in that six-minute speech that mr. putin gave, that he went back and forth between the heroes of the wagner group, while at the same time, not condemning the leader of the wagner group, whom he condemned the other day during the whole campaign. so there s just so much that is typically russian in the way this approaches. if i may add one more thing. you mentioned shoigu before. he is not a military leader. he is not well liked by most of the generals in the russian military. so the combination of most of the generals disliking him and prigozhin absolutely detesting him is going to have is going to force putin into some tough decisions. colonel, we have seen many russians who have challenged putin in the past die mysteriously. but is it a different situation here with prigozhin who has done so much fighting in ukraine and elsewhere, and we then saw him cheered on the streets of rostov? yeah, it s really a unique
the rebellion betraying their country, their people, also betrayed those who were drawn into the crime. they lied to them, pushed them to death under fire to shoot at their own. we know now that the vast majority of the fighters and commanders of the wagner group are also russian patriots, devoted to their people and state. they proved it with their courage on the battlefield. jill, back to you. that was somewhat forgiving. do you think that this means that the wagner group is going to live on? because prigozhin certainly thinks he s going to be able to operate in some way out of belarus. i don t think so. i mean, if you have 25,000, that s what prigozhin claims, 25,000 really vicious and well-trained men running around in russia, i can t imagine that putin would want that to happen. and if they re in belarus, it s under control of russia. that also would be a threat.
ukrainian city of bakhmut, which grinded both countries armies down for the better part of a year as the moment when prigozhin turned on shoigu, accusing the defense minister and his top general valery gerasimov of not providing his wagner fighters with enough ammunition. once delivering an expletive-laden rant. translator: came here as volunteers and are doing for you so that you can have a wealthy life in your offices. reporter: analysts say that infighting likely didn t bother putin at all because putin often likes to pit his subordinates against each other. with that rope, prigozhin became increasingly emboldened. reporter: earlier this month, a possible last straw between prigozhin and shoigu. shoigu signed an order which called for wagner volunteers to be absorbed into the russian
we ll go over what exactly happened and what it could mean for putin s leadership as well as the war in ukraine. plus, republicans continue to veer toward an electoral cliff, backing former president trump despite his mounting legal challenges, even as many voters are deeply disturbed by his multiple indictments. perhaps that s why president biden is leading trump in a 2024 matchup. and a year after the supreme court stripped away abortion rights, the high court s approval rating is in the basement at just 31%. we re breaking down the new poll numbers just ahead. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is monday, june 26th. joe is off this morning. we begin with this weekend s developing news out of russia, where the head of the mercenary group, wagner, launched the most direct challenge to vladimir putin s grip on power in his 19 years as president.
i mean, david remnick was saying this earlier, he speaks a message he thinks a lot of russians like, and he is probably surrounded by the kinds of people who like those messages, about power, strength ask, brutality and so on. maybe also, he expected more popular support than he got. as i said and as i wrote, you know, it is amazing that nobody was sort of blocking him, but it is also true that, you know, how big a popular movement can you create in russia right now either? i mean, either as a liberal democrat or as a brutal military commander or as putin himself. we re seeing a country where it is almost like people don t care what happens to it. marc polymeropoulos, i m wondering what s happening inside the wagner forces and the russian forces. how do they integrate? does this humiliation of putin seep in and cause problems for putin in the military, given that he is in the middle of a hot war with ukraine that has