and replant them are so important. >> hey, quick, i really enjoyed watching you anchor nightly news the other day. congrats. >> thanks so much. what a dream. that wraps up the hour for my. you can always reach me on twitter and instagram. fall though show online thank you for the privilege of your time. and remitchell reports starts right now. good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington. we'll bring you the latest in the deadly offensive. we begin with breaking news at home. a federal judge struck down the cdc's mask mandate for planes.

for some the decision came midflight on monday. the cdc is still recommending masks in public transportation. as covid cases inch higher nationally. the nation's largest airlines have already lifted the mandate and now uber and lift making it optional for drivers, as well as passengers. many health experts, including former cdc director, are alarmed. >> if the cdc loses its power to prevent the spread infectious diseases between states or coming into the country, rear we're all at great risk. >> joining me is antonia hilton, pete williams and dr. peter

hotez, head of vaccine development at texas children's hospital. a lot of the people probably didn't factor in making this as part of their travel plans today. how are people reacting? >> that's exactly right. i met a woman this morning on her way to 16-hour flight and told me she was fearful now and thought this decision was made way too soon. and another woman said she was going to keep her n 95 mask on and not eat or drink. we've met folks on the ground who are happy about this. they're ready to take their masks off. ready for life to feel like what two years ago felt like norm. i would say people in new york are probably 50/50. half folks of still pretty nervous. on both sides, people say the message they received is

personal health is about personal responsibility. >> i think that everyone should still be wearing masks. i think you're in a confined space and it's -- the variant is still strong and i don't want to get sick. so, i'm going to wear a mask. >> i don't know. i think it's time to move on as well. i think people should be respectful of others. if people want to wear it, wear it. >> i'm not okay with the mandate being gone. too soon, i think. so, i'm going to wear my mask. >> reporter: one woman this morning said she was concerned about the health of her elderly mother. she's like many who have immuno compromised conditions and are going to have factor it into decisions they've already made

or in the coming days. >> people might be wondering. our thanks to antonia at jfk. how can one federal judge make a desfrigz the whole country for the new york city subway system and the d.c. metro, for people in red states and blue and people in the northeast seeing a real surge in the variant? >> conservatives have long railed against the practice of federal judges imposing injunctions on the entire country. she said normally i would give relief to the people who sued but how is a lyft driver and an airline flight attendant going to know if the person not wearing a mask says a judge has to. so, she has to do it for the whole country. >> covid is now freeing up having people in the studios and

you've been in texas. so, it's great to see you. you're the vaccine effort. we have vaccines and they're effective. as someone who travels internationally, i'm grateful the masks are on and i know the airplanes have better ventilation but they don't on most trains and certainly not on the subways. and people, elderly people, immuno challenged people and people with toddlers flying on subways who are too young to be vaccinated. >> it's about the community levels of transmission. what's going up. in the northeast, from this ba.2 variant, which is the most transmissible variant. delta, alpha, this is up there with measles and hopefully it won't be as big a wave.

but of all the times nautto lift mask restrictions, this is the time not to lift it. and that's what doesn't make sense. when you go through jfk or la guardia or dca, as i'll do tomorrow to fly home, there's going to be a lot of transmission because people are not going to wear masks. why did you have to do it right now as ba.2 is going on? >> and we should point out the port authority is not lifting a mask mandate. you still have to have one on in the new york city subway and you don't in the d.c. in metro. we understand from the white house that because the cdc is still recommending masks on air force 1, as the president is flying to new hampshire, he'll have to wear a mask. >> we know transmission is up. the idea that a random federal judge would overturn the centers

for disease control is also a scary precedent to set. >> and this could mean -- you're saying the cdc is does not have authority, the federal government does not have the authority to make a public health decision. if this stands. >> what the judge says is go back and look at the public health law that set up the cdc and it lists things the cdc can do. quarantines, fumeigation, limiting travel of infected people and there's this word, sanitation. does it mean making things clean or keeping things clean. the government says keeping things clean, that's what masks are. it means making things clean and wearing a mask is not sanitation and for that reason, the cdc had no authority and secondly, she says you have to seek public comment to make a rule.

the government didn't do that. the reasons it gave saying it's exempt from that aren't good enough. >> the word sanitation comes from sanitous, which means health and sanitation is the old term for hygiene. it's a narrow ruling the judge made. i think could easily be overturned. >> and how do you know if someone is not infected if they're not tested and they're not masked? there's no way to know if you're not requiring some proof that you're not infected. the other thing is, and you don't have to go here, pete, but it is a fact that this judge, when she was appointed, nominated for conformation, was 33 years old, an associate in a law firm, never been a judge before, and is now there for life and was deemed unfit by the

law session. >> the government's option is to go the 11-circuit court oaf appeals and seek an emergency stay. we're tolden the record no decision has been made. all the signs are they're not going to do that. you have to ask why and i think one thing is a practical problem. now that you've told everybody you don't have to wear a mask, i think the airlines would find it hard to police if next day they say you have to wear one again. i think the government waited too long or whatever. >> it's also politics. and we can only infer this. this is a hot political issue. and the president is under water politically in the polls. it's tough with this being a two-week extension. and cdc didn't say it was going to be more than two weeks because they were waiting to have more evidence about the

variant. >> that's right. they were waiting for the numbers to go down. and it's not just politics. it's florida politics. the same state where the florida surge general says you don't need pediatric are vaccinations. we're going against centers for disease control, but the nih and the scientific community. there's a clear political agenda out of the state of florida. >> and what about a hospital, doctor's office? we wear a mask in a medical facility. is that also not going to be required? >> this is why it's so dangerous to subvert recommendations. it's not just for you wearing a mask to present yourself frrm getting infected. it's the guy next to you who's sneezing and now instead of in a mask, releasing the particles.

the mask thing only works best when both parties have their mask on. >> thank you so much for coming in and pete, thank you as well. you're appreciateded as always. and fighting against the russian assault as a key steel factory housing troops and civilians is surrounded and a crucial deadline expiring. d a crucial deadline expiring. okay, this is a freezer, not a time capsule. sometimes the house itself can tell you how a young homeowner is turning into their parents. -not those two. -yep, they're gone. -forever? -yep. that there is progressive's homequote explorer website, where i compared home insurance rates. we don't need to print the internet. some are beyond help. i will give you $100 if you can tell me what this is. -scotch egg. -it's a meatball. progressive can't help you from becoming your parents, but we can help you compare rates on home insurance with homequote explorer. we've got a lot of work to do.

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president biden hatd a call with his allies as russia begins a major new offensive that u.s. officials are calling a pray lewd to a larger operation. they say a major evacuation is underway as russian forces attack from all sides. further south ukrainian officials say russia launched attacks on 17 separate

settlements using rocket launchers, tanks and heavy artillery. and in the critical port city, ukrainian froops barricaded in the steel factory under constant assault and refusing to surrender. ukraine says they're sheltering with the troops. something we can't underly confirm. and david ignatius and ben rhodes, former national security advisor. this is the beginning of what could be a major offensive. questions about russia's military after so many failures and the sinking of a -- so, what to we expect now from the russian troops that are heading to the eastern part of ukraine. >> i mean, it's hard to say and hard to make predictions. i try not to make them myself.

it's been one humiliation after another for russia and vladimir putin. it seems if he's concentrating forces in the east after failing around here to take kyiv, he must believe victory in the donbas region is within his grasp. however, he does have favorable elements when it comes to the donbas region. this is where the prairie of russia is and ukraine begins out towards asia. so, this is a flatland, unlike a lot of terrain and this is the part of the country that ukrainian forces knew well and were able to defend to great effect. and at the same time, wore seeing in the donbas region and a lot of people don't want to

admit there's genuine pro-moscow sympathy just like in crimea. they'll be fighting amongst the civilian population that really does sympathize with the russian cause and with moscow and vladimir putin. not all of them. maybe not even a majority, quite a few of them. so, that helps the russian military. to your point earlier, it's not clear that a lot of the major issues that were dogging the russian military when they were making their muscular advance on this city, the capitol that they resolved them. not enough time has passed according to military experts i've been hearing from, for them to reconstitute their ranks that have been badly destroyed on the western part of the country and in the northeastern part because obviously a resounding embarrassment. when it comes to questions of morale, logistics and organization and problems with

the chain of command, it doesn't seem those things he have been resolved eegtder. these are things money can't by. whether or not russia has the technology and the personnel, that doesn't matter if they don't have the logistic and chain of command to put it to good use. >> thank you for setting the stage for tles of the conversation. first of all, let's talk about what russia wants to accomplish here. the u.s. is sayic they're going to have more sanctions this week. yesterday was brushing off the sanctions. yes, they've clearly hurt his economy but are they going to have an impact? are we going to stop vladimir putin, given the rest of the developing world is -- this is a european and american challenge. the rest of the world is not really siding with ukraine when

it comes to the sanctions. >> so, putin clearly is preparing a strong opening punch as this second round of the war begins. in eastern ukraine. he's reverting to classic russian military tactics and concentrating forces. and in syria. there's every sign the russians will use massive, rocket forces, armored forces as they move west from the donbas region that they occupy. and they've been pounding so terribly with the idea of forming a classic military pencer movement on the ukrainian

forces. and one pentagon official said to me we're going to see a classic military battle. battle of armor, of indirect fires. from artillery, rockets, etc. and what will be decisive for ukraine is their fighting spirit. the thing they have going for them is this is their land. and they've shown just a veracity. think of mariupol, the city that's been under attack. and told there's one ukrainian battalion defending that against what's been as many as 30 russian battalions attacking. imagine that? people who fight so bravely. so, ukrainians have to hope that, with the additional weapons and ammunition, we're racing to provide them, the united states and its allies, that they'll have enough fire power combined with that

internal resolve to beat back what's go doing be a ferocious attack. >> ben rhodes, the president just had this qual the allies. they were probably talking about more weapons and sanctions. will they be able to get enough weapons to ukraine? >> i'm sure that's the question. and the reality is when there was heavy fighting in the donbas region, this was a grinding stalemate, even as russia was pouring in weapons at that time. what we could expect here is potentially quite a protracted cannon foritation in the donbas region in eastern ukraine. i think the question is the sustainment of the support for the ukrainians, which a lot of it is in the form of antitank weapons fighting off survival. i think increasing questions is do we provide more heavy

weaponry and the kinds they use, not just to defend their positions but to go on offense against russians who are, afterall, occupying pieces of their land in eastern ukraine. and you've heard the ukrainians focusing on things like tanks. we're providing howitzers. potentially escalating to heavier weaponry and making sure russian efforts to disrupt those supply lines of weapons flowing to ukraine are are not interrupted by things like bombing we saw in lviv from russia. it's going to take a lot to get beyond the first blood of weapons and to really sit down and categorize the decision of labor and the price tag required if this is a many months long struggle in eastern ukraine. >> and do you think the u.s. is

really committed to giving them the kind of advanced weapons and the training wrb they've trained them on the howitzers and on the switch blade drones. train them for the best weapons, not just old soviet weapons that we're getting other countries to deliver. >> i think what this is the key question. clearly we're committed to providing them with the preponderance of the weapons they're using to oo some success. javelins have been critical and the training has been on the ground in poland. i think what they've agitated for is not just the ex-soviet stock piles that are prepositioned in europe and more advanced u.s. systems and could

this be perceived as offensive weapons, potentially even in russia. drawing to draw a line verses what might pulten see as an escalatory move from nato? putin's escalated beyond any norm in ukraine. i think these distinctions that make sense in the situation room. if you're on the battle field, you want whatever you can get to retake pieces of land and this is going to be the tension point. how much heavy weaponry to provide. do we continue to impose constrapts on ourselves and when it comes to the type of weapons we provide. >> russia can pulverize ukraine. what is the end game here? if this is a long drawn out

struggle with so many people dying, what is the end game for the administration? >> well, we've seen long drawn out struggles that become, in the end, too painful for the attacker to sustain. one possibility is sacked by economic sanctions, bloodied by fierce ukrainian resistance, the russians decide this is a burden that they're not prepared to continue to bear. that's what they decided in afghanistan a generation ago. that's what we decided in afghanistan after 20 years. we made a similar decision. so, that's a possibility. another possibility is they could seek to eskilate this campaign to a level that ukraine and its allies can't match. it's hard to predict what the end game is is.

all we know is what the middle game is and that's this ferocious attack. >> thank you very much. and a midterm swing. president biden heading to three key battleground states this week. will it help democrats keep control of the house and senate? corontl of the house and senate? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the ihop rewards program is here, and it's delicious. join the international bank of pancakes and start earning pancoins toward free food. only from ihop.

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president biden today reimposed a key environmental law. he's just now arriving at jointed base andrews, by the way, going from the white house to andrews. he's flying to new hampshire as he boards air force one. just checking to see if he would stop and talk but he did not. what he's doing today is reimposing an environmental law that president trump lifted requiring the federal government to assess the environmental impact of roads, pipelines and big infrastructure projects before they're built. as he's heading to new hampshire, part of a midterm swing through several states this week. and. the. 's closely watched races, including incumbent maggie and that's the district he'll be in.

considered one of the most vulnerable democrats this year. and back on the road, mike. i know it probably feels like old times for you and politico kor spondent -- correspondent, eugene daniels. theiment portance of senator joining him. she got a reprieve when a popular governor decided not to run against her with ugly things he to say about what it would be like to be in a senate with mitch mcconnell did not endear her to him. >> reporter: it's so interesting because president biden is doing something he hasn't yet as president, which is traveling outside of washington with three separate events talking about his domestic agenda.

it's a real seen the white house understands the urgency of president biden getting outside of washington to try to tell the story he thinks democrats have to tell about their accomplishments. the president coming to talk about $17 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law for our ports. when you think of the nation's largest ports, this isn't even in the top hundred when you talk about total trade volume. as you mentioned, new hampshire has two of the biggest midterm races this year. maggie hassen, certain lay high on republican target lists. the governor, who would have been a top tier opponent bowing out. and this is one of the swingiest districts in all the country. it went back and forth between a democrat and is republican 12 times between 2010. and he's now here for the second

time in a span of five months. this is a white house that knows this is an important state. and one of the big story lines is will the candidates show up when the president does? that's what we're seeing today. now it's an official event, not politics. we'll see politics as he travels west. he's going to talk about the earth day when he heads to portland and seattle washington. money a big part of the equation as a well. >> and this emphasizing the environment when he's opening up federal lands for oil and gas drilling. doing things that environmentalists, especially young activists, are angry about because he's trying to fight inflation, as well as sanctions on russia pushing fuel prices up. going against some of his own environmental promises. >> the white house is walking a fine line.

they're talking about needing to address the real issue of gas prices and oil prices being hot, right? that is something that, not just politically is bad for them, but bad from the american people and they know they have to address that and be up front about that. even though the president has said basically some kind of pain because of what's happening in ukraine, defending democracy from here, we're going to feel pain here but they're trying to find ways to make sure americans don't feel that as hard as possible at the pump. and so, when you talk to some of the advocates and i've been talking to them a lot is they'll tell you this provides a lot of frustration to them because they worry that in pursuit of this, protecting folks and opening all that kind of stuff and allowing these things to happen from administration promise to do the opposite, they're worried that's going to derail the climate

agenda for the white house. the white house sees it as temporary and the announcement for them is further proof that they can do both. >> well, thanks to you, eugene and the fact that he's willing to campaign for maggie, when she's criticized him on his border policies, another big hot button issue. we'll do more on that in the next couple of days. thanks to both of you. and breaking news overseas where the apology for british prime minister boris johnson continues today. speaking to the house of commons after his call with the president and president biden and the allies on ukraine. so, boris johnson once again expressing regret for breaking his own covid lockdown rules in summer of 2020. he didn't get a great reception. >> let me begin in all humility

by saying that on the 12th of april, i received a penalty notice relating to an event on the 19th of june 2020. i paid the fine immediately. and i offered the british people a full apology. i said that people have a right to expect better of their prime minister. and i repeat that, mr. speaker, again, in the house now. >> and he has been fined for not observing those laws. up next. fair play. 50 years after title nine was passed, my conversation with activist and sports icon, billy jean king, her continued push for equality. and the lasting impact and historic battle of the sexes. stay with us. >> billy, you mean to say you think i put women down? is that what you're saying i'm

doing all the time? >> i do. i don't think you give us any credit for having a brain at all or any logic. if that's where you're at, then that's okay.

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which may be life threatening or permanent. these aren't all the serious side effects. now i'm back where i belong. ask your doctor if latuda is right for you. pay as little as zero dollars for your first prescription. this june marks the 50th anniversary of title nine, the landmark law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex or educational programs that receive federal money and has provided equal opportunities for women in sports. it would not have passed without the efforts of billy jean king and other players who put their careers on the line to fight for women's equality in athletics. the nationalal tennis center in new york was renamed in her honor. i talked to her about her career and the impact of title nine.

billy jean king, it is so great to see you. we are in the year of the 50th anniversary of title nine. how big a deal was it? you lobbied so hard for it. how big a deal is title nine, which really enabled women to play in college sports and in all school sports? >> it is amazing what happened since 1972, title nine was passed june 23rd. and 1972. so, it's really an educational amendment. because sports is so visible, most people think it's sports. but what it was really about is for the first time it broke down the quotas. if you want to be a doctor at harvard, they only allowed 5% of a class to be women and that was all over the country. many times women couldn't get into the school, they would

answer by saying i'm so sorry you didn't make it because we already have our quota. what it did is any public high school, college or university that receives federal funding in any way, for the first time, had to spend it equally on girls and boys. so, that was huge. >> let me ask you about tennis. because remarkably, when you were going for pay parity, for equal pay for women in tennis, it started with $1. you were giving up your careers to say for $1 you would work. just to get it started. >> so, we came up with these three things that were important to us and this was our dreams for the future. that any girl born in the world, if she's good enough, would have a place to compete. number two, that she'd be appreciated for her accomplishments, not only her looks.

and number three, to be able to make a living. tennis went professional in 1968 and this was september 170 at the hooursen rocket club. we went through a lot, when we had less and less opportunities when tennis went professional and we didn't know what to do. we knew we were in dire straights and always afraid of being suspended. but we didn't care. we wanted this for the future generations and we started it back then. we've been very fortunate. tennis is by far the leader in women's sports. >> and now the money is equal. >> definitely at the majors and we were willing to give up our careers for this to it happen and we were in the prime of our careers at the time. we weren't at the end or the beginning. it was worth it. we got lucky. we had all kinds of men that got

behind us and most the time men who had daughters or that were influenced by their mothers or grandmothers, just listening to their stories and they really believed in us and it made such a difference. >> let me ask you finally about the circus that was the battle of the sexes. how big a deal was it? all you put up with from bobby rigs but it was a show and catapulted you to the front of culture. >> for me it was about protecting title nine because i played bobby rigs september 20th, 1973. title nine had just been passed in june 1972. that was on my mind even though i didn't bring it up very much. i knew there would be lots of discussions. 90 million people watched throughout the world. this is my opportunity because

we're going to be so seen to win this match. did it mean a lot to beat bobby rigs, who was one of my heroes? he was older. actually my dad's age. so, for me, as an athletic feet, it meant nothing. but culturally and for social change, it meant everything. i knew this was my opportunity to make a dent, at least, and help the women's movement, which was in the second wave with gloria and others. eleanor holmes. so, these are -- i knew this was my one moment in time because i would visualize if i didn't win that the rest are of my life would be like do you see that lady over there? she lost to this old guy in the tennis match. and if i could win, what could it do? and it would push us forward. for the first time women would

come up to me and say for the first time i have self confidence, i have enough curage to ask for a raise at work. i've waited ten years to have the courage to do that. and men came up to me and said that they hadn't really thought about equality or equity that much but i want the same opportunities for my daughters as my son. and i hadn't really thought about until i watched that match. president obama, when i first met him, he said i was 12 when you played bobby rigs. he said it's are influenced me because now i have my two daughters. you never know how you're going to touch another person's life. muhammad ali and i always talked about that. you never know how you're going to touch somebody's life and how they're going to touch yours. so, pay atensh. attention. actively listen. >> billy jean king, you've

touched my life and continue to. you're my hero. thanks for visiting with us today. >> thanks, andrea. >> a real pioneer. urgent calls for russians to allow civilians out and humanitarian aid in. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. reports"c if an oral treatment is right for you. oral treatments can be taken at home and must be taken within 5 days from when symptoms first appear. if you have symptoms of covid-19, even if they're mild don't wait, get tested quickly. if you test positive and are at high risk for severe disease, act fast ask if an oral treatment is right for you. covid-19 moves fast and now you can too. every year we try to exercise more,

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ukraine's top negotiator says there is still room to get back to the table but it's difficult to negotiate russia while thousands of troops and civilians are facing deadly strikes. richard stengel joins me now. is there still a possibility of talks with an outcome that both sides could agree on after we've seen what has been described as genocide by the president and by president zelenskyy as well and

we see the continuing, you know, assault now moving to the east? >> andrea, i hope so. it doesn't seem as though the russians are negotiating in good faith. i'd say something that's a little paradoxical, which is i think that the focus now on the donbas region by russia, which is the focus of their efforts in ukraine, does give some opportunity for talks because it's a discrete area. and, you know, even though president zelenskyy has said that he would not agree to any kind of partition of ukraine or giving up territory, the fact that the russians are concentrating their efforts in one area i think both gives an opportunity for ukraine and the supporters in the west to combat them but also for things to negotiate at the negotiating table. >> so putin seems to be in near control of the information getting to the people of russia. i frankly don't believe any of the polls that come out.

we know there have been protests. he's basically shut everything down and anecdotally people seem to believe his description of the war. is there any way to penetrate that? >> yes. i think you're right to not believe those polls. they're kind of overwhelming. but again, it's a kind of a paradox, the russian information space, something we saw when i was in the state department, about 90% of russians get 90% of their information from state tv and state sources in russia. they could actually watch msnbc or read "the new york times" if they wanted to. they don't. and part of it is this kind of relentless state media there that people subscribe to. there's a kind of russian narsism. they're cut off from the rest of the world, not like china where there's a great wall that shuts off the internet. people can still get information in russia, even though as you

say in the last five years and since the invasion they've cut down on almost all independent journalism in russia. >> you wrote this week about the refugee crisis. nearly 5 million ukrainian refugees now, more than 2 million of them in poland, where you just visited, more people displaced internally. what hope do they have of ever getting home? >> yes. this is a big story, andrea. i went with c.a.r.e., the global humanitarian and poverty relief organization, has a big operation in poland. the larger point to dovetail with what we were just talking about is the refugee crisis is part of putin's war strategy. he wants these refugees, these 5 million-plus refugees, to destabilize those countries on ukraine's border, to help to destabilize poland. 6.5% of poland's population now are ukrainian refugees. it was the same thing in our country, we'd be 25 million refugees in the u.s.

so we need -- just as we need to help ukraine battle russia on the battlefield, we need to help those countries on ukraine's border care for these refugees, because those refugees in putin's idea will destabilize those countries. that was his strategy in syria with that massive bombing. we had refugee flows into germany and helped destabilize germany. that's what he's trying to do on the border of ukraine as well and we need to help them in. >> the german chancellor saying they will not send weapons. thank you, richard stengel. that's does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online. "meet the press daily" starts after this. needed to be here. ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®.

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