Putin: USA Must Evacuate It's Kiev Embassy OR ELSE! [10:07-14:23]

You threaten, if that thing doesn't know what's happening. And that's basically Marco Rubio's reaction to being threatened. Someone asked him in a press conference, this is from the State Department website. Castro, it's called with Lavrov, the reporter asks. He said in the read-out, he's trying to encourage US staff to withdraw from Kiev. Rubio says, well, they sent a notice to all the embassies. I think he was just calling me personally to tell me that they told all embassies to that you see he's trying to not, it's funny. He hesitates because he realizes he says they told all embassies to, and the finished thought is, they told all embassies to evacuate. But he realizes by saying that he's going to state the reality that the Russians called and threatened him and ordered him to evacuate his embassy. Then he cracks. He says, Kiev's going to be a dangerous place. Kiev's going to be very dangerous now has been a very dangerous place now for a number of years. Look, the danger in all these wars as they continue, and then he does the classic politician move of pivot to a different topic and answer a different related question, which is, is Kiev dangerous, right? So, Rubio said this book to him day about a couple of other topics. Obviously, Putin wanted to ask him to call me to relay the message directly to the president, which I did. Then obviously, we've already seen the notice sent out to all diplomatic facilities. And he says, and then he adds, of course, classic, there's no scheduled negotiations ongoing with Ukraine. U.S. is always prepared to play a constructive and helpful role if the opportunity presents itself. So, I think that's fascinating that both you can threaten the United States. The United States will make believe like that wasn't really a threat. Again, total naivety and totally signaling weakness. And believe me, we on this channel absolutely sandblasted the Biden administration for I think also signaling weakness to Putin. Not prior to the start of the invasion, but actually as the invasion went on, the only times the U.S. escalated was at Putin's, when Putin led the dance, Putin would escalate, and only then would Biden, the Biden administration escalate kind of to a lesser degree. And I think the fact that the Trump administration is actually showing more cowardice and showing less strength in this. Again, trying to negotiate, but never coercing the Russians is comical. And even this administration, despite being staffed by non-professionals, understand as they're doing with the Iranians that you have to apply pressure, carrots and sticks are how deals get done. And again, these guys aren't that sophisticated, their carrots and sticks kind of suck in the Iranians, but Putin has received no no sticks of any kind, despite rejecting the American's carrots. Despite being offered, what are what were extremely good piece deals. Really, piece deals that look like epitulation to me, and he still rejected them, which is absurd. And so I think this is really a reflection, though, of Putin's growing weakness. Again, nobody's listening to him. Nobody's taking him seriously. His threats are increasingly meaningless, and because they're backed up by nothing. The end of the day, the president of Lichtenstein was like better evacuate New York, something big is coming. They go, big what, dude? You have six people in your country. You're not going to do dick. Well, that's basically where the Russians are at. They say, something big is coming. They're like, what, dude? Morsha heads. We know. The Ukrainians blow them out of the sky for $14 a unit. Ukrainians have so many interceptors. They're selling them to the Arabs. Do you know how excess stuff you have to have to just give it to the Gulf countries? It's embarrassing. And I think that's part of it. Putin is just desperate to not look so humiliated. But, you know, if he wanted his dignity, well, he should probably just pack up his toys and go home and try to run his own country instead of trying to take over other people's. Anyway, thanks to GMAT, Dan, AL, Sergei, Don, James, Beat, Treat him and CM Holmes, as well as all the lieutenant-tier folks. We really appreciate you guys. We'll catch you in the next one. Cheers.