inviting russian terrorism by not allowing ukraine into nato right away. filled with gratitude yesterday. in a tweet in a moment there toward president biden and the united states. what was the significance, what was the impact of what we saw over the past couple days in vilnius, both practically and symbolically? first, why did zelenskyy shift? i think part of the reason for that is because the polish government, the baltic governments, right up until the beginning of the summit, were pushing really hard for, we need concrete dates. we need a calendar. we need to know when nato is going to welcome ukraine formally. president biden and the white house were telling these people back channel, that cannot happen right now. biden went on television the previous week and made it very, very clear. up until the day of the summit, you had the pols and the baltics making that case in talking with zelenskyy.
and the person who called this right from the very beginning, the person who read the room when it comes to central and eastern europe was president biden, who before the war broke out shared intelligence to carefully clarify for our allies over here what are the defense and offensive structures of the military, and what does putin intend to do with it in ukraine. that decision by president biden allowed us over here to get ready. we were ready on game day. when millions of ukrainian ref refugees began to pour across the border into poland. and the reactive mobilization of the people who embraceden ukrainians brought them into their homes and their apartments. they did that because the pols did not feel scared. yet this is 1939 for poland and finland. this is an invasion by an
pols, with romanians, to carefully clarify for our allies what are the defensive and offensive structures of the russian military and what does putin intend to do with it in ukraine. and that decision by president biden allowed us over here to get ready. we were ready on game day, february 24th, 2022, when millions of ukrainian refugees began to pour across the border into poland. and the reactive mobilization of the polish people, who embraced the ukrainians, brought them into their homes and their apartments, they did that because the pols did not feel scared. yes, this is 1939 for poland and finland. this is an invasion by an oppressive foreign attacker. i saw it for myself. i saw it for myself, the refugees facilities. before i lose you, let me quickly put up on the screen a social media reaction.
of other stuff we have been documenting that took its apex with trump and tucker carlson, or other figures. there are many. i want to show you briefly a seen where they mix the broke absurd comedy of it all with questions about nazi sympathizing. so, the punch line is ever so serious. the media executive you re trying to see is trying to pin down a right-wing host s apparent interest in this specific era of world war ii history. have you ever read mein kampf. yeah, a couple times. what specifically do you find interesting about that period of history? the scale, the tragedy. oh, yeah. yeah, and which tragedies specifically? europe decimated. 7 million germans, 20 million russians, 5 million pols.
saturday, in iowa. reporter: former president donald trump and florida governor ron desantis both in iowa this weekend. voters watching both closely, amid growing reports that desantis will enter the race. i m concerned with integrity in washington. all this talk about the debt ceiling concerns me. reporter: he will headline a rally on the same day that desantis set to be in town. it s a glimpse what might be in store for 2024. desantis and trump leads in the early pols. desantis is presidenting out mailers. reporter: in the past 24 hours, two iowa state republicans endorsing desantis for president. we have to take back our nation. when i look at the field of potential and declared candidates, ron desantis comes out above the rest. reporter: trump s rally comes days after a cnn townhall