show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com as we come on the air, a major provocation by russian president vladimir putin and an infliction point it seems on the crisis in the border with ukraine. putin on national tv in russia not too long ago appearing to formally recognize the independence of a slice of eastern ukraine. we're talking about areas around doengts and luh ha nsk. pro-separatist regions where 200,000 people live and we're seeing an excalculation in violence which could be the russian pretext for war.

president biden for a second day in a row huddling with his national security team at the white house. we understand that meeting has wrapped, but this whole thing, a situation a top u.s. ambassador to europe describes as signature on the precipice of a full-scale russian war against ukraine. nbc officials are warning russia is planning to kill and arrest ukranians on the brink of invasion and we've learned that biden administration officials have talked about an exit president for ukranian president selenski to relocate to western ukraine if russia does invade. with new reporting from the white house team, president biden and president violence key poke is afternoon. just coming to you from peter alexander who you just see on your screen. i also want to bring in matt bodner in moscow and richard engel in ukrein and dana petard who served for u.s. army general and was a presidential adviser to president bill clinton. what we just heard from vladimir putin, matt, which seems to be

as we talk about the simmering crisis here and the simmering tensions with russia and ukraine that have hit to use another cliche a boiling point, i mean, this is potentially a spark from putin to recognize the independence of these regions. >> exactly, hallie, it's really remarkable. i don't know what to say about it other than the fact that we've been talking for weeks now about how we're just waiting for vladimir putin to make the case to his people that those troops that have been kind of rallying on ukraine's border should go into ukraine. we've talked about how they didn't believe it was possible. there's no other way i think to look at the speech we just saw other than vladimir putin laying out the case for such an incursion. now, of course, he stopped short of any kind of declaration of war, but the entire thing was choreographed. this wasn't just a simple statement released by the kremlin late at night but they are recognizing these regions. basically in hind sight now the entire day of events was

scripted from the early reports this morning of, for example, a ukranian saboteur group trying to cross into russia proper being stopped. we saw that brought out by the fsb leader at putin's national security meeting which was present as an extraordinary unplanned session today. he brought that up where putin kind of went around the room polling dozens of his national security officials about whether or not he should offer recognition for these two regions as independent and played this off as if not decide and a few hours later he came out with a hour-long speech with an historical airing of grievances which essentially amounted to an a argument that the modern ukranian states was created by russia and its existence was a mistake and it goes back to the way the soviet union was formed, the way it was divide internally. everything was there to kind of bolster a broader case and then to kind of tie it all off the camera cut.

putin is in a large room in the creme lip, on one side and the camera pans and the two rebel leaders that we saw just hours earlier on russian state television one after another making formal appeals to president putin for recognition, they were sitting in the room signing the documents and that's where we're at now. we don't know where it goes from here. obviously it's a big question as you mentioned is, you know what, do we mean by recognition in the leaders -- the militias do not control the entire formal territories of luh ha -- luhansk or donetsk. >> things will move extremely fast now given the instruction from vladimir putin. any word from where you are on the ground? >> the ukranian government has been quick to benouns it and have described it as imperialist. they have said that vladimir putin is trying to impose

russia's will on to this country, that this is a sovereign nation so they have been denouncing it quickly, swiftly and absolutely. but i think a big question that we should be talking about people in the united states, is president biden giving some sort of sigh of relief because there are about 190,000 troops around this country and putin did not declare a war, and he certainly has the capacity to do so. instead, he is going to very soon recognize and formally recognize two relatively small regions that russia already controls, but there is another part of the question that i think it reveals in what putin was saying in the hour-long speech could. this just be a first step? and it seemed like that when you listened to the speech. putin aired all of his grievances against ukraine.

he said since 2014 when ukraine broke away from the russian sphere of influence that this country has been on a downward path, that it has been rife with corruption, that it's been joining forces with the -- with nato, that it plans to develop a nuclear weapon. his speech wasn't about recognizing these provinces in donetsk and luhansk and the very end. the vast majority of his speech was denouncing the ukranian government and saying what an existential threat ukraine poses to russia and really what nato poses to russia. it seemed far more ground with it ended climactically with them recognizing two small provinces which could be a sign that this is really just a first step, a first bite but that he plans to take more actions perhaps after troops if into those areas

because putin clearly said that the violence against those regions has to stop much of that violence. so if he's saying that the is violence has to stop, now that he's putting russia's blanket of protection over the regions, i can very easily see a scenario where russia claims that the violence against those regions doesn't stop in the coming days and then russia takes another step, putin takes another step. >> richard, stand by for a second. peter, let me turn to you because you've gotten a flurry of information in the last couple of wiers about this conversation between president biden and as richard knows where he is the ukranian president selenski. i understand the call lasted about half an hour ago. they were talking based on the timing from putin, they were talking during part of vladimir putin's speech it would seem, peter. do we know anything. we don't know the details of who the focus is beyond obviously

what you were hearing today. he spoke with president biden over the last several hours. president putin would be recognizing the donbas region on the eastern side of ukraine to be very clear about this. that conversation, i'm told, took about 35 minutes for the two men to speak. to be very clear about this, the u.s. top officials had said this in many ways were in line for him. ch antony blinken said on february 16th, less than a week ago, that in effect that the words were further undermining of ukraine's sovereignty and integrity, that this was not a swift and firm response from the u.s. and full coordination with our allies and partners, so right now we wait for a readout that is sort of a detailing of what happened in that

conversation with president selenski, and separately we expect to hear from the white house in the course of the next hour or so in response to president putin's own comments on a day when there's been a lot of movement behind closed doris, president biden boyden meeting with his national security advisers and we saw the vice president and the secretary of state, the defense secretary, the chairman of the joint chief, all here at the white house for what appeared to be at least a two-hour meeting which notably was the second one in two days. >> peter, just for clarification, nothing on the president's agenda or schedule publicly this afternoon though that could change at any minute, no? >> it could change at any time. we could hear from president biden. we've got no indication that he'll be speaking to the world, to the americans, to the american pluck or to reporters just yet but obviously we're focused on that. i think what we should expect next is some form of a statement from this white house in response to what we heard from vladimir putin. >> general, let me go to you and

the significance of this move by putin right now in your view is somebody who knows this region well, who was worked with members of the ukranian military in the past as well. >> good afternoon, hallie. it's pretty apparent that president putin is looking for a reason to invade at this point. he and his advisers, his lieutenants have weighed the cost benefit analysis of invading or not, and i truly believe he has decided to invade. it's just now what's the justification? he may be tipping his hand as richard engel mentioned as far as where. it may be, you know, in support of these new declared republics of donetsk and luhansk. he might try to seize the terrain between the crima ant breakaway provinces which are now republics i guess to connect them so, i mean, time will tell

on that, but diplomacy, there's always a chance for diplomacy, but i do believe that president putin has made the decision to invade and is going to invade. >> richard, let me go to you here because we've been showing this map of these -- these pro-russian separatist regions. i'm going to pull this up again. you are posted not far from that, just south i believe of where this is, to the east of crimea. does putin, is there any chance in your view as somebody who has also watched this region for a while that poutin has any shot of taking a diplomatic off-ramp at this point or do you think that window is shut given what we've seen over the last 90 minutes? >> oh, it's hard to know, and -- and he certainly has enough force around the country, so if he doesn't start pulling those forces back, then it will be a clear indication that he has other intentions, but the way this played out, and vladimir putin talked about this in his

speech. you're showing crimea, so in 2014, and it's important to understand the sequence of events here because this is the way putin sees this. he saw the breakaway of this country as a personal affront to him, a personal failure from his perspective, something that happened on his watch that he want to correct n.2014 ukraine renounced putinism. it renounced its soviet union past and decided to make a break for the west and embrace democracy. embrace the euro -- the european union, and the united states supported that, and he believes that this was all a coup, that this was a plot, that the united states was secretly behind it and in revenge he took crimea and this other piece, donetsk and luhansk and never officially recognized it until a few minutes ago. it was always thought of as a ticking time bomb within ukraine, something that could be recognize the at any stage or deployed at any stage, so he's

now taken it to the next level. he's formally recognized it, giving it some level of protection from -- from the kremlin, from putin personally, and if that region continues to be under attack as they claim, then i think you can probably see russia moving in to defend it, and then once it moves in to defend, it it starts taking new territory, well, then, all bets -- all bets are off, and then once russian troops have crossed over that bummer into ukranian-controlled territory, then you're talking about an actual invasion, a conquest of new territory. >> peter, you mentioned what we heard from secretary blinken back on february 16th. >> yeah. >> where he talked about if that were to happen or if what we saw happen happened in the last 90 minutes, it would necessitate a swift and firm response from the u.s. talk more about what that response might be. are we talking sanctions? are we talking about potentially the addition of more troops to

europe to bolster our nato allies there? >> well, for clarity, the -- the sending of american troops to that region to be clear is not for those troops to go into ukraine. >> of course, but they are -- they are bolstering nato troops on the border of ukraine. >> again, to be clear it's very possible that the president could as he sees this situation escalate accepted more troops to the neighboring countries. i do think what this means is that the u.s. is likely, based on the past statement from the secretary of state, to initiate the process of rolling out some sanctions. they, as he said, would be swift and severe. they would be as severe as any that they had been considering. we'll wait to see on that, but we heard from the former ambassador to the u.s. from russia a short time ago on twitter saying the u.s. should act right now, that no country, russia certainly among them, can declare sort of a territorial sovereignty for some other country's land which is effectively what it's doing right now. basically claiming that land as

its own independent nation so even if it's just a recognition at this point as opposed to a military annexation which as richard noted could in some form follow at some point and however the russians seek to declare it to say they are there as peacekeepers or there to support the russian separatists in that region, the bottom line is what russia has already gone done in the last several hours initiate what the u.s. said was in many ways a red line for it so we wait to hear exactly what that will look like, but i look for that the sanctions will happen now. >> what is the pentagon now watching for, general? >> they are watching for clues, for which way the russian forces are going to move and/or attack. they are watching for the single intelligence, all of that. unfortunately, the russians are probably going to invade because they don't respect the strength of europe, the military strength

of europe, and they -- they don't respect the will of europe or america. we've heard this before. vladimir putin isn't just a -- just concerned about ukraine about joining nato, what he fears is democratization of ukraine. i mean, awkwardly and perfectly, but ukraine has formed a democracy and after 30 years of independence they have shown that they are independent of russia, and i think he fears that for his regime also. >> i know you have some thoughts, too, about the unification of nato when it comes to russia's aggression, specifically when it relates to energy. >> i do. as far as sanctions, again, do i believe president putin has done his cost-benefit analysis, and he does not believe that the countries of nato are unified when it comes to sanctions on

energy. we've heard from italy and silence sometimes from germany on that. he does not believe that that can take place, and even so, even if it does, he has a belief that russia is tough enough to where they with weather the storm and send their energy supplies elsewhere or oil elsewhere, possibly china, so that is not scaring him. we believe sanctions do from the american side, but that is not going to stop vladimir putin. >> speaking of sanctions. as you were speaking, general, we heard from the european union saying that they will sanction russia, a statement that is just coming into us in the last couple of seconds here says that this step that russia has taken is a blatant violation of international law as well as of the minsk agreements and the eu will reaction with sanctions for those involved in this illegal act. richard, to you. >> so going back to what the general was just saying and

about sanctions, about the unity of sanctions. i think this is really going to test the unity nato, the unity of those who have been standing with ukraine because it is not full-scale invasion that people have been talking about that may still be coming, but right now in ukraine the lights are still on and the phones are still working. i see you pulled up that map and that's a very important map to understand where we are right now. in the south the map crimea, crimea was part of ukraine until 2014 when vladimir putin took it over, held a referendum that many people described as a sham and formally annexed it to russia, so now according to the russian constitution and all russian laws it is part of russia, and now adding to the not exactly the same portfolio but adding to russia esphere of influence is that red pocket, home to about 2 million people, predominantly russian-speakers, generally pro-russia.

if russian troops moved in, or more russian troops moved in there they would not be resisted. they would be welcomed. i expect to see images of that tomorrow. the gap would allow putin to have much more control over europe and it would also make the sea of azov between russia and crimea, and i'm very close to that right now, it would turn the sea of azov into a russian lake so vladimir putin may not be done yet, but what we did see so far will test the unity of the alice. do they want to go all in on sanctions that could be painful to his own economy only because he took over an area that he already controls? >> richard engel, great to have you there. matt bodner, peter alexander over at the white house and major general petard, thank you.

the munich security conference is saying putin must be dealt with and pay a devastating price. also breaking news out of georgia really in the last 60 seconds or so. we'll tell you what just happened at the federal hate crimes trial of ahmaud arbery's killer and why some qanon supporters are targeting schools with so-called paper terrorism. ben collins joins us to explain. m ben collins joins us to explain. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. ask your doctor about nurtec today!

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right now in georgia, that breaking news we told you about as we were hitting the commercial break a second ago. it's now in the hands of the jury. a decision in the federal hate crimes trial of the three men convicted in the killing of ahmaud arbery. nbc's blayne alexander is joining us live. we're talking about the first few minutes of jury deliberations. closing arguments have wrapped up and now the decision-making process for them begins. >> absolutely. the jury has a lot to consider considering the fact that they heard from the prosecution and then three separate defense

attorneys as well as the prosecution rebuttal so they have a lot of information and a lot of arguments to take back into that deliberation room, so let's talk about what we heard today. remember, the government is making the case that the three men who have already been convicted of the murder of ahmaud arbery, now the government is arguing that they did so because he was a black man and the racist language and sentiments that we saw put on the trial throughout the course of the trial, we saw them come back today. in fact, that was the last thing that the jury heard before they were given the instructions from the judge and sent to deliberate, so let's talk about the charges because there are a number of -- the one thing i heard repeatedly from the defense attorneys this is not a murder trial so it's not a question of whether they chased them down or whether they shot and killed him. that's already been established. they have already been found guilty in a state court. this is about talking about depriving civil rights, so for travis mcmichael and his brother

and roddy bryant, they are facing different charges. mcmichaels are charged with brandishing a weapon and there's a lot of things going on and the thing to point out is how ahmaud arbery's parents were reacting in the courtroom. we know his mother and father were there and this is tremendously emotion a.m. at one point wanda copper jones was actually sobbing openly during the prosecution's argument so this is the second time they have had to sit through the evidence, the state trial and now and wednesday marks the two-year anniversary of the death. >> blayne alexander live for us there in a rainy atlanta as we're now officially on verdict watch. how nato just responded to the big provocation from vladimir putin.

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>> eli: breaking news just in from the white house as we track the latest escalations in the russia-ukraine crisis. it is the first reaction now from the biden administration to what we saw unfold at the kremlin with rush president putin making moves to formalize the russian-backed pro-separatist russian regions in eastern ukraine. jen psaki in a statement saying in part we have anticipated a move like this from russia and are ready to respond immediately and saying that president biden will be issuing an executive order in responsible soon essentially looking to have putin and russia pay an economic price and adding that these measures, she says, are separate from and would be addition to more severe economic measures. i want to bring in nbc's peter alexander who has raced back, courtney cubii, andrea mitchell and former deputy national security adviser ben williams-rhodes and msnbc

political contributor. peter, reaction now from the white house formally and we understand president biden is on the phone again are right? >> yeah, that's right. i'm told by white house officials that the president is speaking by phone with the german chancellor scholz as well as with the french president, emmanuel macron. each of those leaders spoke with president putin in the half 24 yourself who. the president likely getting their takeaways from the conversations as they also work in conjunction and response to putin and his latest statement, again, recognizing those two regions in the far eastern portion of ukraine, part of the donbas, luhansk and donetsk, people's republic as they are described this. in that announcement from the white house officially coming from the press secretary jen psaki is significant. the first set of sanctions here, and hallie, you pin pained one of the key statements. they said to be clear these measures are separate from and would be in addition to the swift and devere economic sanctions that we've been preparing in coordination with allies and partners should

russia invade further so right now we're waiting to see what russia's next move is as courtnie and many of your skests have been discussing: the president only a short time ago spoke to president selenski and he announced that he would be speaking to bores johns orange the prime minister of uk at this point and they are punctuating a day that began with the president meeting behind closed doors with members of his national security team in the situation room. hallie. >> there's a lot happening quickly including, andrea, official reaction from nato with stoltenberg condemning russia's decision to recognize the independence of the ukranian rebels. not a surprising response from

nato, but you have seen now from the white house, the eu and nato, almost immediate reaction to putin's move. >> yes, and indeed let me also add to that the european commission and the european council, so basically the european union governments are saying that there will be immediate sanctions on russia from them as well as presumably what you're going hear from the white house and from the allies, boris johnson as well, macron and scholz are right now on the phone with the president, a coordinated and very rapid response in munich this weekend at the european conference there. all of the heads there talking about the fact that they would be acting. we heard selenski complain to them about why there wasn't already sanctions or a list of sanctions and the vice president from vice president harris is putin knows exactly what the sanctions are and that's, of

course, what the white house has been saying as well. you're seeing a unit europe, already seen this happen but in talking to russian scholars and experts, our own contributor mike mcfarlane knows this so well, former national security adviser. what we've seen from putin is a bothersome speech. he's denouncing vladimir lenin and communism saying it was the fall of and putting in place security n. so he can come to the defense and say i'm not invading, obviously to moscow and his wishies so this is all a setup so he wouldn't say and the white

house says do we declare it an invasion and i think toys office that it would. provide new investment trade and financing from people from, to or in the separatist region. what's the practical impact of a move like that? >> well, this is a fairly proportional step in 2014 when you had the annexation of crimea. there were similar sanctions put in place by the obama white house at the time in conjunction with europe focused on crimea that essentially tries to cut off any of the leaders in that area, anybody who is involved in doing business in that area and trying to cut off frankly these russian invented people's republic from the pro bowl economy. these are not the russian sections on uncertain specific

response than they have two really rug-invented republicans. >> that's han important piece of context and pc drop then. peter and even -- the biden administration and officials through youmpt the biden administration have been clear about looking to inconvenient a declass for war as she knows from her work with the -- how do you see that as somebody noted a someone who knows intel and white house intel security. >> what they have about able to do is they have eacceptsly predicted and called every single test that poutin has

taken. the cleansing or genocide against russians in eastern ukraine followed by the political formal recognition of these republics, that basically gives putin whatever pretext he wants to say that he has to invade ukraine to defend these territories and to frankly avenge and the reality is that putin has followed a play that he frankly could have designed months ago. he's not altered his playbook because of those declassifications. what he tones to accomplish is by our ability to rally our allies to our side and pin putin as the aggressor and prepare sanctions so they are on the shelf and ready to go, both the initial sanctions in response to the moves today and the broad and swift severe sanctions we're hearing about lets me clear.

he eve not detour and we've had the time to have the allies respond and the response m. is unrolling as it has opinion for weeks. >> who are you hearing on your end. >> so there's still a feeling that there's not an if but a when for an invague. the overwhelming propondrance of opinion and evidence continues to point to that being a large-scale invasion. what does that mean? this does not necessarily mean there's going to be russian troops storming across the border in all parts of ukraine, but there is a very real sense and concern that the large -- if you -- if you literally draw a line from kyiv down to odesia, everything east of there that vladimir putin has his yigts sight on that and have major

reporting from our vice president that vladimir putin has actually given the toward to proceed with this. the cyber attacks and falls fagg attempts and pretext advantages and many thinks that the vote for -- putin can say if there's any destabilization in the area i could send in peacekeeping troops. face two would the wart where there's air strikes. recognized strikes rolling across the border. face three is not it. again, officials are saying we're already in phase up. we're going with that happen. we're watching it.

there will a believe that phase it-2-is come. >> i've go in though hues and heam bell hyped. we know that president biden has met with his national security team and know he's been working the phone with president selenski and allies, even babe was' tell us more what you would see. as you noenchings you can noam given the sense of urgency, that there is role' sense of urgency that they have briefed this hand jake sullivan says they are it and why they should out a pavement n.

there's more detail on what the additional sanctions would look like. you know it is a federal holiday and you wouldn't have known that earlier when he saw the when the, the chf and based on the conversations that i'm having with people here it's all hands on deck and i think that this is in many ways what they were anticipating. >> reporter: i know you would love to be a fly on the wall in the situation swaying room, wouldn't you? >> and i yeah, let me go to you as you're double duty and ainge orring our escalations through the dog by talk will about whose trapping it. they are proud of the nato alliance. the fact that nato was being so dismissed and down for tech aids

and next ends after so many year of angela merkel stavn -- you've got boris johnson, many diplomats acknowledging if there were a better alternative he'd be gone long enough and he does. and then you've got macron up for re-election this next this is not the easiest hand that president putin has found. they have real bought it. the decision to declassify that putin alluded to earlier. it surprised a lot of officials. you actually have a cia director bill burns very, you know, a veteran career ambassador on it,

even a four star ranking in the state department in diplomacy and at the height of the cold war he was very important as things involved. very familiar with vladimir putin and russian intelligence and a number of people in important posts now in place that are very experienced in ukraine and john sullivan, a holdover, has been dealing very well with this, the trump ambassador who had been a deputy secretary of state. at the same time they haven't had any ambassadors in any of the european countriesch got the ambassador to germany last week driving to munich at the very last minute, the same day the conference started getting and presented her credentials to the german president so that she could actually be there. all of this because of the republican senate, ted cruz and other -- holding up for five or

six months people to be in the uk, in. this has been a really tough time. he has to be concerned about his open mid terms, polling, gas prices. they are going everything with the pass. they are doing everything to line it up now because they anticipate this thing is going down. >> you said we have -- these are essentially russian-invented regions on screen. they didn't know become separatist areas.

>> when there was a popular uprising and he was chased out of kyiv, there were ethnic russians who russia claimed were spontaneously standing up to ukranians who were seeking to jobgy gate them. there was no f-effort and what we did doe: russia could be given a big open space to send weapons in and destabilize these irias and russia has controlled these barras. these will mouth pieces for the creme lynn. russia tack advantage of its border with them to move in. and the half seven, eight years what they have been trying to do is use those regions to control

the governor in kyiv. there was the minsk agreement that would have given those territories autonomy but veto power including whether or not ukraine can control nato. that didn't work because frankly the ukranian government didn't want to go along with that play. they didn't want to concede their sovereignty, and you had this stalemate and during the time of stalemate the ukranian population turned more and more against russia and more and more now putin is taking the next logical step saying we're going to declare these as essentially independent areas. he's doing the same thing in two provinces of jaffe, another country he doesn't want to join nato but this feels me not like the end of the story but the very beginning of the russian escalation that uses these two regions is a the justification and pretext for putin to say he needs to protect russian speakers and needs to protect ethnic russians. they are under assault and just as that was the pretext for him

to conquest and should be trying to wants to take another chunk off of ukranian sovereignty. >> excellent reporting as always. thank you all for being on top ofterm i know you'll all stay on top of your cameras. we'll keep with that story but we'll also look at the rise of paper terrorism. how some anti-mask parents are using that tactic to target their kids' schools. ben collins is with us coming up. kids' schools. ben collins is with us coming up

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new reporting this afternoon from our team at nbc news tasked with burrowing down the rabbit hole of dangerous conspiracy theories emerging today with the latest strategy from anti-vax and qanon aligned folks for paper terrorism. groups of parents who oppose

covid mandates in the schools have phony legal fights. it's led to scenes like the one to show you. parents at schools with boxes of legal documents, paper work. watch. >> we're here as parents because they won't listen to us. we have done everything we possibly can. we have spent nearly $1,000 to print documents that we have to serve you to ask you to please look at these things. >> the hope? the schools will lose federal funding to pay for the lawsuits. the only problem for the parents is the legal claims are founded in misinformation and conspiracy theories that add up to nothing. i want to bring in ben collins. explain this whole thing. paper terrorism why who's behind it and what's going on. where it came from. >> sure. it is a word that came up in the '90s from the sovereign citizen

movement. there's the montana free member that didn't want to be part of the united states and inundating anyone that questioned the sovereignty with fake lawsuits and what they believe to be superceding law. the lawsuits are completely useless but that tactic stuck with qanon believers and anti-maskers and saying when they hand off the paper you're teaching crt. therefore we can sue for liability insurance and we will bankrupt the school board, some of the people personally. this is happening in 14 states so far. school board members are scared because these look official. they have to bring in lawyers. the point is not to win the lawsuit. they probably don't appear

before court but the point is to intimidate people to change the rule they don't like, banning the book they don't like before anything gets to court. >> piling up a group said of forest of paper. what do they think will happen coming from that? the school districts have to manage even if it is all based on as you say nothing, useless information. the school districts have to manage that. no? >> they have to deal with it as if it's real because they don't know. this is an individualized thing. it is coming from by the way the telegram groups called bonds for win with local individualized chapters. 14 states have been targeted by the group led by a flat earther who believes aids is a hoax and teams up with a man who most likely is q and pulls off in

scottsdale. provided what they believe to be success stories of them bringing the things and then the mask mandate is lifted but it was nothing to do with the phony lawsuit and they have what they believe to be a winning strategy but it is scaring people who don't know that this is all fake. >> ben collins behind that story up on nbc news.com. mandatory reading for folks interested in your beat. thank you. been about a year since donald trump wassed kicked off the platforms and now trying to get back in the game. overnight a new app from truth social. a big wait list being less seamless to use like twitter. supposed to be a space for so-called main speechers.

critics say it could be a proving ground for misinformation. i want to bring in mark murray. setting aside the tech issues that the app seems to have there's broader reasons. the reason donald trump isn't is on twitter because he lied a lot. it is very unlikely that the same checks exist on his own platform that he is behind. should people be concerned about the danger from donald trump? >> the question is how much that information, misinformation gets amplified on the new social media app. a power of twitter is tens of thousands of people that see the messages and tweets and people on your side and democrats and

journalists. when donald trump was running for president and then as president tens of millions of people get the tweets and the information. it remains to be seen if the new app will really pack the same punch and we are already getting statements from the former president repeating those misstatements. they're going to reporters and like-minded trump supporters. >> you have a theory. >> the theory is looking at the nbc news poll that shows that the number of republicans who identified themselves more as party supporters has gone up and while trump supporters have gone down and happened in the past year the former president doesn't have access to social

media and sometimes like not being part seen and out of mind and you might have less pull than you once might have. >> yet there's some discussion out there about will that really hold if donald trump does decide to run for president? look from governor tim scott in the last 24 hours saying everybody wants to be on the trump bandwagon if you will. things may change. >> things may change, particularly if the former president decides to run again and goes back to that out of sight out of mind. if he runs for president he is quickly in mind and in sight. and if you're a tim scott, republican governor, anyone else, you want to be a heart beat from the presidency in a very close 2024 presidential election where president trump would be the odds on favorite. i think that his power, the more that he is seen and if he is

running or does run has more sway with the party than not running. >> mark murray, thank you. thank you all of you for watching another busy hour of this show. "deadline: white house" starts right now. ♪♪ good afternoon, everyone. i'm john heilemann in for nicolle wallace. 4:00 in the east. midnight in moscow. the drums of war beat as pult vladimir putin is edging to an invasion of ukraine. in european, u.s. and the world the tension is on the rise. a crisis that looks inevitable. president biden met with the national security team at the white house. the administration has not closed the door on the idea of a peaceful resolution to the conflict agreeing to the idea of a summit between biden