midterms coverage, with sobering new poll numbers for democrats. i think we should go back and look at how he can pick. i ll talk to bernie sanders and moderate democratic congresswoman alisa slot kin. plus no break throughs over ukraine. we stand firmly with ukraine with sovereignty and territory integrity. the government is saying moscow is planning to install a pro-russian leader in ukraine. antony blinken my guest this morning. and covid hospital lation hospitalizations are down in the northeast but rising in other places. the question now, who do americans trust about information about covid? joining me for insight and analysis are kristen welker, symone sanders, and new york times chief white house correspondent peter baker. welcome to sunday. it s meet the press . announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is meet the press. news in washington, this is meet the press. good sunday morning, president biden s news conference on wednesday was de
That based on the security needs. but right now you feel like kiev appears safe, at least in the near term? this is something, again, we re tracking intensely hour by hour and certainly day by day. secretary blinken, really appreciate you taking some time and sharing. thanks, chuck. when we come back, one of the biggest reasons president biden is struggling in the polls, here s a hint. it s all about that base. that s next. that s next.
i think he s listening to too many liberals. he was voted in to be bipartisan but it takes two to tango and i think he s running into a bring wall with that. joining me now is the independent progressive senator of vermont, bernie sanders. senator sanders, welcome back to meet the press, sir. good to be with you. give me your take on why the president and the democratic political party are in a precarious position at the second year of the presidency? i ll tell you why. i think the president and the democratic congress started off very, very strongly. they looked at the economic congress that was caused by covid. we set up strongly and we passed the american rescue plan, which did an enormous amount in revitalizing our economying put money into the havens of working people and money into hospitals and health care, and lowered
Votes are counted but i do think there will be a scaled back version of the build back better package. what you were talking about with congresswoman slotkin. i think they ll go where they can find bipartisan support, like lowering the cost of child care, expanding health care. prescription drugs will be a big piece of that as well, but there is also going to be a reset in messaging. that s one thing the president can control. i m told he ll be at shovel ready projects, talk about his infrastructure law, what he s already done, he ll be at schools working on broadband, so i think it s messaging and policy. so much of this lack of being able to get out of the white house, obviously covid had a lot to do with it. i look back, you guys got to go through a campaign where you really didn t go across the country. how much did that hurt that you can t really calculate? i think a lot.
During the campaign, biden wanted to go around the country. he loves making his case directly to them, being in the beauty shops, the barber shops, in the diners with folks, hosting a town hall and taking their questions, he has been unable to largely do that due to covid. i think the implications of covid have not been explored by tables like these, in a very fullsome way. if the president or his staff gets covid, they are down for ten days. that is a fact. we have to go with the facts. so a lot of things that are happening are happening under the umbrella of, okay, what can we do to make sure it s still safe. i want to bring up a quick troubling number in our polls. 76s, there and four of everyone we surveyed, said our democracy is under threat. but look at the differences why. that was basically republicans and democrats agreeing with this statement now.