this sunday on the brink. >> russia giving every indication that it plans to invade ukraine. >> the troops in. >> shelling intensifies in eastern ukraine. a possible pretense for a russian invague. >> we're talking about the potential for war in europe. >> ukraine's president zelensky calling for sanctions now. >> you are telling me that it's 100% that the war will start in a couple of days. then what are you waiting for? >> we'll get updates on the

crisis from ukraine and moscow and i'll talk with the secretary of state antony blinken and to the former ambassador to ukraine william taylor. plus, left behind. >> pay attention to education first and only. >> three school board members in progressive san francisco ousted in part for prioritizing politics over schools. >> this came from parents who were upset and frustrated and stressed out. >> how much could exhaustion from politics hurt democrats in november? also, face up. as cases plummet and more andre mandates, joining me are washington post ashley parker. peggy noonan.

yamiche alcindor and nbc news pentagon correspondent, courtney kube. welcome to sunday. it's meet the press. >> announcer: from nbc news washington. the longest running show in history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it certainly looks as if the chances of they're going to war in ukraine. after it was said they were pulling back troops, that was a lie, they were adding. they claimed ukraine was about to attack. russia carried out its own military exercises on all sides of ukraine yesterday in a show of force and president biden says he believes russia will invade in the coming days and believes kyiv's in putin's

sights. the lights are blinking red. what russia was planning have been borne out. u.s. intelligence pretty good here. the idea of false flag attacks, like the shelling of a kindergarten. which appeared to be that, the work of russian-backed forces. another, that russia would create a video. they did. that aired on russian tv thursday night. it's possible putin has painted himself into a corner because he's inadvertently strengthened the resolve of nato. we begin with our chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. has the war already begun? >> reporter: well, it feels like it may be starting right now. chuck, about two weeks ago i spoke to you from a trench not very far from here.

the situation was radically different. it was quiet. now i'm about one mile from the separatist held conclave in ukraine. there are intensifier fights -- intense firefights here. now since we've been here for the last several hours, the ukrainians are also firing back at the separatists. one commander i spoke to here says he does fear these could be the opening shots of a wider war. >> richard, there was a clearly frustrated president zelensky that met with the vice president in munich over the last 24 hours basically saying, well, if you are convinced russia's doing this, what are you waiting for? is the ukrainian government convinced it's inevitable russia is going to invade? >> reporter: well, i think here when you talk to front line commanders they are pretty sure it is coming. they see the separatists

mobilizing in ways they haven't seen before. they are seeing them moving their artillery and weapons closer to front line attack positions. they fear them and see them maneuvering so they think it is a matter of time before what are now skirmishes and incoming fire that is escalating. >> what would you say, richard, is zelensky's connection with ukrainian's right now? are ukrainians rallying around him? >> reporter: they are. he was somewhat embattled before and he had been criticized in the early days of this crisis for ignoring it, downplaying it, his speech was very well received here. he's taking this in a cool, calm, focused way. people who are his opponents saying they are begrudgingly

liking his position. yes, as this becomes more imminent or potentially more imminent, people do seem to be rallying behind him and the military. >> doesn't pull punches. he doesn't look like he's intimidated. richard, thank you. let me go to moscow now. that's where nbc news reporter matthew bodner is on duty. let me start with zelensky's offer of meeting putin anywhere putin wants to meet. obviously diplomacy, he wants ukraine to be asking for diplomacy before war. what's the kremlin response? >> thank you, chuck. they've not really responded to this yet. i don't think we should necessarily be holding our breath for them to take this offer. we've heard this a lot recently. zelensky has made overtures. other nations have made overtures on behalf of zelensky. russia's response always the same. there's nothing to talk about.

you need to negotiate the minsk 2 agreements. while we are seeing this from the russians, we are seeing a really drastic rise in tensions here in moscow. of course, there's this other part of the story that's kind of been forgotten about a little bit as we're all looking at donbas. a critical part over the weekend we saw massive strategic oaks exercises. the belorussian defense ministry, they have been insisting for weeks would end today will continue indefinitely citing tensions in ukraine, citing nato. we're seeing a very harsh increase in rhetoric here while continued rejections of any overtures from the ukraines. >> what are the russian people seeing on media?

is this an inevitable drum beat to war with ukraine and that they have no choice because ukraine is forcing russia in this situation? or is there any sort of hint at a potential offering? >> reporter: that's really the question now. 48 hours ago we saw the -- basically the switch flipped on russian state media. wall to wall, and i cannot emphasize this enough, since that happened, since the announcement of evacuations. if you tune into russian tv, open any of the state media sites, you will be barraged with attacks of ukrainian attacks and provocations. you have the kremlin saying the situation is at a breaking point, that there can be

irreparable consequences. >> matt bodner on the ground in moscow. matt, thank you. joining me now is the secretary of state, an tow any blinken. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> based on everything you had hinted at and u.s. intelligence had hinted at between yourself and the president, has the invasion already begun? >> well, it certainly looks like everything we said was likely to occur in the leadup to the actual invasion is happening. we're seeing false flag operations taking place in eastern ukraine. the manufacturing of provocations and justifications for russia to go in. we just heard this morning that exercises, and i put that in quotation marks, that russia was engaged in that are supposed to end are not ending because of the alleged tension in eastern ukraine. that is of course being created by russia and its proxies there.

all of this is following the script that i laid out at the united nations security council and that the president talked about. >> i want you to respond to president zelensky at munich. he's clearly frustrated. he essentially said if you're so sure the invasion is here, you're telling me that it's 100% that the war will start in a couple of days, well what are you waiting for? he's referring to the harsh sacks like -- essentially if the war's gun, then let's go. well? >> you also heard -- chuck, you also heard the president say while the die may be cast, until it settles, until the tanks are rolling and the planes are in the air, that we're going to try everything we possibly can to get president putin to reverse the decision and dissuade him. in munich a day ago where we were all gathered the g7 countries, the leading

democratic countries in the world reiterated the massive consequences that would befall russia and president putin if the aggression actually goes forward. we continue to try to build everything to deter him. until the last minute there's still an option for him to pull back. that's what we're trying to do. as soon as you trigger the sanctions, any deterrent effect they have is gone and they get absorbed and he moves on. >> why do you think putin appears not to be taking these threats seriously? >> well, you know, one of the challenges we have is we all put our own frame of lodge logic of what president putin is doing. he has decades of built up grievances. he has a conviction that ukraine

cannot be like the western area. he wants to have it not like his neighbors. we see putin precipitating everything he wants to prevent. he's caused nato to bolster itself. we'll continue to do that and nato is now closer to russia than it was and so in terms of what would appear to us logically to be his interests, he's -- everything he's doing runs counter to it. in his own logic, there may be a rationale. >> he goes to the kyiv and is president zelensky right that the security architecture of our world is obsolete? >> the architecture is not obsolete.

on the contrary, what we're seeing is it's actually being reinforced. again, largely because of what president putin is doing. i just came back from munich. i was with all of our allies and partners and the vice president. what the vice president said forcefully in munich and what i heard in private is nato now has more cohesion, more solidarity than it's had at any time in recent memory. leading officials from europe said that publicly. the vice president certainly heard that in her meetings and in response to her speech. so i think we're seeing nato solidify and unified by the actions that president putin has taken. now having said that, this aggression from russia against ukraine is a direct challenge to the basic principles that have undergirded our security and peace. the notion that one country doesn't go and change the borders of another by force. that it doesn't try to subjugate another country to its will to force its decisions on another

country including with whom that country may associate. that's exactly why we are all standing up and standing firmly. coming together not only in support of ukraine but also to bolster nato and to make clear that there will be massive consequences for russia if it continues down this course. >> look, president zelensky also brought up the fact that, you know, this isn't vague promises that the west made to ukraine, that ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons and one of the reasons it -- one of the prop reassurances it got was essentially of protection for the west from europe, from the united states. what do we owe ukraine if russia invades? >> first, chuck, over the last year we've provided more than a billion dollars of assistance. $650 million in security assistance, defensive, lethal assistance. that's more in that year than any previous year along with humanitarian aid. the other day we announced a

million dollar loan guarantee. we've been urging other countries to do that. and if this aggression goes forward. that will continue. support for ukraine across the board diplomatically, militarily, economically will not only continue. as the president says, we'll double down on that. >> any americans in ukraine right now, will the united states government do whatever it takes to get them out if war begins? >> chuck, we've been very clear for many, many weeks that in the event of a russian invasion of ukraine, we will not be in the position to evacuate any remaining americans from ukraine. i've said that repeatedly. we've been in direct contact with every american we can possibly be in contact with. typically this is someone who is a long-term resident. we've communicated that directly

to congress. we've urged them to communicate that to any americans and groups that they're in contact with. we've been repeatedly clear about this and we've seen people leave in recent weeks but we are not going to be in position, our embassy is now shuttered in kyiv. we've moved it to leviv near the polish border. we've done everything we can to guide americans who want to leave, to help them get out by telling them the best way to do that, to support them as best we can, to have consular services available for them, for example, along the border of poland. in terms of evacuation, that's not going to happen. by the way, that almost never happens. any time in places around the world where for one reason or another we've had to shut down an embassy americans have remained. >> the president, president biden, indicated that americans probably should be prepared for perhaps higher gas prices for a short period of time if these sanctions go through. what about the issue of cyber

attacks? how concerned are you that the russians are going to attack us in cyber, if you will, to try to dissuade us from helping the ukrainians? >> certainly part of their playbook and we've been engaged for many months now, first of all in helping ukraine itself and in anticipation that russia bo respond to cyber attacks. this is a very, very dangerous game. we're, as i said, strengthening our own defenses. when president biden was with president putin in geneva at the time of ransomware attacks and the president was conveying how seriously we take this and how russia needs to engage with this.

if he were in president putin's shoes, he knows how difficult it would be if something happened to that infrastructure. >> let me ask this question. in your assessment, why is putin escalating with ukraine now? why didn't he do this under be the previous administration who wasn't as supportive of nato? if you just look at it observation alli, if he wanted ukraine and he didn't want the united states getting in the way, he perhaps had more of a friendlier administration in the previous one. why do you think he didn't act then? >> i hope you get a chance to ask him. look, here's what i can say. i think -- i don't want to put myself in his mind, very hard to do, but i think it's reasonable to think that as president putin sees it, ukraine was slipping further and further away from his grasp over time. increasingly western oriented.

and as that was continuing year after year -- by the way, largely, again, as a result of his actions and alienating ukrainians by seizing crimea and invading the separatists of the donbas. as that was happening, it no doubt got to a point where he thought if he didn't do something to change the dynamic, it was just going to happen. >> it feels like your meeting with sergei lavrov this week, if it happens, it means no war. if it doesn't happen, it means war has begun. is that the fair way to look at that meeting? >> that's a pretty good summary, chuck. yes. look, we're doing everything we can. it's my responsibility to do everything i can to try diplomatically to prevent a war. i will leave no stone unturned to do that. i reached out to foreign minister lavrov suggesting we meet this coming week in europe to see if we can pursue conversations that would allow us to prevent a war and address

security concerns that we all have. the united states, europe, and russia in that conversation. he came back and said, yeah, let's meet. we responded and said the meeting is on provided you don't invade ukraine. >> right now that meeting is on? >> right now that meeting is on. >> okay. >> stay tuned over the next few days. >> secretary of state, antony blinken. appreciate you coming on. >> thanks, chuck. when we come back, i'll discuss the crisis in ukraine with bill taylor and our panel. stay with us. l taiylor and our l stay with us

♪♪ am i working on friday? see for yourself. who are you? she's from clover. clover does that so i can do this. i didn't know you had dahlias. they're my favorite. they just came in. thank you. i should do a marketing campaign. clover does that. you're like a mind reader. do you like it?

here are the receipts from the other store. cool. thanks. nice. alright, you're all set. oh, could i order online too? you sure can. ♪♪ secure payments, the tools you need, people who can help, we do that. talk to a clover business consultant today.

welcome back. the panel is here. we're joined by william taylor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. a.m. bass stay door, i want to start with you. you have a lot of insight into the ukrainian government. zelensky, this is one fired up

leader of his country, frustrated. he seems to be as frustrated with the west as he is with putin. >> no, chuck, he is clearly frustrated with putin. he has allies. he was there addressing the allies in munich. he has complaints about more support he would like to have, but the real villain in the case, let's be clear, is sitting in the kremlin. >> when you hear about this anything do to stop war, is there anything reasonable to discuss? >> probably not careen ukraine and russia. there's reasonable discussions to be had between russia and the united states. the russians are after things that ukraine can't really deliver. the russians are after -- >> just a pawn? >> ukraine has a gun to its head while the russians are negotiating with the americans,

nato and others. yes, they are a pawn. >> courtney, i think what we're all wondering is what's next? we know how we're going to respond to sanctions -- to a russian invasion. we know all of that. what's next for the american response after that? >> there is -- from a military perspective, there really is no response. i mean, right now the biden administration has made a very concerted decision that there will not be any kind of u.s. military response. people keep coming to me saying, what if americans are killed? what if americans need help getting out of the country? i think people are going to be pretty surprised. there's a lot of comparisons back to afghanistan. >> secretary blinken said, we're not getting you. >> yes. there has been a real effort on the part of the biden administration to tell americans, if you are there, get out. the idea that the u.s. military will be in ukraine fighting russia is just not happening unless russia decides -- vladimir putin decides to branch

this out and go into poland. there's no intelligence to suggest he made that decision. >> following up on that, i think afghanistan looms so large there. talking to people in the administration, they say getting americans out is so top of president biden's mind. he mentioned it in that super bowl interview. he mentioned it when he had the press conference with the german chancellor. he mentioned it in the speech last tuesday. not that americans are going to evacuate, but that's why you see them saying, you need to get out now. you need to get out when commercial flights are available. u.s. troops on the border with poland, that can be an eight or nine hour trip across land. they do not want another situation like afghanistan where you see those images that hurt them with the american public. >> what kind of american resolve is there? >> american resolve? i mean, i think -- >> we're watching this happen, you know, we're with the ukrainians now.

how long will that be? >> that is the big question politically. also why we see as ashley and courtney said, afghanistan looming so large. we did see president biden's poll numbers tank. he defends and continues to defend. what i hear when i talk to white house officials is the real feeling president biden is sharing as much intelligence as possible. they're warning people internationally about what russia is doing. the thing you hear president biden saying is americans need to be prepared for if this comes to our shores and it comes to our shores in the effect of higher gas prices and we are already seeing an eight-year high and inflation at 40-year highs. if we have to get involved here, the cost of freedom may be in your wallets at the gas tank. >> peggy, i think this is the president's challenge. i think -- i'm impressed by the lack of partisanship in how he's

handling this. >> yes. i think that's true. >> so you can see that there is agreement that he is doing everything he should be doing now. the question is his strategy doesn't work. >> well, we'll find out. maybe find out pretty soon, in the next few days or a week or so. it does seem to me in general that the west as it used to be called or perhaps the administration, i don't know enough to say it's the white house, but somehow the west is kind of playing a not so great hand about as well as they can play it, you know? nato has stayed together. there's bickering. there's differences. there's 20 members. but they're kind of being unified. zelensky's been a strong guy. sort of seeming a little detached from the u.s., being majorly, wow, please don't invade us. that would be a bad idea. it seems to me it's also the

u.s. tactic of showing its intelligence and telling everybody, this is what we're seeing. 190,000 troops now. this is where they're moving. that's smart. it's alerted the world, it's focused the world. next week i may regret this, but so far i think they're playing their hand pretty well. >> you know, bill, i think the thing that seems to be rattling a lot of people is the unknown is putin himself. i want to put a piece of this "new york times" analysis up. in moscow many analysts say the russian president is essentially rational. some leave the door open to the idea he has fundamentally changed amid the pan dem muck. you and i were discussing earlier, there is no rational -- this seems irrational if he does this, but what if he's not rational. >> he may not be rational. he's looking for an excuse.

you're right, chuck. he doesn't have a story to tell the russian people. he doesn't have a story to tell the international community. he has no rational reason to invade ukraine. he has told the russian people the ukrainian people are russians. however, he has also said many times and his staff have said, we're not really trying to -- we have no plans to invade. he can back off that way. we never intended in the first place and he can say, it's really a success because the americans have finally agreed to address my concerns. >> right. >> if he does back off there's this destabilization we've seen in ukraine. i was looking at richard eng gall's live shot and saying the people of ukraine don't want to look at that. the more we talk about war, the more we talk about the imminent

threat, the harder it gets for the ukrainian economy. that is the tension with ukraine and the west. they're trying to share as much information. this is destabilizing my country. there's been damage done to my country. >> sorry. who's destabilizing -- it's not the united states destabilizing, it's the russians. it's president putin. >> we're just telling them the story. >> i think it's so fascinating that people say vladimir putin is not rational. in july he wrote this long op ed where he laid this out, what he wants to do. so, i mean, you know, there's this notion that he's been telegraphing this for months. you could make the argument he's been telegraphing it for years. >> yeah, go back to '06. >> this is one of his long term

strategies. in some ways we're already looking at some of these areas as russian territories. this is something he's been working on. this is a legacy event for him if he decides to do this invasion. it will continue his goal of overturning the world order. >> a question i asked the sbekt what's the assessment of why putin didn't do this while trump was in the office? >> the question of why now is a very good one. he may think he's running out of time. maybe he thought he had more time when president trump was in office, but he's running out of time. the secretary made this point, that is, ukraine's moving inevitably, inexorably to europe, away from russia because of all of his actions. so i think he's running out of time in that way. also, this is probably the peak strength of his military. his economy is not in good

shape. it's going to go down from here. >> just very quickly, people, especially americans are wondering if putin moves on ukraine, if he goes this far west as kyiv, what does that look like? what is that? what does that mean? does he stay? how bloody but also literally what does it look like? is it formal troops and tanks? is it little green men, whatever? second question, of course, spillover. what does that mean beyond where it's taking place? >> that's what a lot of people would like to know and nato allies. >> thank you for joining us, ambassador taylor. >> great to be here. when we come back, progressive parents in san francisco say they've had it with woke politics or is it a bit more involved than that? i'm talk to the mayor of san francisco, london breed, when we come back. come back.

or reunite there, ♪ ♪ start here. walgreens makes it easy to stay protected wherever you go. schedule your free covid-19 booster today.

at xfinity, we live and work in the same neighborhood as you. wherever you go. we're always working to keep you connected to what you love. and now, we're working to bring you the next generation of wifi. it's ultra-fast. faster than a gig. supersonic wifi. only from xfinity. it can power hundreds of devices with three times the bandwidth. so your growing wifi needs will be met. supersonic wifi only from us... xfinity. welcome back. it is tempting to begin this next story with the phrase even in san francisco as in even in

san francisco others are getting tired of woke progressive politics. that appears to be what happened. sort of. voters overwhelmingly ousted three school board members and to replace a merit-based add mirgss missions policy with a simple lottery. at issue was simple confidence and the wisdom of focusing on those goals versus focusing on schools. they are worried about the progressive politics even in san francisco. joining me is san francisco's mayor, london breed. welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> let me start with everybody has an opinion about what happened but i want to ask yours. i want to put up "san francisco chronicle" said it was a plea for basic competence. newsweek said it's a wake-up call for progressive. an awakening in the chinese american community. i could take it a step further joe garrett foley downplayed

this. tuesday's overwhelming recall isn't a sign that san francisco is marching lock step with the conservative trend of parents taking back their schools. it was about one school board raised in one city. there's all these array of takes, mayor breed. what's yours? >> well, my take is that it was really about the frustration of the board of education doing their fundamental job and that is to make sure our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom and that did not occur. they were focusing on things that were a distraction. renaming schools and conversations to our school district weren't important, but what was most important is the fact that our kids were not in the classroom and san francisco, our department of public health, we've been a leader in this

pandemic. in some cases we have put forth some of the most conservative policies to ensure the safety of all san franciscans. our numbers demonstrate we are a clear leader but we failed our children. parents were upset. the city as a whole was upset and the decision to recall school board members was a result of that. >> there's been some speculation the only reason three were recalled is three were eligible. if more were eligible perhaps more would be recalled. you'll be appointing the replacements. that power is in your hands. what kind of person are you looking for? what should their priority be? and what message should the other school board members take away from this recall success? >> well, i've been talking to parents for the past couple of weeks and what they want is someone who is going to focus on the basic fundamental responsibility of members of the school board and that is making

sure that children get the education that they need in our schools, dealing with the challenges of learning loss, dealing with the mental health challenges that exist. we have a significant budget deficit. we need to hire a new superintendant. so i'm going to be looking for people that are going to focus on the priorities. school district and not on politics and not on what it means to run for office, stepping stones, so on and so forth. we need people who meet those qualifications. >> one of the ousted members are saying white supremacists are supporting this and the support of the recall is aligned with this. is that the right kind of reaction to what happened? >> well, of course it's not the right kind of reaction. the fact that we're still even listening to any of the recalled school board smems definitely a problem. again, we should be focused on the parents. we should be focused on the school district and the

challenges that the kids have faced. this person is making it about them when it should be about our kids who have suffered not just in san francisco but all over this country as a result of this pandemic. let's be clear, in san francisco for some time now our private schools were open even when our public schools couldn't get it together. so we have a lot of work to do and the focus needs to be brought back to our children. that's my goal in appointing additional school board members to do that. >> there's been a lot of -- you brought up the focus and priorities by keeping schools open. a lot of national people have made note that they wanted to rename schools. how much of this was about renaming the schools of george washington, abraham lincoln, dianne feinstein, how much was also parents upset that the rules were changed at how you got into some specific magnet schools? >> well, i think it was probably both, but at the end of the day

our kids were not in school and they should have been. and kids were home suffering. the stories that i heard about children who went from being these bubbly exciting kids to not even smiling, being depressed, the increase in number of suicide attempts and other things that exist, that is the fundamental problem here and i think that we have to get back to that. yes, of course there were people who were probably upset about some of the proposed changes, but those are discussions that are important to have but not at the expense of making sure that the priority of what the school district is there to do is met. >> any advice for democrats around the country in urban settings that are dealing with this, dealing with upset parents right now? what lesson would you say should apply? >> well, this is not a democratic/republican issue, this is an issue about the education of our children and i think that ultimately it's

important that anyone who serves in any capacity, whether it's school board or congress or as mayor, it's important to respond to what your priority is as a mayor or as a school board member and that is the role that you were put in the office to do. and so in this particular case the board neglected their primary responsibility to focus on other things. other things that are important but not as significant as what they were there to do, and that is to educate children. >> i want to bring up another issue that you were pretty exercised about and that is the rise in crime in san francisco. you said a couple of months ago that struck me. here it is. >> it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bull [ bleep

] that has destroyed our city. >> obviously it was some of those -- we've seen the footage of some of these sort of group shoplifting robberies, things like this and even worse and you've wanted to get a bit tougher. you've got a district attorney who you did not support. you supported an opponent. there's a recall of mr. boudine. you've not said where you are on this. are you prepared to do that now? >> well, i am doing everything i can as mayor to keep people in san francisco safe. and part of that means i have to have a good working relationship with our district attorney. at the end of the day, that is our primary responsibility and i am doing everything i can to focus on that. ultimately there has been a lot of negative attention paid to san francisco about some of those videos that have gone viral but what doesn't get talked about is the work that our police department has done to make the arrest, to try and hold people accountable.

so we're going to continue to do that. part of what i have to do is everything i can to work with the district attorney regardless of what's happening as it relates to recall. >> one could argue you have to work with the school board. you were willing to come out publicly about the school board recalls. do you feel like your relationship is too close to mr. boudine in this instance? >> it's a little bit different with the school board. i didn't necessarily have to work with all the school board members. there were several members on the board that i did have a good working relationship with and i have a good working relationship with the superintendent. i haven't made a decision one way or the other about the recall. i'm still debating on whether or not i will, but ultimately what i want to be able to do is make sure that the decision i make is not an impediment to my ability to work with the district attorney in keeping san franciscans safe. >> do you expect there to be

some crossover with the frustrations in the recall of the district attorney? >> i think that, you know, when we look at what's happening in san francisco and the concerns around crime, people are definitely frustrated about accountability because, again, the police are making the arrests in many of these cases and what we want are people to be held accountable. i grew up in san francisco. i grew up in public housing. i grew up in a very challenging environment and it's not that people don't want police. we can have police reform and also ensure safety with making sure that police are present when a crime is committed and the district attorney's responsibility is to make sure that when the evidence is presented, that those people are held accountable. >> mayor london breed, the mayor of san francisco. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you. >> when we come back, how the sharp drop of covid cases is

changing the country's attitude in how to treat a once out of control pandemic. stick with us. f control pandemic stick with us. i didn't know you had dahlias. they're my favorite. they just came in. thank you. i should do a marketing campaign. clover does that. you're like a mind reader. do you like it? here are the receipts from the other store. cool. thanks. nice. alright, you're all set. oh, could i order online too? you sure can. ♪♪ secure payments, the tools you need, people who can help, we do that. talk to a clover business consultant today.

let's get ready for jalapeñoooo popperrrrs! can you hand me some potato skins. theyyyy're loooaded! turns out, michael buffer speaks like that all the time. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. and in this corner, coconuuuut shriiiiiimp! for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage - make the right call - and go with the general. let's get rrready for garlic breeeaaad! welcome welcome back. what a difference april month can make when it comes to covid. the nation feels like it's turning a corner on the virus, at least in terms of american's attitudes to it. there may be political ramifications to all of these changes. first, let's just look at the numbers here as you can see. look, the case counts have just

dropped dramatically. still not, look, 134,000 still puts it, as you can see here, still puts it closer to our previous highs than our previous lows, but come on, when you see where we came from, we are dropping and dropping fast. when you look at deaths, this is obviously more of a lagging indicator, you can see still an uncomfortably high number, 2,000 a day. this is starting to now drop pretty quickly here. we should start to see these numbers continue to come down. and all of this is making the public feel a bit more comfortable with the risks of covid. from january to february, fears of severe health risk, 34% of all adults in january. february it's down to 22%. it's starting to start to even out as you can see. these drops here, the differences not as wide as they once were. as you can see here, this is a country that is starting to get

comfortable living with covid. you're starting to see. look at the states left. as of february 1st these are the only states with state-wide mask mandates. all of these states but one have announced the end of their statewide mask mandate. the only one that plans to keep it in place indefinitely, the eiland state of hawaii. when we come back, was that ouster of three san francisco school board members a flashing warning sign for progressives and democrats? stay with us. s and democrats? stay with us

new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks.

welcome back. peggy, you wrote about the san francisco recall this week. i found the mayor's interview quite interesting. it felt like somebody say, hey, i was elected to do a job. be mayor. >> totally. totally. she had -- london breed had sued the school board to get the schools open. it seemed to me she did

everything she could. i think the whole school board thing was about essentially reducing it down. the school board was not opening the schools. they seemed to have a muted interest in what parents thought was the essential question, will you open the schools? they devoted themselves and their attentions to issues that seemed extraneous, that i think they thought were very pro gris sieve but they just lost their jobs because progressives voted them out of there. so i think it was a signal moment in san francisco after -- i mean, the votes were 70% against these reining democratic school board members who previously had been considered noncontroversial. we saw what happened in virginia. we've seen other school board crises. i do think this is part of, a, a general parental revolt sparked by the pandemic in the past 2 1/2 years and i also think it is part of a little cultural war. not little, but it's going on

within the democratic party. >> yamish, how much -- this feels like not plowing the snow during the snowstorm type of result, right? at the end of the day -- this isn't about politics, but there does seem to be some wedge here between progressives and democrats. >> yeah. i think there is this central issue of parents having lived through the pandemic, having also seen what their children are learning really having a front row seat to the challenges of all of that, rebelling against sort of what school boards are focused on. i do think a small cultural war is not the way i would describe it. i would say this is a huge cultural war. >> democratic party. it's just beginning in the democratic party i think. >> i think even in the democratic party, the gallup poll looking at martin luther king's favorabilities. in black history month. looking at the fact that majority of the country said he was an unfavorable figure.

that of course has complicated what you said you're not plowing the snow during a snowstorm. that is adding to this. i think there is a real issue in this country of whether or not when we look at historical figures, when we look at slavery and its consequences, whether people still feel comfortable talking about that. there was this inflection point after the murder of george floyd. i think there has been a big backlash. >> not plowing the snow point. i do think it is that. it's its own version of that. if you are deeply aware of that, you may see your middle schooler struggling with mental health issues. your first grader is sitting next to you and you're trying to work and you're having to help them with remote zoom. this is one deep frustration. they feel like and they are, they are getting blamed for what's happening with the schools and their argument is we came in and schools were shut down. we didn't shut down the schools. that happened before us. we've actually opened a majority

of the schools and why are we still getting blamed? but the fact remains that they are. >> the cities, democrats are perceived to be the ones running the cities. >> this is about as local of an issue you can get. if you're the biden administration you have to look at it and say is this a bell weather of zmang and this week, you know, may even be the perfect example of that. here we have a potentially unifying moment, the biden administration, and an announcement of a supreme court justice. what's also likely to happen this week? an invasion of ukraine. the biden administration cannot seem to get their -- even when they're trying to unify the party, they can't even seem to have a win. >> no, that's going to be rough there. this is one of those where i do think we're seeing politicians getting closer to where they are at. >> we know their concerns. >> that's all we have today. hope you enjoyed the olympics.

hope to see you back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." several fast-moving developments from eastern europe, including talks of a possible meeting between presidents joe biden and vladimir putin. the question is what new intelligence has the biden administration revealed about russia's plans? plus, the u.s. capitol police responds that a canadian trucker style protest could be coming to d.c. that question is, what are officials doing to sfleep and a brawl between the michigan/wisconsin men's basketball teams after a coach throws a punch. the question is will disciplinary action be taken?

's