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. it started on friday when yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of a private army, posted a video to social media. in it, h
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