>> isolating russia. in a historic confirmation hearing. pres. biden: putin is getting the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence. of going into ukraine. . . we have to stay thoroughly united. yamiche: president biden travels to europe for emergency meetings with western allies. >> the alliance can save the ukrainian alliance from russia's occupation, if we can get all of the weapons we need. yamiche: president zelinski pleads for more military aid to beat back russia. nato leaders stop short of giving him the weapons he wants. plus -- >> i am here, standing on the shoulders of generations of americans who never had anything

close to this kind of opportunity. yamiche: judge kentanji brown jackson's confirmation hearing makes history. >> i want to understand here, is that your view that society is too hard on sex offenders? yamiche: she faces contentious questioning from some republicans. >> don't worry, my sister. don't worry, god has gotten her. how do i know that? because you> are here. and i know what it has taken for you to sit in that seat. yamiche: and praise from democrats next. ♪ >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams, with the human foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

sandra and carl delay magnuson. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, from washington, moderator yamiche alcindor. yamiche: good evening and welcome to "washington week." we are now in month two of russia's invasion of ukraine. this week, president biden traveled to brussels where he came within 60 miles of ukraine. the emergency meetings are meant to reaffirm western alliances and solidify support for ukraine against russian president vladimir putin. pres. biden: the single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a groot this guy is in all of the innocent people's lives being lost and ruined.

yamiche: the president plans to visit with refugees to highlight the growing humanitarian crisis caused by the war. he also said the u.s. will welcome up to 100,000 ukrainian refugees. four new nato battle groups are being sent to reinforce the alliance's territory. that comes after ukrainian president below to mere zelinski pleaded with world leaders for more help. >> you can give us 1% of all of your planes, 1% of all of your tanks, 1%. the world is waiting. ukraine is waiting for rail action, for rail security there -- security guarantees. yamiche: joining me tonight to discuss this and more, josh lederman, a correspondent for nbc news. he is joining us from bar -- from brussels, belgium. and here, i'm excited to have bodies in studio, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times, vivian

salama, national security reporter for the wall street journal. thank you for being here. josh you are in brussels where these emergency meetings took place. talk to me about what are the latest, when it comes to the significance of these meetings and the impact they might have on the way forward, given the west is trying to help ukraine, but also not get into a military conflict with russia? josh: you put your finger on the tough balancing act here that the white house is trying to do, along with its nato allies. you heard president biden in the white house stumble a bit over the last few days in terms of this question of, what is the point of all of the sanctions we are putting into place? is it deterrence to prevent a war from taking place? or is it about punishment? you heard president biden in his news conference in brussels try to strike this middleground of saying look, it is about maintenance and over time, these sanctions build up pressure and

potentially lead president putin to pull back what he is doing. what that illustrates is the fact that the biden administration has made very clear what they are not willing to do, which is to get into a direct military confrontation with russia. anything they feel like could trigger that, they want to steer clear of. the reality is when you say that, you then significantly constrict your list of options for what you can actually do to change the outcome of this situation. so you increasingly see the biden administration grasping for steps that are either symbolic like sanctioning members of the russian duma, or calling president putin a war criminal, even though there is no clear path to a criminal prosecution. or tightening the screws on steps they have already taken with limited ability to identify major new steps that they can take, that anyone can say with a straight face is likely to significantly outcome -- alter the outcome of the situation. yamiche: sticking with you, you

were talking about new steps. the uned states and the european union announced a new partnership to reduce europe's on russian oil. what might that impact, given european countries have not had the ability, they say, to ban russian oil in the same way the u.s. has been able to do? josh: that's right. you have heard the white house make an interesting argument, which is that we can approach this with a different strategy than our allies and still be both united and effective. in the energy sphere, this comes into space with the u.s. saying we are going to ban russian imports of energy, but we will not pressure our european allies to do the same, because we know that they are much more reliant on russian energy than we are. you see them trying to find ways that they can work with their allies, without putting them into a corner on steps that other are not able to take. if you were to rewind the tape a

few months to the way the world was looking at the biden administration's first year of foreign policy with a big debacle over summaries, the french were very upset about a bundle withdrawal from afghanistan, now you are seeing a very different situation, with europe openly acknowledging it is the biden administration that has held this alliance across the atlantic ocean together and has made a concerted response that we have seen to this war, but even president putin apparently was not anticipating. yamiche: peter, what josh is talking about can be summed up in one word, and that word is unity. that was the most important thing on the mind of all of these western leaders. where do you see this show of unity, the impact of it having on where things stand now, given the west does not want to give ukraine the help that it is asking for, but they are also very united in their stance. peter: they are united.

that is the most important message coming out of this. i think josh is right. the lot -- vladimir putin thought he had an opportunity to divide the west. we were on our back hills -- back heels because of -- the french have an election. the british prime minister is in trouble. maybe this would be a moment when we would not get together, especially after four years of trump bashing the alliance. it turned out to be the best thing for the alliance, in some ways ever, because it has refocused its mission. it has reminded people what nato was founded for, which it has not known what it was four for the last 30 years since the end of the cold war. now it has come out of this. president zelenskyy is not accepting what they have done so far is enough. he continues to try to guilt them by saying yeah, this is all good, you need to do more. this is not enough. we will not win without you stepping up further.

yamiche: stepping up further, we could possibly see a chance -- a change of posture if there are chemical weapons used. president biden said it is a real threat. he also said the west would respond in kind. what do we know about how concerned national security officials are about this threat of chemical weapons? vivian: this is something the administration has been talking about more in recent weeks. a lot of the intelligence that has been declassified or downgraded in recent months. so that they can publicly build their cases against vladimir putin has been proved to be true. a lot of officials i talked to say, when the ministry show and talking about chemical weapons, you listen. it is because of the fact that they have been forthcoming with this intelligence. the administration is concerned about it, internally at the white house and elsewhere in the government, they are starting to have strategy sessions to somehow devise a contingency plan for what they would do in the event of something, whether

it be chemical or biological weapons, or something so catastrophic as a nuclear weapon being used or even moved around. which is just by itself a major concern for the administration. one of the things you have to remember, when we are talking about the alliance, is whether or not allies are on board. the europeans are very worried. it is in their backyard. there is a lot to be said about it. what president biden said in his press conference is that the response will depend on what the action is. with so many things, that is going to be what we have to see. we will see what happens first in they devise a response. yamiche: a quick follow-up, you told our producers you are watching to see if there are moves that make the reinforced u.s. presidents in europe more permanent. what more can you say about what you are watching out for? vivian: this is something that has been talked about, about whether or not the u.s. needs to be fed up its presence in europe more permanently. there is a lot of talk about

re-posturing towards asia, especially by this administration and the last administration also. they decreased the number of. troops based in europe this crisis has reminded europe is vulnerable, especially the eastern flank, and sending troops on a more permanent basis is something that is being talked about. yamiche: i want to go to josh. before i go to josh, peter, a question about the g 20 president biden saying russia should not be part of the g 20. but there is some expert saying at is unlikely to happen. peter: it is not an american choice. it is that -- a needs to be the consensus of the members. they have friends, or at least people in that grouping that would be reluctant to do it. president biden is putting himself to the test. can he use diplomacy to make that happen? if you can't, what does? he do? does he pull the west -- pole the u.s. out? we torch the g 20? president biden said we should

have ukraine there as an observer. i don't think anyone will think that is satisfying. the guys who are invaded are on the backbench. he has created,, unfortunately an expectation of action that he may not be able to deliver. yamiche: josh, there is also, as all of the strategy conversations about what to do about russia's happening, the u.n. says 3.6 million people have left ukraine, and some 6 million -- six point 5 million are internally displaced. president biden, the white house said it is supposed to give an address and visit refugees. you have been on the ground talking to refugees. talk about what the white house is thinking here. josh: the white house is very aware the u.s. has got some criticism over the last few weeks for being slow to clear out the red tape and make it possible to take in ukrainian refugees, as these countries in europe have been really impressively generous in the way

they have accepted basically an unlimited flow of refugees. the biden administration using this trip that they will pick up. . 100,000 refugees. there are questions of whether they will be able to achieve that goal. the fact is, a lot of these ukrainian refugees, they are not looking to pick up their lives and move to a new country. a lot of them are women and children who have left behind a husband or father, sons and brothers, and they want to stay close to ukraine so hopefully, they can go back there as soon as possible to reunite with the families and the lives they were living prior to this invasion from ukraine. you see the biden and ministration looking for other ways to help the countries that inevitably are going to be accepting and dealing with the brunt of this refugee crisis, such as poland and hungary and romania and these other countries that are in ukraine's backyard. yamiche: josh, the other thing happening or that happened this

week, is there was a poll by the ap that said some 56% of americans think president biden is not being. tough enough on russia connect that with the idea that president biden had to take a question which was remarkable about whether or not president trump -- they are the looming politics of all of this. what is the white house thinki? what does it mean to our national security in the world security, that president trump is looming over this, when you think about the fact that he was anti-nato, anti-alliance a lot of times. josh: it was so interesting to hear president biden and his news conference not only acknowledge that world leaders expressed to him relief that president trump had not gone a second term, which people expected, but that a lot of them had asked yeah, how long are you here for? is it possible you will be replaced by trump or someone like him and u.s. policy will revert to something problematic to others on the world stage?

, on the one hand you certainly have a lot of those in the united states politically who are calling for a more aggressive response. we are in an campaign here. republicans are going to call president biden weak on national security no matter what he does. the fact of the matter is that a lot of the steps he would have to take to be significantly more aggressive on this, like putting troops into harm's way st after we ended this war in afghanistan could potentially be unpopular themselves. and biden has staked his reputation and his legacy on being the guy who does not end up pulling the u.s. into long-term military conflicts that don't have a clear imperative for u.s. national security interests. yamiche: vivian, you are nodding your head. you cover national security. but there is the politics of all of this too. vivian: absolutely. it is something, that question from the german new space --

german newspaper, which, my attention. -- which caught my attention. people want to know if this is going to be the way our politics. works it is not necessarily about president trump, but the fact that policies can shift back to what they were. we were talking about nato, the alliance being challenged under president biden, so much is at stake globally, and especially in this environment where we have a war in europe. a lot of people wondering if the alliance would be threatened and if so, does that weaken international and national security. yamiche: a lot to talk about, a lot to watch on the story of the invasion of ukraine. thank you, josh, for joining us and sharing your -- your reporting. this week on capitol hill, there was a history making supreme court confirmation hearing. judge kentanji brown jackson, the first black woman nominated to the court, endured a marathon

two days of questioning. >> it is more deterrent to have someone substantially supervised in terms of their computer use who is looking at child pornography, than it is to put them in jail. >> do you agree with this book being taught in -- talk to kids that babies are born racist? >> your nomination turned out to be a testing ground for conspiracy theories and culture war theories. i'm sorry we have to go through this. >> you got here how every black woman in america who has gotten anywhere has done, by being -- like ginger rogers said, i did everything fred astaire did but backwards in heels. and i'm just sitting here saying, nobody is going to make me angry. yamiche: throughout the hearing, judge jackson defended her record. >> and i have been serving in

the district of columbia, both as a trial judge and as an appellate judge, and we see some of the most politically contentious issues. my record demonstrates my impartiality. yamiche: white house officials remain confident they have the votes to confirm judge jackson. democrats are also hoping to hold a final vote on her nomination by april 8. joining us to discuss this and more is laura jarrett, anchor of cnn's early start. she is a good friend of mine and a lawyer herself. i'm so excited you are here. it took 233 years for a black woman to sit where judge jackson sat this week. talk about the history of this moment, the significance of it for her, but also our country. laura: it is a hugely significant moment. it sends a message to every little black girl watching her,

but they can be in that seat, and that they deserve to be in that seat. given how historic it was, it is striking to me how much time wa spent of the hours and hours of questioning from all of these senators not about her record, not about some of the issues that might pertain to what she would consider on the court, but rather as senator durbin pointed out, some of the more divisive cultural issues of the day. it seems as though some republicans thought that that was their best attack, and their approach would be not to dig into her record or the facts of her record, but rather ask her about antiracist babies coming how to define a woman, and make this a referendum on issues that are likely to come up in the november midterms. yamiche: laura, you talked about the antiracist bab specifically about the issue of race. ted cruz brought up critical

ra theory. we saw the republican party tweet out something that crossed out the initials of her name and replaced it with crt. what do you make of that? laura: vivian: this owes -- laura: what is so striking about that is that if they had bothered to dig into her record, and she pointed out, she does not have anything to do with how critical race theory is bandied about, whether it is in the culture, or certainly politically in washington. critical race theory is not being taught in lower schools, much less taught in a widespread raid -- way. it is a legal theory of systemic racism. as the judge said, this is not something shhas studied at length. it is not something that she uses in her application, if she were to be selected for the supreme court. nonetheless, it has now become a repeatedly -- in states as parents are ginned up about

issues about parental choice and schools. republicans have harped on this. but to cross out her name and to cross out the initials of her name to put crt, was such a striking moment during those hearings because she literally has no connection to critical race theory. the only connection there is that she happens to be a black woman. a lot of people felt it was intellectually lazy at best and racist at worse. -- worst. yamiche: powerful fax from laura that needed to be said. peter, there is this feeling that senator mansion came out, he said he is backing her, so some democrats feel they have this vote locked-in. what does it say about our politics that she might not get votes from republicans, special someone like lindsey graham who spent a lot of time talking about children being sexually abused, when he voted for her last year? peter: we are at a very different state when it comes to the supreme court confirmations.

when stephen breyer -- he got almost all the republican votes, not because they wanted him not because he was their choice, but because they recognized a president gets to choose. your senators options are only when there is a question of integrity or something significant to vote against. we are now in a strictly partisan era. democrats voted against amy kony barrett. you are right. it will be almost a partyline vote. there are three republicans who voted for her in the appellate court last year. lindsey graham is -- has made it clear that he will not vote that way again. he believed in this principle that you give the president his or her choice on the supreme court. he has abandoned that principle obviously. the other two, susan murkowski and susan collins, they have not said how they would vote.

that would be the extent of the republican votes. yamiche: vivian, quickly, i know you did some digging on the guantanamo bay nuances. about a minute left. i want to give you a little bit of time before i go back to laura. vivian: speaking of lindsey graham, he stormed out through that debate because he did -- he claimed that what he said was liberals are being too lenient. she got a lotta fire about defending one time obey -- guantanamo bay detainees. she was a public defender at the time and she was assigned to these detainees. she said it is a sixth amendment right, it is part of our constitution, and the supreme court had rules against indefinite detention, saying detainees had the right to defend themselves in american courts. she was defending that role she had to play. yamiche: number of republicans came to her defense to say she did not pick her clients. laura, i want to comto you because there was this powerful moment of senator booker making

her cry, talking about what it took to get her in that seat. we have 45 seconds. talk about that moment and what it means for democrats that he had to do that. laura: it is interesting that he was the only one that said wait a minute, what is going on here? it seems as though he wanted to rise above everyone and make everyone realize the historic nature of the moment. we have seen the picture of her daughter, 17 years old, smiling behind her. . i think a lot of people who were watching, especially black people watching this historic moment, felt a sense of pride that senator booker articulated in his passionate speech for her. yamiche: and he said something that i think so many african-american women in particular resonated with. that he knew what it took to get to that seat. and don't worry, that she was a great american. a touching moment and one that brought her to tears because she was so poised through everything else. laura: you can imagine she didn't want to have to cry. she was so choked up. yamiche: it is so true.

thank you laura, peter, and vivian for joining us and sharing your reporting. we will continue our conversation with the washingtonweek extra. this week's topic, the controversy around clarence thomas pushing to overturn the 2020 election. find it on our website, facebook, and youtube. tune in monday to the pbs newshour for the latest on the russian invasion of ukraine. finally, this week, madeleine albright, the first woman to serve as secretary of state, died at age 84. she was a brilliant figure who helped steer western foreign policy in the aftermath of the cold war. she will be deeply missed. inc. you for joining us. i am yamiche alcindor. good night from washington. >> corporate funding for washingtonweek is provided by. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. sandra and carl delay magnuson. rose herschel and andy shreve's. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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