spacex has been picked by nasa to land the next american astronauts on the moon, including the first woman to walk the lunar surface. astronomers say the tumbling rocket will crash on the far side of the moon on march 4th. i m pamela brown in for jake tapper. our coverage continues now with wolf blitzer and the situation room. happening now, breaking news. a shake-up at the united states supreme court as justice stephen breyer decides to retire. president biden is now poised to make his first high court nomination. potentially triggering an ugly and partisan confirmation battle. also tonight, the united states responds in writing to the kremlin s demands amid fears that a russian invasion of ukraine is imminent. i ll ask ned price what the united states laid out and how vladimir putin might react. and a new study finds
past 27 years. for mr. biden it means whoever he nominates to replace breyer could exert a powerful influence over the u.s. judicial system, long, of course, after the president leaves office. but with the senate split 50/50, any nominee is bound to face a tough confirmation battle as cnn s mj lee reports. mr. president. reporter: president biden confronting a major decision about the supreme court. justice stephen breyer expected to retire from the highest court, paving the way for the president to nominate his replacement, one of the most coveted and momentous actions a sitting u.s. president can take. there has been no announcement from justice breyer. let him make whatever statement he s going to make and i ll be happy to talk about it later. reporter: biden now getting the opportunity to fulfill this 2020 campaign promise. i m looking forward to making sure there is a black woman on the supreme court, to make sure
at any time without the unnecessary fees. we ll help you go from saving. to living. play all day president biden confirming today that he will nominate the first black woman to the supreme court to replace retiring justice stephen breyer. he expects to choose the nom any you heard the sound byte before the end of the last segment by the end of february. and a source saying the president is excited that he is getting the chance to make an historic pick for the court. let s bring in now cnn chief political analyst, gloria borger. and legal analyst elliot williams former deputy assistant attorney general under president barack obama. good evening to both of you. hi, gloria. i am going to start with you. hi, don. so some people are saying this nominee won t face as tough a confirmation battle as people think but i they might be underestimating how nominating a black woman is really triggering some on the right. what do you think?
and it will not, of course, change the ideological balance of the court which is now decidedly conservative because of those three trump picks, one of them, the last one replacing ruth bader ginsburg stirring all the pressure from democrats who wanted her to resign back when when president obama was president. a joint event with the president, which is interesting, because the press secretary keeping her cards close to her vest tweeting just moments ago, jen psaki, it has always been the decision of a supreme court justice if and when they retire and how they want to announce it, and that remains the case today. jen psaki for now saying we have no additional details. that, wolf, out of respect to justice breyer to let him inform his colleagues and to give the white house to plan an event in which they will, number one, thank justice breyer but, number two, brace for what, even though the clock is on biden s side, even though the senate math just barely is on biden s side, will be a b
court. he also served as the president and naacp legal defense i would go as far as to say my favorite lawyer working today. there is this question. the case here. you there is a bunch of things. will this person be a good justice? are they qualified? there is also the political confirmation battle. and brian, you know, we saw this with amy coney barrett they elevated her to the circuit court, they came back within a very short period of time, having gone through the process, having gotten the votes to put her on federal court and said, hey, here she is again. and it is very hard to defeat someone under those circumstances because you kind of know they have the votes. the person has really changed. they have the votes the first time. that is the precisely she was confirmed, 53 votes, she got three republican votes, all democratic votes. there is a certain political logic there that seems pretty compelling. absolutely.