your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," russia accusing ukraine of an overnight drone attack on the kremlin aimed at killing vladimir putin, claiming their defenses took out the drones and putin was not home at the time. russian state media offering no proof, and ukraine denied responsibility. secretary of state blinken expressing skepticism about russia's claim. >> i would take anything coming out of the kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. the federal reserve expected to raise the cost of borrowing for the tenth consecutive time today as it battles inflation. . concern grows over the debt ceiling. i will speak to former obama treasury secretary jack lute. a suspect found under a pile of laundry inside a house after

an fbi tip and a four-day manhunt. the military heads to the border. the biden administration is sending 1,500 unarmed active duty troops to help out at the southern border, not to do law enfo enforcement, ahead of an expected surge next week. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. u.s. officials are looking into the provocative but unverified russian accusation that ukraine attempted to assassinate vladimir putin overnight. with a drone strike on the kremlin. the kremlin saying that its defense systems destroyed two drones over putin's recollection -- residence but he was not home. ukraine insists they wage an exclusively defensive war and calling it a trick. some experts agree, cautioning the claims could be a possible false flag used to justify

further escalation against ukraine ahead of tomorrow's victory day sell bra celebratio square. u.s. officials tell us the u.s. had no warning. at a world press freedom day, secretary of state blinken expressing his doubts ukraine was involved. >> first, i have seen the reports. i can't in any way validate them. we don't know. second, i would take anything coming out of the kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. let's see. we will see what the facts are. >> if ukraine decided to strike back in russian territory, the united states would not criticize that? >> these are decisions for ukraine to make. >> an advisor to president

zelenskyy offered another possible explanation, suggesting local resistance forces inside russia could be responsible. forces clearly loyal to ukraine. we start with richard engel and with me is admiral james stavridis. what do we know about the videos? you have been looking at videos. how are officials trying to verify the claims? >> reporter: president zelenskyy was in finland today, said we did not attack putin. we leave that to the tribunal. ukrainian officials say it was a false flag operation. the russians did this in order to justify some retaliaretaliat escalate the conflict further. perhaps to bring the fighting to

kyiv, to the presidential palace in kyiv. asked why putin would want to do this or why russia would want to do this, zelenskyy responded, putin needs to motivate his people. he has no victories. these are the official explanations. the videos are interesting. particularly this video right now, that claims to show the actual impact strike, when this small drone is coming close to the dome in the kremlin and then, according to a statement from the kremlin, was blown up by electronic defenses not causing any significant damage. clearly not hurting or killing putin, because putin was not even in moscow at the time, according also to the kremlin. you asked about the videos. most videos when they come out online, and our social media verification team have been pouring through the videos for the last several hours,

generally what happens is there's a video that comes out, and then they spread quickly across the internet as people share it, repost it, repost it and they go nuclear or viral. that's when they are doctored or changed in some way. what happened in this case is there was this first video at 2:37 moscow time. it showed the aftermath of the attack. i see you have a graphic. this first video came out. it showed a little bit of smoke. it was taken from a building called the embankment house, not far from the kremlin. then things went quiet. a 12-hour gap elapsed when there were no videos. this initial video did not get a lot of traction. right around 3:00, several videos started emerging showing the alleged aftermath and also showing the impact at the time. as these new videos came out in an apparent coordinated way,

that is when the statements came out from the kremlin saying that kyiv was responsible, that this was an attempted assassination of vladimir putin. it was not an organic spread across the internet. instead, we saw a video emerge, then silence, and then other videos put out on social media, which were then used to justify these statements put out by the kremlin. also something interesting, in the video you are playing right now. if you go back to the first one, the clearest of the strike itself, you can see two people climbing up the scaffolding of the dome. what they were doing at 2:30 in the morning climbing up the scaffold is unclear. they react in a way which suggests something may have happened. it could be doctored. we don't know. you see what looks like two people climbing up that scaffolding reacting in a way. if you look on the other side of

the screen, and once you see it, you can sort of never unsee it, it seems this video was taken by someone who was filming a security camera. there's a reflection off of this. on the opposite side of the screen you can see what looks like cabinets, someone taking the video who comes in and out of screen. the video itself is clear. then you can see someone filming the screen with their camera themselves. it seems it was more of a release of videos than an organic spread across the internet. >> wow. richard engel, that's a lot of information. admiral stavridis is here with me to unpack it. it does seem to create the possibility of doctored video. the time line is suspicious, to say nothing of the situation. the bottom line is that it would be so provocative and it could justify a major retaliation. we have seen an escalating

attack in the last couple of days. ukraine has been told over and over by the u.s. and by nato more importantly, not to cross that borderline, not that they have in the past. >> let's start with the fact that putin has been lying now for 15 months. basically everything coming out of the kremlin has been a lie from we're not going to invade, these are just exercises, to there are nazis in kyiv, the war criminal behavior. it's a context of lying. i think that's where you begin. secondly, i think as you look at these videos, it does appear to be kind of a coordinated -- i feel like we are in the jfk assassination analyzing video frame by frame. what it smacks of to me, andrea, is vietnam and the gulf of tonken incident which the united states used to escalate the conflict.

lyndon johnson did famously. my feel at this minute recognizing we don't know everything, we will learn more many time. u.s. intel is pulling this apart. as i sit here right now, i think false flag. i think it will be followed by a pretty strong level of military strikes from moscow. >> richard, there have been in the past incidents by ukrainian supporters inside russia. one which was an assassination against a prominent woman connected to a strong supporter of the kremlin. they have had operatives inside russia. they have not done anything we know of in the past as aggressive as a drone attack. >> reporter: they have come out very -- the ukrainians have come out strongly and said that they were not responsible for this. they have come out and said that they only conduct operations inside ukrainian territory. that's not exactly true. there have been some

cross-border incidents. there was the attack on the bridge in crimea. that's more complicated, because that is, according to ukrainians, to the united states, to most countries around the world, occupied ukrainian territory that was illegally annexed by russia. even in that attack, the bridge attack linking mainland russia to occupied crimea, the ukrainians denied it with a bit of a wink and a nod. they said, we weren't responsible but whoever did carried it out with a great deal of professionalism. in this case, they are coming out emphatically and saying, this wasn't us. we didn't do it. it will would be counterproductive, hurt our relations and allow russia to escalate this conflict in a radical way. going back to admiral stavridis point, some opposition media operating outside of russia report that long-range bombers are being mobilized for a potential retaliation against kyiv. no verification on that. single-sourced, unnamed, but

there's that report. >> a critical time to both of you when president xi just called zelenskyy and is sending a high-level envoy to ukraine. there was some hope the one positive thing, even though he is a putin person, very close to putin, that maybe he would have some influence and could resolve this gridlock to china's advantage, diplomatically. joining us now is former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. michael, we shouldn't reach any conclusions at all. none of us will. there have been false flags in the past. >> there have. you are right, we don't know what this is. i want to be careful. i don't know if it's a false flag or not. we may never know, by the way. what i do know, it was not an assassination attempt on vladimir putin. i think we need to be crystal clear about this. this drone did not have that military capacity to blow up anything.

everybody needs to remember, vladimir putin does not live in the kremlin. like our president lives at white house. he lives an hour outside of town. this is 3:00 a.m. whoever was doing this was being extra careful to not threaten the life of vladimir putin. >> admiral stavridis, militarily -- the significance to nato -- you are a former commander. nato has been very clear about not wanting to precipitate their engagement with russia going back against nato countries. >> indeed. let's also be clear that putin may seize on this to try and escalate in some way. but frankly, he doesn't have many means of escalation other than a significant air campaign. that's what i'm worried about. i can guarantee the pentagon is thinking about, how can we upgrade air defenses?

how can we help ukraine? that's a very important part of this. it's unfolding in real time. >> you can imagine, mike mcfaul, what's going on in the white house. i want to touch base with you on something you know so well, which is getting prisoners out. it's world press freedom day. it's now five weeks that evan gershkovich has been in jail and accused of spying. no consular contact for the last couple weeks. >> very tragic. it's horrible what's happened to him. and the other americans wrongly imprisoned in russia as hostages. evan gershkovich was arrested not just to trade for some russian criminal here in the united states or in a european country. he was arrested to deter independent reporting inside russia. that's the enemy of vladimir putin, the truth is the enemy of vladimir putin. so i think this had the double affect of picking up another american, but two, making it

more difficult for americans and russians, for that matter, journalists to think about the kind of reporting they do inside of russia. >> yeah. i should point out the week before last i think there was a visit from the ambassador, but it's been -- they have been requesting it and it's been denied in the last couple of days at least. richard engel, admiral james stavridis and ambassador mike mcfaul, thank you. up next, the price you pay. more moves from the federal reserve expected later today to curb inflation. what it means for the markets and the rising price of everything when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. don't go away. you are watching msnbc. away. you are watching msnbc hydrates better than the expensive stuff i don't live here, so i'm taking this and whatever's in the back. it's already sold in the us. but i'm not taking any chances. the uk's #1 skincare has crossed the pond. at pnc bank, the uk's #1 skincare you can find us in big cities and small towns across the us,

where our focus is to always support the people who live and work there. because you call these communities home, and we do too. pnc bank. - representative! - sorry, i didn't get that. - oh buddy! you need a hug. you also need consumer cellular. get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carriers and 100% us based customer support. starting at $20. consumer cellular. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches, and b-complex vitamins to fortify healthy nerves. try nervive. and, try nervive pain relieving roll-on. the federal reserve is expected to raise the interest rate about you a quarter point today, 25 basis points. the tenth consecutive hike to keep inflation under control. it hopes without tipping the economy into a recession. this comes as there are concerns

about weakness in the banking sector after three u.s. banks collapsed requiring the government to intervene and jp morgan to step in and buy those assets. every day the u.s. is getting closer to a possible economic disaster. a catastrophe if congress and the white house cannot prevent default. that brings us to the debt ceiling. joining me now is jack lute, former treasury secretary under president obama. former budget director and his former chief of staff, top economic advisor. it's good to see you again. thank you very much. i know deja vu all over again. how did we get into this mess? how do we get out of the mess? with the president saying, no talks on anything linking budget cuts to the debt ceiling. speaker mccarthy saying, no deal. mitch mcconnell today saying, it's up to them. we will pass anything they agree to. >> it's good to be with you. i wish it was a different

suggest. >> i know. >> to be clear, what the white house said is you can't negotiate with a gun to your head over the debt limit and have the risk of default if the parties can't come together. in 2011, when i was budget director, in 2013 when i was treasury secretary, we went through this. we learned, you can get close to the line and even an accident can push you into default. which would be a disaster. it's a question of is it bad or worse. there's no good outcome to default. at the same time, the administration has made clear that they are ready to have a negotiation over fiscal policy. that needs, in my view, to begin as soon as possible. i was heartened the president called the leaders to the white house next week. i hope they can find a pathway to extending the debt limit and then negotiating fiscal policy, which is what you do, particularly when you have divided government. i think it's a hard path ahead. the political situation is different than it has ever been.

it reached a level of polarization that is even high compared to the days we thought it couldn't get any worse. >> these fights, these deadlocks are very expensive. in 2011, the credit rating of the united states, the faith of people in the u.s. government, in the confidence -- full confidence of the u.s. government was downgraded. it cost $1.3 billion just to get that close to default. >> to be clear, as you said, that was coming close to default. if we actually defaulted, that was based on the conclusion that standard & poors reached was that our political system was broken. not that we were a credit risk, if we default, that's a different level of risk. we are seeing the pricing seep into the system with less demand for treasuries that are going to mature during the window of risk

and rates are higher in that period. every day you get closer, that gets more so. the cost of $1.3 billion is just a drop in the bucket to what it will cost if we actually default. >> what would it cost? >> it depends how much debt rolled over and how long higher rates were to go forward. it's not hard to get to numbers that are tens of billions of dollars in terms of what the cost could be. every billion dollars you spend on a manufactured political crisis is just money you have burnt. at a time when the focus really should be on making real fiscal policy decisions, it's just simply wasting money. >> the situation is that speaker mccarthy managed to squeak through this bill going nowhere. it was 217-215. he got them to agree to that. they're not going to agree -- he needs democrats to make something happen. or with this discharge petition that the democrats have, they need republicans.

neither side is giving. >> the substance of what the house passed last week is not what you would pass if your goal was to reach an agreement across the aisle. it was very extreme. they say they are freezing spending. when you do the math, if you freeze the overall level of spending, but you don't cut defense and veterans, you are cutting everything else by a third. that's not a small decision. that means for a student on grants, losing $1,000. these are big, big numbers. you add to that putting work requirements on food stamps and medicaid, repealing the principal accomplishment of the first two years on global climate change, you think about that against what raising the debt ceiling is. raising the debt ceiling is paying the bills for everything you have done, including the tax

cuts in 2017 which weren't paid for. it's not a reasonable demand. it's going to have to get to a negotiation. it's going to have to get to a negotiation over something that parties that don't view the world the same way can work through. i think that will end up being a discussion about what the funding levels for the next year should be. as i say, the sooner they get to that the better. the idea you can negotiate over the debt ceiling with confidence that you will not make a mistake, i think, is foolhardy. we almost went over the cliff. i don't know you can avoid it this time. >> what should the fed do giving it's fighting inflation but there's this risk down the road? >> the fed has a lot of things it has to juggle. it's dealing with core inflation. it's dealing with the financial situation after the failure of several banks. now it's dealing with the uncertainty that we could have a political crisis create an economic crisis. >> should they pause? >> whether they should pause or

not, they are obviously deciding that as we sit here. they will announce it very soon. i think that they have been very clear that they are going to get to a place where they do pause. if it's after this meeting or not, i don't know. i personally think that they have made good decisions to take it a step at a time. at some point, they need to pause to see if the effect of credit tightening is actually doing some of their work for them. they have made clear, they don't know the answer to that yet. >> your experience is valuable. thank you very much. >> great to be with you. who is going to blink first? the stalemate between the white house and capitol hill means for the budget, the overall economy, that will follow up the politics of it all coming up next. you are watching msnbc. watchingc [tap tap] my secret to beating sniff checks? secret dry spray. just spray and stay fresh all day. my turn. secret actually fights odor.

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absence of presidential leadership. president biden has simply been mia. whatever president biden and speaker mccarthy can both agree to will pass the senate easily. >> mitch mcconnell saying it's up to the president. not putting that much blame on the speaker to come up with a solution. will either side blink, make concessions? is america going to default? joining me now is former republican national chairman michael steele. jack lew was saying the markets are looking at the political situation here and it cost more than $1 billion last time when the u.s. was downgraded by standard & poors, just in the prospect of default. arguably, the political system is in even worse shape now than back in 2013. 2011, rather. >> yeah, it is.

it makes discussion that much more difficult. the house has done something that i don't think a lot of folks around town thought would happen. mccarthy actually corralled his caucus around a debt bill that at least for now the freedom caucus, especially want to support. the problem comes when biden comes to the table. if he slides off of -- we want a clean debt bill to okay we will cut but not the way you want to cut, how does that play? how do the conversations go with that very fragile alliance that mccarthy has been able to put together to get this initial debt bill approved? we are just at the beginning. the markets are probably going to be skittish as we get into the month of may, given that janet yellen has indicated june

is actually now the deadline on all of this. it's going to be dynamic. there's no doubt about it. both sides have a lot to lose if they don't get this right. politically. >> ultimately, the president may be the one who has the most to lose, given the fact he is in charge. most people look to the white house to come up with solutions. they are never going to agree to these cuts. the freedom caucus will not agree to the cuts that will be somewhere in the middle. is there any chance this complicated discharge petition that comes from the house rules committee, from the minority in the house rules committee, they have been working on this since day one, but they would need republicans to sign on, they would need to hold all the democrats and plus five republicans to get it to the floor. >> yeah. i think that could be part of the plan "b" here, if it looks like negotiations are literally going nowhere.

this deadline is looming. there are off ramps. they are not necessarily good. it pushes further down the road. but at least it gets people off the point and gets us into the summer. then having to deal with this in the fall. neither party wants to have this discussion as some have indicated on the conservative side, in march of next week. in the middle of the primary season. in the hot summer months of a presidential campaign. i think this is going to get resolved. it's a question of how much blinking either side is prepared to do to avoid a heavy hit next year. >> michael steele, a heavy hit that could be very expensive. thank you very much. >> yes. captured. the suspect who texas police say executed five of his neighbors, including a young boy, in custody, ending a four-day

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texans are sighing after they arrested a man who executed five people in their home. the fbi says it was a tip from the public that led to his capture. we are awaiting new details about several other arrests made in connection with the private home where oropesa was found. that includes a woman under arrest believed to be his wife. sam brock is outside the jail in cold spring, texas. this tragedy, maybe it could have been avoided. there were a number of calls, past complaints. tell us all you know about this arrest.

>> reporter: the time line is something that's being examined. at this moment, there are at least three people in custody. oropesa is one of them. he is in jail charged with murder. within the last hour or so, a booking photo of his wife was tweeted out by a neighboring county. she's wanted right now or facing charges of hindering the apprehension of a felon. there's another man who is in this jail on a marijuana charge but has been linked to aiding and abetting his escape. authorities just yesterday said they had no idea where he was. that was not entirely true. we found out this morning earlier in the week when there was what we thought was a false alarm at a nearby highway 101 main road around a number of schools that had to shut down, turns out he was on foot at that point, potentially near

children. that was on monday. authorities knew he was in the region. he had obtained another cellphone. i ditched the first one and was communicating with contacts. they got a tip yesterday at 5:00. by 6:30, they are nearby. it's 15 minutes from where this brutal massacre took place. they are able to, without incident, without injury remove the murder suspect from where he was hiding in a closet under clothing. as you process that information, as you mentioned, so many questions about how long it took to arrive at the home of where this massacre took place. we heard from the deputy sheriff who said the topography, the size of the potholes means it's not just 30 or 45 minutes from here, but beyond just that, just to get into the neighborhood. they had to divert deputies dealing with an aggravated robbery to go over to the home. they had received so many calls about gunfire in recent months.

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homeland security has announced that secretary mayorkas will head to the rio grande valley tomorrow in texas. the biden administration is preparing to send 1,500 unarmed active duty troops to the southern border for 90 days. officials at homeland are bracing for an expected surge of migrants when title 42 is lifted next week. in el paso, hunts are camping out in the streets. some migrant advocates say, active troops sends the wrong message. >> gabe gutierrez joins me from el paso. gabe, you are there now. you were there a couple of months ago. you have seen this unfold.

the system is broken. will troops help? they are there to assist border patrol. >> reporter: well, many advocates think it won't really make much of an impact here. local officials here, we are hearing the same thing from them. they declared a state of emergency in el paso. several other texas cities as well. i want to show you the scene. you can see, it's still very active. there are supplies being handed out. more ordinarily process than several moments ago when the truck pulled up. there was a mad scramble to get food, water, desperation that some of the migrants feel. we were speaking with them all morning. some had been here for days, sleeping outside of this church, desperate to figure out where to go to next. one woman from venezuela is trying to get to new york. we were here several months ago. we were here when the president visited el paso.

also the month before that. this group seems much larger than back then. the difference is striking. this line extends all the way around this church for several city blocks. hundreds if not more than 1,000 migrants have been here throughout the night. some telling us that they were here in desperate conditions. as with regard to the troops that have now -- that are coming to the southern border, the hope is they will help them get the handle on the number of migrants they expect to come starting next week when title 42, the covid-era border restriction, is lifted. some cities in texas, including el paso, are starting to see this influx now. >> gabe, thank you so much. joining us now is jeh

johnson. former general counsel for the defense department. it's good to see you. >> good to see you. welcome to new york. >> thank you. what can the administration do about this? title 42 is going to be lifted. they have no choice because of the court decisions. they probably would prefer that it not be lifted. but they're going along with it. >> one of the things i learned owning this problem for three years when i was secretary is that migration from central america, from the south of our border, reacts sharply to information about perceived changes in our enforcement policy. the smugglers amplify that. i'm quite sure that the fact that title 42 is coming to an end is widely known in central america, nicaragua, venezuela and elsewhere. i believe that regional

processing centers is a great idea. give people an alternative to coming here illegally. offer people the opportunity in a controlled way to come here legally, safely and have their asylum claims adjudicated. they started off in columbia and guatemala. we need more of these. as long as they are resources, staffed and they do work. as far as the military, sending our military -- it's usually the guard to our southern border is not new. because of this, they cannot participate in domestic law enforcement in the country. they can only be there in support, as gabe noted. they have to have clear guidance about what they are supposed to do. very often we send large numbers of guard reserve, active duty to the southern border. what are they going to do? they have to have clear guide

guide -- clear guidance. i think it's important the secretary or some other visible member of government send the message over and over and over again, there's a right way and a wrong way to come here. if you come here the wrong way, we will send you back. in three years, i visited texas, the southern border probably at least a dozen times. i visited central america several times to continually send this message. it's important that he be visible at this moment and continue to send the message about what our authorities are and how we will enforce the law in a fair, humane manner. >> watching those people scrambling for whatever supplies, scarce supplies that they could get, is heartbreaking. >> of course it is. >> the wealthiest country in the world should be able to feed,

clothe, house and process migrants to this country. this is a decades old problem. there are 2 million cases backlogged. why can't we? we can say it's political gridlock. but there is money in the budget available that could be thrown at this. hire people, process and -- >> when you have people coming across our southern border in these numbers, even with the additional resources we have now, it's simply not feasible to keep track of them all. the backlog in cases just grows and grows and grows. communities along the southern border are forced to absorb these large numbers. then it becomes, as you know, a political stunt by the governor of texas, governor the florida -- >> he is resuming sending people north. >> sending people to new york, to the bus station, to

massachusetts avenue, to martha's vineyard, to chicago, wherever else. it should be done at a national level, in a more organized fashion where a number of states share this burden and take on this population, much like we did with refugees resettlement seven, eight years ago. >> doesn't the white house have to somehow step up to this? it's obviously politically toxic going into a campaign year. just the humanity of it, the human needs, the december pir desperation of these people. >> i would like to see a nationally coordinated effort which probably only the white house can lead to -- in a more organized fashion -- resettle this population throughout the interior of the united states. not just new york city. not just washington, d.c. not just martha's vineyard. so that we can absorb these

numbers in an -- a more orderly fashion. as i know president biden believes, you have to address this at the source. we began that in the obama administration. this administration has resumed that. that requires a sustained, multi-year effort to deal with the underlying problems of people flowing north from central america. >> jeh johnson, thank you very much. >> thank you. world press freedom day. keeping information free and press safe in a dangerous world. that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ll rc

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#. today marks the 30th anniversary of world press freedom day with journalism facing a global crisis, the u.n. says 85% of the world has seen curbs on freedom of expression in the past five years. at the end of last year, the number of journalists in prison worldwide reached a 30-year high according to the committee to protect journalists. among them wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich who has now been wrongfully detained in russia on false charges for five weeks. today secretary of state tony blinken was asked about gershkovich by david ignatius at the "washington post" world press freedom day event. >> we're engaged with the russians to seek his freedom, to seek his immediate release.

short of that just to get what russia's obligated to provide which is consular access, which they've done once but have yet to repeat. we have a country in the case of russia that like a handful of other countries around the world is wrongfully detaining people using those political pawns, using them as leverage. >> joining me now is paul beckett, washington bureau chief of "the wall street journal," which is hosting the future of everything festival in new york city later today. paul, thanks for being with us. it's especially poignant for you, evan's immediate colleagues, but for everyone who loves the free press and admires his work. what can you tell us about how he is doing? >> as far as we know, andrea, he's doing pretty well under the circumstances. the circumstances he's in a secret -- or security services prison in moscow that's notorious for how it treats its intene from the reports by our lawyers

who have talked to him and from his appearance in court where he seemed very much aware of what was going on. he speaks excellent russian, so he doesn't have to rely on translators. he can hold his own in any company, so we're optimistic that he will be all right until the day he comes home. >> and we're told that -- i mean, the administration, the state department, the white house is doing everything that they can, but it doesn't seem as though there's a lot of engagement. there was one conversation with sergey lavrov, and it's not sure how much influence he has, and these are very serious charges. i mean, you know better than i the way paul whelan has been in jail for four years now on a 16-year sentence on conviction of espionage and russia 99% of the people in russian jails get convicted once they go court. so obviously the effort has to be a trade, a prisoner swap. >> we've been very encouraged from the u.s. government's response on this. now we are waiting for action

that will sort this very unfortunate situation both for evan and for paul whelan, in both cases state department has determined that the charges are bogus, wrongfully detained, and so we're looking to seeing what the government can do to get both of them home and obviously in paul's case has spent a huge amount of time. >> at least a thousand russian journalists have left since the war began, and so hasn't vladimir putin achieved the purpose of silencing a free press and coverage of what's happening inside russia during this war? >> there's a group of foreign correspondents who were in russia who are dedicated to covering russia so i don't think it's achieved very much for them at all. we continue to cover russia very aggressively and certainly evan's case has been very prominent in the news and reflects very poorly on the

kremlin. so we don't know what the aims has been taken, but if it was something to do with publicity, i'd say that's badly back fired. >> except that lot of organizations are pulling people out, "new york times" did, others are trying to cover it from outside. no one was doing -- very few people can do what evan was doing, fluently speaking russian and going outside of moscow and talking to people. >> certainly and i think as you referenced elsewhere in the program, it's happening more and more around the world. we've had -- there was a big clampdown in china where reporters were refused visas and expelled, and so we and many other organizations are covering china largely from outside of china, and that will be the case in russia, and so essentially, you know, an on the ground media blackout from poland to -- which is terrible for the world. >> can you tell me, we only have a minute left, but i understand

"the wall street journal" is now reporting that the officials, u.s. officials in oman have talked to syrian intelligence about trying to get austin tice out. austin's been a "the washington post" freelancer, he's been in syria for 11 years. >> the story speaks for itself, that is our understanding that there is a renewed effort of austin tice's situation, and obviously a decade is a great time, and i met linda tice and our heart goes out to her and that family as it does to all people who are wrongfully detained around the world when they're just trying to do their jobs. this is an exercise in -- a crime. >> indeed, we are committed to keeping the focus, the spotlight on this and extraordinary work "the wall street journal" is doing on all of this. we thank you. >> thank you. really appreciate it. thank you.

and i will be at the future of everything festival hosted by "the wall street journal" here later in new york. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online on facebook and twitter @mitchell report, and "chris jansing reports" is next. i am lindsey reiser live from msnbc headquarters in new york city. right now the u.s. is trying to validate stunning allegations from the kremlin, moscow accusing ukraine of trying to assassinate vladimir putin with drones. ukraine denying the charge and warning it could be an attempt to justify a new level of brutality on the battlefield. we'll dig into it coming up. plus, everyday americans already struggling to make ends meet and increasingly worried about their financial future. facing new challenges as the federal reserves weighs whether to hike interest rates amid criticism that washington politicians are playing chicken with the fate of the u.s. economy. and the man accused of killing five of