bryan llenas. thanks. we'll focus on that tomorrow. thanks. a big race tomorrow. >> it's going to be a big race. i'm watching to see the new white house correspondent. i'm john roberts. >> i'm jacqui heinrich. the story starts right now. >> pick it up where you left off. thanks. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum in fox news headquarters in new york. we're hours from the biggest test so far of president trump's muscle in these mid-term elections. tomorrow you have five states that have big races. he's got seven endorsements among these candidates. the biggest drama by far is the slugfest in the swing state of pennsylvania. it is all about this. the retiring senator pat toomey, his seat up for grabs and both sides really want it in a very

tight united states senate. so in trump's corner, you have tv show dr. oz neck and neck with former bush official dave mccormick and commentator kim barnett who has been coming up the side on the rails there. really squarely in contention. they have three gop candidates, right? you would have those this would have whittled down. they're all around 20%. then you have about 20% that haven't decided yet. so this is fascinaing to watch. president trump asking voters in north carolina to get behind this -- the re-election for a controversial young member of congress, madison kawthorn. he said give him a second chance. he's made foolish mistakes. you can check out what's going on there. kind of interesting in that story. so charles watson is live in

charlotte, north carolina where action will be going on tomorrow with more on that. first we go to rich edson. he's in the keystone state. he's in pittsburgh. hi, rich. >> good afternoon, martha. you know, you only get one endorsement in these races. the top three republicans are all invoking former president trump or at the very least his policies. even the top democrats are making the argument that they can convince former trump voters to vote for democrats. among the candidates, the former president is only officially backing dr. mehmet oz. >> i have talked to the president about my needs to not be in a box. i've always been a individual who fought for what i think needs to happen. >> he has a lot of support and popularity within pennsylvania. i believe those policies are right for our country. for me it was an easy decision to run on embracing president

trump. >> president trump coined the word maga but make america great belongs to the people. >> kathy barnett has surged in the polls. we have new video emerging showing her marching near proud boys january 6. barnett's campaign manager said she was in washington january 6 and denied any connection to the proud boys. john fedderman is missing his own primary watch party. he's been in the hospital friday after having a stroke. he says doctors removed the clot, that he has suffered no cognitive damage as a result and he's in the hospital, resting up the next few days and he expects to be back on the campaign trail soon. if he only wins this primary, which is tomorrow night. back to you. >> we wish him well. that is a difficult situation. so close to election day tomorrow. rich, thank you. so my next guest knows

pennsylvania really well. she is asking what is the matter with pennsylvania? this is the headline of her latest piece in the washington examiner. saline is here with us from "the washington examiner." great to see you as always, salina. so what is -- you capture it well in this piece. what is going on in pennsylvania with this gop senate primary? >> i think what -- you have to begin where the biggest problem lies. that is state parties. they always have the ability to get the extra candidates out. they didn't do that in the governor's race and/or the u.s. senate race. so you have all of these people vying for their piece of the pie. their way to get their voice across often happens with running negative ads against

each other. a lot of them don't have a natural base here. so when president trump endorsed dr. oz, at that momentday mccormick was ahead. when president trump endorsed dr. oz, that switched the dynamic. but then it came to earth and those two were neck and neck. when president trump came here ten days ago, feels like 100 years ago, he had a rally. it wasn't well-attended. dr. oz faced some boos because a lot of the base wasn't quite sure about him. so he sent of went scorched earth with dave mccormick. that happened at the same time there was a debate in pennsylvania. kathy barnett had some grade lines in that debate. all of a sudden everyone who is exhausted by the fighting went

oh, let's go over here. this looks better. so that's how we got into this predicament. she surged, but there wasn't a lot known about her. so as she has faced more scrutiny in the past few days, her numbers have started to come back to earth. that's why we're in a three-way tie right now. >> martha: here she is answering questions from shannon bream on "fox news sunday." there's these wheats that have surfaced about comments about muslims. this was her answer. she said these things ten years ago. she says that in this sound bite. she's trying to disown it a bit given the space and time and distance from when she said them. here she is trying to explain. it's a little murky. >> the overwhelm mag --

overwhelming majority of the tweets are not even full sentences. people take it and build their own narrative around it. so i can't provide a lot of context because again, it's almost ten years ago. >> martha: it's a bit murky, as i said. so for pennsylvania voters, because she says when i travel the state, nobody is asking me about these tweets. i wonder about the new things about her being there january 6. is that getting traction or do people not care? >> yeah, a lot of this is getting traction. people do care. words do matter. is there enough time? in politics, you can rise fast and fall fast. what voters want to do is win in november. however, because there's a crowded field, there's about 25% of them that don't care about winning in november.

they're just sort of on a bender and they're mad. that is the unknown part. with her running with a state senator that was also endorsed by president trump and then mastriano endorsed her, he make take her over the finish line. we might not. if anybody says they know who will win tomorrow night, they -- they get it right, they were just guessing. >> martha: yeah. this is what makes covering a story like this so fascinating. these people are so different, so unique. each could resonate with a group of people in pennsylvania, any different connection. so thank you very much, salina. thanks. great piece in the examiner. i urge everybody to take a look. so former president trump is standing by his endorsement of madison kawthorn as well even to he admitted he made some foolish

mistakes. in the battle for the state's open senate seat, truck is backing ted bud, who will join us in just a moment. first to charles watson to get you caught up on who the players are here and what you should be watching when you see the returns come in tomorrow night from north carolina as well, another big race tomorrow, tuesday. hi, charles. >> good afternoon, martha. president trump stepping in at the 11th hour to help freshman congressman madison cawthorn to help survive a tough re-election bid. trump said on his truth social media platform, he made some foolish mistakes, which i don't believe he will make again. let's get madison a second chance. this follows a long list of controversies cawthorn has accumulated among other things being cited twice for trying to bring a loaded handgun through airport security.

cawthorn says it's rinos tripping over themselves to defeat me. but many north carolinians are so upset that many are throwing their support behind others to unseat him. >> i believe he may have gotten lost in the political stardom and forgot what his role here is back at home. >> meantime, trump endorsed candidate ted bud trying to solidify his lead in the senate primary knocking on doors to ask north carolinians for their vote. the biggest challenge is for mark walker and pat mccorey has criticized him for skipping debates. despite that, the trump endorsement could be all that matters come election day. >> when you volunteer something like the president's endorsement or a call of support, that could

potentially be differentiator to a lot of republicans. >> you know, martha, whether or not the trump factor, particularly in the case of cawthorn translates to winning has yet to be seen. we'll find out tomorrow when voters head to the polls. back to you. >> martha: we sure will. interesting to watch. thanks. let's bring in congressman ted bud, former president trump picked to be the state's next senator. thanks for joining us today. obviously this race has been very interesting one to watch. you know, the polls are difficult to look in primaries and a lot of people undecided. but you appear to be in good shape heading into tomorrow. now, the current president has tried to sort of label people who think politically as you do as ultra maga. that is the new catch phrase that the white house has been using. here's an example of that. >> the other path is the ultra

maga plan. it's the ultra maga agenda. i never expected the ultra maga republicans who seem to control the republican party now to have been able to control the republican party. >> martha: what is the impact of that label for you in north carolina? how do you define that ultra maga or does it help or hurt you, sir? >> if maga means lower inflation, it means lower prices at the pump, if it means baby formula, your parents have -- of infants can find, i'm all for that. look, when you look at what president trump did, when i had an opportunity to work with him when he was president, we didn't have these problems that joe biden has. so you already see the radical opponent that i'm likely going to face in a few days, sherry beasley running away from joe biden. so whatever joe biden wants to label me, we'll take that

because that means lower prices for americans, lower prices at the pump, lower prices at the grocery store. that's what people in all 100 counties are talking to me. >> martha: so she's the supreme court chief justice in north carolina. here's what she had to say. >> former. >> martha: former. thank you. obviously abortion is an issue here. that is something that she supports the right for. here she is. >> there's people that are trying to make a political issue out of a constitutional right. even the republicans that are running here in this race that i'm in here in north carolina will not take a stand on preserving this right. in fact, they all support a ban or restrictions on this right. >> martha: where do you stand on that? do you support overturning roe v. wade? >> bottom line, i think our state legislators should be the ones that make that decision. that's what this case is about. she's trying to politicize it. i'm trying to save as many

unborn lives as we can. i believe that life begins at conception. i want to honor that and save as many unborn lives as possible. >> martha: that is clear. i don't think she can say you're not taking a stand on it if that is where you stand. one other issue, if you end up running against her, she made it clear she will make january 6 an issue as well. you voted to overturn the election in 2020. do you still stand by that vote, sir? >> absolutely. that was about constitutional issues. seems like she should understand the constitution, especially someone part of the north carolina state supreme court. i looked at pennsylvania, i looked at the fact that they had in essence violated the constitution and that's why i objected along with well over 140 republicans. that was my right to do so and i was very, very concernedthat the constitution was violated.

look, i think if somebody is burning downtown town raleigh or downtown charlotte or whether it's violence of washington d.c., they all need to be on a level playing field when it comes to justice. >> martha: what about madison cawthorn's? do you support the president with him? >> i know north carolina's 11th district will make the right decision. my focus is on 100 counties. i'm the only candidate to finish all 100 counties. it's an honor to do so. i'm looking forward to winning this tomorrow night. i'm focusing on the whole state. >> martha: do you support madison cawthorn for re-election? >> i know folks in north carolina will make the right decision. he brings a lot of passion to the job. he and the president have a great relationship. i'm honored the president would support me and he has to run his own race there and the people will make the right decision. i'm confident in that. >> martha: thanks, ted. we'll be watching everything closely tomorrow.

>> thank you. >> martha: thank you. a new face at the white house podium. she's been working in that department for a while but now she is the lead and the press secretary. this is karine -- karine jean-pierre. we'll listen in a little bit. >> i'm honored to be with you here today in this role, in this room standing behind this podium. i'm acutely aware that my presence at this podium represents a few firsts. i'm a black gay immigrant woman, the first of all three of those to hold this position. i would not be here today if it were not for generations of barrier-breaking people before me. i stand on their shoulders. if it were not for generations of barrier-breaking people before me, i wouldn't be here. but i benefit from their

sacrifices. i have learned from their excellence and i am forever grateful to them. representation does matter. you hear us say this often in this administration. no one understands this better than president biden. which is why his administration is not only the most diverse in history, it's filled with barrier-breaking women and men from the vice president to the cabinet secretaries to his supreme court nominee, to senior staff throughout this administration. when i did my first briefing as principle deputy press secretary last year, almost a year ago, i said at this podium that this podium, this room, this building belonged to the american people. we work for them. it's not about me. it's about them. it was true then and it's very true indeed today. on jen's first briefing, she

made clear the president and her priority was to bring truth and transparency back to this briefing room. jen did a great job at that. i will work every day to continue to ensure that we are meeting the. president's expectation of truth and honesty. i have tremendous work for the work you do, which i know is not easy. the press play as vital role in our democracy and we need a strong and independent press now more than ever. we might not see eye to eye here in this room all the time, which is okay. that give and take is so incredibly healthy and it's a part of our democracy. i look forward to engaging with all of you on that. with that, please kick us off. >> thanks. congratulations. i want to ask you, do you i have your primary role here as

speaking for the president and promoting his interests or are you committed to providing the unvarnished truth to the american people? >> that's hand and hand. i don't think there's any separation to that. as i said at the end of my opening here, the president believes in truth and transparency. that's what he expects from us. clearly we're here to talk about his platform and what he is doing to deliver for the american people. but he wants to make sure we're doing this in a transparent way and a truthful way and honest way. >> [question inaudible] >> absolutely. >> this weekend's attacks in buffalo, the hateful red rick about the white supremacist pro decemberers five years ago that motivated the president to run

for this office back then. what more does the president believes he has to do and the country has to do to combat that? >> we still need to learn more about the motivation for the shooting as law enforcement does their work. we don't need anything else to state a clear moral truth, which is a racially motivated. hate crime is abhorrent to the fabric of this nation. hate must not have a safe harbor. this is something that the president says very often, especially in these horrific incidents that we've seen time and time again. we must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism. we must reject hatred and extremism ideology that divides americans when we find it in our society. it's antithetical to who we are as a country and fuels violence as well.

>> congratulations. in that vein, there's polling that shows one in three americans believe in replacement theory. you spoke in broad brush strokes there. is this white house willing to stop this form of thinking from further seeping out of the fringe and in to the mainstream? >> we're going to continue to call this out as we have talked about many times. the president at every chance he's had when we've seen a violent attack like this that is as we, you know, say with hatred and racially motivated. he calls it out and calls it what it is. so one thing i do want to touch on is like domestic terrorism a little by, which hopefully touches on your question. we have been working to implement the governmentwide strategy to counter domestic

terrorism. we recognize that that has evolved in to the most urgent terrorism threat the united states faces today. that work includes improving information sharing throughout federal state and local law enforcement on domestic terrorism threats and analysis and adding resources to prevent domestic terrorisms recruisement and mobilization and including information sharing with the technology sector, increasing our support for federal, state and local law enforcement in addressing domestic terrorism nationwide, rooting out hate and bigotry. this weekend's actions show more towards that front. >> and -- >> martha: we'll keep a close

eye on that. karine said she's the first black gay immigrant woman to hold that position at the white house. she said it was due to a barrier breaking individual whose had gone before her and we'll keep a close eye on that and cope an eye what our folks are asking as well. officials in orange county, california released new details about a 68-year-old male accused of opening fire on church goers at the services in laguna woods, yesterday killing one and wounding five. then across the country and this was just mentioned at the white house briefing as well, a terribly tragic situation in buffalo, new york. chilling new details about the 18-year-old that is accused on going on a racist rampage.

he basically according to this man fess toe was seeking out an area where a lot of black people lived. you can see these individuals that lost their lives. ten men and women as they were in there buying groceries at topps in buffalo. these shootings are two of more than 200 that have occurred this year in 2022. with everything else going on, feels like we haven't given a lot of note to these shootings. you can see there's so many of these situations throughout the course of this year so far. at least four people were injured or killed in each instance. nate foy is on this today as is jonathan hunt. they're digging into what we're learning about these still relatively new investigations. let's go to jonathan in laguna, woods. >> hi, martha.

we got a lot of new disturbing information from the sheriff here in orange county including two headlines. one we now know the name of the man that was killed. i'll get to that in a moments. and according to the sheriff, this was a politically motivated hate incident as the sheriff put it. motivated by the gunman's annoyance about relations between china and taiwan. this was a taiwanese congregation meeting here. the man that was killed, let's get to him first. that is what the sheriff did at his news conference. he's dr. john chang. he was 50 years old. he leaves behind a wife and two children. the sheriff described him as one of the heros that tackled the gunman that was eventually hog tied by members of the congregation that also removed the two handguns.

the 68-year-old gunman from las vegas was carrying. now, he apparently, martha, tried to shut members of the congregation in the room where they had lunch using super glue on the doors as well as other measures before he opened fire. the sheriff says this shooting was motivated by political hate. five people were also wounded as well as the one man, dr. john chang that was killed. the five others have not been named at this point. but they were all asian according to the sheriff. they were all elderly. age between 66 and 92. the headline, the stunning headline from this news conference that is still ongoing right now, martha, is that this was, according to the sheriff, a politically motivated hate incident. one of the heros that tackled the gunman was the man that lost his life, dr. john chang just 52

years old. as i said, he leaves behind a wife and two children. >> martha: what a tragedy. you rightly point out the heroism that unfolded inside this church. the headline as well, which you have just told us that the police are going on a theory here that this was -- fueled by politics, tensions between china and taiwan because it was the irvine presbyterian church. the former stories that the pastor, billy chang, he hit this individual over the head and knocked him to the ground. the others wrapped him up using an extension according and took the guns away. correct? >> yes, that is all correct. he was -- the gunman was hit with a chair that was thrown by a member, a former leader of the congregation. then a group actually managed to

tackle him. among the group is dr. john chang that was hit in the process of tackling the gunman. the group managed to get ahold of him. they hog tied him with an electrical court and removed two handguns that he was carrying. we believe that they took him out essentially at the point of which he was stopping, paused for just a moment to reload and those very brave members heroic as the sheriff called them, members of the congregation, leapt into action at that point, martha. >> martha: indeed. dr. john chang lost his life, truly a hero in this situation. five people wounded and perhaps many lives saved thanks to the heroism of dr. john chang. jonathan hunt, thank you very much. so among the victims of the mass shooting in buffalo, two of these over the course of this weekend is an 86-year-old mother and grandmother, ruth whitfield. her family says she stopped for

groceries after visiting her husband in the nursing home over the past eight years. she lost her life. watch this. >> what do we tell our father? we don't even know. what do we tell him? how do we tell him? his primary caretaker, the person that kept him alive, how do we tell him that she's gone. not just that she's gone but she's gone at the hands of a white supremist. >> just absolutely awful story. these people going about their lives in this grocery store. and this person on a mission. 200 miles away to go to this particular place to carry out this heinous crime. nate foy is digging in to what we know about the suspect, his family, what happened here given the fact that he had tripped some red flags before this, nate. what are you learn something. >> just so many disturbing aspects to this story.

you mentioned the possible red flags. police are looking into that to see what they should have known before saturday's attack. according to wgrz in buffalo, the suspect visited the same topps supermarket and asked the manager why a white woman worked there. we'll get to more of the red flags coming up. first, new video of fbi agents at the family's home, this is in new york about 3 1/2 hours from buffalo. the suspect lived here with his parents who are reportedly engineers with the new york department of transportation. police say the parents are devastated by cooperating with the investigation. you can see a family photo there according to state police, they investigated the suspect in june for threatening his high school classmates. he was given a full mental health evaluation and counselling but was released and not charged with a crime. here's the buffalo police commissioner talking about that. >> he was evaluated and he was

released. as far as when we say on the radar, there was nothing picked up on the state police intelligence, nothing that was picked up on the fbi intelligence. nobody called in any complaints. >> martha, another thing that wasn't picked up is the manifesto picked up online written by the suspect. the manifesto contributes too great replacement conspiracy theory. in it, the suspect claims he was radicalized online and not by the people he met in person. there's another press conference in a half hour at 4:00 and we're expecting new information from that, martha. >> martha: thanks very much, nate foy, reporting two horrific shooting incidents over the weekend and a lot of people going through a lot of pain today. thanks for joining us. okay. so how about this? amazon and "washington post" owner jeff bezos is blasting the

president's handling of the it is economy as the rising cost of living is still continuing to be number 1 on the nation's minds and concerns as we head into the mid-terms here. susan li and david asman here in studio coming up next. i am robert strickler. i've been involved in communications in the media for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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>> martha: war of the words escalating between the white house and the second richest man. we talk about the richest man a lot, elon musk. but now jeff bezos tweeted the newly created disinformation board should review one of the president's tweets about inflation. the white house responding saying it doesn't require a huge leap to find out why one of the wealthiest have its opposes and economic agenda for the middle class says the white house. bezos is back on social media tweeting this in part. remember the administration tried their best to add another

$3.5 trillion to federal spending, but failed. had they succeeded, inflation would be higher than it is today. inflation is at a 40-year high. he's got a point there. let's bring in david asman and susan li. great to have both of you with us. >> thank you. >> martha: susan, you know, your response to the growing sort of trend at the "washington post" to point fingers at the president's economic agenda. >> the two wealthiest people on the planet just agreed with each other. musk said spending does fuel inplace. we'll see a recession one year to 18 months. so i think it's true. the government's spending does fuel higher prices. but you never heard jeff bezos complain about the stimulus package when amazon made record sales. now you're hearing it that they lost money for the first time in seven years.

that's because of higher inflation and labor costs that they have to pay out. >> martha: he's also saying, david, raising corporate taxes is not going to change the inflation rate. he's very concerned about that plan. it is interesting to see this evolution that has been kind of going on. >> it's been going on for a while at the "washington post." jeff bezos owns "the washington post." he says he keeps his hands off the editorial. but when the owner think as certain way, generally speaking the editorial moves in that direction. beginning in mid april, we began seeing this kind of talk. it's really intensified the past couple weeks. last week this editorial called biden's magical thinking on inflation continues. they soften the headline the next day. it became wishful thinking on inflation. but they said the white house has been suffering from magical inflation on thinking and they're pinning inflation on greedy corporation for hiking up

prices that doesn't add up. what "the washington post" has been saying mimics what jeff bezos has been saying. whether it's the chicken or the egg, i suspect bezos felt this for a while and convinced the editorial side that that is what needs to be done. for the president to lose "the washington post," which has been the main stay for every democratic administration since at least john f. kennedy and very often they would sway their editorial policy towards that democratic administration, this is the first. i have never seen in my career in many years, i've never seen "the washington post" stray from the editorial line of a democratic administration. they're doing it now. >> martha: you have been at this many years. >> thanks a lot! >> martha: so here's the nbc poll on the direction of the country. 75% say it's in the wrong track. you wonder. i'll is figuring this out that things are on the wrong track. whether at the "washington post" or people answering these

pollings. it doesn't seem to be changing tact is at the white house. one thing, they wanted to do, another covid stimulus bill. they separated it from the ukraine support bill in order to try to get it through. that's not through yet either. do you think, susan and i want to hear you as well, you think that will go bye-bye? they're not going to try to pass more covid stimulus as everybody is wise how this came about? >> in a divided government, its hard to pass the senate anyway. you heard the former ceo of goldman sachs saying the recession risks are very high. elon musk says he expect as recession in the next 12 to 18 months. so is spending going to bring down i guess costs and prices in light or in enough time to prevent that? i think there's questions. >> it's not just biden. nancy pelosi was putting the blame on everybody but the government spending.

putting the blame on workers. when says when jobs go up and when wages go up, it causes inflation. >> martha: what? >> that is crazy. jobs -- we had more jobs under trump and a higher wage growth under trump, real wage growth under trump. inflation did not go up. that's not true. it's coming from the leadership of the democratic party, whether in the white hour or in the house and frankly a lot of people like bezos thinks that that has to change. >> martha: and musk is thinking that a recession will bring a smaller twice for twitter. so great to have both of you here. thank you, david. great to see you both. so here's some video that russia's vladimir putin has to be extremely displeased by. smoking russian tanks in eastern ukraine. the ukrainian military blew up a ton of these tanks. then they took out a pontoon

bridge in donetsk. this is a major setback for the russia military. then on top of that, vladimir putin has to digest the fact that two european countries who are historically neutral are now saying look in the mirror. you're the reason that we would like to join nato now. the former ambassador kurt volker joins me next. you can d. thanks, dad. that's right, robert. and it's never too early to learn you could save with america's number one motorcycle insurer. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush. your gums will thank you. -that's right, dr. gary. -jamie? sorry, i had another thought so i got back in line. what was it? [ sighs ] i can't remember.

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>> martha: vladimir putin sending a warning to the west about the potential expansion into more countries along his border if they join nato. historically neutral sweden and finland both discussing joining the alliance. both seeking to be part of it. military build-up in those

countries would "certainly provoke a response" says putin. in moments, curt volcker, first to jennifer griffin who has developing news. hi, jennifer. >> there's been a shift in tone from vladimir putin and that has been almost as head-spinning, if you will, as sweden and finland's decision to apply to join nato after decades of neutrality in the wake of russia's invasion. >> we shouldn't be the only country in the baltic region. in my opinion, this is an act of peace. it's about war, never returning to finland. >> today putin responded before

meeting with six former soviet states. >> as far as expansion, new members finland and sweden included, russia, i would like to remind you, dear colleagues, doesn't have any problem with those countries. therefore, there's not an immediate threat to russia with tin conclusion of those countries. with the expansion of military infrastructure over that territory will obviously call for our response. >> in other words, if nato doesn't add troops or bases in finland and sweden, putin won't object. this video shows ukrainian artillery taking out russian troops trying to cross the donetsk river. 400 rush soldiers were killed. putin has pulled his troops off of the finish foldier because he needs reinforcements. i spoke to the finish ambassador

who spoke putin many times. he says finland has rammed up their military spending 70%. they spend 2% of gdp on defend and has the most sophisticated air force in europe. >> we don't expect that somebody else will fight our wars. support from the allied countries is important. we're going to stay as a strong contributor, also as a part of the alliance. >> the turkish president indicated he may not support finland and sweden's application, but sources tell me this is a negotiating play on turkey's part to get concessions against the kurds. >> that was an interesting development. thanks, jennifer. with that. >> john: we bring in kurt volker, the former u.s. special representative for ukraine. great to have you with us today, ambassador. so one of the things that vladimir putin said about the possibility of finland and

sweden joining nato, which is an earthquake change in europe. putin said problems created with no reason at all. we will react accordingly. i'm not sure how he thinks this is all coming about out of thin air given the brutal invasion of ukraine. >> that's right. these countries were not thinking about joining nato at the end of last year. it was only russia's attacks on ukraine and the brutality of those attacks against civilians that caused finland and sweden to think the only way to be safe is to be a member of nato. russia hasn't attacked any members of nato, at least not yet but they have attacked georgia and ukraine and occupies part of maldova. so the lesson here is if you want to be safe, you should be thinking about nato membership. >> martha: on the other hand, seems interesting to watch this largely strengthening nato block, right?

at the same time that it looks like putin's military is falling apart frankly. when you look hat this donetsk region situation, they tried to put two pontoons and we have photos of this over a river to focus on the east because they have lost kyiv and looks like they like kharkiv or the ground that they made up there. blown apart tanks. they lost 400 russian soldiers. that is enormous in this one mission. so where does this lead them, ambassador? >> well, it just shows that the russian military is in a desperate state. they're being pushed to keep fighting, show they can accomplish something. they don't have the equipment, the leadership, the command and control and they do something like this. they try to cover this river. they make themselves an easy target and an entire battalion

gets taken out, this is a stunning loss. even russian bloggers were commenting over the weekend on the absolute incompetence of the russia military here. >> some of those bloggers have two million followers in russia. so there's no curtain that is allowing putin to sort of keep ahold on this information. where do you see this going? where is this in three months? >> well, in three months, i think we'll be at a stage where russia cannot holder territory in eastern your -- ukraine. the ukrainians have pushed them out of kyiv, kharkiv and a push against kherson in the south. the russians don't have the ability to take ground. i think they'll find it hard to hold the ground that they have already taken. as we have seen with other push-backs. we'll see russia in a

slow-motion defeat here. at some point they will have to seek to settle. we're starting to get signals of that even now as the chief of defense there, the defense minister took the call from chief austin. now they're suggesting there should be a cease fire. i'm sure that is coming from russia, not them directly. now is the time to keep supporting the ukrainians and not accept that there's any reward for this russian aggression against ukraine. >> martha: it seems the concerted effort and accelerated efforts appears to be wearing them down. lets hope that brings them to the table. kurt volker, thanks very much. former ambassador to nato, an expert on the region. and the trial began today for

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>> martha: it's underway now. the first trial in john durham's investigation of the probe of president trump and russia has kicked off today in a new york courtroom. former clinton campaign lawyer michael sussmann charged with lying to the fbi when he passed on a tip that he wanted to make sure that they had at the fbi. he said it was about a connection between candidate trump and russia during the 2016 campaign and that tip as you well know from following this all of these years did not pan out. david spunt reporting live from the justice department. hi, david. >> hi, martha. this is one that we've been following for three years. a big chunk of this trial is about political opposition research. after three years, we're finally at trial. we have video of john durham

heading into federal court in d.c. he began looking into the origins of the probe in may 2019, the trump russia narrative. he charged three people in three years. >> one pleaded guilty to altering a government document and the other is going to trial in the fall. michael susman is charged with one count of making a false statement to the fbi. two months before the election, susman called james baker. he told baker that he had information that linked the trump campaign to russia via a russian bank. that information was false. according to the government, sussmann told baker that he wanted to bring the information not on behalf of a client but a concerned citizen. durham said that mr. sussmann billed the hillary clinton campaign. jury selection began at 9:00. both sides hoping to get this done so they can begin opening arguments tomorrow.

the jury will have to decide if this is a political dirty trick or if it's something more sinister, something illegal. this trial will kickoff tomorrow with opening arguments. it's expected to last two weeks, martha >> martha: we'll be watching closely. thanks, david, very much. thank you nor being with us today for "the story" on this monday. have a great week. the story goes on. see you tomorrow. >> you're looking live at buffalo, new york. officials will hold a news conference as the investigation continueses into the topp supermarket over the weekend that left ten people did. the 18-year-old suspect planned to continue his shooting rampage in a black neighborhood. i'm charles payne in for neil cavuto. we're going to take you to that news conference as soon as it begins. first to alexis mcadams who is in buffalo with the latest. alexis? >> charles, right now it's an