perhaps you know me as, the kung fu panda. ♪ ♪ ah, you're adorable. huh. oh, whah! right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tonight joe biden in the spotlight, speaking to the largest audience he will have during the entire campaign, promoting his domestic and foreign policies and trying to change voters' doubts about his

ability to serve another four years. a senior administration official says israel agrees to a new border crossing for aid to be delivered into northern gaza. more details in a moment. former president trump planning to rebut his rival in real time while a maga super pac floods the airwaves with a controversial ad questioning biden's ability to even survive until the end of a second term. immigration, abortion, the economy, prescription drug price relief and the wars in gaza and ukraine. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we report on the white house plans for the most important speech of the biden presidency. his election year state of the union. in eight hours, president biden will be entering the house chamber to address a joint session of congress and the

largest bipartisan audience of his re-election campaign. top aides say mr. biden is putting the finishing touches on the speech today. tonight, he will try to lay out his vision for a potential second term. just one day after donald trump became the presumptive republican nominee. the president is facing challenges. this hour, new details about the steps of president will announce tonight to get more aid desperately needed into northern gaza. expect the southern border aid for ukraine against vladimir putin, abortion and ivf rights, expanding his programs to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, all top issues tonight as well as student loan relief and the fight against inflation that he has achieved so far, he believes, all mentioned in tonight's speech, along with a theme of protecting democracy. after last year's outburst last

year, mike johnson has told his conference to be respectful tonight, telling members, quote, decorum is the order of the day. it backfired last year. a trump superpac set an unusually ugly tone with a blistering ad questioning the president's ability to live to the end of a second term. a very unflattering depict of vice president kamala harris. we start with gabe gutierrez, garrett haake, who is also following the trump campaign, and "washington post" national editor phil rucker, co-author of "i alone can fix it." gabe, you have details about tonight's speech. >> reporter: as you said, the president has a lot to talk about in his domestic agenda. of course, the economy and

reproductive rights. the breaking news we are learning from senior administration officials, that the president plans to announce that he is directing the u.s. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in gaza on the mediterranean to bring in humanitarian aid into the region. a lot of the details are being worked out. we understand the planning for this will continue over the coming weeks, that the aid will be brought in from cyprus. there will be no american boo on the ground in gaza. there are questions how this will play out. as we understand it according to the senior administration officials, is the israelis will provide security for this aid once it's brought into gaza. the u.s. is working with its partners, the u.n., and other ngos to get this aid in. you mentioned that the israelis have agreed to another border crossing. this one in northern gaza. to be able to bring in the

desperately needed aid to that region. while the president will no doubt -- he has a lot of ground to cover, we are just learning new details about the foreign policy agenda, especially after we have heard and seen over the last couple of months some anger and frustration from his political left, from progressives, who are frustrated over his handling of the israel/hamas war. part of the president's speech will speak to the plight of the hostages in gaza right now. >> just to follow up briefly with you, garrett, because the port will take a while to build and deliver. that is a longer term. the opening in northern gaza is critical. they have been pushing and pushing for it. again the rafah border opening was announced and it took almost a month before it finally happened. we will wait and see. that would permit a lot more trucks to get in and to get into

the north where they have not been able to deliver aid. until now, it's been in the south. only a handful of trucks because of problems with the delivery that have been blamed on israel. i know more to come on all of that. garrett haake, donald trump, he says he will be live blogging his reactions on social media. katie britt of alabama will deliver the official republican response. a big question, can the speaker keep republicans in line after what happened last year? it backfired. what about the super pac? that's the ugliest campaign ad i have seen since willie horton. >> reporter: let's start in the chamber itself. there's little reason to believe that the speaker's call for decorum will stop house republicans from speaking their minds during the speech. i think there's a reason why they might want to try strategically. it's related to why donald trump

isn't trying to counterprogram this event. merely trying to live truth along with it on social media. it's that republicans and the trump campaign believe that joe biden can be his own worst enemy and they think that joe biden's words can be used against him, if he stumbles, if he appears weak or frail in any way, that that would be as beneficial to them as anything else they can do. by getting into a back and forth with joe biden as happened in the last state of the union, they might only look stronger. the less they say, the better. as for katie britt, republicans like the contrast she presents. she's 42 years old, almost half the president's age. she's a working mom. she's more in touch with the voters who republicans would like to have be in play in this election in the suburbs and women specifically who donald trump in the past has tended to alienate.

they hope that britt might be more appealing to those folks. on the other end of the style is the ad you pointed out from the trump-supporting super pac which bluntly questions whether joe biden would even be alive at the end of his presidential term. it's as aggressive an ad -- some say inappropriate ad as anybody i have seen put on in politics. as you point out, since willie horton. it speaks to the aggressive posture the trump campaign and their allies want to take in this campaign and to the degree they want to make joe biden's fitness, which our polling at nbc news, his physical and mental ability is a weakness. >> that's certainly not subtle. >> subtlety was never their style. >> the 1988 campaign had a

devastating impact on dukakis' campaign against bush. >> yeah, that's right. that ad was -- goes through history as one of the nastiest political ads in modern television era. this is a flavor of what we can expect over the course of this year, which could become an uglier campaign as the months go on. the issue for biden is it doesn't take that ad to persuade voters that his age is a liability. garrett was referencing polling. we see it again and again in the data. we also see it in anecdotal interviews our reporters have with voters across the country, there's deep concern with biden's age, with his fitness for office. that's why this state of the union tonight is so important. it's the highest profile moment when millions of americans are going to see the president for an hour, maybe longer, in one setting, standing up there delivering a speech and can really assess with their own eyes and their own ears whether

he is up to the job and whether they feel comfortable with his leadership for possibly another four years. >> phil, how directly do you think the president will go after speaker johnson, who is going to be sitting behind him for the first time as speaker next to the vice president, of course, for derailing the bipartisan border bill, when immigration is such a huge issue and they have not persuaded that many of the voters, at lease proportionally, that it's really the republicans answering the call from donald trump that sank the only bipartisan senate agreement that they have had in years? >> yeah. i would assume he is going to go after that point on the immigration bill. it's obviously a top level campaign issue this year for biden. he needs to articulate his own portion to the american people and help them understand what he has been advocating for as president and what he has been

doing at the border. he made the trip to the border a week or so ago. i assume it will be a focus of the speech tonight. i don't know if he is going to personally go after the speaker. that might be a little bit unusual in that setting. certainly, you can expect, i think, the president to try to frame not only immigration but a number of other issues, frame what he has done and what he is trying to do with what the republican agenda has been. >> gabe, very quickly, it's unusual for the white house to release such a big news making prop proposal, at least, agreement they say in advance of the state of the union rather than hold it for the speech itself or right before, that they put that out there, releasing it at noon today that they had achieved something on israel. does it indicate they are worried about the reaction to having nothing to deliver after the president said they may have a hostage deal by last monday? of course, that wasn't to come to pass.

>> reporter: the nature of the speech, as you said, the president over the last week or so has raised hopes that there might be some sort of hostage deal. first he said by monday. then trying to get this deal done before the start of ramadan next week. now it appears that it really has hit a roadblock. it's looking unlikely that this deal will come together by next week. certainly, the president and the biden administration trying to really sell the point that they have been trying to do as much as they can in the israel/hamas war, especially after receiving so much criticism over its handling of the war. >> gabe, garrett, phil, thanks so much to all of you for starting us off. tonight, the full team for the state of the union address. special coverage beginning at 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc.

getting aid into gaza, that's the issue. nbc is on board a jordanian military flight as new aid is dropped into northern gaza. richard engel joins us with that exclusive reporting when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in just 60 seconds. you are watching msnbc. and enter promo code flbogo. it only works from the other side of the screen, buddy. you still got a land line in your house. order now in the subway app. - so this is pickleball? - pickle! ah, these guys are intense. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right? feeling claritin clear is like... ♪♪ is she? playing with the confidence of a pro and getting all up in that grass as if she doesn't have allergies? yeah. nice. jordan's sore nose

let out a fiery sneeze, so dad grabbed puffs plus lotion to soothe her with ease. puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin and locks in moisture to provide soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue. cease-fire talks between israel and hamas are once again stalled. the hamas delegation left cairo without reaching an agreement according to reports, making it unlikely that a deal can be reached before ramadan begins on sunday. after pressure from the u.s., intense pressure, because of the dire situation inside gaza in getting aid to the north in particular, a senior administration official says that israel has, as we have been reporting, finally agreed to open a new border crossing to deliver aid directly into northern gaza. richard engel joins us from

ahmann, jordan, where he returned from an air drop of more aid into gaza, which is really so much smaller than the truckloads. it was 700, 800 truckloottruckl before the war. then they were up to 200 a day. fighting continuing and the problems of delivery inside gaza became so profound that they had to suspend a lot of that. tell us about your experience with the air drop. >> reporter: this is one of the strangest -- absolutely. this is one of the strangest relief efforts that i have ever covered as a journalist. when we think of an aid drop, it's just two scenarios in which these things are carried out. one, a natural disaster in a very remote area. imagine a flood, a hurricane, some sort of -- something that's made the area inaccessible. you have to get aid to people, but there's nowhere to land.

you drop material from planes. that is a standard air drop scenario. the other is where you have a hostile force, an enemy force surrounding a city, surrounding a country, and you want to get aid to the people but you can't get through the enemy ringing the terrain. so you go over the enemy and drop the aid directly into the people. neither one of those applies in this situation. it's not an enemy that is controlling access to gaza. it's controlled by israel primarily. it's israel that's imposing very strict restrictions on what can go in and out. it's not a natural disaster. there's plenty of places to land a plane. instead, we have this strange situation where now jordan is leading this effort. jordan is right next to israel, right next to gaza. it's not a long flight at all. it's an international effort. the u.s. also taking part, lending aircraft, the dutch,

several other nations, the egyptians, the united arab emirates doing this mission in which they load up planes, c-130 cargo planes in jordan. they coordinate the flight plans with the israeli military so that they are not shot down or get in the way of an ongoing conflict. they are given a window after a lengthy negotiation process. then over the target, in this case it was northern gaza, the plane has its back doors that are open, and the pallets of humanitarian relief are slid out the back and parachute down to the people below. we were on one of these today done by the jordanjordanian mil. they pushed out 16 pallets, which are useful for the people

to receive that food aid. it could b life saving. people are now starving to death, particularly children and our vulnerable people are starving to death in gaza. around the arab world, people are watching this, particularly the u.s. involvement, and scratching their heads. how can the united states be both supplying weapons and political support to israel and then supplying what is a real minimum amount of aid to the people of gaza? it seems like -- to many, it seems like the u.s. is working across purposes. if it wanted to help the people of gaza, it would try to find another solution, more aid in, finding a cease-fire, but just dropping a few pallets at a time on the 2.3 million people of gaza, it provides some political cover. it's useful. the people who receive it, it could save their lives. it's not a long-term solution.

>> i need to ask you about this port. i know they were eager to announce something. they don't have a cease-fire agreement to announce. they have hostage families in the audience in the chamber tonight. when they talk about building a port, they are emphasizing there will be no u.s. personnel on the ground, that this will be offshore. i know they can do a lot of things. but this will take a while to establish. it will take a while to establish -- >> reporter: exactly. >> there new opening. i know blinken -- it took three weeks to a month before they got it open. all the players who were involved. to get it into northern gaza, they could have done this a long time ago. they resisted because they said it wasn't safe. it's going to take a while. >> reporter: exactly. don't look for this to be a quick solution or even potentially be a solution at all. a few minutes ago -- over last

few days we have been talking about, maybe they will reach a cease-fire and it could be built upon and go to potentially a cessation of hostilities for the time being. now that doesn't seem to be what they are aiming for. netanyahu just posted online, said and his comments were tweeted out that they have every intention of carrying out the military objective in rafah. anyone telling them the israeli military shouldn't go into rafah is telling israel, to paraphrase the prime minister, they should lose the war against hamas. according to what he says, he has every intention of doing a very controversial -- what would be a very disruptive and bloody campaign in rafah. now we are talking about other ways to get aid in. critics would say that the united states is just participating in a way to prolong the campaign, to enable israel to carry out its campaign

while getting some humanitarian assistance to the people of gaza. that said, what is the alternative? the u.s. is in a very difficult situation. it backs israel's war against hamas, but it's also trying to provide some relief to the people of gaza. it's ending up in a situation where neither side is satisfied and the people of gaza still are not getting what they need. hamas is still in power. >> richard engel, your perspective is invaluable. thank you for your exclusive reporting from jordan. we really appreciate it. reproductive rights, expect to hear a lot about abortion access and ivf treatment tonight from both sides of the aisle. more on that ahead. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc.

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the fight for reproductive rights is a major focus at the state of the union speech tonight. among the guests in attendance for the address, women who were denied abortions, health care providers and advocates and the fist person born through ivf in the u.s. in 1981, all in the first lady's box. members of the house democratic women's caucus say they will dress in all white as they have in past years, wearing pins that read, fighting for reproductive freedom.

abigail spanberger joins us. thank you very much. reproductive rights a top issue for many, especially because of the ruling by the alabama state supreme court, partially fixed last night, in time for tonight's speech. it doesn't deal with the ruling by the state court that an embryo is a live person. it just deals with the penalties and the repercussions, potentially. this week, exit polls from virginia's super tuesday primary show 54% of republican voters oppose a federal law banning abortions nationwide. you have pledged to protect reproductive rights in your campaign for governor of virginia. what are you hoping to hear from president biden tonight on this? how important is this issue tonight? >> this is an important issue for the president to speak about in tonight's state of the union because it's an important issue for voters and for americans. certainly, in the wake of the

alabama supreme court ruling, we saw just how quickly our rights can further be eclipsed, not just access to abortion and reproductive rights, but access to ivf. in the wake of that uncertainty, we saw within alabama, ivf clinics, fertility clinics shutting down and telling families and women who had long dreamed of growing their family, that indeed they were putting a halt, a pause on their ivf procedures because of this ruling. it's an important step that alabama has made state law to try and address the impact of this ruling. but there are 49 other states where we must contend with the reality that extreme politicians and folks either on capitol hill, in state capitals, or judicial benches might further endeavor to restrict a woman's ability to choose how and when she begins her family.

this was a very foreseeable outcome of the dobbs decision and one of the reasons why for two years so many of us have been advocating for the basic freedoms of women to make their own choices themselves, with their medical provider and those within their closest circles. these are not decisions that should be left to politicians or judges. >> on the foreign policy front, the speaker is stalling. he is basically not letting it get to the floor, that security package that would deliver aid to ukraine as well as to taiwan and israel. you were part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that visited ukraine last month. yesterday, president zelenskyy said air defense is a critical priority. he was a couple hundred yards from a strike that killed five people in odessa when he was meeting with the greek prime minister. what prospects do you think there are to get the aid to

ukraine and some supplemental in time? russia, as you know very well, is making critical advances. >> that's right. last month, i was in ukraine. i met with president zelenskyy with a bipartisan group of members. it was there that the house intelligence committee chairman turner spoke about his commitment to ensuring that the aid to ukraine moves through the house and ultimately gets to the ukrainian people, as they continue fighting their war for freedom, their war against russian aggression, their war that is, frankly speaking, in u.s. national security interests. the reason we have not yet been able to provide that aid to ukraine or aid to israel or humanitarian aid, additional aid to gaza and to the west bank and support to our taiwanese partners is because speaker johnson refuses to bring a bill that passed the united states

senate 70-29. so 70 democrats and republicans joined together, passed that bill in the united states senate. it would pass the united states house of representatives the day that speaker johnson chooses to bring it. the only reason that bill hasn't gotten to the president's desk, the only reason aid has not been delivered to our partners is because speaker johnson refuses to bring it. that is detrimental to our own security as well as our security partners. i do hope that tonight in the state of the union, president biden makes a clear call for the united states house of representatives to do what the united states senate has done, pass that bill in a bipartisan fashion and ensure it gets to the president's desk. frankly, it's not an overstatement to say that democracy within europe depends on it, american values and our commitment to democracy depends on it, the role of u.s. global

leadership depends on it, and our own national security depends on it. i'm a former cia officer. i will tell you, president xi in china is watching. the iranians are watching. vladimir putin is watching. we must pass this legislation. i hope to hear the president call on the speaker to bring it for a vote. >> do you think this will be a direct call on the speaker who will be standing right behind him, and the fact that donald trump was the person pulling the strings according to everyone's accounts, it was he who said kill this bill? >> that's right. that is, according to all accounts. i have many colleagues on the other side of the aisle, republicans who very clearly understand the stakes of this legislation, who very clearly want to vote for it. yet, it is donald trump and now speaker johnson who are standing in the way. to say that this is doing the bidding of vladimir putin is not an overstatement, because this

bill would pass if it received an up or down vote. so the fact that the speaker and ultimately at the behest of former president trump would stand in the way of its passage is absolutely detrimental to our own country's national security priorities. >> abigail spanberger, the congresswoman, former cia officer, and also governor candidate. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. war crimes, next. the effort to hold vladimir putin accountable for horrific acts by russian soldiers in ukraine. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. s "andrel reports" only on msnbc what? i don't do that. this reminds me of my bike. the wolf was about the size of my new motorcycle. have you seen it, by the way? happy birthday, grandma! really? look how the brushstrokes follow the line of the gas tank.

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a russian missile hit a building hundreds of yards from where president zelenskyy and the prime minister were meeting, close enough for them to see and hear the blast. five people were killed in the strike according to the ukrainian navy. the russian defense ministry said the troops attacked a hangar in the port. joining us now is the prosecutor general of ukraine. thank you very much for being here.

how are things moving to the international criminal court of justice? >> the most important is that on our way to ensure justice and accountability for victims and survivors of the war crimes, we are moving very fast and we made great progress throughout the year. our national investigation, we have identified 531 suspects. we have brought 351 cases to ukrainian courts. in addition to last year arrest warrant for putin and for deportation of ukrainian

children, few days ago icc issued another arrest warrant against two russian military commanders. the commander of long-range aviation and commander of black sea navy of russian federation for attacks on critical infrastructure in course of last winter which caused great damage and destruction. issued arrest warrants for war crimes but also for crimes against humanity. >> you mentioned the kidnapped children. how many ukrainian children are still in russia being reprogrammed, retrained, kept from their families? in the thousands? >> we are investigating the cases of around 20,000 ukrainian

children forcibly deported to russia. >> horrific. >> this is horrific. ear -- even brutal war crimes but not case of forced deportation of children. this is complete repetition of what nazi germany did. >> m it took years and years.

>> we have great cooperation with united states department of justice, with fbi, with different institutions. i would also like to mention that one of the result of this cooperation was where charges of department of justice of united states against russian alleged war criminals, which were unsealed in december 2023. it was our joint work with the department of justice. it was about torture.

we have already prosecutor to the international center for the crime of aggression. american prosecutor work with 15 from six states and who prepare the case for the future special tribunal. very important to mention that ukraine is first country after second world war who tried to prosecute the crime of aggression. it's leadership crime. crime of aggression, there will be no 12,000 civilians killed, including 534 children if crime of aggression was not committed.

extremely important, not only to prosecute and punish those who initiate the war of aggression for the sake of justice and for the victims of survivors, it's also important to show to the world and to the other potential adversaries that justice is also about deterrence. in case any other part of the world will even attempt to start the war, civilized world will be united to make any of them and each of them accountable for aggression and for all other war crimes. >> thank you so much for what you are doing. the world is grateful to you. >> thank you. >> good luck. insiders report. a top white house advisor and former cabinet secretary on what the president is doing to prepare for tonight's big speech. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. [dog whimpers]

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former democratic national chair. it's great to see you. thanks very much for being with us. >> it's good to be with you. >> mr. secretary, if i may call you that, republicans are not going to give the president any wins in an election year. they made that very clear. how does he tackle that refusal tonight? how hard does he go at the speaker when he really needs the speaker to try to get that ukraine aid through? >> sure. the president's going to map out a vision of where we have been, where we were, where we have come, and where we need to go. you know, where we have come, the bipartisan infrastructure bill has been transformational. he brought republicans and democrats together. the chips and science act has brought $100,000 a year jobs home. another bipartisan initiative. the president's going to continue to talk about what we can do when we put country over party, when we put the interests of the american people ahead of

the interests of one particular party. he will continue to talk about that. the reason we have such low unemployment is because we have been able to come together. what we will do tonight -- he will be very blunt about some of the challenges we have. the bipartisan bill on the border security, that was negotiated over months. we know why that bill did not succeed thus far. that's because donald trump told republicans, you can't give joe biden a victory. that's not who we are. we have to come together. there are very competing visions about ukraine. i watched what you just spoke to, very compelling interview you did. what we have to do on ukraine is understand that nato is our ally. nato had our back after 9/11. we need to have nato's back now.

joe biden has said, i will be with you. he has united our global community against putin. donald trump has said quite literally, do whatever the hell you want. that competing vision -- we should be in lockstep, republicans, democrats, independents, taking on putin's aggression. i hope we will get there. because if those bills came up for a vote and speaker johnson allowed a vote, they would pass and they would pass solidly to support ukraine, to have a package in for israel and the middle east and the humanitarian crisis. i or down vote, and that's what the president's doing, calling for us to come together. put country over party. >> let me pause it that the economy is doing a a lot better. you know, inflation is down,

jobs numbers are great. personal income consumer confidence increasing, yet people still in the polls are giving donald trump much, much greater, you know, support on the economy for doing a good job in the economy than joe biden. how does he change that narrative? how do you do a better sales job of what people were seeing at the grocery store? >> well, the president will talk tonight about the progress we made. you know that when we took over in 2021, when the president took over, we were in the throes of the pandemic. we had a recession. we had so many people dying. now we've had two years in a row of unemployment under 4%. that hasn't happened in 50 years, and the president's going to make house calls. the vice president's going to make house calls. we're going to be going to arizona to talk about the incredible boom in the economy there because of microchips. same thing in ohio, same thing in new york. you look at the unemployment rate and jobs that are being created through the bipartisan

infrastructure bill. in every corner of america, red states and blue states, the unemployment rate is coming down, and when we come down and we talk to people about that, when people are educated about the fact that $35 a month insulin cap, that was joe biden and democrats who delivered. when we see that we now have over 21 million people enrolled in obama care, that's a big deal, and that's 8 million more than were enrolled at the beginning of the biden administration, and again, there's a real contrast, andrea, because we want to expand health care coverage, and they want to literally eliminate obama care once again. we want to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, and we have successfully taken on the pharmaceutical industry. so our job is to make sure we continue to go out there and educate about what we've done.

>> thank you very much. >> have a good day. >> you too. and a good night as well and place in history, coming up, the potential impact of tonight's state of the union speech on the country and of course the commander in chief, you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. l reports" on msnbc. a digital money coach in the chase mobile® app. use it to set and track your goals, big and small... and see how changes you make today... could help put them within reach. from your first big move to retiring poolside - and the other goals along the way. wealth plan can help get you there. ♪ j.p. morgan wealth management. is it possible to count on my internet ♪ like my customers count on me? it is with comcast business. keeping you up and running with our 99.9% network reliability. and security that helps outsmart threats to your data.

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more than 27 million people tuned in to president biden's state of the union address last year. just hours from now in a fragmented media landscape, tonight's address will for the first time be live streamed on instagram with tiktok and other platforms picking up viral moments. joining us now michael beschloss and washington bureau chief susan page. you've got a list of five things president biden needs to do starting with not just be older but be wiser. tell us more. >> well, he obviously -- you can't argue what your age is, that is indisputable, but you can make the case you're up to the job, that you've got bigger that you can handle four more years in office. this is biden's big opportunity to do that. we don't have many bully pulpits left. the state of the union address is one of them, andrea. >> and michael, take a big picture, zoom out for us on what's at stake for him tonight. you point to fdr's freedom speech in 1941, obviously more

time, a bigger challenge, but let's, you know, talk about the challenges tonight. >> well, this is a real historical moment. we could be a dictatorship next year if donald trump is elected and carries through on his threats and carries through on his threats to suspend the constitution. that's what's at stake. so joe biden could finesse it and talk about other things or he could confront the elephant in the room and say this is a year when we americans have to choose whether we're going to live as a democracy, as a republic, or as an authoritarian system. the that's what fdr was doing in 1941, nazis, fascists, imperial japanese were rampaing around the world, and he said you americans have to choose and also, for you americans who think that we need to be fascist at home to compete with other fascist governments, a lot of

people were saying, he said we need these four freedoms. freedom from wanton fear, freedom of speech and religion. >> and susan, i want to talk to both of you about something we haven't seen i don't think anything this brutal since lee atwater in 1988 with his campaign ad, which is that new super pac ad all over the place, actually suggesting joe biden will not survive another term and also really demeaning the vice president. susan, you first. >> we've never seen routinely this kind of brutality in political ads, that sort of attack, but brace yourself, because i think we're going to see a lot of it this year. i think it's no holds barred, and i'll be interested in the kind of reception that president biden is given tonight in the house chamber. there was a long tradition of a respectful audience. that has not been the case in some previous recent years, and

i'll be curious about what kind of -- what happens tonight. we'll be watching that. it did provide biden with one of his good moments at the last state of the union when he made a retort when marjorie taylor greene called him a liar. this is likely to be, i think, andrea, a brutal campaign year. >> does this sort of set the standard very low or high, however you're putting the gauge, michael, in terms of the, you know, ugly factor in campaign averages? >> it's starting ugly and low, and it's going downward, and this is going to be a held lashs year. you're going to have deep fakes. you're going to have people claiming that other candidates said things they did not say, and also abroad, there's at least the possibility that hostile nations that would like to see donald trump elected may cause a lot of trouble,

especially in october, same thing with fomenting unrest in the cities. hope it doesn't happen. we don't know yet. we've all got to be braced. >> susan, i remember when we were all, you know, tsk, tsking because bush called bill clinton a bozo and we thought that was terrible. we've come a long way. susan, when you look forward to had campaign, we're geared up for it, do you see any way around this kind of ugliness? >> americans do respond to the better angels i think. in the midterm elections when we asked voters the issue that mattered the most to them. they didn't say the economy, they didn't say abortion, they

said democracy. we know that americans care about our democratic institutions. we expect president biden to make that part of his appeal tonight. democracy itself is at stake, that's one of the things he said before. >> indeed, and michael, i know we only have ten seconds, but that's one of the big issues for you. >> if americans knowingly choose a dictatorship, there's nothing we can do. all joe biden can do is to say this is a real possibility. make sure you get active in the system this year. make sure you vote. >> well, thank you, and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on social media @mitchellreports and you can rewatch highlights on the show anytime on youtube, go to msnbc.com/andrea. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. in