i m not going to bite down. the stakes are way, way too high. i think every republican knew there was baggage out there. the weight of that baggage is starting to feel a little closer to unbearable. announcer: live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster. it s friday, october 7th, 9 a.m. here in london, 4 a.m. on the east coast of the united states where we start in new york. that s where u.s. president joe biden gave a stark warning about nuclear talk coming out of russia. president vladimir putin hinted using nuclear weapons is not off the table. statement came after the military racked up losses in the ukraine. wednesday night mr. biden responded to that threat saying there s no such thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up in armageddon. after the speech u.s. officials made it clear they did not see any change in russia s nuclear posture. phil mattingly explains, mr. biden s statement caught even some u.s. officials by
kennedy and the cuban missile crisis. what is putin s off ramp? where does he find a way out? where does he find himself where he does not lose face but significant power? his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming. cnn s fred pleitgen is in kyiv. fred, significantly under performing. there are voices inside russia saying the same thing right now. reporter: there certainly are. i think those voices are growing. we ve also seen a lot of in fighting, if you will, between a lot of the power sectors of russia, especially at the top of the country. one of the interesting things we ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks, christine, the ukrainians believe there is a threat, that russia might at some point use tactical nuclear weapons in this conflict. the threat of which keeps rising all the time. however, the ukrainians are saying that is not something that will have those counter offensive. here s what we re finding. dangerous battles for ukrainian force