richard haass is saying let biden be biden and don't do the walk back. but let's bring in peter alexander who is traveling with the president in tokyo. peter? >> reporter: hey, mika, good morning to you and joe and the team there. i was in the room during that news conference today and i was struck immediately after the president made those comments looking over at his top advisers including the ambassador to japan, rob emanuel, their eyes popped out of their head and they did come up with the clarification to try to walk back or clean up the president's comments as he said that the u.s. would be willing to respond militarily to protect the island of taiwan if china invaded. so here is the exact exchange as it played. >> you didn't want to get vofd in the ukrainian conflict militarily for obvious reasons. are you willing to get involved militarily to depend taiwan if it comes to that? >> yes. >> you are? >> that is the commitment we made. >> reporter: so the u.s. doesn't usually make that explicit security guarantee. instead the long standing policy for

of course, there was richard haass' organization.ow, from the rise of, of course, hungary and across the world. it was the rise of autocracy. my god, it's been one failure after another. you look at this collapse of russia, and i'm not even just talking about the military collapse, but this is a historic collapse that reminds me of, you know, what happened to russia when they lost a war to japan over 100 years ago. like, this seems to be an era-defining moment in that country's collapse. i will say the same of china, though. it doesn't get reported on as much. xi has made one miscalculation after another over the past five years. he has been a dismal president for china in just about every way. i suspect he will be rubberstamped to run that country again. but they had such an advantage five years ago, and they have lost that advantage on one front after another right now. >> mm-hmm. >> just how badly has autocracy been exposed over the past year or so? >> in fact, that's why you see xi's personality getting a puff up. you know when p

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richard haass weighs in. >>> and coming up on "morning joe," the latest from the ground in ukraine, ase country. >>> and u.s. intelligence is pointing to a prolonged conflict in eastern europe. we'll get expert military analysis from retired u.s. army general steph twitty and peter swac. >>> and also the new polling on the abortion debate following that supreme court draft opinion on roe v. wade. >>> plus, more on the results of what yesterday's republican primaries say about donald trump influence on the midterms. "morning joe," just a few moments away. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ what's the #1 retinol brand voltaren. used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® staying up half the night searching for savings on your prescriptions? just ask your cvs pharmacist. we search for savings for you. from coupons to lower costs options. plus, earn up to $50 extra bucks rewards each year just for filling at cvs pharmacy. it's time for our memorial day sale

richard haass is with us as well.t on the council on foreign relations. >> great to have both of you here. richard haass's background makes you look even more learned than usual. he's even a yankees fan. richard you wrote something yesterday that struck me as being, i thought, pretty dead on. you talked about the options that vladimir putin had. you said the most likely option would live with a long, low intensity war with reduced casualties. that seems to me, again, if he can't win, well, he certainly can't afford to lose. so have almost just to borrow from world war ii throughout this entire war over the past couple months, have a low intensity war where you never have to admit just how badly you miscalculated ukraine, nato and the west. >> yeah. you never have to admit anything wrong. you never have to accept or sign off on lesser demands. there's no way putin is going to agree that ukraine can be an independent, sovereign country. he clearly doesn't want it to be in the eu. plus, by playing for time, if you're put

richard haass and jonathan lemire are still with us, as well.>> anne applebaum, history hangs heavy over the day in russia, where the russians lost 26 million of their people during world war ii. obviously, hangs heavy over ukraine and, obviously, all of europe, whose families endured the horrors of world war ii. i'm curious, what is your reaction to putin's speech and, actually, the fact it was a bit anti anticlimactic? >> i would start by saying it wasn't rush that lost 26, 27 million people. it was a soviet union. many of the people who died in the second world war were ukrainians. one of the oddities or strange things about putin's regime is the way he's tried to capture and take over the memory of world war ii as if it were a russian victory and not a soviet victory, as if there were no other allies, as if nobody was there except russia. he creates this image of russia fighting enemies all around. that's not what happened in world war ii. it doesn't reflect any reality at all. he does this because he, himself, can't offer the russians any p

our collided talk with richard haass last week. it's real simple, they on the high ground here, this is the leadership in beijing that has to react. i don't think we are calculating the pressures they face as they go to that party congress. >> build on that. some people think we go four point one, maybe even 3.9. you have them looking for the high threes. what can they do? tom: on china there will have to figure out a covid policy that dovetails with a china that's working. what you're doing now is not working. is no question about that. are you the liberal lockdown amendment or in an end to the lockdown. every interview with outcome study china and vaccination. >> futures on the thought of 1% in the s&p. down a half of 1% of the nasdaq 100. yields how are for five straight weeks. then last week yields lower. by betty basis point, and lisa, euro-dollar how many calls overseen. >> was coming to spray to parity. if the ecb does decide to hide weeks, it's a resilient if they don't decide. what to do. in the u.s. this is counter to ret

also, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass.u know, a decade or so. i was speaking aouple weeks ago about the culture post vietnam, from '75 to '80. you talk to anybody that served during that time, they will tell you, the recruits were of a lower quality, for the most part. there was a lack of discipline. it took five, six, seven years after vietnam for our military culture to snap back. that's not going to happen in six or seven weeks in russia. my god, talk about the impact that it's having in this war and the tragedy for the russians that happened on the eastern front. >> joe, when you lose telegram propagandists, and they are for the russians totally in the tank, imagine how bad it is on the ground for the russian soldiers. major developments all negative for russia, fairly positive for ukraine. what you see in the east is all of the battle here has moved in this direction. more importantly, it is the success that we're seeing from some of the ukrainian counteroffensives. i had doubts a few weeks ago they'd even be able to

. >> richard haass, we hope you'll come back on "way too early" soon. thanks for all of you for getting up with us on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> well, biden was speaking about the economy, he really tried to express to americans that he feels their pain when it comes to inflation. i'm not sure about his choice of words. watch this. >> look, i know you're frustrated. i know. i can taste it. [ laughter ] >> wow. americans heard and responded with a resounding ew. >> bizarre. >> president biden -- >> whew. >> on defense. over high consumer prices. >> there you go, inflation in the morning. >> he says inflation is a top domestic priority. and, again, takes aim at maga republicans. we're going to play for you his new comments and have the new inflation report when it crosses later this morning. >>> plus, a mixed night for trump-backed candidates, with a win in west virginia, but a loss in nebraska. >> boy, that nebraska loss, statewide, it may show again, it may be easier for donald trump to win in smaller congressional races

richard haass has a few comments about that. this was days after the reporting that officials said american intelligence has been helped to kill russian generals. ukraine claims to have killed 12 generals on the front lines. american officials didn't give a specific number of deaths that were the result of the shared information. officials pushed back against the idea that the u.s. was explicitly providing the information with the intent of targeting russian military leaders. yesterday, pentagon press secretary john kirby clarified how the u.s. shares intelligence with ukraine. >> we do not provide intelligence on the senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the ukrainian military. the ukrainians have, quite frankly, a lot more information than we do. this is their country, their territory. they have intelligence capabilities of their own. ukraine combines information that we and other partners provide, with the intelligence that they, themselves, are gathering on the battlefield. t

. >> meanwhile, earlier today, council and farm relations president richard haass, one of what putin might do the rest of the world keeps standing firm against him. take a listen. >> so if you have a losing hand, you don't want to walk away from the table that punctuates eight. we just keep the game going. so my guess is that putin's gonna wait for time, a low keyed, open-ended military struggle, so there is no one who can say, you lost. he could say, i didn't lose. this is still ongoing. we are going to prevail. he at least has a talking point. >> ruth, how does that match with your understanding of putin as a strongman? >> you know, when i watched this quote, victory parade today, it came to mind what this late communist spectacle, with this kind of frozen rigid leader, and this, you know, these platitudes, these gaslighting, because these are very old themes. he talked about that russia's victim of the west, and the war as a defensive russia has just been grasped on with these whole themes. and the thing is, what an irony that you have parades of tanks and soldiers, when you know,

richard haass, always good to have you, sir. thank you. >>> it's not just abortion, president biden is warning other rights will be at risk if this leaked supreme court opinion holds up. >>> and vice president harris has a message for republican leaders, how dare you. what do democrats plan to do? that's next. i got a call from some scammer who had the nerve to ask for my medicare number. i was not born yesterday. when someone asked for my medicare number r in a text, i knew it was a scam. ninice catch. and, your mother knew it wasn't a real email. go, mom! - i don't share my medicare number with strangers. - if you get a call, text or email - strike! - asking for your medicare or personal information, - delete! - shut it down. - nope! learn more at medicare.gov/fraud. do your eyes bother you? because after all these emails my eyes feel like a combo of stressed, dry and sandpaper. luckily, there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops for instant moisture. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients. and no preservatives. try biotru

me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle and president of the counsel on foreign relations, richard haassin's most embarrassing loss to ukrainian forces came out of shared intelligence from the

. >> richard haass called what the president said this morning strategic clarity rather than strategic that's fair? >> well, it's a very clear message. again, i think he got out in front of jake sullivan, his national security team and certainly the national security council, but, you know, i think sometimes speaking frank and straightforward is a good foreign diplomacy, foreign policy. china needs to understand what's at stake and that there will be consequences, right? he needs to hear this. >> so it's interesting, given where you are right now, you are in davos for the world economic forum where president zelenskyy just addressed the forum there. and you served as our photographer, our man on the scene there. after president zelenskyy spoke he received a standing ovation from everyone but according to this picture you took the chinese delegation. explain to us what you saw. >> they were sitting right behind me, you know, zelenskyy gave as always a very powerful speech talking about brute force and time is of the essence and pulling the international community together to rally behin

. >> richard haass applauded what the president said a short time ago and called it strategic claritydo you think it's important to tell china what the u.s. position is here clearly? >> i think post russia's invasion of ukraine things have shifted, things are changed. i think this is biden -- what president biden is trying to do is really deter china and trying to send a very strong message. so i would have said maybe not, you know, pre russia's invasion of ukraine, but, again, post russia's invasion of ukraine i think it is important for us to send a very, very strong signal to china. >> how has ukraine changed china's view of the world, do you think? >> if i'm xi jinping i would think twice about the taiwan situation. not that they don't believe in -- they will always -- it's not that china's vision of china -- taiwan is different, it's just that how the world has responded, how the world came together to respond in terms of russia, to respond against russia, right? that's the coalition that the biden administration was able to build. if i'm xi jinping i would think twice about it.

i said, you know -- and i joked with richard haass, i said, this is like a "sports illustrated" jinx. you put these autocrats on the cover and talk about this is the future of world politics, you have just jinxed autocrats. i didn't know how long it'd take, but i want to follow up on what david and katty just said. russia is as bankrupt as they could be as far as politically bankrupt across the globe. you have china who has kept themselves in a terrible position, who is weaker now than they've been in some time, who has a disastrous covid policy, who has disastrous internal policies. then you look at europe. katty said something we really should focus on. a continent that has lived in the shadow of two world wars in the 20th century, lived in the shadow of over 100 million people dying in those two world wars, lived in the shadow of the holocaust, lived in the shadow of the horrors of stalin, of hitler. this is a continent now, for the first time since world war ii, they are flexing their muscle. as we've said here on this show for quite some time, we worry all the time about the rise