taiwan in six different locations opening fire. so what is the cost/benefit analysis of this trip here? live from london, this is cnn newsroom with max foster. it is thursday, august 4, 9:00 a.m. here in london, 4:00 a.m. in washington and 11:00 a.m. in moscow where closing arguments are expected in just a few hours in the trial of u.s. back star brittney griner. it is the second hearing so far this week for griner who was arrested at a moscow airport back this february. she is being held on drug charges after being caught with cannabis oil in her luggage. griner pleaded guilty to the charges against her in hopes of securing a lighter sentence. the u.s. has attempted to broker a prisoner swap with moscow, but so far no agreement. fred pleitgen isle following the developments for us from moscow. and this could be the final day, we could get the result. reporter: we could indeed. certainly something that is not set in stone and isn t necessarily on the official agenda.
that john eastman continued his hunt for widespread voter fraud even after president biden was inaugurated. hours after president biden s inauguration, mr. eastman emailed rudy giuliani, donald j. trump s personal lawyer propose that they challenge in georgia for two senate seats that were won by democrats. according to the times eastman hoped that by trying to overturn another election and finding fraud in that race he would find proof that the 2020 election was stolen, but as we all know, was there no fraud. the election wasn t stolen and the big lie is still just that, a lie. the times also reports that eastman charged the trump campaign $270,000 and no surprise, given trump s long history of not paying his bills, it looks like trump never paid him. by the time mr. biden became president mr. eastman tried to be paid directly although two people with knowledge of the campaign s finances said he never was. john eastman has been under a lot of scrutiny from the justice depart
also on the ballot today, reproductive rights in kansas. a referendum there would strip women of their rights to choose unless enough people vote no. and we all know speaker nancy pelosi is a bad ass. she arrived in taiwan today even though china is furious about the trip. plus, trevor reed the former marine who spent three years behind bars in russia and is now speaking out for the release of brittney griner and paul whelan. he joins me right here tonight. we begin with a huge night of primaries in some key battleground states. voters in five states are casting their ballots setting up critical showdowns for this november, and the stakes could not be higher. the choices voters make could very well determine whether or not this country remains a democracy, and that claim is not made hyperbolically. we saw how our democracy was pushed to the brink in 2020 with the twice-impeached former president pushing the lie that the election he lost was rigged. of course it wasn t, an
people who do know it is a lie but they choose to repeat the lie and choose to live in that alternative reality? well your exactly right. there is a tendency to think this is somehow based on education or experience or anything else. and it is not whether you went to college or where you went to college that is the most likely predictor, it is whether you consumer right-wing media. you re more likely to bring conspiracy theories about vaccines and elections. that is the problem in this country. is that we have a very well funded, very aggressive operation that is spreading these lies for profit. and political gain. and it is incredibly dangerous. there are a lot of people who know better, particularly a lot of republicans on capitol hill, but there are also a lot who believe it, whose brains have been pickled by this. that is what is so scary. it is not a grift and people are controlling the levers of powner this country. it is pretty shocking. i want to ask you about sol