WASHINGTON — If it’s Monday ... Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia take place once again. ... U.S. government officials allege Russia has asked China for military equipment. ... President Biden, in Washington, D.C., addresses the National League of Cities and then hits a DNC fundraiser in the evening. ... Sarah Godlewski airs her first TV ad in Wisconsin Senate. ... And Tom Brady’s back with the Bucs.
But first: Former President Donald Trump is trying to fix his Putin problem but he still hasn’t been able to criticize Russia’s leader the same way he treats his other opponents.
“Do you think Putin is going to stop? It's going to get worse and worse. He's not going to accept it. And we don't have anybody to talk to him. You had somebody to talk to him with me; no one was ever tougher on Russia than me,” Trump said in South Carolina on Saturday, per NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard.
Trump added, “The U.S. must make clear to Putin that he has two choices: To negotiate peace right now or face blistering consequences, including a push to permanently eliminate dependence on Russian energy.” (In fact, Biden has already banned Russian oil imports.)
And the former president also said this of Putin: "It happens to be a man that is just driven, he’s driven to put it together.”
As NBC’s Jonathan Allen writes, the war in Ukraine has produced a break between Trump and Republican elites when it comes to Putin.
It’s also split voters in Trump Country, who want the United States to do more for Ukraine, NBC’s Henry Gomez writes.
“I don’t think we’re doing enough,” Republican Mary King said in Steubenville, Ohio. “Ask the public what they are willing to sacrifice,” King added. “I pray every day to St. Nicholas to save the children in Ukraine who are in danger.”
And, of course, the war has only reminded Americans why Trump got impeached for the first time.
“I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike,” Trump told Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in 2019 after discussing the purchase of Javelin anti-tank weapons.
More Trump from 2019: “There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
“I think that the release of that transcript showed the world that we had an administration that was ready to trade our national security for personal and political gain,” former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch said on “Meet the Press” yesterday.
Sign up for First Read; Get First Read from Meet the Press for fresh reporting and analysis on the top political stories.
Tweet of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … 35 percent
That’s the share of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina, a slim plurality of all registered voters (including active, temporary and inactive voters), according to analysis from Dr. Michael Bitzer, a professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.
Per Bitzer, Democratic registrations follow closely behind at 34 percent, and Republicans at 30 percent. One percent of the state is registered as Libertarian.
Other numbers you need to know today:
59 percent: That’s the portion of U.S adults who say they back a no-fly zone over Ukraine in the new CBS News/YouGov poll.
38 percent: The portion who back a no-fly zone if told it may lead to confrontations with Russian aircraft and be viewed as an act of war by the global superpower, a significant decrease given that new perspective.
