0 end. and i think for now it's not clear what that is. and that's why so many here are fearful that we are going to see continued bloody onslaught from russian forces here in kyiv and across the country, anderson. >> the potential for a humanitarian disaster, i mean, obviously we have seen more than half a million ukrainians already leave, ukrainians and others who were residing in the country leaving to poland, to hungary, slovakia, to other places. that will only continue as long as people are able to still travel. but getting supplies, i mean, in kyiv when the attack comes, assuming it comes, i mean, you have -- tonight you have children who were in a nicu sheltering, being treated by doctors in the basement of a hospital. children who have cancer being treated in basements of hospitals. supplies are at some point going to become, you know, a huge, huge concern if they're not already. >> yeah. and it's already becoming an issue, anderson. i mean, it's incredible to see ukrainian people with great stoicism and dignity waiting patiently in these lines to go into the supermarket. they're not hoarding. they're not stockpiling. but you do see the supermarket shelves are starting to empty. you see the same thing in pharmacies. and as you point out most importantly you're seeing hospitals run into real challenges, moving maternity wards into basements, moving children's oncology wards into basements and basements that are not designed to be hospitals. they're having to evacuate some children in the pediatric oncology ward to try to get them out to where they can properly receive treatment. and as that noose tightens and as that russian ground offensive starts to really properly encircle the capital and totally block off any supply routes in and out, this could well be a major humanitarian disaster. at the moment things can get in, in much less volume and obviously certain things are not able to move as freely. there are also just enormous traffic jams and difficulties moving goods around many parts of the country. but everyone here understands and they're facing it with enormous resilience and dignity. but everyone here understands that the situation could well get much worse very soon. so how do they begin to prepare for that? what can hospitals do? what do you do with the elderly? what do you do with those very sick children, those women who are giving birth? no one really has any answers. they're improvising in the moment and trying to make the best out of what can only be described as a very grave situation, anderson. >> yeah. clarissa, appreciate it. we'll continue to check in with you. i want to go to jill dougherty, who is standing by in moscow. our contributor on russian affairs, long-time putin watcher. jill, you reported earlier today that according to the kremlin spokesman putin was unlikely to watch tonight's speech, that he prefers reading reports afterwards. so i'm wondering what you expect putin will make of the reports of what the president said tonight. >> well, you know, i think those personal comments by joe biden were probably things that would get under -- into the craw of the russian president. things like dictator, putin alone is to blame, more isolated than ever. but i don't think they're going to engage in that. you know, you can't really defend yourself by saying no, i'm not a dictator. but what they can do is try to pick apart the argument. tonight on russian tv they did have a very short -- right after biden's speech they had a very short report, kind of summing up what he said. and they got a few things, u.s. is closing airspace to russian airplanes. the fact that american forces would not be fighting russians. and interestingly, they mentioned the fact that the united states is going to be creating this group that will be investigating russian oligarchs. i found that quite interesting that they'd actually talk about that. but i think all of this is a good indication that they are not going to engage on a personal basis on president putin and this war even though it is obviously his war, that they're trying to keep it more on a plane of issues for russia, protecting russia. anderson? >> interesting. jill dougherty, appreciate it from moscow. wolf, let's go back to you. >> all right, anderson, thanks very much. we're getting lots of reaction to the president's state of the union address. i want to go to jeff zeleny. he's up on capitol hill. it's interesting to hear from democrats and republicans. tell our viewers, jeff, what you're hearing. >> wolf, there's no question the biggest moments at least in terms of unifying moments, some of the only unifying moments came during the powerful passages on ukraine. and you could just hear the thundering applause when the president was talking about going after the oligarchs, going after the luxury yachts. and that is amplified in the conversations we are having with republicans and democrats as they are leaving the chamber this evening. but senator mitt romney, republican of utah who's been very measured in his comments on ukraine, he had this to say a short time ago. he said that he believes the president did a very nice job on ukraine, he showed our full commitment to defer to allies and standing with the ukrainian people. so he of course is going to be playing a central role in what comes next here on congress. and wolf, that is congress is debating right now how much aid to prepare for the ukrainian people from some 6 billion to some $10 billion in the omnibus spending bill. that is the overall spending bill that will be passed likely next week. so that is what is going to happen here. and that's, wolf, there is a deep concern about the humanitarian crisis, talking with many senators who have visited the region. they believe there could be millions of refugees by next week, leaving ukraine. so that certainly is a concern. so for all of the bitter divide in the chamber, wolf, it is very clear that on ukraine and the anti-putin message this is something that republicans and democrats can both agree on. wolf. >> yeah. the united nations refugee agency today said more than 650,000 refugees have already fled, have already fled ukraine for neighboring countries, especially poland. jeff, stand by. jamie gangel is getting more reaction. jamie, i understand you've been speaking to several republicans. >> so i've been texting with about six or seven republicans tonight. some of them were members of congress who were there. some of them were at home. also some republican donors and republican strategists. and it turns out for once mitt romney was not alone. i don't want to overstate it, but you saw even kevin mccarthy, the republican minority lead, there he is, and scalise, his number two, standing and applauding. and beyond ukraine there were several other lines that the republicans i was texting with pointed out to me. the made in america line. fund police. secure borders. i think the headline is, wolf, that republicans didn't sit on their hands. one republican donor said to me, and this was in light of the shadow of donald trump, which has even further polarized the republican party. this republican, a big donor, said to me that he was glad to see the republicans standing and not making fools of themselves. that was about ukraine. another republican member of congress said he's done well on ukraine, actually knocked a hanging slider off the left field wall. nicely done. from another, infrastructure decade was a good line. prescription drugs well delivered. and finally, from another member that capitalism without competition will resonate. so i think that this was much be better than i think a lot of republicans would have expected, especially with donald trump still having a grip on the party, wolf. >> he certainly has a major grip on the republican party. jamie, thank you very much. you know, gloria, as we take a look at this reaction coming in, i think the president should be pretty pleased that republicans, first of all, were giving him a standing ovation on certain lines as far as ukraine is concerned. but the reaction from republicans on the ukraine portion of his speech was pretty positive. >> well, it was very positive. i mean, when was the last time you saw a bipartisan standing ovation in the united states congress? i can't remember the last time. not in recent history. certainly not in the last four years or so. so yes. and i think they knew that that was going to occur. and that was why they put it at the top of the speech. obviously, it's on everyone's mind. issue number one. but there is a sense in this country the longer this war goes on the more public opinion has been shifting to being -- saying, you know what, we need to care about what goes on in ukraine. so i don't think they were surprised by it in the white house. but that part of the speech i think was really well written. and biden did try and appeal, even on domestic policy, to republicans. it's not defund the police. it's fund the police. >> i thought that was a major moment for him. >> i mean, you know, the lines that jamie cited were specifically put there to send a message. they understood in the white house they wanted to reposition and get back to sort of the center-left moderate image that biden has -- that attached to his candidacy. that is truly who he is. you know, one of the questions i have about that speech, the ukraine piece was so powerful. we talked about it earlier. could have been longer. but you know, in war you don't want to leave anybody behind. and in state of the union speeches they don't want to leave any idea behind. and sometimes it's best to leave some ideas behind and tell a larger story. so the story of ukraine is the story of the resilience of the ukrainian people. we have our own resilient story about what we've been through the last few years with covid and all of the permutations of covid. and in some ways i think he might have been better off telling that story rather than trying to cram as much as he could into this speech. i think it may have been more powerful if he had done that. >> one of the things i thought was interesting, though, was that he was trying to find some common ground. and he was actually stealing some stuff from the last administration. he talked about infrastructure but he said i actually got it done. made in america. >> oh, yeah. >> the innovation agenda. manufacturing. he was talking about those manufacturing jobs. and i thought he did a very good job of humanize k the manufacturing, talking about the specific place it's going to be and the number of jobs and that kind of stuff. and he also was reaching out on cancer. reaching out on insulin. so this was a speech i think the republicans don't know how to fight this guy sometimes because he wasn't giving them as many opportunities to, you know, attack him and instead i think he was trying to find that common ground. and i think that's really authentically who joe biden was. i think tonight the white house said just let joe biden be joe biden, let him talk about real folks stuff, let him try to hug the country, bring them together. i thought he did a great job tonight. >> what do you think, scott? >> couple of things i thought were good. defund the police, that is so smart to take on his party on that because there are povls people in his party who don't believe in that. it's an 80-20 issue. i thought mentioning the drug epidemic and the recovery piece, that means so much to so many people of all partisan stripes all over the country, especially where i'm from out in middle america. it's a huge issue. i thought that was good. i thought the little boy who suffers from diabetes. that ways great story. and oftentimes at the state of the union those stories in the box are what people remember more than the rhetorical flourishes. as a political matter if you didn't know anything about -- if you had not seen any polls, not followed any coverage you might have watched this speech and assumed this presidency was be-bopping along at a good clip, mid 50s, everything's fine. he's in the high 30s. 37% according to "washington post." what was not in the speech was hey, we're down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and we have to throw it down the field. he's kind of handing it off tonight. you know, handing it off, handing it off. and they got through that speech and there were a couple of nice things but not a game-changing pivot that you might expect from a party or a party leader whose people are heading for a shellacking come november. >> i feel a little bit differently, though, because i think what you've been criticizing him for was getting pulled too far to the left and getting away from the original joe biden. i think he had to reset tonight and i think he did reset tonight. and i think that puts him in position where he can be heard by other people who may have tuned him out. listen, when you have a joe biden, his great strength is his connection to ordinary people. that deep empathy. that middle-class joe. and they gave him time tonight to re-establish that. >> you know, and i agree with you. i think that his two greatest assets as a politician are empathy and a sense of connection with sort of middle-class working-class people. my point only is that those people are unhappy right now and you can't sort of tell them, hey, things are a heck of a lot better than you think they are. you have to acknowledge that we've been through a really difficult time, that the american people have been valiant during this period, and we're coming out of it and this is how we're going to come out of it. you know, tell the story -- this is not a normal time. we have been through an epic in our history that is really disruptive, that people still feel ptsd from. inflation is a by-product of it. i would argue that the violence is in some ways a by-product of it. i know that's a controversial suggestion. but homicides went up 30% in 2020. and joe biden wasn't president. okay? so i mean, i just wish that he had told that story better. that's actually what people are talking about around their kitchen table. >> i think there's a little bit of pretend going on here. and after the speech joe manchin was upset because he was sort of saying according to our reporters on the hill that why is he talking about all this stuff that didn't get passed. it's not going anywhere. he didn't say the words build back better. but he talked about a lot of the stuff that was in build back better. but it isn't going to go anywhere. so the question is how honest was it. to a degree he already tried and he failed. and i think you're right, david, because you want to tell the story. but some of this stuff we all know having covered it is just not -- >> yeah, he ran the same plays that got him in the position he's in right now. >> right. >> although a lot of that stuff, to be fair, some of the things that he talked about are quite popular. >> and maybe you can split it up. >> are they? >> they are. yes, they are. >> medicare. >> let me ask a question -- >> where's the pro-cancer caucus? >> on the legislation if they were so popular why is he at 37 and why are the republicans -- >> well, they didn't pass. here's what i would argue -- >> they control the whole government. >> yes. well, that would be the argument. i think the things that these popular items did not pass and there was some bewilderment as to why you couldn't get your own party to go along. and senator manchin knows a lot about that because he's the guy who wouldn't go along. >> it's interesting that senator manchin was sitting with senator romney. and that was a deliberate move by both of them to show yes, there are democrats and republicans in the senate who can work together. >> such good boys. >> i think that's good. i just want to say, i think that's good. everything at this point we can't solve any of these problems as divided as we are. that's just the bottom line. there is popular stuff that republicans like that they still won't support because they just don't want to give the other side a victory. and both sides do that kind of stuff. but tonight i just want to say if you were biting your fingernails worried about the world, worried about america, can we ever get anything done, and you watched this president tonight, this is a president that was finding common ground. and speaking common sense. and trying to turn common pain into common purpose. and that's what you need right now -- >> let me get david. you worked in the white house. so maybe you can give me a little appreciation of this. a lot of us, including a lot of u.s. officials today, were bracing for a heavy russian assault during the course of the president's address, the state of the union address. they thought there would be explosions and sirens going off and bombs while the president was speaking. it was totally quiet by our reporters' accounts over there. which i'm sure says something about the russian intention right now. why were they effectively sort of respectful of what the president was doing? >> here's what i -- i don't know the answer to that. what i do know is that biden and his team probably know more than we do about that because they -- i'm sure he was being briefed right up to going in. and i'm sure they weren't thrilled about the idea of a split-screen situation where he was delivering the state of the union and you know, a massacre was taking place in ukraine. i suspect they knew when he got on that platform what the situation was. let me just say one thing. you say i worked in that white house. i just feel like i have to say sometime during this discussion, the thing i hated the most when i worked in the white house was working day and night on a speech and everything else you're working on and then having ex-white house aides like me say here's what they should have done. and i appreciate that. and i think there's a lot that was accomplished tonight. i just think that there is an urge to accomplish too much and that can sometimes reduce the impact of what you're doing. >> now we'll wait to see what the russians are up to in the coming hours. jake, back to you. >> thanks, wolf. we're getting the first results of our poll of americans who watched president biden's speech tonight. david chalian is here with the numbers. david? >> jake, we first should note this is not a poll obviously of all americans. that would not be possible here. this is a poll of people who watched the speech. and what's important to note about that is that people who watch a president give a state of the union tend to be more supportive of that president or in that president's party. we see this with democratic presidents and republican presidents. so our survey tonight of speech watchers is about 11 points more democratic as a body of people here that were polled than the overall population in america. so just keep that in mind as we now show you what this instant reaction was of poll -- of speech watchers tonight. 41% had a very positive reaction to the president's speech. 29% somewhat positive. 29% negative. that 41%, when you compare it to last year's speech that joe biden gave to i ajoint session of congress, that's about 10 points lower on the very positive scale. 51% last year. you see 41% today. in fact, that 41% is the lowest very positive we've seen in about the last 15 years of instant polling after the state of the union address. take a look at this question here. we said did biden do enough to address some of the major issues here? on russia's invasion of ukraine, 69% said the president did enough to address that. but look at this. for the domestic issues that the white house is so keenly aware of in this midterm election year that are potential problems for biden. they still seem to be problems. 47% said he did enough on inflation. 46% said he did enough on violent crime. majorities f