is great about people. it is what's embodied. and i carry that with me. >> this sunday, is russia withdrawing or reloading? >> there is what russia says and what russia does. we focus on the latter. >> ukrainian in the north. and retreating forces in ukraine east. >> it is clear the russians want to reprioritize their operations in the donbas area. >> real questions about what vladimir putin is being told. >> we believe putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the russian military is performing. >> my guest today secretary of

state antony blinken and russia putin expert. >> and one-on-one with hillary clinton. >> to let an autocrat do what putin decided to do is something that everybody has a stake in trying to stop. >> i'll talk to the former seth of state about putin, the war, and the democrats midterm head winds. and the democrats look at a policy that limited immigration. >> every day it is more and more difficult for the administration's claim that they're entitled whatsoever. >> and donald trump asked putin for information on president biden's son hunter. >> i would think pute wouldn't know the answer to that. i think we should see. >> why is the former president again asking for help from a man waging war on an ally? >> joining me from insider analysis are amy walter editor and chief and publisher of the

political report. democratic pollster cornell, and leigh ann caldwell and republican strategist brandon todd. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is "meet the press," with chuck todd. good sunday morning. have we reached a turning point in this war? russia's announcement that it was pulling its forces from kyiv increasingly looks more like an act of necessity than actual diplomacy. ukraine has pushed russian troops away from the capital city and other areas in the north as well. it's unlikely the russians are suddenly scaling back its kyiv offensive as a matter of goodwill. and more likely they're having to reposition and resupply focusing on the east where they had more success. notably ukrainian attack helicopters managed to pull an offensive 20 miles inside territory and hit a russian oil

depot and return safely to ukraine. a true embarrassment for russia. as ukrainian forces are reclaiming territory, they're finding the burned out wreckage of tanks and equipment and dead civilians apparently murdered by russian troops. the russians have mined homes and equipments and booby trapped the dead bodies. the question now is, what does the next phase of this war look like? russia's hope force a lightning quick victory has clearly failed. are we in for a long bloody war? we will talk with secretary blinken and we will start with richard engel in car kyiv, the biggest city in the east. and big success for the military in and around kyiv. where do we go from here? >> well not the success from a military perspective, pushing out russian forces, from the entire area, the entire region,

around kyiv, but as russian troops pulled back, and as you said, they're saying that this was say a withdrawal in order to allow diplomacy to have more success, they were pushed back, and it allows ukrainian troops to go in. but what they saw was evidence of atrocities. they were, there were bodies on the street, many of them with their hands tied behind their backs. mass graves. it appears, according to witnesses, the president's office, the mayor's office, that some of them were shot at close range. execution style. they also described looting and rape. so these are consistent with witness accounts and victims' accounts that we've been hearing in other battle locations where there are these, not always seem to be accounts of rape and looting and executions. >> richard, is the ukrainian military capable of going on offense, and truly pushing the russians out of the east as

well? >> they went on the offense successfully in the north. and they are already on the offense here in the east. every night, for the last several nights here in char kharkiv, we have been hearing nonstop artillery rire in nearby towns they have taken one town on the edge of kharkiv and they plan to take more. they want to go on the offensive now, before russia is able to reposition its troops, to bring some of that extra fire power down from kyiv. and they also are motivated because they saw what russia has been doing in places where it has been occupying ukrainian towns and villages, and they don't want that to happen to their own homes. because there's a big difference, these people are fighting to defend their families in their own villages. >> the scenes that we're seeing in and around kyiv, we can only imagine that and what we have already have heard out of mariupol as well. richard engel in kharkiv, the

largest city in the east, richard, thank you. and joining me now the secretary of state antony blinken. mr. secretary, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. >> let me start with the news, the russians pulling back from kyiv, focusing appears now on the east where they've had a bit more military success. are we in a new phase in this war? >> well, chuck, we may be. i think this is evidence that russia's original plans to take over the whole country, including kyiv, have been dealt a devastating setback. they are regrouping. they maybe focusing on the east. but let's keep in mind they still have the ability to wreak massive death and destruction, including in places like kyiv, with air power and missiles, and at the same time, they may be regrouping, they may be recalibrating, and we're focused on what they're doing, not what they're saying, and if it's a refocus on the east, there's still, you know, a tremendous amount that goes toing be ahead

of us as president biden said recently this could go on for some time and how much death and destruction russia meets in the meantime. >> are we going to help ukraine reinforce the central and western part of the country, reinforce kyiv so ha essentially the russians don't even think about coming back? >> chuck, we're doing that every single day. just over the course of this administration, we provided more than $2.3 billion in security assistance in the last month alone, $1.6 billion, the very kinds of things that have made ukrainians incredibly effective in dealing with this russian onslaught in pushing about t-back and setting it back. look, what we've already seen is a strategic setback and maybe even defeat for russia. . russia had three goal, to subjugate ukraine's will to deny its sovereignty and independence, to assert russian power, and to divide the west, divide the alliance, and on all three fronts it's failed. ukraine is more united. its sovereign independent

ukraine is going to be there a lot longer than vladimir putin is on the scene. and russian power has actually been vested in this, to diminish the military and greatly underperformed and the economy is reeling and of course, nato, the west, we're united and any time in recent memory. on those grounds already we have seen a dramatic setback for russia. >> you described a situation, richard engel was telling me there are people in ukraine saying hey, we have putin in as weak of a spot as we've had him in a long time. this is actually not the time to suddenly negotiate a way for him to get out of this. so you know, nobody wants to see more war, at the same time nobody, i don't think a lot of people, including the president of the united states, wants to see putin remain in power, after this. so can we really end this with giving putin some sort of gain in the donbas? >> chuck, how this war ends is up to putin. it is up to the ukrainian

people. and they're elected representatives. including president zelenskyy. we'll support whatever they want to do. in terms of how this war comes to an end. and as to mr. putin's future, that's up to the russian people. >> but do you acknowledge he's in a weak moment, i mean is this a moment, is this a moment that we're, if we don't, if we let him lie, he wreaks havoc again, are we going to regret not taking advantage of this moment? >> gain, it is up to, in the first instance ukrainians when it comes up to what is going on in ukraine and russians what is going on in russian. and here is the thing. even though he has been set back and a strategic defeat for skrad mere putin, the death and destruction, that he is wreaking in ukraine, the images are on our tvs and social media every single day are terrible so there is a strong interest in bringing those to an end. >> i want to ask about the potential zelenskyy putin face to face in turicy. how realistic is that?

and does president zelenskyy, does he have the ability to negotiate sanctions relief with putin? >>. >> so how realistic it is, very hard to say. the ukrainians have sought a direct engagement with president putin, president zelenskyy. president putin has rejected that repeatedly. we'll see if he goes forward with anything. but our focus is on making sure we are doing everything possible to strengthen ukraine's hand at the negotiating table including a potential meeting between president zelenskyy and president putin an that's exactly what we're doing. we have been supporting ukraine. we have been imposing extraordinary pressure on russia. we have been solidifying our alliance. all of that goes to strengthening ukraine's hand when it comes to any negotiations with russia. >> again, i want to go back to what is, can zelenskyy negotiate sanctions relief? at all here? or not? >> the entire international community has come together to impose those sanctions on russia. we'll be looking to see what

ukraine is doing and what it wants to do. and if it concludes that it can bring this war to an end, stop the death and destruction, and continue to assert its independence, and its sovereignty, and ultimately, that requires the lifting of sanction, of course, we're, the purpose of the sanctions is not to be there indefinitely, it's to change russia's conduct and as a result of negotiations, the sanction, the pressure, the support for ukraine, we achieve just that, then at some point the sanctions will go away. but that is profoundly up to russia and what it does going forward. >> the restrengthening of the ruble and i understand there's some market manipulation there, to do that, but there clearly is some signs that the ruble is strengthened. obviously, there are plenty of european countries that continue to pay russia for oil and gas. is there more that can be done to tighten, to tighten these sanctions again, because it looks like he's found some ways

around them. >> well, chuck, first, virtually all of the forecast shows russia's economy contracting by 10% this year. that is dramatic. especially at a time when other economies including our own are rebounding dramatically. second, when it comes to the ruble, it is a more than a little manipulation, it is a lot are princ. people are being prevented from unloading rubles and that is not sustainable. i think you will see that change. we've seen an extraordinary exodus of virtually every leading business from around the world, leaving russia. everything from, you know, mcdonald's to toyota. and that's having not just an immediate impact but a long-term impact. and then the export controls that we've imposed on russia, denying it the technology it needs to modernize industry after industry, that's going to have an increase, and having said that, we're working every single day with partners and allies around the world to tighten the sanctions and close be any loopholes and adding new

ones. >> whose side is time on if this goes on another six months, can the ukraine military hold up, can the european alliance hold up, can putin survive economically. >> when it comes to the fundamentals which is to say putin's objective in subjugating ukraine to his will, on denying, taking away its sovereignty and independence, time is certainly not on vladimir putin's side because as i said, its sovereign independent ukraine has demonstrated it will be around a lot longer than vladimir putin is on the scene. the real question though again is what happens in the meantime, if this goes on, how death, how much destruction is there? that is terrible. so we have a strong interest, the ukrainians have a strong interest in ending that. we're all working toward. that the way to do that is to give ukraine the strongest possible hand, and to put as much pressure as we possibly can on russia, while we're strengthening our own defenses. that's exactly what we've been doing. >> secretary blinken, appreciate you coming on and sharing the

nation's perspective. >> thanks, chuck. good to be with you. joining me, a staff writer for the new yorker and written extensively about russia and individually the rise of slatd vladimir putin. so if anybody can read putin's mind, it may be you. welcome back to "meet the press". >> thank you. good to be here, chuck. >> i want to start with the intelligence that the u.s. released earlier this week, indicating that vladimir putin was not getting, was not getting the truth from his advisers. and while that portion of the intel seemed believable, what's not believable is that a former kgb agent could somehow be in the dark unless they have chosen to be in the dark. what do you make of these reports? >> well, vladimir putin was never an extraordinary kgb agent, and he has been a tyrant for longer than he was a kgb agent. dictator does tend to become

isolated and they become isolated not because they choose to become isolated although i think that has happened with putin as well but because their aides are afraid to be the messengers of bad news. this is clearly what is happening with putin. it's not news, it has been happening for a long time and exacerbated because of his isolation during covid. but chuck, i agree with you that at this point, if putin is not seeing the footage from bucha, from the outskirts of kyiv, where retreating russian troops have left the bodies of civilians with their hands tied behind their backs, littering the streets, where they have left mass graves of civilians, with their hands tied behind their backs, anybody who doesn't see that footage is choosing not to see it. >> i want to ask you about negotiating with putin, and if president zelenskyy called you

up and asked for some advice, what would you say, and before you answer that question, i want to play for you what former ukrainian president borechenko said earlier this week for his three rules for negotiating with putin. take a listen. >> please, don't trust putin. >> i'm the president who has negotiation with putin for five years. he never keep his words. point number two. don't be afraid of putin. and point number three. ukraine never give up, and to the territorial integrity of ukraine cannot be part of the compromise. >> first, good advice, and what would you add? >> excellent advice. what i would add is actually not advice. it's an observation. that, you know, wporoschenko, the last president of ukraine and volodymyr zelenskyy are very different politicians in a country that was fairly polarized before the war, and

where people held vastly different political positions depending whether ne supported one or the other and russian, seeing what happens to a country that is actually united in a true people's war where what you see, the former president saying, it is probably exactly what the current president would say, and exactly the advice that he should be following. >> what should we make of the reports of the polling that came out, i'm sure you saw over the last couple of days, that indicated putin's approval rating has actually gone up, that after what appeared to be some consternation about what he was doing, there is a rally around him, in effect taking place. and i'm curious, is this because those that are educated and bailing the country and leaving and essentially those that are left, allah what happened in venezuela, the kuhns of the -- the cubas of the world, those that are left have to support him because there is no other choice? >> russia at this point is a totalitarian society.

that is a society that, where the regime survives by terror. it is meaningless and irresponsible to be conducting opinion polling, and especially through reporting on opinion polling in that country. i mean the question, do you support the war, should really contain a second part which is do you support the war or would you like to go to prison for 15 years for not supporting the war, right? i want to say something important about totalitarian societies. it is not that people are hiding what they're actually thinking. it's that in conditions of terror, people can't even form their own opinions. >> after putin, first of all, do you have optimism that this, you know, that the history, particularly even in russia, the history of overreaching has led to the eventual demise of that leader that overreached, do you forsee that? and if so, what could happen

post-putin? >> you know, at this point, when we talk about this apparent military failure, bringing about the end of putin's regime, we're engaging in magical thinking. but even more than that, i think this is the kind of self reassuring thinking that gets us away from thinking about what the united states and the rest of the western world hasn't done to prevent the kind of crimes against humanity that we have seen evidence of in the last 24 hours. the united states has not supported closing the skies over ukraine. the united states has not provided major military assistance that ukraine has asked for. and western europe and to some extent the united states has not severed its dependence on russian energy resources, which is the life blood of the regime.

>> what you're essentially saying is until all that happens, let's not fantasize about the end of putin? >> i think i'm saying, let's not fantasize about the end of putin and also let's pay attention to the west's responsibility to ukrainians who are dying right now, instead of fantasizing about what is going to happen in russia after it's over. >> masha gessen who literally wrote the book on putin, if you haven't read it, it is worth the read. thank you for coming on. >> thank you, chuck. when we come back, former secretary of state and democratic presidential nominee about the war and putin and yes, a little politic, the democrats midterm head winds. stay with us. e democrats midterm head winds stay with us

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that oddly satisfying feeling when you don't do it yourself.

welcome back. hillary clinton has a lot to say about the putin administration. by the time clinton left office in 2013, putin repeatedly attacked her in very personal terms.

that animosity may have played a role in russia's efforts to help donald trump in his 2016 campaign against clinton. perhaps she feared he would have a much tougher policy against him. hillary clinton, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, chuck. good to be with you. >> i know you listen to the last guest, masha gessen. i want to pick up on her point there which seemed to imply that no matter when we confronted putin and i can go all the way back to when he came into power, it seems we've always come up a bit short. we've drawn a line not as far as others would like to draw, whether -- you made points of this about syria, perhaps we should have drawn a thicker line on what happened in crimea. why is that and are you concerned we're maybe holding back now a little too much? >> well, no. now i think we are really

looking at this with our eyes wide open and seeing very clearly the threat that he poses, not just to ukraine, as we can watch every night on our news, but really, to europe, to democracy and the global stability that we thought we were building in the last 20 years. so, chuck, i really agree with both with what secretary blinken said, that we've got to continue to keep the pressure on putin and the russian troops. we cannot in any way pause our efforts to support the ukrainians, and i agree with masha, that we have to double down. there is more that can be done to increase pressure and stress, additional sanctions, more in the way of lethal aid, and now that there has been a pushback thanks to the brave ukranian military offensive action, there

is time to resupply the ukrainians so that they can continue to defend their country. >> you heard secretary blinken essentially say, look, sanctions relief could happen. that all depends on the behavior of russia. can we really live in a world where putin is let back into the new world order? >> well, that's not what i heard him say. what i heard him say is that, really, we are going to support the ukrainians, the people and the government of ukraine as they try to figure out what, for them, is the best way forward. that, i think, is exactly the right position for the united states, europe and the west and other countries to take. your second part of that question, though, is a really important one. i would not allow russia back in to the organizations that it has been a part of. i think there is an upcoming g-20 event later in the year, i

would not permit russia to attend, and if they insisted on literally showing up, i would hope there would be a significant, if not total, boycott. the only way that we're going to end the bloodshed and the terror that we're seeing unleashed in ukraine and protect europe and democracy is to do everything we can to impose even greater costs on putin. there are more banks that can be sanctioned and taken out of the so-called s.w.i.f.t. relationship. there is an increasing call for doing more on gas and oil. now, obviously some of our strongest allies in europe are desperately trying to get out from under their dependence upon russian energy. we need to expedite, and i know the administration has been doing that, looking at more deliveries of liquefied natural gas, for instance. so i think now is the time to

double down on the pressure, and i agree completely with masha. let's not fantasize about what comes next in russia. let's focus on what we're doing right now to help protect and defend the ukranian people's right to be a free democratic nation and protect their sovereignty. >> let me talk about the energy and gas front a minute here. one of the easiest ways, perhaps, to relieve some of the pressure on -- look, it's not just this country that's experiencing rising energy prices. it's all of europe, it's really a lot of the world. if a country that we provide an extraordinary amount of defensive weaponry to, an extraordinary amount of support to, and i'm speaking of saudi arabia who could essentially turn the dial tomorrow if they wanted to. we know this with opec nations. they're choosing to essentially be on the side of putin on this one. should there be some consequences to this in our relationship going forward? >> i'm disappointed by that

decision because i think it's a very short-term one that is not in anybody's interests, including theirs. so i would certainly do whatever i could that was available to me to try to be more persuasive, if you will, and there are consequences. >> carrot or stick? >> i think you have to do carrot and stick, chuck. we're in an existential crisis right now, and the only positive that comes out of this horrific, unjustified, unprovoked assault on ukraine with the war crimes that are being committed on a daily basis by putin's military is that the world is now, i think, awake. some are more awake than others, but everybody has to pay attention. the real challenge on the energy front is to do everything we can to help europe wean itself off. when i was secretary of state, i started something called the

us-eu energy council. i had a hard sell with our european friends. i kept saying, look what russia has already done, because at that point they had already used energy as a blunt force for power over ukraine and eastern europe. they cut off gas supplies to force ukraine and others to do their bidding. i made the case then, and now i'm delighted that everybody is back focused on this, because the more we can get europe to understand it has to lead the way -- now, there are other problems. we've got other big countries, china, india, for example, who are buying russian energy, who are also trying to figure out which side to end up on this. this is the slow but important work of diplomacy which secretary blinken and others in the administration are pursuing,

but i think we need to be putting more sanctions more quickly on more things to up the ante on russia and to try to bring more countries to the side of seeing that it's in their interest to support that. >> i want to turn to domestic politics here. the democratic party is in an interesting moment that to me looks quite similar to a moment back in 1989 and 1990, you're familiar with, where the democrats are having what does the party stand for? how far left, how far to the center? you and your husband were in one side of that conversation. do you see some similarities to that period of democratic hand wringing in the early '90s? >> well, i don't know. i do think hand wringing is part of the democratic dna that somes to be in style whether we're in or out of power. we're in power and there is

still hand wringing going on. from my perspective, president biden is doing a very good job, i think his handling of ukraine, passing the american rescue package, the huge infrastructure package, i'm not quite sure what the disconnect is, between the accomplishments of the administration, and this congress, and the understanding of what's been done, and the impact it will have on the american public, and some of the, you know, the polling and the ongoing hand wringing, i've always thought that the best politics is doing the best job you can do, and there's a lot that democrats can talk about this in upcoming midterms. i'm well aware that midterms are obviously always difficult for the party in power. but we've got a great story to tell. and we need to get out there and do a better job of telling it. and for those who say it hasn't gone far enough, that's always the chorus in democratic party politics. but i would add that in republican party politics, you

have an even greater disconnect. unfortunately, most of that party has now gone to the extreme and are saying and doing things that have no basis in reality. so we've got a good case to make if we get our focus in the right place. >> i'm curious, do you think -- a lot of speculation is that this trouble for president biden politically started with the chaotic withdrawal in afghanistan. do you buy that? >> i don't think it helped. i think that is obviously the case. i think that the performance with respect to ukraine has been excellent, and one of the smartest things that has been done is releasing classified intelligence to prevent the false flag kind of operations that putin was counting on. and also let's remember putin has been quite effective in

impacting public opinion, particularly in the last decade or so, both in the united states and in europe. and this was largely stymied by releasing that intelligence. i think a lot of lessons have been learned, but there is a lot of good accomplishments to be putting up on the board, and the democrats in office and out need to be doing a better job of making the case. and, frankly, standing up to the other side with their craziness and their calls for impunity and nuttiness that we hear coming from them, i don't think the average american, frankly, wants to be governed by people who live in a totally different reality. >> former secretary of state hillary clinton, really appreciate you coming on, sharing your perspective with us. it was good to hear from you. >> thanks. when we come back, immigration at the southern border has been a big political problem for president biden. is it about to get worse? the panel is next.

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welcome back. the panel is here, correspondent leigh ann caldwell, cornell belcher, brandon todd and amy walter, publisher of the "politico" report. i want to start with this. this decision. title 42 decision. what this means, it is a cdc rule, leigh ann, that essentially allowed for border patrol, that anyone who went across the border was immediately sent back due to covid, due to health parameters, due to the parameters. we have some who said this, we have orders, and others who have said we don't have a plan in order to lift it now. how thorny is is this going to get? >> extremely thorny, and that is an understatement. people who are running for reelection, especially this will be difficult for them. you have senator mark kelly in

arizona, cortez in nevada, two key states as far as immigration is concerned and senator kelly said after this announcement, you did this without a plan. i have been pushing the administration to have a plan for immigration before this is rescinded, and they didn't do that. and i was told that this could be a very huge problem for democrats. and some democrats are trying to spin it and saying, well, look, here is one thing that is good. these democrats can try to differentiate themselves from the president and show they are trying to do what's best for their states, and that is the only positive. >> you can pull a muscle with that spin. amy walter, i want to put up -- she brought up mark kelly, and i had another senator in here, maggie hasson. kelly, unacceptable to end the title 42 without a plan and coordination. maggie hasson, ending title 42 will lead to a migrant surge. and ending title 42 would be massive.

>> this is much about the issue of competency, preparedness. you know, you and i -- well, everyone around this table, we watch a lot of campaign ads. i've been watching a lot of republican primary ads, and it seems like immigration is in every one of those ads. so i went back and asked the folks who cover this, but more so than ever. at this point, this is early march, more than 30% of all republican primary ads mention the border or immigration. at this point in 2018, it was 12%. it is an issue that's not just animating -- right now it's animating the republican base, but it becomes an issue, as i said, much more about is the administration prepared to deal with the problems that go on their plate, and it just seems that 0 often, with the administration thus far, it is much more about wish casting than it is about preparation. wish casting about inflation, right, it's going to be

transitory. wish casting that we're going to get manchin, we're going to get sinema, they'll come around eventually. this immigration isn't going to solve itself. the border isn't going to solve itself. >> brad, we were talking about this literally i think an hour before the news came out. i have talked to some officials who said, hey, it's may 23rd. a new variant may come, and don't be surprised if may 23rd is not the real deadline. jay "sonshine" said on this show, who democratsic members of congress stood out to me on this. one is denny hoyer. he is on the left and he is encouraging the administration to keep title 42. the smart democrats are figuring that they have to run against

2021 to win in 2022. it is going to get big and i think he's in that group. >> cornell, do you buy that? >> let's get to immigration here, right? there is a reason why it's in a republican ad, right? we've seen this play before, right? this is a part of that more fuel for driving the tribalism that republicans see as part of their political calculus is how they drive this. pew research is fairly clear on this. this last batch of immigration is driven by republicans and they're feeding this. not so long ago i remember a guy named barack obama thoughts he had an immigration deal with the party of eight. but it was not having a deal for reform that included a pathway. for republicans. by the way, most americans think you should pay a penalty and there should be a pathway. and that's not going to happen. do you know why it's not going to happen? because republicans in congress don't want it to happen.

>> you know what's interesting, leigh ann, i had someone very smart say to me, you can take that now, but you won't get as many democrats. >> the politics has completely changed on immigration and the gang of eight bill will not pass. that's why senator cornyn, senator durbin has been talking about immigration for many, many months. it is going absolutely nowhere. the problem is, yes, immigration is a republican base thing, but once there's these images of the border being chaotic and people being hurt or killed in the desert because they were trying to be trafficked or the cartels were bringing them, that starts to impact the independent voters, and it starts to -- so, as you mentioned, a lot of discord. >> dhs says this summer we may have twice the flow as we had last summer. >> we have job openings. no, no, this is the thing. there is real incentives besides concern about their own personal

safety. >> chuck, it is not about -- yes, we should -- as opposed to to sending the haitians back, how about putting them to work this these jobs that americans don't wants right now? that's not going to happen because it's a tribal fear what's happening in this country. >> amy, i was reminded yesterday that daca recipients are in their mid-30s now. >> right. >> are we going to be debating daca recipients for -- >> these are things that we know could be fixed but it is too good of a wedge issue to fix it. i'm going to pause this discussion. before we go to break, we look at the explosive growth of crypto and whether it becomes currency. nbc news jo ling kent reports what it is, how it works and whether crypto is a bubble ready to burst. >> the cryptocurrency scene is booming. advertisements dot the sky and fill our screens. >> it's way too late to try to ban bitcoin.

everyone who says bitcoin should be banned is revealing they don't understand exactly what bitcoin is. >> if i buy bitcoin, am i buying a share of stock, or am i buying a pork belly? or am i buying euros? >> you're buying air. >> you're going in. >> i'm going in. >> you can see the entire "meet the press" report on youtube. streaming on peacock. when we come back, could a court decision of roe v. wade -- change the dines of the midterms? stay with us. change the dines o midterms stay with us

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welcome back. data download time. this summer suspected court ruling could result in roe v. wade being struck down. that could send a major shock to the political system just as we head to the midterms. fact of the matter is, there's never been a lot of support to overturn roe v. wade. over the last 30 years, the don't overturn number according to galup has been nearly 60%. the overturning number never got close to 40%. we asked in our news poll about congressional candidates who were either for keeping roe v. wade or against it. overall 56% said they're more likely to support a candidate who is for roe v. wade. now, is there a big gender gap? not really. yes, slightly more women than men here, but you can see, if you support roe v. wade the gender gap is not that big.

now, among those who believe roe v. wade should be overturned if you're a candidate for congress, that's not a popular thing they have. 58% said they would be less likely to support a candidate who advocates overturning roe. 30% said they would be less likely to want to overturn it. more women than men would be against it. if you're wondering how it plays in the battle ground states. not likely as well. 57% less likely. and this is a real potential problem for republicans here. 75% of independents say they would be less likely to support somebody who advocates overturning roe. let's see what the supreme court does. if they overturn. it. this could enter in a whole new reset to the 2022 midterms. when we come back, was it a mistake to take donald trump off of twitter? the answer may not be as obvious as you think. stay with us. be as obvious as you think stay with us stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed.

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welcome back, former president trump is off twitter and facebook.

he certainly hasn't been quiet. for the past couple weeks, he urged them to turn over. turn over dirt even when they're at war. going after ketanji brown jackson, disrespected the republican senator, and going back into afghanistan, and last night, apparently called for going back to afghanistan, which is becoming popular. it leads to this question. i'm going to start with you, amy, which is this. does the general public know what trump is doing, and should they? this is a reminder, any time you censor, even for the right reasons, do you get the unintended consequence? >> so if you look at the intensity around democratic feelings about this election, or how engaged they are, much lower than 2020. and i hear this a lot in focus group, i'm sure you guys hear this as well, when what democrats say that after trump

left office, all right, as soon as joe biden was sworn in, they turned off the television, right? they don't need to be on alert with their device, and with watching the news all the time. he's not there anymore. democrats want him to be there because he is the best motivational operation. he is their get out the vote operation. the more he is in front of us, the more people see him, the more that they can make the case that this election is not a referendum on biden, but is a choice between a trump-like congress, and the alternative, but he's just not, he just does not, well, he would like to be, he is not in the front of the minds, even of people who don't like him. >> i think this has become, i guess you could argue, politically, it is the best of both worlds for your elected republican because you're not feeling the mainstream media pressure because it's in the in your face every day and they don't feels donald trump discomfort constantly which you could argue that it is something

these folks should and they don't have to cringe at the trump thing and they can ignore it and if it were more a mainstream, would it be more like the republicans -- >> donald trump's main function in the republican coalition is the testosterone booster, right? the republican base i think is not in turmoil. when it's not in turmoil, it doesn't need an agitator. so i think that is driving a lot of it. >> you think the is sh tick is wearing a little thin, too, it's repetitive? >> i think the fact that he is not spending all his time posting up events with the administration and if he were doing that he would be more relevant to the republican base. because he talks a lot about 2020, that's not where the base is focused right now, it is focused on 2022. >> would biden's numbers be five points higher if trump were on twitter? >> on democratic voters, with

focus group, it is almost trump has set us up and it was, he was in your face every day, all day, you always knew what was going on within washington and hillary said there is a disconnect between what the administration has been accomplishing and what american people know, and to your point, they have turned it off. and trump has, i think, reset the game for politics. in that i think you will suffer if you are not dominating social media. you will suffer if you are not constantly taking your message to the people, 24 hours a day. it is sad but i think he has broken the system in a way that if you don't follow in that path of constantly being on twitter, constantly being on social media, you're failing and i think that's sad in politics. >> do republican electives take comfort in the fact that he is not? >> we deal with it every day. >> republicans told me yesterday they described the latest trump

statement as white noise. they don't even really know what they are anymore. so they're not really paying attention and this past week, was a return of having to, for the first time in a long time, having to ask a republican what they thought about trump because of that, and we have not had to do that on capitol hill for a year and a half. >> two quick things though. you say that, but he's going to be the nominee, he was going to be the nominee, and also, i think, why would he run? it's a money generating situation. generating money, publicity, that's what he is. the other thing is, is that trump is a quintessential threat to our democracy and whether you're a democrat or a republican, it was right for them to pull back and i don't want to play politics with, it because he was a threat. >> and it is dense level proof of how bad this administration's political situation is. that the number one thing they could hope for is another

president from another administration coming back. like they can't talk about the situation or how they're going to solve it. and that tells you why this is going to be 2006. >> i agree with that because amy i think the fascinating thing about our poll is, people are not happy with biden but they're not saying give me trump, they disaggregated trump from the gop more than the democrats would like to see it. >> and the other fundamental challenge is that people voted against donald trump more than they voted for biden. and that has been the problem for democrats all along. they have been the party of who we aren't, not the party of who we are. >> and trump can't talk about problems. he's got to do a better job of branding especially with young people. >> we will stop it right there. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." week, because

if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." international outrage, and disgust. the kremlin is now accused of massacring civilians, as russian forces retreated from the suburbs of ukraine's capital. images of shalg low graves strewn throughout the city, evidence of torture and killings at close range. moscow claims it was all staged. ukraine's president calls it genocide. this morning, reaction from around the globe, and what it means for the future of the war. good morning, and welcome to "way too early." on this monday, april 4th