correspondent matt bradley is joining us live from ukraine. good to see you. let s start with this big show of support that vladimir putin is getting interest china as he is there attending the olympics, et cetera. walk us through. reporter: yeah, hallie, these two countries need each other right now, both of them are under extraordinary pressure, more so russia and vladimir putin. i mean, vladimir putin facing a lot of pressure when it comes to here in ukraine and that enormous amassing of troops all around ukraine s border but also china and their goals with taiwan. both of these countries increasingly this isn t new, this isn t just a product of the last couple of weeks. both of these countries are seeing themselves becoming international pariahs. so when we re seeing them glad handing each other at the olympics in beijing, you know, what we re also seeing here is this little message between them. if you don t have a friend, then you have a friend in me and that s what we re see
talking with donald trump, while he is willing to embrace that wing of the party, he doesn t want to draw the divisions to it. he was asked about it earlier today and he refused to answer questions. meanwhile, there s senator mitt romney, for example, tweeted his support for liz cheney today, so did senator cassidy of louisiana, larry hogan, the governor of maryland also tweeted his support for them. yeah. reporter: so this is something that the party would many in the party would rather be focusing on joe biden, but over and over again they are still talking about the last election, january 6th and taking former donald trump s side. let me get you on other developing news just into us here. listen, we knew that congressman jim jordan had spoken with former president trump on the 6th, he had said it publicly, he had talked about it before. what s interesting now is according to your reporting and our colleagues here at nbc is that the select committee apparently knows how long
house counsel. we know that greg jacob was someone who was really pushing back against this claim that mike pence could overturn the election. so mike pence coming out and saying that is pretty significant, especially since he is perhaps plotting and planning a run for president in 2024. hallie? presumably this will i m looking at my phone because i just feel like any minute we re going to hear from former president trump. he s not going to be happy in. he has blasted pence in the past and now you have the former vice president very directly saying, you re wrong. something donald trump just doesn t like to hear. reporter: yeah, i mean, that is exactly what he doesn t like to hear, especially publicly, not even privately from what you have reported for the last five years, hallie. and so the fact that mike pence is taking a different lane, a different tact than donald trump
i couldn t have overturned it. listen, he could not have. that is every assessment that that would not have been constitutionally an option for him, and yet that is exactly why all of those rioters showed up at the capitol on the day of the insurrection, to try to compel mike pence to do just that. reporter: it s a stark contrast between what the the party and the two wings of this party and which wing is going to win out. you know, what mike pence said, his words are almost verbatim, which is really interesting, to what senator lindsey graham told me yesterday. i was asking him about legislation up here on capitol hill to make to close loopholes, to ensure that the vice president that there is absolutely no role for the vice president other than opening the envelopes on january 6th for the electoral college. now, lindsey graham, who is someone who is very close to the former president, told me
is, he is you know, i don t know if it s political, i don t know if he is reading polls and seeing an opening there. i don t know if it s because of the legal pressure that he is under and that his former staff is under with this january 6th committee and the department of justice. i don t know what the answer is, but it is just an incredibly interesting development considering that mike pence for the past year has not wanted to talk about this, hallie. two thoughts here. there is a connection to i think what we started the show with and what we re looking to be ending the show with here. we came on the air talking about the censure of two republicans, liz cheney and adam kinzinger for helping serve on the january 6th committee. the committee looking at the attack on the capitol, something that the republican party has now officially deemed legitimate political discourse. that insurrection. that s what they are calling it. that s the terms. that s their language here. right? repo