story. >> great story. great reporting. thank you. >> that is "all in" on this monday night the rachel maddow show with guest host ale good evening, alex. >> thank you, chris. happy valentine's day, my friend. >> to you as well. >> my heart is warm. >>fr mine, too. and thanks to all of you at us this hour.ng it was february 2014, the autocratic pro-russian ruler of ukraine had just fled the country after being forcedle ou of officeco by pro-democracy street protests. in that confusing aftermath, soldiers began appearing in the southernld ukrainian province o crimea. theai soldiers had no identifyi insignia, and war plain green

uniforms. and they came to be known as the littlee green men. some of them stormed crimea's regionalto parliament, they barricaded themselves inside and they raised the russian flag overde the building. the next day, more of these green uniformed men seized airports in crimea. within a couple of week, the whole of crimea was under the control of these little green men. they were clearly pro-russian. spokeey russian. and they were heavily armed with russian weapons. but russian president vladimir putin insisted they were not russian troops. he said they were local self-defense forces, acting on their own. and he couldn't help it if the people of crimea liked russia more than they liked the new pro-western government in ukraine. the confusion led to headlines from the bbc, russia in quotation marms occupy crimeaqu airports so it was cle

to everyone on the ground in crimea that these were russian soldiers inth disguise but the entire russian government was denying top to bottom that they were g russian soldiers. nato and the u.s. kind of flummoxed how to respond, how do you stop an invasion when you can't get everyone to agree that there is an invasion. vice president biden went to poland and theon occupation of crimea was a done deal and putin announced that crimea was now partun of russia. fast forward to today. as russia once again menaces ukraine this time with 130,000 troops on the borders, a number that is growing every day, and now president biden, president biden, apparently wants to make sure his administration does not repeat the mistakes of 2014. according to a report this

weekend in "the new york times," back then, it wasn't that the u.s. government didn't know what russia was up to. they just didn't tell anyone. quote, the biden administration is determined not to see a repeat of 2014, when nato was confused and caught by surprise when russian forces took over crimea's peninsula seemingly unopposed. senior obama officials recall their frustration when the intelligence agencies would not allow the white house to tell nato, let alone the public, what washington knew aboute russia' moves. i can remember a dozen times when i thought our interests would be banned, so we just told the world what we knew, said michael, the u.s. ambassador to russia when it annexed crimea. and so now, today, we have the opposite. the u.s. government declassifying and publicizing at breakneck pace what it says it knows about russian's plans, from the movements of russia's

forces, to its alleged plans to launch false flag operations to new urgent warnings that invasion could come any day. according to the times, quote, the hope is that disclosing mr. putin's plans will disrupt them. it is quote information warfare between the u.s. and russia. not only do we, the american public, find ourselves caught in the middle of this information war, but so of course does ukraine. ukraine's president has expressed frustration with the ever-ludder alarm bells being run by the biden administration, worried that those bells will causerr panic in his country. ukraine's president is actually inviting president biden to visit ukraine in the coming days but that seems unlikely. "the wall street journal" reports today that not onlyee h the state department evacuated most embassy staff in ukraine's capital andmo moved essential staff to western ukraine, but the embassy itself has been

essentially gutted. networking equipment and computer work stations have been destroyed. and the embassy phone system dismantled. 56 embassy personnel arrived at dulles airport in washington yesterday, carrying classified material, removed from the embassy in kyiv. second of defense lloyd austin is heading to brussels and eastern europe tomorrow to t me with defense officials. this as the pentagon spokesman said today is quote entirely possible that putin could invade with little to no warning. meanwhile, ukraine's capital this weekend, thousands took to theis streets in unity march, pledging to resist if russia invades. in just a moment, we'll be joined live by nbc news's richard engele who is in easte ukraine near the russian border. he reports tonight that way rations are under there, for the worst. >> with diplomacy going nowhere, this is not a good sign.

russianis troops in belarus practicing urban combat. u.s. officials say this week is critical. declaring russia is now able to attackia with little or no warning. o so the u.s. is now moving its embassy personnel out of the capital to western ukraine, a move criticized by ukraine's president zelensky suggesting it showed weakness and zelensky was dismissve of u.s. intelligence which russia could soon invade which causes panic, february 16 will be thewh day of attack ande will make it a day of unity and he was referring to recent media report. presidentri biden spoke with president putin. no break throughs. todaywi russia's foreign minist met the russian president at the end of yet another long table. telling him there'sno still roo for diplomacy. putin in a tight covid bubble has met leaders at what seems like social distance, plus. russia says it won't invade.

but in ukraine, some families are getting ready for war. training to handle an ak-47 is valentina, a 79-year-old retired accountant, and a great grandmother. >> do you think you would actually be doing this. >> translator: yes, if putin will come, i should be able to shoot, she says. >> joining us now, live from the port city in eastern ukraine is nbc's chief foreign corner richard engel. richard, great reporting. thank you for being with us. i know it is very early over there. you are about 30 miles from the russian border and even closer toru kremlin-backed separatists what can you tell us about the mood on the ground? >> reporter: so the mood here where i am is quite specific and unique. i'll get to that in a second but i think the mood across ukraine is a one of despair. people are afraid, people are angry, at what they feel is

russia's inability to let go, and some of the history, i think it's really important, this country has been an independent country from the soviet union, from russia's sphere, since the collapse of the soviet union in 1991 and it has changed in the last three decades, culturally, embraced ukrainian language much ramore, which was highly restricted, ani politically, they have changed, and particularly in the last really ars, they have been racing toward democracy and they t began with a bang out of the starting gate, in the revolutionng in 2014, when joe biden was vice president, and they have been changing their political orientation more toward g europe, more toward na, over the last eight years, and now it feels that putin is saying notha so fast. you don't get to go away. due get to deny that previous

history, you come right back into the fold. so there is this feeling that russia won't let them out of this relationship and move on. now, here where i am, very specifically,wh there's somewha of a different sentiment. i am very a far east. i am close to the russian border. close to thei separatist areas. and here, this is traditionally an area where they speak russian indigenously, many people are tiedan to russia, russia actual in some of the population that was so common in the soviet union sent native russians here. so in the end result, we have a population that is probably 25% actively, had is according to people i have spoken to, actively pro-russian, and might even welcome or support a militarygh intervention. 20 or so percent who would actively fight against it. pro-kyiv government. and would take to the streets to defend thean city.

and maybe 60% in the middle that would take whatever comes. and that's a dangerous dynamic. because it means it's winner take all. if one of those two powerful activist factions emerges on top, they get the population with them. andp, that is the dynamic that putin is hoping that he'll encounter at least in the eastern parts of the country and there might be some resistance of passivity as well. >> i just wonder, richard, when you talk about that 60%, whether putin sort of is pledge rent -- belligerent, sort of the opposite effect, is all of this saying you can't leave us and now people digging their heels in and saying well now we must leave you? >> it depends on the region. i think innd kyiv, certainly, mt of the country, that is happening,of people are angry, with what russia is saying. but here, people also are connected to russia. they're watching the russian media. and it depends who your opinion

leaders are. thereop is a community in this country, not a small one, that does believe the argument that the united states is whipping all of this up, that it is not pute within his 130,000 -- putin with his 130,000 troops and a massive assault,0 force, to go with them, that is surrounding this country thatth is the real threat, it is the united states that's whipping itry up. andhe they're taking their cues from russian television, and ironically taking it as well from the zelensky government which in trying to show strength is lashing out at all sides, lashing out at russia and also lashingla out at the u.s. for exposing a lot of the ntelligence, making people nervous, harming his economy, andng making him look like he's about to be invaded. which may be the case but he is hoping that it doesn't happen and he will look like he was strong throughout. >> i just have to ask you, richard, before we go, dlen ski maderi some news today by suggesting that joining nato, for him and his country, is somewhat of a dream.

so i wonder what the reaction to that in ukraine was, and i mean is that, you know, the intent of maybe dropping the country's bid to join the alliance, what kind of reaction do people on the ground have to that? >> i think it was just the opposite. so one of his, when this country has been under a tremendous amount ofry pressure and when you're under pressure, every statement is parsed and there has never been this much attention focused on ukraine except for when zelensky watt at the center of another massive point of interest with the phone call with donald trump. and that factors into a degree, into the skeptical side, people sawic ukraine manipulated by th united rastates, for political purposes back home, and there is a skeptical community here that believes the u.s. is doing that again. but in terms of what happened with nato, one of the ambassadors, the ukraine's ambassadors said in aba bbc rad

interview, that maybe there could be some flexibility on nato membership, and then he quickly went on air and clarified himself, although he had been pretty clear the first time around, but he said no, no, it was taken out of context and i listened to it, it didn't sound like it was taken out of context, butke zelensky made th comment anyway and still our dream and aspiration to be part ofur the nato and the eu which enshrined in the constitution which was modified after the 2014 revolution. >> everything is moving very quickly, richard engel, nbc's chief foreign correspondent, joining us tonight from ukraine, thank you, as always, richard. >> sure. joining us now is michael mincfall, a u.s. ambassador to russia when russia invaded and annexed crimea. thanks for joining us. in the aftermath of the invasion in 2014, this time the white house is being remarkably, some

would say radically transparent about what is happening on the ground. what do youar think of that intelligence strategy? >> i think it's brilliant. i applaud it. i think it's the right thing to do. the fact that you have different leadership at the head of the intelligence, the head of the dni, the head of the cia, bill burns, and these are people with a lot of experience in the policy world that have a relationship with the president and his national security team, and are seeing the wisdom of exposing what russia is doing. so that there won't be these questions about, like you said, these little green men, that the whole world will know, g that i russia does decide to invade, if putin does decide to invade again, let me correct what i just said, that we know who is at fault here. >> independent of the rest of the enworld, is it calling putis bluff? is saying getting ahead of the news, if you blwill, getting ou in front of misinformation, or

disinformation, is that putin's achilles heal, is this the sort of tactical play that the u.s. has been looking for vis-a-vis putin? >> well, i think it's the right tactical play, i'm not sure yet who's winning, because remember, putin is telling the whole world that his people and his people insideat ukraine, that all of ts is about nato expansion. when in fact, nato expansion, you know, he completely invented this as a crisis. there wasn't ant change in poli, about ukraine joiningin nato in brussels, and there wasn't a changebr in policy in washingto under president biden, president zelensky hasn't changed his views, he has been saying today what he has been saying for a long time, it is a long term dream that we aspire to but putin is the one that framed it that way and ipu think that's w the biden administration rightly is now pushing back, to try to change the narrative, and i would like to see them go farther by the way. i hear lots of people debating nato expansion and what

gorbachevsi said, and jim baker0 years ago, i would like to hear a lot more about russia annexing crimea, violating one of the principle tenets of the united r nations, you know, that was established, the rules of the game in 1945, and what about talking a little bit more about recognizing parts of georgia as being independent countries? those are the conversations we're not having, and that is a victory for putin's information campaign. >> so you would like to see a sort of more wholesale reframing what is coming to pass ofhere, or what has come t pass. >> exactly. >> i guess i wonder though, is it for biden and the white house success, the radical transparency that we had assurances today from russian foreign minister sergei lavrov that negotiations with the west were quote far from exhausted. is this someone who is amassing 130,000 troops, right, on the border but at the same time is saying but wait, wait, wait, we can still talk. that evidence that the strategy

of talking about the casualties, suggestinghe that putin doesn't reallysu truly grasp the evil tt is coming his way, or the pain that's c coming his way, i shou say, that that strategy is working, the fact that the russians want tork keep the doo to diplomacy open. >> well, of course i certainly hope so. ily mean they have i think run effective strategy of coercive diplomacy, arming the ukrainians, moving some of our soldiers touk nato countries, a threatening sanctions, and at the same time, have said very clearly to vladimir putin directly, the president has called him on saturday, if you wantca to negotiate about europn security, we are ready. and that tea leaves that you're reading there, alex, sergei lavrov he didn't say things by accident, hevr is still negotiating through lavro v, he did not say that by accident, he said it on purpose, that gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe there is still a a negotiated w out of this horrible crisis, because if there is a war, tens

of thousands of people will die completely unnecessarily. >> we will take that glimmer of hope and hold on to it. former u.s. ambassador to russia, thanks forba being here up next here tonight, bad news for donald trump. as his long-time auditor cuts ties with h him. just as the new york attorney general's investigation of the trump organization is heating up. trump organization is heating up

in may of 2017, just a few months into his presidency, forbes magazine realized that president trump had been lying to them. the year before, then candidate trump left the campaign trail to give forbes a tour of his new york apartment in an attempt to get a higher spot on the forbes billionaire rankings of course. during that tour, trump

emphasized that the apartment was an astonishing 33,000 square feet. it turns out that was a lie. the apartment is only really about 11,000 square feet. huge, to be sure. but actually a full three times smaller than he claimed. president trump wasn't just lying to magazines. we know from documents filed in court last month by new york attorney general letitia james that trump was making the same 30,000 square foot claim in financial statements he was using to get loans. new york's attorney general is investigating that exact kind of inflation and deflation of trump's assets, which could amount to fraud. now you might be thinking, what difference does it make how many square feet the president claimed his apartment was? i know i have, about the size of my apartment. allen weisselberg confirms that trump had overstated the value

of his apartment by quote give or take $200 million. $200 million. give or take. attorney general james is still trying to get donald trump and his adult children don jr. and ivanka to set for a deposition as part of the investigation and today on valentine's day no less, we learned from court documents that president trump's long-time accounting firm, which helps trump put together those financial statements, that firm is breaking up with him. in a letter to the trump organization, dated last week, the accounting firm started by writing explicitly that all of the statements of financial condition it put together with trump to evaluate his company's financial situation from 2011 to 2020, those should quote no longer be relied upon. it continued. we have come to the conclusion, based in part upon the filings made by the new york attorney

general, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources. due in part to our decision regarding the financial statements, as well as the totality of the circumstances, we have also reached the point that there is a nonwaivable conflict of interest with the trump organization. as a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the trump organization. meaning that's it. no relationship. over. the firm will not even finish donald and melania's taxes this year. this is really saying something, because trump's past statements of financial condition were filled with many, many disclaimers, like this one, first paragraph in the 2011 statement, quote we have not audited or reviewed the accompanying financial statement and accordingly do not express an opinion or provide any assurance about whether the

financial statement is in accordance with the accounting principals generally accepted in the united states of america. so trump's accounting firm had already been hedging its co-sign on trump's financial statements for over a decade and now the firm is going even further saying it wants nothing to do with any of this. they are out. they quit. don't let the door hit you on the way out. and if you are the former president, finding a replacement firm may not be easy. according to various report, the former president is somewhere in the ballpark of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. reports of that debt varying from $400 million to over a billion. even if you were to give or take 200 million, that is still a lot of debt. and this letter from his long-time accountant, very publicly bailing on the former president, will likely make it very hard for him to find new partners willing to refinance that debt, or let him take on

future loans. i am not a lawyer. and i'm sure not an accountant. but this all seems bad. what does it mean practically for donald trump, and for the new york attorney general's investigation into trump's finances? joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, barbara, thanks as always for joining us. let's start first with this line from the letter about having a nonwaivable conflict of interest against working with the trump organization. does that effectively mean that mcgar's is on the attorney general letitia james' side now? >> i don't know exactly what it means, but what it does say, in the long, when a lawyer wants to quit, they use words typically irreconcilable differences, and

the relationship no longer serves effectively and the conflict of interest goes a little beyond that and suggests you might be on the wrong side of the v in a lawsuit, people of the state of new york versus trump. and i don't know if is means cooperating but i do think it means they can no longer vouch for the reliability of financial documents they prepared on behalf of the trump organization. i think that the phrase that comes to my mind is garbage in, garbage out. and so it may be that they prepared financial documents based on the data they received. but they have now learned perhaps that that data was inaccurate, and therefore, the financial statements that they prepared utilizing that data are also inaccurate. >> do we have a sense that if they are accounting, we know that one of the officers already testified to a grand jury, that that could be problematic for the trump organization? >> i think so. you know, an accountant has access to a lot of information, obviously, to prepare your tax records, to put together financial statements, and so

that could be very damning information. you know, one of the cases that comes to my mind, a case i covered, watched for the show was the trial of paul manafort, remember he had financial crimes that he was convicted of, bank fraud, and tax cases, claims and other things, and some of the key witnesses in his case were his accountants, and some of the things they testified about were, you know, he gave me information that i relied on in preparing these financial documents. i have now learned that that information was false. and so because of that, the documents that i produced were false. so even in the same kind of way, i could imagine that they are cooperating with the attorney general, they don't want to get cross-wise with the government, and they will produce documents that they believe comply with accounting principles, but if they learn that the raw data that was used in those documents was wrong, i think you will see them run from those documents which appears to be what is happening here. >> i feel like this is actually the textbook definition of running, right, don't pay

attention to the last decade of documents we gave you. i wonder to what extent should we expect this development to affect the criminal probe being led by the manhattan's d.a. attorney, the manhattan attorney, over trump's finances. we know they're parallel probe, right, is this going to bleed over, the civil case into the criminal case. >> i think it absolutely could. that case also depends on the same idea of fraudulent representations about trump's financial situation, and the statements that are he typically inflated assets when it suited him, if he was applying a loan, if he was seeking insurance coverage, looking for tax deductions, we inflate to the tune as you said $200 million, overestimating the size of his apartment, from 100 to 300,000 square feet. huge amounts of inflation of these assets. and then on other occasions, when it served him like paying the tax bills, we take the same

assets and reduce their value. so sometimes you can look objectively at these documents and say in one year he claimed it was worth 200 million and the next year you said 400 million, and some of those don't add up on their face, so i would imagine that not only are those the basis of civil fraud claims but could very well be the basis of bank fraud or tax fraud, from a criminal perspective, in the manhattan d.a.'s investigation. >> president trump may be learning the hard way that all new yorkers really know, that square footage of apartments really matters. barbara mcquade, thank you for your time. >> thank you. believe it or not primary voting started today for the midterm elections but the first state where people are voting, a new law appears to be doing exactly what many had feared. making it harder to vote. that's next. ng it harder to vote that's next.

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if. you would like to vote by mail in the state of texas this year, you need to fill out this form. your name, your address, date of birth, the standard information you might expect to provide on a form like that. but this year, there is something brand new on the application. a spot for voters to provide either their texas driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number. last year, texas republicans passed one of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. among other things, this new law added an additional hurdle for voting by mail. requiring anyone who wants to vote by mail to provide a personal identification number, one that officials could use to cross-check applicants' identities with the information the state has in its files. today is the first day of early voting in texas. so the primary is being held on march 1st. this is the first election in which texas will be able to test its brand new and highly restrictive voting law.

and already, those new i.d. number requirements are creating major road blocks for texans who would like to vote. harris county is the most populous county in the state, home to the city of houston. already this year, houston has had to reject about 40% of all mail-in ballot applications, because they were missing a proper i.d. number. this is happening all over the state. the number of mail-in ballot applications rejected from dallas county is as high as 28%. and the rejection rate is 30% over in williamson county, which includes the austin suburbs. the issue here is not just that some voters are leaving a section blank or that they don't understand the direction. in a lot of cases, the problem is on the texas end. cnn spoke with a texas voter who tried to apply for a mail-in

ballot, gave her texas driver's license but her application was denied because the number on her current license didn't match the one texas had on file for her, the one she used 46 years ago, when she moved to the houston area. the point of this law passed by republicans in texas was to make it harder and more difficult to vote. and so far, it appears to be working. the top elections official in texas's biggest county, we are seeing in realtime voters' votes being rejected. joining us now, is isabel longoria, the elections administrator in harris county, texas, thank you so much for being here, ms. longoria, what are you hearing from voters as they encounter this new law. >> a lot of questions and fear, a question, what does this mean for the ballot, if my application gets rejected this

year, does it get rejected next time? or is this not only for the primaries but for the general? and ultimately how can i fix this so i don't have this problem again. and this is the tip of the iceberg as we start early voting in texas today, and that's one of the big question marks for us election officials is what happens to those in person voters and are we going to say the same thing. >> to that end, how to fix the applications, is there a curative process, are there resources to help people fix these applications so they can in fact get mail-in ballots? >> yes and no. for counties as big as harris county, we actually have the staff to double up our call centers, so that we can answer all of the calls, in january, we got 8,000 calls for our call center, a,000 of which were just for mail ballots, to put in perspective, in november for our local elections, we had maybe 5,000 for the entire month for everything, so we're seeing an increase in calls, an increase in pressure from local counties to meet the demands and in those call centers with the outreach efforts and it is a layering of

issues, yes a online database to cure your mail ballots from the secretary of state but you need to put both of your i.d. numbers to get into the database so if you only have one i.d. number you can't get into the state's database to cure your mail-in ballot. >> so it is a layering of this, the new election law, the confusion, the fear, the paperwork application, you got to yourself, are you tearing down barriers to help voters or putting up road blocks. >> it's not just democrats who are a wanting to mail in ballots, this is writ large, democrats and republicans. and is there a grup of republicans that they have made a mistake and things need to change and are they trying to devote more resources, to what degree are people realizing the problems they've created? >> the big message i'm getting from the state right now is it is a learning curve, just sit

and wait, but unfortunately, when it comes to votes, there is no learning curve. that is someone's vote being lost. period. that should never be a learning curve. that shouldn't be said flippantly and that's my biggest concern right now, is we election officials raised this last year when the election was ongoing, these were the tests,s they were the well-predicted consequences of these actions and we're still seeing this, oh, well it will get better over time mentality which if you didn't believe us then, please believe us now, this isn't getting better, this isn't, the laws baked into the statutes that we will see reduction of rates now but yes, lead to the november election as well. >> right to vote away, sometimes the harder they vote for, it and i just wonder, is the frustration being coupled with determination, to get this right? i mean what anecdotally can you share with us behind the frustration? are people doubling done on their efforts or are people in fact, just giving up? >> it's a really interesting

question. first we will see how many applications that we sent back actually get cured saying those mail-in ballots, how many take the step to fix or cure the mail ballots and how many actually come vote in person if the mail ballot falls through, we're on day one here, i've heard from my staff, that perhaps the in person voting is a little higher than four years ago, and that is hope, but i think for some folks, election officials were talking about the laws this summer, and it seems so theoretical, fear mongering and that is not going to happen and now you see it in real life and because of the state laws we have to reject your mail ballot and they're saying whoa, whoa, whoa, i never thought this would happen to me. >> it is happening and it is happening now, in texas. isabel longoria, elections administrator in harris county, texas, thank you for being here, and thank you for all you're doing to keep democracy moving. for weeks now, this show has been reporting on the terrifying wave of bomb threats logged at

historically black colleges and universities. but the great tony morrison had to say about these institutions over 25 years ago, is taking on new found meaning today. that is next. w found meaning to. that is next

the first thing i thought was how glad i was my mother was still alive. and the second thing i thought was, i see i'm the first african american to win the nobel prize and that is astonishing. and he would not only survived, we could do something, so valuable, so irreplaceable, and that's what is worth celebrating. >> that was toni morrison, in 1993, on the day she was awarded the nobel prize for literature. it was an unleavable achievement for a child of the great depression, who was born to a family of sharecroppers who moved north. the journey culminating in morrison the first black woman ever to win a nobel prize for

literature. morrison will forever be remembered as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, one thing she credited with making this achievement even policy was that she went to an historically black university. morrison got her bachelor's degree in english from howard in washington, d.c. and when she later returned to the university to teach, her time there nurtured her very first book "the bluest eye", howard university just announced its decision to honor toni morrison with a new position, establishing a newly-endowed chair in the arts and humanities program. the school expects to fill that role with someone who will quote have a track record of academic an creative impact that affects the acclaimed career of toni morrison. that is what howard university is doing in the name of one of its most esteemed alumni, because that is how deeply she influenced both the country and her university. but howard is also a place that had a profund impact on morrison

herself. in 1995 she returned to the campus to give university's 128th convocation in a speech called racism and fascism, morrison reminded the students of how much the campus and the students have gone through. >> howard struggled with distress, with long periods, as well as periods of national indifference. yet among the alumni, are men and women who raised the standard of morality, responsibility, and intellect, all over the world. howard negotiated and debated conflicting views on solutions to highly complex, extremely

volatile social problems, and regarded that debate as its duty. howard has been much acclaimed and also has been much maligned and has suffered with setback, after setback, but it has never suffered defeat. >> it has never suffered defeat. howard has certainly been through a lot since 1867, when it was founded just two years after the civil war. and now, in 2022, the university is facing new challenges. this morning, howard instructed students and factle it i to shelter in place, as it faced yet another bomb threat. the fourth of its find since january 4th. this is just the latest in a string of terrifying threats against more than two dozen

hbcus this year, that includes fisk university in tennessee, where that campus was also closed today, because of a similar threat. so far, no bombs have been found at any of these schools, the fbi has been investigating the matter since february 2nd. so far, they suspect at least six juveniles are involved, but no one is in custody yet. last week, we had a concrete look at the threat against spelman college when the following 911 call was released, i will play the audio but have to warn you the disturb, so if you would rather not hear, it now is the time to take a break for a few seconds. here it is. >> yesterday i went into spelman college university with a backpack on two explosives in them. once i went to the main hallway and the second hallway and placed both bombs there and then plan to set off in 30 minutes. i have picked this school university because of this

reason. there are too many black students in it. >> there are too many black students in it. despite these threats, america's hbcus insist they will not be deterred. after giving the campus, after giving the campus the all clear, howard student associate president told the community, quote, as ill actors attempt to induce fear among our community, we stand united and committed to addressing needs of the student body more than ever. for more than 150 years, universities and colleges like howard, have had to combat white supremacy, leading the nation's fight against its worth impulses, by succeeding, by cultivating intellect and creativity, by turning out alumni like thur goode marshal, vice president kamala harris, and toni morrison, excellence that flies in the face of bigotry. and in that 1995 speech, toni morrison had a bit to say about that, too.

>> howard university both as an institution and as a proclamation, has had an extraordinary journey. it entered the world in interventionist mode, and it has maintained throughout its histories through engagement, debate, and respond to the most passionate, and the most urgent issues of this nation. it countered with a vengeance the prevailing 19th century notion that education was not

part of the future of african americans, the prevailing 19th century notion, that if by some odd chance higher education were to become available on large scale, that it would be -- because the higher plateaus of achievement and influence were closed. evidence to the contrary is what we're about, and the nation owes howard university a great deal. l remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford,

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president biden is expected to begin interviewing candidates on his supreme court short list

this week, and name his nominee by the end of the month, but after that, the timing will partly depend on the senator from his own party. senator ben lujan, a democrat from new mexico checked himself in to a santa fe hospital a few weeks ago after experiencing a relatively rare kind of stroke. lujan's office announced he is expected to make a full recovery and will be back in the senate in time to vote for president biden's nominee and released a video flanked by two of the doctors, he made the same promise. >> i'm doing well, i'm strong, i'm back on the road to recovery, and i'm going to walk out of here and beat this, and i'm going to be stronger once i come out. then i will be back on the floor of the united states senate in just a few short weeks to vote on important legislation and consider a supreme court nominee. >> lujan said he also looks forward to cooking and mountain

biking again soon. which sounds great. but maybe start slow. maybe start with cooking. salad. and then voting. because every one counts. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next . former president trump gets dumped by his long-time accounting firm. a decades worth of the trump organization's financial statements can no longer be relied upon. the question is, what does this mean for two major investigations in the trump's business practices? plus, amid growing tensions over ukraine, vladimir putin is signaling he remains open to a diplomatic resolution, and breaking this morning, russia says it is pulling back some troops. the question now, is moscow trying to de-escalate? and after the super bowl