and mitt co s white house bureau chief and host of msnbc s way too early, jonathan lemire. john, let s start with you. quite a day in poland. we go from a few years ago where the idea of nato was under threat. there were a lot of people who didn t think it was important. joe biden spoke to a crowd of thousands of cheering pols about this war in ukraine. yeah, ali, it was a sight there, really the crush of people on the ground. it s very impressive place to hold the royal gardens there outside the royal palace is an impressive spot. it makes for great image and for great pictures. they were this is obviously a place that we know joe biden spoke at 11 months ago back in march of 2022, gave an important speech then when the questions that he referred to today were very much indoubt the question of whether nato would
where is your monument to the polish pope? i want to see those monuments. because, you know, poland has played a remarkable role, first in the drawback of the soviet union, starting with solidarity in 1979/1980, but now here. they are literally on the front lines of the fight between democracy and authoritarianism. joe, as we watch these pictures of president biden in warsaw, we re reminded of how deeply, as you say, the pols identify with the struggle going on in ukraine. when i was in poland last year, i found you see ukrainian flags flying down every street. there s this intense feeling ha ukrainians are fighting our fight. there is a passionate polish suspicion, i want to say, almost hatred of russia. the ukrainians are bravely
fascinating, we re looking at president duda. it wasn t so long ago that duda and the law and justice party in poland was far closer to orban in hungary than they were to the united states of america. what a difference a year has made. completely changed. they re now madisonian democrats. hear, hear. my question, and you know poland better than i do, how does poland cope with this added responsibility, this added cost? they ve bore an incredible burden in taking in ukrainian refugees, housing and taking care of them. they now have a military burden that they didn t have before. how are the pols coping with that? my polish friends say, in a sense, this is our moment to step up. i have one friend who has housed
a nato ally that hosts more ukraine refugees than any other country, several million. the pols have been incredibly generous and i think the american people need to be generous back. mike, i was reading an article that said a lot of aides were worried, they didn t want the president to go to kyiv, they thought the security risk was too high. do we know why he ultimately decided to do this? reporter: chris, it s significant in that the president, i m told, had always wanted to try to make this symbolic visit to ukraine. the security risks, also the safety on the ground, the kind of apparatus needed to travel with a president anywhere he goes, the military assets involved with that as well were always seen as a barrier to the president making this decision. how high a risk is it? some of the officials still here in washington planning to travel with the president didn t know about this this morning. they re still planning to fly on a separate plane tonight to meet
a tremendous supporter of ukraine. and a generous host, not only to american troops but millions of ukrainian refugees who have fled there in safety. the pols are, pardon the pun, punching well above their weight, and we appreciate all the support. the president wants to thank president duda in person. he wants to thank the polish people in person. he wants to make broader points about how it s important for the kind of courage and unity we re seeing out of poland, continues sadly into what will now be a second year of war. james, you have the last question. reporter: thank you very much. thank you, karine, thank you, admiral. i have two questions. one on the aerial assault and