good morning to viewers here in the u.s. and around the world it is tuesday, july 26th. i m brianna keilar alongside john berman this morning. we re beginning this hour with new cnn reporting that takes us behind the scenes revealing just how close the supreme court came to saving roe v. wade. according to multiple sources chief justice john roberts fought to the bitter end trying to convince his former conservative justices to preserve the constitutional right to abortion. but it was the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion reversing roe that may have have doomed roberts efforts. and the abortion rights drama that testified in april that the draft opinion would soon be published. tensions over the fate of roe were heightened over the course of the leak that diminished whatever chance roberts had to disloch the five votes to overturn the rule. joining us, joan biscupic. joan, tell us how hard he was fighting to bring some folks over to his time. good morning, brianna
news that we have heard about marc short, that he s testified in the doj s probe. what does that signal to you about where the investigation stands? well, i mean, i look at it and it says obviously there is some interest. there was a lot of frustration, just kind of personally, for the last, i guess, year and a half, like what s doj doing? i think our investigation, though it is not a criminal investigation, certainly has brought some things to light that doj is watching, and it seems like between that and some of the search warrants that have been served and some of the other things we have seen that they are moving forward. look, i think it is important for the department of justice to get a handle on what the criminality of what happened is, and if there are crimes to prosecute them because we cannot live in a country where we send a message that a president is above the law as long as he fails at a coup attempt, but by the way, if he ever succeeds at a coup attempt, the
conservatives must focus on the future, closed quote, a not so veiled shot at his former boss, the former president s false claims about the 2020 election. remarkable to have a vice president who served under that president to then challenge him. a spokesman for the former president tells cnn he will use his speech today to focus on law and order. this as the justice department s inquiry into the capitol attack widens. pence s former chief of staff marc short confirmed to cnn he testified before a doj grand jury investigating the january 6th insurrection, making him the highest profile witness known to have testified so far in the criminal investigation. have a listen. our secret service did a phenomenal job that day. and their job was made more complicated candidly by the fact that the capitol had been breached and they wanted to evacuate the vice president, but it has been covered the vice president didn t want the image of a 15-car motorcade fleeing the hallmark of d
and houston rushes out. the country that put the first man in space is quitting the international space station. the impact on future missions just ahead. but first, your money and cnn business reporter matt egan is here with us. today s consumer confidence report was the first major data point in this critical week for the u.s. economy. what did it show? simply put americans are not happy with this economy. consumer confidence dropping for a third month in a row in july. to put this into context, the lowest level for consumer confidence since february of 2021. not only is confidence well below the peak of last year, it s not even close to the pre-covid levels, closer to the covid lows, which is pretty amazing. this is a telling stat despite the very strong jobs market, just 17% of consumers said business conditions were good. 24% say conditions are bad. now this is a big deal because consumer spending is the biggest driver of the economy. if people slow their spending, a
plus, wnba star brittney griner is set to take the stand in russia, while the family of another american also held by the kremlin, also on drug charges, calls for more attention to his case. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start today with our politics lead and merrick garland saying moments ago that the justice department will not hesitate to hold donald trump accountable for the events around january 6th even if trump is the republican nominee for president. if that s where the evidence leads them. listen to what else attorney general garland just told nbc s lester holt. we pursue justice without fear or favor. we intend to hold everyone, anyone who is criminally responsible for the events surrounding january 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. that s what we do. we don t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that. so if donald trump were to become a candidate for