jose diaz-balart picks up our news coverage right now. and good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. and happening right now, threat of a full-scale russian invasion into ukraine is hanging over diplomatic efforts after a phone call between president biden and vladimir putin produced no change in the tense dynamic. we'll bring you a live report from kyiv and moscow. in washington, donald trump's former lawyer, rudy giuliani, is in talks to testify in front of the house january 6th committee. we'll take a closer look into what this means for the search for answers. and on the pandemic, we're learning new details about the high risk of heart problems for many people who test positive for covid. meanwhile, out west, shocking allegations of racism now facing tesla, as a new lawsuit claims that the company operated a racially segregated workplace at its factory near san francisco. and the crown goes to the golden coast.

the los angeles rams beat the cincinnati bengals after a late comeback in the first quarter to clinch their second super bowl title. and hey, how about that half-time concert. e concert. and we begin with the escalating tensions between russia and ukraine. a white house official tells nbc news national security adviser jake sullivan will brief congressional leaders and the leaders of the key national security committees on the latest developments today. one day after sullivan repeated warnings, a russian invasion could happen within days. >> we have seen over the course of the past ten days dramatic acceleration in the buildup of russian forces and the disposition of those forces in such a way that they could launch a military action, essentially at any time. if russia wants to continue

engaging diplomatically to find a way forward to address their security concerns and our security concerns, we're prepared to do that. if russia decides, instead, to take major military action against ukraine, we're prepared to respond decisively. >> president biden spent the weekend working the phones, hoping to avert a renewed conflict. he spoke with russian president vladimir putin on saturday in what the white house described as a professional call, but with no real breakthrough. the president spoke with his ukrainian counterpart yesterday, telling him that the u.s. and its allies will respond swiftly and decisively if russia should invade ukraine. with western and ukrainian officials saying more than 100,000 russian troops are now positioned along the border with ukraine, kyiv is asking for an urgent meeting with moscow to get an explanation for what all of those troops are doing there. as russia insists it has no plans to invade ukraine, calling warnings of an invasion war-mongering and hysteria. but that hasn't stopped the u.s. and nearly a dozen other

countries from uring their citizens to leave ukraine, the state department from pulling out most of its embassy staff in kyiv, as well. meantime, german chancellor olaf schultz has launched his own shuttle diplomacy, before traveling to moscow tomorrow to meet with vladimir putin. with me now to talk about all of this, nbc news's erin mclaughlin in kyiv, nbc news's matt bodner in moscow. carlos, a journalist with television hispaniola, and jeff bennett, an msnbc political contributor. erin, ukraine's president continues to call for calm and urge people not to panic. but the warnings of an imminent invasion get louder and louder by day. how are ukrainians dealing with this? >> reporter: hey, jose. well, ukrainians i've been speaking to say they take these intelligence assessments coming from the west extremely seriously, and they tell me that they're preparing for the worst. some are evacuating kyiv. some are sending their children

to the western portion of the country, widely seen as a safer place to be in the event of an invasion. i was speaking to one civic activist who said, for the time being, that she, her husband, their 11-year-old daughter, and their guinea pig are going to stay here in kyiv, but they have a plan to evacuate their daughter in the case that the situation deteriorates any further. and they've had the conversation with their 11-year-old. take a listen to what she had to say. >> yesterday, we discussed, because daughter is reading news and she listening to our conversation with my husband and she's like, mom, so what is our plan? are we staying here in kyiv or are we moving? and what about nathaniel, our guinea pig? i said, daughter, even if we decide to evacuate you, to drive to western ukraine, but guinea pig will stay here in kyiv and

help us to relax a little bit. he's very cute. >> reporter: and so many ukrainian families are having similar conversations. and we heard from president zelensky just a short while ago, in a press conference, with the german chancellor, say that he is remaining in kyiv with his family, urging people no to evacuate, calling on all of the oligarchs who have left the country aboard their private jets to return within 24 hours. he urged them to think of their workers. and speaking to ukrainians, there is a sense of frustration that ultimately, ukraine, at the moment, is paying the highest economic price, that ukraine is being sanctioned as a result of russian aggression. there's a real frustration here on the ground about that. jose? >> yeah, i mean, they're already feeling sanctioned by all of this buildup and all of these things that are happening, even before any invasion. matt, what are the russian people hearing? and what are they dealing with,

with these urgent warnings from the u.s. about, you know, a possible russian invasion in the next couple of days. how are the russian people seeing it? >> well, it's interesting, jose. i guess one of the, i suppose the drawbacks of the way that the united states has been so loud and up-front with really its worst-case predictions is that it has been very easy for the russian state media, for russian officials to kind of spin that right around and use it as evidence of western hysteria. that the west is essentially hyping all of this up, manufacturing a crisis, and the most gentle of assessments on the russian end to justify new sanctions or to distance russia from europe. we've also seen this used to kind of, like, give cover to some assertions that ukraine itself is preparing large-scale military maneuvers on eastern ukraine. we've not yet seen a total commitment to that line of thought. but one of the things i want to point out, what's more interesting is not so much what

russians are being told, it's what they're not being told. the reason this narrative works so easily is that they're not actually being told directly what their military is doing. you know, today we heard, the russian defense minister sergey shoygu in a meeting with putin saying some of these exercises are wrapping up, we'll see troops determined, but they never formally declared those troops had moved. they didn't tell the russian people that the 41st combined army was moved from the border with siberia to ukraine, so it makes it very easy to paint everything we're doing here as some kind of hostile information exercise with some bad motives on the other end of it. >> president biden keeps pushing for a diplomatic solution, but there doesn't seem to be much of a chance. is there an expectation behind the scenes that there will be some sort of conflict between russia and ukraine, either way? >> well, the national security adviser is still warning that the u.s. believes that there could be a russian attack, an invasion of ukraine, as early as

this week. but as the white house navigates next steps, jose, the white house just said moments ago that president biden is expected to speak with uk prime minister, boris johnson, as this situation overall grows more dire and more tense. but to your point, the state of play is such that the u.s., european allies have been pressing putin for weeks to pull back his 130-plus thousand troops there at ukraine's border, but this frenzy of diplomatic activity, to include a number of world leaders, who have more or less cycled through moscow, for one-on-one meetings with putin, all of it has failed to produce a real diplomatic off-ramp. we know that president biden spoke with putin on saturday, directly. the white house says they spoke for about an hour, and that president biden again conveyed caution, warning of potential crippling sanctions, but that fall really resulted in the two of them reiterating their positions. and just yesterday, president biden spoke with his ukrainian counterpart, and we're told via

a white house official that he, president biden, was invited to ukraine. the white house isn't commenting on that, but you can imagine a trip like that would be highly unlikely, especially right now when the white house is drawing down its footprint of personnel and telling americans there that the time to leave is now. but i think one of the complicating factors here is that even as the u.s. and its european allies warn of retaliation in the face of aggressive russian act, there are still differences among the allies about how heavily to respond. germany has a number of concerns, given that they rely on russia for oil exports. and president biden has drawn a red line and said that the u.s. will not send troops into ukraine. the u.s. will not fighting russia directly over ukraine. so, yes, this is a dire situation, in large part because the u.s. and its allies don't know vladimir putin's real intentions here, jose. >> and let's go to madrid.

carlos, i want to say how much i admire you and i am grateful to have the opportunity to speak with you, my friend. i'm just wondering, how was the -- for example, european capitals viewing what's going on in ukraine? >> thanks for having me, jose. it's an honor for me. there's a big difference between the point of view from europe and the point of view from the u.s. there are also different approaches among member states in the european union. you were showing all the shows from germany that are in kyiv. germany is the biggest economic power here in the european union, but it's too dependent on russian energy, especially now that they are leaving nuclear energy. they have a lot of big companies that are working and investing there in russia. that affects the way they interact with mr. putin. at the same time, the european union, you have poland, eastern countries, that they have a traumatic relation and history

with russia. they are asking for a tougher position on the kremlin. russia knows this very well. they are trying to exploit them. they want to divide and rule. they don't want to negotiate with the european union as a whole. they prefer to talk individually, one by one. but i think that's not the point right now. i mean, the european union is trying to show that they are a united front, they have a common voice, and they also have a common voice with the united states. but i think it will be a long crisis, a long negotiation, so it will be difficult, maybe, to find an agreement on how strong sanctions might be if there's a reaction from moscow. >> and carlos, i mean, you were in russia around the time of the 2014 invasion and annexation of crimea. what are some of the similarities and differences between then and now? >> well, i'm in russia has been historically worried about this

security and what they say, sphere of influence from soviet times. that doesn't change, but what they have, there's a different situation in geopolitics. in 2014, the u.s. and the european union had a strong sanctions against russia. they harmed the russian economy, but here we are, years later. russia is putting a lot of pressure on the border. the main actor here for me, in my opinion, is china. russia is seeing that world politics are changing, but maybe the u.s. look weaker right now, after afghanistan. they see that china is stronger every day, and they think that maybe is the thing that is a good movement to try to achieve some goals in ukraine, because they have a strong voice and the same side. you know, they met putin in

beijing. and they want to have the same voice in world politics. that's a big change from what we see in 2014. >> erin mclaughlin and jeff bennett, thank you all very much for being with me this morning. appreciate it. still ahead, the dangerous side effects of covid. they're lasting way longer than the infection. plus, why we could be hearing more about what happened on january 6th from rudy giuliani himself. and a live look at the white house and the first lady's valentine to the country. those are hand-painted wooden art pieces of the two new bidens, their puppy commander and their kitten willow. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." willow. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports.

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now to the latest on the investigation into the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. nbc news has confirmed a "new york times" report that rudy giuliani is talking with the house january 6th committee about responding to its questions. committee member adam kinzinger told cbs news that the panel expects donald trump's former personal attorney to fully cooperate. >> our expectation is he is going to cooperate, because that's the law. that's the requirement. same as if somebody subpoenaed the court. there may be some changes and dates and moments here, as lawyers do their back and forth, but we fully expect that in accordance with the law, we'll hear from rudy. >> giuliani's attorney told nbc news he is not going to comment on these stories. with me now to talk about this, "new york times" congressional reporter, luke broadwater who helped break the giuliani story and has been all over the january 6th investigation. "washington post" white house bureau chief, and barbara mcquade. both barbara and ashley are

msnbc contributors. luke, what more can you tell us about why giuliani is engaging with the house january 6th committee. >> right, well these talks have been going on for days now between rudy giuliani's attorney and the lawyers for the january 6th committee. and they're trying to figure out a way where rudy giuliani can comply with the law, can comply with the subpoena, and still keep president trump happy and not incur large legal fees fighting the subpoena. one potential model that might be worth looking at is how bernie carick, who's a close associate of rudy giuliani, handled this subpoena. he talked with donald trump, he got sort of a public approval to testify and say, i'm going to put forward all of this evidence of the widespread fraud that we believe happened in this election, and did ultimately come in, testify, but the

committee got what they wanted, which was a trove of documents laying out the schemes to try to overturn the election. and there were some documents that he withheld, citing executive privilege. so thereby may be something where rudy giuliani could testify, could provide some documents, but withhold others. those are all parts of the negotiations that are going on right now. >> luke, what is a committee or what could the committee learn from giuliani? and clearly, there must be some attorney/client privilege issues. but luke, what is it they could learn from giuliani? >> right, well, rudy giuliani was the center -- was at the center of almost all of these plans to try to overturn the election. he has insights of donald trump's views on the schemes to use alternate electors, on the attempts to seize voting machines and checking out whether that was league or

possible. really, every aspect of the plan, he was involved in. whether it was, you know, even he and donald trump were calling lawmakers on january 6th, to try to get them to continue to delay certifying the election. and those calls came even after there was a mob riot at the capitol. so, you know, he -- he could say, well, donald trump was thinking this or that or he wanted this or that. he could really give them all the inside the room information. now, he may decide some of those things are off-limits, that he won't do that. but we'll have to see. another consideration is whether the committee would consider giving him immunity, which they've talked about in recent days. there are some key witnesses whose testimony they want so much that they may be willing to take that extra step of saying, we won't -- nothing you say in these interviews could be held against you. >> barbara, as he deals with this subpoena, giuliani is under

investigation over his dealings in ukraine. could cooperating with the house 6th committee potentially help him when it comes to that probe? >> i think it can. and, you know, i think that rudy giuliani, do not underestimate him. i know in recent years, he came across as kind of a crackpot, but he spent many years working for the southern district of new york and he knows how this works. he prosecuted mafia families. he knows about exchanging information for cooperation for leniency. and so i think that he is in a very good position to try to leverage this opportunity to testify for leniency in his own criminal cases. don't forget, also, that the justice department has already seized 18 of his electronic devics from his office. so they have that information to confront him with. he is in a very tough spot in that case. so he could negotiate a situation whereby he agrees to cooperate to the committee as

well as to the justice department in any investigation it may be or will be undertaking with regard to the whole january 6th overturning of the elections. so i think that there is a strategic reason for him to cooperate, and i think he is well aware of it. >> and barbara, i'm just wondering, the fact that he was the personal attorney to the president at the time, is there a lot of attorney/client privilege situation that he could call on to try and not answer direct questions about this? >> yeah, i think, you know, if he wanted to, he could play this very cute. he could engage in what is sometimes referred to as cooperfiction, where you pretend to cooperate, to appease the prosecutors and make sure they don't charge you with contempt, but it is all half-hearted and you come in and assert privileges and don't provide any information at all. i think attorney/client privilege is a very real barrier, but it is limited to

the purposes of obtaining legal advice. and it seems that rudy giuliani in many ways was acting as an operative. there's also an exception to the privilege for crime or fraud. if they are engaging in fraud together, the privilege would yield. i think there are ways to navigate the privilege without breaching the privilege that he owes to his client, donald trump, when he was acting in capacity for his lawyer. and remember, for a time, he stopped being donald trump's lawyer. so i think that that can be navigated, but it is certainly an obstacle that both parties need to respect. >> and ashley, we saw a lot of reporting over the weekend on challenges that donald trump faces in maintaining his grip over the republican party, from senate republican leader mcconnell, looking for senate candidates who will buck the former candidates. how much of a threat is there to trump's efforts to keep his control over the gop? >> well, there's certainly that interest in the republican party, what we think of as the establishment, that if you sort of talk to a lot of these members, these operatives,

privately, their preference would be if they could somehow snap their fingers and just make donald trump disappear. they would all love to do that. and so, you are seeing these little efforts here and there. and in certain ways, former president trump is less powerful than he has been previously. right, he's been on platforms, that twitter megaphone was taken away. he's gotten involved in a lot of primaries, a lot of down-ballot endorsements. it seems unlikely that he'll have a perfect track record of success, which he deeply values. but former president trump still does have real power, within the republican party, especially his base, which is unshakable. and i think you do just have to look to the resolution that the rnc passed, censuring adam kinzinger and liz cheney, to see that as much as things will do

privately behind the scenes, that when it comes to it, there are still an incredibly small number of republicans who are willing to stand up and publicly take on former president trump. and that is the power he still has. >> and they did take away a lot of his social media platforms, but he seems to be having no problem in raising boat loads of money. >> yeah, well, statements are the new tweets, right? he basically puts in statements, what he would have tweeted out in the same sort of punctuation, the same sort of nasty nicknames, and then, frankly, reporters and other people do that work for him. and they blast them out on twitter. he does have a ton of money. a very formidable forecast. there's some frustration among republicans again that he is really hanging on to that and keeping that for himself, rather than doing what a former president would typically do, which is try to bowie the whole party and lift up republicans in general. but that shouldn't be surprising.

that's who former president trump is. and again, that's one of the reasons why a lot of these republicans simultaneously frustrated with him, can wish the trump era could just disappear, but are not really willing to take him on in a way that could actually, unofficially, ask him, if that is even possible. and it's unclear that it is. >> ashley parker, luke broadwater, and barbara mcquade, thank you very much for being with me. and in some good news to share with you, senator ben ray lujan of new mexico says he plans to be back on capitol hill within weeks. the democrat posted a have to twitter yesterday after suffering a stroke late last month. >> i'm doing well, i'm strong, i'm back on the road to recovery. and i'm going to make a full recovery and walk out of here is beat this. and i'm going to be stronger once i come out. >> lujan also said after he leaves the hospital, he will continue his recovery at an in-patient rehabilitation facility. he says he expects to be back on

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well, it's 31 past the hour. now to the latest on the pandemic. we are learning new details about the long-term threats of covid infections, even after testing negative. a new study found that covid-19 increased the possibility of heart rhythm irregularities and the threat of a deadly blood clots in the legs and lungs one year after infection. joining me now is nbc news health and medical reporter, erika edwards, and dr. joseph varon, chief of the critical care at united medical memorial center. erica, what more can you tell us about this study. the risk that covid infections create for patient's heart health? >> yeah, that's right, jose. good morning. this was a huge study. researchers focused on more than 150,000 covid-19 patients, compared their outcomes with more than 10 million others. they found that over the next year after covid-19, there were increased heart risks, heart

failure, heart attack, stroke. like you said, blood clots in the legs and lungs. now, the study really just focused on va health records, meaning that the majority of these patients were white men. however, when researchers sort of dug a little bit deeper, they found that, you know, these risks remained regardless of age, race, or even underlying health conditions, such as obesity. now, of course, the concern here is, what will this do to our health care system moving forward? we've already topped 77 million cases of covid-19 here in the u.s., alone. what's more, the pandemic, overall, also increased heart risks across the board. doctors are telling me that they're seeing marked increases in things like high blood pressure, out of control diabetes, et cetera, regardless of prior covid-19 infection. the other thing i want to point out about this -- go ahead. >> no, please. >> i was going to point out one other thing in this study, all

of the covid-19 patients were infected before vaccines were available. so doctors are telling me, you know, the vaccines really do appear to cut the risk of not only covid-19, but also heart risk long-term, those who are treating patients in the hospital are saying that the majority of those heart problems are among unvaccinated. jose? >> yeah, dr. varon, you know, you are there serving our communities, day in and day out. if this study indicates that covid can leave patients with these risks for at least a year following infection. how do you see it? >> i mean, we see it exactly like that, jose. it's amazing, up to 30% of people who had symptomatic covid may have some kind of residual long-haul syndrome. and the cardiac or heart manifestations can be anywhere from having skipped beats or complete con jessive heart failure. some have to be added to the

heart transplant list. this is serious issue. and just as what was said earlier, most of them were people that before the vaccines were available. so to some extent, vaccination may have some protection on this. >> so dr. varon, what do you tell our people, the people that are watching you about how, if they had covid, what should they be looking out for? >> i think, you know, what they need to do is the first, and if you have any symptom that doesn't -- that shouldn't be there, talk to your health care provider. i mean, that's important. because the earlier you pick out some of these manifestations, the better chances you have of at least controlling them or fixing them, if possible. >> and quickly, dr. varon, pfizer postponed its fda request for children under 5. the company saying these small children may need three doses instead of two. what's your reaction to that? >> i think that they are doing the right thing. there are a lot of questions as to whether or not we should or should not vaccinate kids.

the primary and most important concern is the data. and the data that they had shows that two vaccines are not enough for the kids. so it's -- you know, they need to get more information. and that's where we are at at the present time. >> dr. joseph varon, erica edward, thank you both for being with me this morning. i so appreciate your time. still ahead, hoping statements expected today in the land mark federal trial of three white men convicted of killing ahmaud arbery. how this trial is different from the first, next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." erent from the first, next. you're watching "jose you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. what's possible and balance risk and reward. and with a clear plan, rayna can enjoy wherever she's headed next. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. who's on it with jardiance? she's headed next. we're 25 million prescriptions strong. we're managing type 2 diabetes... ...and heart risk. we're working up a sweat before coffee. and saying, “no thanks...” ...to a boston cream. jardiance is a once-daily pill

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nbc's blayne alexander. blayne, good morning. how is this case different than what we saw in the last trial? >> reporter: race will be at the forefront of this, in a way that we didn't see during the murder trial that was put on by the state prosecution. we know that this is going to be notable in a couple of ways. one, this is a federal crime, so no cameras allowed inside. but we know that they have just reconvened after taking a recess earlier this morning. both sides are now going through their strikes, but we expect opening statements to begin some time later today. this is going to be different, of course, because the prosecution now has the burden of essentially proving racial animus, that the three men, who have now been convicted of killing ahmaud arbery, did so because they had racial animus, racial prejudice against him and they made an assumption against him that day back in february of 2020, when they saw him running down the street and ultimately decided to chase him down and resulted in his death. the other important thing about

this to note, jose, is you remember, this is one of three very high-profile deaths, three high-profile killings that sparked so many of those protests that we saw back during the summer of 2020. all of them around racial injustice in america. well, this is going to be the first time that we've actually seen the issue of race, as connected to those three deaths come face-to-face or become at the forefront when it comes to a court proceeding. that's why this will be so closely watched because of the precedent that it will set. >> blayne alexander in atlanta, thank you so much. today marks four years since the mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. and survivors and victims' families are taking action. manuel oliver sat atop a crepe in front of the white house this morning. in a video posted to twitter, he said he asked president biden for a meeting in december to talk about gun reform. he was actually here with us on the program in december, but he

says that he hasn't had one yet. his wife, patricia, explained what manuel was doing earlier on cnn. >> he understands joaquin in a way to be here. and since we were in the white house in december, expecting being seen by joe biden, our president, he would either receive us, or we would have to find a way to send a message, and today is a special day, because sadly, it is our fourth year without joaquin. >> meantime, a moment of reflection was held just a short time ago at 10:17 a.m., in broward county. the names of the 17 students and staff killed that day were read aloud. still ahead, a lawsuit against tesla that makes horrific allegations of racism inside a california factory. what tesla is saying about those accusations, next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports.

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rights agency claims racial slurs were regularly used against black employees, by both colleagues and managers. the lawsuit also claims that tesla desperatelied black workers into separate working areas at its factory outside of san francisco. nbc news has reached out to tesla for comment on the lawsuit. before it was filed, the company published a blog post that reads in part, quote, a narrative spun by the dfeh and a handful of plaintiff firms to generate publicity is not factual proof. attacking a company like tesla, that has done so much good for california should not be the overriding aim of a state agency with prosecutorial authority. tesla has called the department's plans to sue unfair and counterproductive. joining me now to break this all down for us is nbc news correspondent, jacob ward. jacob, good morning. walk us through these allegations. they're horrendous allegations. >> reporter: they are, jose.

the terms that the lawsuit alleges were used regularly across this particular operation, in fremont, california, are honestly unrepeatable. i could not say them on air in good conscious. but they are horrific. they also, the state department of fairness and employment and housing asserts were part of a pattern of keeping black employees at the lowest levels of the company, segregating them in where they worked, and racist terminology used to refer to those places, over and over again, the lawsuit alleges, literally hundreds of employees said that they were subjected to regular harassment. the common use of the n-word, and that when racist and in some cases nazi iconography was found on the job site, it took an extremely slow amount of time to actually clean it up. all of this, they say, is part of a pattern of harassment, and has led to these allegations,

which date all the way back to 2012, according to the agency, jose. >> in this lawsuit, is there some video photographic evidence of any of this stuff? >> reporter: well, we haven't seen exactly what evidence the state is going to be stuff? >> we haven't seen exactly what evidence the state is going to be relying on here. it is a good assumption that tesla does have internal surveillance video, but we don't know whether the state will be relying on that. we do know that witness testimony is a huge part of this and we have seen past cases, civil and federal cases against tesla in which people made similar claims back in october. an elevator operator received an award of about $130 million for being repeatedly exposed to harassment. and so we're looking certainly at a pattern we have seen in the past. at this point we also know that tesla requires both its direct hires and staffing agency hires to sign a waiver that makes it

basically impossible for them to pursue legal cases against the company, but the government does not have to respect those arbitration agreements and that's part of why this one has gone forward. also worth noting this is going to be basically the swan song for tesla in california. they are relocating to austin, they have four plants in the world and one in california. it's going to move there. that's taking about 30,000 employees with them. so this is sort of a bittersweet final act between the state and tesla here in california, jose. >> and, jacob, where does the case go next? >> jose, i'm terribly sorry, i have lost my connection on this side, i cannot hear it. >> the always professional jacob ward. thank you very much for being with me this morning. i appreciate it. up next, controversy at the olympics. the major decision allowing a russian skater to compete despite failing a banned

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first responders are still digging through the debris. a bridge crucial for millions of dollars of trade a day between the u.s. and canada is now open again after being blocked for a week protesting canada's vaccine mandate. a judge ordered demonstrators to leave friday. protests continued in ottawa with trucks blocking streets and blaring horns constantly. >> in beijing, the russian figure skater who failed a doping test weeks ago is allowed to continue competing but it won't be receiving any medals until the case is resolved. kamila valiyeva has tested clear twice since that test in december. gadi, what's the reaction to this decision? >> reporter: it's starting to feel like those moments in elementary school when a teacher

tells a class everybody is punished until we work this out. except for here we're talking about olympians who have been training their entire lives dreaming of this moment. now they're being told no medal ceremony in the foreseeable future. and on top of that, these athletes are heading into another week of competition against countries that have faced scrutiny. and the case against kamila valiyeva and her coaches continue. they decided against barring her from competition back in december. one, she's a minor and therefore she's a protected person under the rules. it's unclear how some of the anti-doping rules apply to

minors. and two, she didn't get her results in time and, three, barring her from competition they say would create irreparable harm if she was later cleared. instead kamila valiyeva will be hitting the ice tomorrow. the russian team actually tweeted out their support with a smiley heart emoji. she's expected to win gold as the only woman to ever his two quads in competition. competitors are incensed, saying this appears to be another chapter in a pervasive and di regard. and saying "for the sixth consecutive olympic games russia has hijacked the competition and stolen the moment from clean athletes and the public. the ioc's temporary solution to all of this, no one's getting medals in any event in which

kamila valiyeva is competing. and they're asking that 25 skaters be allowed in instead of the 24 in case she wins and is then stripped of her medals. this won't be cleared up until way after the olympics. >> and a team in the u.s. made news this weekend. >> yes, erin jackson, huge bet by britney beau who gave erin who are spot. she knew erin had what it takes. boom, she did it. she's the first woman to win speed skating gold in nearly 30 years, the first black woman to win an individual speed skating medal. she just started speed skating in 2017. >> that's fantastic. >> gadi schwartz, gracias, amigo. that wraps up the hour for me.

be sure to follow the show online at jdbalart @msnbc. thank you for the privilege of your time. good morning. i'm wendy riser. western officials fear the window for a diplomatic solution may be closing. president biden says the u.s. will act decisively and swiftly to any further russian aggression, and today more u.s. troops will leave fort bragg for europe. if there is an attack, ukrainians say they are ready to defend their homeland. >> if my p