the corner on the pandemic it comes roaring back. thank you for covering the waterfront with us this morning. thank you very much. we appreciate you being here. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning and all week long. have a wonderful weekend. "morning joe" starts right now. to president putin i say, you started this war. you are leading this war. you can stop this war. now, let me close with a message to all of the russians who have been protesting on the streets against the invasion of ukraine. the world has seen your bravery. we know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. you have been arrested, you have been jailed and you have been beaten. you are my new heroes. >> arnold schwarzenegger with an appeal to the russian people telling them their government is lying to them. he may have a unique ability to

reach president putin of all people. schwarzenegger is one of 22 people putin's account follows on twitter. just ahead we will play for you all of this remarkable plea by arnold schwarzenegger. it is really extraordinary. he really lays it out for the russian people. >> it is unbelievable. >> and for vladimir putin. >> and he talks about his own background of his first hero. >> it is really powerful. >> a soviet weightlifter, and it is just -- >> and shooting movies in russia. >> yes, laid out beautifully for the russian people. >> and for vladimir putin. it is a direct appeal. we are also following the breaking news from western ukraine overnight as russia targets the city of lviv. a humanitarian hub, one official said russia is not at war with our army but with the population. women, children and immigrants. civilians were also hit in ukraine's second largest city,

kharkiv. 23 people killed, dozens injured when a school and a cultural center were targeted. secretary of state tony blinken echoed president biden yesterday in calling vladimir putin a war criminal, but how likely is it that he will be held legally accountable? we're going to look at the challenges there. and a conversation that could tip the scales of the war as president biden is set to speak with china's xi jinping three hours from now. that is a pivotal conversation for sure. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, march 18th. a lot to get to this morning. ukrainian officials say they are working to transport the bodies of more than 14,000 russian troops back to their country. ukraine's deputy prime minister announced the efforts in a video yesterday, saying his country was receiving assistance from the international red cross. u.s. intelligence has previously

said upwards of 7,000 russian soldiers have been killed in combat so far, far fewer than the death toll provided by the ukrainian government. nbc news cannot verify either number. "the washington post" reports this morning, quote, the russian invasion of ukraine now in its fourth week, is basically frozen on the ground amid fierce resistance and mounting logistical difficulties, according to the pentagon. however, their indiscriminate bombing of ukraine continues. russian forces once again struck the western city of lviv this morning, launching six missiles near the second largest airport. the mayor says they hit a facility used to repair military aircraft and destroy the building. ukraine's air force says two of the missiles were intercepted. search efforts are under way

for survivors in the rubble of the mariupol drama theater that was bombed by russian forces. rescue workers yesterday started to clear out the debris and tried to free those who are trapped inside. ukrainian officials say the bomb shelter under the theater is actually intact and there are survivors. hundreds of civilians including women and children were taking shelter in the theater after their homes were destroyed. russia has denied carrying out the attack. russian forces pound residential and education buildings, killing civilians in other cities as well. at least 23 people were killed and 26 injured when russian shells hit a secondary school and a cultural center in the country's second largest city, kharkiv. local officials say ten of those injured are in critical condition. a massive fire blazed across the largest market in the city. one emergency worker was killed in the attack while another was

injured. "the washington post" says one of its reporters say evidence of cluster bombs being used in the city. "the post" reports that morgues are overflowing in the city. ukrainian officials involved in peace talks with russia do not believe russian negotiators are interested in peace. an advisor to president zelenskyy told "axios," quote, the question is whether putin is really serious. the negotiators seem like they're more serious than they were before, however, whether this is still a employ is to be seen. he added, the russians -- if the russians were serious, a deal could be reached in the next few weeks. if ukrainian forces and the west continue to put pressure on putin -- see, the worry is that russians are just using this time to refill their ammunition, to get ready to launch again. >> well, their problem is though -- and i have heard that an awful lot, that there is,

these are just stall tactics. but what are they stall tactics for in it is not like they have a plan b. they're stuck logistically. their troop morale is horrific. they've lost between 7,000 and 14,000 troops. vladimir putin knows they can't take kyiv, they can't take these major cities. i do understand that the russians are always cynical in negotiations. in this case though, look what is happening on the ground. you have a military operation that's been an absolute disaster. it has collapsed. as we've heard i think general barry mccaffrey says your first day at war is always your best. it is not going to get any better and this isn't. i know the glory days for russian military historians are thinking back to napoleon's invasion, how things started badly and then they rappelled napoleon.

>> yeah. >> or the invasion in june of 1941 of hitler into russia as well, and they got all the way to the suburbs of moscow and then the germans pushed them back. of course, the heroic fighting in leningrad, but what did you have there? you had two invaders. russia is the invader now. russia is actually in the position, and the more troops they bring in, the more troops that will be killed. this is something right now in a closed society, in a totalitarian regime, an authoritarian regime that vladimir putin has, he may believe at this point he can blame russians who were not loyal, he can blame his intel staff, he can bring the russian troops back, hold some parades, claim they picked up territory, claim they stopped ukraine from going to the west. >> yeah. >> and try to declare a victory. in this case, i'm just saying in this case stalling, it does

vladimir putin no good. it just gets him deeper in this quick sand. >> yeah, although they can refuel and then go in again. >> refuel and have more soldiers die. it really -- >> they will. >> there is no good end game here for russia. >> well, and they are -- the two things that clearly will continue to pull at ukraine is the -- just brutality of the women and the children that are being killed and being even targeted. and the fact they're moving west, hitting the beautiful historic city of lviv is tragic. it is going to make ukrainians feel like the entire country, they're getting there, they're getting to the entire country. >> even that works against vladimir putin. let's look what is happening here again. militarily, he's faced a disaster. this is a humiliation in front of ukraine, in front of the west, in front of the world, a

humiliation that he doesn't want china to see. he doesn't want his enemies to see or his friends. and then you are talking about the war crimes that are being committed every day. >> yeah. >> this pushes putin further and further back in a corner every day. he has no good options left. >> and, finally, to your point, joe, in many of these cities that they're targeting and blowing up and killing people, they're killing russian-speaking people. i can't imagine that isn't lost on the troops that are fighting one-on-one in this warfare. >> right. >> and realizing what they're doing. the bbc reports that in a call with the turkish president yesterday putin reportedly outlined his demands for a peace deal. among them, ukraine should be neutral and should not apply to join nato. ukraine would have to undergo a disarmament process to ensure it wasn't a threat to russia. protection for the russian language in ukraine and

something called de-nazification. >> yeah, whatever. let's bring in former ambassador to russia, now director for international studies at stanford and nbc news international affair analyst michael mcfaul. we also have nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and most of "andrea mitchell," andrea mitchell. and the host of "way too early," jonathan lemire. andrea, let's start with you. vladimir putin seems to be with his demand where he was 24 days after before this disaster for russia began. a lot of skepticism that the russians are serious about the negotiations, but the question has to remain where does he have left to go when you have even now the president and the secretary of state calling him a war criminal? >> he can continue to grind down these cities in ukraine.

he can move towards odesa. he can continue in mariupol, which is, you know, a human disaster on the scale of aleppo and grozny, as i was pointing out to the secretary of state yesterday. you know, where does he stop? he can destroy ukraine in order to try to force them into some sort of capitulation, but it is not going to happen. clearly the ukrainian people are not going to stop resisting. so it is a disaster of, you know, epic proportions, but there is no sign from these negotiations, frankly, and u.s. officials don't see it, that there's anyway to go with them because they don't represent vladimir putin. there is no indication that lavrov or any of the other, you know, people in the foreign ministry have a connection to putin, and he's increasingly isolated, as we have seen that for months and months. so there's really no way out for him, but whether he sees that -- people think that he is rational, that he's not a mad man, but that he sees, you know,

his future in amassing these forces. the fact is while these negotiations are taking place, rather than deescalating or withdrawing, the u.s. is telling us they see signs of reinforcements and massing on the border. >> right. michael mcfaul, it certainty looks, if you look at the pictures, like grozny. it certainly looks like aleppo. the only thing missing is the amount of military resupplies, the amount of humanitarian aid, the $14.6 billion flooding in from the united states, the military support flooding in from other nato allies and administration officials have told me over the past couple of days military supply is coming from all countries, that they want to keep under the radar and yet they're getting across, they're getting across the border, which may be one of the reasons why we saw a slight, a

slight adjustment in what was said about the united states from mr. zelenskyy and those around him, expressing deep gratitude for the close friendship between ukraine and the united states. they're getting the weapons. vladimir putin is cornered. what is next for him? >> well, joe, let me say two things. first, listening to this conversation about putin, what you said very eloquently, you know, how can he keep fighting, why does he keep fighting, it will mean more russian soldiers will die, you know, this conversation, this discussion we've had many times over the week about whether he is rational or not. let me start with an anecdote. it was march 2011 . vice president biden was in moscow. i was with him. tony blinken was there. we met with putin for several hours. at one point in the conversation vice president biden was saying something very logical in terms of u.s./russian relations from my point of view, and putin

leaned in -- he's always very dramatic in these meeting goes when i saw him. he leaned in. he stared at the vice president and he said this. i'm paraphrasing, right, but he said something like this. mr. vice president, you look at us -- and he went like this on his white skin, you look at us and you see our skin and we look like you and you think we think like you because we look like you, but we don't. we don't think like you. it was really dramatic. >> wow. >> and his point is, and i think it is a point we all need to understand and remember, we have our ways of thinking about what is rational, what is logical, cost benefit analysis, but putin has a different calculus in his head. he doesn't care about losing russian soldiers. if it means a revolution, yes, but he has a tight, totalitarian regime in place. he doesn't care about ukrainians obviously.

he's slaughtering children. it is clear he doesn't care. as long as he has the military resources to continue to go -- remember, even with those numbers, let's take the top number, let's say it is 15,000 he has lost, that means he has 185,000 soldiers still in ukraine. tragically, when i think about that it is going to continue until -- and that gets me to zelenskyy, until there's a stalemate on the battlefield. by the way, wars generally either end with victory or a stalemate. right now he doesn't see a stalemate. that's why these weapons that you were just talking about are so important. i think you're right. the weapons are coming in. the slovaks announced yesterday they're willing to give up their only s-300 system. it is a system that helps to protect the air zelenskyy talks about, and it seems to me we are shifting to do more of that. but rightly, as you intimated too, joe, we're not talking about it the way we did the mig-29s ten days ago. that i think is a smart

strategic move by biden and the allies providing these kinds of weapons. >> so, mr. ambassador, obviously he doesn't think like us any more than xi thinks like us, any more than north korean leaders think like us. that said, they're all interested, these tyrants are all interested in maintaining power. let me just repeat what we've said here over and over again. this is not the soviet union in 1975. this is russia in 2022. there will be a lot of russians that will see what arnold schwarzenegger say yesterday. there will be images flashing across phones one way or the other of dead russian soldiers. maybe 65-year-old russians won't see it but their grandchildren will and they'll hold it up at dinner. vladimir putin does not live in a hermetically sealed country. so when i say he can't continue

this over a long period of time with his military getting killed, i'm not talking about because of the goodness of his heart. i'm simply saying at some point he has to understand his very survival as a leader depends on cleaning things up for himself at home. >> well, i certainly hope so and that has to be the strategy and that's part of the other pressure part, too, right. in addition to getting those images into russia, and in my view we have to think more creative about that. i apply to our former governor, that is a very effective mechanism. that will get around. you know, when i was ambassador my trainer in the embassy was russian and she loved arnold schwarzenegger. he is a guy that resonates in russian society, so i really applaud what he has done, but we have to do many, many more of those things. they're shutting down things, right. remember, they shut down doge

tv, i hear we are worried they're going to shut down youtube, which is a very important mechanism for getting information into russia right now. we have to be more creative. and at the same time we have to keep putting more pressure on that economy. so i applaud what the biden administration has done. historic sanctions and we have to do more. as one of my ukrainian colleagues in the government said to me, he is the head of the anti-corruption committee there, he said to me three days ago, he said, "mike, thank you for everything you guys have done, you got 600 oligarchs on the list, now we need 6,000 oligarchs on the list. good what you have done so far with the weapons and the sanctions, and we have to keep the pressure on the sanctions. >> what is remarkable about what arnold schwarzenegger did, and we will be showing it in full a little bit later, is that you can -- you can be sure that actually vladimir putin heard

it, which a lot of people wonder what exactly gets to him, what filters to him, what doesn't. by the way, president biden will be speaking with chinese president xi jinping today for a conversation that could potentially shift the balance of the war in ukraine. the two leaders are expected to talk at 9:00 a.m. eastern as concern grows over china's neutral position toward russia's acts of violence. speaking yesterday, secretary blinken also expressed concern that xi may be considering sending military aid to assist russia and vowed china will face consequences if that happens. here is what president biden said yesterday about today's conversation. >> we're at an inflection point in history i think, and i mean that sincerely, and it occurs every several generations. i think we are in a genuine struggle with autocracies and democracies and whether or not democracies can be sustained.

i'll be speaking to president xi tomorrow and he will remind me that i told him -- he remembers every thing i have said unfortunately. all kidding aside, we talk about the idea he does not believe democracies can be sustained in the 21st century because things move so rapidly, technology is changing so much, democracies don't have time to arrive at consensus. that's why autocracies will succeed. >> jonathan lemire, what does the white house hope to accomplish in this meeting today with the leader of china? >> yeah, this call today will have an outsized impact on the trajectory of this war, u.s. officials believe. certainly, president biden will be pressuring xi jinping to join the rest of the world in isolating russia and vladimir putin. to this point china has stayed neutral, even offering some rhetorical support for russia. the tenor of the tone there has changed a little bit in recent days. the chinese media shown to be a little more sympathetic to the

plights of the ukrainians but not echoed by top officials. we expect biden to take a carrot and stick approach. on one hand suggesting there could be sanctions for china if china remains neutral or, in fact, assists moscow further. the carrots though, some incentives, perhaps offering trump-era tariffs on china that biden left in place. that's a point as well. administration officials tell me if xi jinping were to side with biden here that the isolation of putin would be extreme and his economy would collapse that much further, but they're not certain he is going to do that. despite all that would be at risk for china, despite the seemingly economic blunder it would be to pick moscow over the markets of the europe and the west, some officials believe right now they're concerned that the hawks are winning within beijing, that they, in fact, may be leaning towards signing with moscow. even keeping them neutral would be a better alternative to that. this is the president and xi

jinping's first call since last november. obviously tensions very high between the two nations on their own, and this phone call here really will play a significant role as to how this war progresses in the next weeks and months and go a long way to determining u.s./china relations going forward. >> you know, andrea, it is so fascinating. what is old is new. 50 years ago it was nixon going to meet mao in 1972. to triangulate the united states and china against the old soviet union. here we are 50 years later and it is china once again in a position where they could have an outsized impact, of course. what are you hearing? >> well, the one concern is, you know, what do we do to pressure them. obviously we could lift those sanctions, the trump-era sanctions, but on this the administration does know that europe may not be on the same

page as we are because europe has such an important relationship, growing relationship, trade relationship with china. so they have to figure this out very carefully. they're saying there will be severe consequences, but really what will be the severe consequences for china? china has the most leverage here because u.s. officials believe china is the only country that really has leverage with vladimir putin, if anyone does. turkey has been trying to negotiate. israel has been trying to negotiate because they have a relationship with russia, a security relationship over syria. they de-conflict over syria. that said, really beijing has the clout, and it is not just military clout, by the way. it is also economic clout because beijing could help bail putin out of a crunch that he is about to face within the next month with those reserves that were frozen at the central bank because a lot of that was parked in china, a lot is in swiss banks, but the basic fact is

that he can't convert rubles into any kind of usable currency. the ruble is worthless at this point. and if china not only provides weapons but bails him out in currency, that would be a huge deal. so there's two edges to this. they really need china. frankly, more than china needs the u.s. right now, although the chinese foreign ministry and janis mackey frayer and others covering it would be a better expert than some of the u.s. experts. china is speaking today about something that they say that they criticize the u.s. in our history for in iraq, afghanistan, even yugoslavia. >> so let's go right to janis in beijing. nbc correspondent janis mackey frayer. janis, you have been listen to the conversation, andrea talking about the ways that china has

the clout. but what are the pitfalls if china were to side with russia or try to have it both ways? >> well, the stakes are obviously very high, but the trust between the u.s. and china is pretty low going into this phone call between president xi jinping and president biden, and certainly with the concerns that moscow has asked beijing for assistance and that beijing might be considering it. china wants to go into the call appearing to be the neutral player. it is certainly debatable from where you are in the world, but there's no doubt that china/russia ties have deepened in recent years, particularly under these two men. they have met dozens of times. they have declared a friendship with no limits. in recent days russian officials have publicly said that they are counting on china's support to help it weather the sanctions from the u.s. and the west. this partnership has taken shape mainly as an alignment between

china and russia against the u.s. and the west over sanctions and nato expansion. i spoke earlier this week with the head of a think tank here, and he is also an advisor to china's government. >> china and russia probably share a lot of grievances and concerns of this kind of western pressure. so it is not just china to be blamed if china had a little, you know, closer relation with russia. china also wants that relation with u.s. >> reporter: in that sense president biden probably isn't going to be able to change xi jinping's strategic direction when it comes to russia, but the u.s. may have some influence at this point on the closeness of this partnership between china and russia as it relates to ukraine. we have seen slight shifts in the position here in the past couple of days. we see it in state media.

whereas, before state media was openly parroting russian propaganda, now the coverage is much more skewed toward civilian casualties, russian tanks being destroyed, warning about images of bodies in the street. that does signal a change. what we are also seeing is a lot of talk on the chinese side about this phone call. all day long there have been anonymous officials that have been leaking stuff to state media here about, you know, it was the u.s. that wanted the call and china accepted the invitation for the call because they saw it as an important opportunity to tell the u.s. the sort of position they should be taking on ukraine, and also to put it out there china is not going to take any threats from the u.s. so i think that that's an important distinction to make right now, is that in beijing this call is viewed as a sign that the u.s. needs china in order to stop the violence in

ukraine. >> well, janis, it is so fascinating and many politicians and diplomats in america have been talking about the sunday "new york times" op-ed that was written by the gentleman we just saw on your clip there, who laid it out very clearly, about the time these references to casualties started showing up in chinese state media. but the statement in that op-ed obviously sanctioned by the chinese government was very clear, which was, yes, we have an alignment with russia, but we have far more interests financially with the united states and the west. it would be in our best interests to figure this out. that obviously didn't happen by mistake. can you give us any insight as to why we're seeing what we're seeing in the state media and why we're seeing what we're even reading in "the new york times" by advisors of the chinese government?

>> reporter: well, an opinion piece in one of the most widely read newspapers in the world does not happen by mistake. so that would have been approved from the very top. what we have seen, maybe in the earlier days there was mixed messaging around what china's position was going to be. it wasn't openly condemning the russian invasion, it wasn't even calling it an invasion, but what we're now seeing is a slight shift where the coverage or the position now is no longer pro-russia or anti-russia, but it does seem to be taking shape around helping ukraine, around supporting ukraine. in that sense china is trying to shape its own position as being a neutral player, one interested in the humanitarian issues around this conflict and one that may position it well to act as a mediator. as you were saying, joe, china is not wanting to risk anything

for its economy, and the trade that it does with russia is completely dwarfed by the relationships that it has with the u.s. and the eu. so they're not going to risk too much in being close to russia, in trying to weather the ukraine cries diplomatically here in beijing. >> all right. nbc's janis mackey frayer in beijing. thank you very much for your insight and analysis. we will see you again soon. still ahead on "morning joe," much more of that powerful video from arnold schwarzenegger as he tries to bring the truth about the war to the russian people. we'll play for you all of his remarkable message. plus, russia gets hit with cyber warfare. the latest on the unprecedented attacks taking out kremlin websites. and a little later we will dive into the concerning covid numbers in europe. you're watching "morning

joe." we will be right back.

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35 past the hour. the former governor of california, arnold schwarzenegger, released a video calling for an end to the war using his own personal story to appeal directly to the russian people and to president putin himself. here is his full message. >> hello, everybody. and thank you for sharing your time with me. i am sending this message through various different channels to reach my dear russian friends and to russian soldiers serving in ukraine.

i'm speaking to you today because there are things that are going on in the world that are being kept from you, terrible things that you should know about. but before i talk about the harsh realities let me just tell you about the russian who became my hero. in 1961 when i was 14 years old a very good friend of mine invited me to come to vienna to watch the world weightlifting championships. i was in the audience when yuri petrovic won the world championship title, becoming the first human being to lift 200 kilograms over his head. somehow a friend of mine got me backstage. all of a sudden there was a 14-year-old boy standing if front of the strongest man in the world. i couldn't believe it. he reached out to shake my hand. i mean, i still had a boy's hand. he had this powerful man's hand that swallowed mine, but he was kind, and he smiled at me.

i will never forget that day, never. i went home and i put his photo above my bed to inspire me when i started lifting weights. my father told me to take down that picture and to find a german or austrian hero. he got really angry and we argued back and forth. he didn't like russians because of his experience in the second world war. you see, he was injured at leningrad when the nazi army that he was part of did vicious harm to the great city and to its brave people, but i did not take the photograph down, no, because it didn't matter to me what flag yuri carried. my connections to russia didn't stop there by the way. oh, it actually deepened when i travelled there with body building and for my movies and met all of my russian fans. and then one of those trips i remember, i met yuri vlasov once

again. it was in moscow during the filming of "red heat" which was the first american movie allowed to film in red square. he and i spent the whole day together. he was so thoughtful, so kind and so smart and, of course, very giving. he gave me this beautiful blue coffee cup, and ever since then i have been drinking my coffee out of it every morning. now, the reason why i'm telling you all of those things is ever since i was 14 years old i have had nothing but affection and respect for the people of russia. the strength and the heart of the russian people have always inspired me, and that is why i hope that you will let me tell you the truth about the war in ukraine and what is happening there. no one likes to hear something critical of their government, i understand that. but as a long-time friend of the russian people i hope that you will hear what i have to say. and may i remind you that i speak with the same heartfelt concern as i spoke to the

american people when there was an attempted insurrection on january 6th last year, when a wild crowd was storming the u.s. capitol, trying to overthrow our government. you see, there are moments like this that are so wrong, and then we have to speak up. this is exactly the same with your government. i know that your government has told you that this is a war to de nazify ukraine. denazify ukraine? it is not true. ukraine is a country with a jewish president. a jewish president, i might add, whose father and three brothers were murdered by the nazis. ukraine did not start this war, neither did nationalists or nazis. those in power in the kremlin started this war. this is not the russian people's war, no. as a matter of fact, let me tell you what you should know is that 141 nations at the u.n. voted

that russia was the aggressor. they called for it to remove its troops immediately. only four countries in the entire world voted with russia, that is a fact. you see, the world has turned against russia because of its actions in ukraine. whole city blocks have been flattened by russian artillery and bombs including a children's hospital and a maternity hospital. 3 million ukrainian refugees, mainly women, children and the elderly, fled their country and many more are trying to seek to get out. it is a humanitarian crisis. because of its brutality, russia is now isolated from the society of nations. you're also not being told the truth about the consequences of this war on russia itself. i regret to tell you that thousands of russian soldiers have been killed.

they have been caught between ukrainians fighting for their homeland and the russian leadership fighting for conquest. massive amounts of russian equipment have been destroyed or abandoned. the destruction that russian bombs are raining down upon innocent civilians has so outraged the world that the strongest global economic sanctions ever taken have been imposed on your country. those who don't deserve it, on both sides of the war, will suffer. the russian government has lied not only to its citizens but to its soldiers. some of the soldiers were told they were going to fight nazis. some were told that the ukrainian people would greet them like heroes, and some were told that they were simply going on exercise. they didn't even know that they were going into war. and some were told that they were there to protect ethnic russians in ukraine. none of this is true. the fact is that russian

soldiers have faced fierce resistance from the ukrainians who want to protect their families and their country. when i see babies being pulled out of ruins, i think that i'm watching a documentary about the horrors of the second world war, new the -- not the news of the day. let me tell you, when my father arrived in leningrad he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. when he left leningrad he was broken, physically and mentally. he lived the rest of his life in pain, pain from the broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of the terrible years and pain from the guilt that he felt. to the russian soldiers listening to this broadcast, you already know much of the truth that i have been speaking. you have seen it with your own eyes. i don't want you to be broken like my father. this is not the war to defend

russia, that your grandfathers or great-grandfathers fought. this is an illegal war. your lives, your limbs, your futures have been sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world. now, to those in power in the kremlin, let me just ask you, why would you sacrifice those young men for your own ambitions? to the soldiers who are listening to this, remember that 11 million russians have family connections to ukraine. so every bullet you shoot, you shoot a brother or a sister. every bomb or every shell that falls is falling not on an enemy, but on a school or a hospital or a home. i know that the russian people are not aware such things are happening, so i urge the russian people and the russian soldiers in ukraine to understand the

propaganda and the disinformation that you are being told. i ask you to help me spread the truth. let your fellow russians know the human catastrophe that is happening in ukraine. and to president putin, i say, you started this war, you are leading this war, you can stop this war. now, let me close with a message to all of the russians who have been protesting on the streets against the invasion of ukraine. the world has seen your bravery. we know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. you have been arrested, you have been jailed and you have been beaten. you are my new heroes. you have the yuri vlasov. you have the true heart of russia. my dear russian friends, may god bless you all.

such a powerful, powerful message. i have seen a few political statements like that in quite sometime. so, mr. ambassador, we didn't -- mika and i really don't understand, a lot of americans may not understand how popular, how big arnold schwarzenegger is in russia, but we got an indication of it when we saw that vladimir putin's twitter account only follows 22 people, and mr. schwarzenegger, unfortunately for vladimir putin, is one of them. talk about the significance of arnold schwarzenegger in russian culture, russian society. >> yeah, i don't think putin reads much of twitter, but it is indicative, you are right. there's a handful of americans that he cares about. steven segal, by the way, is one

of them. henry kissinger is another. it is a weird, eclectic mix for putin. but in russian society schwarzenegger is very popular. his last time there, he came in 2010. i was working at the white house at the time, and just massive crowds everywhere he went. he jumped on the metro, took some photos. he is well loved for a long time. his movies. it was really brilliant of him. this guy yuri vlasov is a hero for all russians. he also got involved with politics afterwards. he put a soviet leader, that story he told with his dad, the poster of the soviet leader, i think it was a brilliant move. i think a lot of russians feel like, we don't understand them, we want to destroy their country. even russian liberals, you know, elites, they feel like sometimes we just want to get them. he, both in his reputation before and in that message, was

very clear. you know, he doesn't want to destroy russia, he wants russia to be strong. i thought particularly talking directly to soldiers, right, you know, that will get around. there's something called -- in russia. there's social media there, not just our platforms. little snippets of that will eventually get around. i just applaud what he did. i think it was a very powerful message. >> andrea, in the cold war we had printing presses that we'd smuggle in, mimeograph machines, we had radio free europe getting the message across. how do we get a message across russia in 2022? >> right now on youtube and there are a couple of other platforms. when speaking of the cold war, i am thinking of going to moscow with ronald reagan and his address to the students. he was allowed to speak to the

university students. this was the trip, you know, with gorbachev and also went to the home of the u.s. ambassador in moscow and met with dissidents, how important those trips were on radio free europe. now voice of america has been shut down, but there are ways, as the ambassador says, to get that through. let's hope it does get through because it was so powerful. you think of schwarzenegger and you think of ronald reagan, a former actor, it was beautifully written, beautifully delivered, and the coffee cup. i was struck by that, given by a former soviet-era hero, a weightlifter, and thinking of schwarzenegger who all of us know and have covered for years. this is remarkable. i hope it gets through. i think the u.s. government has to without any fingerprints find a way to get messages through, because otherwise the russian dissidents will be crushed as they have been so far. i think of alexei navalny.

>> it is the kind of thing that could get through. >> exactly. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much for coming on this morning. we really appreciate it. all next week andrea will be reporting live from brussels and warsaw as president biden visits the region. catch "andrea mitchell reports" weekdays at 12:00 p.m. eastern. ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you as well. we really appreciate it. see you again soon. coming up, does vladimir putin have an escape route? if he does, our next guest says it runs through nato. tom nichols joins us for that conversation. also, we will take a break from the war coverage to show you a great moment from the ncaa tournament involving a stuck ball and a cheerleader coming to the rescue. we will be right back. customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. [limu emu squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪

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i think she got my cup. >> oh, well. a quick update on the men's ncaa tournament. big upsets right off the bat. >> oh, look. >> st. peters in overtime. 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. kentucky, 1 of 6. he nails a pair. >> wow. >> seven seconds left. >> wheeler gives it up. brooks, the jumper. no good! you can feel the madness!

>> i can't really feel the magic because my mom and dad graduated from the university of kentucky and my dad drove me around the deep south, and we followed the kentucky wildcats. so, no, i can't feel the magic. >> no magic? >> but i got to say congratulations to the st. peters peacocks. that's extraordinary. that's one of those upsets people will be talking about for a very long time. they beat the kentucky wildcats. the small jesuit school from jersey city, new jersey, is the tenth number 15th to upset a number 2. two other upsets sent a pair to the next round. the richmond spiders advanced with 67-63 win over fifth-seeded iowa. that's a shocker. new mexico state notched its first ncaa tournament victory since 1993 with a 70-63 win over

number-five uconn. i got to say chris murphy yesterday on twitter awfully arrogant about the huskies saying he wouldn't even take a bet with the senator from new mexico because it wasn't going to be close. >> number 12 seed indiana is out of the tournament. >> wow. >> after one round falling 82-83 yesterday against fifth-seeded st. mary's. but the hoosiers still might have delivered the most memorable moment of the tournament so far as well as an unlikely hero. take a look at this moment from the game. >> a senior from mountain view, california, as that one goes over, and it is indiana basketball. and the ball is stuck. we've got an issue now. >> who is getting that? >> can jet holmgren come back from gonzaga? is he still in the building? the highest toss, can't do it. >> with a mop, that's how high

up it is. >> we're getting a chair out. >> you know, when i was a kid there was a guy who played named connie hawkins who they said used to be able to get quarters from the top of the back board. that's who we need. >> going to use a chair. i don't like this. it is kelly pfeiffer. that's not going to work. >> i think they need to pick kelly up or maybe he has to go on vern's shoulders. >> yes, we got toss holding pfeiffer. kelly is not tall enough. major issues here. >> why don't the cheerleader, they're used to going up high. yes! get the cheerleader up. this is how you do it. she's got it! oh, what a play! the cheerleader saves the day!

>> that is adorable. >> that's a moment. >> ah. still ahead, we return to our coverage of the war in eastern europe with a live look -- >> look at that smile. >> that's nice. as officials there are pleading for help, with a steady stream of refugees fleeing the violence in ukraine. plus, the conversation that could change the course of the war. we are counting down to president biden's call with president xi jinping. "morning joe" is back in a moment. for a flare-up? enough, crohn's! for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis, stelara® can provide relief, and is the first approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc! stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine.

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♪♪ welcome back to the white house. it is top of the hour. >> what a shot. >> 7:00 a.m. beautiful. beautiful scene. i mean just -- >> on a foggy friday morning in

washington, d.c.. >> yeah, a beautiful shot. jonathan lemire, mika was supposed to talk a little bit about the cheerleader getting the basketball. >> i didn't want to. >> yeah, but, you know, we were supposed to talk for a few minutes. >> it was really cute. >> listen, in local news you are always -- like the end of a lot of stories -- >> i was the best. >> you would be going -- >> i was the best there ever was in local doing the quick. >> to the squirrel who knows how to water skate. >> yeah. >> this is really something. you do wonder what they're doing in this gym, in this arena. they don't have like a ladder? they don't have a pogo stick? i don't know, jonathan lemire. they should have been able to do it more effectively. a big day for catholic school, st. peter's beating kentucky. st. mary's beating indiana and that big upset, new mexico state over uconn. i bet you didn't have those in your brackets. >> no. the first -- first on this here,

this is such a fun moment. i feel like there habit been a ton of buzz about this tournament, perhaps because of all of the terrible things going on in the world. this broke through last night. it was everywhere on twitter, really fun to see. the announcer is rightly concerned about the idea of putting one of the star players to balance on a chair to try to get the ball down. that could have led to catastrophe. this is great. the cheerleader does a wonderful job and immediately gets back to the sideline and leads the cheers there. but a lot of fun. jersey city, not something known perhaps as a basketball powerhouse but it was a heck of an upset yesterday, joe. my condolences to the wildcats but i will just say this. as for my own bracket, you can't have your bracket busted if you don't do one. i simply ran out of time. i meant to do it yesterday late morning. i was on deadline, i was at the white house all day writing a couple of stories. i looked up, it was 12:15. the games had started. i'm out. >> yeah, you know, i haven't -- i haven't been following college

basketball that much this year, but i will jump in to the tournament. hopefully alabama will have a nice little run. i have been following the red sox, which you look at with the moves we have made. >> oh, yes. >> you know, we lost warber, but you got to say though, freddie freeman went to l.a. so there you go. they balance each other out. >> oh, yeah. >> oh, wait, took neither one of them. >> it is a good thing "morning joe" is soon to expand to a fourth hour. if you catalogue all of the red sox have made to move their team this off-season -- >> we don't have time. >> yeah, which would be exactly zero. they picked up a couple of relievers but they're been oddly quiet, disappointingly so this spring. the american league as we were talking about yesterday, fourth best team in the division. not great. >> orioles are looking pretty good. maybe 4a, 4b, who knows? i will say we got pretty far

last year with all of those moves, getting the all-you-can-eat all day from the barnhills buffet in pensacola, florida. i was concerned last year but we went pretty far. that's good. i think we have heilman here. at some point, mika, i want to talk to him about piggy blinders. apparently he is figuring out a way to watch that. i want to figure out how to watch that because they play it in london first. they play it in britain first, the bbc, and then it comes here i think in 2028 or something like that. >> okay. >> i'm getting high on this stuff. >> we will get to heilman and peekie blinders. we will turn to our top story. >> can i say, you were doing those things in local news, right? you couldn't talk three seconds about the cheerleader, that was pretty big. >> it was cute and now it is time to get back to business. so -- >> how many stories did you do

on squirrels water skiing? >> so many. i think i water skied with a squirrel during my local news day. >> did you really? >> yeah. >> just give us 15 seconds for the cheerleader. >> i can do it, just not today. back to the war coverage. president biden is set to speak with china's president xi two hours from now, a pivotal conversation that could shape the future of the war. plus, new attacks in western ukraine overnight as russia targets the city of lviv, humanitarian hub where refugees have been processed and where ukrainians had gone to to see safety. this morning a top official said 109 children have been killed in the war so far and 130 injured. mostly in kharkiv where a school and cultural center were attacked yesterday. the u.s. secretary of state echoed president biden yesterday calling putin a war criminal. this morning the kremlin brushed off the remarks, calling the u.s. president irritable.

and the death toll among russian troops is mounting too. the u.s. estimates the number is about 7,000, but ukraine claims it is double. >> what is so fascinating about the ukraine claims, mika, because we have talked about this throughout the war, throughout the first 23 days. often reports from the ground are just not reliable. you will have one side underestimating their casualties, overestimating the other side's casualties. what makes you take a second look at ukraine's number of 14,000 is they're actually working with the red cross trying to get what they say are 14,000 bodies -- >> my god. >> -- back to russia so those bodies can be buried with dignity. it doesn't seem to be a number they're just pulling out of thin air. it is always important for us to remember when we see the numbers, we have seen 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, right now the pentagon will say up to 7,000 russians have been killed. we are always told though that

those are actually conservative estimates, that it could be far more than that. if you look at the fact, once again last night, once again this morning, "the washington post" is reporting in its lead, "the new york times," others, are reporting that the russians had no offensive on day 23. they are stuck. they are not moving. they're incapable of surrounding kyiv and doing what they thought they could do the first few days. then you suddenly realize there's something much larger going on here. >> what the ukrainians want to do from everything, from having russian soldiers call their mothers on their cellphones to sending those bodies back, they want their russian mothers who may be watching the propaganda tv news in russia, they want those russians' mothers to know that their sons are dead. >> to know the truth. >> joining us now, national security expert and contributing writering at "the atlantic, tom

nichols. host and executive producer of "the circus" on show time, nbc national affairs analyst john heilemann. associate editor of commentary magazine and msnbc contributor, noah rothman. good to have you all on board. >> noah, there are people that are obviously rightfully, rightfully concerned about the negotiations between the ukrainians and the russians, that the russians are just buying time. that makes sense. in many wars that makes sense many times. i'm not exactly sure though what vladimir putin would be buying time for. right now he has a military in disarray. they're trapped. they could bring in reinforcements, but the next group aren't going to want to fight in ukraine any more than the last group, especially after they hear about the hell that the first 100,000 or so troops have endured. i'm curious, you have studied russia. you have studied the soviet union. i am curious what your take is now 23 days in about a russian

military that is stuck in the mud. >> it is shocking to see the extent to which the russian advance has stalled, and particularly in the north and in the east of the country. the south is something of a different story. there is movement from the south, upwards to the north with an effort to encircle ukrainian troops in the east of the country where they're trying to pin down the forces in donbas. that's a concern and we should continue to watch it. however, it is quite clear that everybody's assumptions about how the invasion would go from the start have been decimated, much like the russian advance, and our efforts to arm ukraine, to support ukraine are working. they're bleeding russia. they're experiencing operational failures and they are staring down the barrel of a strategic failure. that should be our objective. that should be our goal, while at the same time ensuring we don't corner putin to an extent he believes he has to make some sort of a bold, escalatory move

that could destabilize the situation further and create calls in the west for intervention. look, public opinion is very much on the side of ukraine, and we have to be sure we don't inflame the situation to an extent that democratic countries responsive to their publics are compelled by the force of emotion, raw emotion, in the moment, for example, the use of an unconventional weapon which the west has been warning is very much on the table. if that were to happen we could see a groundswell of support for invasion that could be destabilizing. but we should keep introducing these weapon systems, s-300, javelins, the whole group to continue doing what we're doing, which is pinning russia down and making them understand a strategic failure is in the offing. only then will the kremlin understand they have to take an off ramp, which we should be willing to offer. >> right. we need to be willing to offer that off ramp. we need to keep -- as you said,

we need to keep the gas on, step on the gas. i will say though, mika, and i have tried very hard not to bring politics into this at all over the past several weeks. i have been trumpeting the bipartisanship, but just following up on what noah said there, i'm not going to name any names because actually i don't even want to dignify their remark goes. but there are some republicans, some republican senators out there who are trying to turn it into a political hit job against joe biden, and they're pushing him to do things that would trigger world war iii. it is so reckless, they're pushing him not only to do things that could trigger world war iii that they would never do if they were sitting in the white house, they're also pushing him to do things that would get the united states so far ahead of our allies that there would be a split between the united states and nato. joe biden, say what you will about joe biden in afghanistan. we were critical of joe biden in

afghanistan. joe biden has paced this extraordinarily well. >> paced is the right word. >> time and time again. >> yeah. >> he couldn't get ahead of the germans early on. by the way, memo to america, memo to republicans, i was one of you. we led germany, we led france, we led the rest of the world into battles in afghanistan, we led other allies into battles in iraq. said they didn't love democracy if they didn't follow us into iraq. we don't have the best record right now with our nato allies going into war. so because of the republican party for the most part and, yes, earlier because of people like me, voices like me calling to go into iraq and republicans calling to go into iraq, joe biden had to be patient. he had to have a touch to how he moved about.

and guess what's happened over the past 23 days. you now have a germany that's done something they've never done before since world war ii. they're now committing to building a bigger military than russia. that is game changing. that is a generational change. sweden and finland, talking about getting into nato. that is a generational change, a generational change. you look at other countries that are asking us to bring nato troops into their country, to provide them more defense. a generational change. how did it happen? it didn't happen by some president going over to europe and pushing people out of the way so he could be in the front when a picture is taken of the group or attacking the woman who was leading germany or attacking the woman who was leading great

britain. going after our allies constantly while cuddling up to tyrants across the globe. vladimir putin, saying, yes, i trust actually you more than i trust our own intel agents who risk their lives every day for american democracy and american freedom. or, yes, xi, please, go ahead and build those concentration camps, that sounds great. no, that's not how we built this historic coalition. we built the historic coalition by joe biden's patience and, oh, my god. oh, i know this is going to be shocking to you because it doesn't fit into your stupid little populous playbook, with joe biden's experience. he has been there. he has done that. even if you believe he's gotten most things wrong throughout his career, you really have to be a sickened either pro-putin

apologist or if you're not apologizing for vladimir putin you are just a right-wing republican ideologue, to be attacking him and saying he's responsible for vladimir putin invading ukraine. it is -- you have somehow forgotten what donald trump did over the past four years when he was president. you somehow forgot what barack obama refused to do for eight years. you somehow forgot what george w. bush forgot to do for eight years. there's been like 22 years of blunders for vladimir putin and russia. joe biden has cleaned it up. he has done it pretty well and he has done it when all of our lives are on the line, when there's a risk of nuclear war. and you have jack asses in the senate trying to gain cheap political points. can you wait until the specter of nuclear war and world war iii are beyond us.

>> exactly. >> to go back and then make your points. this is sickening. >> this is not the time. >> this is the wrong time, okay. wait. let the president get us through the crisis. you can push the president. i would push the president to do more, to stop saying no, to stop saying what he's not going to do. i wrote an op-ed. so nothing is wrong pushing the president. why, that's a patriotic thing to do, you think he could do more. but to say it is his fault. that's what putin apologists say. they're blaming the united states for vladimir putin invading ukraine. don't be in that group. you are better than that. be better than that. let's stand shoulder to shoulder, let's offer all politicians constructive advice, but make no mistake about this, we are in this together. people who believe in western democracy, people who believe in west, people who believe in freedom over autocracy, this is our time to be together.

this is not the time -- boy, i really want to say one senator's name. i'm just not going to do it. >> just don't, yeah. >> it is just not worth it. this is not the time to play for the cheap seats. mika, tom nichols actually has been talking an awful lot about this. >> so, tom, you have a piece in "the atlantic" entitled "only nato can save putin." quote, nato intervention in russia's war on ukraine could halt that country's barbarous attack goes, but it would mean war between putin's regime and the west, and this war would be such a gift to putin that we should expect that he will do everything he can to provoke it. the u.s. and europe should resist such provocations. putin knows that the terminate owe can still produce a visceral response in russia. nato is a traditional enemy and one many russians have blamed for their troubles in the past,

although some observers may believe that putin would fold before he approaches the nuclear threshold and others worry that even the smallest nato action will inevitably spark world war iii, such arguments at both extremes ignore the role of chance and risk. putting so many military assets in play with combat breaking out all over europe could spark a catastrophe that neither we nor putin intended. >> tom, explain. >> putin's created a disaster for himself. he wen it in with one plan, which is that ukraine would surrender in 48 or 72 hours. that plan blew up in his face. he has no plan b. he didn't expect this to happen. so now all he has left is to flatten ukraine through sheer brute force, and the best thing that could happen to him is to turn this war that he sold as a

war of liberation of slavic brothers and sisters, which has now turned into a slaughter of his slavic brothers and sisters. the best thing that could happen to him is to turn it into a war with nato where he could then turn to his own citizens, he could turn to people in the kremlin, he could turn to the world and say, "you see, this really was all about russia defending its interests against this encroaching military alliance." it would be the best possible thing that could happen to him. it would be the only way to pull his chestnuts out of the fire at this point. >> yeah. john heilemann, i just called out a couple of senators, not by name but they know who they are and i think most of us here know who they are, but i will say for the most part mika's brother, ambassador to poland, you've interviewed him, he was struck by the unity of republicans and democrats going over to poland together. he said, you know, it is really

watching people like roger wicker and dick blumenthal, watching democrats and republicans come over here and seeing us all on the same side. he said it really was one of the most invigorating things i have seen in all of my years in government service. you were over there. you were in poland. you were in other countries. you have seen it, too, and not just democrats and republicans coming together but, boy, the nato alliance. talk about the unifying impact this tragedy, how this tragedy has brought so many together. >> well, i think that's right, joe. i mean spending a couple of weeks over there in nato states that are either on the border with russia or on the border with ukraine, the unity is stunning. i think it is not just unity, but it is the unity and the stakes and the threat have also elevated the significance of nato in a way i don't think we

have seen -- tom nichols, who i never like to defer to on anything but i might defer to him on this, it is not clear to me nato has been more important at any point since the fall of the soviet union in terms of geopolitics and geo strategy. nato is now a colosus in a way and nato is pulling together. i think in the end if this conflict plays out and comes to a conclusion in which vladimir putin suffers the kind of loss that might be on the cards for him here, people will look back on this and say joe biden marshalled the way that nobody has since the gulf war. that would be an afterthought for nato, not in eastern or central europe though. there's never been a time, you were talking about finland and switzerland, there has never been a time if you were in

europe and looking at nato, they were looking at the membership card of nato and sleeping under the protection of nato. any country without that membership card now wants that card. nato is a giant force on the world stage again. i think it sets context for the discussion biden is going to have with xi. you know, as china looks down the road at the state of the globe, not just economically, militarily and every other way, i think it can't help but conclude that europe, which had kind of been trying to play both sides, are we more pro american, more pro chinese, we want to try to play both sides of that game, it is clear that what europe right now is in the arms of america in the way it hasn't been for a long time. >> yeah. >> it has to be making the chinese think, how do we handle this, because a bipolar world that looks like china versus the whole of the west, a reinvig

einvigorated nato is not a happy place for xi jinping. it is a dig deal for what is happening on the world stage, not just in ukraine but across the globe and the western alliance is a big part of it. >> you said europe is in the arms of america. let's be clear here. we are in the arms of europe as women. that has to be frightening for china who actually saw a split between the eu and the united states. you brought up actually switzerland. i talked about finland. again, think about their history with russia, how remarkable they're talking about nato. sweden and switzerland, mika, who was neutral during world war ii. >> yeah, amazing. >> actually coming out against the russians now. >> stepping up. noah, off joe's point about certain republicans, your recent opinion piece for nbc is entitled "on russia, trump's greatest republican allies

drastically misread the signs." and you write in part this. how did the populist wing of the republican party so completely misread both the national interests menaced by russia and the popular response to it? the simplest explanation for this miscalculation is that they misread trump's presidency. these republicans convinced themselves that what right-leaning voters liked about trump's approach to russia was his tendency to flatter the russian autocrat, and they only tolerated his administration's otherwise confrontational approach to relations with moscow. in fact, it was the other way around. they obsessed over the cultural objectives of their domestic adversaries to such a degree that it rendered them vulnerable to emotional manipulation by malignant actors abroad. and they bought into the idea that trumpism was an epochal

jacksonan realignment rather than a cultish fad. the nationalist right overinterpreted its moment and subsequently lost it. >> you know, noah. >> hello. >> over the past five years during the age of trump, i was so shocked that people that you and i grew up reading were taking up residence in hungary, getting money from orban so they could sit there in this great cultural war with a guy who actually himself was at war with western democracy. against, you know, a liberal democracy. you know, i remember reading a guy who i have known and respected for a long time going on and on -- i don't know if it was tootsie rolls or twix bars, but somebody dared put the flag, the lgbtq flag on a wrapper of candy and he was explaining why

orban would never do such a thing. i just sat there going, really? you are going to sacrifice western democracy because -- because if it is an issue of a trans swimmer or something else, you know, that because of how elites act towards 0.003% of the population you are willing to sell out western democracy. you're right. it was this cultish fad, and somehow in all of that orban became people's hero and vladimir putin did, and not just to a small subsection. you saw the depressing polls about how many republicans had a positive view of vladimir putin before this war began. >> yeah, but there was always an element within -- first, social conservatism and projecting

strength abroad can exist within the same republican coalition. >> right. >> they have for my adult lifetime. this is not difficult to thread that needle. but cultural conflict became so preeminent, a unifying force within a particular sub set of the populist national right that they did begin to belief their own hype and believed the republican party had all but abandoned the notion that the united states can and should project force abroad, can and should attract allies. him and bad actors abroad like vladimir putin. if you were -- like i said in the op-ed, if you were focusing on donald trump's mind-boggling obsequious flattery of vladimir putin, you would perceive it is a sea change in the republican movement. they moved beyond the idea that the united states is the sole superpower that should influence

other events abroad and use its foreign policy to attract its interests and secure its interests. then you ignored all of the other stuff that the administration was doing, then focusing only on the rhetoric because the stuff the administration was doing was more hawkish than any republican administration in my lifetime. sanctions against the kremlin, getting diplomats out of the country, seizing consular property, engaging in set piece land battles with russian mercenaries in syria. all of this stuff is what we wanted to see from a republican administration, and the populist right convinced itself, well, this is just the final gasp of a strain of republicanism that's on its way out when it was precisely the opposite. we had never seen anything that confrontational from a republican administration before. that was the direction the party was moving. if you had just looked only at the rhetoric alone you would have convinced yourself of an

illusory version of the republican party that didn't exist in the first place. >> in recent days former president trump has modified his tone towards vladimir putin. he has been a little more critical there, but certainly we should not forget the years and years of praise he has heaped upon the leader in moscow. tom nichols, we have been talking a lot here about the strength of nato and how russia, of course, is very much opposed to its expansion. there's another nation also exposed to its expansion and that's china. the call between president biden and president xi coming up in about an hour and a half could change the trajectory of the conflict depending whether or not xi is willing to go along with biden to isolate moscow or might, in fact, bail putin out. give us your reading of the stakes today. what should be biden's approach and what is your sense, if you had to guess, what the outcome will be? >> well, the chinese i don't think are going to throw putin to the walls.

they're not going to walk away. they're not going to isolate him. on the other hand, and i have no idea what the president's talking points are going to be, but one way to go here is to point out that china traditionally has been a defender of a very extreme version of national sovereigty. remember that back in the '90s when talking about places like iraq and kosovo china said, you know, states have the right to govern themselves, that you can't violate their borders, you can't just go in and change their regimes, and they stayed out of the way. they abstained but they were very critical of american moves and european moves in places like the middle east and the mediterranean. so it is going to be interesting to see if now they say, yeah, well, we didn't really mean all of that as long as was putin. i don't think they're going to say that. their international jurists are siding with russia because

they're trying not to let russia get too isolated, but i think even the chinese understand it is not in their interests to blow up the international order and to blow up the international economy, especially when letting putin twist in the wind as he is doing now is actually to china's advantage. no matter how this ends, excuse me, this is going to end with a much weaker russia that's going to be somewhat dependent on china. putin has made one of the greatest strategic blunders of the past 50 or 60 years, and that's to the advantage of china. so i don't see where china, unless i'm misreading xi somehow, i don't see where it is to china's advantage to play hardball with the white house because putin's mistakes are all accruing to the advantage of a stronger china and a weaker russia. >> noah, we need to go to break, but i just want to read this to you and get your reaction.

it is from the chief foreign affairs correspondent for the "wall street journal." he writes this morning, just a few minutes ago, ukrainian roads are full of military convoys carrying tanks, long-range artillery and even s-300 in broad daylight every day. in addition to fuel and ammo, i don't think there was a single strike on a moving target outside immediate front line areas. russia lacks that capacity. >> wow. >> quickly your reaction? >> it is true. you need fixed wing aircraft over the target to sit something that's moving. you can hit a stationary target with a cruise missile from far, far away but you won't hit the convoys. this is very important because i saw jen psaki the other day establishing the distinction between the weaponry we are introducing to the country, we should not draw the distinction. moscow drew it and we observe it, but we shouldn't hold

ourselves to it. is it an offensive platform? is that as escalatory, are we establishing it is offensive? this is what we should leave to be am big because the strategy is working. >> noah rothman and tom nichols, thank you for your insight. still ahead on "morning joe," some republicans have been talking tough on what more needs to be done to help ukraine, but democratic senator chris murphy says they're not backing it up with their votes. it is interesting. they vote against aid and then talk tough. he joins us live on "morning joe." also ahead deputy secretary of state wendy sherman joins the conversation. she is fresh off a trip overseas to meet with allies about russia's aggression in eastern europe. plus, as the fight to close the gender gap continues, "know

your value" and "forbes" are taking admissions for the next annual 50 over 50 list. we are looking for women stepping into their power in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. you must be born before 1971. the deadline to submit nominations for the u.s. list is 11:59 eastern time on sunday, april 3rd. think about women who inspire you, the women who are actively paying it forward. nominate them at for.com. the honoree is will go to the summit in awe abu dhabi. the first was impressive. submit your nomination for the 50 over 50 list, the u.s. list today at forbes.com. we'll be right back.

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it is all about you. >> that's amazing. ukrainian president zelenskyy visited the wounder. he told the girl, you are doing everything right. the girl responded, everyone on tiktok supports us. zelenskyy answers, we have occupied tiktok. and the girl goes, it is all about you. look at him. this man has really risen up at a time when his country and people's lives are being torn

apart, where he could have escaped and he could have had safe passage to america with his family and left this all behind, and yet he stays endangering his life every day. i believe schooling everyone around the world including the american people on the preciousness and the beauty of democracy. >> and of freedom. >> freedom. >> john heilemann, we've grown up reading about how fdr used the new technology of the radio, how ronald reagan in the 1950s realized the power of television. it elected a president in 1960, jfk. here we have zelenskyy, who is using all social media platforms, coming out with the pithy quotes just like churchill that would fit the media of their time. churchill, of course, famously

used radio as well to guide britain through 1940, the battle of britain. but zelenskyy, we just haven't seen a leader like him in a generation, have we? >> i don't think so, joe. it is unprecedented in my career to have seen someone who has done what he has done. he has gone from being someone who in a month basically 99.99% of the world had no idea who he was literally. >> right. >> the tiny percentage that knew who he was thought he was a clown basically, they kind of looked down on him. he's now, along with joe biden, everybody in the world knows who any american president is and vladimir putin. he's now like one of the most three famous political people in the world. i'm not using fame to denigrate. i am saying the rise in four weeks to that kind of status and, as mika said, you know,

that almost universal admiration, to go from nowhere to being compared to churchill and roosevelt as you are properly doing, joe, is one of the most extraordinary things i have ever seen. and you can do -- you must have the opportunity -- you know, vladimir putin by being darth vader made a world where there could be a luke skywalker on the global stage. then you have to step into the role and you can't diminish either one of those things. the stakes have to be high, the opportunity has to be there and you have to meet the moment, but i don't think that's all that is required. i think after you meet the moment, which he is doing every day with fortitude, bravery, resilience and moral leadership, you have to figure out a way to tell people about it, right. i think the way in which the small team of mostly ex-television producers who worked with him for years in ukraine have fashioned the most sophisticated political communications operation i have ever seen in real-time. every single choice they've made

has been brilliant and pitch perfect, and they have played it. they understand that in this world we now live in, in this very complicated, fragmented media landscape we occupy that you have to play it high and low. you have to play insurgent and establishment. you have to do the interview with lester holt but you also have to be on tiktok. you have to be everywhere all at once. he is out there speaking english, he is speaking russian, he is transmitting on telegram all day long messages to different audiences. this week we saw him do this global tour for hearts and minds, you know, the spring training games in canada, in the british parliament and then coming to the big stage of america. >> right. >> again, with a perfectly executed 16-minute speech with video in the middle of it and a switch to english on the back end. i don't think i have ever even anything more masterful, purely at the level of performance. not just performance, again, got to be a hero to look like a

hero, but he and his team have done an incredible job making the case for his people, using every media and tool and understanding of the world we live in with digital technology that we have ever seen. >> ever. it really has been pitch perfect. jonathan lemire, we have moved through a new century over the past 22 years where celebrity, the age of from paris hilton to the kardashian where celebrity was the end itself, not a means to an end but celebrity was an ends itself. that's why when you have zelenskyy who has actually used his celebrity to risk his life to liberate a nation, to fight and risk his life every day to free 42 million, 43 million, 44 million people, it is cutting through whether it is on tiktok or whether it is on traditional television or other streaming

services. it is cutting through in a way we have not seen because this is not about celebrity. this is about life and death and this is good versus evil. this is freedom versus bondage. >> right. >> zelenskyy has used his celebrity and his ability to use multiple media platforms to fight to liberate a people. >> think of the contrasts between the two television celebrities who rose to power and democracies in recent years. they met, of course, on the sidelines of the united nations in september of 2019, donald trump and volodymyr zelenskyy. trump, of course, used his celebrity to be elected and in many ways tried to enrich himself in office. that inflection point was when he was trying to extort zelenskyy to get political dirt on his likely opponent joe biden and threatened to withhold lethal military aid unless the

ukrainians did so. zelenskyy, so desperate to have america's help, did at least consider it before then saying no. trump, of course, got impeached for that and we have seen the ramifications of that moment ripple through this particular war in eastern europe because of how he undermined the nato, the way he cozied up to putin. zelenskyy, of course, has gone exactly the other direction, where he has become this unlikely symbol of democracy and moral leader who has had pitch perfect presentations to parliaments and congresses across the globe, who has as john heilemann noted really mastered the communications, the media of this, which is so important on every level. that messaging is not just in appeals to the west for help but also to rally his own people. he has stayed, he is broadcasting where he is. i'm here, come get me he is more or less saying, i'm not abandoning this country. his fellow people are doing the same and they're fighting back and he is inspiring them each

and every day. as a final note, that visit to the hospital yesterday we've been showing clips of, one of the people he met there was an 8-year-old girl who was in the hospital because she threw herself on the body of her younger brother to protect him from russian gunfire. the little boy was not hit. she was but survived. in that moment zelenskyy told her that she is the real hero of the ukrainian people. >> okay. that is just so moving. you know, i wonder with all of the divisions that we face in this country what polling will show in the coming months about trump supporters who watched president trump cozy up to putin and now see putin crushing these people day after day after day, if it will move the needle at all. but what a moving story about that 8-year-old girl. now, more than 3 million people have fled ukraine since russia invaded. the u.n. refugee agency says 90% are women and children, and a

spokesperson for unicef said 55 children are fleeing ukraine every single minute. 2 million of the refugees are now in poland where officials are pleading for help. the number of ukrainians who have fled to poland is equal to the entire population of warsaw. they are getting overrun. joining us from just outside warsaw, nbc news correspondent kelly cobiella. kelly, it must be such a challenge to try to process these families, these people, many of them coming in many different conditions, to safe places to live temporarily. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, mika. we have been speaking to the mayor of warsaw this morning about the challenges that his city is facing and has faced over the past 20 days or so. we took a walk with him in a sports hall, which is a reception center, 500 beds there. he said that every night that sports hall is full with

primarily women and children who have fled the war. they try to move them on very quickly, within 72 hours, to more permanent housing because they need the space to process even more people. it is putting a strain. you know, the doors are open, the refugees are welcome here. the people in poland, politicians, volunteers, aid workers have made that very clear over the past 20 days. but the mayor of warsaw is saying, look, this does put a strain on services, on city services. he said all of his psychologists for the city have been reassigned, child psychologists, to work with these refugee children. as i have talked about in the past few days, everyone we have spoken to is very traumatized by what they've been through. so they're trying to provide those services. their hospitals are open to refugees as well. 20 babies born in warsaw hospitals alone to ukrainian refugee mothers in the past 20 or so days. i asked the mayor, you know,

does financial aid do it for you? the u.s. promising $1.4 billion in humanitarian aid for the countries bordering ukraine, is that enough? take a listen to a little bit of what he said today. >> first of all, i of what he said today. >> first of all, i have to thank president biden and the united states congress with strong words on defending every inch of that to territory w. that, we can simply work in peace and do our job. yes, we feed the united states to be more open and accept those ukrainians to gin their families. i think when i talked to my american friends, people do understand that. of course, we all hope that it's temporary, just for a few months. these guys when you talk to them, they're incredibly proud, incredibly strong. they are behind us. they want to go back. >> reporter: and to that pointed, we have been following the story of a grandmother

72-years-old. she has two grandchildren and a son in chicago. they applied for a tourist visa a few days back. they found out just this week it's been denied on the basis that she does not have a permanent home to return to if she goes to the united states. that's a part of the criteria for a tourist aviles sa. visa. she has family in the united states willing to take he her in, for the short-term. hoping to go back one day, no path for her to get to the u.s. there are many, many more like her, mika. >> nbc's kelly kobiaya, thank you so much for your reporting. and coming up, capturing the atrocities of war and combating russian misinformation. that's the brave mission of the ukrainian witness project. it's founder joins us next on

"morning joe." we're back in 90 seconds.

. it's 53 past the hour. we continue to follow russian-ukraine incidents. they are facing an unprecedented wave of cyber attacks. the government is urging to filter all traffic coming from abroad. the attacks are at least twice as powerful as any previous

ones. "the washington post" citing a statement from the ministry of digital development and communications is says the government did not elaborate on what filtering measures had been implemented. in the past, this has meant baring websites to users abroad. the russian emergency ministry website was hacked wednesday evening. the hackers replaced the hot line for a number for soldiers to call if they wanted to defect from the army under the title come back from ukraine alive. now to efforts to document what is happening on the ground. what is really happening on the ground. the ukrainian witness project is a new media project that is capturing the the horrific events there. denali tanaga is the founder. he joins us now. we want to welcome you to our show. can you tell us more about your

organization, what it's trying to do, more importantly, how it's doing it? >> so when war started, a lot of people were working in media. they wanted very much to participate but said they could not find their role here. and we vartd like crowd funding -- started like crowd funding, people who can do filming, subtitles. and we started filming all around the country what is going on. and we are filming not only military respects or refugees, we capture how every day life fades, to this moment, too many people live in kiev, including me, most of my team and we still live here and we try to capture what it's like, for example, we made a video about veteran save their pets. they sometimes do some incredible stuff to just to help

animals to survive and aren't very many aspects like that, you don't think about it. when you think about the war, you think only about shelling and suffering of people, but there are also a lot of heroic things going on. people from different countries who are living inside kiev. they try to help. for example, today, i was making a video about restaurants which are now like field kitchens for you ukrainian military, ukrainian hospitals, ukrainian people in shelters. sometimes those restaurants have nothing around but ukrainians. >> so who are you brigg on board to help spread this information? how big is 94 organization? and what are the goals to ultimately get information to everybody who needs it and to have them understand that the information is real?

>> the goal is to make, to provide a better picture. because i remember very much how it happened in 2014. 2014 is when this war actually started. there was a huge problem. no one was filming and good quality was going on. and just i promise you that in one month or in two months, if this war will not end, we will disapooer from western tv. we will disappear from western press and like other countries will try to forget about ukraine, what is going on here. it will not shock people that much. so, a good content and the good stories can help us to still maintain this interest in western countries to ukraine. because we are very dependent on western countries. we cannot close our skies, ourselves, for example. we know we have a great support for example of american people, which are much more brave than american politicians sometimes.

which like as technology says that like maybe about 80% of american people want americans to do more for ukraine. so to maintain this, we have to give a content to foreign media. so you have something to show, with i will capture people and inspire them to do something. with that, it will inspire your politicians posts. >> ventilator, vitaliy deynaga. we hope you don't disappear, keep us posted. ahead, richard engel brings us the latest from the ground in ukraine's capital. plus the uncertain future of the people there. and the young ukrainians have have had to put their lives on hold. nbc news' jacob soboroff joins us live from lviv with that

story and secretary of state wendy sherman is our guest. "morning joe" is coming back in just two minutes. "morning joe" is coming back in just two minutes his future became my focus. lavender baths always calmed him. so we turned bath time into a business. ♪ and building it with my son has been my dream job. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com planning helps you live your dreams today. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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it's the top of the hour. welcome back to morning joe:00 live look at the white house. the sun is trying to come up through the fog. >> the fog is lifting a bit, isn't it? >> just a little bit. >> it's 8:00 a.m., happy friday, everybody. >> it's march 18th. we will talk with secretary of state wendy sherman. first, developments, president biden is set to speak with chinese president xi jinping amid signs beijing is trying to distance itself. >> that would be very good news. there are fresh attacks in western ukraine overnight as russia targeted lviv. a humanitarian hub about 40 miles away from the boarder with poland and a beautiful historic

city. nbc news' jacob soberoff will join us live from lviv. an update, just a few moments ago on efforts to rescue civilians from that theater in mariupol that was bombed yesterday. ukraine says 130 people have been evacuated but 1,300 people are still inside the bomb shelter that withstood the attack. chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more from on the ground in ukraine. >> reporter: russia continuing its relentless bombing campaign overnight hitting an aircraft repair facility near the airport if le veef hitting the favorite target, another residential compound. at least one person was killed here. more than a dozen injured. when you look at the scale of the damage, it could have been far worse. in other circumstances, it would be called terrorism. attacking sylviaens in kiev this

morning in their homes as they were waking for breakfast on purpose. since the state did this, it's another target on a soft target. it happened at 8:00 in the morning. it didn't destroy one apartment building but landed right in the center of a complex destroying a playground and all the homes around it. in one apartment, a sink is covered in blood. more stains by the door, likely from injured making their way out. an elementary school in the compound was also damage. so was a kindergarten and a supermarket. salvageing what she could, ala was still coming to terms with how her life was upended in an instant. i have no home now, nowhere to live. where am i to go, she asked? with russia's military offensive stalled and its troops suffering thousands of casualties to

dogged ukrainian resistance, russia has a punishment campaign of collective punishment. north of kiev in hard-hit chernihiv, an american was killed yesterday, identified by family and friends as jimmy ill from minnesota. a teacher. he was in ukraine to be with his partner irina who has multiple sclerosis. he was searching for food in a bread line killed along with nine other people. his sister spoke to an afilliat in minneapolis. >> she would say, we are here. the other half arranged in ukraine and then getting teaching positions at different universities to do lectures and the things like that to be with ira in this last trip, he was getting special medicine organizing that. he really loved her so deeply and it's, you know, in this

world, it's hard to find like your soulmate. that's how he referred to ira as his soul mate. >> reporter: joe, mika, the fact this is happening every single day, civilian targets being bombed, no military interests in the area means this is no accident, that vladimir putin is doing this deliberately. the question is why. it is a terror campaign to frighten the population, to demoralize the ukrainians, russia's enemy and a way to pressure the government as peace talks do seem to be gaining steam but it doesn't seem like we are getting any closer to a cease-fire. joe, mika. >> all right. richard, thank you very much. joining us now deputy secretary of state wendy sherman rent aly returned from a trip to europe following russia's invasion of ukraine. first i'd like to ask you about the peace talks. are we concerned that they are

really just biding time so they can refuel, regroup, assault again? >> mika, joe, thank you for having many the morning. that was a powerful piece friday richard engel about the civilian death. what we are seeing is vladimir putin's twice war carnage is continuing. there is no sign that he has pulled back in anyway from these incredibly deliberate attacks on civilians in ukraine. we hope that every nation around the world with any sway they have is telling vladimir putin to end this war of choice and give the ukrainian people their future back. it is a horrifying situation. this morning, the president of the united states will be on the phone with xi jinping the president of the people's republic of china urging him to use his influence with vladimir putin to end this horrible war.

>> you know, wendy, the administration had understandably taken great care, not using the term war criminal against vladimir putin. of course, far more difficult to negotiate a settlement or peace if somebody thinks they will end up in the haiku. over the past several days, the president of the united states has called vladimir putin a war criminal yesterday the secretary of state the i'd the same. talk about that and does the, how does the united states negotiate with a war criminal? and if this war comes to an end, hopefully, how do we deal with it in the future? >> all good questions, who cannot look at those photographs that we have all seen and not say that vladimir putin is intentionally targeting civilians that makes these actions war crimes? that said a legal standard has

to be made of intentionality and evidence collected, which we are in the process to help those in the international system actually say that these are war crimes. some you heard from the president. you heard from the secretary of state. are you hearing from me, that like every other person on the face of the earth, looking at these photos, who cannot think these are war crimes but we are collecting the evidence, making sure this is real and that it can stand up in legal courts. now, in terms of negotiation, this is a negotiation between ukraine, president zelenskyy and president putin. we want to support ukraine from everything they want to do. from the start of this, president zelenskyy has said nothing about ukraine without ukraine. that is when it comes to wageing peace, any result has to be something the ukrainian people want for themselves. >> so i am curious as the president talks to president xi this morning.

we all obviously have been deeply concerned by the growing authoritarianism in china when you look at the crackdown in hong kong, you look at the week wuiggers in the concentration camps, kissinger said you rarely have a choice between good and evil. we have to deal with the chinese also on climate change. the question is what do we have to offer president xi to step in and try to bring this crisis to an end, this war to an end, given the fact that both republicans and democrats want to view things they seem to agree on is that china is an outlaw on the world stage. >> so joe, this entire process is about principles. we respect sovereignty, territorial government rights

about their future. xi jinping has said for years that he believes in these principles. that is what his whole litany has been about. so now it is a moment for him to prove that. by telling vladimir putin to end this war of choice, war of carnage. in terms of what we have, i don't want to get ahead of the president. they're assessing each other. the last one was in november virtually. we want to see where just jinping is. he hope he ends this carnage and these attacks on civilians and, indeed, the prc is a very important, very great nation. there is no question about it. i went on the meet with the chinese a few months ago, jake sullivan met in rome recently. secretary blinken talked to the foreign minister on a regular

basis. we are candid, very direct what great powers must do. what the responsibility of xi jinping on the world stage and sign up to the u.n. charter, which he says he does. we will see, whether, in fact, xi jinping, his future is with the united states, with europe, with developing countries around the world. his future is not with russia and vladimir putin. >> mad dam deputy secretary, good morning, it's jonathan lemire. i want to get to two things that might hint to escalation. we had a nato country and breaking news just in the last few minutes, foreign lavrov gave a statement saying it will be considered quote legitimate targets for russian attacks, that, of course, could be he is giving nato allies if those

convoys bringing equipment over. what is your response to these threats? >> well, actual lip, jonathan, good morning, good to see you. lavrov made the same comments several days ago, really threatening the convoys coming across with the lethal weapons that and you hasn't marine pitarian needs and supplies ukraine needs so badly. there is no question that if those convoys are attacked on nato territory in poland or anywhere else, as the president of the united states has said, we will support our nato allies to every inch of their territory, to every person in those countries. that is our solemn responsibility as a member of nato. so these are threats coming to try to deter us from supporting ukrainian people. nothing is going to stop us from standing with ukraine. >> all right. deputy secretary of state wendy sherman, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. and joining us now is

democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. he's a member of the foreign relations committee. it's good to have you on the show this morning. a lot of talk about your republican counterparts. are democrats and republicans unified behind the president when it comes to supporting ukraine? >> i am very glad we were able to pass a budget last week that included substantial assistance $14 billion for ukraine as deputy secretary sherman mentioned. this week, we're going to be able to re-supply the ukrainian military with significant weaponry for the first time, drones that will allow them to take out some of these russian convoys still stalled outside of kiev and humanitarian assistance. but let's be honest, that bill passed last week in congress even though the majority of republicans voted against it, almost every single house majority voted against it, the

majority in the senate voted against it. i do draw issues and criticize and viscerate the president for his handling of the war and then come down to the senate floor and vote against these measures. so i am glad we do have a working majority to support ukraine in the senate. but it is made up of all democrats and right now only a hand. of republicans. >> well, senator, you pointed this out on twitter about the as far as that criticized ukraine and voted against the $1.5 omnibus pill. senator ben sasse of nebraska, called out on the show yesterday morning took offense of the tweet. here's some of the lengthy exchange we had on the senate floor yesterday. >> republicans very often are not willing to cast their vote in a way that is aligned with their voice.

i see a fundament am inconsistency in criticizing the administration for not doing enough but then not being willing to cast a vote to get aid to the people of ukraine. >> so let me just see if i understand what you just said. so .8 of 1% of the bill passed in the middle of the night last week is about ukrainian aid. do you believe that the people who voted against it because they were against ukrainian aid? i think you know that not a person who voted agints, the omni, voted against it because of the ukrainian aid. so i think it's a dishonest argument. the real thing we are talking about is grandstanding. because there is not a person on earth who is persuaded by that kind of tweet. you didn't move anybody. you are doing fan service for a lot of people like chris murphy. i get people would like what you stand for and advocate for. i get it. but there is not a person who

disagreed with you who is moved because of a tweet like that. there is not an uninformed american who became informed but there is a subset of the people who already like you that you got to grandstand for. that's all that happened with that tweet. the republic got dumber because of that tweet. nobody learned anything. >> despite, despite actually i think he lifted that line from "old school." despite that fact the conversation ended cordially. you all voted on the same side. i do want to ask, feel free to respond obviously to the senator here if you wish, but also, though, mika and i were talking earlier, how concerned we were about a few republicans in the senate, especially whose names we're not going to mention. because we don't want to dignify what they're saying who seem to be tripeing to push joe biden into world war iii, suggest figure he doesn't take steps

that trigger world war iii, some hue he is weak and is responsible for vladimir putin's invasion? >> reporter: well, listen, senator sasse believes he should be immune from criticism for voting against ukrainian aid on the senate. i take him at his word. he is supporting that provision of the bill. but there were plenty of provisions of that budget that i disagreed with. i just thought the aid to ukraine was so important that i set aside my reservations about other parts of that budget and i cast a "yes" vote. senator sasse made a different decision. he did not think they were substantial enough and voted no had the majority of senators taken his position, ukraine would not have the aid we are sending them now. people would be dying. it's the idea that i wasn't moving the american public with that tweet?

senator sasse was at a press conference the day before. ted cruz said joe biden alone was responsible for the invasion of ukraine. how is that press conference that he attended legitimate political dialogue but my criminal of republicans for voting against ukraine aid, political hackery. it's a double standard, that i don't think we should accept. because we need a coalition of republicans and democrats on the floor of the senate who are just not willing to speak in favor of ukraine aid but are actually willing to vote in favor of ukraine. we will again later this year have to supply more weapons, more humanitarian aid. we will need republican support with their votes. >> yeah. sew you know what, because we are starting to mention republican senators and a couple in the mix. i'm going to go ahead and tell you that mika and i were, it was rick scott who mika and i were disgusted by last night. his words suggesting that joe biden has no heart for the

people that are dying over there. he doesn't implement a no-fly zone, that no military man or women, to diplomat thinks is a safe thing to do right now. i'm just curious what you think about people like lick scott out there saying that joe biden is responsible for vladimir putin, killing people, that the american -- this reminds me of republicans in every single poll i read before this invasion that said they had a higher approval rating for vladimir putin and joe biden. how do people come to these conclusions? >> i mean it speaks to a larger infection in the republican party today where power and the accumulation of power matters more than the peaceful transition of power on january 6th and winning wars overseas. i think that infection hasn't

grown to a point where the entire republican party has the disease and senator sasse, criticizing his fellow republicans for over the top comments. senator cruise and holly have been down the senate floor all year blocking president biden's national security nominees, the very people help to implement a job in ukraine aren't in jobs, a small center of governments, not sasse, senator cruz and scott and others stopped them from getting on the job, which makes their criticism of president biden even hollower. >> so rick scott was saying if joe biden didn't do things that every military leader in the pentagon says we will start world iii. he is heartless andic nornt of the deaths of ukrainian women and children. have you josh hawley again like

so many putin apologists blaming joe biden for this war instead of vladimir putin. so we've talked about that. we've talked about the exceptions to the rule. let's step back a bit and celebrate for the fact that for the first time in quite some time. let me say we are crim critical of lindsey graham. he has come out and been critical of republicans that said some things and voted for the omnibus bill. can you talk, just tell americans watching right now, how for the most part republicans and democrats are working together to defend the people of ukraine and defend something bigger, western democracy? >> well, listen, this obviously is a moment in which you know all americans and democrats can take our own democracy for granted. we are watching these heroic ukrainians fight and die, we are

watching president zelenskyy essentially put his life at risk every single day standing in kiev for democracy. in this country we sometimes take it for granted. it's interesting, the last couple weeks have been productive weeks in the united states senate. it's not just the passage of that bill with republican support for ukraine. we also passed other significant pieces of legislation, an anti-lynching bill stalled for 50 years. reform of the postal service to make sure we all get our mail. the united states senate is becoming more functional. i think that's in part because there is a bit of a new found appreciation for what we have. and an uning willness to waste it. because we are watching another country essentially have their democracy blasted out from under their feet. yes, eencourage some republicans saying one thing and dock eats. there are plenty of other republicans coming together to

support ukraine and coming together to make democracy work in a way that it hasn't worked in a while in the united states senate. that's a good thing. >> senator murphy, jonathan lemire, you are on the foreign relations committee n. less than an hour, 45 minutes or so from now, president biden will speak to his chinese counterpart xi jinping to try to push him away from moscow and further isolate putin and his war machine. i want to get your assessment as what will they say to use jen psaki's phrase in the brief room yesterday, the carrots and the stick that could be offered for xi jinping? what are the consequence and what are incentives biden can offer? do they include the trump-eradarives? >> so, i think that the facts may speak for themselves here. russia is going to be

increasingly economically isolated. there is going to be a choice to be made for china and every other nation, whether over the next decade you want to be on the russian side or whether you want to be on the side of those that are standing up for human rights and dignity and the preservation of human life? i think that integration with the russian economy is a dead end for china. because i don't think we are going to see the end of russian sanctions. i think as they continue to engage in war crimes, the entirety of the west will sanction more and more companies that do business with russia. and so that will mean that the chinese, if they integrate more deeply with russia. if they do weapon supplies, are going to find themselves subject to some of those sanctions. so wendy sherman made a moral case why they have to take up russia invasion of ukraine. there is an economic case bad

for china fit ultimately sends ultimately will be with china. so the effect of economic sanctions is on china are much more significant than they are on russia. >> all right. senator chris murphy, thank you so much for coming on this morning. >> thank you. coming up, we're going to go live to ukraine for the very latest on the humanitarian crisis caused by russian tyranny. but first, reagan, trump, zelenskyy, how three tv personalities rose to their country's presidency and reshaped western democracy. john meacham brings us some historic am perspective next on "morning joe." n "morning joe." as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

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>> today it's not enough to be the leader of the nation. today it takes being the leader of the world. to be the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace. peace in your country doesn't depend anymore only on you and your people. it depends on those next to you and those who are strong. strong doesn't mean big. strong is brave and ready to fight for the blief of its citizens and citizens of the world, president biden, are you the leader of the nation i wish you to be the leader of the world, being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace. >> history-making moment, earlier this week, ukrainian

president zelenskyy closing his address to dong in english with a direct message for president jibe, let's bring in a historian at wander built, university, john meacham. we have seen clips of him from a television show where he played a president before prime ministering president. netflix will be re-airing. it's striking. it made me realize, we have seen the rise of reagan to the presidency, the rise of donald trump to the presidency and now the rise of zelenskyy, the presidents of his country and freedom fighter. depending on your political ontation. . some for better, some for much worse. but it is fairly remarkable television has is the common denominator between these three leaders in their own way have shaken western democracy. >> absolutely. you know, president reagan said at the end of the term, david

brinkley i think asked him, you know, whachls it like to just be an actor before you became president? and reagan said, i've often wondered how you can be president and not be an actor and so this the sense of how do you protect an immense power. john paul ii was an actor in his youth pointed a vision. great ortory, great rhetoric. great moments of spiritual leadership are few and far between. you think of the of all the speeches, lincoln and gettysburg

and three in walk. that's three out of a lot. i think zelenskyy found a moment here where the words are capturing something that i don't think the world was ready for this. i don't think i the ukrainian existence is the rarest acquaintance in the world today, a surprise, something that seems wholly new. yet it appeals to ancient impulses to root for those standing up against these bullies. >> john, i remember during the trump era, you don't have to say it, obviously, if you watch this show more than three minutes i despaired often where western democracy was going. i'd listen to your podcast about great speeches in time. i actually downloaded winston churchill's speeches from 1940 and in those cases, it seemed as times like i was listen to to an

era every bit as removed and ancient as hearing about king arthur and you know the band of brothers, we actually are witness again faced with a churchillian feature. what this was about. >> he said floated dr. king so he talked about harbor and

september 11th have in common is it created a moment where least american democracy surprised itself, but the raw courage of that day. the people running into the fire. the people on flight 93 who did the most fundamental act of grace. they gave their lives and took down that plane to save the exam, the white house. and the day before, you know i suspect we would have been sitting around lamenting and the people rose to the occasion. zelenskyy is rising to the occasion. but there is something about the

reason democracies are worth the fight. it can be as wonderful they can produce a wonderful and just a result. it's not to say it's automatic because look if i get things right 51% of the time, that's a heck of a good day, i don't have many of those. so i think the country is the same way. we're not perfect by far but it is something, democracy needs to make all things possible. >> thank you so much. greatly appreciate you being here. we'll be right back with more "morning joe." . l be right back with more "morning joe." [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand.

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it's 40 past the hour. secretary of state tony blinken says he believes russian

officials will arrest more ukrainian officials as a terror tactic. mayors of several cities were detained, one was released as a part of a prisoner swap wednesday after being held for five days. president zelenskyy spoke to him this week by phone, here's a part of that conversation as reported by sky news. . >> blinken says he believes more local officials will be kidnapped and replaced with puppet leadership.

you so-to-speak to a generation of young you are eukrainians, it hangs in the balance. >> reporter: the attack by russians here in lviv took place about four miles from where i am standing right now. you see the fortification of their infrastructure, a statue outside of still haul. you see similar things, they are admiral, they love this country, they want to stay here. the future is uncertain. last night i went to a walk-up apartment in lviv to join several friends that fled 350 miles from kiev, when the first rockets hit. today living in what feels like an alternate universe. the mirror was the first clue. >> when the bombs werenary us,

it's the case, we protect the mayor from -- >> reporter: shattering? >> yes. >> i'm jacob. this is igor, the 27-year-old consult apt was up late when russia attacked. >> i was scared. i was shaking, literally, for five minutes i was in shock. >> reporter: three weeks ago they didn't believe a war was possible. now they're here. >> so i was like where? >> reporter: you are talking in the past tense especially was. i'm not anymore. i have no job today. >> reporter: even past times are a thing of the past, her passion was music. >> before the war i was a dj and first i can't listen to the music at all. >> reporter: what's what you love, that was your job? >> also you have to hear the alarm. >> reporter: the alarm meaning the air ride sirens. tatyana 27 and marketing manager

demettro 29, show videos of what all of a sudden already the war, his future might be taking up arms. >> if i have to fight, i will fight, it's not a thing i run from. >> it seems like the most horrible dream in my life. tomorrow i will wake up and everything will be smooth. >> reporter: a group of friend not thinking about each other but their country. you don't have to do this, i'm some guy from l.a., why did you want to speak out? smr the thing that we to use every instrument to do this and to share information all over the the world. >> if i can say everybody watching this, don't forget about what's happening in ukraine happening in y ukrain . >> reporter: mika, nastya told

us as russia attacked, they did what they showed us right now. they sheltered in that hallway where that mirror is taped up. they will continue to do that it's the first time they heard an attack in progress, they said. and the gentleman that we were talking to that said he might enlist, sure enough, this morning he is on his way to kiev to do just that. mika. >> wow. jacob soberoff, thank you so much for your reporting. an update on wnba star brittney griner. u.s. officials say they have been denied consistently access to griner who is in pre-trial detention after russia officials said they arrested her on drug charges at an airport outside moscow in mid-february. this was before the war began, a russian state news agency reported griner's detention has been extended until may 19th.

a person close to the situation that she is okay and has seen her russian legal team multiple times per week and her hearing yesterday was not on the merits of the case and dealt with her lawyers challenging her dething with the hope of having her placed under house arrest. a denial of the appeal was not expected. up next, we're going to check back in with the ukrainian musician and activist who joined us a few weeks back as he travels around his country trying to raise the spirits of his people. keep it right here on "morning joe." t rehe on "morning joe.

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difference but ukraine has ukrainian blood. they always turn it to be autocratic, dictatorial state in every times in history. ukrainians are more like americans. we like freedom. we like arguing. but this is what makes us strong. and we are now fighting for our values, freedom, dignity and our land and our children's future. we are fighting and will be fighting until the end. >> that was one of ukraine's most well-known musicians and he was on "morning joe" about two weeks ago as he drove across his homeland to raise the morale of his people. slava joins us again. it's good to see you again. >> good morning. >> i'd love the hear about what you've seen and done since we last spoke with you.

>> right over there, there are some people. you can see them on the background. these people are real refugees from -- so you see these people. these are real refugees from mariupol who just fled the russian bombings yesterday. and they actually don't know where to go. they are now 400 miles from the city and they don't know where to go. the city doesn't exist anymore. so if you can imagine a city of 600,000 people, so probably a city, i don't know, maybe the size of -- you name it, i don't know, maybe some middle sized american city. so it doesn't exist. russian army has smashed it. and they shelled it over and over and over. so there are very few survived buildings there, so many killed,

so many wounded. yesterday i saw children in the hospital, children without legs, without arms, children who lost their parents. absolutely desperate situation. and russia will continue ruining this city and many other cities. so actually what we see now, it's -- the second of the 21st century. it's unbelievable. >> the people that you just showed in the picture behind you, people like that that you've spoken to, where to they end up going? what are the options? >> they i don't know the options so they go to the south. they still have some money, but

in the cities terrell tifly safe this this country. no place for refugees. my native city of leave has already taken more than 200,000 refugees for a city of 800,000 is too much. and the region, the whole western region, has more than half a million. so it's a humanitarian disaster. it's a catastrophe. and the problem is that there is one man in the kremlin also supported by his generals who just wanted to become a great man in history. instead of that, he will become one of the greatest villains, one of the greatest, you know, criminals in history. what they do is -- i don't have words. you know, my emotions are -- maybe i'm not talking smoothly and eloquently now, but my emotions are dominating me because we've seen through these

days, i want to express to you, to all americans, that's why we always ask you for support, why we ask you for missiles, for anti-missile defense systems, for planes, because we understand that with this support we'll be ready to stop this, to stop this massacre, to over this war. without them, it would be very difficult, and putin, his army methodically destroying our cities with their bombs and planes, because they cannot take them. they cannot take them with their army. >> slava, we hope we can stay in touch with you. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us this morning. >> can i say one more thing, please? >> go ahead. >> yeah. so, very important thing, these guys, these children, women and old men, who we met, they are

not worrying about their future. they were worrying about the soldiers sieged in mariupol, 3,000 of them, soldiers from all over the country, and they are directly defending the city. and they said we are praying for them because these are our defenders. they're defending our land. and we shall overcome. these were last word of these guys i met. so, the whole country is ready to fight, and we will win, and that's why we ask all people in america, please help us. especially help your companies like big banks to stop their business in russia. because doing that, they are supporting army of russia, paying taxes there. please do it, because i know americans' values are completely different, and we don't want to support dictators like putin. >> slava, thank you. and -- oh, we just lost his shot. that does it for thus morning.

we'll be back here monday morning as this story continues. chris jansing picks up the coverage after a final quick break. we gotta tell people that liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. [limu emu squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow. (music throughout)

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i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york. it is friday, march 18th. as the situation within ukraine grows more dire with every passing day, any moment now in washington, an extraordinarily consequential phone call will take place between president biden and chinese president xi jinping. it's a conversation with potentially massive implications for this war. biden is expected to warn president xi directly of the cost of helping vladimir putin, concerned that china might give russia military equipment. if you want to know how china feels about this u.s. pressure campaign, check out today's op-ed in the cheese communist party's official newspaper. it's titled "washington: the world's biggest