Chance & Zelensky, Schmitt & Bolton, Colbert-NN | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

CNN’s Matthew Chance gave a jarring report outside of Kyiv Monday, revealing the immediate devastation Ukraine has endured in its defense from Russia’s invasion.

Chance reported from a bridge northwest of the Ukrainian capital, explaining that “right within the past few hours, there has been a ferocious battle here on the outskirts of Kyiv.” While the quality of the footage was shaky throughout the report, Chance began by walking past the husks of several Russian military vehicles destroyed in the fighting.

“I was crouching down right by a grenade. I didn’t see that. Let’s move away from that,” he said. He continued with his report by saying the Ukrainians “have been able to really cause the Russians a significant amount of pain,” with the military assistance they are receiving from other countries.

Last week, Chance had to interrupt a live report in order to don flak jacket and helmet as explosions could be heard in Kyiv.

Like so many journalists on the ground in Ukraine, Chance has brought the conflict into American living rooms with compelling, even shocking reporting and footage. Professional and informed, these reporters have made the dangers faced by Ukrainian civilians all too real.

On Tuesday, Chance took that on-the-ground reporting to an even more in-depth and up-close level, interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in one of the Kyiv bunkers from which the gov’t is forced to operate.

Chance and his colleagues like Clarissa Ward are exemplifying that breaking, on-the-scene reporting on which CNN built its reputation, and to which new CNN chief Chris Licht has promised renewed focus.

There is a lot of great reporting out there on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, from a lot of brave journalists. Matthew Chance stands out for his this week.

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt interviewed former Donald Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton and got a crash course in being prepared and informed.

Schmitt’s premise was that Trump had been incredibly tough on Russia, and that it was for this reason that Vladimir Putin chose not to attack Ukraine during Trump’s administration. To support the claim, Schmitt had a bullet point list of steps he thought the administration had taken, including claiming Trump “sanctioned Nord Stream 2.”

“I mean, he took a very tough stance against Russia. I’m surprised you don’t think that he would have handled this better than Joe Biden,” he said as the list was on screen.

“No he didn’t,” said Bolton to Schmitt’s saying Trump took a tough stance. “He did not. We didn’t sanction Nord Stream 2. We should have.”

“In almost every case the sanctions were imposed with Trump complaining about it, saying we were being too hard,” said Bolton. “The fact is he barely knew where Ukraine was.”

“He once asked John Kelly, the second chief of staff, if Finland were part of Russia,” Bolton continued. “It’s just not accurate to say that Trump’s behavior somehow deterred the Russians.”

Bolton said that Putin simply didn’t feel his military was ready, and added that, so far in the invasion, it appears they still aren’t.

Schmitt toward the end tried to resolve the interview by arguing credit is due and that Trump was the first to warn Europe about relying on Russian gas and oil.

“You’re absolutely wrong,” Bolton corrected him once more. “The first person to tell the Europeans not to rely on Russian oil and gas was Ronald Reagan.”

“Fair enough,” said Schmitt.

A painful performance.