good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. a busy hour with breaking news. every minute now, governor mike dewine will provide an update on the massive train derailment that released hazardous chemicals in the small community of east palestine two weeks ago. residents have been expressing mounting concerns for their health and safety, demanding answers from officials. for the first time since the derailment, epa administrator michael regan toured the community thursday as the biden administration vows to get to the bottom of what was

responsible for the accident. joining us now, george solis, in east palestine, ohio, and julie grant, managing editor and reporter for "the allegheny front" also and has spent a lot of time in that area. we are awaiting the governor of ohio to speak any minute. when he does, we will bring you that live. george, i want to start with you. what do we expect to hear from the governor this morning? >> reporter: good morning, jose. we are expecting to hear what plans may be in place, should the rain start to move in here into town. that's a big concern as we know some of the runoff could contaminate the water ways further. the governor said there are response teams here in place to prevent that from happening. there is also talks of building dams to keep any water ways from being further contaminated. there is also going to be a question or two about any chance of more federal aid or if federal disaster declaration will be declared here to get

more aid. they will be on the ground here in the coming days, some here to help the residents of east palestine already. we do know as you mentioned, michael regan was here yesterday, the epa administrator, touring some of the sites, talking with residents who are impacted, assuring them that the water and the air is safe. we expect some of those same sentiments to be echoed by the governor saying the testings show it is safe for residents to come home. but as you know, a lot of residents here there has been some mixed messaging, a lot of them saying they do not feel safe, some of them saying they have been feeling sicksince the derailment. so we expect there to be a lot of questions that will be asked of the governor as far as disaster declaration, what other resources and assurances he can give the people here as far as how safe it is and will people be able to return for those choosing not to come back? jose? >> julie, this has been going on for two weeks.

what are you hearing from residents in that community? >> yeah, there was a very large community meeting the other night, a few hundred people showed up, and people were talking about rashes on their skin -- >> i hate to interrupt you. i'm going to interrupt you witho to the governor of ohio. >> i want to bring you up to date on the latest information in regard to east palestine. u.s. epa in partnership with an independent contractor continues to monitor the air in and around east palestine. to date they have sampled air in over 500 separate homes, they also sampled -- continue to sample air out on the streets and throughout the community. so far they have had no detection of contaminants, no detection of contaminants,

either outside or in the specific homes where they have been asked to monitor. volatile organic compounds or vocs are generally present in things we come in contact with every day. paint, flooring, carpet, furniture, cigarette smoke. although the testing in approximately 75 homes did show elevated levels of vocs, further testing in those 75 homes found that contaminants of concern from the derailment were not present in those homes. were not present in those homes. so nothing from the train derailment was found in the homes. nothing was found out on the street. the monitoring will continue,

however. today more than two dozen additional homes are scheduled for air testing. the teams are still taking appointments for those people in east palestine who want to schedule a screening of their home. that number is 330-849-3919. in summary in the 500 home where the air has been tested, no contamination of concern caused by the rail derailment was present in any of these homes. there are in the community 20 monitors strategically located throughout the community to continue to monitor outdoor air. i think we have a map somewhere, i hope. a map there. this is a map from the u.s. epa that shows all the places where

they have taken outdoor air samples over the past two weeks. the experts tell me these monitors are coming back clean. clean for contaminants of concern associated with the train derailment. so this was monitoring started very early on. this monitoring will continue. we will continue to do this. so we have 20 monitors. these monitors are moved around and they will continue to be moved around the community. let me now talk about water. residential well sampling. as we talked about earlier this week, the testing results from east palestine's municipal water source have come back and the results are that that drinking water, testing those five wells that go into the community system, those five wells have all come back clean.

the water is safe to drink. we never thought that the municipal water was contaminated, but out of an abundance of caution our ohio epa took samples that were analyzed and they in fact came back and were shown to be safe. you do not need to drink bottled water if you are on municipal water. if you get your water from a private well, you are encouraged to use bottled water until your water is confirmed to be safe. that, again, is just out of an abundance of caution. to date, 38 private wells have been sampled. more private wells are scheduled for testing today. these samples unfortunately take a while to get it back from the lab. so we don't have any results back yet, but we expect them very, very soon to start coming back. again, to schedule testing for

your private well, call 330-849-3919. let me talk now about the ohio river. when we met earlier this week the ohio epa discussed a chemical plume in the ohio river. i'm happy to report this morning that sampling has shown that the plume is now completely dissipated. it was never thought to be a threat. but they could get slight detections. and i want to mention that something i learned during this is that ohio river is monitored normally very extensively. and so they were able to pick up, before they were able to pick up where that plume was, never thought to be very high, never thought to be very dangerous, but they could detect it as it moved down river.

now we're told they cannot detect it at all. to give you some idea of the numbers, the level of concern for this contaminant is 560 parts per billion. readings yesterday, when we could still get a reading on it, were under three parts per billion. so, again, level of concern, 560, yesterday at 3. today it is at zero. levels at which this chemical was in the ohio river have always been very low. we're no longer getting readings at all. i'm told that some water systems a-long the ohio river will close their water intake lines for the time being out of an abundance of caution. we understand that. that's perfectly fine. but we do believe there is no reason to be concerned about water now from the ohio river and there is never really been a reason of concern and we no longer can get any reading at all of this contaminant.

let me go to the local creeks. know there has been some video played on tv of visible, physical contamination at one of the local water ways. a section of sulfur run that is very near the crash site remains severely contaminated. we knew this. we know this. it is going to take a while to remediate this. it will be remediated, but it certainly is a place to be avoided at this point. very soon after the crash, sulfur run was dammed, so the contamination in that part of the creek does not contaminate any of the other water. it was kept in there and on hold. fact teams are pumping clean water from the point of the eastern dam, flowing it away

from the contaminated section of the creek and releasing it back into sulfur run at the western dam. so it is diverted around where the contamination is. this was -- this occurred early on, early on after the crash. this allows clean water to bypass the area of the derailment and prevents clean water from picking up contaminants and carrying them into other water ways. the remediation of the water and the direct area of the spill is going to take some time. just as it is taking some time to deal with the dirt. this is not a simple process. we're encouraging people to continue to avoid that area. now, i know there has been a lot of questions about fema and calling in fema for aid. at this point, based on what fema has told us and continues to tell us, my chief of staff talked to them again this

morning, we do not qualify for assistance. although fema is synonymous with disaster support, they're most typically involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage. tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes. that's why we do not expect fema will come to east palestine. however, to make sure that if in the future, if in the future fema is ever needed, we want to preserve our rights to be able to ask them for help. so, to make sure that if fema is ever needed in the future to help residents in regard to this crash we're going to preemptively file a document with fema to preserve our rights in case we need their assistance in the future. we believe that the railroad should continue to pay and we're going to insist that they pay.

whatever damages have been caused, the railroad is responsible for those damages. we're filing this paper with fema, just in case in the future we need that. say, for example, the railroad stops paying for a reason, we're still going to go after the railroad, but we want to make sure there will be support for people if that support does in fact stop from the railroad. let me move now to hhs. we know that the science indicates that this water is safe, the air is safe. but we also know very understandably that residents of east palestine are concerned. they ask themselves, you know, they might have a headache, they might ask themselves is this a headache or is this caused -- a headache that that is in fact,

caused by the train derailment or other medical symptoms they may be experiencing caused by the train derailment. these are very legitimate questions. residents deserve an answer. they have suffered a great deal. this has been a traumatic time for them. this has been a horrific trail -- train derailment and we understand, you know, what -- have some understanding of what they have gone through. we have asked for medical experts, from the united states department of health and human services, to come to east palestine. this request has now been granted by hhs. we are establishing -- we are now going to establish in the next several days a clinic in east palestine. this is a clinic that will be

established by the ohio department of health. we will get assistance and help from hhs. we want them to be able to engage with the residents of east palestine. we want them to be able to answer the residents' questions, evaluate symptoms, provide their medical expertise. the people who will come in, and we expect them in early next week, will also have access to the best experts in the world in regard to chemical exposures. again, we are doing this because we know the concern that has been expressed by so many of the residents. dr. vander hoff spent a few days there, he talked to a number of

residents. other members of our team have talked to residents. we know the concern that they have. and that's -- they're very, very understandable and they deserve answers. working with the ohio department of health and the u.s. and ohio epa they plan to begin seeing patients early next week. information on location of the clinic and the hours that will be available, that will be available as soon as we have them, it will be on the website at ema.ohio.gov/eastpalestine. again, that is ema.ohio.gov/eastpalestine.

so we expect them to come to town probably on monday. and we will be in the process of putting that clinic together. again, we know that there are some people who do not have insurance. we also know that we have people who may not even have a primary doctor. we want to make sure they have a place to go. a central place where they can go to get help. again, this is not based on anything that we're seeing in the sampling of the air. not based on anything we're seeing in the sampling of the water. the water is good to drink. if it is coming from the municipal water system. the air, we will continue to monitor the air, but so far we have seen nothing in regard to the air out of the ordinary. we'll continue to do that. this is -- we know that this

whole last several weeks has taken a tremendous toll on residents in east palestine. we know it has been a traumatic experience for all of them. working with the county, alcohol and drug and mental health board we're supporting a number of local, local mental health resources. information will be available on our website later today. again, ema.ohio.gov/eastpalestine. again, that's ema.ohio.gov/eastpalestine. and in addition to these local resources, the ohio care line is open 24 hours a day and staffed with trained mental health professionals who are there to listen and to help. all calls are free and confidential. they can also connect you with local resources if follow-up care is, in fact, needed. i'll ask in a moment director

laura chris to talk about this. now i asked dr. vanderhoff to join us and asked dr. vanderhoff now to talk a little bit about what is coming up in the future and may also reflect on what we have seen when he's been at east palestine. doctor? >> thank you very much, governor. >> that was the news conference with a lot of information by the governor of ohio, mark dewine. i want to go back to nbc's george solis and julie grant, excuse me, "allegheny front." before the governor spoke, we were talking about what residents in east palestine have been going through for two weeks. julie, this press conference takes place two weeks after this incident occurred. and how are folks there feeling.

>> well, i think there has been a real disconnect for people because the authorities are telling them the air is safe, the water is safe, but you just spend a little time in the town and you can feel something in your throat, you can feel it in your nasal passages, on your tongue, it -- i mean, and people feel this. so they don't know that they trust the information that they're getting. people have talked about rashes and one woman talked about her daughter waking up with a chemical eye burn, like pink eye all the way down her face. and so i think it becomes hard for them to trust what they're hearing. >> it is interesting. because we are hearing all this information on the water has been tested and overtested. there are whole circle of air monitors that have been moving over the last two weeks and talked about that video that has

gone viral that of resident throwing a stone into the water of a small creek and the water essentially, you know, becoming fluorescent. that's being contained and taken care of. i'm wondering have officials been at the scene in east palestine from day one? has there been a focus on helping the people that are affected by this since day one? >> well, i was there a day or two after this happened. the company norfolk southern has set up a community help center to get people out of the area, help them with hotel costs so they could evacuate. and then it was a few days later that the big evacuation happened because of the purposeful venting of the chemicals and the concern that there would be shrapnel around the community. in terms of helping people with medical, even a couple of days ago there was a large community

meeting i had mentioned and they were asking people to go to their doctors and just, you know, have things documented so that they could get help later. so this news that they're bringing in help from the cdc, from hhs, i think that's something new that people will have somewhere to go and that someone will be keeping track of the in, the health complaints that citizens are bringing to the company and the government and are having to deal with. >> yeah. so, julie and grant george solis, i appreciate you being with us this morning. thank you for your time. turning now to more breaking news, we're following this morning, last hour the five ex-police officers charged with murdering tyre nichols appeared in a memphis courtroom. tyre's mother is speaking right now. >> -- i'm about transparency. that's the first thing. i was retired. but it is good to see the country and the state still

interested in what's happening in our community. and especially in the prosecution of this case. this case -- >> his mother just finished speaking. we'll, of course, bring that to you shortly. this is going on live right now outside of the courthouse. >> so that is what i see. and the process is -- >> can you lay out what you think the next year will be in terms of this case? the next hearing is in may. and then what is the next -- >> i can only do -- i've been a trial lawyer and i can tell you the process. it is not as swift as the indictment. but the indictment was the most important thing to get the wheels of justice to truly roll. and so this is going to be

processed. this is not necessarily going to be held up by trying to slow the process. it is just how time is. most criminal cases don't come to trial. i'm assuming this is going to go to trial. can't tell you how long, but it is not going to be at the end -- >> we know, like in george floyd's case, and ahmaud arbery's case, that there may be federal charges fought here. so we want there to be full justice. as we look at the process on the state, we understand just like in george floyd, there may be federal charges contemplated that may be announced and then they would take a parallel course. but we know in george floyd, tragic killing, that those officers were -- so the hope is that we have a blueprint going

forward on all these tragedy st. before we take any other questions, would you like to give a remark? >> we want to thank miss rowvaughn wells for her courage, mr. rodney wells for his courage. it takes a lot to sit there in the courtroom and to face individuals who took actions that they did not have to take. nothing that evening that we saw, that you saw provoked them to do what they did to tyre nichols and here we have a family, we have a son that has lost a father and we just -- we feel their pain and we're going to be with them throughout the way. but let's also understand that this case is going to be a landmark decision, but it also needs to lead to policy. how do we stop this from happening again? the state needs to pass the tyre nichols police reform act.

>> amen. >> we need the governor to sign the bill. the governor needs to stand up for this family. we want the thoughts, we want the prayers, we want action. we want this bill passed right now. the tyre nichols police reform act. we want them to withdraw the bill to get rid of cler, the citizen law enforcement review board is what we have, the citizens eyes over law enforcement. the police can't continue to police themselves. so, if we are really serious about justice for tyre, we want to make sure there is a swift prosecution, and that these guys serve the time for what they did and we want to make sure that swift action at the tennessee legislature for passing this bill. we want them to immediately withdraw the bill that would undo cler today, we want them to withdraw that bill because that's the citizen's eyes over law enforcement. we're going to continue to pray for this family and we're going to say justice for tyre.

>> justice for tyre. >> thank you so much, president turner, for your leadership. you good? >> i'm good. >> okay. >> since january 7th your life has been completely -- your family scrutinized, the whole world has been watching your family. you responded with grace and compassion that you owe no one. i wanted to ask you what is holding you together right now is what is sustaining you and mr. wells? >> the only thing i can tell you is the prayer. i have everybody, i have people reached out to me from all over the world. i have received sympathy cards from people that i don't even know. people are praying for our family. god is what is holding us up and the fact that, again, i have to always keep in mind that my son was sacrificed for the greater good. that's what's holding me up. that's what's keeping me together in the fact that i do

have three other children that i have to stay strong for because if i break down, then they're going to break down. so, me being a mother, i have to stay as strong as i can for my other children. >> amen. yes, ma'am. [ inaudible ] >> certainly. the video speaks for itself. >> you mentioned the photographs that were taken from the scene, they said they have opinion shared with other people. you said the prosecution -- do you know who those photographs were shared with? >> apparently this isn't the first time that that particular officer has done this. but we just want to dispel the rumors that the family were being bombarded with and they didn't want to have to deal with

that additional trauma and drama. so we want to clear that up once and for all. >> do you know who -- >> we do not. but they know. >> can you elaborate on the findings of your internal work, independent autopsy results, specifically related to -- [ inaudible ] >> no, we -- we don't have the toxicology yet, but we feel confident that tyre was not under any kind of intoxication or anything like that. you know, miss rowvaughn and rodney, they know tyre and what kind of person he was. who tyre was was what you saw in that video, while everybody else was escalating it, using excessive force, tyre was de-escalating, trying to do everything in his power to remain calm. that's who tyre nichols was. >> piggybacking after of that, we know the incident report that

was offered that night does not line up exactly with reality. one of those quotes from that report says that the officers came in contact with you, that you thought your son's drink may have been spiced. >> taken out of context. >> it was taken out of context. and so we -- i'm sorry -- the prosecutor will deal with all of that. >> yeah, i can't go any further with it. but it was taken out of context. >> completely out of context. completely taken out of context. we think that from the beginning it was a conspiracy to cover up this murder. >> yes. >> are they going to offer you -- [ inaudible ] >> yes, they did say that. we don't know when, but they said -- out of respect for the family they would let them see and hear the videos. >> the sixth officer who was at the scene when tyre was first stopped, should he face charges?

>> miss rowvaughn wells is asking that question and it is our hope that every officer who had anything to do with the death of her son will be held accountable and we will leave that for the prosecutors. >> mr. crump, what is the timing of any civil litigation against the city of memphis? >> we're trying to get the completed autopsy report in our hands, but we will be seeking full justice for tyre nichols. that is criminal culpability, civil accountability, and as my co-counsel van turner said, policy. we want legislative action, because getting justice for tyre isn't about just having accountability of these officers. it is about trying to prevent anybody else from being killed in this manner. one last question. >> you said that you saw the text that --

[ inaudible ] >> no, i didn't see the text. they told us about the text and they told us all of this stuff that is rampant out there on social media is completely untrue. it is bogus. and they know that the text messages who they went to had nothing to do with all this stuff that you all have been hearing on social media and some of you have reported. and the only reason that they thought it was important and i think it is important to speak to so they would quit harassing the family over this ancillary matter has nothing to do with the reason why this happened to tyre nichols. the scorpion unit had a pattern and practice of doing this to black people in memphis. that's it. you don't need to go no further than that. we talk about these special police units, these practice of

policing and they do this stuff and marginalized communities of color where they tramp on the constitutional rights and human rights of black and brown citizens. they don't do that in the white communities to white citizens. that is why tyre nichols was killed. because of this excessive force policing of black citizens. thank you. >> i live in the city of memphis, a lot of -- >> and the press conference just is wrapping up with tyre nichols family and his -- their attorneys. just a little bit ago the five ex-police officers charged with murdering tyre nichols appeared in a memphis courtroom for an arraignment and a plea hearing. they all pleaded not guilty to charges of second degree murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, misconduct and official oppression. members of memphis' scorpion

unit seen beating tyre nichols, he died three days later in a hospital. take us back to what happened in the courtroom today. and what happens next. >> yeah. well, the family arrived here this morning, very stoic as they sat in that courtroom. we didn't see any emotion from them as they sat flanked by their attorneys and shortly after they were seated in that courtroom, those five officers marched in alongside their attorneys and i shouted a question at the officers as they were making their way into the courtroom asking if they had anything they wanted to say and no one responded to that question. they all wore masks, so it was very difficult to see any sort of facial expressions from them and of course they went into the courtroom facing the judge and it was a very quick hearing, under five minutes. the judge asked them how they intended to plea and all of them pled not guilty and that was the

end of it. and they marched out of that courtroom just as they had come in. and we heard from two of the attorneys for two of those officers after that hearing and i spoke with an attorney for the ex-officer tadarrius bean and his attorney said he didn't hit nichols, he didn't deliver any of those blows and the strikes that you see in that video and he believes that people have rushed to judgment in this case. and he does not believe that the charges against his client, the ex-officer tadarrius bean, are warranted. he said there is more video to be seen and, of course, all of that will come out as this process continues. the attorneys are now in the process of discovery, so they're going to be able to look at all of the evidence against their clients. they're going to be collecting some of their own evidence. they'll also begin filing motions in this case and it remains to be seen whether all five of these officers are going to be tried together or whether

some of these attorneys will seek to separate some of these cases. there is also, of course, the possibility of plea deals. i asked the district attorney about this a while back and he told me that is always a possibility. and so there is a lot to be seen as this process is really just getting started. and we heard from the family as they came out today. one of the first people to speak was the stepfather of tyre nichols, rodney wells, and he called this a glorious day. he said this is a glorious day that it is the first day in the process of them beginning to get some kind of justice. and the message that we heard echos from the family and also in court today is that this will take time. this is not going to be a speedy process. you know, the charges came rather quickly, but now begin sort of the long process of continued investigations and actually putting this case on trial and seeing how it ultimately turns out, but the

family calling it a glorious day and grateful for the support they received from the community and around the country. jose? >> and so, david, as we were hearing, this is going to take time. we know there is so much video out there, including some video that apparently has yet to be seen, but what are the key elements prosecutors are focusing on as they build their case? >> you know, jose, at this point with prosecutors focusing on is waiting for a window to try the case. the rule is before you present a case to a grand jury, you should be prepared to try that case. and so hopefully prosecutors actually follow that rule. the reason why we're waiting is not so much because there are investigations that need to take place, but other cases are jamming up the court system and it takes a while to get to each individual case. as awful as this case is, the judge is going to hear this case, and has other terrible cases on his or her docket and families that have been waiting even longer for their day in court, and so it is going to take a while for it to actually

proceed there. arraignments are pretty boring. not to make light of a serious situation, but the movie "my cousin vvinny" explains it very well, all you do is plead guilty or not guilty. the fact these officers are charged with second degree murder, we don't typically see officers charged with intentionally causing a death, even in cases as bad as george floyd's murder by derek chauvin. so here, you don't have a situation where they can plea or cut deals, they really have got no choice but to go to trial based on the level of punishment they're going to be facing when everything is said and done. >> priscilla thompson and david henderson, thank you so much. coming up, vladimir putin meets with a major ally today, the leader of belarus as he doubles down on his support for russia's war in ukraine. we're live in moscow ahead. plus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants president biden to send fighter jets into ukraine. we'll take you to the front

lines as the conflict approaches the one-year mark. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence. from the network america relies on.

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jets to ukraine. nbc news obtained a letter, five house members sent to president biden urging him to give ukraine f-16 jets or other aircraft so ukraine can protect its airs in pushing the west to speed up its military support for ukraine. >> david defeated goliath not by power or conversation, but by the power of this actions, by the cars, cars what we have, there is enough of it, not only in ukraine, but in our entire coalition of victory. the sling should get stronger. >> meantime, vladimir putin met today with his counterpart from belarus, alexander lukashenko, to discuss a range of issues including security and defense. with us to talk more about this, nbc news chief foreign

correspondent richard engel in ukraine and chief international correspondent keir simmons in moscow. where do things stand there? >> reporter: it almost feels look a new war. a year ago, russia under vip, under the direction of vladimir putin, invaded this country after first having said that that was never a possibility, that russian troops that were stationed around the border we are merely conducting military exercises. of course, they weren't conducting exercises and a year ago in february they crossed the border from three directions in an attempted lightning assault to topple the government in kyiv. and there were helicopter commando raids outside the capital, but this attempt at a blitzkrieg failed and ukrainian troops rallied, they received new weapons from the united states, and other countries, and they managed over the course of the year to drive russian troops

almost back to the border. and now russia's launching a new offensive, and that offensive is concentrated out here in the east, also in southern ukraine, along an 800 mile long front line. russia in a very destructive and brutal campaign is trying to drive that front line forward. i must say, russia so far is not having very much success. the ukrainian defenses are holding strong, and russia's losing many, many troops, though it is advancing in some places. this war has had a destructive effect on this entire country, on the people here, particularly on children. once the war began, the education system went on line. throughout the course of the conflict, children have been in their homes attached to their computers. but in war areas, like where i am in the east right now, there is no internet. so the few children who are still here are in some places being clustered together and going to in person schools. these schools are rare because

they're not that many children going to them, and the officials don't want to disclose where they are out of concern that the russians could bomb them and russia has bombed several hospitals and many schools. >> richard, thank you very much. so, keir, where do things stand in russia, one year into this conflict? >> reporter: well, jose, what a contrast to what you saw there, with richard. we just arrived back in moscow after a few hours, you can see behind me at 7:30 in the evening on a friday night, the streets are full of vehicles. i think this city is doing more than survives. i think many russians are normalizing this kind of war footing, if you like. that's my first observation. my second observation, just since i got here, i spoke to a russian i know, who told me that he got a text message just this morning to be told that a friend of his son had died in ukraine.

and the british have put out a note today to suggest that there has been around 200,000 russian casualties, between 40 and 60,000 dead. this person i was spoking to said, you can hear the statistics, but it brings it home in a different way, a whole different thing when you hear about someone you know's son dying. then he said, and this is important to say the least, then he said, keir, but, keir, don't just to conclusions, don't assume that that family are now going to be against the conflict, against the president putin's special operation, against president putin, he said, i think they may just as much be furious, more furious with the ukrainians. and so i think what that really tells you is that just where richard is, talking about people kind of digging in, the russians have tried to punish the ukrainians into submission, that

isn't working, just as much here in russia i think people are kind of circling, if you like, circling the kremlin and preparing for a conflict that may go on for some time. they are digging in too. metaphorically speaking, and the president of belarus is here today, offering military support as much as belarus is able to give that. next week we'll see the foreign minister of china come here to moscow. this is a deepening division and i have to say, jose, i wonder whether in a year's time here talking about two years of conflict. >> richard engel and keir simmons, thank you very much. this just in, u.s. northern command has just announced the recovery operations have now concluded in the search of the chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the south carolina coast. and this morning, we're hearing

from vice president harris in a brand-new exclusive interview with our very own andrea mitchell. >> why shoot first when we didn't have a policy in place? >> well, let's be clear, first of all, as it relates to the chinese balloon, we shot it down because it needed to be shot down because we were confident that it was used by china to spy on the american people. >> president, of course, reached out to china saying he expects to talk to president xi. they have said today that it was accidental that we're overreacting, that there can't this be kind of dialogue given our reaction, there shouldn't be this kind of dialogue. >> we will maintain the perspective that we have in terms of what should be the relationship between china and the united states. that is not going to change, but surely and certainly that balloon was not helpful, which

is why we shot it down. >> joining us now, nbc's carol lee. president biden actually spoke exclusively to our own peter alexander last night. he talked about this. what did biden tell him? >> reporter: in his remarks, the president's remarks he said he made no apologies for shooting down that chinese balloon or the three objects that were subsequently shot down, all of which were under the orders of the president. when he spoke to peter, he also rejected that idea that he was somehow overreacting by taking out those objects that were taken out last weekend. now those are things that the president said that u.s. intelligence officials have determined are benign, meaning they were not being used for surveillance and as for the the rules of the sky, the president said that they will be implementing policies and processes in the coming days that will figure out how to track and deal with these objects in the sky going forward. he'll be submitting those

classified parameters to congress in the coming days. as for the u.s.-china relationship, the president told peter alexander that he doesn't see that this incident with the chinese spy balloon is going to impact relations between his administration and china. there already have been at the lowest point in decades in recent months, but the president says this is not something that's going to exacerbate that. and that call that the president said that he expects to have with president xi, he didn't set a timeframe for that. and we're told from two white house officials, jose, that there is currently no call between president biden and president xi scheduled in the near future. >> carol lee, thank you so very much for being with us from the white house this morning. i appreciate it. don't miss andrea mitchell's full interview with vice president harris. that's coming up nix hour on "andrea mitchell reports" here on msnbc. there's a lot we don't know about what's going on in the skies, but we're getting a

better understanding of what is in our skies as the beyonce works to uncover -- biden administration works to uncover who is responsible for the latest unidentified objects flying over north america. for some perspective, each year around 60,000 high-by thissing balloons are launch -- high-flying balloons are launched by the national weather service. 60,000 a year. joining us, jose hernandez, former nasa astronaut, a scientist who knows so much about so many things. good to see you, my friend. hey, i wanted to talk to you because you're one of the few people who have seen earth from above, a different perspective. what does it look like? >> well, it's pretty interesting. you mentioned that over 60,000, just the faa alone, have launched balloons. you can make it 60,001, because i've balloons with students off the desert of nevada. they go up to 100,000 feet. and we take what we call the hero shot where you see the horizon, and it looks pretty

similar to space at 100,000 feet. you see the curvature of the earth, and it's beautiful when you're seeing it from that height. >> and so how much space junk, i guess, sky junk is there? >> well, there's quite a bit, but you got to remember, jose, it's a big space out in space. when i'm out there, i spent 13 days on the international space station going around the world in low earth orbit, about 280 miles above ground. and every 90 minutes we would make one circumnavigation. i wouldn't see one thing out there. you think there's trash out there. but the low earth orbit because of drag slowly comes into earth, and then it burns up. it cleans itself. it's the things that are 1,000 miles away that is going to take time for it to finally get into earth and dissipate. so those are the things that we worry more about, the bigger

type of satellites. >> yeah, and jose, you know, when we hear about that chinese spy balloon was certainly very high up in our skies, but that these other two or three things they knocked down were about 40,000 feet, is there an area there between 40,000, 50,000 feet, and 100,000 that is kind of packed in our atmosphere with stuff? >> well, yes. i think if we're -- if i'm not mistaken, the other three objects that were downed were not similar to the alleged chinese spy balloon. they were a different size and different shapes. and so that's probably consistent with the fact that they were probably commercial or scientific payloads that were floating up in space -- up 30,000, 40,000 feet, taking atmospheric measurements. there's some commonalities or

some understandings that if you're going to have a balloon floating up around 40,000 feet, that's the sweet spot for airplanes. so the payload have to be small enough, the balloons have to be small enough, and it has to weigh so much so that if it's ingested by an engine it doesn't damage an airline engine. and so as long as they meet that criteria, it's okay. the problem lies when they don't follow those rules, and then damage can occur because a balloon at that height can go around the world several times. there's cases where students have sent balloons at that height and it's gone around the world several times. >> and so jose, i'm speaking strictly from a nonscientist knowledge but civilian all the way, you know, when you fly a drone, even one of those small drones that weigh under 249 grams, you can go to the faa and register every time you're going to fly it, even if it's 100 or 200 feet. the faa gives you this permission to fly it for

whatever amount of time you want. isn't there that kind of registration process for virtually all of these things around our country? is it a surprise for officials that these things are flying in, or is everything kind of registered? >> i think you do have to -- if you're going to send something up in the air, you do have to notify the faa that you're going. this is why we flew our balloon we went to the desert of nevada. i live in central california. we didn't release it here. we went to nevada where the airspace was clear for us to do such a launch, and we got clearance to do it. the problem is when someone in their backyard or the backyard of a high school or a college just releases the balloon nonchalantly. now the government has sort of sensitized their radars to be able to detect these much smaller objects since this incident with the chinese, alleged chinese spy balloon. so i think that's why we're seeing more and more of these

type of incidents. we're more sensitized to them. >> jose hernandez, a man who epitomizes the american dream. good to see you. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you, my friend want appreciate it. >> that wraps up the hour for me. i'm diaz-balart diaz-balart. i'll see you this weekend on saturday and sunday. thank you for the privilege of your time. more news after a quick break. f your time. more news after a quick break. (vo) with verizon, you can now get a private 5g network. so you can do more than connect your business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going.

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good day, i'm andrea