now. good evening and welcome to politics nation. tonight's lead, a bright spot. right now i'm thinking about my daughters and how much i refuse to allow darkness to shade their joy or mine. because while i've been present for some truly profound moments yesterday on the south lawn of the white house i had the unprecedented honor as head of national action network of watching the first black woman judge elevated to our nation's highest court. introduced by the first black and south asian woman vice president. and president biden was there, too. >> no one does this on their

own. the path was cleared for me so that i might rise to this occasion. i am the dream and the hope of the slave. >> so tonight's politics nation is about the history made this week and the republican historyonics that can we expect over the next several months because a liberal is the first black woman to ever sit on supreme court. and also tonight russia's war, the conflict intensifies in eastern ukraine. at least 50 people killed in a horrific rocket attack yesterday on a train station as residents try to flee the escalating war in the region. while russian troops withdraw from parts of northern ukraine and the picture of just how much

carnage this invasion has created continues to come before us. western nations and of course ukraine accusing russia of war crimes if not genocide. does this war end with vladimir putin on trial? that's later. but first we start with the latest on the ground in ukraine. we start with nbc's ali arouzi. he's in kyiv, ukraine. now, all day after a missile attack hit a train station in ukraine killing more than 50 people, now missile batteries are from -- i'm saying it wrong -- are moving into ukraine. and today the european commission is pledging 1 billion

euros to support ukraine in countries you see the refugees fleeing the war following russia's invasion. so tell us, ali, about those two stories. >> reporter: good evening, reverend. that's right. after that devastating attack in the kramatorsk train station yesterday the international community are stepping up their efforts to help ukraine. the european commission just pledged a billion dollars worth of aid to ukraine. the president of the european commission said that $600 million of that is going to go to ukraine to help them in their war efforts. and the other $400 million is going to go to countries that are taking this massive influx of ukrainian refugees in. we've seen so many people displaced from their homes in this contray. so many of them are going to poland or neighboring countries. so that porgds of that money is going to go towards helping

those countries support the refugees. and it's not just financial aid ukraine is getting. they're getting military aid. as you mentioned those s300 defense systems slovakia is giving ukraine, something president zelenskyy has been asking for from day one of this war. slovukia is giving its entire s300 systems to you're in. they're just giving them to ukraine it help them stave off this russian attack and stop civilians from getting killed like at that train station. and it doesn't stop there. the british prime minister, boris johnson, made a surprise visit here to ukraine and visited president zelenskyy in kyiv. he said europe is going to bring the guarantee up to a million

dollars and also he said going to give military aid, anti-defense systems and on top of $130 million on advanced weapons he's pledged to give ukraine. so the harder the russians have hit this country, the more the international community is rallying behind ukraine to help them stop this war, to help them defend themselves against this russian onslaught, but the russian onslaught doesn't seem to be slowing down. they're focusing their attention on the east of the country, and judging by what they did at that train station yesterday they're still attacking this place very badly and making little distinction between military targets and civilians. >> slovakia was the word i mispronounced. thank you nbc's ali arouzi in ukraine. joining me now is congressman sean patrick maroney, democrat of new york and chair of the

democratic congressional campaign committee. thank you for joining us on this historic weekend. of course i want to get to that history and its impact on your party right now, but before we get to that, what does congress voting to formally suspend the trade relations with russia and banning its energy exports mean for the u.s. response to russia's war in ukraine? >> well, thanks for having me. and congratulations on what i understand was an amazing national action network set of meetings this week, and i know it's been an exciting week in a lot of ways. >> we're going to talk about that later, but thank you. >> listen, on the question you asked remember this is the first time congress has spoken. this is the first time congress has in a bipartisan way supported the president. and so the eyes of the world are on us, and what they're seeing is that the united states

government is united, robustly united in our determination to stand up to this aggression. now, there are some republicans who -- who can't seem to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys are in ukraine. but the picture is that the president's actions up to this point have now been codified by a clear signal from the congress that we're going to stand as one and make sure putin fails. >> now, we've already seen where republican politicians like lindsey graham are doing videos touting how they didn't support or voting against judge jackson's supreme court confirmation. sending a message to their voters ahead of the vote of mid-terms. can we expect to see a counter narrative from democrats going into november with democrats campaigning on among other things the successful confirmation of the first black

woman supreme court justice? >> you better believe it. and that, of course, is part of a record of standing with the african american community. now, we haven't gotten everything done and that just means we're unfinished, right? it doesn't mean we're unbroken in the words of amanda gorman, but we're unfinished. let's remember we also have the nation's first african american female vice president, and that has now been followed by the nation's first african american female supreme court justice, and that's inspiring and historic. on substantive policy we've also been fighting for voting rights, fighting for better housing, fighting for better health care, better jobs, delivering on millions new jobs. and so there's going to be a record of results, and we're going to carry that record with us and we're proud of it. now, i do think, you know, some of the ret ocon the other side that tries to equate democrats' concerns about the last supreme

court nominee or excuse me the brett kavanaugh nomination with this one missed the point in that case justice kavanaugh was accused of serious misconduct. no one has accused this supreme court justice now of anything but having extraordinary -- >> she wasn't even questioned -- she wasn't even questioned about any personal conduct. they went to some erroneous stuff. but i think that in terms of the other side and the question i asked you about the democrats, yes, the president and the democrats have done some things. i think the president mentioned that the confirmation celebration the other day of judge jackson he appointed more blacks to the bench and minorities than all the other presidents combined. but at the same time two democrats stopped us from getting the filibuster reform which blocked the voting rights

bill of john lewis, and the same with the george floyd bill. so i think those are the things -- but to be candid i think the best organizer for the democratic party has been the republicans and how vile and hostile they've been. >> well, that's right. but i think that we don't want to just run on how awful they are, although i won't argue with you. but we are unfinished on the work of voting rights and we have to get that dup. and we're unfinished on the work of the george floyd justice and policing act. though the house has passed that twice and we're not giving up. we're not broken but we're just unfinished. the support for labor, that's why people are still connected up to their benefits. the support for housing, the support for our schools, all the things that got this economy through the pandemic, obviously

the direct assistance to people, these are real things. the infrastructure legislation now law. so we're proud of our record especially of the diversity of our appointments at the very highest levels. but we're not finished yet. i mean, what we're saying if you give us a little more time we'll keep working on this stuff, and the other side will take us back. >> now, engagement crucial right now ahead of november and the president's approval rating among african americans has taken a hit. what is the dccc doing this to stem back that tide with black voters at the same time you have this suppression campaign from state republicans and districts that have been altered in many cases to the reduction of black lawmakers power? >> absolutely. well, thank you for asking that because we have made the largest investment in our base voters than we've ever made. $30 million, and wave done it a year earlier than usual. because we heard the criticism

too often we show up too close to the election. we drop in out of the sky and expect people to vote, and we need to be in the community day in, day out with local people who were culturally engaged, who are competent in terms of their knowledge of the local community, who come from the community. that's what we've done, and also invested as you know recently in black radio and in speaking to our base voters, you know, where they get their news. and we haven't done that enough in the past. so i do think you're seeing -- you're seeing an earlier more well-resourced effort, and that's because we've heard the criticism that we do need to do more and we need to do it soon. >> let me ask you, one of the things i've noticed is the culture wars both on right wing media and political office holders and spokespeople. isn't that the danger your

democrats always have to look out for is that republicans use culture wars to drive out their base and in some cases scare independents? >> yes, it's a concern but i'm also concerned that democrats won't say what we believe in. i think we've made a mistake in the past is that we've run too quickly away from issues we think might be a little contentious instead of standing on our own two feet and saying's what i believe, why that criticism is a caricature and a lie and here's why you can trust me. let me give you an example. if people want to talk about police misconduct, if they want to talk about the reforms we want to make and then they want to criticize us, lie about our position of defunding the position, what we need to do is not pretend that's not a real attack bought because it is. but also we believe in racial justice and we're not going to stop fighting for racial justice because someone's lying about our record.

we want to reform policing so we reward good policing, so that we have better training, cops on cameras, no choke holds. do specific reforms we know people support. i think if we do that right and we stand for something and say specifically what we're trying to accomplish we can defang these attacks but also not depress the very voters we need to want to see us fighting for something. >> all right, representative sean patrick maloney, thank you as always for joining us. up next, what who voted to confirm judge ketanji brown jackson and who didn't can tell us about how far we've really come on race in america. and later, new reporting reveals russian president vladimir putin could be poised to interfere in america's elections yet again. but first, my colleague

richard lui with today's top news storiesch. >> some of the stories we're watching for you this hour breaking today out of pittsburgh. the steelers there, the quarterback dwayne haskins died saturday morning. highway patrol tells nbc he was walk on the freeway for unknown reasons at 6:30 a.m. a heisman finalist haskins was 24 years old. recent polling reveals a dip in president emmanuel macron's lead over his main challenger, far right candidate marie le pen. and the world's first all private astronaut mission to the international space station docked today at 8:30 eastern time. for eight days. three of the visitors paid $55 million each to go says the ap. more politics nation with reverend al sharpton right after this break. h reverend al sharpton right after this break

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this was a jubilant week for those who have fought for justice in this country. yesterday in my capacity as the president of the national action network i joined president biden, vice president harris and the soon to be first black female supreme court justice at the white house. as i stood there i remembered the countless ancestors who sacrificed for this moment and thought about how black women must feel going judge jackson has shattered the glass ceiling. but i also thought about the disrespectful treatment this highly qualified jurist received from some republicans in the past three weeks. judge jackson wasn't grilled about issues. those questions are tough but

reasonable. instead certain republicans on the judiciary committee tried to embarrass and disparage her, accusing her of being sympathetic to pedophiles and demanding she defend critical race theory, something she has nothing to do with. judge jackson kept her cool and won confirmation with the votes of every democrat and three republicans, but the gop was far less grateful in defeat, senators lindsey graham and rand paul mysteriously lost their neckties during the floor vote and cast their noes from the cloakroom. others actually walked out during the historic confirmation. in the end 18 of the 22 senators from former confederacy states voted against judge brown which is two more than those that

voted against and rejected or did not vote at all for thurgood marshall as the first black justice in 1967. republicans will try to tell you this is no different from how democrats have treated recent republican nominees, but this is not true. democrats have been tough on past picks but always focused on their opinions or in a few cases had to question about past conduct and fitness for the court. no one has expressed any concern about judge brown's character. and when given opportunities to grill her on her record, certain republicans instead focused on name-calling and grandstanding. i can only conclude that what republicans really objected to about judge brown had nothing to do with her actual record. they simply disapprove of who

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psst! psst! flonase all good. welcome back to politics nation. let's get more insight on today's big topics from our political panel. joining me now is susan del persio. they're both msnbc political analysts. susan, the associated press reports that intelligence officials are concerned putin may see u.s. backing of ukraine resistance as a direct affront to him, which may give him license to once again target one of our elections for interference. no evidence of a planned attack has been found so far, but we know from past experience the

russian play book has involved exploiting our divisions and propping up candidates with more extreme views. is this something you're worried about heading into the mid-terms? >> well, i'm always concerned about our election integrity. i'm happy to say in 2020 we had the safest elections ever held in the history of our country, so that was, you know, because we were looking for actually russian involvement in our elections. i am concerned although it looks like vladimir putin does not need any reason. it doesn't matter what we do as a nation, he's going to do whatever he wants to do. he went into ukraine. he's using brute and utter disgusting force in his attacks on ukraine, so could he attack our elections, yes. but it's up to our nations. i'm more concerned about the laws that had been passed in several states, red states that hurt our election process than i am of vladimir putin right now. >> juanita, i want to get your

thoughts on a comment that florida governor ron desantis made yesterday. take a listen. >> i just want you to know we really appreciate our georgians. if stacey abrams is elected governor of georgia i just want to be honest that will be a cold war between florida and georgia at that point. i mean, i can't have castro to my south. >> a spokesman says he was making an analogy between the differences how he runs florida and how it would run should abrams win. what do you make especially in the wake of the hyperbolic attacks republicans made on judge jackson during her confirmation hearings.

>> nothing gets them riled up more than a capable, intelligent, effective black woman. we saw with ketanji brown jackson, we're seeing here with stase ae abrams and this ridiculous ignorance and disrespectful lying from desantis. and honestly the last thing desantis wants is someone like stacey abrams who has a track record of getting thing down for the state of georgia compared on his fixation on preventing black history from being taught in schools, right? that's the last thing he wants. i think it also parallels some of the attacks we're already hearing from folks like kemp as well, and we can expect it to ramp up as the margins close between those running for governor. so we should brace ourselves and be on the offensive on responding to this type of thing the same way that progressive groups organized around judge ketanji brown jackson to protect her and buffer her from attacks we saw in from republicans in the senate. >> now, susan there's new

reporting donald trump jr. text's to chief of star mark meadows two days after the 2020 election laying out strategies for declaring his father the winner regardless of the electoral count, which would be called for biden two days later. what do you think these texts reveal? >> that he had a really big tinfoil hat on, rev. i mean, this is just craziness. he -- donald trump jr. really should have no place in any discourse. he's just spewing lies, and i don't even like talking about him because he is that disruptive to the process. >> juanita, i have to ask you this next question. when judge jackson becomes justice jackson, associate justice jackson, she will do so with a natural hairstyle called

sister locs. this week "the washington post" reported days before confirmation hearings began the house passed the crown act which offers federal protection from discrimination based on hair texture and style. but similar legislation remains deadlocked in the senate in part due to opposition from some of the same republicans who oppose judge brown herself. we don't always attach the same importance to hairstyle as we do supreme court justices, but doesn't that seem that a small detail in some ways explain why we need someone like judge brown on the court in the first place? >> precisely, rev. and i think representative ianna presly said it best when she said black is beautiful and so is our hair and belongs everywhere no matter what form we choose. whether it's natural curls like i wear or judge ketanji brown's

sister locs it is important black people, black women are able to wear our hair however we choose, however it grows out of our scalp and whatever way we want. i think it's important to have not only that representation but that first-hand experience represented on the court when issues of diversity come up on the supreme court, when issues of equity, issues of the discrimination are presented to the supreme court because she'll be able to speak directly from her personal experience, and just like any moment as historic as this confirmation is called my 87-year-old grandfather to talk about the importance of that. and he's just proud to be able to witness this in his lifetime that a black woman in her truest most authentic form is able to ascend to the highest court in the land, rev. >> susan del persio and juanita tolliver thank you for joining politics nation this evening. next, the images out of ukraine. we will go to that next. ukraine. we will go to that next.

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we're back with our political panel. susan, interest the first time in u.s. history there will not be a white male majority on the supreme court once judge ketanji brown jackson is sworn in. what is the significance of this? >> well, i think what's so significant, rev, is that our courts are starting to look more

like our country, which it's about time. and i think what's very interesting about judge jackson is that she follows in justice breyer's footsteps and believes as she said -- i'm paraphrasing here, but believes in his philosophy, which is to make the court moric sesable and make sense to every day americans. and i just love that idea, and i think that having her on the court will definitely be more inspirational to people believing in our justice system because it does show diversity and not just show a bunch of stuffy white men, frankly. >> juanita, a federal judge acquitted a new mexico man who claimed a police officer led him in during the capitol riot. on wednesday a judge ruled it's not, quote, unreasonable for the defendant to assume the

outnumbered officers were letting protesters into the capitol. a day later after that decision another man who faced similar charges backed out of his plea deal. could this be a defense argument in other january 6th trial. >> rev, you better believe every insurrectionists now is going to try to use this precedent as a model of their defense. and what's absurd to me they had the video footage of this defendant recording climb through broken windows but his defense was i didn't notice know of that, i i didn't hear any that, and the judge essentially said, oh, well we'll accept that. and i think any insurrectionists going to appear before a judge appointed by trump as this judge was appointed in 2017 they're

going to tray this same defense. and i think it raises some flags ultimately judges might be down-playing what happened on january 6th. >> all right, let me again thank you for joining "politics nation" tonight. okay, moving on. it's been 44 days since russian president vladimir putin launched his invasion on ukraine. the organization human rights watch has documented several allegations of war crimes committed by russian troops occupying parts of ukraine including executions, rapes, and threats of violence. many around the world have been horrified by images of atrocities coming out of the city of bucha, which has sparked calls for justice from the u.s. and the european union. joining me now is ken, executive

director of the human rights watch. thank you for joining me tonight. now ukrainian president zelenskyy has been clear on labeling russian actions in his country as genocide. however, experts on this front have urged caution using that language. have you seen the evidence coming out of these war zones, what is your take? >> well, rep, these are clearly war crimes that the charge of jenned is defined in international law in a very particular way. it requires killings of a sort but with an intent to destroy an ethnic or racial group. and that intent is hard to prove particularly in this early stage. if you're torturing or killing that's a war crime. it's also a war crime i should

say to, you know, bomb a hospital or bomb a theater where civilians are sheltering or indiscriminately bomb or city. these are things we're seeing as well. there are a range of war crimes taking place. whether it gets to the level of genocide or not we'll have to say. >> now, on tuesday president zelenskyy urged the u.n. security council to punish russia for what he described as, quote, the most terrible war crimes since world war ii. at the same meeting zelenskyy also urged that the, quote, russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in ukraine. calling for reforms to make the international system more responsive. meanwhile former and current officials around the world are calling for either an investigation or an arrest warrant for mr. putin.

even u.s. president joe biden said monday that what happened in bucha is a war crime and that putin should face international -- international tribunal. from your view what powers do international courts have here, and where do you see this situation going? >> well, rev, fortunately there is a court that has jurisdiction of the war crimes being committed in ukraine. that's the international criminal court. ukraine has given it jurisdiction since 2014, so everything that we see from bucha and other cities can be investigated and indeed is already being investigated by the international court prosecutor. now, an international court of that sort doesn't tend to go after the low level perpetrators. it goes up the chain of command and tries to figure out who either gave the orders or more typical form of responsibility,

who was aware of these atrocities under their command and didn't take steps to stop them. they were able to chase command responsibility all the way up to putin but in that case deliberate bombing hospitals, schools, marketplaces and apartment buildings. here others will be doing a similar analysis here. what's interesting is that there's no way putin can deny knowledge of the atrocities now everybody has seen them, but the question is what's he doing about them. and rather than saying oh, my goodness, these are horrible, i'm going to order russian soldiers to stop immediately, he's doing the opposite. he's saying this didn't happen, it's fake news. he's basically signaling to people on the ground if you commit atrocities like this, don't worry, we'll back you up, we'll pretend it didn't happen. this is actually incriminating evidence as the prosecutor tries to establish this criminal responsibility for what's happening on the ground in ukraine.

>> meanwhile the russian government is claiming the images coming out of a bucha, quote, state. even though international media outlets including the dbc and "the new york times" have reported on satellite images that clearly contradict those statements. since the beginning of this war the kremlin and russian state media has been trying to push an alternative narrative about what is happening in ukraine that has largely been shown to be false. how should russian disinformation be counted, and can they be held responsible for it? >> well, the key, you know, as you're suggesting is to get the facts. so i mean in the case of bucha journalistvise already done a very good job. the satellite imagery shows the bodies were on the ground during the russian occupations and this was not something done after russian soldiers left. human rights watch investigators on it ground have been doing the same thing. we actually spoke to a woman from bucha who described the

very same bodies and described the russians collecting a bunch of people in the town square, about 40 of them interrogating them, looking through their phones and then taking five young men, forcing them to kneel on the ground with their t-shirts over their head and they shot one of them in the head and killed them. the key is the russians have blanket denials. it's always the ukrainians did it to themselves, somehow the rebels used chemical weapons against themselves. the key is just to keep putting the facts out, and i don't think anybody is persuaded by these russian lies. >> you know, the images of violence and death in ukraine and bucha are horrifying, and yet it seems often -- it often seems international organizations charged with investigating atrocities and bringing perpetrators to justice have very little power to prevent these tragedies from occurring while they're happening.

is that a fair criticism? >> well, you know, to stop them while their happening would basically require a military intervention. and, you know, nato i think understandably doesn't want to go head to head with russia and ukraine for fear of starting off a nuclear exchange. so, you know, by definition, really justice is after the fact, but we shouldn't pretend its weak. if you look at the bosnian conflict the international triune there formed the former soviet president and the former military and political leader and convicted those two, and similarly in rwanda and other places there have been convictions of many of the big perpetrators. now it's just early stages here in ukraine, but it's clear the international criminal court is going to be issuing indictments at some stage.

putin may say i've got nothing to worry about, but that's basically a president for life strategy, and that strategy is very risky. he thought he could be president for life, lost an election, the new government sent him off. similarly al bashir he's sitting in custody right now. so this presidential life strategy is a risky strategy. it's not going to happen tomorrow but, you know, can putin hang on for his entire life to avoid a possible indictment, you never know. >> the u.n. general assembly voted thursday to suspend russia from its human rights council over those war crime allegations. the u.s. ambassador, linda thomas greenfield, who i met this week at my national action network convention, she launched this campaign to suspend russia. your thoughts? >> well, to be a member of the

united nations human rights council is supposed to mean you're committed to upholding the highest standards. russia is doing the complete opposite in ukraine. it's shredding the conventions. it's committing atrocities left and right. so it was very appropriate to suspend russia from the human rights council. and it's interesting the vote in the u.n. general assembly wasn't even close. they needed two thirds of those voting, and they had way more than that. so, you know, russia has been rightfully completely repudiated by the international community. this is the third vote against russia in just a month in the general assembly. that's not the same thing as stopping the killing, but it shows russia is utterly isolated as it commits these atrocities in ukraine. >> kenneth of human rights watch thank you for joining me. after the break i'll fill you in what you missed this week at the

annual national human rights convention. we'll be right back. l human rigs convention we'll be right back. ( ♪♪ ) (cto) ♪ i want the world ♪ (production manager) ♪ i want the whole world ♪ (supervisor) ♪ i want to lock it all up in my pocket. ♪ (ceo) ♪ i want today. ♪ ♪ i want tomorrow. ♪ (warehouse worker) ♪ presents and prizes and sweets and surprises... ♪ (driver) ♪ of all shapes and sizes. ♪ (dispatch) ♪ i want it noooooow! ♪ (vo) t-mobile for business has 5g that's ready right now. every year we try to exercise more, to be more social, to just relax.

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the national network annual convention closes down this evening after three and half for days of probably the most important in terms of where we are in this country convention in the 31 year history. we begin with my mentor reverend jesse jackson cutting the ribbon with mayor adams one the original signer of national action network 30-years ago key noting and delivering what the committee has stood for. no one will forget at the women's luncheon we honored hillary clinton that it was there i was able to announce that they had just voted to confirm ketanji brown jackson as

the first black woman to the supreme court and many said they will never forget, they were in the room, hundreds of women with hillary clinton when the announcement happened. today we started with congressman clyburn the majority w.h.i.p. of the house who was in many ways responsible for the announcing and the keeping of the promise of president joe biden that he would put a black woman on the supreme court if an opening occurred. and many of us will never forget at our major dinner, 1200 people honored among others the united states. . ambassador to the united nation linda thomas greenfield who i had the honor of having, not only give her the award, along with our chairman reverend w franklin richardson but the president of msnbc rashida jones helped to present the award, she

herself making history to be the first black woman to lead a major cable network. there were many prominent people, attorney ben crump and dr. dyson and pete buttigieg and others. the main thing was the action coming out of it. we are going to hit this country on the ground, around voting rights, we are going to hit this country on the ground around economic accountability in the nba and the nfl. and we are going to hit this country hard on police reform and public safety. not choosing one or the other but dealing with both in an aggressive manner. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. bleeding g, try saying hello gumwash with parodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash.

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this phone? more concert tickets. and not just for my shows. switch to xfinity mobile for half the price of verizon. that's a savings of over $500 a year. switch today. that does it for me, thanks for watching, i'll see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern. for another live hour of "politics nation". alicia menendez picks up the coverage now. >> of as the war in ukraine presses on president zelenskyy says he will not stop fighting for the right to live in the modern world. >> we are defending the right to live. i never thought this right was so costly. these are human values, so that russia doesn't choose what