intensifies his nuclear rhetoric amid a faltering military campaign in ukraine. the biden administration says it has told russia privately exactly what the consequences would be for using a nuclear weapon. we ll have the very latest on that. plus, a head turning new revelation concerning the attack on the capitol. what a former adviser to the january 6th committee says about a phone call between the trump white house and a rioter while the attack was underway. also this morning, tropical storm ian has just strengthened into a category 1 hurricane as it continues its track toward cuba and florida. we re watching that. and it is just six weeks until voters decide the balance of power in congress. we ll tell you where things stand this morning and what s in play. good morning and welcome to morning joe, it s monday, september 26th. we begin with the new polling from the new york times that shows 54% believe donald trump threatened american democracy when he left office. 51
the washington post, the financial times wall street journal. everybody had the same concern, the same fear, and that is how does putin respond. we re going to be reading all of this in our must read opinion pages in a couple of blocks. putin s threat to use nuclear weapons must be received soberly. he has lost hardware, soldiers, ground and face. he is cornered and escalating, increasing the odds of mistaken miscalculation. great care is now needed, and here s ross from yesterday s times, just as reagan s horror of nuclear war turned out to be crucial to his legacy, the policies of joe biden so far successful will be judged not only what they achieve for the embattled ukrainians but the peace of the entire world. ross, also, like david brooks yesterday, like maureen dowd
escalation that david was just talking about because these referendums would under russian law incorporate these four regions into russia, and therefore make an attack on them, an attack on russia, which of course would trigger the russian nuclear doctrine that any existential threat to the russian regime could justify the use of nuclear weapons, so that s what s scary about this. nobody believes, even kazakhstan, you know a neighbor to russia, traditionally an ally to russia, and putin bailed out the regime earlier this year. even kazakhstan says it won t recognize the results of this referendum. but what putin is trying to do and so far failing very badly is to frighten the west into tapering off its support for ukraine. actually what we have seen in the last few days since he has
reagan believed, everything ronald reagan did, everything ronald reagan would have done. in all of these cases, mika, and we see it with liz cheney. we see the through line here, you have a party that s not conservative. you have a party that s not following edmond burke and kirk and ronald reagan and margaret thatcher s view of conservatism. you have radicals who are following, going down the path of where orban is, where putin is, and it s frightening. liz cheney said, she s a conservative but it comes down to do you support western democracy, do you support free elections or are you on the other side. for liz cheney it s pretty simple. let s jump to our major news out of russia and ukraine this morning. four ukrainian regions in the country s east are holding controversial referendums on whether to join russia. the voting has been condemned as
watching this. there are different gradations. some republicans are trying to fool themselves into believing that trump is going to leave, and you know, let s just keep electing these people even if they re election deniers or not. liz cheney believes it s no longer about liberal versus conservative, republican versus democrat, it s about whether you support western democracy, free elections or whether you support an ill liberal form of democracy. at this stage now, we have people going out actively trying to take control of the conservative movement, the republican party who are saying liberal democracy doesn t work. they want to move to what orban is doing. they want to move more towards what putin is doing. they want to move master s degree toward what putin is