NOW Tonight with Joshua Johnson - May 23 | NBC News NOW

[Music] well hey there i'm joshua johnson it's great to be with you on this monday may 23rd and tonight we're talking about president biden and china the president says the u.s would defend taiwan if china attacked it what kind of reaction is that getting and how likely is an attack anyway the midterm primaries continue this week including in georgia the governor's race there remains fascinating with former vice president pence stumping for governor brian kemp and former president trump backing kemp's challenger david perdue you've got a preview from atlanta plus a damning report calls out the southern baptist convention for mishandling and covering up sexual abuse allegations we'll have reactions and next steps from the denomination's president pastor ed litton and baby formula is on the way more than 37 tons of formula just arrived in the u.s how long will operation fly formula take to restock shelves nationwide [Music] so a lot of our conversations about ukraine have been about whether the us would defend it from russia well today there's a somewhat similar conversation going on about the u.s defending taiwan from china it's happening as president biden's first presidential trip to asia is ending he will hold a quad summit with the leaders of australia india and japan now during a joint news conference with japan's prime minister fumio kishida the president raised some eyebrows when he said this are you willing to get involved militarily to defend taiwan if it comes to that yes you are that's the commitment we made we agree with the one china policy we signed on to it and all the attendant agreements made from there but the idea that that can be taken by force just taken by force is just not it's just not appropriate yes and did not blink when he said it now the white house later clarified that the u.s policy on taiwan and china has not changed taiwan welcomed president biden's comments china warned the u.s not to get involved taiwan is a self-governed island next to china you see it there on the map the chinese government claims the island as its territory now president biden is about to wrap up his final meetings in tokyo and that is where we find nbc white house correspondent mike memoly joining us live mike what more can you tell us about some of the reaction to president biden stating that very unequivocally and barely even blinking as he said it yeah that's right joshua well given the fact that u.s policy towards taiwan has

been governed by this concept called strategic ambiguity in other words trying to avoid any provocation with china while on the one hand stating as biden did that we support this one china policy that taiwan is a part of china but on the other hand the u.s guided by the taiwan relations act which requires the united states to offer defensive support to the taiwanese to defend themselves in the event of an invasion the only real reaction that matters is of course the chinese how they saw the president's remarks in the initial comment from the chinese foreign ministry was that in light of the president's comments they were ready to take what they called firm actions to defend their sovereignty and their interests now no doubt joshua they are waiting just as we are waiting to get greater clarity from the president himself we were attempting to ask him questions at another event yesterday that followed that press conference what exactly does he mean by military action military defending them militarily because it seems this is all part and and related to how he views ukraine the president in his remarks it's worth stepping back and unpacking it even further was asked about this idea that he didn't want to get the us involved militarily in ukraine in that he didn't want u.s service members involved and that's why we're simply providing defensive and even increasingly offensive weapons to the ukrainians would he go further with regards to taiwan and he said yes but does that mean boots on the ground he didn't answer what does that involve potentially taking action against china military ourselves he didn't act answer that question so we'll have some opportunities later today as the president begins his day here on tuesday in tokyo and and hopefully we'll see because the white house for itself is really just backpedaling or saying nothing to see here so tuesday in tokyo a new day where you are and this quad summit is coming up with the u.s australia japan and india

what are some of the top lines of what we're expecting from this summit i believe one of them has to do at the very least with the relationship between india and russia right yeah that's a significant part of it and it's important to also point out that this idea the quad it's sort of an ad hoc arrangement that's only come about in the last few years it's another attempt of many by the united states to really deepen our connections in what they like to call the indo-pacific region so it's the leaders of india japan and australia meeting with uh the president for only the second time is this summit happening uh in person here in tokyo today and so the goals as the white house has outlined them are on a range of issues including climate change uh including the announcement they're going to be making about stem education increasing access within the populations of each country to advanced degrees within the other countries but you mentioned russia looming large as it has over this whole trip because india as among those democracies that the president has tried to enlist in taking a firmer stand against russia because of their invasion in ukraine has been reluctant to do so in fact we've seen indian officials meeting at a high level with their russian counterparts still and so as they meet as a group we're more interested in the side-by-side meetings that are going to be happening including a bilateral meeting between president biden and prime minister modi when surely the white house will certainly be hoping to gain more commitments from the indians to join the west join the rest of our allies including japan and taking a much tougher line against russia and mike what else would you say with the president's accomplishments from this trip it seems like he did a great deal of things and has had a lot to deal with on the agenda especially in that particular part of the world what are some of the big accomplishments that he's bringing home well joshua it really is striking how much of what the white house feels it accomplished on this trip has to do with domestic policy the domestic agenda primarily the economy this is an issue that the president is really facing strong headwinds at home given inflation given the high cost of gas and so we saw over the course each day of this five-day trip the president making a number of announcements about improving the economy at home whether it's touring a samsung plant where there will be a similar one built in the state of texas or with the ceo of hyundai announcing plans for an electric vehicle plant in georgia this is something that the white house has tried to show throughout the president's time in office as it relates to foreign policy that democracies need to show that they are delivering for their people in order to sort of win the 21st century as the president likes to put it so that's i think what the white house would point to but of course there are still significant obstacles that this uh trip has also been underlined the the white house announcing yesterday an economic framework the india pacific economic framework not quite a trade deal but one that would be attempting to again further enlist our support with democratic allies in the region on core principles but there are no binding commitments though and we also heard from the commerce secretary general who's traveling with president biden that yes for all that they feel that they've done on this trip there are continuing to be lockdowns in china that they are still working to deal with supply chain challenges moving forward as the commerce secretary put it we're asking patients of the american people we know that's a difficult ask at this moment but we expect that they are resilient and willing to give us that time that is a big one mike that you mentioned at the end those economic relationships china has definitely been trying to shore up and increase its economic relationships not just in that region but around the world so i think it's understandable why the u.s would try to do much of the same thank you mike that's nbc white house correspondent mike mehmeli starting us off tonight from tokyo let's continue now with michael mazza a non-resident fellow at the american enterprise institute his research areas include china taiwan and u.s asia-pacific defense policy mr mazza welcome good to have you with us thanks for having me can you just level set for us first of all is china going to invade taiwan or is it just rattling sabers i'm not sure what to make every time taiwan every time taiwan is threatened by china whether this is a real threat or this is just kind of a way for china to kind of flex on the region what is this yeah sure look i think the the threat from china towards taiwan is is not yet imminent but is growing more urgent and so china truly is set on a unifying taiwan with china at some point in the future for a long time we've thought of that as a as a really a long-term challenge you know increasingly there are reasons to be worried that this is you know more of a five or ten year concern i'm not worried about about china invading taiwan next week or next month or even next year when you talked about unifying taiwan can you just explain for people who have not been following this conflict what's going on there in terms of this unification that china wants sure so um since 1949 when the the chinese civil war ended and the uh kmt the the ruling party of the republic of china which ruled china up until that point the kmt fled to taiwan and since that time china has claimed that it it should exercise sovereignty over over taiwan and other affiliated islands over the intervening decades however taiwan has never been part of the people's republic of china taiwan transitioned from being a uh authoritarian one-party state to a free-willing liberal democracy and and there's really no no path towards a peaceful uncoerced unification there's a little interest in that in taiwan and i think china is coming to realize that that that path towards what they might call peaceful unification is is closed regarding what president biden said in response to that question where he just answered yes without even really blinking defense secretary lloyd austin sort of walked those comments back a bit today or at least tried to contextualize them here's part of what secretary austin said as the president said our one pilot one china policy has not changed uh he uh reiterated that policy and our commitment to peace and stability across across the taiwan strait uh he also uh highlighted our commitment under the taiwan relations act to help provide taiwan the means to defend itself so again our policy has not changed what do you make of the president's comments and then the secretary's comments there as it relates to this one china policy and america's relationship in that region yeah look the president's answer was was quite striking um this is the third time now he has said or implied that the united states would defend taiwan with military force and that's the third time that you know other members of his administration have walked back those comments uh look i think it's clear at this point given that this has happened repeatedly that the president at least is personally committed to that that course of action um and and i think that the dissonance between himself and the rest of his administration um you know poses some dangers it's it's confusing for certainly for beijing and for for taiwan and for uh you know other important us allies but that's potentially also confusing for the folks within the administration who are tasked with uh carrying out policy um you know they're left with a without a clear sense of direction because there is this um there is this dissonance between you know sort of official stated policy and the things that the president keeps saying could you clarify by the way i should have asked you to do this before but what is the one china policy what is that so um the one china policy is the idea that the united states uh only recognizes the formerly recognizes the government in beijing the government of the people's republic of china and maintains strong unofficial but in informal relations with with taiwan um you know in many ways the u.s taiwan relationship

looks like a normal state-to-state relationship we engage in robust trade we have um an ambassador in taiwan that is called something other than ambassador we engage in some military training we sell them lots of weapons but the the u.s taiwan relationship lacks sort of the the formal structures that you see in other u.s diplomatic relationships i wonder if you could also level set for us in terms of america's overall kind of military postures right now there was a long conversation of course i think that conversation has not ended about america's relationships with nato with regards to the war in ukraine finland and sweden just apply for membership there has been some talk that the u.s should be more involved in ukraine president biden said that is positively not happening no boots on the ground and then today he fires off very quickly yes we'd be there to defend militarily can you just sort of contextualize all of that for us i can understand easily why ukraine is really important strategically for the us and for nato what about taiwan what is it about taiwan that makes it worth the united states putting boots on the ground yeah no it's it's a great question so taiwan has been important to the united states you know since at least 1949 again when that when the chinese civil war ended and there's a number of reasons for that so you know going back to that that time period uh you know former general douglas macarthur described taiwan as an unsinkable aircraft carrier right so just because of its location it has significant geostrategic importance um it helps to sort of bottle up chinese forces within what's called the first island chain a series of islands running from japan and the north south through taiwan and then the philippines if china were to ever conquer taiwan it could more easily threaten u.s allies japan and the philippines and could more easily and directly threaten the united states itself in u.s territories in the

pacific right that's a state of affairs we've we've tried very hard to avoid finding ourselves in again since 1941. uh beyond that taiwan is consistently a top 10 u.s trade partner and it punches far above the plate in the global economy it's only a country of 24 million people but it occupies some extremely important positions in global supply chain particularly when it comes to uh uh to semiconductors and the final thing i'd say here is you know as i noted earlier it is this uh liberal modern democracy in the heart of asia um and i think it would be hard for any american president to stand aside and watch a country like that be be gobbled up you know by an authoritarian state for whom brutality is standard operating procedure perhaps in that regard there is a little bit of congruity with the war on ukraine in terms of its efforts to push back russia there i can see a little bit of a similarity michael mazza non-resident fellow at the american enterprise institute we appreciate you coming to explain all of this to us thank you very much thank you still to come the midterm elections continue tomorrow including some high-profile races in georgia we are live with a preview plus decades of abuse ignored or covered up it's just one takeaway from a new report on the southern baptist convention the group's leader joins us ahead we're glad you're with us for now tonight from nbc news so if you haven't been following the midterm elections so far tomorrow is a real good day to start arkansas alabama and georgia hold primaries tomorrow minnesota has a special election for a congressional seat and texas holds what could be a watershed runoff for democrats there democratic congressman henry cuellar is fighting to keep his job after nine terms in office progressive candidate jessica cisneros is gunning for his seat the district runs south from san antonio to the u.s mexico border but perhaps the biggest focus will be on georgia its secretary of state's office says more than 850 000 people have voted early that is more than triple the early vote from the 2020 election those early votes include nearly a half million republicans and nearly 370 thousand democrats joining us now is greg bluestein a political reporter for the atlanta journal constitution and an msnbc political contributor greg let's start with those early voting numbers what does that tell us about tomorrow's primary i presume it more directly means there's just a ton of interest in this race for a whole lot of good reasons you're exactly right it means that there's a tremendous amount of interest enthusiasm to vote in the republican primary for governor and u.s senate

governor brian kemp has gotten all his supporters energized and david perdue has this trump back challenge that kemp is trying to fend off a lot of a significant number of democrats are also crossing over because in georgia you can do that they're crossing over and voting in the republican primary about eight percent of voters the republican primary pulled democratic ballots just two years ago so that shows you their democrats trying to influence the outcome of this race as well and frankly for democrats there's still a lot of stake but they don't have there's not a competitive battle for stacey abrams she didn't draw an opponent and senator raphael warnock he only drew he did not draw a viable contender against him so there's less of a reason for democrats to search the polls um because there's no marquee matchups at the top of the race for them greg lean into what you just said you said some people are crossing party lines to vote in the other party's primary dig into that a little bit more that sounds like the kind of thing where that could either be sending a political message or making a whole lot of political mischief what is that yeah and it could be a little bit of both i mean the democrats think about 35 000 reliably democratic voters who they expect to vote democratic in november have crossed over and voted in the republican primary some of them could be doing it strategically trying to vote for whoever they think will be a more vulnerable more an easier opponent for stacey abrams to beat or for rafael warnock to beat no in november but some of them might just be voting against the trump-backed candidates and we've talked to a number anecdotally a number of democratic voters who say that they're just crossing over to vote against whoever donald trump endorsed because they can't stomach any sort of chance of a donald trump backed contender winning the november election let's talk more about that particularly with the race for governor we mentioned that the former vp mike pence campaigned with governor brian kemp the incumbent running for reelection president trump has supported david perdue governor kemp's opponent there is some polling that shows governor kemp with an edge over purdue what is this race telling us you were talking about how some people just don't want to follow the trump-backed candidate but i i wonder how that plays particularly in a state like georgia because it was such a big battleground after the election with that now infamous phone call with the president saying find me 11 000 votes you're exactly right and invite former vice president pence just finished speaking right behind me um he gave a your standard sort of dumb speech for for brian kemp saying that he would help beat back radical liberals and keep george on a conservative course but really that was the opening of a broader proxy war between him and donald trump this is the most significant split between trump and pence ever in terms of who they're endorsing and who they're backing in this 2022 race but right now all the polls are pretty much showing the same dynamics in play brian kemp is in the high 50s even low 60s that's well above the 50 margin he needs to avoid a june runoff against david perdue and david perdue he's in the 20s 30s low 40s in all these polls um even david perdue's allies conceded it would be a long shot it would take a lot to have him score an upset victory stacy abrams has been really gunning for this opportunity ever since the last time that she ran and she made a comment that's been getting a lot of attention some criticism here is what she said i am tired of hearing about being the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live when you're number 48 for mental health when you're number one from maternal mortality when you have an incarceration rate that's on the rise and wages that are on the decline then you're not the number one place to do to live now greg could you put that could you just kind of contextualize that a bit i know some people have been criticizing her for saying georgia is the worst state in the country to live but these are not new themes for stacey abrams she's been talking about these kinds of inequalities in the state of georgia for quite some time including the last time that she ran so how is this playing on the ground yeah she's given variations of those remarks but she's never said it's such in such a sharp way of georgia being one of the worst places to live and you know when republicans and her other opponents when they weaponize this they're not going to play the full quote that we just heard they're just going to play that snippet about her saying it's the worst place in the nation to live and already we even heard just tonight just a few hours ago we heard mike pence invoke those comments this is going to be something that stacey abrams are going to hear on the campaign trail we're going to hear an ads from republicans who say that hey if you don't like the state why are you running but of course as you mentioned she's she's evoked similar themes throughout her 2018 and her 2022 campaign saying that georgia should be better at mental health should be better uh when it comes to incarceration rates should strive to be better when it comes to maternal mortality rates all those issues that as she's put at the center of her campaign that is sort of what she was evoking a few more quick races before i have to let you go the secretary of state brad raffensberger who oversees elections in the state of georgia is on the ballot tomorrow running against congressman jody heiss who was endorsed by president trump obviously secretary of state raffensberger had to deal with that whole controversy and defend his office in terms of the way that they counted the ballots in 2020 what do we expect in that race you know a year ago pretty much everyone in georgia even even even raffensberger's supporters counted him out thought that he would be this sort of pariah among republicans that he had no chance um even mainstream republicans were kind of steering clear of him and now he looks headed to at least a runoff against jody heiss his trump candidate it will still be a very very tough road ahead for secretary of state brad rappensburger but the fact that he's made it this far and he has still an outside shot of an outright victory against jodi heiss um says a lot about the mood of the georgia gop electorate right now that that there is some um frustration with the focus on 2020 rather than 2022. and what's the mood with regard to nfl legend herschel walker who is running for senate it looks like at least according to the polls that he may be the choice going forward of course we'll see what happens tomorrow but what are we expecting from that race and how has his his image as a candidate sort of evolved over the last few weeks yeah it's really fascinating because herschel walker entered the race in august of last year completely ignoring his rivals uh to this day i've never heard him name any of his republican rivals by name he's skipped debates he skipped conventional campaign events he's been running as the front runner the entire campaign focusing solely on a november matchup against senator raphael warnock because of his high recognition because he has not just trump's endorsement but also mitch mcconnell's endorsement but things are going to change dramatically for him he's about to face the full brunt of the democratic campaigns of rafael warnock and all of his allies and of course rafael warnock is not just a you know a magnetic figure one of the nation's leading democrats but also one of the nation's leading fundraisers he's amassed a giant war chest he's set all sorts of records in fundraising and he'll have a lot of resources which to use to to counter hershel walker's messaging greg bluestein with the atlanta journal constitution appreciate you walking us through tomorrow's races greg thanks very much thank you and now that we have explained all the races to you now you got to stick with nbc news now we will have live coverage of tomorrow's primaries and now you know what to look for hallie jackson will be live in georgia so check out hallie jackson now at 5 00 pm eastern and at this time tomorrow chuck todd and kristen welker will have live special coverage of the midterm primaries we'll be watching the results making projections as best we can i'm heading to washington to help break down some of the big races with them from the bureau there so join us tomorrow night starting at 8 pm eastern here on nbc news now up next a new report on churches covering up sexual abuse claims this time it's not the catholic church but the southern baptist convention the president of this massive denomination responds to the scathing report just ahead stay close [Music] the southern baptist convention holds itself up as a moral authority for the world a new report suggests it has a lot of work to do after failing to protect survivors of sexual abuse for decades an independent firm spent seven months pouring over emails and internal documents nbc news has not independently verified its findings but now the group's 14 million members must decide what to do about them guidepost solutions released its findings yesterday it says the survivors of clergy sex abuse were stonewalled the convention downplayed and ignored their allegations and some accusers were met with outright hostility joining us now is the reverend dr ed litton he's the president of the southern baptist convention and the lead pastor of redemption church in mobile alabama pastor litton welcome it's good to see you again thanks joshua it's good to be with you can i get your initial reactions to this report devastation it is uh it's it's it's really been a shock to people personally me personally uh and it's uh it's it's been the kind of thing it's beyond what we anticipated this would be so there is shock uh we're dealing with the um the report now looking at it and learning and it's absorbing and setting it setting into to our thinking now and uh this is this is a tough period i i would say probably grief is one of the best ways to to describe this what are you the most grieved by i'm still reading through the report myself but there are so many aspects of this from just the the accusations to the cover-ups to some of the litigiousness inside the convention to to sort of avoid dealing with all of this what hits you the hardest right now well the reality that people who have been sexually abused would come forward which takes a tremendous amount of courage and to be treated the way that people have clearly in this report been treated and uh and and so that's grievous in and of itself and by the way let me say this their persistence is one of the reasons this report has made it to the light of day and the light of day is what we need as a convention of churches this convention said we want to know the truth and we want to know what actually happened and because of their courage and because the courage of southern baptist in convention last year in nashville we have this report before us as grievous as it is i wonder what you make of some of the cover-ups that were described in the report i was reminded of that that line from john chapter 3 that men love darkness rather than light lest their deeds be exposed what do you make of some of the darkness that surrounded the exposure of what had been going on in southern baptist churches over these last decades well i think we get lost in the sense of power and having that kind of authority in leadership and what happens is our heart becomes darkened with that we think the institution needs protection and in fact we forget what jesus told us and that is that people are more important than institutions and i think about you mentioned john 3 i think about luke chapter 12 and there in that passage first five verses it clearly says that what is whispered in the back room will be shattered from the housetop what's set in darkness will be brought out into the light and and so this is an important moment for us it's a painful moment but it is essential for us to create a place where people are safe safe to report safe to bring their children safe to but but right now the most important thing is that we respond properly and make changes we have systemic problems which is very clear in the report with regard to those changes last time you and i spoke it was very early in your tenure as president of the convention talking about some of the cultural changes that had hit in terms of the politics of the day and how they were manifesting within the southern baptist convention you have said that you are going to serve one term and then not run for re-election so you could focus on racial reconciliation work but i could very easily see the existing leadership of the sbc re-establishing some of the old ways from the old denial and just letting this be a an exercise that was well intentioned and then never goes any further than that how confident are you that the denomination is going to do what needs doing after you're out of the presidency well we're a convention of churches which means we are a bottom bottom-up organization and this is so important to know i think this is the reason why the people from the bottom up said we have to understand this we have to see the truth it's got to be brought out to the light of day and they are the ones responsible for electing the next president they are the ones responsible for making sure that that these processes are followed through the next president will have to point uh task force as i did that make sure that all these things are implemented i think the mood of southern baptists today is grief but i think very soon that's going to turn into determination and in our in our meeting in anaheim the task force that i appointed will bring these recommendations forward to become actual actions that begin to change what we have is a cultural problem and the culture has to change let me read you an email from one of our viewers about what's in this report matt writes it absolutely breaks my heart i grew up in southern baptist churches was baptized in the southern baptist church met some of my closest childhood friends in southern baptist churches it just goes to show you that you never really know everything that's going on and that even the church isn't perfect it's made up of people flawed people who are sinners and are capable of horrible things matt goes on to write i think the mass exodus from southern baptist churches will do everything to get them to reform many churches have and will continue to shutter as people leave in droves which is what they should do unless each church renounces its former behavior and promises and delivers change matt thank you for sharing your thoughts with us pastor what do you say to matt i cannot argue with matt i think matt makes some very important points in that letter in that email the truth is every church is autonomous in the southern members convention and every one of them cannot turn a blind eye to this we've got to take this seriously and each church is going to have to take a stand on this issue in their community because and by the way prepare and to be trained and to learn how to make our churches a safe place the congregational form of government the scripture teaches is not hierarchical it's not powerful men who control everything but it is people with accountability and people who share these responsibilities and it is trust and this is proving that we have broken trust and it takes time to rebuild that trust i know i have to let you go in a minute but the report does include some people specifically particularly jack graham of prestonwood and paige patterson former president of southwestern baptist theological seminary in fort worth texas these are two large churches in the dallas area what do you think should be done with those people who have been named specifically or are implicated specifically well and a lot of these people i have relationship with in the past and and and our friends uh i i think the the thing that is important to know is that this is a this is a report from a reputable investigative firm and they have done a fantastic job of crossing the tees dotting the eyes and researching all of this and it is painful to see your name in print but reality is we're hoping and praying that this will cause change first in the heart for all of us and that that change ultimately will be translated into seeing that we're all like you said we're broken sinners uh leaders are people are and we can't pretend to be otherwise and so this is a this is a beginning point for us i have hope that we will see a better future because of this but right now we have a lot of difficult things to do and when we gather in anaheim we will begin that process of doing these difficult things and forgive me pastor litton i have to ask for the record is there anything with regard to these allegations that might involve you as the investigations go further forward or are you confident that this does not involve you well only in the sense that my involvement in the whole investigation has been to appoint the task force that would choose the investigative firm and going forward but no there's there's no no involvement in this because once i did my part of this job as president of the sbc the work moved forward and here we stand today the reverend dr ed linton is the president of the southern baptist convention pastor litton i appreciate you talking to us about this very difficult subject thank you sir we appreciate it thank you josh we'll get to some of today's other top stories in a moment including a live report from keeve on russia's continuing attacks in eastern ukraine and the push to get baby formula that just arrived in the u.s onto store shelves [Music] the world economic forum is underway in davos switzerland ukrainian president vladimir zelinsky addressed corporate executives and government officials from around the globe mr zielenski pushed for heavy sanctions on moscow specifically a russian oil embargo it's unclear which of the forms attendees support that if any meanwhile the ukrainian government is releasing its official estimates on this war's death toll president zielenski said his country may be losing up to 100 soldiers a day as the invasion picks up in the east nbc's cal perry joins us now from keeve with more and cal let's start with these death toll figures during president zelinski's speech he said that 87 people were killed in an airstrike in the town of desna last week a town north of where you are right now what more do we know about that yeah so this strike took place last tuesday initially the reports were that at least eight people were killed though there was a great deal of suspicion that the death toll much would have been much higher because we were unable to film there we're still unable to film at this site which would lend one to believe that this site did have a military aspect to it at least 87 killed according to the president again these are initial figures and we don't know exactly what the target is other than to say that russia last week claimed they had hit some kind of military arms depot and we believe uh that these attacks are connected it kind of shows you that this and air campaign excuse me um is continuing across the country if it turns out in fact that 87 people were killed in this attack it'll become the single deadliest attack uh since the war began joshua with regard to the war president biden referenced it during his trip to asia here's part of what president biden said i believe what putin has attempted to do is eliminate the identity of ukraine the identity he can't occupy it but he can try to destroy his identity and the reason i bother to mention that is he has to pay and you rush has to pay a long-term price for that in terms of this of the sanctions that have been imposed now president biden was saying this to leaders in the east in asia talk about that strategic piece of it the pressure that leaders in parts of asia have been or have not been putting on russia with regard to this war india is going to come up as india's relationship with russia is going to come up as a key topic of this quad summit that's taking place right and india has economic projects that link it heavily with russia now the united states says when it comes to these economic projects and we're talking largely about pipeline deals here um that the us is going to try to get involved in those and try to make you know better offers but it sort of shows you that the economic sanctions that are going into place are not foolproof when it comes to the united states and its nato allies um there is a market out there that some countries will go to uh when it comes to russian natural gas when it we talk about sort of the nato allies we talk a lot about finland and sweden and russia cutting off supplies energy supplies to those countries um there are other customers around the world and this i think is what president biden is now sort of wading into is this world that will buy oil cheaper than what it is at on the international market and this is the thing that many people believe certainly the pentagon believes that's keeping the russian war machine going that's keeping uh russia's ability to replenish uh its military supplies there is no replenishing some of these battlefield losses though that should be said and and western officials say that russia is paying a heavy price um on the battlefield but economically the global picture is a more complicated one joshua let's update this war crimes trial that was held in ukraine the russian soldier who was involved was given a life sentence today for killing an unarmed ukrainian civilian this is ukraine's first war crimes trial since this invasion began meanwhile there were some questions about what would happen to the ukrainian soldiers who were in that plant in azov style that was under attack by the russians there had been talks of a prisoner swap now russia is saying that the ukrainians that it captured might face an international tribunal whatever that means where do we stand now in terms of russia and ukraine and these two processes in terms of trials and tribunals and so on where does that stand so i think you're absolutely right that we should be linking these two things because they're both happening um very publicly both sides are are sort of raising the stakes when it when it comes to these individuals when you talk about this young russian sergeant whom today was sentenced to life in prison it seems like part of what is happening publicly and part of doing this in front of the media um is to raise the value of this young sergeant in the hopes that maybe one day i mean you're seeing video of him there in the hopes that maybe one day there will be a trade perhaps for some of these soldiers who surrendered in that plant in mary opal close to two thousand we understand according to the russians surrendered in that plant in mary opal now the issue is and again the government did say initially that there would be some kind of a pow swap the issue for russia seems to be at least what they're saying publicly um that these are quote nationalists that these are quote nazis um and that therefore they should not be allowed to be traded in some kind of prisoner of war swap and that therefore as these public officials have said and some of them are politicians on state television have said uh they'll be tried for crimes um against civilians as you've said what does that mean we're not really sure it probably means some kind of public trial that again russia hopes will be viewed here perhaps as a retaliation for the trial that you mentioned earlier joshua indeed and i think i said it was a steel plant in azov style it's the azo style steel plant in mario pole sorry about that thank you cal that's nbc's cal perry with the latest tonight from keys more baby formula is on its way to the u.s little by little yesterday a u.s military plane landed in indiana with 78 000 pounds of hypoallergenic formula that's enough for 9 000 infants and eighteen thousand toddlers for one week this shortage is clearly far from resolved but this special formula should be a lifesaver for many parents [Music] it is a big panic because we just don't know because she has that dairy allergy we can't just supplement with anything and she can't tolerate similac so we only can buy that one brand and one type for her or she doesn't sleep and she's in excruciating pain so it's it's a it's a battle and it's a terrifying feeling to know that you can't find it and it's known how desperately it's needed so i personally think that it'll be distributed quicker than what we think i hope because i know several moms and babies around the world an administration official says another flight from operation fly formula will arrive just outside washington d.c in two days that shipment is bound for pennsylvania still ahead johnny depp's defamation trial against amber heard is entering its final week we'll have more on where things stand and the familiar face who's preparing to testify before we go [Music] this looks like the final week of johnny depp's defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife amber heard on wednesday supermodel kate moss is expected to testify she dated johnny depp for three years beginning back in 1994. her testimony could be in response to this moment from may 5th i don't hesitate i don't wait i just in my head instantly think of kate moss and the stairs and i swung at him and all of my relationship to date with johnny i hadn't landed a blow and i for the first time hit him like actually hit him square in the face at the time of this a member of mr depp's legal team could be seen fist pumping at the mention of ms moss's name joining us now is kristin gibbons feeden an msnbc legal analyst civil rights attorney and former prosecutor could you give us a little more context behind that thing about kate moss and the stairs what's that about yeah so what happened was as you mentioned miss heard testified that um she was kind of recounting something that happened in march of 2015 a fight where she had punched johnny depp because she was fearful that johnny depp was going to shove her sister down the stairs very similar to the way that he allegedly shoved miss moss down the stairs now the reason why the legal team on johnny depp's side seemed really happy about that is likely because it's reported that johnny depp and miss moss actually have a great relationship despite their breakup and that they're very supportive of one another so one can only imagine that miss moss would come in and testify that that never happened that johnny depp never shoved her down the stairs and that you know ms heard had no basis of saying that why is that important in this trial well what it does is it doesn't prove or disprove the elements of this case which is whether or not johnny depp was abusive towards misheard but what it does is it really calls into question ms herd's credibility as a whole because if she's alleging one thing that really isn't true what else is she being dishonest about and that's something that the jury is going to have to deliberate about and so that honesty dishonesty as the jury would determine it would discern it bears directly on the defamation claim at the bottom of all of this it's about kind of trying to figure out what the relationship really was and then how that relates to this claim that damaging information was put out into the public right that's how you you got it you nailed it on the news essentially what we're here to determine what the jury is going to be able to determine is whether or not miss heard was in fact a survivor of abuse and when one thing seems to be false a lot of times the jury will completely discount the entirety of misheard's testimony and if they find that nothing she says is credible then they will see that her statement was in fact defamatory now the second element that johnny depp's team has to prove is that those defamatory statements did in fact cause them damages and that's what the other three witnesses um that they called today actually talked about there was some confusion about whether or not johnny depp was going to testify again today at first we thought he was going to testify and then it turned out that he didn't do we know what happened there or is this just the kind of thing that happens in court where sometimes dockets and witness lists just change yeah it always consistently change and quite frankly it is absolutely very common for a in a civil trial particularly where there's a counter claim in this case johnny depp is not only suing miss heard but miss heart is also suing johnny depp so it's not uncommon for them to recall or call the plaintiff on cross-examination however in this case if you recall johnny depp was on the stand for a very long time and much of his testimony was large narratives and some of which was really unresponsive to the question i think in one part of his testimony he said what was the question again to his own attorney and so i think this is more of a strategic point for the defense team to not call him because essentially it's going to let him have another crack at trying to defame or trying to call into question amber gerd's credibility so i think it was a good call on their part i know a number of people who are just gagged by this trial they're following every single twist and turn and it's just like the focus i know plenty of other people who are totally aghast at this trial and they're like with everything going on in the universe i cannot believe of all the side shows people need right now that there's nothing on netflix that's more interesting than johnny depp and amber heard what is this trial about if you take my meaning like is there more to this than just some celebrity scandal i think there is you know i think that one of the things that i hope people take away from this is that intimate partner violence has such long-streaking implications it can impact people in many different ways this is also a great highlight on the cycle of violence whoever you believe you will see that intimate partner violent survivors can be male but they can also be female it can also happen um in many different ways and um i think this is really important for people to understand this happens in the celebrity world in the public world it doesn't matter what socioeconomic status race gender but it can happen everywhere and it's something important for us to all focus on but how tough though when we're taught that when someone says that they're a survivor of abuse you should believe them as a default to now have to parse words and determine if someone is believable that's tough it's tough but i think what the bottom line is here is that you know amber heard statements uh were very specific she specifically said you know basically two years ago i became a public figure representing domestic violence and i felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out she didn't mention johnny depp's name she didn't even refer to him specifically and she didn't refer to a specific sense of abuse so what we also see here is the fact that all she was doing was speaking out in a generalized nature about domestic violence and here she is attacked um i think that that shows how our culture is um i think that you know what she was basically talking about was that protection from abuse order that was taken out against johnny depp that wasn't challenged that she actually got granted um so i think that there needs to be some recognition that when survivors speak out particularly not pointing the finger maybe they should be embraced kristin gibbons feeding appreciate you breaking this down for us tonight thank you very much and thank you for joining us come on back tomorrow night for our live special coverage with chuck todd and kristen welker that meet the press primary night specialist tomorrow at 8. if you're voting tomorrow

let us know we are at nbc now tonight on social media you can also leave us an email or a voicemail until we meet again i'm joshua johnson i will see you tomorrow from washington good night [Music] thanks for watching our youtube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the nbc news app you

2022-05-27 11:44

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