invasion is moving forward, but there is still a chance to avert war, he says. newsroom starting right now. hello. thank you for joining me. i m fredricka whitfield. breaking news on the crisis on the border with ukraine. president biden a short time ago wrapping up a situation room meeting with his national security team on the crisis. a u.s. official now telling cnn that nearly 75% of russian conventional forces are now deployed within striking distance of ukraine. the u.s. also estimates that russia has around 500 fighter and fighter bomber aircraft within range of ukraine. secretary of state antony blinken also arriving at the white house earlier today. earlier blinken said he s not giving up on hope for democracy. while we believe president putin has made the decision that the die is cast. until that die settles and until the tanks are actually moving,
more than 100 americans remain on the ground mostly dual citizens representing the most complex and difficult circum circumstances u.s. officials told cnn and u.s. relying on diplomatic means and taliban to bring them home. for those remaining americans, there s no deadline. we are committed to get them out if they want to come out. reporter: biden facing another clear reality. many of the afghan allies he pledged to evacuate did not get out of the country. a senior state department official saying the majority that worked for the u.s. in the two decade war remain in afghanistan. are there more people that want to leave afghanistan? absolutely. are there more people who will be eligible for our programs? absolutely. that s why we are focused on the diplomat efforts that are being led by the state department. reporter: for biden the first day in weeks without a morning situation room meeting with his team. his schedule punctuated with
to be on the hill today. yesterday afternoon even after the situation room meeting with the president jared kushner was on the hill meeting with republicans and moderates. so there are still things happening. the problem is there is still no deal and the president wants to keep this possibility of doing it all on his own in the hopper. it still remains out there as an option available to him. let s see what happens. any moment even from air force one, let us see. thank you so much. moments ago also happening, the top senate democrat demanded that mitch mcconnell take up the house bills that are being passed to reopen the government. listen here. leader mcconnell is hiding behind president trump saying he won t bring to the floor a bill to reopen the government unless the president says okay, even if president trump doesn t support this legislation, his intransgents and hurt america.
meeting, the president wanted them to remain unified, pushing for the wall even if it means that the government shutdown stretches into 19, 20, 21 days and counting. so this is a president who s not backing down at all on the issue of the wall and yet he has said to reporters earlier this morning that he thinks that negotiations with democrats could go well. the question is does he believe democrats are going to cave, it doesn t really seem like democrats are willing to even budge one inch and so we are where we ve been for 19 days now. what will happen in this situation room meeting is really unclear. will the president say something different in private than he s been saying in public? will he change his stance on the wall? it seems that might be the only way to move past this shutdown. the other option is potentially for the president to declare some kind of national emergency allowing him to build the wall without going through congress. he talked about that several times today but
room between party leaders reveals very little reason for optimism: steve: remember it all started a couple weeks ago when nancy pelosi chuck schumer sat down with the president in the oval office. cameras come in. she certai essentially threw don the gauntlet mr. president you cannot get that bill out of the house of representatives which was controlled by republicans then. s you know what? they were able to get it through the house but it stalled in the senate. you need that super majority thing. yesterday they were very clear. the president on his sheet of things to get today i need $5.6 billion for the wall. on nancy pelosi s sheet zero. and after the meeting, it was very clear there was no negotiating. because they were both very dug in and we are, you know, next stop is going to be with mitch mcconnell to see of which the two bills the democrats introduce today will get through the senate. ainsley: situation room meeting was yesterday afternoon and last night the president tweete