Hey everybody, we've got a great conversation coming up today on the Michael Still podcast with the 2024 campaign quickly approaching the political players at beginning to line themselves up who are trying to buy for the executive office.

Who are these individuals? The complicated people? Really not so much, but okay, we'll go with that. But how will they change the face of politics in this next race?

And what does that say about our politics right now? My guest today, as we get into that and the war Ukraine and the leadership of both Biden and Zelensky, that was on display this past week is Charlie Sykes.

Founder and editor at large of the Bullwork, host of the Bullwork podcast and an MSNBC political contributor.

So happy to have Charlie come on to help us break it all down coming up next on the Michael Still podcast.

Again, welcome everybody to the Michael Still podcast. I am delighted to have my buddy, Charlie Sykes from the Bullwork to come on and sort of help us do a moment in time assessment over the last couple of weeks where we've had developments in the presidential campaign.

We've had developments in the effort to prosecute the war in Ukraine. We've had developments with just the mindless stupidity of the GOP. And who better than my man, Charlie Sykes, to come on and have this conversation. Welcome my friend.

This is going to be like a six hour podcast. The mindless stupidity of the GOP. That seems like a volume in itself.

Look, I've already got a drink here. My desk. So we're ready.

I started this day like, you know, gin and tonic at 10 a.m.

There are those days when I, you know, we do these early shows like Morning Joe and by five to the clock. I'm like so completely wiped out. I'm like, I got a drink.

Michael, this is how I got through the pandemic honestly.

I don't know how people survive this without the day drinking. I swear, you know, between you and me.

It's, it's, it's, to me, it's, it's all good. It's all good. So, you know, there, there are a number of places to start this conversation. And we'll save the fun stuff for near the end because by that point, we may need to have a good laugh.

But I do want to start with the, the effort right now in Ukraine. Here we are at the one year anniversary. I even hate putting it that way because this is such such a mindless and useless loss of life perpetrated by a thug and Vladimir Putin.

But how, how are you assessing, particularly given Biden's incredible journey to Kiev and, and spending that time, that visual of him and the, you know, president together with Zelensky.

It just, it was just a moment and so many levels and I'm sure it hurt the hell out of Putin and the Kremlin. Yes, on, on every single county was, it was, it was so, it was impressive.

It was impressive, not just as a political move, but as a quintessentially American move. You know, as you think about the way this war has played out and all the unexpected, you know, ways that it has played out.

I can be struck by the moral clarity that what you're seeing is you're seeing these courageous men and women of Ukraine fighting against this genocidal, you know, invasion.

You have, you know, somebody, the trillion figure of our time, Vladimir Zelensky up against Vladimir Putin, who is just a too big gangster, who has been exposed. And, and it's very difficult to understand how there are people in American politics, who look at that same, that same situation and do not see the clarity, who do not understand the global significance of it, the geopolitical significance.

America's direct political military interest in all of this, but to your question about Joe Biden, this was one of the greatest moments of his presidency. And as you know, I'm, I am, I am not a Joe Biden fanboy, I have been skeptical about his use of the bully pulpit.

I think he's used it as effectively. I don't think that he's made the case as strong as he can. I think he's been too tentative and slow on occasions. However, this was an extraordinary moment that again underlined the moral clarity, underlined our absolute commitment to this cause.

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