have a shockingly low blow to heroes who lost their lives trying to protect ours. you are watching fox and friends first, i m todd piro, hi, carley. carley: i m carley shimkus. more on those stories in a moment, first breaking news overseas as new shipment of weapons are set to arrive in ukraine within the next hour. todd: the pentagon readies troops for possible deployment, steve harrison is live in kiev with the latest on the rising tensions. steve. steve: that s right, todd, the u.s. put 8500 troops on heightened alert. they will be deployed in the know event of a russian invasion. four upon countries have decided to pull out families of diplomats here due to deteraing situations here. they are under criticism from ukrainian officials who say it is unnecessary and premature. russia says they have no plans to invade, they say the west reaction is one of hysteria. it is responsibility of individual u.s. citizens to get out of ukraine on their own. press sect. psaki
announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good eveningwhe words have failed to deter, the u.s. and its nat splay of mil fire power in eastern europe might discourage a russian incursion into ukraine. the pentagon tonight placing 8,500 troops on heightened alert status many of them earmarked to join a nato response force should the decision to activate it come tonight russia again saying it has no plans to invade, but its posture, roughly 100,000 troops arrayed at ukraine s doorstep, may speak otherwise. as a precaution, families of american embassy workers have been told to leave the country amid worries russia is already planning the seeds of a political takeover it s where we start tonight with nbc chief foreign correspondent andrea mitchell. reporter: with fears rising that russia could invade ukraine, president biden tonight considering a major show of force near russia, putting up to 8,500 u.s. troops on heightened alert, mostly as part of a nato respo
a puppet regime in ukraine. our team is on the ground from the capitol city, plus reporting from the white house. omicron may be declining in early-hit areas, but it s surging elsewhere, still overwhelming hospitals and staff nationwide. about 83% of icu beds now occupied. the debate over masks raging in school districts across the country. in virginia, a woman now charged after making comments about guns at a school board meeting, as new york and new jersey consider changing their mask guidance. tonight, that dangerous arctic blast menacing millions of americans and creating treacherous driving conditions. rob marciano standing by to time it all out. a wind-fueled wildfire forcing evacuations in california. what these raging flames in the winter could tell us about the impact of climate change on the state s fire season. americans feeling the financial squeeze on multiple fronts. the latest blow on wall street. stocks plunging, off to their worst start to a year sinc
tens of thousands of russian troops sit along the ukraine border. the u.s. embassy says the shipment includes 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. the pentagon is also working on new military options for the biden administration, should russia invade. sources are telling cnn the u.s. embassy in ukraine has requested authorization from the u.s. state department to evacuate all nonessential staff and their families. cnn s international and diplomatic editor, nic robertson is in moscow for us and cnn s arlette saenz and at the white house. while a diplomatic solution remains possible, how much of this is in vladimir putin s hands? yeah, i think the next step is clearly in his hands. what he s waiting for at the moment is a written response from the united states to russia s security proposals, demands as they re seen by nato. he already knows the answer. he knows the answer to putin s question that ukraine should not be allowed to join nato and nato should roll back its borders to 19
and prosecute potential election election-related crimes which trump s outgoing attorney general said were inconse inconsequential. it s the blueprint for a coup laid out in three pages. cnn has not been able to independently verify this draft, and it s not clear who wrote it, but it is believed to be part of a massive batch of documents, about 700 pages now in the hands of the january 6th house select committee. let s go to cnn s senior legal analyst elie honig, former federal prosecutor for the southern district of new york. this is just bonkers stuff. if the former president had actually gone through with this executive order back in december of 2020, it would not have been remotely legal, right? no, jim, n-0, no way. absolutely not. everything in this memo is wrong, dangerous, not remotely legal. if you look at this draft executive order it s dressed up with legal language, heretofores there, citations. it is all bunk. first of all, the military, the department of defen