reporter: chairman bennie thompson publicly claiming the january 6th house select committee will not refer former president trump or anyone else to the justice department for criminal prosecution. what i prefer that we complete our work and seal that work with the department of justice. and they will make that call after that. reporter: even without a referral, the justice department would prosecute. but some committee members feel those comments are premature. we have had a discussion about that. i thought we discovered that decision until we concluded our investigation, at least that s my understanding. reporter: vice chair liz cheney pushing back on thompson s statement. writing in a tweet, the january 6th select committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. despite the discord in the committee, attorney general merrick garland said he s monitoring its findings. i am watching. and i will be watching all the hearings. and i can as
i m brianna keilar with john berman this morning. we begin with major news just in, president biden will officially be making a controversial trip to saudi arabia. what was really an open secret is now being confirmed by the white house. the middle east trip next month will include visits to israel as well as the west bank. the controversy surrounds what biden said as a candidate, he vowed it punish the kingdom and make the saudi crown prince a pariah for the assassination of journalist jamal khashoggi. arlette saenz live at the white house with this official announcement, arlette. what are they saying? reporter: well, john, those comments from president biden appear to be in the rear view mirror as he is now preparing to travel to saudi arabia next month. the white house saying this will be part of a broader trip to the middle east, spanning from july 13th to july 16th, starting with those stops in israel and the palestinian west bank. the president will then travel on t
describing it all. a kafkaesque trial, his defiance, his struggles, and you will hear from his family who fought to get him home. he is so thankful for his return. they ve made it a mission to raise awareness of the scores of other americans being unjustly detained around the world. so, you are in a russian prison for 985 days? yes. it s now been three weeks since you ve been back in united states? how are you doing? i m doing well. i feel better every day that i am here. have you been able to fully grasp that you are free? no. so, you know, the last couple of days, it has been more real to me. there is a time where you don t accept that at all, that you are back. you can t understand you are actually free. free. a reality that was almost unthinkable to this american son, brother, and former marine just a short time ago. but today, after enduring a hell if you have lived to tell about, trevor reed is back on u.s. soil, unafraid, and sharing his story for t
so thankful for his return. they have all made it a mission now to raise awareness of the scores of other americans being unjustly detained around the world. so you were in a russian prison for 985 days? yup. and it s now been three weeks since you ve within back in the united states. how are you doing? i m doing well. i feel better every day that i m here. have you been able to fully grasp that you re free? no, so, you know, the last couple of days it s been been more real to me, but there s a time there where you you just don t accept at all that you re back, you can t understand that you re actually free. free, a reality that was almost unthinkable to this american son, brother and former marine just a short time ago, but today after enduring a hell few have lived to tell about trevor rowdy reed is back on u.s. soil, unafraid and sharing his story for the first time. you re a marine. one of your jobs literally in the past was to guard and protect th
already from china. we ll have much more on that in just a moment. but we re also keeping an eye on the pentagon where in just minutes, top leaders will hold a press conference. this question of military intervention in taijuan, it s very likely to be raised. we ll bring that to you when it begins. president biden is also formally answering an indy pacific trade pact. a lot to get to this hour. let s get started. cnn s jeremy diamond is live in tokyo. jeremy, what are you hearing from administration, from the white house about the president s comments in taijuan? reporter: well, listen, a white house official almost immediately after the president made those comments at a news conference saying that quote, as the president said our policy has not changed and yet, if you listen to the president s words directly, he very much does seem to be tossing away the u.s. s decades long foreign policy of strategic ambiguity as it relates to taijuan and the question of whether or not