MSNBC: Polls Across the Board Are Showing that Americans Are Losing Support for the War in Ukraine

KAY: “Josh, so interesting to hear that they let the Russians know. I was speaking to Sergeant Beasley while we’re off just earlier. He was saying, ‘Listen, this would be the very worst day for the Russians to try anything in Kyiv, because that would be catastrophic for Moscow if by — by mistake, almost, they were to hurt President Biden in any way.’ So interesting that they let them know. And the rest of those details are going to be interesting too, because clearly a huge security headache trying to plan a meeting like that. Let’s throw forward a little bit, a bit more on that speech. We’ve been hearing during the course of this morning, how there is a need, of course, to rally the Europeans behind this and the global effort behind this, but there’s also very much at this moment of need to rally Americans behind this war effort. At least Jordan was pointing out earlier, the polls showing that across the board Americans are losing support for the war in Ukraine. How — how important is it tomorrow that President Biden finds something to say to the American public that perhaps he hasn’t managed to find so far to persuade them of the case that you just made that this is a global effort and — and that Ukrainians are fighting on behalf of the rest of the world?”

LEDERMAN: “Yeah. Well, on the one hand, the United States feels fairly good about the way that they have been able to hold together support for Ukraine for a full year. I mean, some — some of the predictions were that it would be just a matter of months into the war, before Americans would get tired of supporting Ukraine, and certainly Europeans who are much more directly feeling the impacts, the ramifications of sanctions and the other steps taken to try to punish Russia. And we have seen. You know, there was an AP-NORC poll that just came out that showed that the level of support for providing security assistance to Ukraine has dropped from about 60 percent last year to just 48 percent. And although some House Republicans have started grumbling about the need to no longer give a blank check to Ukraine, we’re also starting to see Republican leadership try to make the case that that is a minority opinion and does not broadly represent the party including Michael McCaul, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a Republican, over the weekend, saying it’s time to increase support. So yes, there are murmurings, both in Europe and in the West, and in the United States about perhaps some folks who are less supportive than they were before, but by and large, the U.S. government, the Biden Administration feels like they’ve been able to hold this together to the point where they’re still able to get the funds they need from Congress, they’re still able to get to Ukraine the military assistance that they feel Ukraine needs at this point in time. President Biden’s speech tomorrow, clearly a major effort to make sure that that support does not ebb and that they’re able to continue to deliver that kind of support and assistance as this conflict drags on into its second year, Katty.”

KAY: “NBC’s Josh Lederman, thank you.”

LEMIRE: “Thank you. Josh, we’re so grateful. We both thank you there for your live reporting.”