ukraine stands and democracy stands. a vital message delivered by president joe biden today. made more significant when he delivered the words from kyiv itself. he walks side-by-side with president zelenskyy and the ukrainian capital. it s a moment filled with symbolism with an american president ineffectively a war zone with daily bombardment from russia s forces. two presidents who visit war zones like iraq or afghanistan. president biden delivered a message not just to president zelenskyy and the ukrainian people but to western allies as well as the russians. the message is that america the financial a military backer of ukraine is in it for the long haul. for you and all ukrainians, your mind the world every single day with the meaning of the word courage is. all sectors of your economy and all walks of life and it is astounding. astounding. it is priceless and worth fighting for for as long as it takes and that is how long we will be with you mr. president, for as long
legislation on his record aimed at winning back working-class democrats. on the other will be an ideologically driven, conspiracy-minded opposition consumed by its own internal power struggles and tethered to a leader facing multiple investigations for trying to overturn a democratic election. president joe biden displaying strength and competence in defending democracy in kyiv today. that s where we begin the hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. nbc news white house correspondent our good friend mike memorandum memoli is back. he accompanied then vice president biden to iraq in 2016, knows what it s like to travel with him. also john heilemann joins us live from warsaw, poland. he s the host and executive producer of showtime s the circus. he s also executive editor of the recount. and we have missed you, friend. i m so glad you re back. it s great to be back, nicolle. especially from here, from poland, you know.
gets worse. and right now joe biden with the midterms at his back, with the strong state of the union at his back, with some decent economic numbers at his back, is again there are other problems, we could talk about those, that he has to address in his recollection campaign, but he s going to xum back on the back of this trip i think seeing what he did today and what i think he has in store for tomorrow, he s going to come back with another thing to build on as he heads toward a forthright foursquare re-election effort. that s spot on. mike memoli, i m going to ask you to pick up on some of what john heilemann s talking about. let me read this from the atlantic. symbols matter pape kennedy or reagan at the berlin wall, a churchill with a cigar and a bowler for that matter, a green-clad zelenskyy growling i need ammunition, not a ride. simply by taking the hazardous trip to kyiv biden made a strategic move of cardinal importance. we i think as an industry are
i can t somehow manage to connect with you in new york city but i get to poland and here i am. see, one of us has to be in poland. also joining us former senator claire mccaskill. she was a member of the senate armed services committee. john and claire, msnbc contributors. mike memoli, let me start with you and any reporting you have about how this trip came to be. reporter: well, nicolle, by his own admission president biden traveled more than 2 million miles on amtrak, of course most of that his journey to and from washington, d.c. from his home in wilmington, so central to the joe biden story. but there is proobl no more consequential moment on a train than today when president biden made that treacherous risky ten-hour trip inside and out of kyiv for reasons that are very much coming into clarity at this moment. as i was talking to white house officials today, i really came to understand two of the driving decisions making moments here. the first is this impression really the b
better than that of ultimately winning this war. and so the two of them simultaneously in parallel met the moments and now have come together and are going to be twinled, i think, in the history of this era in what is going to be a defining battle the two of them are the two central players on the side of good. it s kind of an extraordinary thing. and it s and again, compare it to donald trump. it just makes you shake your head. you tied all the connective tissue for us. they ve been knitted up since the first impeachment, the extortion event. let me tell our viewers what we re watching. this is air force one. president joe biden has just landed in warsaw back from that surprise visit to kyiv by train. mike memoli, we imagine he s going to go r.o.n., right? reside overnight and be ready for that big speech tomorrow.