a ziplock baggy filled with cocaine found just steps from the west wing where guests are often ushered through the white house. now the question who dropped it, setting off sunday s hazmat evacuation. then, the phenomenon unique to the united states, gun violence in america reaching a new level of horror. 356 mass shootings so far this year. a stunning 15 of them just this past holiday weekend. coming up, why these tragic shootings always seem to spike in the summer months and what can be done about it. plus, a federal judge slapping the biden administration with new restrictions on social media saying the biden administration cannot decide what is and is not misinformation. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we begin with something of a mystery in our political lead. who left a baggy of coke at the white house? there was a brief evacuation sunday night after the powdery substance was found in an area of the west wing that is accessible to some tour groups. this
deadly, but they are actually effective. and now he s turned and gone back into the russia, he claims he s going to fix the situation because he claims that the russian military attacked his men. this has been a long simmering food between the russian defense minister and prigozhin, but prigozhin says he s doing something about it. we are unable to convert any of this, we have heard reports from ukrainians that they ve crossed into russia. that wagner group has crushed into russia. burgos russia is on high alert. moscow has tanks in the streets, they re calling it a coup attempt. he denies that s the case, it is all very confusing. but this guy is both volatile and dangerous. i will say on the american side, there is a concern. russia is a nuclear armed country, and having a whole bunch of people fighting about who s in charge of it is actually more serious than not. so, everybody tonight is on high alert about what s going on in russia. something is happening, we do not ha
them. tonight, how tenuous is vladimir putin s hold on power. what does russian infighting mean for ukraine s counteroffensive. and what did the u.s. and western allies know in advance. we gave putin no excuse to blame this on the west and blame this on nato. good evening from kyiv, ukraine. i am ali velshi. and i am here because something unprecedented unfolded over the weekend. never in 23 years under putin s russia has this happened. thousands of armed soldiers, mercenaries, taking up arms against their own country. [inaudible] this was a scene inside russia today, explosions in cities, and a private army marching through the streets, vowing to take the fight all the way to the capital. those rebel forces previously allied with putin and the russian military, even leading many of the battles in ukraine, but then that ship suddenly violently ended. what exactly they were marching for remains unclear. the mercenaries, part of the wagner group, wer
we ll go over what exactly happened and what it could mean for putin s leadership as well as the war in ukraine. plus, republicans continue to veer toward an electoral cliff, backing former president trump despite his mounting legal challenges, even as many voters are deeply disturbed by his multiple indictments. perhaps that s why president biden is leading trump in a 2024 matchup. and a year after the supreme court stripped away abortion rights, the high court s approval rating is in the basement at just 31%. we re breaking down the new poll numbers just ahead. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is monday, june 26th. joe is off this morning. we begin with this weekend s developing news out of russia, where the head of the mercenary group, wagner, launched the most direct challenge to vladimir putin s grip on power in his 19 years as president. it started on friday when yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of a private army, posted a video to social media. in it, h
a good sunday evening to you. i m jim sciutto. and welcome back to cnn special live coverage of the russian rebellion that erupted without warning and ended quickly this weekend not long after it began. yet and we should be clear the world is only beginning to assess the fallout. there are growing questions tonight about vladimir putin s leadership going forward and whether his iron grip on russia is weakening. the crash site of a russian military plane reportedly brought down by the wagner group yesterday. the cause of the crash not clear. but footage indicates the aircraft had been struck by a missile or rocket. there s still no sign of vladimir s leader, yevgeny prigozhin, who led this march on russia, af he cut a deal to go into belarus. also not seen, putin. we re going to have the latest on the white house reaction and president biden s conversation today with ukraine s leader. first, though, an update from cnn s matthew chance, who is in moscow. reporter: jim,