Hello there I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast so a secret trip to a war-torn

capital, dueling speeches from competing nations, nuclear treaties tossed into the garbage bin,

these are the scenes from just the last few days.

President Biden and Russian President Putin seem to knuckle down on their positions in

the war in Ukraine as one of my guests today wrote in the Atlantic.

Biden's visit came at a time when much hangs in the balance in Europe, Asia, and back

at home.

But as we wrote this week and first read, just 41% of Americans said they approved

of Biden's handling of the war between Russian Ukraine and the latest NBC News poll.

A huge partisan divide, I mean not surprise you 71% of Democrats approved, but just 36%

of independence and 14% of Republicans.

My guest today are Dan Balls, Chief correspondent for the Washington Post and Elliot Cohen,

a contributing writer at the Atlantic and a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and

the Arlead Burke Chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Gentlemen, welcome to both of you and I sort of want to do this as sort of both at stake

globally, if you will, but also the domestic political dynamics here.

And in that way, Elliot, let me start with you.

The last 48 hours feel like a pretty consequential 48 hours and something that we may be writing

about for a long time.

Am I overreacting?

No, I think that's right.

I mean, the odd thing is the president didn't really announce any particular changes in

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