good morning, everybody. i'm bianna golodryga. >> and i'm john berman. this morning a critical moment in the war in ukraine and a standoff at this moment over sending tanks to the battlefield. a short time ago president zelenskyy of ukraine said he is grateful for the support so far, but, quote, hundreds of thank you's are not hundreds of tanks. there are new developments in the last few minutes about whether ukraine will get those tanks it says it needs for its survival. also back here at home, president biden in his first public remarks since classified documents were found at his home and office says that he has no regrets. the president will appear this afternoon at the white house with u.s. mayors, so will he answer more questions about the documents? we're following it all for you. we are going to begin, though, with this controversy over getting tanks into ukraine.

cnn's natasha bertrand is at the white house and chief international correspondent clarissa ward is in ukraine. natasha, first to you. where do things stand at this moment as u.s. and german officials and i think you need to explain to our audience why germany is in the middle of this, why u.s. and german officials appear to be at odds here. >> reporter: yeah, john, so everything is still very much up in the air at this point ahead this have key meeting of defense leaders in germany today that will decide really the fate of military aid to ukraine and for the next several months, and that is because the u.s. and germany have been in this kind of standoff over whether to provide these heavy western tanks to ukraine. now, germany has a number of leper 2 tanks, their version of the heavy western tanks that they have that many u peer countries also have and have in their inventory, but germany said that they are not willing at this moment to provide those tanks to ukraine unless the united states also provides its own version of its tanks to

ukraine as well because germany does not want to be seen as being out of lockstep with the united states on this. so it has created a lot of tension with the united states because the u.s. is not prepared at this moment to send its abrams tanks to ukraine because they say they are just too costly to maintain and it doesn't make sense for the ukrainians right now to actually receive them and operate them, it would require a lot of training as well. so the u.s. right now is trying to pressure the germans to go ahead and send their leper tanks to ukraine and key key, importantly, allow european countries who have those leper tanks as well to send them to ukraine because right now the u.s. is not prepared to send their tanks but ukraine could use additional tanks as we heard president zelenskyy say earlier today. >> and throughout europe and nato allies there are about 2,000 of those leper 2 tanks available in some countries including poland and finland say they are willing to send those tanks but they need to get the

go ahead from germany at this point. clarissa, president zelenskyy really wasting no time here, making clear the need for more advanced weapons needs to happen right now and that is specifically regarding tanks. ukraine's war general says they need about 300. realistically we are talking about maybe just several dozen tanks at best for now. can you explain to us why tanks are so important for ukraine at this stage of the war? >> reporter: well, bianna, if you look at the battlefield at the moment, you're basically kind of in a grinding close to stalemate where it's very difficult for ukraine to break russia's defensive positions, particularly in the eastern areas of donbas, and the concern that the ukrainians have right now is that russia is basically preparing for another major offensive. that the 150,000 mobilized troops who have not already been sent to the battlefield are coming to the end of their training and will soon be sent to the battlefield. so they want to have the

momentum on their side and they want to engage in sort of offensive operations, but in order to do that they need things like tanks, things like long-range artillery which president zelenskyy has asked for over and over again. i think the frustration that you will hear when you talk to ukrainian leaders and ukrainian military commanders is the sort of drip, drip, drip nature of the approach to giving weapons to ukraine. ultimately it always seems in the end that the -- ukraine does get the weapons it needs but it happens in this slightly tortured and protracted process. the argument you will hear being made here on the ground is that this is really a question of time is of the essence and that they need to engage in these active offensives before russia has a chance to really regroup and recruit and launch another major offensive. >> yeah, the message is that time is now, particularly with the end of winter looming, which

gets to the next question, natasha, we are learning that the cia director went to kyiv for this meeting that no one knew about with president zelenskyy and a lot of that was to talk about the possibility of offensives this spring. >> reporter: yeah, john, this is something that the u.s. is very concerned about and is watching very closely, not least because the ukrainians as clarissa said, have been sounding the alarm on a potential major russian offensive in the works because not all of its troops that have been mobilized have actually going to ukraine yet, so they still have people in reserve who would be able to potentially launch a new offensive against ukraine. what we are learning is that the cia director bill burns who really has emerged as kind of a key emissary between the u.s., ukraine and even russia, went to ukraine to brief president zelenskyy on the u.s. assessment of where russia might strike next. now, russia of course they have been kind of on the defensive in certain areas of ukraine, including in the donbas, with the exception of course of bakhmut where a lot of heavy

fighting has been happening, but what the u.s. seems to believe now is that russia is, in fact, preparing for a potential major offensive and they want president zelenskyy of course to be ready for that and to have all of the information that he needs, including of course key intelligence to be able to position troops and be able to fight that back. now, it remains to be seen whether or not russia is going to be doing another major mobilization, that is something the ukrainians have also been warning about. right now the u.s. seems to be a little bit more reluctant about whether that can actually happen but the bottom line here is that the u.s. and ukrainians are sounding the alarm about a potential major russian attack here. >> and what's so significant about that was that it was just about a year ago that the cia director burns also had informed ukrainians of u.s. intelligence showing that russia would, in fact, invade. ukraine at the time said that their intelligence didn't match that. clearly they are taking what they hear from burns this time around very seriously. natasha and clarissa, thank you. president biden finally speaking out about his

classified documents controversy, pleading for full cooperation, but mostly down playing the investigation. >> cnn's jeremy diamond is at the white house. this is really the most expansive the president has been. what did he say? >> reporter: that's right. the president here in saying that he has no regrets about this situation, he's talking specifically about having no regrets about disclosing -- not disclosing that these classified documents were found before the midterm elections. we know of course that the documents were found at the penn biden center on november 2nd days before those midterm elections and ultimately none of this was revealed until it was first reported just about ten days ago by news reports which the white house then went ahead and confirmed. the president here also reiterating a series of key white house talking points about this situation. listen real quick to what he said yesterday. >> we're fully cooperating, looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. i think you're going to find there's nothing there. i have no regrets.

i'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. it's exactly what we're doing. there's no there there. >> reporter: and, look, the president saying that he has no regrets about not disclosing this before the midterm elections, you talk to people close to the situation here and they say that they also have no regrets about not disclosing this at all until it emerged in public reports, ultimately they feel that cooperating quietly with the department of justice was the right strategy, even if it might have resulted in somewhat of a pr nightmare for them in that first week. what you also hear from the president is stressing this cooperation with the department of justice. that's very intentional. the white house wants to be clear that they are taking a very different tack to former president trump and that's because they're trying to diminish the comparisons and increase the contrast between how president biden and his classified documents issue arose and became a doj investigation and how the situation went down with former president trump.

what we didn't hear from president biden, though, was another part of the white house strategy and that is one that we've seen in recent days, which is increasingly attacking house republicans and drawing that distinction between what house republicans, how they are proceeding with their investigation into this versus the department of justice. john? >> all right. jeremy diamond for us at the white house. keep us posted. new this morning, alphabet, the parent company of google is announcing it will lay off about 12,000 workers, about 6% of its workforce. >> google just the latest big tech company to announce its making major job cuts following both amazon and microsoft. cnn chief business correspondent christine romans joins us to break this all down. if we didn't know better this almost seems like it's a coordinated move by all of these companies. one day announcing 10,000 that was yesterday with microsoft and now this news from google. what does it mean? >> a parade of layoffs in tech land and it's cost cutting ahead of digital advertising headwinds that they are expecting this year and it's also -- this is

incredibly important context -- they have been growing gangbusters for the past three or four years, adding hundreds of thousands of jobs in tech, millions of jobs in tech over the past three years or so. so you're starting to see them take that back a little bit. 5%, 10% moves at these different companies. we've heard from the salesforce ceo. he said, look, we were hiring like crazy, we couldn't continue to hire like that. he actually apologized for hiring too many people. amazon, coin base, google now, microsoft, you've got some 37,000 tech layoffs just this month alone and, you know, tech analysts say you could see this continue for the next few months here. the tech industry seeing layoffs way above where they were a year ago but the context here, overall the job market is pretty tight. outside of tech and in some cases media, you still have companies that are not laying off very much and, in fact, are hungry to find and retain talent. so a kind of split screen story in the u.s. economy right now, in the u.s. job market right

now. >> all right. christine, thank you. >> you're welcome. back in washington today the treasury department is implementing extraordinary measures so the u.s. doesn't default on its debt. but those temporary measures will only last through june 5th. >> the white house continues to insist it will not negotiate with republicans on spending cuts tied to raising the debt limit, but now some republicans from swing districts that president biden won are pushing back on that hard line stance. the white house had been hoping that maybe some of these republicans might be willing to play ball. lauren fox is on capitol hill. so where does that leave things, lauren? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, so far those republicans that the white house might have hoped would come and see their side of this debate are not getting there. in fact, they're telling our colleague manu raju that they think the white house is making a miscalculation when they say they are not going to be willing to negotiate on the debt ceiling. if you take a step back there's still about five months to have these talks, to have these negotiations, a lot is going to

play out between now and june when that deadline is expected, but one thing we should keep an eye on is do those moderates stand strong? do those republicans who come from districts that even biden might have won, do they feel like the white house is overplaying their hand? so far that's the case. the reason that the white house cares so much about those moderate republicans is there is an ability in the house of representatives if you got every single democrat and a handful of republicans to sign on to what is known as a discharge petition you can force a vote on the floor of the house of representatives, even if the house speaker doesn't agree with the legislation you want to put on the floor. so the white house keeping a very close eye on some of those moderate republicans, wondering if there might be a way forward in that direction, but so far no sign of republicans breaking from their leadership after that contentious speaker fight, everyone in the republican party so far sticking together. >> meantime, we are implementing extraordinary measures as the treasury department put it for

the next few months. we will be watching this closely, lauren fox, thank you. up next, alec baldwin's attorney says they were blind-sided to hear that the actor will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for the shooting on the set of the movie "rust." what the da is telling cnn about her decision to file charges. plus a new twist after the arrest of a stormer statehouse candidate in new mexico. now police are saying his campaign may have been partly funded by fentanyl sales. the first march for life since the supreme court overturned roe versus wade and cnn has new reporting that anti-abortion activists are planning to put a full-court press on statehouses this year. h looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey. the rereal honey you love, plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? robitussin. the only brand with real honeyand elderberry.y. ♪ we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” maybe it's perfecting that special place at you want to keep in the family...

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baldwin and hannah gutierrez-reed are facing two counts of manslaughter. >> her attorney said a jury will find her not guilty but she has commit nod crime. josh campbell for us this morning. you spoke to the da moments after the announcement was made. what did she say? >> reporter: she said that this all comes down in her view to negligence. i asked her if there was one piece of evidence that sealed it for her, that made that determination in her mind this had to be prosecuted. she said, no, this came down to looking at the totality of the circumstances by included in her view a pattern on that movie set of unsafe practices. we know there had been reports of past accidental discharges on the set as well as employees complaining about their own safety there. she also talked about the weapon itself and alec baldwin pulling the trigger on a gun that held a live round, now baldwin has claimed that he never pulled the trigger but authorities here actually sent that pistol that was used in that shooting from

new mexico to quantico, virginia, the fbi laboratory and the fbi looked at that gun and assessed that there is no way it could have gone off without alec baldwin actually pulling that trigger. there has been this question from respected legal experts who have been opining that this will be an uphill battle for prosecutors. this is certainly not a slam dunk case. the question is if an actor is handed a weapon by someone on set and they are told that that weapon is empty, is there liability on the part of the actor? again, we have heard legal experts say that that is going to be an uphill battle for prosecutors. when i spoke to the district attorney she said she is confident in their case specifically as it relates to baldwin's responsibility to ensure that he had an empty weapon. take a listen. >> every person that handles a gun has a duty to make sure that if they are going to handle that gun, point it at someone and pull the trigger that it is not going to fire a projectile and kill someone. an actor doesn't get a free pass just because they are an actor. we're saying here in new mexico

everyone is equal under the law. >> reporter: now, as far as what happens next, the da told me charges against baldwin will be filed by the end of this month. he won't be arrested, he will receive what's called a summons to appear here in new mexico in-person, possibly by videoconference and then the prosecution will start. we will wait to hear what his plea s we obviously expect that his team will be putting up an aggressive defense, guys. >> yeah, josh campbell, thank you. here to discuss the implications of all of this is criminal defense attorney joey jackson. always great to see you. so as we heard there from the da, nobody gets a free pass. what is this prosecution going to look like and were you surprised to see these two counts of involuntary manslaughter? >> yeah, bianna, good morning to you and john. i absolutely was surprised, very surprised, in fact. i feel very strongly about this. i think it's an ill-advised prosecution, i think it's ill informed and i think it sets a dangerous precedent. you know, it's very tragic, sad,

unfortunate and heartbreaking that this had to occur but the fact you are going to criminalize this is problematic. you are an actor and you have to consider the context in which anything occurred before charging a crime. you are on a set, there are a lot of moving parts, you are on a team, you have the ability as an actor and you should be reasonably relying upon other members of the team to do their job, and so with that context in mind if you are an actor and someone says cold gun, to which you understand that to mean that it's certainly a prop that would not hurt anyone and you point it in someone's direction, now a prosecutor is going to charge you with a crime? i just don't -- look, i don't want to prejudge before we have a jury impaneled and arguments made, but i think this is a significantly difficult prosecution that probably should not have been brought in the first instance. >> joey, you are a defense attorney. wouldn't you if you were alec baldwin's attorneys call ten

people who work on sets in hollywood where there are guns and ask them does an actor normally check the gun he or she is handed, you know, for scenes with guns and once you have ten people perhaps, say, no, the actor doesn't, wouldn't that be part of the defense? >> so it could be. i think the first part of any defense would be predicated upon filing motions and papers to say that this should not be before a jury. it shouldn't be before the jury because, again, people work cooperatively as a team. in the context of a movie set, in the context of a prop, in the context of you being handed a gun that should have been checked multiple times before it even came to your attention, should you not be able and should you not reasonably rely upon your team to ensure that the gun is not loaded, particularly when someone is yelling cold gun. should you then have to as an actor be put in a position of an expert to check the rounds yourself before you perform?

then we can get to the other thing you mentioned, john, with regard to what is the standard practice. let's say in response to your question that other people come and then say, yes, you do check the gun. you know, there are certain types of things in society that occur. certainly unfortunately accidents happen every day, but when you look at, you know, the nature of things, you have a civil court and civil court addresses issues of negligence all the time and you get monetary damages and there are improvements in industries as a re occur. so i think from a civil perspective there could be a of liability, but you're going to criminalize that? so even if someone did say of the ten actors i would call did you check a gun and seven say they do and three say no, that doesn't change the fact that you should not be criminally charged or held accountable when you're performing your costume, you are in makeup, et cetera, i just feel strongly that i think the da overreached here and this is not a case in my view that's suitable to be prosecuted and should be in civil court as

tragic as this whole event happens to be. >> joey, to john's point, we have heard from the union representing the film and many actors, sag actors and here is what they said, prosecutors' contention that an actor has a duty to ensure the functional and mechanical operation of a firearm on a production set is wrong and uninformed. they went on to say an actor's job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert. how would a statement like that hold up in court? >> so i think, you know, that statement will be backed up by -- to john's question previously -- people testifying as to what reasonably is your role as an actor, a performer, a person who certainly wants to put on a good performance, make it believable, et cetera, what do you have the duty to do? certainly when you're carrying, having a weapon or pointing a weapon everyone would have a duty to potentially use it appropriately and properly but if the industry standard is that

we are relying upon other people to do that for you should we be criminalizing the last person who has it and discharges what they think to be an empty weapon? it shouldn't happen. it's a powerful statement, i think, that was made there and we will see that play out in court in a way that protects and defends alec baldwin. >> i would be interested to see the early stages of this what happens. joey jackson, thank you very much. president biden is preparing to sit down with mayors from across the country at the white house. our next guest is one of them. what he wants for his city. and g it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. they're quititting the kibble. and kicking the cans. and feeding their dogs dog food that's actually... well, food. developed withth vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. ♪

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former republican candidate solomon pena already accused of plotting to shoot up the homes of political rivals, is now facing new criminal allegations. police are investigating whether pena's campaign -- his failed campaign for new mexico statehouse -- was funded in part by drug money from fentanyl sales. >> investigators say after he lost that race he hired a team of accomplices to shoot at the homes of democratic officials. joining us to discuss is cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller. we keep on learning more and more revelations these days. what are you hearing about the connection between pena and fentanyl? >> well, this is reporting that was done by cnn's paul murphy yesterday when he was going through the campaign contributions. now, an individual named josé trajillo is arrested in a car with the gun that's allegedly ballistically matched to the last of the shootings of democratic rivals' homes but also nearly 900 fentanyl pills with a street value of about

$15,000, $3,000 in cash. this is an individual who claims to be homeless, with the smoking gun and the drugs driving the candidate's car and he is the single largest cash contributor to pena's failed campaign. so you have an individual who is now federally charged with being in possession of drugs and weapons and is the guy who was funneling cash from himself and a relative into the campaign to the tune of just under $10,000 and as a suspected fentanyl dealer who was allegedly working for the candidate, shooting at ri rivals, one has to ask were those contributions funded by fentanyl sales. >> that is a bad set of facts right there. could this lead to additional charges for pena? we would have to have knowledge that it was drug money? >> it's a complicated case because the campaign finance piece will likely go to the

state attorney general where that's their jurisdiction so they will start looking into this as early as today. the police investigation is into the shootings. the fbi's violent crime squad has the gun and the drug angle and atf is matching the ballistics. so you have a real mix of albuquerque pd and federal authorities who will be peeling back all of the layers here. pena is charged, as well as trajillo but there is a team of four people including trajillo's father who is in the complaint and named as potential suspects. of course, this comes back to a candidate who had to go to court to run for this office because he is a convicted felon who had served seven years for a smash and grab robbery crew. >> a lot going on here. >> there is a lot going on there. >> john miller. >> what's sure is we have not heard the last of it. >> i can't wait for monday's report from you on this, john.

thank you very much. so hours from now president biden will welcome a bipartisan group of mayors to the white house. this is an annual event, but the first since republicans took control of the house of representatives. one of the mayors who will be in attendance is the democratic mayor of huntington, west virginia. steve williams. mr. mayor, great to see you. i always enjoy talking to mayors when they get to washington because it's interesting to find out what the gap is between what you're dealing with on a day to day basis in your home and what's actually being discussed daily in washington. so how would you describe that gap? >> the gap is very simple, is that mayors deal with individuals every -- every single day here in washington it's whenever somebody is able to get home. we were having a conversation last night over dinner where we are coming face-to-face with individuals in the grocery stores, at church, as we're

walking down the street, and i'm a living example of individuals coming up and saying, mayor, we need to do x. the fact of the matter is we have to come up with solutions, we can't talk about it, we have to do it and i think that's one of the advantages that mayors have, when we come to washington we're able to say very directly to the president and others, this is what we are seeing and usually we get a very, very good welcome. >> what is x right now? what is it that people are coming to you and saying that needs to happen? >> sadly, the problem that we're continuing to deal with in my community and i had a discussion yesterday in a packed room is dealing with the opioid epidemic and particularly with what you were just talking about, fentanyl. fentanyl is 100 times stronger

than heroin and as a result of that it's just killing people. in huntington from 2019, '20 and '21, we had 379 -- 379 overdose deaths, 349 of them were as a result of fentanyl. now, 349 as a result of fentanyl. i remember several years ago then senator biden in the late '80s was speaking at wake forest university and one of the things that he was saying is that we're having a proliferation of drugs being shipped into our country and that is an active war. well, yesterday i heard one of my fellow mayors say something that just struck a chord with me, that fentanyl coming from china is a weapon of mass destruction. it's that there is enough that

are coming into our nation right now, coming through the border and other means and how it's being packaged is enough to be able to kill every american across -- across the country. and this is frightening. we have to be able to do something of this nature and, frankly, when we are talking with the president this afternoon somehow expect that that will be addressed because it was addressed yesterday when we were talking with dr. gupta, the drug czar on our panel discussion and he talked very specifically about the problems of having to deal with china and their shipping of fentanyl over into our country. >> look, it's very poignant, very moving when you put it in the terms you just did, a weapon of mass destruction. mayor, i am curious when people are coming up and talking to you in the supermarkets how much are you hearing from your constituents about president biden's possession of classified documents, because that's what's

being discussed a lot in washington these days? >> i haven't heard anybody say something about that. people are concerned about their life ly hoods, wanting to be able to take care of their families, doing everything that's necessary for that. they are thrilled that we are able now to be able to do things with infrastructure within our community that has not been done in 60 to 70 years and it's because of the infrastructure law, because of the inflation reduction act, because of the rescue plan. we have resources to be able to fix things and actually correct some wrongs within our community. we have two brownfield sites within my city that have long been shut down that we're able to repurpose those into -- one of them is being repurposed in coal country for a training and logistics program for solar panels and solar panel

installation. on another piece of property that was built in the late 1870s when my city was first founded and has been shuttered for 20 years, we've been able to partnership with the federal government, department of commerce, appalachian regional commission, epa, being able to clear that property and now we have a logistics robotic training center that's going to be locating on that and positioning ourselves so that we might be able to bring other digital age businesses into the area, not businesses that came as a result of the industrial revolution. >> right. mayor steve williams, huntington is a beautiful city. i hope everyone gets a chance to visit. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for letting me be on with you. >> another reminder why it's important to reach out beyond the belt ways and hear from the

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and help communities thrive. later today abortion rights opponents will rally on the national mall for the 50th annual march for life demonstration. this comes as republican lawmakers across the country begin their legislative session was abortion, restricting access to abortion, as a top priority. >> cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider has the latest on all of this. this is a priority now, six months after the supreme court

oversurnd roe v. wade that could have a lot of impact on state laws. what can we see? >> we are already seeing this really big push from state republican lawmakers to either ban or significantly restrict abortion and that's all because legislatures around the country have just now come back into session in january. you might ask why this six-month gap from when the supreme court overturned roe v. wade to the legislation we're seeing introduced now. the fact is when the court issued the dobbs decision in june most state legislatures had already adjourned. a few did come back into special session, but january marks the time when they are all back in session and we're already seeing significant action here. a number of states. so wyoming in the past few days introduce add full abortion ban, complete with criminal penalties for doctors who perform these abortions. earlier this week we saw nebraska republicans introduce a ban as soon as fetal cardiac activity is detected, that's usually around six weeks. on the opening day of virginia's session they introduce add

15-week ban, that's something that's been pushed by the state's republican governor glenn youngkin. so we are seeing a lot of activity in these solidly republican states and i've actually spoken with a prominent right to life group, their leaders are saying they've been consistently consulting with republicans in various states around the country, helping them model legislation that would completely ban abortion in other states including wyoming, their bill is based on this model legislation. so there's more to come here. the general counsel wouldn't tell me which states, but more are definitely poised to act. on top of that, you know, the numbers here, 22 states are solidly controlled by republicans, 15 controlled by democrats. so in addition to what we're seeing from republicans, we are seeing a lot of push back in democrat-controlled states as well like michigan and maryland. michigan, for example, is working to repeal an abortion ban that's been on the books since 1931. it was blocked by a judge after roe v. wade was overturned.

so they are still in the process of that. maryland now pushing to put the right to abortion into a constitutional amendment for voters in 2024. guys, this is all happening around the country, this swirl of activity on both sides here, democrat, republican and also abortion rights groups that are stepping in here. so a lot to watch as we move through the year with these legislative sessions just ramping up now. >> and that's what the dobbs decision did, it opened the legal gates here. jessica schneider, thanks very much. new details we're learning this morning after the supreme court released a report on its failure to disclose who leaked the draft decision overturning roe versus wade last year. >> that report highlights the court's shortfalls in its technology, protocols and confidentiality and overall institutional safeguards. cnn's senior supreme court analyst joan biskupic joins us. the report did not identify a culprit, also they didn't speak to the justices, but what are the major revelations here? >> good morning, john and

bianna. in the most consequential case in decades, most serious breach we have ever seen at the court they came up empty but on every page of its 20-page report there were many revelations about how the court has operated and how there was something inevitable about this leak, unfortunately. the justices weren't able to really go back and retrace how their technology had been used, computers and printers to know how many copies had been made of this, how easily it might have been to get the document out the door and make it, then, you know -- lead it into the hands of "politico" which published it on may 2nd, about eight weeks before the final opinion was released. as you said, john, the justices themselves were not interviewed, likely not any of their spouses or anybody in the family. law clerks revealed when they were interviewed by investigators that some of them had talked to spouse and partners about the case.

so there were all sorts of ways that the court hadself was a bit of a sieve during this time when this very important case was being negotiated behind the scenes. and i have to say that when you think of the basic protocols that most legal offices undertake, they were really missing at the supreme court. we will never know just how much this leak affected the outcome of this huge case, rolling back a half century of abortion rights, but in this report it does make clear that the leak might not have been inevitable. >> it is notable and does raise questions as to why the justices weren't interviewed as well in this investigation. joan biskupic, thank you. the parents of a virginia 6-year-old who took a gun to school, then shot his teacher, are speaking for the first time. where they say an acute disability contributed to the incident and how the school is responding.

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you can with wells fargo. (co-worker 4) what are you doing this weekend? we're learning new details in the shooting of a virginia teacher by her 6-year-old student. first grade teacher abby zerner shot in her classroom is now

home and recovering. >> now the family of that student is speaking out. cnn's brian todd has been following the story for us. what are the parents revealing about what led up to the shooting? >> reporter: well, bianna and john, the parents in breaking their silence about this case reveal what some may consider a surprising amount of detail about their son and the challenges he's facing. one of the first things they issued in the statement by think attorney is the firearm that they accessed inside of the home was secure. the statement went on to say this, quote, our son suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school. >> that included that his mother or father attending school to him and accompanying him to class every day. the week of the shooting was the first week when we were not in class with him. we will regret our absence on this dayer to the rest of our lives. now after they came out with that statement and we correspond end with their attorney who helped them issue the statement. i had several questions.

number one, how was the firearm secured and how did the child get access to it and he said he could not comment on that. now regarding the part of the statement that i just read, i asked james ellenson what were the disabilities that the son is dealing and were there any other previous disciplinary issues involving him in the school and he said he could not comment on that any further. earlier this week, guys, there was a school board meeting with several parents and teachers attend and they vented their anger at the school board saying this should never have happened. some calling for the superintendent of the newport news charles parker to resign and other members of the school board to resign and one parent saying this child should never be allowed back into the newport news public school system. so a lot of anger in the community this morning and throughout the week. the public schools issued a

statement after the board meeting saying their reflecting on all of this and determined to restore public trust in the school system. but that is going toic that some doing, after this incident and all of the community anger there. >> i'm just glad the teacher is at home recovering. brian todd, thank you so much for your reporting. the u.s. defense secretary prepares to face questions as a standoff continues. will the u.s. send ukraine the tanks they're asking for and open the path for german tanks, too? we're live in ukraine up next. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugugar levels and contains hihigh quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle heaealth. try boost® tododay. ♪ ♪ a bunch of dead guys made up work, way back when. ♪ ♪ it's our turn now we'll make it up again. ♪ ♪ we'll build freelance teams with me agility. ♪ ♪ the old way of working is deader than me. ♪

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top of the hour. this friday morning. good morning, i'm bianna golodryga. >> and i'm john berman. this morning lloyd austin is vowing support for ukraine. >> this is a