also here with us, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and an nbc news political analyst. ken, let me start with you. what can you tell us about this information war that the u.s. is engaging in with russia? >> reporter: good morning, jose. this is a concerted strategy, run out of the national security council to declassify intelligence and to make it public -- well, first to share it with allies. then to make it public if it suits the strategic needs of the united states. and of course, the first big call that they made in release was predicting that russia would invade ukraine. and that was a risky thing for them to do. because if they were wrong, it would have been another bad day for u.s. intelligence agencies. but they were absolutely right. and for example, in france, the head of the military intelligence agency had to resign, because they had made the wrong call and thought that russia wouldn't invade. but now we're in the middle of the war, and the u.s. has been releasing intelligence, and sometimes it's not always based on the mo

rick stengel, a former managing editor of time magazine, he served as undersecretary of state in the obama administration. they are both msnbc analysts. and stuart stevens, a veteran of republican presidential campaigns, he is the author of: it was all a lie, how the republican party became donald trump. and peter, let me begin with you, as the professor of journalism here. and former editor of a political magazine. the challenge that rob reiner's tweet presents in today's news world. is was that an opinion, or is that a fact? a vote for republicans is a vote to destroy democracy. we would of course prior to this period we're living in, immediately classify that as an opinion. and a rather wild one, especially before the trump era. but it might be a fact, and if it's a fact, how does journalism, how does the new york times, and publications like that, deal with it? >> i think it's an enormous challenge, institutions like the new york times develop a certain mode of operating in a very very different moment in american political history. one when the differences between the two politi

member of ukraine's parliament and chaired the foreign affairs committee from 2014 to 2019 and rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs during the obama administration. he is now an msnbc political analyst. raff, i do want to begin with you, the u.n. secretary-general says he hopes to explore a cease-fire with russia. he thinks one eventually can happen, or at least he hopes it can. i wonder on the ground there, what are people saying about their belief in vladimir putin's desire to negotiate? >> reporter: katy, we're not hearing a lot of optimism about the u.n. sec general's trip to moscow. he's appealed to vladimir putin several times at distance for a cease-fire, ignored every time. he's going to try again today, face-to-face inside the kremlin. we'll see if he has anymore luck. i'll tell you expectations are not high here. the working assumptions among ukrainians both in government and people on the street is that vladimir putin has absolutely no desire to negotiate with any seriousness. we are hearing some frustration here in ukraine that the

rick stengel, stuart stevens, peter beinart, thank you very much for starting us off tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, the republican governor of texas was forced to reverse himself under pressure from or rock. who is running to take his job, that's next. that's next. graine attacks? you can't always avoid triggers like stress. qulipta™ can help prevent migraine attacks. you can't prevent what's going on outside that's why qulipta™ helps what's going on inside. qulipta™ is a pill. gets right to work to prevent migraine attacks and keeps them away over time. qulipta™ blocks cgrp, a protein believed to be a cause of migraine attacks. qulipta™ is a preventive treatment for episodic migraine. most common side effects are nausea, constipation, and tiredness. learn how abbvie can help you save on qulipta™. bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven t

rick stengel, still here.ll me how it's going to work. >> well, look, we have a clear and present danger to our country right now. in donald trump trying to subvert our very elections system, and it's something that we're not paying enough attention to, and it is happening right now. it's happening in states like arizona, michigan, minnesota. >> georgia. >> nevada. georgia. all over. and what he is trying to do is to help support and then get elected these election deniers who are trump loyalists who are basically going to do his bidding in 2024. okay? and if you look back at 2020, and the elections there, you know, he was thwarted in his attempt to overturn the election by people in these key positions of secretaries of state who were people of integrity. >> democrats and republicans, right? >> exactly. it's nonpartisan. people of integrity who just -- their job is to count the votes. their job is to certify the election. and he has said, this is the weakest link, this is the path to the white house. if i can

rick stengel. all of them msnbc contributors. rhodes, it is the portrait of a heinous, the most heinous echo in human history. you heard greenfield make that reference as well as president zelenskyy and it's really over to the western world. what do we do now? >> yeah. it's absolutely heinous and look, you know, when you look at the combination of the horrible war crimes that we're discovering, the stated purpose of demilitarization and some articles in russian state media that talk about the need to eliminate ukraine, we might not just be talking at war crimes. this is rising to the level of genocide, trying to eliminate the ukrainians as a people. through violence, deportations and political measures. that's the severity of this. it's not morally tenable to continue to buy significant amounts of russian gas as europe does every day. i hope coal and oil are just the beginning. they're going to have to take some pain in europe to really cut off russia from its lifeline of revenue, which is that sale on export of gas. i think the

talking about this issue with rick stengel is a particular pleasure of mine, former undersecretary ofomacy and public affairs and an msnbc analyst. the president wants congress to make it easier to find, seize the assets of russian oligarchs and potentially sell those assets. is this something that's doable? >> great to see you, jose. you know, they're trying to find the last bits of space in the sanctions that they haven't covered already. and, you know, i would tend to think, let's just go whole hog at this point. things are not going to get any better. but the treasury department is looking at this and they're going to turn every screw they can to make sure that oligarchs don't benefit from any of this process. >> rick, the war in ukraine is now in its third month. today is 64 days since the beginning of that invasion. putin doesn't seem to have accomplished much so far, other than destroying cities, killing thousands of innocent ukrainians. how do you see putin going forward? i mean, the fact is that he has very little to show the russians that he's been able to gain. >> well, jos

rick stengel is the former undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs under president obama, served on president biden's transition team. he is also an msnbc political analyst. we're also joined by jonathan lamir and host of "way too early" here on msnbc. erin, what is the very latest where you are? >> reporter: hey, jose. all eyes on the besieged city of mariupol, where ukrainian officials once again are furiously trying to set up a humanitarian -- humanitarian corridor, badly needed out of that embattled city. hundreds of civilians, according to ukrainian officials are trapped inside the steel plant there. and there's a real fear here, throughout ukraine that what's happening in mariupol right now mirrors what happened in bucha just on a larger scale. i was in bucha earlier today, to attend the funeral of 33-year-old marina vanyuk. she was being buried alongside two strangers. we were told in order to make things faster, they're simply overwhelmed in that small city with the number of dead. 420 dead so far. the morgues are full, the priest who is giving the service said th

joining us now to talk about this, susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today," and rick stengelstate for public diplomacy and public affairs and an msnbc political analyst. susan, what does accountability look like from the u.s. perspective. >> well, first of all, we heard the president not use any hedge words when he talked about vladimir putin, as a war criminal. said that they would be gathering evidence for a war criminal trial. that is a significant statement. and it's significant, as well, in that germany is now opening the door to discussions on a ban on russian gas imports. that's something that berlin has been reluctant to do, given their dependence -- their country's dependence on russian imports of energy. that would be a significant consequence for russia, of these atrocities that we're seeing on the screen right now. >> does, susan, do you think, the administration think that maybe these images coming out of bucha will help convince some, until now, wavering allies, that it's time for tougher actions against russia? >> well, the biggest target, i think that the admi

. >> rick stengel, thank you so much for talking us all through this. >>> does the january 6th committee have enough evidence to refer donald trump for criminal charges? a "new york times" report says yes. michael schmidt, who broke that story, joins us next. >>> the u.s. has promised to welcome ukrainian refugees with open arms. that process has been slow. we're going to speak with congresswoman susan wild about what more can be done to speed things up. >>> and a d.c. party is a reminder that covid is not over. it turned out to be a superspreader with more high-profile guests testing positive today. we're just getting started here on "american voices." ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from and every person... overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. [upbeat music playing] ♪♪ welcome to home sweet weathertech home. a p

. >> we start the hour with frank figulusi, myles taylor and rick stengel is just back from poland. the crimes in ukraine may also stem from the kremlin's years of dehumanizing propaganda against ukraine. they must sit through informational television programs from 9:00 to 9:40 p.m. every day but sunday. the message that they're stopping nazis is being spread throughout the military. they are pumped full of lies and disinformation about the war in ukraine, but that does not explain, at least to my brain, the atrocities being carried out, the rapes, the slaughter of bound civilians. what is happening? what is the russian military strategy in ukraine? >> reporter: we're watching the fruits of authoritarianism at their most rotten. this is what is bred when you have a culture that never acknowledges the sanctity of human life and decides that, as a strategy, they're going to slaughter innocents. they're going to take civilian lives, not by accident, but deliberately, hoping to instill fear in the ukrainians and demoralizing the ukrainians. also, as you said, nicolle, they're literally