♪ ♪ good evening and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's breaking news lead, red alert. right now ukrainian defense forces are trying to hold on to the country's capital kyiv as blasts continue to ring out in now the fifth day of the russian invasion of ukraine, and the world holds out hope that larger global confrontation can be

averted. rgs president vladimir putin placed nuclear deterrent forces on high alert, this after western allies took steps yesterday to remove certain russian banks from the global payment system, a move cast as provocation today by vladimir putin. ukraine today agreed to talks with russia to take place in neighboring belarus. no word on when or if russia will accept. and the european union has taken an unprecedented stand, barring russian jets from its airspace and russian state media in its airwaves and financing the purchase and delivery of weapons to ukraine, a first in its nearly 30 years of existence. meanwhile, here at home, the political response to the ukraine crisis has been complicated by the right wing's

tepid condemnations of putin and forceful attacks on president biden. the strongest of both coming last night from his predecessor. >> yesterday reporters asked me if i thought president putin was smart. i said, of course he's smart. putin is saying they're going to sanction me. they sanctioned me for the last 25 years. you mean i can take over a whole country and they're going to sanction me. the problem is not that putin is smart. the real problem is that our leaders are dumb. >> and later major developments in criminal justice. after being federal convictions for the murders of george floyd and ahmaud arbery. i'll be joined by both their families and the mother of trayvon martin on the tenth anniversary of his killing. we begin, of course, with ukraine. joining me now is nbc news

correspondent matt bradley in nepro ukraine. matt, it's midnight there now. what's the latest you can tell us after a big day of developments in the crisis? >> reporter: al, the most important thing was what you already mentioned, that president volodymyr zelenskyy has agreed to speak with vladimir putin, or rather their delegates have agreed to speak across the belarusian border, over the border between ukraine and belarus. this supposed meeting is already being flooded with pessimism. for one thing, volodymyr zelenskyy agreed to do this without preconditions, which is that the fighting continues to be continuing as they're talking. the arbiter, the intermediary here is the belarusian president

alexander poroshenko. this man has already used belarus as a staging ground -- excuse me. i got that name wrong. but already used belarus as a staging ground for his invasion of ukraine. there's no reason for the ukrainian government to believe that this is going to be negotiations in good faith. so whether or not this goes through, whether or not this becomes successful, it's hard to say. the ukrainian government and ukrainian military have already posted a very robust defense. it seems they're surviving yet another day. the intelligence saying that the russian military has already been frustrated by their efforts to try to invade ukraine and make advancements into the middle of the country. this isn't going to work very well for the russian government, to be able to come to the table and try to negotiate their way out of a crisis of their own making because so far, their

attempts to invade ukraine have failed. they're going to need to bring many, many more of their military resources to bear in order to make this a successful invasion. al. >> matt, one more question. where you are in ukraine is east of kyiv, a little bit closer to russia. describe what you've seen in the humanitarian response among ordinary ukrainians in this region in terms of finding and donating food and supplies. >> reporter: let me start by correcting myself. the president of belarus is alexander lukashenko. we should say that what i've seen today is a spirited effort to bring supplies to bear by ordinary people, who came out here in nepro to dough note what they had. they did so at a place that was a former soviet era museum for rocket science and for rockets

of the soviet era. while we're there, we're walking around talking to people. in the middle of all of this there was a siren, a bomb siren. it was really upsetting. while all these people were involved in this patriotic display, once that happened, we saw teary-eyed ukrainians racing away, trying to find shelter. it was very upsetting. we ourselves had to go down into an underground parking garage in our hotel. i should say that since we did that, there has been at least one more air raid siren. we've had to go down in that parking garage at least two more times. so this city, dnipro, which hasn't been under much assault, is like so many cities throughout this country, facing a constant threat. that has been interrupting the lives of ordinary people, ordinary people who are just trying to get on with their lives, just trying to live as normal. when it comes to the day to day, their lives are interrupted in

an optimistic way. they're all going out, trying to help, trying to donate, help people on the front lines, even when they're far from the front. here in dnipro, they're far from the front. but the front is moving quickly and both from the north and the south. people here are under threat and they'll continue to be under threat until some sort of negotiations to try to get ukraine out of this situation. those negotiations are going to go along hopefully soon over the belarusian border. i've got to tell you. i've been here for five weeks. there's been diplomatic negotiations going on that entire time and long before that. they haven't worked, and nobody here believes these negotiations that were announced today are going to work either. al. >> thank you nbc's matt bradley in ukraine. joining me now, senator tim kaine, democrat of virginia, a number of two important committees, armed services and foreign relations.

senator, thank you for being with us to night. obviously a lot of developments tonight with the continued fighting in ukraine's major cities, the tightening of sanctions, an agreement of talks with russia though know date has been set yet. i can tell you that the folks i preached to this morning in brooklyn are worried first and foremost about vladimir putin placing russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. from your view on both senate foreign affairs and armed services committees, is this brinksmanship or a viable threat coming from putin? >> reverend sharpton, thanks for having me on. i'll tell you what this is. it's a sign of vladimir putin's desperation. this is more of a signal to the russian population, trying to convince them that he's doing the right thing than it is about

the west. so when he puts his nuclear deterrent force on high alert, he could do it privately if he was really worried about an attack on russia. let's be clear, reverend sharpton, there's not going to be an attack on russia. there's not a single thing that russia has that any of us want, not a single thing. there's no attack. but when he announces this deterrent nuclear posture publicly, he's trying to convince the russian population, you see, we're so worried about the west attacking us that we have to take these actions. that means his salesmanship about the need for this unnecessary and illegal invasion of ukraine has fallen flat with the russian public. you've seen protests all over russia. you've seen spirited opposition in ukraine, and so him announcing that we need to put our deterrent threat, nuclear threat on high alert, is an effort to convince the russian population that russia is

somehow threatened. that's mott the case. i don't believe people are going to fall for it. >> now, is some of that because we are seeing protests all over russia, which is certainly something we don't often see and certainly as widespread as it has been and the resistance from people in ukraine, is this in your opinion encouraging him to try to raise this issue as if they are facing some kind of attack because he's trying to react to something he's not used to, and that is protests in his own land all over the country as well as resistance, more than reportedly they expected from the people in ukraine themselves? >> reverend sharpton, i think it's that and one more element. they're seeing protests all over russia which they don't see. you know this guy. he poisons and jails political opponents, not only in russia,

but he'll find them in other countries and do that to them. when people turn out all over russia to protest this war, they're not used to that. they're seeing an opposition in ukraine that is fierce. some of the fiercest opposition are in communities that are russian-speaking, very close to the russian border like kharkiv. kharkiv is the second largest city in russia. they've watched what russian dominance has done to donetsk and luhansk and saying they don't want to be part of it. you're starting to see reports of russian troops surrendering, russian troops rioting, refusing to be deployed, russian troops in russia near the ukrainian border, there's early reporting about resistance among the russian military to this attack. so you add street level protests

by russians and ukrainian resistance and even the military -- i remember when i was -- when we were during the trump administration we had to have some faith in american military leadership that they wouldn't follow an illegal order, and they often looked us in the eye and told us they wouldn't. we're starting to see some early signs of that in the russian military. >> talking about trump, senator, bear with me, because i want to play more of president trump at the cpac conference last night talking about the crisis in ukraine. take a listen. >> the russian attack on ukraine is appalling. it's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur. it never would have occurred. we are praying for the proud people of ukraine. god bless them all. as everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election

was not rigged and if i was the president. >> senator, this is the de facto leader of the republican party that appears at least divided on their messaging on ukraine and their support of putin. your response. >> well, president trump and his enablers, reverend sharpton, they're in the blame-america-first crowd. they can't really with passion call out vladimir putin and they don't. they immediately want to blame biden and blame america first. this is a crisis that has one culprit and one cause, and that's a dictator, vladimir putin, who is hold up in sochi or his resort villa outside moscow surrounded by yes men. this isn't the united states' fault. this is vladimir putin's fault. the fact that donald trump and his enablers want to play this for a political advantage, look,

when donald trump was president, he gave russia everything they wanted. he destabilized ukraine, firing a u.s. ambassador to ukraine who was tough on russia. he tried to destabilize nato, suggesting that it had no purpose and that we would pull out of it. i'm so glad that we have a president now who understands the value of alliances and who can call out vladimir putin for what he is. vladimir putin is a war criminal, and among the various things the u.s. should do, sanctions, yes. stop the nord stream pipeline, yes. humanitarian aid to ukraine, yes. delivery of military assets to the ukrainian people and military, yes. but we should be working with democracies from around the world to call out vladimir putin as a war criminal. >> president biden delivering his first state of the union on

tuesday, facing low approval numbers, created chaos from the pandemic and the escalating crisis in ukraine. we also know that republicans will pounce on whatever his message is in their rebuttal. but progressive democrats will deliver a rebuttal of their own. what do you want to hear from the president as a citizen right now on tuesday? >> this is a tough one, reverend sharpton, you or right. there's all these challenges in the world. if i were president biden, i would start with the fact that the last two years have been the toughest in american life. the global pandemic has hit everybody, hasn't hit everybody equally. african americans and latinos have been disproportionately hit with covid in terms of serious illness and deaths. african americans, latinos, women and young people have been hit hardest in job losses.

i think president biden should say let's just be hongest, folks, the last two years have been among the toughest in modern american history. however, covid numbers are coming down. the cdc is suggesting because of vaccinations and other things we can start to shed masks, not only outdoors but indoors in much of the country. there are strong economic treads, job growth, wage growth, gdp growth and an economic challenge, inflation, that we have to get ahold of. i believe even in these tough times we can see a little bit of a sense of up lift as we get not past covid but we start to live more normally with covid and we see positive economic trends. on the global stage, authoritarians are showing the world who they are and democracies are showing who we are by linking arms together. remember president trump didn't

care about alliances. he was glad to kick canada, mexico and europe to the curb, using national security waivers against them. we need to link arms with allies. it's linking arms with allies that will ultimately bring dictators like vladimir putin to legal. >> senator tim kaine, thank you for being with us this evening. coming up, house majority whip james clyburn joins "politics nation." his take on the president's pick for the supreme court and the gop's praise for putin. more continuous coverage of the war in ukraine right here on msnbc. we'll be right back. msnbc. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "politics nation." let's bring in my next guest to help sort through several urgent and important political topics.

joining me now, south carolina congressman james clyburn, house majority whip and chairman of the house select committee on the coronavirus crisis. congressman, first let me say that we're following two breaking developments in the ukraine crisis, the ukrainian president has agreed to conduct the first diplomatic talks since russia invaded ukraine. meanwhile, the russian leader, the russian president puts russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert. what do you make of putin's threats? is russia having a tougher time in ukraine than expected? >> first of all, thank you very much for having me, reverend. i'll deal with your last question first. i think that putin has found out that this kind of leadership is

not appreciated by any place in the world, not even appreciated by his own people they are rising up over russia and so are the other territories around. and his own military think are showing an unwillingness to carry out his orders, and i think that he is looking for a way to save face. >> now, right now russian president putin is facing global condemnation for his actions. but where he's getting a great deal of support is here in the u.s., a pair of conservative conferences just wrapped up in orlando. donald trump spoke last night, and surprisingly stood with the ukrainian people, but he went on to praise the russian leader for the second time this week. at another white nationalist

conference known as at af pac, marjorie taylor greene took the stage friday night just before this moment here. >> i look at russia who -- can we give a round of applause to russia. >> putin. putin. putin. >> absolutely, absolutely. >> i mean what's behind the love affair between the republican party and putin? >> well, i stand with mitt romney. i think he represents the republican party that my parents were a part of and the republican party that ought to be in existence today. i think it's a shame that the leaders of the republican party have allowed themselves to

become adopted by this white nationalist movement as well as those people who find solace with the soviet union. we saw it in the presidency of donald trump. he tried to destabilizes all the parts of nato alliance. he sought to disrespect the ukrainian people themselves by doing all kinds of machinations regarding their leadership, and now he's saying if he were in office, we wouldn't have this invasion. he's probably right about that, because he was doing all the work for putin. he had no need to carry out this invasion. but i think that he is keeping with his timetable. it's just that trump is not there to assist him. >> now, switching gears, now to the supreme court nominee, you issued a press release on friday

saying, quote, this is a glass ceiling that took far too long to shatter, and i commend president biden for taking a sledge hammer to it. i congratulate judge jackson and offer my full support during the confirmation process and beyond. you also went on to celebrate ms. michelle childs who you recommended for the high court as she was a finalist. what does it mean to you knowing that president biden kept his word to you and the people of south carolina when he nominated a black woman to the security? i remember i was there la night at the debate in south carolina where you went in the back and said he should announce it that night. he told you privately. he announced it that night. the next morning you brought him to a breakfast of national action network that i was hosting in north charleston. he repeated it again.

he kept his word and also appointed a black woman vice president. what does this mean to you that you've been instrumental in putting a black woman as nominee in the supreme court? >> thank you very much for that. -- candidate biden at that time made the announcement. it means a lot to me. i'm the fact are of three daughters, and i believe very strongly that it's been too long that african american women have not gotten their just due from the legal process. i heard them talking about things that they felt insulted about, and one of them was the fact that in that time, 244-year history of the country, now 246 years, we have never had an african american woman seriously considered for the supreme

court. that time there had been four women. now it's been five. this will be the sixth, and i think it is high time that we do this, and i congratulate the president for keeping his promise to do it. i'll say to anybody who looked at this lady's background, looked at her experiences. you cannot find anybody that's more prepared to take a seat on the supreme court than she is. >> quickly, before we go, this tuesday president biden will deliver his first state of the union address. as a member of the congressional black caucus, what do you hold the president will say and ultimately do as it pertains to black people in america? >> well, you know, black people, as your previous guest said, have suffered disproportionately because of covid-19. and i think that the president

has got to lay out what he will continue to do to get beyond covid-19. i think we're going to be living with it for a long time, just like we have to live with the flu. but we need to do the kinds of things that are necessary to minimize the adverse impact. i think the president is doing a good job of that. he needs to reenforce that. i think the president should continue talking about what his programs will do for individuals in this counted, what it will do for their families and what it will do for their communities. he has a tremendous record and he's getting it from all sides. but i do believe that you will see after the state of the union address, you will see his numbers start to go back up. >> house majority whip james clyburn, thanks as always for being with us. after the break, we'll take a look at the sanctions designed to squeeze russian president vladimir putin and find whether they could lead to an end to the

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welcome back to "politics nation." we're following all the breaking news out of ukraine. my next guest is an investigative reporter for talking points memo based in new york and is a former reporter for the kyiv post based in ukraine where he covered politics, business and corruption. josh kovinsky, thank you for joining me. you wrote on friday in regards to the russian invasion of ukraine that, quote, putin had a lot of options. he chose the most aggressive one. earlier today in a meeting with top officials which aired on russian state tv, he ordered his

nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert which means russia's nuclear weapons are prepared for an increased readiness to launch. can you make sense of putin's decision making here? >> well, first of all, reverend, thank you for having me on. i think it's somewhat difficult but clear that he's trying to up the tension. one important thing we've seen since the invasion four days ago is that the west has both upped the intensity of its sanctions on people around him and the russian state. we've seen commitments from the united states, europeans to deliver weapons to the ukrainians. it's not just small arms, not antitank weapons, today the eu said some states would be giving jet fighter aircraft. putin has said that weapons delivery to the ukrainians is a red line. my impression of what he's doing

with the nuclear sabre rattling, i think it's less a direct threat and more trying to convince the west to knock it off essentially, to stop helping the ukrainians, let us go in, make it easier for us. >> yesterday the u.s. and the european allies announced an agreement to sanction some russian banks through s.w.i.f.t., a network that facilitates global transactions and connects thousands of banks around the world. how does cutting off access to s.w.i.f.t. impact putin and other high-ranking russian officials such as sergey lavrov directly and can there be more harsh sanctions on them personally? >> well, i think with putin, you have to think about it in terms of him and also the people around him. as you correctly mentioned. that's not just officials like lavrov. it's also very powerful russian oligarchs who wield huge power

and control huge swaths of the economy. cutting off access to s.w.i.f.t. is going to make it incredibly difficult for the russian banks that are hit to operate internationally and make it possible to do that, straddle another line in that regard. with putin w the sanctions it's difficult because his wealth doesn't necessarily have to be held in the form of a bank account in switzerland. he's the head of state. he's known for allegedly abusing the wealth of that state in his own interests. if you think about it, he has this big palace in the black sea. that's not something you can ever hit with sanctions. the russian government built it reportedly. it's beyond our reach. i think it will make him angry. i think it will make it much more difficult for the russian people. it will be a physical consequence of this war, and it will certainly make it much more

difficult for russian business to thrive to the extent it does. i think it's better to think about it in terms of pressure of put tin rather than cutting him off from certain financial assets. >> there have been warnings of cyberattacks on the u.s. and other western nations. can you explain to our audience what does putin have to gain from cyberattacks, and how americans can protect themselves from russian hacking? >> the big thing here in the russian mindset the concept of parity. what people in the cyber world in the united states are worried about, since we're the center of the world financial system and russia is not, they would try to achieve parity by hacking into various big banks or credit card systems and shutting them down. the biden administration has spent weeks, maybe months, trying to prep the country's

financial system for that. but it is a risk. the banks themselves have reportedly invested a lot of money into cyber kurt. i think we'll see how that plays out over the past week. it's covert, secret by its nature. until hackers really start doing their thing, we're not necessarily going to know what's going to happen. >> all right. josh kovensky, thanks for joining me. ten years after trayvon martin's death, a lot has changed and sadly some things have not. two grieving families, sabrina fulton, the mother of trayvon martin joins me, along with felon nis floyd. you don't want to miss that conversation. miss that conversation

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welcome back. in the midst of an intense week of news, justice was served in a federal court for the second time in a month. three of the former minneapolis police officers working alongside derek chauvin while he murdered george floyd two years ago were found guilty of violating floyd's civil rights. that ruling, of course, follows the federal hate crime convictions of the three men who killed ahmaud arbery, and this weekend, black america marks a solemn anniversary, the killing of trayvon martin ten years ago.

for all of this strategy, still considered a turning point in the conversation of american race relations, but at the core of these incidents are families reflecting on their loved ones who can never be replaced with a court decision. joining me, sabrina fulton, mother of trayvon martin, and philonise floyd, brother of george floyd. we were hoping also to have wander cooper jones, mother of ahmaud arbery, but she was unable to join us at the last minute and we hope to have her on at another time next week. i appreciate you for being here. what i feel should be a moment of reflection, because i know i mentioned the ten-year anniversary of your son's killing, sabrina, as a turning point in the conversation that hasn't really ended, but i wonder if you will be heartened at all watching these decisions come down in the last two weeks

and hearing rightfully of your son's place in american history leading up to this week. >> rev, thank you for having me, number one, but i really feel it's a bittersweet moment for us because even though we're starting to get accountability for people that are taking our black and brown lives, it's also -- it hurts a great deal because of all the lives we lost. even though we are rejoicing, we have to be mindful about the families and just remember ha is not going to bring their loved ones back. i don't even know if that's what justice looks like to them. but it definitely is hurtful to know that their loved one will always have an empty chair at the table. >> philonise, the difference

here is your brother george was not murdered by a vigilante or posse of them, but a law enforcement officer, found guilty of second degree murder. of course, now the officers who served with derek chauvin have been found guilty of violating your brother's civil rights. but still the reform legislation that appeared to be the most viable after your brother was killed, has failed to materialize. as our president prepares his state of the union, what are your thoughts? >> i can tell you this, rev. until there's accountability from the top with these government officials, wheel never have accountability. it starts there first. they have to pull the trigger and make the right decision. it's been tragedies happen all across america. you can go back to emmett till, trayvon martin, breonna taylor,

eric garner, amir locke, these bills have to be passed to make sure that african american people will even have a chance to live because we're coming -- we're beginning to be extinct. if you can make federal laws to protect the bird, which is the bald eagle, then you can make federal laws to protect people of color. >> sabrina, yesterday was the tenth anniversary to the day of the killing of trayvon, your son, and you usually do nothing on that day. obviously it's a very emotional and painful day to you, but you came to harlem yesterday, new york, and joined me at national action network, the mayor, eric adams came, who protested ten years ago about trayvon to say they're still committed to you.

why was that important for you to come to harlem and stand at national action network to mark this day, and what message did you want to give the country? >> it was important to me to make sure that people saw my face. i wanted people to know that i'm still strong and i'm still standing, and i'm still going to be the voice for not only my son, trayvon martin, but the trayvon martins that you don't know their name. so my message to everybody that was there, i'm grateful, i'm overwhelmed that they're still supporting us ten years later, but my message is don't give up. >> you said that very eloquently yesterday. one thing i can say in these ten years, i can't think of any situation that occurred, you were not there, part of mothers of the movement, sometimes by yourself, trying to comfort other families members. same thing with you philonise, just with amir locke's funeral. i wrote about you in my latest book "righteous trouble makers,"

this has made you an activist in your own right. what compels you to alter your whole life and now become a full-fledged activist, philonise, after what happened to george? >> you know, rev, for the past year we've all been through a lot, and we all have to stand up for what is right, because if you stand for nothing, you fall for anything. the fact that i think about what franklin douglas said. he said if there's no struggle, there's no progress. i'm here to tell you, rev, i'm tired of struggling. when are we going to make progress? we've been struggling for over 400 years. it's a time for change and a time for reaction. these people have to put these laws in place, and i have to keep fighting because i can never give them hope, like sabrina fulton said.

this is a tragedy that when so many people heard my brother scream "mamma, mamma," we have we should be one. we should be hall. we all want to make change together. so all these people in this pandemic, all of these people who put their lives on the line, all of these people who have lost a loved one and have an empty seat at their table, not due to covid, but due to somebody being murdered. this is a big problem, so this is one of the biggest things to try to get justice and accountability for so many other families who have not gotten it yet. >> well, both of you have made a tremendous difference. but as you say, we must change the legislation. and your work, both of your

work and your foundations, are doing work that the legacy of your son and your brother has altered american history, less alter the american system of legislation. sybrina fulton and philonise floyd, thank you both for joining me tonight. as i said, wanda cooper jones will be with us probably next week. she had a mishap last moment, and couldn't be with us tonight. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. up next, my final a place where dirt stays outside. and floors are protected. stay with us where standing is comfortable. es a mark. it's spotless under the sink. and kids can be kids. order your american made products at weathertech.com.

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that i grew up in an activism this morning, the baptist church in brooklyn, reverend adolfus lacey. i was meant to meet reverend william jones. i prayed for the people in ukraine, but i also looked and was reminded that as this nation stands with nato allies, about saving a democratic state

of ukraine. i look at texas where the primary there will be tuesday, and over 30% of the early voting has been turned back because of new restricting voting laws. we must not only stand for what we deem as democratic states abroad, we must stop the democratic process at home. so as this nation stands with ukraine, also let us say that we need to stand against repressive laws and texas, florida, north carolina, georgia. we need to practice at which we preach. it will give our preaching more validity. we'll be right back. preaching mor validity we'll be right back.

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thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next weekend at 5 pm eastern. alicia menendez picks up our news coverage now. >> thank you so much, reverend sharpton. hello everyone, i am alicia menendez. we are following major developments as russia's invasion of ukraine enters a fifth night. the un security council responding, just a short time ago, that vladimir putin's extraordinary announcement, that he is getting his nuclear forces ready. >> president putin put russia's nuclear forces on high alert. even though he is invading a country