accessories. there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit organization. shop now at c-span.org. >> this afternoon, the pentagon press secretary will provide an update on the u.s. response to the russia-ukraine conflict. watch live starting at 3:00 p.m. on c-span or watchful coverage on our free video app, c-span now. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government provided by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment. that is why charter has invested billions of the infrastructure, upgrading technology and empowering opportunity in communities big and mall.

-- small. charter is connecting us. >> along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. thoughts. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, include your name and where you're from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. good wednesday morning to you. you can start calling in now with your thoughts on the u.s. response to russia as we show you more from president biden on new sanctions against russia. [video clip] >> we are implementing full blocking sanctions on two large russian financial institutions. sanctions on russia's sovereign debt. that means we have cut off russia's government from western financing.

we can -- it can no longer treat its new debt on our markets. starting tomorrow and continue in the days ahead, we will impose sanctions on russia's elites and family members. because of russia's actions, we work with germany to ensure nordstrom to -- nord stream 2 will not move forward. we have our next move prepared. russia will pay a steeper price if it continues its and -- its aggression, including additional sanctions. host: we will show you more from that address, but we are mostly talking about the response and your view of the u.s. response to russia. here is a take on the response from the ukrainian foreign

minister with a tweet this morning saying, to stop putin from further aggression we call on partners to impose sanctions on russia now. the first steps were taken yesterday and we are grief over them. hit now, the ukrainian foreign minister tweeted this morning. and there wrap up this morning, punch will news noting the ukrainian foreign minister -- punch bowl news noting the ukrainian foreign minister likely to get at least some of what he wants. lawmakers in both parties are promising to go even further once congress returns next week. in terms of the response at home, here is a headline from the washington times this morning. gop lawmakers call biden's sanctions on russia week, saying they are too weak. this is the official statement from the minority leader's

office on behalf of republicans -- republican leadership in the house, including minority leader kevin mccarthy and his deputies. president biden they say consistently shows appeasement and his tough talk on russia was never followed by strong action. antiship capabilities were never provided. pre-invasion -- sanctions proportionate to the aggression already committed were never imposed and sanctions on nord stream 2 were waived. the u.s. and allies must now make the regime pay for this aggression. congress should compel president biden to take the steps his administration has opposed thus far. we must end nord stream 2, implement secondary sanctions on russian institutions, and impose penalties on industries the russian military relies on to make war. house republicans have been saying president biden must promote u.s. energy development and help the united states become the european energy

partner of choice. china and north korea are watching. they must see us spohn firmly. that from the republican leadership in the house. here is a few more statements from other members of the house and senate. from the senate side current tim scott saying, russia's heightened aggression is a clear violation of international law. for the second time in less than a year, the biden administration's weakness on the world stage has emboldened our adversaries. a congers meant saying putin does not fear ordering troops or light sanctions or president biden. there is one path to beating russian aggression, a well armed, well organized ukrainian resistance. from democrats in the senate, tammy duckworth saying putin's actions in ukraine are threatening lives in europe and i support the additional sanctions that the president announced yesterday, offering her full statement. senater richard blumenthal

saying we need immediate crippling sanctions on russia. president biden's announced it was a good first step but bullies only understand consequences. just a taste of the reaction on capitol hill yesterday. we are mostly interested in your reaction around the country. the u.s. response to russia so far. do you think it has been too strong, too weak? we have phone lines for responses and we will take this question in the first hour of the washington journal today. april out of new york on that line for those who think the response has been too weak so far. go ahead. caller: i am a senior. i believe the reaction has been week -- weak. in my generation, people were patriotic and it does not matter about the ethnicity of the person.

everyone felt they had this american patriotism. no one -- that is why everyone wants to be here. seeing it go across the line, i have never seen anything carried out. i know they have a lot to lose if anything is started, but the repercussions of not doing anything is going to be felt like an earthquake worldwide. just going back and forth saying we are going to do this -- we are not going to do it. that is not how we use to operate. i think our response has been too slow, too late. now people are watching. i never heard in my entire life of a country surrounding another country and saying we are going to go in and take it. that is just not supposed to be happening as we sit and watch.

that is all i want to say. i was in east berlin years ago and i saw what it was like behind the wall. people do not really know how things could really be. i know if you are too aggressive it could start repercussions, but we are already up to four dollars a gallon. it is going to be worse than that. just do it. that is what people used to do back in the day. they just did it. host: this is steve in alabama, that line for those who say response has been too strong so far. caller: i am amazed at how easily the american people are whipped into a killing fervor by the news media. it is tragic. those people over there, i have

watch their faces of the ukrainian people on the television. nearly everybody i see our white people. world war two, world war i, white people slaughtering white people in europe for the most part. most of the people killed, somewhere in the vicinity of 50 million people total were killed after and during world war two and the majority of them were white, christian people. most of them russians, the vast majority appear a lot people do not understand that russia broke the back of the nazis. host: what do you think -- caller: such a great misunderstanding. everybody is in a hurry to kill people. i have two theories on what is happening. one thing i'm sure above -- sure of is the -- what is happening

now was planned out a long time ago. in my opinion, the people setting the white people up to slaughter each other are the people in charge, the people that give putin his orders and who give biden his orders, the same group. host: that is steve in alabama. this is sherry in mississippi, saying action so far by the u.s. has been about right. caller: i do think it is about right. it is my understanding that the sanctions biden has put on his on ukraine in the regions where the russians have already been and it is my understanding though sanctions were already in place. i do not think he has done anything. i think that is a good thing because i do not think we need to be messing with a nuclear power. host: the sanctions are on

russia. it was what is being promised, just the first round of sanctions here. more are expected in the coming days. announcing sanctions on two russian banks and five individuals with close ties to president a putin yesterday. in addition, there is the sovereign debt restriction. raising money or trading new debt on u.s. and european markets. the wrap up their of the different banks and various individuals, various russian banks targeted by the sanctions yesterday. again, harsher penalties promised today. as the washington post puts it, the sharpness of action on tuesday may have been the one that came around the time that this program ended yesterday come about 10:00 a.m. eastern. trade relations so far that

moved something from germany. there have been members calling for president biden to get involved. russell in massachusetts says the response has been too week. good morning. caller: my opinion would be this. as tyrant as putin did, we did not take this from any other political person who threatened the surrounding countries. my thing is this. ukraine has a right to exist. we cannot force people to let russia invade ukraine because they do not belong to a nato alliance. it is no different than bullying somebody who simply says if you are not with our gang we cannot protect you. there are innocent lives to be lost in ukraine. this is a point where politics

should never enter. these people have a right to exist as well as palestine or anybody else. when we allow this dictator to do things like this, we empower him because sanctions never worked. we need to take further action. what else is to come? putin will not stop unless physically stopped. host: when you say further action, in your mind do you think there is a scenario in which u.s. troops could be in ukraine helping defend ukraine? caller: absolutely. we should not be bound by religion, by authority to sit back and let innocent lives be lost. we as humans have a moral duty to intervene. whatever this menace went to do he is going to do. we are in america. the rest of the country has felt our freedom.

pakistan felt freedom for 20 years. now it was taken away. craning freedom is being taken. people have the right -- i am an indigenous person. we are sovereign nations. we have a right to exist. human life has a right to exist at any cost. i do not care what religion you belong to. these people need to be defended at all costs. guest: -- host: this is robin in washington, who says the response so far is about right. why do you say that? caller: i think we are primarily in agreement with our partners. our alliance with russia as far back as the revolutionary war has gone back and forth. i also feel we cannot predict what president putin's further

actions will be. we cannot predict what his goal is as far as antagonizing these restrictions in place on russia. is it to galvanize his people further against nato and western countries? who knows? if we act together, united with international partners, it is important to show unity than to barge in and say the u.s. is going to fix everything because we cannot. he has proven that multiple times. host: this is james in south carolina. caller: the children have to fight the war. take one man out. one man don't rule the world. let putin know that he is just

one man. host: charlie in california says it has been too weak. caller: i am middle-aged, almost 75. i watch tv all day long. yesterday on one of the channels, they were talking about how weak we are. i just thought i would say this, that i know they have stopped taking oil or stop the production on that, the number two oil line from russia. host: the nord stream 2 pipeline. the move by the germans yesterday to stop the certification got one of the final steps of the pipeline. caller: that does not help at all because germany as it stands now and will keep standing gets 60% of its oil from russia. this pipeline was going to bring

it up into the 90% range. they are still getting more than half their oil from russia. everybody is jumping up and down with glee that they have stopped this pipeline, but that is not going to put a dent in germany because it is doing well now in the financial world with only 60% of its oil coming in from russia. host: you say you watch a lot of tv. i wonder if you get the wall street journal because they focus on that and their editorial. let me get your spots to this. the editorial board says the bigger question is whether europe will get serious about energy security. we are too dependent on russian gas, and the understatement of the decade. we have to diversify our supplies and invest in renewables.

putting too much hope in unreliable wind and solar energy has left europe so vulnerable to russian gas. it needs more nuclear power as france is pursuing and more imported natural gas. -- the latter also depends on mr. biden's encouraging more u.s. production and exports. your thoughts on that? caller: i was watching tv about a week ago and they were talking about wind and sunlight power. they said that that is not enough for anybody and germany shut down all their nuclear power stations. they are now going to build about a dozen new ones, but they will not be online until at least between 2025 and 2026, which is going to help nothing for the next four years.

somebody called in the other day and talks about that oilfield they found underground in texas. that field is bigger than any oilfield in saudi arabia and this was five years ago they found it. they have not begun production on it or doing anything with it. they say that field is so big it would go for 100 years. host: this question we are asking that the u.s. response to russia, if it has been about right, two week, -- too weak, too strong. they note u.s. and european sanctions are still weak against putin and their lead editorial today. here's how the washington post editorial board put it, calling it a calibrated response, calling it a logical first step.

we want to know your thoughts this morning on the u.s. response to russia. if you think the response has been too strong, it is (202) 748-8000. if you think it has been too weak, it is (202) 748-8001. if you think it has been about right, (202) 748-8002. as you keep calling in, yesterday this was the secretary of state announcing he would no longer be meeting with his russian counterpart as was expected or perhaps hoped for by some in the thursday meeting expected to take place this week. >> i agreed to meet the russian foreign minister last week this week on february 24 to discuss our country -- our countries' concerns about european security if russia did not invade ukraine. now that we see the invasion is beginning and russia has made clear its rejection of diplomacy

, it does not make sense to go forward with the meeting. i consulted with our allies and partners. all agree. today i sent the foreign minister a letter informing him of this. the united states and i remain committed to diplomacy if russia is prepared to take steps to provide the international community with any confidence that it is serious about de-escalating and finding a diplomatic solution. we will proceed in court a nation of allies and partners. -- coordination with allies and partners. but we will not allow russia to claim diplomacy at the same time it accelerates its march to war. host: secretary of state antony blinken yesterday. plenty more today on the russia-ukraine conflict. nancy pelosi holding a news conference at 11:30 today, expected to get plenty of

questions on that front and about what congress may be considering when they come back next week. you can watch it on the c-span now free video app. at 2:00 p.m. today, it is congressman tom malinowski of new jersey joining the democratic -- jewish democrat council of america on the free c-span now video app. back to her phone calls. the question, your thoughts on the u.s. response to russia, if it has been too strong, too weak or just right. this is jason out of san diego. go ahead. >> -- caller: america has always been blessed to have the right president at the right time. i think we are blessed right now .

we would really be in bad shape if trump was in there and agreeing with this guy. russia has a history. it murdered about 15 million of his own people and putin is an old-school guy from the kgb. he is starting to get rattled a little bit. then his henchmen are speaking out of turn and you can see how it is affecting him. i would like to say we are going at it. we are not coming out with guns blazing. we do not want no mess, but we are giving him the opportunity to do the right thing. i am thankful that president biden is in there and doing what he needs to do. host: that is jason out of california. over to santa fe, robin.

caller: good morning. putin was a spy and he is a sociopath. you cannot negotiate with sociopaths because no matter what you give them it will never be enough. i think that for every foot that the russians go into ukraine we should bomb the crepe -- crap out of putin's personal property, i mean his house is, the personal property he owns. that he may care about your he does not care if everybody dies. he does not care if everybody starves. that is the true hallmark of a sociopath. you cannot treat him like a normal human being. sociopaths may make good spies,

but they certainly do not make good stewards of humanity. thank you. host: that is robin in new mexico. clifford may is the -- a columnist with the washington times. putin's winter wars the headline of his column. he writes, putin committed his first serious act of international aggression in 2008. georgia was looking to europe rather than moscow. mr. putin went to war, chipping off two provinces. they are now russian territories. he waited to see what the u.s. and international community would do and they did nothing. in 2014, with the blessing of the international olympic committee, he was given the privilege of hosting the winter

olympics. the games were held in february. mr. putin organized a pro-russian demonstration in crimea. he sent in troops on march 21 of that year. he annexed crimea in april that year. russian militias began to storm buildings. 14,000 ukrainians have been killed in the simmering conflict. again, no serious consequences ensued. he says western leaders should have imposed entities honesty putin and cast him as a pariah. that is in the washington times today if you want to read his column. joe and south carolina, good morning. he says the response has been right so far. >> everybody knows that trump

and all people who work with trump work with putin. ok? host: joe biden's response now, can he focus on that russian mark -- on that? caller: the trump administration set it up a long time ago, but the response. i get that. you do not want to talk about how it happened. if you do not want to talk the truth, there is no need for me to be talking because the truth is the truth and trump is a russian mobster. host: that is joe. this is jerry in new jersey. good morning. caller: i want to make a statement, but i have to say i am listening to the woman that called in. she said bomb russia.

she is worried about putin killing people and she in turn says bomb russia. i guess you do not care who we kill, so i guess it is hypocritical to say that. the other thing, i listened to the callers and they are all sing about democracy, but we have stormtroopers in canada going after truckers. have this country saying it is mandatory that we do masks. you want to talk about lack of democracy, you ought to be looking at your own country. i do not want to see a total war. we do not need to send our young people back to war. we do not need to do it. it is not our fight. it is nato and ukraine. please keep us out of it. we do not need to do it. host: tim in wisconsin, you are next. caller: good morning.

i think he is doing about right. he has rallied to somewhat. might get a wake-up call. the europeans have been slacking on their military, letting their military deteriorate. maybe they will start coming around and do a better job. as far as putting sanctions and so on, i do not think anybody understands it completely. i do not. i try to follow it. that is above my pay grade. they are going in the right direction as long as the europeans and everybody can stick together and the chinese do not want to go in too heavy because russia has a $2 trillion economy and the u.s. and european union have a $60 trillion economy so they do not want to mess that up. that is a good thing in our

response. as far as the pipeline, that has been built through the last 5, 6 years. none of the previous presidents did anything to try to shut it down. the germans have let themselves go and be energy dependent on russia. so you do not want to go fast. as far as people saying bomb russia, that is irrational thinking. that is just awful in my opinion. you have to be cautious. russia has nuclear weaponry and military. you have to try to deal with them without letting them take over parts of europe and ukraine. it is a touchy subject, but i think china is doing the right thing. thank you for taking my call. host: in trying to understand sanctions announced yesterday, we are expecting more sanctions

today. that is the reporting. here is what came yesterday. president biden announced sanctions on two russian financial institutions as well as russia's military bank, those financials to duchenne's will not -- u.s. financial institutions will not process either of those banks' transactions and the bank will be barred from transactions involving the u.s. dollar. there is a move to sanction russian sovereign debt. the russian government access to western financial financing has been cut, prohibited from raising money or trading new debt on u.s. and european markets. then there are sanctions on russian elites and family members, five individuals sanctioned and their family members. they are prohibited from trade or financial transactions with u.s. financials to duchenne's. the individuals can no longer put their money in u.s. banks, individuals with ties to

vladimir putin. we are expecting more today would also trying to wrap our heads around what happened yesterday, events moving quickly and we are getting your reaction as we hear from you about whether you think the response so far has been too strong, too weak, or about right. carla says it has been too weak. caller: there is an old expression. he who hesitates is lost. i am 90 years old. i remember vividly world war two. all these saber rattlers calling in, mainly old men that want to go to war, it is young men who go to war. the new way to fight a war is economically. i heard a report on c-span the other day about the russian economy and that there are 50

oligarchs propping up putin. we should have just gone in before this. we all knew what putin was going to do. why didn't we go ahead with sanctions? we give them a little tap on the shoulder. they do not do any good. people in europe do not want to have a war. they have been through this twice in the last century. i just think the whole thing is a mess. host: would you agree with the ukrainian foreign minister, calling on partners to impose more sanctions on russia now, saying these first steps yesterday and they are brave over them but now the pressure needs to step up, hit his economy, hit now.

>> -- caller: i agree. they were begging, the ukrainian's were begging us to do it early and that is when we should have done it. that could have made putin think a little. his country is not in good shape economically. it is only those oligarchs that are successful and living high, so to speak. the regular russian people are sick of war, but they are just like americans. if they have to go to war, they will be heche -- they will be patriotic and back their country and go to war. they have lost millions of people and war, but they will fight for their country just like we would for hours. the whole thing is a mess. i cannot see having a regular war. i think economic sanctions, strong ones, would have been the way to go and it is almost too late.

thanks a lot. i love c-span. host: thanks for calling in from missouri. more reaction from washington and party officials. this is the former u.s. ambassador to the united nations during the trump administration, quoted in the washington times as saying president biden promised swift and severe response and did not deliver. ukraine is a test of western resolve, a major leadership moment for biden. so far, he is failing. that is what she said yesterday. joni ernst of iowa, insecurity in europe affects the lives of the american people at home. we need to provide ukraine resources like intel sharon cannot ramp up energy production here in the u.s.. a democratic senator saying nato allies told putin he would pay a hefty price for further invading ukraine. i applaud germany for halting the certification of nord stream

2, it will that would enable putin to manipulate the energy supply and security of europe. and a republican congress meant saying before joe biden's tweet about putin fearing joe biden becoming president, putin and x crimea while biden was vp. -- annexed crimea well biden was vp. now russia is invading ukraine. you are not going toe to tell with putin, mr. president. you are kowtowing to him. kathleen at of new york, good morning. you say the response so far has been about right. caller: yes. biden has worked and done more -- tried to do more for we the people than the person -- that guy that was in office before

him. everybody wants to fight against him, what he wants to do and help us. he is doing right. if somebody came to invade us, wouldn't we want our nato alliance to help us? because it could have happened. the person before him, there was a russian spy ship off the north carolina coast with his military bases, top-secret information on shore. he did not say anything. host: does it matter to you that ukraine is not a member of nato? caller: it is not, but he is going to the nato alliance countries. who is to say, if he comes into ukraine, that he will not go into poland? it is all about him and his power. you know what i mean? host: that is kathleen in new york. this is bradley out of georgia,

who said the response so far is too weak. caller: thank you. please show what donald trump said about glenn ray putin and ukraine. glenn ray putin has messed with our elections. he poisons people. he is costly messing with our stuff. we have to really go after him. he is a menace and the republican party, the way they have -- 30% of them just slide over to vladimir putin and probably prefer him over joe biden. i am disappointed. we needed to get ukraine into nato immediately. we do not want war, but if he wants war i have no problem.

i have two daughters who are going to join the military. host: we will try to keep the language appropriate as we have this conversation. i know tensions are high, but we cannot have a conversation unless we can actually speak without cursing. vince and pennsylvania says it has been too strong. -- in pennsylvania says it has been too strong. caller: i'm confused why the media when you watch msnbc, fox, they all report the same story. there is no mention at all about the coup that occurred in 2014. there is no mention of russia's naval base in crimea.

there was a guy named numb chomsky who wrote a book called manufacturing consent and it is scary how the news can get everybody on board for war. with no mention of past history. that is all i have. host: for past history of ukraine, a full-page spread here from usa today. it is the back page of usa today. as russian troops crossed over ukraine's border, we look at the history and relationship between the nations. the timeline there if you want to check it out, going back to 1991 after the vote for independence. ukraine sought to shed his soviet past. crane's desk ukraine's adopt -- ukraine's adoption of d

communication laws led to renaming -- decommunization laws led to renaming. support for pro-russian parties decreased to below 20% since 2014 according to the central election commission of ukraine and then a focus on recent presidential elections there. that might be something you might be interested in checking out, all that history. it goes back to the mid-ninth century. to francis michigan, good morning. -- in michigan, good morning. caller: i think the european union and -- in ukraine right away. since putin don't want to listen to us, maybe he will then. that is all i have to say. host: donald, north carolina.

go ahead. caller: everybody needs to step back and look at the big picture here. russia and china and the olympics. they met while this stuff is going on in russia. nobody's going to be watching what china does and they are going to take taiwan. when them two get together, they have more nukes than we got. we are just going to be slaughtered, not to say all the prices are going up on everything. we are going back to jimmy carter's age. host: for our next segment, an

economic roundtable, inflation is part of that conversation. we will talk about that in about 15 minutes here. a >> you can watch this in its entirety later online. we leave this to take you to the representative come alive on the situation with russia and ukraine. -- representative come alive on the situation with russia and ukraine. >> we are committed to defending our national security interests, as well as those of our allies. our policy platform includes explicit support for ukraine's territorial integrity, as well as the condemnation of russia's efforts in the region. in response to russia's recent belligerence, president biden has been unequivocal. he has