Conundrum that biden finds himself in. I get, i get the sense that i think graeme is right, that we need to stand by our allies. I dont think finding nuance in this case during war time is a very easy thing to do, particularly when youre a superpower sometimes wars like this force you to choose sides. And israel as our allies. And i can see why a number of democrats are upset with what biden has done. Certainly republicans are, but biden is really trying to placate his base in this country, which is, which is obviously very split on this and particularly in the state of michigan. So i think a lot of the message its like politics are entering into bidens thinking on how to manage this war charlie matt bennett. Thank you so much. A new our Have Cnn News starts right now the crucial moment in the trump criminal trial, Michael Cohen takes the stand to testify against his former boss. The same Michael Cohen who once said he would take a bullet for donald trump. What is he going to say now .
components of a reelection ramp up. including obama, with whom the president has discussed polling in recent weeks according to two people familiar with his involvement. quote, they are also reengaging donors and zeroing in on key staff roles and hires to fortify a unit that could operate outside the close knit group that runs operations at the white house. my panel is back with me. so, basil, there s a whole lot of flutter and twitter up here. they were going about the business of getting this thing started. so, is biden gonna be the guy who can actually sell? is the effect of a selling his own accomplishments? well, i think he is. the most important point, that you made in the lead up to this is that they re refuting surrogates to do the work. also it s incredibly important function here. look, and you think about 2020,
europe. and following that, i believe jeff sessions, mike pence both visited hungary and having a satellite conference in hungary this year. this is where we talk about the ways in which you could really manipulate the political landscape in a profound way, and it seems like if we talk about putin and russia, this has a measurable effect on the american public. american attitudes, especially in republican circles, to vladimir putin and russia, have changed over the course of the last five years, in large part due to the fact that people like tucker carlson are saying i m backing russia. donald trump have taken a more friendly attitude towards vladimir putin. i guess i wondered even, not all republicans are in line, and even sean hannity is in an awkward position of basically saying biden needs to be tougher on russia. you stick in a similar traditional hawkish stance that
it s holding on to this larger package of sanctions if and when putin takes more aggressive action. does that do anything to putin? he s already spoken explicitly, he s expecting them, he know that they re countering attacks to the west. does this have any kind of cooling effect on what he s planning in the next couple weeks, or months, or whatever the timetable is? well the white house s is playing its part is pretty close to his chest. we don t know just how devastating the sanctions could be for the russian economy. so, it s difficult for me to answer that question. but i think the larger problem that the united states is having is determining the russian action, has been that the russians don t believe that there is a critical military from the united states because they know that our people are from decades of more from iran, and afghanistan. it s the last thing that biden would never do is clear. truth is not only does he not have the option to,
preparing for and going forward is that russia is prepared to launch a major military invasion of ukraine. more than 150,000 russian forces on ukraine s border, every expectation we have is that that will go ahead. as you heard jake sullivan say this morning, we continue to be committed to diplomacy should russia choose a different path. to try to pursue what it says are legitimate concerns about its own security. we have other ideas. we re ready to have those conversations, every indication is that russia s choosing force not diplomacy. and the step that it took today in moscow, related to that donbass region of the ukraine is just another indication. john, let s talk about diplomacy, 24 hours in a new cycle like this is a lifetime ago. but this morning we were talking about a potential meeting between that biden and vladimir putin, where does diplomacy stand at this point? i know you re gonna say you re a fan of it, and you like to