i believe we have mike memoli with us. courtney is posted up at the pentagon.rea mitchell is our chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports." matt bradley is in ukraine and we're joined by ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the obama administration. ben, let me start with you as you are the newest addition here to this group. apologies if i have to interrupt you if the president begins to speak. what is the number one most important point that you believe president biden needs to make in the next minute or two here? >> you know, i was also a speechwriter. i think one of the things about ukraine and president biden has spoken about it a lot, he has not been able to lay out the four corners of his policy. what's important for him is to give the american people an update, having seen these scary headlines about what is the status of diplomacy with russia? vladimir putin indicated he's open to continued discussions. that's the state of those discussions? and president biden talked about significant consequences in t

mike memoli joins me from the white house and pete williams is always with us. >> he went to palmettohool and take your harvard and do that. judge jackson was the front-runner it seemed like from the day he took the oath. ia -- yeah, chuck. this is the fastest a democratic president has moved to fill a supreme court vacancy in decades. if you look back to the presidential transition when president-elect biden had a briefing with his team about potential supreme court nominations, when he filled the d.c. circuit court see the that garland vacated last march, it was very clear this was in some ways the longest time a sitting president has had to think about how he would fill the seat. then you go back two years to today, to the moment when he pledged that he would select a black woman should a vacancy occur. so it was sort of similar to the veep steaks when you think about it. we often talked about it was kamala harris versus the field. it wasn't clear who the field candidate might be but it was between harris and somebody else. and the same was always true here. obviously judge childs

mike memoli is at the white house. i'm joined by barry mccaffrey, former member of the national security council and is now an msnbc military analyst. and nola haynes is a professor of political science at pepperdine university and is also the director for women of color advancing peace and security. thanks for joining us on this. mike memoli, i want to play some sound for you from "morning joe" earlier today. >> the door to diplomacy is still open should russia choose to walk through it. every sign on the ground and now at sea is they are continuing down the path of escalation. >> so, mike, it seems as if what we're hearing there that time is running out, right, that we're pointing away from diplomacy now, more possibly towards a confrontation. talk us through what the white house is doing to avoid that. >> yeah, those comments are so telling. we've seen over the last few weeks a real fleury from president biden, trying to align on sanctions and preparations for a potential invasion. you've seen other major european l

mike memoli, thank you. >>> we expect to see the press conference. here peppered with multiple questions that we've been talking about on msnbc. we'll bring that to you live. >>> we're also talking other headlines. including a move from somebody really important, president trump's legal push. trying to block january 6 investigators from getting access to. >>> and the unlikely alliance between two georgia gubernatorial rivals why these two are teaming up, stacey abrams, david perdue. we'll be back. , david perdue we'll be back. age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss. and if you're taking a multivitamin alone, you may be missing a critical piece. preservision. preservision areds 2 contains the only clinically proven nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. "preservision is backed by 20 years of clinical studies" "and its from the eye experts at bausch and lomb" so, ask your doctor about adding preservision. and fill in a missing piece of your pla

we have correspondent mike memoli and welcome to you both, mike we're going to start with you here. what do we know about the president's phone call with vladimir putin? >> alex, you're going to see me looking down at my phone every few seconds here because this call began at 11:04 a.m. according to a white house official and no indication just yet of whether it's still ongoing. i'll offer updates as we get them. this appears to be a last-ditch attempt by the president to avert what appears to be an imminent invasion, at least that's what we're hearing from white house officials. we heard yesterday from jake sullivan, the national security adviser who said he couldn't pinpoint the day, the minute that this happened but u.s. intelligence indicates russia is capable of launching the rapid assault, followed by a typical ground invasion. that's why you saw overnight the u.s. embassy in kyiv, ukraine, seeing all of its staff, excludeing those core personnel should evacuate. we have been hearing warnings from u.s. officials for days for all american citizens in ukraine to get out. here's

mike memoli is traveling with the president in ohio.ick gaspart, the president of the center for american progress. mike, to borrow a phrase from the '90s, this is a feel your pain type of pitch here. i've heard this similar pitch that nobody will listen to the accomplishments until people feel as if things are getting better. >> reporter: that's right. he's doing these public events even if he's not paying much attention with the supreme court pick and other events getting more information. we saw today the white house thinks they have a very strong economic argue tomt make, especially as it relates to the work he's done on manufacturing, on infrastructure, of course, supply chain issues. and you heard the president without build back better to talk about anymore still making a number of sort of thematic tests. you heard him say we're building america better than before, rebuild america, we're betting on america's workers. >> i noticed the awkward build back better is gone, which has always been awkward to say. they went with building.

mike memoli has the latest from the white house. cal perry has the latest on the protest blocking the canadian and u.s. border on michigan. i'm joined by the medical chief commissioner as their state lifts their mandate. and a chair of the health policy institute of virginia and someone who has been advocating i guess a re-establishing of a new response, if you will. mike, let me start with you. you know, it's not hard to see why the administration's being cautious. they declared mission accomplished last july 4th, and i'd argue they paid a political price ever since. but now what is their plan to sort of deal with this? are they comfortable being the bad cop here, if you will? >> reporter: yeah, chuck. when you talk to the white house about this, they're quite defensive about it. they say they have a different job. one official said new york is not the rest of the country and the job of the federal government, the cdc, is to establish broad guidance that could apply to all situations. when you hear the cdc director saying they stil

. >>> joining me, mike memoli, richard engel from ukraine, and mike mcfall. richard, let's go right to you, and walk us through what you're seeing now. >> reporter: definitely seeing an early shelling today. while we were there, the separatists started firing. before you play the clip, it's important to understand the context here. russia says the reason it has recognized these separatist areas, the reason it is potential going to in1r5ids this -- invade this country, is because ukraine is attacking the pro-russian population. that's not what we saw. we saul all of it coming from one direction, the ukrainians not firing back. >> sometimes rounds are closer than others. coming right over this front line position. this village has been hit heart over the last four, five days. about half the people have moved out already. >> so it came from this direct? [ speaking foreign language ] >> so that is whats it is like. you can be calm, no outgoing fire, and then all of a sudden boom, boom, boom from the separatist area. i think there might have been 20, 30 rounds tha

you on this busy monday with nbc's mike memoli at the white house, err an mclachlan in ukraine and the defense assistant secretary for europe and nato under president obama is with us as well. let me go to you, mike, first. we're waiting for the pentagon hearing to start any minute here but we're also expecting that news conference, with president biden and the german chancellor in about 15 minutes. the backdrop is what everybody will be watching and listening for, right? sanctions against russia, if they can move forward on that. the standoff over the nord stream 2 pipeline and how much of a united front will there be with germany now saying any invasion -- we heard this with the german chancellor saying there might be a united response, which the u.s. likes to hear. >> absolutely, hallie. when you think about the meeting president biden is having with the new german chancellor today, who fills angela merkel's shoes for 14 years, the glue that held europe together on so many critical issues, military, economic and otherwise. so as we confront the new threat with russia and ukraine rig

joining me now, nbc's mike memoli at the white house, nbc's erin mclaughlin on the ground in kyiv, and pentagon reporter for the "wall street journal." thanks for joining us on this. it has been a wild 48 hours when it comes to developments as to what's happening on the border with ukraine. and a possible invasion from moscow. a biden official saying, mike, the call was, in fact, professional but did not bring about fundamental change. that does not sound like good news to me. >> no, yasmin, and it's concerning when you hear the flurry of diplomacy that's happening, including putin himself in most of those cases speaking today for an hour and two minutes with president biden, speaking in-person with the french president, emmanuel macron. the british prime minister just before that as well, boris johnson, and so what you hear the white house saying things like they still don't have a clear sense from the russian president of whether he's going to move forward with diplomacy or potentially military action, that's a real sign of concern. now, what's also concerning is that these conversat

nbc's mike memoli joining us from lorain, ohio. >> reporter: jose, obviously the situation in ukraine and the president's search for a supreme court nominee have been dominating the time and attention behind the scenes. white house officials say planning for the state of the union add dpres is also heavily under way. the president spent part of last weekend at camp david working through the latest draft with his strategist. this is an administration that feels like now is the time to tout their accomplishments from the covid relief law, the bipartisan infrastructure law. the president will be touting $1 billion from that law going to a great lakes river oracle arenaup in ohio, a must-win battleground state, of course. there's a recognition that with inflation at the top of voters' concerns as well as the ongoing fatigue over covid that, as one white house official put it, you really aren't ready to hear -- the american public, that is, the litany of accomplishments from this president unless he demonstrates he recognizes they're fac

>> no, it's not and it's the wrong bumper sticker. >> all right, mike memoli for us there. mike. and welcome back to new york city. that was part of our welcoming committee there. >> margay, you had a strong piece about crime just last month. here's the headline "the right way to stop rising crime in new york." it reads in part, quote, the challenge will be how to make the city safer without reverting to the overpolicing, especially in black and latino communities seen under previous mayors. do you have think president biden's plan can meet that challenge? >> we certainly hope so. the reality is that law enforcement is a key part, of course, of keeping our communities safe and we see that there's no question about that. but crime is actually very complicated and the causes of it are complicated. and so when you really talk to people who think deeply about these issues, you know, it's obvious that it's not only police that are the solution. you have to think about employment programs, you have to think about how to create jobs, community violence interrupters, health care. i

. >>> first let's go to mike memoli at the white house for us where administration officials are reacting to the dramatic escalation from vladimir putin. as we promised, keir, we'll be talking about this. mike, what is the white house saying about it? >> reporter: alex, as you can imagine, the white house is monitoring every comment coming from the russian president and every russian military move. we're hearing from a senior military official and from our colleague courtney kube that there is no reason to doubt that vladimir putin has put the nuclear forces on alert but they're calling it escalating and unnecessary. they point out that the russians maintain significant military capabilities they haven't deployed yet. roughly two-thirds of the military buildup we have seen over the last few months outside ukraine's borders now has deployed, that means they still have one-third outside, that's not insignificant. white house press secretary jen psaki this morning was echoing the concern of white house officials and indicated that the biden administration is willing to call out every russian

we've got senator bob menendez, i'm hallie jackson, mike memoli, courtney kube.r simmons in moscow, and andrea mitchell and hager shamali, a former spokes spokesperson for the treasury department. we just heard from the president. we're about to hear from the secretary of state. and mike, the president, he was done with vladimir putin, it seems like. he left that door of diplomacy open a crack, but he was tough. >> listen, hallie, this is what we've been talking about for three months, how the white house was cal lating what they describe as swift and skweer sanctions should russia invade ukraine. there are questions in the last day why it took the white house to officially call it an invasion. you had the president very clearly calling it the beginning of an invasion. as far as the sanctions that the president just announce third among the very severe that have been talked about for months. significantly, though, the president saying just the beginning. this the first tranche of sanctions, you referred to what he said at the beginning of his speech, hoping there

joining me to discuss, mike memoli, mike bradley and general barry mccaffrey, former national securityiser council member. and the deputy national security adviser to president george w. bush. michael, what more is the white house saying about this new intelligence assessment? it's major. >> a stark assessment by the u.s. intelligence agencies. u.s. officials do not believe that vladimir putin has made the decision to move ahead with an invasion, but this assessment offers a really stark picture of how quickly he's capable of executing one if we were to go ahead. this assessment suggests that russia could take the capital of ukraine, kyiv. they've amassed 83 battalionings on ukraine's border, another 14 on their way to join them. at that pace, they are ready for a ground invasion as soon as february 15th. we also include the weather forecast because that is the optimal time for those russian tanks to roll at that stage. according to this assessment, the toll would be significant, as many as 50,000 ukrainian citizens would be injured or killed, 25,000 ukrainian soldiers, and that refuge

mike memoli covering the white house. d the former ambassador bill taylor and andrea kendall-taylor, former intelligence officer for russia, richard, let me start with you and mike on the ground. where the action is happening, right, the new sanctions from president biden on nord stream 2, it seems as though from listening from the state department that the game-changer on that something that the president had not done to this point was germany going ahead and making the first move less than 24 hours ago. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, hallie, the white house trying to analyzed strength of preparations getting to this moment. key allies like germany able to act so quickly on nord stream 2. that's the biggest action. formalizing in a statement, president biden saying that russia has given our allies every incentive to end the independence on oil. a senior official was more blunt saying this is an opportunity to end europe's addiction to russian oil. one of the main points of leverage at this point. and some republicans ha

joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli and jake sherman. so these visitor logs, mike, what might they tell us? >> obviously the white house and the january 6th select committee is very interested in seeing what kind of foot traffic was going through the white house on that day. there's a lot of consideration about who was potentially meeting with the president as he -- the former president, i should say, as he was watching these events unfold. but now what's interesting about this, katy, is we first reported last october that the biden white house's posture on these record requests, which was that this constitutional consideration of executive privilege in their view should not apply to the former president when the very issue that's being investigated is an effort to subvert the constitution itself. so at first glance the letter that we saw today from the white house counsel is not a new position from this administration. what's significant about this letter, though, is the timeline. in the past there has been a 30-day request for these doc

mike memoli, great to see you, my friend.talking about this over and over again, inflation is a major issue in this country right now, despite both job and wage growth. now it seems the president is turning his main focus to that, his messaging. talk to me. >> yeah, this is a shift, right. as we've seen the monthly inflation numbers put the white house on defense, we've seen them talk it away, explain the impacts, it's transitory, temporary. even as recently as december the president saying it was temporary. as the white house is planning for a state of the union address in less than two weeks, a big opportunity to set the table for the mid terms elections, they're recognizing as they want to talk about the president's accomplishments, covid relief laws and infrastructure laws, that your finding voters aren't really receptive to hearing him talk about those accomplishments until and when he provides clarity that he understands what americans are going through. so you've begun to hear that from the president in recent public e

joining me is mike memoli from the white house, richard engel in ukraine. mike, let me start with you. i want to talk specifically about what the president said yesterday. it seemed to be the first time he was getting ready to ask the american people, hey, in order to stand up to russia, everybody in the world including the american people might have to sacrifice something. for us that sacrifice could be higher gas prices. >> reporter: that's right, chuck. we've been reporting for several weeks about the sort of pressure on the president both from inside and outside the white house. the deliberations about when he was going to give the kind of speech to the american people that he gave yesterday. there were several more arguments for and against it. one of the biggest arguments for doing it was domestic politics. the president needed to get out and say if the u.s. was going to follow through on the sanctions it was threatening to impose, but also the nature of a disruption would lead into financial and energy markets, he needed to explain to people. he could

with that i want to bring in my colleague mike memoli who has been working his sources around the clock and everything that relates to the president. mike, what do we know about this meeting how important is it and where is the president in this process? >> well, first of all, kristen, i think it's quite remarkable when you consider usual frenzy of speculation that surrounds a supreme court search like this has been overshadowed by some of the other major storylines that we've been covering on a daily basis. the situation in ukraine and covid headlines and the economic news today. but i think that's exactly where the president and the white house team likes it. this is a process that they have said they want to see get back to sort of the usual the lower temperature, not the kind of heated pitch battles we saw in the trump era or even in the final year of president obama's term. this is a key moment, kristen, because the meeting of the 11 democrats is the biggest single gathering that we know president biden has convened to talk about this. as we talk about the traditional role of advic

. >> let's go back to the breaking news and bring in nbc white house correspondent mike memoli and aaron mclaughlin. ukraine in the capitol city of kyiv, welcome to you both, mike, we're going to begin with you. what are you learning about president biden's conversation with president putin that wrapped up 45 minutes ago. have you gotten a readout? >> the call lasted an hour and two minutes to be exact. the white house is briefing reporters, but we have gotten our first official readout from the white house, and i'll read to you a bit of what they're saying about the call. the white house is saying that president biden was clear to pruitt that if russia undertakes a further invasion of ukraine, the united states together with our allies and partners will respond decisively, and impose swift costs, and reiterated a further invasion would produce widespread human suffering and diminished russia standingment this is the initial top lines from the white house about what these two leaders spoke. obviously emphasizing the president's side of it. what's interesting, alex, as we have seen just r

mike memoli, thank you. >>> coming up, why exactly did donald j.least 15 boxes of official white house records with him to his private residence in florida? and what was inside those boxes? that's next. d what was inside t? d what was inside t? that's next. so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ got my hair ♪ ♪ got my ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪ it's your home. and there's no place like wayfair to make your reach-in closet, feel like a walk-in closet now that's more your style. make the morning chaos, organized chaos. and make sure everything's in it's place. so nothing is out of place. however you make it, make your home a place like no other. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. it was really holding me back. standing up... ...even walking was tough. my joints hurt. i was afraid things were going to get wo

mike memoli, glavine, gabe, thanks for starting us off. >>> up next, voters and the virus. with democrats heading into a tough midterm election, will governors loosening the reins on virus restrictions help the party in november is >>> and we promised yesterday on this show we'd be chasing down reaction on capitol hill, the rnc's censure of liz cheney and adam kinzinger, and boy did we. senate republicans did not want to talk about it. more on the backlash there ahead. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press you're watching "meet the press daily. -dad is old. -right. so, your message said you wanted to talk about insurance? i said, "i want you to talk about insurance." well, moste know that bundling home and auto -saves you money. -keep saying your words. but did you know that new customers who bundle and save with progressive can save an average of $800? shh. sleeping baby. i love you, too. your heart is at the heart of everything you do. and if you have heart failure, entrust your heart to entresto. it's the number one heart failure brand p

. >> mike memoli, i want to ask you about the decision we have been reported, that the president hasetermine who he will appoint to become the next associate justice of the supreme court. >> incredible to think that the president has been weighing this momentous decision, while preparing for his state of the union address. while being with this ukraine crisis. but two sources familiar with the matter tell kristen walker and i had that the president has made this final decision. as we heard from jen psaki earlier tonight, no formal awful had been made at that point she said it was not final final, but we could see an announcement as soon as tomorrow. you can understand the white house eyeing the developments overnight in ukraine. but tomorrow is two years to the date that then candidate joe biden made that pledge on a south carolina debate stage. that he would, if he had the opportunity, nominated black women for the high court. joe biden is a student of history, and -- >> you are a student of joe biden's, and what jen psaki said. you said it here a moment ago. she said it's not final

let's go in depth with nbc's mike memoli in washington, erin mclaughlin in ukraine for us. ting with you, mike. did president biden and putin, did they make any progress on today's phone call? >> reporter: well, alex, given the urgency of the situation, remember the kremlin originally tried to schedule this call for monday. the white house insisting this call go ahead over the weekend today while the president's at camp david. it's something of concern that the headline from a white house official speaking afterwards was that there appears to be no fundamental change in the dynamic that we have been seeing over the last few weeks. now, given the urgent warnings we have been hearing from u.s. officials that an invasion could occur at any moment, that's not a good sign, this official saying during the course of the conversation between the two presidents, it wasn't clear whether russia was prepared to advance its goals either through diplomacy or military effort at this point but that the president also made it clear to president putin that his level of concern about the poten

mike memoli, thank you very much. claire, please stay with us for the hour. when we come back, we'll switch gears and look at what's happening here domestically. fall out continues among the gop after the censure of adam kinzinger and liz cheney. republicans had to answer the question are they with the ex-president and eager to white wash the insurrection or not? we are going to dive into that. plus, taking a big step toward a return to normalcy. new jersey joining delaware in ending school mask mandates next month. the first of what could be a blue state wave of things to come. new jersey's governor joins us live. >>> and later in the program as the january 6th committee presses on it is becoming more aggressive, hoping to push the justice department toward the ex-president. the reporters on that story coming up. all that and more when "deadline white house" continues after this break. "deadline white house" continues after this break mize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dol

that's where we find nbc's mike memoli for us. >> reporter: alex, what we're hearing from multiple administration officials is a strong response to activate the nuclear arsenal at this moment, put it on a state of alert. the administration calling it an -- it's led to the kind of sanctions that seemed very unclear that they would be willing to take just weeks ago. the kind of steps like we saw including banning some russian banks from the s.w.i.f.t. banking system. targeting vladimir putin personally for sanctions. the kind of sanctions on oligarchs as well. it's the kind of response that also is leading the u.n. security council to vote today for something they've only done ten times before which is to call an ordinary session of the u.n. general assembly. it was something we heard also from the u.s. ambassador for the united nations. let's take a listen to some of her comments. >> it is vladimir putin's decision on whether he will stop what he's doing and listen to the voices of the world, the voice that is have condemned him or he will continue and if he continues we will continue to apply san

joining us now, one of the recorders who helped break that story, nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli no one has described as blustery. mike, thank you for joining us, it's a great story and we're glad you're here to talk to us. give us more insight as to how biden views the world leaders. much has been made as biden as a senator ahead of the formations committee had been on the world stage for a long time. but with the exception of putin, these are relatively new leaders, the other ones dealing on the world stage, angela merkel just stepped away as he's getting to know them, how does he feel about them? and do we think this information could impact those relationships? >> well, jonathan, it's really interesting, thus dynamic as president biden faces one of the biggest foreign policy tests of his presidency. you've heard him say this before, all politics is personal, even foreign policy. since his days on the committee, biden's staff has kept a list of world leaders, all of the travel he's done internationally to catalog and keep track of the relationships. and it is really is strikin

i'm hallie jackson in walk with you on this busy monday with nbc's mike memoli at the white house, err president obama is with us as well. let me go to you, mike, first. we're waiting for the pentagon hearing to start any minute here but we're also expecting that news conference, with president biden and the german chancellor in about 15 minutes. the backdrop is what everybody will be watching and listening for, right? sanctions against russia, if they can move forward on that. the standoff over the nord stream 2 pipeline and how much of a united front will there be with germany now saying any invasion -- we heard this with the german chancellor saying there might be a united response, which the u.s. likes to hear. >> absolutely, hallie. when you think about the

mike memoli is in washington d.c.. mike, you were reporting to us that even your colleagues have heard that the president was talking to vladimir zelenskyy. now we've heard that vladimir zelenskyy has released a video of himself, talking about the fact that there is going to be martial law. we are hearing explosions, we are hearing sirens in kyiv, we are hearing as you just heard with richard angle, and in mariupol, what is happening in the white house. >> we just got a new statement alley from the white house, on the presidents call with president zelenskyy. saying that is interesting ali. then more casual language. . presidents key says to biden in a statement, reached out to me tonight and we just finished speaking. condemned the unprovoked and unjustified attack from russian military forces. we are taking the steps to rally international, at the national security council. bind saying that zelenskyy asked me to call on the leaders of the world to speak clearly against the fragment aggression and to stand with the peo

. >>> joining me now is mike memoli at the white house. richard engel is in ukraine. courtney kube is here with me and keir simmons is in moscow and we have andrea mitchell sticking with us from washington, d.c. just how likely is it that we'll get to this stage where we might see a biden meeting with putin? >> this has been building over the course of several months. in recent weeks the warnings have been much more dire and grim as far as what russia is capable of. but we do appear to be going from simmer to boil with all signs pointing to an imminent invasion. you see that in the public and private choreography. publicly the president for the second time in nearly as many days meeting with his top national security team behind closed doors. at this point you also see much more clearly these two paths that have been laid out by the u.s., by our allies for the russians. diplomacy versus deterrence. you have the president making it clear, the u.s. making it clear that biden is willing to sit down with vladimir putin if they were not to invade. and also the flurry of di

. >> i want to bring in white house correspondent, mike memoli. are we getting any reaction from the white house. obviously over the last few days, the president has been making clear to american citizens, and now tony blinken in a statement saying we are in the process of temporarily rolo indicating our services out of kyiv -- i apologize for my mispronunciation of that city. they are relocating the u.s. embassy far to the west, and it's because of the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of russian forces. so when you combine the dire warnings escalating over the last few days about the threat of an invasion to now removing what was left of our embassy presence out of kyiv further west to obviously a safer position, and it's an illustration of a concerned level at the highest levels of the government. >> we are approaching if we are not already at a peak, and the u.s. government already called it a crescendo. if this is a way for vladimir putin to exert the most leverage against the west, what is he trying to get here. what does he ultimately wa

news correspondent, erin mclaughlin in kyiv, ukraine, and moscow producer, matt bod inner, and mike memoli, and courtney kube. matt, we are watching putin speak and potentially announcing what the next few hours could bring here. >> well, i think everyone right now is watching their televisions for what appears to be an extraordinary speech capping off what has already been an essentially extraordinary day. we did see the kremlin put out a read outdetailing his conversations with french president macron, and german chancellor, schultz. obviously there were a lot of questions about specifically what does it mean, and there are issues of geography and claimed territory. right now what is happening on russian state television seems to be something historic, i have to say. president putin is giving a speech addressing the russian people directly and explaining to them as he began why the ukraine issue is important. here's some of the things we have heard so far. i stress, this is ongoing and we still don't know where he's going with all of this, but he's saying russia and ukraine, the peoples

joining us, mike memoli, covering the white house.is live on capitol hill, and jake sherman is co-founder of bunch bowl news. good to see you, guys. not every state of the union, frankly, has this kind of stakes. but this is a critical speech. the president's got a lot of ground to cover. what are you hearing from inside the white house about what biden wants to accomplish and what he's going to focus on? >> reporter: our reporting just a few weeks ago was that the president wanted to use this state of the union address to help send democrats off into this midterm election year with some new momentum. obviously, the party has been sumping from the weight of expectations, the failure to advance the build back better agenda, but the president wants to tout what they have done, the infrastructure law, the ability to help deal with the country's pandemic of covid-19. but now obviously there's a lot of rethinking about exactly what the balance of this speech will be. i was told just last week, for instance, after the president had a meetin

i have mike memoli from the white house, courtney kube at the pentagon, richard engel in ukraine, matt bodner at the white house. we'll hear from the president today. obviously he wants to put a pressurial stamp on where things are right now. you talk with folks that are following the situation closely, mike, and it does appear that at least from the u.s. side of things a glimmer of optimism that maybe the strategy is working? >> reporter: i don't know if the white house would go so far. sometimes the light at the tunnel is an oncoming train. it's significant to have the president giving the kind of speech to the american people directly about ukraine at this moment given that he hasn't done that so far. the president has really only spoken about ukraine in response to q&a with reporters on their terms or in interview formats, in other speeches. this is the kind of speech that many outside the white house have been saying he needs to give. i'll quote michael mcfaul, the former ambassador to moscow, referring to a steech antony blinken gave saying president biden needs to give that spee

mike memoli is at the white house. matt bradley is in ukraine. keir simmons is in moscow. courtney kube is at her post at the pentagon. the urgency of these remarks, anything significant, one, in the fact that the president, he's scheduled to deliver them sometime in the next half hour now, they've moved up this time line, which tells you that they must want to get ahead of something. what could that be? >> reporter: i remember speaking with you about three months ago when the president had his first virtual summit with vladimir putin at the early stages of this crisis. there was a question then among senior administration officials whether vladimir putin was bluching. clearly we're at the sage where he's shown he is not bluffing. but there is some view within the administration that they can stop him now that he's taken this step which they are now calling an invasion, and we'll hear the president repeat that in his remarks shortly, is there a way to stop him from going further. that i think is a significant calculation in the administration right now determining how they

joining us now is mike memoli, erin mclaughlin, and peter baker.er, let's start with since russia is now suggesting only the u.s. can make a deal with moscow, are there any plans for president biden to meet with him, to talk to him again? where does that put us, anyplace different than we really were before that conversation with macron? >> just a way of putin of course dissing his french counterpart who showed him the respect of coming to moscow and then got the back of the hand as a result of it. macron thought he was successful in at least freezing to allow for more negotiations but i don't hear anything at this point about president biden making another call to president putin. he's done that couple times already in the last month or so so it hasn't led to a breakthrough. at this point you have basically a waiting game with one man, that is vladimir putin, deciding what he is going to do. the west has already made it clear what it will do. putin knows that, he has factored that into his equation and everybody is guessing what his real intention

joining me once again is mike memoli and also joining me, bill taylor. bring us up to date on this phone call between the president and putin. what actually took place? what, if anything, were they able to achieve? >> well, yasmin, this call lasted just over an hour. it took place just a few hours after secretary of state tony blinken spoke with his russian counterpart, really just the escalating number of calls between top russian officials, top u.s. officials as well as our top allies has increased significantly. but think about the journey since december 7th. that's when president biden first had a virtual conversation with president putin. since then, we've seen more russian forces amassing on the ukraine border, both in russia but also now belarus, something very much concerning to the u.s. we've also seen the u.s. become increasingly public about the warnings, about what would be the consequences for russia should they move ahead with an invasion, but also increasingly specific about what they think is happening, what the intelligence is telling th

mike memoli is at the white house.

so for more on this breaking story, we'll first turn to correspondent mike memoli live in washington, d.c. good morning. president biden last spoke to putin december 30th. what more do we know about this morning's call? >> we've seen exhaustive diplomatic efforts to avoid the situation we appear to be in. boris johnson spoke with president putin a few weeks ago. french president emmanuel macron, we saw that know toe of them seated at the desk, spoke with putin face to face and at appears one final phone call between president biden and president putin as the u.s. tries to ramp up pressure on vladimir putin not to invade. all thee cording to jake sullivan this appears imminent. >> we are in the window an invasion could begin at any time should vladimir putin decide to give the final go order. >> reporter: sullivan said we can't pinpoint the day, we can't pinpoint the hour putin might launch, but it would be a rapid assault with an aerial am boardment followed by a ground invasion. president biden had that virtual meeting with president putin in early december where he laid out the dipl