from his delivery to demeanor to stunning statements, the president now drawing criticism at home and abroad for drawing on comments on security and the future of his domestic agenda and worries overseas. his chief comments, what the west might be willing to allow russia to get away with. >> russia will be held accountable if it invades. it depends on what it does. it's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera. i'm not so certain what he's going to do. my guess is he will move in. he has to do something. >> as this administration, have you determined whether president putin plans to invade or move into ukraine as you said? >> look. the only thing i'm confident of is that decision is totally, solely, completely a putin decision. >> the president moments ago on damage control, clearly trying to clean that up at a white house photo op. >> i've been absolutely clear with president putin. he has no misunderstanding in any, any assembled russian units moving across the ukrainian border. that is an invasion. but it will be met with severe and coordinated economic response that i've discussed in detail with our allies as well as laid out very clearly for president putin. >> we'll also bring you more on the breaking news in washington as the january 6th committee is about to get their hands on 700 pages of trump white house records, the supreme court rejecting former president trump's final appeal. and our nbc poll showing the president's approval plunging after one year in office. but we begin this hour with russia, ukraine, and other major topics from the president's press conference. joining me now nbc's capitol hill correspondent garrett haake who's going to be with me throughout the hour. co-host peter alexander, stephanie cutter, former white house adviser to president biden and deputy campaign manager for his 2012 re-election campaign. former republican national committee chairman michael steele and jason furman from the chair of economic advisory and dr. amesh adalja. peter alexander, big day and big night at the white house last night. those comments from president biden came a few hours after this tweet from ukraine's president zelensky writing, we want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and no small natios just as the there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. peter, the president and his team are making every effort to clean this up last night and today. >> reporter: yeah, andrea. that's exactly right. even before that two-hour news conference wrapped up t president said the severity of the punishment would depend on how big the invasion by raush into ukraine was. he said it might be a bigger circumstance if it was a minor incursion as he described it. you just read the words of volodymyr zelensky of ukraine who said there's no such thing as a minor incur. press secretary jen psaki tried to clear things up. she e said the president has been clear with the russian president that if any russian military forces move across the ukraine border, that would be viewed as a renewed invasion and the response would be united, severe, and southwest swift from the u.s. and its allies because the president said there remained some divisions among america's nato allies there. this morning savannah guthrie with vice president kamala harris on that as well. here's part of that exchange. >> the president also openly talked about division within nato countries and nato allies about what to do in the event of a russian incursion. how damaging is that when the message that's being preached overseas at this moment by our secretary of state and others is that nato stands united? >> i will tell you and i think your audience knows, joe biden has been working as the former head of a foreign relations and as the former vice president and a senator in a world of leadership on foreign policy for years. i have witnessed him continuously engaged in direct and honest conversations with our partners and allies, and this is no exception. >> reporter: obviously very different when joe biden spoke as the head of the senate foreign relations committee than he is when he spoke as president, why you saw him using notes, andrea, when he was making comments today, so there would be total clarity on his position. >> you know, that's why it was so surprising, peter, and to all of you because he campaigned on, you know, experience and competence, and it was just so surprising on foreign policy of all things to see so many missteps last night. garrett, my other anchor, let's turn to that big press conference starting with surprising comment from the president about election security hours before the voting rights bill failed to pass the senate. >> if this isn't passed, do you still believe the upcoming election will be fairly conducted and its results will be legitimate? >> well, it all depends on whether or not we're able to make the case to the american people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election. i'm not saying it's going to be legit. the increase and the process of it being illegitimate is not getting these reforms passed. >> garrett, how are lawmakers from both parties responding to those comments? >> well, the comments came right in the middle of this debate on the voting rights legislation over in the senate, and several republican senators seized on them as evidence, they said, that the president was politicizing this issue, that he was trying to, you know, undermine american elections. it was really, i think, a notable moment in that debate. now, the white house has been trying to clear this up since this morning. jen psaki was asked about it on fox news. she tweeted later saying, of course, the president wasn't trying to undermine american elections, far from it. he was trying to say it's important to defend americans' electoral institutions, and i think we'll see more of this in the debate that is still probably to come on this issue because in that same news conference, you did hear the president say he does think something will get done on the electoral count act, trying to stiffen up the rules on how electoral rules are counted and at the state level. more grist in the mill over that, the democrats saying they're not going to let this issue go after that defeat last night. >> indeed. and michael steele, democrats have now spent a year slamming the former president trump for his repeated false claims about the 20 election results, and now trump is sending out statements trying to use president biden's comments to support his case. doesn't this really muddy the waters? >> well, that's the goal. the goal is to muddy the waters, and the white house knows that the president's comments on voting as opposed to coming out and declaring it being, you know, no, that there is -- the process is secure. we've seen that. it will be secure going into this november, sort of to create this ambiguity that just a little sliver as you know, andrea, is enough for trump to act like the sky and sun are falling, and so now they're going to have to play cleanup. politically it's damaging. you know, i think by and large people know where republicans stand on the voting process and the electoral college results as from their behavior in 2020 and up to now, but that opening by the president gives them something to crow about, and they will crow as long as they can until something else comes along that's better to crow about. >> and i want to bring in stephanie cutter. you've worked around president biden, and, of course, president obama, the campaign, the white house. the president also surprised a lot of people when he said after eight years as barack obama's vice president with mitch mcconnell from day one as republican leader that he sometimes did not anticipate that the stalwart republican would lead the obstruction of this type of ageda items. >> well, andrea, you know, everybody knows that president biden and mitch mcconnell had a very good working relationship through the eight years of the obama/biden white house. a lot of the things we were able to get done were as a result of then vice president's biden's actions in the senate with mitch mcconnell. and who knows what conversations were had between president biden or even candidate or president-elect election biden and mitch mcconnell about what needed to be done to attack the coronavirus to get the economy moving, and after four years of donald trump, and everybody knows mitch mcconnell was no fan of donald trump, it could be a surprise that mitch mcconnell was so hardfast. and even on bills like infrastructure, even though he did allow some of the republicans to vote for it, issues that have broad public support, that mitch mcconnell was putting his politics, his party's politics ahead of what was best for the american people. it's unfortunate that that's what mitch mcconnell was doing. everybody now is on the same page. he is not going to be an ally in moving this country forward. he's there for one reason, and it's for his own personal politics. >> of course, the issue that has been dragging the president down in the polls is when he inherited, which is covid, and the lack of anticipation of the variants. he's been dominated by the covid variants and confusion in the country about testing, what masks to wear, the cdc. here's the president's explanation last night. >> the message is the reason it's confusing is scientists are learning more. the one piece that's gotten a lot of attention is the communications capacity of the cdc. well, she came along and said, looking i'm not a scientist. i'm learning what is stated as the case. >> you know, dr. adalja, sometimes i feel like the white house is trapped. they're so eager to follow the science and not be influencing and changing the cdc the way that the trump white house did with the political hacks, shall we say, directing public relations for the cdc and not letting them have news conferences. they were so eager to show the independence of the cdc and of dr. walensky that at times they don't control the messaging. mine, they sort of can't win on this? >> it's very difficult when it comes to public health communication, and i think a lot of it stems from the fact we never really articulate goals from where we go in this pandemic. where do we go? what are we trying to achieve? i think that mixed messaging, understanding of the quarantine guidelines, changes in mask guidance, all of that stems from really even in my field a lack of understanding of where we're headed. we know that this virus is not going anywhere, that it's going to become endemic and we're heading toward that. then you can interpret all of the guidance in light of where we're headed. i think it's important for the cdc to be completely independent and the cdc to almost act like a federal reserve if i could have my way because politicians are always going to have to try to massage the message. scientific messaging is difficult. context changes. you're going to learn things. things might not apply one day that applies the next. that's hard for politicians to deal with where one size fits all messages. that's not what we can do. we shouldn't straitjacket it. they are our next defense in whatever pandemic we're inevitably going to face. >> jason furman, let's talk about inflation, the fed, the president acknowledging it's going to be painful for a lot of families in what he called the short term do. you think the economic pain of inflation could drag through the year? it's no longer a temporary phenomenon. all the way through the midterms. >> when you think about it right now, there are two stories. one is the remarkable story of 1.39 unemployment rate which is really low by any standard, rapid growth in 2021, and the united states really leading the world in terms of its economic growth. but then there's the inflation. inflation affects everyone. prices rise faster than wages. i don't think inflation will be at 7% this year. it will come in a decent amount below that, but it's still likely to be too hot for people's comfort, and i was very glad to hear president biden say inflation is the responsibility of the federal reserve, and he's fully supporting their independence and doing what they need to to get inflation better under control. >> well, jason furman, thanks so much to you. garrett, you're staying with us the whole hour. stephanie cutter, michael steele, dr. adalja, thanks to you guys. we have breaking news, and we'll bringing you more on this throughout the hour. the january th committee chairman saying ivanka trump should appear through invitation. that's an invitation, not a subpoena. more on that ahead. the thin red line after president biden's comments about russia and ukraine. this is a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we are live in geneva, switzerland, only on msnbc. switzerland, only on msnbc the journey is why they ride. when the road is all you need, there is no destination. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. ♪♪ things you start when you're 45. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... coaching. new workouts. and screening for colon cancer. yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. i'm cologuard®. i'm convenient and find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. i'm for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. new year, new start. and now comcast business is making it easy to get going with the ready. set. save. sale. get started with fast and reliable internet and voice for $64.99 a month with a 2-year price guarantee. it's easy... with flexible installation and backing from an expert team, 24/7. and for even more value, ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. get a great deal for your business with the ready. set. save. sale today. comcast business. powering possibilities. secretary of state tony blinken in berlin today on damage control. in a speech at a news conference, he stressed that the u.s. and nato allies are on the same page toward russia and its threats to ukraine, trying to counteract president biden's comments last night that russia is likely to evade ukraine, that a minor incursion would trigger sanctions and that nato allies are divided. >> but it's very important that we keep everyone in nato on the same page. that's what i'm spending a lot of time doing, and there are differences. there are differences in nato as to what countries are willing to do depending on what happens, the degree to which they're able to go. >> joining me now is retired army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, if former director for european affairs for the european national security council. also with us, dennis roeds. lieutenant colonel vindman, i want to remind our viewers, you were on that infamous phone call when president trump told ukraine's president, i would like you to do us a favor. so how is vladimir putin likely to react to what president biden said last night? does it give him a green light to do a so-called minor incursion? >> i don't think it gives him a green light to do a minor incursion. i frankly don't put too much stock into it. there's wiggle room for military offensive. i think president biden clarified the point by saying he meant there's a whole range of different hybrid warfare tactics the russians could deploy that would have a centrifugal/symmetrical response and the white house clarified this point saying a military incursion would have a significant potent response. i think also couching this idea that there was a larger gaffe in describing the lines, i don't think that's a helpful or accurate assessment. the fact is the president is forthright and he laid out the facts. there are gaffes. yesterday president macron indicated there was a separate track and it's important for the president to lay it out in stark terms. unfortunately i don't think any of these things are going to have a significant deterrent effect. a lot of these things that we're talking about are reactionary and occur after the fact. and russia has significant legitimate doubt as to whether the u.s. has the ability to follow through on these threats. what may be able to have an effect at this point, though, is some legislation that's circulating through congress, that menendez and the bills would levy a very significant cost, and the passage of some combination of those bills in action agree gat could have a significant effect. those call for severe cones kwenss that could change the consequences. >> it's strongly coming from the congressional delegation, bipartisan delegation that was in crew crane just this week and has been emphasized by senators on both sides. there's a lot of support for that. i think the colonel is right that's going to have a deterrent effect. you know as a white house adviser and someone involved in political campaigns that what the president of the united states says is significant, and what he did say understand cuts the sec of state. all the white house statements and department of state statements up until the president's statements last night that all of these meetings, the nato meetings, last week, the week before, were in lockstep and that macron was the outlier in what he said. they were trying to finesse that. colonel vindman is right. there have been nato divisions, but really it does undercan't tony blinken as he's about to meet today. >> yeah, andrea. the reality is there are always divisions like this. that was the case in the obama years. we would try to just project the determination to get sanctions done and the toughest possible sanction. i think one of the toughest challenges here, andrea, is you've only really heard president biden talk about the ukraine issue in response to questions rather than kind of going out and laying out, here's the deal, here's what we're seeing, here's what our interesting are, here's why ukraine matters, here's why russia in the long run is not in as strong a position as they appear to be, and here are the types of consequences we're willing to pursue, whether that it's sanctions on russia or arms we supply to ukraine. it's much more difficult to answer that than to answer questions. it's a challenge for any president. when you start kind of predicting events and start talking about what is putin going to do, you're not on your strongest ground, which is what am i going to do, what am i prepared to do, what is nato prepared to do. so i think the reset and the message you saw coming out of that press conference reinforced those core messages. again, i don't think president biden was saying anything that isn't true in the sense there can be a range of russian actions. there can be incursions of a cyber nature, pair military nature, movement into eastern parts of ukraine where russia has already been enacted or a full-scale invasion, a land war like we haven't seen in decades in europe. there is a range of pockets here, but the importance for the u.s. going forward is to underscore its positions, its interests, and what we're prepared to do together with our allies. >> andrea, i think it's -- >> a couple of points here. >> yeah. >> please. >> i was going to say, ben, what you just said, reinforces the fact that the president has only had two east room formal u.s. news conferences, solo news conferences since he took office and that the white house is perhaps correct, that this is not his best format, but there was an expectation because of his years in the senate, his experience, he would be able to handle this kind of question and answer rather than be working off a teleprompter or scripts. he's supposed to know foreign code and know where to go and not go and stay on message with this is what i want to do. the other point to make here is that the president has undercut -- clearly undercut ukraine because zelensky's tweet made it very clear he felt undercut. >> you know, i think, first of all, when you're dealing with very complicated issues like this internationally, you want the most carefully worded and clear formations as possible, right? so in a way, the eastern format doesn't lend itself to that kind of communication, that kind of messaging, and that's why i think it is important to have the repetition of the kind of message you saw from secretary blinken today coming from president biden in the day doms when he has that opportunity. again, i do think here there is a clear u.s. policy and there has been a clear warning about the types of sanctions that could be imposed on russia and about nato unity being the prioritization of american diplomacy and russia de-escalating the crisis. i think they are on solid ground in their message. i think the repetition is essential, and, frankly, if you're ukrainians, it seems natural you'd make it ads clear as possible there's no russian incursion that can be tolerated. i think that's a natural response coming from them, and, frankly, what i would have done. >> well, and i also just want to point out they have sanctioned today four ukrainians who had been in russia, two who are still in the iranian parliament for, they say, conspire dwroefrg throw ukraine's government. that's sharing some muscle as well. have to leave it there. alexander vindman and ben rhodes. thank you both so very much. we do have that breaking news. the january 6th committee asking ivanka -- about to ask ivanka trump to provide information about discussions with her father about the insurrection. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. is "andl is "andl reports" only on msnbc scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone. and welcome back. the january 6th committee has just sent out an invitation to ivanka trump to appear before the committee in the future. this comes after a major breakthrough in the investigation as the committee is now set to receive hundreds of crucial records tied to her father very shortly, this after the supreme court dealt a major blow to the former president on wednesday night, rejecting his effort to stop the national archives from giving the house committee hundreds of pages of documents relating to last year's insurrection at our nation's capitol. joining us to talk about all of this, nbc justice correspondent. they say if ivanka trump was at the white house in direct contact with her father at key moments on january 6th, what all are they expecting to hear from her? >> one of the chief things is what was going on with president trump? what was he saying or doing? if he was aware of what was going on at the capitol to stop the 2020 election, he wasn't just idle. he was omitting his duty to stop the fight because he wanted them to be successful, that's critically important to any critical charges for him or in this case putting together the story of what was happening that day. we know that she -- reports say she went and spoke to her father more than once asking him to speak out, say something to stop this, and that he disregarded her request. i think they want to hear about that in detail under oath. >> the let ter from the committee is interesting. in it they use information from other witnesses. keith kellogg who was telling the committee ivanka went into the room, ivanka was having these conversations. you see how they're building on what they've gotten so far. pete, speaking about what they've gotten so far t committee about to get their habtds on all of these documents thanks to a supreme court response last night that got lost in the news firehouse with president biden's press conference. what exactly did the supreme court do here? >> remember how we got here. the january 6th committee asked for archives which keeps the documents from former administrations. trump says i don't want some of this handed over because of president privilege. biden says i'm not going to assert it. he asks the supreme court to do two things, number one, take my appeal, i've got some executive privilege here, two, in the meantime block them from handling over the documents until whether you decide to take my appeal. the second thing the court acted on last night. they said, no, we're not going to stay the lower orders. archives can turn it over. i think it's interesting they're not going to hear his appeal. if they would have, they probably would have blocked archives from handing it over. it's bad news for the president in the immediate case and it's a clear sign he's not going to be able to try it again from future requests from archives. >> pete, is there a view of how they might treat other witnesses or those who assert they might not testify in the face of subpoenas from the committee? >> two things i think about this, garrett. number one, what is left of the court of appeals decision a pretty clear sign that these former trump people are wrong when they say the committee has no legitimate need for these documents. i think that's been resolved now. i think that claim is going to be very hard to sustain. two, i think it undercuts -- i'm not sure it completely eviscerates their claims that they can't cooperate because of trump's executive privilege. the supreme court has sort of muddied up what's left of any residual executive privilege that president biden must have. the court of appeals thinks whatever it is, it's not enough to overcome the need for the documents. the supreme court doesn't really take that away. it says the supreme court didn't need to go there. i think the bottom line is this makes it much harder for the former officials to say we're not going to cooperate because the committee has a legitimate basis and because of executive privilege of the former president. >> so, barbara, we don't know exactly what's going to be in the documents, but you and i have talked about many investigations and i think most important have been mark meadows' text messages. this is a much bigger batch of documents, even closer somehow to the president than the chief of staff. what might be in these documents and what might we learn from the january 6th kind of white house record-peeping that the white house doesn't typically get its eyes on, at least this quickly. >> i think it's a potential gold mine in any kind of case where there's white collar activity. documents are incredibly important evidence. it demonstrates what they were thinking and reporting to each other. it's focused a lot on the daily dive. that tells you who was there, who was on the phone, and could expand the scope of witnesses that the committee could subpoena and ask questions of. there are specific documents here, talking points and other things that provide a window into the thinking. >> we say documents. it also includes multi-media video and tweets or things like that. pete williams, barbara mcquade, thank you both. coming up, with falling poll numbers and legislate laytive losses, what is year two going to look like for president biden? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. is "andl is "andl reports" only on msnbc [bacon sizzles] ♪ [electronic music plays] ♪ woo! welcome back. a few hours after that marathon news conference, the president issued a statement saying he was profoundly disappointed after voting rights legislation was blocked by senate republicans and, of course, those two democrats. at that press conference. nbc news chief white house correspondent kristen welker pressed on the frustrations felt by his black supporters. >> so what do you say to these black voters who say that you do not have their backs as you promised on the campaign trail? >> i've had their back. i've had their back my entire career. i've never not had their back. part of the problem is, well, i have not been out in the community nearly enough to connect with people. let them take a measure of my sincerity, take a measure of who i am. that's a problem that is my own making by not communicating as much as i should have. >> joining us now is nbc news presidential historian michael bush love. david plouffe, and pbs weekend washington moderator. first of all, ameesh, the president was asked that question by kristen welker who just richardsoned from south carolina, jim clyburn and the black voters there critical to his winning the nomination, but the president's vetting his voting with black voters. the nbc poll shows an alarming figure. 19% drop since the president took office. how worried should the white house be concerned about this? >> the white house should be concerned. there are a lot of voters around the country who are critical to the president. of course, african american voters, black women in particular are now looking aushlgd and saying what exactly did we get for this loyalty and support especially when it comes to voting rights that the president had been backing but not as vocal about in the last few months. let's remember i pressed president biden and said why are you not behind a voting rights carveout to the filibuster, and he did not want to get behind that. he's, of course, since gotten involved and behind it, but jim clyburn says this is something he should have dub. that said the president is very much popular with african american voters. he was very, i think, honest in the idea, this is a problem of my own makings. he was genuinely saying, i need to do better going forward. i think the white house are going to be trying to double down on the idea that he'll have black support in this country. >> and david plouffe, the president was also laying into republicans for blocking his agenda and saying that he didn't expect that they would be this lined up against him. let's watch. >> i did not anticipate that there'd be such a stalwart effort to make sure the most important thing is president biden didn't get anything done. think about this. what are republicans for? what are they for? >> what is your reaction to that? i mean one reaction could be, well, that's why now he needs to score some victories, some wins, and that's why he conceded last night, the reality, that they're going to break up build back better and try to pass individual popular pieces of it. it reminds me of some of the, you know, some of the things that bill clinton was able to do for his re-election after a devastating midterm. you know, small popular issues that helped him to win that victory in 1996. >> well, you know, i think with the notable exception of infrastructure, yeah, the republicans have stood unified in opposition. think mcconnell likes the hand he has right now. he action kwee yes, sired on the debt celling because he wants the democrats to be focused. of course, when you're the republican party, you have to turn the election into a referendum, not a choice. joe biden himself often uses the term "don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." that is the most -- how do things change, andrea, between now and voting in november. one is the big thing is the big thing. we're in a pandemic. as things improve and the pandemic improves, biden will imimprovement you have to build scale back better with popular parts that you passed and you go out and sell those. just as importantly as saying what you did, say what the republicans opposed. then i think there will be a lot of republicans get nominated in the house number all of them, but a lot of them, who are going to be extreme weirdos. they're not going to be the glenn youngkins of the world. i think what we have to understand here, there's no message, there's no precedent that's going to change where things are. you're not going to move from the high 30s or low 40s approval to 50. the big thing that needs to change is the pandemic. you need to change what you can control. the thing you have to look at is allowing the president to spend more time out in the communities, and i think he sorely needs do that. >> the other thing he cannot control that is inflation. michael beschloss, a lot of presidential press conferences and the historic ones you haven't seen yourself but you've certainly studied and read about, this one clocked in at nearly two hours. so how would you score mr. biden's deliverance? >> we've never seen something this long. i think the previous record was bill clinton, 1997, 94 minutes, and some people said they thought it seemed like 154 minutes. it seemed a little bit long. but i think the white house was trying to make the point last night this is a president who's perfectly able to deal with a press conference for two hours, which he showed, although we may argue about some of the things that he said. at the same time, the most important thing that he's dealing with, yes, he will probably have a difficult year this year. he may lose congress. he may well lose congress just as clinton did in 1994 and just as barack obama did as david well remembers in 2010. but why is this year not like other years? this is a year where our democracy may be out the window because americans faith in elections, our faith that someone actually wins an election will be recognized and certified and put in office, that could be gone by the end of this year some of when the history of the world is written and think look back on 2022 and the president of the united states, the most important thing he can do this year is protect and preserve our democracy. if he can't do that, everything else we've discussed during this segment is almost irrelevant. >> and, david plouffe, what about his his approval rating? how worried should he be by the approval rating, or can he recover if, as you point out, the pandemic is less -- if covid is less of a crisis and if inflation comes down? >> well, you know, i may seem naive when i say this, andrea, but he can't worry that much about t he spoke to that yesterday and knowing him i think he believes that, which is, you know, if the pandemic eventually is more in our rearview mirror, i think if he can register some more accomplishments and do a better job of connecting with the american people about what he's delivered and then, of course, to be viewed in comparison to the republicans, to michael's point the threat of democracy, i think you can see those numbers increase. there's a lot of historical data that suggests he's definitely going to want to try to be as high in the high 40s or low 50s as possible to give his party a chance to survive so that's your goal, but you can't fight your way out of this. you know, you just have to, you know -- you're making progress every day. to michael's point that's the big thing and i think democrats ask the important question which is do they support the electoral college act which is not sufficient but might be essential to protect our democracy. >> we will have to leave it there. thanks to all of you. hours before secretary of state blinken meeting tomorrow with his freshman counterpart here in geneva, we will look at what to expect. we're live in switzerland for this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. and we're back with more breaking news this hour. this time from georgia where the fulton county district attorney is asking for a special grand jury to investigate any attempts to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 election. the district attorney cites a lack of cooperation in the county's ongoing inquiries as reason for the special grand jury. we expect more on this coming up in the next hour when chuck todd hosts "meet the press daily" live from georgia. and as we've been reporting, secretary of state blinken will meet with russia's foreign minister in geneva tomorrow to see if there is any kind of diplomatic path to avoid a conflict in ukraine. our chief -- our chief washington correspondent and anchor this have show, andrea mitchell, of course, is back with us live from geneva. andrea, what should we expect to see in and around these meetings tomorrow? >> well, that is the great unknown. there is a lot of drama here because lavrov does not play nice, as you know, garrett, from watching it from over there, every time we've been, you know, at sessions with him, all of the years, and, in fact, just last month when he was meeting with tony blinken, he is a tough guy and when he went back after the last meetings we heard a lot of tough rhetoric from russia, and vladimir putin may see some openings here, especially because of the stumbles on foreign policy and all the damage control today from the white house and from the president himself. so he may see a way to further divide the nato allies now that it's so clear that france is going in one direction and they emphasized that again today. there really are problems in how tough they are willing to be, even after these meetings today in berlin, as the secretary is about to come here to geneva, we will be seeing him in just a couple of hours. >> and, garrett, we will be seeing you tomorrow. thanks so much for holding down the fort today. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i will be live from geneva again tomorrow for the full read out of that dramatic meeting secretary of state blinken and his high stakes if meeting with the russian foreign minister. chuck todd is up right after this. foreign minister foreign minister chuc nucala reduces asthma attacks it's a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, this infections that can cause shingles have occured. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the servicenow platform will make it just, flow. whether it's finding new ways to help you serve your customers, orchestrating a safe return to the office... wait. an office? what's an office? ...or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. wherever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that wo comcast has connected, to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. the pandemic made teaching and learning really hard. but instead of working to help students safely return to the classroom, the san francisco school board focused on renaming schools and playing politics. and they've even saddled our district with a $125 million deficit. our children can't wait for new leadership. here's our chance for a fresh start. on february 15th, please recall school board members collins, lópez and moliga before our kids fall even further behind. ♪♪ welcome to "meet the press daily," i'm chuck todd, right here in atlanta, georgia. of course, what may be the most important battleground state at least for the next two election cycles. all this week we are kicking off our nbc news coverage of the 2022 midterms. we are going to have more of our special "meet the midterms" coverage later in the show. we will have much more on "meet the press" this sunday as well. we will begin with the white house. this is the official one-year mark of the biden presidency, in fact, we are o