it s a factor. i m not going to mislead you, in the selection of judges at every level. i have a lot of my friends in chicago who are attorneys in their 60s who would like to cap off their career by being a federal judge. it really doesn t make sense when you consider how long they re likely to serve before they reach senior status or leave quickly. we do look for younger candidates, younger by supreme court and federal court standards. it s done on both sides. i don t think there s any surprise that both republicans and democrats would like some longevity in the service. i want to turn to the issue of ukraine. both you and my other republican guest are chair of the ukranian senate caucus, if you will. both you and senator portman have large ukrainian populations in your states. i m curious of what you said of president ze lenski said on
week, are there any in ukraine might be able to find a way to end this peacefully? so again as i mentioned before, we re in constant contact with senior levels of the ukrainian government. secretary blinken just spoke with president zelenski yesterday. they have come forward with constructive idea for how to move the diplomacy forward. we re encouraging that those are steps they re taking. they re asking the united states to support them in trying to get towards a cease-fire and then ultimately get down the track of diplomatic resolution. we believe that that is good and positive and i believe that president biden and zelenski will discuss that diplomatic path. with regard to nord stream 2, you said they should risk the pipe line being turned down. have you made clear to allies you will, in fact, sanction the remaining entities involved in
remember in june, when we were covering the nato summit in brussels. president ze lenski caused a scamble indicating nato leaders green lit a further step towards nato membership for ukraine. the u.s., the other nato allies stated clearly in their communique that was not the case. they referred to a 2000 agreement that laid out a pathway for ukraine to potentially join nate to but they were far short of the steps needed to do so it was clear in sullivan s response, even as far as ukraine may be from being a nato member, they re not willing to make that a barring ching chip in this case. you heard jake sullivan describe the conversation as useful. based on what you have heard so far, director, do you believe it was successful? did joe biden do what he needed to do? well, i think it certainly was useful, important at a time like this when there are escalating tensions in the area that putin and president biden have a dialogue to talk about it so i think jake sullivan made it
there is congress, the american people, nato allies, the ukrainians and russia. what i think president biden is going to say to president zelenski, it was a very good conversation we had with vladimir putin. that putin now understands clearly what the united states will do and the united states is not going to make any type of commitment that ukraine will not join nato at some points in the future. at the same time, i think president biden will want the ukrainians to do what they can also to deescalate. if there are any provocative actions that the ukrainian military is taking along the areas of the dumbas. this needs to be down. nothing ined a veteransly lead to escalation of those military tensions. dumas. great reporting, thank you for staying on top of all those developments. we will see you throughout the afternoon and tonight. we appreciate it. i want to go to breaking
indeed harm our allies interests. that s exactly what he did today. after the call, he spoke with the leaders of france, germany, italy and the uk to debrief them on the call and consult on a way forward. our team is presently debriefing the embassies of nato members, and key indo pacific allies. the president will be speaking shortly with the leaders of both houses of congress and talking to them about ways in which the administration and the congress can work together on a bipartisan basis to stand up for american interests and values and stand behind our friends and partners. president biden will be speaking with president zelenski. the president and president putin agreed our teams will follow up on the issues discussed today. the president and his european colleagues agree that our teams will work together to ensure that our engagement with russia