i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on twitter. be sure to follow the show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. next hour an interview with white house press secretary jen psaki when kristen welker and peter alexander pick up coverage next. good morning, i'm peter alexander. welcome to this week's special edition of "white house reports." >> and i'm kristen welker. >> there are at least three historic and evolving story lines that are unfolding in this building behind us. first, russia's invasion of ukraine, how it's shaping president biden's state of the union address scheduled for

tomorrow might. and confirming his supreme court nominee, who would be the first black woman to serve on the court. >> in ukraine, citizens are taking up arms in defense have repelled russian forces from capturing the capital of kyiv and other cities. vladimir putin is putting his forces on my alert. according to the united nations refugee agency, the number of people fleeing the country is now mosh than 500,000. >> i don't want to see our boys and girls die. >> i must save my child. i must save him. >> putin is monster. >> no translation needed there. putin a monster, according to that young boy. in the next 15 minutes, president biden will host a secure call with america's allies to coordinate next steps in responding to russia's

aggression. the white house just announced that the u.s. is also expanding sanctions, new steps focusing on russia's central bank. already western sanctions are sending the value of russia's currency, the ruble, to historic lows. this crisis is obviously defining the early contours of president biden's second year in office, especially as he prepares to give that first state of the union address. that will take place tomorrow night. will this crisis spotlight a larger bottle, protecting democracy in the face of autocracy? >> just ahead, white house press secretary jen psaki will join us live and whether the administration may consider scrapping their work and starting over on this address altogether. and, peter, this president is going to deliver his first state of the union address tomorrow night and it's a very different moment than he was anticipating just a month ago when he would

have been focused largely on domestic issues. now everything has changed. >> the decision making happening in realtime when they try to decide what that speech should look like. we and administration officials have really been struck by the strength of this resistance and by the ukrainian people vladimir zelenskyy, can he cast himself as the leader of the free world where it is this democracy versus autocracy fight. josh letterman is in brussels. keir simmons is at his post in moscow and cal perry will join us from western ukraine. >> josh, we are waiting for president biden's call with allies. it will start here at the white house in about 15 minutes the u.s. just slapped even more sanctions on russia this morning. what are the specifics on the new sanctions and give us the latest on the ground there. >> reporter: well, this is the

latest move by the u.s. to really try to ramp up this economic pressure on ukraine, as well as to punish moscow for this invasion. we learned part of what the u.s. and allies planned to do was target russia's central bank but we didn't exactly know how. today we have learned that the u.s. working in coordination with its allies plans to put a freeze on any assets that russia's central bank has in the u.s. but is also taking the step of barring any americans from doing any kind of business with the central bank, aiming to really further isolate russia and also to make it impossible for president putin to use more than $600 billion in central bank reserves that he has stored away to make it easier for him to undermine the effects of these sanctions, to prop up russia's currency, which is taking such a hit amid this wave

of sanctions from these nations across the country. so this is one more move by the biden administration to make it harder for putin to keep his economy afloat while the world is mounting this show of condemnation. >> keir, you know the russian economy is taking this huge hit right now. the state department said u.s. citizens should consider leaving russia immediately. and putin has ordered his nuclear deterrent forces to be on a high state of alert. you have contacts inside the kremlin. what are you hearing from them and from those on the streets there? >> reporter: well, you know, peter, these are historic times, incredible events keep coming, frankly, every hour.

i don't know how the president writes that state of the union speech. to give you one example, we just heard that switzerland, as everyone will know, a traditionally neutral country, has announced it will join the sanctions against russia. that is stunning from the perspective of russian oligarchs. if you can't feel your money is safe in a swiss bank, you're in trouble. oligarchs are deeply worried and i would go so far as to say looking for life boats. roman abromwich who lives much of the time in london but has close connections to putin put out a statement say the ukrainians asked him for help with the peace talks and he's going to help with the peace talks. the ordinary people here, we've been speaking to them, are really struck.

interest rates, for example doubled to 20%. people are lining up to try to get foreign currency out of the atm. people looking for their visas are not going to get them now. there was an iron curtain during the cold war. it feels as this the iron curtain is going up against between the west and russia in is a much more westernized country than it was during that cold war. it is difficult to see how that happens without really a sense of revolt from the middle classes in russia. >> it's such an important part, keir and staggering that the sanctions are already having an impact. we have seen those protesters in the streets there. cal, let's go to you. you're in the western part of the nation. in the eastern part we're seeing massive shelling in kharkiv. what can you tell us? >> reporter: we have two

developing stories. in the eastern part of the country, heavy fighting. and the northeastern part of the country, kharkiv. for the past 24 hours, we've seen heavy fighting that seems to be increasing. video showing russian soldiers behind armored personnel carriers. the city of kyiv saw a bit of a break, though there is growing concern that the russians are still moving to the north towards the city of kyiv and they'll continue their assault on that city. here to the west we're seeing a city that is trying to support both of those erts, that is soldiers moving to the east and civilians continuing to flee here from the west. i spoke to a woman who led kharkiv and she told this harrowing story of having to cross the country. here's a little bit of what she told us. >> we could just hear the sirens

and we could hear the shelling and everything and that was after the night when we actually saw shelling and we saw explosions in kyiv. i just told my husband, like, just cover him with your body, talking about my son. just cover him with your body whenever it starts. >> reporter: as we talk to more and more people on the ground here in the city, we're hearing harrowing stories of people who left kharkiv and were stranded for ten, 12 hours on highways while the bombings were happening and him. and when you get here, you still have 50 miles to the border and then you're faced with a backup of up to 36, 48 hours. the weather here is important. it's cold, it's wet. more and more people are going to be sleeping outside as this conflict only widens, guys. >> we watch the snow falling on the refugees, we're reminded of

the harsh conditions they're dealing with. josh, this morning you spoke exclusively to the nato secretary general. what did he say to you about the strength of the alliance and its plans going forward? >> reporter: peter, i sat down with the secretary-general at a time that nato is more united than we've seen in decades. stoltenberg had just spoken with president zelensky, he was preparing for a phone call today with president biden. he said he was very encouraged with the progress they've seen by the ukrainian military in building it was up, getting itself ready to defend this threat from russia. he says that the performance by ukraine's military so far is not what president putin had expected. take a look. >> there's no doubt that russia has suffered much more casualties than they expected and that the whole operation is

moving much slower than planned. but at the same time, we see now a new wave coming in from russia and from belarus with heavy armor, with long-range artillery. >> he also said it was reckless and dangerous for putin to be announcing he's putting his nuclear forces on high alert. nato facing a lot of questions about what more it can do to support union crane at this time, including many calling for nato to enforce a no-fly zone over ukraine. stoltenberg said they will not put troops on the ground and will not enforce a no-fly zone over ukraine. they do not want this situation to spiral out of control and lead to a situation where the u.s. nato is in a military conflict with a nuclear-armed russia. >> a strong and key leader at this moment.

thanks to you all. continue to be safe. we have a lot more in this busy hour, including a report from the border with poland. we'll hear from a teen-age boy. his father shared a final message before going to fight for thinks country. >> and the state of the union preparations. will president biden rip up the speech he was prepared to give to focus on the crisis of ukraine or will he face on the big issues we are facing at home from inflation, covid and crime? we'll talk to jen psaki. you're watching this special edition of "white house reports" only on msnbc. reports" only on msnbc.

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jens we are back here at the white house in front of the west

wing. the marine guard is behind us here. we're about a nine-month drive from the u.s. capitol where about 30 hours from now the president will deliver his state of the union address. >> in fact, there is increased security around the capitol. once again they have set up security fences around the building and we now know masks will not be required on the house floor during the speech. and with us now is jen psaki. >> it's right outside my office. >> a short community. >> thanks for that. >> aside from the president's conversation in the situation room is what's been taking place at the border between belarus and ukraine. is there information you can share about the state of that and whether a cease-fire is a real possibility here. >> it's always been up to the ukrainians to decide how they want to engage diplomatically. we don't have an update at this

moment. we expect we will get one once the discussions conclude today. it's always been up to them. huge security assistance announcements this weekend. we're expediting that. >> reporter: over the weekend we learned putin is putting his nuclear forces on heightened alert. you said this is yet another instance of putin trying to manufacture a threat that doesn't exist. can you tell us what, if anything, is the administration doing about that threat and how concerned are you about it? >> well, we've seen this pattern from president putin over the course of the last several months and even before then where he manufactures a threat in order to justify greater aggressive action. it's important for everybody to know, too, that the russians, president putin included, have committed to taking steps to reduce nuclear threats and everybody knows that is not a war that can be won.

so what we want the world to know is we of course have our own preparation -- our own ability and capacity to the defend the united states. we have not changed our own alerts and have not changed our own assessment in that front but we have to be very clear about his own use of threats. >> reporter: are there any specific threats the u.s. is taking in response to that threat from putin? >> it's so important to know and understand how putin uses rhetoric and threats to justify further military aggression. he has never been under threat from nato, from ukraine, from any country. so what we want to do right now is reduce the rhetoric and de-escalate. >> reporter: we want to ask you about sanctions this morning senior administration officials briefed us and others about the latest sanctions that include cutting off the russian central bank, which basically doesn't allow it access to american assets or to the u.s. current currency system at large.

there's been frustration and the s.w.i.f.t. system did get some on board. tom cotton says you're hitting 80% of the banks, why not hit 100% of them? why not go further right now? >> these are the most significant financial sanctions that have been used in modern history. what russia is now in comparison with is iran. how the s.w.i.f.t. sanctions always worked, how it worked with iran, is that it's institution by institution. we did that in order to not take down the global financial system, which i'm sure senator cotton doesn't want us to do. what it max it very difficult to do is not just do financial transactions with other institutions around the world and with the external western banking system, it makes it difficult for putin to argument and build support and get financing for his military

system. >> is there any way the u.s. would support a no-fly zone over ukraine? >> what that would require is implementation by the u.s. military. it would essentially mean the u.s. military would be shooting down planes, russian planes. that is definitely escalating and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with russia. that's something the president doesn't want to do. >> reporter: so that's a no on that? >> those are the reasons it's not a good idea. >> reporter: i think that the world has been so stunned by waking up morning after morning to president zelenskyy, who is defiant and who reports that the ukrainian forces are fending off russia. is it possible, jen, do you think for them to hold russia off long enough for international forces to stop him? or do you think it's a matter of time before russia overwhelms ukraine? >> first, president zelenskyy, the ukrainian people and

ukrainian military have been incredibly courageous, they have stood up to one of the world's most powerful military on the ground in ukraine. our assessment is the military has every intention of taking kyiv and continue to make progress. >> reporter: was it a tactical error not to say that we would send in forces. >> the president has always wasn't to be direct with the american people about what he will do and will not do. he is not sends u.s. forces into ukraine to fight a war with russia. we are not going to have a military war with russia with u.s. troops and he thinks it's vitally important and first and foremost important to be direct with the public about that. >> reporter: i want to ask you quickly about the refugee crisis. there are about a half a million ukrainians that have fled the country. officials are calling on the

biden administration to immediately grant protections to ukrainians that would allow them to remain in this country. will that happen? >> temporary protected status, which is what i think you are talking about, that is a process that is discussed within the interagency. the department of homeland security assess the conditions on the ground and make a recommendation based on that. there's always discussion about that when you have a country in turmoil than like ukraine. >> has the president ripped up his speech? is he rewriting it to have it focus on this moment, what a lot of people are calling now a struggle between democracies and autocracies? >> that's something president biden long called the struggle. look, every state of the union address is an opportunity for the president delivering it to speak directly to the american people about what is happening

in that moment, the progress being made and also the challenges we're facing certainly what we're seeing on the ground in ukraine, the fact that the president has built a coalition of countries around the world to stand up against russia and putin and put in crippling sanctions, that is part of what people will hear. i will also note if we look back at history, president obama gave a speech during the worst financial crisis of our lifetime. president bush gave a speech shortly after the worst terrorist attack on our homeland ever. it's always about expressing how you will leave the country. >> and will there be new policy proposals in the speech? >> there always are. the speech is writing it. nobody wants three-hour speech. >> finally, the pandemic, becoming an endemic for a lot of americans. we saw the enough masking

guidance from the cdc. will the white house lift the federal mask mandate as it relates to airplanes, travel between states and beyond? >> that doesn't expire until the middle of march. we have updated guidance of how we will all live around here coming to you soon. we'll have something to update you on soon. >> reporter: how soon? >> very soon, kristen. stay tuned. >> thank you, jen psaki. >> we're grateful for you being here. >> you're watching a special edition of msnbc. n of msnbc as i. my wife introduced me to prevagen and so i said "yeah, i'll try it out." i noticed that i felt sharper, i felt like i was able to respond to things quicker. and i thought, yeah, it works for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. we're back with a special edition of "white house reports," a live look at the residence alongside the west wing here. i'm peter alexander alongside my colleague, kristen welker. the united nations says more than 500,000 refugees have fled ukraine. >> tens of thousands of people in the city of laviv, about two hours from poland. they're trying to board trains to that country over fears of a russian advance.

alison barber has more on what she's seeing at the ukraine/poland border. >> reporter: they only allow vehicle traffic to come through here but we've seen busses like this carrying young families coming to the border and people getting rides with strangers and busses or local police and aid groups to take them elsewhere so they can get assistance. as we've been here talking to people crossing the border, there is a sense you can feel of relief where they arrive here to be somewhere safe, but when you look at them, when you look closer, when you look in their eyes, you can see the pain, the trauma of what they left behind. there are a lot of mixed emotions here. many of the busses that come through, this one is a smaller bus than others than we have seen. most of them are large,

double-decker busses filled with a hundred or more people, mostly all women and children because men who are considered fighting age, between ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country. we spoke to one man, a college student who was originally from senegal, studying in eastern ukraine, he said he left almost as soon as the bombs felt butch it's been difficult for them to evacuate. he said some didn't want to help him because he was and can. finally he made it to the embassy to try to go home. a 15-year-old, a young teen was trying to help his mother and his sisters as they crossed the border. the youngest one a newborn, an infant only one month old.

>> i have little sister and they say you must go to war because it's too dangerous with staying in ukraine. >> so your dad back at home? >> yes. >> reporter: is he fighting? >> she want to -- >> reporter: what did he tell you with your little sisters? what did he say to you to be with your family? >> she told me that i must protect them and protect all family and to be strong. >> my son very -- >> reporter: i'm very upset that my dad left and our family split up. >> reporter: his mother told us

that it has been a very challenging couple of days. she was afraid for her children's safety. she talked about the bombs falling, the children crying as they heard the sirens, but she was still concerned for their safety now because it is brutally cold and for days she has been traveling with that young child trying to get them to safety. >> that was nbc alison barber reporting. >> we want to bring in ben rhodes, an msnbc political contributor. ben, thanks so much for being here today. we appreciate it. obviously a lot going on. as we are on the air right now, we know the talks between russia and ukraine are happening on the belarus border. a lot of question how serious these talks are and what exactly they can yield. are you hopeful at all there can be any type of progress or

breakthrough from these talks, ben? >> not particularly, kristen. i think if anything, it will be an opportunity to see if any of those russian demands have changed at all. ukraine essentially is surrendering. i think what we been able to suss out is whether or not there's been any flexibility on the russian side not just in ukraine but globally. >> reporter: you have the belarusan president saying we're going to make this a safe place and at the same time they say they will join russia against

ukraine. >> one of the underappreciated stories is how much belarus has also lost its sovereignty. the leader has basically turned himself into an extension of putin's regime. he's not only invited russian troops in, he's now talking about contributing belarus troops to this operation and talking about lifting the prohibition on nuclear weapons in belarus, which could be a pretext for russia to move nuclear arms into belarus. this war is probably enormously unpopular who already do not support luke shen co's reign. you've already seen protests against lucashenko.

let me ask you about russian leader vladimir putin. there's been a lot of talk about the fact that he is so isolated, even more isolated in the wake of covid, a very small group of people around him. condoleezza rice said he seems erratic. how dangerous does this isolation make him? and is there concern he is not acting rationally then? >> some of the people i've talked to have been raising this concern for a while now. during the eight years i was in the white house, the circle around putin tightened significantly, just in that time period. by the time he made that speech, it felt like it was down to a circle of one, kristen. it felt like this was a man only listening to the voices in his

own head. if you look at his advisers, brought in front of him, they look uncertain, they look a little afraid. this does not seem to be like a system that is functioning beyond the whims of one man, one rule. when you're in a circumstance now where he has clearly overreached and not only is he facing significant military and popular resistance in ukraine, he is facing a degree of sanctions from not just the united states but a unified europe that i just don't think he expected. if you are russian and waking up today with the entire economy cratering and the incapacity to perhaps even access your own reserves, the over $600 billion in that russian central bank, your relationship with the rest of the world will never be the same so long as the putin is the leader of russia. i think that means we are in

very very uncertain times. >> we are all obviously sounding alarm bells over putin's message this weekend that he's putting the russian nuclear deterrent forces on a high state of alert. president biden is trying to downplay that risk right now. how concerning and alarming is that and is it a real threat? >> you have to take it seriously whenever you have a step like that. i think there is a degree of posturing from putin. we saw him in the run-up to the launch of this invasion overseeing nuclear military exercises. clearly he's trying to remind the world that russia has a nuclear deterrent. but the idea this would be a real option to him in response to sanctions, i think of this as more russia just sending that message that if this situation escalates, remember, we have these nuclear weapons. i think the challenge here, though, is vladimir putin is not the kind of man who likes to

take off ramps, particularly when he's invested his entire credibility in this war in ukraine. it's hard to see how this situation ends absent protracted conflict, not just in ukraine but between the west and russia itself. >> all the more concerning when up say his inner circle has become smaller, now a circle of one. ben rhodes, we appreciate your perspective and expertise. >> that was incredibly stark. confronting a massive foreign policy challenge, introducing a new supreme court nominee and dealing with rising prices on everything from groceries to gas. those are just a few of the issues president biden is expected to try to address in his state of the union address tomorrow night. we'll talk to former white house communications director jennifer palmary about how he can cover it all and what he can say. that's next. stay with us. that's next. stay witush

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every state of the union address is an opportunity for the president delivering it to speak directly to the american people about what is happening in that moment, the progress that's being made and also the challenges we're facing. the speech is not about rewriting it, it's about cutting it down. no one wants a three-hour state of the union speech. i don't think you guys do. >> that was the white house press secretary jen psaki speaking to us about how president biden plans to approach tomorrow night's state of the union address, his first. >> we want to bring in jennifer palmary, who knows a thing or two about it. she's also co-host of showtime's "the circus." >> reporter: you were in the white house when russia annexed crimea. given that experience, if you were running the biden communication shop, how much would ukraine factor into the president's speech tomorrow?

>> when you're giving the state of the union in a moment of crisis, it's not necessarily a moment you would have picked for the state of the union, but you are in a crisis, you have to ask what is required in the president of the united states in this moment when it comes to leadership and what is going to put him in the best position to lead the american people at this time of crisis. i think if you look at it through that very clear and relatively narrow lens, unequivocally the answer is we need to see the leader of the free world defending democracy, and that means it's going to be a different state of the union than the biden team thought they would give maybe three weeks ago or a month ago, but i think it is what's required. it's probably going to be the most important speech we've heard from an american president for the world to see, not just the united states, since the end of the cold war. >> reporter: when you put it in those terms, wow, it underscores how much is at take. it's not lost on anyone that we're also in the mid-term election year and a recent

"washington post"/abc news poll found the president's approval rating at 37% with 55% disapproving. how much do you think these numbers are weighing on the minds of the president, the white house as they sit down to lay out their priorities because a lot of democrats also want him to lay out a road map for the mid terms. >> i'm quite confident that a 37% approval rating, it weighs heavy on you but you have to -- you're very much aware of it but you know that the best way to get out from under that is to do a good job in this really critical moment. so, sure, when you give a state of the union, what you want is for that to be a play book for the entire year, for the president, the cabinet and democrats in congress. and that means you're going to lay out the whole agenda. i think in this case what they had hoped to do was tell a story of the last year, ending of covid, why we're facing the inflationary precious we are,

what the president is doing to combat them and the choice we're going to face between democrats and republicans in the election in the fall. that's what you want to lay out. they can still do that in this speech and it's sort of important for them to have that framework down for democrats to follow for the rest of the year but also understand that is not what's going to break through as much as you would like. what is going to break through is what he has to say about democracy. and, you know, the president has said throughout his time of the campaign and presidency, he is fighting to restore the soul of america, fighting to restore democracy globally and at home. ukraine is that fight brought to the forefront on a massive scale. he can put the supreme court nomination under that rubric of a fight about autocracy versus democracy, making our democratic institution stronger at home. but if i look at these polling

numbers, where particularly they're not great with independents, what is going to give the president the lift that he needs to lead and clearly i think it's going to be a really strong statement about the united states of america leading to defend democracy in this moment and that is probably what will do the most good for him. and leadership on this issue accrues to other issues as well. >> you were in the room when ketanji brown jackson was introduced to americans on friday. the president saying there are crises overseas but our job is to demonstrate democracy prevails and we'll proceed going forward. as we look at those numbers, is there an opportunity -- we haven't seen it yet, a rally around the flag moment on this for president biden. the outcome in ukraine is still so unclear. >> it's all, you know, white houses hate it when the president has to lead and speak on issues that are outside of

your control. it is a scary and risky thing to do. but in this case there's just not any other option i think for the leader -- this is like a reagan -- you know, this is like a reagan gorbachev moment in terms of seeing even more starkly because of what putin represents relative to gorbachev. this is a biden-putin moment and i think when people do see that and see the president of the united states leading in that way, having consolidated all of the support in europe, everyone rallying to the side of democracy, putting this in very stark terms, you may see approval ratings around his handling of this issue in particular improve, but i think i'm aware and the biden staff is aware it's a divided country. republicans are not responding

to support the president the way you normally do in a national crisis, partly because of what russia did in 2016 to seed division and disinformation. this is all coming full circle in a very dramatic way. but still, the moment the momen requires the president of the united states to speak, i think, in this very big manner tomorrow night, and i also think what would put the president in the best position to lead the american people now. >> jen palmieri, thank you so much for your insights on what is such a busy monday as we watch and wait to see what the president does actually say tomorrow night. really appreciate it. great to see you. >> judge ketanji brown jackson, president biden's supreme court nominee has a full week ahead of her on capitol hill, what's on the agenda ahead of her confirmation hearing. as the white house reports on msnbc. confirmation hearing as the white house reports on

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building behind us are juggling . supreme court nominee ketanji brown jackson will begin meetings on capitol hill. >> joining us with more on her schedule and the important wek ahead, what more can you tell us about this week. >> reporter: i think majority leader schumer's vote probably in the bag for judge jackson but these meetings are going to be important as she starts to work her way through the senate judiciary members who will have the first crack at her during the confirmation hearings which we expect to see in the month of march. other members who might not get a chance to meet her, specifically about republicans like susan collins and lisa murkowski who don't sit on the judiciary committee. those meetings would be very important. judge jackson has a lot of homework she has to do. the judiciary sends out a

questionnaire to nominees, usually about 65, 70 pages long. she's probably going to have to turn over upwards of a thousand, perhaps 2,000 pages of documents, decisions, basically anything she's ever written on the law for the judiciary committee and their staffers to review. all of that work has already gotten started. we'll be progressing over the next couple of days, and the battle in terms of public perception has also already begun. there are ads on the air waves in d.c. supporting her nomination. the confirmation process beginning in earnest already. >> the battle of public opinion always a big one as well. garrett haake, thank you for joining us today. to see you. >> we want to thank you for joining us. tomorrow we're going to speak to cody kenan, the former head of speech writing for president obama. he'll tell us what goes into the process of writing a state of the union address. >> that's tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.

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and good day, everyone. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington. where president biden is hosting a secure call with u.s. allies, monitoring the ukrainians resilience against russia's invasion, contrary to expectations that vladimir putin's overwhelming numbers would take kyiv in two days. ukraine's forces continue to hold all major cities with president zelenskyy saying today his government and his people are standing firm in the face of russia's attacks. with nearly 75% of putin's pre-staged combat power previously amassed around ukraine now into the country. talks in belarus between delegations from ukraine and russia on the border with ukraine, ended in the last