this hour, we are watching for a history-making moment on capitol hill. judge ketanji brown jackson, the first black woman nominated for the supreme court, set to give her opening statement. based on the timing so far, likely in the next 60 minutes in front of the senate judiciary committee. we will bring that to you live. we're also about to get an update from the white house and the pentagon on day 26 of the

russian invasion of ukraine. the pentagon saying russia is desperate now to get momentum, while a senior nato official tells us the war is about to hit a stalemate with neither side having the upper hand. we are live one-on-one with one of the leaders of mariupol, a city decimated by puputin's attacks, with chilling new details on what it's like on the ground there. that's coming up in a minute. and you just heard it there, in the southern city of kherson, which russia controls. that's what it looks like with russian troops using stun grenades and gunshot to scatter protesters in the city's freedom square. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with our nbc news team. over on capitol hill we are getting closer and closer to the end of day one in the confirmation hearing of supreme court nominee judge ketanji

brown jackson. you are looking at a live shot right there. my colleague, chris jansing, has been watching all of it. if things run on time, always a question mark, we do expect to hear that historic opening statement from judge jackson, possibly sometime in the next hour? >> i've been listening, hallie, since 11:00 this morning. we are going to hear from her after what has been a really interesting day, including lots of talk about civility in these hearings, but many examples of just how far apart republicans and democrats are on their view of what qualifies someone to be a supreme court justice. so now after hearing from nearly all the judiciary committee members, republicans have largely raised questions about whether judge jackson would uphold the rule of law even if it went against her personal feelings. just a short time ago tom cotton raised an issue, whether she and democrats generally are soft on crime.

>> criminals are committing violent crimes and going free under the guys of a supposedly more equitable justice system. liberal judges who have more sympathy for the victimizers than the victims are a big part of the problem. >> but many of the criticisms of jackson's record on sentencing have been disproved by fact checkers. anyone watching knows this is a cultural milestone and democrats are making sure to mark that occasion. >> america is witnessing the literal bending of the arc and the conducting of one of the most sacred ideals of this country, justice for all. i think more people at the end of these hearings and after a senate vote, more people will believe that we can be the nation we say we are when we put our hand on our heart. indeed, i think you and your family are giving a lot more people faith that we will

achieve a nation of liberty and justice for all. >> an emotional senator cory booker. once the senators are finished, as we said, judge jackson will be introduced by a widely known conservative legal mind, retired judge griffith as well as lisa fairfax and then she will deliver that opening statement. we'll bring that to you live when it begins. hallie. >> possibly in just the next few minutes, thank you. we'll keep an eye on that on how that is developing in the building behind me. but we also want to get to the latest on vladimir putin's war on ukraine. a war that the united nations has said has killed 925 innocent people, civilians, with officials bracing for that number to get much higher. we expect to hear from the pentagon spokesperson in just about ten minutes or so. josh lederman is live in brussels for us ahead of president biden's trip there. gabe, let me start with you. earlier today we heard no

surrender from ukraine, right? unsurprisingly, they are rejecting russia's demand to surrender the port city of mariupol. in a couple of minutes we'll talk about one of the city council members there. i know you talked not too long ago with one of the leaders in ukraine. what is the assessment of the situation and what are we looking for now? >> well, hallie, it is increasingly more dire. i spoke with the deputy prime minister of ukraine who said of course she was not surprised that the leaders in mariupol refused that deadline, 5:00 a.m. this morning, it came and went. the russians have demanded their surrender. but he says that russia is escalating this war by its use of hypersonic missiles. she also told me, hallie, that more leaders than had previously been reported, 14 of them actually, including mayors and other leaders of small towns, have been kidnapped or abducted by russians since this war began. she says the situation in mariupol is dire.

we've been speaking with residents and refugees that have struggled to get out of there, including one woman, olga, who we spoke with earlier today. she asked us not to use her last name because she still fears for her life. she's still in southeastern ukraine although she was barely able to escape from mariupol with her husband and child. she was able to get out of there on? a humanitarian corridor, although she did not realize whether this would actually hold or not. but she describes almost apocalyptic scenes. they dodged land mines and bombs as they went out of mariupol. take a listen to part of a conversation and a translator explains what she had to say. take a listen. >> what will you miss most about your home? >> translator: people's lives, the lives of people who died.

>> olga went on to tell us that she still has many relatives in mariupol, including her parents, who she has not been able to reach for days. just after we finished our conversation, she did mention that she had gotten a brief phone call from one of her close friends and the 15-year-old son of that friend had just died. hallie. >> it's gut wrenching. every time we hear an update, it feels like a dagger in the body. so thank you for bringing us that and shining a light on what it is like on the ground. dan, we know that the pentagon has this assessment on the war and we expect to hear from john kirby and we'll take that live. on russia's claim of using a hypersonic weapon, a senior pentagon official says they cannot refute it but cannot independently confirm that either. there's been more air activity by russia and ukraine and they

have also seen more activity by russian naval ships on the black sea. that is something that experts are really looking closely at, to see what happens now from the potential offensive from the black sea. with the pentagon saying as we said at the top of the show, russian forces struggling to gain momentum. unpack some of that for us, dan. >> yeah, that's really the bigger picture right now. despite this heavy bombardment and these horrific scenes of civilian areas being targeted and now you're seeing shelling from these naval warships in the black sea, the russians are essentially stuck on so many fronts and they still have not moved forward from those suburbs around kyiv, the capital. in the south, they are not able to gain traction. and officials here are describing almost kind of a desperate effort for them to break out, to try to somehow gain some traction. this use of the hypersonic weapon, again, some kind of attempt to move things forward but they still have these

logistical problems. another example that shows the problems they're having is they still don't have domination in the skies. officials here are saying that russian pilots really don't spend much time in ukrainian airspace because they don't want to be shot down. so sometimes they fire their weapons from outside ukraine. or if they do fly over ukraine, it's very brief because ukrainians have really managed to use their air defenses in an agile, effective way. >> dan, thank you. let me go to you, josh, because you have new reporting as well from a nato intelligence official as you posted up in brussels ahead of president biden's trip there later this week. >> all right, hallie. there's been a lot of speculation about whether this conflict nearly a month in is entering into a stalemate as we continue to see the ukrainians able largely to hold off russian advances. i spoke to a senior nato intelligence official here in brussels today who said yes, if this conflict is not already in a stalemate, it is rapidly approaching being a stalemate.

and he said, look, wars end because either one side ends or the other side admits that they lost. putin clearly is not in a position to admit any kind of failure. and the ukrainians are making clear they are going to continue to fight. so where we're left is essentially a stalemate with nato seeing no russian victories in the last week and a half to two weeks. but we should tell our viewers, a stalemate does not mean everything is frozen in place and people put down their weapons. to the contrary. in a conflict like this, the nato official says we should expect to see both militaries continue to grind this war out against each other with disastrous effects for civilians in ukraine, many of whom are trying to flee that violence. one other alarming development is nato is now bracing for the possibility that the belarusians may launch their own offensive into ukraine. according to this official, they say belarus may allow russians

to place nuclear weapons on belarusian territory. it potentially paves the way for the russians to put some of their nuclear weapons into belarus. very concerning developments as president biden heads here to brussels where all of these developments will be on the agenda as nato also looks to see what more they can do to shore up their own defenses, including moving significantly more troops into the eastern-flanked countries of nato. >> josh lederman, thank you. gabe and dan, thanks to you as well. >> coming up, we'll watch the pentagon where press secretary john kirby is about to brief at those microphones there. plus, disturbing claims of ukrainians being forcibly deported to russia. a mariupol city council member is joining me after the break about what they do and don't know about what happened to thousands of people who lived in that port city. and we are getting closer to judge ketanji brown jackson's turn to make an opening

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the war in ukraine, the stories coming in from the southern city of mariupol continue to horrify and disturb. nothing else than terrifying with the city council on sunday saying thousands of people were forcibly deported to nearby russia as over the weekend an art school where reportedly hundreds of civilians were sheltering was bombed, with rescuers struggling to search the debris for survivors with shellings continues. a new report from two associated press journalists who said they were the last two members of the associated press in this city, detailing their escape. russians had them on a list and would force them to get on camera and take back everything they had reported about the

city's destruction and the terror people had faced. that led to a dangerous journey through 15 russian checkpoints, each one scarier than the last before making it behind the ukrainian front line to relative safety. i want to bring in a member of the city council who has fled to the west of ukraine just outside the city of lviv. first of all, thank you for being with us. how are you doing? >> thank you. i'm okay. >> are you hearing anything from inside mariupol in the last 12, 24 hours or so since the rejection, of course, of that russian offer, if you will, and mariupol leaders, ukrainian leaders saying absolutely no surrender? >> i think there are no sense to react to russians proposition about some agreement because we have experienced in the past how it works and to russians the green corridor is not working.

we were advised some years ago in the first stage of war was and all the promises about safe out for the -- for our militarists, they shoot them on the out. so no one believe the promises of russia now. and today i have information from zaporizhzhia region and some civilian passengers of humanitarian convoy who get out from zaporizhzhia get shelled by russians and about four children get injured. one of them were hard injured. so we understand that if russians really want to give a

chance to peaceful citizens of mariupol, they stop firing and create the real corridor so people can get out from there, because the situation is catastrophic. there are no food, no electricity, no heat and no water. only some people have these things but most of the people in totally inhuman situation. but no one from russia side wants to really help people from there. they only make a picture for the tv show where they give people some humanitarian aid. but it's about 3,000 people stay in mariupol now. to help them, we need some trucks of help. we need humanitarian convoy to

mariupol to help them or a chance to get out from there. >> before i let you go, the last eu diplomat to leave mariupol said it will become a part of a list of cities completely destroyed. naming coventry, aleppo, et cetera. what goes through your mind when you hear your home included on a list like that? >> we try with our relations with our friends not to think about this, think only about people who need help to get out of the city. all of us, all of the mariupol citizens -- and there are no chance even if war stops and ukraine gets this territory back, there are no chance to build it in time. it's totally destroyed. all the plants are totally

destroyed, all the infrastructure destroyed. but i hope when this war ends and when russia collapse, i hope we build it with the help of our allies from the start, from scratch, and it will be a new city with a new perspective. but for now it's totally -- i can't say how i feel without home, without our friends, without our streets, when we lost it, now we understand how great it will be. >> maksym, thank you for joining us. i know this is a difficult time for you and we appreciate your time. thank you. i want to bring you back to what's happening live in the building here in washington and that is the supreme court confirmation hearing of judge ketanji brown jackson. right now you are looking at lisa fairfax doing an introduction for judge jackson. we want to listen in to a bit of

this. >> but she does know how to give it her all. and what she gives to her family, her friends, she also gives to the law and to this country. a testament of her character is all the people of different backgrounds and beliefs who understand that essence of ketanji. we've seen that in her endorsements from bipartisan colleagues from the bench and the bar and from both civil rights leaders and members of law enforcement. and we will see it in the history she will make. i know she is honored and humbled by the significance of this moment. not for what it means for her, but what it means for our amazing country. confirmation of the idea that america is a place in which all of us can feel a sense of belonging and all of us can reach our fullest potential. while challenging, i would summarize nearly 35 years of friendship in this way. by highlighting ketanji's faith

in god and country, her intellectual brilliance, her goodness and grace and a work ethic that makes her perfectly suited for the serious task of serving on the supreme court. it is with tremendous pride, love and gratitude for her willingness to serve that i introduce to you, my dear friend and an exemplar of the best of america's promise, judge ketanji brown jackson. thank you. >> thank you both. professor fairfax and judge griffith, i'm sure that judge jackson and her family deeply appreciate your being here today and your kind words. i want to add to the list of introducers the man behind you, senator doug jones who has introduced judge jackson to many of us, not for the first time, maybe reintroduced her, but doug, thank you for serving in this cause and for helping the president and judge jackson. thank you all three for being with us today. we are now going to move to the next phase of the program, and

that is to hear from judge jackson. so if we could set up a table. before you sit down, judge, i'm going to ask you to take the oath, so -- please raise your right hand. do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> let the record reflect that the judge has answered in the affirmative. and having met that requirement, you may now proceed with your remarks. chairman durbin, ranking member grassley, and distinguished members of the judiciary committee, thank you for convening this hearing and for considering my nomination as

associate justice of the supreme court of the united states. i am humbled and honored to be here. and i am also truly grateful for the generous introductions that my former judicial colleague, judge tom griffith, and my close friend, professor lisa fairfax, have so graciously provided. i'm also very thankful for the confidence that president biden has placed in me and for the kindness that he and the first lady and the vice president and the second gentleman have extended to me and my family. today will be the fourth time that i have had the honor of appearing before this committee to be considered for confirmation. over the past three weeks, i have also had the honor of meeting each member of this committee separately, and i have met with 45 senators in total.

your careful attention to my nomination demonstrates your dedication to the crucial role that the senate plays in this constitutional process, and i thank you. and while i am on the subject of gratitude, i must also pause to reaffirm my thanks to god, for it is faith that sustains me at this moment. even prior to today, i can honestly say that my life has been blessed beyond measure. the first of my many blessings is the fact that i was born in this great nation. a little over 50 years ago in september of 1970. congress had enacted two civil rights acts in the decade before, and like so many who had experienced lawful racial segregation firsthand, my parents, johnny and ellerie

brown, left their hometown of miami, florida, and moved to washington, d.c., to experience new freedom. when i was born here in washington, my parents were public school teachers, and to express both pride in their heritage and hope for the future, they gave me an african name. ketanji anjika which they were told means lovely one. my parents taught me that unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, so that if i worked hard and i believed in myself, in america, i could do anything or be anything i wanted to be. like so many families in this country, they worked long hours and sacrificed to provide their children every opportunity to reach their god-given potential.

my parents have been married for almost 54 years, and they're here with me today. i cannot possibly thank them enough for everything they have done for me. i love you, mom and dad. my father in particular bears responsibility for my interest in the law. when i was 4, we moved back to miami so that he could be a full-time law student, and we lived on the campus of the university of miami law school. during those years, my mother pulled double duty working as the sole bread winner of our family while also guiding and inspiring 4-year-old me. my very earliest memories are of watching my father study. he had his stack of law books on the kitchen table while i sat across from him with my stack of coloring books. my parents also instilled in me and my younger brother ketaj, the importance of public

service. after graduating from howard university, ketaj started out as a police officer, following two of our uncles. after the september 11th attacks on our country, ketaj volunteered for the army and eventually became an infantry officer. he is here today providing his love and support, as always. and speaking of unconditional love, i would like to introduce you to my husband of 25 years, dr. patrick jackson. i have no doubt that without him by my side from the very beginning of this incredible professional journey, none of this would have been possible. we met in college more than three decades ago, and since then he's been the best husband, father and friend i could ever imagine. patrick, i love you. william, patrick's identical

twin brother, is here as well, along with his wonderful wife, dana. also here from park city, utah, are patrick's older brother, gardy and his wife, natalie. and last, but certainly not least, my very dear in-laws, the matriarch and patriarch of the jackson family, pamela and gardner jackson have traveled here from boston to be with me today. i'm saving a special moment in this introduction for my daughters, talia and leila. girls, i know it has not been easy, as i've tried to navigate the challenges of juggling my career and motherhood. and i fully admit that i did not always get the balance right. but i hope that you've seen that with hard work, determination and love, it can be done. i am so looking forward to seeing what each of you chooses to do with your amazing lives in

this incredible country. i love you so much. there are so many others who are not here today but whom i need to acknowledge. i have a large extended family on both sides. they are watching from florida, north carolina, new jersey, connecticut, new york, massachusetts, colorado, and beyond. i also have incredible friends. three of my college roommates came here today to support me, and i have so many other boosters from miami palmetto senior high school, harvard undergrad, harvard law school and all throughout my personal and professional life. i have also had extraordinary mentors, like my high school debate coach, fran berger, may she rest in peace. she invested fully in me, including taking me to harvard, the first i had ever really thought of it, to enter a speech

competition. mrs. berger believed in me and in turn i believed in myself. in the category of great mentors, it was also my great good fortune to have had the chance to clerk for three brilliant jurists. u.s. district judge patty saras, u.s. court of appeals judge bruce selia and supreme court justice stephen breyer. these extraordinary people were exceptional role models. justice breyer in particular not only gave me the greatest job that any young lawyer could ever hope to have, but he also exempliies what it means to be a supreme court justice at the highest level of skill and integrity, civility and grace. it is extremely humbling to be considered for justice breyer's

seat and i know that i could never fill his shoes. but if confirmed, i would hope to carry on his spirit. on the day of his supreme court nomination, justice breyer said, quote, what is law supposed to do, seen as a whole? it is supposed to allow all people, all people to live together in a society where they have so many different views, so many different needs, to live together in a way that is more harmonious, that is better, so that they can work productively together, end quote. i could not have said it better myself. members of this committee, if i am confirmed, i commit to you

that i will work productively to support and defend the constitution and this grand experiment of american democracy that has endured over these past 246 years. i have been a judge for nearly a decade now and i take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously. i decide cases from a neutral posture. i evaluate the facts and i interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath. i know that my role as a judge is a limited one, that the constitution empowers me only to decide cases and controversies that are properly presented, and

i know that my judicial role is further constrained by careful adherence to precedent. now, in preparing for these hearings, you may have read some of my more than 570 written decisions, and you may have also noticed that my opinions tend to be on the long side. that is because i also believe in transparency. that people should know precisely what i think and the basis for my decision. in all of my professional experiences, including my work as a public defender and a trial judge have instilled in me the importance of having each litigant know that the judge in their case has heard them, whether or not their arguments prevail in court. during this hearing, i hope that you will see how much i love our

country and the constitution and the rights that make us free. i stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before me, including judge constance baker motley, who was the first african american woman to be appointed to the federal bench and with whom i share a birthday. and like judge motley, i have dedicated my career to ensuring that the words engraved on the front of the supreme court building, equal justice under law, are a reality and not just an ideal. thank you for this historic chance to join the highest court, to work with brilliant colleagues, to inspire future

generations, and to ensure liberty and justice for all. >> thank you, judge jackson. well, this is the end of the first day of the first three days, which are involving more personal -- on a personal level the senators on the judiciary committee. in a way, it's the easiest day because ten minutes is merely a throat-clearing warm-up for most senators on this committee. starting tomorrow will be some serious exchange and questions for 30 minutes and the following day 20 minutes for each senator to participate in this. we're looking forward to this opportunity to finally really give you a fulsome opportunity to respond to many of the things that you've heard and to answer direct questions. members have until thursday at 5:00 p.m. to submit questions for the record. we're going to reconvene tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. to begin the 30-minute rounds of

questions. we thank all the participants and members of our audience for keeping this dignified, respectful and civilized and we hope to continue that tradition tomorrow. with this, the committee stands adjourned. a history-making moment there on capitol hill, as you can see the photographers snapping their photos of judge ketanji brown jackson who has now become the first black woman to sit in front of the senate judiciary committee as a naumy for the supreme court and make her case, deliver her opening statement. it was heartfelt, it was biographical. she made a point to thank her family, her daughters and husband who were in the room, her friends from around the country and to note her judicial neutrality, her duty to be independent too. in an opening statement that is really, as you heard senator

dick durbin lay out, just the beginning of a process that will unfold over the next 48 hours or so, most intensely tomorrow when she is questioned by the senators who sit on that committee. i want to bring back in msnbc senior national correspondent, chris jansing, shannon petty piece and melissa murray, former law clerk to judge sonia sotomayor, as we keep an eye on what is happening in the room after what so many people were looking forward to today, the opening statement from judge jackson. melissa, it feels like she said what she needed to say before the q & a session begins. to evaluate the facts and without fear or favor make those rulings and she had an opportunity not only to share with hebs of that senate judiciary committee but all of america watching this unfold live who she is, what she's about and where she came from. >> that's exactly right, hallie. we are so used to lawyers making

rebuttals, but this is actually a prebuttal going and preempting some of the questions that she may receive tomorrow. she made clear that her judicial philosophy is one that is rooted in the rule of law, fidelity to precedent. she takes these cases as she finds them. she takes them in an open-minded posture and she decides them in a neutral posture. so a prebuttal to those claims that she's nothing but something for the biden administration, an activist judge as some of the senators mentioned this morning. she is taking great aims at limiting those critiques and making clear that she is her own woman and she will be her own justice when she sits on this court. >> chris, you've watched all, what is it, seven hours, i think, so far of the judiciary committee hearing so far. what stood out to you from the judge. >> a couple of things. first of all, she is a woman who just said my parents gave me an african name, but her personal

biography is so compelling. she is now living out the american dream, and america as a land of opportunity. a land of opportunity that very few black women have seen, have not had to fight to get. and of course when you look at the makeup of the court, the very first black woman who has been able to have indeed this opportunity. cory booker actually earlier got a little bit emotional talking about how this glass ceiling is being broke. he said this is not a normal day in america. and he added today we should rejoice. and we heard also a lot, i think, about civility and how both sides say they want this to be a civil proceeding. and then we heard a lot of words that you often hear from republicans when they are campaigning, things like critical race theory, defunding police, immigration, violent crime. the kinds of phrases, frankly, that i think for a lot of

americans, particularly women and women of color, it makes them a little nervous about what's going to happen tomorrow. dick durbin wasn't kidding when he said today's the easy part. the next couple of days she could face 24 hours total of questioning. and we heard today some of the things that are going to be put in front of her. look, this is not her first trip to the rodeo. she's been before the judiciary committee three times before. by all accounts obviously has been successful and stellar in her presentation. but there never have been stakes quite this high. and for a lot of people out there watching, the way mazie hirono put it, frankly for young girls and women of color, tomorrow and the next day are going to be incredible days for them and incredible days for history. >> we're looking live at senator dick durbin it looks like taking a few questions from reporters. let's listen in for a little

bit. >> has been honored by this committee on three separate occasions to win its approval with bipartisan leadership and i hope we see it again. there was some questions that were asked of her which she did not have a chance to respond to. tomorrow she will. and i hope we're looking forward to her being given a fair opportunity to respond to some of the charges and some of the questions that were raised. we believe that she has a compelling story to tell to the american people. her close, i thought, was especially touching. she spoke not just as a person aspiing to the supreme court but as a proud mother and wife and member of a family that has been so supportive of her every step of the way. so at this point my republican colleagues have raised some issues and she has had to sit by quietly without responding. tomorrow she has her day and it beginning at 9:00 tomorrow morning. i just invite my colleagues if they'd like to say a word.

senator leahy, who retired the trophy on supreme court nominations a long time ago. john marshall was the first. >> that was, of course, senator dick durbin who is wrangling the committee hearing process for the senate judiciary committee. speaking now just after we heard the opening statement from judge jackson. questions tomorrow, you heard him, 30 minutes from each of the democrats and republicans who sit on that committee. ali vitali covers congress for us. i understand you were in and out of the room and there were a few things that stood out to you. tell me about it. >> reporter: yeah, several things stood out to me, hallie, and specifically dick durbin, you say he's wrangling the head of this committee. he is, and today he didn't have to do very much. everyone stuck to their time. there were some predictive lines of attack from republicans, questions further explored tomorrow. as i talked with senator durbin throughout the day as he himself was in and out of hearing rooms, he was saying he looks forward to jackson being able to

actually give a realtime leveled against her in some of these questions. you heard it from senators like josh hawley, tom cotton, marsha blackburn, republicans trying to press her on issues that happened in schools, things like critical race theory but the allegation that has been made repeatedly that she is soft on crime. we didn't hear her talk about any of that in her introduction only to say that in the way she spoke to her judicial philosophy, she was talking about being a neutral arbiter of the law, someone who values transparency and values letting everyone who knows that have argued in front of her that their points have been heard. it was a joke that she made that her opinions tend to run long. all of these senators have spent time doing reading over the last few weeks as they prepare for this hearing moment. i also thought it was notable, though, as much as we have talked about the historic stakes here, and certainly those are palpable, every single senator in that room has mentioned that she would be the first black

woman confirmed to the supreme court if she were to be confirmed. but at the same time, history itself has cast a long shadow in this room. multiple republicans talking about the vitriol of the brett kavanaugh hearings in 2018. they really have cast a long shadow here today, and many republicans that i talk to say that they would like this to be a hearing that really does focus on pressing her on tough issues, but at the same time keeps things civil. of course for democrats that i have talked to and former senator doug jones actually just came out of the room, the hearing room i'm standing outside of and he said things went great today but certainly the white house and sources that i've been talking to are ready for tomorrow if there could be fireworks. it's why jackson has done such extensive prep for this day, including mock hearings that could show her what tomorrow and wednesday could look like, hallie. >> ali, thank you. speaking of the white house, let's go to shannon pettypiece covering that angle of things. one of the attacks that we have heard is widely criticized for

being misleading and that is coming from missouri senator josh hawley who is making claims that the way that judge jackson has ruled previously on some sexual offense charges, if you will. the associated press, for example, although you had senator hawley claim she went lighter, it was prosecutors calling for these lighter sentences in some of these child pornography cases in question and judge jackson did in fact do what prosecutors in essence had asked for. how much is the white house watching that line of questioning, shannon? i know they have been working, it seems, to try to prebutt them, if you will. >> yes, they certainly are prepared for that. there is an awareness. today was the soft open, a lot of people made their opening remarks, but the real sort of meat is going to begin tomorrow and that's where they expect this issue about her past sentencing and these accusations of her being soft on crime to come up. one of the key points the white house has been making and we should look for this tomorrow is

she has been endorsed by some of the leading law enforcement organizations. police unions, some of the top legal groups out there. so they will push back on that certainly, as we have been hearing them do for a few weeks now. we do know that there is anticipation as well that she will be pressed on questions about her judicial philosophy. the response we expect to hear from her is going to be very similar from what we heard from the conservative justices, who have been in front of these nominees over the past several years, talking about how she will make her decisions based on the facts of the case and follow the law. so another line of attack the white house is anticipating coming up. i will add, hallie, we have asked the white house if the president was able to watch any of this today. he had quite a busy schedule meeting with world leaders today to discuss ukraine, but they did say the president is going to be briefed throughout the day by his team based on the way things went today. it's probably going to be a positive review they send back

to the president today. >> melissa, i want to give you final thoughts on a moment i know stood out to you which is when judge jackson referenced her daughters and talked about she maybe didn't always get that work/life balance right. she was really personal in this discussion, in this opening statement to members of congress, really trying to lay out who she is and what she's about. >> i felt that in my bones, hallie. i think almost anyone who works outside of the home and has children feels that they're not getting that balance quite right. she made that very clear. her career is a testament to trying to get that balance right. she talks about taking career detours that led her to be a public defender because she was looking for meaningful work that was also compatible with having young children, something that is often elusive in the legal profession. she also noted her incredible faith. i thought this was also noteworthy because so much was made of our last nominee, amy coney barrett, and her faithfulness. judge jackson today made clear that the republicans do not have a monopoly on religion or religious faith.

she too is a person of faith and she brings that with her as she comes to the bench. >> melissa, thank you so much. thanks to all of you on this historic day in washington, appreciate it. we're obviously going to have much more coverage of tomorrow's confirmation hearing, the continuation more coverage of the hearing tomorrow. the number of ukrainians forced from the homes believed to top 10 million. what they need, food, water, shelter. that other top story in a minute.

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allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. as a struggling actor, bi need all the breaks. that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ there's a child leaving ukraine almost every second according to unicef. 75,000 every day. the u.n. counts 10 million ukrainians out of the homes since russia began its war on its neighbors, more people than the population of michigan for context. more than 3.4 million leaving

the country. someone whose agency is seeing this is matthew saltmarsh. good to have you back on the show. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> tell us what unhdcr is leaving. >> i think in the last couple of days particularly from poland the numbers have been slightly lower, below 40,000 a day coming down from a peak of 100,000 a day. what we have seen increasingly is that they don't have the same means from the first movement and don't have a plan many of them. in other words they don't maybe have contacts or a network or a place to go and arriving in

poland saying we don't know where to go and taken away from the border quite quickly by the authorities and often saying in reception centers to regroup. and then, in many cases moved on to others cities throughout poland. the need is huge. >> the latest numbers from the u.n. say 10 million people who fled the homes. people that fled and not the country. where are they going inside ukraine's borders in do you think it's a matter of time before they try to get out? >> we estimate 6.5 million inside the country that left the homes. they go to safer places, countryside, the west to lviv area. estimates of many people, 1 million to 2 million in lviv to

consider the next move and i think it very much depends on what happens with the conflict. if it comes closer to that area into the west then we might well see another movement towards the border and then to poland. >> the u.n. says the vast majority are women and children leaving. you have warned and the agency warned of risks of trafficking. talk to me about the work that you are doing to try to mitigate that. >> the polish authorities are managing the refugee response. but we are working with those authorities but also with agencies like unicef to go in and help them. train volunteers. starting to set up structures of

blue dots of women with children where they can have some support, where they can get information on what they should be doing and where they can get referral to the right authorities as to where to go so i think the partners have been stepping up and willing to do more certainly if more refugees come over the border. what is the biggest need right now and what can people watching, most important thing to do to help? >> i think the big urgent need is getting aid into ukraine. that's a huge challenge because there are security issues, conflict. we are trying to move as much as we can orr the border. i think what viewers can do and most flexible and useful to the responders is cash why clothes and so on are not so useful but cash means they can spend it

where and who needs it most. >> thank you so much for being with us. we have resources on the website to direct people to those locations where they can give. thank you for watching another busy hour of this show. i'll see you in an hour on nbc news now for the second show. for now "dead lieuwen: white house" starts after the break.

♪♪ hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. i'm alex wagner in for nicolle wallace. it is day 26 of the ukraine invasion and what apyres to be the dawn of a brutal new stage as air raid sirens are routine for thousands upon thousands of innocent people. it was made clear that the russians are in the middle of a near desperate attempt to gain momentum. verge of a stalemate. that word stalemate not to be confused with calm. the reality is quite the opposite. some of the bloodiest, deadliest battles in history happened in a period of stalemate. while russian forces failed to make significant advances they're still