good morning to viewers in the u.s. and around the world. it is monday, august 1st. john berman is off and john avalon is here with us this morning. good morning. great to you have. we begin with major news just n cnn reporting that nancy pelosi will be visiting taiwan after all despite china s stern warnings for her not to go. this comes from u.s. and taiwanese sources. it s not clear which day pelosi will be visiting as her asia trip gets under way here. we previously reported that the biden administration privately tried to convince pelosi not to go to taiwan. more exclusive cnn reporting. sparking an international response, protests erupting in sudan after a cnn investigation revealed russia is plundering sue began s goal to help finance putt putt putin s war in ukraine. tell us more. we have known for some time about russia s project to buttress itself against the u.s. sanctions regime ptbut what we haven t been able to pin down is the mechanisms of the invasio
the belief among democrats that a horrible political climate is improving some. plus, a high stakes trip. multiple officials now tell cnn the house speaker nancy pelosi will touch down in taiwan, ignoring dramatic warnings from china. and this week, democrats promised to put a vets bill back on the floor a second time. that after republican rejection prompts angry viral protests. we begin the hour, though, with death and devastation and sadness in kentucky. more heavy rain coming tonight and adding to the already historic and destructive flooding. at least 30 people are dead, including these four children, 2, 4, 6, and 8 years old and swept away when strong flood waters ripped them from their parents. the governor says they will, quote, be finding bodies for we weeks. certainly the deadliest and most devastating of my lifetime. we can now confirm we have lost 30 kentuckians to this flooding and that is going to grow. we know about additional bodies beyond these 30 confirmed
who is going to stop it from happening again? who s gonna stop it from happening again is that you, the committee? maybe it s republicans? who s gonna stop it from happening again? who s gonnand up, the next time in defender freedom for a fair election, to defend our democracy, from the lies that could take it all down. because what we re hearing from the january six committee, the testimony from eyewitnesses, who were shocked by what they saw, and heard behind closed doors in the trump white house. who were pressured by president, determined to hold on to power no matter what it took, the fake electors, the wild conspiracy theories, the mob that stormed the capitol. none of that is about the past, it s about what could happen the next time, if nobody stands up to stop. i should ve put the median that, who s gonna do it, the media, journalists. that s why it matters for the committee to follow the investigation wherever it at leads. that s why it matters for journalists, who
monkeypox outbreak. this is what we are watching at this hour. thank you for being here. i m cait baldwin. what could be the final hearing of the investigation into the insurrection, a key witness is a former spokesperson of the oath keepers. committee members are promising that the testimony and others will help connect the dots linking members of donald trump s inner circle to the extremist groups and now, another wildcard. former strategist to trumpkin steve bannon is willing to testify days before his contempt trial is set to begin also at this hour, live pics from the white house as he will be holding an event to mark the passage of the bipartisan gun safety bill marking a big achievement for washington even though cities and families around the country, continue to deal with gun violence every day. we will bring you that from the white house, when it begins. but let s start with the insurrection hearing what are we expecting from tomorrow? reporter: they have tried
to the violence that occurred here that day. we ve already seen this committee detail how donald trump pressured all aspects of the government to try to overturn the electoral results, the justice department, state officials, vice president mike pence. for tomorrow at the hearing they plan to show the oath keepers, and proud boys to take action and lead to the violence we saw in this building on january 6th. we will hear live testimony from one former member of the oath keepers, a former spokesperson, jason van patenhove someone he said had a lot of inside information, according to what he told a colorado tv station, said he had inside access to the oath keepers. we ll learn about that, and we ll also learn about a meeting that occurred mid-december, december 18th. jamie raskin, the congressman from maryland plans to lead the questioning tomorrow, says it will be a key focus of the hearing tomorrow. one of the things that people are going to learn is the fundamental importa