we begin this hour with a very public and defiant show of force by the speaker of the house. speaker nancy pelosi walking down in taiwan. you can see the american flag on the tail of pelosi s air force jet lit up moments after touching down. her trip is both high stakes and high danger. she say this is trip reaffirms the unwavering commitment to taiwan s democracy. this moments after pelosi landed, this new threat from beijing, quote, these moves like playing with fire are extremely dangerous. those who play with fire will perish from it. we have been waiting for this. speaker landed, she stepped off the plane defiantly. and china has now respond defiantly with what they re saying are going to be various military exercises happening around the area of taiwan in the coming ho you ares. you re talking about overnight military exercises. we re not exactly sure how it s going to look or sound. will there be anyone in taiwan who can hear echoing booms? this is the dramatic kind
hello and welcome to inside politics. i m john king in washington. thank you for spending your da with us. right now, nancy pelosi is in taiwan, and china is warning for them to think closely about what it does next. the united states missile strike in afghanistan kills al sa ra zawahiri. this terrorist leader is no more. and another midterm test of donald trump s brand. five states hold primaries today. three republicans who voted to impeach trump include 2020 deniers with trump s stamp of approval.
top terrorist dead. you see it there updated to say deceased after a drone strike brought two-plus decades on the run to a very sudden close. that picture there, the kabul skyline in the burning aftermath of two missiles finishing a months-long operation to track and kill the chief. this morning, the white house relee leasing new photos of president biden ticking through the operation last month, examining a top secret model of the terrorist safe house. the white house says there s no collateral damage. the operation ends a reign of terror. al zawahiri plotted the deaths of thousands of americans. he was in the 9/11 planning, involved in embassy bombings in africa. barbara, walk us through literally a spy movie playing out. let me start right at the
beginning for one second, john. 184 souls lost their lives on the morning of 9/11 here in this very building, and we have yet to hear from any of the pentagon leadership about the killing and add to that the thousands of u.s. troops and military that made such a sacrifice during the war in afghanistan. all that said, back in april, president biden is given exquisite intelligence about zawahiri being in afghanistan, moving into that country. he felt comfortable enough to make the move, his family was there, and they started tracking him. how were they tracking him? the u.s. says it doesn t have people on the ground inside afghanistan, so if they were tracking him by drone, they came to understand exactly where he was, how he e he moved, what his
amount of planning and work, and it s a tribute to them that they were able to accomplish this. in the end, this is really the completion of the mission restarted on 9/11, which is go after their leadership, bin laden, and now we ve gone after zawahiri. that does bring to an end that mission. that doesn t mean they don t reman a threat, but certainly the mission that was established on 9/11 to go after them was completed. grateful for your insights on this important story. next for us, it is primary day in five states. kansas taking a vote on abortion rights, and the trump brand in several important contntests. al. get a personal loan with no fees, low fixed rarate, and borrow up to $100k. sofi. get your money right. the thing that s different about a vrbo vacation home.