hello and welcome to a special president s edition of inside politics. i m abby phillip in for john king in washington. president biden surprises the world with a trip to kyiv. russia s aim was to wipe ukraine off the map. putin s war of conquest is failing. plus, former president jimmy carter is now at home receiving hospice care in a small georgia town where he spent most of his life. and can ron desantis muzzle the media? the presumptive 2024 candidate makes his case to overturn a decades old supreme court decision and strip away protections for the free press. but up first, a truly unprecedented trip happening now in ukraine just hours ago the president visited an active war zone and today joe biden has put solidarity ahead of his own personal safety. [ air raid sirens ] he arrived in kyiv this morning, greeted by those air raid siren. the trek to ukraine s capital is timed nearly to the one-year mark of russia s invasion. the visit comes with a $500 million pr
i m pamela brown in washington. and you re in the cnn newsroom. historic, timely, brave, those words from ukraine s president zelenskyy about president biden s surprise trip to kyiv just hours ago. biden walking the embattled capital streets, promising america s unwavering support as air raid sirens blared. and as russia s brutal assault nears the one-year mark. a consequential trip at a consequential moment on this president s day. biden laying a wreath inside ukraine, which is an active war zone, where the u.s. military has no control. the white house giving russia a heads up only a few hours before president biden arrived and delivered this message. russia s aim was to wipe ukraine off the map. putin s war of conquest is failing. one year later kyiv stands. and ukraine stands. democracy stands. the americans stand with you, and the world stands with you. and we have teams standing by in kyiv and in moscow, but we begin in warsaw, poland, president bide listen give a
i m john roberts. the risky business of human smuggling is reaching far beyond towns along the border. numerous interceptions of smugglers with migrants shoveled into vehicles to get into america. it doesn t always end in a bust or in the migrants getting through. dramatic scene in houston. f.b.i. agents rescue migrants kidnapped for ransom. two hostages were safely rescued by the f.b.i. and no agents were injured. dana: we re live in mission, texas with more on that kidnapping horror. hi. hi. that was a tense situation there in houston. you could see that those migrants were kidnapped after they crossed into the united states illegally according to authorities and held inside that motel in houston, beaten badly and held for ransom and told if they didn t pay they wouldn t get out. the f.b.i. went in in houston, texas, a tense stand-off situation that went on for a few hours. they rescued them coming three days after investigators say the migrants were kidnapped while d
joining us live. but first, this fox news alert. two interviews and a primetime speech, but a week of talk from president biden only serving to raise new questions. one was about the chinese surveillance craft. the president brushing off its significance and risk after it loitered across the nation just last week. john: president biden claiming the violation of u.s. air space was not a major breach of national security, yet it traveled thousands of miles over some military sites and collected information from the ground to above. and capable of collecting communications and sending them straight back to china. sandra: a far cry to portray it as no big deal, just a balloon. a lot to unpack as america reports rolls into a second hour here. another busy news afternoon on a friday. sandra smith in new york. great to be with you. john: john roberts in washington, good to be with you, sandra. the president getting attention for trying to downplay the classified document
bill whew being rammed through congress does little to nothing for as example u.s. border security. all while democrats, and frankly some senate republicans, of course, continue to shrug off the worst border crisis in modern american history, hurting americans more and more by the day. yet again this week, video shows illegal meetings pouring across the border, overwhelming authorities with no end in sight. get this, in just the last year, well over 100,000 overdose deaths here in the united states as drugs continue to pour across the southern border and take innocent american lives. in 2022 alone, the dea seized enough fentanyl to kill everybody in our entire country, but for the far left democrats it s low on the list of priorities, as senate democrats for the third time blocked republican senator bill haggerty s legislation to crack down on fentanyl crossing the border. remember, biden s border crisis is so bad that every state of course is now a border state. cities a