Updated
Summary
Deadly mass shootings fuel push for gun safety laws. New developments in January 6 investigation. International inflation is on the rise. McCormick concedes to Dr. Oz in PA GOP Senate primary. Day 100 of Russia`s war in Ukraine. Correspondents reflect on Russia`s war in Ukraine.
Transcript
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: These women are out of the shadows. They`re telling their own story in a brand new HBO documentary just as the Supreme Court is poised to turn back the clock to the very time when they had to risk jail time to get women the health care that they needed. That`s tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Eastern on Velshi. The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle begins right now.
STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, the end of a tumultuous week, that`s a bitter debate over gun violence. And another Trump insider indicted, Peter Navarro describes an arrest with handcuffs and leg irons we`ve previewed the drama still to come. And a great jobs report muted by really high gas prices. What do you make of the mixed signals for America`s economy? Then marking 100 days of an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we`ll hear from three of the brave women reporting from the war zone as the 11th Hour gets underway on this Friday night.
Good evening, once again, I`m Stephanie Ruhle. We got a lot to cover tonight. So let`s get smarter. There are several competing headlines on this Friday night involved in the January 6 investigation and 100 days of war in Ukraine. But this nation is also still reeling from a string of devastating massacres carried out with guns. And on this National Gun Violence Awareness Day, many of us are wearing orange including the White House to honor gun victims and survivors.
Over the last few weeks mass shootings have taken dozens of lives and injured so many others. The demand for new legislation grew even louder this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Do something! Do something! Do something! Do something!
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will. We will.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Don`t have all of these unlocked back doors.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let`s have an assault weapons ban.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Mental illness and suicide thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitch McConnell, it`s time for you to use the word gun.
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The bill will make your school safer.
REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D-RI): That is a lie. That is not true. It will save lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your ideas have been shown to get people killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do not tell me that the answer to this is to put even more guns on the streets or to militarize our schools.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here in front of me, I have a Sig Sauer P226 comes with a 21-round magazine.
REP. MONDAIRE JONES (D-NY): Time after time you have chosen to put your right to kill over our right to live.
BIDEN: How much more carnage are we willing to accept, how many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough, enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Also, tonight, less than one week before the first primetime January 6 hearing, there are major developments in the investigation. A federal grand jury today indicted former Trump Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, for refusing to respond to a subpoena from the house 1/6 Committee, which wants him to testify about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Navarro says he was arrested while trying to board a flight to Nashville and he spoke to reporters after his court appearance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, FORMER TRUMP TRADE ADVISER: They intercepted me getting on the plane and they put me in handcuffs. They bring me here. They put me in leg irons. They stick me in a cell. By the way, just historical, I was in John Hinckley cell, they seem to think that that was like an important historical note.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: He was the only one who noted it. Tonight, NBC News has confirmed a New York Times report that the DOJ will not bring charges against Trump`s final Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and another advisor Dan Scavino. The House recommended both be charged for refusing to cooperate.
And another Jan. 6 with a report in The Times says a former top aide to Mike Pence actually warned the Secret Service the day before the Capitol riot that Trump planned to turn on his V.P. potentially putting Pence in danger.
There`s also significant election news out of Pennsylvania tonight, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump`s pick to the GOP Senate nominee is officially the winner of that race. Late today former Hedge Fund Manager Dave McCormick conceded and promised to support us.
DAVID MCCORMICK, FORMER PA GOP SENATE CANDIDATE: It is so important for Pennsylvania so important that we beat John Fetterman. And it`s so important for the country that we take back the majority in the Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Oz will now face the recovering lieutenant governor in November`s race for the Senate.
With that we have a lot to cover. Let`s bring in our leadoff panel this evening, three of my favorites, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Jonathan Capehart. He`s an Associate Editor at the Washington Post an Anchor of the Sunday Show right here on MSNBC. Tim Miller also joins us, a Contributor to the Bulwark and former Communications Director for Jeb Bush and a fashion icon. And former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor.
[23:05:10]
Mr. Capehart, I turn to you first, I want you to hear what one Texas state senator said today about the shooting in Uvalde over a week later?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STATE SEN. RONALD GUTIERREZ (D-TX): I feel like we all failed these children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
GUTIERREZ: I mean, we all failed these children. Yesterday, I talked to a little third grader who was there. And he could hardly speak to me, he was so traumatized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: We`ve heard the same thing since Sandy Hook. And it`s not just kids, it was the teachers, it was school administrators. It was police, anyone who was anywhere near Sandy Hook, they`re still suffering. So why are we still having this debate over what to do?
JONATHAN CAPEHART, THE WASHINGTON POST ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Because it seems like that there`s a small group of people on Capitol Hill, who refuse to listen to the majority of the American people, who support common sense, gun safety legislation that won`t stop every and all mass shootings. But we`ll do something to perhaps prevent some. We`re still having this conversation, because there aren`t enough people who are members of the NRA, who agree with common sense gun safety legislation, but don`t rise up and say, we need to do this for the safety of our country. Nobody is talking about grabbing guns, nobody`s talking about confiscating guns. If you want to buy 15, 20 guns at a Walmart, why shouldn`t you submit to a background check? Why if you`re 18, why should you be allowed to get an AR- 15? Why shouldn`t you have to be 21 and then go through a background check. And then, you know, follow safe storage laws and things like that.
Until the few people on Capitol Hill, I`m talking specifically about Republicans in the Senate, pay attention and listen to the majority of the American people and NRA members who say they agree with common sense gun safety legislation, then there will be no change. And you know what, Stephanie, I remember being on the set on MSNBC when the news came in 10 years ago, this December about what happened at Sandy Hook and I thought, this is the time, this is the time if babies, little kids, first graders could be killed in their classroom. And we don`t do anything about it, then we don`t care about children. And then Parkland happened. And now, Uvalde has happened.
And so the folks on Capitol Hill who are yammering on about, well, we`re having talks, unless they do something we`re going to see more of this carnage in the country should not have to live this way.
RUHLE: We`re not going to see more carnage. We are seeing more carnage, this week alone.
Joyce, take us to Alabama, that is where he live, that is a state where there is a lot of support for gun rights. Is the conversation changing at all? After the shootings?
JOYCE VANCE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: I think there are bastions of conservative Second Amendment rights, places like Alabama, where the conversation will change last, if it changes at all. The one area where I think we can sometimes make progress, though, is talking about different kinds of weapons. And something that a lot of people are unaware of when it comes to an AR-15 is that this is a gun whose purpose is to shoot a lot of high caliber bullets very, very quickly and do a lot of damage. So the standard magazine on an AR-15 is 30 rounds, sometimes 20 rounds. That means you`ve got a firearm in your hands that no one really needs for self- protection that no one really needs for hunting. We hear these people talking about killing feral hogs. And it`s simply unnecessary.
I think a conversation, and Jonathan puts it so appropriately, about what sort of sensible safety measures are we willing to take to protect children`s lives, to protect people who are praying in a church, it has to be reposted as a conversation that`s about compromise and not about absolutes. No one has an absolute right to own a firearm. The Supreme Court Justice Scalia`s majority opinion in Heller said that there were some legitimate areas, some types of restrictions that could be imposed. And so now the conversation has to shift. What are the reasonable restrictions? What are we willing to do to protect children?
RUHLE: Tim, take us to the Senate, do you think Democrats are being naive or overly optimistic that they think maybe the GOP is going to work with us this time? This This week alone, we saw a Republican Congressman right around the Buffalo area, Chris Jacobs, come out and say we need to do something about assault rifles. He didn`t even say anything aggressive. He said, we got to do something about this. What happens two days later, he announces, he`s not seeking re-election. What does that tell you about the state of the GOP and guns?
[23:10:20]
TIM MILLER, THE BULWARK CONTRIBUTOR: It tells you they`re not going to do anything. And so, look, I`m happy that Chris Murphy is somebody that actually cares. This is a person who cares about this and wants to do anything he can even on the margins to try to limit this carnage. And so I think he should continue working with Republicans and trying to scrounge up 10 votes for something that is going to be very modest, maybe a tweak in the background checks, maybe some incentives for red flag laws, and probably read diverting some of the COVID money to school safety, it probably turns out something like that maybe there are 10 votes for that, and we should do that. But that the Democrats need to think bigger than that.
And the reason why you saw Chris Jacobs, step away from Congress, which was like the most depressing political news of the week, not the most depressing news, was that he was getting pressured. And it is not about the money. He`s getting pressure from his own voters, from conservative media, from people in the conservative infrastructure that says, you have to hold the line on this. And if you don`t, we`re going to, we`re going to run you out. And he didn`t want to deal with it. He didn`t want to stay in fight.
The Democrats need to bring that same level of fight to Republicans. And some — and I just — I sometimes feel like they give up on this issue, because they`ve been burned so many times, that if you look at something, I`m just picking one thing, like moving the age to buy an AR-15 from 18 to 21, like Jonathan was talking about, you can`t buy a white claw if you`re 18. But you can buy two AR-15s and 370 bullets, that is insane.
Suburban moms in Milwaukee and in Pennsylvania with their key Senate races this year, there`s — in dance for that matter, they are not for that they want the age to be 21. They don`t want their kids, High School, anybody else in that school to be able to get an AR-15 whenever they want. You can just imagine the ads on this, and the Democrats need to prosecute a case on this. They`re friends in their super PACs and rich liberals who want to get involved need to run aggressive ads. And there needs to be a serious effort to put as much pressure on these Republicans to do common sense stuff like that, as the Republicans are getting from their own base from Fox and from, you know, the NRA, that`s what they need to do.
RUHLE: Those same suburban moms are willing to buy a six pack of white claws for their 18 year olds, but they certainly wouldn`t buy them in AR- 15.
MILLER: Exactly.
RUHLE: I mean, it just makes absolutely no sense.
Joyce, let`s turn to the January 6 investigation. What`s up with the DOJ not charging Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, yet they arrest Peter Navarro. How does that work?
VANCE: So really, the bigger news here is that DOJ has agreed to prosecute the two cases Bannon and Navarro because traditionally DOJ has been very hesitant to intervene in these issues between Congress and its witnesses. We`ve talked a lot, Stephanie, about how imperfect this mechanism Congress House for enforcing its subpoenas is DOJ has to some extent here taken a stand and said that it will backup Congress when it needs help, but only when there`s this flagrant sort of disavowal of the obligation to comply with a subpoena. And so what ultimately saves Meadows I think if we read into this statement that DOJ has made saying that they looked at each case based on its individual circumstances. And so you have Meadows who provided 1000s of documents to the committee didn`t go as far as they wanted, but did give, obviously some very powerful information to them. And DOJ declined to get involved there. I think the big unanswered question is whether or not DOJ has a larger investigation and whether Mark Meadows is part of that investigation. Did he engage in some conduct that he`s still at risk for? Or are he and Dan Scavino out of the woods with this announcement that they won`t be prosecuted for contempt of Congress?
RUHLE: All right, Jonathan, I hope you brought your GOP decoder ring, it takes a lot for me to want to err anything Louie Gohmert has to say, but I need to make an exception. And I want you to hear his reaction to Navarro`s indictment today. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): If you`re a Republican, you can`t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they`re coming after you. They`re going to bury you. They`re going to put you in the D.C. jail and terrorize and torture you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: OK. That is a U.S. Congressman complaining, complaining because Republicans can`t lie to the FBI. They can`t because that`s a felony. What in the world is he saying?
CAPEHART: I was leaning in, Stephanie, because I was like wait, he said what?
RUHLE: We are not allowed to lie to Congress. What?
CAPEHART: We are not allowed — we`re not — we`re not allowed to lie to the FBI and if we do, they throw us in jail, yeah Louie, that`s what happens. You break the law. You get arrested. Between — and I`m sorry, Louie, I mean, he`s a member of Congress. So Congressman Gohmert. Seriously, man, seriously — what happened to Peter Navarro is what should have happened to Peter Navarro. He was indicted. And when you`re indicted, you`re arrested. And you are brought to court. And you stand before the judge.
[23:15:34]
Listening to Gohmert and listening to Peter Navarro earlier today, Peter Navarro was equally hilarious, because clearly this is somebody who either has not watched law and order, or was just appalled, taken aback that he would be arrested before he got on an airplane and put in handcuffs and brought to jail and put in a cell and shackled. Hello, that`s what happens to millions of Americans every day when they`re caught up in the criminal justice system. And if he had complied with that subpoena, or at least gone through the efforts that Mark Meadows did, by trying to cooperate negotiating and then saying, you know, never mind but instead, he fought that subpoena from minute one. So sorry, Peter Navarro. Sorry, Congressman Gohmert, you`re both wrong, hilariously wrong. And it really — I really feel sorry for Congressman Gohmert`s constituents. I really — just really do.
RUHLE: When we heard from Peter Navarro today, I was reminded of how we met him. He did not spend decades in the halls of Congress or working as an economist that we were familiar with. Jared Kushner found Peter Navarro from an Amazon search looking for someone`s whose views aligned with Trump`s that`s how he got the job.
Our three fantastic guests have agreed to stick around. Unfortunately for them a little longer. We`re not letting him go yet.
Coming up, despite climbing prices, consumers are still buying, and jobs are still out there for the taking. We put the latest economic numbers in perspective.
And later, 100 days of a destructive invasion of Ukraine. Three of the best women war correspondents are here on what they`ve seen and what lies ahead. The 11th Hour is just getting started on this busy Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:22:08]
RUHLE: Even as the economy added 390,000 jobs in May a very big number. Americans are still struggling with inflation. But for facts sake, it is worth remembering. This is not just an American problem. Here in the U.S., we are dealing with an inflation rate just over 8%, slightly lower in Canada and Mexico. But it`s up to 9% in the U.K., and close to 10% in the Netherlands and in Brazil, they`ve got 12% inflation.
But here`s the thing, it is not about global facts. It`s about how people feel. And if they`re struggling to buy things at the grocery store and fill their car with gas, then it doesn`t matter what`s happening on the other side of the world. It matters what`s happening in their lives here.
So with us, our great guest, Jonathan Capehart, Tim Miller, Joyce Vance. Guys, bear with me for a second. Because it`s not that we have a good economy or a bad economy, we the divided, complicated one. For people who are poor Americans, those living paycheck to paycheck COVID was hard. And it`s gotten even harder because of inflation. But that is only part of the American story. There`s another part of our economy that are keeping prices high. One of the things that keeps prices up is our willingness to pay those prices, and many people saved a lot of money during COVID. And demand is pent up. And we`re spending, we`re buying new cars, we`re buying used cars, we`re expecting a huge travel summer where people are buying plane tickets, going on road trips, all despite high gas prices. So why is it that the Biden administration, Tim can`t tell that story? It`s not all good. It`s not all bad. We have a huge country and a huge economy. And it`s a complicated economic recovery.
MILLER: Jonathan gets Louie Gohmert and I have to answer how the Biden administration deals with this economy. That`s tough. That`s a tough deal. Look, here`s the answer, Steph, I`d say that it`s an annoying economy, honestly.
RUHLE: That`s a great way to put it.
MILLER: For most people, day in and day out, right? And so I want to go back to what I talked about on the gun issue, if you`re talking about the people that are going to decide the Senate, suburban voters, middle class voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, if your — if your job — you know, if you haven`t gotten a raise over the last year, you`ve only gotten a small raise, and yet your gas bill is higher, your grocery bill is higher. You want to go on a vacation this year, but it`s way more expensive than it used to be and then you get there and everything`s kind of a pain because the staffing is off and people have — and people haven`t got the wonky COVID economy back to normal yet and there are less chips in the bag when you get — it`s just first world problems but it feels annoying. It just — and so, and it`s all right in your face in a way that the some of the good economic indicators that you were talking about are not. The unemployment rate is not right in your face.
And so Biden and the Democrats need to talk to that voter and say to them, here is what we`re trying to do to make your life better and make your life easier while the Republicans worry about re-litigating the 2020 election and talking about, you know, the penguin book, and in the groomer teacher in your school.
[23:25:03]
That`s what they care about, they don`t want to actually help your life — we`re trying to help you live, we understand it`s a little annoying, things are going in the right direction. It`s the — it`s not a great political case, honestly, because you can`t put it on a bumper sticker, but it`s the best they can do. And they have to start doing it aggressively and making this a choice election.
RUHLE: But the thing is, people often vote, especially when it comes to economic issues, nothing related to data, they vote based on how they feel about the economy.
Joyce, you`re in Alabama, I bring you back to Alabama. Tell me how people are feeling what`s it like?
VANCE: People are focused on the price they`re paying at the pump, Stephanie. And there`s a disconnect between that higher price and people who might feel supportive, for instance, of President Biden`s efforts in in Ukraine, there`s a lot of support for Ukraine and what`s going on in that country down here. But not many people appreciate that higher price that they`re paying at the pump is directly related. So if there`s — if there`s something predictive from the Biden administration that comes out of this disconnect down here, it`s the need to do a better and a more persistent job of storytelling, you know, you have to do the thing. And then you have to tell people that you`re doing the thing. And you have to tell them over and over until they understand.
Right now, people just know that they`re paying a lot of money at the pumps, it`s more expensive to drive to the beach, it`s more difficult to do things you want to do with your family this summer. If they`re going to not hold that against the Biden administration, then they`re going to have to have a better sense of why that is. And to Tim`s point, it does need to fit on a bumper sticker because that`s about our attention span on these political issues. We need that sort of sloganeering at this point to help people appreciate why this inflation is happening.
RUHLE: Do we have no memories, Jonathan, how about the bumper sticker? Remember, COVID, we shut down? We were in an economic disaster two years ago.
CAPEHART: Yeah, we have no attention span.
RUHLE: For memory.
CAPEHART: We — like we go from — or memory, we go from moment to moment. I love Tim`s characterization that this is the annoying economy. The Annoying economy, I like Joyce`s point about storytelling. And I think she`s right, that they have to get out there. And they have to keep telling the story. I think there are two big problems, though. One, you have an entire right wing apparatus that does nothing but distort what the White House is doing, lies about what the White House is doing. If they cover it at all. And you`ve got a big chunk of the country that watches another network. And it`s the largest as the biggest audiences in the country. So a big chunk of the country never gets to hear the story. And I think another problem is, you know, as much as important as it is for the White House and the President to keep telling these stories, they`re being covered by a press corps that gets bored with that story the moment they`ve heard it the third time, and that`s an issue.
RUHLE: Well, perhaps the president should sit down for some more interviews, and the press will be paying attention. They don`t like to hear from spokespeople. Mr. Capehart, Mr. Miller, Joyce Vance, I had to say it, we are grateful for all of you being here tonight. I had an absolutely wonderful time with you. And you can catch Jonathan on the Sunday show this weekend. I have a feeling he may call Tim to come by, because like me, he loves that annoying economy analogy.
Coming up, a much darker story, 100 days of war. We`re going to hear from three extraordinary women journalists who are reporting on Russia`s invasion of Ukraine, where things stand tonight and the challenges still ahead when the 11th Hour continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:33:32]
RUHLE: Exactly 100 days ago today, Russia launched its unprovoked and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine, despite early predictions that Russia would overtake the capital city of Kyiv in a matter of days, its forces have only managed to hold territories in the east and the south. But Ukraine has faced enormous losses with 1000s of civilians killed and millions fleeing the country is refugees.
With us now to discuss NBC News Foreign Correspondent Molly Hunter from Kyiv, she`d been reporting from Ukraine throughout the war. Sabrina Tavernise, the Co-Host of The New York Times podcast, The Daily, she reported from Ukraine at the start of the war. She previously served as a New York Times Reporter in Moscow. And Hind Hassan, VICE News Correspondent who has been reporting in Ukraine and overseas since the start of the year.
Thank you all for being here. Molly, I start with you. You`re in Kyiv right now, as we mark this 100 day point, where do things stand?
MOLLY HUNTER, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Steph, and thanks so much for doing this and especially really excited to be having this conversation with two women that I admire so much. And their work has been such an incredible contribution to this story. Where do we stand right now? I cannot believe that we have had 100 days.
So I am back in Kyiv. I just returned from the country after a brief break. And we have gone out, Steph, to the suburbs around Kyiv, to Bucha, to Borodyanka. I arrived in those suburbs pretty much a couple of days after Russian forces withdrew, so in early April. And then we spent several weeks there, reporting on the War Crimes, reporting on the people who are coming out from their basements after not seeing anyone for the last five weeks, so we spent a lot of time there.
[23:35:08]
And now to go back, it`s an entirely different reality. You have clean streets, you have people returning, trying to return to normal life. One of the most striking images, Steph, I was in Bucha, the last time I was in Bucha behind the church were one of the sites of the biggest mass graves. Investigators were zooming bodies there. It was driving rain. It was an incredibly grim, depressing scene to be a part of, to be there for. Now, the mass grave has been completely empty. Those bodies have been put into the local cemetery. It is flattened, there is green grass growing. It`s an incredibly jarring contrast from just six weeks ago.
So this is the reality around Kyiv, around these de-occupied suburbs. The war though is raging on in the East, in the Donbass and this is what we have been focused on, you know, even from Kyiv is we are looking at the towns of Severodonetsk. We are looking at this pocket, Steph, of the Donbass that Ukrainian military are not holding on to in the way that they want.
I actually asked the U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink, Steph, the U.S. ambassador is back as of this week, she presented her credentials to President Zelenskyy. And I asked her is Ukraine winning? And she wouldn`t answer right now. She gave a historical look at the last 100 days she — you know, louted the Ukrainian military fighting spirit, especially at the beginning of the war, something all of us who were here at the beginning of the war witness, much of the world was surprised, but she wouldn`t answer right now, whether or not Ukraine was winning. And certainly what we`re watching in the Donbass is that Russia`s military strategy is working right there.
RUHLE: Let`s go to the beginning of the war. Hind, you were on the front lines when the invasion began. Tell us about those early days.
HIND HASSAN, VICE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, we were on the frontline before the invasion began. So we went to Luhansk and some regions in the east, a lot of the regions that are currently under severe attack, we were there and spent time with some of the Ukrainian soldiers who were fighting the Russian-backed separatists on the other side. And they were telling us how they were preparing, the fact that they had been fighting this war for the past eight years, and that they were also — they`ve been fighting this war against Russian-backed separatists, but they were also preparing for this, the possibility of a full scale invasion.
And whilst we were there in January, also pass through Kharkiv and we spend some time there, which is, if you`ve been following the war, you`ll have heard of it quite a lot. It`s Russia`s second largest city, it`s very close to where they share, so Russian speaking city, it has a lot of close ties, people who live in Kharkiv often go and work across the border, or they have family there. And we spent time there in January. And it`s kind of like the opposite of what Molly said, now. So we were there when the city was vibrant. And there were restaurants and cafes. And, you know, it was a great second city to Kyiv. So we saw it in the opposite direction.
We were there when it was peaceful and quiet and beautiful. And then we returned in March. And it was just a completely different place. Sadly, and understandably, at that point, because of the war and what the war had done. So when we returned, we saw entire streets that were completely destroyed residential areas and buildings that had been hit by missiles, half the city had left that was like a ghost town and the people who did say it moved underground. And there were also those who chose to say so like the medical workers, the emergency workers and the volunteers that were there. And we had really, really heartbreaking story, painful stories. And we spent a lot of time with emergency workers who were pulling the bodies of victims from under the rubble. And we were with them actually, at one point when they pulled out the body of a 73 year old grandmother who had been stuck inside the rubble of a home that had been destroyed.
And actually even today, in June, I read that there are bodies of victims that are still being pulled out from the rubble in Kharkiv. And this — the entire city was like a front line because you couldn`t escape. You just didn`t know where the missiles would hit. We went out one evening, when three huge missiles completely destroyed a building that was a 10 second walk from our hotel so the entire ground at the hotel shock and windows came in and a different time we were also in a morgue, and the morgue was overflowing with bodies. They didn`t have enough room inside. They were being kept inside and outside makeshift tents.
And as we were there, even the dead and the victims couldn`t escape the battle that was still taking place and the entire ground shock. And we had a huge missiles and nearby we all run for safety. And then explored soon after and found that the missile struck a building that was not too far away and the same emergency workers that we had spent time with were there again, working to get bodies out and working night and day to try and help people.
[23:40:18]
I`ve been speaking to people in Kharkiv, those that we`ve worked with, some of the people that we kept in contact with, and also following the reports. And we now hear that there are people returning to the city. And there are people who were trying to rebuild their lives who have left the bunkers from underground. But there is still fighting on the outskirts, there are still areas that are being attacked, there are — there is still shelling, there`s still missile attacks in the region, because, of course, it`s just so close to the Russian border. And it is in the east and it is a very strategic area. And it`s not too far from the — where the fighting is taking place right now.
RUHLE: Sabrina, you lived in Russia, you speak the language, you know, the culture, the relationship between Russia and Ukraine has always been complicated. But how do you get from complicated to war?
SABRINA TAVERNISE, HOST, “THE DAILY”: Yeah, you know, it was the question that we were all asking ourselves. And, you know, most of my — in fact, all of my Russian friends said, no, this will never happen. There`s no way this could ever happen. It`s such a radical thing for Russia to invade Ukraine.
And, you know, I think that a lot of us, miss — kind of, you know, I thought we knew what Putin would do, and thought we could guess what would happen if we were wrong. He did. And, you know, I think that in a lot of ways, this is Putin kind of relitigating and kind of reimagining the end of the Soviet Union, right? That this was — that Ukraine was ours, Ukraine is this place that is — should be subject to us, and we will make it so. And we will, you know, we will do this war, so that — you know, we can have our old empire back, so we can have our old sense of feeling powerful in the world back. And, you know, that`s something that I think a lot of us just didn`t think he would actually do, because, you know, a lot of Russians have relatives in Ukraine and a lot of — there`s so many family ties, there`s so many connections, that it just seemed inconceivable, I think, to people who knew Russia well, that this — that he would — that he would do this and then he did it.
RUHLE: Yet 100 days in this is our reality. Molly, Sabrina and Hind have agreed to stay with us. So we`ll be back in just two minutes.
Coming up, the unique challenges these three extraordinary women have faced while reporting from a war zone when the 11th Hour continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:47:26]
RUHLE: In Ukraine, dozens of female journalists have been risking their lives on the ground for months. They`re reporting directly from the frontlines, documenting the destruction and telling harrowing stories of refugees in desperate search for safety. So with us, Molly Hunter, Sabrina Tavernise, and Hind Hassan.
Molly, does gender make a difference when you`re assigned to a report from a warzone? Could some soldiers be reluctant to take you to the frontlines?
HUNTER: Yeah, Steph. I think gender does make a difference. But I think not in the way, not in that way necessarily. I was lucky enough in my first big kind of big tour here to have a mostly female team, I had a female producer and a female local producer. And we had a lovely, lovely photographer with us as well. And that makes a difference, when you show up to this right, when you show up to talk to someone with three women, that sets a very, very different tone, you notice different things as a team. You talk and interact in a different way with women. The story, Steph, that we really, really wanted to tell in and around Bucha when the war crimes started to become apparent, when people started to be talking about bodies that were, you know, had their hands tied when there were a bullet shot, the story that we knew was happening. And the story that we were really zeroed in on was sexual violence and was rape. Rape is a war crime. That is something that a lot of people weren`t talking about at the beginning. We knew that it was happening. And I think it is something that we were able to tell we interviewed a survivor, a woman named Elena (ph). And I think that we were able to tell it because we are a team of three women. Because we approached Elena as three women. We spent five days with her. We spent a lot of time with her before ever turning on a camera. And that makes a difference.
RUHLE: Sabrina, you have spent a lot of time working with — speaking to refugees, not just in Ukraine, but covering other wars in Iraq, for example, what stands out to you about this refugee experience several weeks ago? I was at the Poland Ukraine border at a refugee camp. And people often think, oh, when you crossed the border, you`re in good shape, you`ll be safe. But the desperation was real and all people I met wanted was to go back home.
TAVERNISE: Yes, that`s definitely true. I spent a lot of time in train stations in places where there were a lot of refugees who had gathered and, you know, I think back to the question of women and why it`s important to have women reporters, you know, and why it`s important to focus on women when you`re trying to tell stories is that women, you know, fundamentally are the ones often who are the caretakers and the people who have responsibility for the bodies of their children.
[23:50:08]
And, you know, there were so many women that I talked to who said, I didn`t want to leave, I wouldn`t have left. But I had to be responsible for my daughter. And I — you know, for that reason, I couldn`t stay in Kharkiv, I had to take the chance to take this trip. But it`s like, you know, my head is here and the train station with trying to be safe, but my heart is still there.
They were very, very resolute that this was not something that they thought was permanent, it was not something that they were going to leave and then come back when everything was over. I mean, it`s often — it`s sadly a theme, I think, in a lot of conflict zones, that when you`re refugee, you don`t — you always leave and think it`s just for a week, and then suddenly your child was starting school somewhere else.
But I think it`s very, very — I think women have often have the stories of the war. That was the case in Iraq as well. You know, you — I think as women we all know, you know, you got to go into people`s kitchens, you got to go into places where, you know, women would talk to you about, you know, who was killed in their neighborhood last night? How — like, how do you sort of enter the home of a family, you know, as a man and talk to women? In Iraq, it`s very difficult. So I think that we have advantages, and exactly as Molly said, in some ways, you wouldn`t really expect.
RUHLE: Hind, I want to know what this is like for you. You`ve gone from Ukraine to the West Bank, how do the challenges change with these different assignments? So when you were an aspiring journalist, did you say war correspondent, that`s what I want to do?
HASSAN: No, I didn`t — I wanted to tell the stories of people who have been through difficult times and through struggles as somebody who is from Iraq and has family there. And, actually I agree with my two colleagues that as women, you know, we can end up in situations where we are able to tell those human stories incredibly, effectively.
I remember a colleague, many years ago, saying to me that doing refugee stories or doing stories from refugee camps, they`re the soft stories and the hard story was the front line, and they referred to very specifically, yeah, I don`t mind, you know, you people with less experienced what I`m doing the soft stories. They`re not soft stories. These are hard, painful, harrowing stories that needs to be told. And a lot of us journalists, the reasons why we do this is so that we can tell those stories. And the way that news has changed now, the way that war reporting has changed now is that there are more women, there are more people from different backgrounds, there are people from different class backgrounds, and all of that contributes to be able to tell, empathize, get into spaces that we haven`t gotten into spaces before in order to tell those really, really important stories.
RUHLE: And we are so grateful that you`re all telling these really important and really difficult stories, I appreciate and admire you all. Thank you so much. Molly Hunter, Sabrina Tavernise, and Hind Hassan, thank you all.
From those amazing women to another, the high drama lightning round in this year`s National Spelling Bee. We`re going to tell you how many words the Champs spelled in 90 seconds, when the 11th Hour comes back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:58:15]
RUHLE: The last thing before we go tonight, the queen bee. Scripps Spelling Bee Champion 14-year-old Harini Logan had plenty of challenges on her way to victory last night. She was eliminated during the vocabulary round, but then reinstated after a review. There was high drama then. She and fellow finalist, Vikram Raju, both struggled in the last round. They both missed four of Scripps most challenging words that left them tied and headed into the Bee`s first ever lightning round. Just watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your first word is spealbone.
HARINI LOGAN: S-P-E-A-L-B-O-N-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phreatophyte.
HARINI LOGAN: P-H-R-E-A-T-O-P-H-Y-T-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gaydiang.
HARINI LOGAN: G-A-Y-D-I-A-N-G
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Parison.
HARINI LOGAN: P-A-R-I-S-O-N
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excimer.
HARINI LOGAN: E-X-C-I-M-E-R
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toquilla.
HARINI LOGAN: T-O-Q-U-I-L-L-A
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Glochis.
HARINI LOGAN: G-L-O-C-H-I-S
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Epaulement.
HARINI LOGAN: E-P-A-U-L-E-M-E-N-T
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chara.
HARINI LOGAN: C-H-A-R-A
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maieutic.
HARINI LOGAN: M-A-I-E-U-T-I-C
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chalicothere.
HARINI LOGAN: -C-H-A-L-I-C-O-T-H-E-R-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Teosinte.
HARINI LOGAN: T-E-O-S-I-N-T-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sisserary.
HARINI LOGAN: S-I-S-S-E-R-A-R-Y
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Akore.
HARINI LOGAN: -A-K-O-R-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bouchal.
HARINI LOGAN: B-O-U-C-H-A-L
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saccharose.
HARINI LOGAN: S-A-C-C-H-A-R-O-S-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talisay.
HARINI LOGAN: -T-A-L-I-S-A-Y
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vesicate.
HARINI LOGAN: -V-E-S-I-C-A-T-E
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Semmet.
HARINI LOGAN: S-E-M-M-E-T
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chorepiscopus.
HARINI LOGAN: -C-H-O-R-E-P-I-S-C-O-P-U-S
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kniphofia.
HARINI LOGAN: K-N-I-P-H-O-F-I-A
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hottish.
HARINI LOGAN: H-O-T-T-I-S-H
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Malbrouck.
HARINI LOGAN: M-A-L-B-R-O-U-C-K
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ornithorhynchus.
HARINI LOGAN: O-R-N-I-T-H-O-R-H-Y-N-C-H-U-S
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nandubay.
HARINI LOGAN: N-A-N-D-U-B-A-Y
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moorhen.
HARINI LOGAN: M-O-O-R-H-E-N
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Chorepiscopus, I couldn`t have spelled two of those words in 20 minutes. But that was 22 words, in 90 seconds, seven more than Vikram spelled which is amazing, because he really told the AP that the idea of the lightning round made her nervous. She said, when it got introduced last year, I was a bit terrified to be honest, I go slow. That`s my thing. I didn`t know how I would fare in that setting. Well, we just saw how she fared. And Beyonce better move over because there`s a new queen in town.
And on that note, I wish you all a very good night and a safe weekend. From all of our colleagues across the networks of NBC News. Thanks for staying up late with us all week long. I`ll see you on Monday.