soon as december. and herschel walker now says he s not backing down despite the abortion scandal rocking his campaign. ma maggie haberman joins me this hour on donald trump s decision to back walker despite his checkered past. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s begin our coverage in ukraine where a furious counteroffensive is now sweeping russian troops out of territory. moscow has held for months. cnn is your national security editor. nick paton walsh is joining us live from the war zone. nick, this rapid ukrainian advance comes as vladimir putin laid claim to that troubled nuclear power plant. what s the latest on the ground tonight? ukraine s president zelenskyy clear that half a thousand square kilometers of territory in the kherson region have since the beginning of the month been liberated from russian control. that s a larger number of than officials said earlier today and it s part of the slow drip we saw ourselves just yesterday of territory r
because i think it s different when someone has been a president and they are back to doing the same thing they had done before they had power. you know, he s doing these rallies again. i don t think that feels great to him and it s not hugely surprising to me that he feels that way. he may get more into it if he declares a campaign. he tends to enjoy a fight once he s in it as opposed to the lead up to it. but you know, i just think that his heart is not in it the way it once was and this is something a number of of aides have observed as well. we ll see where it goes. thanks so much for joining us and writing this poimportant bo. there s the cover. i highly recommend it. it s going to be a huge best seller. thanks, maggie, very much. thanks, wolf. just ahead, president biden takes his first major steps towards decriminalizing marijuana nationwide.