♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. ♪♪ hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. bombshell new reporting on what is happening inside the kremlin that may be a main driver in what's happening on the ground in russia's war in ukraine. official telling nbc news that u.s. intelligence reveals that

russian president vladimir putin is isz lated and misinformed about the failures on the battlefield. the official says that putin's own advisers are afraid to tell him the truth about the botched invasion of ukraine. the truth being that russian forces have been stalled on multiple fronts for weeks now and the war efforts have fallen far short of expectations amid stiff resistance. this afternoon secretary of state blinken addressed the intelligence report on vladimir putin. >> one of the achilles heels of autocracies is don't have people that speak truth to power or have the ability to do so. i think that is something we see in russia. >> on the ground in ukraine the pentagon says that some russian forces have pulled back from some towns near kyiv. not to withdraw necessarily but to reorganize and resupply.

that's as there's air strikes and shelling in the same areas where the russian government pledged to reduce those attacks. listen to the mayor of a hard-hit town speaking on cnn earlier today. >> translator: this is yet another confirmation that russia always lies and saying about reducing intensity. they have increased the intensity of strikes so whenever russia says something this needs to be checked carefully. >> in mariupol russians appear to have struck a red cross facility. the red cross ended relief operations in mariupol out of concerns for the safety of aid workers there and unable to verify injuries in those attacks. in what's been one of the most

brutal, dire calamities in a war that unleashes catastrophe across ukraine. other images show widespread de station why what mariupol looked like before the war and then the image on the right what it looks like rite now with entire city blocks just decimated, leveled. in the backdrop of the stream of images that reveal to the whole world the humanitarian crisis on a scale not seen in europe in decades there's a continued push by ukrainians for more support and weapons for the efforts. president zelenskyy spoke to president biden said announcing an additional $500 million in aid a day after a group of ukrainian lawmakers lobbied for that aid in congress. adding to the urgency a deep and

deepening distrust of russia and a sense that vladimir putin is in no hurry to end the brutal war in ukraine. nbc's richard engle was live with more on what ukrainians think is coming in the next phase. >> reporter: as soon as you get to the edge of kharkiv you reach the front line with major bats here and oinlg. the tanks push through the area. one appears to be assisting the other dragging it away a little bit from the front lines. ukrainians don't trust for a second these new russian claims that the russian military is scaling back the offensive around kyiv. they think it is merely an opportunity for russian troops to rearm themselves and to reposition some of their heavy equipment particularly shifting to the east because out here

russian troops have been suffering major losses. on this hillside a russian position with 120 russian soldiers according to ukrainian forces and suffered catastrophic. all the debris of a russian encampment. left in it a hurry. clothing, food scattered by the destroyed vehicle. they have been taking serious losses and why ukrainians believe they have announced a pause in some areas of the fighting as a way to give therm an opportunity to rearm, reconstitute the forces under the cover of a peace initiative. >> that was some incredible reporting from earlier today. joining us now live from lviv, ukraine, is nbc news correspondent ali arouz 1yi you

alluded to this yesterday. there was skepticism on the ground in ukraine. richard engle's reporting backs that up that this is a recalibration, a repositioning. tell me what today brought in that country. >> reporter: that's right. the russians talked about a huge military withdrawal from kyiv, from chernihiv didn't happen and heavily bombed overnight. constant shelling in that city terrifying the civilians and more attacks on chernihiv thought today and as you mentioned around kyiv, only a small portion of the russian troops left kyiv. they may not be attacking it as forcefully as before but still attacks on kyiv and fighting in that suburb in the western

suburb of kyiv in irpin so strategic to the russians because it's a straight shot into kyiv and that's why they've been defending it forcefully. the mayor there say that is all the russian troops tushed out the city cent every and fighting very hard to control it. it goes back to what russia says is different to what russia does. they have really probably no intention of backing away from kyiv. that is still a major objective for putin to capture kyiv a major victory for him in this war so the latest reports that we have heard is taking defensive positions around kyiv and moving small battalions out. maybe for a rotation and replenishing, regrouping, a rest. a lot of troops there since the beginning of this conflict and probably taking a toll on them

and that's why they're taking a step back, maybe concentratinging more on the donbas region which they haven't been able to completely take either. probably more missiles from the air causing immense trauma to the civilians that live in the places. so it's still a devastating situation throughout ukraine with very little seen that is the russianed are interested in a cease-fire or withdrawal at this stage in the conflict. >> in some early conversations lviv was still flooded, inundated with ukrainians fleeing those parts of the country. it seems to change not just daily but hourly the actual integrity of the humanitarian corridors. i wonter if you can speak to the influx of refugee crisis in

poland and lviv itself. >> reporter: there are hundreds of thousands of displaced ukrainians here in lviv. this is probably the only safe zone to come to, an easy passage to poland and other countries so they keep flooding here and come here through awful conditions. you talked about the humanitarian corridors. they canceled a corridor from mariupol not trusting the russians to honor it because they shelled so many of the corridors coming out of mariupol. by all accounts from the ukrainian military the russians are fully in control of the corridors outside of mariupol and don't honor the peace eals to try to get them out of there and they come here. so displaced. may have fled that very, very heavy shelling in the east of

the country and no trapped in month man's land. they don't know where to go from here. the u.n. is saying 4 million ukrainians have left the country. another 6 million are displaced within the country and that means over a quarter of all ukrainians are not in the homes and flee the cities and just a disaster for so many people here and lost the homes, businesses, don't know where the next paycheck comes from. if they get to go back to the places bombed they may not have a home or business standing there so it is a catastrophe for them here and if the war were to end today this place is hit so hard that it takes billions and billions of dollars to rebuild this country. it's going to be a huge effort to get the country back on the feet and they have sparked a humanitarian and economic crisis

in this country leaving so this many people displaced not knowing the next move or where to go or go back to the homes. >> just incredible what your reporting paints the picture. 37 days ago people going about the lives and unprovoked devastation on the part of russia. please stay safe. thank you so much. helean cooper is back and at the table is rick stengle. i want to play sound from pentagon press secretary kirby about the reporting of putin being misinformed. we think of him as the disinformation master.

let's watch that. >> if mr. putin is kept in the dark by the ministry of defense when he does learn the truth, when he begins to realize how badly his military is doing in ukraine you don't know what kind of reaction that will cause in him so there's a potential for potential escalation. nobody wants to see that and it could affect his approach at the negotiating table. they sat down in istanbul. looks like the talks were constructive although inconclusive and want to see that discussion and diplomacy move forward. if vladimir putin is not informed about what's going on on the ground it could affect the negotiations and lead to worse outcomes for ukraine as a result. >> you broke the story i believe with your colleague about the -- not just the intelligence as it pertained to russia but collecting it and disseminating

it to influence or trying to avert war in ukraine. i wonder if this is another part of that trying to telegraph to putin we hear you're out of the loop. get your head in the game. tell me about the reporting and the idea that putin is out of the fact loop. >> that's been -- hi. >> hi. >> that's been germinating. is that a word? for a while now. >> it is now. >> yeah. making up something. the idea though that the russian generals and mr. putin's deputies have not been completely honest with him about the performance of the military on the field, about the capabilities of his military as well and then also about sort of the reception that military was going to get in ukraine.

there is a belief among american intelligence community certainly that vladimir putin thought that the russians would be greeted with much more open arms than they were and didn't expect the level of resistance even in the donbas expected to be more pro russian and historically been more pro russian. he is getting the kind of reception there he expected. he was so angry. we reported a couple weeks ago that he was so angry that he put the intelligence officers under house arrest and they have been there since. they were interrogated in the homes. the deputy of russia's famous fsb which is in charge of collecting intel on ukraine and what sort of reception they were supposed to be having and then among -- in the intelligence

community now this belief that russian generals that in the press so much corruption in the russian military over the last few years the very famous modernization of the russian military ongoing and thinking that it would be a fruit of it we have not seen the fruits of that campaign and that's because a lot of money is believed to have been siphoned away and mr. putin may not have been informed of that either so nobody is quite sure, trying to figure out what's going on in the the kremlin is like reading tea leaves but the american intelligence community is picking up and they won't talk about it but they get a lot of -- intercepting communications and they believe that mr. putin doesn't have the full picture. how they end up playing that now

is a whole different story. i don't have -- now i sound like a military person. i don't have fidelity on that yet. >> that's why we need you. i want to ask another question. i'm not saying that the intelligence community didn't have an accurate assessment of the ukrainian military's competence but it wasn't part of the strategy to project that on the world whether they knew it or not and one of the big story lines for those of us covering it from the safe distance is the military successes. i wonder whether you can tell me what that cycle looks like that the ukrainian military outperformed at least public expectations, is it pushing up the limits for what and how much we give them militarily? >> it certainly does, absolutely. at the beginning before this started, biden administration officials kept saying we think the ukrainians are going to

fight but we are not sure. part is because they feel like they were burned in afghanistan. they talk so much today now about the will to fight and that's been so important in all of that. it was very important last year as you saw afghanistan fall to the pentagon and saw afghanistan national security forces without that will to fight. and you see it now in ukraine. you can never -- that is the one thing that is believed to be far more important than any kind of supplies, armor, anything is the will to fight and the ukrainians have surprised even the americans about how much this will to fight and because of that it's almost as if they're shaming nato and shaming the american administration into making sure that as long as they're willing to fight we give

them armaments. you see president biden throughout the last five weeks increasing the arms transfer to ukraine. jon kirby, the pentagon press secretary, said today that more than a sixth of the latest tranches on the way there. they're getting the javelins, anti-tank missiles, the drones. are getting there fairly quickly. i don't see an end in sight with as long as ukraine is putting up a fight. >> the ukrainian war effort, rick, is i think people will be studying it and looking at it for a very long time. it includes one of the most robust public information facets. you have the what of zelenskyy and what he does and says.

you have his members of parliament all over tv and washington calling for exactly what she is describing. you have also got the ability to sort of hear and accept the confines of our debates in this country and the no-fly zone has been, the ask as evolved. let me play some of the sound from oleksander on our network now. >> the key problem for ukrainians now is that no-fly zone and when we say the no-fly zone we don't need your air jets to shoot down the russian. we need the jets to fly so we can create our own no-fly zone and protect our cities. so it was very helpful to have the meetings in the congress with senators, with congressmen because it is very -- because

when we ukrainians are very clear on what is needed, not just please come fight for us then the dialogue changes and they're supportive. >> you know, they have constantly found a way to push on doors that are somewhat open. >> yes. back to the discussion of putin not nomared, there's an old joke about stalin and never hold a cabinet meeting because no one wanted to be the first person to sit down and the idea with putin. he has 20 feet between him and everything else. by the way some of that may have been leaked by someone in the kremlin because they want to make sure that putin gets the information. that is not beyond them but i'm a little skeptical that he -- he is a former intelligence officer. he has many sources of information and mystics and

high-level conversations going on that we don't talk about between the u.s. defense department and the russian military. they are also talking about the war so it's not that hard to get him the information. we can help do that but the ukrainians have been incredibly valiant and people will be studying zelenskyy's response for 100 years just the way they look at churchill in 1941 through 1946. he is masterful about it. because the way people fight have to do the spirit he's been that fantastic cheerleader fehr ukraine. that has been as napoleon said an extra division for them why it is a marvel and still marvel at what he is doing now. >> any study of a war as it goes

on winning is all part of the cycle. the victories and pushing the russians from irpin fuel that morale. what do you make of the sort of adding into that mix the unexpected in some corners victories on the battlefield? >> every war is partially an expectations game. obviously putin's expectations is that they would be met with garlands and the expectations for the ukrainians was that they might not fight at all so they have far exceeded the expectations. the russians are much below it but now in this war of attrition and the grinding it out and siege stuff is harder for the ukrainians to fight and why zelenskyy is pleading for more weapons. i think we have to show more leg there because now is the time he needs that. >> thank you so much for spending time with us. we soak up all of your

reporting. thank you so much. rick sticks around. the house committee investigating the insurrection is looking into whether the ex-president used a burner phone on january 6 to cover up and obscure conversations as a mob descended on to washington d.c. for his part trump's line -- i have never heard of a burner phone. pressure is building on attorney general garland for his justice department to act. we'll break down just what might and might not be happening behind the scenes on that front. russia, if you are listening, later in the program the ex-president asking the brutal leader of russia for dirt on the enemies again. like yesterday. all those stories and more when we continue after a quick break. stay with us. do your eyes bother you? my eyes feel like a combo of

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former trump national security adviser john bolton says donald trump without a smidge of a doubt knows exactly what a burner phone is. that matters because after some stunning new reporting in "the washington post" about the january 6 committee's investigation into a 7-hour 37-minute gap in the call logs of that day the committee is looking at the possibility of donald trump, the president of the united states on the day of the insurrection, using burner phones. trump said this. he has quote no idea what a

burner phone is. quote to the best of my knowledge i have never even hear the term. which brings us to john bolton telling "the washington post" this. he recalls trump using the phrase in several discussions and aware of its meaning. bolton said he and trump spoken about using burner phones to avod having the calls scrutinized. joining us is congress jeremy connolly. i just -- this matters for so many reasons. one that lies about something small lies about something big. two, someone with an affair with a pporn star has knowledge of hw to evade call logs. >> we are dealing with a pathological liar. why would we start believing him on this? i the end to think that john bolton who spent a lot of time with donald trump as national

security adviser would know what he is talking about. it stretches truth to say that donald trump didn't know what it is. and didn't take advantage of it in the gap making nixon's gap look like a boy scout. >> i want to show you something your colleague congress adam schiff said about this issue and this gap last night. >> former president's denial he doesn't know what a burner phone rings like i don't know who the proud boys are. he's made so many false denials in the past i don't think we can give them any credit whatever. >> axios reporting this. attorneys for donald trump allege in a lawsuit against "the new york times" and trump's niece mary trump orr the 2018 reporting on his tax records

that "the new york times" communicated with mary trump via a burner phone so that was an information that he monitored very closely. i wonder if we get passed the meaning of does not know what a burner phone is this bigger question of on instructing the communications that the president had for nearly eight hours. what are the questions around that? >> the most significant event this week is the opinion of the federal judge, judge carter, that almost certainly donald trump and maybe john eastman violated federal law, committed a felony with respected to the january 6 insurrection. i think that's a profound opinion by a federal judge that dereceivers attention both by the january 6 committee here in congress maybe more importantly

by the attorney general of the united states. >> the judge as you just said they likely committed felonies. he also goes on to say that not holding him accountable would bring about another january 6. we know what donald trump's inner circle looks like under investigation and lived through the mueller years and two impeachments. do you have any reason to suspect that doj is investigating trump and the inner circle? >> i don't but i would commend it. as you point out donald trump was impeached a second time for precisely this. in front of our eyes he incited a mob to violence. and it is very clear in front of the eyes again he made no secret about it that he has tried to encourage officials throughout

the united states to overturn the actual election results of november. that autoto be a crime. that ought to be pursued. that ought to be prosecuted. i don't care who it is. in this case the former president out united states. as judge carter said not to do it has real consequences, too. >> i saw that opinion monday morning. we began this program with it. most people reacted the way you have but i think the reason that opinion add an impact is because nobody thinks the justice department is investigating trump. i wonder what your sense is as to why that is. >> well, i don't know that to be true. merrick garland is a former federal judge, a careful person. i don't think he's going to pursue a case based on political

pressure or even congressional pressure. hopefully, however, he sees that this case has profound merit and cannot be ignore jd there's real peril in doing that. i would hope if he wasn't already doing it that merrick garland is refreshing his familiarity with the particulars of the impeachment of donald trump, the second impeachment, the facts surrounding the insurrection and the criminal role in all of that. >> congressman connolly, we appreciate you any time you make time for us but especially today on your birthday. >> thank you. after the break for us, what appears to be in line with what we are talking about some growing exasperation and frustration on the part of the members of the january 6 select

meeting calling on doj to do the job coming to criminal referrals. it is a complicated, unprecedented matter coming after the unprecedented presidency of donald trump but what happens next just might decide whether or not the ex-president and the team faces consequences for the actions. that conversation comes next. stay with us.

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been over three months to referring the contempt charges for mark meadows and two new important witnesses and we said that the department of justice needs to do their job so that we can do our job and analyze this information as part of our investigation. >> congresswoman elaine reiterating the public frustrations this week directed at the justice department and the attorney general garland for not doing enough quickly enough to support efforts to hold accountable those behind the january 6 investigation. with stunning new reporting adding questions to two of the key prongs of their investigation, what did trump do and what did trump do about the prospects for violence. let's bring in the justice department reporter for "the new york times" and also joining us

is legal analyst neal kotiel. rick is still here. katie, this was the most scripted and coordinated airing of frustration with doj from the 1/6 committee in a televised hearing on this network. it was in the committee's vote to holding contempt of scavino and navarro. how does the words and the public presentations land at doj? does anyone see them? does anyone care? >> i think the justice department is cognizant of the work of the committee. while the comments made about something specific, a question of why hasn't the mark meadows contempt referral been dealt

with? it really was the public expression of a larger pressure campaign that the committee is quietly putting on the justice department now for weeks and said in filings that they think that crimes were committed, committed by the former president. the committee said in the filings and statements that they believe they are looking at evidence of the criminality and moving to a place to send a criminal referral to the justice department and that it is time for the justice department to start doing something, as well. i will say in fairness we won't know whether or not they are pursuing a criminal investigation. he said that to littizes the department and some of the frustration could be because we don't know what's going on but the committee wants the department to be responsive. the public comment is about the

contempt referrals and same time i think a sense that the committee is flexing pressure for the department to act. >> i want to understand whether or not someone like federal judge carter has more weight with someone like merrick garland. >> he's a very, very -- he was a federal prosecutor himself. he also was a high level official in the deputy attorney general's office running investigations including the oklahoma city bombing. this is how he looks at it. he wants career prosecutors to look at the evidence and determine whether or not they have the kind of evidence to use to make a strong case that would hold up in a court of law. if they can do that they will then follow the proper channels

which would probably include looping in the deputy attorney general's office and discussing and bringing it to him to discuss this kind of airtight case. those cases take a long time. so while he's cognizant of outside pressures he is waiting for the kreefr prosecutors and investigator dos do their jobs and bring something to him that he can evaluate and he has shown time and time again that he trusts the career prosecutors. >> i may know just about that process to be dangerously uninformed but having watched donald trump for five years now my understanding is that it goes something like this. the 1/6 select committee didn't start working on their investigation into 1/6 until july but that process begins with the people at the bottom and ask questions and why we know about the process is reporters like katie broke

stories about the committee and the judiciary committee with a chance to talk to the ex-government officials who knew things about the coup attempt. do you think there's a scenario at which none of that work leaked out or become public through a defense attorney representing anybody attached to donald trump's circle? >> i don't. that's why i'm worried. incredibly patient coming to merrick garland and i used to argue cases in front of him. he is far more brilliant than i am. my patience is wearing thin. i think those are two different things. with respect to meadows, congress 100 days ago said this guy is abusing the notion of executive privilege and should be held in contempt. that's a fairly straightforward case and may be that the

prosecutors drag their feet and not providing the recommendation and then up to garland to say this is going on way, way too long. make a decision. tell me what you think and then i'll make the final call. so i am troubled by that. i'm also troubled by the fact that there doesn't seem to be a sign of a criminal investigation into donald trump's wrongdoing and i think it's highlighted by judge carter's decision reading like a prosecutor's memo. like a pros memo. why to indict this person. i don't think i've seen a lawsuit goes as sideways. it was a determination of documents and ended with a determination that the president likely committed a felony. i agree slightly with my friend katie about what the congress did there because she portrayed as congress putting pressure on the justice department but congress had to respond to john eastman's invocation of

client-attorney confidentiality and a justice department attorney for 40 years likely a crime committed and the privilege doesn't apply and the judge went through and accepted that argument. maybe it's jill banks are right with an investigation and it's happening quietly. we don't know about it. to return to your question but that's unlikely. i don't want to see an alvin bragg situation where trump runs out the clock and taken advantage of cautiousness on the part of government officials because the show has to get on the road. >> i want to focus there. i've bb asking the questions of katie and you, neal, dan goldman on and off television and after the segments i have reason to

suspect that folks at doj don't like the conversations being aired and a thing to pull back the curb tin on the feedback i get. you wanted an independent justice department. well -- i don't know what that means. but is it possible, neal, that there are people inside the garland doj who think the remedy to bill barr and jeff sessions and the tremp era doj is not to touch the highest figures in the other party isn't that the most political frame of all to place over decisions? >> 100%. i want an independent justice department. if a crime wasn't committed and investigated it absolutely fine. go -- i'll go home and say i'm wrong. my concern that it doesn't appear to be an investigation in the first place and with every passing day we learn why there should be.

7-hour gap of call record and then trump not just denying using a burner phone but knowing what it is. we know the company he keeps. keeping the pals over they bring a bottle of wine and prepaid phone cards or something like that. it's ridiculous to think that there isn't something there to investigate. and that's why i think, look, if they call trump in, if the justice department brings him in and determine no crime is committed that's an inspected justice department but what isn't an independent justice department is i'm too worried about the political heat if i do that and start the investigation so i don't do it at all. that is as you say the most politicized determination of all. >> donald trump's career is illuminated. if that's an appropriate word to attach to him. it is sort of pock marked.

that's probably a better word to use. by his ability to defeat adversaries with asemitri and in this case the asymmetry is that donald trump is correct every time he bets on the democrats or the 1/6 committee plus liz cheney and adam kinzinger restrained by norms. he yesterday called on putin to aid him in smearing joe biden who in his imagination i think he would like to run against again and i think that what is never really brought out into the open and sort of cleansed and analyzed is how successful that asymmetry is for him. that seems paralyzed by the norms while donald trump is out this time asking russia to aid him in his political objectives

on tv again. >> yes. it is extraordinary with a man committing war crimes and killing thousands of innocent ukrainians and the world calling on him to stop his aggression, what does trump call on him to do? to expose hunter biden. as i've said many times on this program the best paradigm to look at trump is as an organized crime mob. >> then to be investigated. >> some don't and some go on and have long careers. what is an organized crime boss? never heard of a burner phone. i have never met that guy before. he denys. he strings things on and depends on the fair mindedness of people. we've been talking about merrick garland. he is fair minded to a fault and seems to be the criticism to be overly cautious and trump needs

other people to observe norms and laws while he doesn't. >> to be continued. thank you all so much for this. after the break for us, president biden leading by example at the white house today receiving a seconds booths irshot against covid. part of the group eligible for booster. we'll explain those new recommendations and we'll tell you if it is your turn, next. [sound of helicopter blades] ugh... they found me. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this.

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his second covid booster shot aa day after the given the green light to the extra doss for those 50 years old and older. and those with immunocompromised systems. the possibility that many more americans could qualify to get another booster shot ahead of any winter or fall surges. covid cases and hospitalizations have fallen sharply. but some public health officials are watching a new sub variant of omicron which right now accounts for more than half of the country's cases. let's bring in public health analyst dr. irwin redletter from the natural disaster for public university. the cases have been plunging but we both have omicron infections and i think that my epiphany when i was sick is thank god i have three shots before this nasty virus hit me. what should people do now in terms of a second booster?

>> it is really important to note that in fact the katss are going down. except that we do have a freedom nance of this omicron variant called ba.2. so this is turning out to be relatively mild, we're not yet seeing any kind of surge of hospitalizations or fatalities and both of those criteria are dropping. however, if you are 50 years of age or older, or if you're 12 or old with a immunocompromised situation, where your immune system is not reacting as it should be, then you should get another booster. now we're assuming that you've already had one booster. but we're till in a situation in the u.s., katie, where we have only 65% of americans fully vaccinated. so we still have a lot of work to do to make sure the whole country is protected and we don't know what is the situation is going to be in a few weeks from now. >> what is the sort of thinking behind waiting until the numbers

start going up again or is that a fool's errand? >> you know, this last bit of getting the country vaccinated has been challenging for the reasons that we've talked about before, having to do with irrational vaccine resistance and so on. and getting people just the third shot no less the fourth shot has been a real challenge. and we're not the government is not waiting, there is just a lot of hesitancy still and a lot of people are under the impression that we're done with covid. the problem is we're not done. we don't know when we'll be done and we have to keep staying vigilant. but i think the main thing for all of us to be doing right now is to make sure that our families, our friends, ourselves are vaccinated as we should be with that fourth shot for the people that are older or who are immunocompromised. >> doctor irwin redletter thank you for spending time with us today.

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russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. let's see if that happens. >> here we go again, folks. it is 5:00 in new york. the request heard around the world and now six years later, he's done it again. donald trump asking for russia's

president to dig up dirt on his current political opponent and this time the ask comes amid a war when more than 1,000 innocent ukrainians including children have already died at the hands of a man accused of committing war crimes. a man trump is asking to do him a little favor. just a little one. we don't ever play the words and speeches of the twice impeached disgraced ex president's lies and information here. we try to spare of you that. but in this case it is important and it is necessary to tell this story and to hear for yourself. donald trump's latest overture to vladimir putin, shocking on its own, but all the more on a whole new level considering the war being waged in ukraine today. watch. >> one thing while i'm on your show. as long as putin now is not exactly a fan of our country, let him explain where did, because chris wallace won't let

me ask the question, why did the mayor of moscow's wife give the bidens, both of them, $3.5 million. that is a lot of money. she gave him $3.5 million. so now i would think putin would know the answer to that. i think he should release it. i think we should know that answer. >> so let's break down this new axis of evil. donald trump, the ex president, is reviving these unsubstantiated claims he made during the 2020 election saying chris wallace didn't let my ask the question. they come from a report authored byron johnson and chuck grassley that they released weeks before the election, the report claiming that the former wife of the late former mayor of moscow wired $3.5 million to a firm associated with hunter biden. biden's legal team told nbc news in 2020 that he had, quote, no interest in the firm that received the money so the claim that he was paid $3.5 million

was false, end quote. during the first presidential debate, when trump mentioned this claim, joe biden said the claim had been, quote, totally discredited. all of that stipulated, it is still a stunning sight. not even russia committing war crimes waging an up provoked war against our ally ukraine can stop donald trump from talking to them. soliciting foreign interference, foreign help in dirtying up his opponent. charlie sykes at the bulwark writes this, it is as if he's recapitulating his most egregious scandals from russia if you are listening to i would like you to do us a favor though multiplied by genocide. what has emerged is a stark contrast between the current and former president. the brutal attacks and slaughter of ukrainians and bombing compels him to say this. putin is not stay in power and

the other who takes the time of conflict and war and horror as an opportunity to sit down and go on tv and ask him to help him out. the rest of the world calling on putin to stop the killing of innocents while the ex president asked him to dig up dirt is where we begin the hour with some of our most favorite reporters and friends. ben rhodes is here, security adviser to president obama. and also joining us former fbi counterintelligence peeve struck is back and carol benning, a msnbc contributor. i don't want to do this piecemeal. i want to put up this access of putin, trump, tucker carlson, because i think we have mistakenly thought that world events or tragedies or red line or the slaughter of innocents or as tony blinken said, the commission of war crimes, that these things could be defrosted

and put on ice. but it is clear they are not. tucker carlson has been amplifying russian disinformation, blamed america for the war march 12th and far right embrace of the bio weapon conspiracy theory as the bombs were falling on mariupol and we learned that the kremlin feels it is essential to feature tucker carlson. have you ever covered one of the two american political parties associating themselves with an american adversary at a time of war? >> almost never. i still remember, nicolle, and i'm so glad you framed this the way you do. i remember one of the most conservative republicans jesse helm famously saying we draw a line at the border of this country. we are not democrats and republicans, when we leave the border of this country and we

are against facing an adversary, i'm paraphrasing him there obviously. but it is so striking because donald trump speaks today or rather yesterday in that interview with real america's voices network, this uber conservative news site, he speaks of putin as if he's just another guy that maybe has some cross feelings with the united states. and in fact he's a national security threat to our country. and he's a security threat right now to the stability of europe. and all americans know that. and republicans know that. lindsey graham actually today said that he was -- he would not have said what trump said about putin. what is also really striking, again it is important how you focus exactly in on the most important concern, he is soliciting foreign interference

by one of our greatest, gravest enemies essentially. when he said we didn't know this until robert mueller's team investigated it but what he said in the summer of 2016 russia, i hope you're listening, and i hope you'll be hunting down hillary clinton's emails and the operatives went back to work and they were at home and returned to the work of hacking and trying to hack hillary clinton's various servers and entry points of her computer to find those emails on an errand from the republican presidential nominee, donald trump. now, this week he's asked russia for more information with regard to hunter biden and it will be interesting to see what is produced from that solicitation. >> you know, pete struck, it is hard to on a day like today start with politics. and the politics of a defeated

twice impeached ex president but it is impossible to cover an attempted at peace talks in istanbul turkey and cover some stunning new reporting from nbc news about putin's information bubble without examining what we know putin does see. we know he sees what tucker carlson does every night and he sees what donald trump said and does every night. we know as carol is talking about that there is a call and answer. to what donald trump calls for and what his political interests are. i wonder if you could speak to this -- i hate the words like red line and trip wires because they've all been annihilated by the trump era. but what does this represent, sort of in the world of dealing with an adversary like russia. how hamstrung are we by having the last president speaking out to, calling out to vladimir putin like he's some political ally at a time of war.

>> well, nicolle, i think this is extraordinarily dangerous. we're in the middle of the most consequential war in 80 years and what the nato alliance and the united states are trying to do are walk a fine line to support ukraine and defending against this daily russian atrocities as part of this war, while at the same time not allowing that to escalate into a conventional war went nato and russia, let alone a nuclear war between nato and russia. and what is worked in a country context for decades and decades and decades throughout the cold war was an understanding that there was a unified front by the united states, by the rest of nato, that if something were to escalate, it would be met by a strong response in a unified way. and what russia always sought through intelligence and diplomats were information about what nato and the west would do were they to cross or engage in certain activities and because

of trump saying things like this and asking for aid after acknowledging that putin was not a fan of the west and he should do this, trump himself, the potentially presumption nominee if you chooses to run in 2024 is signaling to russia that there is not a united front, that there is some ambiguity of how the west might respond and that ambiguity in the context of a large conventional war is extraordinarily dangerous. it sends dangerous conflicting signals to russia's intelligence agencies and to the diplomats an to the propaganda channels as you know that putin watches and it brings us in a -- into a much more dangerous environment than we other wise would already be facing. >> pete, understanding putin's reliance on disinformation and sort of cherry picking his inputs, you could imagine a scenario where he's not listening to his own advisers

because he sees these very powerful, very advisable american voicers like tucker carlson and donald trump have his back? >> well i think that is very likely the case. there is a lot of reporting from different sources that putin's information flow is limited to putin both because he's in a bubble of advisers and people that he will speak to are already limited and that secondly a lot of those individuals are very fearful to give him information that might conflict with what he wants to believe or that will anger him. and so in that context, having people like trump say things like this, having the ability of statements by trump, by tucker carlson and being shown on those true russian controlled state media outlets that he does watch, adds to that ambiguity. so you have a number of dangers here. it is dangerous because it gives putin the wrong idea of the united states posture toward russia and it is dangerous

because it presented a false narrative to the russian people through the state controlled media and finally it is damaging because it could be used by russians recognizing that there is some split within the american society of people who believe and support what trump is saying and people who don't. >> which would also, ben rhodes, be disinformation. i mean an nbc poll conducted this week shows that just 1% of americans have a positive view of putin. so the strategic miscalculation of thinking that america is divided on the question of whether or not we're end of vladimir putin is disinformation on its face. 1% of americans like him. and 88% have a negative view of vladimir putin but that is not the impression when you watch the most highly rated program on fox news. >> yeah, i mean there are a couple of things. nicolle, the first is that putin's aims are not to make us like him. it is to divide americans.

the russian disinformation campaigns and he want to sow division and chaos and to stand up russian aggression so we shouldn't be misled by bad polling. he could still meet his objectives if he's sowing this kind of chaos and he's able to communicate to his people, the future or possible president of the united states, feels like i'm the one doing him favors. that is reinforcing his position at home and presenting that a united states is not standing up with a united front. and the second thing there is this is an awkward reality that there are fellow travelers. when you look at tucker carlson and donald trump and i point to victor orban, he is the vanguard of this right-wing trend in the west. he's been a buddy of putins. he was over there before the war and an out liar on sanctions within the european union and nato. endorsed by donald trump. tucker carlson has flown out to

to do shows in budapest. there is something about the ideology that vladimir putin that represents that does find fellow travelers and very powerful voices on the american right and it is not enough for people like lindsey graham to say they don't agree with that comment. donald trump is a de facto leader of the republican party and unless and until republicans renounce that and cut ties with this garbage, not only is it going to service as russian disinformation, it is going to allow that ideology to gain end roads here in the united states where it has no place in a battle between democracy and autocracy. we better get on the right side of that battle. >> i mean, ben rhodes, do we talk about that as though it is an open question. the parties pick sides in that battle didn't we have all but two republicans on the side of overturning an american election result that a life long republican said was the most secure in our history.

hasn't that question been answered already? >> i think it has. and here is the problem, nicolle. a lot of republicans will say look at how we responded to this invasion. we've not echoed trump's line. we've stood up to vladimir putin and back president zelenskyy. sure, but what are they doing to do when donald trump is the potential nominee of the party? what are they going to do when their asked questions about whether or not they'll support donald trump. that is when they run for the hills and that is not going to cut it. that is not good enough. you can't say that you're on the side of the ukrainian people, that you're against the atrocities that we're seeing in mariupol and referring to someone who is the de facto for your party that is providing vladimir putin and getting on tucker carlson to speak to the base when you're going on a show that airs on russian television because it is such effective propaganda for the russian

government. it is not fluff to say you're against putin if you also fall in line with the likes of donald trump and tucker carlson and that is the crisis that continues to be at the center of both american democracy and in particular the republican party. >> carol lynnig, alexander vindman tweeted this, tell me there traitor's security clearance has been revoked he opened will conspires with the enemy. i didn't work for george w. bush after he left the white house. but do you remember what sort of security clearances an ex president maintains and do you think there are legitimate questions about what donald trump is doing with any classified information? >> you know, donald trump is such an out liar, i hesitate to say what kind of access that he has. i think ben may be a better arbiter of what is possible. i know that a lot of retired military officials still have

good clearances to get information as almost as a thank you for your service and an honor to them about their on going advice as -- to their successors. but in the case of donald trump, unlike any other president, he barely had the energy or stick to itness so sit for any of the national security briefings, most important being the presidential morning brief and he simply didn't want to take that daily briefing. thought it was boring and repetitive. and people had to provide him instead with graphics and short sound bites on cards because, again, it was very taxing to him. it is hard for me to envision that he is continuing to -- to get that kind of information given his eagerness or appetite for it in the past. but don't underestimate the importance of what ben just mentioned which is that he is now playing this role, not just

as the leader of the republican party, de facto leader, but also this misinformation role on television either providing it to fox news or becoming the talent for fox news, or other very, very hard core right-wing news outlets like real america's voices network. and that misinformation is going to be repeated in lots of places but most importantly in red state living rooms and family rooms and kitchens and is going to unfortunately take a toll in once again our democracy and its ability to shore itself up. because facts are what a democracy is built upon and without facts, without people sharing information that is common truth, we're in danger of a -- a political body that doesn't act on truth. doesn't act on fact. the constituents have to be

educated with real information. and the former president is sort of sowing and sort of cheering for them to be hood-winked and brain washed. >> yeah, and listen, don't take all of our word for it exclusively, pete. chris wallace, who just left one of the highest perches at fox news in an interview over the weekend said that is dynamic is why he left fox the absence of truth was what forced him or led him to make a move to another network, not strongly held opinions or advocacy of different policies, no matter how extreme. but the absence of truth. i want to ask you to speak to that here in this country as it sinks up into russia but i also want to read you something that our friend aaron blake wrote. this call and answer to vladimir putin, obviously has an echo that you're familiar with back to 2016.

he writes this. trump suggestion is significantly more fraught than it was in 2016. while he led something of a republican reevaluation of the party's posture toward putin in russia, it never fully stuck with the base. republicans reverted this their previous anti-russia posture as the presidency wore on. his supporters might be the russia investigation was a hoax but it wasn't because they believed russia was good or legitimate actor on the world stage. just picking up on carol's point, i mean, what is the danger in the post truth chamber in the right-wing information that chris wallace talks about, this moment of war, where america is trying to avoid getting drawn into a war with russia. and donald trump repeating a refrain for the third time asking for help from a foreign adversary. >> well i think there is a tremendous amount of danger. particularly because this is outside of a domestic context.

this is not something playing out in the international diplomatic circuit as people vie for influence on a -- on a given nation overseas. this is coming into the context of an ongoing war in the middle of europe that again threatens to expand at any begin moment. the worst thing that you could have in a conflict is uncertainty by the major players. and if they are some level of ambiguity, as you are trying to scope the conflict and keep it small, to keep it from escalating, and from drawing in other nations, become biguity and you have trump saying these things that are at odd with the truth, and indicating to the kremlin and europe that there is certainly within him but potentially all of those other people who are listening to him, this alliance, this attraction,

this desire to cozy up to putin, it is deeply detablizing. and think that is dangerous in the context of managing the conflict, managing the war that going on in europe right now. >> thank you for starting us off this hour. ben sticks around. after the break, the new egregious trump scandals and their profound political consequences for the rest of the republican party. momentum going into the midterms for now it would appear. our next guest writes this though, one of the few ways that the gop could blow the electoral equivalent of a layup is if donald trump suddenly returned to center court. plus we are live in eastern europe where the number of ukrainian refugees have surpassed the worst case scenario if a matter of five weeks. it is a staggering human toll, 4 million individual stories i, we'll have is this of system for you live from poland. and then skepticism surrounding

russia's claim that it would scale down its activity. right now it appears to be well founded skepticism. just 24 hours later, new shelling, more attacks. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. stay with us.

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are you confident that the president won't seek foreign assistance again? >> i believe that the president has learned from this case. >> what do you believe the president has learned? >> the president has been impeached. that is a pretty big lesson. i'm voting to acquit because i

do not believe that the behavior alleged reaches the high bar in the constitution for over turning an election and removing a duly elected president. >> but the president said that he did nothing wrong. why do you think he learned something? >> he was impeached and there has been criticism by both republican and democratic senators of his call. i believe that he will be much more cautious in the future. >> all kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it. well, it called dramatic irony where a reader knows something that the character does not yet know and that is character's innocence and naivety, and in this case, we the audience know what happens after susan collins said she believed donald trump had learned something.

that even he said he hadn't at all learned. not even when one year later when he was impoached a second time for something collins just describes there, trying to over turn an election and remove a duly elected president. now he's done it again. a third time. he's asked a foreign leader this time of an american adversary at war with an american ally to dig up dirt on a political opponent. donald trump clearly didn't learn anything. lessons he doesn't learn. maybe he's not capable of it. the question now is, did the republicans? it is the beating heart of today's politico playbook and they write this, could trump blow the midterms for the gop. joining our conversation, ben rhodes is back. i have the muscle memory of the

2002 midterms where the president and i defied all of this midterm history so i never say on this program or anywhere else that i know what will happen and maybe reporters will do the opposite but you've taken this on second thought approach. explain. >> yeah, absolutely. because one of the things that we have never seen cents former president of a party being -- mucking it up in primaries. and that is what we're seeing with donald trump. and you have democrats who are very excited about this behind closed doors hoping that the candidates that donald trump helps to choose for republicans to run in some of these suburban districts, they very far right and something that will turn off those suburban moms an dads that are out there. but the republicans also are concerned about this. they won't say it to anyone --

they wouldn't come on your air or go on fox news and talk about it too much but they are concerned about this because they feel really good. like i said, about how the midterms are going to turn out for them and the one thing that they're nervous about it donald trump and the scandals around him first of all turning off voters. and then also choosing candidates who are too far right and then running in these suburbs and mucking things up. and it is interesting because last year we talked to tom emmer on a playbook live event and he's the head of the republicans in the house and he said, that he didn't think it was going to be helpful for donald trump to be in these primaries. so it is two-fold. it is one of those things that the conventional wisdom is this happens and it is still possible and likely that is going to happen. but we don't know how the trump factor is going to play out because democrats still are trying to figure out how to run against trump if he's not on the actual ballot and he's making it easier for them having all of the scandals, talking about

january 6, asking foreign adversaries to dig up dirt from the president's family while that add virsary is in vating a country and i think all of us would do well like you said not to try to guess too much about how it is going to turn out. >> well, and ben, that is all eugene's excellent and specific reporting but i think there is something structural going on and i remember being part of that establishment republican class that was confounded by the gop base's attraction to donald trump as this anti-war isolationist. and donald trump is at odds with his own base, you know. like a car crash by being in bed yesterday, today and tomorrow with an accused war criminal in vladimir putin. >> yeah, i mean, look, it is interesting, nicolle, president

obama said something to me that stuck in my head. and we tried to figure out how did this happen. and the funny or interesting thing is in a real crisis, like a major war around the world or a financial crisis like obama faced when he was coming into office, he said i don't think trump could have gotten elected. 2016, things were going relatively well, the economy is going well. the wars were winding down that we had been in iraq and we had very few troops in afghanistan and so people could vote their cultural grievances and you saw that analysis bear out in 2020. because in many ways it was the crisis of the pandemic that donald trump couldn't overcome. his incompetence proved to dangerous to some of the suburban swing voters that eugene is talking about here. and now we're in a circumstance where the stakes are high again. we're talking about nuclear war again in this world. we are seeing images of war crimes being committed on a

daily basis in europe again. and americans even if they don't follow foreign policy closely they get that. they get that maybe we want some guardrails about the kinds people that are in power and making decision about that and they also get that this is a pretty black and white issue and as you said earlier, the polling is clear. vladimir putin clocked in at about somewhere between 2% and 6% in the united states. it is clear what side we're on, whether you're republican or a democrat. so i think these are the twin challenges that trump poses. he's on the wrong side of the 95 to 5 issue and he also represents a temperament that might have been attractive in times that seems like they were going well but are these the kind of people that we want near power when we're literally considering war in europe and we're literally having conversations about how to avoid a potential nuclear war. i think that is a big problem for them. certainly in 2024 and it might bleed into 2022 as well. >> well eugene knows, i

appreciate all of your great reporting and i think everybody appreciates covers these as open questions so kudos to you on this reporting. thank you for spending time to talk about it. ben sticks around. after the break, poland and then germany and the poland again, the harrowing story of one innocent family fleeing the war just trying to find a place to call their new home. and they're not alone. it is such an important story being played out over and over again. we'll tell you about it after a quick break. stay with us.

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emotionally it is so hard. because you never have something that is yours, your corner where you would come and say, this is where i'm safe here. this is always temporary and i want to go home. i want to go to ukraine. >> you will. >> ukrainian refugee, a mom of two seeking shelter in poland speaking with nbc's tash auburns today, today the united nations is reporting that the number of refugees has surpassed the worst case scenario. 4 million people have been forced to flee their homes. let's bring in dasha burns with more from krakow, poland, and tell us about the people you've met. >> reporter: nicolle, imagine

with me for a moment if you will and i hope your viewers will too that your sleeping in your home with which you hear thuds outside that you realize are the sounds of war. yu grab your two kids an your niece who has her own toddler and you hide in a basement until it is somewhat safe and then you pack everything you could carry into 20 minutes and you leave your home not knowing when you're going to see it again. that story reflects so many of the conversations we've had with refugees here. it is the story of that brave woman you just heard from, anna gawka. she safely got her family here to poland. when they arrived at the border there was an announcement that the next bus to leave would take them to germany. they said okay. they got on the bus. three buses, two trains, and another bus later and nicolle, imagine wrangling a family of five for any road triplet alone one that is fleeing a war. they finally arrive after that long journey to berlin where they realize that what they're

looking for doesn't exist there. they have the option of either staying in a tent facility in a refugee camp, which is not an option for them because one of the child has special medical and dietary needs or pay out of their own pocket for a expensive hotel which they do for one night and the next day they return back this same trip and paying their own way back to poland. and i want you to hear directly from anna what this experience has been like for her. listen. >> how was it for you to see your kids and -- [ inaudible ]. >> it's terrifying when you are on the roads and tanks are all around and behind, the bombs are exploding. this is just terrifying. it is hard to describe it.

i'm sad about it. it is hard when the bus is packed, you have a child, you have a cat and people are standing in corridors on the -- and they tell you you have two minutes and then you go. and you need to wake up your child, you have to pick up your things so we would get off the bus or train because it was very hard. >> because you have a big family? >> the family is big, you know, that is why it is so difficult. and even in a small family, with a kid it would be too hard. but on the train, on every train polls were so supportive. >> reporter: this is experience of so many, nicolle. most people fleeing, they don't have a plan, they don't know exactly where their going to go.

they land in a foreign country where they don't speak the language. they don't know the bureaucracy or the paperwork to get registered to maybe find a job to provide for their families. this is the experience that we hear over and over and over again, nicolle. >> and we are so grateful to you for being our eyes and ears there. thank you for your reporting from poland. after the break for us, from the victims of the war to those responsible for it, new questions about what exactly is happening within the walls of kremlin. is vladimir putin being lied to by his own advisers? evelyn parker bats around that question with us next. stay with us. tion with us next. stay with us

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if the russians are serious about de-escalating because that is their claim here, but they shupd send them home and that is not what we're seeing. >> pentagon press secretary john kirby on russian claims that they are scaling back the attacks in ukraine. this comes after reports today that russia shelled areas of ukraine just hours after making a pledge to de-escalate in places. let's bring in evelyn farcas, deputy assistant deputy of offense during the obama administration. first you're analysis of what is happening on the ground?

>> well, i think this is a moment where the russians are back on their heels but the ukrainians maybe don't have enough equipment and air power of course, air cover to deal with the humanitarian problem and then seize the initiative in a really significant fashion. so i think when it comes to the equipment, we need to continue supplying equipment fast and on the humanitarian issue, i think the global community including the united nations need to be called to task to do something to help those people trapped in mariupol, it is upsetting watching this day after day, and when you hear the ukrainians asking for help and asking how we could all sort of watch, it bolsters their case and their argument. i want to ask your thoughts an your expertise on the reporting that we've been talking about all afternoon about putin. whether he's disinformed,

misinformed, self isolated and self-disinformed and how that factors into whether or not the peace talks tak taking place in istanbul have any chance of becoming real. >> right. so, nicolle, clearly we have excellent intelligence on russia. we had excellent intelligence when i was in the administration and as you know, our administration, the biden administration was warning that russia was going to invade even when russia was denying it, based on intelligence and they invaded so everything so far that we've heard publicly out of our intelligence community has essentially come to pass or been verified by reality. so i'm guessing that this is also pretty well founded. this new intelligence that he's not getting the information. and it also makes sense because the minister of defense, he was the man that vladimir putin brought in in 2012 to modernize the russian military. he was taking over from a known corrupt former furniture salesman who was the defense

minister prior to him and, you know, his whole job was to manage it better, he had been for 20 years, basically the head of the equivalent of fema, bigger than fema but any way, he was known to be a good manager and they poured billions of dollars into this modernization. so he probably had a motivation to tell his boss that everything was okay. to my understanding, if i could add one thing about the lies, i mean, the fact that he didn't know, according to our intelligence, vladimir putin didn't know that con scripts were involved in the war is actually startling. because my understanding is it is against russian law to send conscripts into war like this. >> ben rhodes, what is your sense of not just what we understand putin's sort of state of mind and state of access to the truth or interest in learn the truth about his own country's failures frankly in ukraine. but again, how that plays in how

we should monitor or cover peace talks. >> well, i think there is a lot of things going on. there are layers to this. evelyn is exactly right, that part of this is the military and the fsb, too. they don't want to fsb, too, don't want to own up to that the rosie effects didn't pan out before the war. vladimir putin doesn't seem like a guy who hears bad news regularly. being a dictator, you end up surrounded by a lot of yes men. these are putin who are afraid to tell putin anything other than what he wants to hear. this is very ideological. all of putin's justifications

for this war have been deeply rooted in ideological beliefs. for peace talks, do those people in the negotiations even know what putin's end game is? i don't think it's at all a guarantee that they do. they may be there to talk about the inevitable issues that would be batted around that table, nato and neutrality for ukraine, the future status of the donbas region, the future status of crimea, but the reality here is that putin has set shifting aims, maximal objectives and can we trust what any diplomat says at that table and i don't think we can. it's been clear that we're going

to watch what these people do and not necessarily listen to what a negotiator says at that table because we just don't know that that person is speaking directly for vladimir putin. >> the skepticism that we heard from administration officials echoed by the skepticism on both of your parts. evelyn fargas and ben rhodes, thanks for spending time with us. we'll be right back. time with us we'll be right back.

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that oddly satisfying feeling when you don't do it yourself. before we go, republican senator susan collins is in the news today.

she says she's a yes on judge ketanji brown jackson's nomination to the supreme court. collins becomes the very first republican to make that commitment so far. democrats have the numbers. they have the votes to approve her nomination themselves, but still, having one republican senator vote for her makes the process a bipartisan one, makes her confirmation a bipartisan one. the senate judiciary committee will formally vote on judge jackson's nomination monday, meaning by the time next week is over, the u.s. supreme court will be on its way to welcoming its 116th justice, the very first black woman to ever hold that post. we will be right back. can never have too many pillows! sometimes, i'm all business. a serious chair for a serious business woman! i'm always a mom- that is why you are smart and chose the durable fabric. perfect. i'm not a chef- and, don't mind if i do. but thanks to wayfair, i do love my kitchen.

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thank you so much for letting us in your homes during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. >> hi, ari. >> hi, nicole. nice to see you. tonight we begin with an important story that is about something that is very wrong during wartime and that has nothing to do with partisanship or politics, it's just wrong no matter who did it and no matter what you expect from them, although in this case it is something done by the former president, donald trump, who has now publicly asked vladimir putin for new help during war to go after the current president and the bidens in general, which are donald trump's political opponents of the united states. this is the request being made of an autocrat, a dictator, who the current president has recently dubbed a war criminal. in is the leader slaughtering innocent civilians in ukraine, who displaced over 3 million