tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC April 8, 2022 1:00am-2:00am PDT
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there, you know? it just seems like, maybe this guy is -- he clearly is like an outlier in some ways by maybe not that much. rebecca roiphe, it was good to have you in person. >> thank, you it was nice being. here >> that is all for thisher >> chris, thank you. good evening to you, we'll see you tomorrow and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. as you know, rachele is on hiatus but i'm glad to be able to tell you tonight that she will be back next week. rachel will once again be the host of this show starting on monday night. tonight i'm joining you from the city of lviv ukraine and a lot of developments in ukraine and the just as well. an historic moment in the united states today as the supreme court confirmed judge ketanji brown jackson to the supreme court in a bipartisan vote. we will have more on that vote
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and how it went down and what it means to women and all americans that the first black woman was confirmed to the supreme court. and also tonight we will look at a whole mess of new legal struggles for former president trump and the attorney general holding him in contempt for failing to comply with the investigation. a lot to keep up with tonight but we begin in brussels where the ukraine foreign minister met with the u.s. secretary of state and top diplomats from nato countries and when he arrived he did not mince words. >> i came to brussels to participate in the nato meetings and to hold bilateral meetings with allies. my agenda is very simple. it has only three items on it. it's weapons, weapons, and weapons. >> ukraine's foreign minister told nato allies today that his country needs more weapons now, because even as russian forces have withdrawn from the area around the capital, kyiv, the
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next phase of the war is about to begin in the donbas in ukraine's east. >> as we speak, the battle for donbas is under way. it has not reached its maximum scale, but every day, fighting takes place in that part of ukraine, and more is to come, unfortunately. the battle for donbas will remind you, and i regret to say, but this is true, the battle for donbas will remind you of the second world war, with large operations, maneuvers, involvement of thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery. either you help us now, and i'm speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late. >> later, in ukraine's east,
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along with ukrainian president zelenskyy, urges residents to evacuate ahead of the expected russian onslaught. the regional governor in the donbas region warned this might be quote the last chance for civilians to escape and that window may be closing rapidly. the governor reported today that russia bombed a vital railway line, cutting off the only rail evacuation route from the donbas. he said multiple trains full of evacuees are now stranded as ukraine's east already dealing with bombardment braces for further attack. there are few firm commitments on allies sending weapons to ukraine. the prime minister of slovakia says they are ready to provide ukraine with soviet made antiaircraft missiles only if they can secure a permanent replacement anti-aircraft system to defend itself. in the u.s. today, measures to
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cut off normal trade relations with russia and ban russian oil imports passed the senate unanimously. and the house almost unanimously. the eu approved a ban on russian coal, and the u.n. general assembly voted to yank russia off the u.n. human rights council this. flurry of activity has been sparked in large part by the grisly images of reports from the towns around kyiv, where russian forces have withdrawn. but today, in a rare interview with a western media outlet, vladimir putin spokesman told sky news that photos and satellite images of dead civilians left behind by russian forces are all fakes, and lies, staged by the ukrainians. though he did admit that russia has quote significant losses of troops which he calls quote a huge tragedy for us, end quote. it's an unusual acknowledgment and piece of truth from the russian government but there is yet more evidence today refuting the denials from the russian
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spokesman. russian radio traffic reportedly intercepted by german intelligence, those intercepts reportedly include russian soldiers discussing the indiscriminate killing of civilians in ukraine. we will be talking to the german reporter who broke that story a little later on the show. and of course, the denials from the russian government also continue to be refuted by evidence on the ground. and i must warn you, sadly, as i do every night now, that some of what we're about to show you is disturbing. because in the kyiv suburb of bucha, they are continuing to collect bodies, which have been found in mass graves as well as individually buried in yards and gardens. volunteers bringing bodies to the cemetery in bucha say many of the victims were shot in the head. blindfolded with their hands tied. as of last night, ukrainian officials have counted 320 civilian casualties in bucha alone. and many more remain to be found.
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this video from ukraine's emergency services shows workers combing through the rubble of destroyed apartment blocks, in the nearby town of borodyanka searching for bodies. officials have warned the toll here may be even higher than in bucha. and as nbc's gabe guiterrez reports, ukraine says bombings and executions aren't the only ways russia is trying to break the will of the ukrainian populous. it may be also trying to starve them. >> near her apartment, three shallow graves. neighbors lost. one of them was just 30 years old. russian troops ravaged her neighborhood outside kyiv, for more than a month. >> how hard has this been? >> translator: was cold she says. we had no food. in another suburb, 80-year-old olga's top floor apartment exploded. russian soldiers broke open doors. choking off her town. from food and supplies. >> what's the hardest part about
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moving on from this? >> translator: i have a feeling it is all a bad dream, she says. >> but the nightmare isn't over. ukraine's president zelenskyy is accusing russia of using hunger as a weapon, reminiscent of stalin's forced famine during the 1930s. the russians are now blocking food and water from southern cities like mariupol and in villages the russians went house by house. >> did they take your food? >> they were stealing practically everything, she says. starting with food. and ending with even children's toys. >> under circumstances like those, it is little wonder that ukraine is begging western allies for more support and for more weapons. the question is, will they get what they say they need, and will they get it in time? >> joining us now from kyiv, is elana, a ukrainian member of parliament, and the chair of the committee on integration of
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ukraine to the european union. thank you for being with us tonight. ukraine's foreign minister, was in brussels today, asking nato allies for more help, because he's concerned, as many people are, that russia's regrouping for an assault on eastern ukraine, and he said because of that, ukrainian's military aid in days not weeks. you work with the eu. you know how this bureaucracy works. what has to happen to get you the weapons you need? >> well, first and foremost, i would like to reiterate yes, ukraine needs additional military support. massive military capacity is needed in order to ensure that they're winning in this war against evil. we also need more sanctions. and we also need financial support. but in order to get the, to get it to work, we definitely have to go from pre-war bureaucracy to something that would be an
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engagement of everyone and totally give it up on pre-war procedures and taking the decision to political will as need and taking the decision to the executive, very, very quickly. >> do you feel that that's changed? because i sense from being here in ukraine that certainly the discoveries out of bucha, over the weekend, changed the way things have been going so far. is that motivating people in terms of political will to get you both the money, the aid, and the weapons that you need? >> well, i think that basically the whole policy of many of the european states have actually changed since the beginning of the war, but definitely bucha and borodyanka and all of those atrocities that have been revealed to the world after those towns were liberated are
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adding to the readiness, to the resource, to the capability of different nations to act, and i think the major goal here is also lying with the societies that are pushing their politicians to help our country in order to ensure that our values do prevail. >> it is remarkable though to listen to your foreign minister, your president, members of parliament, like you, and then listen to what the russian government is saying. today, vladimir putin spokesperson, i did mi tri pes cov repeated a line that has taken hold in russia call the atrocities in bucha and the other cities you mentioned a forgery aimed at smearing russia. how do you fight back against that type of messaging that the russians are continuing, at the united nations, and in the media? >> the only thing the whole world has already seen that russia has a serious track record of lies and manipulation,
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and it's trying to continue doing this. we have seen this from the very first start of the war, back in 2014. remember, ma-17, when it was downed by russian troops, with the support of russian military, that particular incident, as they called it, was portrayed by russia in seven or eight different ways, they were trying to picture it as nothing that had any relation to russian federation. we know a couple of years later that it was already connected, and legally connected to russian federation, so this time right now, russia is just continuing on this way, and we have tone sure that our major weapon is truth. and that's what we are coming with. and that is how we probably can break the, even the neutrality of some of those nations that
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are, some of those democracies that are still indulging russian propaganda today, like india, for example, and south africa, or brazil. >> the world's biggest democracy continues to vacillate on what to do about russia. there was an interesting piece of truth that did come out today and that is a vladimir putin spokesperson also admitted that russia has suffered what he called a significant loss of troops since the beginning of the invasion. tell me what you make of that candidness about the losses because up to now russia has been downplaying the troop losses that they've had. they're now admitting that this is as bad as some people are saying. >> some people are saying, but that's probably our forces are reporting, and i think that they, it is getting more and more difficult to hide, in a big country of russia, difficult to find those losses that they have been suffering, because more and more people are getting
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information that their sons and their husbands, their brothers, are not coming back, because they lost their lives in ukraine, fighting against ukrainians, and i think that that is causing this particular kind of change and shift in the narrative that russia is presenting to the world. >> ivanna, a member of the ukraine parliament. thank you for being with us this evening. >> thank you for having me. up next, an historic day in the u.s. senate today as judge ketanji brown jackson is confirmed to the united states supreme court. we'll talk with someone who's got a special insight into what today means. stay with us. s. stay with us
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on this vote, the ayes are 53 and the nays are 47, and this nomination is confirmed. [ applause ] >> do you hear that? they're still going. that went on for almost a minute before they were gavelled to order. it was the sound from the floor in the gallery of the senate after it voted 35-47 to confirm judge ketanji brown jackson to the supreme court. the country's first black woman vice president announced the confirmation of the first black woman to become a supreme court justice. the applause that followed was the sound of history made and
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progress sustained. nearly all of the 47 republican senators who voted against judge jackson after working overtime to try to prevent her confirmation left the room as that sound grew louder. senator mitt romney stayed, on his feet, applauding the moment. the senator was one of three republicans who broke ranks with the party's rigid stance against judge jackson. he voted yes based on the judge's merits so he joined in the joy that filled the senate chamber this afternoon. just ahead of the vote, senator warnock the first black senator from the state of georgia explained that joy this way. >> mr. president, i rise today to express my joy in voting to confirm judge ketanji brown jackson to the united states supreme court. what a great day it is for the united states of america, for our system of government, and
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the grand march toward the fulfillment of the sacred covenant we have with one another as an american people, epluribus, unum, out of many one. ketanji brown jackson's journey to the nation's highest court is a reflection of our own journey, through fits and starts, toward the nation's highest ideals. she embodies the arc of our history. like my brother senator booker, i know what it has taken for judge jackson to get to this moment and nobody's going to steal my joy. yes, i'm a senator. i'm a pastor. but beyond all of that, i'm the father of a young black girl.
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i know how much it means for judge jackson to have navigated a double jeopardy of racism and sexism to now stand in the glory of this moment and all of her excellence. >> and judge jackson did stand in the glory of that moment, with the president, who nominated her to fill justice breyer's seat. the two watched together as the votes came in. they felt the arc of history bend. we will get to hear from judge jackson tomorrow when she delivers remarks alongside president biden and vice president harris. this is what the vice president had to say about the vote today after she gavelled it in. >> i'm overjoyed, deeply moved. there is still so much yet to accomplish. and that we can accomplish, including a day like today that is so historic and so important
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and i do believe it is an important statement about who we are as a nation, that we have just made a decision, to put this extraordinary jurist on the highest court of our land. it's a good statement about who we are. >> it's a good statement about who we are. it's also a reminder of who we have been, and how we are still striving and sometimes succeeding to become more perfect. after 233 years of supreme court rulings, there have been 115 justices, 108 were white men, five were women, two were black men, and 31 years since the last black justice was confirmed, we will finally have a black woman justice, someone who is exceptionally qualified, highly respected, and will make the supreme court look just a bit more like the country it serves. this is who we are today. and that evolution matters. it matters to the country.
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and specifically to the black women who will now stand on judge jackson's shoulders, as they become jurists, working to help make this union yet more perfect. "the new york times" spoke to women who are members of the harvard black law students association, where judge jackson is an alumni. it's a small group. fewer than 140 harvard law students are black, 84 are black women, that's out of about 1700 total students enrolled in the law program, one of those 84 students, mariah k. watson told "the new york times" says quote, i am grateful for the hard steps and all of the chipping away that judge jackson is doing right now so that the path is cleared or at least a little clearer for those who seek to come after her. joining us now is mariah k. watson, a third year law student at harvard, and president of the harvard black law students
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publication, and what was it like to see this today? >> this was historic. we were together as a group of law students, our vice president, the women's law association in harvard came together to bring aus classroom to stream it, so you can imagine the uproar in the room as students were elated to say the very least that one of our very own has been nominated to the highest court in the land. >> you told "the new york times" that judge jackson has made the path a little clearer for those who seek to come after her. i want to ask you about the path that she had to walk, which included graduating from harvard law school, followed by years of experience on the bench, 24 hours of testimony, very recently, the question, to question her record and her character, this was her path to becoming an associate justice on the supreme court. tell me how you have digested this over the last several
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weeks. >> it's been complicated across the law school. i think if you look at the other quotes, we know that she was amazing, not only the things that you mentioned but she was on the law review, she served on the federal appeals level and the district court judge for years and knows the law backwards and forwards and has been excellent in every single thing she has chosen to do and part of digesting you have to be almost without flaw and she is amazing and we don't take away from that but the way she had to be perfect not only in her professional life but also in her personal life, thethe deep in depth questions that they asked, nothing is offlimits. so we know this is what is before us if you want to ascend to this level and you are a black woman, that means you are going to fight twice as hard to get there. >> i want to talk about something that she said to
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senator alex padilla, of california, that as a harvard student, she once asked herself, do i belong here, can i make it in this environment, it's a lot of language we're hearing now about who belongs in spaces, and that includes the supreme court, or where you are, at harvard law school, places where there are relatively few black women who needs to see that people who look like judge jackson belong in those spaces. the woman who might follow her path, or is it the 47 senators who voted against her? who needs the proof that she's had to provide? >> it's both. i think it's the women who are trying to follow in her footsteps, as we look across the classroom, or even walking down the halls and seeing the portraits of professors that don't look like us, and we're reading opinions by people who did not live our lives, and don't reflect who we are. and you're wondering, am i meant to be here, is this the right place to me, and where does success lead? so i think part of it is, it is
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knowing that as black women and as black people, and as just women in general, on campus, that we can ascend to the levels, and now we have a role-month-old. but i think it is equally important for the 47 senators who voted no and the people who may be share similar ideologies for why they voted no to see that black women can be brilliant and can be fair and can function at the highest levels and do it really, really well. and i think that's something that needs to be seen. i think there are a lot of assumptions that we don't always talk about around what it means to succeed and be brilliant when you are part of a marginalized community. and i think showing her credentials, and her amazingness that she is going to bring to the court is going to hopefully chip away at some of those assumptions. >> you've done something that many of us have not done. you have met judge jackson in person. >> i have. >> can you share a little bit about that experience and in particular her willingness to make herself available to aspiring young lawyers?
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>> absolutely. judge jackson now justice jackson, or soon to be, regularly visited harvard law school, and i have the good fortune of meeting her in the fall of 2019, she came to speak to the black law students association, in a lunch, and she talked to us about diversity in the judiciary. and she answered every single question that we as bright-eyed bushy-tailed students had about what it meant to be here and how she persevered in her classroom when she didn't feel represented or felt like she couldn't speak on things that she really cared about, or how did she make herself known on campus. and she talked about the importance of legal writing, she talked about the importance of understanding the law, and having an intimate command of the doctrine. and she talked about how to show love. even when you don't feel like you can. and she talked about how she did it. and it's just an amazing opportunity. she also talked to us about moot
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court competitions and ways that we could share our beautiful brilliant black community in spaces not just in our organization. >> what an experience to have met her and to have heard her speak. mariah, thank you for joining us. mariah k. watson a third year law student at harvard law school and president of the harvard black law students association, thank you for your tomb and for sharing your experiences with us tonight. >> thank you. well, before we go to break, i want to draw your attention to something else that happened earlier today. shortly before announcing judge ketanji brown jackson's historic confirmation vote, vice president harris did something ha was rather unexpected. take a look at this. you can see on the left-hand side of your screen, she pulled out a few pieces of paper, and it turns out that was vice presidential stationery, and she proceeded to head over to the only two black democrats in the senate, senators cory booker and rafael warnock, apparently the vice president told them she had an assignment, she wanted each of them to write a letter to a
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young black woman in their life, as a way of commemorating this day in history. senator warnock has shared the letter that he wrote. it is addressed to his daughter chloe and it read, today we confirmed ketanji brown jackson, to the united states supreme court. in our nation's history, she is the first supreme court justice who looks like you. with hair like yours. while we were voting on the floor of the senate, a friend of mine, the vice president of the united states, handed me this piece of paper, and suggested i write a letter to someone who comes to mind. by the way, she is the first vice president who also looks like you. so i wrote this note to say you can be anything, achieve anything you set your head, and your heart to do. love you. dad. a lot more to get to tonight. stay with us. lot more to get tot stay with us
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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. . i would have gone there in a minute. that's how former president trump says how he feels about the attack on the capitol that took place on january 6, 2021, no regret for the role he played in stoking the insurrection. only regret that his secret service detail prevented him from marching over to the capitol with the rest of the mob. trump made those comments in a newly-published interview with the "washington post," asked about the seven and a half hours of missing white house phone records from the day of the insurrection, trump responded, in his singular way, quote from
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the stand point of telephone calls, i don't remember getting very many. this despite the fact that there are multiple records and witness accounts showing phone calls he both made and received that day, that are missing from the official record. his own daughter ivanka trump who was present for at least one of those calls testified to the january 6th committee for nearly eight hours this week. one of the many investigations into trump's conduct that appears to be moving forward right now. today, the new york attorney general said in a statement that she has asked a judge to fine donald trump 10,000 dollars per day until he complies with the subpoena for documents that his lawyers were supposed to hand over a week ago. we also got a surprise statement today from another new york prosecutor investigating trump, the district attorney in manhattan. now for weeks you remember, there have been indications that
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prosecutors were winding down the manhattan district attorney's investigation into donald trump. it looked like this was going to be one investigation that the former president did not have to worry about. but then today, the manhattan district attorney released a statement saying that his investigation is still on quote, is still on, and this is what he said, in recent week, the manhattan district attorney's office has been repeatedly asked whether our investigation concerning former president donald trump, the trump organization, and its leadership is continuing. it is. end quote. so it does not look like the former president can rest easy about that investigation any time soon. and on top of that, today, we found out about yet another investigation into donald trump. the "washington post" reports that the department of justice has now started investigating trump for taking 15 boxes of presidential records, including classified material, to his home in mar-a-lago. for weeks, members of congress
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have been trying to investigate whether trump violated the presidential records act by taking those documents to his private home. and now, it appears that the justice department is planning its own probe into the matter. joining us now is the "washington post" justice department reporter, matt thank you for joining us tonight. tell us first of all, what do we know about this last piece of news that we got, this justice department investigation, how far along it is, and do we know specifically what they are investigating? >> it's in its very, very early stages so what they're investigating here, is that there was classified information in these 15 boxes of documents. some top secret level and even beyond that, so when classified information spilled out into the world, generally the department wants to see who saw it, that didn't have the appropriate clearances, and how did it get out there, is anyone potentially culpable for criminally mishandling that classified information. we all remember that was sort of
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the focus of the hillary clinton email investigation that wrapped up back in 2016, those similar issues here, right, there is classified information that somehow made its way out of government confines and the fbi is now going to try to get to the bottom of that. i say this is in the early stages because as far as we can tell, they haven't done some substantial things that they will node to do and they will do, and one is sort of taking stock, from what the national archives has done, on what is in this classified, what is in these boxes, what is classified and at what level it was classified and establishing a chain of custody, interviewing people, to determine how this happen, and how this was packed up and we don't have evidence of taking those steps yet but we do know some preliminary steps had, some discussion with the archive, and moving towards, you know, they will investigate. >> so that's the department of justice. now the house oversight committee has been trying to
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investigate this for some time. the chair of that committee, congresswoman carolyn maloney says they have been stone walled by the justice department. what is that about? >> that's in part, i would say, how we were able to learn this news, so carolyn maloney sent the justice department a letter today saying, hey, i asked the national archives who took possession of these boxes for their inventory of what was in these 15 boxes and the national archives told me, carolyn maloney, we can't give that to you because the justice department has essentially asked us not to. and she writes to the justice deposition saying you are interfering with my investigation and i want to know why. it is very likely the reason is because the justice department is investigating, as we reported, when the justice department is investigating they generally do not like congress sort of traipsing around in the work that they're doing but they have not told that to carolyn
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maloney and she is very frustrated and congress has its own aims here, some of which are separate from the justice department, and the justice department is going to be laser focused on this classified issue, and you know, these federal records act issues might be a little tangential but carolyn maloney wants to investigate it all and while this justice department inquiry investigation is ongoing she might have a tough time doing that and so far that is frustrating her and also frustrating her that the justice department won't tell her exactly what is happening. >> matt, excellent reporting. thank you so much. covering the justice department for the "washington post." we appreciate you joining us tonight. well, still ahead, the new reporting that german intelligence intercepted radio communications between russian soldiers as they talk about indiscriminate killings in ukraine. the reporter who broke that story joins us after this. you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly
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secretary was pressed in an interview with sky news that russian soldiers killed civilians in bucha, ukraine. >> and as regards bucha, according to your ministry of defense, on april 3rd, and i quote, not a single local resident has suffered from any violent action while russia was in control. i mean do you really expect the world to believe that? >> we insist on that. we insist on that. and we insist that the whole
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situation, the situation in bucha, is a well staged insinuation. nothing else. >> peskov is presented with satellite imagery, geo located video evidence, witness testimony by human rights watch and amnesty international but he insists it is all fake, a bold fake, made by ukrainians in conjunction with private satellite imagery company, all western media and western governments all to make russia look bad. as of last night, ukrainian officials have counted 320 civilian casualties in bucha alone. the mayor there saying that almost 90% of those found dead had bullet wounds, not shrapnel wounds, meaning they had been individually targeted. no matter how much evidence it is presented with, the russian government continues to deny everything, to say it is all fake. now, today, the german publication der spiegel has
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presented new evidence that will be hard for russia to deny. radio traffic intercepted by germany's foreign intelligence service of russian troops discussing the murder of civilians, quote, the radio traffic makes it seem as though the atrocities perpetuated on civilians in bufrpa were neither random acts nor the product of individual soldiers who got out of hand. rather, the material suggests that the troops spoke of the atrocities as though they were simply discussing their every day lives. some of the intercepted traffic apparently matches the location of bodies found along the main road through bucha, end quote. in one clip, the soldier apparently told another that they had just shot a person on a bicycle. in another, a man apparently said, first, you interrogate soldiers, then you shoot them. joining us now is melanie amman who in addition to being the lead by line on this reporting today is the berlin bureau chief for der spiegel, and a member of the paper's editorial
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leadership. ms. amman, thank you for making the time to be with us tonight. i want to start by asking you a bit about this intercepted audio. how much audio is there? low many different conversations were there, and what are the kinds of things that you can hear being discussed on it? >> yes, thanks for having me. our sources have told us that there was a briefing of the foreign intelligence service of germany, which is abbreviated bnd, they were briefing members of parliament in a classified session about the radio traffic they have intercepted from russian troops of the exact number, i can't tell you. but they apparently did read a few of these intercepts to the politicians with quite a shocking content, where the russian soldiers were exchanging basically hints and information how they were treating the civilians in ukraine, and committing murder, committing all kinds of atrocities, like saying for example, like we,
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first we interrogate them and then we shoot them. and this is of course the report that our sources gave to us. we have not been personally able to listen to these intercepts. but the account does line up. it is quite shocking actually. >> beyond being possible evidence of war crimes, by individual soldiers one of the things that you write about is that the reason this audio is so significant is because it could be used as evidence that these may not have been rogue independent actors but rather soldiers carrying out orders as part of a plan. help us understand what you have reported on that demonstrates that. >> exactly. i think it's hard to underestimate the value of these intercepts when it comes to analyzing the military strategy of the russian army, that indeed, they were, like the atrocities committed, not people
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acting out, under the stress of war or whatever, or living out their horrible fantasies but it is actually a calculated method that has been spread through a big part of the russian army, and the political relevance is also that these intercepts dismantle this narrative, the propaganda of the russian government, of the kremlin, that like not only are the pictures fake, and these people were not killed by russian troops, and like the whole propaganda is crumbling, if you have people saying on record, soldiers saying on record, this is how we treat the civilians in this country, like we're shooting at a guy on bicycle, things like this, and so this is what makes these intercepts so important. >> there can be signals intelligence that is used to match to the satellite images to identify specific perpetrators and that could be important in building a war crimes case, but
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there is added significance because some of the audio, not all of it, has been traced to the region north of kyiv, where bucha is located, but there's also, there also seem to be audio in a lot of other cities. how do you understand that? >> yes, there is also apparently audio transmissions from the region of mariupol, and from other parts of the country. but especially from like you said, the region to the north of kyiv, of the nation's capital, where we know that atrocities have been committed, so the pieces of the puzzle add up, that it's, that we are confronted with actual proof that the people who were there may have committed these atrocities. so they might be very valuable in the court of war. >> i want to go back to the beginning of this, you said, you're right, that the audio was intercepted by german intelligence. do you have some sense how they intercepted it and whether they're working with other nations to do so?
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>> i do actually, it's an interesting thing, is that some form of foreign intelligence service in this very war, in this crisis, has not proved as valuable as for example your american services, because the intelligence provided and the analysis of this intelligence, by the german services has been flawed, they have underestimated the war, so with these intercepts, suddenly, they really are ahead of the crowd, ahead of the pack, if you want, because ironically, they are using t-a technique, they are using infrastructure that is from the cold war, that they are using these antennas, 30 meters high, that are located in bavaria, and which other european countries have long dismantled since the cold war, this infrastructure has been there for decades, and it's used to transmit the short wave transmissions by the russian army, but up to the soviet times, many countries thought we didn't need this anymore, and
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the germans kept it, because we're olderly and we stick to what we have and we also poorly financed both our military and our security services and i guess this is why this clunky rusty stuff is still around, and now it's proved extremely valuable, because we can listen in on what the russian troops are discussing on their short wave transmissions. >> that is a remarkable story. your entire reporting on this is remarkable. melanie, thank you for being with us. melanie amman, the berlin bureau chief for der spiegel and the lead by line on this important piece of reporting. thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me. we'll be right back. l be ri.
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two programming notes before we go tonight. the first one, i mentioned at the top of the show, as you know, rachel has been on hiatus but i am happy to tell you all she will be back here come monday night so get ready for. that in the meantime, tomorrow is set to be yet another big news day. judge ketanji brown jackson will be at the white house tomorrow
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following her historic confirmation to the supreme court today. she is expected to make remarks alongside president biden and vice president harris, something you will not want to miss and msnbc will have live coverage of the event tomorrow afternoon. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. from lviv. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. on this vote, the ayes are 53 and the nays are 47 and this nomination is confirmed. >> history at the high court, judge ketanji brown jackson is confirmed as the first black woman to sit on the united states supreme court. we'll talk to a legal skoller who is headed to the white house today for an event celebrating this barrier-breaking moment. plus, covid surges through washington, d.c. from the house speaker to the u.s. senate to top members of the president's cabinet. we'll get an update on the
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