hill, thank you very much. to our viewers, thank you very much for watching. i am wolf blitzer in the situation room. you could always follow me on twitter and instagram at wolf blitzer. you could tweet the show at cnn's room. erin burnett out front starts right now. >> out front next, china retaliates warning the u.s. a potential war as it carries out a new military exercises dangerously close to taiwan. speaker pelosi's trip backfired big-time. plus, biden's agenda gets a big boost as it appears, right now, his budget packages on track to pass. one senator held it up until she got what she wanted. alex jones just ordered to pay $45 million in punitive damages to the family of sandy hook victim. but does this now mean for the conspiracy theorist? let's go out front. good evening, i'm erin burnett.

out front tonight, china talks were. a top official of the chinese embassy in washington saying today, quote, taiwan as one of the very few issues that might take china and the united states to conflict, or even a war. this, coming soon after the white house summit to china's ambassador to condemn china's military activities near taiwan. activities, of course, that have gone into overdrive since has bicker nancy pelosi's visit to the island this week. today, 60 to chinese aircraft, 13 chinese warships, conducted activities around the taiwan straight. taiwan says 49 of those jets entered its air defense identification zone. chinese china releasing this video showcasing military readiness. showing lines of uniformed troops at the ready. look, this is the latest military propaganda video released by china yesterday, they put up this one, a rocket launch toward taiwan strait. they've been conducting live fire exercises and they show

multiple conventional missile launches. right before pelosi visited taiwan, china released this video, and it showcasing its military might and claiming it will, quote, bury incoming enemies. they are showing off their warships, fighter jets, weapons, troops. all of this as china today announces it is suspending talks with the united states on a whole range of critical issues. the united states is taking this very seriously. they are announcing the u.s. aircraft carrier uss ronald reagan and it's escorts will stay in the region to monitor the situation. a long planned u.s. missile test has been rescheduled. secretary of state anthony blinken is issuing this morning. >> these provocative actions are a significant escalation that have taken dangerous acts to a new level. >> it begins our coverage, selina wang is in beijing. selina, this is escalating in and it has done so very quickly

to this point. what is china telling its people about these escalations? >> well, erin, there has been a huge outpouring of propaganda around china's response and the message here is the u.s. manufactured this crisis by failing to stop pelosi from traveling to taiwan. they claim these escalations are completely justified. as you just referenced, state media is playing up how strong and unprecedented the military responses with these dramatic videos of the military drills that china is calling a blockade simulation. this signal china is sending to its people but to the world is that it calls the shot in the taiwan straits. it's powerful, modernizing military could choke up time one for the rest of the world that any moment. for many in china, this is still not enough. many users, in fact, on social media have been mocking china's response saying that it did not live up to the extreme to hype up threats china had made ahead

of the visit by pelosi. china's punishment is still increasing, it's punishment of taiwan and the u.s. are continuing to escalate. china announced it's suspending cooperation with the u.s. on a whole range of important issues, including talks on defence, anti-drugs, illegal immigration, and potentially, most importantly, climate change. climate change has been one of the only areas where the u.s. and china have been talking despite recent tensions. now, even that window for dialogue is being cut off. when i speak to military experts about these recent drills, they say it's part of beijing's long term coercion, a lot of it could not have been planned last minute. these are large scale military drills that were planned financed of any word of pelosi visiting. by picking all of them to pelosi's visit, it whips up this patriotism and nationalism here at home. it's a shifting peoples attention away from all of the problems here, including growing unemployment and an economy suffering from china's ongoing zero covid policies. erin? >> selina, thank you very much,

live from beijing. i want to go to james clyburn, on the former director of national intelligence. all right, let me ask you, top official at the chinese embassy says today that taiwan is one of the very few issues that could take china and the united states to conflict or even a war. obviously, these are words. these are big words, and we are now seeing a lot of action. could this turn into a war? >> well, it could, erin. hopefully cool heads are going to prevail here. i think what is important here is to remember something about the chinese psyche, at least, in my mind. that is the chinese are still recovering from what they call their hundred years of humiliation. that's the period of western exploitation before the chinese communist party became rulers

and china in 1949. so, everything they do is, i believe, impaled by domestic comparative's. the previous segment, i think, bears that out. this is a big deal at home. in the wake of speaker pelosi's trip, of course, the chinese feel compelled for the sake of their psyche, their psychology, their security to put on a military exhibition which, hopefully, will not result in a serious inadvertent incident. all of this against the backdrop of the forthcoming party congress in which president xi jinping will be indicted for a third term, probably for life. he has to show a position of strength. could it lead to war? well, sure. it is a high probability now than it was a week ago.

>> i mean, obviously, understand what you are stating, the reality here, but it's pretty stunning situation we find ourselves and. you look at these videos china is pushing out, warships are all out, the uss ronald reagan is now there, right? how high here is the risk of a miscalculation? >> that's exactly right. that is but you always worry about in a situation like this where there will be an advert and collision by u.s. and chinese ship, or worse, a midair collision which has happened before between chinese and u.s. aircraft. that is the kind of potentially incendiary situation that could rapidly escalate out of control. now, i believe the chinese have planned out this, but i will

call, military exhibition and because i don't believe they really want war with the united states anymore than we do with them. it is the inadvertent situation, the inadvertent incident that goes incendiary very quickly, out of control, which neither side wants, that is, i think, of concern to, certainly, the united states, to taiwan, undoubtedly, and, for that matter, allies in the region. >> director, obviously white house officials have privately tried to warn pelosi not to go, but they stopped short of telling her she couldn't, right? now we have this ratcheting up tensions. when you look at this, do you think the united states was prepared? i was ready, at all, for the ramifications of pelosi's trip, and what comes next? >> actually, i don't,

unfortunately. i am not sure we were prepared for this. we are left, now, with imploring the chinese to cool it, and not much else. i think if we were really concerned about this, if we were preparing for war, well, there is an aid package on -- in the senate right now, which the senate, appears now, won't get to until after the recess. this is business as usual, at least in the congress, with respect to our support to taiwan. so, yeah, my answer is no, i'm not sure we were prepared for the implications of the trip. again, i understand the speaker's motivations here, and her commitment to democracy, over autocracy, a set era. i am not sure we, as a

collective enterprise, we're prepared for the implications of the visit. >> director, thank you very much for your blunt assessment tonight, i appreciate it. >> thanks, erin. >> next, democrats budget bill on track to pass. it is an ending tax giveaway for some very, very rich people. why do they get a break but democrats are giving them that break? plus, one of the most significant leads to biden's presidency. he had witnessed on domestic and international fronts. does that mean anything? the terms of voters who are giving him very low job marks. 45 point $2 million, the amount a jury awarded send her parents to punish their tormentor, alex jones.

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done deal, now it is could they even get it through? where are we right now? >> right now, the democrats believe they have all 50 of their members in line after intensive negotiations over the last several days with senator kyrsten sinema who cut a deal with democratic leaders after raising objections to some key tax provisions part of the deal. instead, they fast-moving a different direction, including tax on -- help make up the shortfall that is a result of her demands. because of their deal that she got behind as well as the support from senator joe manchin, the two key holdouts, from manchin in particular, who paired back the presidents initial build back better plan. they believe they have the support to push this through. there are still some key hurdles in the hours ahead, including one from the senate paramilitary and who still have to decide whether or not these key provisions in the bill with the test under the budget rules to allow this bill to be approved by a simple majority.

that is significant because in a 50/50 senate, it debilitated process, 60 senators could require a bill to overcome a filibuster. because of the budget rules, they could pass this by democratic votes alone. the senate parliamentarian released a greenlight on that first. that's one big hurdle. another big hurdle? the voting. that will happen all weekend long. republicans plan to push forward a series of controversial amendments aimed at, essentially, muddying up this bill, appearing back this bill, and trying to get democrats to defect on key issues, to make it harder to get this bill out. democrats are hoping that could maintain unity as this bill goes through the legislative gauntlet over the next few days, and keep their party in line to get it out of the senate, and at that point, erin, if they do that, the house will come back next friday to give this final approval after more than a year of internal wrangling. the party is on the cusp of a major legislative victory. erin? >> all right, manu, thank you very much. so, one of the reasons it's

been delayed and become controversial is that one of the pay force in this bill is now gone, one of the things that would pay for the more than 300 billion and spending. the pay foregone as what democratic senator kirsten sinema demanded in exchange for her vote. the tax increased that she would not support is closing the carried interest loophole. this is something we have been talking about on this show for a decade. it is a loophole, but both democrats and republicans have pounded the table to close. here is why. carried interest loophole boils down to this, small group of very wealthy people who manage other people's money get to pay about half the top tax rate on their income. instead of 37%, they pay 20%. that is how it goes. day in, day out, you're in, you're out, critics of senator sinema say she opposes closing the loophole because of money. according to open secrets, she's received two point $2 million in contributions over the past five years from the investment firms whose

employees benefit the most of this loophole, like private equity firm kkr, and investment bank goldman sachs. one blunt and honest billionaire, bill akron, called it what it, is tweeting, the carried interest loophole is a stain on the tax code. it's an embarrassment, and it should and now. like i said, this discussed is bipartisan. president biden has called to close a loophole many times. white house statement couldn't be more clear, quote, the president calling on congress to close the carried interest loophole. by the way, it's not just biden. here are both his predecessors. >> the carried interest deduction, a lot of other deductions, and frankly, it is a joke. it is tremendous amount of money and it is money they really don't need. >> we've lost the balance between work and wealth. i will close the carried interest loophole. >> obama failed, trump failed, and now it looks like biden is going to also fail. out front now, democratic

senator sharon brown of ohio, the chair of banking, housing, and urban affairs committee. senator brown, a lot to talk about. i want to start with this, because you've pounded the table on this for years, introduced legislation to get rid of the carried interest loophole. it gets in this bill, and senator sinema's single-handedly responsible for keeping it, keeping it intact, keeping it operating. what do you say to senator sinema? >> so are the republicans, in keeping the loophole in their. to me, we've replaced it. i can and will continue to limit the carried interest loophole. that's very important. we've replaced it with something much better that brings in more revenue, and frankly, stops bad behavior, or, at least diminishes bad behavior. that is that we are taxing stock buybacks. stock buybacks are ways that corporations particularly after the huge trump tax giveaway two largest companies in the country, corporations do these stock buybacks to raise their

stock prices, and in which the executives. instead of spending that money on what would matter, lowering prices, opening new facilities on higher paying workers, hiring new workers, they do none of that because of the stock buybacks. this will decrease the number of stock buybacks, this tax on, them and it will also bring into the treasury about five times as much money as the carried interest, closing the loophole. again, we should close it. this is, in fact, better. i am thrilled it's part of it. senator -- chair of the committee have been working on this forever. >> look, it's important, five times bigger, and stock buybacks have surged, and companies often do. and they buy back some, shares are standing, price goes up, you are worth of shares to executives. that's the path you're talking about. one more point on the carried interest loophole because i simply, senator, have not understood why it has remained open. let's look at steven schwarzman as an example. the chairman and ceo of blackstone which is one of the

biggest private equity firms on the planet. he is the 37th richest person on the planet, according to forbes. he is a real time worth of 31 billion dollars. last, year he got 100 $50 million in carried interest earnings, right? he paid half the tax on that that he would have if you had closed the loophole. i ask you, senator, trump tried to close it and failed, biden failed, and biden -- obama field, and biden is going to fail. what is it that makes senators go along with that argument, including senators sinema in your own party? she said, okay, you put this back in, i will be on board with this bill. what is the argument that is working? >> you point out your opinion of why she did that. the fact is, the other 49 democrats all of us wanted the carried interest loophole closed. i am either going to defend the carried interest loophole in or defend. president trump could have closed today in his big tax bill. he clearly, in the end, didn't want to. i think, if it is republicans,

the biggest contributors come to them and say don't do this, and they don't do it. 49 of the democrats -- >> this is true, senator. the only reason it's not going to close, right now, is because of democrats, senator sinema -- >> one democrat. >> right, but it is because of one democrat. >> i don't disagree with that. that's one democrat, 50 republicans and one democrat. they want to keep that tax break for the stephen schwarzman billionaire class. that is unfortunate. i wish it weren't that way. i am thrilled we are going to -- we are finally going to go after stock buybacks which will, number one, bring in, as i said, four times the amount of money, maybe closer to five times the amount of money. at the same time, it will mean fewer companies do that if we raise a 2% instead of one. we could use that money to invest in housing, which we dearly need in this country, desperately need. it would discourage even more companies from doing it, so that's really the discussion we should be having, in my mind.

that's what i will continue to fight for as democrats, almost every democrat, will continue to continue to work that loophole you are talking about. >> the bill, obviously, has been a product of a year of back and forth. i know, it's not through here, utah is, as manu said, imaginations and things happening all weekend. you have court things in here from the original discussions. energy, climate programs, extending expiring health care subsidies, medicare negotiating those prescription drug prices. obviously, there are some crucial things in there that president biden and democrats, including yourself, championed. extended enhanced child tax credit is not in, they're paid family and sick leave are not in there. you wrote an op-ed, urged democrats to become the party of american workers. senator, does this bill do enough, in your view, and are you sure it is in the can, that you've got it, by the end of the weekend? >> well, manu, i have known for years and talked to him, and

watched him, on the air, and talked him, he is a very good analyst. he is a little more pessimistic than i am because we are going to pass this by late sunday night, early monday morning. i am very confident. the reason this is really pro worker is that it takes on three of those powerful interest groups in washington, free interest groups, frankly, that have contributed more to inflation than anyone else. the oil companies, drug companies, and wall street. it takes an oil companies because it will reduce the price of gas, as we incent and invest and in clean energy, it could take on the drug companies, because for the first time after 20 years of trying, we are going to negotiate drug prices directly with the drug makers, the way the canada does, it the way veterans administration does, it bringing drug prices down 50% in many cases, especially helping people that take, or that have diabetes for the insulin. third, it takes wall street on in a big way, and the way we

just talked about, by taxing stock buybacks. all of those things are huge victories. the drug companies never lose around here, ever, because every time they want something, every republican goes with them, and it makes it hard to keep all the democrats, this time we did. we succeeded in taking on the drug companies, the oil companies, and wall street. that's a huge victory for american workers. that is why, if you love this country, you fight for the people to make it work. that's what we are doing this weekend, and it is good for the country. >> senator sherrod, i appreciate your time. you heard the senator say it will pass late sunday night, early monday morning. next, win after win for president biden this week, but does this give him an up with voters, including some in his party who doubt his political strength? nightmare scenario, astronauts in danger. nasa putting space rocks on pause due to space suits that could kill them. ♪ from boston. ♪ it means, “ok-to-beer-fest”.

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520,000 jobs added, way better than anyone expected. still, though, biden admits in play shun is a major issue. >> i know it's hard to feel good about job creation when you already have a job, and you are dealing with rising prices, food, gas, and so much more. i get it. >> the jobs news capping off a series of winds for president biden. a little more than a week, voters in kansas rejected an abortion ban, u.s. operation killed al-qaeda's leader in afghanistan after a 25 year manhunt, senate passed a bill biden and his team have fought hard for in a bipartisan vote. that was the bill to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the u.s. from china. this weekend, but sherrod brown is talking about, likely passage in the senate of biden's latest iteration of a build back better bill. the question is, though, does all this add up to what biden would need, which is a massive political turnaround in terms of the polls? out front now, amy walter, publisher and editor in chief of the --

and ron brownstein, our senior political analyst. ron, let me start with you. biden had had a lot of bad news coming his way, and the poll numbers, approval ratings, poll numbers even among three quarters of democrats didn't want him to run again. now he's got momentum, a lot of wins. can this changes and his party's political trajectory? >> erin, the history is it is very difficult in the near term to convert legislative success into political momentum, individually. the republicans lost seats after the trump tax cut in 2017, they lost seats after the reagan tax cut in 81, democrats, obviously, lost a lot of seats after the aca passed in 2010. perhaps, the biggest example, the most productive modern congress history, the great society congress of 65, 66, democrats lost about 45 seats in that midterm election, that even lost ground with seniors despite creating medicare which had been a battle for over 30 years. in the near term, it is hard to

make that translation. the longer term is very different. many of the things democrats have done could come back to their favor by 2024. that is sort of the case in a lot of these earlier examples. there's one other element of this i think is politically quite important, which is this package, if you're going to pass it this weekend, it includes the biggest investment ever in dealing with climate. change that is a big win for young voters who have -- it could be an important motivator in that sense. >> so, amy, a key question looming over biden, of course, in all of this is whether he will run again. ron is making the distinction between the midterms, which are very soon, and the presidential election itself. you know, at least two democrats in congress may have said they don't want him to run. others, like democratic congressman carolyn maloney have said they don't think you, will and she apologized for saying that and set it again anyway. here she is. >> mister president, i apologize.

i want you to run, i happen to think you won't be running. >> i mean, amy, she was saying it again. it's a messy situation for democrats like maloney to be. and they are looking at the poll realities, which is some 5% of democratic voters in the most recent cnn poll say they want someone other than biden to be their nominee. you did have this long list of achievements across a lot of different areas, right? economic, foreign policy, social policy with the council abortion voting decision. does biden have a chance of turning any of this around? >> so, even in places where the president is popular, like karen lonely's own district in new york city. a poll came today saying he has a 81% approval rating, and only half of the voters in that district thank the president should run again. the correlation between liking him and wanting him to run reelection, those aren't

necessarily going together. the big issue for democrats isn't so much about to see going to look like at the end of 2024, but what is the president going to look like at the end of a second term, when he would, obviously, be in his 80s? look, i think a lot of others who went out and supported then candidate biden in 2020, many of them went in there, consciously or not, thinking this was going to be a one term deal. he didn't really think that this was going to be something they were going to be pondering about whether he would run for reelection or not. now, the midterm elections, where individual members of congress, those who sit in swing districts, they are taking the opportunity to separate themself from a president who, as ron points, out still has pretty low approval ratings and don't expect even to win the successes the administration has had this week to see much of a bump in his overall

approval ratings. it is the dance many members in swing districts have to make in most midterm elections. look, let's see what happens at the end of the mid term. let's see what the results look like. if it's better than expected for democrats, that could give a little bit of a boost to biden. at the same time, the issue of his age isn't going to go away regardless of how much success the administration has. >> run, there is the biden side of things, right? the wins and perception of him in the party, whether that changes. on the republican side, this place significantly as well, right? we've officially projected carry lake, trump backed election denier, won arizona's republican primary for governor. she joins the other trump endorsed election deniers who want arizona's republican primaries for senate, secretary of state, and attorney general. that is arizona, ron, right? election deniers one key primary races in other crucial

states trump narrowly lost, michigan, pennsylvania, and nevada. so, the question is what this means for democrats? the republican-based royals them up, that's great for the republican base. moderate republicans, independents, they may look elsewhere. well those election denier victories help democrats in the general election, and the midterms? >> i think they will in almost all cases. a critical, at least, with independent voters who usually vote, the republican, republicans have made this much tougher on themselves then this midterm needed to be by nominating candidates who, in many ways, doubled down on all of the rhetoric and messaging, and policies that have driven away white collar suburban voters around the country, from the gop, and the trump era, who might have been open to coming back because they were dissatisfied with biden, or inflation. many of these same candidates, or election deniers, are very

acting on severe positions on abortion with no exception. one place i will be watching is the miniature of all this. what does doug doocy do, the governor of arizona? he has earned by the 2020 election is fair and clear of fraud. he now has an entire ticket of republican nominees who are saying either that he is lying or that he is naive, and he essentially presided over a corrupt election. is he going to come out and endorse those candidates? he is a perfect miniature of the roughly 20 didn't require a percent of gop voters who don't accept trump's lies about the election. are they going to say, i will post republican because democrat or worse? or carey lake and to dixon and mark are [inaudible] >> all right, thank you both, very much. i appreciate it. next, the late breaking news, a 42 and a half million dollar victory for sandy hook parents, a jury hitting alex jones who repeatedly lied about children massacred at the school, with a

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>> new tonight, conspiracy theorist alex jones just ordered by iterative pay 45 point $2 million in punitive

damages to the parents of jesse lewis, a six-year-old who died in the sandy hook shooting massacre. just yesterday, the same jury ordered jones to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages. falsely claiming the massacre, which 26 people, including 20 children were murdered, was a hoax. miguel marquez joins me now. miguel, you've been covering this entire trial. you have the compensatory damages yesterday, and now these punitive award is massive. what are the chances this family sees the combined total of what was awarded by this jury, which is $49 million? >> probably not very good at this point, and in texas, they have a law that caps punitive damages, and lawyers for mr. jones have already said they are going to follow that route and say that under the law, only $750,000 for plaintiffs, to plaintiffs in this case, of 1,000,005 in punitive damages as what they expect. lawyers on the other side say it's not that clear, all of that aside, given mr. jones has

tried to, in the middle of a bankruptcy of proceedings, there are two other cases he has been held liable for four defamation, one in connecticut, another in texas, and the claim will be he is going to try to hide his money and even the forensic economist they had on today valued's various businesses. he has nine different companies, and valued them anywhere from 135 million to 270 million, but said that, in 2021, once these judgment started to come down against, and he started to pull money out of those companies, so will they be able to get it? it's not very clear. mr. jones's lawyers say this is a first amendment issue, and it's already under attack. the mother of the young man, the six year old man who died almost ten years ago at sandy hook says, after this was done, mr. jones is a bully that she was pleased to be able to look

him in the eye, she was afraid to do it before she got up there. but once she looked him in the eye, she said she felt like her son who had the presence of mind to say run to the other class meets their, saving nine of their lives that day. aaron? >> miguel, thank you. i want to go to our senior senior legal analyst elie honig. jones's lawyers objected to the jury's decision, they say texas law caps punitive damages at $750,000 for plaintiffs. obviously, nowhere close to the 49 million that they were awarded. the judge has not ruled on this. what's now? >> aaron, the plaintiffs are going to counter argue here that the law that sets the cap, the law that sets that limit is, itself, unconstitutionally. argument is going to be the texas state constitution guarantees everybody the right to a jury trial. if you're legislator passing laws that limit punitive

damages, that violates a constitutional right. this argument, actually, has succeeded in a few other states around the country. the problem here, though, twofold. the very next sentence in the texas constitution after guaranteeing the right to a jury trial says the legislator could pass whatever laws it needs to regulate jury trials. the argument is this would be such a law, and ultimately, this has to go up to the texas state supreme court which is not likely to look favorably on that kind of argument. the plaintiffs lawyers have said they are going to pursue this argument. erin? >> so, the closing argument was emotional today, we don't mentioned that. the parents attorney said this to the jury. listen in. >> we ask you send a very, very simple message. that is stop alex jones, stop the monetization of misinformation and lies. >> calling sandy hook a hoax,

alex jones has claimed that sources inside nasa told him the space agency faked part of the moon landing. he said covid isn't real, and the u.s. government is responsible for the oklahoma city bombing. those are various things at various times that he said, and in the course of this trial, the question is, has jones opened himself up to any other legal problems and rulings like the one he got today? >> well, erin, the biggest problem for alex jones as he appeared to lie on the stand at this point in trial. he testified he never texted anyone about the sandy hook massacre. guess what? there are texts of alex jones is where he talks about the sandy hook massacre. this trial itself was about alex jones is disgraceful disgusting lies about the massacre, and in the course of this defamation trial, he lied again on the stand. this is going to be a decision for texas state prosecutors whether they want to bring a

perjury charge against alex jones as well. >> elie honig, thank you very much. next, russia saying publicly it is ready to talk about a prisoner swap involving britney griner and paul whelan. will putin fall through? space suit crisis, decades old faulty equipment, possibly now putting astronauts lives at risk. he road and on the go. find your rewards so you can reconnect, disconnect, hold on tight and let go! stay two nights and get a free night. book now at bestwewestern.com. my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. now i'm down with rybelsus®. mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. (♪ ♪) in a clinical study, onc® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family

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nein. make it ten! i like this guy. (cheers) tonight, president biden says he's hopeful a prisoner exchange will bring two americans detained in russia home. sergey lavrov signaling he's willing to do a swap. russia opening the door to talks a day after griner was sentenced to nine years in a russian labor camp. frederik pleitgen is out front in moscow. he was in the courtroom for griner's sentencing. you saw her, you saw that reaction, fred. now russia making it clear that putin is ready to negotiate. how close are the two sides to a deal, do you think? >> well, i think you could still

take quite awhile. but there's finally some momentum on all of this. brittney griner's legal team sa said that a verdict needed to be place and a swap could take place. the russians, however, are saying that they want all of this to happen behind closed doors. it's hard to overstate how irritated the russians were when the u.s. went public with the fact that they had put forward a substantial offer and the kremlin saying that there is a mechanism in place for the two sides to negotiate something like this. but they also say that if even some details come to light into the public, that an exchange cannot take place. we're looking for negotiations to take place behind closed doors and hopefully for something to happen in the not-too-distant future, erin. >> obviously, leveling that threat that any leaks would take everything off the table. you saw griner there as she was

sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. do you know where she is now. >> absolutely. she's in the same detention facility that she's been in the whole time. she's not been brought to that penal colony yet. i was in touch with her legal team after they visited her. they're saying that she's still pretty much taken aback by that verdict but she was feeling a lot better today and she's in fighting spirit. they're going to file an appeal against the verdict that took place and the good thing for brittney griner is, as long as that appeal is processed, she's going to stay in this facility and not be moved to a penal colony which is tougher and much further away from the russian capital. looking to get that appeal through. unfortunately, erin, they're not often successful. >> all right. thank you very much. frederik pleitgen from moscow tonight. a former astronaut, calling them old clunkers. space suits from way back in the

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tonight space walks at the international space station are halted and the reason is concerns about the safety of decades old space suits worn by the astronauts. decades old. nasa calling the need for new space suits critical. kristen fisher is out front. >> reporter: european space agency astronaut was wrapping up a seven-hour long space walk outside the international space station when we noticed water leaking into his helmet. >> i think we should accelerate the steps to get him out of the suits here. >> reporter: they got him out but the incident was similar to what happened to an italian astronaut back in 2013. >> i feel a lot of water on the back of my head. >> reporter: water from the cooling tubes inside the space suit was leaking into his helmet and he almost drowned. >> for a couple of minutes there i experienced what it's like to be a goldfish in a fish bowl

from the point of view of the goldfish. >> reporter: it's a nightmare scenario according to a former nasa astronaut who became the first space suit engineer at space ex. >> you can't breathe and take the helmet off. you're in a bad, bad place. it got very serious. >> reporter: nasa has stopped all space walks at the international space station until the space suit is returned to earth later this month for an inception. even if it's fixed, the underlying problem is that these space suits are decades old and there's not many left. >> that big white space suit has heritage that goes back to apollo, pre-1975. the helmet is the same as the helmet we wore on the apollo suits. >> reporter: nasa knows it's a problem. >> it's critical to have a suit that works for everyone. >> reporter: nasa is partnering with two commercial companies to

develop its next generation space suits but those won't be ready until at least 2025. >> nasa has gotten quite good at keeping these old clunkers running. i think nasa has a really capable team that will keep these suits going as long as they have to. but the right thing is to get a new suit and the sooner the better. >> reporter: kristen fisher, cnn, new york. >> really unbelievable. thank you so much for joining us. ac "360" starts now. good evening. the reckless outrageous lies of alex jones and the conspiracy theories he spread about the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school that killed 26, now carries a price for him and a big one. $45.2 million. i'm jim sciutto in again nfor anderson tonight. that's how much a texa