>> hello everyone. welcome to the cnn newsroom. >> today the us and germany announced they are sending advanced level tanks to ukraine. this ends weeks of geopolitical squabbling and introducing what could be a game changer in the russian war in ukraine. it will take months for 31 american abrams tanks to reach the ukraine battlefield and there was no diplomatic arm-twisting behind the decision. >> they are the most capable tanks on the world and their extremely complex to operate and maintain. we are giving ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to sustain these tanks on the battlefield.

>>.[indiscernible] >> germany did not force me to change my mind. i wanted to make sure we were all together. >> germany said it will dispatch 14 tanks to the troops. >> this move by the most powerful nato members opens the door for other allies to make contributions. the tanks will allow ukraine to go on the offensive and to retake occupied territory germany warns that the approval is extremely dangerous and brings the conflict to a new level of confrontation prayed with us ms. natosha and nick. let's start with you natosha. it was last week the pentagon was saying that they could not send these tanks prayed what change? >>reporter: it has been a big 180 by the biden administration this has been the product of discussions between the us and german officials about what would move the needle and make a germany willing to send their

own tanks to ukraine because if you recall last week we reported there was a diplomatic standoff between germany and the us about how to get germany to send those tanks and one of the conditions was that the us had to send its own tanks at first. they did not want to go this alone and they wanted to form an international coalition and we learned the administration came to an agreement. president biden denied there was any kind of arm-twisting by germany but ultimately our sources tell us there was an agreement that was come to with the germans to make this an international and collective effort and what we are learning now is that it's going to take quite some time for those tanks to end up in ukraine. they require a lot of training but ultimately the us

does not see this is something that can pose a significant escalation risk when it comes to crossing any redlines and president biden made that clear in his remarks emphasizing this is not an offensive threat to russia. >> that's what this is about helping ukraine to defend and protect ukrainian land it is not an offense of threat to russia. there is no offensive threat to russia. and when the troops returned to russia .[indiscernible] where they belong. this war would be over today. >>reporter: i want to know something else president biden said during those remarks which was interesting. driving home the idea that this is a long-term investment that the us is making to help ukraine protect its territorial sovereignty not only now but in the future. we need an enduring capability for ukraine to deter and defend against russian aggression over the long-term. >> and it certainly will take months to train and equip the troops there in ukraine. you

have been there nick. you have seen the fighting up close. how will these tanks make a difference? >> however president biden is going to frame this anything that takes russia ? inside ukraine this is a defensive capability it's about enabling the ukrainians two ? russian held territory inside their own country to take on the defense and russian armor. this is a significant jump in the ukraine capability and the key issue is when it is in place because that's potentially a long way off it may change what we see on the battlefield possibly as soon as the summer but there's a long logistical chain behind the abrams tank complex fuel, they will need to get ukrainian technicians trained very fast in great detail to essentially move the major risk. the ? tank ends up laying idle because it needs repair or servicing more likely we will see the tank back in poland and

equipped by american personnel that will be a shorter-term project and immediately the german-made leopards , owned by many different european nato members we will see 14 of them in the next three months that may be too slow possibly to impact the spring offensives we are being told russia and ukraine are planning but here's the thing beyond this. his clear messaging to russia that the ukraine capabilities are just going to get better and the small window russia might think it has limits the capabilities of self to change the battlefield is just getting smaller. by later this year ukraine will begin to potentially have pretty high end nato caliber weaponry. and

along with the other part of this discussion nato country has been arming themselves against the potential direct threat of russia deciding they may not need these tanks these artillery pieces and can give them to ukraine because they think the key battle against russia will be by ukraine in ukraine and not really a threat to nato on a wider scale. >> tanks on the way soon. the ukrainian foreign minister said today the next thing they want our western fighter jets we will see that conversation ramps up. thank you both. summit congress is reacting today to the ? of classified documents >> members of the house gop say they will press forward with investigations into the handling of classified documents involving president biden and former president trump our chief correspondent is on capitol hill. how is this new twist factoring into the republican ? at the house? >> the republicans made what joe biden did at his home in

delaware, they made that the centerpiece of the new investigative agenda as they have come to power in the house. but the revelation that mike pence had those records up end of that effort and discussion about trying to investigate what happened there and try to get a handle on why so many officials and former officials. donald trump, mike pence and joe biden have these classified records is concerning that perhaps members of congress need to step in and do more. >> we need to understand what were the documents, what did they contain russian mark was there any damage and that's something we have to look at across the board. >> we are going to treat pence the same way as we treat biden. >> why not investigate trump and pence in the same emphasis you should put on biden? >> this one standard

.[indiscernible] communication. spin with the last two members were chairman of the key committees investigating what joe biden did he said there is a difference that mike pence has cooperated with his committee. he said the white house is not cooperating and the judiciary chairman said he believes they treated trump differently than biden and other members including the senate say perhaps there needs to be actual legislation to look at toughening up standards on how classified records are dealt with. that's a question that dick durbin had going forward but there's a big question about why this happened what was on the documents and in a matter of moments we expect the director of national intelligence to be behind closed doors with the senate intelligence committee and they plan to ask a lot of questions about this. >> okay thanks for the update. jim at the cnn political

director joins us. david we understand you have some new polling about what americans think about all of this. what's the answer? >> first brought approval from americans across all parties for the appointment of a special counsel in the biden case 84 percent of americans in a brand-new pole approval that decision to appoint a special counsel 60 percent disapprove and across party lines when you ever see this in american politics? republicans, independents, democrats agree of an appointment by a special counsel. >> that's rare but what about the center of this the discovery of the documents at his home at the former office do people think it's a major problem? >> about two thirds of americans say it's a serious problem. so 30 percent say very serious problem 38 percent say somewhat serious and 1/3

say not a problem 27 percent not too much six percent not at all again look at this across the parties and an 89 percent of republicans say yes this is a serious problem but look at democrats it's not as such a huge divide as you might expect 46 percent 54 percent say a slim majority. it's not. >> two separate ? declassified ? classified documents keep showing up and how does ? what do they think about how president biden is handling this? >> 57 percent of americans disapprove of the way that biden is handling the situation. only 43 percent approve and take a look here 85

percent of republicans obviously you expect them to disapprove more than 6/10 independence disapprove of the way the white house handle this and 1/4 of democrats 26 percent disapprove of the way he is handling it. >> how does the biden numbers compared to the trump numbers? >> this is an interesting detail. we talk all the time these are not the same the way that trump handle this in the way that biden handle this in the way that pence is handling it. a slim majority of americans say that donald trump has done something illegal. only 37 percent say that biden and again when you look at it, i think it's instructive because look here. eight percent of democrats think biden has done something illegal 79 percent think trump has but when you go down 1/4 of republicans 25 percent think donald trump has done something

illegal. 1/4 of republicans. trump is suffering more broadly than biden >> >> tyler nichols family and autopsy revealed that the young man had extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating. when the police video body camera might be available to the public. and ? making good on his promise to clikick ? off on intel committee. we arengng the hill with the latest. >>

>> the federal prosecutor investigating tyree nichols death said it will take some time to understand what happened. >> nichols died three days after he was pulled over for a traffic stop in memphis tennessee. a preliminary autopsy found that nichols suffered extensive bleeding caused by severe beating. today the us attorney shared his conversation with the nichols family. >> i had the privilege of hearing from them about tyree a young man who enjoyed skateboarding, starbucks, and sunsets at shelby farms. i would like to share with the community what i told mr. nichols family. what i said was the department of justice cares deeply about potential violations and constitutional rights here in memphis and throughout america. >> note: see it is following the development. as you know a lot of people protesters and activists are demanding to see the body camera video. have they that attorney there in the ? make a point not just to the

family but to the family say they are taken this case very seriously i spoke with the family attorney after the press conference was over and he just reiterated what he told the family when he met with him on monday this investigation may take some time because it's going to be thorough and methodical but listen to what he had to say when he spoke earlier at the press conference. >> state and local authorities have a responsibility for determining when to release video from this incident to the public. what i will say on behalf of the federal authorities is we want people to express their right to be heard but we want them to do so in a peaceful and nonviolent way. >> given the nature of this video you get the sense that the local officials and state officials are very nervous about the public's reaction when this is made public. the details are murky and we do

know that he was transported in critical condition from the scene and died in the hospital three days later. and you did mention there was an independent autopsy done that had not yet been completed but this is what the preliminary findings found according to the family attorney benjamin kraut. the findings found he suffered extensive bleeding caused by severe bleeding he was observed his observed injuries work consistent with what the family and attorneys observed after his encounter with police. >> joining us now is the president of the memphis branch of the naacp mr. turner thank you for being with us. first you spoke with the nichols family this week can you tell us a bit about those conversations? >> it's a lovely family. mr. nichols mother talked about how he would come home and how he

worked at fedex and how he was a hard worker a loving father a loving son. how she was making his favorite meal that actual day a day in which he was beaten and she said something that was so touching she talked about how he had her name tattooed on him. and she said he knew that he loved his mom because often times you don't see sons do that. they tattoo their girlfriends name on their chest or arm but he tattooed his mother's name on his arm and he loved her and she loved him. it was quite devastating to hear. >> about that video it's apparently awful to watch. >> >> i think that's a possibility but there's a couple of things

that have taken place that would hopefully mitigate against violent protests. one of the officers have been fired and they were fired quickly and they were not suspended with pay and nobody was trying to defend them in that type of way they were terminated pretty swiftly and that happened last friday. when you take that into account that the da is looking at pursuing charges pretty quickly and they are already talking to the family i think a lot of what you see here happening with mitigate ? quite naturally when it comes out tensions would be high and i hear it's quite disturbing so we will have to navigate that occurrence but i think based on what we are seeing. the transparency. the quick action. things should not end up violently and that's our hope.

>> can you support the decision to hold onto the tape and not release it immediately? >> obviously we want transparency and we want as quickly as possible and that's what was demanded. however based on a request to the family and to attorney crump, they have asked for a little more time to complete the investigation. some of the rationale was they didn't want the defendants before the indictment to change their story based on the footage that was shown. we also want to make sure that the jury pool is not tainted with potentially ? there may be other concerns and asking them for a little more time and at the end of the day we want to support the family and we want to support justice and to allow this investigation to complete i don't think it's so unusual to be asked of

everyone and to be here shortly and you should be able to see the footage and be able to go forward with justice for this family. >> mr. turner obviously no race is immune from brutality but were you surprised to learn that this involved five black officers? >> absolutely. these were five young officers. they were relatively young to the force. five or six years on the police force and just to see that these were five black officers who did this to tyree nichols was disturbing. it's devastating and you now. imagining those officers doing what they did but they done it and i think as you would hear, it's not necessarily the race of the officers but the race of the defendant and statistically

the defendants who are black and brown are treated much worse during arrests and during their interactions with law enforcement and that's the issue no matter who is behind the badge. and it just seems black or brown on the other side and they are treated a lot worse. >> those five officers have been fired we learned that one of those officers was a defendant in a 2016 federal lawsuit over an alleged inmate beating and to employees of the memphis fire department on scene responsible for initial patient care they have been fired. you are running for mayor of memphis is this limited just these seven employees or does there need to be structural change something bigger is going on? >> there have been efforts as a commissioner we put forth policies to support and they are well known and a duty to de-escalate and to render aid as quickly as possible so as we see those policy is not

followed i think there is more work to do shortly after george floyd we had a reimagined policing committee and it led to the first african-american female chief of police, chief davis and there are things that have been put in place but i think we have to demand implementation so that is something that can be worked on i think going forward that something i would intend to do if i am able to be elected. >> thank you for your time. >> opening statement said to begin in a short time from now in a case of a once prominent south carolina attorney now standing trial for the murder of his wife and his son. we are outside the courthouse with what to expect next.

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officially cut to democrats from the house intelligence committee. congressman eric ? and adam schiff were quick to push back they united with congresswoman omar who could face a houseboat to be removed from her spot on the foreign affairs committee. >> what's the reaction? >> the reaction from those lawmakers has been that this was really a retaliatory from the house speaker this was not about anything they had done but here is what the message was to the caucus and the rest of the house. >> this isn't about any individual assignment. this is

about an institution where the speaker of the house is using his power to go after his political opponents. >> he is continuing this destructive trend set by his party leader of tearing down our institutions. >> the expectation that is a vote to remove omar from the house foreign affairs committee could come as soon as this week but there are a few republican members who have voiced concerns about moving forward with that action. 2 members are saying that they don't believe it's necessarily the right option. earlier today they are going to look at a resolution the speaker puts forward but she has serious concerns about setting this precedent were lawmakers vote to remove the other party's officials from committee assignments. we should note

that today and the republican congress ? conference for some of the past tweets that some are calling anti-semitic. they were revealed and discussed broadly. it did change some minds including john bacon on the fence saying he did not know yesterday if he could support a resolution to remove her from the committee but after today he said yes he does support moving forward with that measure so the leadership obviously working very hard to get votes to get rid of omar on the house foreign affairs committee. >> let's discuss now with massachusetts congressman who has served on the armed services committee. and here is the rationale for removing these 2. he said in a statement yesterday is my assessment that the misuse of this panel during the 116th and 117 congress severely undermine the primary national security and oversight missions ultimately leaving our nation less safe. what your response?

>> what's kevin mccarthy is talking about is the fact that donald trump who he will defend to the hilt is trying to blackmail the ukrainian president down the ? mccarthy continues to defend trump no matter what it takes. this is probably some promise he made as part of his deal to become speaker of the house. >> let me just interrupt for a second because i think what speaker mccarthy is referring to is the fact that in 2014 this chinese spy was working for the campaign the fbi had to get involved is that disqualified from him serving on this committee? >> in the letter that he provided he only talked about integrity and this was a man who was defending george santos who lies about literally everything and says he can't remove him from a committee assignment. mccarthy has no basis for this whatsoever. in

a letter he wrote to all of us when democrats removed marjorie taylor green from a committee for let's remember blatantly racist tweets, parroting the violence against another member when we removed them it was through a bipartisan vote in the house. republicans joined us and mccarthy has done this unilaterally with paperthin justification that there is no resemblance to reality so it's just clearly political retribution. that's not the behavior we should expect from the speaker of the house. >> i want to ask you about documents are cropping up everywhere this point. president biden and the classified documents found at his home and office and mike pence they are cooperating with the national archives, the doj, president trump, he was obstructing but politically speaking because this is

happening more than just to donald trump do you feel like it's a wash? >> now absolutely not because you hit on the key point is about how these different leaders are handling their mistakes but let me be clear standing here is a member of congress and a member of the armed services committee and a former marine officer, this is a mistake. classified documents are important and we need to be careful with their handling. none of these people should have classified documents in their private possession. but there is a massive difference between how donald trump is handling this and how president biden and mike pence have handled it. i am saying that pence and biden are handling at the same they are handling it respectively they are acknowledging their mistaken cooperating officials. the fbi had to go and raid his

property because he refused to turn over these documents and biden and pence are asking the justice department to get the documents so i could not be more different and i think the american people are smart enough >> as a veteran i know you are familiar with the abrams so it was last week that the pentagon was saying of these tanks are labor-intensive, complicated, they involve jet fuel is too much and today they are announcing 31 are being sent there so what changed and was it true last week that they were too complicated? >> they are complicated tanks

but not too complicated for the ukrainians to handle. the ukrainians have proved that they can take weapons from all across the world and use them effectively in a matter of days and weeks per that's what they have been doing so yes the m1 is the complicated tank but the ukrainians can handle them a most importantly by accepting these it's only ? unlocking tank deliveries from a lot of european allies of this is a right thing to do. i honestly wish they had just done it sooner. >> thank you for your time. >> thanks allison. take care break to make several schools in virginia are under investigation for allegedly delaying students merit scholarship recognition. parents and critics claim it was intentional. the district supeperintendent responds exclusivelely to cnn. that is ahead. >>

>> a jury has been seated in opening statements will begin and a half an hour and a double murder trial of alec murdock. prosecutors allege the disgraced former lawyer shot and killed his wife and 22-year-old son in an attempt to cover up fraud. >> murdock denies he was involved. he is pleaded not guilty. what should we expect to hear today? >> so will be getting the opening arguments we will hear from the state of south carolina first. likely cretan waters who has been present in this case from its inception. from the moment that they indicted alec murdock in the murders of his wife maggie and his son, paul. both of them were shot and killed on the murdock family hunting property. their home. back in june 2021. alec was charged last year 13 months after the crime and we are expecting the state to lay out its evidence that it has. we do know that late last week there was a subpoena that was filed. a

judge signed off on it. they said there is a snapchat video that paul sent out to several friends at approximately 7:56 pm on the night of the murders. they said the contents of that video is important to proving the state's case and part of that reason is likely because they believe that paul and maggie were murdered sometime between 8:30 pm and 10:06 pm. alec murdock has maintained his innocence and the murder of his wife and son. and his team even issued a statement this week basically saying they are ready for this trial to happen that they want to get it over with. they believe he will be found not guilty and they want the attorney general's office to focus on finding the real killers in their words. we saw a preview of this yesterday during pretrial motions where

the defense said we believe everything the state has a circumstantial and they are trying to prevent the state from bringing in some of the other things in the other crimes that are currently surrounding alec murdock. part of why this case has gripped the entire nation because there are so many twists and turns in other cases that surround it. he is facing roughly 100 charges most of them financially related to fraud saying he has stolen upwards of $9 million from former clients and his own law firm and family members. we are going to learn if that can be admissible into court. that does seem to be in large part what the case is based on. the jury was just seated a few moments ago. court comes bac3 pm for those arguments. >> keep us posted. thank you. another day another babbling if we uswe situation. budgone involving his campaign funds. we will tetell you abou it next. >>

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a battle over national merit honors is dividing a virginia school district. here's the story. a number of high schools in fairfax county, they delayed notifying students about their merit scholarships. they say it was human error, but parents and critics don't buy that, and they say the lapse was intentional. that includes virginia governor glenn youngkin. they're responding for the first time since the state's attorney general announced an unlawful discrimination investigation. >> they have a maniacal focus on equal outcomes for all students at all costs. >> what i mean when i talk about equal outcomes is the opportunity for each and every student to achieve their unique potential. >> cnn's athena jones joins us now. you spoke exclusively with that

superintendent. that's her calling right now. >> reporter: sorry about that. d >> you might need to get that. did she say where they delayed the notification? >> reporter: there's not a division-wide protocol saying the students would receive commen commendations. now all the students who were semifinalists who had to fill out more forms and move on in the competition, this is not a problem for them. there was no division-wide protocol. different schools will handle it different ways. the national merit scholarship corporation sends these by snail mail in a packet to the principal. sometimes they just say principal on the envelope, and not their actual name. there's one school that never received their packets. they say that they believe this was human error. there is, of course, an investigation being carried out by the virginia attorney general into fairfax county schools because it was eight school that is had this happen. the schools are doing their own third party investigation

looking into this, but here's my exchange talking about this issue of whether it was intentional because that's what the critics think. they think that they were -- some of these teachers and administrators didn't want to hurt the feelings of those who weren't commended. listen to the exchange. >> part of the thing that has parents up in arms, this idea that it wasn't human error, that it was an intentional effort, what's your response to that accusation? >> we celebrate each and every one of our students, unique contributions, and achievements and there was absolutely no division-wide effort to not honor hard work and achievement. >> and so she insists they tried to make this right, once we make a mistake, we want to acknowledge it, and so they did several things. they reached out to all the colleges that these students weren't able to submit this information to. the students were applying early decision and early action, and make lots to phone calls, and she also held town halls or meem

meem meem meetings at all of those eight high schools. this happened in louden county, and prince williams county, and there were other schools that weren't notified. a lot of people are arguing this was human error and wasn't some massive plan to deny these folks honors. >> okay. we'll await the outcome of the investigation. >> athena, thank you. president biden announces much-needed fire power for ukrainian troops. the u.s. will send dozens of tanks to the country. ahead, how the kremlin is responding. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what's going around is 12-hour coughgh relief. and the giggles. the famimily that takes delsym together, feels better together. we really had our hands full with our two-year-old. so naturally, we doubled down with a new puppy. thankfully, we also have tide ultra-oxi with odor eliminator between stains a odors, it can handle double trouble. for the #1 stain fighter and odor remover, it's got to be tide. -what's he doing? -he's cleaning the trash cans.

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the u.s. and germany ending

their weeks' long diplomatic impasse. the two nations both vowed to send advanced-level tanks to ukraine, introducing what could be a game-changer in russia's war. president biden said it would take months for the 31-year-old abrams tanks to reach ukraine's battlefield, adding there was no diplomatic arm truce. >> the abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world. they're also extremely complex to operate and maintain. so we're also giving ukraine the parts and equipment necessary to sustain these tanks on the ba battlefield. >> are you going to change your mind on sending these tanks? >> we want to make sure we're all together. that's what we're doing all along, and that's what we're doing right now. >> germany said that it will send 14 leopard 2 tanks to the troops. this decision, the announcement by the u.s. and germans, they opened the doors for other allies to send things to

ukraine. this is to help ukraine go on the offensive and reclaim occupied territory, but the kremlin echoed abrams tanks will burn down just like all the others. >> sam kylie is in kyiv. what impact will this have on the ground where you are? >> reporter: well, i think it's very important, victor, to recognize the importance of this, and also give it some context. it's very important because these weapons have been seen particularly by germany as strategic weapons. they are not, and they have been strategically and symbolically important in that they do show a new level of recriminate, a renewed commitment, and renewed community, and the kremlin was hoping to see disunity. they're not as important to the ukrainians for example as himars such as the rocket systems that they got about 50 of from

various different countries, mostly from the united states, but they could be used as the defense minister said to christiane amanpour earlier today, it was an iron fist attempt to bash through the defensive lines of the russians. now that could be his disinformation. this is a very long battlefield indeed. it's 800 miles long, at least, spread right across the east of the country. so focusing this armor in one location could be highly effective, but it could be highly risky. the ukrainians were also saying in the same interview, we've got a shopping list of stuff we need. we need modern aircraft. we need more artillery. they need the equipment to give them the edge because the russians still have dominance in the terms of numbers of people they can throw into this fight and the weaponry that they can use. it's unsfis ophisticated weapon and that's the key aspect for ukraine. >> sam, thank you very much fo