a happy note. tomorrow, we'll be live in germany where secretary of state blinken and vice president kamala harris are taking part in the munich security conference, a gathering of leaders and a large bipartisan congressional delegation lead by house speaker nancy pelosi as the world makes on vladimir putin's next move. i'll be reporting from munich in next couple days. but "meet the press daily" starts right now. but "meet the press daily" starts right now welcome to "meet the press daily". i'm chuck todd in washington and what may be one of the more consequential days of this biden administration. the president spoke in ohio. the white house looks to road test a new message and tone on the economy ahead of the state of the union address. by the way, that's less than two weeks away. right now, there are bigger problems. he's also facing the prospects of a war in europe, particularly

ukraine, potentially at my moment. they're accusing russian-backed separatists of shelling a kindergarten. this may be used as pretext for russia for a military action. russia has moved an additional 7,000 trooms to the boarder, not away from it, as russia vowed to do earlier this week. and making a diplomatic solution to the crisis less tenable, russia expedded the number two diplomat from moscow today. all evidence suggests a russian invasion could be imminent. >> how high is a threat of russian invasion right now? >> it's very high. they have not -- they have not moved troops out. they've moved more troops in. we have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in. every indication we have is they're prepared to go into

ukraine, attack ukraine. e prepa ukraine, attack ukraine. >> just a few hours ago, the secretary of state tony blinken echoed the president's warning telling the u.n. security council in very stark term what is u.s. intelligence suggests russia is planning. >> first, rush plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. in response to this manufactured provocation, the highest levels of the russian government may theatrically convene emergency meetings to address the so-called crisis. next, the attack is planned to begin. russian missiles and bombs will drop across ukraine, communications will be jammed, cyberattacks will shut down key ukrainian institutions. after that, russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been i v identified and mapped out in

detailed plans. we believe these targets include ukraine's capital, kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people. but let me be clear. i am here today not to start a war but to prevent one. >> some stark language. blinken is headed to munich for the munich security conference. vice president harris left for that earlier this morning. let's bring in our team of reporters. josh ledderman at the white house, courtney kube at the pentagon, richard engel in ukraine. josh, if you look today in some ways the president's rhetoric hasn't changed. we expect this to be imminent except it does look like it's the russian rhetoric that has the changed at the end of the week from the beginning of the week. obviously, the white house is on high alert. is the change in tone having them thinking this is now almost a fait accompli?

>> reporter: the main event that has heightened the concerns for the americans in the past couple days is the fact the russians put out this information suggesting they were de-escalating and u.s. intelligence coming to the conclusion that was basically a head fake. the biden administration is trying to be very narrow in their messaging in response to russia's moves right now because they're trying to avoid falling into one of several different misinformation narratives that vladimir putin has in place right now. so if russia does something that looks dees kala torry, responding positively to a diplomatic engagement, the u.s. dismisses it out of hand. the russians will use that to say it's the jingoistic americans. but they don't want to look like fools by letting the pressure off putin in response to de-escalation moves which turn

out to be nothing, which is what officials are telling us, more than 7,000 troops moved into the area as russian said it was de-escalating. i thought it was so interesting when tony blinken spoke to the u.n. today, chuck, the same screen you where colin powell presented that intelligence from the iraq war, he didn't shy away from that issue. he went straight at it making it clear that this administration has no ethical qualms about using declassed intelligence in this situation to try to shape public views about this the way they are. they feel like it's different because they're trying to stop a war rather than start one, but they also feel confident that some of what they're saying can be openly seen by folks like you and i looking at satellite photos and watching what's happening on the border and that that corroborates the publication that the biden administration is trying to make. >> courtney kube, i've seen some reports that if there is concern with our intelligence, is that all of our intelligence about russia's millimovements seem to

be coming from observational information, meaning satellite feeds and things like this, that there is a concern that we're not as wired into his inner circle and that we are blind to some thinking. what are you hearing at the pentagon? >> reporter: yeah. so, i understand that. if will's going to be a time when the u.s. is really blind to what's happened is after an invasion more than right now. it's not just that the u.s. has satellites. they have overhead imagery they're able to see what russia is doing along the border. but there's also a lot of information that comes in from partners, allies in the area who spend a lot of time gathering information about russia and have gotten really good at it in recent years, especially. so, the sharing of that information does give a much more fulsome picture, but chuck, you're really getting to the heart of the issue right now. the question i keep getting is when is this going to happen? and the reason it's so difficult for u.s. officials to know

exactly whether vladimir putin is making the decision and when it could happen is because everything they're looking at at this point is somewhat circumstantial, right. so the reason that there's so much confidence that he is likely to invade is because of what they're seeing happen around the borders, the buildup of this personnel, of equipment, moving closer to ukraine, bringing in some very sophisticated equipment and weapons systems that vladimir putin wouldn't necessarily bring in just for an exercise or just because, putting himself at risk in other parts, like in the far east, but he's taken so much of his military from that area and moved it in here. so from that perspective, it is somewhat circumstantial, what he's deciding to do here, as opposed to having some kind of a real smoking gun, vladimir putin himself or someone saying we've decided to invade on this day at this time. one thing antony blinken said that i found really interesting was when he talked about

preparing for russian missiles and bombs. that's something we have been hearing about for several weeks now as the possible way sort of an opening salvo of the military might into ukraine if this does happen, some sort of an invasion, is that it would most like i start from the air. there's a lot of emphasis on russian military, mechanized units, ground units, tanks, that are surrounding the border right now. but what we've been hearing is addition to the potential false flags, cyber operations, electronic warfare or jamming, the opening salvo would most likely be from the air. >> richard engel, take us on the ground today in ukraine. we've got -- first of all, there's been a couple developments. the russians officially accused ukraine of some violations with the united nations.

the u.s. believes there's a false flag. what are you hearing and seeing? >> reporter: the stage is set for potential conflict. you have 150,000 russian troops, air craft, missiles positions around ukraine. the question is what will start this potential war that the president thinks could start in the next several days. itself's a pretext. russia has been building a case that this is all hysteria, that it's russia that faces a real threat, and that it is the russian speakers in this country who are facing a potential genocide t quote vladimir putin, by the ukrainian government. this is the narrative putin has been telling his people and trying to tell the world, that the russian-speaking population here, particularly a group of russian-backed separatists, are persecuted by the ukrainian government. this morninging what we saw in

the early morning hours here was, according to the ukrainian military, a large attack on ukrainian towns and villages that started from the separatist areas. the largest since 2018. a lot of the border area is not heavily populates do it did not cause significant damage or casualties. one kindergarten in ukraine was damaged but no children were hurt. the ukrainians are saying this is an attempt to provoke them into a fight, to goad them into a fight to give vladimir putin an excuse to move in potentially as peacekeepers, to protect that besieged russian-speaking area, that besieged pro-russian enclave. now, the pro-russians are saying just the opposite happened. they say it wasn't an attack with dozens of mortars and

artillery that flew from their territory into ukraine. they say it was ukraine that started it, that they are the ones who are at risk and the ones who potentially need russian protection. it is a he-said-she-said but the ukrainian government is going out of its way to produce evidence and photographs to back up its claim while the separatists have not produced any physical evidence. >> from the zelensky government, if he didn't like the use of the word "imminent" two weeks ago, what do they feel about it today? >> reporter: the government for a long time now, we've been talking about this, has been accused of having its head in the sand, of trying to have it both ways, prepare for war but tell the people to remain calm because no war is coming. they seem to have rounded a corner in the last 24 hours since this attack, which they say came from separatists.

we're seeing the government much more active. they have been putting out photographs. they have been actively contacting journalists. zelensky himself is touring the country, meeting with troops. so if they were accused of being passive before, that passivity seems to have gone away. >> courtney kube, when you talk to folks from the pentagon, sometimes putin is just buying time because he's got another strategic reason here. is he just -- is it possible he's just waiting another couple of weeks because there's a specific time he wants to wait till after the olympics or something like this? is there any evidence that the pentagon has seen pointing to that? >> reporter: no. the officials i'm talking to say, look, they don't have any intelligence that says he's made the decision to go at this time on this date, but at the same time they don't have intelligence that says he's decided to wait either. again, they're looking at the

evidence surrounding it. weather is a big one we've heard about. night illumination at night, how big is the moon and when. we're in a period of high illumination now. that's something military planners look at. but they're looking at this with a u.s. military lens as opposed to how putin looks at it. one thing i have been hearing is putin has a history of making a decision at the very last minute. so theoretically he could do all of this, move al of this military might in and look like he's going to invade and at the very last minute turn it off. but i have to say what we're hearing act that as a potential several weeks ago, in the past couple days people aren't saying that as much they were. >> josh, do the biden folks accept the fact they may have to go public with more of this intel, show the work a little bit, if you will, instead of just saying take our word for it? >> reporter: absolutely. we saw antony blinken, the secretary of state, do that just this morning when we talked

specifically about how the u.s. has information that russia could go after specific communities in ukraine in addition to the type of military confrontation that a lot of us had been anticipating. we've never really seen work like this in real time to put out declassified information, not necessarily to try to yield one outcome but to try to prevent the other side from being able to act without people knowing exactly what they're doing. u.s. officials say they continue to plan to call this out in real time to the extent they can while protecting their sources and methods, chuck. >> a fascinating new strategy to watch, particularly here, as we've been conditioned to cover intelligence in the past. that's for sure. josh, courtney, richard, thanks for getting us started. much more ahead. we'll break it down with a panel of experts and a top senator on the foreign relations committee. later we'll get into domestic

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i have served and fought alongside nato allies for the better part of my adult life. but i can honestly say that i have never seen the alliance more relevant and more united and more resolute than i see it today. mr. putin says that he doesn't want a strong nato on his western flank. he's getting exactly that. >> that is the most fascinating unintended consequence of this showdown that putin's forced. it is actually restoring nato's relevancy. secretary of defense lloyd austin this morning at a press

conference as he wraps up his meetings. turning to more on the ukraine crisis, deputy national security adviser from the obama white house, jon allen, who has led nato forces and is now president of the brookings institution. general allen, react to this. obviously, it's not a good sign if we catch russia lying about de-escalation. >> chuck, thanks for having me on. good to see you, ben. this is the 21st century. conflict occurs not just in the physical domain and your pentagon correspondent was correct, focusing on tanks and airplanes, et cetera, but much of the conflict in the 21st century occurs in the information domain and the cyber domain. in that record, we have seen the russians manipulating the information domain dramatically throughout the last several weeks and attacking in the cyber

domain infrastructure within ukraine. in some respects it's so unbalance ukrainian leadership and the ukrainian population, but it's also to prepare the battle space potentially for physical operation. so the fact that the russians are lying shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. in fact, anyone who knows anything about information operations knows that the russian terms we use all the time to characterize deception and information coined by the russians and the soviets. so this is completely the conduct that we should be expecting from the russians at this point. >> ben, given your experience dealing with classified intelligence, are you surprised about how quickly we've made public some of these things? i mean, obviously there's been a strategic case for it. have you been surprised? and put that in context. compare it to how you guys would have done this just, say, ten years ago.

>> well, i'm very supportive of it. you know, chuck, back in 2014 and 2015, for instance, i felt frustrated at times that it was harder to get information declassified. an example, russia was providing lots of military equipment into eastern ukraine where russia was claiming that separatists were fighting in some kind of natural uprising against ukrainian oppression, where. in, what was happening is russia was pouring in military equipment and advisers across the border and just to declassify some overhead imagery of that would take us a period of days. i think it's very important that you don't allow vladimir putin to set the narrative as he wants it around an incident here because what he'll want to do to his own public and the global public opinion is make it look like ukraine was the aggressor and he had to respond. we may not believe that as americans, but that's the message he needs to try to bring the russian public along with a war that this time would be much more costly than crimea and also

to hold the alliance together. it's important that the united states establishes russia as the aggressor for the europeans. they've been putting this information out because it allows us to control the information environment around what is the perception of a potential russian invasion, and that will help us both blunt putin's effort to gin up domestic support in russia but also help bring along allies behind sanctions and the fortification of nato, all the things we're seeing. >> general allen, it feels as if it's clear to me there are exit ramps for putin if he wants them. in fact, whether we want to admit it or not, this pressure campaign has worked to a point where there are a couple of -- if he wants to take an exit ramp, declare some form of victory, he can. why do you think he hasn't taken it yet? >> well, i think he's hoping to position the united states and our allies to make potential security concessions ultimately

in the context of the security architecture in europe. i think he had hoped ultimately to unsettle nato. as secretary austin said, it's strengthened nato. i think he'd hoped to unsettle the sense of europeans about its relationship to nato and the united states. in fact, what you've seen is pretty dramatic leadership from the united states along with our partners in europe in creating a really solid front with respect to russian provocations and this completely russian contrived crisis and emergency. remember, ukraine is the innocent bystander here. and this is a russian crisis that has been created for his purposes, and we have to be resolute in this process. ben said it well. there's a whole series of sanctions that are out there that can be brought to bear. i think putin never imagined that this could backfire in the way that it has in creating solidarity, in creating american leadership in the aftermath of

the last administration, and american support for nato. we may well see with american troops streaming to europe by the thousands, we may well see according to jens stoltenberg yesterday, the establishment of battle groups on the eastern frontier of nato that never needed to be there before. but russia's threat to the eastern frontier of nato may, in fact, create not just a greater resoluteness, if you will, in nato, but also action to defend the nato area. >> ben rhodes, your take on the zelensky government here is, is he strong enough to sort of withstand this squeeze? a part of me feels putin just wants to antagonize and antagonize and create domestic exhaustion with the ukrainian government. >> very tough spot he's in. there is a degree of polarization in ukrainian

politics. there are people to his right, much more fervent nationalists, and there are some pro-russian factions, although the one thing i would point out, you know, we've been talking about how putin's executive actionings have had the reverse consequence in terms of strengthening nato unity and strengthening that u.s. presence in eastern europe. the other thing that's happened is that putin's aggression against ukraine has consolidated support inside of ukraine and moved in the direction of the european union to move to the direction of nato. the you looked at ukrainian public support for nato membership before 2014, before the annexation of crimea, it was very, very low. it has skyrocketed since russia annexed crimea and moved into those eastern regions. yes, zelensky is in the top political spot. if there's an invasion, they could try to overtly top it will government. but one thing that is a factor that has to be recognized by putin, his own actions have

consolidated ukrainian support. if there is a conflict, he'll face much more resistance, not just moving into partings of ukraine that are not as easy for him to move in into as crimea but also the way in which public opinion has shifted. >> putin's in a box of his own making. the question is how does he get out of it? general allen, ben rhodes, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspectives. >> good to be here. coming up, president biden's list of challenges at home. list of challenges at home youre at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. [a vulture squawks.] there he is. only pay for what you need.

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dove men+care. smoother, healthier skin with every shower. welcome back. while president biden navigates the escalating situation on the ukrainian border, he's got a host of domestic challenges to tackle. he spoke last hour at ohio about the economy. his administration officials are telling nbc news the white house is trying to craft a plan to refocus his economic message ahead of the state of the union, which is just 12 days away. those officials tell mike memoli and carol lee that biden will be leaning on empathy when it comes to inflation in an effort to show americans he feels their economic pain. mike memoli is traveling with the president in ohio. also with us, patrick gaspart, the president of the center for american progress. mike, to borrow a phrase from the '90s, this is a feel your pain type of pitch here.

i've heard this similar pitch that nobody will listen to the accomplishments until people feel as if things are getting better. >> reporter: that's right. he's doing these public events even if he's not paying much attention with the supreme court pick and other events getting more information. we saw today the white house thinks they have a very strong economic argue tomt make, especially as it relates to the work he's done on manufacturing, on infrastructure, of course, supply chain issues. and you heard the president without build back better to talk about anymore still making a number of sort of thematic tests. you heard him say we're building america better than before, rebuild america, we're betting on america's workers. >> i noticed the awkward build back better is gone, which has always been awkward to say.

they went with building. they changed the signage, right? if you have signage, it means -- >> that's right. >> that seemed to be significant for what it's worth. >> reporter: so that's track one, which is what they say tests really well not just with union workers but with suburban mothers, which is a key demographic this white house pays a lot of attention to. it's also really important in this region, which you know the map -- pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, wisconsin, the senate races are huge for the democratic party. track two is no one wants to listen to him talking about the things they've done until they feel like he understands that people are sick and tired of covid and they are still feeling the pain at the pump and the issues with higher food prices. last week is a good example of what the white house was trying to sew he feels their pain. he says i grew up in a family where when the price of gas went up a dollar a gallon, it had an impact. the signage last week was

lowering prices for american families. step three is to go out on the road and do it, which the white house says he'll be doing much more of that in the state of the union. >> mike memoli in ohio. they're break it down. thanks. patrick, you were smirking a little bit. >> yes. >> i want to get at this because i think i have an idea what you're smirking at because i get this same frustration, which is, look, it's obvious, right. we're in a difficult situation as a globe, right. it's been a rough couple of year. nobody feels totally stable. and, yes, the political environment stinks for the party in power. how do you deal with it? does it feel like -- does this feel like rearranging deck chairs? you have to do these things to show that you're doing these things? or is there just some things that can't be fixed right now? >> i was smirking at the notion that it all hangs on signage, chuck. you've nailed it.

everywhere in every community across america right now, we have the pandemic drag, we have the inflation drag, we have the partisanship drag. what mike said makes a lot of good sense. but i want to caution us here because politics, as i understand it and have experienced it, it is a business of incessant repetition. president biden, this administration can't push away from the successes. yes, they have to make it clear they feel americans where they're at right now, feel the pain, there's empathy. joe biden is good at that because that's an authentic thing for him. but at the same time, they have to remind folks month after month from now through november about the 5.7% growth in the economy, largest impact since 1984, about the 6.6 million new jobs, all the shorts in arms nap matters. and most importantly, joe biden needs to say during the

campaign, chuck, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. we have to make the comparison every day and remind americans that the things that have made it possible to open the economy again, republicans voted against every single one of those measures. that's critical. >> you sort of responded to what i was going to ask you to respond to, which is the david alexrod op-ed in "the times" that frames this debate. the state of the union is stressed. to claim otherwise and highlight the progress we have made without fully acknowledging the hard road we have traveled and the distance we need to go would seem off key and out of touch. you cannot jawbone americans into believing things are better than they feel. i read that last sentence and heard what you said, and in my head i said donald trump wouldn't take that advice. >> he would not at all. thank you, chuck. i've made a career out of agreeing with david axelrod and he's right more often than i am,

but if republicans were in power they would not be apologizing for the economy we have igt now right now. they'd be crowing on every cable broadcast, every hill in this country. i remember 4% unemployment at president trump and kevin mccarthy called it a triumph. now he's saying it's a sabotage. republicans have to brag about the things they have done. the way republicans have stood in progress for american working families. let's stop apologizing for our success as democrats. let's be clear that there is a road to go, challenges with inflation, but let's also understand that in 2019 the economy was in far worse condition than the economy that we have today in 2022. >> right. >> let's be honest about that. >> i'm curious what your

thoughts are on this issue that i've noticed. this happens during presidential campaign seasons in iowa, new hampshire, specifically where one party is doing all this negative didding against the party in power. but you're seeing this in a lot of key states right now, in pennsylvania, wisconsin, texas, where these primaries are very advanced, and there isn't a counter message. they're all sort of attacking biden too. do you think democrats should be responding more forcefully to this negative paid messaging that is all over the battleground states right now? >> you have to respond in a fulsome way. i think president biden is showing us that by uniting nato and our allies against russia right now. but there's a need to unite democrats behind an oppositional message to the tens of millions of dollars of misinformation that's being spread by republicans in state after

state. you know, chuck, it's interesting. the you look at these contests, look at missouri, republicans are challenged with the kinds of candidates that are likely to emerge from their primaries, the fact they're still yolked to donald trump. that will be a challenge to them. they struggle with january 6th and a national party that the republicans have that call it legitimate public discourse, a moment where americans are repulsed by what happened then and continuing to polarize with violence. there's an opportunity to push back on the economy, on the state of our democracy, what it takes to hold this nation together to make progress. republicans don't have a coherent message and there's a huge opening from the senate field and the gubernatorial playing field and congress as well. >> important point. democrats may be debating what the message should be. republicans, i mean, even mitch mcconnell said we're just running against them. patrick gaspard from the center of american progress, good to see you. appreciate it.

coming up, democrats grapple with what to do about russian sanctions abroad, election integrity concernses at home and the changing landscape of politics, tim kaine at the center of all these issues joins me after this. e issues joins me after this. these are the faces of listerine. the face of millions of germs zapped in seconds. the face of clean. the face of whoa! some are of intensity, others joy. all are of... various: ahhh...

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welcome back. as we said before the break, it's an understatement to say the white house has a lot on its plate right now. same is true for congress. lawmakers are up against a midnight deadline to fund the government and prevent a shutdown before the long weekend. senators could vote today on a resolution in support of ukraine after weeks of failed negotiations on a russian sanctions passage. joining me now, a member of the senate committee of foreign relations and armed services, tim kaine. senator, i want to start there.

i know a bunch of you are headed to munich for the security conference tonight. is that going to be enough to keep the lights on for the federal government? >> chuck, i think we're going to get there. we will pass this continuing resolution for a few weeks. the good news about it is i think we're now moving toward a breakthrough deal for the full appropriations bill, which will likely pass in march. that's a very good bill on priorities like national defense, you know, to have a credible deterrent threat against authoritarian nations like russia and china, the budgetlining up is going to be a strong one and we'll get this cr done. >> the sense of the senate on ukraine, does it look a little bit empty if there isn't an agreement on the sanctions bill itself? >> chuck, let me tell you what there is agreement on and the one area of dispute. we agree on what the sanctions package should be, and we agree

that russia will suffer these sanctions very drastically if they were to invade ukraine. and the third thing is we forged a consensus with our european allies. the reason we couldn't get a deal this week on the sanctions bill was because there was one area of disagreement. democrats said we should do the bill and impose sanctions only if there's an invasion. republicans wanted to impose sanctions right now regardless of whether or not there was an invasion. but the package itself is bipartisan, and we share it with our allies if russia invalds ukraine, they'll suffer very, very dramatic diplomatic and especially financial and economic consequences. >> i want to shift domestically, if you will, and i'd like to get you to react to what you hear out of the white house. they say essentially hey, we have tuch a more "i feel your pain" economic message. but some of this is -- there's not much you can do, but you

have to say. >> yeah. >> is it going to be enough? >> well, you know, chuck, you and i have talked about this before. if i were joe biden for state of the union, i'd be real candid and say, look, this has been the toughest two years in my lifetime for this country. if you just look at the number of people who have died, who have gotten sick, economic, job losses, people who couldn't see a new grandchild that was born in another state, people who couldn't go to a funeral of a friend because there wasn't a funeral. this has been absolutely brutal, unlike any time during my lifetime. i think he should say that. but he should say, look, there's an american comeback coming on. we have record job growth and gdp growth, we have wage and salary growth that's dramatic. we do have an inflation challenge, yes. we have to keep the other three trends going because they're great and manage in the fourth trend and let me tell you how we're going to do it. so he should acknowledge that the last two years have been brutal, but americans are

comeback people. americans like a comeback. he can give that speech. >> they could do something you're not crazy about, but the san francisco story this week, the recall of the school board folks. >> yep. >> to me it reframes a little bit the virginia governor's race and what we saw present with parental outrage and it's a clear picture for people that this was not about critical race nearly vry but it was about frustrations at government competence. can you get this done, do what you're saying, take care of your kids. how should democrats look at what happened in virginia given what happened in san francisco and the school board recalls? >> under democratic leadership in virginia, we have some of the best public schools in the nation, right? . i to look at s.a.t. scores? under democratic leadership it was high. but the pandemic has taken a toll on parents, on kids, take

an toll on teachers and others. sure, there was huge frustration, and i'm not -- i don't live in san francisco but, you know, what i hear is overwhelmingly you guys are more focused on renaming schools than you were on creating a learning environment that was safe. and if that happens, yeah, you're going to find local people will switch out local leadership and put somebody else in. what i worry about, and we saw this in virginia, it's one thing to say i don't like what the school board does, it's another to send a letter to their house saying i'm going to kill you and your children. the violent threats against these school board members, most of whom are parents with kids in school who want to run for next to no money or pay and do a good job. the kind of threats and violence against them go beyond the pale. i hope we can rein that back in, but you have to acknowledge it's been a difficult time for parents and kids. >> let me close with sort of this debate that the democrats -- i just had a version of it. you seem to be where david

axelrod is. you have to sort of hit the moment here. patrick gaspard says you have to cheer lead what you've done too. where do you come down? >> i completely agree with gaspard. i think if i were biden on march 1 i would start off with let's acknowledge it because he's speaking almost on the two-year anniversary. i think march 4th might be the anniversary of the first american death to covid, but it's essentially two years. i think he should start just acknowledging the brutal reality of the last two years. it's touched everybody, not all equally, but it's touched everybody. again, americans like a comeback story, and i think there's trends in omicron cases coming down, hospitalizations coming down, vaccination rates going up. those are positive trends. there are positive economic trends. there is the tough one on inflation. we have to grapple with it and have strategies to deal with it, but it shouldn't be just an i feel your pain speech, but it should be it's been tough and we're addressing it and some of

the strategies are working and we have more to do. >> senator tim kaine, thank you so much. still ahead, an alarming new client report warns that sea level rise is accelerating rapidly and that the american coastline could be hit with centuries worth of rising water levels in just 30 years' time. y. you're watching "meet the press daily." watching "meet the pres watching "meet the pres daily. ♪3, 4♪ ♪ ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪ now you can enjoy the best eggs in so many delicious ways. eggland's best. the farm-fresh taste you love. plus, superior nutrition. only eggland's best.

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welcome back. early voting for the texas march 1st primary is under way and voters are already feeling the impact of the new voting bill

enacted last year. antonio, i am waiting for close republican primaries where republican candidates are going to be upset at how many republican ballots got thrown away. what can you tell us? >> reporter: it's a whole new election landscape thanks to sb-1, two measures were popular here where a lot of people work atypical or long work hours, it has added more freedoms and movement for partisan poll watchers which is worrying some campaign and election workers that say they are worried about intimidation and confrontation. if you are applying to fill out your ballot and send it back in, you have to fill out your exact

social security number you used years ago when you first used it to vote, and many are finding they don't remember which one they used when they first did that. we have a sample. the information where you need to put in your identification number or social security is hidden under a flap in small writing. what we are hearing from the election administrator here, a lot of folks who are eligible to vote are sending it in, completely forgetting or not noticing what is here, and take a listen to what some shared with me. >> we are hearing from voters, there's changed where you have to put a number on there, and mail ballots are being rejected, and we are seeing an increase to

the call centers on voter confusion. if we reject their application or ballot, their opportunities to vote are dwindling. >> many voters are not going to be able to get their votes counted in time is the concern, chuck. >> and the consequences of more government intervention in a process that perhaps did not need anymore government intervention. thank you. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." coverage continues with katy tur. >> good afternoon. this afternoon biden told reporters russia could invade ukrain, in, quote, the next few days. blinken made a last-minute stop