howard university. thank you very much. to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." you can follow me on twitter and instagram. you can tweet the show. thanks once again for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. thousands of u.s. troops deploying the eastern europe and exclusive reaction from top aid. democrat senator rekors from his strong, new concerns about how his long absence could affect bind's agenda in a divided senate. let's go out front.

exclusive reaction from putin's right hand man tonight. russia responding to biden's decision to deploy 3,000 u.s. troops to eastern europe. we're going to go to the ground for that in a moment because it's the latest is kalation in the u.s. russian stand off. the u.s. forces will be headed to romania, poland and germany. here is prepondsident biden. >> totally consistent with what i told putin in the beginning. as long as he's acting aggressively, we will make sure we reassure our nato allies in eastern europe we're there. >> these are in addition to the troops biden sent there to put on high alert. >> mr. putin continues to add

forces. they show no signs of being interested or willing to deescalate the tensions. it's not just the united states. our nato allies have noticed. new satellite images show russia moving more troops to the front line. you can see larger training areas as well. they monitor these day by day. putin wants the world to know what he's doing. tonight his defense ministry dropping more new video and pictures. i'll show you a few. t72 tanks. the details of the u.s. response to putin's negotiating demands have been leaked.

a spanish newspaper publishing the confidential documents and the response from the biden administration to putin reads quote, further russian increases to force posture or further aggression against yukraine to force the united states and our allies to strengthen our defensive posture. let's put this into english. if you do it, we'll do it. it's a dangerous and vicious cycle. russia escalate, the u.s. responds. russia escalate, the u.s. responds. in a moment we'll go to the ground because russia escalating again. it comes on the heels of russia and china conducting joint naval

drills. china put money behind russia too. in washington, several key committees will be briefed on this. in a momentum i'll talk to a senator in the closed door briefing. i want to begin with the breaking news. this is your exclusive new reporting tonight. reaction from russia to those 3,000 u.s. troops. what are you hearing? >> reporter: this plays into the narrative that it's the united states and the west ratcheting

up tension, not the other way around. the kremlin has opiniobeen quiet this. he said that this is an example of the u.s. continuing to pump up tension in europe. he said this is the best proof that we have an obvious reason to be worried. sort of pushing that narrative that it's russians that feel they are under increasing threat from a nato that is expanding and from united states in the kremlin's words wants to draw them into an armed conflict. there's been reaction this evening from ukrainian officials here in the ukrainian capitol. telling me earlier that the country welcomes the reenforcement of nato's eastern flank. it also hopes that reenforcement will be accompanied with continued supplies of defensive weapons to ukraine, including of sophisticated air defenses.

the ukrainians hope this will extend to give them the weapons they need. >> i want to go to the democrat senator richard bloomenthal. he's set to receive the classified briefing tomorrow. i want to start with the breaking news. matthew chance speaking to vladmir putin's spokesperson who says they are very worried about these troops because the u.s. is continuing to pump up tension making it very clear that they see this as an escalation they are being forced to reply in kind. do you have any concern it could give putin an excuse to invade?

>> the path that president biden is taking here is one he has signalled. he has said we will fortify our nato's ally sending the 82nd airborne there is really important. we are going to keep our word and that's important to the ukraine, to their leaders. i met with them just a couple of weeks ago. they are looking for this kind of action in addition to the continued arms. the economic steps are important. i believe strongly we ought to

begin the steps now, economic sanctions right now and we're moving toward actually bipartisan action. >> do you then, just to be clear, i know the biden administration thus far had been very much in the camp up if russia invades and we do those things. sounds like you're now moving towards a more preeveryone tifr set of sanctions. that's where you think this is going? >> we should begin sanctions yesterday. i've advocated we start the sanctions right away. putin will not be deterred by words alone. he's kgb thug. he understands force, military or economic force. he's going to be meeting with xi. together they represent a threat to the world. the biggest threat since the world war. they will be watching. the world is watching what we're doing to deter this russian aggression. >> let me ask you though when you say words won't matter. i understand you believe sanctions will. let me ask you about troops in

this context. the pentagon spokesperson said about the troop, quote these forces are not going to fight in ukraine. they have been so consistent about that. the u.s. will put in troops but they will not engage in combat over ukraine. do you have any concern that sending troops of the united states is saying we'll never fight in war about ukraine is a mistake? >> i agree with mr. kirby that troops should not be sent to fight in ukraine. president biden has made it clear and i've opposed american troops in combat in ukraine. their mission is defensive. our weapons and they should be lethal weapons sent to ukraine also are defensive. the javelin missiles that will combat the armor and the stinger mis missiles, the aircraft are defensive in person even though they are lethal. that's an important point. it's supported in the united states by a potential bill. >> let me ask you, i want to cut

through all of it what seems like a simple question. you cra ukraine is not in nato. nato is upset putin doesn't want to be in nato. if putin threats ukraine, it's not an invasion of nato. is there any situation under which the troops will be in combat? >> i forsee none now. you're right. you hit an important point that ukraine is not a member of nato and there's no immediate prospect it will be a member. putin is raising these fears that are totally non-connected to reality. he will have a fight with the ukraine people, not with american troops but with ukrainian people who are resolute and determined.

>> i appreciate your time. thank you so much. senator will be in that classified briefing from the secretary of state tomorrow. i want to go now to former cia deputy chief of russia operations. john, let me ask you. biden approves deployment of 3,000 troops to eastern europe. putin has now put out it gives russia an obvious reason to be worried because the u.s. is continuing to pump up the tension. those are their words. do you think the troops especially given there's no situation under which the biden add ministration says they will ever engage in combat. will it deter or provoke putin? >> two things. the russians bluster and they bully and they lie to suggest that sending a few thousands troops to nato allies is provoking war when they have got hundreds of thousands of troops and have specifically said they're going to invade a country they believe is not a country. it's sort of silly. this is about deterrents.

when you hear these things you should expect them. don't take them seriously. he wants the u.s. out of europe is what his goal is. he wants nato to be weakened or killed off. resaid prior to that conflict that korea was outside of our

security interest, however, the invasion was to brutal that president truman decided we had to send in american troops . there's been the visuals of the recent exercises, the foreign minister supporting russia's point of view here. lot of meetings and lots of money. dmie's role in this could be very significant. it's very unknown. how do you see it? >> well, i think putin wants to make it very clear he's got a strong relationship with china.

china is winning the 21st century. russia is losing. i can imagine putin wants to stress this. >> thank you. >> thank you. appreciate it. next, trump about to take another hit as records from vice president pence will soon be in the hands of the january 6th select me. a republican secretary of state decimates trump's big lie. wait until you hear because he went ballot by ballot. how many illegal ballots were cast in his crucial swing state. the sfwer international oly committee getting ready to meet with tennis star. will they get the true story or

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at any time without the unnecessary fees. we'll help you go from saving... to living. ♪ play all day ♪ former justice department official jeffrey clark meeting this afternoon for nearly two hours with the january 6th select committee. clark is a loyalist who is in

touch repeatedly with trump as he tried to help him over turn the election and he is seen as key to the ecocommittee investigation. it's unclear if he pled the fifth today. he is facing a contempt charge and his level of cooperation will play a big role in the committee's next steps. it wasn't clear if he would show up today. >> he is a critical first hand fact witness, and he's been delaying the fact he showed up as you point out. the committee was not sure that would happen. they have been holding him in

contempt of congress. i think what will be interesting now is to see whether since let's assume he did not cooperate today because less than two hours will they refer that to the justice department. jeffrey clark is key. he was at the center of this. he was working hand in hand with donald trump to try to over turn the election. i think we have to watch very closely what the committee does about whether they send this to the justice department. >> he drafted documents, came up with the logic and the justifications. so far the track record of getting referrals and getting it through and getting someone to come in is zero. >> just to be blunt about it and

i'm not saying they are failing, doj is nothing moving here. if he went in and pleaded the fifth today, is that pretty much it? >> they have a couple of options here. i think him showing up helps with regard to the criminal contempt aspect. what he might have done in there because two hours is way too short for him to have given a substantive interview but a little longer than saying i'm not talking because of the fifth. they might have gone area by area for him to assert it there. they could seek a couple of things. one they could immunize him. there's some downside to that as we saw in iran contra. i guess they could try to seek civil contempt and try o to get in front of a judge to drill down a little bit to see whether there really is a solid assertion of the fifth or not. both of those take time. they both have downsides. >> it is interesting. he may be worth it to do that

extra step which they have not chosen to do. when you look at someone like mark short who is the closest adviser to vice president pence, it was six plus hours. he answered all the questions and the national archives said that the committee will get pence's white house papers. jamie, how significant do they think that is and whether are the negotiations between the committee and pence himself? >> let's start with the national archives documents. those are critical. it's frankly one of the reasons i don't think we're going to see public hearings very soon. i think we're talking about late spring. even pushing it further because my understanding is the committee has this flood of documents coming in.

they are finding valuable information in there. they are going to go through it. now, mike pence. will he cooperate? we do not know yet but my understanding is there have been informal discussions going on for quite some time. i would say we need to look at one thing that may make a difference. i stress may. this week we all know that donald trump went on the attack against pence again. we are hearing that pence, on friday, may respond to those attacks. i'm not sure that it was the greatest strategy in the world for donald trump to be attacking mike pence right now because even though pence wants to hold onto the base, wants to straddle and try to keep some relationship with donald trump, why attack him right now? that may make pence a little more willing to cooperate. >> do you think that the former

president has actually finally made a legally lethal mistake? >> legally from the point of view what he's saying the attacks, even dangling the pardons, it's morally corrupt. i'm not sure a prosecutor would want to go down the road of witness tampering with that. it's a pretty broad statement he's making with the pardon offers and classic witness tampering is more focused. it's a contact with specific witness, specific intimidation offer to them or applied against them. in trump's case, he'll have fairly solid defense saying these are campaign promises. he's exercising his first amendment rights. so far, i don't know that he is made a criminally lethal step but certainly to jamie's point he may have supplied missing incentive to pence. >> thank you very much.

i appreciate your time. next, trump may be refusing to let go of his big lie. that lie suffering major blow tonight from a republican in a swing state who went through the ballots and had numbers on how many cases of voter fraud there were in the must win swing state. the democrats razor thin majority gone as democratic senator recovers for weeks after suffering a stroke. what party leaders are saying tonight. that's service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or...

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tonight a republican secretary of state counting the ballots again and let me tell you what he found. ohio secretary of state announcing that he looked and he looked and he looked and he found 27 kpexamples of illegall cast ballots. 27 is 27 too many but context matters. it's 0.0005% of the nearly 6 million votes cast in the state. 27 possible fraud, 6 million votes in ohio. this is on top of a recent

associated press investigation that found fewer than 475 voter fraud in the swing states that decided the election. .15% of joe biden's combined victory margin of those states which was 311,000. despite all of this, 15 months after losing the election, we are still hearing this from donald trump. sgl >> there was a lot of corruption. there was a lot of phony voting, phony ballots. they should have been sent back. >> the thing is there weren't a lot of p phony ballots it's not true. congressman, i want to be clear. unlike many of your republican colleagues, you didn't challenge the election results in congress. you accepted them. you stood up and said the

election was fair. now here out of ohio we get these numbers tonight from the republican secretary of state. 27 examples, 27 too many, 27 examples of illegally cast ballots out of six million votes cast. trump still says what he says. how in the world do you have those two things existing in the same world? >> obviously, i won't speak for the former president but from my perspective, having had that review and the chance to challenge the election results came and went. it was clear to me that the electors were duly presented to us in the house and this election was won and won by joe biden. now what i'm focusing on is trying to be a voice to say how do we move forward? how do we unite the country? how do weso solve problems for e american people and try to bring people together. >> you have the former president saying this stuff and secretaries of state being forced to spend their time, months and months, 15 months

counting, recounting ballots. that is how time is being spent. let me ask you about where your party is now because that's where many in your party are. the republican national committee is putting the vote on a resolution to remove adam kinsinger and liz cheney. they are having the vote because they are part of the january 6th select committee. there's more than 50 co-sponsors on that. do you believe your colleagues still believe in the house republican conference? >> i do. i know liz. i know adam. they have taken a posion of c c conscience of this issue. i disagree with the committee. i voted against the establishment once nancy apelos rejected our ideas. we shouldn't be expelling people from the republican party. we should be open tent to all

opinions. we want to welcome people into the republican party. now drive people out of it. >> let me ask you about what we're hearing here. trump is doubling down on his call for pardons. we have learned there are multiple draft executive orders to seize voting machines with the intent of over turning the election because they said there was fraud there. i want to ask you this in the context of something you said to chuck todd. you said you would support trump in 2024 if she the gop nominee. does any of what he said in the past two weeks, his statement about pence and over turning the election, has any of that made you reconsider that pledge? >> not reconsider but the statements are concerning. that's why we go through a process. those statements will be held up to the entire republican party as we select the nominee. i will tell you, given the fact that the democratic party has opinion hijacked, in my opinion by the extreme left, i still believe that if trump is our

nominee, he represents policy and solutions to america's problems that i will support over the democratic extreme candidate that likely is to emerge here if it's not preponderate joe biden. that being said, i'll be clear. january 6th was dark day in america's history. i was here. i was in tears watching that go down. we should not be talking about pardoning folks that engaged in that situation. they should be fully held accountable under the law. justice should be done but justice needs to be done fairly. we can agree upon that. bottom line is we should not be talking about january 6th being something deserving of pardons. >> all of which i understand. i'm just trying to understand better. somebody that you thought should be impeached and has said what he said about january 6th. still says he won the election. just the try to understand how it is that you would find a scenario where you'd be okay

with that person. >> after we go through the process -- as we go through the process in the republican party. i still trust the republican voters. i still trust the folks that make that decision which are the individuals across america that would participate in the primary process and come up with that nominee being president trump. i would trust that judgment of those individuals. that being said, it's a long process. this is not a fore gone conclusion. this will be vetted and all of this commentary will be put out there for the primary voters in the republican party to have their say. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> always good to be with you. next a democratic senator recovering from a stroke. democrats say this does not affect bind's agenda but what are they now saying privately? we'll take you aboard the uss harry truman which is on a mission sending putin a message. in the kind of work that i do,

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new tonight, democrat senator not returning to the senate for four the six weeks

and obviously barring any complications. that's what a person close to the senator tells us daying after he suffered a stroke. he is, thank goodness, expected to fully recover. his absence could pose an issue for president biden and democrats with the senate split currently 50/50. now, the senate judiciary chair says he doesn't expect it to affect the hearings for president biden's supreme court pick. that could be crucial for biden. there is so much on the line right now and manu is out front. this is your reporting. we're talking about what democrats are saying publicly. what are they concerned about behind the scenes about the absence? >> reporter: he's made clear to democratic leaders through his aides that he will be back in four to six weeks time which allows them, if they keep their caucus united to get someone confirmed to the supreme court possibly by the springtime if joe biden does make the pick by the end of the month.

then they could get into march or early april to get a nominee confirmed. that requires them to stay united. pick off some republican votes. republicans are considering whether to support joe biden's potential pick but unless something goes hay ware they seem to be on track. >> you have new reporting tonight on republicans and their plans for the supreme court process. >> there is a division within the republican conference about exactly how hard to go at this nominee. you're seeing some conservatives already question whether or not the president should be coming out front and saying he would name a black woman to the supreme court. the first person in history. one republican senator says that they need to show republican voters what they stand for here and fight this nomination.

go through a very thorough vetting process. there's concerns about among tom republicans about going too far because this supreme court nominee will undoubtedly not change the balance of the supreme court. republicans feel good about their chances heading into the mid terms and saying they should focus on other issues. economy, inflation, the problems abroad to fight not the supreme co court. it should fight about the inflation and the issues of the border and the like. significant shift among republican leaders how they believe they can get back power. not necessarily by fighting but on other issues as well. we'll see if the rest of the republicans listen. >> thank you. next we take you aboard the uss harry truman.

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partners. we work to kind of smooth the communication processes. >> reporter: as russia continues to amass troops near the border with ukraine, the u.s. says it will help further strengths nato all alliance. this is the first time since the cold war that fall carrier strike group has opinion placed under nato command. it's been in europe longer than planned. the stand off with russia intensifies to reassure america's allies the u.s. is fully committed to collective defense. russia pulled together more than 100,000 troops near ukraine and moscow could order an attack at any time. while president biden has said he would not send u.s. forces to ukraine, the harry s. truman can fortify nato's eastern flank despite russia's massive naval presence in the black sea.

the truman commander says years of integration with allies are now paying off. >> we're committed to our alliances, partnerships. we're able to operate, plug and play anywhere in the world and from add veversary point of viee have the strong partnership then that's stronger than any adversary could be. >> reporter: russia could pay a high price for any further invasion of ukraine and the pentagon announced it will deploy additional u.s. troops to germany, poland and romania. >> we reenforce the defense i have posture on nato's eastern flank. president biden has been clear that the yiet united states wil respond to the growing threat. >> reporter: the u.s. and its allies say they hope diplomacy will prevail.

>> fred, it must have been amazing to see that and understand it. we find out that president biden is deploying 3,000 more troops to eastern europe. from what you have seen, how has the u.s. and nato actually increased readiness? what have they changed? >> i think a great deal. nato has welcomed the fact the u.s. is deploying the extra forces to europe. they say it shows the u.s. commitment to the collective security. that is something we saw it's want only about integrating the u.s. carrier group into nato, as well, and making them operate better together. it's about operating in all of europe and there are so many assets involved in all of that. all of that is complicated and you have tanker planes that are in the air and surveillance aircraft and all of it shows that nato is working better and better together, and one of the things we keep hearing again and again, if there's one thing that

vladimir putin has achieve side he's increased the coherence of nato. >> the great irony of that. >> thank you so much, fred, as i said live there from the air base in italy. next, chinese tennis chang peng shui after she accused him of rape. who will she tell of the chinese communist party. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity.

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get under way in beijing the international olympic committee is preparing to meet with tennis star peng shuai. today marks three months since accusing one of the communist leaders of rape. she disappeared for more than two weeks and her appearances since she resurfaced have been clearly orchestrated. all of these images put out by chinese state media following the international olympic committee. peng denied making the sexual assault claim. questions about her freedom continue to grow along with an investigation. the author of red roulette, an

insider story of wealth, power, corruption any vengeance in today's china. the book tells the story of his ex-wife, the mother of his son whitney duan who vanished four years ago without a trace and she contacted him right before he published the book urging him not to release it. >> they're getting ready to meet with peng shuai since she made the allegations. what do you expect that meeting to be like? how closely will china be monitoring and controlling what peng says? >> i think a whole meeting will be orchestrated and she will be accompanied by people of the concerns cp. there was a lady from china aoc sitting in the meeting making sure she goes according to the script and if she is deviating from that the official will

interject into the conversation. >> the ccp, being the communist party. today marks three months since peng's social media post, and i guess the question is how long does this continue? does this control over her just go on essentially forever? do you think she'll ever be free to go where she wishes, when she wishes and say what she pleases again? >> i think she will forever lose control of her personal account on the internet. she will never have free access to her personal internet account. i think that is a given for sure and most likely they wouldn't let her out of the country unless there's so much international meaddia arc tensi to the case that they feel they can let her out, and she will be closely watched and under control. >> right. it won't be as if she's suddenly able to come out and say here

is, perhaps, what i wanted to say and couldn't in china. so, you know, obviously, you know, her appearances thus far have been completely orchestrated, and there's been questions about will there ever be an investigation? the answer is a pretty hard "no" from china and something caught your attention desmond that i hadn't seen and want to make sure our viewers do. the senior communist leader at the center of peng's investigation appeared in a china media report that the leader wished him a happy new year just in this article. what did you read into that? >> i think that's a very, very clear message actually to the ccp community and people in china is this person will not be tainted in any way because if there's anien tension on investigating him, xi jinping

wouldn't appear anywhere close to this person and to highlight this person in this activity is definitely sending a message to the wider community in china saying this person is untouchable. >> and clearly, there is no indication that there would ever be any investigation whatsoever especially after they've gotten her to say i didn't mean that allegation of rape when i said it. >> i think it's very -- she's -- peng shuai is in a very difficult situation. in the situation she was in and has been in what the ccp will do is they will apply pressure to everybody around you, your coach, your parent, your brother, your sisters, your relatives and anybody they think will have some leverage, will have attachment to apply private pressure to that person and then ask that person to put pressure

on peng shuai. so it's a very difficult situation and it is very difficult for the situation to withstand the pressure knowing that peng shuai must know once this ball is out she'll be in a more difficult situation if she didn't go along with whatever the script the ccp has provided her. >> it's ironic and the media attention in a sense, yes, it highlights her and it also protects her because people are looking. thank you so much, desmond. i greatly appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> thanks so much to all of you for joining us tonight. "a.c. 360" begins right now. good evening. tonight action and reaction as tension builds in the ukraine crisis crisis even as allies find a way out, and namely whether or not a russian invasion is imminent. a word officials had been using