decision to carry out the strike. so how will russia respond to all of this? we'll ask pentagon press secretary john kirby when he joins us live. and in the southeastern ukrainian city of mariupol this morning -- [ she wlling ] >> that is shelling of the azovstal steel plant it is believed 200 civilians are sheltering there at the plant. women, children and wounded soldiers. at this moment the next stage of evacuations are underway. the united nations is hoping that a joint effort with the international red cross would be able to get more people out of that plant today. a medic on the inside says that people are dying in agony. bullets, hunger and a lack of medicine. now elsewhere, the pentagon is saying the russian forces made some small progress in parts of the eastern donbas region, but clearly not as much as the kremlin expected and hoped by this stage. >> let's bring in analyst kimberly dozer and former special forces operator mark hayward. he just returned home after volunteering with the ukrainian armed forces since nearly the beginning of the war. a lot of interesting stuff that you have to share with us here. first, i want to talk about these reports. new cnn reporting the u.s. intel provided ukrainian forces and i'm being careful about the wording with russian warship location before ukraine was successfully able to target it with antiship missiles. what are sources telling you? >> we're getting a lot of pushback on the specificity, but i did talk to a senior u.s. official who said from the beginning of the war, they have been trying to provide ukrainian forces as much intelligence as those troops needed to a accurately target, but also to survive the russian on slot. the sensitivity to these reports that they were providing specific targeting information, especially for russian generals, but also for the count of the russian navy is that it makes it more personal between the u.s. and russia right ahead of the may 9th victory day parade in russia when we're expecting vladimir putin to make some sort of an announcement and the fear is that he might announce an actual full-scale war and these kind of reports can help fuel the drive to do that and create a wider war because putin will say, look, we're not just fighting ukraine. we're fighting the u.s. and the proxy forces of ukraine. that's what all of russia is needed in this fight. >> mark, you just got back from ukraine. you have been working alongside these forces. what is your understanding about the specificity of the u.s. intelligence we are offering to the ukrainian forces on the ground. you're see iing a lot of back a forth now. it's a nuanced issue. >> i have no direct information about information given to ukraine. what i will say is the ukrainians are grateful for whatever information we can give them to help them protect their people and fight the invasion. and i personally hope that we are giving every scrap of information that we have. when the ship sank, the russian navy pushed back 200 ckilometer from shore. the maritime assault on odesa is not going to happen now because the ship is at the bottom of the ocean. if we played a part in that, good for us. >> there's some interesting things on our set that i want to point out to our viewers and talk about. one of the things you're working on with ukrainians is training them on the use of javelins. so this actually sits in for us. explain what this does and how this charges a javelin. >> what we're not seeing here are four ordinary motorcycle batteries. they would be attached to this end. the brain of the javelin missile system, the command launch unit, is supposed to be powered by a very nice, nonrechargeable paired battery system. that small green battery delivers enough power to rit fo four hours or to launch two to four missiles using that launch unit. when we got in country, the marine units that we were working with had one green battery with a clue and three missiles. that meant they could maybe use that for four hours or they could fire their missiles. they could never turn the clue on to train on with it. we had to get them some way to power it up, and we were not able anywhere in country to find more batteries. so we built this piece of second grade work. this is my handywork and connected this to motorcycle batteries and ran some tests. it looked like it worked. so ukrainian engineers took the design and they built this and it looked like it would work. so then they took their own design and made it better and used a 3-d printer and made it resistant so there's only one way to put it together. and with crossed our fingers and took a $100,000 piece of equipment that the hus shipped over and plugged in this battery system to it. it didn't blow up. and then we had the ability to turn on the clue for training, to run it for eight to ten hours as a stand alone. and within 96 hours of us prototyping this first batteries, units that had been keeping their clues and missiles in storage were out hunting tanks they kill ed the first 96 hours after we prototyped. >> i have been hearing about creativity of u.s. forces. i didn't think i was going to get to see it right here in washington, d.c. >> the javelin is the most famous weapon that the u.s. has been sending to ukraine to take out armored vehicles, to take out these tanks. the pentagon have consistently talked up about how much they are sending over there the billions and billions of dollars of u.s. equipment. what does it tell us when you see this setup that mark and ukrainian forces have had to jerry rig to get them to work. >> it tells us that pentagon officials, western officials have good communication perhaps with the headquarters in ukraine about what's needed, but this is down to the troops on the ground, and so what mark is bringing us is word of of what they actually need and are running out of. what they need fast to make them more lethal because we have this race of russian forces try ing o encircle the 40,000 ukrainian troops in eastern ukraine and also the troops that are defending odesa near the coast. there's this race ta get ukrainian more weapons versus the russians making time. >> so this is beautiful. amazing engent knewty. but they need actual batteries. what else do they need? >> what they need are a functional logistics system that delivers the supplies that are sent to the right units in the right way. that's not something an army can grow overnight. we could send a regional manager from amazon to help them set up a logistics system. what they also need are trainers who are embedded with these troops. we do this with other countries all over the world in some hazardous places. we send mobile training teams to help them. that's a special mission. you don't have to send special forces. you can send anybody with the ability, but they have to be in there working with the troops. otherwise this information gets missed. tstz not that anybody is doing the wrong thing. you just don't know unless you're there. >> that means putting u.s. boots on the ground, which can escalate the war with russia and the susquehanna trying to walk this fine line saying this is not about us against russia, it's about helping ukraine resist russia. >> the biden administration has made clear they do not want u.s. forces on the ground during this conflict. the biden administration also now pushing for $33 billion more dollars of military aid from congress to help ukrainian troops get what they need for next phase of the fight. thank you for coming in. >> what do you say to that when you say no u.s. troops on the ground? >> if we ever meant it when we said never again, this is the time for us to mean it. and when we say redlines, what saying is there's levels of risk. we have to decide how much risk is acceptable. there's two wars in ukraine. there's the one of the two militaries, but there's the one against civilians surrounded by the russians. you have seen this. you have reported on this. cnn's reporters have showed the world the facts that war crimes are russian policy. i know that we want to reduce risk, but we can never leliminae risk and we have to choose which risk we're willing to accept sending u.s. trainers to work with units in ukraine is an acceptable risk and it is necessary if with want to be able to look at our kids and look at ourselves in the mirror. that's what i would say. >> mark, kim, thank you so much to both of you. we're back here in the united states. law enforcement is on high alert here in the nation's capitol all across the country for potential violence that could follow the release of the supreme court draft opinion on roe v. wade. this comes after far right calls for violence against groups that are planning a protest in favor of abortion rights. cnn's whit nee wild is loif outside the supreme court with the latest. we see the new fencing that has just gone up. it's the first time since the inauguration last year when we were expecting violence around that possibly. >> this nonscaleable fence has become really the reaction from law enforcement within washington whenever there's the potential that some of these protests might erupt. and certainly, we're seeing this here at the supreme court. it's the physical example that law enforcement here is very much on high alert. it's not just this nonscaleable fence behind me. it's these concrete barriers that went up thursday night. so certainly, again, law enforcement here bracing for the potential that some of these protests could erupt in violence. and that warning not just here in washington, d.c., but throughout the country. just yesterday, officials from the association hosted a call with 150 participants all across the country to warn that there were protests throughout the country that resulted in some cases in physical confrontations. they also warned their state and local partners there could be further demonstrations and then finally warned that there's been this up tick in social media chatter threats related to this abortion ruling. multiple sources have told cnn that the reality here is violent extremists could use this opinion as a justification to commit acts of violence against federal officials, against members of the judiciary, abortion clinics, judiciary staff and that includes the nine justices. so certainly the law enforcement response extremely proactive. you cannot extract the impact of january 6th on that decision and here's why. january 6th proved that social media chatter can manifest into a real attack and so officials said even local law enforcement across the country understands that reality there taking a much more proactive approach here in washington the police department activating its civil disturbance unit, activating the unit through sunday. >> this is an excellent point. so much was missed on social media in the lead up to the insurrection on january 6th. whitithknee wild, thank you. supreme differences. it used to be hard to tell where john roberts ended and justice alito began. but the draft opinion exposed how far apart these justices are now. also ahead, startle lg are revelations from the former defense secretary about drug labs in mexico. it involved missiles. and explaining why one trump adviser in particular was a dangerous influence. we'll be right back. more protection, more sun, more joy. neutrogena® beach defense® the suncare brand used most by dermatologis and their families, neutrogena® for peop with skin. throughout history i've observed markets shaped by the intentional and unforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns. ubrelvy helps u fight migraine attacks. u put it all on the line. u do it all. so u bring ubrelvy. it can quickly stop migraine in its tracks within 2 hours... without worrying if it's too late or where you are. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks a protein believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. migraine pain relief starts with u. learn how abbvie can help you save. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. big game today! everybody ready? alexa, ask buick to start my enclave. starting your buick enclave. i just love our new alexa. dad, it's a buick. i love that new alexa smell. it's a buick. we need snacks for the team. alexa, take us to the nearest grocery store. getting directions. alexa will get us there in no time. it's a buick. let's be real. don't make me turn this alexa around. oh my. it's painful. the buick enclave, with available alexa built in. ask “alexa, tell me more about buick suvs.” i am what i live. ♪♪ ♪ my way. the new floral fragrance. giorgio armani. new this morning, there's stunning revelations from former defense secretary. he's just written a new book and he details former president trump floated launching missiles at mexico in order to destroy the drug labs. an excerpt published in "the new york times" read, quotes, they don't have control of their own country. when he raised various objections, trump said that, quote, we could just shoot some patriot missiles and take out the labs quietly adding that no one would know it was us. joining us now is political analyst maggie haberman. with every new book, we keep asking ourselves, how can we keep learning these new just incredible stories and now we have the last senate confirmed defense secretary, who was with president trump almost until the end of his presidency, recounting this story about bombing mexico, and i guess the craziest thing in that episode is that he thought he could get away with it, that mexico wouldn't know where these missiles were coming from. >> right, there was a concern about the flow of drugs coming over the southern border. there were all these conversations around it in the course of the summer of 2020. the former president was concerned about it. and there were looks at what could be done. one thing that the former president discussed was could we fire missiles into mexico, destroy the drug labs, take out the cartels. he suggested patriot missiles, which wouldn't even work in that scenario and said essentially we can just not say it was us and nobody would know. he writes that he would have thought it was a joke if he was not staring trump in the face. as we know, the former president likes to pop off and say things. often times those things don't matter, but presidenthe words o president do matter. he was that didn't happen here, but it is one of several revelations that he writes about that just paint a much fuller picture of this presidency. >> trump did deploy troops to the u.s./mexico border which was nuts because looelly theyen couldn't do anything there. nonetheless, the actual plan is even more nuts. this is esper describing what the plan was for troops at the border. >> who suggested we send a quarter million u.s. troops to the border? >> steven miller. i think he's joking. i turn around and look at him these dead pan eyes, it's clearly he's not joking. and i told this story to general milley and my chief of staff. i said, let's be safe. let's just check and make sure that this isn't being worked in the building. and he comes back somedays later and says, secretary, you're not going believe this. and that's when he explains to me that they were working. we had developed a plan. >> whatever happened to that plan? >> it died. i gave specific instruction to tell northern command to stop work on it. >> they were working it without the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs knowing about it? >> that is one of of the most revealing parts of that whole episode. certainly the number of troops that steven miller wanted deployed and notable. my colleagues at the times reported on that episode last year. the fact that this was going on around the defense secretary's back, this kind of thing happened a lot. not justice with dod, but a number of agencies where the white house would direct some parallel process or side endeavor to have something happen and secretaries would find out about it. this was a constant complaint through the white house. but involving troops is something very different. >> there's another episode involving steven miller. really outrageous suggestion it was fairly medieval involving the former head of isis who was taken out by u.s. special forces. what was miller proposing, and where did that suggestion go? >> according to some point in the hours after they had watched this raid that ended up leading to his death suggest somehow locating his head, dipping it in pigs blood and parading it around as a deterrent to terrorist. the idea went nowhere. it was something that steven miller said. he say it was a war crime. or esper said it. he described it as a moron. nonetheless, he lays out this detailed accounting in his book. >>est per seems est per seems m. he was going to use the military to seize ballot boxes. >> what he was concerned about is he was hearing speculation and reports mostly media drichb but there was uncertainty what trump might do with the military there was concern not so much by esper but others, but the ballot boxes might get seized. esper told his top officials to be on alert to any strange phone calls from the white house, to any bizarre requests, any inappropriate or odd use of the defense department. and that really speaks to what a charged climate. the country was heading into the election with because of what trump was saying about fraud. >> it's a fascinating revelations. maggie, thank you so much for discussing it with us. >> thank you. used to almost share one legal mind, but john roberts and justice aly ta look to be on different path ps we're going to look at that, next. and later in the show, the frantic hunt for a dangerous murder suspect and the officer who allegedly helped him escape. authorities are hoping that some new images of how they might look now will help them find them. that's coming up. lactaid is 100% realilk, just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too. which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. 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[ in unison ] that's powerful. couldn't have said it better myself. and with three times the bandwidth, the gaming never has to end. slaying is our business. and business is good. unbeatable internet from xfinity. made to do anything so you can do anything. alito were once so aligned their records were hard to distinguish. not now though. they represent the stark divide that has formed in the highest court in the united states. so how did it end up like this? let's bring in jeffrey toobin, cnn chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. you said roberts is conservative like alito, but an institutionalist. what does that mean in terms of how he makes decisions and how is it different from alito who is a culture warrior? >> they are so similar in many respects. they were both appointed by george w. bush in the very beginning of his second term in 2005. but in recent years, they have taken different directions. and as you mentioned, there is a difference of personality. chief justice roberts, his title is not chief justice of the supreme court. it is chief justice of the united states. and he takes that seriously. he is someone who speaks for the whole country, speaks for the entire judiciary and is someone who tries to stay away from the most hot button issues. not so justice a low to. he gives speeches to the federal society, talks about the culture wars in the country and even though their voting records have been similar for much of their tenure, that's changing in recent years. look at this list of subjects in which they have differed. obamacare, many people i'm sure remember how john roberts at the last minute switched his vote and upheld obamacare in the beginning of president obama's second term. and abortion, this is what we're thinking about now because of the draft opinion from justice alito on striking down roe v. wade. john roberts was trying to find a middle ground upholding the mississippi law, but not overturning roe v. wade. if alito's opinion becomes the opinion of the court, roberts will be in the minority. >> how do the roles of the justices play in this? >> this is a very important rule about the supreme court that i'm not sure everyone knows. when the court votes, the chief justice, his biggest responsibility when he is in the majority is he gets to assign the opinion, including often in big cases assigning it to himself. but when the chief justice is in the minority, the senior associate justice in the majority gets to assign the opinion. that's clarence thomas now. clarence thomas sits to the chief's right. that means he's the senior associate justice. if the abortion case holds, that means that thomas assigned the opinion to alito. and that's a very different dynamic. those are two culture warriors together on the court. and roberts, increasingly is with sotomayor and breyer. but the power in the court is really shifting away from roberts because he's now aligned with the three liberals and thomas is aligned with the four other conservatives to make a new majority. >> how have the dynamics changed since the death of ruth bader ginsburg, since amy coney barrett joined the court? >> this is really -- some replacements on the court are -- all replacements are consequential. when steven breyer stepped down and he's being replaced by judge jackson, that is important. but this was epic. this was epic in its importance because at the end of president trump's term in 2020, justice ginsburg died. amy coney barrett was rushed through by mitch mcconnell. and that changed the court from a 5-4 majority for the conservatives with chief justice roberts in the majority to a 6-3 conservative majority with roberts increasingly siding with the three liberals. but he is increasingly irre irrelevant. if the roe v. wade case stands in the draft opinion that we have seen, that will be the most vivid demonstration because that means that clarence thomas, alito, brett cav nugget, neil gorsuch and amy coney barrett, the three trump appointees plus alito and thomas, that makes a majority where chief justice roberts is irrelevant and doesn't get to assign opinions when that's the line up. that is an immense change in the court and it's all because justice barrett got promote d a the last days of the trump administration. >> the transformation here just in a matter of a few years is stunning. it's almost unrecognizable. thank you so much for taiking us through that. the hardships of war are creating another test for teams. cnn is on the ground in ukraine as women and children await the battlefield on the men in their lives. we don't see him anymore. i have never been so scared in my life. >> another day of emotional and graphic testimony as a.mber head describes the pain in her marriage to johnny depp. and getting antsy as a plane pulls into the gate that's one thing. but chicago passenger got creative. wait until you see what he did. that's coming up. m so defensive♪ ♪i got bongos thumping in my chest♪ ♪and somethining tells me they don't beat me♪ ♪ ♪ ♪he'd betterer not take the rig from me.♪ discomfort back there? 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(vo) with 5g ultra wideband in many more cities, you get up to 10 times the speed at no extra cost. verizon is going ultra, so your business can get more. less than two months ago, they were snatch ed off the streets as russian soldiers invaded their town. now that soldiers are gone, it's become a gut wrenching scene that you don't know what happened to their husbands and sons. sara sidner joins us live from kyiv with this story. tell us what you're learning and what they are going through. >> reporter: about an hour from kyiv in a village, we met mothers and wives and children who talked about the fact that as the russian invasion happened in their particular village, suddenly men started to go missing. in one case the mother and children were there watching their husbands and father being taken away. it's been now about two months and they have seen no trace of him. every single day, they wait for the moment her husband and son return home. i called them and they said, hold on, wait a minute. that's all. >> what do you think happened to your husband and son? >> i don't know. i have no idea. my husband and son won't hurt a fly. they are very kind. days before russian soldiers had had occupied the town. when she returned home, neighbors told her her husband and son had been taken by russian soldiers. >> where did they hide my boys? i can't find my place in life? where are they? >> how am i supposed to live now? tell me how. she's not the only one suffering through this across the street and just around the corner, other families are longing for the day their husbands and fathers return. they watched as russians took their papa away. loefing them with just pictures for now the main thing is they took him and we don't know where he is. we hope they find them and they the russians will be punished. they were relieved it's no longer crawling with russian t tanks, but it means there's no one left to ask where the men were taken. in the rubble of war, gregory has been zeshlging for his brother. he was also picked up by russian soldiers in the same as the others. from the story we heard from a guy, we know he was beaten with a club. we met the guy he's talking about who says he, too, was detained and held by russian soldiers who said it was their job to beat them each day. my hands were tied with this rope. here it is, he says. and another two guys were handcuffed. one of the men didn't make it out alive, he says. in the morning, the russians said his body was already cold. he reported to police and it was determined that the man killed was his brother. though no body has ever been found. they took the body away who knows where. we still don't know where he is. after hearing all thrks how do you survive this? how do you live with this? >> translator: it's very hard. it's very hard. >> reporter: we happened to be with him when he got permission to go on the property where his brother was killed. we went down a set of steep stairs. at the bottom, he stayed nearly seconds. the memory of his brother too much for him to bear. those children you saw there, they had a message for russia. and the message was for god sakes, please send our papa home. >> it is heart wrenching. thank you so much for that story. for millions of americans, what's old is new again. a deeper dive into the boomerang trend. new pictures of a powerful tornado which battered a community in kansas. we're chasing that story. allergies don't have to be scary. spspraying flonase daily stos your body from ovoverreacting to allergens al season long. psst! psst! flonasase all goo. ♪ ♪ i'm the latest hashtag challenge. and everyone on social media is trying me. 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(moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really? find your beat your moment of calm find your potential then own it support your immune system with a potent blend of nutrients and emerge your best every day with emergen-c for me, being in nature and putting my hands in the ground, it's almost a spiritual experience. i wanted to use our garden as a way to share food and love with my friends and family. i had this idea for this other way of life for sustaining myself. to me it's all reflective of my personality, it's artistic. join the millions of people finding new ways to grow with miracle-gro. powerful tornadoes and strong winds are causing widespread damage across several states. look at this incredible video. that's in kansas. surveillance video capturing very moment a tornado ripped trees out of the ground. at least 300 buildings were also destroyed. now this morning severe weather is moving into the southeastern part of the country. let's bring in chad myers. those are just incredible scenes. what else are we expecting? >> there are some drone pictures out of that same storm from storm chasers that were truly unbelievable. the weather from the west has to move to the east. we know that. and that's the east coast turn today. all the way down toward mobile, the severe weather is going to spread up into washington, d.c. the radar begins to light up at 11:00. in the warmer part of the day around 1:00, that's where atlanta, that's where you get involve d. notice this continues to move through charlotte, through the low country of south carolina, all the way up to d.c. later on tonight. now by tomorrow, it's long gone. but there's still going to be quite a bit of rainfall with this across parts of pennsylvania. where there are flooded a voiz ris across the area. we'll watch that. could be 4 inches of rainfall. talk about those hilly mountains there. now that's when we see the water going down the hill. we have to watch that after dark. for your mother's day, a little cooler than you might like, but at least it dries out for sunday and monday all the way across the east. >> we'll be watching that closely. starting to feel those effects here. chad myers in the weather center, thank you. scores of frustrated workers who left thinker jobs during the pandemic are coming right back. they are being called boomerang employees. it's a new description of worker behavior over the past two years. let's bring in vanessa. >> good morning to you, alex. it's been a wild two years in the labor market. first, we had record unemployment, labor shortages. the great resignation. now boomerangs, americans looking for greener pastures only to find that the grass isn't always greener. >> i am officially a boomerang. >> reporter: so are millions of other american workers today. a boomerang, someone who left an employer before choosing to return. boomerangs like jim made a 4.3% of all u.s. job switches last year. up from 3.3% pre-pandemic, according to linkedin. >> there was resistance on your end initially? >> definitely. just being concerned that it would feel like a step back ward. >> reporter: he worked in hr at adobe, but he left for a new opportunity in 2020. last year he returned to adobe after just 18 months. the average time americans boomerang back is down from 22 months to 17 months. >> part of it was during the pandemic, it was harder to sink roots into a company. i missed some of the colleagues and confidence that i could do important work and add value and have impact was the most important thing. >> reporter: boomeranging often carries a negative connotation. but that's changing. likely due to the more than 11.5 million unfilled jobs in the u.s. while a record 4.5 million americans quit in march. the balance of power has shifted to the employee. >> historically, boomeranging was not seen as a positive thing. i think it's the first time we have seen employers really welcoming that trend as well to say, we'd love to have you back here. but is it desperation too? part of it is that they are so aware of the competition and don't want to lose out. >> reporter: the ceo of proactive talent, a crrecruitin firm, says he has three boomerangs working at his company and calls them the best untapped secret. >> we have gone and gathered other skill sets with the context of what they learned a your company. the on boarding is smoother. the training, the culture fit is determined. i think it's a great low cost and high quality way of hiring. >> reporter: it's also a gut check on the company's value and culture. >> a boomerang represents that we're achieving our goals as a company. we're scaling and improving and growing. >> reporter: like many americans, he had option when is he was looking for his next move. but ultimately, the familiarity of adobe, the impact he felt he could make and remote work helped him seal the deal. >> were you surprised that you ended up back in adobe? >> yes. a lot of it goes back to the worry or the being careful not to feel like i was taking a step backwards. so when it felt right, it was a surprise. >> the two industries with the highest percentage of boomerangs are arts and recreation and education. these are also the industries where people boomeranged the fastest within about a year. and recruiters say that's okay. you can still go back to your old company, ask for higher title, more salary, more flexibility and companies are willing to meet their employee demands because they are so desperate for workers. one recruiter telling us if companies are not willing to be flexible, not willing to work with employees coming back, they are going to be left behind in the hiring and job market. alex? >> covid upending so much. thank you so much for that report. now back with a splash, four usa naughts returning to earth after six months up in space. did u.s. intelligence help ukraine send the russian warship to the bottom of the black sea? 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(excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. obviously, we got termites. well, first thing is, you gotta know what they're bitin' on. whoa, yeah! this aged birchwood is perfect for the big ones this time of year. ho-ho! they gobble it up like a candy bar. nice. woman: what's going on? what? i told you to hire a pro. i did get a pro. an orkin pro! i got this. got termites? don't call any pro, call the orkin pro. with over 120 years of experience, nobody's better. orkin. the best in pests. you're still paying me for this. i know, just relax. get those mint juleps ready, it's time for the kentucky derby. that's taking place tomorrow afternoon. our andy scholes is live from churchill downs with a preview. this has to be one of your favorite weekends of the year. >> it always is. there's so much anticipation and fun here at churchill downs. this year after two years, it's finally back to normal. they are going to be full capacity around 150,000 fans expected here for tomorrow's race for the 148th run for the roses. the one person that will not be here is hall of fame trainer bob baffert. he's suspended after his horse failed a drug test. the horse racing commission announced he was disqualified. now technically he within won the 2021 derby. it was his first one ever, but he didn't get the true celebration experience. >> i didn't really. i learned that going through a text message. it's not quite as exciting as w winsing a race across the bar first. to win the derby, you do it for the thrill. that's the whole thing is the thrill of the victory. so hopefully looking forward to doing that. see how that goes. >> the top favorites for tomorrow's race. three horses running in the race. he's known to start slow but closes fast. messier is trained by his former assistant. so in a way, he can kind of still win this kentucky derby. and taiba has only run two races. he if he were able to win, he would be the first horse since 1883 to win the kentucky derby in only its third race. if you're looking to pick a horse, maybe taiba. you have to love those names. so clever. >> have a great time, my friend. love that jacket there. new this morning, "new day" begins right now. we have four astronauts. >> good morning to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. it is friday, may 6th. here today on this friday morning with brianna keilar. john berman is off today. we continue to see what's going on in ukraine. there are questions about th