this isn't working! and it all went downhill. with all those fires to put out. ahhhhhhhhh! this is a much better way to work. agreed. this sunday, on the brink. >> we have reason to believe the russian forces intend to attack ukraine in the coming week. the coming days. >> russia giving every indication that it plans to invade ukraine. >> they have not moved and it's their job. >> a possible pretext for a russian invasion. >> we're talking about war in europe. >> ukraine's president zelensky calling for sanctions now. >> you're telling me the war

will start in a couple days. what are you waiting for? >> we'll get the update on the ukraine crisis. i'll talk to antony blinken and the former ambassador to ukraine, william taylor. plus, left behind. >> we need education first and only. no politics. >> san francisco official ousted. >> these come from parents who are frustrated and exhausted. also faceoff. >> we're coming to a time when covid isn't a crisis, but it's something we need to protect against and treat. >> as cases plummet, how people are treating covid. white house bureau chief ashley

parker, peggy noonan, yamiche alcindor and nbc news pentagon courtney kube. on sunday, this is "meet the press." good sunday morning. it certainly looks as if the chances of avoiding war in ukraine are pretty remote. after the russians claimed they were pulling troops back from ukraine's border, it turned out that wasn't true, they were actually adding them. the u.s. says there are some 190,000 forces and militias that are in and around ukraine. separatists urged mass evacuations and issued its own arms claiming ukraine was about to attack. russia carried out its own military exercises on all sides of ukraine yesterday in a show of force, and president biden

said he believes russia will invade in the coming days and believes kyiv is in president putin's sights. the disclosures about what russia is planning have largely been borne out, the idea of attacks like the shelling of a kindergartner, which appeared to be the work of just that, attacks of russian forces. a video aired on russian tv thursday night. still, it seems possible that putin has painted himself into a corner as the economists suggest because he has strengthened both nato and the ukranians. i'm going to talk to secretary of state antony blinken, but first we'll go to the border of ukraine and russia. we go to richard engel. richard, simple question. has the war already begun? >> reporter: it feels like it may be starting right now. chuck, two weeks ago i spoke to

from here and the situation was radically different. it was quiet, the separatists were quiet, the ukranian forces were not attacking. but now that i'm about one mile from the separatist-hel enclave, there are separatists d

they see them moving and maneuvering, so they think it's a matter of time before skirmishes and sounds of fire escalate into something much bigger. >> and what would you say, richard, is zelensky's connection to ukraine right now? are ukranians rallying around him? >> he had been criticized in the early days of this crisis for ignoring it, downplaying it, but his speech in munich, which received applause in the room, was also very well received here. people think that he's taking this in a sort of cool, calm, focused way, and people who are his opponents have been telling me that even they are

begrudgingly start to like his position. yes, as this becomes more imminent or potentially more imminent, people do seem to be rallying behind him and rallying behind their military. >> he doesn't pull his punches and he doesn't look like he's intimidated by anybody. richard engel on the east lines of ukraine. richard, thank you. let me go to the ukraine border. that's where matt bodner is on duty. matt, let me start with the offer to meet putin anywhere putin wants to meet. obviously, diplomacy. he wants ukraine to be caught asking for diplomacy before war. what's the kremlin response? >> reporter: thank you, chuck. well, they've not really responded to this yet, and i don't think we necessarily should be holding our breath for them to take this offer. other nations have been made offers on behalf of zelensky and

russia's response is the same. there's nothing to talk about, you just need to implement them into two agreements. after that they say you need to negotiate directly with the rebel regions in eastern ukraine. obviously that is part of implementing the minsk agreement. but what we're seeing from the russians, we are seeing a drastic rise in tensions here in moscow. there is the other part of the story that's kind of been forgotten about a little bit as we're looking at belarus, a critical part in all of this. over the weekend, we saw massive strategic nuclear exercises that were being jointly run by the belarusian president and president putin. just this morning a very crucial development. the belarusian defense ministry says those belarusian exercises that they have been insisting for weeks would end today, they are continuing indefinitely, citing tensions in ukraine, citing nato. we're seeing a very harsh increase in rhetoric here with

continued rejections from any overtures from ukranians. >> is this an inevitable drumbeat to war with ukraine, and they have no choice because ukraine is forcing russia into this situation? or is there any sort of hint at a potential offramp? >> reporter: that's really the question now. so 48 hours ago, we thought basically the switch flipped on russian state media, and it has been wall to wall, and i can't emphasize that enough, since that happened, since the announcement of evacuations from kyiv. if you turn on the tv right now, you will be barraged with claims of an imminent nuclear attack on ukraine, claims of imminent, already occurring provocation, and you have the kremlin saying right now the situation is potentially at a breaking point, that there can be irreparable consequences. this is the press secretary saying this, for any

provocations, any unintended actions. they are being prepared now, finally, for what we fear might happen. chuck? >> matt bodner on the ground for us in moscow. matt, thank you. joining me now is the secretary of state antony blinken. secretary blinken, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> based on everything you had hinted at between you and the president, has the invasion already begun? >> well, it certainly looks like everything we said was likely to occur in the lead-up to the actual invasion is happening. we're seeing false flag operations taking place in eastern ukraine, the manufacturing of provocations and justifications for russia to go in. we just heard this morning that exercises that -- and i put that in quotation marks, that russia was engaged in in belarus with 35 russian forces that were supposed to end are not now ending because of tension in eastern ukraine.

that is, of course, being created by russia and its proxies there. all of this seems to be following the script that i laid out at the united nations security council that president biden talked to the nation about the other day. >> i want you to respond to president zelensky in munich in the last 24 hours. he's clearly frustrated, and he said if you're so sure the invasion is here, you're telling me 100% the war will start in a couple of days, then what are you waiting for? he's referring to the harsh sanctions that -- essentially, if the war has begun, let's go. well? >> chuck, you also heard the president say while the die may be cast, until it actually settles, until the tanks are rolling and the planes are in the air, that we're going to try everything we possibly can to get president putin to reverse the decision we believe he's made and to dissuade him. part of that is the prospect of massive sanctions, and in munich a day ago where we were all

gathered, the g-7 countries, the leading economies in the world, reiterated the massive consequences that would befall russia should he continue on. we're trying to prevent a war. as soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect is gone, they get absorbed by president putin and he moves on. >> why does putin appear to not be taking these threats seriously? >> well, you know, one of the challenges that we have, chuck, i think is that we all put our own frame of logic on what president putin is doing. that may not be the same frame that he has. it's hard to put yourself in someone else's mind, but he has decades of built-up grievances. he has, i think, a conviction that ukraine cannot in any way be western oriented, that it

cannot be a successful democracy on his borders. he wants to reconstitute if not the soviet empire, at least a sphere of influence. if not that, an least finland, his neighbors. our logic is very simple. what we're seeing is president putin precipitating everything he says he wants to prevent. he's alienating the people of russia. he's bolstering nato and nato is not closer to russia than it was. in terms of what would appear to us to logically be his interests, everything he's doing runs counter to them. in his own logic, there may be pay rationale. >> so if he goes through with an invasion, and he goes to kyiv, and this seems to be a limited thing, that he's only going to kyiv, is the president rightin

munich, that the texture is obsolete? >> it's not obsolete. what the vice president said very forcefully in munich, and what i heard in private from all our partners, is nato now has more cohesion, more solidarity than it's had at any time in recent memory. the vice president heard that in her meetings and in response to her speech. i think we're seeing nato solidified, unified, by the actions that president putin has taken. having said that, this aggression from russia to ukraine has girded our security and peace, the notion that a country does not try to change a

border by force, that it doesn't subjugate by its own will. that's why we're spannedstandin against what russia is doing, also to bolster nato, and it continues down this course. >> president zelensky also brought up the fact that this isn't vague promises that russia made to ukraine. ukraine gave up its weapons, and potentially he had protection from the west, from europe, from the united states. what do we owe ukraine if russia invades? >> last year we provided more than $1 billion in assistance to ukraine. $660 million in security assistance, defensive lethal as

assistance. that's more than any previous assistance. we've been rallying other countries to support ukraine economically, militarily, diplomatically. if this aggression goes forward, that will continue, support for ukraine across the board diplomatically, militarily, economically will not only continue, it will deepen. as the president said, we'll double down on >> any americans in ukraine right now, will the united states government do whatever it takes to get them out if war begins? >> chuck, we've been very clear for many, many weeks that in the event of a russian invasion in ukraine, we will not be in a position to evacuate any remaining americans from ukraine. i said that repeatedly. we've been in direct contact with every american we can possibly be in contact with, someone who is a resident, typically this is someone who is a long-term resident in ukraine

who has an american passport. we communicated that directly with congress, we urged them to communicate that to any americans and groups that they're in contact with. we've been repeatedly clear about this. and we've seen people leave in recent weeks, but we are not going to be in a position, our embassy is now shuttered in kyiv. we've moved it to laviv near the polish border. we do everything we can to guide americans who want to leave, to help them get out by telling them the best way to do that, to support them as best we can, to have counselor services available to them, for example, along the border with poland. but in terms of an evacuation, that's not going to happen. by the way, that almost never happens. every time in places around the world for one reason or another where we've had to shut down an embassy, americans have remained. >> president biden indicated that americans should probably be prepared for higher gas prices for a short period of

time if these sanctions go through. what about the issue of cyberattacks? how concerned are you that the russians are going to attack us in cyber, if you will, to try to dissuade us from helping the ukranians? >> it's certainly part of their playbook. we've been engaged for many months now. first of all, in helping ukraine itself bolster its cyber defenses, and, of course, pretty much focused on doing the same for ourselves in anticipation of the possibility that russia would engage in cyberattacks in response to us standing up to their aggression. this is a very, very dangerous game. we're, as i said, strengthening our own defenses. when president biden was with president putin a few months ago, the president was conveying to putin how serious this was and that they were engaging this

from russian soil. and president putin said if he were in president putin's shoes, he knows how difficult it would be for president putin if something were to happen to that infrastructure. >> in your assessment, why is putin escalating with ukraine now? why didn't he do this under the previous administration who wasn't as supportive of nato? if you just look at it observationally, if he really wanted ukraine and he didn't want the united states getting in the way, he perhaps had more of a friendlier administration in the previous one. why do you think he didn't act then? >> i hope you get the chance to ask him. but look, here's what i can say. i think, and i really don't want to put myself in his mind, in my view, it's very hard to do, but i think it's reasonable to think that as president putin sees it,

ukraine was slipping further and further away from his grasp over time. extremely western oriented, desirous of a future with europe. and as that was continuing year after year -- by the way, as a result of his actions by alienating ukranians by separatists from the donbas. while that was happening, it no doubt got to the point where he thought if he doesn't change dynamic, it's just going to happen. >> if your meeting with sergay lavrov happens, then it's imminent. >> i suggested to mr. lavrov to

see if we could meet in europe to prevent a war and address the security concerns we all have, the united states, europe and russia, in that conversation. he came back and said, yeah, let's meet, and we responded and said the meeting is on provided you don't invade ukraine in the meantime. >> so right now that meeting is it -- on? >> right now that meeting is on. stay tuned in the next few days. when we come back, i'll discuss the crisis in ukraine with the

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that's the planning effect from fidelity. welcome back. panelist yamiche alcindor, courtney kube, white house bureau chief ashley parker, white house journalist peggy noonan. and we're also joined by william taylor, former ambassador to

ukraine. ambassador, i want to start with you. you have a lot of insight into the ukranian government. zelensky, this is one fired-up leader of his country, frustrated. he seems to be as frustratd with the west as anybody. >> no, chuck, he's clearly frustrated with putin. he's got allies. he was there addressing those allies in munich yesterday, exactly what you say. he's got complaints about more support he would like to have, but the real villain, let's be clear, is sitting in the kremlin. >> as you hear about this, anything to do to stop war, is there anything reasonable to discuss between ukraine and russia at this point? >> probably not between ukraine and russia. there is reasonable discussions to be had between russia and the united states. the russians are after things that ukraine can't really deliver. the russians are after a rollback. the russians don't want nato to accept --

>> it's a pawn, right? >> ukraine has a gun to their head while russia is negotiating with nato and others. yes, they're a pawn in this. >> i think what we're all wondering, courtney, is what's next? we know how we're going to respond to russian invasions, we know all that. what's next for the american response after that? >> from a military perspective, there really is no response. i mean, right now the biden administration has made a very concerted decision that there will not be any kind of u.s. military response. people keep coming to me and saying, well, what if americans are killed? what if americans need help getting out of the country? i think people are going to be pretty surprised. there is a lot of comparison to afghanistan, but -- >> secretary blinken said, look, we're not getting you. >> there has been a real effort on the part of the biden administration to tell americans, if you are there, get out. the idea that the u.s. military will be in ukraine fighting

russia is just not happening. unless vladimir putin decides to branch this out and go into poland or anything, but there is no intelligence to suggest he's made that decision. >> following up on that, i think afghanistan looms so large there, and in talking to people in the administration, they say getting americans out is so top of president biden's mind. he mentioned it in that super bowl interview, he mentioned it when he had the press conference with the german chancellor, he mentioned it in his speech last tuesday. not that the americans are going to evacuate, not that the u.s. are going to evacuate americans there. that's why you see him saying, you need to get out now. you need to get out while troops are available. that can be an eight or nine-hour trip where you see those images that really hurt the american public. >> what kind of resolve is there going to be? >> american resolve. i think --

>> we're watching this happen, you know, and we're with ukranians now. how long are we going to be watching? >> i mean, that is the big question politically. it's also why we see, as ashley and courtney said, afghanistan looming so large, because we did see his numbers tank which he keeps defending and continues to defend, but they did not go back up. what i hear from white house officials is this real feeling that president biden is sharing as much intelligence as possible, a key element of the western strategy here is to warn people internationally about what russia is doing, but also the thing that you hear president biden saying is, americans need to be prepared for if this comes to our shores and it comes to our shores in the effect of higher gas prices when we're already seeing an eight-year high, we're already seeing inflations at 40-year highs. so the president is also telling americans if we have to get involved here, the cost of freedom may be in your wallet in

the gas tank. >> i'm impressed by the lack of partisan bickering there's been about how he handles this. >> that's true. >> you can see there is agreement that he's doing everything he should be doing right now. the question is, if this strategy doesn't work, does he bar the door? >> we'll find out in the next few days or week or so. it does seem to me in general that the west, as it used to be called, or perhaps the administration, i don't know enough to say it's the white house, but somehow the west is kind of playing a not so great hand about as well as they can play it, you know? nato has stayed together. there's bickering, there's differences, there's 20 members. but they're kind of being unified. zelensky has been a strong guy, sort of seeming a little detached from the u.s., being a

little critical, but please don't invade us, that would be a bad idea. it seems to me it's also the u.s. tactic of showing its intelligence, and telling everybody, this is what we're seeing, 190,000 troops now. this is where they're moving. that's been smart. it's alerted the world but it's focused the world. i think for the next week, i may regret this, but so far i think they're playing their hand pretty well. >> bill, i think this thing that seems to be rattling a lot of people is that the unknown is putin himself. i want to put a piece of this analysis up near moscow.f@wú4woi

invade ukraine. the fact is he has told his people that ukranians are russians, and he's got a story to tell but he can't find one. he's trying to provoke one, so far without luck. however, he has also said many times, and his staff have said, we have no plans to invade ukraine. he can back off that way. he can say we never intended in the first place, and he can say it's really a success. because the americans have finally agreed to address my concerns. >> if he does that, there is also this destabilization we've already seen in ukraine. i was looking at richard engel's live shot and thinking the people of ukraine probably don't

want to look at that, because president zelensky is saying the more we talk about war, the more we talk about threats, the harder it gets for ukraine to remain calm. that is the tension for ukraine and the west here, they're trying very hard to share information, and the president of ukraine is saying even if there isn't an invasion, there's already been damage done to my country. >> it's not the united states that's destabilizing ukraine, it's the russians. let's be clear. it's president putin. >> i think it's so fascinating that people say that vladimir putin is not rational. in july he wrote this long op-ed where he laid this out, what he wants to do. so, i mean, there is this notion that he's been telegraphing this for months, and you could make the argument he's been telegraphing it for years. this is his -- one of his primary national security

objectives and long-term strategic objective is to take ukraine and then keep moving to kalinengrad, belmova. this is a legacy event for him if he decides to do this invasion, and it will continue his goal of overturning this global order. >> bill, address the question that i said to the secretary about, what's the assessment of why putin didn't do this while trump was in office? >> you know, i think -- the question of why now is a very good one. he may think that he's running out of time. maybe he thought he had more time when president trump was in office. but he's running out of time. the secretary made this point, and that is that ukraine is moving inexorablely to europe, away from russia because of all his actions. i think he's running out of time in that way. also this is probably the peak

strength of his military. his economy is not in good shape, and it's going to go down from here. >> can i say one thing just very quickly? i think people, especially americans, are wondering if putin moves on ukraine, if he goes as far west as kyiv, what does that look like? what is that? what does that mean? does he stay? how literally does it look like? is it tanks and green men? what does that mean beyond where it's taking place? >> that's what a lot of eastern european nato allies would like to know the answer to that question. ambassador taylor, thanks for joining us. it's great having you, and i think i speak for the panel. it's good to have you. when we come back, did we i am here because they revolutionized immunotherapy. i am here because they saw how cancer

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three school board members over efforts to rename schools honoring people like abraham lincoln and george washington. and to replace a merit-based admissions policy to a prestigious high school with a simple lottery but also at issue was simple competence, and the wisdom of focusing on those goals instead of focusing on reopening schools during covid it's the kind of story that has conservatives smirking and democrats nationally worrying over voters' impatience with progressive politics, even in san francisco. joining me now is san francisco's mayor, london breed. mayor breed, welcome to "meet the press" >> thank you >> let me start with everybody has an opinion about what happened, but i want to ask yours, but i want to put up "san francisco chronicle" on wednesday said it was a plea for basic competence "newsweek" said, it's a wake-up call for progressives. "the new york times" said, an awakening in the chinese american community i could take it a step further joe garrett foley sort of downplayed it and said this. tuesday's overwhelming recall of three school board members isn't a sign that san francisco is

marching lockstep with the conservative trend of parents taking back their schools. it was about one school board raised in one city in an off year election in mid-february. there's all of these array of takes, mayor breed what's yours >> well, my take is that it was really about the frustration of the board of education doing their fundamental job, and that is to make sure that our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom, and that did not occur. they were focusing on other things that were clearly a distraction. not to say that those other things around renaming schools and conversations around changes to our school district weren't important, but what was most important is the fact that our kids were not in the classroom and san francisco, our department of public health, we've been a leader during this covid pandemic and in some cases, we have put forth the most conservative policies to ensure the safety of

sfr all san franciscans and our vaccination rates and our death rates and our other numbers demonstrate that we are a clear leader but we failed our children, parents were upset, the city as a whole was upset, and the decision to recall school board members was a result of that >> now, there's been some speculation that the only reason three were recalled is three were eligible. and that had more been eligible, perhaps more would have been recalled you're going to be appointing the replacement. that power is in your hands. who -- what kind of person you looking for? what should their priority be, and what message should the other school board members take away from this recall success. >> i've been talking to parents for the past couple of weeks, and what they want is someone who is going to focus on the basic, fundamental responsibility of members of the school board and that is making sure that children get the education that they need in our schools, dealing with the challenges of learning loss.

dealing with the mental health challenges that exist. we have a significant budget deficit. we need to hire a new superintendent so i'm going to be looking for people that are going to focus on the priorities of the school district, and not on politics, and not on what it means to run for office and stepping-stones and so on and so forth we need people who want to be on the school board, to make a difference, and who meet those qualifications to do the job >> one of the ousted members said this. white supremacists are enjoying this, and the support of the recall ihathe right kind of reaction to what happened? well, of course it's not the right kind of reaction and the fact that we're still even listening to any of the recalled school board members is definitely a problem again, we should be focused on the parents, we should be focused on the school district and the challenges that these kids have faced. and that's the biggest problem this person is making it about them, when it really should be about our kids, who have suffered not just in san

francisco, but all over this country as a result of this pandemic and let's be clear in san francisco, for some time now, our private schools were open, even when our public schools couldn't get it together so we have a lot of work to do and the focus needs to be brought back to our children and that's my goal in appointing some additional school board members to do just that. >> look, there's been a lot of, some people want to say, this is about -- you brought up the focus and priorities about keeping schools open a lot of national people have made note that they wanted to rename schools how much of this was about renaming the schools of george washington and abraham lincoln and dianne feinstein how much of it, though, was also parents upset that the rules were changed about how you got into some specific magnet schools? >> well, i think it was probably both but at the end of the day, our kids were not in school. and they should have been.

and the kids were home suffering. the stories that i heard about children who went from being these bubbly, exciting kids to not even smiling to being depressed the increase in the number of suicide attempts and other things that exist, that is the fundamental problem here and i think that we have to get back to that and yes, of course, there were people who were probably upset about some of the proposed changes, but those are discussions that are important to have, but not at the expense of making sure that the priority of what the school district is there to do is met >> any advice for democrats around the country in urban settings, that are dealing with this, dealing with upset parents right now, what lessons would you say should apply >> well, this is not a democratic/republican issue. this is an issue about the education of our children. and i think that ultimately, it's important that anyone who serves in any capacity, whether it's school board or congress or as mayor, it's important to

respond to what your priority is, as a mayor or as a school board member, and that is the role that you were put in the office to do and so in this particular case, the pboard neglected their primary responsibility to focus on other things. other things that are important, but not as significant as what they were there to do, and that is to educate children >> i want to bring up another issue that you were pretty exsoreized about and it was about the rise in crime in san francisco i want to play some remarks you said a couple of months ago that really struck me here it is >> it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies, and less tolerant of all the bull [ bleep ] has destroyed our city >> obviously, it was some of those -- we've seen the footage of some of these sort of group

shoplifting robberies, things like this, and even worse. and you've wanted to get a bit tougher. you've got a district attorney who you did not support. you supported an opponent. there's a recall of mr. budean you have not said where you are on this. are you prepared to do that now? >> well, i am doing everything i can as mayor to keep people in san francisco safe and part of that means, i have to have a good working relationship with our district attorney at the end of the day, that is our primary responsibility, and i am doing everything i can to focus on that. ultimately, there has been a lot of negative attention paid to san francisco about some of those videos that have gone viral. but what doesn't get talked about is the work that our police department has done to make the arrest, to try to hold people accountable so we're going to continue to do that, and part of what i have to do is everything i can to work

with the district attorney, regardless of what's happening as it relates to recall. >> well, one could argue that you have to work with the school board. you were willing to come out publicly about the school board recalls. your feel like your relationship is too close to mr. budean in this instance? >> it's a little bit different with the school board. i didn't necessarily have to work with all the school board members, and there were several members on the board that i didn't have a good working relationship with. i had a good working relationship with the superintendent i would say that it's different. i haven't made a decision one way or another about the recall. i'm still debating on whether or not i will but ultimately, what i want to be able to do is make sure that the decision i make is not an impediment to my ability to work with the district attorney in keeping san franciscans safe >> do you expect there to be some crossover between the frustrations that voters showed the school board members and perhaps the frustrations they could be showing in this recall with the district attorney

>> i think that, you know, when we look at what's happening in san francisco and the concerns around crime, people are definitely frustrated about accountability, because, again, the police are making the arrests in many of these cases, and what we want are people to be held accountable. i grew up in san francisco, in public housing, in very challenging environments and it's not that people don't want police. we can have police reform and also ensure safety with making sure that police are present when a crime is committed and the district attorney's responsibility is to make sure that when the evidence is presented, that those people are held accountable. >> mayor london breed, the mayor of san francisco, really appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us thank you. >> thank you when we come back, how the sharp drop in covid cases is gi the country's attitude and how to treat a once out of control pandemic you're not the only one with questions about botox®.

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welcome back data download time what a difference a month can make when it comes to covid, as indicators start to trend downward, the nation feels like it's turning a corner on the

virus, at least in terms of americans' attitudes to it, and there may be political ramifications to all of these changes. first, let's just look at the numbers here, as you can see look, the case counts have just dropped dramatically still not -- look, 134,000 still puts it, as a you can see here, still puts it close to our previous highs than our previous lows, but come on. when you see where we came from, we are dropping and dropping fast when you look at deaths, this is obviously more of a lagging indicator. you can see, still an uncomfortably high number, 2,000 a day, but this is starting to now drop pretty quickly here and so we should start to see these numbers continue to come down and all of this is making the public feel a bit more comfortable with the risks of covid. look at this, just from january to february, fears of severe health risks here. 34% of all adults in january now down to basically one in five adults and you're seeing that, yes, there are some differences along party, but it's starting to

start to even out, as you can see these drops here, the differences, not as wide as they once were. so as you can see here, this is a country that is starting to get comfortable living with covid. and you're starting to see -- look at the states that are left as of february 1st, these were the only states that still had state-wide mask mandates and every one of these states here, all of them but one, have announced the end of their statewide mask mandate by at least the end of march the only one that plans to keep it in place indefinitely is the island state of hawaii when we come back, was that ouster of three san francisco school board members a flashing warning sign for progressives and democrats? stay with us

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welcome back. let's talk a little more about domestic politics. i found the mayor's interview quite interesting. it felt like she said, hey, i was directed to do a job, be a mayor. >> totally. she had -- london breed had sued the school board to get the schools open. it seemed to me she did everything she could. i think the whole school board recall thing was about, essentially, reducing it down. the school board was not opening the schools.

they seemed to have a muted interest in what parents thought was the essential question, will you open the schools. they devoted themselves and their attentions instead to issues that seemed extraneous, that i think they thought were very progressive, but they just lost their jobs because progressives voted them out of there. so i think it was a signal moment in san francisco -- i mean, the votes were 70% against these reigning democratic school board members who previously had been considered noncontroversial. we saw what happened in virginia, we've seen other school board crises. i do think this is, a, a partial parental revolt sparked by the pandemic of the last two and a half years, and i also think it's part of a little cultural war. not little, but it's going on within the democratic party. >> yamiche, how much -- this feels like not plowing the snow

during a snowstorm type of result. at the end of the day, this isn't about politics, but there does seem to be some wedge here between progressives and the pragmatism. >> i think seeing what their children are learning, rebelling on what school boards are focused on. i do think this is a huge cultural war. >> it's just beginning in the democratic party, i think. >> i think even in the democratic party, i was looking at some numbers, looking at martin luther king's availability and black history month, that the majority of the country did not support his work. that, of course, is complicated. what you said, you're not

plowing the snow during a storm, but that has added to this. when we look at historical figures, when we look at slavery, and there are consequences whether people still feel comfortable talking about that. there has been a reflection after george floyd and i think there is a backlash to that. >> i do think it's its own version of a pocketbook issue. if you're a parent and schools are closed, you're deeply aware of that because you may see your middle schooler struggling with mental health issues. you may see a first grader sitting next to you when you're having to work and you're having to work with remote zoom. you feel it deeply and intimately, and this is what happened with the biden white house, they are getting blamed with what's happening in the schools, and their argument was, we came in and schools were shut down. we didn't shut the schools down. we actually opened a majority of the schools and why are we still getting blamed? the fact remains that they are. >> the democrats are perceived

to be the ones running the city. >> as local an election issue as you can get,vo say, is this a bellwether change now? this week may be the perfect example of that. we have this potentially unifying moment, what they were hoping would be a unifying moment, the biden administration and an announcement of a supreme court justice. what else happened this week? an invasion of ukraine. the biden administration cannot seem to get, even when they're trying to unify the party, they can't even seem to have a win. >> that's going to be rough there, but this is one of those where i do think we're seeing politicians, the smart thing to do is go meet voters where they're at rather than trying to predict where they're going to be. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. i hope you've been enjoying the olympics. we'll be back next sunday because it's "meet the press."

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