traditional definition of being in a recession. the second quarter gross domestic product g.d.p. shrank at annual rate of nine tenths of a percentage point. that s the second straight quarterly deficit and that checks the box, historically considered as recessionary. president biden says it s no surprise the economy is slowing down because of inflation. but he insists he has the nation on the right path and, quote: it doesn t look like a recession to me. the president also spent time today on a call with his chinese counterpart in a time increasing tension with communist china. white house correspondent peter doocy starts us off tonight live from the north lawn. good evening, peter. peter: good evening, bret. the numbers are right there in black and white. the u.s. economy shrunk for a second consecutive quarter. but, until large, well-respected groups, nonpartisan groups of economists issue some sort of a formal declaration that a recession is underway, then officials here
[sfx] water lapping. [sfx] water splashing. [sfx] ambient / laughing. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. i have a quick thing to tell you at the top. do you have your phone with you? your phone has an app on it that you may or may not ever use. but it is called podcasts or some version of that. whatever kind of phone you have, there is an app on your phone for podcasts. if you open up that app and search for my name, if you search for maddow, one of the things that coming up is ultra. i made a podcast called ultra. it did well. won a journalism award. steven spielberg bought the rights so it, so it will be a steven spielberg movie. the screen play is being written now. ultra did great. we are really proud of it. but the reason i am suggesting you go to your podcast app today is as of today, there is a season two of ultra. it is finally ready. we just put out the two-minute trailer for season two of ultra today. so you can listen to that now. click the
Written documentation that they were aware they were false. i think what we re seeing is beginning with his apartment speech this morning, and those comments just now, the former president, i m sorry, the former president s lawyer is hugging the former president as tightly as he can. he needs him to help pay for his legal fees. he needs him desperately. he has decided that all of his eggs are in donald trump and he neds to make sure that he stays as close as possible. let me ask you for your expert advice. another hole in his argument there is that for instance, when you re dealing specifically with the fake elector s scheme. they continued to pursue that plan. that is another one of these actions that we re talking about. beyond the lawsuits. they fabricated, allegedly, electoral certificates.
How that intersects with chesebro s motion under georgia law for a speedy trial in october, nobody quite understands. but it is what we would call a mess. it is a mess. harry, dream with me for just a moment. let s say chesebro gets a speedy trial. let s say he s convicted of what he was accused of. how might that affect jack smith s case? because he figures as the master mind, we now have seen, of the whole fake elector s scheme. there s his mug shot. if he gets convicted in this georgia case, how does that affect the federal case? look, he is co-conspirator number 5. i think all six of the co-conspirators are waiting to be charged. he is one of them. but what he s effectively doing in georgia is saying, i want to separate out myself from this other the rest of the gaggle of crack pot lawyers, to quote
Increasing pressure from republicans who want him to charge the younger biden and democrats who want garland to charge former president trump for his actions following the 2020 election. donald trump s announcement should not protect him from justice if he is guilty he should be pursued. investigations surrounding former president donald trump centers reportedly around a fake elector s scheme. this first reported by the washington post this week. also earlier this week, bret, you had on marc short, the former chief of staff to former vice president mike pence and he admitted that he did appear before a grand jury recently. bret? bret: david spunt at the justice department. david, thank you. the owner of the nfl s washington franchise, the washington commanders, formerly the redskins testifying today before a congressional committee investigating the team s history of workplace misconduct.