need to get involved here again. he pointed out in that article that he is the first us president since 9/11 to come to the middle east and for there not to be any american combat troops actually on the ground here involved in some sort of conflict. and, again, he knows that that is something that will resonate with the us audience. they have seen many of their soldiers killed in conflicts here in the middle east. and i suppose from the viewpoint of mohammed bin salman, the saudi crown prince, he s gotjust about everything he wanted, hasn t he? he s just been on a tour of the middle east, going to different countries, including here to turkey, where he met president erdogan. he has really been pushing saudi arabia s place notjust in the middle east, but on the world stage as well. and, yes, he will look at this and he will see this very much as a pr victory. what the kingdom of saudi arabia is doing now in so many different ways is trying to to rehabilitate itself. you see them buyin
in the middle east to make sure that america didn t need to get involved here again. he pointed out in that article that he is the first us president since 9/11 to come to the middle east and for there not to be any american combat troops actually on the ground here involved in some sort of conflict. and, again, he knows that that is something that will resonate with the us audience. they have seen many of their soldiers killed in conflicts here in the middle east. and i suppose from the viewpoint of mohammed bin salman, the saudi crown prince, he s gotjust about everything he wanted, hasn t he? he s just been on a tour of the middle east, going to different countries, including here to turkey, where he met president erdogan. he has really been pushing saudi arabia s place notjust in the middle east, but on the world stage as well. and, yes, he will look at this and he will see this very much as a pr victory. what the kingdom of saudi arabia is doing now in so many different ways is
pr victory for russia right now, and this is why it s so important that the biden administration take this seriously and not kind of kowtow to russia or, as you mentioned, try to sweep it under the rug and not pay attention to be it, not really take this as seriously as they could. this is a major national security issue. i believe that the russians would use this, they ve got this great kind of pr element to wield right now at the americans, imprisoning brittney griner. she s pled guilty howard: she had to do that to move the positive forward. look, there s absolutely no question, i understand low-key diplomacy at first, but there s absolutely no question, russians want to trade her for another prisoner. they ve identified somebody, 25-year hardened criminal, ask we don t know whether it ll happen, but the media message here, i think, is a very emotional one from britny and her wife which is we can t be quiet anymore. and you re right, there is a
the mariupol plant operation is just, for them, it s a mopping up operation, it s a continuing embarrassment that the messages keep coming out of there. it s a reminder that thecht been able to take that last patch of territory. but, in a real politic way, it is also an opportunity lost for lpt vladimir putin. had he honored those requests to allow a true humanitarian corridor organized by the international red cross and others to get those civilians out and even allowed the wounded with some of the fighters to leave, it would have been a possible pr victory for him and a way to push back and say, yes, we are behaving in a humane way on this battlefield, contrary to all the accusations that the u.s. and the ukrainians have been leveling at us. but they didn t take that path. they took the path of total destruction. and we will hear fl people inside, but who knows when we ll
really does not change dynamics of the war. yeah, putin said that we re just having exercises, the west is crazy for thinking that there would be an invasion and here we are. let s talk about that big steel plant in far mariupol. despite the partial evacuation of civilians, the state department says it is racing to get more people out. listen to what ned price had to say about the conditions there. we want to make sure that the limited you humanitarian access we ve seen is not fleeting. doing so would demonstrate that there may be a genuine humanitarian intent behind this evacuation and not just another craven attempt on the part of the kremlin to change the narrative to achieve a pr victory. what are you expecting here in terms of a partial cease fire in the region or to get more people out? i know some russian officials