thank you at home for watching "the sunday show." i'll be back next sunday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. but stay tuned because my friend alex witt has the latest. hi, alex. >> hey to you. you should have been here in the studio because as soon as your last guest, you confirmed she had suggested that it's going to be jim jordan and not kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house if the gop takes over, i was like, what! that was kind of your reaction too. >> yes. >> although more gracefully done than i just did. >> i'm in your hometown, alex, by the way. >> i know, i was going to talk about it. but really, you don't take me with you? >> sorry. >> we'll talk about it another time. have a good one. >> have a good show. >> thanks. a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york.

welcome, everyone, to "alex witt reports" we go behind the headlines with nbc's erin mclaughlin in ukraine. much to discuss, so josh lederman at the white house, we're going to start with you. >> reporter: alex, we are here at the white house where the national security council is being convened by president biden for an unusual sunday session. the white house saying it was important for the president to hear from his advisers on the ukraine crisis directly after vice president kamala harris and secretary of state antony blinken returned from europe where they were able to meet with the european allies playing a critical role in u.s. and nato efforts to push back on president putin. we heard from secretary of state antony blinken this morning on "meet the press" where he was discussing first of all his

agreement with president biden's biden that president putin has made a decision to invade, but also saying that the fact that putin has made that decision does not mean there is no place nor diplomacy, arguing that because putin has not actually gone ahead and sent troops and tanks rolling over the border, there is still a chance to pull back from the brink. >> while the die may be cast, until it settles, until the tanks are rolling and the planes are in the air, we're going to try everything we possibly can to get president putin to reverse the decision we believe he's made and to dissuade him. until the last minute there is still an option for him to pull back. that's what we're trying to do, we're trying to prevent a war. as soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect they have is gone, they get absorbed by president putin and he moves on. >> reporter: that was an interesting observation from the secretary of state, specifically about the timing of sanctions,

which has been an issue for democrats, who largely want to wait until putin invades, then using sanctions to punish him for it, rather than, as republicans prefer, to use sanctions to punish him now. the ukrainian leader is saying, if you guys are saying war is imminent, then why not sanction him now? but european leaders, especially germany, are saying that makes no sense, if you punish him before he does it, you're removing the deterrent effect. this white house meeting taking place today will be in the situation room. we know vice president harris, who is currently flying back from germany, she will be phoning into that virtually from air force two so that we can give president biden the latest and blinken the latest as the

secretary of state plans to meet on thursday with the russian foreign minister in europe, assuming that putin does not invade by then, alex. >> give me a sense of the expectation of a unified voice with this national security council meeting, josh. is everybody on the same page with the president? >> reporter: i have to say, from covering diplomacy and u.s. foreign policy for a while, they actually are very much on the same page. and also on the same page for the most part with europe. a week, two weeks ago, we were talking about some of those divisions between the u.s. and some of the allies on how tough to go on sanctions, whether the germans were really on board, for example, with cutting off russia's nord stream 2 pipeline. some of those divisions have really receded to the background. what we saw over the last two days, especially at that security conference in europe, was more of a united front between the u.s. and nato than we have really seen in decades. and a lot of u.s. officials saying they wonder whether that

show of nato unity is making putin think twice, that perhaps putin was expecting he could drive divisions between the u.s. and its allies that so far have not materialized, alex. >> josh, stay where you are if you don't mind for just a second. first, erin mclaughlin is standing by in kyiv. erin, this escalation we're seeing today, it doesn't necessarily mean that russia has made any extra moves. is that a correct read on it? >> reporter: well, today what we've seen are some diplomatic moves, and what's being described as a last-ditch effort to prevent war by french president emmanuel macron who spoke with russian president vladimir putin today for 45 minutes. according to the kremlin readout of that call, president putin

blamed ukraine for the recent escalation in violence. essentially that was going to be the story outlining sort of the tensions that are escalating here with continuous artillery fire across the line of contact with the ukrainian military accusing the russian-backed separatists of firing on them, of stoking this violence as a pretext for a greater escalation. meanwhile, this morning in belarus, the defense minister, they're announcing a continuation of the joint military exercises with russian forces, citing the violence in

donbas that's widely being seen as an ominous sign that the situation is deteriorating. >> so sorry about the audio on that package not coming through, we have to get that fixed and replay it for you on the next one. thank you so much. peter baker, msnbc political analyst and chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," and nbc's josh lederman is back with us as well. it was a very strong statement that president biden made, he said it in response to a question, it was not in prepared remarks. >> reporter: that's right, alex, from what we understand, president biden didn't go into that appearance making that specific piece of news. that wasn't part of what his aides had prepped him to do necessarily. but that assessment from the president is, from all accounts,

very consistent with what the u.s. intelligence community believes at this time. in the hours after that, we heard from the defense secretary, we heard from the secretary of state. both concurring with president biden's assessment of that. and in fact, the white house is not backing away in any way from that or suggesting that there has been any de-escalation. the white house saying in a statement last night that president biden was briefed yesterday by his advisers that russia still remains poised to attack ukraine at any time, alex. >> so how did you, peter, interpret that statement from the president? is it part of a strategy, trying to keep putin from actually invading? and are you at all concerned it could have the opposite effect on putin's psyche? >> well, look, i think he has tried, biden has tried throughout this whole thing to flag in advance what putin might do in order to sort of discredit the predicates and pretexts that the russians are trying to build for some sort of military action. by saying in advance, look,

here's this false flag operation that they're trying to stage, here is this video they're trying to put together, here is this coup they're trying to go organize in kyiv, and maybe now on friday the idea that the president of russia has actually made this decision, are all ways of sort of trying to push the russians off of their game so they can't simply find an excuse and go in and say we had no choice but to invade ukraine. by saying this he in effect creates a situation where putin may not want to prove that biden was right, that if he invades in the coming days, everybody will say biden was right and putin saying this is just western hysteria was wrong. that may not deter him for a long period of time, but i think the tactic that the americans have used to sort of throw the russians off their game through this information war has probably been as effective as anything, maybe more than the deterrent effect of sanctions and other deterrents they've

been trying in the past. >> yeah, but what are the chances, given what you know about president putin and having worked in moscow, you know the mentality here, what are the chances that putin is going to say, i'm not invading and i'm going to prove this american president and the nato leadership is wrong, by not invading? >> i mean, that's the best hope right now, that the americans and western allies have right now, that putin wouldn't want to seem like he was simply proving biden right. but that may not be enough. that's the problem, it's not really up to the americans or the west, it's not up to ukraine, right now it's entirely up to one man, vladimir putin. i've been thinking about this in the last few days, why would he want to do this? you would think this wasn't a good thing for the russians, putting aside effect western sanctions might have, having a war against 40 million people who aren't going to accept you with open arms has not been a good thing for other countries that have tried it in the last

decades. this is a pig in a poke that he could be buying here, an ugly, nasty war with body bags and russian boys coming home. he's turning 70 soon, he's thinking about his historical legacy, great russian leaders in history are those seen to have expanded the empire rather than shrank it. he's still bitter about the breakup of the soviet union. this is one way he could get into the history books, as he says it, to restore russian greatness on the world things. that's a hard thing to deter remember that's a hard thing for diplomacy to unravel, if you have this messianic view of history and your role in it. >> peter, you mentioned sanctions. there's a debate over when to implement extreme sanctions on russia. the ukraine president is asking, what are you waiting for? yet domestically some republicans want it right now. the administration says we need to hold back, we want to keep leverage with this. is there a better argument to be made for either side with respect to putin and russia? >> it's interesting, it comes in

this sort of black and white choice, as if you can only do all sanctions at once or none. nobody seems to be talking about the idea of why don't you do some sanctions now with the idea that you will escalate them if they escalate, right? that seems to be more a proportionate type of thing. there are ways of going after putin's money, for example, that they haven't done. why haven't they talked putin's overseas financial holdings which are widely believed to be out there with the idea that they could say, if you keep going further, we'll keep going further as well, and if you pull back, we'll pull back as well. in other words, what you hear from the administration is, it's either all or nothing, either you do all sanctions now and lose the deterrent effect in which case putin would go ahead and invade, or we don't do any sanctions at all. i'm surprised nobody is talking about an escalating approach. >> good point there. vice president harris delivered a strong message in yesterday's

speech she delivered at the munich security conference and at a news conference today. how important was her turn on the world stage for both the white house and for her, the vice president? >> reporter: this really was the most significant foreign policy moment so far for vice president harris, particularly after her inaugural trip to latin america did not particularly work out well for her, generated some bad headlines. what we saw happen in munich was the white house using harris to really send -- to be that face of u.s. unity with nato, really sending a message that's fairly consistent and has been part of the white house message for all along now. so they kind of are leaving to secretary of state blinken, who was actually on the ground there, had a chance to meet with his ukrainian counterpart, to do the in-the-weeds negotiating and coordinating, and have harris focus on the high level white

house message of, we stand with ukraine, we're here to support you, we're going to galvanize the rest of the west. the white house kind of playing it safe, i guess, is one way to look at it, with the way that harris was used on this trip. but so far, it was fairly successful for her in terms of being able to showcase her ability to deliver that kind of a message on a world stage with heads of state. >> hey, peter, quickly, your take on it, the vice president's role, how it was perceived by those at the conference and how it positions her domestically. >> she doesn't have a long history with foreign affairs, that's true. but you see the biden administration pulling out all the stops, saying we're going to send every single high profile person we have, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the president is on the phone with his counterparts. we're taking this seriously, this is not, you know, a sideshow, this is at the front and center of the united states, you know, focus at the moment and this is a big priority for us. she doesn't bring anything to

the table in terms of a history in foreign affairs per se, but she brings the stature of the number two person in the united states, representing the president of the united states, saying this is our top priority at the moment. >> peter baker, always good to see you, thank you for joining us. josh, my friend, thank you for sticking around, we'll see you again, guys. queen elizabeth has covid. the latest on her condition and her prognosis, next. prognosis, . every business is on a journey. and along the ride, you'll find many challenges. ♪ your dell technologies advisor can help you find the right tech solutions.

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breaking news out of the uk. queen elizabeth testing positive for covid-19. nbc's molly hunter joins us from outside buckingham palace. molly, there are three big questions here. what is the queen's condition? is there reason for alarm? and did this come as a surprise? >> reporter: whew, alex, i wish we had answers to all of those. so we have very few details from buckingham palace. they announced this morning, just a short while ago, that she

is experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms but that she expects to be at her desk this week performing light duties at windsor. the big questions, alex, we have no idea when she actually tested, did she take the test this morning, yesterday, a couple of days ago? did she have symptoms right away, for example? we don't know where she might have caught it. she's not the first royal recently to have covid. so on february 10th, i'll take you back almost two weeks, we learned that prince charles had tested positive for covid for the second time. at the time we asked the palace has the queen seen her son. they said she had seen him recently. camilla tested positive on the 14th. we had no update on the queen's health on february 14th. then on february 16th, we saw the queen holding a public event, greeting military leaders, she wasn't wearing a mask, she looked healthy. i think the message there was

she doesn't have it. then of course this morning we got this statement. we just really don't know if there is more to that. we have asked the palace, as you know, alex, the palace is not in favor of giving us rolling health updates. i think we do expect, though, something more in the next couple of days. >> okay, that's good to know. if you do all the math with omicron and how quickly it travels, it isn't clearly adding up. that's the point you've been making. what i know you and i agree on is we certainly wish her well and hope she is soon back to her fighting spirit. thank you so much, molly. the january 6th committee is working to close the gap from records to interviews. the panel is working to put together its comprehensive report on the events surrounding the attack on the capitol. earlier today committee member jamie raskin spoke about what americans could expect to see from them. >> we'll have hearings that tell the story in a digestible and

comprehensible way to the american people about what took place and we'll document the weaknesses in our political system that allowed it to happen so we'll know how to fortify our institutions going forward. >> marc veasey is a congressman and a co-chair of the voting rights caucus, a good friend to us. keywords i want to pick up there from congressman raskin, digestible and comprehensible, that's how he expects this report to read. will it impact the future of our electoral process? >> i hope that it makes the future of our electoral process better, more fair, and make it impossible for republicans to ever try to say that the candidate that they were behind just by the mere, you know, fact that they lost, that the election was somehow rigged and that we should move forward with a process.

and so to me, that's the most important thing. we obviously need to let the american public be able to know all the facts around january 6th so we can have some closure. and then also so we can just be able to move forward with the people in our country knowing that elections here are secure and they can't be overturned again, just because the other side lost. what happened was terrible, and i don't think that people realize just how much something like that could imperil our democracy in the future. >> move forward and hopefully with some lessons learned. to that end, what has been the most striking revelation for the committee? and how important would these upcoming hearings and the overall report be for democrats as they head into the midterms? >> i think for me, more than anything else, is the fact that we still have so many of our

colleagues on the republican side that just won't come out and say that there was not a lot of widespread fraud, that you have now finally mitch mcconnell saying that this was an insurrection, and that this was not, you know, as the republican national committee said when they tried to legitimize it, that it wasn't public discourse, that it was an insurrection. we have so many republican colleagues that see this as an opportunity to rile up their base or win a republican primary. and they just won't stand up and do the right thing. and so i think that we have a long way to go in that category. >> what you're saying there, are there ever whispers in the hallways, are there friends of yours on the other side of the aisle who say to you, we know what happened on 1/6, we just can't say it publicly? >> oh, yeah, absolutely.

i had a republican colleague of mine from the south that i have a great relationship with, that voted the wrong way on january the 6th, and he said that if i had done the right thing, i can guarantee you that the person that would beat me in the republican primary, that you would dislike them a lot more than you dislike me, because standing up and doing the right thing on this for a republican is impossible. and that's sad. and look at what kinzinger and cheney are going through right now in their own party, being censored by their own party for doing the right thing. i just think it's a sad time in our country. and as we look at what's happening around the world in places where they have authoritarian regimes, and for us to sort of think that could never happen here, for us to hold our noses up and think we're somehow better, we need to take a good look at ourselves in

the mirror and figure out how we're going to make sure that we don't move closer and closer to a lot of these countries that are okay with taking away rights from people. >> it is extraordinary, mccarthy endorsing liz cheney's primary opponent, how often does that happen, that you endorse the primary opponent of a sitting member of congress? we'll see if it serves him well, let's hope the folks in wyoming are smarter than that. in texas, your state, where the state's restrictive voting law is impacting early voting for that march 1st primary under way, thousands of ballots are at risk right now for being rejected for errors if voters don't correct them soon. a majority of those errors involve the state's new i.d. requirements. what are you seeing in your district about this, what are you hearing from your constituents? >> oh, it's so confusing right now, which is one of the things republicans wanted to do when they passed this law, they hoped

that ballots and applications would be rejected and people would just throw their hands up in the air and give up. i had a constituent call me, around 80 years old, that lives in a community in fort worth, one of the historically black communities in fort worth, call me two days ago and say that their ballot or application was turned down, and that they were going to just go ahead and go vote in person. but i worry about the sick and shut-in, the person that doesn't have a ride to the polls, that have their application thrown out because of this stupid new law that republicans passed, and that person just simply not voting. i really worry about that, alex. and i think that this is really just the beginning of laws that will lead to more and more rejection rates. i think you'll see republicans go back to the drawing board in

2023 when the regular session returns, to look at how they can further make it harder for people in texas to vote, particularly people of color. this is just too good for them to pass up. and they're not going to stop in their efforts. >> texas congressman marc veasey, many thanks for the chat, appreciate it. have a good one. the action taken this weekend to end the three-week-old standoff in ottawa, and the answer to the question, who is supporting the protesters financially? o is sup o is sup protesters financially its powerful decongestant targets congestion at the source, with a dual action formula that relieves nasal congestion and soothes sinus pressure by reducing swelling in the sinuses. for instant relief that lasts up to 12 hours, try vicks sinex. from vicks - trusted relief for over 125 years. [sfx: voice relief] (vo) you can be well-dressed.

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ukraine, americans may suffer some consequences. >> maybe we will incur some costs. in this situation, that may relate to energy costs, for example. but we are taking very specific and appropriate, i believe, steps to mitigate what that cost might be if it happens. >> cnbc anchor hadley gamble joins me now from munich, addly, welcome to you. i want to ask you about the role that oil and gas are playing in this crisis. but first, i want to have you recall the interview that you conducted with president putin in moscow last october. in that interview, hadley, did you hear anything that suggested or indicated in any way that we would be where we are, here, today? >> reporter: good afternoon, alex, and thank you so much for having me join you from munich. when i sat down with vladimir putin, we were there for 2 1/2 hours. i peppered him with questions, the first of which was whether

or not he was using energy as a weapon to gain ground against the west, against his european counterparts. i also asked him whether we were in the middle of an arms race, he said yes, absolutely we are. he reiterated again and again the close relationship between russia and china and essentially made it very clear he still has some very, very big demands for the west, one of which of course is the overarching narrative we've heard for the last 20 years that he's been in power, which is that nato allies, he believes, are encroaching on russian territory. this dates back to his time frankly which he was a kgb agent in east germany, he was upset, of course, with the fall of the soviet union, and there are real facts behind the idea that this is something that he carries with him, that he has a narrative there, that he's pushing not just at home but abroad. it was interesting over the weekend, i had the chance to speak to various european leaders, one of which was the chancellor of germany. he told me vladimir putin has a trust deficit with nato allies,

the west, and europe. listen to what the german chancellor told me. >> first, he can trust us. nato is not aggressive. the european union is not. we are not wanting to flatten russia. we have to convince him to not do this military aggression. what we are working for is that we get agreements. he's asking for agreements. when we have them, we should trust that all parties are sticking to them. >> so you believe you can trust vladimir putin? >> we have to work with the world and the countries that are really existing. >> reporter: so that was the german chancellor. i asked him there, you know, can you trust vladimir putin, he said, well, he can trust us.

that's very interesting coming from the germans. at the end of the day, there was a lot of conversation over the last three days in munich, whether this was a rapprochement among all nato allies. but you have to remember that all of these different european countries, all these nato members, have competing, at times, agendas. for example, the leader of italy has said energy sanctions shouldn't be on the table because they import 90% of their energy, a lot of that, from russian sources. for germany, they've just completed an $11 billion gas pipeline, nord stream 2. you have to wonder for them whether this is going to come at the cost of their economic security, alex. >> yeah, and to the point you make when you asked vladimir putin about whether he uses oil, gas, energy, as a geopolitical weapon, boris johnson, the uk prime minister, said europe needs to wean itself off russian oil and gas. does oil give putin any sort of an upper hand in this crisis,

hadley? >> reporter: absolutely. natural resources, who owns them, who imports them, who produces them, always influences politics, if you will. it's something we cover all the time on cnbc, the politics of energy. and essentially what we see here is a petrodollar economy. oil and gas prop up the russian economy. a lot of that comes from the arctic. when we talk about global warming, there's a big understanding in the kremlin that what they get from that area, from the actual arctic area in terms of oil and gas, it's not going to be there for very long because the arctic, as we all know, is melting. so they have a lot of problems with their economy, it's an economy that's smaller than the size of california. when you talk about this as a strategic move by putin, essentially we've seen over the last year, gas prices in europe, where they import at least 40% of their gas from russia, have been up over 400%, those prices, and they've been incredibly volatile since the beginning of the year. oil prices are over $90 a

barrel. the question is, not only how does that pinch the european economies, but the u.s. economy as well. >> i appreciate that comprehensive report, hadley gamble, from europe. police make over 200 arrests, effectively ending the trucker freedom convoy in ottawa over vaccine mandates. mackenzie gray, are there any remnants of the protests at this time? >> reporter: alex, it's all done now. most of the protesters who were milling about in front of the police line have left. i've been walking through it today. maybe about a dozen or so protesters giving a half-hard command of "freedom" when they occupied downtown ottawa in front of parliament.

mps are debating new powers to push the protesters out. and police successfully did that yesterday, hundreds of police officers pushing down wellington, smashing in windows of trucks, using pepper spray on protesters, and dispersing the protest that lasted three weeks in ottawa. >> will this have a trickle-down effect, preventing other protests, one in windsor, down the bridge from detroit? does this mean once it's done in ottawa, you don't expect them to creep up elsewhere? >> reporter: the new sweeping power that the federal government has granted that hasn't been used in 50 years in canada, makes it criminal to attend a protest or to block roadways or monuments. this gives police new powers in canada they don't normally have to stop these kind of assemblies in bid to hope that the hundreds

of millions of dollars in trade will be blockaded. they're trying to make sure more protesters come back in. but judging from the scenes here today, it looks like the protesters have gone back home and ottawa can go back to being the boring, sad government town that ottawa is. >> you say that with a smile. thank you for your report from that boring place although i found it very interesting. thank you. up next, take a good look. our panel will get to choose their topic with a twist. l wille behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, ple neuriva. think bigger.

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the breaking news this hour, vice president harris set to return to the u.s. after a critical turn on the world stage, delivering america's keynote message on the escalating russia/ukraine crisis. on the domestic political front, the alarming news of classified documents recovered from mar-a-lago, the tangled web of the durham investigation, and conservative media seizing on it, witlessly declaring it worse than watergate. the gop culture war alarmingly potent. and the ultimate choose your

topic topic. you pick whatever issue you would like to discuss not seen here on the screen. joining me, my sunday family, don callaway, democratic strategist and founder of the national voter action protection fund. susan del percio, republican strategist, and david jolly, former congressman from florida and an msnbc political contributor. welcome, all. here we go, don. you first. the ukraine question, mar-a-lago documents, tangled durham web, gop culture wars, wild card, you picks had you pick. don? >> that's horrible. i'm going to go with the classified documents at mar-a-lago. sorry about that, alex. >> that's okay. go for it. >> the bigger picture here, if we get extraordinarily philosophical, just because it's sunday, of course there are classified documents at mar-a-lago, of course he didn't comply with the presidential record act or any of the other

norms or conventions that have come to be the hallmark of a working democracy for the last at least 100 years if not dating back to the beginning of this. so the bigger picture here is that whether you're talking republican or democrat, let's get past the celebrity, let's get past how many ads they can pay to put themselves in front of us and let's think about who has the real character to pay attention to things that make government flow. to pay attention to the rules, to pay attention to the norms. because ultimately, when you see something small, that person has no integrity with something that's big and that's how you get to january 6th. that's what these papers mean to me. >> susan, what's your pick? >> i'm going to go with the culture wars. and flipping it a little bit as to, how the democrats should approach the republicans' messaging and try to really, instead of defending it, start trying to define themselves. what i'm particularly curious

about, since critical race theory played a critical part in the virginia governor's race, why aren't the democrats talking about what they've done on education? they've spent $100 billion, or have earmarked in the covid relief bill, for schools. teachers are getting better training. there's so many things happening. and i wish the democrats would, again, stop defending and start defining themselves. it really can make a difference when they're fighting in some of these swing districts. >> you're echoing exactly what the dcc is saying they need to do. david, your turn with another pick or responding to something you've heard. >> i'll do a pick your own. it's actually the legal case in trump world and january 6th this week, where a judge issued an opinion of over 100 pages, refusing to dismiss charges or a suit against donald trump that was brought by, i believe, eric

swalwell and other members of the congress. the reason it's critical, congress, of all the lawsuits out there, this is the lawsuit that says donald trump is responsible for the events of january 6th. it suggests that he laid the predicate with the big lie, he issued the invitation to dc, then he told the crowd to charge the capitol. the reason that's important is the judge said, look, donald trump very well might have unclean hands so i'm going to let this suit proceed. and the important thing that i want to know about donald trump's involvement in january 6th is, did the former president have knowledge that the proud boys and other people capable of committing violence were actually embedded in that crowd? did donald trump have knowledge of that and still tell people to go to the capitol? that's why i think this judge's decision was so important this week. >> you make a really good point there and i agree with you. don, back at you for a second crack at a topic. what do you want to discuss? >> gosh, let's go wild card.

is that still -- >> yep, that's on there. >> let's go to the wild card. >> which is, what's on your mind most pressing that you want to make a point with? >> oh, i didn't know the wild card was going to mean i had to pick. >> dude, i don't have cards in my hands, i'm not like shuffling a deck. [ laughter ] >> okay, here's what i'll say. kamala harris is coming back, if she's not already landed today, because the white house has settled on a pick for a supreme court justice. i'm pretty sure it's going to be ketanji brown jackson, i'm very excited for her, she's eminently qualified. i'm proud of the position that j. michelle childs took from too, she made it clear one need not come from a circuit court or an ivy league school to be in consideration. i think it's kbj as our new supreme court justice.

>> you recovered very nicely on that one. susan? >> i'll go with the world stage and where we are as a nation and how that's probably going to affect biden moving forward, especially looking at the state of the union. and we see a picture right there of vice president harris, harriy made a big debut on to the foreign policy stage with her appearance in germany and talking about the u.s. response to the ukraine, but what i find so interesting about president biden's tactic here is that he has been so far ahead of the news on this, in fact, making the news, unlike all of his other policies, whether it's afghanistan or inflation, he seemed to be chasing the news and not really showing that he has his hands on the issue. when it comes to ukraine, not only has he been addressing the american public, but i think he's doing something so important, which is to show this country that we are now back on

the world stage working with our allies, and that we are able to do that is a tremendous thing and something that this country has been lacking for the previous four years. >> absolutely, because it was much more of an isolationist approach on that front. okay. david, final selection for the week for you or commenting on what the rest of the family has said today? >> i will take the durham filing in the russia matter because facts matter and the right wing media is going to tell you that all of a sudden under these allegations about donald trump and russia matter. they do. recall whatever gets to the end of the durham court hearings, recall donald trump personally asked russia to meddle into the -- he sided with putin over our on domestic intelligence. justice will be served related to the durham filings but that does not become the bigger story than the fact that donald trump

publicly flirted with vladimir putin and russian interests ahead of the united states. >> this whole durham issue, it is so convoluted, so messy and you have the right wing media, david, really, you know, emphasizing something that's not even there technically speaking. i mean, how damaging is that? >> it is, because of the ability of an irresponsible media to amplify t look, durham's latest filing is cat nipped to the far right and if there were -- if there were rules broken, laws broken, great, okay, then justice should be done in that case but i think that brings us to the bigger point which is you can have justice around procedures, but look at the substance of donald trump's behavior and his relationship with russia because that was the national security risk, is today and could be again after '24. >> don, susan, david, good to see you guys. thanks. history just made at the olympics, one last look before we say good-bye to beijing next. e e we say

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sadly it is the last day of the beijing olympics and, boy, did the weather make it hard on the athletes. american jessie dig begins fighting through snow squalls, but taking silver in the 30 kilometer cross-country race. she said she was sick with food poise thing on saturday, spent the whole day in bed. she said today's race may have been her best ever. disappointment for mikaela shiffrin, they narrowly missed capturing bronze in a mixed gender alpine event. shiffrin leaving without any medals. finland beat russia 2-1 winning its first gold in men's hockey. elana meyers taylor will serve as the team usa flag bearer during the closing ceremony. she's now the most decorated black athlete in winter olympics history and has hinted these games will be her last.

so she goes out on a real high note. russia's war games at belarus were scheduled to end today but apparently word now that they will continue some 190,000 russian troops amassed along the ukraine border. and president biden today meets with his national security council just two of the new developments on the crisis in ukraine. we have a series of reports coming to you next. and one voice, one vote, and thousands are being rejected in texas. a dramatic new development in our next hour. texas. texas. the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? yep! every business deserves it... like one's that re-opened! hi, we have an appointment. our next hour. ! i'll take one in blue please! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing business customers our best deals on every iphone. ♪ ♪ and it's easy to get a quote at libertymutual.com

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♪♪ a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headers in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin with the breaking news on the crisis in ukraine and some new reporting from nbc news suggesting u.s. intelligence has learned that russian military officials have been given an order to go ahead with an invasion of ukraine. a u.s. official and another person with knowledge of the matter tells nbc news that this is what informed president biden's assertion that president putin has decided to invade ukraine. also new today president biden convened a meeting of the white house national security council to discuss the crisis, officials telling nbc news the meeting was set for the situation room and that vice president kamala harris was joining via secure connection from air force two and she is on her way back to washington from that