Eastern europe. About 2,000 troops are going to poland and another 700 are going to rumania as well as other countries in the southEastern Flank of nato. The reason for this is because of the anxiety these allies are feeling in the midst of this massive russian troop buildup in ukraine. The president did hint at this last week. He said he would be moving those troops to Eastern Europe in the near term, but he did not say when that would be happening. We are told these deployments could be coming in the coming days. What were told is this is coming at a time when these allies are feeling very, very anxious about this russian aggression there, and this is a show of support for those allies. This is not a precursor to any kind of u. S. Troops on the ground in ukraine. This is just those troops going to Eastern Europe to shore up that flank and reassure them that the u. S. Is there in the event that russia does invade ukraine and tries to move even further west, jim. Ambassador, let me bri
News chief white house correspondent, peter alexander. Nbc news foreign correspondent, matt bradley in eastern ukraine, jonathan la mir, Politico White House bureau chief as well as host of Way Too Early here on msnbc. And he lane cooper, the New York Times pentagon correspondent. Both jonathan and helane are msnbc contributors. Peter, what more can you tell us about the president s decision to u. S. Moves troops already on standby to europe . Reporter thats exactly right. We have now learned that its a total of 3,000 u. S. Troops who will be moving, about a thousand of them already in europe will be going to romania, a native member nation. Another 2,000 presently here in the u. S. Will be going to germany and to poland, as well. This comes, according to a Senior Administration official at the president s direction, and following the recommendation of the defense secretary, Secretary Austin. I think youre going to hear this officially from john kirby, the Press Secretary at the pentag
Are you in the path of the storm . More on when and where were going to see the snow and ice coming up. Also this morning, the Washington Football Team just revealed its new name. Its commanding attention. Im going to talk with the group spearheading that movement. We have our team covering the crisis in Eastern Europe. Courtney kube, Richard Engel and michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia. Courtney, let me start with you as you were in the room for the pentagon briefing. We know french troops are also being sent to the region. Talk you through what more we learned today during that briefing. Theres even some other allies that are considering sending some troops, the british, theyve sent assistance, the dutch, among others. We heard from press secretary john kirby a very key words. The military and pentagon are making it very clear that they look at this as a temporary deployment, not a permanent deployment and the ultimate goal is to deter russia from making an incursion into uk
Robust offense of our nato allies. All of these are in addition to the 8500 personnel on heightened alert poster i announced last week. Those 8500 are not currently being deployed but remain ready if called for the Nato Response force. And President Trump taking it to the fellow republicans coming to the defense of mike pence. Lindsey graham after days of admitting he believed pence could have overturned the 2020 election. Of course, that is false. On the coronavirus, pfizers request for Emergency Use Authorization for children under five years of age is getting a mixed reaction from both vaccinated and unvaccinated parents. Ill speak to dr. Zeke emanual about their concerns this hour. And millions americans are in the path of a massive winter storm. By far the biggest of the season so far. The threeday Weather Event will slam states with sleet, Freezing Rain and potentially recordsetting snow totals along the rust belt. We begin this hour with the crisis in ukraine. Joining me is the
Senator chris coons joins us what it means for the party and ahead. And new fbi warnings from director chris wray, as he tells my colleague Pete Williams he was, quote, blown away by the state of espionage inside the United States. Well have more of petes exclusive interview coming up. Exclusive interview coming up. Welcome to meet the press daily. Im chuck todd, the u. S. Has put itself on firmer war footing as ukraine and our nato allies brace for this possible russian invasion of ukraine. The pentagon announced its deploying thousands of troop to Eastern Europe, Repositioning Thousands of troops already in the region as well. Heres where the new deployments are going, romania, poland, germany. Include a mounted cavalry and brigade teams. In total, it adds up to 3,000 soldiers. This is in addition to the 8500 troops placed on alert to deploy. This is in addition to nato troop already there. This morning, pentagon secretarygeneral john kirby addressed it. I want to be clear about some