pro business democrats. we re not vocal enough. business is important in this country. capitalism is important. competition is important. we don t have competition, we need to fix that. the bottom line is that i wish that was the case more. and i think, look, things evolve, things change, the pendulum swings and it will swing again. but, look, in the end i think if you take a look at what the biden administration has done, you take a look at what we have done with bipartisan infrastructure bill and the rescue plan, i think that s building capacity in this country to maintain its position as a leading economic power for generations to come. you ve split with the white house on title 42, which is the covid restrictions at the border which blocks a lot of migrants from coming over. why? i think security at the border is very important. there is a lot of pressure on the border agents now because we have got a lot of folks coming up. i think to pull 42 away sends out a signal that will
be today, the trade deals from an agricultural standpoint drove ag prices in the tank, and you take a look at what s going on in washington, d.c. where it seems as if he says something and the republican party does it, i think that he needs to be attached and his policies need to be attached that s what i see the republican party doing. it is not the old republican party. it is not the old conservative folks who want to put america first. even though he says that, it is a whole different agenda that is going on in the background. all you got to do is look and see what he did when he was president, took the country backwards a long way. you say it is not the old republican party. how about the democratic party? is the democratic party the old democratic party. i wish they would do some things different. like what? it is hard for me to be critical. i wish they were more pro business. i think back in the day, my parents day there was a lot more
testify. seems like the committee wanted to make a statement with these subpoenas. they know. which they have. jeffrey toobin, thank you very much for that. this morning in ukraine the very first war crimes trial since the russian invasion began and it all begins with this 21-year-old russian soldier in custody. cnn is live outside the courthouse in kyiv. also, we will be joined next by the u.s. ambassador to russia. the secret message that he delivered to the russians. plus, a rift in the gop is about to bust wide open as former vice president mike pence is set to campaign for georgia governor brian kemp while former president trump is backing his opponent very loudly. how will all of this play out? big game today!
beginning of january during one of those moments in a pool encounter with president biden and i asked him at one moment how long he thought with the u.s. pulling back they could hold on to afghanistan, and he said, oh, a year, year and a half. the forces are really well-trained, meaning the afghan forces. well, they were really well-trained and they had no interest in defending their country if they thought the united states wasn t behind them. many intelligence officials i spoke to said that s the intersection they need to begin to get in at which i think is what your good reporting indicates. officials have been very blunt that they did underestimate what the ukrainians were going to do. david, you have new reporting out in the new york times this morning about this bid by sweden an finland to join nato, exactly a rebuke of what putin wanted ultimately to happen here, but still hesitation from western officials about ukraine joining nato.
we continue to have substantive engagement with the russian government. so that meeting earlier this week was about our embassy operations here and some technical diplomatic issues that we re trying to work through, and the reason we re engaged in those conversations is we think it s important, very important, president biden does, that the united states continue to have an embassy here in moscow and for us to continue to operate it properly we have to be engaged with the foreign ministry. but what are those conversations like given there is such little contact between any other u.s. officials and their russian counterparts? these are very few conversations that are happening so what s it like? right. well, you know, it s funny because it will often be portrayed, including by the russian government, as a very hostile atmosphere and it s not. it s always professional. in my experience over two and a half years my engagement with the russian government across