The Excerpt podcast: Ukraine fights on two years after invasion

On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: It's the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. President Joe Biden sees a dip in his approval rating. USA TODAY Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer reports on the latest from the decision on whether or not to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia Trump election fraud case. The Gymnastics Winter Cup begins. Was the Bidens' now-banished dog Biter-in-Chief?

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts:  True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Saturday, February 24th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, it's been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, plus President Joe Biden gets some bad approval rating news, and we look at the latest from the decision on whether or not to disqualify Fani Willis from Trump's Georgia election fraud case. Today marks the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Two years into its struggle Ukraine fights on, but some experts warn that the future could be bleak for the country of 40 million people, millions of whom have been displaced around Ukraine and the world. Mary Kate Schneider, Director of Global Studies at Loyola University, Maryland told USA Today, "Russia is playing the long game and Ukraine is fighting for its continued existence. This is a war of attrition that will not end anytime soon." US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield is calling on the international community to stand with Ukraine.

Linda Thomas Greenfield:

Just as Putin is hoping Ukrainian resolve will fade, he's counting on ours to dissipate as well. And so the task before us is clear. 10 years since this campaign began and two years since Russia's full scale invasion, we must continue to stand with Ukraine and stand up for international order.

Taylor Wilson:

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has announced new sanctions on more than 500 Russian targets in the wake of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It's the largest round of financial penalties on Russia since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The sanctions take aim at Russia's financial sector, military industrial complex, procurement networks, and take aim at sanctions of aiders across multiple continents. The US also imposed sanctions on three Russian government officials connected to Navalny's imprisonment. Navalny died earlier this month and Biden and others have blamed Putin for his death. Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnya this week took up her late husband's mantle and called on Russians to stand with her. She now likely becomes one of the major symbols in the fight against Putin. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

♦

President Joe Biden's approval rating fell to 38% in February according to the latest Gallup poll out yesterday. That's just one percentage point away from his all-time low. The poll found that 59% disapprove of the way Biden is handling his role as president, while 2% of respondents had no opinion. Biden's latest approval rating is down three points from January and matches his low of 37% in surveys conducted by Gallup in April, October, and November of last year. The latest poll also found Biden's approval ratings among five key issues were below 50%. They are Ukraine, the economy, foreign affairs, the situation in the Middle East, and immigration. His lowest marks were on immigration, where 67% of respondents disapproved.

♦

A Georgia judge will soon decide whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, and possibly her entire office in the election fraud case against Former President Donald Trump and 14 others who allegedly conspired to overthrow the 2020 Presidential Election that Trump lost in Georgia. I caught up with USA Today Domestic Security Correspondent, Josh Meyer, for the latest and a look at what happens next. Josh, thanks for hopping on.

Josh Meyer:

Sure. Thanks for having me, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Josh, just refresh us here, where are we now after this month's hearing surrounding Fani Willis?

Josh Meyer:

So I was in Atlanta for both of the hearings last Thursday and Friday. The judge now, Judge Scott McCaffey, is taking it under advisement. He may bring everybody in for an in-camera hearing, but soon he's going to decide whether or not to disqualify Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, maybe the Special Prosecutor, Nathan Wade. There's a slight chance, although very slim, that he could conceivably disqualify the entire office for conflict of interest.

Taylor Wilson:

So looking at the potential outcomes here, Josh, what would happen in this case if Willis does get disqualified and what would happen if she doesn't? What do these outcomes, these potential outcomes look like for Trump in the case?

Josh Meyer:

Well, I mean a lot of legal experts are saying that there's a very minimal chance that she will get disqualified based on a very specific reading of the Georgia statutes, that they would really have had to file the charges and actually launch the initial investigation into Trump and the other 18 co-defendants specifically so they could keep their romantic relationship going and financially benefit from it. So I think in that sense, people are not expecting the judge to rule that way, but you can never tell.

So if the judge does rule to disqualify Fani Willis, one of the options he can have, and I think the most likely would be to refer the case to what's known as the Prosecuting Attorney's Counsel in Georgia. And this is a state agency where they could take it under advisement, hand it off to another county that they think has the wherewithal to do such a complex and sprawling investigation. They could conceivably refer it to the State Attorney General's office. It is even possible that the Attorney's Counsel could move to try to dismiss the case. It's really uncharted waters and we don't really know what's going to happen.

Taylor Wilson:

An interesting aspect here, Josh, is it's not really just what the outcome will be, but also when we get a decision here. What might the time spent on hearing evidence about the Willis-Wade affair mean for possible delays to this case and what's next for the timeline going forward?

Josh Meyer:

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, so the judge has set a March 1st deadline for final arguments on this disqualification issue. He is likely to hold a hearing Monday in which they talk about whether one potentially key witness is allowed to even give testimony in the case because he was the divorce lawyer for Nathan Wade and has attorney-client privilege. But the Trump campaign people that were defendants here, you've got Trump, you've got Mike Roman who initially levied these allegations against the two for having the affair. They're trying to delay the trial as far as possible into the future, and it seems like they are succeeding, at least in some respects. This has been put on hold for weeks and weeks now, and the likelihood is that it's probably going to not go to trial until after the November election, which of course is something that Trump wants.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Josh Meyer, great insight as always. Thanks for your time.

Josh Meyer:

My pleasure. Thanks.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The Gymnastics Winter Cup is underway. The competition serves as both a qualifier for the National Championships, and for the men, a selection meet for the national team. All eyes will be on Suni Li on the women's side, the reigning Olympic, all-around champion who returns to competition this weekend for the first time since last year's National Championships. The women's competition begins today at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Skye Blakely, a member of the US gold medal-winning team at the last two World Championships also plans to compete. Meanwhile, the men's meet began yesterday and runs through tomorrow. All eyes there are on Brody Malone, the two-time US champion who had not competed since early 2023. You can find a full schedule and read more about the Winter Cup with a link in today's show notes.

♦

Is the Biden's dog a biter-in-chief. Newly released records from the Secret Service reveal the aggressive and now banished dog was involved in more biting incidents than was previously known. The records released from the Secret Service to USA today found that the German Shepherd named Commander was involved in at least 25 biting incidents in less than a year. Most bites happened on White House grounds while some occurred on trips to Camp David, Nantucket, and Delaware.

♦

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are tonight and after a quarter of a century airing on PBS and TNT, the SAG Awards have found a home at Netflix where they'll stream at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time with a red carpet show beginning an hour earlier. SAG wins are often solid predictors of who will win in the acting categories at the Oscars, which are set for March 10th. You can follow along all award season with the entertainment section on usatoday.com.

♦

And be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt tomorrow when my co-host, Dana Taylor, talks about his historic black churches, how many have fallen into disrepair and the fight to preserve them. Dana will be joined by Juan Floyd Thomas, Associate Professor of African-American Religious History at Vanderbilt University. You can find the episode right here on this feed. Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Excerpt podcast: Ukraine fights on