Plus, testing democracy. What happened on january 6th was not the normal functioning of our democracy. A deep partisan divide reveal Congress Works to make sure the results of a president ial election cant be overturned. And the former president who still refuses to accept the 2020 Election Results speaks out about the classified documents seized from his florida home. If youre the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying its declassified, even by thinking about it. Ill speak with democratic congressman jamie raskin of maryland, part of the january 6th committee, and republican congresswoman nancy mace of South Carolina. Finally, midterm messaging. We believe in a future thats built on freedom. With seven weeks until election day, the two parties make their pitch to voters. Dont tell me you support Law Enforcement if you cant condemn what happened on january the 6th. Joining me for inside and analysis are nbc News White House correspondent mike memoli, pbs newshour navarre, and former White House Press secretary jen psaki and sara fagan. Welcome to sunday. Its Meet The Press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is Meet The Press with chuck todd. A good sunday morning. No two men have challenged democracy and global stability more than donald trump and Vladimir Putin. And that was on full display again this week. Here at home, republicans in the house made it clear that their answer to the violent coup attempt on the u. S. Capitol on january 6th and the former president s monthslong campaign to overturn the Election Results is to do nothing. Just nine republicans voted for a bill to prevent future president s from trying to overturn Election Results through congress. None of those nine House Republicans that voted for this bill are returning to Congress Next year, either because they lost primaries or they chose to retire. 203 House Republicans voted against this bill. Theres a senate bill thats very similar that has more bipartisan support. 11 republican cosponsors than actual votes in the house. But now that bill may not get a vote until after the midterm elections. And election denialism is no longer an anomaly. According to one analysis this week, 201 of the 552 republican nominees running for house, senate, governor, Secretary Of State and attorney general, 36 of those nominees fully deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election. This doesnt count people that say, joe biden is the president and wont talk about it. This includes just those that fully deny. Thats a big number. Globally the existential threat to democracy is Vladimir Putin, whose decision to invade ukraine has produced the biggest conflict in europe since the second world war. Putin is threatening to use russias Nuclear Weapons, saying in a televised address, this is not a bluff. President biden responded at the United Nations. This war is about extinguishing ukraines right to exist as a state, plain and simple. And ukraines right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should not that should make your blood run cold. Were going to hear from the german chancellor olaf scholz, ukraines Prime Minister denys shmyhal. Im going to start with the president S National Security adviser, jake sullivan. Mr. Sullivan, welcome back to Meet The Press. Thanks for having me, chuck. Let me start with this. We have russia Doing Sham Referendums trying to annex territory from ukraine. We have the civilian draft that putin instituted to mobilize 300,000 troops. Based on those two developments, what is the u. S. Assessment right now of why putin is making these moves . And is it a sign that hes losing this war . Well, chuck, throwing together Sham Referendum on three days notice and scrambling to call up Hundreds Of Thousands of people who are going to need to get trained and organized is not a sign of strength. Its not a sign of confidence. Quite the opposite. Its a sign that he is struggling very badly in ukraine. That the russian army is struggling badly. And that he doesnt have a lot of options left because he really did not want to have to move to mobilization. He knew that as soon as he ordered mobilization, there would be some upheaval in the country. Were seeing the images and scenes of that right now. So, the russian army is in trouble. And the Ukrainian Army is making gains on the battlefield and stopping the russians from making progress in areas where they continue to try to advance. But that doesnt mean that the danger is over. It is very much real and still with us because Vladimir Putin remains intent, as you just heard from President Biden, on wiping out the ukrainian people, that he does not believe that ukraine should have a right to exist. So, hes going to keep coming. We have to keep coming with weapons, ammunition, intelligence, all the support we can provide to the ukrainians as they defend their land, their freedom and their democracy. The german chancellor olaf scholz told me earlier this week that there would be severe consequences for this Sham Referendum. And he said that, obviously, no nobody would recognize their hold over these territories, et cetera. But what are the consequences that hes referring to . What are is there something he didnt say thats going to come to russia for doing these Sham Referendums . Well, the leaders of the group of seven nations, the group of the worlds advanced democracies, that includes both the United States and germany actually put out a statement on friday after the beginning of the voting, the socalled voting in these fake elections that are taking place. In that document they reiterated that there would be consequences and specified that that would include additional enhanced sanctions, including sanctions on entities and companies outside of russia that are supporting the russian war machine or supporting these fake referendum or russias efforts to annex them. You will see that in the days ahead. The United States will have further announcements in the coming days if russia follows through on this. Of course, it will only redouble our efforts to provide ukraine the equipment and weapons that it needs to prevail in this conflict. While you were talking, we were able to show some footage of people voting with under the supervision of Armed Russian guards. So, just to give folks a taste of what kind of referendum this is. I want to talk about the Nuclear Threats from Vladimir Putin. There was a report this week that folks in the Biden Administration have made it clear privately of the severe consequences. Does this mean the red phone is working again . At the beginning of this conflict, there was a lot of concern that some of the basic communications we had for military to military, intel to intel, you had a hard time getting your counterparts to return calls, does this mean the red phone is working again . Well, chuck, weve been careful to protect the timing and content of the conversations we have with the rush slan government, with the kremlin. The answer to your question is, yes, we do have the capacity to speak directly at senior levels and to be clear about our messages to them and to receive their messages. That has happened frequently over the course of the past few months. It has happened even in just the last few days. But we have not wanted to indicate exactly what those channels look like because we want to be able to protect them so we have the continuing ability to reach russia and tell them, in no uncertain terms, for example, what the consequences would be, and they would be catastrophic, if russia had went down the dark road of Nuclear Weapons use. I guess the question, why the strategic ambiguity here . Why not draw a public line . If hes publicly threatening Nuclear Weapons, why not send a public message, which im sure the people in europe and ukraine would like to hear that says, you cross this line, katie bar the door, mr. Putin . Well, let me say it plainly, if russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for russia. The United States will respond decisively. Now, in private channels, we have spelled out in greater detail exactly what that would mean, but we want to be able to have the credibility of speaking directly to Senior Leadership in russia and laying out for them what the consequences would be without getting into a rhetorical tit for tat publicly. But we will not hesitate in saying publicly that there will be catastrophic consequences for russia. Youve used that word twice. And the United States and our allies will respond decisively. Youve used that word catastrophic twice. I assume you will not give more definition to that, but should putin use the definition of his imagination there, catastrophic is just that, as bad as he could imagine . Well, russia understands very well what the United States would do in response to the use of Nuclear Weapons in ukraine because we have spelled it out for them. And i will leave it at that today. But as far as the question of deterrence is concerned, you know, russia will make its decisions, but it will do so fully understanding that the United States will respond decisively. And from our perspective, we will continue to be sharp and clear with them so that there is no mistake about where things stand from our perspective. Earlier this week i asked the ukrainian Prime Minister what ukraine needs to win this war. Take a listen to his answer. I always say to win this war, we need three main things. Weaponry, finances and sanctions. Weaponry, let us protect ourselves and to go to make counteroffenses, very successful counteroffenses with support of our partners, but we also need sanctions because russia now earn enough money on the gas and oil prices. So, we need more effective sanctions to stop fulfill russian terrorist budget. We also ask our partners to recognize russia as a terrorist country because all what they are doing in ukraine is genocide. This is like terrorist act. Right now we have five countries that are State Sponsors of terrorist. The ukrainians want russia to be the sixth country we put on that list. Why havent we done that yet . Well, President Biden has indicated that he is not certain that the state sponsor of Terror Designation specifically is the right fit for whats going on with russia, but hes gone way beyond what weve done with some of the countries that youve listed in terms of the Shear Comprehensiveness of the sanctions were applying. Its a tactical matter. Whether were talking about denying russia what it needs to power its economy and Defense Industrial base, cutting off its banks from the International Financial system, imposing personal sanctions on key oligarchs, the president has not pulled his punches at all. This is just a matter of a particular tool and the degree to which the upside of it outweighs the downside, which is that it does tie the United States hands and reduce our flexibility, without adding a whole lot of economic pressure to russia. Well continue to talk to the ukrainians on this particular item, but we fully agree with the ukrainian Prime Minister, who ive met with personally, that we need to continue to amp the pressure on russia economically and we will do so. I also want to play a clip from my interview with the german chancellor, who believed that putin needs to be held accountable for the atrocities taking place in ukraine, but hes not ready to say hes lost legitimacy. Take a listen. Vladimir putin, were now finding mass graves in ukraine. Has he lost has he already lost legitimacy on The World Stage to the point that he really isnt ever going to be let back in essentially to the global order . We are very clear on the question of justice and we are preparing to go after all the crimes that happened. Hell be held accountable personally . We are doing the job supporting the courts. They are looking at the Concrete Massacres and all the very, very bad things we saw on tv and we heard of. I saw them myself when i was in kyiv and so it is necessary that we support justice and the legal system to do their job. But youre not prepared to say hes already lost his legitimacy . I think we are now working to make russia understanding they will not win this war and they should accept the independence and sovereignty of ukraine and this is what we are doing today. Look, all wars have to end diplomatically at some point. At the same time, hes clearly being seen by many as a war criminal. How do you end a war diplomatically with somebody who is a war criminal and, i guess, who many people believe has lost his legitimacy, though can you not say that until this war ends . Look, President Biden has not minced his words, as youve seen, about Vladimir Putin and his complicity in the war crimes that have been committed in ukraine, the atrocities that have been committed in ukraine. One man chose this war, one man is directing this war, one man is responsible for this war. That man is Vladimir Putin. Now, at the same time, its not just the german chancellor who has indicated that diplomacy has to remain on the table. President zelenskyy of ukraine has said ultimately at the end of the day, this war has to end diplomatically. But we have been equally clear, and you heard this from the german chancellor, there has to be justice. There has to be accountability. We need to work with the ukrainians and the International Community to bring accountability for the war crimes and atrocities that have taken place. We will not rest until we have done that. That is not an easy feat with a country like russia. But it is not something we will shy away from. I want to ask you a question about the protests in iran. You were in the Obama Administration during the Green Revolution in 2009. A lot of people thought the Obama Administration was slow to respond to those protests. Is the Biden Administrations response a response to that criticism way back when . Is there going to be an attempt to be much more forwardleaning on these protests Going Forward . Well, chuck, part of the reason that there was a different kind of approach in 2009 was the belief that somehow if america spoke out, it would undermine the protesters, not aid them. I think what we learned in the aftermath of that is that you can overthink these things. The most important thing for the United States to do is to be firm and clear and principled in response to citizens of any country demanding their rights and dignity. And so right after these protests broke out, our administration began speaking out. The president went to the well of the United Nations and said the United States stands with the citizens of iran, the women of iran, as they demand their rights and their dignity and a Better Future in iran. We have taken tangible steps to sanction the Morality Police who caused this young womans death and weve taken steps to make it easier for the iranian people to get access to the internet and to communicate with one another and the world. And we will keep speaking out day in and day out because this is a matter of fundamental dignity, justice and rights. The world needs to continue to see these protests and see what theyre doing to these women. Jake sullivan, National Security adviser for President Biden. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views with us. Coming back, trying to prevent another january 6th. Ill speak to congressman jamie raskin and congresswoman nancy mace. Welcome back. Former President Trump is now facing more than half a dozen criminal and civil proceedings. Intelligence officials have resumed their National Security