positions at the u.n. rotate and tomorrow, russia takes over the presidency of the security council and with that comes a lot of control over the matters before the council. so today s action at the u.n. is really critical to try to get a world forum for the west and russia to be able to thrash out these issues and to expose what s going on in a big, wide audience as one of the levers through diplomacy, through pressure, to stop putin. jose? kelly, so important, what you re telling us this morning. evelyn, could preemptive sanctions against russia really make a difference, make putin maybe think twice about invading ukraine, if that s what he has in mind? well, jose, thanks again for having me on. i would argue with the biden administration that these sanctions are so strong this time around, the economic sanctions, blocking banks from getting access to dollars and other things of that nature that i would say that they are right
different. they have to remain calm and they re keenly aware of the danger. i mean, do you throw a rock at a lion who s looking at you, licking his chops, about to eat you, possibly, you throw a rock or just kind of hope for the best? evelyn fairks, evelyn mcdonald, and kelley o donnell, thank you very much. the search for the next supreme court nominee to replace stephen breyer underway and the list of people reported to be under consideration is more than a dozen names long. this morning, senator wicker is facing backlash for likening president biden s decision to nominate a black woman for the role to affirmative action. lindsey graham is push back on, even praising michelle childs, the only potential nominee confirmed by the white house. there s no affirmative action component if you pick her. she is highly qualified. we ve only had five women serve and two african-american men, so
this is their reality, which we leave for eight years. this is the reality, this recent escalation since april. and that kind of rhetoric is in stark contrast to the dire warnings that we ve been hearing from the united states, from washington. over the weekend, we heard from the u.s. undersecretary, victoria newland, saying that russia is showing no signs so far of backing down, pointing to the thousands of troops amassed at the border, 30,000 troops stationed in belarus alone, and that is just a three-hour drive from kyiv, saying that essentially all military options remain on the table for russian president vladimir putin, although she said she does see a window for diplomacy and on that note, there is a phone call between the british prime minister and russian president vladimir putin s scheduled for later today. jose? thank you so much. evelyn, what do you make of the ukrainian government appearing to act so calm in this moment?