battleground goes bionic? the lead starts right now. one of the most anticipated debates of the year. john fetterman versus mehmet oz as this political season kicks into overdrive for candidates nationwide. plus, distraction for democrats. the anger and outrage over a letter to president biden now retracted. and moscow shuts down an appeal to release brittney griner from a russian prison. is there any hope left to bring the wnba star home? welcome to the lead. we ll get to the midterms in just a moment. first, a significant step for the justice department and its investigation into the january 6th attack. sources tell cnn the doj is trying to force the testimony of pat cipollony and patrick philbin, the top two lawyers from donald trump s white house, and hear about their conversations with the former president. this is exclusive new reporting, so let s get right to cnn s sarah murray. this is an attempt to break through a firewall of sorts trump has used to avoid scr
we ll read from that new piece. so much different legal angles are percolating with the jan. 6 and other issues with the election. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is friday, july 8th. with us, the host of way too early and politico s jonathan lemire. associate editor of the washington post, eugene robinson. and we begin with the breaking news. former japanese prime minister shinzo abe is dead after being shot twice this morning. officials is say abe was campaigning for a candidate ahead of japan s upcoming house of counselors elections, where he was shot from behind, once in the back and the other in the neck, with what appeared to be a homemade gun. this happened in the city of nara, about 20 miles southeast of osaka. the chaos from the shooting and the subsequent takedown of the man police say carried out the attack was all caught on camera. and we warn you, some of this video may be incredibly disturbing. [ speaking foreign language ] abe was immediately
great to have you here. was it in your opinion the economy ultimately or did boris johnson just lie himself out of office? your thoughts. partly policy. he was elected as a conservative but governed as a liberal. the state increased taxes went up. the net zero agenda was putting out the price of energy. we weren t self-sufficient. and there s policy considerations here. ultimately in the united kingdom tell untruths. you cannot tell lies and get away with it. it started over the parties governing at number 10 downing street when the rest of us were living under draconian lock down. we continue visit our moms, for example. over the sex scandal involving a senior conservative politician and in the end, people just said he s lied to us. that is not good enough. we ve had enough. we saw support just disappear over the course of the last two or three days. trace: to those that say it wasn t as much the scandals or the lying or the appointment of his chief deputy whip, chris pi
what do you think are the chances you can get an acquittal? i would not comment. reporter: she was detained on february 17th. prosecutors claiming she was carrying two vaping cartridges with about .07 oil a crime in russia that can carry a sentence of up to ten years in praise colony. the u.s. considers her being rong wrongfully detained. wrongful detention is unacceptable where ever it occurs. the united states government, at the very high e est levels is working hard to bring mi miss griner as well as all wrongfully detained u.s. citizens safely home. reporter: her trial starts as tensions between the u.s. and russia have reached a boiling point. not just over rusrussia s invas of ukraine. the u.s. is calling for immediate release of former marine paul whelan who was sentenced to sf years. they also said the trial was not political. the facts say a prominent athlete was detained in possession of prohibits substances that contained drugs. reporter: after about
always is. thank you so much. the next hour of cnn newsroom starts right now. battle lines are drawn in a post-roe abortion battle. clinics in states where abortion is legal, see an unprecedented surge. russian lawyers start to play out their case against american basketball star brittney griner. travis barker is now recovering from a life threatening illness. how routine procedure went so wrong. you re in the cnn newsroom. a week after the supreme court over turned roe v wade, americans are in an uproar as some states move swiftly to end all abortions and others push back in an effort to preserve a woman s right to choose. that s clear, this battle is far from over. a short time ago, vice president kamala harris spoke in new orleans. the supreme court with the dobbs decision for the first time in the history of our nation took a constitutional right that had been recognized and took it from the women of america. took a constitutional right. the texas supreme cour