zelenskyy who toured the area yesterday takes his message to the u.n. security council today. plus, the other top headlines driving the morning, the president's supreme court nominee moves closer to confirmation while bringing along some republican votes. but not lindsey graham. in fact, he says if republicans were in charge she would have gotten the merrick garland treatment. >> huh. thanks, lindsey. and an historic rally for the kansas men's basketball team with their come-from-behind victory over north carolina for the national championship. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, april 5th. >> that is -- that was, by the way, willie, the biggest comeback since '63. >> yeah. >> and we were actually doing a "morning joe" live there when loyola/chicago came out. >> the ramblers, we were there on the ground. >> we were on the ground. i said there's no way these ramblers are going to come back. they came back, right? >> last night because we host a

morning tv show, i went to bed at halftime. >> good. >> carolina up by 15 points, i thought they were going to run them out of the gym. kansas has a huge comeback. >> the biggest comeback. we will be getting the news. jonathan lemire, obviously everybody is talking about the war crimes, the horror grows over the slaughter in ukraine. "wall street journal" this morning in the lead editorial, it may be a prosecution done better in the u.s. there are people threatened by the war and mr. putin would love to turn it into a russia/u.s. fight. what matters is that the war crimes in ukraine are investigated and no matter the difficulty to investigate them at least a diligent effort is made to render justice so the world can show that it will not be tolerated. joe biden is attacked for calling vladimir putin a butcher. then he is attacked for saying

putin shouldn't be in power. he is attacked for calling him a war criminal, sticks by it. the white house sticks by it the next day. after all of these attacks against biden, he has to be vindicated that he called this guy out for what he is. >> yeah, no, i think we can see how vindicated president biden feels he is. he wasn't scripted to walk over to reporters yesterday. he made a point to walk over after landing in marine one to talk to them and deliver the message. look, i have been saying it all along even though i got criticism for allegedly go too far, i have been proven right. certainly it is now the rallying point for the international community, and we've seen some movements in europe to try to further wean themselves off russian energy, which would be a devastating blow to funding putin's war machine. here in the united states they're trying to find ways to support the effort there, all though right now there have been -- there had been discussions about perhaps putting american assets on the ground to help investigate the war crimes, but to your point they feel like this probably is best for the europeans to handle that. that, of course, it would be

potentially too dangerous to have americans on the ground in kyiv. if something were to happen to them it could lead to war. >> we talked about it in the past a good bit, about what joe biden did not get right in afghanistan. you look here in the lead up to the war, in his declaration of war crimes, time and again he is doing things that people are pushing back on. when he's saying the invasion is coming, the invasion is coming, our allies didn't believe it, the world didn't believe it. people on the putin right in america, the trump/putin right in america, they pushed back on it. he was right. the same thing with calling him a butcher and a war criminal, it seems even macron now admitting that his phone pal is a war criminal. >> look at our history with vladimir putin. joe biden is doing things differently, actually calling him out. >> he is. >> and offering consequences. along with jonathan lemire we

have u.s. special correspondent for bbc news cattie kay, and former u.s. ambassador to russia, now director of the institute of international studies at stanford and nbc news international affairs analyst, michael mcfaul is with us as well. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is vowing to hold russia accountable for the atrocities soldiers are accused of committing in bucha. zelenskyy's pledge comes after he toured the suburb of kyiv yesterday to see the devastation first hand. during the visit he accused russia of committing war crimes and said every russian soldier involved with the atrocities will be identified and legally held responsible. we have put the translation on the screen for you.

p president zelenskyy says he expects the civilian death toll to increase as more homes are cleared. he will address the u.n. security council this morning. msnbc will carry it live when it happens. meanwhile, new satellite images are contradicting moscow's claim the bodies of civilians were placed in the streets after russian forces withdrew from bucha. images from a u.s. intelligence contractor appears to corroborate recent social media posts and videos revealing bodies in the streets left for weeks. a warning again this morning that the images we will show you are graphic. russia claims it withdrew from bucha on march 30th. this image showing seven bodies lining the street, reportedly taken on march 19th. here are two side-by-side images of a body lying near two

abandoned cars on the left. an image taken three days ago from social media appears to match the image on the right reportedly taken on march 31st when russian forces by their account still occupied the town. russia claims images have been faked. michael mcfaul, russia calling this a crisis operation, that it was crisis actors, it was ukrainian radicals who carried out civilian deaths we witnessed that the world has seen on the front pages of every newspaper. not surprising from russia. it is from their playbook, but what do you make of the war crimes the world has seen in bucha over the last couple of days? >> first of all, the russians are lying, just incredibly gross lies. it is not just the nazis doing this, they're even blaming british intelligence services saying they were the ones that masterminded this. but i agree with president zelenskyy, of course. they have to be accountable.

it has to be investigated in a proper way. who does that investigation and when, those are big, hard questions, but it has to be documented for the rest of the world to know and for history to know. i think it is very important that this is known and documented for history to know, especially when there will be a time and place, i hope, in a future in russia when they will have to educate their children about what happened so that they will never happen again. >> mr. ambassador, can you give people, our friends that are watching right now, will you give them some context here? this isn't just about ukraine. this isn't just vladimir putin in 2022. this isn't even just about vladimir putin, sadly. there's a long history, if you want to go back to poland in 1940, this is what, unfortunately, the russian military has long done. they commit war crimes. they -- you could talk about

chechnya, you could talk about poland in 1940, lining up and executing 22,000 officers and intel officers in poland. i mean talk about how this is unfortunately par for the course for russia. >> well, you just said it, joe. it is. unfortunately, there's a long history there. it was a particularly horrible atrocity that they were never held accountable for. remember, in world war ii one side was held accountable for their atrocities. the soviet union was not. but you are right. more recently, i think it is important -- it wasn't always this way. russian leaders were not always this way. i want to underscore that. but chechnya in 1999-2000, if you look at the city of grozny and go back and look at the photos there you will see something very similar. and then aleppo most recently where if you look at what the russian air force did to aleppo

during that horrific bombing campaign, it is a similar pattern. both of those wars, of course, were conducted by vladimir putin. i think that's really important to underscore. putin doesn't care about human life. we are seeing that from bucha, but, tragically, i will predict something even worse. we are going to see similar kinds of videos when we finally get into mariupol, and you will see similar kinds of slaughter and similar kinds of destruction. i want to underscore when we see that we will see that he slaughtered ethnic russians as well. i say that because he makes the argument to his people that he has come to ukraine to liberate them from nazis, and especially to liberate the ethnic russians and the russian speakers inside the country. in fact, he doesn't care about them at all. one other category he doesn't care about, his own soldiers. i think that will be another

piece of this just horrific evidence that needs to be gathered about how he conducted this war. >> julia ioffe said weeks ago on this show, disgustingly generals refer to conscripts and others fighting as cannon meat. not cannon fodder. cannon meat. but there is, unfortunately with mariupol, i fear we are going to see the mass atrocities of ethnic russians, russian speakers on a much larger scale, jonathan lemire. obviously the president moved in front of the rest of the world, calling vladimir putin a war criminal. what are they going to do about it now? what can he do about it now? obviously so many constraints at the u.n. security council, so many constraints in most international organizations because russia usually can provide a veto. >> the same with the effort to try to get them out of the human rights council of the united nations. they would need a vast majority

of countries to back them up for it to happen and it is not clear they can. this is the tension the white house is facing right now. there's only so much they can do without risking an escalation that would turn into a full-blown shooting war with russia. certainly i spoke with pentagon officials yesterday. they are upping -- as fast as they can make them they're trying to get weapons to ukraine. that's the best they can do. it will not be the migs via poland or the tanks, but the stuff they've said they need, weapons to shoot down the airplanes terrorizing over the skies, that's what they're trying to get there as quickly as possible. they feel it is the best they can do while they try -- >> by the way, can you explain how complicated it is? maybe lithuania has some old soviet weaponry and they say, hey, can you send that in? lithuania says, we would love to, we need two patriot missile systems. okay, great.

you go to turkey and you say the drones, fantastic. can you get the drones in there? erdogan says, would love to but because of the cameras that run the drones, we can't get them because canada is sanctioning us and we have to lift those. then you have to call canada and get the sanctions -- it is never as easy as, hey, country a, send that because there are three different countries that have to coordinate and then the united states has to back fill, which is $2 billion, $3 billion for some of the patriot weapon systems, which we will do, but you don't just click your fingers and go. >> it is a complicated process that often involves numerous countries and the equipment itself is sophisticated. it is not something you can truck over the border because they become targets. if they're obvious equipment heading into ukraine, if the russians can see it and shoot down, it doesn't do anybody any good whatsoever. so, therefore, the equipment usually has to be disassembled, brought into ukraine,

reassembled there if they have the technology and ant to do it. it is a lengthy process here. so as much as the united states and the pentagon officials i talked to yesterday, as much as they're trying their best there's only so fast they can go. >> it is worth noting. french president emmanuel macron said yesterday there are, quote, very clear clues pointing to war crimes in bucha. >> this guy, very clear crimes. >> he is on it. >> inspector, he is on the case here. >> britain and germany echo those sentiments. meanwhile, support is building in the european union with cutting ties on russian energy. the french government announced they would support an embargo on russian oil and coal. this would mark a major shift for the german economy, which is heavily reliant on russian energy. economists say such a move by germany could trigger a major recession there.

katty kay, i will go to you. there will be a cost at this point and some may argue, especially these world leaders at this point, that the cost is worth it. >> yeah. i mean it looks like you actually have splits within the german coalition government. you have the defense minister suggesting it is time to have some kind of embargo on russian energy and the finance minister saying, hold on a second, we can't actually do that because it would crash the german economy. we are hearing those divisions play out publicly in germany in response to what has been seen in bucha, but a realization they have to try to do something because german public opinion wants them to do something. when zelenskyy criticizes directly members of the german government for being -- by name for being too close to president putin, he is doing it deliberately. maybe he is going to irritate the german government. that doesn't matter to him that much. he is doing it to stoke german public opinion and it seems to

be working. there's now pressure in germany on the government to try to do something. what it looks like they might do is try to separate out the different components of russian energy. so oil, divide out oil, gas and coal, and do something perhaps about oil and coal on which they're less dependent but keep the gas flows going. but a lot of money, a lot of european money going to russia to fund the russian war effort in ukraine and it is becoming intolerable as we watch the pictures coming out of bucha. it is certainly enabling president putin to carry out the atrocities. >> katty, talk about the politics of this in french. obviously an election coming up next week. macron was supposed to win easily. the polls have tightened in the first round of voting. what are the politics on the ground in france for an embargo? >> the polls have tightened in france, you're right, in the last week or two with marie

lapen is doing better than she had been doing. in pure political terms macron's standing has risen during the course of this war in terms of his reelection. there's, again, interest in france in doing something, but i speak to people in france all the time. their heating bills are crippling. if gas were priced as oil is priced, french and german people to heat their houses are paying the equivalent of $500 a barrel. that's a huge amount to be paying to heat. the european argument in france as it is in germany, as the war drags on the sanctions have to be sustainable. what everyone is worried about in europe, what i speak to european diplomats and leaders is they're worried about the western coalition splitting. if it is lasting into a second winter and european homes need to be heated for a second winter and on top of that you will get

a rise in food prices because wheat is not being planted in ukraine by farmers at the moment, they're too busy fighting, then you could start to see splits. will europeans stick with the war effort? there has to be a realization it could go on for a long time and you need the coalition to hold together for a long time. >> it is a monumental task to switch off fossil fuel. it is not going to happen overnight. let's go to ukraine where we find nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez in the central part of the country. good morning, gabe. as ambassador mcfaul was saying a moment ago, the great fear, and i know you hear it on the ground as well, is bucha has opened the world's eyes as to what may be behind the attacks in many other cities, that it may be the beginning. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, willie. many ukrainians feel it is the tip of the iceberg and we are hearing it from president zelenskyy as well who is saying other towns surrounding kyiv may have higher death tolls than booq as as authorities go in and clear t through and clear the

areas, clean the land mines. willie it is something that should be pointed out. in mariupol, the southern besieged port city is ten times the size of bucha, roughly the size of minneapolis in the u.s. and that city has been under siege for weeks with more than 90% of the buildings damaged or destroyed ukrainians say. we are here in central ukraine and we were here also last week talking to people here and as well as today. there's just incredible outrage over the scenes coming from bucha but not surprise. i want to tell you, willie, just a short time ago on ukrainian tv president zelenskyy was asked about the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with vladimir putin. you'll remember a few days ago, over the weekend there was the idea floated by the ukrainian lead negotiator that it could be a possibility. then the following day the chief negotiator from russia seemed to throw some cold water on it.

president zelenskyy has said that meeting may not happen because even if russia and ukraine were to come to what he called a powerful agreement, there's a real possibility that the russians can come back in, say, two years. there's a huge level of mistrust here obviously, willie, especially after the atrocities we have been seeing in bucha. and, again, over the next coming days here in ukraine so many of the ukrainians here are expecting more video, more pictures to emerge from some of the towns around kyiv that are currently being cleared by authorities, willie. >> and how could there possibly be trust in those negotiations at this point? nbc's gabe gutierrez, thank you very much. meanwhile, ukrainian forces continue to make progress. they've retaken key territories north in the country. according to britain's ministry this morning ukrainian troops forced russia to retreat around the capital of kyiv. the ministry said low-level fighting is likely to continue

in parts of the recaptured areas but is expected to diminish significantly over the week as russian forces continue to withdraw. joining us again this morning from the big board, national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, clint watts. good morning to you, clint. what does it look like on the ground this morning? >> some interesting developments, willie. here in the north, which we will spend very little time on today, you have seen the ukrainian military advance to the belarusian border in some spots. you are seeing these forces essentially redeployed over time, over here to the east. they will head in this direction to come in this kharkiv access. i think the big place to look is everything will shift to the east here in the coming days and weeks. where the russians have made kind of incremental gains is this kharkiv access, moving down to the southeast. what they want to do is link up their troops here from luhansk,

the donbas region that putin said was the justification for going in to begin with. the real battle that is going on now and i think over the next couple of weeks is izyum. this is the northwest access you see them advancing on. here and luhansk is where they've been trying to battle out. this is the breakaway republic that had russian separatist groups in. you will see a battle between the two axes. you will see russian forces trying to link up between the two cities to essentially control it. if they cannot -- and let's blow it back out. if they cannot advance those troops, they won't be able to take and control this donbas region here, which is their initial reason and justification for moving in here, it could be lost. separately, they're trying to already redeploy airborne forces

to bring troops in. there's a lot of question about the morale of the troops, the equipment of the troops and whether they will be able to get back into the fight. there are reports of high russian casualties they're literally going to military schools and grabbing officers, trying to reconstitute the forces and send them into the donbas region. last thing to note here in the south, there was an area seen as russian success story in weeks one or two. they quickly advanced and tried to advance. today it is a different story. you are seeing the ukrainian military fighting back, executing counterattacks and pushing back against the southern front. i think the question everyone probably will be asking here in the next two weeks is in the east what will bring some sort of a peace settlement? will putin stop or will he continue to push people in, like you were saying, as a meat grinder, essentially pushing

people into donbas and can the russian military sustain in terms of forces. mariupol, another town we have been talking about in the last two weeks, terrible human rights violations and tragedies but, again, ukrainian resistance holding out. the longer they hold out there, the less time and manpower russian troops have to go towards donbas. >> clint, we have heard for a month people saying, yes, the ukrainians are doing women, but just wait. the russians have more of this, they have more of that, they have more mass. now the russians are retreating from kyiv. they're retreating from the entire area. as they retreat and the pressure goes off there it frees up ukrainian troops, more ukrainian troops to fight in the south. i'm looking at the map, looking at what i've been hearing you say over the last month, and other experts saying over the last month, and i am looking at this map. i really don't see how they hold anything other than maybe the

donbas region. maybe the regions they had beforehand, because they're having trouble with mariupol. even if they establish this land bridge to crimea for a while, the ukrainians aren't -- i think we can say this now. the ukrainians are not going to allow them to hold that. they will never be -- i don't see any scenario where they will be able to hold that. yeah, vladimir putin will commit war crimes, but talk about what's putin's best chance for a safe -- face-saving victory that allows him to say, i got what i came for, now let's negotiate peace? >> i think that's the big problem, joe. vladimir putin in this luhansk region which is essentially the eastern part of donbas, they essentially controlled it with the separatist forces that they backed there. what you see, much of this in red was already somewhat in russian control.

>> right. >> they weren't really advancing on it. when you look at this map, if they're to lose down here in the southern part and barely keep this ribbon along the sea of azof, it is a very small corridor, a very small land bridge. separately, i think putin thinks he has to take this part, the donetsk part of donbas. if he doesn't take the western part of eastern ukraine he has nothing to show for it. he tried to win everywhere and lost. now he is trying to win just in one place and i'm not sure he can take it, because now you also will see ukrainian military be able to focus. the ukrainian military was defending everywhere. now they can do counteroffensive in one spot and focus a lot of their energies to the east. now, logistically it is a totally different fight for the ukrainians. this isn't dismounted folks with javelins and stingers. now we need armor, trucks, convoys, much more significant combat power. i think it is all about momentum and the will to fight at this point. the ukrainian military has it.

the russian military is demoralized. their top leaders, top units devastated. this is where the battle will be in the future. >> extraordinary fight from the ukrainians. clint watts at the board for us again this morning. clint, thank you so much. ambassador mcfaul as we mentioned at the top of the show, president zelenskyy will address the u.n. security council. russia, of course, is a permanent member there. what do you expect to hear back with the story of bucha to deliver to the u.n. security council and to the world? >> he will say what he has already said to the ukrainian people and to other reporters which is these are war crimes. this is genocide. these need to be investigated, and russia is going to veto it. that's the problem with there will be no resolution passed from the u.n. security council about what to do there. what i am interested in hearing is not about that. that's obvious. what i am interested if hearing, will he float his idea, which is part of the negotiations, about

a new security guarantee for ukraine from the u.n. security council and a few other countries, poland, turkey, i think even israel is on the list, in return for ukrainian neutrality. that is his idea. that's what the ukrainians have floated. so far the most important country to provide a security guarantee along the new formulation -- it is an article five-like guarantee from the nato treaty but with a different constellation of countries. that's his idea to get to yes for a peace agreement. by the way, that's the face-saving measure for putin that he can say, we got them to declare neutrality. but there's one key country that has to sign up for it that hasn't yet, that's the united states of america. i'm wondering will he use this moment to talk about it when the whole world is watching. >> yeah, it will be fascinating. really quickly, mr. ambassador, you heard what clint watts said.

you saw, you looked at the map, you have seen the humiliating historic retreat of russian forces from kyiv. just give us a 30,000-foot look down at this situation. what in the world has happened to putin's military over the past 20 years? how could things be going so horribly for this force? how could the entire government be so rotten to the core that corruption obviously undermined their ability to even fight against a country that has one-eighth the armed forces that they have? >> i thinks corruption is a big part of it. i think there will be a giant investigation some day of the military industrial complex and the military and all of the corruption there. number two, you know, i have been writing a book about u.s./china/russian relations in the 21st century and having a

debate with current and former military people in our government. when you look at that, when you look at the numbers and see how many tanks they have, how many soldiers they have, the russian army before this war looked very formidable, compared even to nato by the way, joe, if you just look up the numbers. but my friends in the pentagon would always say, yeah, mike, but they haven't fought anything seriously for a long time. it is one thing to invade georgia in 2008, it is one thing to bomb syria from the air. it is another thing to fight a real fighting force, and that's what they've done and we've seen the consequences of that. and at the same time, i want to emphasize this, this war is far from being over. it is very clear that putin wants to connect donbas to crimea. he wants to grab mariupol and have that red line that clint was just showing be fully red, not red and white. then he wants to go to zelenskyy and say, okay, now let's cut a deal. that is going to be a very hard

moment for president zelenskyy and that's why in my view it is great what the biden administration has done. it is great what the allies have done in terms of weapons, but the best way to end this war is to keep arming the ukrainians so that they can fight the russian army to a stalemate and we're not there yet. >> former ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you as always for coming on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," judge ketanji brown jackson picks up more bipartisan support for her confirmation to the supreme court, but not before republicans on the judiciary committee put on a political show. plus, yesterday we told you about elon musk buying up huge stake on twitter. now he is suggesting changes to the platform. and an historic comeback had the jayhawks cutting down the

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here we go. circling around. slipped underneath. they go to love. love will be the one to take it. puts up the shot. it is off! the game is over and kansas completes the biggest championship comeback. >> wow. carolina had a chance to tie it, down three there at the buzzer, came up short. the kansas jayhawks complete the biggest comeback in men's title game history, erasing a 16-point first half deficit to beat north carolina and claim the national championship.

kansas started the second half on an 18 to 6 run after being down 15 at halftime. scored the go-ahead bucket with almost 1:30 remaining in the game, extending the lead to three points with 22 seconds left. carolina missed the next three shots but got a fourth chance to send the game to over time after kansas stepped out of bounds with over four seconds to play. always we showed you, the last-second shot was no good. 72-69, kansas is the final, marks the jay haas fourth ncaa title and the second under head coach bill self, first since 2008. they had two years ago in 2020 probably the best team in the country. >> right. >> would have been the number one overall seed in the tournament. covid cancelled the tournament obviously so they talked a lot about last night it was for the 2020 team. boy, they were down, as i said, 15 at halftime. they looked totally out of sorts, carolina playing great. you thought it was over and they storm back and win. >> yeah, just like

chicago/loyola in '63. we were there, the ramblers. >> back in '63, yeah. >> by the way, how did kansas get to be so good? where did it start in people on twitter said, well, basketball started -- >> that's what i said, yeah. >> how did it go? they go, oh, no, it started. >> the peach bachgt. >> i thought it was springfield because you would find people of springfield, mass, that would say it started there. there's a little back and forth. it started in massachusetts. >> it was invented in massachusetts but kansas is one of the hot spots, always has been, kansas, indiana. you had geographical confusion yesterday, joe. i recognized that, which college town -- >> oh, yes, yes, yes. >> that's fine. but, yeah, the credit to kansas. i mean it is also -- college basketball as a whole has a smaller piece of like the american sports pie than it used to.

it is not quite as big, but every march the tournament still delivers. this one in particular really compelling. obviously st. peters, wonderful cinderella story and then the terrific final four concluding with an amazing comeback yesterday. >> and the consolation prize is they beat coach kay. >> that's terrible. there's a great article in the "wall street journal" about coach kay's career, which i guess he was hired in '80. it almost ended in '84. he started out terribly there. the fans hated him. they kept pressuring the agent athletic director to fire him. i think he was named like the

character on ""south park" like butters. coach kay was called in and coach kay knew he was being called in to get fired and he sat down. basically he said, why you're here, the athletic director said, because i have fans that don't know how good you are, i have alumni that don't know how good you are, and i have a head coach that doesn't know how good you are. he opened up the drawer, gave coach kay a five-year contract. coach kay broke down and cried because he thought his career was over. signed the contract. the rest is history. >> yeah. >> but everybody was pressuring the athletic director to fire him in '84. that guy saw something in coach kay that coach kay didn't see in himself and made the difference in the world. >> that's especially true today with boosters, fans and social media. there's so much pressure, the

leash gets so short. you could have a great season and two years later you don't and they fire you. i think it was two years after that that he took them to the national championship game with tommy dawkins and all of those guys and they lost to louisville. from there he got hurley and the rest is college basketball history. >> mika, as far as basketball in kansas it didn't just start with danny manning in 1998. >> oh, that was a great team. >> a great team. coming up, tiger watch at augusta. galleries for a final round turn out to watch tiger woods practice ahead of his potential return to the pga tour at this week's masters. plus, secretary of state antony blinken travels to brussels for meetings with nato allies. andrea mitchell is there already and she will join us ahead. we will be right back.

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♪♪ all right. beautiful shot of capitol hill as the sun comes up over washington. it is 45 past the hour. a lot going on there. the senate is moving forward with judge ketanji brown jackson's nomination to the supreme court. in a 53-47 vote the full senate voted to discharge her nomination out of the judiciary committee. at least three republican senators have now publicly stated they will vote in favor of her final confirmation. that includes senator mitt romney, who voted against judge jackson when she was confirmed to the d.c. circuit court of

appeals, and senator lisa murkowski who admitted her decision could hurt her politically. >> everybody else is thinking about, how does this play, how does this play. in fairness, i have assumed a level of risk in doing this because it is -- is a position that -- that my conference has not taken. but you do, you take that risk, and that's just the way it is. >> you know, it is a shame that's the way it is. it used to be that supreme court justices would get 90 votes. ruth bader ginsberg got 9 0, 91, 92. i remember when barack obama was running for president he wanted to support john roberts. he said you can't do it. if you support john roberts everything he does on the court will follow you around the campaign trail.

unfortunately, that's where things have gone for some time, which you would hope that we could some day get to the point if somebody is elected president, whether they're democrats or republicans, you know what? let them have their say. if somebody is wildly, wildly out of the mainstream or unqualified, fine, have discussions on that. but these justices should be getting 80, 90 votes. you shouldn't go up there and have people trying to destroy people the way they seem to do every single time. >> judge jackson's nomination was deadlocked when every republican in the committee voted against her earlier in the day. >> i'll vote no. i'm the -- the first time i have ever voted against any supreme court nominee. after four days of hearings, i now know why the left likes her so much. >> if judge jackson is confirmed i believe she will prove to be the most extreme and the furthest left justice ever to serve on the united states supreme court. >> judge jackson is beholden to

the radical left that is teaching our children that they can choose their own sex. >> let me just say for the record, sex crimes against children are not fiction. >> judge jackson will coddle criminals and terrorists. >> my lord. >> sweet jesus. >> i mean come on. >> sweet jesus, deliver us from this idiocy. >> it is just -- okay. democrats on the committee defended judge jackson against republican attacks. >> how, how qualified do you have to be? double harvard. how qualified do you have to be? clerking at all levels of the federal judiciary. >> they even suggested that judge jackson, a mother to two wonderful daughters, quote, endangers children. judge jackson is a better person than me. >> i know that it is going to fall on deaf ears with some members of this committee, members who unfortunately cared more about seeing their sound bites on social media. >> exactly, and so they can set

themselves up to try to run for president. a final full senate vote is likely to be held this friday. let's bring in right now msnbc legal analyst charles coleman. why don't we, if we have to focus on one republican let's focus on lindsey because lindsey voted for her ten months ago. >> what happened? >> suddenly, suddenly she is just too radical. >> right. >> how do you vote for somebody -- >> what did she do? >> -- ten months ago to take one of the most important positions in the federal judiciary -- >> joe, it is not -- >> -- and ten months later this nonsense. >> something must have happened. >> you know, this is such an indicative space around where we are with respect to our current conversation around politics and where they have no place. as you already talked about, there has been a history where supreme court appointees have gotten as many as 90-plus votes.

in this case there's no reason that this woman, this incredibly brilliant and qualified judge, should not be receiving a much, much larger amount of support from all u.s. senators. when it comes to lindsey graham, there can be very little argument that he probably demonstrates the most hypocritical and just great level of ridiculous contradiction in the fact just a year ago this was an incredibly qualified judge in order to ascend to the federal circuit. now all of a sudden you are worried about an activist judge. >> right. >> this is nothing but political grandstanding and everyone seems to know it, but it seems like everyone is simply okay with it. >> it has gotten so harsh. you know, a lot of our viewers didn't like it at the time, but when brett kavanaugh was up and suddenly we were talking about rape rooms in washington, d.c. high school parties. mika, you grew up in the suburbs of washington, d.c. were there rape rooms? you know, like michael avenatti

was -- no, but if a girl was kissed by somebody else, would come home and laugh at it. no, we need to bring this up. then there were stories in "the new yorker" saying, oh, somebody may remember, did he kiss me or not or did he reach out -- like this madness on both sides. republicans, willie, said, oh, because brett kavanaugh was treated so badly we're going to show more grace -- oh, so you suggest that she coddles pedophiles? is that the way -- >> that's restraint. >> -- the republican party restrains itself, by accusing her of being a friend of pedophiles? and other republicans accusing anybody who supports her nomination as being pro pedophilia. doesn't really sound like republicans have really distinguished themselves much from michael avenatti and the

people that created the circle around brett kavanaugh. >> and we heard it from josh hawley, that the future supreme court justice protects and coddles pedophiles. there are other republicans whose names we won't dignify who say the three republicans who say they will vote for judge jackson are pro-pedophilia. that's a member of congress saying that. here is more of senator lindsey graham yesterday and his about face. remember, less than ten months ago he voted aye for this judge. >> now, all of us are in politics over here. again, i'm inclined to vote for judges of the other side, but this choice of judge jackson what really embraced by the most radical people in the democratic movement. if we give back the senate and we're in charge of this body and there's judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side. but if we are in charge she

would not have been before this committee. you would have somebody more moderate than this. >> quiet part out loud. >> my god. >> the rest of it, basically saying if we were in charge she wouldn't have gotten a hearing the way merrick garland didn't. >> taking us to a dangerous place. there are three republicans, murkowski, collins, romney, the white house completed. certainly 53 votes, smaller than the margins we used to get but still happy about that. this from lindsey graham yesterday is stunning, to suggest if the other party that controls the senate, contrary to the party that holds the white house, that president may never get a supreme court justice, they wouldn't even bring them to a vote for a committee hearing. that's what we saw in 2016 with merrick garland, mcconnell using the excuse that year it was an election year, which, of course, did not have precedence before. graham is not going that far. he is simply saying if republicans were in charge we wouldn't bring her to a vote. yes, he had favored a judge from his home state of south

carolina. maybe that's why he's particularly bent out of shape here, but really he seems to be sending a marker for a very dangerous gridlock going forward. >> but, you know, there's another piece here that i think a lot of people are missing and that's being overshadowed by the politicization that we've seen. that is when you listen to the republican senators on the judiciary committee talk, a lot of what you heard was she has amazing qualifications. she sounds like a great person. she is brilliant. we think she is bright and is well qualified and her family should be proud. these benevolent comments, but, no, it is a "no" vote. that is so indicative and frustrating for someone like me and many other black americans to watch. that's an element that's being overshadowed because there's a very heavy political tide we are dealing with with this conversation, but it is very much so indicative of what so many black americans experience every day in private spaces. you did the right thing. you did the right thing better

than most people have ever or could ever wish to do it. you have answered every question that the system has thrown at you, and yet and still someone is going to turn around and tell you know. you brought up kavanaugh, which i think is an interesting contrast despite both of the cases there was an attempt to boogeyman the appointee. kavanaugh was we understand sexual assault is a valid thing and we need to be careful about how we deal with survivors of sexual assault, but yes. in this case it is you have all of the qualifications, you are brilliant, you have done the right things but no. that experience is so germane to what it is to be black in american that watching it carries an additional level of frustration for people like me. >> katty -- >> let me just say again something that has stuck in my craw, as they say, for 15 years has been on the other side, too. where you have somebody like

miguel estrada, who as qualified as anybody, would have made a remarkable supreme court justice. democrats, and then let's just call the democrat out by name, chuck schumer basically said because you are hispanic and because you are conservative, you are not going to go to the supreme court. there were other people of color this same way, too. it is -- let me just ask, how do we depoliticize this process? >> right. >> this process is broken. >> i have said that this process is what warrants interrogation. the reason i say that is because when you have legislators who stand to gain more political capital from being obstructive and being contrarian, just because, without any real reason, that says a lot about what people really expect from washington. because what is it we can expect to get done in the spirit of democracy, in the spirit of compromise when it is okay to

stonewall a supreme court justice for no other reason than we don't like the party they may be affiliated with and the president who nominated them. that is a very, very doomsday-like proclamation for the future of where we're going in that legislature. i don't know the answer, but i know until we begin to take the process more seriously we will see more of this and people will double down on the atrocious practices they're engaging in. >> katty kay from the bbc, how is this looking from 20,000 feet? >> look, it is a big discussion at the moment on democracy and autocracy, the strength of our democracies. i have been listening to the hearings of ketanji brown jackson and thinking if we need to shore up democracy, which we clearly do in the 21st century, it is an example of an element of democracy not working for the people. how can you have somebody like senator ben sasse say, i think she is great, i'm very impressed

with every single thing she has done but i'm going to vote against her because we don't share the same judicial philosophy. i'm sure the framers didn't have that in mind, otherwise you wouldn't have a separation of powers. we are not creating what is deemed to be an independent supreme court. it is one of the foundations of what makes this democracy strong. if that's weakened our democracy looks a little bit weakened. we are in a moment in time where we should be doing everything we can to make sure democracy looks strong and effective for people. this is not the way to do that. >> charles coleman, thank you so much. >> thank you, charles. >> great insights this morning. appreciate it. >> by the way, it is "southpark," did you know that? >> i'm a bigger "family guy" fan. >> are you really? >> absolutely. >> never got into "family guy." still ahead, retired four star general barry mccaffrey joins us at the top of the hour. also ahead, civil rights

leaders martin luther king iii and andrea king are with us, following an emotional ceremony marking the assassination of martin luther king jr. we are back in 90 seconds. yone. they favor the rich and the powerful, when they should be protecting our rights and our future. our next supreme court justice needs to understand all of us, and provide equal justice for all of us. judge ketanji brown jackson has a proven record of protecting the rights of all. she will be the first black woman to serve on the highest court in the land. historic. she will be a justice for all.

it is the top of the hour. the president of ukraine is hours away from addressing the united nations security council, of which russia is a permanent

member. it comes one day after visiting bucha where he says more than 300 ukrainian civilians were tortured and killed by russian forces. this morning russian officials again denied the massacre, calling it a, quote -- >> whatever. >> -- stage production. the problem for russia, the evidence is very real. we will have the global outcry and the call for tougher sanctions including breaking news this morning that the european union will consider new sanctions, including a ban on russian coal. jonathan lemire and katty kay are still with us and msnbc contributor mike barnicle joins the table. >> mike. >> welcome, mike. >> how are you feeling? top of your game? you look like you are at the top of your game. >> absolutely. >> he's happy to be here. >> so happy. >> he couldn't be happier than any of us about the fourth hour

of "morning joe." >> celebrating. >> for a few years. let's do another hour. let's stick around another day. >> he wants to listen to us. >> how many days, tuesday? >> tuesday. >> it seems like we're a few days away from opening day. >> thursday, opening day here in new york, yankee stadium. looks like it may be rained out. a week from friday, good friday, red sox open at home. >> as it should be. >> good friday, perfectly appropriate. >> how does red sox nation feel at this table about the season? >> it is interesting. we were saying it was going to be the worst red sox team in maybe 60, 70 years, and then we got one trade and now we're going to win the world series. we have a strong infield. i think, you know, at first. >> bobby d. >> if bobby d has as good a season as he did the second half

of the season, before the playoffs, we have a strong team. the problem is pitching. >> always. >> somebody actually looked at chris sale a couple of weeks ago and he broke a couple of ribs. that always hurts. but who knows? mike, how is the pitching? >> well, you've got their ace, their starter who will be opening up for the red sox in their game against the tigers this week, away, on the road. he is noted for pitching long innings. >> right. >> a very strong guy. so he's going to start probably the first three or four games. >> strong out there. >> and then we'll get to the bullpen. i don't know, the pitching obviously -- they're going to be competitive though. the red sox will be competitive. >> there's no doubt. lamire and i have this figured out. we easily have fourth, right? >> yeah, we probably got fourth. probably got fourth. >> i think we will be within five, six games of the blue jays.

>> it is the rays division. >> no, no, this year it is the blue jays. >> they're going to hit. >> okay, trevor story, that's a great story, no pun intended. >> well done. >> that is great. >> you read "the "boston herald" pages and he is probably one of the greatest and nobody has seen him play. >> we haven't seen him play outside mile high stadium, too. the pitching is good. it is fine. after that it goes downhill fast. ive -- i think they will have trouble in a competitive division. the bluejays are loaded and then there's the rays. >> we can't keep up with the yankees. >> at least $500 billion. >> you guys -- >> you became the -- >> and we're the little engine that could. i think i can. >> welcome to the dark side. >> my god. >> i'm watching mika's soul -- >> yeah. richard haass has reached out to

me. >> okay. >> but he didn't call me. >> did he face time? >> he didn't face time me. >> thank god. so creepy. >> he faced time you -- >> why does he face time my husband? >> i don't think he was meaning to do it. >> i can't believe i have to worry about this. >> suddenly he was talking about tiger and the masters. he's very upset. he believes this golf correspondent thing. >> press conference today, tiger, 11:00 a.m.. >> he's playing. >> he's playing. >> he has to. >> bar the door. that is officially enough. let's get to the news at 5 past the hour. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy met with residents in bucha yesterday and is accusing russia of genocide in the death of civilians and other alleged atrocities. in a moment nbc's molly hunter brings us the stories from those still there and those who managed to escape, but first nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel with more on what president zelenskyy and

president biden are saying about the horrors. we want to warn you, some of the images are disturbing. >> reporter: when russian troops pulled out of the kyiv suburb of bucha they exposed the horrors of their failed occupation. bodies line the streets, some with their hands bound, executed at close range. others bore the scars of torture. the president's office said women were raped. the mayor of bucha said they discovered two mass graves. other bodies were lined up in cellars. ukraine's president zelenskyy visited bucha and said the russian army treated ukrainian civilians worse than animals. this is a war crime, he said, and it will be recognized by the world as genocide. in another nearby town where russian troops also left in retreat, the bodies of the

mayor, her husband and young son were unearthed in a shallow grave. president biden is calling for a war crime trial to hold russian president putin accountable. >> this guy is brutal, and what is happening in bucha is outrageous and everyone has seen it. >> reporter: president biden says he may impose more sanctions on russia, but so far u.s. sanctions have not deterred putin from launching and continuing his assault. russia's foreign minister claimed ukrainians staged the aftermath in bucha with actors pretending to be dead, that it is preposterous given all of the evidence may be beside the point. independent polls in russia show putin's approval rating appears to be going up amid a wave of nationalism. a senior u.s. defense official says two-thirds of russian forces around the capital have been repositioned.

russia appears to be gearing up for a new offensive in the east and in the south along the black sea with this new strike on an oil depot in odesa. in the capital of the east, kharkiv, igor, a ukrainian sergeant says russia's atrocities make him only more determined to defend the city. >> behind my back, behind my back the city. in the city, my family, my mother and father, my wife and daughter. i will do everything, what is needed to stop them here. >> reporter: in bucha they're going house to house, working quickly, desperately trying to remove the land mines the russians left behind. russian soldiers occupied ludmila's home more than a months. they broke the locks on the doors. she was forced downstairs to the basement. they threatened to throw grenades at us, she says, they cursed at us saying our husbands were nazis.

if you could give me one russian, i would chop him up the same way they chop up people in neighboring irpin. and throughout bucha the carnage laid bare in the sun. olenka's brother was missing for more than a week. she says, we found him five days ago lying on the street, three bullets to the leg, one to the heart, one to the lungs. their mother, standing next to his backyard grave, plans to rebury her son like he deserves. >> no one knows will we survive. >> reporter: here in the western city of lviv we meet 32-year-old an draw with his brother nikolai and their families they escaped bucha on march 9th. >> we saw horrific things like murdered people on the outside like civilians and they just were shot, they were killed. >> reporter: where were the gunshots. >> like to the chest. >> reporter: and these were

civilians? >> for sure, civilians. >> reporter: now relatively safe, they say lviv feels like a different universe. >> how does it feel seeing the pictures that you saw over the weekend? >> it could be us. >> reporter: you could be you? >> yes, it was just the luck, no less, no more. >> that was molly hunter reporting. ukrainian forces continue to make progress and have retaken key territories in the north of the country, but senior defense officials warn that while russia appears to be pulling back troops from around kyiv this shift does not mean the ukrainian capital is not still under threat. officials believe the russian troops are being refitted, resupplied and possibly reinforced with additional manpower, and will then be repositioned around ukraine to continue fighting elsewhere. defense officials assess troops will be moved to the eastern part of the country in the

donbas region, although the move has not begun yet. currently about two-thirds of troops have moved to either belarus or are on the way. just under 20 battalion tactical groups remain near kyiv. of. >> retired four star army general barry mccaffrey, nbc news and msnbc military analyst and an american hero. it is an honor to have you here as always, general. i'm curious. i hear people saying, well, the russians are going to reposition, the russians are going to reload, the russians are going to come back to kyiv. they've just been dreadful over the last six weeks in terms of their battlefield tactics. their leaders are getting shot. they seem to be in disarray. what is your assessment of what we see over the next month? >> well, i think you characterized it correctly. they lost control of their

operational force. they suffered enormous casualties, we think in excess of 25,000 killed and wounded. their chain of command appears to have melted down. we are seeing gross signs of indiscipline, murder and abuse of civilians at a tactical level. putin has changed his strategic aim with civilian populations as the target of strategic strikes of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, aircraft. the russians are in a mess. now they're going to try to straighten it out. the key question, joe, it seems to me is can the ukrainian armed forces form an operational maneuver force and take the fight to the russian forces before they can start the next phase of their operation. to some extent that will depend on whether nato, a coalition of the willing, the united states,

can provide game-changing technology rapidly and in sufficient numbers, anti-ship missiles, air defense systems and armor and artillery for a maneuver attack on the russians. the questions are in the balance. >> general, i understand the possibility of tanks heading in. what difference would that make for the ukrainian's ability to take the fight to the russians? >> ukrainian forces have been simply incredible. their small unit tactics, it has been a dismounted fight, they've been fighting from urban areas which gave them the advantage, the javelins, the stinger missiles, they've been devastating on the impact of badly handled russian armor. that phase is over. now they have to come out of the urban areas and try to maneuver

against the russians. again, i see discussions, sort of slow pace on the part of nato about anti-ship missiles, we're working on it, the notion of are we going to dredge up some old p-72 russian tanks from eastern european allies to provide them. but we have to think qualitative improvements over the russians. so i'm sort of hopeful there's a new mindset. secretary blinken when he goes to nato, if he can't get the 30 nations to act in concert, he can build a coalition of the brits, germans, french, u.s. and get this material of war into the ukrainian hands. otherwise it will be a grinding stalemate that will drag on for months, if not years. >> general, obviously president zelenskyy has been frustrated with the lack or at least the pages of arms that have come to his country to support him.

we are likely to hear that when he addresses the u.n. security council, coming back from his trip to bucha showing the horrors we have been showing. yet president biden saying we have given our support. can you talk as a military general, talk about the logistics of getting the material into the country and why it feels from the ukrainian side to be moving slower than they would like it? >> you know, a lot of decisions in washington, defense related, foreign policy, take months if not years to hammer out. there are councils, you know, conferences, contending factions of lawyers from state, justice, the white house, defense. they've got to break through this process. i've got to remind everybody, at the height of the iraq conflict we were spending $9 billion a month. so the level of support coming out of nato nations and the united states is still

immeasurably lower than anything we have seen in the last 20 years. i think the other thing is there's been understandable concern by the president of the united states and his senior officials on escalating the conflict, either horizontally to other nations in eastern europe or, god forbid, nuclear confrontation at a tactical level. now i think the war is at a new phase. you have to have a new mindset. the level of support has been inadequate in terms of giving the ukrainians the qualitative edge. they need m-1 tanks, not ancient p-72s. they need anti-ship missiles. brits, norwegian, the u.s. all have them in sufficient numbers. the russian navy is out in the black sea with 21 combatant and amphibious vessels. if they're going to defend odesa they have to go after the force afloat with anti-ship missiles.

so time is wasting. they have to step up to this. >> general, it is now pretty clear to the world we're not -- the ukrainians are not facing a russian army. it is not an army. it is a gang, it is a mob. you just mentioned odesa. what can be done right now to protect odesa? because if odesa falls, it is a critical condition for ukraine's economy and the fight they're in. >> i think you're right. the focus is in mariupol, which it should be, which is basically smashed flat. i cannot understand the courage, the tenacity of the ukrainian forces defending that. of course, still 100,000 people are suffering in the city. the vital target for putin is to gain control and close off the sea. odesa must be successful if ukraine is going to continue as a viable economic entity. to do that you have to reinforce

the entire ukrainian force and let them sort out on the ground how they're going about it. the key battle will be in the east, as clint watts pointed out. can the ukrainians form this mobile maneuver force to counterattack the russians. in the south, the key is to go after the russian navy. they sunk one and damaged two. we need to provide them the tools -- those russian ships that are firing caliber cruise missiles with a 1,000-mile range. they're not just after the amphibious threat to odesa. they're a force of fire power for the russians throughout ukraine. >> general, you mentioned time's a wasting and the need to step up before the russians have a chance to launch the second force of the operation, to step up the arms flow into ukraine. can you spell out to us, what's

the kind of quantity extra that is needed by the ukrainians? ought we to be doubling the flow of arms into ukraine, tripling the flow of arms into ukraine in order to equip them to repel a second offensive? what is it specifically they need? what's the blockage to them getting that spigot opened? >> i think a lot of the blockage is political and understandable. nato at 30 is a cautious organization. they have different viewpoints, domestic audiences. the french, you know, election is in the offing here. the far right is a pro russian group. so there are extremely concerning political movements at work in europe. having said that, again, i point out we just announced with great pride we did $300 million additional support for ukraine. $300 million versus $9 billion a month during the war in iraq. i think it was $7 billion or $8

billion a month at the height of the afghan conflict, trying to equip and permit a country with modern armed forces. the scale of our support it seems to me at this phase of the war -- the earlier phase i understand where we were and it was magnificent. now they've got to redouble their efforts. but it can't just be cautious shoving small amounts of equipment into ukraine. they probably need 500 m-1 tanks. we have 3,000. we can do that. anti-ship missiles, the brits have got to not be working on it. they have to get the anti-ship missiles into the fight. i noticed admiral kirby called them coastal defense missiles. we are still wrapped up in defensive versus offensive tactical operations. that's nonsense. i have seen a lot of people killed, it was never apparent whether it was a defensive or

offensive system that caused the casualties. we have to move out. >> so, general, let's talk about the historic possibilities here, the historic opportunity here for the ukrainians. they actually have the russians in retreat. they have commanders being killed at an alarming rate. they have russian morale, it seems to me just at historic lows. they aren't engaged in the fight. it is not like they're defending their country against invading nazis or, you know, napoleon's army. they're the invaders and think don't want to be there. let's talk about the historic opportunity for a second, for ukraine to actually break the russian army, these war criminals who have invaded a sovereign land yet again.

what would you do if you had the opportunity? would you go, instead of just slowly bleeding them out, would you go for the kill and crush the army and force them out of ukraine? >> well, i think that's a good phase of the discussion to enter into now. to not just say how long can kyiv or odesa survive? instead, create conditions where the armed forces create strategic threats to russia. that means nato moving up and substantially reinforcing, by the way, eastern europe and norway and creating a backup threat if nato entered the war. but i think in addition you are quite correct. you know, the russian armed forces minus their nuclear weapons is an anemic force in many ways. he never completed the modernization of the ground combat units.

now they've had significant combat losses, particularly in their leadership. they're conscripting new soldiers. they're bringing in allegedly mercenaries from the wagner group. they're allegedly recruiting syrians who are a murderous lot themselves and bringing them into the fight. they're trying to refit these organizations and move them hundreds of miles to a new attack access. i'm not too sure they will be able to pull this off. this is their period of vulnerability. the ukrainians have to go after them now, not next year. that includes going after the russian navy in the black sea and sea of azov. secretary blinken, who has lead for the approval of foreign military sales and in the international communities, he and secretary austin have to step up and do it and the president has to back them and bust through domestic concerns. >> all right. retired four star army general

barely mccaffrey. thank you so much for being with us. as always, thank you for your service to this country. we greatly appreciate it. jonathan lemire white house right now. do they have the michbd set to do more than just stop the ukrainians from slowly getting killed day by day, to actually help the ukrainians take the fight to the russians now? because we have talked about phases. the biden administration i said it all along, phase one i thought they did extraordinary well. they moved into phase two. he stopped saying what we're not going to do, started calling putin a war criminal. now we're into phase three, the russian retreat and the so-called repositioning, which i think is a lot of nonsense. they're going to try to reposition, but they're -- this is disorder. this is an opportunity at this

moment for the ukrainians to push them out, to actually start moving toward crimea. i'm not saying go into crimea, but make putin think, oh, my god, i may even lose what i had before this war began, i better sue for peace. >> officials i talked to suggest it is a moment for the goal to be for ukraine to win the war at opposed to just not lose it. >> so they are thinking that way? >> they are thinking that way, but there are lines they still cannot cross. i think what we're going to see is a real escalation of trying to get as quickly as possible enough military aid and equipment and supplies the ukrainians say they need because the russias, whatever you call it, whether pulling back or repositions, they won't be spread so thin. it does worry u.s. military officials, the russians may be more effective if trying to hit a few targeted areas. we will hear from the president potentially as early as this day announcing more sanctions against russia, against

oligarchs, against portions of the economy. they feel they'll continue to put a vice like grip on moscow, but there are only -- there's only so much they can do. there's no talk here of what president biden said two weeks ago now, i guess, when he said he wanted putin out of power. of course, that's what they would all like but there's no mechanism to do that. they need to try to isolate him. there's growing disenchantment from the white house about the rest of the world. we talked about europe closely banded together and sticking together for ukraine. but it is not just china, much of asia, the middle east, india have not joined the forces here and are still providing russia an economic lifeline. >> coming up on "morning joe" we will go live to andrea mitchell in brussels ahead of secretary of state antony blinken's meeting with nato ally. we will speak with white house security advisor matt miller about what the intelligence community thinks

vladimir putin's next moves will be. also ahead, what, if anything, do the russian people know of the atrocities being carried out in ukraine? nbc's ken dilanian joins us with new reporting on that. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ crossed the desert's bare, man. ♪ ♪ i've breathed the mountain air, man. ♪ ♪ of travel i've had my share, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere. ♪ ♪ i've been to: pittsburgh, parkersburg, ♪ ♪ gravelbourg, colorado, ♪ ♪ ellensburg, cedar city, dodge city, what a pity. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere. ♪

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♪♪ look at that beautiful shot of manhattan. the sun is coming up. time to go to work. some people actually might go in to work. >> we are. >> restaurants are certainly full. >> have been here a while. >> all right. yesterday we told you about tesla ceo elon musk acquiring a 9% stake in twitter. the purchase, worth around $3 billion, makes him the company's largest stakeholder -- shareholder. it comes a months after musk questioned whether the platform is undermining democracy. twitter stock surged yesterday following the news. musk already appears to be

suggesting changes. last night he tweeted a poll asking if users want an edit button. interesting. >> it is. tiger woods drew some 30,000 spectators during nine holes of practice at augusta national yesterday. >> wow. >> ahead of what could be his 24th masters opening round on thursday. the 15-time major champion has not played in a pga tour event in more than 17 months after suffering serious injuries in that terrible car wreck in february of 2021. woods has said it will be a game-time decision as to whether his right leg can handle four rounds of masters competition. he will hold a news conference this morning and golf fans sure do hope he is going to play. >> oh. >> remember, he won it three years ago. shocking that late in his career. it would be great to see him out there this week. >> incredible. >> what a story. he nearly lost his leg in that car accident and he hasn't committed to playing just yet, but all of the signs say he is

trending that direction. the roar from the crowd when he appears on thursday. mike barnicle, thursday will be hopefully the opening of the masters and tiger woods. >> i won't be here friday. >> coming up, pausing for prayer and reflection. civil rights leader goes, lawmakers and diplomats honored the life of martin luther king jr. . we are also helded to brussels where the nato summit will be sharply focused on the massacre in bucha. we will get the latest from andrea mitchell. while the world has seen the horrors coming out of ukraine every day, vladimir putin is keeping russians in the dark. we will have more on that ahead on "morning joe."

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washington, d.c. to commemorate the 54th anniversary of reverend king's assassination. among the many people at last night's ceremony was ukrainian ambassador to the united states, oksana markarova. the ambassador said she was touched by the solidarity with ukraine as we fight for the same values and freedom. joining us now civil rights leaders martin luther king iii and andrea king. andrea tell us about the event and also the symbolism of having the ukrainian ambassador attending. >> good morning. we felt as the nation and the world observed the 54th anniversary since the day that martin luther king jr was assassinated it was important to take a moment to reflect on where we are as a world and nation, and to really remember that martin luther king jr

talked about the eradication of triple evils of poverty, of racism and war, and that he stood for peace, justice and equity. we felt it was very important to have a moment to reflect on that and to stand with the ukrainian people, with the ukrainian ambassador and call for peace, to remember that he was taken from us in violence and to bring back the notion of peace and to talk about nonviolence in this world. >> martin luther king iii, andrea said it was important to take a look at where we are in this fight. where are we? >> you know, sometimes when it looks very dark, which it does at this particular moment, and andrea often says this, we look to the stars at the darkest moment. and when we look at what is happening domestically with violence increasing, when we look at what is happening really all over the world and the many wars that exist, but certainly

ukraine being the most important because it could propel us into a world war iii that no one wants to see. but the fact of the matter is we also know that none of us will ever give up, none of us will ever give in, we can't give out. we have always endured as a nation and as a world community, and at some point human kind, dad would say, must learn nonviolence or we might face nonexistence. i want to believe that we are a much better humanity than we are seeing right now. we are seeing the inhumanity which is happening in the ukraine. russians bombing hospitals with children and places where people are supposed to be safe. it is reallien conscienable that we would see this behavior at this particular time. we as a global society should be much further ahead, and we have to correspondent to work to set that tone. although it looks extraordinary

difficult, i still remain hopeful. >> andrea, good morning. it is good to see you. we were talking yesterday on the anniversary of dr. king's assassination with reverend sharpton about this moment in the supreme court, where it looks now with the support of three republicans like judge ketanji brown jackson will become the first black woman to serve on the supreme court. i'm curious what you think it means for the continuation of dr. king's dream. >> i think first and foremost it was extraordinary that happened yesterday. so i think in some divine way it was a way, a sign for us to keep going, to acknowledge the fact of how far we have to go but how far we have come. certainly as a black woman, as a black mother i cannot think of anyone that's more qualified to sit on the supreme court. but moreover, i think about all of the black women that are sitting in places where, you

know, under tremendous amount of stress and strain they're continuing forward with grace, with dignity, with power. they are actually being seen. we are certainly not being seen enough, and all too often we are still being diminished or the magic in little black girls are being ignored, but yesterday certainly was a sign, and particularly to girls, little girls and black girls, about the power of intelligence and diligence and grace and strength of black women. >> mr. king, your father's signature ranks among very few in terms of lasting prominence, memory and significance. only a handful of americans carry that significance. your name, martin luther king iii, i'm going to assume has been both a blessing and a burden somewhat to you.

what's it been like to carry that name, to carry that legacy and keep moving it forward as you have done? >> well, it is an extraordinary honor. i am thankful though that my mother prepared me when i was a young man, or actually a young boy, by saying, "you don't have to go to morehouse college like your father did, you don't have to become a civil rights leader, you don't have to become a minister, be your best self whatever that is and we will support you." that kind of liberated me because if i woke up every day trying to fulfill the shoes of martin luther king jr i would fail miserably. i'm not sure martin luther king jr, based on the iconic scenario that exists, could fulfill his shoes at this time. the fact of the matter is that it is an extraordinary honor and a blessing. i look at it that way as opposed to the burdens. everyone has burdens, quite frankly. so i want to always be positive and thankful and grateful.

i also believe that to him or her that much is given, of him or her is much required. >> martin luther king iii and andrea king. thank you both very much for being on this morning. still ahead, cnbc's andrew ross sorokin joins us to dig into the stories driving the day on wall street. plus, nbc's andrea mitchell from brussels where nato foreign ministers are meeting on russia, and richard engel from ukraine's capital. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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two advisors to former president trump are one step closer to being held in contempt of congress. the house rules committee yesterday advanced the contempt resolution for peter navarro and dan scavino. both have refused to cooperate with the select committee investigating the capitol attack claiming executive privilege. the leaders of the executive committee laid out why testimony of the two men matters in the investigation. >> mr. scavino worked directly with president trump to spread president trump's false message that the election was stolen and to recruit americans to come to washington with the false premise that january 6th would be an opportunity to, quote, take back their country. mr. navarro will also be a key witness. he has written a book boasting about his role in planning and coordinating the activity of january 6th, and yet, as the chairman noted, he does not have the courage to testify here. >> to put it plainly, they were both involved in efforts to

challenge or overturn the election. the last i checked a president's attempt to stay in power after the people voted him out of office aren't the sort of things where executive privilege applies. remember, peter navarro is the man who who laid out in hisk and media interviews after the green bay sweep plan to steal the election. says the only reason it didn't work is because vice president pence didn't carry the ball across the goal line. the full house is expected to vote on the contempt resolution sometime this week. new hampshire governor chris sununu is walking back comments he made over the weekend at the gridiron club dinner in washington, d.c. an event noted for its tradition of roasting politicians with satirical and often cutting comedy speeches. according to "politico," sununu said, quote, the press often will ask me if i think donald trump is crazy and i'll say it this way, i don't think he's so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution, but i think if he were in one, he

ain't getting out. however, during an appearance on msnbc's "meet the press daily" yesterday the republican governor said calling the former president, quote, effing crazy was all part of a joke. >> president trump has been there, so he knows what it's all about. and it's really a reminder that it's not that we laugh at one another, we laugh with one another. before i did my whole spiel they did a whole skit making fun of me and it was funny. it was funny. these are all jokes and it's kind of a way to bring some bipartisanship and some smiles back to washington. >> it's just not true. 99% of all jokes are true. >> yeah, people who were there in the room that night suggests that sununu was saying what he wanted to say there. certainly he is someone who mitch mcconnell had hoped would run for senate for new hampshire, increasing their chances of getting a majority and he is not doing that, either.

i suspect we will hear from the former president any second. >> not really, because he's really not on any major platform. >> he's got that email thing. >> he will do his little thing. >> sununu claims just a joke among friends. i'm sure donald trump sees it that way. >> he's not known for laughing at himself. >> he doesn't know how. former president barack obama is returning to the white house today for the first time since he left office. he will be there promoting the affordable care act alongside president joe biden. according to senior administration officials the treasury is expected to announce a new proposal at the event that will grant financial support under the aca to families that pay more than 10% of their income toward health care coverage. the proposal would take effect next year. the administration officials did not say how it would be paid for. the event marks biden and obama's first joint appearance since last fall. and finally, a moment from spring training as we're on the eve here of opening day. a home run robbing catch against the cardinals yesterday required a little teamwork by the

nationals outfield. check this out. left fielder able to get a love on the ball heading over the wall before his teammate swoops in to snag it just before it hits the ground. >> what? i guess that's fair, right? >> oh, yeah. >> you can't really see it through the -- >> ball is in play, he caught it. >> here is comes again, now you can get a good look at it here. we're going up with the glove, going up over the wall, he just bats it back into play. >> spring training camera angles. >> they are not at their best, either. >> everybody is getting ready for the regular season. we return to our coverage of the war in ukraine. matt miller joins us to discuss vladimir putin's next moves. "morning joe" is coming right back. utin's next moves. "morning joe" is coming right back

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welcome back to "morning joe," it is just about two minutes before the top of the hour. reagan national airport. it's always nice if you're traveling, it's looking good today. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is set to address the u.n.'s most powerful body just hours from now. it comes amid more graphic evidence showing the atrocities in bucha, evidence that contradicts every denial russia tries to offer. this morning more european countries are taking action, expelling russian diplomats and considering more sanctions, including a possible ban on russian coal. nbc's andrea mitchell joins us from brussels in just a moment. jonathan lemire, mike barnicle and katty kate are still with us as we get into our top stories this morning.

>> we talked a couple hours ago, willie, about the opinion -- opinion page from the "wall street journal" and their lead editorial says at the end, it's the consequences of war crimes, lead editorial this morning in the "wall street journal" say this may also be a prosecution better done by europeans than the u.s., they are the people most acutely by the war and mr. putin would only be too happy to turn this war into a russia-u.s. fight. what matters is that war crimes are investigated and no matter the difficulty in prosecuting them at least a diligent determined effort is made to render justice so the world can see that mr. putin's brand of war can't be tolerated. this this is now -- we've got from joe biden being attacked for calling vladimir putin a war criminal to now leaders across the west talking about these war crimes and i wonder even if they have to make peace eventually with putin, which most likely is

the way this all ends, you certainly can see a lot of russian generals, a lot of russian commanders, a lot of russian colonels actually tried for war crimes. >> yeah, it's true war crimes have been committed for weeks now but you o. undeniable with what we've seen out of bucha and president biden strongly said yesterday this guy is a war criminal, talking about vladimir putin, he used the term butcher in that speech a couple weeks ago. he's been proven right. president macron of france said yesterday that these are likely war crimes we're witnessing. now many experts have said this is a war zone but it's also a crime scene. now you have international groups going in to assess what's happened. ukrainian president zelenskyy is vowing to hold russia accountable for those atrocities, the ones soldiers are accused of committing in bucha. zelenskyy's pledge comes after he toured the suburb of kyiv yesterday to see the devastation firsthand. during the visit he accused russia of committing war crimes and said every russian soldier

involved in these atrocities will be identified and held responsible legally. zelenskyy also says he expects the civilian death toll to increase as more roams are cleared. he will address the u.n. security council this morning. msnbc will carry that live when it happens. new satellite images are contradicting moscow's claim that the bodies of the civilians were placed in the streets after russian forces withdraw from bucha. a "new york times" review of video and images from the u.s. intelligence contractor appeared to corroborate recent social media posts and videos revealing bodies in the streets left in the open for weeks. a warning again, the images we are about to show you are disturbing. russia claims it withdrew from bucha on march 30th. this image showing seven bodies lining the street reportedly was taken on march 19th. here are two side-by-side images of a body lying near two abandoned cars. on the left an image from social media taken three days ago appears to match the satellite image on the right, reportedly taken back on march 21st.

that's when russian forces by their own account still occupied that town. russia claims images from bucha can be faked, mika. meanwhile, president joe biden is calling vladimir putin a war criminal who needs to be tried for war crimes in ukraine. >> you may remember i got criticized for calling putin a war criminal. well, the truth of the matter, you saw what happened in bucha. this warrants him -- he is a war criminal, but we have to gather the information, we have to continue to provide ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight and we have to get all the detail so this can be an actual -- have a war crime trial. this guy is brutal and what's happening in bucha is outrageous and everyone is seeing it. >> president biden also said his administration will be imposing new sanctions on russia. joining us now, special adviser at the white house,

national security council, matt miller. good to have you with us, matt. president biden was talking about ukrainians getting the weapons they need. will they? do they have them now? >> they do, and, in fact, we continue to flow new weapon systems in every day. we have provided more than $1.6 billion in security systems to ukraine just since the conflict began, over $2 billion since president biden was elected to office. we continue to identify and facilitate the transfer of new systems every day, not just the javelin missiles that the ukrainians have been use to go such great effect to destroy russian tanks on the battlefield, not just the stingers, but also long range air defense systems. when the president went to brussels two weeks ago he talked to our nato allies and urged them to provide coastal defense systems to the ukrainians, something that president zelenskyy explicitly asked for. last week the united kingdom announced in response to that request that those systems would be provided. so we continue to work with the ukrainians to identify new

weapons capabilities and get them delivered to them on the ground so they can use them in the fight against the russians. >> so, matt, general mccaffrey was on earlier and he said, we believe correctly, that this war has entered a new phase with the russians leaving the kyiv area and repositioning. says that this is a unique moment, a unique opportunity for the ukrainians. talked about the importance of getting tanks in there, talked about the importance of anti-ship systems in there, anti-ship missiles. are we seeing an increase in not only the speed of the weapons going in there, but also the type of weapons that are going in? >> we are, joe. in fact, we agree with general mccaffrey, jake sullivan the president's national security adviser said that from the white house podium yesterday, that what we are seeing are the russians withdrawing from kyiv, withdrawing from the north and redeploying to launch a fesh roerns assault on the east. we expect them to deploy dozens of tactical groups instituting

tens of thousands of russian soldiers to try to surround the ukrainian forces there and launch a new phase of this war. so we are continuing to flow new types of security assistance. one thing i will say about this, you know, there are types of security systems that we talk about, you know, when everyone sees javelin missiles being used to destroy russian tanks on social media there is no point on us trying to hide the ball about what we're providing, and there are other types of security assistance we don't talk about either because our allies don't want to disclose they provided those weapons capabilities to the ukrainians or the ukrainians want to keep some bit of operational security and not telegraph exactly to the russians what we're providing. you will see reports of things that we're providing that we don't confirm, but i can assure you we have providing new weapons capabilities to the ukrainian army almost every day. >> matt, good morning, jonathan lemire. we heard the president suggest that vladimir putin should stand trial for war crimes, he and perhaps his top aides. how possibly could that come about? secondly, many of those on the grow under in ukraine are using the term genocide to describe

what is happening there in the suburbs of kyiv, but the administration pointedly is not doing so yet. tell us why. >> so with respect to genocide specifically, that is a formal legal determination, it takes a great deal of evidence, takes a great deal of review. we have just begun to collect evidence of what happened in bucha, although we can see with our own eyes the videos of what happened, it's apparent there were mass atrocities, it's apparent that there were war crimes committed as the president said. we will go through the process that the state department conducts to assess whether it was officially genocide but that's what it takes some time. whatever you call what happened in bucha it's apparent it was a mass atrocities and that's why we are committed to holding the russians accountable, to holding the russian military, russian leader isship accountable and continue to flow military assistance in so the ukrainians can defend themselves in the face of these atrocities. with respect to any trial we continue to discuss with our allies, partners, ukrainians what any kind of accountability

mechanism will look like. there are a number of potential avenues available to us, we will discuss that with all of our allies, there are things that have been deployed in the past, but in the meantime i think people should understand that that type of accountability mechanism is something that would come down the road. i think in the meantime we can't lose focus of the fight that is immediately in front of us. the fight that the ukrainians are conducting to defend their country every day. so that's why kind of the -- holding them accountable through trials is a -- tomorrow or down the road issue, getting military assistance into the ukrainians so they can defend themselves is a today issue that we are focused on really every day here at the white house. >> matt, good morning. you have just laid out all the assistance that the united states was provided to ukraine in this fight, billions of dollars in aid with more to come down the road and yet we expect to hear again from president zelenskyy today before the u.n. security council a plea to the west, including to the united states, to do more. we know there are things the united states says it will not do like create a no fly zone, but what is president biden's

answer in their conversations to president zelenskyy who says thank you for what you've done but i need much more if we're going to push the russians out? >> look, we very much understand where president zelenskyy is coming from. i think anyone who has seen his country attacked would act exactly the same way as he has done. so what we have tried to do both in our conversations with president zelenskyy and in our conversations at all levels of the government from our government to their government is to identify the security assistance -- the weapons, the arms that we think would be most effective and that the ukrainians are trained and know how to use and we can get into the country quickly and they can deploy into the battlefield quickly without having to take weeks or months to train up on new systems. we have tried to work through their list. we get list the ukrainians, we go through them with some level of granularity here at the white house and at the pentagon. in some cases we figure out what are the systems we can provide, in other cases we figure out what are systems that we don't have because they may be soviet era or russian systems, but some

other allies either in europe or around the world have and we work to try to facilitate transfers of those systems to the ukrainians and at the same time often try to backfill our allies so they aren't left defenseless. so we will continue to work through that process, it's something we do every day, and i would say i would expect new security assistance announcements to come in the very near future. >> matt, as you know, there is a large element of the soviet fleet sitting in the black sea looking right at odesa and odesa, if it falls, is a critical loss to the future of the ukrainian economy. is there -- and this is a multifront war, we all understand that, but is there a priority in getting weapon systems into odesa to protect odesa from falling? >> there is. i can tell you -- i mentioned a minute ago one of the things the president did when he was in brussels some 12 days ago now at president zelenskyy's request was to try to identify coastal

defense systems that we could get to the ukrainians to defend their cities along the coast. we looked in our inventory, we found there weren't coastal defense systems that were an exact match we thought would be effective and could get in quickly so we talked to our allies and partners to find other coastal defense systems and as the united kingdom said last week those coastal defense systems are being provided to ukraine now. >> matt miller, thank you very much. joining us now from brussels, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of ""andrea mitchell reports"", andrea mitchell. and, andrea, secretary of state tony blinken will arrive there later today for the nato summit of foreign ministers. what does he hope to accomplish? >> reporter: well, the big motivator now is, of course, bucha. the war crimes, the atrocities that have been described and are clear to everyone to see that

russia is of course saying were staged by the ukrainians and that is so fraudulent that it's laughable. so this is now a meeting to decide on new sanctions, more sanctions. the u.s. is pushing for tougher sanctions. europe has today begun kicking out russian diplomats, germany and france yesterday, now the other eu countries today of the 27 eu members, kicking russian diplomats out, expelling them. and they are talking about stopping coal imports from russia. but what they've not done is stopped the oil and gas imports. of course, europe depending 40% of their fuel on russia and that has been the big resistance, particularly from germany. so that's going to be one of the big arguments. one thing that did happen in the last 24 hours is that the u.s. treasury stopped russia from getting access to $600 million in their central bank reserves that were deposited in u.s.

banks. so they froze those reserves, but were permitting some payments in the last 30 days. well, as of yesterday they're squeezing them. so they are going to have to decide whether they're going to use their available dollars, whatever they have left, for payment on debt, which is due today, or on the war effort. so that's another effort to try to really make the sanctions -- tighten the treasury sanctions that were announced back on february 24th. so the process is moving, but slowly, and blinken is here to push europe forward on really cracking down and also he's going to, of course, hear from zelenskyy before he arrives today, we will hear from zelenskyy at the u.n. and as you pointed out this is really important. this is volodymyr zelenskyy's first appearance before the u.n. security council where you know china and russia are permanent members and he's going to make an appeal with all the emotion and the anger of his personal tour of bucha just yesterday and that is going to be

extraordinarily impactful and he's going to portray russia before the eyes of the world as war criminals. you have just heard matt miller describe the process is long. let me just point out that it took five to six years to decide that genocide had been committed by the myanmar hunta against the rohingya, that was just done in the last couple of days that's how long it takes. madeleine albright pushed war criminal indictments of milosevic in 1999, she was almost single handed doing that. by the time he was convicted in the war tribunal he had already died? there is frustration i'm hearing about the slow pace of the impact that sanctions are having on the russian economy, the russian stock market back up to where it was before the invasion, the ruble is back up

as well, putin has actually set to earn a third more this year than he did on his energy exports. is there a feeling in brussels that getting the europeans to embargo oil and gas is really the only thing that will have a substantial impact on president putin? would that be -- is the thinking that that would be the straw that breaks the camel's back in moscow and might actually have an impact on putin and this war effort? >> reporter: i think there's a feeling that, absolutely, that oil and gas has to be embargoed and has to be to the european market. that's not going to happen. germany has promised to wean itself eventually, stop importing russian energy a year from now. that's not going to have an impact on -- even though this is a protracted war according to u.s. intelligence as we heard from the pentagon and the white house yesterday that that's months. how long can ukraine keep up its resistance at this pace?

and how long, you know -- how long can the ukrainian military and the ukrainian people survive the onslaught from russia? but actually the sanctions have so many loopholes because of india and china. as long as china and india are cooperating and buying energy from russia and as long as our persian gulf allies, saudi arabia, the uae and others are still keeping russia in opec plus, that expanded opec group, sanctions are not going to be enough to stop vladimir putin. so as much as the u.s. is doing, as much as some members of the eu are doing and all of the military that is flowing in and there are a lot of debates as you all have been talking about and mccaffrey last hour as to how quickly it's coming, vladimir putin is not going to stop. this is going to be who can hold out longer, ukraine or russia, and the long-term better is on russia, which is the horror of all of this, especially after seeing -- and bucha is just the

start. we haven't even seen what's in mariupol, right? >> nbc's andrea mitchell, thank you very much for your reporting. now to some other stories making headlines this morning. new york city mayor eric adams is inviting florida's lgbtq community to move to new york after the passage of a controversial law during a news conference yesterday mayor adams announced the launch of a new ad campaign targeting florida's new law dubbed the don't say gay law by critics. it prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in lower grade levels or in a specified manner in the state's public schools, specifically kindergarten through third grade. the ad campaign began yesterday and will run through may 29th. the mayor's office says it will include rainbow studded digital billboards and a social media push targeting five cities in

florida. the new billboard campaign is projected to draw 5 million views and is being funded by company donations. a new ruling from the supreme court will make it easier for people to sue police and the government for malicious prosecution. in a 6-3 ruling justice brett kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion writing the defendant only needs to prove their case did not end in a conviction. the ruling was a victory for a brooklyn man who was arrested in 2014 after a relative made a false accusation of child sexual abuse. larry thompson refused to let police in his house without a warrant and was charged with restricting arrest, he was held in jail for two days before charges were dropped without explanation from the prosecutor or the judge. the senate has reached a deal on a $10 billion covid relief package. the money will fund vaccines, tests and therapeutic drug treatment. the package does not include international aid after senators could not agree on the price tag.

white house press secretary jen psaki released a statement noting the new deal is far less than half the $22.5 billion the administration proposed. senate majority leader chuck schumer says a second funding bill is expected later this spring. and finally, a story, i believe, submitted to us by donny deutsch, a lawyer in florida filed a federal class action lawsuit accusing burger king of false advertising. essentially claiming bk whoppers are too small. >> what? >> the suit alleges burger king began inflating the size of its burgers in images back in 2017, before that the suit claims the fast food claim more fairly advertised its food products. burger king and its parent company did not respond to msnbc's request for comment. yesterday it was the pop tart, they are not that fruity or something like that. if you have time in your day to sue burger king over the size of the whopper, it's time to get

outdoors. >> try other food sources, like something more healthy. >> donny did in his new -- >> up and down. >> the brand up, brand down segment, which actually it was new and -- remember the delorean in '83, '84 it was brand down -- >> he had them up. >> he had airlines up through 2007, he was stubborn on that. front page of the daily news, so eric adams really taking this crime fight to other people in the city and, you know, explain to me, if you guys can, as a new yorker, jonathan lemire, eric adams wants to clean new york city up, wants to clean it up from all the crime. apparently, though, it says here adams holding sneakers of slain 12-year-old brooklyn boy says stop telling me to slow down on

the crime fight. talk about the battle in new york just for people that aren't from the area and want to know what's going on. >> crime, including violent crime, in new york city like big cities across the country is up, it's gone up significantly in the last year, year and a half or so and there's been a wave of shootings recently, a couple of really tragic ones with very young victims, including this 12-year-old. the mayor has received push back by reinstalling police units that had been disbanded and essays, look, we need this. even though we talked to reverend sharpton about this, there is concern in the community about some of the tactics the police officers are using but the sense is right now they are needed. adams says they will follow procedure as they go and of course we know we have had discussions about bail reform and people being put back on the streets too soon, that's not frustration of law enforcement as well. but this is a real thing. adams has only been in office a couple of months and between homelessness surging, obviously real cases of mental illness surging on the streets and

violent crime, he has his hands full. >> when i was living here all the time, took the subway all the time, i wouldn't think about doing it now just from what i hear from the subway system at certain times, willie, it's just -- you're going back -- i wouldn't say you're going back to the late '70s where it was horrific but you certainly are back in the '80s, it's not like it's been over the past 20 years. >> certain times of day or night for sure, but i still take it a lot, but there is a sense in the city based on the crime we've seen you're looking over your shoulder and there is no question about that, especially on the subways. but eric adams was elected mayor based on a platform of public safety, for everything else going on in the city right now that was the number one issue for voters, a former 24-year new york city cop who said i can strike the plans of getting crime down and also keeping our police in check and reforming police behavior in certain cases has been bad and not up to the standards of the nypd. he's doing that. he's making that -- but, still, the crime persists and he is taking moments like the tragic death of this 12-year-old killed

in a drive by intended for someone else to make the point that we have work to do and that this is why he brought that anti-gun unit back. >> is he going to be able to do this, mike? you talked to commissioner bratton who is obviously concerned about so many things and i think he probably agrees with the mayor on just about everything he's doing. >> sure. >> but is he going to be able to get past some of the political obstacles here to make new york a safer place, again, not for the upper east side, but for the people who are most affected by the way let's say it again if you can't say it enough, this is a mayor who won the democratic primary in brooklyn, the bronx, in queens, even in staten island, and that was for a reason, because of crime. >> well, you just put your finger on actually the future, successful future or the failure of the future in terms of trying to get guns off the street and it is that you have political opposition to it. you have aoc and opposition to

the new gun squad, for lack of a better phrase, except i'm told, and i really believe this based on my own past experience in other cities, that if you walk the neighborhoods most afflicted, most affected by guns, by gun violence, the people there want more police on the street. >> yeah. >> want more police to show up, they want to see police on the subways to that point. this is a notion of handgun weapons, this city, as so many large american cities are, and the effort to get guns off the street, i mean, the way the kids use it -- the kids, 15, 16 years old, they can rent a gun from someone who has a gun, i need the gun, i will pay you $25 to use the gun for an hour and a half, they take the gun out, settle their scores, 12-year-old kid gets killed and the gun goes back into use. that's got to stop. it's an almost impossible task but eric adams is taking it on and good for him. >> and you are right, it's

something we've brought up, reverend al has brought up time and again when people were talking about defunding the police even a year, year and a half ago, as reverend al pointed out, representatives, city council people from the highest crime rates said, no, no, no. we don't need less cops here, we need more cops here, we need more cops in our kids' schools, more cops on the street making sure our kids get to school safely. we need the reforms, we sure as hell need the reforms at the same time but we need to be able to do two things at once. so the answer is not defunding the police, it's reforming the police, but also giving us more police officers in schools, on streets, in our neighborhoods, keeping things safe. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," national security analyst clint watts is at the big board to break down the retreat and possible regrouping of russian troops in other parts of ukraine. and propaganda is a crucial piece of vladimir putin's

suppression playbook. we have new reporting on what russians are seeing every day and what they're not seeing. plus, judge ketanji brown jackson.could be confirmed to the supreme court by the end of the week, but the process got sidetracked yesterday by more republican police cal grandstanding. that's all ahead on "morning joe." andstanding. that's all ahead on "morning joe. as the world watches the tragedy in ukraine, oil and gas ceos see an opportunity to get richer. hiking gas prices here at home and profiting off of putin's war. this will continue to happen - as long as we're dependent on oil. americans have had enough. right now, congress can accelerate the transition to clean energy. energy that won't run out. energy that's cheaper for all of us. energy that's made in america to stay in america. congress - let's get it done.

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this is xfinity rewards. our way of showing our appreciation. with rewards of all shapes and sizes. [ cheers ] are we actually going? yes!! and once in a lifetime moments. two tickets to nascar! yes! find rewards like these and so many more in the xfinity app. ukrainian forces continue to make progress, they have retaken key territories in the north of the country according to britain's defense ministry just this morning ukrainian troops forced russian toss retreat from areas around the capital of kyiv and from chernihiv. they say fighting is to continue in parts of the recaptured areas

but diminish significantly this week as russian forces continue to withdraw. joining us from the big board national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc clint watts. clint, good morning to you. what does it look like on the ground this morning? >> some interesting developments, willie. here in the north which we will spend very little time on today you've seen the ukrainian military advance close to the bell russian border. chernihiv was one of the first places we have seen the battle, you're seeing these forces being redeployed over time over to the east and they will head this direction so them come in this kharkiv access. i think the big place to look is everything is going to really shift out to the east here in the coming days and weeks. where the russians have made incremental gains is this kharkiv access, moving down to the southeast. what they want to do is link up their troops here from luhansk, this is that donbas region that vladimir putin says was the justification for going in here to begin with, but the real

battle going on now and i think over the next couple weeks is here. izyum is a key location, here in luhansk this is where they've been trying to battle for a month now not making significant gains. this is that break away republic that the russians had separatist groups n you're going to see the battle between these two axes. if you look at what's happening today you will see russian forces trying to advance, trying to link up here just in between these two cities so that they can essentially control. if they cannot and let's blow this back out, just a little bit, if they cannot advance those troops they won't be able to take and control this donbas region here which means their initial reason and justification for even moving in here it could be lost. separately they're trying to already redeploy some of their airborne forces here to belgara, but there are a lot of questions about the morale of those

troops, the equipment of those troops and whether they will be able to get back in the fight. there are reports of such high officer casualties in the russian military that they are literally going to military schools, reservist units, grabbing officers, sending them up here trying to reconstitute these forces and send them to the donbas area. the south quickly advanced to kherson, where they tried to replace the mayor. today instead you're seeing the ukrainian military fighting back, executing counterattacks and really pushing, pushing back against the southern front. so i think the question that everyone will probably be asking in the next two weeks is in the east what will bring some sort of a peace settlement, will putin stop or continue to push people in like you were saying is a meat grinder, essentially pushing people into donbas and can the russian military sustain in terms of force as soon as

mariupol, terrible human rights violations and tragedies, but, again, ukrainian resistance still holding out. the longer they hold out there the less time and the less map power russian troops have to go towards donbas. >> clint watts, thank you very much. coming up next, three republicans now will backing judge ketanji brown jackson for the u.s. supreme court. so why does lindsey graham say she wouldn't even get a hearing if republicans controlled the senate? that conversation is next on "morning joe." nate that conversation is next on "morning joe." [sound of helicopter blades] ugh... they found me. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this. people have their money just sitting around doing nothing... that's bad, they shouldn't do that. they're getting crushed by inflation. well, i feel for them. they're taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ good to have you back, old friend. yeah, eyes on the road, benny.

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at least three republican senators have now publicly stated they will vote in favor of her final confirmation. that includes senator mitt romney who voted against judge jackson when she was confirmed to the d.c. circuit court of appeals and senator lisa murkowski who admitted her decision could hurt her politically. >> everybody else is thinking about is, you know, how does this play? how does this play? in fairness, i assume -- i have assumed a level of risk in doing this because it is -- is a position that -- that my conference has not taken. but you do, you take that risk and that's just the way it is. >> you know, it's a shame that's the way it is, it used to be that supreme court justices would get 90 votes. ruth bader ginsburg got 90, 91, 92, 93.

i remember back when barack obama was running for president, wanted to support john roberts and david axelrod said you can't do it. if you vote for john roberts then everything he does on the court will follow you around to the campaign trail and thank you's just sort of unfortunately where things have gone. >> yeah. >> for some time, which you would hope that we could some day get back to the point where if somebody is elected president, whether they're democrats or republicans, do you know what, let them have their say. if somebody is wildly, wildly out of the mainstream or unqualified, fine, have discussions on that, but these justices should be getting 80, 90 votes. you shouldn't go up there and have people trying to destroy -- destroy people the way they seem to do every single time. >> well, judge jackson's nomination was deadlocked whenever republican in the committee voted against her earlier in the day. >> i will vote no. i'm the first -- first time i have ever noted against any

supreme court nominee. after four days of hearings i now know why the left likes her so much. >> if judge jackson is confirmed i believe she will prove to be the most extreme and the furthest left justice ever to serve on the united states supreme court. >> judge jackson is beholden to the radical left that is teaching our children that they can choose their own sex. >> let me just say for the record, sex crimes against children are not fiction. >> judge jackson will coddle criminals and terrorists. >> sweet jesus. >> i mean, come on. >> sweet jesus, deliver us from this idiocrasy. >> democrats on the committee defended judge jackson against the republican attacks. >> how -- how qualified do you have to be double harvard? how qualified do you have to be clerking at all levels of the federal judiciary? >> even suggested that judge jackson a mother to two

wonderful daughters, quote, endangered children. judge jackson is a better -- >> unfortunately cared more about seeing their sound bites on social media. >> exactly. so they can set themselves up to try to run for president. final full senate vote is likely to be held this friday. let's bring in right now msnbc legal analyst charles coleman. charles, why don't we -- if we have to focus on one republican why don't we focus on lindsey because lindsey voted for her, what, a year ago, ten months ago. suddenly -- >> what happened? >> suddenly she is just too radical. >> right. >> how do you vote for somebody ten months ago to take one of the most important positions in the federal judiciary and then ten months later this nonsense. >> something must have happened, exactly right. >> what happened? >> you know, this is such an

indicative space around where we are with respect to our current conversation around politics and where they have no place. as you already talked about, there has been -- on as many as 90 votes -- 90 plus votes. and in this case there is no reason that this woman, this incredibly brilliant and qualified judge should not be receiving a much, much larger amount of support from all of the u.s. senators. when it comes to lindsey graham, there can be very little argument that he probably demonstrates the most hypocrite tick and just great level of ridiculous contradiction in the fact that just a year ago this was an incredibly qualified judge. >> right. >> in order to ascend to the federal circuit and now all of a sudden you're worried about an activist judge? >> right. >> this is nothing but political grandstanding and everyone seems to know it but it seems like everyone is simply okay with it.

>> it's gotten so harsh. we were -- a lot of our viewers didn't like it at the time but when brett kavanaugh was up and suddenly we were talking about rape rooms in washington, d.c. -- you grew up in the suburbs of washington, d.c. were there rape rooms? no, but if a girl was kissed by somebody else we would come home and laugh -- no, we need to bring this up. then there were stories in "the new yorker" saying, oh, somebody may remember did he kiss me or not or did he reach -- like this madness on both sides. and republicans, willie, said, oh, because brett kavanaugh was treated so badly, we're going to show more grace -- oh, so you suggest that she coddles pedophiles? is that the way the republican party restrains itself, by accusing her of being a friend of pedophiles? and other republicans accusing anybody who supports her

nomination as being pro pedophilia. does it really found like republicans really have distinguished themselves much from michael avenatti and the people that created the circus around brett kavanaugh. >> and let's be clear, that is the accusation. we heard it right there from josh hawley that this future supreme court justice protects and coddles pedophiles. that is the accusation. >> it's grotesque. >> there are other republicans whose names we won't use to dignify what they said over the last couple of days who said the three republicans who say they will vote for judge jackson are pro pedophilia. saying out loud, that's a member of congress saying that. here is more of senator graham yesterday and his about face, remember, less than 10 months ago he voted yay for this judge. >> all of us are in politics over here. again, i'm inclined to vote for judges of the other side, but this choice of judge jackson was

really embraced by the most radical people in the democratic movement. if we get back the senate and we are in charge of this body and there's judicial openings we will talk to our colleagues on the other side -- you would have had somebody more moderate than this. >> quiet part out loud and all the rest of that, basically saying if we were in charge she wouldn't even have gotten a hearing the way merrick garland did. >> taking us to a dangerous new place. murk key, romney, collins, who have supported this, white house pleased, they wanted to be able to say this had bipartisan support. 53 votes smaller than the margins we used to get, still they are happy about that. lindsey graham yesterday was stunning to suggest that if the other party that controls the senate contrary to the party that holds the white house, that president may never get a supreme court judge. they don't even bring them to a

vote for a committee hearing. and that's what we saw in 2016 with merrick garland. graham is not each going that far, he's simply saying if republicans were in charge we wouldn't even bring her to a vote. yes, he had favored a judge from his home state of south carolina, maybe that's why he's particularly bent out of shape here, but really he seems to be sending a marker for a very dangerous gridlock going forward. coming um, what's driving the day on wall street. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin breaks down the morning's business headlines. he's adorable. plus nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is live in ukraine. we have lots of news to cover straight ahead. ave lots of news straight ahead "morning joe" is coming right back. "morning joe" is coming right back (johnny cash) ♪ i've traveled every road in this here land! ♪

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who would have believed six months ago that we would look to ukraine and go, my god, these people have reminded us what freedom is about. it's not all the stupid things that we've been fighting about in america, you know, i didn't get a pickle on my hamburger, you're infringing on my freedoms, i have to wear a mask, like whatever. no. we see it day in and day out. the ukrainians are fighting for their freedom, fighting for their lives. >> in a dividing country, this is what we're uniting over. it's kind of beautiful to see. >> coming up, the power of russian propaganda. nbc's ken dilanian joins us a new look at that part of president putin's playbook.

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welcome back to "morning joe." people across the world have seen the shocking images coming out of ukraine. unless they live in russia. there the russian people have been shielded from the reality of war. joining us now with this part of the story is nbc news correspondent covering national security and intelligence, ken dilanian. what did you find out? what are they seeing? >> good morning, mika, joe, and willie. a recent independent poll found that russian president vladimir putin has an 83% approval rating and 81% of russians support the war in ukraine. it's fair to question if the numbers are that high, but most experts agree a majority of russian support, putin and this war. we wanted to understand how that could possibly be. what we learned is russians have been fed a steady diet of propaganda for years that has laid the groundwork for them to believe their government's lies

about the war. take a look. >> reporter: for those watching television news in russia, there is no war in ukraine, only a special military operation designed to root out nazis, and it's all going according to plan. those pictures of bombed-out cities, the ukrainians did it to themselves, russian state media insists. it sounds bizarre to western ears, but experts say many, if not most russians, believe it. >> it's terrifying the effect this propaganda is having on ordinary russians. >> reporter: alexi kovalev is a reporter at a russian independent news sight. he left moscow in march as vladimir putin's government cracked down on the few remaining voices of dissent. kovalev and others familiar with the russian media landscape say years of disinformation by state the state has left much of the public in the grip of conspiracy theories. >> it's a criminal offense to call it war and russia is conducting a special operation to liberate ukraine from the

nazis. we didn't expect basically the entire ukraine is nazis. i'm not kidding you, not exaggerating. it's a quote. >> reporter: since the invasion, the kremlin has shut down independent journalism and made it impossible for russians to access facebook, twitter, and international news sites. even before that, most russians were fed a diet of lies. michael is a fluent russian speaker who played the role of token american on russian talk shows, allowed to say a few worlds before being shouted down by other panelists. he left russia with his russian wife just before the invasion. he says the putin government's lie that ukraine is controlled by nazis strikes a deep chord in a russia that lost millions of its citizens while helping to defeat nazi germany. >> memory of the second world war in russia essentially exists as the justification for the current kremlin leadership to

maintain its position. the reason why russia is great is because it won the second world war. that gives people some sort of identification with a fight against nazism. >> reporter: not every russian believes the propaganda. thousands have left the country, but nose who know the truth sometimes have trouble convincing even their own relatives. >> we've seen a lot of these heartbreaking scenes in many russian families where the ukrainian relatives are calling them from the other side and telling them that the russian army is bombing their cities and killing them. and the russian part of the family simply refusing to acknowledge that, refuses to believe them, saying it's all fake news. >> reporter: and he says many russians don't want to confront what is really happening. >> it's not that this disinformation is so terrifyingly effective. it's quite lame and stupid. it's self-contradictory. but it seems to provide people a convenient kind of cushion to

keep themselves from the horrific reality they will have to face one day that russia is, indeed, waging a war of aggression against ukraine. >> reporter: with the invasion not going as russia hoped, its citizens are not hearing that as many as 15,000 of their soldiers have died. some of their bodies left to rot on the battlefield. as for sanctions -- >> they're being told the same thing they were being told before the war, which is that the western world wants to isolate you, they're worried about russia becoming too strong. >> reporter: he believes russia is in the fwrip of a kind of mass psychosis. >> i don't understand how this can just heal itself. i don't know how this can get better without some sort of outside interaction. >> reporter: a triumph of disinformation with deadly consequences. and, you know, guys, experts tell us that russians who want the truth can find it on telegram or