there's the pentagon program, state department a program to help arm ukraine, and then the pentagon budget. these companies the pentagon arguing ukraine is the reason to push it to record levels, $100 billion more than at the peak of the cold war. so between the arms of ukraine, the pentagon being jacked up far beyond what is needed even to address the ukraine crisis, these companies -- the top five get $150 bilon a year. that is going to go up and up. this is unfortunate for the world but -- [indiscernible] juan: you talked about 2020, lucky received a $75 billion -- lucky received $75 billion, more than the entire state department budget. so much for the emphasis of the biden administration on diplomacy, isn't it? >> exactly. it is so stunning one company gets more contracts from the pentagon and the state department, especially for new administration [inaudible] the assessor policies [inaudible] a sense of how our budget is still skewed toward the militarized foreign policy at a time when i think diplomacy is more rigid than ever. amy: raytheon ceo defended how the ukraine war has boost

however, the fact that they were financed by the pentagon and the pentagon. ready involved in them they and the fact that we have victoria newland us under secretary of state, testifying on the floor of congress and a congressional investigation. irrational hearing now that she was worried about russia getting his hands on them. when asked in response to a question, asked about whether or not ukraine had biological weapons indicates that there could have been some military purpose. there. russia has quite a bit of information they said that goes against this narrative. we're hearing from the usa that these were harmless, meaningless, non military, biological research facilities. so it's quite a serious matter. now it's important to keep in mind that for a long time the united states mainstream media would not highlight and refuse to even discuss hunter by the laptop when under by the laptop 1st surfaced during the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. us media band, any discussion of the story. facebook and twitter would not allow the story from the new

even the pentagon is not buying it in the pentagon is not citing with the story, but all the international outlet, those formerly or supposedly sober thinking general, is our own running away the story of boucher a butcher. and, you know, you need to understand the ukrainian sort of p, our mentality to understand that such, coincidence is not coincidental. you know, buttery and butcher. i think there were a couple of bride p r minds. we decided that, you know, this is a great headline for the westerners to swallow and you know, inter term that calculation, i think, proved accurate just in terms of the reaction from, at the information that's being sent from ukraine. because that's what it is. because people in the west can't make up their own independent minds and what are the points of you being but taking on here, you've got the president going on a drive to virtually every major country in the world going on prime time television, going to congress going to parliament and getting an uncontested questioning about what he's actually, what is happening. so in is that the p r drive that's g

where the pentagon believes its headed. and tonight, the new russian general now in command already known as the butcher of syria. and news tonight on the staggering death toll in mariupol. the devastating new images from above. the mayor now saying well more than 10,000 civilians killed. what president zelenskyy is saying. and our james longman on what he found in the doorway of a school outside kyiv. the possible russian trap. our team inside ukraine again tonight. >>> back here at home tonight, new covid cases now on the rise in at least 24 states. philadelphia tonight with that mask mandate reinstated what authorities are seeing in halfcountry now. also tonight, news on house speaker nancy pelosi late today, and on president biden. his latest test. amid these new covid concerns with so many lawmakers testing positive in washington. >>> meanwhile, the president cracking down on so-called ghost guns. >>> tornado watches across several states tonight from texas to the midwest. then the system moving across the country, as

the pentagon says that despite the pentagon devastation the, ukrainians are still fighting and it is still contested. ukrainian fighters have been pushed back to a steel factory in that port city, but they are trying to make a last stand. the latest round of defense assistance to your brain is being shipped. some of it has already begun to arrive ahead of this new phase of the war. >> now the war has changed because now the russians have prioritized that area, and that is a whole different area of fighting. >> and pentagon spokesman john kirby says that his wife our artillery is now being sent. because he says that long-range fire is needed in that eastern part of your crane, based on the terrain and in the conditions on the ground. here at the white house, president biden earlier today, held a call with other western allies and they discussed the need for additional security assistance to ukraine. and additional sanctions. the white house says another round could be announced, as early as this week. >> and the president is in agreement, and ugly, what did he say about sending additi

moments ago the pentagon said the u.s. is not sure what the loss will mean to the russian navy. >> the naval component has been limited to two things, one, cruise missile strikes inside ukraine and, two, replenishment of their efforts in the south. they've only conducted one amphibious landing and that was on an uncontested. it remains to be seen what the major impact will be. that said this is a cruiser. they only have three in this class. >> cnn's jake tapper joins us from ukraine's capital city, kyiv. jake, let's talk about this. it sounds like the ukrainians may be making some strides in fighting so that russian warship, the pentagon confirmed, it was damaged by a big explosion. ukraine, as you know, says they hit it with a missile -- we can hear the air raid sirens behind you. have you been able to learn -- i know that's just a ubiquitous sound there so we'll try to press on. have you been able to learn anything about this warship? >> reporter: well, we should say if this was the result of the ukrainians firing these

what does the pentagon want to achieve _ battle. what does the pentagon want to achieve by _ battle. what does the pentagon want to achieve by doing - battle. what does the pentagon want to achieve by doing this? i want to achieve by doing this? as kirby said, and want to degrade russia's military capability. they want to stop russia to have the capacity to engage in offensive operations so they are trying to, frankly, they are trying to bleed out russian ground troops, they are trying to cause the russians to waste their long—range missiles and artillery and stuff. there is a lot of good intelligence that says russia is basically running low on many, many things so they are trying to force their hand in that way so that when this thing is over with, russia is going to spend years trying to rebuild capacity. years trying to rebuild capacity-— years trying to rebuild caaci . «a, ., , years trying to rebuild caaci . ~ . ., ._ ,., capacity. ukrainian forces are caettin capacity. ukrainian forces are getting support _ capacity. ukr

the pentagon where press secretary is holding >> sec. kirby: i think you saw this morning the secretary called his romanian counterpart to continue monitoring our assistance to the ukrainian people. both leaders shared a sense of urgency given what is going on in the eastern part of the country in both leaders commended allied efforts to provide humanitarian and security assistance to ukraine. mended romania for welcoming hundreds of thousands of ukrainian refugees and was able to get an update from the minister on the nato group in romania. i think we issued a redact of that call. the secretary also commended romania for welcoming hundreds of thousands of ukrainian refugees and was able to get an update from the minister on the nato group in romania. the secretaries meeting with the secretary of defense to discuss ways to deepen our cooperation under the u.s.-philippine alliance. both ministers will reiterate their commitment to supporting the security stability and prosperity of the indo pacific and ensuring the alliance remains capabl

have denied that the pentagon is linked to bio labs in the country. ah, ah, since 2018 under order number 928, issued by ukraine's ministry of health. international pharmaceutical companies have had access to the country's hospital patients as a testing ground, including children. special safety measures in the handling of hazardous microorganisms are very expensive. it's a lot cheaper and easier to conduct that kind of research in countries where lives are of low value to the usa. the west, of course, does not care about the lives or the conditions of the ukraine or the population. it is also been historically i'd by people like adolf hitler and the german world war 2 strategic plans for defeating russia. ukraine was rich with oil and it was always i'd as a natural resource area that could be utilized much to be was, would assume. usually when we do it, we could do it and be a school special would have support. but then you where you can, you can course, that's what it is, but then you and then you could take a look at the ne, when you, but don't let

the answer has never been poor money or the pentagon. we need to buy smarter and i think we have slipped a bit in the past for years. i am going back may be 10 years. he had been buying things like the f-35, which can't fight. we have the main ballot tanks -- battle tanks, as the japanese lean -- javelin missiles -- we have aircraft carriers that have -- used to be the best symbol of american power. the chinese among others have built area denial weapons that prevent bringing our carriers within range of their ground targets. we have to really think a lot harder and more imaginatively. think you really have to understand why things have to be bought smarter and put together smarter in order to really have a defect -- effective the current -- deterrence. host: you say are nuclear and conventional deterrence are fading. our economy may already be in a cake -- and capable of sustaining bus -- us. what do you mean by that? guest: we have an ability to fight. he have a massive armed force, whether it is structured correctly or not but we have

cnn's other than lieberman is at the pentagon. is the assessment that russia fixed the early missteps? >> i would say the u.s. assessment is this is russian attempt to fix its early missteps which included large problems with logistics and sustainability. remember, if you look at the map here, in the north as they attempted to come toward kyiv, russian forces quickly outran their own supply lines. that forced them to halt their advance as well as the ukrainian resistance that they met at every point along that advance. so the russians, the u.s. have figured out the problems and now they're trying to solve some of them as they switch their offensive from around pretty much the entire country to focusing on southern and eastern ukraine. now, the u.s. says they are still having -- or rather the pentagon says they're still having many of the same issues in logistics and sustain shl. they're also having the same issues with morale. that's one of the hardest problems to solve in a critical issue when you're trying to move many forces on

the pentagon had also sheltered several german, fascist. the removal of nancy criminals from the country was code named operation paperclip. it were thousands overall by one estimate as many as 10000. not just the scientist, the scientists totaled about 1600 or more. but there were also concentration camp guards from load of medium levels. there were even carboned dance at concentration camps or who in eastern europe. nazis really of all stripes, from scientists to spies who worked for the cia. ah eric little blue, an american journalist and pulitzer prize winner wrote the nazis next door, a book revealing the harrowing story of how america became a safe haven for thousands of nazi criminals. i think a lot of this is it was really a stain on the united states. it was a shameful period in which we allowed thousands and thousands of nazi persecutors who we had just defeated. we are just gone to war. we had lost just lost on hundreds of thousands of men in battle and then allowed the them in despite their obvious ties to, to war crimes and per

we will play for you what the pentagon is saying. and the other big headline we're following, airlines begin to roll back mask mandates after a federal judge ruled that the biden administration had overstepped its authority. we'll get reaction in the white house, when deputy press secretary craig meagher joins us for a live interview. >>> good morning. and welcome to "way too early." on this tuesday, april 19th. i'm jonathan lemire. officials in ukraine say russia has launched its anticipated offensive in the eastern donbas region. the ukrainian military says the new phase began when russian forces tried to break through its defenses along the entire front line, from kharkiv to the north, to donetsk in the south. but some military officials, both in ukraine, and in the west, say the ground is still being set. a ukrainian military official tells "the new york times" that the offensive will quote activate in the coming days. last week, the u.s. said russia wasn't quite ready to launch the new offensive, because of ongoing logistical pr

pentagon press secretary john kirby joins me now. let's talk about western ukraine, and lviv, and what do you think, you know, the strategy here is, is it to tell people after the sinking of the moskva that we're still here, we can hit you anywhere? >> it's difficult to know exactly what russian thinking is here with respect to their targeting, andrea, but clearly they hit targets over the weekend in lviv, and they also air strikes in kyiv itself as well. what we think they're doing is going after military or military-related targets. again, we don't have perfect visibility and we're trying to get an assessment of the damage done here to what, but we think they're specifically going after military or military related targets in these two. but by and large, andrea, over the course of the last couple of days, the most prevalent air strikes that they've conducted as well as artillery still is in the donbas, the eastern part of the country, and absolutely down near mariupol, in and around the city. >> and what is going on in mariupol, do

is the pentagon able to sustain this current flow of weapons for years? >> as they send in these weapons, they have certainly kept an eye, the pentagon that is, on u.s. stocks and inventories, making sure that in sending all this equipment over, they insist it does not affect u.s. military readiness. but they have been aware since this didn't end in the weeks or days the kremlin wanted, this could stretch on for months or longer. so that's something the u.s. is keeping an eye on in its own stocks and reserves of weaponry in europe and throughout. >> thanks to both of you. >>> coming up next, the pressure on poland, particularly on schools in poland, as that country struggles to make room for ukrainian refugees and kids. plus, the political fight for controlling congress and how that has democrats and republicans going to new lengths. stay with us. r whatchya... line? need. liberty biberty— cut. liberty..... arare we married to mutual? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. libeberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ bonnie boon i'm calling you out. every

and of course, your leaking of the pentagon papers is a prime example of that. but today, we have an expansion, arise even of this information and it's hard to decipher what's true, what's not, what's fact, what's fiction? how important is it to have actual transparency when it comes to government actions and government decisions about war? i'm afraid that transparency and war are 2 words don't really go to each other. they don't exist together. in war time, the secrecy that the government carries on all the time about his own crimes and lies in misleading statements in bad predictions. reckless actions that secrecy is certainly legitimized in war because you have to keep it from an enemy. that's one of the senses in which i said at least, are indispensable, especially as a long term, once in a, in a cold war, we have to keep things from russians altogether. so you don't, you don't pick transparency. and when people do come out, there's 2 native it, they do get prosecutor, when it's coming out of the sick. part of it, which is very dismaying, is nothing much hap

the pentagon kicking the can going forward. the president will be sitting down with the chairman of the joint chiefs in 15 minutes or so and we expect cameras to be there for part of the meeting. we may get a better idea where the president wants to go from here. martha? >> martha: thanks, mark. let's bring in retired general jack keane, chairman of the institute for the study of war and fox news senior strategic analyst. general, always good to have you with us. your reaction first of all to this icbm russian test and vladimir putin's contention that it will protect them from external threats. >> certainly a scheduled test. we knew it was going to take place. these are fairly standard procedures to test the equipment that we have and certainly test new modernized equipment as well. russia has a strong strategic deterrence as of the united states. made up of icbms, bombers and submarine launched missiles. they've been modernizing theirs the last ten years. we have not been. ours are atrophying. there's a down payment in this bu

how does the pentagon read that? >> this is, again, the pentagon -- the pentagon official i spoke with today characterized it as sabre rattling. putin did this in february as well, right at the beginning of the invasion. this is the kind of talk that really alarms the biden administration and the united states has taken pains over the last few weeks to de-escalate and respond very carefully every time russian officials and vladimir putin start rattling their nuclear sabres. when you ask this question, katy, you are getting again, at the essence of what has kept the united states and nato countries out of this war, and that is at the end of the day russia has nuclear arms. his nuclear arsenal is in many ways all that vladimir putin has left, given how bismolly his military has behaved. now with his nuclear arsenal, he's taking pains to make sure to remind the world that, you know, there's a reason why nobody wants to go to war with russia. it becomes a question of is this just talk or is he, you know, has he crossed a

kirby: -- pentagon? sec. kirby: let me back up. it is true that we believe we will be able to begin a process of training ukrainian armed forces. that training will occur outside of ukraine and will be more of a train the trainers type of environment, a small number of ukrainians that will be trained and re-introduced back into their country to train their colleagues. i'm not going to get into the locations, it will be outside of ukraine. i'm going to refrain right now from talking about who is going to be doing the training. and exactly on what timeline. i think as we get closer to things, we may be able to talk a little bit more about it, but there is a plan now that we are beginning to execute and we think the training can happen in the next several days. important to remember that this -- while this particular system is new to the ukrainians, they don't use american howitzers in artillery, they understand how to use artillery. we don't believe it will take very long or take much detailed training to get them up to speed on amer

jennifer at the pentagon. we can tell you this battle in mariupol where the russians say it's over, they have complete control. you might have heard president biden convinced that is not the case. we know that 2,000 ukrainians are holed up in this essentially a steel plant that is being used right now as sort of their only defense against the russian onslaught. it's very hard to penetrate that. vladimir putin has made it such that it's very hard to leave there as he was putting it, not so much a fly could get in with the tight grip that they have on this facility. how do the soldiers get out? vladimir putin said you should surrender. there's others in there, a number of civilians as well to say nothing of thousands of more around mariupol that don't have a safe passage way out. in the middle of this, we have a special intel officer on the plight there. the russians haven't provided this safe passage way, brett. that leads to the likelihood that the soldiers will have to wait it out. nobody is coming to help th

back to barbara starr at the pentagon with new reporting what the pentagon sees in the new russian icbm test. >> reporter: john, by definition an icbm, intercontinental ballistic missile could hit the u.s., it would have that capability. this test is not a threat and is not of particular concern to them. they knew it was coming. why are they saying this? russia properly notified the test through international authorities, the u.s., other countries, have obligations to notify these kinds of ballistic missile tests, and the russians lived up to those obligations. the u.s. knew the test window was open. they knew when the missile launched and when it was going out into far eastern russia from its launch point. how did they know this? u.s. satellite, u.s. intelligence assets are able to track the signature, if you will, the heat given off by these kinds of missile launches, and are able to track them all the way to their target. so the u.s. knew this was not something aimed at the u.s. they knew it was a test this is a program the russians have been working on for some time. it's a program

a 7000 page top secret pentagon study and covering years of official lies about u. s. military involvement in the vietnam war. the leak documents known as the pentagon papers were instrumental in exposing the scope and strategy behind the u. s. is war in the region, in many, at the time, believed that they could change how the world viewed war decades later as conflicts rage on and ukraine, yemen in ethiopia, just to name a few. the decision making process behind wars remains as murky. is that what we do know is that billions of dollars is spent on weapons and defense contracts every year, making conflict incredibly profitable results. so who benefits from war? and who are the biggest players behind the war machine? and up front special with daniel ellsberg. daniel ellsberg, thank you so much for joining me on up front. thank you for having a large part of your life's work. has been committed to not only raising awareness about the dangers of nuclear weapons, but also the money behind them in $20.00. 20 is the pandemic raged the 9 nuclear weapons. states collectivel

director young, can you tell me how much the pentagon has given to just five contractors? >> are we just picking contractors? i'm sure -- i'll get back to you, congresswoman, on the top contractors i assume you're interested in. >> let me tell you that up to one-third of pentagon contracts after 9/11 went to just five contractors and in fiscal year 2001 to 2020, these companies received $2.1 trillion in 2021 dollars and in fiscal 2021 alone the pentagon gave $75 billion in contracts to lockheed martin which totals more than one and a half times the budget. is it the only agency that has not never passed a budget? >> that is correct. >> and it's actually failed its last four audits and yet we are continue to pile money on top. i would just say that to representative moulton's questions, i would argue that there are more efficient ways to spend the money we have. it doesn't mean that we can't have solid and secure national security if we actually cut out waste, fraud, and abuse and focus on the technologies that are going to provide us with the biggest bang for the buck. and

does the pentagon still see our commitment as defensive aid? >> no. what we're describing is weapons and systems that are helping ukraine defend itself because it is on the defense since they were invaded by russia. we're not getting hung up on words like offensive and defensive. you can see the list. it's helping them defend themselves, their troops, cities, towns and people every day. if you look at that package that the president signed yesterday, it's really designed very much more specifically and tailored to the kind of fighting that we think the ukrainians will be experiencing in the donbas. artillery. counter artillery radar systems. more uavs. even unmanned surface vessels that can help them with coastal defense. we know mariupol is a coastal city a port city. that coastline is still important to the russians in terms of their goals in eastern ukraine. we tried to tailor this to the kind of fight that we think they'll be in. >> martha: not to -- we talked that this before. you want them to win. >> of course we do. >> martha: why the hesitancy

as the pentagon said, they're doing this in real time. they're looking at what the ukrainians need and can use immediately. and one of the things that has been pretty amazing about this is just how fast this weaponry and these supplies have got on the ukraine. the pentagon is often accused and sometimes rightfully so for being slow. they have been anything but slow here. these weapons, once they're announced, they get to the ukraine very, very fast. >> oftentimes an entry point for u.s. military assistance, arsenal assistance, will be, you know, by way of sea. in this case, as we have been able to showcase thanks to great reporting of a lot of our team members, including ed lavandera there, odesa is a very important port city. it seems to be particularly important and appealing to russian forces as well. can you help people understand why it is, what is so appealing to a port city like odesa for russia? why is it targeting or perhaps even using that space to launch its weaponry? >> russia has wanted a warm water port like odesa for litera

the constitution and the pentagon. the previous one and the current one deemphasize the basing challenge of china. we are calling it a strategic competition with chinese primarily in to a lesser extent, the russians. where does the middle east -- and we are deep -- deemphasizing the middle east. where do you see the police and eight this new equation and what kind of a role does it play in the strategic opposition? >> taking a step back and looking at a macro level, the existential question of this decade if not beyond is how does the united states -- i don't like to say keep pace but outpace the rapid chinese military buildup but also deal with -- a very aggressive and threatening russia, a rogue regime like north korea and iran as they race toward their own nuclear capabilities but still deal with the threat of global terrorism? how do we do china, russia, iran, and north korea and secure our atmosphere and the homeland and global terrorism overlaid with 30 trillion in debt and climbing? how do we balance and priorit

the pentagon revealing the new military aid includes u.s. phoenix ghost drones, which were developed specifically for the ukrainian military. state department spokesperson ned price joins us here live this hour. and we're live in florida, where in just the past 90 minutes republicans have given final approval to a bill aimed to punish disney. gop lawmakers angry following the company's public stance against the state's so-called "don't say gay" law. what this bill would do and when we expect the governor to sign it. >>> plus, what congressional gop leaders were reportedly saying about donald trump in private following the january 6th attack. nbc news obtaining excerpts from a new book where mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy take swipes at the former president. and good afternoon. i'm garrett haake in washington in for hal-high jackson. and our nbc news team is here with me. we've got mike memoli traveling with the president in portland, oregon. ali arouzi is in ukraine. courtney kube's at her post at the pentagon. and we're also joined by f

here at the pentagon, focusing on this defense partnership with india. in personnel news, we are excited to welcome rebecca herdsman. she is a familiar name to many. she is coming in as the director of defense threat reduction agency. also known as dtra. she has served for countering weapons of mass destruction and we think dr. williams who has been the acting director for the past 15 months and we are glad to welcome -- back to the pentagon. also in public affairs, today we welcome this sabrina -- who came over to us from her duties at the white house. she will be taking over a new position at ost public affairs called integrated campaigns. she is going to be helping us do a better job stitching together all the different vehicles we have available to us in communicating and making sure we are doing that more effectively and efficiently and we are glad to get her here. we have been working for weeks to bring her on board and we are excited to have her here. >> thank you. on ukraine, could you describe the extent to which you are seeing russians shifting

can you tell me how much the pentagon has given just five contractors? dir. young: are we speaking contractors --i will get back to you, congresswoman, on the top contractors i assume you're interested in. >> let me tell you that up to one third of pentagon park traps after 9/11 went to just five contractors and from fiscal year 2001 to 2020, these companies received two point $1 trillion in $2021. and in -- 20 21 dollars and they gave. and a half times the entire budget of the state apartment and usaid. is the pentagon the only federal agency that has never passed an audit? dir. young: i believe that's correct. >> and it has failed its last four audits, yet we are continuing to pile money on top. i would just say that to the previous representative's questions, i would argue there more efficient ways to spend the money we have. it does not mean that we can have solid and secure national security if we actually cut out waste fraud and abuse and focus on technologies that will provide us with the biggest bang for the buck. it seems that our only strategy our m

what are they saying at the pentagon. >> it is so weird, andrea. nobody understands what we are seeing and certainly nobody anticipated it. putin denies it, excuse me, but he's used a con script military in russia who were lied to and told not -- not told where they were going at the time. but the level of barbaric that we're seeing is something that is surprising because these are russia's ethnic, slovic brothers. this is not as if they're fighting in syria or even where you see this kind of really crazy level of bar barrett we saw in yugoslavia where people have been taught to hate this other population for so long. the serbs, the bosnians and that sort of thing. that is not the case here. ukrainians and russians have been slovic brothers forever. so there is a lot of shock at the images we saw coming out of bucha. and shock at the idea that you know, with the kind of interviews that you've been having, andrea, the lack of a war time commander in the field on the ground in ukraine calling all of the shots is another thing that has completely be f

how good are the lines of communication between the pentagon and the ukranian military? well, i've been very impressed, you know, not only i have to give a lot of credit to president biden and his leadership team around him for staying committed to these are transfers for rallying are european and nato allies to also contribute. you know, once you know, we failed to deter rusher, i think we've done a good job assisting ukraine in minimizing the losses and even defeating the russian ceo tactically, on, on the battlefield. and i think a strict, a significant element of that is the communications between the pentagon, but particularly us european command, which is a u. s. command in stuttgart. that is kind of a shadow us command alongside nato, and really provides the logistics backbone to nato and is providing the logistics backbone that is being utilized today. and so this u. s. european command logistics environment is supporting the kind of coalition of the willing, the united states and a great number, many of whom you listed in your opening european allies who are flo