>> i'm bill hemmer. a flurry of diplomacy and the drumbeat of war, the u.s. and its allies holding 11th hour talks. will russia invade ukraine? ♪ ♪ >> president biden: as of this moment i'm convinced he's made the decision. >> the president calls out vladimir putin over unkept promises of a troop drawdown and continued military drills while vice president harris meets with heads of state in unit. >> hours to my our strength must not be under estimated. >> bill: the secretary defense meeting with troops in the region is the nation's top diplomat rushes to the u.n. to win the information war against moscow.

>> i'm here today not to start a war, but to prevent one. >> bill: we will get the state of play from pentagon press, press secretary john kirby, just back from eastern europe with the defense secretary. and we will get reaction from senator ted cruz, member of the senate foreign relations committee. and we will ask our sunday panel whether there is an off-ramp for putin. plus... >> this is petula texas in the south county. many of the major political issues that are huge part of what goes on in southwestern texas run through this town. >> bill: the road to the midterms, first up, home of the nation primary. all right now on "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ >> bill: at a low again on this "fox news sunday." fears of war intensified as the standoff between western allies and russia enters a pivotal phase. the ukrainian president has called for a meeting with the

russian president putin, but this week, president biden said he's convinced that putin has decided to invade, a move that would rattle world markets, disrupt global energy supplies, and challenge the international order. in a moment, we discussed the new assessment with pentagon press secretary john kirby, but we begin with team fox coverage. steve harrigan on the ground in kyiv where tensions are still high. mike tobin in southern poland, where u.s. troops have been deployed by the thousands. but first, let's begin with mark meredith at the white house to find out where we are today. mark, hello. >> hello to you. president biden says he believes war between russia and ukraine is still preventable, but he believes it's also likely. still, all we can longwood seen u.s. allies raise to find a diplomatic solution. with the world on edge, president biden is pleading with russian president vladimir putin not to invade ukraine. >> president biden: russia can still choose diplomacy.

it is not too late to de-escalate and return to the negotiating table.vice president kamala harris delivered a similar message in germany, telling ukraine's president in a face-to-face meeting the u.s. is ready to respond to russian aggression. >> any threats to your country, we take seriously and we have rallied our allies and our partners to speak with one voice. >> but hours later, president zelensky implored the u.s. and its allies not to wait any longer to impose sanctions against russia given putin's behavior already. >> but you are telling me that it's 100% the war will start in a couple of days. what are you waiting for? >> a white house official tells fox the u.s. is already responding by providing ukraine with massive military aid, also by coordinate a global efforts to potentially cripple russia's economy. as for the russians, so far no signs of de-escalation. on saturday putin himself oversaw military drills which

included showcasing his country apostate nuclear abilities. later today, president biden will convene a meeting of his national security team right here at the white house. then we are expecting a big meeting later this week with the secretary of state antony blinken, will meet with russia's foreign minister in europe. that meeting maybe one of the last chances this administration has to prevent war. >> bill: we are watching it. thanks, mark meredith at the white house today. we are going to turn to steve harrigan now live in kyiv for a look at life under the threat of the invasion. steve, hello there. >> hello, bill. for some people here, the war has already begun. shelling in the east, where ukrainian shoulders oppose russian-backed separatists has increased with two ukrainian soldiers killed saturday. separatist leaders ordered an evacuation with a dubious warning that ukraine, surrounded by 190,000 russian soldiers, plans to attack. we are taking enough food for

one day, she says. we don't know when we will be back. the old and the young grab what they can carry and flee by bus and train to russia, where president putin promised evacuees $130 each. [applause] ukraine's president bristled at the repeated warnings from the u.s. of a. russian invasion. it means crushing the national currency, money being taken out. can you live in a kind of country? and you have stability in that kind of country? no. even without an invasion, ukraine's economy takes new hits each day. lufthansa has canceled flights to ukraine and germany has told its citizens to leave. bill. >> bill: steve harrigan in kyiv. thank you. let's turn now to mike tobin come alive in southeastern poland, where the u.s. military presence there is increasing. mike. >> bill, the task of u.s. soldiers in poland is described

as multimission capable. it could involve rescuing u.s. citizens in trouble. it could involve manpower at the border in the event of a crush of refugees, and they are combat ready. most of the soldiers from the 82nd airborne, some of them from the 101st, and they fall under the command of the 18th airborne corps. given their history in europe, the mere presence of these paratroopers is intended to send a message that the u.s. stands with its nato allies. here's defense secretary lloyd austin addressing the troops in poland. >> whenever we place an american soldier somewhere, it demonstrates our resolve. it demonstrates our commitment to our partners, and so i would say that, you know, you are our greatest ambassadors. >> we spent some time yesterday in a border town. the people there are scared. they believe that if russia takes ukraine, that putin will keep coming for more. also in the event that millions

of refugees materialize on the border, they don't believe they can accommodate them. bill. >> bill: mike tobin, thank you. southern poland, we will be back with you throughout the week. joining us now exclusively, pentagon press secretary john kirby. admiral, welcome back here to "fox news sunday." >> secretary kirby: thank you very much, good to be with you. >> bill: you are just back from eastern europe, late last night in fact. did they believe in invasion is as likely as president biden does? >> secretary kirby: the leaders that we met with in brussels as well as in lithuania, certainly in poland, all see the situation the same way we do. they believe that russia continues to make itself ready for another invasion of ukraine. they are equally alarmed by it, as we have been buried >> bill: a few observations on this. on friday, president biden said he was convinced it would happen, and then late on saturday, the white house statement that was put out said it could invade. that language might be slight, but it also might be significant

and softer too. is it? >> secretary kirby: look, we've been saying for weeks now, bill, that mr. putin continues to add to his capabilities and give himself options and we said it could happen any day. i think we've been very consistent with that. when you look at what we are seeing -- and some of this is in plain sight. you can see it through commercial saddle satellite imagery. he continues to come as the secretary said yesterday, uncoil his bosses and make them poised to strike at any moment. i don't think we're sort of hammering over individual pieces of rhetoric here. what we are seeing actually happen is mr. putin acted on certainly what looks to be very clear intentions to evade to invade ukraine again. >> bill: let me try to for way. he left this country and saturday from munich and then he went home to his country last night without issue. there were fears that if putin wanted to lock him out of his country he would have done that. it did not happen. what does that tell you? >> secretary kirby: it's hard to know what mr. putin's thinking on any given moment.

he has a huge array of military forces around ukraine. he has a lot of options available to him, and i think we wouldn't want to speculate just because president zelensky is out of the country for a few hours that that would be his moment. he has had many moments and he has many moments going forward, bill. he has options available to him. one of the options of course, you mentioned this a little bit earlier in the show, is diplomacy, and we hope that's the option he chooses one his foreign minister gets to sit down with secretary blinken later in the week. >> bill: that make it to that in a moment, but on the sanctions. you heard president zelensky, he says if you're telling me 100% it's going to happen, then what are you waiting for, suggesting nato allies in the united states, so what are we waiting for? >> secretary kirby: look, we've said all along that these are going to be crippling sanctions, sanctions the likes of which we've never wouldn't before, they are going to be unprecedented. we mean this is a very strong message to mr. putin and as a deterrent. if you pull the trigger on that deterrent, well then it doesn't

exist anymore as a deterrent. he has not conducted another invasion in ukraine yet and we want to get -- we still think there's time to prevent that. so it's supposed to be a deterrent. if you punish summative for something they haven't done it, then they might as will just go ahead and do it so we are holding that in advance and we are hoping that could affect the calculus. >> bill: i think you said something in the middle of that answer, can you characterize then how much activity there is behind the scenes to give him an offer and? >> secretary kirby: there's been a lot. just to the intro to this piece this morning you showed the full court press by this administration to try to find a diplomatic path forward and we have made serious proposals. obviously met by the russians in a reciprocal way but we've made serious proposals about ways that we can change things that we are doing in europe to try to address the situation there and to try to address some of mr. putin's concerns. obviously some things are clearly off the table but we've made serious proposals, and we want the russians to respond in

kind to that. >> bill: what is off the table? >> secretary kirby: well, look, we've said that the issue of ukraine's membership in nato, that's an issue for ukraine and for nato. that is not something that mr. putin can simply institute a veto over, or decide for himself. that kind of thing is, again, between the alliance and ukraine. >> bill: okay. what's on the table then? what are we willing to give him? >> secretary kirby: we have made serious proposals and talked about changing, for instance, the scope and scale of some of our exercises in europe, being willing to talk about offensive missile capabilities in europe. we have certainly put forward other proposals to try to convince mr. putin that we are serious. >> bill: okay. what has the administration learned from the chaos out of kabul last august? >> secretary kirby: we are still digesting what happened in august, bill. i suspect her questions trying

to, you know, get at anything we learn from august that we are trying to apply now. they are two very different circumstances, bill, and there's not a lot of parallel between what we are seeing now in ukraine and what we saw in afghanistan. we were ending a 20 year war there and we were dealing with a massive evacuation of a lot of people, 124,000 in the course of two weeks. this is not the same situation. this is actually trying to prevent a war from happening. and that's why, back to your earlier question, all of our administration officials have been out and about trying to find a diplomatic path forward and at the same time, here at the department of defense, shoring up our nato allies, making sure they know that we are with them about our commitment to article five, collective self-defense, is one we take very seriously. >> bill: let me get back to the question about secretary lincoln that you mentioned a few moments ago. he is scheduled to meet his counterpart in the coming days. what would the secretary say then that he has not already? >> secretary kirby: i certainly won't speak for the

secretary of state, i work at the pentagon, but i will tell you that i suspect he will, again, make clear that we are serious about trying to find a diplomatic path forward, that we are serious about wanting to avert a war, and i think he will also make it clear that if russia does this, they do it with diplomatic options left on the table. they won't have an excuse that merits any sort of credibility about why they went forward when there was a diplomatic path forward. they will choose this war and mr. putin will be responsible for the casualties and the suffering and the sacrifice, the destruction, that will result as a result of any military action. >> bill: just this week they talked about at the u.n., they talked about mass graves. is there proof of that? or can you outright deny that? >> secretary kirby: you have seen over the course of just last week, bill, these sorts of outrageous claims. i'm not going to get into each and every one of them but it is absolutely right out of the russian playbook. he may be moving xs and os around the field right now

militarily, but it seems like he's using the same old playbook, and i don't want to make lot of the said allergy, this isn't a football game, this is a war and lives are at stake, potentially tens of thousands of lives are at stake here. if you look at some of the things we've seen, you can go right back to 2014 and say here he is, he's claiming that he's the victim, he's claimed that ukraine, incredibly ukraine, surrounded by more than 150,000 russian troops, is somehow going to attack russia. these are just not credible. >> bill: one last question here today. insiders say, and they believe, that putin thinks he can buy anyone, and that would include the country of germany and the pipeline for natural gas that's been installed. it must make many americans wonder, do we care more about this than some europeans do? >> secretary kirby: well, i would tell you, again, not speaking for other european countries. when we were in brussels, the secretary had a chance to meet with the defense ministers of all our nato allies.

it was apparent to him coming out of there -- and he said this publicly -- nato is more united, more resolve, more resolute than he's ever seen it in his entire military career, and i believe that's the case. we are all alarmed by what we are seeing. >> bill: would you concede it took a while for germany to come around to that? >> secretary kirby: every country has to look at this their own way through their own prism. what i can tell you is we've been sharing information with our allies and partners as we get it, in near real-time. we did that in brussels this week. they are seeing the situation the same way we are seeing it. every country has to decide for themselves how they are going to respond and react but i will tell you -- not just as secretary, i was unable officer i did a lot of nato exercises and naval things. i too have never seen the alliance more unified and resolved. the one thing putin says he doesn't want is exactly what he's getting, a very strong, unified nato on his western flank. >> bill: admiral kirby, thank you for your time on this sunday. thank you, sir, for being with us today. >> secretary kirby: thanks, good to be with you. >> bill: in a moment, reaction

from senator ted cruz of the foreign relations committee. ♪ ♪ ♪ retirement is an opportunity to fill each tomorrow with moments that matter. and a steady stream of protected income can help you secure the life you've planned. for more than 150 years, generations have trusted the strength and stability of pacific life with their tomorrows. what tomorrow brings.bout it's what you do with it. ask a financial professional about pacific life.

♪ ♪ >> bill: so this week the

senate passed a resolution of support fot far from the mother of all sanctions bill the senator's a few weeks back. joining us from houston, texas senator ted cruz ted cruz. welcome back to "fox news sunday," it's good to have you here. >> senator cruz: bill, good morning, good to be with you. >> bill: i want to get to a number of topics. let's start with ukraine. you heard my conversation with admiral kirby. have we done all we can? >> senator cruz: not remotely, and tragically, europe is on the verge of war because of the weakness, the fecklessness of joe biden. you know, i heard a minute ago admiral kirby make reference to that the biden a administration -- and he said "we are still digesting what happened back in august." joe biden's surrender and disastrous retreat from afghanistan is the worst military catastrophe for the united states in decades, and

the consequences -- at the time i said as a result of this incredible weakness, all of our enemies across the globe are looking to washington, they are taking the measure of the men in the oval office and as a result, as i said back in august, the chances of russia invading ukraine had just risen tenfold. the chances of china invading taiwan had just risen tenfold. we are seeing the first of those two shoes dropping today because of biden's weakness, but it's even worse than that. we had in place bipartisan policies to prevent what is happening right now, specifically in 2019, i introduced legislation, targeted sanctions directed at the nord stream 2 pipeline. nord stream 2 is the pipeline that putin is building from russia to germany. the reason he's building the pipeline is that it skips ukraine. it goes right around ukraine. why? because the real insurance that ukraine had against invasion is that putin has to take his energy, his natural gas, in

pipelines that go through ukraine. once he builds nord stream 2, he no longer has to worry about those pipelines. in 2019, i authored sanctions, bipartisan sanctions in congress, they passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. of president trump signed by sanctions legislation into law, and putin stopped building the pipeline the day president trump signed those sanctions. that pipeline was dead for over a year until joe biden became president and putin began building that pipeline again on january 24th, 2021, 4 days after biden was sworn into office. why? because he knew what was going to happen, which was that joe biden formally waived sanctions on russia, on putin, and gave the green light to build nor nord stream 2. that is why we have over 100,000 troops in russian tanks on the border of ukraine preparing to

invade. that's where we are on the brink of war in europe. >> bill: now in 2022 this congress can't even a ground sanctions and it's true the president could go ahead with some sanctions on his own but that to the side, the white house had been very aggressive in calling out russian tactics and they've done it very publicly, by the day, i would argue. would you concede that's worked so far? >> senator cruz: no, it hasn't worked at all. if you look at what the ukrainians want, they've been very explicit. they've said two things. they said number one, if you want to stop a russian invasion, they've asked the united states explicitly, put sanctions on nord stream 2 right now, today. joe biden could do that this morning. he refuses to do it and they said number two, provide lethal military aid. give us the weapons to defend ourselves and, you know, i finally -- last month i forced a vote in the united states senate on sanctions on nord stream 2. every single democrat in the senate had voted for my sanctions legislation twice previously. but the difference was last time

you had a president within our behind his name. now you have a president with a d behind his name. when we voted i won a bipartisan majority, big bipartisan majority, 55-44. but the democrats filibustered the bill. they demanded 60 votes ironically while at the same time they were calling the filibuster jim crow, racist relic from the past. that same day they were filibustering to protect russia and putin, and 44 democrats gave into political pressure from the biden white house. they voted in favor of russia, against sanctions, and explicitly, the president of poland, the prime minister of poland, the president of ukraine, the prime minister of ukraine, the president of ukrainian parliament, all explicitly said if you want to stop this invasion, sanctions nord stream 2. joe biden came to capitol hill and personally lobbied democratic senators to vote against russian sanctions.

that's where we're facing this invasion. i've got to say, bill. >> bill: yes. >> senator cruz: joe biden becoming president is the best thing that ever happened, tragically, for vladimir putin. >> bill: if there was an invasion, maybe the sanctions taught goes back to congress. i want to move some other topics while i have the time. on the durham probe, this past week the findings suggest that some sort of internet traffic was exploited to establish this inference and narrative that tied donald trump to russia. there is -- either as a candidate or as president. andy mccarthy, a prominent conservative legal mind, writes this. "did durham find something worse than watergate? not so far. to the question, is this like the manchin probe all over muller probe again, it is all smoke and no fire? >> senator cruz: we have to see what the facts are, the allegations, what he filed in federal court, is deeply concerning. what he alleged as of federal prosecutor, a special prosecutor, is that a lawyer for

the hillary clinton campaign conspired with a big tech executive to monitor and spy on donald trump, to spy on him at his home, to spy on him at his office, and indeed they were spying on the white house itself. they were spying on a sitting president, that is -- you know, you and i both remember when president trump said the democrats are spying on me, and the corporate media collectively laughed at him, they mocked at him, they said what a ridiculous claim for him to make. well, what special counsel durham is alleging is true, what donald trump said was absolutely right and to the extent hillary clinton is complicit with this, her campaign is it, s are complicit with it, big tech is complicit with it, if this is true, it's a lot bigger than watergate. that was a bungled, third-rate burglary. it was wrong, p . to jail for watergate, and people need to go to jail for this if these allegations are true.

>> bill: tumor topics, two more minutes on the supreme court. the white house set on friday it still plans to make an announcement on the nominee by the end of this month which means, based on the calendar, that could be in a matter of days. the president is on record saying he's committed to putting forward an african american woman, yet you have firmly disagreed with this idea. one point you call her defensive, another point you called it insulting. does that make you an automatic no on the nominee? >> senator cruz: well, listen, democrats today believe in racial discrimination. they are committed to it as a political proposition. i think it is wrong to stand up and say we are going to discriminate him of this it administration is going to discriminate. what the president said is that only african american women are eligible for this slot, that 94% of americans are ineligible. merrick garland, whom barack obama nominated to the supreme court -- merrick garland was told sorry, got the wrong skin color, wrong gender, you are not eligible to be

considered. i think our country has such a troubled history on race, we ought to move discriminating -- pass discriminate based on race. the way not to do it is to say i'm going to look for the best justice and interview a lot of people and if he happened to nominate who was an african american woman, great, but a fox news put a posting, we are looking for a no host for "fox news sunday" and we will only hire an african american woman or hispanic man or a native american woman, that would be illegal. nobody else can do what joe biden did, and there's a reason for that. racial discrimination is wrong. that being said, when we have a nominee, i will consider that nominee on the record and i'm confident the senate judiciary committee, we will have a vigorous process examining that nominee's record, and what i can tell you right now is we are not going to do what the democrats did with brett kavanaugh. we are not going to go into the gutter, we are not going to engage in personal slime at attacks, we are going to focus on the record and substance and what kind of justice she would

make and that's the constitutional responsibility of the senate. >> bill: i hear a window of consideration, we will see where that goes. tell your dog we are almost done here, okay? because you are in texas, and the texas primary an hits in ten days. it's the first major vote ahead of the midterms and you've endorsed many candidates in other states. you have not endorsed a candidate for attorney general in texas. one of those candidates, a republican, is under investigation. will you way in before that vote on the 1st of march? >> senator cruz: listen, i think there are a lot of good candidates running for attorney general and friends with a number of candidates, they've been strong supporters of mine, and so that's a race, as you know, that i'm staying out of, i'm going to trust the voters of texas to make a determination. i think there are good people running for that race who are strong conservatives, who are people of principle, and who i respect. >> bill: okay, so no endorsement today. >> senator cruz: that's right. i'm staying out of that race.

>> bill: all right. senator, thank you for your time today. in texas, ted cruz. back to your dog. thank you, sir, for coming on. in a moment we will bring in our sunday group on the last-minute talks to stop the potential war and invasion of ukraine. these are called ♪ ♪ i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so... ...glad we did this. [kid plays drums] life is for living. let's partner for all of it. i'm so glad we did this. edward jones stuff. we love stuff. and there's some really great stuff out there. but i doubt that any of us will look back on our lives and think, "i wish i'd bought an even thinner tv,

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>> won a bomb creator appears in the schoolyard, children have a question. has the world forgotten its mistakes of the 20th century? what attempts at appeasement lead to? >> bill: left ukrainian president on saturday in munich on the risk of not pushing back against russian aggression. time now for our sunday group, republican strategist karl rove, fox news national security correspondent jennifer griffin omma and former democratic congressman harold ford, jr., and welcome to all three of you on this sunday. i will start in ukraine, and jen, i want to start with you. on saturday, president zelensky, we just saw, flew to munich and back. he emphasizes they are not in the state of panic. that was clear from his trip. where are we as of this moment today? >> well, based on the reporting that i've been doing over the last few days, what we are seeing -- and we heard this from the defense secretary -- the russian military on the border

with ukraine is basically uncoiling. what does that mean? it seems that more than half, at this point, of those forces are now moving into attack positions. that is a significant term in terms of military doctrine. that means they are gassing up those tanks, they are moving, they have left the barracks, they are living in the fields, and they are just a few miles from the ukraine border. they have not been given the order to cross the line of departure at this point, but what we are seeing, and "the washington post" is reporting this morning, that the intelligence that led to biden saying that he believes putin has taken the decision for an invasion, that that came from intercepted conversations and orders given down to those lower-level troops from mid-level commanders, and so what we are seeing is the battle space being prepared right now for what i'm being told would be a significant invasion. he has the architecture in place for a massive invasion that

would include taking kyiv, and it's very notable that there's a national security council meeting this afternoon, but from what i'm hearing, there is a great deal of fear that in the coming days this will move forward. >> bill: we will see what comes of that meeting at the white house on sunday. karl, i want you to listen to president biden, quick clip from friday. >> president biden: as of this moment i'm convinced he's made the decision, we have reason to believe that. >> bill: how do you think the biden administration is playing this hand? >> as of recently they've been playing it pretty well, i think, in part because the threat of putin taking ukraine unifies our allies in europe, but let's be honest, putin is not just looking at what this administration has done recently. he's looking at the whole frame. joe biden was part of an administration that was seen by russia as weak, particularly after they moved in 2014 to take

the crimea region of ukraine. they saw him -- saw president biden -- one of his first actions was to kill the keystone xl pipeline. if not an accident that in may, after biden had waived the sanctions on nord stream 2 for reasons that are still inexplicable, that putin went and issued a 20 page paper on the historic unity of russia and the ukrainians not only laying claim to ukraine as being an integral part of russia, but also suggesting that the baltics and parts of poland and slovakia were also historically russian and should be reunited. we had of course defense budget where it was 2% increase but a 16% increase in non-defense spending and the defense budget being heralded as a new weapon against climate, and then finally we have the afghanistan debacle in august, and i think all of these have emboldened putin, and so doing well recently, but the run up to this

has been -- has been very dangerous. >> bill: you saw how kirby answered that question. harold, we saw the markets died this past week. one of the wider implications of an invasion? >> well, first off, happy sunday. i think market applications, military implications, are all on the table. i think we have to put this into perspective, and i heard some this morning try to sort out political grievances. i remember being in congress when we were facing these challenges on a national security stage, we united at home. first off, putin has never accepted the fact that the old ussr lost the cold war, and he continues to try to revise the outcome. crimea, georgia, and now now. we continue to quarrel with things in the past, but we look after -- have to look forward. he rightly noted with mr. kirby that our nato partners, the purpose, resolve, and unity is greater than it's been in 20 years. the president and this team has advanced -- i should say ordered

the advance of weapons to ukraine to ensure -- to help them protect themselves. diplomacy remains on the table, and we have all of the punishing sanctions in place if indeed he does invade. has it been perfect? no. no lead up to war is perfect but i think it's important as we look at where we are today, jennifer's reporting is so critical because if indeed we've intercepted this kind of communique with the mid-level and upper-level commanders, and it seems that some sort of invasion is imminent, i think the president's words today before the security counsel will be heard and resonate around the globe and it's clear that putin's real concern here, bill, is that he is losing ground. his relevance, he has to try to assert and inject himself and what better way than to do this. i think where i agree with karl wholeheartedly is that china is the audience that are national security -- are national security apparatus is probably looking at even more so than they are looking at putin right now. >> bill: let me get back to

admiral kirby. jan, listen to the sound bite from our interview of a moment ago. >> the leaders that we met with in brussels as well as in lithuania, certainly in poland, all see the situation the same way we do. >> bill: might have taken a while to get there. i think we can all probably admit that buried behind the scenes, he also talked about off ramps for putin and the talks that continue. what are you hearing about the possibility of that that would give an off-ramp? >> bill, first of all i would say that i don't think it did take a long time to get those nato allies united. i think what is different from last august means that those allies, and i've been speaking to many of the top leaders of our strongest allies, and they say that with the biden administration did this time that they didn't do last august if they built a very strong alliance, and they have been informing those nato leaders, including germany, and germany i would take issue with, has actually been on board. in terms of off-ramp's, they are very limited at this point. there will be a debate as to

whether the secretary of staa meeting with sergey lavrov, the foreign minister of russia, slated for next thursday if, in fact, putin invades in the coming days, which is expected. so that is going to be a key point, but what officials have told us is that russia always loves to talk while they are invading. i also like to take one point of issue with what carl said. if the appeasement of vladimir putin goes back far before the biden administration. if you go back to 2007, putin in munich, at the munich security conference, stated what he planned to do in terms of rebuilding the soviet union. robert gates was the defense secretary at the time. president bush, who karl worked for, was the president. shortly thereafter, putin invaded georgia, the u.s. and nato did not do anything, did not do anything significant. that began -- putin has been doing this and then under president trump, i remember

traveling to nato headquarters with secretary mattis, and that's when there was a feeling that president trump was going to pull out of nato during those four years. that did incredible damage to nato unity. right now what we are seeing i think is a much more unified nato because they see how very dangerous blood and reboot and is buried >> bill: i'm out of time, but karl, quick answer, your name was invoked there. >> with all due respect, the u.s. sent naval aspects to the black sea, they returned the iraqi combat brigades from iraq to bolster the defenses of georgia, and sent whatever was requested to support the georgian forces. so with all due respect, yes, they did go into georgia but the united states stood strongly behind georgia and as a result, the russians stopped and there was aid and assistance. >> bill: panel, have to take a break. when we come back we will take you to texas for a look at the issues shaping the nation's first primary of 2022.

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♪ ♪ >> bill: we are on the road to the midterms and over the coming weeks, "fox news sunday" will bring you on the ground reporting on the nation's biggest races. early voting is already underway in the state of texas, the first primary goes down in ten days. senior national correspondent rich edson looks at the shifting political dominance along the southern texas border. ♪ ♪ >> ralph gonzales has ridden horses since before he can remember. >> i was 6-month-old in my dad's arms. i have been on a horse ever since. >> he inherited his love of horses from his father and passed it on. >> how much does your son love the rodeo? >> it's not even a sport, it's part of life. >> he balances raising a teenage

son with working the oil fields of south texas. >> being a single dad is hard. being a single dad in the oilfield is harder. >> life in the oil field has changed over the decades and he says so have politics. >> everybody would sit at the table and it was a democratic conversation. it's not like that anymore. >> for generations, south texas has been the large blue patch on the mostly red electoral map. but with then president trump atop their ticket in 2020 -- >> in the great state of texas. >> republicans gained ground across the region, evidence they say they can flip to house seats here. the region typically elect more moderate democrats like longtime congressman henry cuellar, who publicly challenges his party 'leaders, especially on border security and energy. >> this right here is the battleground. >> progressive democrats see an opening too. >> making sure that -- >> congressman alexandria ocasio-cortez and

other national progressives are backing a more liberal democrat here. the choir campaign officials say progressives coming from out of state to campaign against a democrat is ridiculous. >> the incumbent was voting with trump 70% of the time. >> jessica came within four points of unseating him in 2020. this year she's back at it challenging him from the left. from the right, several republicans have jumped into primaries in longtime democratic districts, including his. across south texas, president biden perform significantly worse than his democratic predecessors. some counties even voted republican for the first time in a century. >> this is the park that my kids play baseball end. >> republicans after witnesses border security motivated her to run for office. >> we are seeing more republicans and democrats switch over to the republic in part because we are the party of faith and family and freedom. we want a secure border, pro-law-enforcement, pro-life. >> cassie garcia is another

republican running of the primary for a chance to challenge him in november. the national border patrol council just endorsed her after years of backing him. >> in the last primary we did endorse congress in cuellar. there's a variety of topics that she can stand behind where he will not. >> the fbi recently rated cuellar's home. he insists investigators will find no wrongdoing. john is running in a primary for rio grande valley district that nearly went republican in 2020. >> i think the old blue dog democrats are still going to be in control of this area, we are still going to honor the traditions and the values of this area. >> do you think that they are among some democrats here there's a desire to nominate more liberal candidate to >> we are raised in the catholic church, raised with traditional hispanic values and i think that that tradition and those values have continued to show themselves and it's going to continue to bring out the voters and we are going to stay

a conservative democratic district. >> combines, the house seats have dozens of candidates competing to be on the november ticket, and voters say they are listening. >> it's not about democrat or republican, it's about who speaks to you about solving problems that you're dealing with. >> this is could tula texas in the south county. about 90 miles south of san antonio. many of the major political issues that are a huge part of what goes on in southwestern texas run through this town. a lot of its economy, that has to do with oil and gas, and that's an industry that has grown significantly over the past several years. but it's also ranching, and for that, ranchers say border issues are of a major concern. >> sorry, but somebody needs to grow up. >> marcus and stephanie are ranchers who say the border search is causing migrants to cross their land more frequently than ever. sometimes and stolen vehicles that destroy their property. >> we all run cattle so our biggest fear is that, you know,

they bust through the fences, our cows get out. >> ranchers like them are spending more time fixing fences hoping national leaders address the search. >> we really was some but he would be in office that would take a stand. >> take a stand and care for the ranchers and farmers. >> gonzalez says he's taking his own stand in his community. he's running for justice of the peace. >> because of the way it works, i had to run with the democratic party here. doesn't necessarily mean that all my views are democratic. >> bill: rich edson reporting from southern texas, and now we are back with the panel. karl, you know this area quite well. what is happening in texas, and is there evidence of a trend elsewhere? >> well, all you need to look is at the difference between the presidential vote in 2016 in the presidential vote in 2020 to see that there's a huge shift going

on in this part of texas. the further west you get from the gulf of mexico along the rio grande river, the bigger the shift, and that's because you're getting deeper into energy country, so you've got a democrat, former democrat truck driver who is making $110,000 a year because he's got a cdl license, and his wife is doing pretty well with the cafe in your faulty because there's a lot of -- you know, there are a lot of oilfield people coming in and having lunch and leaving a nice tip and suddenly you have the democrats saying, you know, jeez, the green new deal is terrific, let's end it in reliance on hydrocarbons. and then you take the border, you take conservative values, respect for law enforcement that includes the border patrol. there are a lot of people in south texas who have a family member in the border patrol, and then you look at growing concern about farming and ranching and you've got an explosive combination here. we are likely to see two very competitive congressional races in the fall in south texas in

which the likely republican candidates are latinos, and that set something up at the changing nature. >> bill: harold, how concerned should democrats be when you see stories like this? >> we should have serious concern. i think the issues of crime at covid, inflation, and the border, democrats have to figure out how to meet voters, everyday voters. many voters that you had in the package there with rich. it not get out in front of them but walk alongside of them. i would argue the body politic is stronger -- i'm a blue dog democrat. when you can have an honest and open debate within the party about whcentered around respondo people's needs. i would argue that this debate is not only happening, bill, in the democratic party. you see in wyoming and the liz cheney race and you even see it in texas in the bush paxton race. it is strengthened when you have a robust debate and you more importantly respond to people, whichever party is able to address the cc ib, crime, covid,

inflation, and border, and meet parents where they are, that will be the party that wins the majority in november and the party that wins the white house in 'tony four. >> bill: about 3 minutes left here, i want to get an answer from all three of you, that is the san francisco school board vote. something happened this week that's extremely rare, and so our viewers no, recall vote was held after three members on the school board, they were all kicked off by an overwhelming margin. 70% of the people who live in san francisco voted against them. now, this is a district represented by nancy pelosi, 85% of the voters went with democrats in 2020, and jen, this seems to be ols are closed for a parents are saying enough is enough. as a mother yourself, how do you see the importance of this issue next november? >> i think you can't underestimate the issue of schools and how it is awakening an angry voting base. we saw it in virginia with the glenn youngkin vote.

parents are fed up. you see the loudoun county school board meetings, but san francisco was very interesting, because what happened, this was organized to remove three members of the board, who had tried to pull in a certain direction that it was democrats who removed them, and what was significant is that it awakened the asian vote in san francisco because they took away meritocracy for their most prominent high school. they turns that into a lottery and that's where many of those asian kids went to school. >> bill: karl, remember when the schools were closed, that board voted to rename 44 schools and take off names like washington and lincoln. in the end it didn't happen. politico put it this way. "it's not the renaming effort itself that was so potent. it was the board spending hours on the exercise while schools sat empty and students suffered was quote. they might be right, but it's probably both and then some, karl. >> yeah, i think it's both and i

think jen has put her finger on it. it's a combination of things. we saw this also northern virginia where there was an attempt to take a magnet school that shows students on the basis of academic qualifications, and turn it into, you know, in essence, a lottery because there were too many asian american kids who were getting into the school. i think we're likely to see this repeated across the country and democrats are going to have a real problem because this is not going to be just a national issue. there are going to be lots of people working at the state and local level running from legislature. we are going to be talk about things like no mask mandates and curriculum transparency and upholding schools of excellence and meritocracy. this issue is going to be repeated across the country. >> bill: harold, "the wall street journal" is more specific, riding in their editorial page this. "if it can happen in san francisco of all places comest democrats should be worried. the woke me wake up to a far bigger shock in november." virginia was mentioned twice, once with jen and once with karl

there were republicans what the state than three months ago. are the voters already ahead of the politicians? >> the voters are always ahead of the politicians and that's why the results change so frequently and rapidly year after year. extremism can be rejected in san francisco by democrats. i hope it happens more, and extremism is rejected by republicans and democrats alike when anybody goes off the deep end. lowell high school, which jennifer referenced there, is a high school there in san francisco where the lottery is being -- instead of meritocracy, being replaced. parents are standing up and politicians would be well, well advised to listen to them. >> bill: yet. let's leave it there. thank you, panel, nice to see all three of you, and we will see you again on the next "fox news sunday" there. thank you. in a moment, a final word on the week ahead. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> bill: that's it for this sunday. i'm bill hemmer, stay with the fox news channel in your local fox station for the latest on the tensions between russia and ukraine, and you can join dana perino and me on "america's newsroom" monday through friday at 9:00 eastern on the fox news channel. have a great week, a terrific sunday, and we will see you on the next "fox news sunday." ♪ ♪ have rallies, our allies andr

partners. tensions continue to rise between russia and ukraine, the latest calls from ukraine as a threat of a full scale russian invasion intensifies also ahead. emotions are definitely coming out a lot more. my parents are still not doing so well. and ugly woman has been missing for almost four weeks, the latest on the search as her family is bringing in new resources to help find her. and the theme of this year's chinese new year parade was roaring back celebrations in the past that brought a big economic boost of chinatown. and this