incursion and we have to fight about what to do and not do. but if they do what they re capable of doing with the force they amass on the border, it is going to be a disaster for russia. that comment raised concerns about the u.s. response to a quote, minor incursion, at least from the ukrainians, who quickly put out a smoke signal who said that does not help us. the white house clarifying, quote, if any russian military forces move across the ukrainian border, that s a renewed invasion and it will be met with a swift severe response by our allies. and united states national security council was removed from that position by donald trump after trump s first impeachment, after he testified about the infamous phone call where trump tried to extort his counterpart for fabricated dirt about joe biden. wrote a book and colonel
europe, america s allies and particularly to ukraine, because it seems to imply the west might not take action in regards of a further russian invasion if it is minor, and that obviously is not the case. so there has been a lot of criticism of biden since he made that response yesterday. the feeling is he didn t speak. these things can be costly in international diplomacy, and i thing his comments today are really rolling back from that position, and i think they are welcome, but i think it has to be asked why he made those comments in the first place. kieran, it does not help what is already delicate situation, not least because not only did he talk about minor incursion, but he rather implied it was proving difficult to keep the european allies some of them native nations or most of them
said russian president vladimir putin, quote, will pay a heavy price if russia invades ukraine. this comes after yesterday when he suggested there could be fewer consequences if russia stages a, quote, minor incursion. we ll talk to the white house press secretary jen psaki about all of this in a moment but first we ll start off with the fall out. i ve been absolutely clear with president putin. he has no misunderstanding. if any, any assembled russian units move across the ukrainian border, that is an invasion. president biden opening his second year in office today with a blunt message for russia. in an urgent act of clarifying and cleanup. let there be no doubt at all if putin makes this choice russia will pay a heavy price. reporter: the white house scrambling to clear up the impression from the president s marathon press conference on wednesday that a minor russian invasion into ukraine may not receive the full weight of retaliation by the u.s. and nato
extension, we gave it to him for nothing. when they had russian cyber attacks and shut town the colonial pipeline, we told them you can only attack certain sectors, but 6 are off limits 16 are off limits. when we left afghanistan the way we did, those are the places where the administration had a chance to establish deterrence. putin saw this, and so these tactical things today about whether our families will stay in ukraine, we ve got to do the right thing and take care of our families, but these tactical things aren t what causes vladimir putin to recalculate his cost benefit analysis. i think they don t see president biden as credible. i think they see all a this talking, these pieces of paper being exchanged as not credible. they don t protect the american people, establish deterrence and prevent, reduce the risk that a what president biden called a minor incursion, it reare minded me of when president obama called isis the jv. same kind of down canplaying of risk. it could cause
been because that s not typical, but donald trump wants to play within the primaries of the republican party. he wants to be messing with the generals in 2022. so when i talk to folks in the white house and on capitol hill, they say 2022 is going to be a big test of whether or not donald trump is going to stick aurnld and have so much power the republican party because most importantly if he had haas a bunch of margie taylor greens and matt gaetz when they ve not been able to win in these frontline districts, maybe that will pull some of the power away. that s whey they re hoping at the very least. white house correspondent eugene daniels for politico. i think we ll having coffee later. thank you for being here. biden seemed to suggest a, quote, minor incursion might