Political discourse. Senator Lisa Murkowski this morning saying why she stands by her criticism. When there is a conflict, when the party is is taking an approach or saying things that i think are just absolutely wrong, i think its my responsibility as an alaskan senator speaking out for alaskans to just speak the truth. A new reaction to former Vice President mike pences harsh rebuke of his former boss, Calling Donald Trump wrong. Pences former Chief Of Staff saying why the vp chose now to speak out. And he extended those remarks a little bit this week to the federalist society, primarily because the president s comments about the Vice President had the ability to overturn the election i think merited response. Of course theres nothing in the 12th Amendment or the electoral count act that would afford the Vice President that authority. Joining us now, Josh Lederman in wilmington, delaware, sahil kapur on capitol hill and erin in ukraine. Josh, ill start with you. With a russian invasion looming, what are the chances of a diplomatic resolution . How confident is this white house . Well, they have certainly not closed the door to a diplomatic offramp but there is not a lot of optimism. Over the course of the last few weeks weve heard the tone from u. S. National Security Officials really starting to change from one where they thought that it was possible that what President Putin was trying to do was essentially to bluff, to try to get a lot of attention and to show by amassing troops near ukraines border that he has the power to potentially invade, but that he was unlikely to actually go ahead with that. Now what we are hearing from the u. S. , including in this new u. S. Intelligence assessment that has been reported on publicly is that russia is now 70 of the way toward having the troops in place they would need to actually not just have an incursion into ukraine, to fullon invade the entire nation of ukraine with some 83 russian battalion tactical groups now surrounding ukraine from three sides, accord to that u. S. Assessment. But still the u. S. Is trying to at least leave the door open to diplomacy so that if russia does go ahead and invade, nobody will be able to say that there were not opportunities given to President Putin to deescalate this. Take a listen to what linda thomas greenfield, the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations, had to say about the latest on diplomacy with russia. Were still working to discourage the russians from making the wrong choice, of choosing confrontation. We will continue to work on a diplomatic solution, but at the same time we know that the russians continue to prepare and we will be working to address the security issues. But u. S. Officials also tell us, alex, that they believe at this Point In TimePresident Putin has already built into his calculus the likelihood and the consequences of the u. S. Sanctions that the u. S. And other countries have been talking about. In fact the mere fact that the u. S. Has laid out in such detail what those sanctions would look like, possibly kicking the russians off the Swift Financial messaging service, possibly sanctioning putins inner circle and then to make a judgment about whether it makes sense and is worthwhile to invade nonetheless. But this weekend as President Biden is here in wilmington, he has been working the phones. We just learned in the last few minutes he spoke by phone today with israeli Prime Minister naftali bennett, the israelis saying that the rrussia Ukraine Situation was among the matters they discussed on that phone call and President Biden preparing to hold a highprofile meeting with the visiting german chancellor that is also expected to focus very much on russia and ukraine, alex. Certainly tense times. I just want to let our viewers know we were looking at the president and first lady boarding marine one as they left the Delaware Air National guard base, bound for the south lawn of the white house. Okay, that means youll be running in tow very soon. Thank you so much, Josh Lederman. Well, the Republican National committee has voted to formally censure two House Members for serving on the january 6th committee. The conference must not be sabotaged by representatives liz cheney and Adam Kinzinger who have demonstrated with actions and words that they support democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a republican majority in 2022. The move immediately stops all support for the two representatives from the rnc. Lets bring in nbcs Senior National reporter sahil kapur on all of this. First of all, how is capitol hill reacting to all of this . Its been largely critical, the reaction has, from the few lawmakers who have spoken out since the resolution passed. Lets start with how former President Trump is characterizing this. He has praised and congratulated the rnc for what he called a great ruling, referring to the censure resolution, and arguing that liz cheney and Adam Kinzinger should be removed from the Republican Party for investigating the incidents of january 6th. Over the last several months, former President Trump has tried to recast january 6th not as a violent insurrection against the American Government but as a patriotic uprising against the injustice of a stolen election, a claim for which he does not have evidence. When other republicans, some of them, try to point this out, he has sought to criticize them and remove them from the Republican Party. Its against that backdrop that some criticism is still coming. Senator mitt romney from utah criticized the rncs resolution saying shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Mitt romney is the uncle of rnc chairwoman rona mcdaniel, who spearheaded this effort on behalf of former President Trump. Theres also senator Lisa Murkowski of alaska, whos facing reelection in the red state later on this year, spoke out. You see this on the screen here. She said what happened was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the capitol. She urged her party not to legitimize those actions. Democrats are largely speaking with one voice. They have called the events of january 6th an attack on The American Way Of Life and an attack on American Democracy itself. Many of them are urging more republicans to speak out. Lets play what one of them, congressman eric swalwell, had to say. We need more Republican Leaders to stand up because unity will be the antidote against what we saw on january 6th. I hope this gives them a permissive space, this is one of the few times in americas history where the chapter is unwritten. Now, as i noted earlier, most republicans have preferred to stay quiet. They dont want to step into the crossfire and draw the ire and criticism from the former president because they could be punished politically. The question is does the rncs move to describe january 6th as legitimate political discourse prompt more of them to speak out . Well find out in the coming days. Joining me right now is texas congressman mark vi. Vissi. Its always good to welcome you, my friend. Can you comment on the rnc and the censure of liz cheney and Adam Kinzinger and the response from a couple of bold senators, mitt romney and Lisa Murkowski that is saying this is ridiculous for the rnc to censure these two and to even begin to think that the 1 6 insurrection was legitimate political discourse. Any other republicans that you think could join forces there . Yeah, no, absolutely, alex. First of all, its disgusting what the rnc did. Thats one of the reasons why in politics people have such a hard time stepping outside of their circle and doing the right thing. Obviously what happened on January The 6th was terrible, it was wrong, unprecedented, something that we havent seen. Youd have to go back to the early 1800s to think about when we had an attack on our United States capital. The fact that the rnc would say that it was legitimate political discourse. Think about what youre saying to those people that showed up that day when you say that someone out in the street says that steals a loaf of bread, that theyre patriotic and terrible and need to go to jail. The people that went to the United States capitol with zip ties to handcuff the Vice President of the United States, took over the senate floor momentarily. A woman was killed. A Police Officer was nearly crushed to death. That that is somehow political discourse. Youre telling these people that theyre superior to the rest of society, and its just wrong what theyre doing, its disgusting, and its why we have so Much Division in this country. Its because of the lack of leadership on the republican side, and particularly at the rnc. Its just unbelievable that they would even go there. Thank you for not mincing words on that and youre 100 right. Lets talk about the new u. S. Intelligence assessment that russia has 70 of what they would need for a fullscale invasion. It is in place. Moscow is saying, look, that assessment is alarmist and is as unlikely as an attack by washington on london. Really . What is the real level of concern here . Yeah, no, its a real level of concern. Obviously putin continues to amass these troops along the border. He certainly does have the ability to go into ukraine. He already plays a heavy role in that country with a lot of disinformation, a lot of people that have an allegiance to russia. He plays on a lot of those emotions. But the ukraine wants to have their own sovereign nation. We need to make sure that that is made clear to putin and that we want to make sure that we back the ukraine people with arms as much as we possibly can. If they need to be prepared to go the long haul with this. And, you know, earlier in your report, it was mentioned about an offramp. We can certainly work to find some sort of way that putin can come out of this, we should. But certainly, you know, saying that ukraine can never join nato and that we need to sort of back away from any of our dealings in europe is just absolutely ridiculous and has to be off the table. With those 3,000 u. S. Troops that are being sent to Eastern Europe near ukraine, theyre there to bolster nato ally countries, we have 8,500 waiting on alert. What are the circumstances under which you think you could see these other troops be sent in . You know, i obviously think that being able to send troops is a sign of force. And i think more importantly for our other friends in that area, theyre very concerned about this. Our friends in the baltic states, our other european partners. They want to make sure that were in this together a allies, as people standing up for democracy in europe. So i think any show of force that way is good. I think that we do have to be careful. We want to make sure that were not allowing putin to try and say that we provoked minimum. Him. So it has to be done very strategically, very carefully, but we want our friends over there to understand that we are taking this very seriously and certainly by having troops over there and reinforcing those troops, thats certainly a reasonable effort to show our friends that. You know, that point you just make about wanting to be very careful that it doesnt appear to putin that we are provoking him, you know that the senate is getting closer to finishing a Sanctions Package against russia. Politico reports that there are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, they are concerned its taking too long, theyre worried russia could invade ukraine before they finalize it. But heres the issue being debated. Its timing, whether to impose sanctions now or after an attack. So what approach do you support . Which one do you think would be most effective at being a deterrent . Obviously the most the offramp thats going to have the biggest impact, i think, is him being able to walk away from this and say whatever hes going to say. You saw the video that he put out, the fake video of the invasion of ukraine with corpses and what have you. Obviously that is done to sort of show people back in russia that he is strong and smarter than Everybody Else and victorious. But i really do believe that the senate or the house, both of us, when we get together and try to work these things out, we want it to be just right, we want it to be timely. But if he does decide that hes going to go into ukraine, i do think that we will have to ratchet it up. We need to show putin, we need to show the oligarchs that the ability to be able to access the money that they have will be shut off. The ability for them to be able to take Weekend Trips to paris or other parts of europe that the oligarchs like to do, that those visas will no longer be granted. We need for them to realize that this is real. Again, when you do that, if its before or after, we need to very much lean in on our on the advice that were getting from the military and from the pentagon on that. But it does need to be considered very, very carefully. Let me ask about something happening in your backyard. Im sure youre familiar with the indepth nbc news investigation that shows books on race and sexuality are disappearing from texas schools in record numbers. There are hundreds of titles that have been pulled from libraries that are being reviewed. Several School Librarians are telling nbc news that they face increasingly hostile work environments, mounting pressure to preemptively pull those books that could potentially draw complaints. So whats your reaction to all this . Have your constituents expressed any concern to you about it . Constituents have expressed concern to me about this. And its really sad because one of the State Representatives in texas thats leading this charge, he is actually from tarrant county, where i reside, and last week there were books being taken out of the granbury School District, which is a School District about 45 minutes southwest of fort worth. On the boxes of the books being carted out, they were labeled krauses list. Thats the State Representative leading this charge. Im someone that likes to study history and i think that the thing that i think is sad for us is that we seem to be going back. I was listening to a video just the other day of a man trying to justify in his small town why they should ban rock n roll music. They said that it was making kids act sexually promiscuous and making kids act wild, like they were black kids, and just listening to the same reasons that this man was laying out why they were going to ban rock n roll music. Alex, to the point where in this town they were suggesting going into small cafes and restaurants and even looking at what Jukebox Selections that people could choose. It just reminds me of the same thing that theyre doing now. A lot of the same rhetoric, a lot of the racial rhetoric is not there anymore, but a lot of the same verbiage, a lot of the same reasons on why this music should have been banned in the 1950s and 60s. You hear republicans, like matt krause and the Governor Youngkin of virginia using the same Backwards Reasoning that people used in the 1950s. I think its sad. Were losing freedom in this country and censorship is not a way to go. We just talked about putin. You think about that part of russia that back during the cold war that we pushed back against so much. We made fun of them, were the freedoms that they didnt extend their people. To see us trying to erode peoples rights in our country, its just its terrible. Why dont you text that guy to just look up the movie foot loose, right . Texas congressman marc veasey, thanks so much. The good, the bad and the head scratchers is ahead. D and head scratchers is ahead making your way in The World Today takes everything youve got taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot wouldnt you like to get away . 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