house. in three dozen exclusive interviews with cnn, top democrats say the white house political operation is unprepared and unresponsive even to basic requests for help. cnn's jeff zeleny is at the white house. so jeff, what are we expecting to hear from the president in an hour? >> well, alisyn, and victor, president biden obviously knows well the challenges before him. he's watching this unfold in realtime with the voting rights legislation he has been pushing for made a priority is likely to fail this evening, hours after his press conference. that is sort of a sign of the limits of presidential power. but he also has been in this town long enough to see that things go up and they go down at the white house. at this moment, he believes this is a moment for a reset, to reset the -- just the very fact that he has command of all the challenges going on. talking to a white house official just a short time ago, this is how they framed what the president plans to do at the press conference. he will tap his accomplishments no doubt, but will also lean into some of those challenges. the official tells me this, the president knows there's much more work to do. he's going to level with the american people about the challenges we still face, especially when it comes to covid-19 and higher prices and the actions he's taking to tackle them. higher prices of course other people call inflation. we will see exactly what the president says about his remedy for fixing some of that. the reality is a majority of americans somehow feel that the u.s. is simply on the wrong track here. covid is entering its third year, and this has been a wait around the president's neck. what this offers is a chance to explain his way forward. if he wants to change anything in this administration or not in terms of his agenda or staff as well as answering a lot of questions. it's been ten months since he's had a formal press conference in the white house. he's had some overseas, and takes questions regularly. this is the formtyality of doin this in the east room of the white house. he's trying to turn the page and clear the air as he begins his second year in office tomorrow. victor and alisyn. >> jeff zeleny at the white house thank you. let's discuss with cnn's chief political analyst, gloria borger, and cnn political commentator, david axlerod, i spoke with th-- there's an obstructionist portion of the senate that keeping him from passing anything. he can't get the filibuster out. how deeply should the president lean into this we've got to reset. i know there are challenges when we hear from him at the top of the next hour. >> you know, i think something jeff said is really important, which is that you can't panic in moments like this, i've lived through moments like this in the white house, and i remember when people were writing barack obama off, and you have to recognize there are these valleys and troughs and we are going through a major crisis. i don't think you can overestimate the impact of three winters of covid and what that has done to the national psyche, what it has done to our economy. he's navigating through some pretty choppy waters here. i think the trick is to claim the credit for the successes he's had. yes, he's reduced unemployment by 40% from 6.4 to 3.9, but inflation is at a 40-year high, and people are feeling that in their lives. he has gotten hundreds of millions of people vaccinated, but we are still mired in covid. he needs to strike that balance, not triumphantism and defeatism but a hook up with people's experiences in their lives. that is the task here, and the last thing i said, jeff talked about command. people feel that things are out of control. i think the virus has done a lot of that. and they want to see a president who seems like he's in command. and i think that as much as anything is the challenge for biden, not just in this press conference but in the weeks and months to come. >> in keeping with that, gloria, there's new cnn reporting i'll read to everybody. according to many in congress at the various democratic campaign arms and others involved in democratic politics, the biden white house doesn't have a clear point of contact for allies, who's in charge, who's running the thing said one exasperated democratic house member requesting anonymity to speak about their frustration. is this all president biden? is there a clear sense of -- that he's getting the best advice, and that somebody is in charge of what democrats want to accomplish? >> well, look, first of all, democrats are nervous, and they have a right to be. they have a president who's got low popularity. they're facing head winds in the midterm elections. they've had a record number of retirements. they're afraid of losing control of the house and the senate, and they feel out of touch with the white house. and this is a president who had spent 36 years in the senate and in many ways, his white house is being run like a senate office rather than a white house, and there are members of congress who are complaining they don't get enough outreach. there are moderates who are saying you got led around by the progressives, and you didn't care about us, and we're the ones who are going to lose our seats in the midterm elections. so this is about their political survival, and they're upset, and they're angry, and they do want to see a reset. they want to see biden go out there and not look like he's being led but rather look like the leader as david was saying, and they don't think that they have seen that. so they want to see a compromise on build back better. they want to see a couple of pieces of it, getting past. so they can go home and say, look, we reduced your cost of prescription drugs, for example, which is popular. they don't want to see the infighting in the party anymore. they want to see the president do this, and make it happen, and figure out a way to help them get reelected. >> gloria, let me stay with you on that infighting in the party. i'm going to read one line of the new reporting as a result of the three dozen exclusive interviews with democrats, real and perceived fumbles play into deep fears that he, the president is not up to the job, and that democrats are incompetent. the democrats we spoke with in the fall and winter during the infighting, the negotiation over the build back better plan said that it was not going to damage the president, damage the party, did it -- are we seeing the result of that now in this new reporting? >> they were wrong. it did. it damaged the president because the public was watching every turn of the wheel here, and that isn't pretty, and it looked like he couldn't lead, and then in the end, they ended up with, they got the infrastructure bill, which was great, but they didn't get the rest of the package or even part of the rest of the package. so it did hurt the president's standings. it did hurt the democrats, and i think they have to figure out a way to remedy that, and i think, you know, i was thinking back to 1994, bill clinton did that. you know, lost the house and the senate, and then figured out a way to pass legislation that was more popular at that time, and win his way back into the hearts and minds of the american public, whether biden can do that or not, you know, it's an open question. >> well, david, you know joe biden. you obviously worked with him when you were in the white house, he was vice president. i mean, knowing his style, what exactly would you advise him to do. i don't mean on camera today, i mean behind the scenes, too. >> one thing is i wouldn't set up tests that you're going to fail. i mean, the voting rights vote today is an example of this build back better. you know, he exudes confidence about being able to get these things done. that's part of his personality, but he's got an impossible situation with a closely divided house and an evenly divided senate, so, you know, this is a thicket for him. i down play, you know, he wants to -- he has 36 years of experience in the cincinnati. he wants to stress his ability to get people to work together. he needs to get away from all of that. i think the biggest damage that the build back better debate had was that it gave people a sense that he was distracted and caught up in this legislative thicket as i said, instead of focusing on the problems that are right in front of them on inflation, on the virus. i think he needs to elevate those activities and that messaging and identify with people's sense of struggle and not make the entire focus his legislative battles within his own party. >> yeah. >> the irony here is of course that joe biden's superpower is supposed to be empathy. >> rilght. >> and so the american people, as you were saying, david, they're not in a good mood right now. they look at inflation, they see covid going into another year, they're worried about their kids, they're worried about their families. they're worried about perhaps what's going on with russia, and the president has sort of been out there last july, telling us we were going to have barbecues. for the first time i think with joe biden, they don't feel he's feeling their pain, and he has to get back to that, and he has to get back to saying to them, look, we may have screwed up with testing, but we're going to -- we're really going to get on top of this, of this omicron and the covid, and that may have hurt us a little bit, but here's what i intend to do to make your life better. >> you know, can i just add one thing, gloria said something really important. it is important for him to do something that he doesn't do very well naturally, which is acknowledge when there are mistakes, acknowledge, we didn't get to where we wanted. we had some successes, there are other areas in which we fell short, and we're going to do better. you think that's very very important. i think people are willing to accept that, what they don't want is to be told things are great when they're not great. >> go ahead. >> gloria, last thing here, how much is the shadow of his predecessor playing into what we're seeing over this first year. >> well, i think that when you had the last election, people wanted the other guy out, okay, and so comparative, they were sick of donald trump, and so joe biden was going to be the person who was going to get the country back to some sort of sense of normalcy. and that's what people really wanted. and they thought that joe biden was the person who was going to be able to bring that sense of normalcy to the country. for whatever reason, largely covid, i believe, that sense of normalcy just hasn't returned. and so there is, yes, this sort of overhang of donald trump in that sense, which is that biden couldn't deliver what people really wanted. and i think they're not happy -- they're not happy about that, and maybe going to blame him 100% for it, but they're not feeling great about their personal situations or the state of the country, and that is really what they voted for. >> go ahead, david. do you have a few seconds? >> i was going to say, he has delivered on decency, which is one of the things they wanted restored to the white house. he hasn't delivered on normalcy, and that is something that defines their lives. it has been a struggle. >> yeah, i mean, we'll see if he leans into all of that or if he touts all of the accomplishments, so in less than an hour we'll be watching that. gloria borger, david axlerod thank you. a redistricting map heavily favori favoring republicans. new york's attorney general reveals details about the investigation into the trump administration. why letitia james says she has significant evidence of fraud. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. his girlfriend just caught the bouquet, so he's checking in on that ring fund. that photographer? 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(robert) thank you. subaru. more than a car company. every ten years, each state redraws its congressional boundaries, and the final result can really affect the balance of power for decades. florida governor ron desantis just submitted what some have called the most brutal gerrymandering by a florida republican yet. >> his proposed redistricting map heavily favors republicans giving them the advantage in 20 of the states 28 districts. cnn's steve contorno joins us live from st. petersburg. so steve, what happens now? >> this now goes to the florida legislature where republicans control both the house and the senate. those republican lawmakers will have to decide whether they want to follow desantis's lead. democrats have already said that they believe this map is a blatant violation of the voting rights act and the state constitution. and they expect a long legal fight over whether or not it can be adopted. whether republicans want to join that fight and follow desantis's lead remains to be seen. up until last week they had proposed a map that many outside observers said was fair and competitive, and that was before the governor weighed in and really through a surprise wrench into the process. >> we'll see where that goes. desantis announced an initiative far new police unit to enforce voting laws. tell us about that. >> this is something the governor first proposed back in november at a time when republicans across the country were following trump's false claims of voter fraud and pushing for audits, and other sort of election security measures. now, there have been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in florida, but governor desantis contends this is still needed. this is what he says. >> to ensure that elections are conducted in accordance the rule of law, i propose an election integrity unit whose sole focus will be the enforcement of florida's election laws. this will facilitate the faithful enforcement of election laws and will provide floridians with the confidence that their vote will matter. >> now, republicans have yet to say whether they support desantis on this plan, which would cost almost $6 million. democrats are saying that this is a solution in search of a problem. >> thank you for that reporting. let's talk about it, we want to bring in our cnn legal analysts, elliot williams, and jen rogers, both former federal prosecutors. i don't know, elliot, what governor desantis describes as an election integrity unit is being described by others as a special police agency to monitor elections. this is so orwellion sounding, i don't know what this would look like, do you? >> i don't, and there's sort of a couple of big problems here. one, our nation has already tried using local law enforcement to harass people when they seek to exercise the franchise, and vote. we did it for frankly most of the country's history. it didn't end well back then, and frankly it's not going to end well here. this seems like a political move, more than any one based in sound law enforcement strategy. that's .1. .2, we have been having a long national debate, centered around the fact that police are stretched thin the way it is. the idea of taking precious resources away from police doing other things where they could more effectively keep the public safe. it's an odd use of resources and an odd use of law enforcements. >> the office of elections crime and security. they'll have arresting power and will act on tips. so we'll see how far that goes in the state of florida. let's turn to this new filing from letitia james, the new york ag last night. significant evidence, she says that she has, jen, is it customary to reveal this much information in a filing like this about the case as it's moving forward. >> it's not customary to talk much about an investigation at all, victor, until they're done, but the problem is, trump sued to try to avoid being deposed, so she has to say something, they're in court now, she's having to defend her investigation against claims that it's politically motivated to try to get her depositions done. you can't really blame her for talking to the court a little bit about the importance of the investigation and in broad strokes what she's learning. it's just a little bit of a tip to all of us that, in fact, it doesn't seem like she is spinning her wheels. i think she is going to get these depositions from the court, and it sounds like she's going to be prepared to file a lawsuit at some point. >> we just had michael cohen on who was donald trump's former fixer. he has now come out and said he is helping with any investigation basically that's going on, and he happens to know a lot, he says, about these kinds of inflations and deflations of the trump real estate fortune because he was basically in the room. so here's what letitia james put out late last night in terms of her evidence of the stuff that was deflated or inflated depending on michael cohen says or she says whether donald trump needed a loan or was trying to impress a journalist. you can see there are things that swing in value by tens and dozens of millions of dollars over the course of a year or two or three. and then here's what -- okay, well, i mean, basically, that seems pretty obvious to me, okay, elliot, it doesn't seem like you need to be a mathematician to see that something is wrong there and we were asking michael about why, then, tish james would need more information from donald trump's children. here is what michael cohen said. >> that's not something that you need don jr. or eric's testimony on. in fact, i think what they're just trying to do is to be more than 100% certain by having others who could also be involved with these type of inflation and deflation of the assets, have them held responsible, too. >> elliot, what do you think? why do they need more than what we just showed in that graphic? >> i'll tell you exactly why, alisyn. look, valuation cases can be very hard to prove for a couple of reasons. one, they're hard to prove factually because values are subjective. i may have an idea of what i think this house i'm sitting in right now is worth. hint, it's not $10 million. however, it's a subjective belief, and even lenders may disagree with the owner of the property as to what it costs. you're going to have to establish in court what that is. number one. and number two, the president and the trump organization can make the argument that lend skers and others didn't rely on their valuations. we recommended what we thought the property was worth. at the end of the day, the folks who lent money made their own independent assessment. the attorney general's office needs to pile up evidence if they want to succeed on this. >> jennifer, last one here, the january 6th committee, they subpoenaed the phone records of eric trump and kimberly gil foy. donald trump jr.'s fiance, they were handed over to the communications companies to the committee. would these have to have been targeted because they know what they're looking for in these records specifically. >> usually. especially when you don't see them asking for everything at once. if they sent over a list of a hundred people whose phone records they want, they might not really know what they're looking for. when they're trying to go piece by piece, i think they're building these communications pathways, they know who kimberly was speaking to, eric was speaking to. they want to, you know, get more information about those communications, not including the content, of course, to build their case about who was speaking to whom when, and that helps them figure out what they're talking about. kimberly gillfoy was talking to the president on the day of the big riot that led to the insurrection. she's someone who might have had communications about what was going on. eric trump as well was at the rally. they're building this case piece by piece. i don't know exactly what they know, but they're going to find out these communications pathways that will help the case. >> jennifer rogers, elliot williams, thank you. secretary of state tony blinken is in the ukraine today warning that russia could double its military build up at the border. we have more on that ahead. and soon at the white house, president biden will hold a news conference marking his first year in office. stay with cnn for our special coverage. you could fret about that email you just sent. ...with a typo. aaaand most of the info is totally outdated. orrrr... you could use slack. and edit your message after it's sent. 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nah, we're gonna get creamed... but we'll be on t-mobile! blinken said russia has plans to increase its military forces on ukrainian borders as tensions rise between these two countries. >> as we meet today, russia has ratcheted up its threats and amassed nearly a hundred thousand forces on ukraine's border, which it could double on relatively short order. >> secretary blinken also reaffirmed the united states' commitment to give ukraine more assistance. he's in ukraine ahead of the meeting with russia's foreign minister on friday. >> ambassador richard haas joins us now. he's also the author of "the world: a brief introduction" mr. ambassador, welcome back. let's start here with what we heard from general jeffrey clark, supreme allied commander in europe, who said there should be air resources readied in the region. do you think it was a mistake or is a mistake for secretary blinken to tell the ukrainians to signal to russia that there will be no nato forces, there will be no u.s. forces to back ukraine if they invade. >> any threat the united states makes needs to be credible. it also needs to be wise, that if it's called upon, we're prepared to do it. direct military intervention by the united states or nato inside the borders of ukraine violates all of those principles. it's not wise, it won't be enough to change things, but it would be potentially enough to cause a much larger war, so there are things we can do to increase the cost of russian military action against ukraine. there's obviously sanctions we can impose, steps we can take to strengthen nato. but i think the president was right to take direct military intervention off the board because again, it's neither credible nor wise. >> richard, is there still a chance for diplomacy at this stage? >> the short answer is sure. you've got a decision making system on the russian side, a system of one, and nobody has any idea where he is going to come out. i can't prove it but my own guess is mr. putin is somewhat surprised by the degree of our response he has triggered, a cost that would accrue to russia. so i think he is open a diplomatic outcome. the problem is that he's now invested so much and with this military build up, he might need more in the way of face saving than the united states is prepared to give. and i think that might be the biggest problem diplomatic or peaceful resolution here. >> we're about 30 minutes out from the president's news conference marking his first year in office. i listened to the cfr podcast, and i know if i hold you to a grade you're going to tell me incomplete. so i'll ask you overall what's your assessment of the foreign policy of the biden administration in his first year? >> since you clearly don't like incomplete, how about -- >> that didn't work out, give me more. >> i think what they're doing on ukraine is pretty good. i think this mixture of making clear what we won't do, and also making clear what we will do in the way of helping ukraine, strengthening nato, in terms of economic sanctions, in terms of providing a so called off ramp diplomatically, i think that's really good. i can't tell you it will succeed in a conflict, i think they've got it right, lower marks on afghanistan, the absence of a trade policy is a big goal, it's truly unfortunate. some elements of useful china policy but a clear lack of clarity as to what our end goal is. we'll see what happens with iran or north korea. it's a mixed situation. it's hard for me to sit here and say one thing, you know, overall, because again, too many things are in play, including the subject we began with today. >> but is that, richard, just the world in chaos or is the b biden administration, you know, juggling too many plates. why are so many things feeling in play and chaotic? >> i prefer the word disarray to chaos. >> that's right. >> look, i think the biden administration inherited a pretty tough inbox, given what's going on in the world. you have all of these global issues from climate to covid. we've got the revival of great power rivalry in geopolitical challenges from median powers like iran or north korea. you've got all of our domestic challenges which distract us and divide us. i don't think the biden administration can be blamed for all of that. i think they could be blamed for making some situations worse. i mentioned afghanistan and trade. if they simply have bad luck to walk into an extraordinarily difficult situation, this is where we are now in history, and there's no simple answers. there's no single answers to what the united states ought to be doing in the world. >> all right. we'll see how much we hear from the president on russia in about 30 minutes from now. ambassador richard haass, thank you. >> thank you, all. >> thanks, richard. president biden will release hundreds of millions of free n95 masks, so how long will one of them last for you? we'll find out, next. . and of course we're watching the white house, the president will hold this news conference very shortly to mark his first year in history, so stay with cnn for our special coverage. feel stuck with student loan debt? move to sofi and feel what it's like to get your money right. ♪ ♪ ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi- you could save with low rates and no fees. earn a $1,000 bonus when you refi- and get your money right. plaque psoriasis, the tightness, stinging... ...the pain. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. it's still the eat fresh refresh™ and subway's refreshing everything like the new honey mustard rotisserie-style chicken. it's sweet, it's tangy, it's tender, it never misses. you could say it's the steph curry of footlongs. you could, but i'm not gonna. subway keeps refreshing and refreshing and re... growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort. you're a printer, you're supposed to print!!!! uuuuuu! i mean is it the cartridges? i don't know! magenta! do you suffer from cartridge conniptions? be conniption-free, thanks to the cartridge-free epson ecotank printer. a ridiculous amount of ink! and a set of replacement bottles are equal to about 80 cartridges. it's a perfect cure for-- i thought you said you bought--- i did buy the magenta! the epson ecotank. just fill & chill. available at. in hopes of fighting the highly transmissible omicron variant, the biden administration is giving out higher quality masks for free. 400 million n95 masks will be released from the national strategic stockpile next week. >> university of massachusetts biology professor aaron brummage joins us now. great to see you, professor. so i have a couple of examples right here, this n95 mask. this is the one with ear straps. how long can i wear one of these before having to use a new one? >> yeah, in a non-medical environment, you can easily wear them for a week. sometimes even two weeks. the key is if they get wet, you really want to replace them, and if they get dirty, you want to replace them, and if you start feeling resistance when you're breathing through them, you want to replace them, but if you look after them well, easily a week with a single mask, likely much longer. >> great because i take mine off and put it on the counter when i get home and pick it up when i go out day after day. let me ask you, some of these mask mandates require children 2 and older to wear them. should we be putting these n95 masks on 2-year-olds, too? >> no. we'll get some for our family and donate it to teachers who need it in the classroom because they're higher at risk. masking, especially with n95s should go to people higher at risk for their own health, higher at risk because of their infection rather than everybody have one. we can meet our health needs with what we have. these should be targeted where they go, and that means put the mitigation on the group of people that need it the most, those at risk from either their own health or from exposure. >> on behalf of victor, and his masks that he's reusing, can these be washed? >> no, medical masks are not made to be washed. at the beginning of the pandemic when we didn't have many n95s around, hospitals went to great lengths to work out ways to sterilize them, and it took specialized machines and things like that to do it. they should absolutely not be washed. if you want to be able to feel more comfortable about putting it on after wearing it, dash board of a car with sunlight hitting on it and giving heat, those type of things, not microwave, not steaming but sunlight and time will do the best that you need for this. >> so i don't know if you can see me, but i have a full beard and there's guidance on the cdc web site that says that i'm not getting a great, i don't know, seal with my beard and there's some styles of facial hair that are okay for these masks, some that are not. i'm not going to shave. what am i jeopardizing or risking here? >> so i have to tell you, in all the workplaces that i've worked where we use masking as part of our prevention techniques, i have only ever seen one person getting infected when we had masks on both people, and that one person was bearded. you really need to get a good seal around here with that, if you're going to get the full benefit of an n95 for you. they still will help, but, you know, not getting the 95% that it could give you, you're getting something lower. >> so my mask is dirty, and i'm not getting a good seal because i have a beard. great. >> yeah, great. >> unfortunately, yes. >> okay. should we be on the home tests, swabbing our throats or our noses. i know that you recently tweeted that you get a faster, maybe more accurate result from the throat? >> yeah, so this is the problem. i really love what the fda does to make sure it's rigorous, that the science is right, the way that you use them are right, and all tests at the moment, the rapid antigen tests are approved for nasal swab only for at-home use. that's the safe and that's the approved way to go. when you start swallowing your palette, you start getting into risky situations that someone may jerk quickly, and you stab the throat or may end up with -- i'm so sorry to interrupt you. we have to get to the president because he'll be speaking soon. we'll talk to you soon. thank you very much. >> thank you, professor. and cnn's special coverage of president biden's news conference starts right now on "the lead" with jake tapper. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the lead" i'm jake tapper. we start today with breaking news. any minute president joe biden will hold his first news conference in months to mark the end of his first year as commander in chief. the president who has held fewer conferences than any other president at this point in the last 20 years will almost certainly face tough questions about this current omicron surge with the united states averaging more than 740,000 new covid cases and more than 1,500 deaths every single day. biden is also facing a slew of other domestic and global challenges, a key democratic priority, election reform is almost guaranteed to fail, a crucial vote in the next 24 hours, soaring inflation means americans are paying more from everything from food to gas, to energy, and the white house believes russia could invade ukraine, a u.s. ally any moment. our panel of experts are here to analyze it all. let's start however with cnn's f phil mattingly who's live from the white house. phil, what are we expecting to hear from president biden in a few minutes. >> reporter: according to one democratic lawmaker who spoke to the white house earlier today quote this is an opportunity to start to reclaim the narrative, and i think that's how white house officials and the president view this to some degree, an opportunity to face head on the many issues, the series of issues that have contributed to driving down the president's approval over the course of the last several months, and to do that i think the expectation in talking to white house officials is there will be a balancing act, an effort to highlight a series of what the white house views as accomplishments, under appreciated accomplishments in the view of some white house officials over the course of the first year, be it legislative, with the vaccination efforts, broadly how they approach that first year, and also in understanding that the american people don't necessarily feel it at this moment in time. a level of empathy but also a degree of trying to impress upon people that they are building on what they have done in the first year. that is what the president wants to highlight. there's no question that this is not the highlight moment of the president's first year in office. his poll numbers are down. democrats are anxious and exhausted, something the president will try to address, no question about it. as one white house official told me earlier today, the building blocks are there for a good second year, and that is something i think you will certainly hear the president highlight in the course of the next hour. >> and phil, there's also new cnn reporting today, that many democratic campaign officials and operative believe the white house, the biden white house is entirely unprepared for the midterms? >> reporter: yeah, this is related to a story our colleague did who spoke to a dozen or more high level democrats who raised a litany of concerns about how the white house is operated, relating to messaging, planning, just getting back to people right now. the white house is starting to hear that. democrats are very anxious going into a midterm year. they know how history operates in the first midterm of a new presidency but they're also looking at the same numbers everybody else is and recognize there's a very real possibility they will not only lose the house but potentially their very slim majority in the united states senate as well, and they raised those concerns very clearly to our colleague about the issues that they have with this white house, and very specific issues on the staff level, too, including some complaints about white house chief of staff ron klain. one thing that i have noticed over the course of the last 24 hours, jake, the white house has been more proactive than i have seen over the course of the last several weeks in reaching out to members of congress and their staff, including multiple calls yesterday with senior house aides trying to lay out a focus on messaging, trying to lay out a focus on responsive sness and trying to make clear the white house plans to be there in the weeks and months ahead. clearly there are concerns and anxiety. it's not just the american public watching, pretty much every democratic lawmaker and st staff member as well. >> let's discuss with john king, dana bash, and everyone was tested for coronavirus, and we're all vaccinated and boosted. dana, you have more >> i'm told by people who have been around the preparation that he will give an opening speech like phil just reported and will try to walk a fine line, jake, between the kind of, i feel your pain, that you covered with bill clinton, understanding that there is a lot of it out there. but also trying to get people to look on the bright side, trying to find those bright spots. it's going to be a difficult line to walk and people around him know that. the other thing that i'm told is if he has an opportunity, he is prepared to try to begin to set down markers for midterm agenda and messaging. and the main thing that he's prepared to do, if he gets there, is to say, okay, republicans, you're going to blame us for all of these things that are happening, which many of them are not good from economic problems, inflation, the -- one of the biggest. what are you going to do about it, republicans? what's your plan? you want to govern? take the majority back in the house and maybe the senate? what's your plan. that historically has been something that's worked and that the opposition coming in has known that they needed to present a plan, the contract with america in 2010. i'm not sure if that's an antiquated message. i'm not sure if people are so angry out there at this point that they really need a plan from the opposition. >> and that's typically not how midterms work. the democrats are in office so they are the ones who have to say, yes, give us two more years. in joe biden's case, he'll be asking soon, give my four more years and that's what makes this so challenging. republicans just have to run against a -- run on change. and democrats have to run ohere's what we did for you and that's where the white house is really struggling. dana, i'm hearing the same thing. they have lengthy lists of things they have done and they've done those things. that's true. the covid vaccination campaign has actually been largely successful, but the problem is, the recent history for americans has been trending in a negative direction. it's the trend line that people are concerned about and i think he has to sort of give americans a sense of what's the next 6 to 8 months going to look like in this country. how am i going to turn this ship around and if he can do that today he has a shot at people giving him the second chance, maybe, who -- however many chances he has giving him another look. >> john, president biden's approval rating has plummeted in recent months in the last gallup. he's at 40%. that's worse than almost all of his recent predecessors, barely better than where trump was at the end of his first year. why do you think that is, and what can he do to turn it around. >> covid exhaustion, covid exhaustion, covid exhaustion. the percentage of americans who think the country is on the right track is almost exactly the same. 26%, 27%. the percentage who think it's on the wrong track is trending in the wrong direction. what's his challenge? a big question for me is, who does he talk to? does he try to talk to the democratic party? he has problems in the party right now. his biggest problem is out there in america where people think he has lost touch with them. he wran as the responsible adult who would make things better. the guy who understood government who would make things better. he said, the july 4th speech, summer of freedom, gave the impression covid was almost over. as you noted, we're at 770,000 cases a day right now. not his fault. these variants come up but he left the impression, i got this in july. afghanistan will be orderly. we'll be out of there in an orderly fashion. it was not. inflation will be fleeting. is not. he's lost what he had in the campaign, the connection, i get your problems and i'm going to fix them. y he has problems in the democratic problem. his biggest problem is convincing people, can i take my kids to school? when am i going back to work? when is this going to be over and my life will be sback to soe semblance of normal. we have a plan. we're going to get there. because he's lost that. >> if i had to sum up with two words biden's basic platform, one of them was competence. getting things done. that seems to be damaged. the other one is unity. i brought people together. i want to unify the nation. said he word unity eight times in his inaugural address. polling suggests the american people don't think he's delivered on that either. >> a year ago, we have to remind ourselves, what it felt like. this moment after four painful, difficult years for a lot of americans that suddenly you had somebody who felt to you like a breath of fresh air. this very, very high level of expectation coming in and one can debate this but the question of whether he could have met those expectations is a serious question. now what does unity mean today? there are a lot of americans who are unified around the idea that a vaccine is an important part of the path forward. a lot of americans are unified around the idea the election was won by joe biden in 2020. he's facing resistance from some quarters in the country. this is partly a period in his presidency where he's saying to people, i am no longer playing softball as i was. trying to bring everybody along. he's now saying, look, you've heard this since the january 6th anniversary speech. it's time to recognize the threats to democracy, the threats to this country and let's get moving. so there's a period for talking about the aspirations of a presidency in the very beginning and then a time for meeting people where they are in their experience right now and that's what today is really about. >> abby, what is the message right now overall that we're hearing from biden and the democrats when it comes to what they are delivering? i think it's fair to say that they have been saying, not without reason, that there are questions about how much the republican party right now believes in expanding the vote, democracy, those kind of fundamentals. but beyond that. beyond donald trump trying to steal the election, what are they suggesting people support them for? like what are they offering? >> well, the president wanted to pass a major expansion of the social safety net in this country. it's still out there, but it is on life support. build back better. and the absence of the pillars of that legislation is making that answer to that question very difficult for democrats to give the american people. because there are things in there that are really important kitchen table policies that are stuck in the melees of partisanship in congress. they're stuck in the dysfunction of, you know, the procedure of the filibuster and all of that stuff. when we talk about covid exhaustion, one of the big pieces of that is child care. and the lack of child care and what this pandemic has done to women, what this pandemic has done to communities of color and to families and the white house is having a hard time answering those concerns. those kitchen table concerns because they bundled everything together in a massive package that is going nowhere. so the question for biden today is how does he signal what the path forward is for that because that's the -- that's where the rest of his agenda is. there's a whole pillar of things democracy related issues that may be on hold for now but they've got to get moving on the kitchen table issues because that's what matters to every single constituency who put him in the white house. >> and that really drives one of the most important factors. a lot of things have changed over the past five, six years in politics since we cover it. but one of the things that i'm sure will not change is an indicator that we call right track/wrong track. how do people in america feel? people at home that you're talking about. and i asked our polling director before coming on what that is right now. and the number she gave me was basically two-thirds, 66%. two-thirds of americans think that this country, things are going badly. that's only the second worst percentage since jimmy carter. that kind of tells you everything you need to know. and it is not necessarily a partisan thing. it is a, to borrow a term from jimmy carter, a malaise that people are feeling, and it's going to be up to joe biden since he is only one year in, to help turn that around with not just his rhetoric but with his actions and his policies. >> and tonight, or tomorrow, we're going to see this vote in the senate on these two election reform bills. they are not going to pass. no republican supports them. and then there's also going to be a vote on trying to change the filibuster rules so that something like this can pass with 51 votes instead of the 60 votes needed to proceed. what message does that send? why would joe biden, why would chuck schumer, the senate democratic leader, be forcing that vote knowing that ultimately what's going to happen is a bipartisan vote against changing the rules. >> why would you take a vote you're going to lose at a time when a lot of people out in the country are already saying washington doesn't work. why would you take another vote that you're going to lose. that gets at the two different f and complicated challenges the president faces. he's the president of a country who i don't think many breakfast conversations were this morning, what do you think about the filibuster. doesn't mean it's not important and the president shouldn't highlight republican opposition. those are fundamental issues to the country. in the middle of this covid funk, that's not issue number one for most americans but it is issue number one for a lot of the president's party. and midterm election year where he needs to motivate people to vote, convince them he's in the fight. this is one of the issues where the democrats got too far out over their skis about expectations. what can we do? joe biden the day after the election thought nancy pelosi is speaker, mitch mcconnell as the senate republican leader. he thought he would be the bipartisan guy, the bridge between a democratic house and republican senate. then bam, democrats to their credit win these two georgia senate races but it's still 50/50. you can't get much done in this town 50/50, but what did they do? we'll pass voting rights. a $6 trillion reconciliation plan. they got way out over their skis. ambition is a good thing. aspiration is a good thing. that's how you motivate people. you should advance your policy agenda but the president was unable. not sure he could have in this social media age. unable to manage expectations in his party for how much they could do. and for americans who don't check their list every day they look at washington and say what the hell is going on there? >> and they look at the prices at the grocery store and they look at the prices at the gase station. we expect president biden to address a number of pressing challenges, including the standoff at the russian/ukrainian border. ginn joining us now, christiane amanpour. what can president biden say today to bring down the temperature of this standoff to convince vladimir putin that an invasion, again, is the wrong idea? >> well, jake, actually in the words of the state department official today, perhaps diplomacy is not dead. a very united and strong front led by the u

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