that will mean he will chosen a nominee faster than any democratic president in decades. and obviously, he somebody who has two as leader of the free world impressively united states conduct business on a number of fronts at the same time. >> jen psaki gets tonight's last word. the 11th hour starts now. good evening once again, i'm chris chance in, day 398 of the biden ministration. tonight, tensions are sky-high as moscow moves ever closer to setting off a war that joe biden and u.s. allies have spent weeks trying to prevent. several hours ago vladimir putin signed a decree ordering troops into two russian-backed separatists regions in eastern ukraine. where the russian military is ever-present since 2014. he's calling these forces quote, peacekeepers. putin issued the order after formally recognizing both areas as being independent republics.

after giving a nearly long hour rambling speech in which he insisted ukraine had historically always been part of russia. putin's address also ranks fears about the possibility of a wider military campaign in the region. richard engel is in ukraine tonight. >> from his desk in moscow, president vladimir putin tonight further divided ukraine by carving off a piece or two of his allies. he recognized the independence of the net scandal hunts, two russian speaking enclaves. which had been ruled by pro russian forces for eight years. russia already has several thousand troops there. ukraine is not just a neighbor, putin said, it's an integral part of our history, culture and spiritual space. the leaders of the two breakaway enclaves later appeared, socially distanced at desks next to him. putin saying they would ask him to intervene and that russia could not sit back and watch

what he called a genocide by the ukrainian government against the regions. putin now ordering more russian troops to go into those areas as peacekeepers. and delivering this warning to the ukrainian government. >> stop combat activity, he said, otherwise the responsibility for continuing the bloodshed will lay on the shoulders of the ukrainian regime. the ukrainian government has not been carrying out a genocide, but wars can be launched by lies. russia today claimed ukraine has began attacking russia territory. it offered no proof except for what looked like a shack. russia says was targeted by ukrainian forces. in the trenches over the past 48 hours, we have seen absolutely no evidence that ukrainian troops are in the midst of an offensive against russia or are preparing for one. chris, this move was widely anticipated. u.s. officials had said putin would do exactly what he just

did, but calling him out did not stop him from doing it. in many ways what putin did tonight was take a middle ground. russia took over an area that it already controls, which is far less than russia has the capacity to do right now with all of its forces around this country. but was this just putin's first bite? chris? >> thank you, richard engel. >> thank you, richard engel. and what was the middle of the night and ukraine president let mirrors the lens ski addressed his nation calling russia's move a violation of ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, saying ukraine will give up nothing to no one. ukraine had also called for an emergency meeting for the un security council which -- about two hours ago. >> in essence, putin wants the world to travel back in time, to a time before the united nations, to a time when empires ruled the world, but the rest of the world has moved forward. and it is not 1919. it is 2022. and the united nations was

founded on the principle of decolonization, not recolonization. and we believe the vast majority of un member states, and the un security council are committed to moving forward, not going back in time. the consequences of russia's actions will be dire. across ukraine, across europe and across the globe. >> as for the white house response, the president today signed an executive order imposing limited economic sanctions on those two regions of ukraine that the kremlin unilaterally today declared independent. earlier this evening a member of biden's national security team said the administration is about to go a step further. >> we will continue to assess what russia does overnight.

we will be imposing significant sanctions on russia tomorrow. >> tonight, there are questions about ongoing diplomatic negotiations to try to defuse this crisis. secretary of state antony blinken had agreed to meet with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov on thursday if there's no russian invasion. so far, the u.s. has not officially referred to russia's latest move as an invasion, but many foreign policy experts insist it is. late tonight, the state department called it a major escalation. now over the weekend, france try to broker a meeting between biden and putin again, no concrete plans materialized. the white house has again said that meeting could only take place if russia does not invade ukraine. meanwhile, the u.s. is sitting a stark warning to the un about alleged atrocities that could occur if russia carries out an invasion of ukraine. nbc news has confirmed reports that quote, the u.s. has warned the united nations that it believes russia has plans to kill large numbers of critics, dissidents and vulnerable populations in ukraine, or send them to camps. the kremlin is denying that

report, calling the allegation quote, absolute fiction. with that, let's bring in our lead off guests tonight. chief correspondent for pbs, and political contributor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, william taylor. the united states institute of peace vice president for russia and europe. and retired four star u.s. general army, mr. carefree. a veteran -- in vietnam. he's a former cabinet member and former member of the national security council. good to see all of you here. ambassador taylor, why do we need to understand about putin 's focus on these two separatist big area in eastern ukraine, and how do today's plays impact the world strategy? >> it's to dominate ukraine. that's been clear.

we've been taking steps in various directions so far. he has failed. he has failed in the minsk attempt. the minsk agreement. he is now taken another approach. this approach, chris, let's be clear. this is an invasion. president biden was very clear about what constitutes an invasion, and it's one a soldier or a tank, or a missile or an aircraft goes across the border into sovereign territory of ukraine, and that is what has happened. president putin has moved troops into -- the regular army forces. this is an invasion. >> is that what you see, general mccaffrey? >> no question. at the end of the day, putin, for a variety of reasons, primarily to integrate ukraine back into mother russia is determined to dominate this line. today's announcement, a fabrication of political and

legal reasoning, is going to end up with so-called peacekeeping forces, which i would be un-surprised if they don't grab the remainder of those two provinces. that's where the majority of the ukrainian armed forces are. we should expect to see intense combat if that turns out to be the case. so, i think needle has been brought together quite nicely by secretary blinken and the president. the world is aware of what is going on. but putin is a thug, he's murdered his opponents abroad and domestically. he has invaded crimea, eastern ukraine and syria. georgia. he's a danger to the european community. >> so here's what's former u. s. ambassador michael mcfaul said about putin's thinking. take a listen. >> he's not worried about the stock price -- next week. he's not worried about the economy taking over the next months or years. he's thinking about what will

russian history books say about vladimir putin 30, 40, 50 years from now. when he wants them to say is that russia was weak, that the soviet leaders let the soviet union collapse. wrongly. and that i was the guy that restored russia as a great power. i was the one that put us back -- >> so general, let me allow you to add a punctuation point to what you've just said, because to add to what we just heard, putin packed a lot of those grievances and anger into less than an hour in his speech today. did he sound like a man who is going to limit his actions? >> no, of course not, and that's why i think we have to expect that this is step one of a multi phased plan. i'll bet there's fighting to secure most of those two provinces, probably to establish a land quarter from crimea up to the maritime borders of ukraine, to the eastern regions.

but at some point, big putin is determined to grab the entire country. ukraine has got a quarter of 1 million troops. there is going to be a battle that is going to be terrible. slain casualties. biden told us they are going for kyiv. having been in and out of that on arms control negotiations, can you imagine 3 million people involved in street to street fighting? millions of refugees in the western europe? crossing the border in the four nato nations. and the key thing, to u.s. foreign policy is, who's next? the baltics? romania? poland? georgia? we are on the edge of a new era and national security arrangements in europe. >> let me go back to you, craig, for just a second, ambassador taylor, because you dealt with the current leader zelensky and the administration, and i think to the generals points, says it spoken to him about possibly having to leave the country.

talk to me about how you see his ability to deal with these escalation -- escalating situations and what you make of what happened at the un tonight and how it plays and if at all to any of this? >> chris, president zelensky probably to the surprise of president putin has stood up. he has hold firm. many people told him not to go to munich. the people thought that it would be a possible problem that the russians might not let him back in. president zelensky gave to -- went to munich. if a good speech. he came back. he's there now with a defense minister. i was just on the phone with them. they've indicated that they are not to be counted, they're standing firm. they're not giving concessions to putin -- putin undoubtedly thoughts all these troops, 100 -- 200,000 troops on the ukraine borders would rattle or intimidate presidents walensky. it has not. it hasn't rattled or intimidated president biden.

they are standing tough. they did the right thing of going to the security council. to call out what's going on. a clear violation of international law, as general mccaffrey said. he doesn't care about that. when he cares about, and mike mcfaul said the same thing. he cares about his history. he cares about ukraine. we have to stand tough. we have to put those sanctions on. he has invaded. he has conducted an invasion already. the sanctions are ready. they should be put in place. >> if you are willing to share more that conversation you had tonight with the folks in ukraine, wet is it that they want from the united states or what is it that they want from nato, and what is their level of confidence based -- that putin is going to come after them and coming into kyiv? >> chris, what they want from the united states this continued support, backing, political backing. they want more military support.

we've been giving, as everybody knows, everybody has seen the clips of the aircraft landing full of weapons and ammunition and that's what they need, any more of that and they need more advanced stinger is that the united states could provide. the baltics and provided some that we've already given to them. they need help in defending themselves. you asked about the ukrainian -- it's tough. it's very tough. it's been fighting russians for eight years. it's not as big as the russians. the russians have the capability of going into ukraine, but they will face a very bloody battle. >> jeff, we heard the ambassador saying tonight we are not going back in time, no matter how much putin may want it. talk to me about with the white house stands on pursuing a diplomatic solution to this crisis, but also what we just heard from the ambassador, and i know the white house is in constant contact with the

ukraine, and how much more they might be willing to provide. >> chris, i think both the ambassador and the general really hit the nail on the head when it comes to one of the chief challenges here facing, not just by the administration, but allies generally. that is the asymmetry at play here, where the u.s.'s allies are focused on the days and weeks ahead. vladimir putin is really, if you listen to his ramblings today, is relitigating the fall of the soviet union, and in many ways focused on trying to redraw the post cold war security mount across europe so one of the things we heard from the senior administration today who held a conference call with the reporters, is that biden white house is not focused so much on what vladimir putin says. they're focused on what he does. that has been the case since the start of the crisis -- he's been radically transparent and declassifying intelligence and sharing it with the american people and the world really.

and trying to disclose with putin was up two to bind more time for diplomacy to work. it doesn't appear that the diplomatic avenues have worked in much the way that the white house had wanted them to, so now tomorrow, we are told by a senior administration official, as you heard on the network earlier today, that the white house plans to move forward with sanctions. there could be blow back there. not just in higher gas prices, higher energy prices in this country. not just with world markets upended, it's also chris, as you know russia has the capability to complicate other areas of fought foreign policy that matter a lot to the u.s.. they could get involved in this country's efforts to really curtail the nuclear ambitions of iran and north korea. putin could be less -- to stopping cyber hacking. the administration is trying to walk this tightrope in figuring out how to pinpoint sanctions

in a way that would be effective, but not also crippling entirely. >> yes, because general, sorry, finish your thought. i apologize. >> i was just going to say effective but not crippling to the allies and people here across the states. >> talking about that line, general mccaffrey, if you are already looking at a list of ukrainians that russia is going to go after, if you are talking about things like camps and list, our sanctions enough? we've heard so many folks be complimentary, even on the right, of the strength that they've seen in president biden and the way he's handled this so far, but where are we right now? and sanctions, how do they really impact somebody who has shown in the past that he is willing to let his people suffer? >> yeah, we should have no doubt about putin, the gru,'s

special operations forces, these are brutal people. their behavior and chechnya were simply atrocious. this clearly will cap fear over those whose stand with ukraine. i don't know how this is going to come out. we're not going to fight hard in ukraine for sure, neither the u.s. or nato. but we have immense power, economic, political, military. one of the earlier -- our guest talked about nothing the russians make, that we need, all they've got is nuclear weapons and oil and gas. so we're at a point of confrontation. we should expect that the u. s. must stand behind international law and our values, and i think biden's leadership has been superb on this whole issue. >> ambassador, the administration has reportedly concerned about the growing bond between russia and china as this crisis has evolved. how should the white house deal

with the other superpower in the sea question? clearly a motivating factor behind this is that biden has long believed that he needs to be up there on that list of superpowers once again. big >> chris, there is a relationship of course. i'm sure that president xi is watching carefully dog with great interest the strength of president biden as he confronts president putin. if president xi and president putin thought that the united states was going to withdraw or was withdrawing, or had bad experiences in afghanistan, or was pulling back -- if they thought the united states was going to be soft on this, they have been surprised. as general said, president biden has demonstrated strength, zelensky has demonstrated strength, and that surprised both president putin and i think president xi is watching carefully.

>> jeff, president biden did come twice last year to speak about ukraine. he's already talked to the american people about the impact it might have in terms of oil and gas prices. big is the white house talking about a plan to have him speak again in the coming days? >> not at the moment. not that i'm aware of, i should put it that way. but big they are keenly aware of the ways in which, to put the focus on domestic politics here, the white house says that policy, politics is not driving their ukraine policy, but they're keenly aware of the presidents opponents who which right to use any movie makes against him in this election year, so on that dimension and also because of the fact that it's invasion moves forward in the sanctions are put in place, and there's a significant blow back that would require the american people sacrifice, that it's incumbent upon the president to give the american people advanced warning.

it's sort of two decision points that i'm told drive the timing and the scheduling and the overall decision process about when where and how the president addresses the american people on this issue. >> great to have you on the program. thank you bob your experience and insights have been invaluable. thank you so much for being with us again tonight. coming up, we are live in ukraine with more on what vladimir putin and the rest of the world should expect in an unconventional war. a cyber expert and former special agent for the fbi both standing by. later, foreign policy suddenly takes center stage with just one week to go before the state of the union. the 11th hour, just getting underway on monday night.

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years trying to fireproof his economy to the degree that he can from these kind of sanctions. having said all of that, over time, if we impose truly restrictive sanctions, particularly on the oil and gas sector, it will create discontent inside of russia. but again, he has a very firm grip on the levers of power. look for him to push hard to consolidate his games. >> it is a complicated business and tricky strategy to get right. talking about sanctions like those imposed by the u.s. on two separatist regions of ukraine, after putin recognized their independence.

more severe sanctions are expected tomorrow according to the white house. exactly what those measures look like remains to be seen. with us tonight, malcolm nance, author of special naval intelligence, cyber security, he is in ukraine tonight, has 35 years in the trade of counterterrorism and intelligence. and clint watts, west point graduate, army veteran, former fbi special agent and a distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute. great to see both of you malcolm, i thank you for being up in the middle of the night with us. give us your sense on the ground, what you are feeling, what you are hearing and with the sense is about what sanctions may or may not accomplish. >> i've been here for over a month now. assessing the russian order of battle. mapping out the invasion routes that they would come into.

but i also spent time in the battlefront with the commander of the joint task force down in that region. this is a very, very serious situation, fraught with a lot of danger. this is a country of 42 million people. the city of kyiv is the size of chicago. it is a very advanced western metropolitan city. if the russians invade this country, they are going to run into stiff military opposition. they may not have the greatest technology here, but what they have, they have home game in advantage. they have enough weapons to make the russians slow down, or at least pay. but the city and the land itself do not lend itself to an easy operation. the germans used over 1 million men to take this place and the soviets more than that. but, whether this goes to war or not is a very serious situation. because sanctions may impact them on one level.

but this country will be devastated. they will have to destroy every building in the line of march. they will have to use weapons systems like rockets and thermal bare rocket. in order to level entire areas, where they are going to meet anti tank and anti personal resistance. i just cannot even imagine somebody doing this to a country the size of germany. and expecting that they are going to get away with it. it will also be the greatest insurgency since, i don't know, the insurgents fought the nazis here in the 1940s. i've already heard people plan on producing explosive reform projectile ieds. roadside bombs and molotov cocktail parts. >> clint, that is a very vivid picture that was just painted. and it certainly seems as though, when you start talking about and we heard it from admirable -- the whole point of putin fireproofing his economy. the argument that can be made

that the russian people will suffer long before vladimir putin. what considerations do biden and nato need to take when amping up sanctions or relying on them as a deterrent? >> that's right. there has been years and years of sanctions that has not slowed vladimir putin down. at the same point, this could be the deciding factor really. for a lot of wedges. a lot of the oligarchy, russian oligarchs, live abroad. if it was severe sanctions it would really cramped their lifestyle and change their ability to move money around. that something might play to the hand of vladimir putin, but not something that russian oligarchs would really enjoy. that is a potential wedge there. i think that the other part is, i am worried that the biden administration will not push sanctions quite far enough. what you are seeing so far, coming out of the white house, they are going to sanction entities in donetsk and danske, these two regions, but that

does really strike at the russians. in some ways, it may even play to their advantage. meaning that there will not be capital and money moving into that region. which leaves it to the control of the russians. i think separately, this is a very preplanned and decisive strategy by putin. he is trying to avoid the baghdad effect. kind of what we saw when we invaded iraq in 2003, which is that if you take baghdad right away, you go a full invasion, just like malcolm was talking about, you are than vulnerable to a large-scale insurgency over many years. this is something they would want to avoid. another afghanistan from the soviet area. and so they are going to try and planned this. in a way like general mccaffrey was talking about before, take small bites and chunks, trying to work on the french and germans to come to their side. or not do anything, and incrementally take all of ukraine overtime. i think that is really where it is going to get troublesome here in the next couple of weeks.

the biden administration will have to decide how far it wants to go. >> so malcolm, since you have been traveling around the country. what is your sense around with that approach will look like. you gave us that sort of vivid destruction of what it would look like in kyiv. and what are your thoughts about that approach and how it would play out? >> the russians are going to carry out a military operation with various phase lands, they think that they can control once they start the operation. kyiv itself is its own entire phase. you have to get the study of how they're going to get down to the capital city. i spent two weeks just doing that. they're going to have to attack on three different fronts. a western front, central front and eight eastern front. but the ukrainians have an army. this army appears ready to fight. it appears that they have the ability to slow this down. the russians want to establish a piecemeal swath of the entire

country that goes from the northern city to the eastern city of --, down to kharkiv, and connect that with luhansk. and maybe carve a new area south to crimea. and that would be one large phase line. the next phase line has to make them fight stiffly, going all the way up the river. and whether they can get around kyiv is one thing. but getting that next 100 miles, if they think they are going to be able to do this in the small flights, they are not going to. this country will, if anything, have the baghdad effect. where the army may disappear in certain sectors, while main forces are fighting. and then return planting ieds, using anti tank missile ambushes and degrading the fact that russia has to occupy every crossroads. has to occupy every village. this is where the molotov cocktail could become very

effective here. but the city of kyiv, i don't think they're going to be able to take that city. they can get there, but it is the size of chicago, with 4 million people, and i don't think that they will ever be able to subjugate it, or western ukraine itself. and as american weapons start to flow in, other people start giving them assistance and they start building their own i.e.d factories, it will be a nightmare for the russians. they just are not going to be able to take and hold this place. and they are going tough to kill a lot of people. and apparently, they have made the choice that they are going to. >> there is not a single analysts who does not think this is going to be very bloody. both gentlemen are going to stay with us, we have a lot more to talk about, not just the war on the ground, but what to watch for if and when nato and other global allies are suddenly targets of cyber war fare, in an unconventional war. when the 11th hour continues.

>> ukraine has always been the kind of laboratory for cyber warfare for russia, where the russians can turn on and off the lights. when we see this invasion happening, we will see cyber warfare at a scale that we have not ever seen before. and we may even see it here. >> pretty stark warning there from ricks dangle, a former state department official under

president obama. still with us, malcolm nance, chris watts, last week we heard at the white house briefing that the administration is going full shields up to protect key parts of u.s. critical infrastructure from pipelines, banks, to commercial aviation in hospitals from a potential russian cyber attack. what do we know about their capabilities and how worried should we be here? >> but i think that their capabilities are quite remarkable. i think that the biggest factor is that they are not afraid to use them. they see no reason not to and they have capabilities quiet managed. as we learned over the past many years, they have a criminal underground, which they also utilized at their disposal when they need to. use very advanced techniques. and i think that there are several different ways to calculate this. one is by sectors, like you mentioned chris. what is the energy risk, what is the banking risk, what is the infrastructure risk that is out there. that could really do harm to western countries. and then i think it is regionally. you are going to see a continuation of the cyber

bombardments that we have already seen inside of ukraine. which was mentioned right before this. separately, it will be used as a decisive tool in many ways, depending on how the nato allies react. countries like germany for example, which depend on a lot of energy quite closer to russia. they are much more intertwined. they will be at risk of cyberattacks if they do not go along with what putin would like. so more aggressive, something that the nato allies are. main cyberattack. and then it goes to the u.s.. if the u.s. takes a very aggressive military stance, or was really hard on sanctions, or pushes putin into a corner that he does not like, he could really threaten both of the banking infrastructure and energy sectors inside the united states. he has got many weapons and methods to do that and it is very difficult for us to reality. we try to avoid that tit-for-tat cyber warfare. >> malcolm, homeland security has indicated that they believe

right now the intention in terms of cyber by russia's on ukraine. what is your assessment on the level of threat of cyberattacks against ukraine and what do you think the biggest possibility is there? >> it is very high. last, week they did what i would call an experimental attack, just to see if they could touch around the edges of the ukrainian ministry of defense in the banking sector. where they disabled all of the -- these are the sort of things that when you are carrying out an attack every once in a while, it would be good if you know that you could actually get some of the systems and resources. but we have been waiting for a massive cyberattack and when i say massive, i mean like dropping the entire internet in this country knocking out all of the cellular phone networks. do they have the ability to do that?

>> the proximity of russia, the integration of the systems here but. there was an incident back in 2014 where they took control of a ukrainian power plant. literally a mirror image of a power play in russia knocking out power to 300,000 people. if they don't attack with cyber, we think that in the first strike they will be using cruise missiles and ballistic metal field ballistic missiles, they will knock out physically. personally take down the towers and i am quite surprised right now that we have. -- speaking of the united states and its allies, but they could do, could make a short stunning attack on the united states, that is something that is permanent, but to make sure that we understand that they

have the capability to and that we would worry about that and our infrastructure while they are just dismantling this country of 42 million people. >> i could talk to you guys all night, thank you for sharing your incredible knowledge. we appreciate you being with us. coming up, simone sanders antimatter on how the ukraine crisis threatens to overshadow the presidents state of the union message, when the 11th hour continues.

>> president joe biden, just a little over a week away from his first state of the union address. but as the white house has been working to refocus the presidents messaging ahead of the speech, the crisis on ukraine's border threatens to overshadow what aides want focus to be. back with us tonight, simone sanders, former chief spokesperson for vice president harris, will be hosting a upcoming show here on msnbc, and on our streaming channel the choice on peacock, and to miller a contributor to the bulwark and former communications director for jeb bush. good to have. you simone, every president to

say that the state of the union is strong, challenging, arguably for biden, given how the american people are feeling about his handling of covid and inflation and gun violence, how does russia, which threatens to overshadow what we hear from by next week, play into all of this, and how do we handle it. >> two things, one, i think that the white house has been handling this very well. the entire administration and officials, including the vice president and secretary blinken, where in munich this past weekend and vice president harris, she held meetings with the baltic leaders, who were feeling very threatened right now by the way and also president zelensky of ukraine and in terms of this speech and russia and ukraine, look, i think that this is an opportunity for a lack of a better term but, it is an opportunity. the biden ministration has said that they are the adults in the room and that this is competent,

capable leadership at the world stage and that america is back, you have seen the president and vice president administration exhibiting that over the last couple of weeks and the state of the union speech as an opportunity to do just that and more on international affairs but also domestic policy. but >> certainly right about republicans the wall street editorial board had nice things to say about how president biden's handling this crisis and i'd like to play the opposite of that, some of what we have heard on fox news recently, take a listen but. >> why is it disloyal to side with russia, but loyal to side with ukraine. they are both foreign countries that don't care about the united states. >> we have to make tough choices and put american security interest first. we have to focus on china and we have to focus on our own borders and we need to ask our european allies to do more.

>> anyone paying attention to biden's presser last week, heard the sounds of the war drums beating, the media desperately wants to get off the raging crime, raging covid and so ukraine has to be their new shiny object. >> it is all lost him. but that aside, let me ask your take on messaging to the american people, we were just talking to jeff bennett, and it's not clear that the president is going to come out separately but, certainly can't ignore this in the state of the union, how did this become part of his messaging, in how he presents himself, both as a strong leader and somebody who is moving this country forward? >> i think this is really about competence and strength for biden and the president needs to signal obviously, that putin's aggression in eastern europe is not going to be acceptable to this administration. and this administration is going to do everything in their power to deter, prevented shore

of obviously troops on the ground. which there is not any appetite for in this country and i think that as long as they can execute on that competently, i do not know if it is going to have much of an impact on the domestic political standing and i think that if you look at the republican side, the critique of biden's all over the place you just showed three clips criticizing him for being too aggressive in ukraine, could've shown three other clips of marco rubio, ted cruz saying that he is not doing enough. there's not a unified republican opposition on this, in the republican party, unlike some of the issues, they've got a cleaner shot up. >> simone, tim's friends over at the bulwark describe part of the problem essentially as, and they are not alone in this by the way, democrats like to whine about everything. >> here's a quote from the bulwark, no matter what he does, finding fault with it, and that negativity is with the average non policy carriers away from the story, so instead of

trumpeting a simple message of success over and over, until people began to believe it, just through sheer repetition, biden focuses on his failures but. >> is that fair simone, what does the white house need to do to either break the cycle, or have democrats stop talking like that? >> i actually disagree with that particular assertion in the peace, and i think that the president in the white house actually talked a lot about the successes, the number of vaccinations and what the president has been able to do in terms of the american rescue plan, bipartisan infrastructure law, the problem is, these other democrats out here chris, they are not talking about it, we are bed-wetters as we often say amongst ourselves in democratic circles, and so look, i think if there is only one president at the party saying that the party is great and everybody else at the party is saying, oh, i've been to better events, folks are going to walk away from the party saying that it was not great, and so it is not enough just for the white house to carry this message and this water, folks have to get

on board. and looking ahead to the midterm elections, if i was working and advising any of these democratic campaigns, i would tell them look, we need to tell them the successes out here, and there is a real good story to tell, and i think that democrats should be telling it. >> in our final 45 seconds tim, is the importance of the state of the union overstated? it still does get a lot of eyeballs. it gets right up a lot and talked a lot about, but can you really reset messaging, or reset impressions with that speech. >> it could not be more overstated but, and should probably send a letter to congress like it was done in the old days. >> the last data that you know was done during w. bush's term in the iraq war, and that wasn't necessarily meaningful and i don't think that there is going to be much political difference next week after the state of the union. >> yet we will continue to talk about it and dissect it, preview. tim miller, simone sanders,

thank you. coming up, new reporting on how the ukraine crisis could send gas prices soaring, even higher, when the 11th hour continues.

>> tonight, as the white house weighs its options for more sanctions against russia, there are growing concerns about the impact on oil and gas prices. nbc news correspondent tom costello has more on that tonight. >> the ukraine showdown maybe a world away. but the oil market is global. and prices are already jumping up at the pump. the national average, now the highest since 2014, at 3:51 a gallon. up 20 cents in a month, up 88 cents in a year ago. california, with its higher gas taxes, now averaging four 72 a gallon, for 82 in the bay area. >> then taking a lot of family walks, that is for sure, bike rides, but not a lot of traveling going on right now. >> in greensboro north carolina, peppermint catering has eight

bands constantly on the road, they may have to increase delivery fees. >> our vans normally cost on average of 40 to $60 to fill up and obviously that has increased up to around 50 to 80 range. >> russia is the world's third largest oil producer and experts warn that an invasion, sanctions, counter sanctions, could push gas prices to an all-time high. >> i think that, combined with the seasonal ingredients would push the national average beyond the four dollar a gallon mark. it is simply just a matter of time. >> potentially pushing $6 a gallon in california. he was home heating bills are also surging. saudi arabia does not want to pump more oil than already promised, as the u.s. fracking industry also has resisted white house pressure to reduce more. and now a group of democrats wants to suspend the federal gas tax, to save 1 million -- >> gasoline for cars is essential for certain basic living requirement. and that is why the federal government should be suspending this gas tax.

>> that gas taxes used to maintain the nations roads and bridges, many in -- senator blumenthal says that we could suspend that gas tax, that infrastructure bill is now putting money into that but. and when oil companies past that gas cut, that is the question. >> tom costello, thank you for that report, we'll be right back.

>> reminder, stephanie ruhle starts right here on the 11th hour beginning wednesday march 2nd. that is our broadcast for this monday night, with our thanks for being with us, on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, goodnight. networks of nbc news tonight on all in vladimir putin escalates in ukraine after an angry televised spectacle. tonight what we know about what's going on as more russian troops move in, and what we know about the american response. deputy national security adviser john finer joins me live. then why is americans loudest mouthpiece rooting for the russian autocrat? >> why should i root for, crushed cars i am. >> and a spectacular number out of the gates for donald trump's twitter talk, off the ceo he chose to run it. >> it's an inspirational, honestly it's very moving for me to see people who are on the platform that have had their