right now on "andrea mitchell reports," alec baldwin facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the shooting death of the

cinematographer. president biden dodging questions as the white house says it will not change his announcement about running for another term, now expected after the february 7th state of the union. pat toomey on his decision to leave the senate after more than a decade and the rising power of republican extremists in congress. the stunning stories about george santos' past are multiplying. did he lie about his mother surviving the 9/11 attack and scam a homeless man out of thousands of dollars to treat his ailing service dog? the political shock. the new zealand prime minister, a young, prominent world leader and working mother, resigning. >> i know what this job takes. and i know that i no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. it's that simple.

good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. following the stunning breaking news from new mexico. the state district attorney announcing criminal charges against actor alec baldwin and the armorer hannah gutierrez for their roles in the death of the cinematographer during the filming of "rust" in 2021. joining me now for the latest legal analysis, vaughn hillyard, andrew weissmann and danny cervalis. what are you hearing, vaughn, with all this breaking news? >> reporter: these are serious charges that have been levied against not only alec baldwin but hannah gutierrez. in the case of alec baldwin, there are two counts. the first is up to 18 months in jail. that second count, because he is the individual who handled and

ultimately shot the fifirearm, that is a firearm enhancement, which is punishable by five years. we not only have heard for the attorney from alec baldwin but we have in the last few minutes heard from the family of helena hutchins. she was and killed. her husband and a son she leaves behind. i want to read the statement in which they say --

>> alec baldwin has denied pulling the trigger. he says what happened when he was practicing what they call a cross draw, he pointed it in the direction of hutchins. but when he released the hammer, that's when the colt 45 went off. a forensics team said there's no way that could have happened. i want to let you hear from alec baldwin talking about the incident. >> all of what happened on that day leading up to this event was precipitated on one idea. and that is that we had something profound in common. that is we both assumed the gun was empty. other than those dummy rounds. >> reporter: that's where you have seen here over the last months countering lawsuits between the likes of the other individuals who were involved on set and alec baldwin.

hannah who loaded the firearm with bullets. she did not realize there was live ammunition on set. there should not have been live ammunition on set. yet, she handed it to the first assistant director who said the gun was cold. then handed it to alec baldwin who pointed it with clear negligence, handed it and ultimately was the one who fired the gun that killed halyna hutchins. >> danny, how do you see defense shaping up here? conventional wisdom was baldwin would not be charged. if he were, he could be acquitted. how do you explain the decision by prosecutors to level these charges against him? >> i think it's a stumble by the state to charge alec baldwin. here is why. the only option was ever involuntary manslaughter. all sides agree that baldwin didn't intentionally shoot anyone. when you look at new mexico's involuntary manslaughter

statute, there are only two situations that could apply to this case. one, of course, is traditional involuntary manslaughter, which is recklessness. the doing of a lawful act, operating a firearm on a movie set, but doing it with criminal negligence, which is a misnomer. it's the conscious disregard of a known risk. the other option and probably easier for a conviction is another subsection that says, if you use a firearm and use it with ordinary negligence, you can be guilty. there's a huge difference. that ordinary negligence standard just asks whether or not your conduct fell below the applicable standard of care, which is why this case is going to ultimately be a battle of the experts. you will see firearms experts, stunt experts, prop experts, all kinds of experts to educate this jury. there's the possibility baldwin isn't being charged as the

shooter but as a producer. that was something that had to be considered. when you look at the statute, he wasn't operating a firearm when he was producing. the question would be, did his oversight of the movie amount to such negligence that it is criminal negligence, it's recklessness? that would mean the state has information he disregarded about something incredibly unsafe going to the firearms that was happening on the set. i think the prosecution here has a very uphill climb. i think it's very likely that baldwin gets acquitted. >> andrew, as a former prosecutor, first of all, is it possible that baldwin's decision to speak so publically, including a national tv interview, worked against him during the investigation? as a producer, does he bear some responsibility for hiring an armorer who was poorly qualified? i think it was her first major film. >> i think that the first question is probably no.

i don't see anything that he said that could really be used against him that would hurt him. it's not like donald trump where there's been people like me and many others who said that his statements are quite damaging if there is to be a case with respect to mar-a-lago. i do agree with danny. this is a crash course for the public on intent as it relates to criminal charges. the way i look at this is, given the industry practice, is it really so negligent or unreasonable for -- sorry. i have a very talkative dog. is it so unreasonable for alec baldwin to have assumed that there wouldn't be a real gun with live ammunition in it and that when he hired people that they would not do their job? that's really going to be a fact issue for the jury here.

i do think that to danny's point, that the d.a.'s comments suggest a real lack of understanding of intent. the d.a. said, but for alec baldwin's actions, this tragedy wouldn't have happened. but that's not the standard for criminal law. it's not a question of but for. it's whether the person acted with the necessary intent to do this. there's a real difference between alec baldwin and the person whose job it was to make sure this wasn't a live gun with ammunition in it. >> to that point, the armorer -- i misspoke. she had one film to her credit. that's still not a lot of experience on a film like this. was she more vulnerable? >> normally, you might see a motion by alec baldwin to sever the case, maybe this is a case where you don't do that. maybe the defense keeps her in the case and makes part of their

defense pointing at the armorer and saying, that was the person who was responsible, ladies and gentlemen, of the jury, not the actor whose job is nothing to do with guns and bullets or anything like that. he was handed a gun and assured it was safe. how could he possibly have been consciously disregarding a known risk? that is, i think, some version of what you will see the defense say. >> danny and andrew, his dog, and vaughn, thanks to all of you. we love the dog. no comment. the president staying quiet. more information comes to light about the classified documents that were found at his home and former office. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. (cecily) what's up, einstein? (einstein) my network has gone kaput! (cecily) oh, you tried to save a buck on it? (einstein) i got what i paid for. not so smart. (cecily) nah, you're still a genius. but, there is a smarter way to save. (einstein) oh?! (cecily) switch to verizon! for a limited time, get welcome unlimited for just $25/line. (einstein) $25?!

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white house officials are trying to shift the narrative away from the discovery of classified documents at president biden's home and former office, ramping up their

attacks on the new house republican majority, while the president refuses to engage with the white house press corps over the controversy. joining me now kristin welker, jonathan lemire, robert gibbs and andrew weissmann is back with us doing double duty. the president not willing to talk about this to reporters. now we have new nbc reporting about how the white house is weighing all of this as they look ahead to 2024 and his decision on whether or not to run with all indications up until now that he was certainly leaning towards running, intending to run as he put it. >> that's right. by my count, this is the sixth time the president has ignored shouted questions about this matter. he is on his way to california to tour the storm damage there.

i was among correspondents shouting questions at him trying to get him to engaged. he acknowledged we were asking questions and kept walking toward the helicopter. i think that to your point in that new reporting by my colleagues carol lee and mike memoli, white house was getting pressure from allies to potentially think about delaying any announcement that the president was running for re-election. what we are hearing is that basically, this firestorm swirling around the white house is not going to impact the timing and the circumstances around any announcement. having said that, it appears if he does decide to run for re-election that will come after the state of the union address. the sources say that at the state of the union, he wants to focus on being president, talking about his record. i expect we will hear about the infrastructure bill, the chips act, some of what he perceives to be his greatest accomplishments in the first term.

this comes as you have allies saying maybe he should consider a window when this controversy dies down. of course, in the briefing room, it has only ramped up as correspondents like myself have continued to ask questions and not getting a lot of answers. >> i want to dig into your reporting in "the washington post" today with your team where you write there are some officials within the white house who are furious with attorney general garland for naming the special counsel. >> that's right. i think what that story is reported in that story is that when these documents were first discovered at the penn biden center in early november, ahead of the midterms, they were determined to follow the lead of federal investigators and adopted the strategy of deference and caution, not wanting to interfere with an investigation in any way. they even stopped interviewing biden aides trying to figure out where other documents might be for fear of the appearance of witness tampering. i think many on the biden team feel that they did everything

they could to comply with the justice department and what the justice department's investigation wanted and still they got this special counsel appointment in the end. to that end, i think it's important to note there are some biden allies who said they think the special counsel investigation will actually help the administration in the end in that these parallel probes of biden's handling of classified documents and trump's handling of classified documents, they will illustrate the stark differences between the two. >> andrew, from all of the reporting, ours, "washington post" and others, have you been able to figure out why they waited so long to go to the house? it was that gap that created part of the problem. then we had the drip, drip, drip. why initially they didn't announce it. they could have done it sooner, before it was leaked. >> great question. i do think "the washington post" reporting gives a suggestion as to what happened.

you do see the white house suggesting that they waited out of deference to the department of justice. they do refer to a letter from senior white house officials cautioning the white house about when they would review certain material. it's not clear though, because we don't have the actual letter, what exactly the department did and whether that really is a justification for the delay by the white house or biden's personal attorneys to do that december search. the delay between the early november discovery and the late december search is still unexplained. i should point out, it's also unexplained by the white house why there were documents in biden's personal home. that is a question we asked repeatedly with respect to the trump mar-a-lago documents. it's appropriate to be asking

the same question here, which is, what is the explanation? i do think that what the white house is trying to do is say we are trying to take the lead from the department of justice because of the ongoing investigation. we are deferring and not answering those questions in deference to the ongoing investigation. a lot of questions remain to be answered. >> one of the points that was raised in this new reporting today is that he actually went to the archives, to a secure location, post vice presidency to review materials he wanted to for a book. of course, he was fully aware of the procedures, which might back up his claim that he was completely surprised, that this was a staff decision or accident, that it was not he asked for particular documents, which would go to the intent if there were a criminal issue. robert, the fact that they have not gotten their arms around it, these images of the president sitting with the prime minister of the netherlands and ignoring

questions day after day, a white house not at the podium able to answer questions, the press secretary hasn't gone to white house counsel and said i have to have something more to say than i can't discuss this. you have seen press secretaries that you have worked with closely who are able to deal with these kinds of difficult questions. >> i think the challenge is the great story that "the washington post" produced gives you a pretty good sense that there was at the very beginning of this a legal strategy that rightly so was going to govern a lot of the other actions of the white house. i have been there those tussles, wrestling matches, if you will, between the lawyers and the communicaors inside of that building. it's not unique by any means to that building. but i think given where we are with the special counsel, it's extraordinarily difficult for the white house press secretary

or virtually anybody to provide a lot more detail. i would probably want to and argue with the counsel's office now that one statement from biden at the beginning of a pool spray or whatnot inside the oval office, simply acknowleding that he was surprised, did not know they were there and is fully cooperating with the special counsel, i would advocate something like that. i'm not so sure that white house counsel would let anybody in the white house say that right now just based on the fact that there is a special counsel at the doj. i don't know there's a lot more to be known or to be said from the white house podium on this. i think the white house now has to hope for an extraordinarily speedy investigation by the special counsel that comes back quickly and contextualizes what

"the washington post" story did this morning. >> nbc news is reporting as well. let's face it, if this is hanging over their heads, including and after the state of the union, it's going to inevitably color any kind of announcement that the president makes about his future. we believe he intends to run. this is quickly becoming a worse political problem than it needed to be if they had done things quickly. >> absolutely. i think that's why you are seeing the white house really try to ramp up their attacks against republicans and trying to put the focus there and trying to draw that sharp distinction between what happened here with former president trump where mar-a-lago was searched by fbi agents and more than 100 classified documents seized. the administration trying to draw the distinctions and trying to make republicans their foil in this.

republicans were clear they were going to launch investigations into the administration for a range of issues. now they have one more. i think you are going to see that effort to try to keep the pressure on republicans and their actions, and that's the white house's, they believe, best strategy at this point. >> of course, although, jonathan, when we talk about this later, the people who are now on oversight and intelligence and other committees and judiciary, they will have a hard time handling the hill on all of this. let's pivot quickly to former president trump. he is teasing a big political speech today. not allowing the press to cover it in response to the criticism of his 2024 campaign rollout and his own documents con electroverisy. >> it seems like -- >> it's all your fault. >> he watches in the morning, it would appear.

there's been a lot of criticism, not just on cable networks, about his lack of campaign. he announced in november, soon after the midterms, soon after the republicanss did more poorl than they expected. he vanished. he made headlines for having dinner with a white supremacists. since then, he has done next to nothing. he does have an event in south carolina in a few days. we are going to hear from him later today delivering some sort of political speech. we don't know yet what about. he is not long when he says the election is a long way from now. he is the only declared candidate on the republican side. this is, i think, in response to criticism and someone who he is trying to point out false equivalencies between his classified document scandal and that of president biden, suggesting his should be cast

aside. >> aside from expressing annoyance with ron desantis. thank you. america hitting the debt ceiling. leaders on capitol hill and in the white house stand at an impasse. we have been here before. the consequences could be severe. we will talk about the lessons learned and not with now former senator pat toomey, his exit interview coming up next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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budget and finance committees. he joins me now. congratulations for being out of the mess. you graduated. your wealth of experience in the house and senate with so much change, can you see kevin mccarthy with the deals that he has made to become speaker after that -- what you can only describe as a debacle of a week. hardly a great kickoff of a celebration of them taking over. how does he make the compromises that are almost unavoidable down the road? >> i'm not sure the specific terms of the deal that got him his speakership were really all that unreasonable. i think many were not unreasonable to do individual appropriation bills, for instance, in some sequence rather than a multi-thousand page bill. that's reasonable. to have an open amendment process so members have a chance to weigh in on the substance of the bill. that's completely reasonable.

the question in my mind becomes when republicans attempt to do that -- maybe they pass a bill in the house. when it is unacceptable to the president, unacceptable to schumer and democrats in the senate and some negotiation has to occur, does the outcome of that negotiation precipitate the attempt to de-throne him from speaker? after all democrats control two-thirds of the elected parted of government. >> everyone has their -- a lot of those agreements were based on abuses that had been in effect. what about the motion to vacate with one person being able to trigger that? he handcuffed himself. >> that's been in place many times in the past. it was just in a different political culture when it wouldn't occur to anyone to do it. that's the kind of thing i'm referring to.

if leader mccarthy gives republicans an opportunity to demonstrate their principals, passes what legislation he can and ends up having to negotiate something less than what's ideal from a republican point of view, for the obvious reason that republicans don't control all of government, does that precipitate the one individual -- that could come from the other side. a democrat could decide to file the motion to vacate the chair. we will see how people react when it comes to that, if it does. >> you have been raised in a culture of reasonableness. you know when you lost a fight and when the government is going to default, it could precipitate a global meltdown. you went along -- you voted against the debt ceiling raise. >> i did. i disagree with the characterization -- i understand it's universal if we don't raise the debt ceiling by a particular date, we will have this financial crisis.

that will not happen. let me tell you why. it's simple. the disaster scenario that people talk about is defaulting on our debt, on our sovereign debt, the securities that are the basis of the capital markets around the world. the interest payments on our debt adds up to $400 billion this year. tax revenue alone is almost $5 trillion. a treasury secretary would have to willfully decide that i'm going to precipitate a default on our debt. >> but we did get downgraded. it cost us -- >> that's ridiculous. >> it cost us a couple of billion dollars. >> a couple of firms that privately made that decision. there's going to be no default. the worse thing is some vendors wouldn't get paid on time. that's not ideal. >> a shutdown is expensive. >> it would be partial. not ideal. i think you do have to weigh

this in the context of a completely unsustainable fiscal mess that we are in. 100% gdp to debt ratio, growing rapidly. this is not sustainable. it's unreasonable for president biden to say, i refuse to negotiate. >> that's his strategy. the trump tax cuts, some would say, contributed to this. >> let's talk about -- the tax cuts of 2017 that you refer to as the trump tax cuts ushered in tremendous economic growth, record low unemployment, wage gains that were outpacing inflation. today, the federal government is taking in more revenue, tax revenue, than was projected prior to the tax reform. it's clear that the tax -- by the way, total revenue is above the historical average as a percentage of our economy. corporate tax revenue, above the historical average. the tax reform of 2017 has been terrifically pro growth and

constructive. in the a problem. >> hardly progressive. let me move on to candidate quality, which is a polite way of saying the disastrous campaigns of many campaigns, including in your own, in pennsylvania. it was winnable by the republican mainstream candidate. >> i have a different take. it was a very winnable race. dr. oz was a good candidate. he was a good candidate. he was credible. i spent time with him on the campaign trail. i was impressed by him. the problem we had in pennsylvania is the governor nominee was a disaster. lost the state by 15 points. nobody loses pennsylvania. it's too close a state to lose by that much. he didn't even run a campaign. it was just -- i think it was impossible for everyone down ballot to overcome that headwind. oz lost by four points, not 15.

we lost three house seats. three of them. all because, in my view, the disaster at the top of the ticket. >> what about the republicans standing by george santos who is a disgrace, a fraud? they seated him because mccarthy needed every vote. he is on committees. how do you stand behind a guy like that? >> i won't speak for others. my view is the man should resign. the man -- it was -- he was elected under absurdly false pretenses. he has serious psychological problems obviously. he is a serial liar. he shouldn't be there. however, having said that, i'm not sure it's the job of congress to decide to overrule the electorate and say, he told too many lies. he shaded the truth -- do we want to get congress in the business of overruling electorates? the electorate will throw this guy out if he lasts that long is my guess. i would be very reluctant to have congress do that

unilaterally. >> what do you do if donald trump is the nominee in 2024? >> i think donald trump's behavior after the election of 2020 disqualified him from serving in public office, in my view. i don't think he will be the republican nominee. we have a strong bench. we have a lot -- we have strong governors. we have senators, people from the business world. i think we will have a multi-candidate competitive primary and will nominate a strong candidate who i think will go on to win. i don't think it's donald trump. >> what's ahead for you? >> i'm figuring that out. i have only been out of office for two weeks and two days. kind of thinking that through. i will be working in the private sector. looking forward to it. >> come back and talk to us. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> it's good to have you. congressman george santos, we just talked about him, he has seemingly been caught in another lie or two. new revelations contradicting his claims that his mother survived the tragic events on september 11th and that she was

in the south tower of the world trade center, something he spoke about just last year. >> i'm the grandchild of holocaust survivors and the son of a 9/11 survivor. >> he wasn't the grandson of holocaust survivors. his mother appears to have been in brazil the day of the attack on 9/11, more than 4,000 miles away from ground zero. immigration records provided to nbc news show santos' mother left the u.s. for brazil in 1999 and did not return until 2003. that's not all. a disabled navy veteran is accusing him of walking away with $3,000 in gofund me cash that was raised to pay for his service dog's surgery. he says santos refused to hand the money over. he was forced to put his dog down. santos has not responded to questions from nbc news about those claims, the claims of the navy vet story.

he says it's a fake. joining me now, ryan nobles and charlie sykes. ryan, bring us up to speed on the new revelations adding to a long list. >> where do we begin? you are right. both allegations coming out yesterday. the navy veteran talking about the heartbreak with his therapy dog. he was connected through santos, who was using another name at that time, through this charity website that he was running to help people with pets in crisis. they ran a gofund me campaign which accumulated $3,000 in donations. then he never heard from santos again. the dog later died. santos is responding to these allegations in a tweet today. it's important to point out he won't answer questions about this incident. this is what he said on twitter earlier. he said, the reports that i would let a dog die is shocking and insane.

my work in animal advocacy was a labor of love and hard work. over the past 24 hours, i have received pictures of dogs i helped rescue throughout the years along with supportive messages. it's important to point out though that in this statement, he never specifically denies the situation with this navy veteran and does not explain what happened to that $3,000 that was raised. again, even when he offers up a modicum of response to the allegations around him, he never specifically answers the questions that all of us have about these inconsistencies in his background and these claims that he makes, which in many ways just clouds the picture even further. it's going to continue to make it difficult for him to serve here in congress over the next two years. >> he is sworn in. he has been placed on two committees. he is being investigated on election campaign contributions. there's the mysterious $700,000 he gave to his own campaign when

just a couple of years earlier he had little in assets and the possible connection of a russian contributor who is connected to an oligarch. there's a whole lot here. he is going to be on the small business committee, even after being allegedly connected to a ponzi scheme in florida. >> you know there's more stuff that's going to be coming. he is prepared to lie about everything. the republicans are prepared to tolerate pretty much everything. on earth 2.0, rational world, this story about ripping off a disabled veteran and allowing his dog to die would be a tipping point. kevin mccarthy made the decision he needs george santos' vote. i would like to respectfully disagree with senator toomey. congress has a constitutional right and obligation to police its own members and to cleanse

itself of somebody who is a sociopath like george santos. unfortunately, kevin mccarthy has made the decision not to move against him, to give him committees, because they need his vote. the tipping point is going to be exactly what you just said. it's going to be when there are legal actions taken, probably in relationship to the mysterious $700,000 that he contributed to his campaign. even then, you can tell that what kevin mccarthy and the republicans have decided to do is to try to run out the clock, to keep george santos there and to keep him voting for the republican majority knowing that probably that seat is going to flip back to the democrats the moment he leaves. >> ryan, there are pictures that have emerged of george santos in drag while living in brazil. they are circulating online. santos responded on twitter denying he is a drag queen or performed at one.

nothing is wrong with that. but it's a question of honesty and aligning himself with far right figures who targeted these performers. >> that's right. among the many things that george santos has come out publically in support of is the so-called don't say gay bill in florida which many people in the lgbtq community have come out against. santos is denying this part of his background, saying it never happened. our colleagues spoke -- had a lengthy interview with someone from brazil who described their situation with george santos and his time as a drag performer and saying that it was a big part of his life when he lived there. santos saying it's not true. it's very difficult to believe anything he says at this point. there is photographic evidence of this time in his life. it's another data point in this long list of inconsistencies in

his background. i think more than anything, we do not know who the real george santos is. he used so many different names. he claimed so many different jobs. claimed he lived in different places. we don't know what, if any, is true. >> ryan and charlie, on the case. thank you both so much. next steps, the u.s. may be ready to help ukraine taking back a key region captured by russian forces nearly eight years ago. we will talk about that and more with deputy secretary of state wendy sherman up next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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a surprise announcement from the prime minister of new zealand. she announced she's resigning. she made history when she became the youngest woman head of state at the age of 37. then broke new ground by getting an assault weapons ban passed after a terror attack in 2019. as well as taking months off for maternity leave while in office. >> reporter: choking back tears, she's stepping down. >> i'm announcing i will not be seeking re-election and my term as prime minister will conclude no later than the 7th of february. i know what this job takes. and i know that i no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. >> reporter: ardern was the youngest head of government at

37 when she was elected in 2017. only the second world leader to give birth while in office. taking her daughter to the u.n. general assembly, determined to prove a new mom can lead a country. >> multitask every day. can i be a prime minister and a mother? absolutely. >> reporter: she won praise for her compassion and quick action. hugging families and banning assault weapons after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques. locking down the country at the start of the covid pandemic. telling savannah and hoda about her way of leading. >> you talk about -- it was interesting, kindness in government. usually you don't see those two things together. you hear you talk about your family and i get it. explain that. >> i don't think there's one rule book for leadership. i really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego. >> reporter: as late as last december, hitting back on questions of age and gender,

during a summit with the finnish prime minister. >> are you meeting because you are similar in age and got a lot of common stuff? >> because two women meet it's not simply because of the gender. >> reporter: she's looking forward to taking her daughter to school and finally marrying her partner. as for a legacy -- >> i hope in return i leave behind a belief that you can be kind but strong, empathetic but decisive. you can be your own kind of leader. one that knows when it's time to go. joining us now, deputy secretary of state wendy sherman who just returned from ukraine and knows a lot about women in politics and operating at the highest levels of government and diplomacy. i want to ask you about ukraine. first, you know ardern and her decision to step down. do you see this as a setback for

younger women leaders? >> it's an affirmation of the new generation of younger leaders. i had the pleasure of knowing the prime minister for some time when i was at the harvard kennedy school. she joined me for a wonderful conversation about her own evolution. then as deputy secretary, i have been able to meet with her in new zealand. she's an extraordinary woman. she knows she's going to have many chapters in her life. i think you heard it all in the clips that you just did. this is a person who understands kindness and empathy but also strength and power. >> to that point, you have just -- you certainly illustrate that. you have come back tuesday night from ukraine. of course, the terrible either accident -- the crash, we don't know the cause, that took the life of the interior minister and his deputy and so many others, children on the ground. here we are at a critical point. there's going to be a new arms

package announced tomorrow. we know secretary austin is there now meeting with fellow defense ministers. the germans are balking at sending their leopard tanks unless the u.s. sends the abrams tank. everyone i talked to and our experts, it's not useful there. it's too complicated. it takes too much training. the maintenance, the fuel, all of that. so why is germany holding back and not letting poland send the tanks, which germany has to approve because they manufacture those tanks? >> so, andrea, as part of this trip to ukraine, i was with -- dr. cowell from our defense department and john finer, the deputy national security adviser, because we wanted to show we were one government, whole of government, support for ukraine. we went to germany and to poland first to look at our security assistance and how we're providing that and all of the accountability measures that are

so important to all of us as well. and really understood exactly the point you made. each weapons system has to be thought about carefully. will it get the job done? how long will it take to train people on it? can we sustain it in terms of repairs and being able to operate in the field in had this instance. and the president, president biden has been very clear, as has secretary blinken, every country has to make its own decisions. we just hope that everyone will do everything they possibly can to support ukraine. i met with young people in ukraine and i think one young woman when i met with youth leaders summed it up. being in ukraine is both devastating and inspiring. >> president biden has spoken this week to chancellor shultz, as well as just two weeks ago, after two calls with the

chancellor, is there anything more that the u.s. can do to give more leverage, more diplomatic leverage to help him with diplomacy, which is the only end game here. >> there's an enormous amount being done by 50 countries around the world. and i think that what you pointed out at the beginning of this that secretary austin is in germany, he's having a contact group meeting tomorrow to talk about where we're going. there's been reporting about how we are working with ukrainians to think about the time ahead and how to support them. every point in this process, we have listened very hard to what ukrainians have asked for and

tried to think about that security assistance for that moment this time so this is an evolution as the battlefield changes and the united states congress have been supportive and responsive and i want to thank congress for an incredibly strong bipartisan support when it comes to making sure that ukraine get everything it theeds to prosecute this premeditated and outrageous and unprovoked invasion of another sovereign country. >> the criticism is has been by some that we have given them $25 billion, but it's too long in coming. the "new york times" is reporting that they are helping ukraine target russian

encampments. since we say it's part of ukraine, it's taken over in 2014, why not give them what they need to go after the russians where they are and where they are attacking from? >> this is a constant krgs with our partners around the world in this venture and support for a sovereign country to ensure that it has its territory and its sovereignty and able to make its own political choices. and we will continue to have these discussions with ukraine and give them everything that we possibly can to prosecute and prevail this this very difficult situation. as you point out, ultimately, as president zelenskyy himself has said, there needs to be a just peace and that's something the

whole world wants to see happen here. >> interestingly, you're not ruing it out. you're not going to preamp what the secretary announces or the president announces in this involving situation. just very quickly. do you know anything more about that horrific helicopter crash in terms of the cause, although the president has said the war itself that the tact that they had to fly so low to avoid russian fire. he blames the russians in any case. >> i think president zelenskyy's comments are completely understandable. because of the war, the situation is so horrifying. changes have to be made in transportation patterns that even if this turns out to be an accident, the war has created an environment and set of circumstances that makes everything very difficult. one can feel that inside of ukraine. people have a tough road ahead. we need to help them in every way we possibly can.

>> secretary, thank you so much. glad to see you off a plane for at least a day. >> thank you. before we go, we want to mark an historic event on several levels which happened this maryland. wes moore was sworn in as the first black mayor in annapolis. he took the oath with his hand on a bible once owned by frederick douglas. before his speech, he attended a ceremony at the city dock, something had he referenced in his acceptance speech. >> we're blocks away from the annapolis docks, where so many enslaved people arrived in had this country against their will and we are standing in front of a capitol that was built by their hands. this journey has never been about making history. it's about marching forward.

today is not an indictment of the past. today is a celebration of our collective future. >> frederick douglas was a slave on the plantation in maryland. maryland made more history swearing in their lieutenant governor, the first asian-american elected statewide. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing takes over after this. ris jansing takes over aftr this but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. ♪♪

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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. it's a busy day. in a stunning move, the da charges alec baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of