he says are threatening the very foundations of our republic. plus, trump s lawyers and the justice department face off in federal court. we ll explain the big developments to come out of the special master hearing. and, a hot holiday weekend arrives with little to no running water for nearly 200,000 people in mississippi. the state has troops on the ground to help in the water crisis. good morning. and welcome to way too early. i m jonathan lemire. on this friday, september 2nd. thank you for starting your day with us. we ll begin in philadelphia, where president joe biden issued a dire warning about threats to american democracy last night, in a rare prime time address. standing outside historic independence hall, where the united states constitution was written and signed, the president spoke directly about the dangers posed by the trump-backed wing of the republican party. here s some of what he had to say. quality and democracy are under assault. we do ourselves
president trump. we ll have more on that speech and why he gave it just ahead. plus the january 6th committee releases more of what the former president wouldn t say the day after the insurrection. meanwhile, on capitol hill, covid is complicating crunch time for congress. democrats are running out of time to get things done before a month-long august break. good morning. and welcome to way too early. on this tuesday, july 26th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for being here. there are new developments with the justice department s investigation into the january 6th attack. two top aides to former vice president mike pence have testified before a federal grand jury. mark short who was pence s chief of staff and greg jacob, pence s counsel at the white house was subpoenaed by the department of justice, short was with the former vice president during the insurrection. nbc news cameras set up for steve bannon s trial recorded short and his attorney leaving the federal courth
privilege, i think as we talk about what these conversations could be between pat cipollone s attorneys and the doj, that grand jury, i should say, what is covered by executive privilege? just remind us here. what conversations could potentially be covered. what we know is that pat cipollone and others have claimed executive privilege to allow them basically to avoid answering questions about conver conversations, private conversations they claim they had with donald trump leading up to and including on january 6. we know with respect to the january 6 committee that pat cipollone, although he appeared before that committee, that he used executive privilege oftentimes to avoid answering specific questions. and this is going to test, quite frankly, whether that privilege holds now that we know that there is a grand jury, a criminal investigation taking place with respect to donald trump. these conversations that pat cipollone s attorneys are having with the doj presumably des
world, it is wednesday, august 3rd and i m brianna keilar with john avalon this morning. good morning? in for john berman. good morning to you. and it is the morning after election night in america where democracy was one of the things on the ballot. primary races in five states setting the stage for what will be some of the most competitive races in november. also another test of donald trump s grip on the gop. in conservative kansas voters sent a dramatic message and a resounding defeat for efforts to eliminate state abortion protections. it s the first time since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade that voters have weighed in on the issue. with 78% of the vote in as of tuesday night nearly 700,000 people have cast ballots in the primary and that number dwarfs the voter turnout in the 2020 presidential primary election. and remember when ex-president trump endorsed an ambiguous eric in the missouri senate race on election eve? well, one of the erics won, cnn projec
brought down a presidency 50 years ago today. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening the fate of two missing american military veterans, volunteers in ukraine s fight against russia, may be coming into focus tonight. video said to show alexander drueke and andy huynh, appearin on russian television this evening the men apparently captured by russian troops we are showing still frames of the video that appears to show both men alive a third american remains unaccounted for. they are among an unknown number of u.s. citizens that traveled on their own to fight on behalf of ukraine, prompting a renewed warning against such travel from president biden today. notably the captured americans were not mentioned by a defiant president vladimir putin today in a speech in the russian city of st. petersburg keir simmons is there tonight, and thus, we remind you russia is cracking down on the media, limiting what reporters can say under threat of imprisonm