrainian politician who published this

video the fighters are chechen immigrants who are taking up arms to defend ukraine. all of this as the war in ukraine could be about to escalate, get bigger. u.s. and nato officials tell cnn that belarus may send soldiers into ukraine to help putin. a u.s. official telling that putin needs support. anything would help. our other top story this hour is also ongoing. a contentious senate hearing for supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson. that is under way and we'll bring that to you live later this hour. first, though, i want you to hear what the kremlin spokesperson dmitri peskov saying he has not achieved his goals in ukraine, but peskov did insist that the war is going according to plan. >> no one would think from the very beginning about a couple of days. it is a serious operation with serious purposes. >> according to the pentagon, putin is growing desperate with

the lack of progress on the ground as ukraine is making increased headway not just in holding, but in pushing back russian troops. >> we have seen indications that the ukrainians are going a bit more on the offense now. >> just today the kyiv regional police posted this video which are said to show ukrainian forces once again in control of the town of makariv 40 miles from kyiv. that's where this video was taken. pushed back, and stalled russian forces from kyiv has caused that fierce fighting. we just showed you that video that we got. also thick, black smoke seen rising over the city amidst those all too familiar air raid sirens and the death toll that russia is facing in its stalled, at best, efforts around kyiv may be incredibly high. remember a russian newspaper cited the russian ministry of

defense saying 26,000 russian troops have been killed or injured. russia denies those number, but there may be a way to figure out the toll of putin's invasion and that is by looking at the hospitals along the belarus border. earlier, i spoke to the opposition leader there, svetlana. >> we get information from medics that this situation has placed that a lot of people, russian military offices are in hospitals and the medics are taking care of them and this cars that are coming in the night so nobody could see it and extra -- extra medics have been sent to hospitals at the border, means that there's been a lot to do. >> cars with soldiers comes

during the night. extra medics being sent to hospitals and no one allowed to go in those hospitals. that is the sign of what is ng th sign of what is happening with russian troops and it's ominous. as the u.s. says belarus may send soldiers to fight ukraine. she has a message for those belarusian soldiers tonight. >> our task now is to persuade, to explain to our soldiers that they don't have to do this for the sake of one person. this war they are not defending our country, but they participate in the war of two dictators against our brother ukrainians. >> fred pleitgen is out front on the ground in kyiv tonight, and fred, obviously, what you have been seeing and hearing a lot here in these past hours, more than in some recent days. >> yeah.

you're absolutely right, erin. we have to point out we are under a curfew that was on the entire day. it was not clear whether ukrainian used that curfew to maybe launch some sort of counter offensive against russian forces and it was so interesting to see that video of the massive fire fight that was taking place on the ground because for the better part of the day we did hear gun battles not far from where we are at all. we did hear a lot of automatic rifle fire, small arms fire and whether or not that was the same and it was hard to tell and it was something that was distinct and something that we have not heard and those gun battles over the past couple of days. on top of that, what you saw in kyiv was a massive battle that was going on probably for six, serve, maybe eight hours and there were not the air raid sirens and the entire area around the city was covered in thick, black smoke. there were plumes of smoke coming up on the horizon and we see it there. there was video we shot earlier

today with the impacts of that bha is going on and all of that is concentrated along the northern part, and the northwestern part and the northeastern part exactly where the russian forces are seaituat. there was a massive bang starting midday today and the ukrainians shot down a russian missile that was flying towards the ukrainian capital and that the remnants of that missile then dropped in the river that runs through the capital city and the neppa river. ukraine might be launching some sort of counter offensive. the noises that we're seeing seems to be coming from that area and think, it is difficult to tell because no one is surprised. the ukrainians aren't saying very much about this, but one of the things they have said is they took that strategic town of m makariv, and that's a key place and 35 miles west of kyiv and

that essentially cuts off the russians trying to encircle the city. so the ukrainians saying they are making headway and they want to launch counter offensives, erin. >> thank you very much, fred. i want to go to retired army brigadier general mark kimmet, and he is assistant secretary for internal affairs and the founder and editor of agentura.ru which has been blocked in russia and also a fellow at the european policy analysis. you hear fred reporting that during the day today at six to eight hours of ongoing fighting, massive plumes of smoke and for the first time sort of ongoing small arms fire in very clear battles, what do you hear when you hear those details? >> well it sounds like to me that we're starting to see an initial offensive into kyiv. it may well be that those small units that we're seeing fighting

which looked a lot like a fire fight in afghanistan and attacks may be russian troops or god willing they're actually attacking the artillery and rocket positions behind the front lines. unfortunately, i think those plumes of black smoke continue to be the barrage of artillery, rockets and missiles that the russians are firing into the city the way they've been doing it in mariupol in the last few weeks. >> what you're sayings is it's possible and the russians were stalled and entrenched that this was a counter offensive, you're saying it may not be and you're saying it may be a russian increase in penetration? >> i think it's a couple of things. it could well be that the noise that they were hearing was this opening salvo of trying to soften up the city. i wouldn't call this ea counter

offensive and they're important and in the long run they may not be significant in the scheme of things. >> you heard the belarusian opposition leader talking about the possible mass russian casualties by what they're seeing on the belarusian side on the border in the hospitals and a senior defense official said today that america has seen indications that russian soldiers are surfering frost bite because they don't have appropriate cold weather gear and these are russian soldiers. i want to emphasize that. that small detail about not having the right hand gear, if you're a russian soldier for cold weather is pretty stunning. >> yes, it is, and it looks like nobody actually was ready for such a long war and it was to finish with ukrainian forces and maybe a day or two and now it is not going according to plan and

it is saying something completely different, and while they're a strong land, and we have this rumors and information about more and more casualties and actually now i'm hidden from my friends and my colleagues in very distant towns in central russia that now they have some people and families they know they've got kids killed in ukraine, so it's getting bigger and bigger. >> just to emphasize that you're hearing that families are now getting word in very different parts of russia about the death of their children. >> exactly. >> so general kimmet, on that front we don't know how significant that will be, right, in russia. we don't know that, but we do know that that perhaps plays into why the u.s. and nato believe belarus could now join the war a ggainst russia. whether they'll go along with that, this is the real question and that's the understanding here is that that might occur. what role might that play?

what would belarus join and do? >> it indicates to me that there has been a lot of small unit battles inside of ukraine. some of these battalion tactical groups were probably destroyed by the ukrainian fighters. it's important to note that the belarusians use the same tactics and have the same equipment as the russians do. so these could be effectively combat replacements to take over from what the units that have been lost in combat thus far to give them more strength and more air defense and more tanks because of the losses they've been experiencing on the battlefield. >> so andre, the kremlin refuses the russian soldiers in ukraine and we don't have the authority to publicize them during the military operation and this is the prerogative of the ministry of defense. the ministry of defense a russian tabloid says their

26,000 russian forces killed or injured which is 20% of the total which has originally been deployed around ukraine. so the newspaper that reported this removed all of the numbers that had been hacked and they disappeared out of nowhere. what do you think is going on here, andre? >> that's a very good question. yes, it is now saying they are hacked, but the interesting thing is that the best way to counter the propaganda of the enemy is to give real numbers ever how many people were killed and the last time we had the russian minister of defense provide any numbers was during the first week of the war, and it was a strange number of 498 people for more than two weeks we heard nothing from the ministry of defense. what we are hearing more and more stories about heroic deeds of the russian military, and usually it is a way for the russian military to cover the casualties that are quite big. >> so andre, i know that the

tabloid, though, has -- sometimes you hear the word tabloid and it would imply not accurate, and your perspective is crucial and it's always been an important source for these sort of things. >> absolutely. traditionally, they've been extremely close to the russian military and there was a main propaganda to the war in georgia in 2008 and the operation, so they are close, they know what they're talking about. >> that context is very crucial. thank you both so very much. next, russia going even further tonight to punish the top putin critic out there. alexey navalny, the opposition leader sentenced to nine more years to maximum security prison. navalny's closs friend is out front. the historic con filmation hearings for judge ketanji brown

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earlier looking on the far left looking frail. he was arrested and imprisoned 13 months ago on a different charge. nic robertson is out front. >> tender moments for alexey navalny was sentenced to nine years for fraud. the emaciated critic comforted by his wife yuliya. this trial like so many he's faced already on charges human rights organizations say are trumped up to silence him, but despite the obvious toll on his well-being navalny refusing to be silenced vowing to appeal and defiantly tweeting, you only two days in jail. the day you go in and the day you come out. a quote from his favorite tv series "the wire." navalny's reality, however, is far harsher. poisoned and almost killed with a deadly kremlin nerve agent

novacek while on a political campaign in august 2020. he survived by being flown unconscious to germany for treatment. months later preparing to return to russia under no illusion about the danger he faced. >> i understand how the system works in russia. i understand that putin hates me, and i understand that these people who are sitting in the kremlin they are ready to kill. >> in january last year his last moments of freedom recorded as he and his wife rhodes the moscow airport shuttle bus to the terminal and arrest. >> by now, navalny not just president putin's most popular living critic, but an icon of international hopes, putin may yet be challenged. navalny's political party, the anticorruption foundation fbk gained him even more notoriety,

publicizing what he said was putin's massive black sea mansion. cnn could not independent verify navalny's claim, but the video further raised his profile and kremlin anger. in november he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail, sent to a penal colony outside moscow where he claims guards kept him awake at night. he went on hunger strike. the kremlin designated him as a terrorist. his health deteriorated, but his criticism of putin remained as fiery as ever. on the over of russiana's invasion tweeting this criticism of putin's combative national security council meeting. putin demanding loyalty from his security chiefs, and navalny likens it to the soviet leadership ordering the invasion of ofg afghanistan in 1979.

navalny's skill is exploiting putin's political vulnerabilities today the price for his success just went up. >> and navalny, too, seems to want to put up the price for putin, vowing to take his campaign global saying that his great rate for all of the kind words of support and sympathy, but that's not what he needs, he says. action, any action to bring down president putin saying the toad on the old pipeline won't overthrow itself. erin? >> thank you very much, nic. i want to bring in now vladimir aserkov, a close friend of navalny who has taken over his anti-corruption organization. you saw your friend there. i wanted to give you a chance to just react to what you saw. he certainly seems very frail and very emaciated. that was the word nic used and it seems fair. that has to be very hard to see for you. >> indeed, it is, and the

dramatic sentencing of today was not unexpected. we understood that alexey will be in prison until putin is in power the day that he was incarcerated a little bit over a year ago. he is, indeed, frail, but he sends his powerful message from behind the bars and from the court bench, and it's an inspiration for our team and for all russian people. >> vladimir, he was sentenced to nine more years in maximum security prison penal colony for they say stealing from the organization that you actually now run. putin spokesman tells cnn that no one is arc fraid of him and a person is a criminal he should be in prison.

again, they're saying he stole from the organization and that's why they're going to a penal colony prison for nine years. what do you say to that? >> on the corruption foundation, that was the center of our political activity, and it was accepting the nation from russian citizens and at no point was alexey receiving any salary or any other payout of the organization. the trial was really a sham trial and the charges -- and this is not the first example of political persecution of alexey navalny, and his brother, three and a half years in russian prison and the suspended sentence was also based on falsified accusation of corruption, and corruption, ironically, was something that

navalny focused on as something that russian system of government is based on. >> he's done incredible work on his research on putin's lifestyle and where he lives and all of that has been simply incredible investigative work. >> vladimir i spoke yesterday with the russian actress and the daughter of the very popular russian actor vladimir mashkov who has appeared in blockbuster movies including tom cruise. he spoke at the propaganda rally and his daughter has chosen to speak out, even though she loves her father to say that he is wrong and the war is wrong, so she did this and she told me her father, she talked to her father about it, and here is what he said to her. >>. >> he asked me to come back to russia immediately to take my daughters with me and to be a good russian, to ask for

forgiveness for betrayal and to be with russian people with my people to help fight ukrainian nazis. >> it is incredible what russians who speak out, masha, you, others, alexey and the incredible risks that you take just by doing that. >> indeed, the divisions between people who support this oppressive regime and are really pillars of propaganda like mashkov and it runs in families as we see in the case of his daughter and himself and his daughter maria is very brave of speaking against this regime. the aggression and her father. >> he calls his own daughter whom he loves, betraying the

country. >> vladimir, you and i have talked over the past year about your friend alexey navalny and masha speaks from los angeles and does so at great risk. alexey chose to go back in and he close to do that. he knew he would be arrested and he thought that was the right thing to do. >> do you wish that he hadn't? >> it -- when he was first recovering after the poisoning in germany i thought it was my duty as his friend and ally to tell him that he doesn't have to go back to russia. there are different options at least to explain to him that that's not the one-way street, but bwhen i talked to him after he started his recovery and after we exchanged ideas i thought it was really a moot point. the work of his life is in russia. millions of supporters are there. he has done nothing wrong.

it was -- it would be against his character and everything that he's done not to go back to russia. so it was an incredibly brave thing, but it was the only logical thing for him to do and it's an inspiration for us all. >> vladimir, thank you very much. >> more now on the other breaking story we're covering this hour. senators questioning president biden's nominee for the supreme court. judge ketanji brown jackson. here is senator cory booker speaking now. >> but is he there in new jersey? [ laughter ] mr. chairman i would request that my colleagues in the democratic party would stop interrupting me. [ laughter ] but he talked about your speech and when i read your speech there are a couple of things that jumped out. first of all, he acknowledged it was a very powerful speech, abe very moving speech about extraordinary black women. i have a criticism, your mother

was not in it, but i will leave that alone, but there are some things that he honed in on and are accusations cl don't hold merit to me. wye have a saying in new jersey, and i felt it was all hat and no cattle. he said that you called the woman who wrote the 1619 project, that you called her provocative. that's not a compliment necessarily if you call someone provocative is it? >> no. >> no, i think ted cruz is very provocative, and that doesn't mean -- that doesn't mean i agree with his philosophy or i agree with his statements. he pointed out you also called the author acclaimed. she won a pulitzer prize in journalism. >> so she is acclaimed. >> she is. >> nowhere are you heralding her as this reflective of your philosophy, right? >> correct. >> i don't understand that at all. part of his chart also was a lot

of ellipses skipping out things with critical race theory about policies in general and i actually went back to that talk, too, you were talking about psychology, economics all different types of disciplines as touching upon the law. there was everything in there except for astrology, but you -- you understand that that's -- you were just listing a thing of things that you could say touched the law. they weren't your philosophies at all. >> correct, senator, and that speech was not related to what i do as a judge. that was talking about sentencing policy and all of the different academic disciplines that might relate to it. >> and finally, we're entering an age that is surprising to me in american society where lots of books are being banned and lots of talks about books being read. you're on the board of a private school, and you have no supervision or authority over what books the children read in

a private school, correct? >> correct. >> i really do appreciate that. jumping really quickly to a lot of talk today about the -- these child exploitation cases, and senator durbin, i think actually josh hawley used the word attacked when describing his own so i don't understand what that point of sensitivity was. i -- individual cases and we've now heard about two, you presided over as a judge more than 10, 15 cases? >> i've presided over 14 cases that involved child sex crime, but over my career as a trial judge i've presided over more than a hundred. >> right. >> and cases are heavily fact-specific, right? >> that is true. >> do you remember all of the facts of the case that senator hawley was -- >> i did not. >> you did not. right. >> and the facts matter, right?

>> they do. >> as a judge, you're looking at all of the facts of the case and not just what might be talked about later and what people are honing in. you have to take everything into account and make a decision, correct? >> yes. that's what congress has required judges to do. >> just to clarify the congress thing because again, you went to this elite law school. i went to a gritty inner city law school, yale. so you know this better than me, but it was actually 1984 that this sentencing standards were passed down, correct? >> i believe so, yes. >> it was 1984 and later in 2002 and 2003 things were updated and it was before the internet completely. i want to clarify the booker decision. can you clarify to the decision because my mom might be watching, no relation to me whatsoever? >> so the booker decision which earlier i mentioned they thought justice scalia wrote and it was

justice stephens, but justice scalia concurred so he had a separate opinion, and he had written a previous decision that was very similar. >> yes. >> the booker decision made the guidelines the sentencing guidelines advisory. >> why? why would the supreme court joined by some of the most conservative members, why would they do that? >> well, they determined that, in essence, the booker -- that if the guidelines were mandatory that it would violate the right to a jury trial to have jurors decide every aspect of your sentencing. >> it's sort of the separation of power, sixth amendment and this is really important. >> yes. >> and so that gave judges latitude. >> yes. >> if you were falling out of the norm and this is where i've now read conservative periodicals looking at this line of attack that's not a negative

pejorative again and this line of attack on you. i've seen conservative papers and main street papers and all say this doesn't hold water and the reason is and again, i, unlike the white house and cruz, i don't have a chart. i'm uncharted, but i would like to hold this up for you. you are well within the norm nationally for going below the sentencing guidelines because of this problem where you have this incon incongruency that people on both sides of the aisle have seen. i just want to make this very clear. you are well within the norm of the united states of america. i'm a former mayor and one of my favorite mayor friends used to say in god we trust, but everybody else bring me data. and so the data kind of shows that you're not some outlier and forgive me because you're not allowed to do this, but i kind of sat here and i was a little

insulted about the accusation that somehow this mother of two, confirmed three times by the united states senate who has victim advocacy groups writing letters for you, who has child victims advocacy groups supporting you, who has presided over fact-specific cases of the most heinous crimes, that somehow the implication that you are somehow out of the norm of other federal judges that we have confirmed where these issues have never come up who again, we held up this chart, but the majority of the decisions and a percentage of sentences below child range 80% are under the guidelines and missouri is 77% and iowa is 62% and nebraska, 81% and so and and so on and so fog, down utah p

71% and this implication that you're thoughtfulness on these dense, fact-specific cases is somehow out of the norm, to me does not hold up, doesn't have water and you add that to the endorsements that you've gotten from folks that deal with victim advocacy groups, it is to me just a line of attack that does not hold, in no way for me. i'm sorry. and the total eiity of your car in what you've accomplished and what you've done i just think it's unfortunate that unlike the fair arbiters of this who dismissed it, i appreciate the way you sat there and addressed all of that stuff, and that really brings me to the larger implication. you talked a lot about your

uncles. one of them served in baltimore as a police officer? >> my brother was a police officer in baltimore. >> the gentleman over there? >> yes. >> who volunteered to serve in the united states military? >> yes. >> and you have talked about that police work, right? >> yes. >> i live in newark. i love my city. if you cut me i'd bleed bricks and the nickname of our city is brick city. your brother and i probably understand something, the majority of murder victims in the united states of america, do you know who the majority of murder victims are? >> i don't. >> they're black men. >> i imagine in your conversations with your brother and two uncles, you who patrolled some of these street, i imagine you feel in a different way about the anguish of what many communities of color struggle with when it

comes to crime. am i -- am i right there? >> you are right, senator. it is very anguishing and it is something that i know all too well. >> and you are a person that has the same fear that many mothers have for their daughters who do go out in this world. my mom used to say when you have a child it's like your heart going around outside of your body all of a sudden. and i just find it hard to believe, given your law enforcement back ground, you're a mom that you take any of this urgency to keep america safe and then i see that folks i know well -- i've worked with the fop. i began negotiating with them. i have to say that i thought jim

pascoe, it's like bren, brown, at first i thought he was an oeger and he and i sat down and shared our stories and i think we realized we were coming from the same place when we were working on police reform. fop endorsed you and they wrote a powerful letter and i won't read it again and the rank and file, the sop represents the bosses, the managers. they endorse you. there's another group that maybe my -- my colleagues don't know as well as i do and it's called noble. do you know them? >> i do. >> they're the black law enforcement organization, people like your brother. >> yes. >> who love their communities. >> yes. >> who have seen like i have, too many young men lying with bullet holes bleedsing into our pavements. these are folks who come from communities like your brother knows, where you too often see

sidewalk schrins to murdered youth. >> i've talk to the the women and men at noble, so many times. they accuse you of being soft on rhyme and they understand the complic complicated factors of crime in the country and what they have to say about you, i won't read it, is just beautiful. law enforcement family, mother of two, law enforcement organization after laufrment organization, victims advocacy oerlgs, after victims advocacy organizations. republican-appointed judges and democrat-appointed judges, that's who is in your corner. we're politicians and we are sworn to an oath right now. i just watched you with dignity and grace feeield behind those

questions is this doubt that's being sown. i just want america to know that when it comes to my family's safety and when it comes to newark, new jersey, or my state, god, i trust you. i trust you. i brought in your mother and i have to go back there. my mom has a saying that is awfully embarrassing when she talks about me. she says -- she'll introduce you, belined every successful child is an astonished parent, but there's something about your mother, looking at her is that she doesn't seem all too astonished. she seems like almost just very slyly, she knew that a day like this might come and so i just want to share with you that i have done a lot of hiring. before i was in the legislative body i ran new jersey's largest city, and i can write a book

about all of the management mistakes i made in my first year and how it made me a good manager and the first mistake i made was i was just looking for the most talented, credentialed, skillful, smart people to help me run things and i soon learned it wasn't enough and i made some mistakes in hiring and i began to see that those skills which you have a tremendous amount of, it's been said so many times, stacking you up against other supreme court justices and you have more qualifications and more credentials than many of them, and i know you should hire first necessary credential, but not sufficient. that you should hire for character. that's what made me hire a great team in newark eventually and we operated so well, and so i believe i've gotten to know your character over these weeks, but i want america to know more about your character right now. and so i know my values.

booker t. washington said it -- excuse me, james baldwin said it, children are never good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them. if i want to know your character your haven't let me do this yet, but i want to hang out with your parents a little bit, and so let me draw this under your conversation and we won't swear them under oath and could you share with me what are their bedrock values that are most a part of your values now that you hope and pray are your grandchildren's unborn grandchildren's values. what are those most important values that you inherited from those two folk over there? >> thank you, senator. i inherited a number of debedro values, as you say from my extraordinary parents. my parents grew up in a time in this country in which black children and white children were not allowed to go to school

together. they persevered. they were the first in their families to go to college, to have that chance. they each went to historically black universities and and they taught me hard work. they taught me perseverance. they taught me that anything is possible in this great country, and i think it came, as i said in my introduction from the sea change that we had in this country from the 1960s when congress passed two civil rights acts, and african-americans finally had the chance to become a part of the dream, become a part of the fabric of this wonderful nation. my parents moved to washington,

d.c. because this is where it all started for them in terms of having new freeze oms, and i was born here on that hope and dream. i was born here with an african name that my parents gave me to -- to demonstrate their pride, and their pride in who they were and their pride and hope in what i could be. >> it seems to me as a guy whose parents came here and you and i were both born here months apart, i would hear my parents' tough stories at the dinner table about facing bigotry, here in the city my father told me stories about his early jobs, butty but i never noticed a hint of bitterness and never generated

hate with him, and he just loved people. all people. >> that is correct, senator, and i would say that my wonderful parents went on to become extr extraordinary public servants. they had new opportunity and could have done other things, but even of them decided to give back to the community. my mother was in the public school system. she was a teacher and then became an administrator and became the principal of a magnet school for the arts in miami, a new school that had started up and became the sort of beloved principal of new world school of the arts, and so many of her students continue to see me, meet me and they know me for my mother. >> and she had diverse students. >> she had extraordinarily -- >> and she lovered on all those

students. >> everyone. >> black, white on. >> everyone. >> i have people they respect on the other side of the aisle and my friends and i talk about religion sometimes. faith is important. i was teasing lindsay -- senator graham earlier, but i don't want to ask you anything specific about your faith except for this because you brought it up in your opening statement, and i have to tell you i don't think black women have any providence over struggle. people from all backgrounds in america struggle, but i do know often as the trailblazing black women they have often faced many challenges being the first or being a trailblazer or breaking glass ceilings, but i know in your journey to this moment right now, you have faced very tough moments, probably you've been knocked down by life. i always say if america hasn't broken your heart you don't love her enough. you've been heart broken by some

circumstance. you've been like zornea who says i've been through sorrow kitchen and i licked all of the pots. like the poem, life for me has been no crystal stair. can you talk about one moment or what you do when you get knocked down like that, where do you get the grit and the guts to get back up to keep on going? >> well, senator, i think that, too, is something that i learned from my grandparents who, as i said didn't have it easy. my grandparents who didn't have a lot of formal education, but who were the hardest working people i've ever known and who just got up every day and put one foot after the other and provided for their families and

made sure that their children went to college even though they never had those opportunities. i reflect on them in the context of this historic moment. i stand on the shoulders of people of that generation, and i -- and i focus at times on my faith when i'm going through hard times. those are the kinds of things that i learned from my grandmother who used to have those family dinners and bring us all together, and i think that's a common experience of americans that when you go through difficult times you lean into family and you turn to faith and that's part of my colleagues and i on both sides of the aisle, leaning on that faith and that family. i want to give you, there's one

thing about your opening statement. i have to say, i haven't actually shaken your husband's hand, but yesterday i was mad at him because when he started tearing up about your remarks about him, it triggered a sympathetic cry in me as well. so i'm a little upset at him, but i will deal with him individually. but you said something that i found provocative, to use that word one more time. and i felt afterwards, i reflected and i even talked to my staff about it. that statement, it didn't seem congruent to me, and it was, i don't know if it was a profession of humility or overly critical of yourself, but i want to end in my last five minutes giving you space to explain yourself to me because much to my mom's chagrin, i am not a parent yet. and i want -- i'm looking at

somebody that i admire. but you said something that struck me because look, my mom was a working mom. and god, it was tough. my colleagues will not believe this, but there was a time i was very melodramatic, and i was in a bathtub of oatmeal bathtub and my mom was ready to go on a business trip, and i look at her with sad eyes and i say, mom, if you leave me, i'll die. she looked at me knowing you don't die from the chickenpox, and i remember her going to the phone, having a long conversation, taking off her business suit and changing into sweat pants. she would tell me that wasn't a sign of love. she loved me, but a lot of women who love their kids can't stay home because we don't have paid family leave in this country. you said in your opening remarks that you haven't been as good of a parent, i think if i'm paraphrasing right, as good of a

mom as you would like to be. and i looked at your two girls. and i look at you. and i don't understand that statement. could you maybe explain for me what you meant and maybe take one more beat and explain to me what it means to you to be a mom of two young women growing up in america today? >> thank you, senator. what i said in my statement was that i had struggled, like so many working moms, to juggle motherhood and career. and it takes a lot of hard work to become a judge, to do the work of a judge, which i have done now for almost ten years. you have a lot of cases.

you don't have all that many resources comparatively speaking. and it's a lot of early mornings and late nights. and what that means is there will be hearings during your daughter's recitals. there will be emergencies on birthdays that you have to handle. and i know so many young women in this country, especially who have small kids who have these momentous events and have to make a choice, you talked about your mom making the choice to make sure that she cared for you in that moment. and there are times when obviously you have to care for your family members. there are other times when there are events that you wish you could be a part of, but here's the emergency case that you have to deal with. and so i said in my opening that

girls, you know, you have had to deal with me juggling motherhood and job responsibilities, and i didn't always get the balance right. and so i would hope for them, seeing me hopefully you all will confirm me, seeing me moved to the supreme court, that they can know that you don't have to be perfect in your career trajectory and you can still end up doing what you want to do, that you just have to understand that there are lots of responsibilities in the world and that you don't have to be a perfect mom, but if you do your best, and you love your children, that things will turn out okay. >> well, i'm sure your mom probably feels she wasn't perfect.

but things have turned out okay. and i will tell you this. i'm sure they have said it, and if they haven't, i'm sure they will. the older i get, the more i appreciate my parents. i know they're proud of you, but as a guy who does have faith, and i sit at home in a room of my ancestors where i have generations of my ancestors' pictures up, and they're black folk and white folk. i have a very interesting family tree. i sit there to feel my ancestors sometimes and think about them. i hope right now in this questions that you know at that desk, there are a whole lot of spirits around you with their hands on you, not only your children and your parents proud, but so are your ancestors. mr. chairman, thank you. >> thank you very much, senator booker. and judge jackson, a lot of politicians on this committee, 22 of them, there's only one

cory booker, and when he does his krcross-examination, i alwa wait to see can the witness get through this without a little emotion. there was a little there, as there should have been as he talked about your family and children and parents. you're one of a kind. we love you. we have three more to ask questions tonight. senator kennedy, senator padilla, senator blackburn. we're going to break for 20 minutes, grab a bite to eat, freshen up. come back for the last round. >> thank you. >> senate stands in recess. >> all right, as they stand in recess for that dinner break, i want have to a chance to talk about what we just saw. what you have been watching today. "outfront" is elliot williams, deputy assistant attorney general under president obama and the former counsel to the senate judiciary committee. what did you make of that line of questioning? obviously, you know, a supporter. but yet very different than what we have seen thus far. and what many would expect in

this sort of forum? >> look, erin, over the course of a day and a hearing like this, there's a lot of noise. we spent probably an hour today talking about critical race theory and hearing about that. that really has nothing to do with the nominee's fitness to serve. having prepped a lot of witnesses for confirmation hearings back when i was with the senate and thereafter, you have sort of a couple basic goals. number one, come across on substance and make the nominee see substantive. and number two, humanize the nominee. she spoke about profoundly complex bodies of law in a relatable manner. and that last bit about parenting, if there is anybody in the country who is not watching that and relating with it, you're just not watching closely enough. and frankly, i'm not a mom. i'm a parent to two small children, but that resonated very profoundly with me. and the whole idea of not being perfect, it was a humanizing moment, and very powerful for the nominee. >> okay, so what is your main sort of conclusion at this point about where this stands?

as you point out, obviously, you had this very important humanizing moment that we all just watched, but also, incredible amount of time spent on critical race theory and senator booker did bring up the issue of child pedophilia, child porn, which had come up extensively with his own analysis, but these are things they spent quite a bit of time on today. >> which they should. you should always question a nominee's record, but much of that discussion was misleading because it sort of misstated what the point of federal sentencing guidelines are. they exist as sort of boundaries for judges to follow. and she did. in most of her cases, well in line with how judges across the country sentence. and frankly, if senator hawley or any other senator wished to put in place a minimum sentence, grab 59 of your colleagues, pass a law, but don't pin that on a nominee whose behavior with respect to sentencing has been

perfectly in line with judges across the country. more importantly, and cory booker touched on this at the end as well. she is supported by police organizations and fraternal order of police, international association of chiefs of police. they support the nomination and it's misleading to say she's anything other than a responsible judge. >> right, and senator booker did, in that humanizing, that was his focus, but he did bring up statistics about other judges in missouri and other jurisdictions who have also come in at the low end of the sentencing guidelines to point out it is not outside the norm in any way, shape, or form. and obviously, the child pornography did not add up. also the point, though, in terms of your bottom line here, when do you think -- where does this go from here? >> so there's another round of questioning tomorrow. you know, look, it's pretty clear, and she was quite consistent in laying out what her approach to the law is. she started off this morning, she got a question about, well, you don't have a philosophy. what's your philosophy?

she said number one, stay neutral. number two, take the inputs, what the parties put to me. number three, analyze the law. if you were listening closely, you would think this was a conservative judge. so this is an eminently qualified nominee who is likely to pass through the committee and then get confirmation. >> certainly seems like it's going in that direction. thank you so much. i appreciate your time. thanks to all of you. "ac 360" starts now. good evening. two big stories tonight. history making confirmation hearings for ketanji brown jackson, the first black woman named to the court. senator cory booker has just questioned judge jackson and the proceedings have broken for 20 minutes with three more senators remaining. senator amy klobuchar joins us shortly. we begin with the evening's other big story, russia's continued assault on ukraine. we got new video of the battle on the outskirts of kyiv. what you're about to see is a firefight along a rail line about 18 miles northea