and it was something that brought the memory from when i would travel to the east bloc and see long lines of east germans waiting to get there rations -- their rations. what struck me was the people in line had no idea that they were stuck in line, squeezing through a small room to get there covid test with a bunch of other people who might be contagious. people did not realize that the reason that they could not go to cvs to buy a test for a dollar was because of the fda, which was located a few miles away from where they were waiting in line. there have been summoning government failures and snafus, and the politicians have not been held to account at all. and it is like although these false statements -- all these false statements have been swept under the rug. there has been so much collateral damage from the pandemic. i mean, the attorney general bill barr, he had a great line about the effect of the lockdowns. he said it was comparable to the big as a violation of civil liberties since the end of slavery. people should not forget the businesses and lives destroyed in 2020 when polit

and it was something which brought to memory when i would travel to the east bloc and see long lines of east germans waiting to get their potato and sauerkraut rations. what struck me was that the people online had no idea they were stuck out there in line, squeezing through a small room to get their covid test, with a bunch of other people that might be contagious. people did not realize that the reason they couldn't go to cvs and buy a test for a dollar is because of the fda, which is located only a few miles away from where they were waiting in line. there have been so many government failures and snafus and thus far, the politicians and the bureaucrats have not been held to account at all, and it's like all these false statements and misrepresentations have been swept under the rug. there has been so much collateral damage from this pandemic. freedom has been devastated. there was attorney general bill barr who i disagreed with on many issues, barr had a great line about the effect of these lockdowns, he said it was comparable to the biggest violation of civil liberties since the

grothman: the biden administration has been critical of some formally east bloc countries, poland, i think hungary. could you elaborate on what effect that has on the situation? mr. grenell: i believe that washington over the last decade has fundamentally viewed europe as just what paris, berlin, and brussels things, and europe is much more complicated. what we have seen in the last few years as a rewriting of the borders of europe, and a shrinking of the e.u., those are facts that nobody can ignore. europe is not in a stronger place, it is in a much weaker place. in 2014, we saw crimea being grabbed and that is a rewriting of the borders. i heard chancellor merkel talking about it as a terrible thing. i think we have to view the e.u., in voices like poland, hungary, and others they need to just be as strong. as berlin and paris. rep. grothman: one other thing, about 90 years ago there was a horrible famine caused by the soviets in ukraine. i would think, insofar as knowledge of that history, why -- would do nothing but help us in europe. why does nobody talk about that? mr. grenell:

and it was something that brought the memory from when i would travel to the east bloc and see long linesermans waiting to get there rations -- their rations. what struck me was the people in line had no idea that they were stuck in line, squeezing through a small room to get there covid test with a bunch of other people who might be contagious. people did not realize that the reason that they could not go to cvs to buy a test for a dollar was because of the fda, which was located a few miles away from where they were waiting in line. there have been summoning government failures and snafus, and the politicians have not been held to account at all. and it is like although these false statements -- all these false statements have been swept under the rug. there has been so much collateral damage from the pandemic. i mean, the attorney general bill barr, he had a great line about the effect of the lockdowns. he said it was comparable to the big as a violation of civil liberties since the end of slavery. people should not forget the businesses and lives destroyed in 2020 when politicians shu

. >> translator: we were given promises not to push the infrastructure of the nato bloc to the east one inch. everyone knows this well. today we see where nato is located, poland, the baltic countries, they said one thing. they did another. as people say, they screwed us over. >> tough language and that was before the u.s. president sends 3,000 more u.s. troops onto putin's doorsteps. one of the risks, i guess, is a miscalculation or putin takes this and says, aha, i told you so, and uses it to further provoke. is that a risk at the moment? >> well, first of all, i want to address the comments. there was never any promises made about the expansion of nato. secondly, the countries who joined nato joined because they are concerned about russian expansionism. president putin, as he often does, is lying to get a message across. will it cause further tension? there are a lot of people who do not see mr. putin as a very good strategist. what i would say they see him as an authoritarian opportunist. he has not been stops in the past. i think the current administration is doing some things that

. >> translator: we were given promises not to push the infrastructure of the nato bloc to the east oneeryone knows this well. today we see where nato is located. poland, romania, the baltic countries. they said one thing, they did another. as people say, they screwed us over. >> we have two live reports on the growing crisis. melissa bell is in ukraine. nic robertson is in moscow. we turn to another leader. >> reporter: yeah, emmanuel macron said he hoped he would meet with him soon. putin had a phone call with macron monday, had a phone call a few days before. interesting as well last night emmanuel macron had a phone call with the canadian prime minister justin trudeau. this was a reminder for the french president if he gets deeper into a conversation, maybe a meeting with putin, he goes there as a representative of nato and not of his own nation. you know, of course everyone is trying to scratch their heads and figure out what did putin really mean? what was he trying to do? these pronouncements yesterday, the state department saying they'll wait for the written response. they won't

former soviet bloc country was making that conversion away from dictatorship, away from the kind of economy that they had had. ukraine did better than most. it is breadbasket of the eastnd exporter, one that works very hard and now to be taken over. i don't have any question that putin is only making a step. then he will look for another guise to go into a country that has no u.s. military, by the way no u.s. embassy, because we have basically evacuated the embassy and americans have been told to flee. not since chamberlain said he had a diplomatic solution have we had a diplomatic solution that gave away a whole country. we gave away crime. we've given away eastern ukraine now. it is likely we'll give away the rest of the country including kyiv. jackie: peter if i can go back to you for just a moment, there are those who are saying vladmir putin is very strategic. he has been watching the united states for some time now, watching how we're handling our energy production over here. obviously under donald trump we were the world's top producer, eclipsing russia and saudi arabia and their production and now we're not. many are saying it is no coincidence that he has cho