journey. nick paton walsh live in zaporizhzhia waiting, i guess. >> reporter: at this stage, we do not have evacuees from the azovstat plant. workers from red cross are coming here, where they would come in. you can see areas here being used over the past hours to welcome other evacuees from some, actually, the past days who have got out of mariupol are held in russian-held territory and slowly moved their way here. all eyes are on these two separate moves out of mariupol. i say two separate because we're talking about the steel plant where a cease-fire allowed the first batch of individuals to get out. i have to quote russian media here for some of the clearest numbers but their suggestion was that 46 got out in the first 24-hour-period. now, we've seen another 80 in the second. the fate of those split, according to russian military defense, 11 choosing to stay in separatist territory, and 69 headed in this direction towards zaporizhzhia. they are not headed here, if we get a clean readout. ukrainian officials for their part did in the last hours suggest that some of the buses, not these here. these are the buses that eventually move people from here to their next destination. some buses have yet to meet people at meeting points. let me show you a little more of what we're seeing here. this has become, of course, a move of enormous symbolic significance. not just because of the fate of those civilians caught under that steel plant and inside that besieged city over the past months, but because, of course, ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy yesterday said from 8:00 they will be coming out and his team would welcome them here. that's where a lot of the welcome would happen in these tents, adequate supplies and what was just weeks ago the outside of a shopping center. but real expectations here certainly building that something may happen in the hours ahead. i have to be honest with you, we have not heard any clear suggestion that the convoy is moving with evacuees. i'm talking about larger convoy civilians coming out of mariupol organized by the united nations. it's on its way specifically to us here. they are kind of limited. there's a lot that could potentially go wrong here. and a lot of confusing messages coming out. the stakes incredibly high, not just for civilians caught there, 100,000 possibly in mariupol who will as they travel gather more individuals who wish to follow their path out towards ukrainian-held territory. but also too, of course, because of the geopolitical matinations involved in making this happen. antonio gutteres' visit here, the talks with vladimir putin, and those held in mariupol, leveled by russia's brutal ambitions will find a way to get out. as i talk to you now, they haven't started coming from that actual mission of the humanitarian corridor. there are concerns, we may not necessarily see them until tomorrow. back to you. >> we hope they will arrive. at this point, surreal and nervous anticipation setting in. nick paton walsh, please keep us posted. the world watching zaporizhzhia very, very closely. republican congressman adam kinzinger -- should russia decide to use weapons of mass destruction. >> does it compel the president to do it? it just says if it is used, he has that leverage. it gives him, you know, a better flexibility but also it is a deterrent to vladimir putin. prior to world war ii, there were moments nobody ever wanted to get involved and eventually came to realize they had to. i hope we don't get to that point here, but we should be ready if we do. >> cnn's natasha ber tran joining us now. it may be a deterrent. it's also a line being drawn if that goes through. >> it is a red line. we saw this play out under president obama with the red line he drew in syria with the use of chemical weapons. this is not a position a president wants to be in. the white house has been gaming out scenarios they would enact should russia use weapons of mass destruction in ukraine, including chemical weapons. they have said -- president biden has said the response would be proportionally. they would respond in kind to the kind of weapon that russia uses in ukraine, if that does happen. but they have not said, you know, definitively they would use force if russia did do that because that is not a box that he wants to be in. they have basically been weighing sanctions, increased military support to ukraine, heavier weaponry, for example, the kind of things russia would not want to see there. they have, of course, hoping this might, if they do use it, might speed up the european's willingness to ban russian oil imports. all of this is a way for the president to say to the international community that the u.s. and western allies are going to respond if russia does use chemical weapons. not drawing a red line that would force him to impose a no-fly zone, for example, or put boots on the ground in ukraine. >> that's the thing. he doesn't seem to want to be boxing himself in, the president for sure, even though he's done things i think we all thought he wouldn't do when it comes to this war. natasha, thank you for that report. joining us now, cnn anchor and chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, just back from ukraine, seriously, yesterday, back from ukraine. i want to talk about may 9th. may 9th in russia, moscow, is victory day. they have a giant parade in red square celebrating their victory in world war ii. there are a lot of people who thought initially that putin wanted to use that day to be able to declare some kind of victory in ukraine. now it's shifted a little bit. there is some concern he might be using it to reframe what he sees as the terms of this conflict. >> by the way, it was the u.s. intel assessment that there was an intent or at least a hope in moscow to declare something on may 9th. the perception being that this eastern offensive might have something to show for it. you know, we gained all of the donbas or something. that doesn't happen. he doesn't have that. the question is, what does he go with on that day? and given the rhetoric coming both from putin's mouth, lavrov's mouth, also russian state media, increasingly framing this as not just us against ukraine, but us, the russians, against nato and the west. that's a concern, right? is that a rhetorical statement on may 9th? significant enough because risks of escalation but is there something more substantive behind it, too? does he announce a national mobilization, a draft to get more folks? that's an outlier risk but something folks are watching closely. >> this is being discussed. people are talking about the possibility of russia declaring a national mobilization. an invasion of ukraine, a war against ukraine is different than saying, we are at war with the west. >> yes. i would say with putin, listen to what he says, right? he telegraphs stuff. even going back to 2007, people talk about his speech at the munich conference where he talked about russia feeling backed up against the wall by nato. the invasion of georgia followed, all that kind of stuff. as you hear him talk about the west and nato as the enemy here, that is something that u.s. officials listen to because the risk is, what does that mean? is he trying to justify action against the west? not an attack and invasion but maybe a strike on weapons convoy coming in from poland. listen to what he says because that often prestages what he does. >> meanwhile, the ukrainians keep on pushing what they see as positive developments, attacks they have taken out against the russian, including one in the back sea. we have video of this. a drone strike on these russian vessels operating near snake island. you can see no more. it's gone. the significance of something like that. >> look at that plus the sinking of the flagship, more significant, but one part of the russian plan had been to gain the rest of the coastline here and odesa. odesa is key strategically and also in terms of business. they can't do that without a sea invasion, a sea-borne invasion of some type. if your big ships get sunk and little ships get sunk, that makes it a heck of a lot more difficult. that doesn't mean it's off the table but it's riskier and far harder than they might have thought. >> it tells the russians they can't operate without risk in this area. i want to end in the east. obviously, this is where the major conflict is in the donbas region. any sense of the status of that? >> so, it's early. you'll always get that caveat. it has not moved markedly faster than what we saw up north and they're still running into some of the same problems, supply, command and control, this sort of thing. they haven't made a fast dash here. the intention is not only to get more of the donbas, but also to encircle ukrainian forces. ukrainian forces are fighting on three sides. dangerous position to be in. they haven't been able to do that yet. now, things could change over the course of a day or week or a month, but right now, it's a relatively static battle line right there. >> jim sciutto, great to have you back. welcome back. >> great to be back. this morning we have brand-new reporting from "the new york times" about very early warnings on inflation and broken messaging from one of president biden's top pollsters. we heard the tapes from top republicans. now we wonder what democrats have to say about the insurrection. a manhunt under way for an inmate awaiting capital murder charges and the correctional officer who officials say may have helped him escape. but for e to work from here, there has to be someone here making sure everything is safe. secure. consistent. so log in from here. or here. assured that someone is here ready to fix a anything. anytime. anywhere. even here. that's because nobody... and i mean nobody... makes hybrid work, work better. 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we talked to foreign leaders, like tony blair, for example. they're asking us, john, are you guys going to be okay? what's going to happen to america? >> you bring us back to that month, i think, in ways that are different than a lot of the other things i've read about this. you really put us there. and i think 15 months later we pretend, oh, it's inevitable that donald trump would leave january 20th. but it wasn't. i mean, nothing was inevitable there, alex. the idea of resignation was possible. what did he say about resignation? >> he said it didn't do any good for richard nixon, john. when you think about that moment in january, right after the attack, you have republican leaders, you know, people have heard what kevin mccarthy said, but you have republican leaders from all corners of the party contemplating the question of, can this guy be the commander in chief? can he have control of nuclear weapons for another 14 days? that's the kind of question that americans have really never had to ask about their president, certainly in my lifetime. in that moment, they face a choice, republican leaders. are they going to go along with the easiest direction for their own political base and reach an accommodation with donald trump and try to avoid open conflict with him to the greatest degree possible or are they going to try to leave or tell their own voters, we know you still like the guy, but we have to go in a different direction now. looking back from a place where we are now, it can all seem fore ordained. at the time, they really did face a choice, and some of them truly contemplated a liz cheney-esque break from donald trump. they just didn't follow through. >> everything was up for grabs in the hours and days after. it was like "access hollywood" in the fall of 2016. there's this moment gop leaders say, a-ha, this is our chance, we can move on from this guy who is, frankly kind of embarrassing for our party. voters like him. but this is our chance. this has to be the one. this is going to break him. of course, that wasn't the case. once they realize their voters didn't care. >> mcconnell really thought it was done. >> this was it. this was it. we have a scene in the book, late january 6th, early in the morning, january 7th, mcconnell is leaving the capitol. it's been desecrated that day. he lost his senate majority, which he prizes as much as anything in life almost, and mcconnell has almost a sense of relief. and the reason why is because, despite the trauma of the last two days, he feels like trump has been, in his words, discredited. this is it. i'm not going to have to deal with this guy anymore going forward. and he believes that his party and the country will move on. here we are, a year and a half later, and his party certainly has not moved on. >> you guys are wicked famous. so famous that trevor noah brings you up at the white house correspondents' dinner. there are revelations in this book. kevin mccarthy on tape saying things which he flat out denied lying about saying, and it's only coming out now in the book. this is what trevor noah had to say about that. >>. >> by the way, given it up to those "new york times" reporters who managed to get the kevin mccarthy tapes. give it up to them. that's incredible. you knew how crucial those tapes were that's why you immediately wait until your book is for sale to tell the push about them. >> this is not a new criticism about book authors but this is information you've had for a while. >> it is. and one of the things that i think is a common misconception about what happens in the reporting process for a book is that reporters hoard all this information, that they could report in real time and they just hold onto it for commercial purposes. that's just not true. people will share information, people will give interviews, they'll share documents and audiotapes, and boy do we have a lot. >> more to come. >> they will share documents like those for purposes of history that they don't want to see on twitter 15 minutes from now. and so i understand why there's this misconception. it's a perfectly valid sort of avenue for poking fun at us and the media, generally, but that's just not the way the reporting process works on a book of this sale. >> more to come? >> we have a lot of primary source documents, so much so that we couldn't do justice to them fully in this book. one we'll talk about after the break, we have a series of memos from biden's top pollster starting in april of last year that really traces biden's political decline. it's an effort by this pollster to intervene, to stop that decline and to say, we have a problem on immigration, on inflation, on crime, and we've got to address it. obviously, that plea was not listened to, but we have all those memos and the polling therein. >> that's a tease if i ever heard one. gentlemen, stick around. much more on that, including that. also, who said obama is jealous of biden? this morning in georgia, a special grand jury convenes in the investigation of donald trump's efforts to overturn the election there. 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rewards. with free access to stranger things from netflix. the boys from prime video. hbo max, starz, and peacock. just say watchathon into your voice remote and get ready to watch. i love you. i love you. i love you all. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. we're back now with "new york times" reporters alex burns and jonathan martin on their new book "this will not pass: trump/biden and the battle for america's future" which comes out tomorrow. jonathan, you teased rather brilliantly in the last segment about how biden was warned early and often about inflation, about immigration, and about crime. so, what did happen? >> so, biden's chief pollster, has been for some time, writes these weekly members to biden and senior staffers in the white house that aare accompanied by extensive polling. public and his own polling. he sounds the alarm early, brianna. in april he's talking about the threat of insecure borders, the problem that poses to biden politically. by the summer he's talking about concerns about crime and talking about inflation. and so biden and his top staff know these three issues are going to be problematic and they're being urged to act on it, but you just don't see that reflected in their public posture. they were so focused on getting their legislative agenda through congress, that was consuming 90% of their attention. obviously, they thought that that agenda, of course, would address some of these challenges or at least give them a bigger argument going into the midterms. we now know, of course, those issues have posed immense political peril to democrats on the ballot this fall. >> alex, i know you also have some interesting reporting about vice presidential issues that we actually may have come at least somewhat close or there was a possibility of there being vice president duckworth. we know -- look, we know the vice president and the president aren't exceptionally close, but i also wonder what that portends for the future. >> yeah, brianna, the chapter of the book that focuses on biden's selection of kamala harris really captures his indecision, his ambivalence about kamala harris, his family's resistance to choosing vice president harris, and as you alluded to, some others who came close to getting the job. tammy duckworth, a war hero, knocked it out of the park in the vetting issue, except one issue, she was born overseas to o one parent who was an american citizen and one who was not. biden's advisers say we think we can win a lawsuit for her eligibility but we don't think you should choose her. biden has a painful conversation with duckworth to that effect. she says, mr. vice president, i have beaten every person who has come after me. she uses saltier words not fit for family programming. ultimately, biden doesn't go that direction. another person who went far, biden had a couple of advisers believed if he wanted to lock down that crucial midwestern swing state, she was the one to choose. when you talk about the future, look to 2024 and beyond, we'll be hearing these names again. if joe biden doesn't run again, when you talk to democrats at every level of the party, there is not a consensus or anything close to it that vice president harris would have that nomination. >> to this day there's still a corner, pretty prominent corner that believes biden should have picked whitmer. >> the details of the conversations you have between both duckworth, whitmer and biden really, really astounding. i do want to ask you about the relationship or perceived relationship between former president obama and president biden. you have some conversations that are eye-opening. what did pelosi say? >> to bring you back to the spring of last year, pelosi told a friend she believed that barack obama was jealous of joe biden. this is after the passage of the american rescue plan. it's when he's unveiled his plans for, you know, infrastructure spending, more social welfare spending, climate spending and all this coverage of joe biden, more transformational even than barack obama. we heard over and over again, that really bothered barack obama, that he would call up people and say, listen, you've got to understand. i was dealing with a different democratic party now. i have more conservative democrats. of course, a year later things like different for joe biden. i'm not so sure barack obama is so jealous of him today. >> we pull back the curtain and tell people what politics is really like in washington. and what relationships are legit and what are kind of contrived. for all the talk biden and obama do about brothers, they're not that close. they don't talk super often today. there's a rivalry there. and i think biden is a prideful guy and he knew he was looked down upon in the white house when he was vp and he loved the idea of being a bigger historic figure than obama. for a few months there in 2021 it seemed like he had the possibility to do that. i think whether it's democrats or the gop, we tell readers what people are actually saying in private and how they actually feel. not on tv, not for the cameras, but when their true feelings come out. >> that's why you have to read the book. congratulations to both of you. >> tomorrow. >> again, the book, the title is -- >> "this will not pass." you can preorder it now and be on bookshelves tomorrow. >> today in my hands. a potentially last chance for reparations for the surviving victims of the tulsa massacre. an urgent manhunt is under way for an alabama inmate charged with capital murder and the female corrections officer who escorted him out. i need a lawn...quick. the fast way to bring it up to speed... scotts turf builder rapid grass. it grows two times faster than seed alonee for full, green grgrass. everything else just seems... slow. it's lawn season. let's get to the yard. with godaddy y can start a stunning online store for free. easily connect it to social platforms and marketplaces. and manage all your sales from one place. because if you've got it, we've got you. start for free at godaddy.com/startfree if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward relief after the first dose... with injections every two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, 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forward to an actual trial. now, the lawsuit is alleging that the city and others in leadership thwarted community efforts to rebuild the greenwood area after the massacre. also that since then, the city has promoted tourism at the site of the massacre and at the heart of this, the victims, three of them, still living today, were never competenced. the lawsuit is seeking financial reparations for the loss of life and property during the massacre. the creation of a victims' compensation fund, financial reparations from any profits made from the government from tourists visiting the site of the massacre and one said at the prayer rally, this hearing today is more than just a hearing. >> we must fight for our rights and our dignity. and that is what justice for greenwood is about. that's what tomorrow is about. when we go in that courtroom, we will fight for our rights and our dignity. we will win tomorrow! we will win this trial! we will get justice for greenwood! justice for greenwood! >> reporter: now, the defendants, which includes the board of county commissioners, are arguing that they are exempt from liability in cases of civil disee bead yens, riots, insurrection and these allegations are too vague. the survivors are arguing the generational wealth stripped from them at the time so suddenly still reverberates today. this is part of a long, ongoing court battle. the oldest survivor, 101 years old, texted his attorney, they are trying to wait us out. we are not going anywhere. >> we'll be watching, omar. we're joined next by a reporter who spent weeks alongside ukrainian president zelenskyy. what happened inside the presidential bunker. throughout histo i've observed markets shaped by the intentional and unforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this lancape, leveragi gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns. the mosquitoes are just all over the quiet please. okay. wow! 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[mosquitoes buzzing] i got you. got mosquitoes? don't call any pro, call the orkin pro. orkin. the best in pests. ubrelvy helps u fight migraine attacks. u do it all. one dose of ubrelvy, quickly stops migraine in its tracks within 2 hours. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. hybrid work is here. it's there. it's everywhere. but for someone to be able to work from here, there has to be someone here making sure everything is safe. secure. consistent. so log in from here. or here. assured that someone is here ready to fix anything. anytime. anywhere. even here. that's because nobody... and i mean nobody... makes hybrid work, work better. lemons. lemons. lemons. the world is so full of lemons. when you become an expedia member, you can instantly start saving on your travels. so you can go and see all those lemons, for less. time for five things to know for your "new day." an urgent manhunt under way after a capital murder suspect and a corrections officer disappeared friday in alabama. the sheriff told us moments ago she may have helped him escape. a short time from now, selection will begin in atlanta for a special grand jury. it's part of an investigation into whether former president trump or his allies broke the law by pressuring georgia officials to overturn the state's 2020 election results. ahead of her expected testimony this week, amber heard fired the pr team that she had hired to handle crisis communications. she is being sued for defamation by ex-husband johnny depp. in atlanta, a driver of a multi-person party bike has been charged with dui after an accident left 15 passengers injured over the weekend. ♪ love can build a bridge between your ♪ >> the music world mourning the death of naomi judd while celebrating the induction of the mother/daughter duo the judds into the country music hall of fame. speaking at the ceremony last night, wynonna judd said it's a strange dynamic to be this blessed, though my heart is broken, i will continue to sing. those are five things to know for your "new day." more on these stories all day on cnn and cnn.com. don't forget to download the five things podcast every morning. go to cnn.com/5things. an article in the latest edition of "time" offers this rare glimpse of how the very public president volodymyr zelenskyy is experiencing this war behind closed doors. reporter simon schuster impeded with z embedded with zelenskyy and his staff for two weeks. he said two months into the invasion, he had changed. there were new creases in his face and no longer searched the room for advisers. he said, i've gotten older. i aged from all this wisdom i never wanted. it's tied to the number of people who died. that kind of wisdom, he added, trailing off, to be honest, i never had the goal of attaining knowledge like that. joining me now is the author of this reporter, "time" reporter simon schuster. thank you for being with us. this is really a side of zelenskyy that never of us have seen. we see him with the beard and the military fatigues acknowledging he's changed. >> yeah, that was kind of the approach i took. there's been such an enormous rush of news since the invasion started february 24th, but i wanted to take an opportunity to go back and ask them, you know, not about the daily events, you know, the latest events in the war, the latest shift on the front lines but to go back and talk to them about what it's felt like for them, how they experienced the invasion. and to sit down with them not just zelenskyy but really all the people around him and talk to them about key moments in these last two months of the war and how they've felt. some of the interviews felt, honestly, like therapy sessions more than interviews. >> one of the key moments early on he gave the speech really to the world saying, we're all unified, we're all in this together, meaning he, the ukrainian leadership, the ukrainian people. he said that and portrayed such confidence, but he wasn't so sure at the time. >> yeah. in that moment, one thing i learned from talking to the advisers, that a lot of people did flee, a lot of officials, a lot of even military officers fled. some of zelenskyy's staff were quite concerned about that, but they took the approach that, you know, it's natural when there is such intense fear of the russians overtaking kyiv in a matter of days. and their response to that was basically, look, everybody, if you need to take a few days to get your family out of ukraine, that's fine, go for it. but then you need to come back and help us fight this war. >> speaking about family, what about his family? i mean, he's got kids. i know that he has, you know, put them, he thinks, in a safe place, but how real were the threats, did he think, against him and the family? >> yeah, that was a really surprising moment in the interview when i asked him to take me back to the first day of the invasion. and he sort of -- it was hard for him. he said he remembered it in a fragmented way and all the days have begun blurring together at some point. but he said there is this one vivid moment he remembered very clearly, which was waking up his children that night in the middle of the night and getting them ready, dressed and ready to flee their home because the invasion had started. i mean, that was really painful to hear him talk about. and one other thing i learned that really surprised me was that first night, the russians made two attempts to storm the compound, according to zelenskyy and his advisers. and zelenskyy's family, his children and wife, were in there at the time. it's awful to imagine the kind of fear and stress he was experiencing. >> imagine that for any family, any father. you also talked to zelenskyy aides who were remarkably honest, and in some ways critical, or not afraid to be critical of zelenskyy. >> yeah. and he expected that. he wants that from his staff. i was kind of surprised, you know, one of the times we sat down, he asked me first, simon, what do you think about what's going on? that was the beginning of our conversation. he wanted to hear from me how i was feeling, whether the west was paying attention, whether, you know, the attention was waning. but, yeah, he expects people to be honest around him. one of the advisers was quite frank about, you know, zelenskyy's -- the way he's performed the role of a wartime president. >> one of the aides said sometimes he's too much of an actor. >> yeah. the aide said that, and this aide actually, like many of zelenskyy's aides comes from the world of acting and showbiz himself. he's a former theater actor for 17 years. now a military adviser to zelenskyy. he said, yeah, sometimes i get the feeling that the president is sort of stepping into the role a little bit too much and playing the role rather than being himself. and he said that it would be better if zelenskyy just was himself because when he is his natural self, especially when he's tired and too tired to act, then he makes the greatest impression for his integrity and strength as a leader. >> that really was a great quote, too tired to act, too tired to think about it. this is an interesting side of zelenskyy we have not seen before. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. new video released by the ukrainian video shows a drone destroying two russian patrol boats in the black sea. we're live on the ground in ukraine coming up. where does elon musk place himself on the political spectrum? he explains it with a meme. who wantnts a cupcake? the number o one longest-lastg aa battery. yay! case closed. bonnie boon i'm calling you out. everybody be cool, alright? with ringcentral we can pull bonnie up on phone, message, or video, all in the same app. oh... hey bonnie, i didn't see you there. ♪ ringntral ♪ “few of us will ever dive so deep into our cars, but those who do venture down into the nuts and bolts...” “you have to give all of yourself when you do something, and that's when you do your best.” for the best audio entertainment and storytelling. audible. finding the perfect project manager isn't easy. but, at upwork, we found him. he's in adelaide between his daily lunch delivery and an 8:15 call with san francisco. and you can find him, and millions of other talented pros, right now on upwork.com ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. at booking.com, finding perfect isn't rocket science. kitchen? sorted. hot tub, why not? and of course, puppy-friendly. we don't like to say perfect, but it's pretty perfect. booking.com, booking.yeah. i need a lawn...quick. the fast way to bring it up to speed... scotts turf builder rapid grass. it grows two times faster than seed alone for full, green grass. everything else just seems... slow. it's lawn season. let's get to the yard. the billionaire who just bought twitter posts a meme that has a lot of americans talking. john avlon has our reality check. >> so, ronald reagan famously said, i didn't leave the democratic party. the party left me. and elon musk just tried to make the same point by tweeting a cartoon. so, meme politics are a thing, right? in this image, created by collin wright, got a lot of folks talking. as you can see, it shows a stick figure standing left of center in the political spectrum back in 2008. then you see the figure on his left start sprinting to the far edge of the frame. conveniently skipping over the trump years entirely. until 2021 the woke progressive is calling everyone to his rights bigots and the guy who was center left finds himself center right. if you find this as an attempt to explain his own evolution, musk followed up with a tweet saying, the far right hates everyone, themselves included. quickly following up, i'm not a fan of of the far right either. i get the frustration. but where you stand is often a matter of where you sit. here's the real question, is it remotely true that democrats have moved further toward the fringe than republicans since 2008? well, the shift from 2008 gop nominee john mccain to mitt romney to donald trump would seem to answer that question, but let's put facts over feelings and dig into the data. so, polarization has been growing for decades in congress but voting patterns show republicans have moved further to the right than democrats have to the left. the dynamic was playing out even before the big lie litmus test. the deeper problem, as pew research points out, is that house democrats have grown more liberal and republicans much more conservative. the middle, moderate to liberal republicans could sometimes find modern ground on contentious issues has vanished. it's no worder why so many moderates make up 37% of americans in gallup's 2021 poll can feel underrepresented. again, the problem is not that the far left has taken over our political institutions. in fact, congress has become more conservative over the past 50 years as this graph shows. that's why all americans overall have moved slightly to the left over the past two decades as "the washington post" points out, stating musk's illustration is simply wrong. how can something so wrong feel so right to so many folks? well, it's the old game of what aboutism in a political world driven by negative partisanship. what musk might be reacting to is the cultural irritants from the far left. these are the complaints that get filed under woke culture. talk of trigger warnings and critical race theory, defund the police and debates over gender identity that have dominated republicans' midterm message. they deploy these culture war issues because they work. even when underline policies like defund the police are not supported by vast majority of elected officials. the activist class either doesn't understand the brand damage they do or they don't care. here's the ironic part. the place these cultural debates play out the most, other than -- is social media. a small number of super users make up the vast majority of tweets. so, musk might be reacting to a twisted vision of political debates on the platform that he now wants to control. politics is perception. partisan echo chambers of full of self-serving distortions but the basic rules still apply. everyone's titled to their own opinion but not their own facts, as senator daniel patrick moynahan used to say. it's not true democrats have moved further to the left than republicans have to the right, especially in a time where big lie fantasies are still being treated as an article of faith by candidates. and that's your reality check. >> so good. i mean, perception prevails. not in rocket science, thank goodness, as elon musk would know. john avlon, thank you so much. >> thank you. cnn's coverage will continue right now. happening right now, evacuations from mariupol are under way. about 100 civilians trapped at that azovstal steel plant are now free after sheltering in the basement for months. hundreds more remain trapped, including women and children. they're running out of food, water and medicine. a very good morning to you. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm erica hill. cnn has exclusive new satellite images showing what that plant looks like now. nearly every building has been destroyed. commander says shelling continued overnight despite those ook vaevacuations. in the donetsk region, russian forces are pressing forward with assaults. to the west, a drone video shows a village coming under heavy fire. >> ukraine is fighting back. new video shows a ukrainian drone striking and destroying two russian patrol boats. this is near the infamous snake island where those ukrainian sailors stood up to a russian assault. these images show a

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