this is an embarrassment to the senate, to the country, to the founders, and all that they profess to hold dear. comedian and veterans advocate jon stewart is here, standing up for veterans and explaining why this could be a matter of life and death. plus, right now the january 6th committee is interviewing high profile names from donald trump s white house, and they re in talks to speak with even more. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. heightened fears that the u.s. economy is on the verge of a recession or is already in one. the numbers released this morning show the u.s. economy shrank for the second quarter in a row. that is the common definition of a recession. this comes just hours after the federal reserve raised interest rates once again, forcing americans to pay more for loans or credit card bills. the official rules of whether we re in a recession will come from the national bureau of economic research. but joe biden is dismissing these concerns. he says
invasion of ukraine. and i will just end by saying that according to officials, there was a discussion of a possible face-to-face meeting going forward. there s no timeline for that, but they are going to follow up and set up that meeting. mj lee, thank you. let s turn now to selena wang in beijing, gathering chinese reaction to joe biden and xi jinping s phone call. what did china have to say about mo pelosi s possible trip to taiwan? reporter: while the readout did not specifically mention pelosi, they gave a strong warning about playing with fire when it comes to taiwan. in that readout, xi jinping said, we firmly oppose taiwan independence and interference of external forces and will never leave any space for taiwan independence forces in any form. if you play with fire you get burned, and i hope the u.s. side can see this clearly. america is sending in one of its top politicians to taiwan, is treating taiwan more like an independent country that. is a clear red line
also tonight, there s growing frustration inside the biden administration right now, as the kremlin refuses to engage with a u.s. offer to exchange brittney griner and paul weelan for a russian arms dealer. i ll speak with a key white house official john kirby. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s get right to cnn s exclusive new reporting on the u.s. justice department s criminal probe into january 6th. federal prosecutors preparing to fight in court to force former white house officials to testify about their conversations with then president trump. our senior crime and justice reporter kaitlan po lance helped break the story here in the situation room. this could be the clearest sign yet that justice department is honing in on trump s efforts to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. walk us through your exclusive reporting. well, wolfe, evan perez and i are learning from several s
process about $290 billion and in addition, also changes the circumstance for people on medicare by putting a cap of a maximum $2,000 a year they have to pay no more than $2,000 a year no matter how many prescriptions they have. for all the prescription drugs. which is especially important for people with cancer, and long-term diseases. it s a god send. literally be a god send for many families. second, the bill locks in place lower health care premiums for the next three years for millions of families that get coverage under the affordable care act. average savings of $800 a year for 13 million people. third, invests $369 billion, granted i call for 500 plus, but invests $369 billion to secure energy future and address the climate crisis, bringing down family energy bills by hundreds of dollars by providing working families tax credits. it gives folks rebates to buy new and efficient appliances and weatherize their homes, and tax cuts for heat pumps and rooftop solar, and ta
pundits about whether we re in a recession. if you look at our job market, we see signs of economic progress in the second quarter as well. bank of america, citigroup, j.p. morgan, they have all said nothing in the data is consistent with the economy being in a recession. you don t think this is an indicator of an impending recession or one here? 64% of americans say otherwise. here s what some folks told fox digital this week. i believe we re in a recession. have you checked gas prices lately and the interest rates? clearly we re in a recession. people are not going to have money to adjust to the prices. people buy less. people don t want to buy anything. lauren simonetti and joe concha are standing by. first to the white house correspondent jackie heinrichs live on the north lawn. good afternoon. good afternoon. as far as the white house is concerned, this is not a recession at all. the administration has been trying to get ahead of the numbers since at leas