it's a war that -- where all sides lose. rattling of sabers and dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful and something that we won't engage in. >> austin at the american ramstein air base. trying to coordinate weapon supplies to ukraine. under pressure from the u.s., germany committing to send anti-aircraft tanks to ukraine. ukrainian officials reporting new civilian deaths in luhansk. the shelling of the donetsk region continues. they report russian forces moving operations closer to lines of combat in the east. joining us now, nbc's matt bradley and "new york times" diplomatic correspondent michael crowley. matt, there are reports of strikes where you are as the fighting is intensifying. what can you tell us about the battlefield? >> reporter: yeah, andrea, when we woke up, my crew and i in this hotel in the east of the country, about a three-hour drive from mariupol and a couple of hours from the eastern front in donetsk. we woke up to hear three explosions at 7:00 a.m. this morning. we hear from local authorities that this was cruise missiles flying over that huge nuclear power plant, very close to the city. as you know very well, we remember from recent events, the russians have shown a blatant and reckless disregard for the safety of nuclear facilities and defunct nuclear facilities all over the country. this was threatening. with hear from local authorities that one missile exploded in the air. two of them made impact. so far, we have heard there's been at least one death resulting from this morning's early morning attack. this is something that is part of this eastern offensive. we heard from the russians that they are gearing up for a major assault on the east, where i am now. british intelligence have said that ukrainians are preparing this city for an assault from the south. that would bring russian offensive straight besieged city of mariupol which has been destroyed. we can expect to see more of an assault coming up in the coming days and weeks. i gotta tell you, we have been hearing that for weeks, that this eastern assault, which is where the russians have been focusing forces, could be coming at any time. so far, all we have seen are artillery bombardments, cruise missiles. we have seen modest gains on the part of the russians. we are waiting to see the other foot drop in the east. >> if they did that, that would create a dangerous, threatening movement, a double surround of the ukrainian forces. >> reporter: that's right. part of the theory behind this, at least is what we hear from western intelligence analysts and military analysts, is that the russian strategy is to tie up some of the elite ukrainian forces that are already here in the east. they have been fighting this war here since 2014. so that they can pin them down, especially in the northeast of the country, around kharkiv, and launch their assault without having to deal with a lot of resistance from elite ukrainian forces. in mariupol, that's a problem for them, because they are still fighting for that city. they are tieing up their own russian troops. >> matt bradley, thank you so much. michael crowley, let's talk about secretary blinken. two very important meetings. what the secretary said is they are going to move the u.s. diplomats across the border, day trips to lviv. they will assess the security situation to move back and reopen as he described it yesterday, within weeks in kyiv. >> that's right. it feels like we are wading back in. they will test this, see how it works. evaluate the security situation. clearly, russian forces have moved away from kyiv, consolidaing around donbas. lviv, near the border with poland, is one of the safer places. the catch here, andrea, is that russia is periodically conducting air strikes all over ukraine, including i believe it was last week or ten days ago, a strike in lviv that killed some people. it is not completely quiet out there. it's still dangerous. as i mentioned in my story with my colleague, edward wang, together, accidents happen. even if the russians are aware where the u.s. diplomats are, think back to what happened when the u.s. was bombing serbia in 1999 and accidentally bombed the chinese embassy in belgrade, killing several people. you are never completely safe in a war zone. the state department is assuming risk here, for sure. >> absolutely. i was in belgrade when that happened, covering that war. it was quite something. of course, the fallout was extraordinary. so thank you, michael crowley. thanks to matt bradley. i wanted to play something from the ukrainian foreign minister when asked about if he had any message to the russian message. let's watch. >> unfortunately, russian people share responsibility for this war. we see how they vigorously support the aggression against ukraine, how they hate us. so they share responsibility with putin for what is happening, for all the massacres, for crimes, for rapes, tortures, looting. i'm sorry to say this, but russia will have to go -- to undergo the process of de-putinization. the russian people have to wake up and to atone for their sins. >> joining me is retired army lieutenant general twitty. thank you for being with us. you can hear that, the rhetoric on both sides, the nuclear saber rattling from russia. this is going to make any kind of cease-fire negotiations that much more difficult if there ever was a russian commitment, a putin commitment, to negotiate something here. >> yeah. andr andrea, thanks for letting me be on your show today. >> my pleasure. >> what we see is when russia gets in a bind, when the walls start to close in on them, and trust me, the walls are closing in on them, today you have the u.n. secretary-general that's at the doorstep of president putin. you also have 40 countries in germany meeting with the secretary of defense trying to figure out an equipment strategy for the ukrainians. not just for short-term, but for the long-term. then you have the ukrainian forces that are standing up pretty well against this attack that is happening in the east. so when you look at all that, putin has only one thing left. that is his nuclear arsenal. we in the u.s., we have done a good job by not saber rattling along with them. our policy in the u.s. is we don't talk about our nuclear weapons. we don't saber rattle our nuclear weapons. but you tend to find autocrats will do saber rattling when their back is against the recall. that's what we are seeing today. >> we have new reporting today, just now posted on nbcnews.com, from my colleagues, an extraordinary report that u.s. intelligence sharing was more extensive than any of us had previously reported, for the first time reporting a russian air transport was shot down, which was trying to take out that airplane around kyiv. real time intelligence here, which has been rarely, if ever shared with a non-nato partner. that's been a key factor here in the success of the ukrainian forces so far. >> absolutely. we should not be surprised by the intelligence sharing. if you remember, before the war, as we were seeing indicators that russia was building along the border there, we started sharing intelligence. then it prompted the rest of our european allies to start sharing intelligence. so this is the first time in my military career -- granted, i served in the military almost 40 years -- where we relaxed our stance and really started to share intelligence, particularly intelligence that is not a part of nato or our five that we normally share intelligence with. >> how much of an advantage do the russians have in this next phase of the battle? secretary austin was asked about his comments that he made in poland on the border after coming out of the three-hour meeting in kyiv about weakening russia. here was his response today. >> they are, in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when it started. we would like to make sure, again, that they don't have the same type of capability to bully their neighbors that we saw at the outset of this conflict. >> this next period is critical. experts have said that. the u.s. is sending in howitzers. they are sending in phoenix drones which this new package includes drones that have a further range. they can go on attack. they can do reconnaissance. this is a lot of stuff. how do you get it to the forces who are now fighting in the east, because you have to go farther than previously? and now we have seen rail attacks in the last 48 hours, really since austin and blinken took the train to kyiv and went back and forth supposedly covertly. of course, their cover had been blown by zelenskyy a day before saying they were going. they went by rail. it was clear to the russians they were going by rail. now we have seen constant attacks on the trains. maybe also to say that, you think you are going to get this stuff in and how are we going to put it there if you can't put it on trains? >> let me just say this. it's great to see this optimism that's occurring, because i think it is fuelling now the equipment that needs to go into the ukrainian hands. i'm glad that we are starting to put the right equipment into ukraine. to address the flow of equipment, there's no problem when it comes to the equipment moving throughout europe. someone has to collect all this equipment and get it at least to poland. there's no problem there, because the united states european command, they have the assets to be able to move that equipment through poland and to the polish border. where you will find the problem is once you get into ukraine. once you hit the border of ukraine, there's approximately 400 miles down to the donbas area. that's a long distance. you hit it correctly. the russians now understand that all this equipment is coming in. you see them taking the bridges out to prevent the equipment from coming through roads. you see them targeting the rail system to prevent it from coming through the railway. in terms of the air fields, no problem, because russian has closed down the airspace. pretty much, there's going to be a difficult time getting this equipment in. so my concern is time of need for the ukrainians. time of need is now. obviously, we can't get it to them now. this equipment is going to flow in over days, months and so forth. a concern is, as you just highlighted, how do you get it in when the russians have bombed all these infrastructure, to include the fuel? they're going after the fuel depots as well. we have to watch that. most of this equipment, this heavy equipment will need fuel as well. >> are we giving them the kind of equipment with the new phoenix drones and other attack equipment where they can do more of the cross-border raids as they did against a russian fuel depot some weeks ago? >> i tell you, i'm now encouraged with the equipment we have given them, especially this phoenix system. we are pumping more artillery systems in there. i think you know today, germany just announced that they're going to put their cheetah system in there. that's pretty impressive. it's not only an anti-air system, but you can use it in a ground mode to go after ground targets as well. you can use it also in a short-range artillery way in order to drop artillery rounds on the enemy. so the equipment that's going in there now, i'm starting to get impressed. i was a naysayer. i wanted the migs in there. what's going in there now is going to give the ukrainians a bit of a fire power they can deal with the russians. >> this german decision is a big decision. they said they were going to. then they said they wouldn't. they have internal politics. now they say they are. that's a big deal. it's great to see you. thank you. come back. >> great to see you. thank you. the text chain. thousands of messaging giving a real time view of who had the ear of donald trump's last chief of staff amid the push to overturn the 2020 election. this is "andra mitchel reports" on msnbc. people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs, or if you plan to, or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. you see, son, with a little elbow grease, you can do just about anything. thanks, dad. that's right, robert. and it's never too early to learn you could save with america's number one motorcycle insurer. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush. your gums will thank you. -that's right, dr. gary. -jamie? sorry, i had another thought so i got back in line. what was it? [ sighs ] i can't remember. (supervisor) conventional thinking says this level of 360 support ends after the sale, but not with t-mobile for business. when you're looking for a solution tailored toward your needs t-mobile's experts will work to help realize your vision. this is xfinity rewards. our way of saying thanks, with rewards for the whole family! from epic trips... to the original jurassic park... on us. join over 3 million members and start enjoying rewards like these, and so much more in the xfinity app! and check out jurassic world: dominion, in theaters june 10th. former trump chief of staff mark meadows received text messages on january 6 calling on the president to help stop the violence at the capitol. texts show some republican lawmakers encouraged them to fight the outcome in the lead up to the deadly attack, including andy biggs suggesting gop controlled state legislatures appoint alternate electors writing, look doors. repeatedly asking meadows to talk to clark. and congressman jim jordan, the day before the attack saying pence should block the electoral votes. joining us jackie. meadows turned these over and then stopped cooperating. specific attempts to get raffensperger on the phone and get him to change the election. it seems as though meadows was front and center in a lot of this. >> yeah. as the texts reveal and as we have known, mark meadows was at the nexus of the efforts. he was not only trying to do the president's bidding in trying to identify some of the legal strategies and apply pressure on local and state officials like raffensperger, but he was also viewed as the conduit by members on capitol hill who nearly dozens of lawmakers, republican lawmakers were texting him at some point after the 2020 election in november ahead of january 6 to find various ways to stoke chaos in the aftermath. these messages not only reinforce the role that mark meadows was playing, but i think they drive home the fact that dozens of gop members were also involved in some way in pedaling these dubious legal theories that contributed to the deadly assault on january 6. >> the committee itself is reluctant to try to get all these committee members in. they don't really want to have that test of the constitution, whether they can try to compel congress members to come in. they have executive privilege issues with meadows. >> that's right. that's where these texts come in handy from a big picture standpoint. they reveal in startling detail the scope of the effort to overturn the election and keep donald trump in power, even though he lost. these facts are relevant to two components, the run-up to january 6. we saw them texting meadows. they wanted to use pence to stop the certification. on the day of the january 6, it's remarkable to see how disturbed so many members of trump's circle and his allies were. you had several chiefs of staff texting mark meadows, pleading with him to get donald trump to call this off. in all caps, tell them to go home. even marjorie taylor greene thought it had gone too far. this isn't the way. >> to eugene, according to a new book, hours after the riot, mitch mcconnell told jonathan martin, one of the co-authors, felt exhilarated by the fact that trump put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. that's what we're going to do in '22. it seemed as though he was in the first moments after -- on january 6 that mitch mcconnell was confiding that by putting a trigger to his own head, that perhaps donald trump had taken himself out and didn't have to force the senate into dealing with the impeachment coming, that was expected from the house side and putting the senate on the spot with whether or not to convict. >> jonathan martin and alex burns, this book, these insights into how senior leadership in the republican party in the senate and house were thinking about donald trump at that point. we saw it all play out publically. they said some of these things in public saying, we're ready to move on, telling lindsey graham -- he said he was ready to get off the trump train. i think what's most interesting and why these messages and these conversations that we have been hearing from mccarthy and mcconnell are so interesting is because it shows an evolution. it shows an evolution of a party and leadership in the party ready to move on from donald trump and what they think and what they had their contempt for him. now saying they would vote for him and support him if he was the nominee. others continuing to push the election lie that the election was stolen. we also saw that with these text messages from meadows from folks around the republican party who went from pushing election lies and conspiracy theories, texting on january 6 about their concern and then getting right back to pushing those lies and basically downplaying and whitewashing what happened that day. it shows where the republican party is. that continues to be a party that is following donald trump wherever he may go or lead. >> which is a very big question. thanks to all of you. down on the border, a court ruling putting the biden administration's plan to strike a trump era policy on hold. what is the white house going to do next? that's next right here on "andrea mitchel reports." this is msnbc. and recalibrate your advanced safety system. >> dad: looks great. thanks. >> tech: stay safe with safelite. schedule now. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ changing microscopic batteries. now this is eargo. and they're rechargeable. can it get any easier? that's the eargo difference. there are lots of choices when it comes to your internet and technology needs. but when you choose comcast business internet, you choose the largest, fastest reliable network. you choose advanced security. and you choose fiber solutions with speeds up to 10 gigs available to more small businesses than any other provider. the choice is clear: get unbeatable business solutions from the most innovative company. get a great deal on this limited time price with internet and voice for just $49.99 a month for 24 months with a 2-year price guarantee. call today. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .5% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkle results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. we have breaking news. this just in from the white house. the vice president tested positive for covid. she tested positive for covid-19 on rapid and pcr tests today. she's exhibited no symptoms. will isolate and continue to work from the vice president's residence. she's not been in close contact with the president or first lady due to the respective recent travel schedules. she will follow cdc guidelines and the advice of her physician. she will return when she tests negative. peter alexander is joining us from the white house with more on this. peter, first of all, the vice president did not test positive after her husband had gone to l.a. and come back commercially and tested positive and other members of her staff, her press secretary and other members of her staff had gotten covid after the gridiron two weeks ago. now she's testing. it was a different exposure. >> reporter: you are right. we are just learning this new information within the last five minutes or so, that the vice president has tested positive with the rapid and pcr test. she returned back to washington from southern california late yesterday. she spent much of the last week in both san francisco and l.a. where she has a home. she was doing fund-raisers and had a limited public schedule of events during that time. where this exposure comes from remains unclear at this point. it's significant, obviously. former president trump tested positive for covid. vice president pence never did. the second in line to the office is with covid. she's going to be working away from her aides and other staffers. she was not in close contact with the president. she had been away over the last several days and would have been tested before she would have been around the president for any visits they would have had today. it remains the case that the white house is testing individuals who spend any extended period of time around the president himself. >> this comes at an interesting time, because they were having a briefing for the first time with the new coordinator in the white house with jen psaki at the briefing, later this afternoon. they were also going to be talking about the availability of this pfizer pill, which is -- the advantages of the pill is to reduce hospitalization? >> reporter: that's exactly right. i have taken this pill. i'm just back to this position after a couple weeks away where i myself had covid, had the fevers and chills. my experience was a good one. i tested negative within 12 days. the white house is trying to use this pill as a means of helping those who are getting this virus at this point with cases still rising in many parts of the country, though hospitalizations largely remain low, to help keep the numbers of hospitalizations low going forward. it will be among the messages you hear from the white house when the covid coordinator speaks. it shows in real time that this is an evolving challenge, not just for this country, but for this administration. the white house in recent weeks has made the case clearly and changing their messaging it's possible president biden himself could get this, but they are taking the best precautions they can following the cdc protocols. it's certain that's what they will do as it relates to the vice president. >> we should point out, you know this better than anyone, i was at the white house for a briefing, and when you go, you have to be tested. you have to have one of their proof tests, not just a home test. i had an n95 on, but it wasn't good enough for being on the campus there. i had to have one of the masks that they sent me because i was seeing one of the principles. >> reporter: the rules have loosened in recent weeks. masks are no longer required. they are encouraged. frankly, many of the individuals with whom we interact have had covid in recent weeks. they are enjoying, as it were a period of immunity where they can no longer get it or even spread the virus. a lot of folks have not been wearing masks. you are right to say that individuals, when they come to the white house, and those who are meeting for any extended period of time, near the president, are tested. there are interactions the president has with other individuals during past gatherings where individuals may not have been tested. the white house has gone to great lengths to say those interactions have been brief and in most cases the president is separated from those folks. we watched this happen with ba.2 and some of the new variances following the omicron wave at the beginning of the year where there were plenty of cases. the president a couple of weeks ago signing legislation with nancy pelosi by his side. she would test positive, even though she didn't know it. the president didn't get it. other individuals and top administration members, including cabinet officials, and now the vice president have tested positive. >> breaking news. i know you will follow up at the white house. thank you. we will carry that live as well. ashley parker joining us now. this is pretty stunning news from the white house. very healthy vice president who is very well protected from covid and all of her travels, we see her in masks all the time. but this does contradict the recent move to lighten up on some of the restrictions in the general public and certainly on mass transit. >> that's right. it underscores the way the white house is messaging and the general country is changing with how we live with covid. there is a sense, even though the white house does take a number of precautions, as you mentioned on campus, and the cdc recommending certain things. there's a sense everyone has to live with covid. this may be a world where people expect, as peter did, as i recently did, to get covid and to manage it with medication, with rest, with vaccines and boosters, which of course generally make the symptoms far more manageable. to put this in context, when i heard this news, i was thinking back to when we found out president trump tested positive. that felt like an earthquake because everyone was hunkering down. there was a sense the reason it was going around the trump white house was because they were behaving in an irresponsible manner and not taking the necessary precautions. now as we have seen a number of top white house officials have gotten covid. there was a big outbreak after biden's foreign trip where he went to brussels and poland. that ran into the gridiron, which is a big dinner in washington, d.c. there was a sense that living with covid potentially means if you do foreign travel, if you go to big gatherings, you may get it. it could brooch the inner circle of the white house. >> when former president trump got it, it was before delta. it was the original. these variants and subvariants are more transmissible. this is a push/pull for the white house. thank you very much, ashley. >> thank you. the biden administration may have gotten a short-term reprieve from the politically tough white house decision that would likely have led to a flood of migrants at the southern border starting may 23rd. a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from lifting a trump covid-19 rule known as title 42. that stopped migration during the pandemic. the court ruling leaving the future of the law unclear. republicans had seized on the decision to lift the rule, as did some democratic senators facing tough re-election contests in border states. republican lawmakers were on the border yesterday. >> we ask them what their plan will be. no plan is given. >> the white house is being pulled in the other direction by members of the congressional hispanic caucus who met with president biden monday. >> title 42 should be lifted. we should focus on border management policy in order to make sure that they have the resources in order to move forward. >> joining me now is julia ainsley who covers the department of homeland security and the justice department. first of all, what's going to happen with this court ruling? it's a temporary injunction. is the administration going to fight it because it's so short-term? it's analogous to the masking rule. >> it's more temporary than it first appears. what the judge is ruling on -- he says he will issue this order. we haven't seen it in its realistic form yet. he says he will issue this. what this will mean is he will stop the biden administration from winding down title 42 before may 23rd.sued to stop it. they said, it looks like they're trying to wind it down earlier. they were looking at reports on fox news that maybe they were trying to not use title 42 as often. the judge said, you are right, we will issue a temporary restraining order to stop them from wining it down before may 23rd. we don't know is how this judge will rule on the heart of the matter, which is lifting it permanently after may 23rd. we also have another court case in texas, very similar challenging the same thing, to make it more complicated, of course, you have immigration advocates who are suing to say, title 42 not only should be lifted, it should have been lifted a long time ago. they have been suing for over a year. if the judges say, here is an injunction, don't lift title 42, you will have an appeal to make sure it does lift. they are still looking at may 23rd. unless they have an order that says they can't. congress could have a role in that. >> the supreme court argument today. an oral argument, a border issue. this is about the biden efforts to restrict immigration in terms of the remain in mexico order. all those people on the mexican side. >> that was pre-pandemic. that's what president trump tried to do to say asylum seekers should wait in mexico. the biden administration was forced to bring that back. it's used on a smaller scale. fewer than 2,000 immigrants are subjected to that. it matters because that could have a life that lasts beyond the pandemic. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. i know it's a lot to get through. what this comes down to are, what are the tools used and what courts will do to allow them. congress isn't coming up with any long-term solutions on this. >> criticizing whatever they're doing, from both parties. the world's richest man, elon musk, striking a $44 billion deal to buy twitter. if approved by regulators, take the company private. the buyout raising questions about what the future of the social media giant would look like for users and for those who have been kicked off, that includes former president donald trump. joining us now is jo ling kent. how is that going to impact online speech? >> reporter: if this goes through -- it has to be approved by shareholders and regulators. elon musk wants to make changes. he wants to open up the algorithm to make it more transparent. he wants to authenticate humans and get rid of bots. these are ambitious goals for a company that could change a lot if the deal goes through. elon musk has been one of the biggest critics of twitter for a long time. we expect to see him continue to weigh in on what comes next. he got a critical endorsement overnight. jack dorsi, the co-founder of twitter and ex-ceo saying he believes elon is the singular solution to twitter moving forward. to have that buy-in from the co-founder means a lot for company employees internally and those who are diehard twitter fans. aside from the edit button that he flagged in the past and possibilities of a subscription-based service, what really lis at the heart of this is the way he defines free speech. it could result in more violence and threats online that could result in material threats offline. we will see. there's so much here to get through. elon musk walking away for now with a victory until -- we have to wait six months. >> has he said anything about the donald trump aspect of this? he was against him being kicked off. >> the reinstatement of any banned twitter user is certainly on the table. elon musk has talked about that in the past. the former president, donald trump saying, he is not going to come back to twitter. that was as of yesterday in a conversation with fox news. anything is possible here. when we look ahead to what this means, musk has really drilled down on this idea of what he calls free speech, less censorship, less moderation. what is interesting here is when you look at the 200 million some daily active users on twitter versus the bigger players who maybe want to get reinstated, it's a question of what twitter will look like and what twitter will feel like for the average user, because as you take this company private, a lot that transparency for how many people are using the platform, what decisions are made and why, a lot of that goes away. it will be a very interesting next few months to see how elon musk plays this process as they try to win shareshoulder and regulatory approval. >> thank you. jeff bezos, another billionaire, weighing in on this and taking a little shot, saying that they should be concerned about elon musk's ties to china because of the production supply chain issues with tesla. stay tuned. thank you. nuclear fallout. russian military activity in and around what's left of chernobyl raising a lot of concerns and questions. we are tracking breaking news where vice president kamala harris has tested positive for covid-19. she has not been in close contact with the president for several days. the vice president received her second booster less than a month ago. we will keep you up to date as we learn more. this is "andrea mitchel reports." you are watching msnbc. your projects done right . with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. russia's foreign minister has raised the stakes for the possibility of using weps. they have renewed concerns about damage in and around the chernobyl plant that could have dangerous contamination when it was occupied by russian troops before they were pushed back. today marks the 36th an verse roift nuclear damages. joining us now is former secretary of energy during the obama administration, now co-chair and ceo of the nuclear threat initiative. thank you, it's great to see you. this is not the first time that russia has talked and used this kind of nuclear rhetoric. after the visit by both secretary blinken and austin. do you have any level of concern about the nuclear arsenal being used? and even when we have seen in how badly their conventional weapons were maintained, the way they are maintaining their nuclear stockpiles. >> certainly. we have been warning for years about the risks of having situations spiral out of control. this could be one of them. i have been saying for the 60 years since the cuban missile crisis shs the soviet union and now russia and the united states were by far the largest nuclear arsenals have always exercised great responsibility in communicating with each other, and also understood the fundamental purpose of nuclear weapons was to prevent the other side from using them. russia, frankly, has now stood this on its head. it's invaded a nonnuclear weapon state and it's using the threat of nuclear weapons to try to provide cover for conventional military operations. this is a very, very dangerous unchartered territory and we have to hope we come through this without the use of nuclear weapons. and number two, once things settle done, we need to work with russia and china as well in terms of establishing kind of a new nuclear order in which we all understand kind of the rules of the road that will lead to stability in terms of the nuclear stockpiles. >> in terms of the nuclear power plants, we knew there were 15 in ukraine. chernobyl was an old plant, but there was still radiation. now we learned some of those russian troops that have been there had dug these trenches and there was a lot of contamination in the soil. after they had been driven back. now there's a lot of firing attacks from our colleague. isn't that the location of another active nuclear plant? >> yes, in fact, it's the largest nuclear plant with such reactors in europe. two of which are still operating because ukraine depends very heavily on nuclear power for electricity. in chernobyl, we still have 36 years after the accident, one still has elevated levels of radiation, but clearly, we see people working in the plant so these are not at levels that would result in any kind of critical radiation health problem. but the russians, as you said, were doing a lot of really not very wise activities without protection, digging trenches, picking up radioactive parols on boots and trudging into the plant operating room. the problem, however, during the russian occupation of chernobyl and potentially other plants, the communications and the monotorting capability was basically shut off. so i don't think we really know very well right now what the levels are, what the concerns are, what the clean up is, but this is where the international i atomic energy agency is doing a terrific thing by going himself with a team to chernobyl and among the things they will do is restore radiation monitors, restore communications. by the way, thank the operators for their heroic work in the face of the russian occupation. so i think we'll know more as the iaea establishes a footprint once again. another issue is, and they have been closer about this, that communication between the plant and the ukrainian regulator was also lost for quite some time. so making sure that's stable, making sure the plant has external electricity supplied to it, these are all critical steps and the iaea is going to be addressing all of these. >> secretary, thank you so much. it's all alarming and so good to have your expertise. that does it for this edition of "andrea chel reports." coming up, chuck todd will have more on the breaking news that kamala harris has tested positive for covid-19. she's double boosted and not recently been in close contact with the president, according to the white house. more coming up with chuck todd, right here on msnbc. todd, right here on msnbc. 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. ♪ ♪ bonnie boon i'm calling you out. everybody be cool, alright? we've got bonnie right here on a video call. we don't take kindly to video calls. oh, in that case just tap to send a message. we don't take kindly to messages neither. in that case how 'bout a ringcentral phone call. we don't take kindly to no... would you can it eugene! let's just hear her out. ha ha ha, i've been needing a new horse. we've got ourselves a deal. ♪ ♪ ♪ ringcentral ♪ this is not the stallion i was imagining. if it's tuesday, the secretary of state antony blinken testifies before the senate. as the u.s. presses its western allies for more military support for ukraine. amid new evidence of war crimes in mariupol. this as president bidens faces new legal and political uncertainty at home after a federal judge moves to block the administration from winding down the pandemic era restrictions at the southern border. and