is all about, whether taiwan or hong kong or the ukraine, it is about two guys, with a lot of resources that are joining up together to try to freeze out western democracies, and putin is going to do it on the ground and there will be visuals and they will be brutal of people being killed because all they want to do is have democracy and freedom. no one is going anywhere. there is much more to talk to with all of our guests in just a moment on this unfolding crisis in ukraine and the political divide that has been exposed here at home. two top prosecutors involved in the manhattan district attorney s investigation into donald trump and trump org have resigned from the d.a. s office. what this might say, this early point about that probe. and later in the program, a witness who is as close as it gets to donald trump is in talks with the january 6th select committee. former president s own daughter ivanka trump. all this and more when
hi there, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. the crisis in ukraine and the looming possibility of the largest ground war in europe since world war ii has quickly become an historic test of the united states and the western alliance with a steady drip of developments that suggest vladimir putin is intent on redrawing the map of europe by force. a senior defense official tells nbc news that russian forces are poised for a full scale invasion, that russia is, quote, as ready as they can be. earlier today a round of cyberattacks targeted ukrainian government sites and banks which are consistent with ones that took place last week that the u.s. blames on russia. preparations are under way in ukraine for an all-out conflict. the president declared a state of emergency and is urging all ukrainian nationals to leave russia. from the biden white house, a massive diplomatic effort to
the soviet empire and i think ultimately, the only way we re going to prevail as a country as the west as a community of nations is if we put partisanship aside and stop trying to game this out in terms of you know, republicans trying to attack the president for this decision or that decision. i think it s time frankly to close ranks. i think anybody who doesn t back the american position is just helping putin because part of putin s game is information warfare. we ve seen him try to engage in this hybrid phase zero graze on warfare. plays exactly into putin s playbook that i don t think anybody on the political scene of the united states should countenance that. ranks have been closed around putin. i don t know if you watched any fox news last night. i took in quite a bit. i did. tucker carlson was a guest on other programs because his views are either so popular that they boost the ratings of other programs or so prevalent among
good in american values. but instead, putin is banking on the fact that he s got tucker carlson cheering him on and a former president cheering him on, and other people who want to be president cheering him on, appealing to the lowest common denominator and that is it is all about america, who cares about the ukraine people. so it is and i want to say too how much i respect colonel vindman and how much i want to agree with his optimistic view that this terror that is going to unfold will do what it takes to bring us back to sanity in this country. but i guess the silver lining i see right now is what a good job biden has done uniting nato. you can see these sanctions imposed today were among various nations and everyone took a different piece of it, trying to begin to encroach upon the wealth of trump s inner circle
undoubtedly the focus is on the u.s. force posture. how we can ensure our forces are postured in the european theatre to maximize the deterrence against putin so he doesn t take one step into nato territory. as general mccaffrey referenced, there have been a number of troop movements the joint staff is orchestrating along with the supreme allied commander of europe who commands all forces for the united states in the european theatre and is the nato commander. that s the dominant issue at the pentagon. with respect to the intelligence community, they re scrutinizing every piece of information they can get their hands on from clandestine reporting, human reporting, signal reporting, overhead imagery, to understand the exact posture of russian forces, but also what are the regime intentions. what is putin thinking. who has influence in his inner szeryk l and what is going to be to the game plan as they move into kyiv. i want to note this is going to