a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome to "alex witt reports." we begin with new warnings that russian military forces could invade ukraine any day now. a new u.s. assessment says putin has amassed 70% of the combat power needed for an invasion. national security advisor jake sullivan on nbc's "meet the press" this morning says they are still hoping for a diplomatic solution. >> we are prepared to sit down with the russians alongside our allies in nato and other partners in europe to talk about issues of mutual concern in european security. but what we're not prepared to negotiate are the fundamental principles of security that include an open door to nato for countries who can meet the requirements. meantime the divide within the gop is getting even deeper as some republicans are slamming the rnc for calling the january 6th insurrection legitimate

political discourse. senator lisa murkowski this morning saying why she stands by her criticism. >> when there is a conflict, when the party is -- is taking an approach or saying things that i think are just absolutely wrong, i think it's my responsibility as an alaskan senator speaking out for alaskans to just speak the truth. >> a new reaction to former vice president mike pence's harsh rebuke of his former boss, calling donald trump wrong. pence's former chief of staff saying why the vp chose now to speak out. >> and he extended those remarks a little bit this week to the federalist society, primarily because the president's comments about the vice president had the ability to overturn the election i think merited response. of course there's nothing in the 12th amendment or the electoral count act that would afford the

vice president that authority. joining us now, josh lederman in wilmington, delaware, sahil kapur on capitol hill and erin in ukraine. josh, i'll start with you. with a russian invasion looming, what are the chances of a diplomatic resolution? how confident is this white house? >> well, they have certainly not closed the door to a diplomatic off-ramp but there is not a lot of optimism. over the course of the last few weeks we've heard the tone from u.s. national security officials really starting to change from one where they thought that it was possible that what president putin was trying to do was essentially to bluff, to try to get a lot of attention and to show by amassing troops near ukraine's border that he has the power to potentially invade, but that he was unlikely to actually go ahead with that. now what we are hearing from the u.s., including in this new u.s.

intelligence assessment that has been reported on publicly is that russia is now 70% of the way toward having the troops in place they would need to actually not just have an incursion into ukraine, to full-on invade the entire nation of ukraine with some 83 russian battalion tactical groups now surrounding ukraine from three sides, accord to that u.s. assessment. but still the u.s. is trying to at least leave the door open to diplomacy so that if russia does go ahead and invade, nobody will be able to say that there were not opportunities given to president putin to de-escalate this. take a listen to what linda thomas greenfield, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, had to say about the latest on diplomacy with russia. >> we're still working to discourage the russians from making the wrong choice, of choosing confrontation. we will continue to work on a diplomatic solution, but at the same time we know that the

russians continue to prepare and we will be working to address the security issues. >> but u.s. officials also tell us, alex, that they believe at this point in time president putin has already built into his calculus the likelihood and the consequences of the u.s. sanctions that the u.s. and other countries have been talking about. in fact the mere fact that the u.s. has laid out in such detail what those sanctions would look like, possibly kicking the russians off the swift financial messaging service, possibly sanctioning putin's inner circle and then to make a judgment about whether it makes sense and is worthwhile to invade nonetheless. but this weekend as president biden is here in wilmington, he has been working the phones. we just learned in the last few minutes he spoke by phone today with israeli prime minister naftali bennett, the israelis

saying that the rrussia/ukraine situation was among the matters they discussed on that phone call and president biden preparing to hold a high-profile meeting with the visiting german chancellor that is also expected to focus very much on russia and ukraine, alex. >> certainly tense times. i just want to let our viewers know we were looking at the president and first lady boarding marine one as they left the delaware air national guard base, bound for the south lawn of the white house. okay, that means you'll be running in tow very soon. thank you so much, josh lederman. well, the republican national committee has voted to formally censure two house members for serving on the january 6th committee. the conference must not be sabotaged by representatives liz cheney and adam kinzinger who have demonstrated with actions and words that they support democrat efforts to destroy president trump more than they support winning back a republican majority in 2022. the move immediately stops all support for the two

representatives from the rnc. let's bring in nbc's senior national reporter sahil kapur on all of this. first of all, how is capitol hill reacting to all of this? >> it's been largely critical, the reaction has, from the few lawmakers who have spoken out since the resolution passed. let's start with how former president trump is characterizing this. he has praised and congratulated the rnc for what he called a great ruling, referring to the censure resolution, and arguing that liz cheney and adam kinzinger should be removed from the republican party for investigating the incidents of january 6th. over the last several months, former president trump has tried to recast january 6th not as a violent insurrection against the american government but as a patriotic uprising against the injustice of a stolen election, a claim for which he does not have evidence. when other republicans, some of them, try to point this out, he has sought to criticize them and

remove them from the republican party. it's against that backdrop that some criticism is still coming. senator mitt romney from utah criticized the rnc's resolution saying shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience who seek truth in the face of vitriol. mitt romney is the uncle of rnc chairwoman rona mcdaniel, who spearheaded this effort on behalf of former president trump. there's also senator lisa murkowski of alaska, who's facing re-election in the red state later on this year, spoke out. you see this on the screen here. she said what happened was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the capitol. she urged her party not to legitimize those actions. democrats are largely speaking with one voice. they have called the events of january 6th an attack on the american way of life and an attack on american democracy itself. many of them are urging more republicans to speak out. let's play what one of them,

congressman eric swalwell, had to say. >> we need more republican leaders to stand up because unity will be the antidote against what we saw on january 6th. i hope this gives them a permissive space, this is one of the few times in america's history where the chapter is unwritten. >> now, as i noted earlier, most republicans have preferred to stay quiet. they don't want to step into the crossfire and draw the ire and criticism from the former president because they could be punished politically. the question is does the rnc's move to describe january 6th as legitimate political discourse prompt more of them to speak out? we'll find out in the coming days. joining me right now is texas congressman mark vi. vissi. it's always good to welcome you,

my friend. can you comment on the rnc and the censure of liz cheney and adam kinzinger and the response from a couple of bold senators, mitt romney and lisa murkowski that is saying this is ridiculous for the rnc to censure these two and to even begin to think that the 1/6 insurrection was legitimate political discourse. any other republicans that you think could join forces there? >> yeah, no, absolutely, alex. first of all, it's disgusting what the rnc did. that's one of the reasons why in politics people have such a hard time stepping outside of their circle and doing the right thing. obviously what happened on january the 6th was terrible, it was wrong, unprecedented, something that we haven't seen. you'd have to go back to the early 1800s to think about when we had an attack on our united states capital. the fact that the rnc would say

that it was legitimate political discourse. think about what you're saying to those people that showed up that day when you say that someone out in the street says -- that steals a loaf of bread, that they're patriotic and terrible and need to go to jail. the people that went to the united states capitol with zip ties to handcuff the vice president of the united states, took over the senate floor momentarily. a woman was killed. a police officer was nearly crushed to death. that that is somehow political discourse. you're telling these people that they're superior to the rest of society, and it's just wrong what they're doing, it's disgusting, and it's why we have so much division in this country. it's because of the lack of leadership on the republican side, and particularly at the rnc. it's just unbelievable that they would even go there. >> thank you for not mincing words on that and you're 100% right. let's talk about the new u.s. intelligence assessment that russia has 70% of what they

would need for a full-scale invasion. it is in place. moscow is saying, look, that assessment is alarmist and is as unlikely as an attack by washington on london. really? what is the real level of concern here? >> yeah, no, it's a real level of concern. obviously putin continues to amass these troops along the border. he certainly does have the ability to go into ukraine. he already plays a heavy role in that country with a lot of disinformation, a lot of people that have an allegiance to russia. he plays on a lot of those emotions. but the ukraine wants to have their own sovereign nation. we need to make sure that that is made clear to putin and that we want to make sure that we back the ukraine people with arms as much as we possibly can. if they need to be prepared to go the long haul with this. and, you know, earlier in your

report, it was mentioned about an off-ramp. we can certainly work to find some sort of way that putin can come out of this, we should. but certainly, you know, saying that ukraine can never join nato and that we need to sort of back away from any of our dealings in europe is just absolutely ridiculous and has to be off the table. >> with those 3,000 u.s. troops that are being sent to eastern europe near ukraine, they're there to bolster nato ally countries, we have 8,500 waiting on alert. what are the circumstances under which you think you could see these other troops be sent in? >> you know, i obviously think that being able to send troops is a sign of force. and i think more importantly for our other friends in that area, they're very concerned about this. our friends in the baltic states, our other european

partners. they want to make sure that we're in this together a allies, as people standing up for democracy in europe. so i think any show of force that way is good. i think that we do have to be careful. we want to make sure that we're not allowing putin to try and say that we provoked minimum. him. so it has to be done very strategically, very carefully, but we want our friends over there to understand that we are taking this very seriously and certainly by having troops over there and reinforcing those troops, that's certainly a reasonable effort to show our friends that. >> you know, that point you just make about wanting to be very careful that it doesn't appear to putin that we are provoking him, you know that the senate is getting closer to finishing a sanctions package against russia. politico reports that there are lawmakers on both sides of the

aisle, they are concerned it's taking too long, they're worried russia could invade ukraine before they finalize it. but here's the issue being debated. it's timing, whether to impose sanctions now or after an attack. so what approach do you support? which one do you think would be most effective at being a deterrent? >> obviously the most -- the off-ramp that's going to have the biggest impact, i think, is him being able to walk away from this and say whatever he's going to say. you saw the video that he put out, the fake video of the invasion of ukraine with corpses and what have you. obviously that is done to sort of show people back in russia that he is strong and smarter than everybody else and victorious. but i really do believe that the senate or the house, both of us,

when we get together and try to work these things out, we want it to be just right, we want it to be timely. but if he does decide that he's going to go into ukraine, i do think that we will have to ratchet it up. we need to show putin, we need to show the oligarchs that the ability to be able to access the money that they have will be shut off. the ability for them to be able to take weekend trips to paris or other parts of europe that the oligarchs like to do, that those visas will no longer be granted. we need for them to realize that this is real. again, when you do that, if it's before or after, we need to very much lean in on our -- on the advice that we're getting from the military and from the pentagon on that. but it does need to be considered very, very carefully. >> let me ask about something happening in your backyard. i'm sure you're familiar with the in-depth nbc news investigation that shows books

on race and sexuality are disappearing from texas schools in record numbers. there are hundreds of titles that have been pulled from libraries that are being reviewed. several school librarians are telling nbc news that they face increasingly hostile work environments, mounting pressure to preemptively pull those books that could potentially draw complaints. so what's your reaction to all this? have your constituents expressed any concern to you about it? >> constituents have expressed concern to me about this. and it's really sad because one of the state representatives in texas that's leading this charge, he is actually from tarrant county, where i reside, and last week there were books being taken out of the granbury school district, which is a school district about 45 minutes southwest of fort worth. on the boxes of the books being carted out, they were labeled krause's list. that's the state representative leading this charge. i'm someone that likes to study

history and i think that the thing that i think is sad for us is that we seem to be going back. i was listening to a video just the other day of a man trying to justify in his small town why they should ban rock 'n' roll music. they said that it was making kids act sexually promiscuous and making kids act wild, like they were black kids, and just listening to the same reasons that this man was laying out why they were going to ban rock 'n' roll music. alex, to the point where in this town they were suggesting going into small cafes and restaurants and even looking at what jukebox selections that people could choose. it just reminds me of the same thing that they're doing now. a lot of the same rhetoric, a lot of the racial rhetoric is not there anymore, but a lot of the same verbiage, a lot of the same reasons on why this music

should have been banned in the 1950s and '60s. you hear republicans, like matt krause and the governor youngkin of virginia using the same backwards reasoning that people used in the 1950s. i think it's sad. we're losing freedom in this country and censorship is not a way to go. we just talked about putin. you think about that part of russia that back during the cold war that we pushed back against so much. we made fun of them, were the freedoms that they didn't extend their people. to see us trying to erode people's rights in our country, it's just -- it's terrible. >> why don't you text that guy to just look up the movie "foot loose," right? texas congressman marc veasey, thanks so much. the good, the bad and the head scratchers is ahead. d and head scratchers is ahead

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giving you a live look and i'm just going to say, wow, what a beautiful shot. that is, as you can see, sofi stadium in los angeles. that's the site of super bowl lvi. my los angeles rams will be hosting the cincinnati bengals a week from today. you can watch it here on nbc. i should note that if you still want to go to the game, ticket prices have gone right through the roof. according to the ticket reseller gametime, the most expensive seats on the secondary market, they're going for an astounding almost $38,000. the cheapest, that's a mere $5,100. gametime says 18% of its buyers are from l.a. 4% from cincinnati. so you can bet what those stands will be loaded with, a bunch of fans wearing blue and yellow. now to the jobs report, a stunner. 467,000 jobs were added for january and numbers for november and december were revised upward. let's bring in heather long,

economic columnist for "the washington post." good to see you, heather. so the question to you is why was this so unexpected? because there was a huge margin between what was expected and what actually happened. >> that's exactly right, alex. a lot of people were expecting, including goldman sachs were forecasting a negative, that we would actually lose jobs in january. so when that number came out that said we added 467,000 jobs in january, there were gasps when it initially came, followed by some cheers. the reason that forecasters missed it so much, a big part of it is we were looking back at past waves of the virus, like the delta wave, that really did hobble the economy. and what seemed to happen in january is there was some impact. we did have about 3.6 million workers who were absent, who had to be temporarily on furlough or, you know, trying to take those sick days. but overall companies and workers remained focused on the future.

they seemed to be able to believe that this was going to be short-lived with the omicron. and they continued to hire and to search for jobs. i was really excited to see that there were jobs added, 151,000 jobs added in leisure and hospitality. so a lot of restaurants and bars -- >> wow, that's great. >> yeah, that normally took the brunt of it. day cares added jobs. so did public schools and so did dry cleaners. so a lot of these areas that have really struggled to hire. it wasn't huge hiring, but something is better than nothing. >> on an uptick for sure. wages rose 5.7%. so the white house has been saying all along the economy is improving. is this going to resonate with americans feeling more money in their paychecks? >> certainly 5.7% wage growth in the past year is the highest that we've seen in a long, long time in this economy.

that's an encouraing sign. the big but here is inflation. prices are also rising. so prices have been rising at about a 7% rate in the past year. so for many workers, unfortunately, their wage increases are not keeping up with those price increases. the one encouraging sign and the white house likes to point this out and it's true, and that is lower income workers, so folks earning about $15 an hour or less are seeing the biggest wage increases. we definitely need to see more of that. the other encouraging sign is those workers in the restaurant sector, they have also seen about a 13% increase in the past year. so again, the benefits are going to people who most need it who are struggling at some of the lower wage, but that's why there's still a lot of frustration in the middle class because workers in that middle class, you know, basically are still falling behind a little bit. >> 100%. you have investors that have been focusing a lot on inflation as well, heather.

they are going to get a fresh snapshot thursday. the government is going to release the january consumer price index. so what are the expectations for that? >> at the moment it's still going to be high, whether it's just above 7% or just below, we will see. but the real problem for the white house, last year their message was a lot of this was going to be short term, things like the used car prices that were so high. ultimately they probably will come down if we're able to manufacture more vehicles and that sort of thing. same thing with washing machines or couches that are back ordered that many people are frustratingly waiting for. but the problem now for 2022 is we're seeing a lot of inflation happening in rent. those horrible apartment costs that are going up in some cases 20, 30%. that's hard. that's the biggest part of a lot of people's budgets and that is not something that is likely to disappear in the coming months even if we get supply chains worked out. >> heather long, always good to

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with 24/7 roadside assistance. -okay. think i'm gonna wear these home. -excellent choice. now to the crisis on the ukraine border and new video of thousands marching yesterday to protest against a potential russian incursion. many saying they stand ready to abandon their civilian lives to fight against invaders. u.s. officials estimate a full-scale invasion would lead to 25 to 50,000 civilian casualties in just two weeks and result in the displacement of 1 to 5 million people. meanwhile republican and democratic senators are hoping a sanctions bill will serve as a deterrent to vladimir putin. >> and if we put biting sanctions in place right now, without delay, before an attack, then those will be financial as well as make sure ukraine has the weapons that they need to defend themselves. >> we hope to be able to show

mr. putin that democrats and republicans in the senate and the house and the white house are united. if he does do further incursions into ukraine, he'll pay a very, very, very heavy price from the economic point of view and the isolation politically. >> nbc's erin mclaughlin is joining me now from the ukrainian capital city of kyiv. what are you hearing from folks there, erin, about all of this? >> reporter: hey, alex. folks here are extremely concerned about the situation, so much so that they're preparing for the worst. i was at a military training exercise here in the capital early this morning and watched as men, women, elderly, teenagers were participating in military training. participating in first aid, learning how to evacuate the wounded. it was startling to see ordinary people training in this way. i was speaking to one woman, she's the mother of two teenage

sons. she brought her sons with her. she said that they are ready to stand and defend their country in the event of a russian invasion. take a listen to what she had to say. >> are you scared for your family? >> we are all mortals, come on. we are all going to die someday. the thing you can do is you can live your life in dignity or not. >> reporter: now, this ukrainian poll taken in december that shows half responding saying they'd be willing to participate in some sort of active resistance in the event of a russian invasion and military experts i've been talking to say that will be a critical deterrent for the kremlin. alex. >> erin mclaughlin, thank you so much for kyiv. joining me is alexander vindman, form director for european affairs for the national security council, also author of the best-selling book

"here, right matters." lots of things to get to, colonel. thank you for joining me. we have u.s. intelligence that shows russia has assembled about 70% of the military forces needed to launch an invasion of ukraine. moscow is calling that detail alarmist and scare mongering. from your experience, what is the reality of the situation? where do you put the likelihood of an invasion? >> thanks for having me on, alex. i think the likelihood is basically where i believed it was for the past several months. i think it's likely. i think we're frankly on the cusp of the largest military offensive in europe since world war ii. there is nothing to indicate by russia's actions, not its words, because it has been engaging in some sort of tepid diplomacy, but nothing by its actions to indicate that it's no longer interested in this course of action. frankly i think the only thing russia is interested in is ukraine back into its fold, back into the russian sphere of influence. the only way it could achieve

that is through a massive military offensive. so a lot of what we may have been witnessing over the past several months with this diplomacy was just kind of buying time and also making the case that diplomacy failed. it's time to conduct this military offensive. >> colonel, if the point is to bring ukraine back into the russian fold as you're saying, does that have more value to it than the types of sanctions and the global assault really on russia for having done so in this way? does it make more sense to vladimir putin to do that and face the consequences? >> yes, it does. i think that's because russia has hardened against sanctions. it's hardened against some of the pressure that the u.s. is planning to bring to bear along with our allies. what's really changed and why i'm a fraction more optimistic than i was maybe weeks ago or a month ago is that in fact the

u.s. has done more coherence around sanctions. these heavy sanctions have been coordinated. nord stream 2, russia's energy pipeline to germany is likely to be sanctioned. u.s. troops in small numbers are going into eastern europe. that signals that the u.s. is serious about protecting its nato obligations. weapons have also been coming into ukraine. it's probably not going to be enough to tip the russian calculations against conducting this operation. again, everything seems to be pointing towards this large looming offensive. but at least we're doing something and it's probably affecting russia's calculations on the margins at least. >> do you see anything that french president emmanuel macron can bring to the table in terms of diplomacy negotiations when he meets with vladimir putin tomorrow? >> i think president macron is interested in trying to see if he can broker a solution, but he's also interested in the domestic political component of this trip, which is to show

himself to be a leader, negotiating amongst world leaders to ease the situation in ukraine. he has an election coming up, so i think he's both playing to his electorate domestically in france as well as seeing if there's something to do. there's really nothing -- there's not a significant departure with regards to the way france has been conducting diplomacy in this situation. it's pretty consistent along the way. >> i want to turn to the new lawsuit that you filed against donald trump jr., rudy giuliani, and two allies of donald trump's alleging that they conspired to intimidate you so that you would not testify at former president trump's impeachment proceedings and that they indeed retaliated against you after you did. we know you lost your job. we do want to note that the trump organization didn't respond to nbc news requests for comment, an attorney for giuliani declined to comment, a

lawyer for dan scavino also dlieped to comment. from your perspective how did they intimidate you? >> first of all, i think they're deeply concerned. i think there's a lot of substance, a lot of reason to -- i put this all inside the claim that there is a lot of reason to believe that there was a conspiracy to both deter, to get me to not testify and then punish me for testifying. those things are obviously included forcing me out of the military, making my position in the military untenable. they delayed my promotion to colonel to the point from my perspective it didn't look like it was going to happen. the promotion list actually didn't come out until after i submitted by retirement paperwork. there was the character assassinations all along the way really from the minute that my name became public. you see a concerted effort from the white house, from these inner circle of donald trump seeking to attack my character

and diminish me as both an army officer as well as a witness. so all sorts of nefarious dealings going on. >> let me ask you something. it was quite blatant here. this includes captured images of donald trump's tweets. tweets that he put out there insinuating there would be big consequences. that's his words, capital b, capital c, for people within his administration who provide information on the zelensky telephone call, which was the genesis of all of that. how much does that weigh in your lawsuit? >> well, it all weighs in my lawsuit. frankly the targets here are inner circle, trump inner circle enablers. folks that helped him carry out his policies and his corrupt enterprises. without these individuals, he would not have been able to pull off some of these dealings. and really, i think the biggest aspect here is that it had a massive chilling effect on other government officials coming

forward, as it was intended to do. it was supposed to send the message that if you report wrongdoing by this president, by president trump, that there will be severe consequences. that's one of the reasons i filed this suit because i wanted to send the message back that there will be consequences for folks that are corrupt, conducting these kinds of conspiracies to interfere with officials doing their duties. >> lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, retired we should say, i think it points to the title of your book which is "here, right matters." well done on all of that. thank you so much for your time. we'll look forward to following this lawsuit and have you pack as things progress. thank you. a new bill of rights for patients could soon be law for florida hospitals. whether it could help or hurt that fight against covid. that fhtig against covid

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florida's republican governor is pushing a new so-called patient's bill of rights. under the new bill hospitals wouldn't be allowed to keep visitors from seeing their sick loved ones. nbc's stephanie stanton is joining us from tampa. so the question to you, stephanie, is why is the governor pushing this bill of rights and how would this measure impact hospitals? >> reporter: good afternoon to you, alex. the idea of this bill is to prevent those strict lockdowns that we saw during the height of the pandemic when it comes to those hospitals and those nursing homes. this is called the no patient left alone act and proponents say that it will strengthen patient visitation rights across florida health care facilities. if passed, it would require

health care providers to allow visitors during end-of-life situations, times of emotional distress, also when patients need help from families when it comes to caring for them, offering food and drink, and also any other situations approved by the agency for health care administration. >> covid cannot be used as an excuse to deny patients basic rights. one of the rights of being a patient is that you have your loved ones present when you're dealing with these serious medical issues. >> reporter: but some opponents say that the bill is unnecessary. they say that patients' visitation rights have largely been restored at this point. now, proponents say that hospitals and nursing homes would still be allowed to require visitors to things like masking or showing a anything after test.

they could deny entry to visitors not following the rules. this bill is making its way through some committees and is expected to make it to the senate floor soon, alex. >> stephanie, thank you so much. some new films to put on a must-see list. a conversation with dawn porter on how she chooses which stories to tell. she chooses which stors to tell. when you switch and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $800. you can keep your phone. and keep your number. visit your local t-mobile store today.

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now to a filmmaker with a deep repertoire of documentaries that you can add to your viewest list as we all celebrate black history month, including films like "the way i see it" featuring pete sousa's photos of former president obama and some you may not have heard of. this one, gideon's army, highlights the challenges young public defenders face working in the deep south. >> you said to someone, you're a public defender. they say what does that mean?

i defend people charged with committing crimes. they saw how can you defend those people? i tell them the truth. it's about the sanctity of human liberty and the cost of it if you want to take it. >> having been found guilty of possession of crack cocaine, the court sentences you to 16 years. >> joining me now, dawn porter, founder of trilogy films, an award-winning filmmaker, director, executive producer, and juror for the 2022 sundance film festival. you can see her docs everywhere. and dawn, big welcome to you. i'm telling you, if i was in a position to stand up here and give you an ovation from the studio set, i would do that. know, massive applause coming to you. we could be here all day if we try today list all of your films and accomplishments. tell me, how do you decide which stories you want to tell? what's the driving motivation behind the topics you choose? >> well, it's great to be here. and i'm glad my mother called you in advance to give me that

beautiful introduction. >> not at all. >> thank you for that. you know, i think one of the things i love about documentary is it allows you to work through some of the most pressing issues of our time. you work them through in films, and i think that there are so many issues that are so complicated, you know, i get to talk to people for a living, and to try to make sense of a world that can often seem senseless. so, you know, it takes us years to make these films. and so it has to be something that you can really sink your teeth into, that's really complex and complicated. but i also try to choose films where i feel like i have something to say or i have something to add to our understanding of the topic. and those are the films that interest me the most. >> taking a look at some of those topics, the way i see it, we know, played on msnbc with

all those iconic, beautiful obama photos. i got a chance to interview pete sousa. we were both nearly in tears talking about that. you worked with john lewis on the documentary, john lewis, good trouble, and this apple tv series, the me you can't see, so if you had to pick your favorite, your most impactful production, which one would it be, and i'm going to say i know it's like asking a parent which is their favorite child, but which comes to mind? >> you know, each film is a product of its time. so gideon's army is my first film. i'm a lawyer by training. and i really with that film felt like there was something that i could understand with my background in law. that, you know if i didn't know about the crisis of mass incarceration, if i didn't know what pressure these young folks who were committed public defenders were under, if i didn't know that as a lawyer, i was thinking about a lot of

other people don't know that, either. so that's probably, you know, the first film you make is probably, you know, the hardest in some ways, but it's very rewarding to have made that. to have shifted careers that way. >> yeah. >> but you know, i think i made the way i see it and john lewis movie very close together. and i feel like those films speak to each other. you know, john lewis was such a motivating person for everybody involved in civil rights. and then, you know, there way i see it, it was kind of the movie, both were the movie i needed at the moment. i wanted to remember that there are, you know, public servants who are really trying to work for the good of other people. and the public servants you see, president obama certainly, but all the other people that worked in his administration, and then

of course, congressman lewis, you know, i followed him around for the last year of his life. and he never lost his faith in america. i mean, what an unbelievable opportunity to have somebody who was really speaking to all of us and saying that he had seen worse. you know, and that if he's survived what he's survived and came through with an enduring love for this country, with all of her flaws, that i thought, you know, i think we can too. >> amen to all of that, dawn porter. you're phenomenally talented, wise, and so many other things, and your mother did not call me, by the way. so anyway, keep up the great work. we're going to love watching what you do, watching you do what you do. and thank you so much for your time with me. appreciate it. >> thank you for highlighting and for all that you do. i really appreciate it. >> thank you so much. that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex witt

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like a lot, a lot. good afternoon, i'm yasmin vossoughian. new information today from the biden administration on just how close russia is to having everything they need to invade ukraine and the lives that