First, two top u.s. officials make an extraordinary and secretive wartime visit to ukraine. secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin met with president zelenskyy in kyiv yesterday. it was a first high-level visit by an american delegation since the start of the russian invasion. details of the trip were kept under wraps until it was well under way. the u.s. government declined to even confirm the meeting had happened until late last night when the u.s. delegation was safely out of ukraine. this morning, blinken and austin were back in poland, where they discussed the visit, including new promises of military and diplomatic support. we had an opportunity to demonstrate directly our strong support, our strong, ongoing support for the ukrainian government and for the ukrainian people. part of our commitment going forward involves a number of things that i was able to share with president zelenskyy
Walter isaacson, thank you so much. we ll note that walter s best-selling book the codebreaker is now available in a young reader s edition. it is good. i had trouble following the regular one. this is going to be perfect. perfect for you, joe. there we go. thank you, walter. thank you all so much. ahead on morning joe, new reporting reveals donald trump s former chief of staff, mark meadows, was hold beforehand the events of january 6th could turn violent. the question is, what did he do with that information? plus, georgia voters will head to the polls this november and cast their pick for governor. instead of focusing on 2022, the two republican candidates seem to be stuck on 2020. are you kidding me? you re watching morning joe. good way to lose a race. we ll be right back. finding the perfect designer isn t easy. but, at upwork, we found her. she s in austin between a dog named klaus and her favorite shade of green.
Becoming more and more comfortable exploiting that? i think the united states is more and more comfortable. what s amazing, as you re seeing, is an autocratic regime where corruption hollowed out the government, and you see it also in the military. there are reports of junior russian officers not being able to make decisions for themselves. the generals have been killed because they had to come forward and direct the troops. the amazing thing is russian equipment. the tanks, all these things that russia was allegedly spending tens of billions to modernize its military. that money was clearly stolen. it is an amazing situation. the last point, i was struck by secretary blinken saying that a sovereign ukraine will be around a lot longer than vladimir putin is on the scene. it is a push, again, to regime change. he s getting a little out over his skis there. you know, the message from austin, i think, was clear, and the clearer, better one, which
Admiral stavridis, thank you. ahead, we ll go live to keir simmons in paris on the heels of macron s big election victory. and we ll go to commit watts for the latest on russian troop movements. plus, more expert military analysis from a pair of retired u.s. army generals on the heels of secretary blinken and austin s trip to kyiv. also ahead, house minority leader kevin mccarthy does challenge control in his leaked audio after he revealed how disgusted he was with donald trump in the wake of the attack. he said, hey, i lied. look at me, i ll lie again. he is trying to explain away the comments. what did trump s chief of staff mark meadows know about january 6th? according to new testimony, he was warned about the threat of violence ahead of time. we re digging into those details. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back.
Poland. it is striking. two words we should circle from their public remarks, blinken and austin, one was winning. the idea that ukraine can win this war. it is not about losing it but it is about winning the war. the other word, weaken. the u.s. and its nato allies want to weaken the russian forces so much during this conflict that they would think twice about trying to do this again. they d make it impossible for russia to be able to have the forces and environment in order to launch a similar invasion down the road again to ukraine or anywhere else. let s bring in former nato supreme allied commander, retired four-star navy admiral, james stavridis. chief international security and diplomacy analyst for nbc news and msnbc. also with us, executive editor news at new yorker.com. thank you to both of you.