readiness overall. after that conversation i was told secretary austin s office reached out to senator tuberville s office given he d been complaining he d not heard anything from the white house or secretary biden. they reached out they were trying to schedule a call, and what they were told according to my source is that secretary tuberville tid not have time to speak to the secretary or over the weekend. that was something of great frustration to the pentagon given they were trying to setup a call they he wanted. he said they d not spoken since february. the pentagon said they d had a conversation back in march but there d been staff level engagement since then over their protest of his policy. it was about an hour after that, jake, they did finally connect on the phone. we are told secretary austin and senator tuberville have spoken. they are expected to talk again next week. what s important this has not changed his position right now and he s still very much placing a hold on the
clear lanes through these mine fields. so this addition will be very important. it s also important because the supplies of artillery and rockets are starting to run low. the consumption rate is astonishing, and we re still ramping up along with other nato countries our production of ammunition in particular. so this is at contribution and again one i strongly support. and by the way, the areas will have to be cleared. it russian cluster bombs have a much higher failure rate, dud rate. this rate is considerably lower, 2.5 and below percent. keep in mind as well this is ukrainians deciding to use these munitions on their soil, not someone else s soil in the process of liberating their territory. put on your cia director cap for a moment. what do you think went through putin s mind today when president biden declared that putin has already lost the war? well, putin of course is
i expect the republican party to stand up. at the same time a top marine corps leader and 250 other top military nominations are on hold, russia s top generals are starting to drop like flies. one presumed dead, one mysteriously, quote, resting. and another canned all just in the past week. joining us now to discuss the politics surrounding the military, kaitlan collins and manu raju. quite a bit of phone tag, if you will, jake. obviously defense secretary austin was with president biden overseas at this incredibly important nato summit. he was asked by wolf blitzer about this hold that senator tuberville has put in place single-handedly on these more than 200 military nominations, which are having an effect on the pentagon according to secretary austin and military
putin has a real problem. how does he move from here? what does he do? there is no possibility of him winning the war in ukraine. he s already lost the war. that stunning assertion from biden at a news conference in helsinki, hot off the summit with nato leaders. and as he reiterated ukraine s inevitable asession to the military alliance biden also declared there s really, no, quote, real prospect of putin ever using nuclear weapons. the president also weighing in on a pressing national security debate here in d.c. as i mentioned specifically republican senator tommy tuberville s one man hold on hundreds of military promotions of nonpolitical flag officers because tuberville objects to a biden pentagon policy regarding abortion. here was biden s response when asked about tuberville s stance.