program. now we found out according to some reporting by our colleagues, we found out that russia actually presented an interim agreement to iran that would offer limited sanctions relief in return to tehran reimposing some restrictions on their nuclear program. well, iran denied it. they turned down the deal, but what s fascinating again here, katie, is that we have these two opposing sides that are actually working, you know, next to one another to avoid this potential crisis. i should point out a number of former officials we spoke with said this follows a pattern for russia, particularly for vladimir putin. they pointed back to the boston marathon bomb in 2013, after that occurred, russia worked very closely and helped out specifically fsb, worked closely with the fbi to help them track down the marathon bombers. that was right before russia ip vaded crimea. there is this pattern where russia in advance of doing
the bucket. some small arms ammunition and javelin tank missiles. the consequence to russia that are most severe is if they enter even in a modest kind of biting off a land bridge between crimea and the donbov, if they carry that out, it will put everybody s teeth on edge for a decade in eastern europe. very plausible that finland and sweden would then enter nato. clearly the baltic states, poland by the way, poland has a very substantial military force which will fight so i think the consequences to putin of an actual brutal land invasion of ukraine will be significant. in the short run, you re quite right. not a european union nation, not a nato nation, they re on their own. general barry mccaffrey, thank you so much for joining us. john kirby is still talking at
the bounds of normal. what do you think? i think i ve never been very happy with any of the ukraine decisions since the russians ip vaded crimea. i want to bring in cnn political commentators now. hi to both of you. thanks for being with us. alice, you heard senator blount there not directly answering whether trump s call was appropriate or not. and in 2016, we saw republicans, some of them come out against then-candidate trump. even people like lindsey graham criticizing him. but that criticism has for all intents and purposes faded away on capitol his and the republican party seems like the party of trump. alice, do you think it s fear or loyalty that s done this or maybe both things? i don t see it as much fear and loyalty as facing reality. and the reality is that trump s base is strong and solid and not going anywhere. he s maintained 80%, 90%