Summary
President Biden is standing by his comment, during a speech in Poland over the weekend, where he said Putin cannot remain in power. New round of peace talks get underway as President Zelenskyy says he is willing to discuss neutral status with Russia. The Jan. 6th committee recommends former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino face contempt charges for not complying with subpoenas.
Transcript
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: The accusers of Donald Trump get tonight`s "LAST WORD." THE 11TH HOUR with Stephanie Ruhle starts now.
[23:00:11]
STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, Ukraine warns Russia plans to slip the country into on the eve of another round of peace talks. As President Biden says he won`t apologize for his moral outrage over Putin in power.
The January 6 Committee voting tonight to hold two Trump insiders in contempt and meeting behind closed doors to discuss the white Justice Clarence Thomas and her controversial text to the White House.
Plus, the federal judge says former President Trump may well have broken the law in his attempts to stay in power as the 11th Hour gets underway on this Monday night.
Good evening, once again, I`m Stephanie Ruhle. Vladimir Putin`s brutal war on Ukraine is entering day 34 as President Biden responds to the uproar over his comments this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: For God`s sake, this man cannot remain power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Today, the President said he was not backing down from that statement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I`m not walking any back as expressing the more outrage I felt toward the way Putin is dealing with the actions of this man, which is just brutality. That doesn`t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way. Given his recent behavior, people should understand that he is going to do what he thinks he should do, period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: And what`s going on right now. Well, Russia and Ukraine are getting ready to begin a new round of peace talks. They`re meeting in Turkey where it is already Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine might consider a pledge of neutrality to end the fighting, but there would be no giving up any territory to Russia.
Tonight, Zelenskyy praised Ukraine fighters for pushing Russian forces out of some areas, but also called on the west to ramp up sanctions and increase military aid.
Now, some Ukrainian officials fear Russia may try to split the country into parts similar to North and South Korea. NBC`s Richard Engel is on the ground in Kharkiv with the latest on the fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ENGEL, NCB NEWS CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Russian military claims it`s shifting the focus of its invasion to eastern Ukraine. But that could be just a way of trying to save face after images like these. More today of what Ukraine says are Russian vehicles it destroyed outside the capital Kyiv.
The mayor of the nearby suburb of Irpin claimed Ukrainian forces liberated that area too.
In the east, Russia has destroyed a lot but conquered little. The city of Mariupol bomb relentlessly and surrounded is still resisting.
On the outskirts of Kharkiv, Sarhe (ph) and his unit of fellow volunteers are holding up Mariupol as an example. He wears an American flag on his flat jacket. He says it represents freedom. His gun was donated by Ukrainian Americans.
(on camera): We`re hearing a lot of fire right now. Sounds very intense. What`s been happening here?
We`ve repelled every Russian assault, he says. Now, they`re just bombing us from afar.
In the center of Kharkiv, families weighed out what may be a long war of attrition in the subway stations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Russia is launching missile strikes in western Ukraine. The Pentagon now says Moscow has carried out over 1,300 missile launches since the beginning of the war. It comes as the U.S. has now announced new steps to help protect NATO sending six Navy jets and additional troops to Germany.
Also tonight, very big news in the January 6 investigation, the Select Committee voted to advance a measure to refer former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress charges. We`ll have much more on that later in the hour.
But first I want to bring in NBCs Ali Arouzi, who joins us live from the Lviv tonight. Ali, I know it is very early in the morning there so thank you. We know that Russia launch strikes over Lviv over the weekend. Your city that you`re in right now had been a refuge for so many people for the last four weeks has all that changed?
ALI AROUZI, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I wouldn`t say it`s changed entirely. They`re not targeting civilians in the city. The places that they have had have been strategic locations. The place that they hit over the weekend was a fuel depot facility where the Russians hit it with long range precision missiles from the sea. And they say they hit that because they didn`t want fuel from that depot getting to the Ukrainian forces fighting on the east, but it certainly punctured the sense of security in this city.
[23:05:03]
This, as you mentioned, has been a refuge for so many people that have fled the war torn east that have been bombed and shelled constantly. They`re looking for a safe haven here in Lviv.
And you speak to many of the people here, and you ask them do you think Lviv is still safe, they count themselves amongst the lucky ones that are here, and have escaped the ease that they say Vladimir Putin is capable of anything. He has bombed churches, buildings, children`s hospitals. And so Lviv may not be as safe as they think it is.
We spoke to one young lady a couple of days ago, who had come to Lviv. She then left Lviv to go to Poland because she didn`t feel very safe. She came back to Lviv two days before that missiles hit that fuel depot. And she said, I`m not taking any more chances. And she`s going back to Poland.
So, there is a sense of insecurity here. And a lot of the people you speak to say, Yes, this is a safe haven. But how long will it remain a sanctuary? How long will it remain a refuge for all of these people, and you constantly get air raid sirens going off here. And that shakes the people up that have come here looking for safety.
I mean, you see it day in, day out, their raid siren goes off at all hours. We had one just a couple of hours ago. And you see mothers with their young children with their elderly grandparents, their dogs, their cats suddenly scrambling out of their hotel room with whatever little possessions they can gather, and go into some what they call it an air raid shelter, but it`s just really a basement. It`s not a bomb shelter. But they have to go there and seek refuge just in case a bomb lands in here.
But thankfully, the center of the city hasn`t been targeted. So far, it doesn`t seem to have any strategic value for Vladimir Putin. But in this war, anything is possible.
RUHLE: But that`s my very question what gives people the confidence that he`s not going to go for civilians there? You could -- we could have had this conversation in Mariupol, three and a half weeks ago, and people said, Oh, they won`t be going for civilians. And look what happened there.
AROUZI: That`s a very good point. But the point is right now that the Russians have botched (ph) their invasion of Ukraine, they`re bogged down in the East. They keep getting pushed back by a really valiant fight the Ukrainians are making on the eastern front. And they`ve reclaimed a lot of territory that Ukrainians that the Russians had taken at the beginning of this war. And that`s why you hear about Putin trying to possibly split this country into two.
But any Ukrainian you speak to here says they won`t allow that to happen. They are protecting the west so they can supply the fighters on the east. And they say that if they want to split this country, he has to conquer and control it. And he hasn`t conquered the east, nor is he controlling it.
RUHLE: Ali Arouzi, thank you. I want to dig deeper into that valiant fight and bring in our experts. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia and MSNBC international affairs analyst. His book titled "From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin`s Russia," and retired Army Lieutenant General Steph Twitty. He`s a former deputy commander of United States European Command. Welcome to both.
Ambassador, I want to start with you because President Biden is sticking with what he said over the weekend, which makes perfect sense, because what he said on Saturday, was an accurate assessment of a situation that we are all seeing. Was there ever true genuine concern about his words? Or is this just the media outrage machine at work?
MICHAEL MCFAUL, MSNBC INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, first, I agree with you. And I actually think hundreds of millions of people around the world agree with you and agree with what President Biden said.
I actually think millions of Russians agree with what President Biden said, it was the morally right thing to do and the right place to end what I thought was a historic, important speech, outline the fight that we are in between dictatorship and democracy.
The only real question is, did that comment in some way change policy? The answer to that is no. The president made that clear today. And did it somehow hurt American interests or NATO interests or Ukrainian interests? And when I think about it, I don`t see how. As a result of those words, is Putin going to escalate in Ukraine? The answer to that is no. Is he not going to negotiate now with Zelenskyy? Because of those words, the answer to that is no. Does it help Putin`s propaganda at home? Well, maybe slightly, but let me tell you, he`s been preaching to the choir about this very topic that the United States is out to get him since I was the U.S. Ambassador back in 2012 to 2014 when he accused Obama, Secretary Clinton and myself have fomenting regime change.
So for his loyal followers who`ve been living in that information bubble, literally now for decades, Biden`s words don`t change anything at all in terms of policy. So on the whole, I think it was a good thing to say I`m glad he said it.
[23:10:05]
RUHLE: President Biden used some scary words. You know why? Because he was talking about a war. General Twitty, we`ve actually heard that Russia is now refocusing on controlling just eastern Ukraine, and Ukraine`s troops are taking back territory. I want to share a bit of what President Zelenskyy one of his former adviser said earlier today about this.
(BEGIN VIDOE CLIP)
IGOR NOVIKOV, FORMR ADVISOR TO UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY: I don`t think Putin has got a new strategy. I think, you know, things aren`t going his way. So he`s trying to just stall until he can mobilize more troops and more equipment. He wants to territory, so he`s doing everything he can for people to get them to leave Ukraine. I think we`ll see a second wave in Kyiv also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Do you agree and how do you assess the progress by Ukrainian troops?
LT. GEN. STEPH TWITTY, U.S. ARMY (RET.): I do agree with what the young man said. What I will tell you is, as many of us know, the Russians have been a total failure inside Ukraine. We`re going on over a month now. And they have not reached in their strategic or tactical objectives. Kyiv is still alive today. Ukrainian forces have shown that they could go toe to toe and do better than the Russian forces.
The President is still in power. And the people are Ukraine they`ve shown resilience and determination, even under the bombs and missiles that have been attacking this country.
So I think what will continue to happen is Russia will continue to try and press Ukraine, Kyiv, we saw that today. It was obvious that they`re trying to find a weak point in the defense of Kyiv. And the Ukrainian forces did a great job today rappelling particular tack that they had up there in the north in the Northeast today.
RUHLE: Do you think, General, they`re going to try to split the country into like a North and South Korea?
TWITTY: That could be the case. If you take a look at as we sit here today, he`s already announced these two as regions, then if you move over westward, you have the Donbas area. Now he`s trying to take Mariupol, and he`s pushing that pretty hard.
The problem is because we have so many troops up protecting Kyiv, the Ukrainians have small forces down there in Mariupol. If he takes Mariupol, you can look for him to take Odessa. Then he would have the entire seaboard area leading over to Moldova that puts a landbridge in, that gives him excuse to say, I`ve occupied the south, and then he can talk about splitting north south.
RUHLE: If you asking yourselves, why do they keep going after Mariupol? You just have to look at a map. Ambassador McFaul, hopefully you brought your Putin decoder ring, because I need you to explain this one.
President Zelenskyy gave interviews to independent Russian, excuse me, independent Russian journalists over the weekend. And the Kremlin banned those interviews inside Russia. I know you watch them. What did you not want the Russian people to see or hear?
MCFAUL: Well, first of all, I highly recommend them to anybody. It`s 90 minutes long. They`re in subtitles now. They asked great questions. Two of them are colleagues and friends of mine.
What he doesn`t want to see is he doesn`t want the Russian people to see a hero. President Zelenskyy was very, very convincing about the cause of his war, about the injustices of Putin`s war. The barbaric war.
I thought particularly moving was when he talked about how Putin we all know he doesn`t care about Ukrainian citizens, ethnic Russians, ethnic Ukrainians, Russian speakers that he is killing and kidnapping in Mariupol, right. We all know that.
What President Zelenskyy stressed in this interview, he doesn`t care about his own soldiers either. And he talked about how the treatment leaving soldiers on the streets in Mariupol, and just how -- he doesn`t care about his own soldiers. Those are messages that President Putin doesn`t want to come back to his country.
And let`s be clear, as a general said, if Putin was winning this war, of course, he would want journalists to be covering the war, right. Of course, he would want embedded journalists to be talking about the heroism of Russian soldiers. The fact that he`s doing everything in his power to ban reporting, I think says a lot about how the word is going for the Russian soldiers.
RUHLE: Ambassador, you also tweeted something very alarming that many of us could have missed. One Putin aide last week laid out a scenario where Russia could use nuclear weapons. Can you explain?
MCFAUL: Yes, the aide is a former president, by the way. He`s President Medvedev. Now he`s been demoted. He`s now the deputy national security adviser to the National Security Council. So he has a much lesser job. He used to be Prime Minister. Now he`s been demoted.
[23:15:00]
But he did outline under what conditions Russia might use nuclear weapons. I actually took it to be some good news, by the way, because a month ago Putin was kind of hinting at using weapons and putting them on alert. And we -- I was nervous. I even wrote a whole article about it saying we need to clarify with him has his policy changed.
What I heard from Mr. Medvedev was that their policy had not changed. He was talking about we will use nuclear weapons if there`s an existential threat to Russia. That`s good news, because there isn`t an existential threat to Russia. NATO is not attacking Russia, nobody`s attacking Russia, and I took that to be a positive sign, actually not a negative sign.
RUHLE: All right, then we like to end on a positive note when we can. Ambassador Michael McFaul, General Steph Twitty, thank you both for joining us this evening.
Coming up, the January 6 Committee recommends contempt charges for to Trump White House aides. But our big question, will that change anything.
Plus, why a judge said the former president likely broke the law during his final days in office.
And later, in spite of a number of wins around the world and here at home, President Biden`s approval rating just hit a new low. We`re going to dig into why. THE 11TH HOUR just getting underway on a very busy Monday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:20:34]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MI) 1/6 COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: We want to talk to Mr. Scavino, Mr. Navarro about their roles in attempt to overturn an election. The American people didn`t pay their salaries to do that.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Peter Navarro was the White House trade advisor. He was not within his job description to overthrow presidential elections.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The Department of Justice has a duty to act on this referral and others we have sent without enforcement of congressional subpoenas there is no oversight/
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Democracy only survives if citizens are willing to defend it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RUHLE: Tonight, the January 6 Committee voted in favor of recommending criminal contempt charges for former Trump aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro. The Full House will now vote on whether to send those recommendations to the Justice Department.
It comes as a judge presiding over a civil suit involving the committee found then President Trump likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6, which would indeed be a crime.
Meanwhile, three sources tell NBC News Jared Kushner, the former president`s son in law, scheduled to appear before the Select Committee on Thursday. So let`s discuss with us tonight Katie Benner, Justice Department reporter for the New York Times and Chuck Rosenberg, former U.S. attorney and former senior FBI official.
Chuck, this sounds very serious. But the issue is what`s the holdup at the Department of Justice. We haven`t seen any action on Mark Meadows. Could we see the same thing was Scavino and Navarro?
CHUCK ROSENBERG, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes, you might very well see nothing, Stephanie. You might see no action at all. And I don`t think there`s a problem at the Department of Justice. I think they`re making an independent judgment about whether the law and the facts warrant merit prosecution.
Even if you don`t like the claims of privilege that they are putting forward they Scavino and Meadows on the like, that doesn`t mean it doesn`t have some sticking power. And it may mean that the Department of Justice simply doesn`t believe that they can win conviction at trial with the assertion of privilege.
And so I`m not surprised that we haven`t seen an indictment of Meadows yet. I am not surprised. We did see an indictment of Bannon, very different cases. And I think the new referrals that we may see soon, Scavino and Navarro are more like the Meadows case, unless like the Bannon case.
RUHLE: Why, why?
ROSENBERG: Yes, well simply, Bannon did not work for the president. He wasn`t in government. And so his conversations with Trump are not covered by any sort of privilege. Moreover, Bannon simply stonewalled the Committee. He didn`t cooperate at all. Meadows cooperated to an extent. And then he stopped.
Navarro and Scavino like Meadows worked for the President, worked in the White House. And we`re arguably, and I`m not saying I believe it`s a strong claim, but arguably had their conversations with the president covered by a claim of executive privilege. So they are different than Bannon. It makes sense to me that Bannon would be charged, it makes sense to me that the other three may not be.
RUHLE: Well, those charges don`t seem to be impacting him, Katie, because while Bannon was charged by the Department of Justice, with criminal contempt, he`s still out there trucking pushing his narratives on his podcast and out there to right wing media. So, did any of these guys care about the charges? Because when I look at Steve Bannon, he just looked at it looks at all of this as free press.
KATIE BENNER, THE NEW YORK TIMES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: So that`s the result of a choice made by the committee to file criminal charges, criminal contempt, if they`d gone for a civil action, then that would be different. They could do things like actually get documents, document production, and possibly even some sort of testimony. Even it was just people pleading the Fifth with the choice to pursue criminal contempt that means that that people who they are, you know, hope, just criminal charge, they get to do things like go through a fair trial. So this lasts a lot longer.
And in the meantime, you`re right, Steve Bannon can say and do as he pleases, knowing that it could impact him later at trial, but again, the consequences themselves are not so steep that he might not risk a fine of $100,000 or jail time.
RUHLE: All right. Well, then let`s talk about a civil case, Chuck, because a federal judge in a civil case today wrote that Trump and his lawyers John Eastman quote launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election and action unprecedented in American history. It was a coup in search of a legal theory.
[23:25:10]
Now, that is a federal judge suggesting Trump committed a crime. People are obviously going wild over it. But is it actually going to impact what the Justice Department does? Or Donald Trump in any real way?
ROSENBERG: I don`t think so. Let me tell you why, Stephanie, what the judge wrote in that civil case in Los Angeles is interesting. And it`s compelling. But it`s not evidence. A federal prosecutor can`t take the judge`s order and submit it in evidence in a criminal trial against anybody. A federal prosecutor can`t call the judge as a witness. The judge has no firsthand knowledge.
So, it`s interesting, it`s compelling, but it`s not evidence. And so therefore, I don`t think it materially changes how the Department of Justice views the case. The Department of Justice already understands that theory. It`s prosecutors understand what the judge understands. If they want to charge somebody with trying to obstruct Congress, then they need admissible evidence. And that order, ain`t it.
RUHLE: All right, Katie, the committee also met tonight to discuss bringing in Ginni Thomas after her text messages were publicly revealed. Of course, this is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. They haven`t made a decision on that yet. What is the holdup? Why wouldn`t they don`t have a limit on the number of people they can bring in. And those text messages. They`re unbelievable.
BENNER: Well, I think that one reason the committee might want to pause is because they might, it`s clear that Ginni Thomas was very prolific in her messaging of a variety of people, including reaching out to Mark Meadows and others close to Trump, would it be better to wait to see how much information they can get. How many text message they can get the Gini Thomas may have said before calling her in.
She`s going to be a hard witness to get and she`s going to be a hard person to question. It might be better for them to first gather as much evidence as they possibly can.
And I wanted to address one thing that in your question, your previous question to Chuck, while the Eastman court filing may not impact what the Justice Department does, it completely imperfectly highlights the conundrum for the Justice Department. It`s way bigger than whether or not they bring Trump to criminal trial.
It is the fact that you have a judge now you have people in public, you have lawmakers who have a lot of people saying that Trump committed a crime in broad daylight. He undermined the rule of law. That is the accusation. And if the Justice Department`s job is to uphold that, if they feel that they can`t, then you`re talking about a larger question for the department for democracy and the rule of law,
RUHLE: Then Chuck, help us understand what you believe the committee is trying to do, because I want to go back to Navarro, Scavino, Mark Meadows, trying to get them to comply. They`re not going to, right. This is the Trump loyalist trio. They`re not going to play ball. So what is the committee trying to do?
ROSENBERG: You know, this is what Katie touched on earlier. And she was exactly right. There`s a difference between civil contempt, Stephanie, trying to get someone to comply. And that`s not what the committee is seeking here. And criminal contempt, punishing someone for failing to comply, they`re not going to play ball here.
And so the committee is hoping that the Department of Justice will punish these four men for failing to comply, but the committee is not going to get any additional information.
There are times when folks are held in civil contempt, maybe they`re fine $10,000 a day as an incentive to comply. You`re not seeing that here. And I don`t believe that you`re going to see additional criminal contempt prosecutions, at least not of the two that are now being recommended. And Mr. Meadows whose case has already been referred.
By the way, one additional point, Stephanie, the Department of Justice doesn`t need referrals in order to prosecute someone. And sometimes I worry that it can have a counterproductive effect, meaning if the Department of Justice which we should play it down the middle gets a referral from the committee and then from a mostly partisan vote in the full house it to prosecute someone, it may have the opposite effect. It may be exactly the kind of case you don`t want to prosecute, because it originated in a partisan referral.
RUHLE: Mm hmm. All right. Before we go, Katie, Jared Kushner going to testify to the committee on Thursday. How important is that?
BENNER: Well, it is important because we`ve seen time and again in different parts of testimony and in different, you know, documents produced by the committee, that people reached out to Jared Kushner in a variety of ways, in a variety of times, including Ginni Thomas, trying to convince him and others that something should be done to overturn the election. So it`s going to be interesting to see what Jared says to the committee. I think that he is incentivized to in as, you know, as much as he can try to protect his own reputation.
[23:30:04]
I really cannot imagine a scenario in which he would say anything that would incriminate his father-in-law. But at the same time, he`s going to need to thread a very difficult needle, because he`s going to want to come across to the committee as somebody who`s forthcoming and honest, who believes in democracy and the rule of law. He`s a young person with a long career ahead of him. But at the same time, he is part of the Trump loyalty camp. And so be interesting to see how he plays that testimony.
RUHLE: Well, we get to say it or is it private?
BRENNER: It`ll be private. But so many of the depositions have come out, the depositions come out in many ways. They`ve come out in court filings when the committee has said, we`re suing, Dan -- want to hold Dan Scavino in contempt. And so they will say we found this evidence or this piece of evidence. There are ways in which the depositions have been made public. And we know that there`s going to be a final report, which should probably include the depositions in the appendices.
RUHLE: All right, Katie Benner, Chuck Rosenberg, I can say without a doubt you made all of us smarter tonight. Thanks for joining us. Coming up a live update from Kyiv, a new reporting on Ukrainian Holocaust survivors who now being forced to flee for their lives again when the 11th Hour contains.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:35:55]
RUHLE: Millions of Ukrainians have escaped the violence yet tonight many remain at risk in already hard hit areas. Among the most vulnerable are Ukraine survivors of the Holocaust, which ended 73 years ago, as NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reports, their lives are being up ended by a war for a second time in their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JACOB SOBOROFF, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Where I`m standing right now here in Lviv was the site of what was a 400 year old Jewish Temple destroyed by the Nazis in 1942. The Nazis killed tens of thousands of Jews during the second world war in Ukraine, other survived, only now to face another foreign invasion.
(voice-over): The dangerous rescue mission began soon after curfew lifted. Aid workers sent to extract two Holocaust survivors from Kyiv. First Natalia, 82 with her daughter Veronica. Next, Boris 87 and his daughter-in- law, also named Natalia.
Both spent their childhoods evading Nazis. Boris`s father killed by them. They set off on the 350-mile drive to Lviv. David Sabag (ph) and a team from the organization (INAUDIBLE) was waiting for them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m from Israel.
SOBOROFF (on camera): And you came during the war to rescue the Holocaust survivors?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, during the war.
SOBOROFF: When they finally arrived, a warm welcome. Inside the lobby, I met survivor Natalia. It was a long journey she tells me but thank God, it`s good. We came back the next morning and asked about her past.
(on camera): Did you have to hide from the Nazis? Her daughter Veronica said she did and that Natalia his mother carried her to a shelter.
Just hearing your daughter tell the story of your life as a child here, it`s made you cry. It`s not just remembering the stories. It`s about what`s happening now. It`s really stressing me out, Natalia said.
What do you want the world to know? Live, enjoy. Live in peace, she said. What do we do if that`s all gone?
What was it hardest to leave behind in your home? You have to abandon your whole life she said, and on our way to Lviv, she said, we were driving past these huge fields and I told my daughter this was the battlefield during World War II. What is Russia want from us? I don`t understand this.
We left them to pack up and downstairs we saw Boris waiting to start his journey to meet family in Israel.
There are so many people the Holocaust is something you read about in the history books. But you live through it. I was just a child, he said.
What type of memories does this bring up for you, Boris? It`s disgusting, he tells me about having to flee again.
(voice-over): Living through the Holocaust and now Putin`s war, fleeing to survive.
(on camera): The international community has condemned several other attacks by the Russians on Holocaust memorials just like this during this war. Boris for his part is now in Warsaw. He`s on his way to Israel, Natalia is still here in Lviv figuring out what she`s going to do next. They are both so very, very grateful for the work of those aide workers that rescued them from Kyiv. Back to you.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
RUHLE: Thank you to our colleague Jacob Soboroff. Coming up next, but just 224 days to go before the midterm elections, how does the American voter feel what to make of the latest polling numbers on the war and the economy when the 11th Hour continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:43:45]
RUHLE: The next headline sounds alarming, quote, Biden`s job approval falls to the lowest level of his presidency amid war and inflation fears. But let`s add a little context to those fears. Let`s bring in some facts.
The United States is already sending billions in military and economic support to Ukraine. And there is every indication economic sanctions are strangling the Russian economy. Right now NATO is as unified as it has ever been.
And while inflation here at home is still a big problem, jobless rates are the lowest they have been in more than 50 years. And as the American people recover from COVID-19 so does our economy. But that is not translating to the American voter.
A new NBC poll finds many Americans are still skeptical of Biden`s ability to properly respond to the crisis in Ukraine. Just 28 percent say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence. Biden`s general approval rating is not much better. 40 percent of those questions say they approve of his performance, 55 percent say they disapproved.
Let`s find out why. Back with us tonight, Yamiche Alcindor, NBC News correspondent and moderator of Washington Week on PBS, and Charlie Sykes, editor at large of the bulwark and an MSNBC political analyst.
[23:45:06]
Charlie, I want you to explain that to us. I just ran down some significant hard evidence positives that we`re experiencing. And Biden can tout, why isn`t he reaping the benefits in the polls, these are big wins?
CHARLIE SYKES, EDITOR-AT-LARGE THE BULWARK: Well, because we are a politically divided country. And this is the United States of anxiety. I`m writing a story for tomorrow about the January 6 committee and what the judge said, but the reality is, voters right now are not focused on that this is just the harsh reality. They`re focused on inflation, they`re focused on crime. They`re focused on the border. They continue to be worried about mixed messaging on the pandemic.
And there`s a real danger that Joe Biden is now caught between people who think he`s being too tough on Russia, and people who think that he`s not doing enough. And amid all of that, I think that there has been some muddled messaging.
Look, you know, you and I can go on for some time with the facts. And we could also observe that Republicans are losing their minds and behaving in extreme ways. But right now, the Democrats are in charge.
And at some point, I do think that Joe Biden has to come up with some sort of a reset, find a way to connect to the American people in a way that he hasn`t used the bully pulpit more effectively. Yes.
RUHLE: But Charlie, a reset of what? We are putting COVID behind us. We are in an economic recovery.
SYKES: Right.
RUHLE: We are doing a lot to support Ukraine, while we`re not risking the lives of our troops on the ground. What is he looking to reset? And not to mention that infrastructure bill, the past is enormous.
SYKES: Yes, which nobody remembers at the moment. He`s not getting credit for these things. I mean, that that`s part of the problem. And politics is about perception as well as reality.
And, you know, Joe Biden has not connected himself with a lot of that. The Democrats spent a lot of last year fighting with one another and talking about whether their agenda was, you know, was being was being derailed.
So as a result, there`s not that wind at his back where he is the leading figure behind the economic recovery, behind the end of the pandemic. He needs to take credit for what he is doing to talk about that. But he needs to do it clear.
And I, you know, I agree completely with the comments earlier on the program about his mixed messaging, in Poland. Look, at some point, the President`s got to be forceful. He`s got to say things that are true. He can`t have his staff back off and walk away from them. You know, in a time of war, people are looking for moral leadership as well as material leadership. And so far he has not had the Churchill FDR or Volodymyr Zelenskyy moment that I think might help him rally people around this this incredibly important cause.
RUHLE: Then Yamiche, is this about messaging wins? Because Republicans keep insisting Biden isn`t handling Ukraine well, but a still extremely unified NATO would most likely disagree with that. But when you think back Republicans, they`re in lockstep with one another on messaging. The Democrats need to do the same in terms of Democrats getting fully behind the president, or at least all getting on the same page in a way the Republicans hold their nose and do it?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, PBS WASHINGTON WEEK MODERATOR: Well, this issue really comes down to two things. And Charlie touched on both of them, and it is perception and messaging. When you talk to democratic pollsters, as I have, they tell you that this really comes down to the Democratic Party, rallying around the president and really echoing some of the things that the President has been saying.
When you look at this poll, some of the numbers that jumped out to me are not only are Americans saying that they`re not confident in President Biden to handle what`s going on in Russia and Ukraine, but they`re also blaming President Biden for the inflation and high gas prices by 38 percent, and blaming only Russia by 6 percent.
Let`s remember that the White House has been saying that this is Putin`s price height. That was the words that they were using. And Democrats in some ways, based on my reporting, and in talking to Democrats that are sort of frustrated with the situation, they said that the party needs to double down on that.
It is hard for President Biden because in some ways, he as president who didn`t want to be in endless wars. He`s having to deal with the fact that he is sharing a lot of what could be economic wins with the headlines out of Ukraine. And that`s just a reality that he`s having to deal with.
But that reset that the White House is -- when I use the word reset and when any reporter uses the word reset, they sort of pushed back on this idea, because they say that they do have wins. And this poll does show that Americans are confident and are happy with the President`s overall handling of COVID.
But it`s really, really tough because this is -- the two things are coinciding, you have Americans who say that their number one priority is cost of living. And then you have that number coinciding with Americans say that they trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle just those issues.
RUHLE: How does Biden manage this inflation thing, Yamiche? Because it`s a big issue for voters nearly a quarter those polled said it`s their top priority and it`s not going away.
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And we have to remember that people vote on what affects them. Not offends them. And that`s their wallets. How does the White House handle this? They cannot control inflation.
ALCINDOR: Definitely, it is a key question. It`s a question I put myself to the president directly. Because historically presidents from Ford to LBJ to so many others, they failed at dealing with inflation, because presidents frankly, don`t have that much power to deal with the cost that you pay at the grocery store, even at the gas pump.
So this is really about whether or not Americans believe and perceive again, with that word perception, whether they perceive President Biden to be trying to empathize with them to be trying to do something.
So it really it just in some ways, the White House wanting to sort of double down on the idea that Americans feel like President Biden is doing as much as possible and Democrats that I`ve talked to, they say that that has to be the message going into the midterms, there has to be the Democrats understand that Americans are suffering, understand that even if the economy on paper is doing very well, the individuals are having a lot of stress when it comes to putting food on their tables and putting gas in their cars.
But it`s a real, real conundrum, that I think the White House just in talking to them haven`t quite figured out. And one that of course, Republicans are ready to pounce on.
RUHLE: Charlie, I need you to explain this political strategy to me, because today, Florida`s governor Ron DeSantis signed the so called Don`t Say Gay bill into law. Now there`s a lot of details I want to get into. We are going to get into it tomorrow night.
But in general, it prevents not just classroom instruction, but any discussion about gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through grade three classes, and I want to share how Ron DeSantis put it.
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.
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RUHLE: To be clear, there was no evidence that any classrooms are trying to teach this any teachers to these young children. However, you have a whole bunch of other say it`s trying to do the same thing. Put how you feel about this bill aside? Is this smart politics for them?
SYKES: They think it is. They think and again, I`m just giving you the analysis. They think the culture war works for them. They think that issues like this parental rights, going after what`s taught in the schools work for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. They think that this is a winning formula, and they are pushing it not just in multiple states around the country, but in school district, school board elections all around the country.
So they are all in on this. Expect to see many more states pass bills like this. And to see this to be a grassroots issue for Republicans. They think this is a winning issue for them.
RUHLE: Well, I don`t know if we can go back to that image of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signing that bill. He`s signing that bill talking about don`t say gay while surrounded by young schoolchildren. I hope the irony isn`t lost on anyone.
Charlie Sykes, Yamiche Alcindor, I appreciate you joining us this evening.
Coming up, because all anybody`s talking about from the Oscars, but it shouldn`t be. We`re going to explain why. THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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ARIANA DEBOSE, ACADEMY AWARD WINNER: Imagine this little girl in the backseat of a white Ford Focus. Look into her eyes you see, oh queer, openly queer woman of color and Afro Latina who found her strength in life through arts. And that`s what I believe we`re here to celebrate.
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RUHLE: The last thing before we go tonight, moments worth celebrating that what you saw right there should have been a highlight everybody was talking about today after last night`s Oscars.
Instead, the Academy was out this afternoon with a statement condemning the actions of Will Smith and promising a formal review. And after that Will Smith publicly apologized 22 hours later to Chris Rock for that now famous slap heard and seen around the world.
So we`ve got a public service announcement of our own, a reminder of the nights beautiful, uplifting and groundbreaking moments that the world could be obsessing over instead. There`s Ariana Debose`s win for Best Supporting Actress for her role in West Side Story, making her as she said the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar.
Jane Campion director of the Power of the Dog is now just the third woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Directing. This was also the first time the Best Directing prize went to a woman in back to back years.
It was hard not to be moved by the winds for the movie Kota. Last night was not only the first time for a streaming service movie to win the top prize, but it was also the first win for a film with a predominantly deaf cast and leading roles. Troy Kotzur being the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar when he won for Best Supporting Actor delivering his entire speech in sign language.
This 35 years after his co-star Marlee Matlin was the first deaf actor to win for Best Actress. Matlin has repeatedly said that being deaf is not a costume.
There was the undeniably sweet moment, when Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli were presenting Kota the Best Picture Oscar and Gaga reassured and unsteady Minnelli whispering, I got you.
And let us not forget that just after that stunning onstage slap, our dear colleague and friend Questlove made the rest of us here at NBC look like total slackers when he won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for his first ever documentary project Summer of Soul.
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Tributes have been pouring into him all day long, including a tweet from Michelle Obama, who praised the documentary as a moving celebration of black music, culture and joy. And as our friend Questlove posted this evening, he is feeling the love.
And on that very good note, I wish you a good night from all of us at NBC. Thank you for staying up late with us. I`ll see you at the end tomorrow.