everybody. i am aaron gilchrist in for katy today. president biden will address the world, he will lead the call with including the leaders of france, germany, poland and britain. this after the government had fears. khrr their leaders claiming without evidence that kyiv was planning its own military assault on that area. the state department called that a false flag operation. remember the u.s. has been warning that russia plans to manufacture a pretext for an attack and eastern ukraine is where it would likely happen.

the world's largest monitoring agency, pro russian separatist and ukrainians have been fighting there since 2014. from ukraine to germany where kamala harris and secretary of state blinken, the vice president scheduled to meet with ukraine's president there tomorrow. nbc news can report now the biden administration is concerned about president zelensky leaving his country, and a spokesperson for zelensky did not comment. this is the first time in years that russia has skipped the conference, and yet blinken told allies today the u.s. is still searching for a diplomatic solution. >> even as we do everything we

can to make sure there's a diplomatic path, we are deeply concerned that's not the path russia has embarked on. >> let's get started here. joining the nbc news correspondent, erin mclaughlin from ukraine, and "new york times" diplomatic correspondent, michael crowley. we will start with you, erin. >> reporter: officials here in kyiv are strongly denning the allegations coming from separatists leaders that the ukrainian military is planning some sort of operation, and we heard the defense minister appealing to people saying not to believe the disinformation being spread. we heard this evening from the

spokesperson from the ukrainian spokesperson, and it said ukraine is not conducting or planning any sabotage attacks, and i was speaking to the former ukrainian defense minister and he says he believes defense ministers are looking at different paths, and these are things the separatists have been asking russia for for some time, and earlier in the week voting to recommend that president putin formerly recognize that region, these break-away regions as independent, something that

president putin earlier this week declined to do, and this evening speaking to people in kyiv and they are growing increasingly concerned that this could be the pretext for war that the western officials had been warning about for sometime now, aaron. >> let's talk about the warnings erin just referenced there. we had urgent warnings from the u.s. about what russia could do. what reaction are you hearing in moscow? >> reporter: it has been a fast-moving day. early this morning we saw the usual dismissive sarcastic commentary towards the u.s. warnings, but things have picked up, you know. we heard the sudden announcement from the rebel regions and the evacuations, and the spokesperson said he did not know what was going on with one of the rebel leaders, so they

were playing as if they were surprised by it as well. in short order, president putin issued an order saying any refugee that crosses russia's borders from those regions will get $130, medical assistance, and food, and it's kind of like russia's fema, and it's most concerning given the tensions and the stakes here, basically wall to wall coverage on russian state media now of the evacuation showing schoolchildren, orphans being loaded on buses, and there's an explosion in the city center, and they are just really focusing on those core narratives right now, and you are starting to see creep in this idea that if ukraine is going to attack them, maybe we should go in and stop it. >> michael, we are now seeing these movements we just heard reports about, and at the same

time we are hearing there may be concern from the u.s. about president zelensky leaving ukraine to go to the conference. how could russia exploit his absence from his own country? >> well, there are a lot of things you can do, and among other things you could cut off his communications. the russians are quite advanced when it comes to cyberattacks and other communications oriented sabotage, and you could cut him off and isolate him and make it difficult for him to respond and the physical presence of the leader of the country under attack is a big deal. if he is not there he lacks a certain force of authority. the russians could also spread any kind of disinformation or rumors saying, you know, i am just speculating here, and maybe saying zelensky is not coming back, you know, zelensky has fled. i think his physical absence

creates one more thing the u.s. probably doesn't have to worry about. i would add secretary blinken is talking about a diplomatic solution. at this point it's hard to see if there's going to be a diplomatic solution, the u.s. has been trying to convince putin the cost is too high, particularly for his economy, and he seems to think ukraine is worth the price they will make me pay. i don't see a lot of diplomatic choices at this point. >> all of you, thank you. joining us now is former u.s. ambassador to the united states, nancy sodaburg, and she served during the clinton administration. ambassador, i want to ask, in your opinion is what we are seeing today exactly what secretary blinken warned us about when he went to the united nations this week? >> it is.

and ukraine was invaded in 2014, and we are broadcasting everything we know to make it clear this is a war of putin's choice, and he's pretending it's something about nato, and the conversations with nato have been going on since 1990, and this is an effort by putin to create a state that recreates the soviet union in his image. we have made it clear the cost would be high, and he's not getting the message. >> i want to get to part of the assessment we heard from blinken. let's play that now. >> i think president putin has been a little surprised at the solidarity, at the way nato has come together, the european union has come together, and we have come together as partners,

and as long as we maintain that solidarity, whatever path putin chooses we will be ready to respond. >> we don't normally hear that word surprised referring to putin, but if he is surprised how would that play into his calculous? >> i think he is surprised in the unity between the u.s. and europe in saying that will not stand and face unprecedented sanctions. if putin goes into all of ukraine you will see a strong response from europe. if he tries to divide the europeans and the u.s., he will try and break the european solidarity. will they go with this on the pipeline, cutting it off or kicking the russians out of the banking system? this is not over but i think the

u.s. and the europeans have made it clear, and he will try and drive a wedge everywhere he can, and it's very tense and the invasion could happen, literally, any moment. >> and the osce, the monitoring system, it doesn't usually attribute blame as a matter of policy, but is there any thought that the interference is coming from russia? >> i don't think there's any doubt this is russia. there's nobody else that would benefit, as you say. the bigger picture is we know what's going on, or as what the

u.s. has declassified and made public is very clear, we have eyes on what the russians are doing and we listen to what the russians are doing and we know they are lying when they said in the last couple of days they were pulling back, and there could be as many as 190,000 troops here. he has what it takes to invade. he has paused and thought about it because of the reaction from the international community but he seems to be hell-bent on moving forward, and the question is can we stick together with the tough sanctions? the u.s. and the europeans will suffer if we put these sanctions in, and it's not going to be easy, but it's worth the cost to make sure russia does not destabilize the rest of the world. it's not just ukraine, it's all of western europe and eastern europe and the united states, and that's not in our interest.

the west and the u.s. is doing exactly the right thing in showing a wall of solidarity of here's what you are going to face. whether there will be cracks in that is what he's testing. there are very strong signs as secretary blinken said, we are going to stay lockstep in unison standing up to putin between the u.s. and the europeans, but this is a very fluid tough situation and very dangerous. >> all right, ambassador, we do appreciate your time today, your perspective to help us understand what is unfolding. thank you. >> my pleasure. up next, the former police officer convicted of killing daunte wright is sentenced to 16 months in prison. more on the outcome of a very emotional hearing in minnesota. also ahead, the house gop leader warned fellow republican leaders to stay out of primary fights and then put himself right in the middle of liz

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this is not a cop found guilty of murder for using his knee to pin down a person for 9 1/2 minutes as he gasps for air. this is not a cop found guilty of manslaughter for intentionally drawing his firearm and shooting across his partner and killing an unarmed woman who approached his squad. this is a cop who made a tragic mistake. >> a judge in minnesota sentencing former police officer kim potter to 16 months in prison today, calling the death of daunte wright a tragic accident. it's a significant departure

from the seven years that the state was seeking in this case, and far below the 15 maximum sentence potter faced. potter delivered an emotional apology to wright's family in court before her sentencing. >> my heart is broken for all of you. earlier when you said that i didn't look at you during the trial, i don't believe that i had a right to and i didn't even have a right to be in the same room with you. i am so sorry that i hurt you so badly. >> joining me now, nbc correspondent shaquille brewster outside of the courthouse, and also a legal analyst, and shaq, i want to start with you here. tell us more about the sentencing. i watched as we heard emotional and tear-filled statements of

daunte wright. how is the family and community reacting? >> they walked out of the courtroom emotional and disappointed by the sentence that the judge announced earlier this afternoon. this was a family that we heard from the victim impact statements were calling for the maximum sentence possible and prosecutors were calling for a sentence about seven years and that was within the sentencing guidelines in the state. you mentioned the emotional comments from five members of daunte's family, and we heard from the father of daunte wright leaving the courtroom saying he felt cheated by this ultimate sentence, and then we heard from this from mother. >> kim potter murdered my son, and he died april 11th. today the justice system murdered him all over again. to sit there and watch --

pouring my heart out in my victim impact statement and it took so long and i re-writ it over and over again, and then it came down to sentencing kim potter, she broke out in tears. >> reporter: the defense came into the hearing asking the judge to give them probation, and we heard from kim potter in court there and she apologized to the family of daunte wright and apologized to the greater minneapolis community for what has ultimately transpired after she shot and killed daunte wright. kim potter was convicted of first and second degree manslaughter in daunte wright's death, and the judge ending the hearing and becoming visually emotional explaining why

daunte's life matters and this is about a cop that made a tragic mistake, but bottom line you have a family leaving the courtroom feeling sad, emotional and disappointed in that sentence. >> paul, i want to bring you in, one year and four months in the sentence. >> the fact there was a prosecution and a conviction is important. officers are almost never brought to justice in situations like this. there have been 15 times in which cops accidentally shot suspects after mistaking their guns for tasers and just two convictions, so the fact that potter is a convicted criminal who will do prison time is significant. still, potter does seem to have received special treatment from a judge because she was a police officer, and the judge got choked up talking about how difficult police work is and she claimed potter doesn't need

rehabilitation and she's not a danger to society, so the judge said she's only sending potter to prison for retribution, for making her pay for what she did to daunte wright, but two years won't seem like punishment that fits the crime of taking a life to many. >> you talked about the fact that the judge was seemingly sympathetic to the police officer, to kim potter. what do you make of that? is that something that could possibly come up later? is it a display that is bizarre to see in a courtroom like this? >> aaron, there are many studies that judges are more likely to give a break to white defendants and sentence black sentences more harshly, and one reason we have sentencing guidelines is to eradicate that bias from the legal system, and judges still have the discretion to depart from the guidelines, and the

judge said this was an exceptional case, so there was a departure here but there are still concerns about whether that is equal justice under the law. >> we will leave it there for now. paul butler, legal analyst here for msnbc, and shaquille brewster on the ground. thank you. >> pleasure. and then a storm bringing a mix of snow, and that snow fell at a rate of nearly two inches an hour in kansas city. whiteout conditions and slippery roads led to a pileup on a highway in illinois. large sections of the highway are still shutdown at this hour. the same system unleashed several severe storms across the south. there were reports of tornadoes including in alabama where wind flipped over trucks on

interstate 22. after the storm brought heavy rain into the northeast, officials are warning about the possibility of additional flooding there and ice jams. still ahead, the trumps under oath. a new york judge ordering the former president and two adult children to sit for depositions. first in a highly unusual move, kevin mccarthy puts himself in the middle of liz cheney's fight for re-election. and see what's possible. hi i'm joe montana. when you get to be 65, you have little patience for nonsense and inefficiency. you know what works and you become a pro at pretty much everything. ♪ ♪ that's why when i qualified for medicare, i went with wellcare. ♪ ♪

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so congressional leaders rarely if every get involved in endorsing primaries. she is one of only two republicans on that january 6th panel, and cheney's challenger is backed by the president. joining me is ali vitali. walk us through some of the

activity that is happening there and some of what we think we understand about the logic for some of these moves. >> yeah, aaron, stefanik, the woman that replaced cheney in house leadership earlier last year when cheney was ousted for the role she's playing in the january 6th committee, and she condemned the actions of former president trump. she is central when it comes to stefanik, and this is mccarthy reading his caucus, and only two republicans are on the committee and they are one of a handful who are actually supporting the press ahead to figure out what happened on january 6th and the role the former president might have played in that tragic day. we know if the republicans retake the house this year, he

wants to be speaker of the house. he will need a lot of support from his caucus here, and this is a way to bolster his credentials with the trump allies in the caucus now making clear to them that he's willing to take on one of the people that former president trump has set his sights on in the 2022 midterms, and hague men is the person challenging cheney, and when you look at the fundraising, though, there's a story to be told about the resources she has at her dispose annual for the re-election battle. cheney's fundraising was just above $2 million, so she has a lot of money to work with even if she is facing headwinds by her own party. >> we will see how it shakes out

in the end. thank you. former president donald trump and two of his children, don junior and ivanka will have to answer questions under oath. a judge denning their attempts to block the subpoenas by letitia james into their family businesses. in the ruling the judge noted the trumps would still be able to invoke their fifth amendment rights during their testimony, and eric plead the fifth more than 500 times when he was giving testimony back in november. with me now, former u.s. attorney, barbara mcquaid, and also msnbc legal analyst. let's talk about the decision from the judge. what is your take on the bid to

block the subpoenas? >> there's an adage that says the government is entitled to every person's evidence by today's standards, and the only basis you have is privilege, and the trumps have that opportunity, and the idea that they don't have to show up for a deposition like everybody else would is absurd, and the judge is enforcing the subpoena that we would expect in any case. >> if all three of them just repeatedly take the fifth, as we saw with eric trump, barbara, how effective will any deposition of these three people actually be? >> it could be effective for a number of reasons. number one, you have to invoke the fifth amendment privilege on a question by question basis, and you have to show you have a

well grounded fear of prosecution on the basis of that answer, so asking, there's value in locking people into a story. i am sure the attorney general would like to hear the story, and so locking them into a story can have value. if they say one thing at the deposition and then something wildly different at the trial, that testimony and transcript can be used to show this was a recent fabrication, a design to get them out of hot water under these circumstances. finally, the last thing is, even if they assert their fifth amendment privilege and even though that fact could not be used against them in a criminal case, they can use it in a civil case, and a jury will know they had a well-grounded fear of prosecution based on the answer. and the jury is allowed to draw

inferences. there's value in going through the exercise, even if they do as eric did, assert the fifth to many of the questions. >> is there anything we can glean about where letitia james is where her investigation stands and is going? >> i think it's a fair speculation to say she's at the end of the investigation and after the depositions she will make a decision in filing a civil action one way or the other. the reason i say that is, she filed a detailed document in january to demonstrate to the judge why the depositions were necessary, and she recounted the financial information she had that showed astonishing differences in valuation, and one property was valued at $200 million one year was worth $400

million the next. she's talking to the lower level witnesses to make sense of that, and that may suggest she's at the end. usually you wait if you are going to talk to the target or the highest-level person in an investigation, you want to be as educated about the case as you possibly can be so they can't wiggle out of things because they know things you don't know, so to be familiar with all the other documents and witnesses is important so you can confront them with the facts and call them out if they try and be evasive with the facts you already know. all those things suggest to me she's quite likely toward the end of the investigation, and this is just the dotting of the is and crossing of the ts. >> do you think they will appeal? >> yeah, they can and i believe

they will appeal at every stage. i think delay, delay, delay is the tactic, but i think in the end they will have to sit for these depositions. >> all right, barbara, we appreciate your time and perspective. liver disease killing more and more americans. the record-breaking donation one university just received to find ways to treat it before a transplant is needed. s needed i felt all people saw were my uncontrolled movements. skinesia, s needed or td, and it's unlikely to improveithout treatment. ingrezza is a prescription medicine to treat adults with td movements in the face and body. it's the only treatment for td that's one pill, once-daily,

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raise awareness and help turn the tide of this devastating disease. karen and her 34-year-old son have one of the most unique relationships a parent and child can have, after years of watching his mother suffer from liver disease -- >> at the end of the day i would be exhausted, and then i would have to have a transplant. >> when that day came in 2020, he offered up his liver without hesitation. karen is one of 30 million americans that have some type of liver disease, and one of the leading medical conditions lowering life expectancy in this country, a reality helping drive a $104 million donation to a university in richmond.

it was the largest gift for liver research in history. >> 30 years of watching patients and their families suffer, and the gift is i hope we will treat liver cases before they get to the end stage. >> the liver's primary role is to manage how our body handles nutrition and energy and then regulates metabolism. when the liver's function fails, the function of many other organs fail such as the brain, the heart and kidneys and et cetera. >> last year more than 1,100 people died waiting for an organ. the new funding will mean an investment in gene therapy and allow experts and medical students to develop new diagnostics and treatments with the goal of ending liver disease

and end transplants. >> we want to shift the needle in terms of public health throughout the world and reduce the burden of liver disease. >> globally, liver transplantation, families watch their loved ones undergo that, and i hope it will be a procedure of the past. >> he is not only the major donor, he's also karen's doctor, and we were there for their first meeting since the transplant, and today smiles and hugs for a women with a new lease on life thanks to her baby boy. >> he saved my life, and how can you not wake up every day and thank the lord that he gave me a second chance. >> does that sink in for you? your mom just said you saved her life. >> it does.

i am just glad that she can still be around. doesn't matter what age you are you are consistently learning from your parents, and this buys more time to have more memories and keep learning together as well. >> with this donation the university says it will be able to double the size of its research team with the end goal of eliminating the need for liver transplants altogether. the u.s. surgeon general announcing today that he, his wife and their son all tested positive for covid-19. according to him, all their symptoms are mild and the surgeon general tweeting the news saying we tried to be safe but it's tough when your kids are sick and you want to comfort them when they are unwell, and we would make the same decision, but i feel for those trying to

protect themselves while caring for their family. health officials warm it's a move to promote normalcy without their being normalcy. joining me now is a critical care pulmonologists. california is moving to the end democratic approach, and seattle is getting ready, and are we at that point where we should be moving away from all the mitigation things we have been doing? >> aaron, thank you for having me. good afternoon. first, i want to say to the doctor and his family that i am glad that they seem on the path to recovery, which is great news for him and his family. i appreciate the message he is sharing. to your question, where are we headed? i long said april 1st will be a goal, and the last seven days we will have lost 14,000 plus

additional americans. that number is not going to dramatically increase in the next two weeks, but by april 1st i think we will get to a place that will be sustained relief for the next six months. just to build on what california did, which i think was a great primer for what a end democratic looks like -- endemic state looks like. i would like to see pharmacist being able to make these medications easier to access to narrow the window from diagnosis to treatment. in california, aaron, you worked about workforce strategies to buttress the workforce to increase the numbers of our workers in the health care system. we need actual policies here.

we need to recruit more and retain more. there's a lot of talent out there and there are not enough seats in the nursing schools to meet the demand. we have to make sure there's hazard pay for providers, and there's not that for those workers, and there's a lot that can be done to make sure that when hospitals will likely surge come the wintertime that we have policies in place to keep people safe and save lives. >> as we move into more of a live with it approach around the country and parts of the world, too, what does that mean for everyday life? >> i think if you are somebody that doesn't consider themselves medically high risks, and you are not 65 or older or active chemotherapy, and perhaps you are on the lower risk circumstance, mask are optional

for you. it feels like a restriction for some. we don't have restrictions anymore, and some people like to think we do, but we don't. the question is should we mask in the grocery store airplane cabin, and that's a law right now, and wearing a high-quality mask when going to the grocery store, that makes sense for you as an individual, but for the rest of us we are talking about masking here and that's where we can feel comfortable unmasking. come november 2022, i plan to put on the high-quality mask, i have a stash in the emergency kit and we live in respiratory issues and we have to live with it. up next, widespread criticism for the way the russian olympic committee handled their 15-year-old figure

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shiffrin failed to finish in her last event, her third olympics. she explained what she meant when she said, she quote, feels like a joke. >> it's like the recurring meme that you just -- at a certain point, it just feels like you kind of have to just laugh at it. i think it's okay to say that it was, like, a pretty epic underperformance, if not funny to me because i take it seriously, but honestly it's a little bit okay to laugh. >> then there is the growing criticism of the way the russian olympic committee handled its star figure skater, 15-year-old kamila valiyeva who was visibly distraught after she fell multiple times during her latest routine, and even more questions about why she even skated to begin with after it was revealed she failed a drug test before the olympics.

>> something undeniable is the harm to the person at the center of it all, a 15-year-old standing alone, looking terrified on the ice. if swift action from the top doesn't happen quickly, the very future of the games could be in jeopardy. >> joining me now is nbc news correspondent gaudy schwartz. it's been hard to watch. you saw the pressure that was really on full display during kamila's final skate. you have been watching closely. >> reporter: the president of the ioc was forced to confront this head-on in one of the most watched events, and he says he was as shocked as everyone else at what happened -- kamila valvaliyeva's meltdo. she stumbles, falls several times and buckles under this insane pressure, and remember

she's 15. at 15, you're like a sophomore in high school. you're not some mastermind of a doping scheme trying to figure out obscure heart medications that might give you an edge, but in the final moments that's almost besides the point because after this meltdown in this tragic way, she skates off the ice and she's immediately criticized by her coach, the woman who is totally in charge of every aspect of her olympic life, and esh demands to know what happened after the triple axel. here's what he thought after he watched it unfold live. >> after i saw how she was received by her closest entourage with such a -- it would be a tremendous compass. it was chilling rather than giving her comfort, rather than

to try to help her. you could feel this chilling atmosphere. >> meanwhile the anti-doping investigation continues, but the theory is all of this outrage will be short-lived and in two weeks, the world will have moved on. aaron? >> we can't forget there are real people we're dealing with, in these -- we call them games, but these are real people who have to deal with a lot of pressure. they're elite athletes, but they're human beings. they represent themselves, and their countries very well, and we appreciate all the work that they do to bring us these olympics and to compete. gadi schwartz, thank you. that is it for me today. i'll be back with you on monday. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. day. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next.

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breaking news as we come on the air. we are about to get an update from president biden on the push to avoid a russian invasion of ukraine. we're going to bring you those remarks when the roosevelt room when they happen in just about 60 minutes from now. you will see it live right her on msnbc. and before that speech, it's all about working the phone with our allies. the focus, diplomacy and deterrence. in munich, you have vice president harris, secretary of state blinken showing a united front with nato and baltic leaders. we've got one of our correspondents posted up there, and we'll bring that to you. plus, ukrainian president zelensky set to meet with harris in germany tomorrow, but nbc news is reporting u.s. officials are now sounding the alarm