russia will pay a heavy price. yesterday, president biden had suggested that something like a quote, unquote, minor incursion might not result in the same kinds of severe costs. listen, this is not the first attempt to clean this up. we saw statements from the national security council spokeswoman, the white house press secretary jen saek and ultimately the president of the united states. his words necessary to make very clear to u.s. allies like ukraine as well as adversaries like russia that any kind of movement of russian troops across the boardlerrder will ren severe costs. what the president was referring to is the fact that russia has tended to use other tactics, the green men seen in the disputed region in eastern ukraine or cyber attacks, for example, as well, and the president said that he believes the u.s. and its allies need to be prepared to craft some kind of other response to those types of russian activities. the president though did not take questions. i tried to get
biden white house. a colleague here symone sanders will be our guest on morning joe, and michael mcfaul joins us and president s gasp, minor incursion coming into ukraine. morning joe is coming right back. ukraine. morning joe is coming right morning joe is coming right back only from discover.
heard from the president, what do you make of it? this was supposed to be one of the speeches to silence critics that it does not discuss or engage with reporters enough and yet shortly after making that, they had to be a clarification as to what he meant by minor incursion. what does it say about the us and its interests and how it is dealing with ukraine? figs its interests and how it is dealing with ukraine? as a former white dealing with ukraine? as a former white house - dealing with ukraine? as a former white house press| former white house press officer, it is never a good moment when you have to send out those tweets or those clarifying press statements and clearly the president misspoke. i think he ceded too much ground both figuratively but also allowing the west, the nato allowance, not be as severe in their response to
accountable, if it invades and it depends on what it does. it s one thing if it s a minor incursion, and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera. reporter: early today, reading from a prepared statement, the president tried to clarify what he meant. if any, any assembled russian units move across ukrainian border, that is an invasion. but and it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response that i ve discussed in detail with our allies, as well as laid out very clearly for president putin. there is no doubt, let there be no doubt at all, that if putin makes this choice, russia will pay a heavy price. reporter: the white house fully aware the president s comments triggered alarm among european allies and inside ukraine, too. ukrainian president zelensky tweeting, there are no minor incursions and small nations. just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. meeting with u.s. allies in
going to do or any other leader. vladimir putin has already made up his mind what he is going to do. i think the rest of the world is nail biting and watching when and how big an invasion to ukraine this will be. our allies starting with finland all the way down have agreed with the president and his position which will be catastrophic, economic consequences for russia to do this. bret: okay, hugh, last comment on this. there are other things to digest in this news conference. well, minor incursion he could have talked for four hours, bret, and minor incursion will be the take away. it s a new category of aggression. if the people s republic of china lunch lurches at taiwan is that a minor aggression. if putin wants support of alaska is that a minor incursion. it s a revolutionary sort of mistake and the fact that jen psaki came out and drew a circle around it so quickly underscores that he could still be talking. he might be still talking, for