belarus, of course, that belarus border just a short driving distance to the capital of ukraine, kyiv, so that is something that the u.s. is watching very carefully. those exercises will wrap up february 20th. just perhaps by coincidence, the last day of the olympic games in china, a close russia ally. barbara and jim, this coming as ukraine is accusing russia of blocking off parts of the black sea as well. so the aggression there and the build-up continues, very ominous sign. barbara starr, thank you. sure. well, hours from now, president biden will meet with senate judiciary democrats at the white house to get their input on his search for a supreme court nominee to replace retiring justice stephen breyer. manu raju on capitol hill has been following. so manu, biden courting democratic senators, of course, but some conversations with republican senators. i wonder in the midst of this and we heard public comments on who various lawmakers favorites
donald trump for inciting the insurrection, called it, quote, pretty damn embarrassing that the republican national committee would go that route. manu raju on capitol hill, thank you. the supreme court just delivered a major victory to republicans. for now, upholding alabama s new congressional map. a lower court previously rejected the gop-drawn map, saying it diluted the political power of black voters. with the house majority still the slimmest of margins, the once-a-decade redistricting process could tip the balance. this is a fight that encompasses voting rights, racial justice, and the courts and democracy itself. for more on the battle lines being drawn over actually drawing lines, let s bring in cnn s tom foreman. walk us through this alabama map and the supreme court s ruling. ana, in the big picture, this is something republicans do agree on. they want to lock down as many districts as they possibly can. this is what s happening in alabama right now. the current seven
insider trading which he denied during the early months of the pandemic. this investigation too found that 75 lawmakers held stocks and vaccines of moderna, johnson & johnson, and pfizer in the early months of the pandemic. manu raju on capitol hill, thank you so much. let s discuss this with the former director of the office of government ethics under both presidents obama and trump. walter, you are comparing pelosi s remarks to the infamous marie antoinest let them eat cake moment. why? nancy pelosi says it is a free market. in reality it is not exactly a free market when she has inside access to information from government experts that isn t public, that can affect and influence their trading activity that the public doesn t have access to. it is not exactly free when we are locked out of the kind of information members of congress get all the time. the stock act manu mentioned
11 days until christmas. i have got to do some shopping. different context here. democrats are trying to pass the president s landmark economic spending bill before the holiday break. senator joe manchin a key vote to passing the build back better bill remains a question mark for democrats. manchin says he expects to have more talks with the president today. let s bring in our chief congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. you have a lot of talks with senator manchin, where do things stand today? he s just not there yet. he wants a number of changes in this bill, and that really has not been any different than where he s been for the past several months, because he has a number of philosophical concerns with this plan, roughly $2 trillion to put money into a whole bunch of issues whether it s health care, education,
this point, and our colleague reports that she also plans to file for reelection again. now, the question will be if the democrats lose the house majority next year, will she try to stay on as the minority leader or will she step aside? she did make that promise before that this could be her last congress, atop the democratic congress, will that change, will she change her vow, and how will that be impacted amid a republican wave, potentially next year, all big questions for the speaker going forward. guys. manu raju on capitol hill. thank you. more on the storms now, you know the tornadoes struck when most people typically would be asleep. we re going to hear from two storm chasers who were right in the middle of this that can tell us what made this storm so different.