for this and, furthermore, ought to treat the president s nominee with the same level of respect brett kavanaugh was treated with and amy coney barrett was treated with. basically saying it s payback time. is that what we re going to see? i think whether it s in that tone or not, yes. amy coney barrett was the first nominee since 1869 that was approved on an accelerated time frame without a single vote from the opposition party . in truth that is how they are showing themselves. we have seen john roberts engineer with occasional exceptions like the affordable care act, a series of 5-4, now 6-3, party line in effect, party line decisions in which the republican justices outvote all of the democratic-appointed justices. the court behaving in a more partisan manner even in the process they are approved is unfolding in a more partisan manner.
line today for naming breyer s replacement. so what do we know about how that s going to work? reporter: president biden said he didn t want to take questions from reporters because he wanted this day to be about justice breyer s legacy given, of course, how many years he spent on the court, the time they spent together, given biden was the judiciary chairman when biden had the confirmation hearing. he did make news on the big question, who biden is going to pick to replace him, to fill that highly coveted seat on the supreme court. he said he plans to name his nominee within the next several weeks. our process is going to be rigorous. i will select a nominee worthy of justice breyer s legacy of excellence and decency. while i ve been studying candidates backgrounds and writings, i ve made no decision except one. the person i will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. and that person will be the first black woman ever nomi
speak with ukrainian president zelensky last hour as tensions along the border persist. a source has told cnn zelensky is expected to tell president biden he s concerned about the rhetoric from the u.s. and other allies about the situation in his country. the united states reportedly made no concessions to russia in its written responses to the kremlin s security demands, and the russian foreign minister said there is, quote, no positive reaction, end quote, because it fails to address his government s main concern. sam kiley is in kyiv for us. do we know any more about this call from the ukrainians? reporter: well, no, we don t know any detail yet. we haven t had a readout from that call. there are indications of what the substance of it it would be, as victor was saying about some of the rhetoric. now we unpick how president zelensky has been reacting to some of the statements made by the united states and others,
are training more civilian volunteers and are receiving substantial shipments of weapons from the united states, steadily flowing in almost every day now to reinforce the military position. alisyn, victor? sam kiley there for us in kyiv. thank you. we just got this in from the defense department. they said the buildup of russian forces near the ukrainian border has increased in the last 24 hours. let s go now to cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins. kaitlan, what do we know about anything from this call and the questions about the president s tone? reporter: well, of course, what the pentagon just announced that buildup is continuing on russia s behalf is certainly going to be a major subject in this call this is a call that was scheduled to start about 2:00 eastern. this is something the white house said was less of any kind of breakthrough you should expect or formal offer to be made on the u.s. behalf and more of president biden checking in with the ukrainian l
and developed and deployed exactly that type of system. so they don t want to see the united states to continue the deterrence posture that the trump administration implemented, the obama administration implemented, and it looks like the biden administration will continue to build on. and, tom, given me your analysis on the two latest developments this report from the pentagon that there s been a buildup of forces on the border of russian forces but also, zelensky asking the u.s. to tone down the rhetoric. he s asked them to tone it down as the forces are building up. is the u.s. hyperbolic here or is this on point what you re hearing from the administration? i would encourage the administration to return to the notion of strategic ambiguity, don t tip your hand. and i think maybe they ve done