Gaza as negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release continue. Well bring you the very latest out of The Middle East straight ahead. Plus, well go through yesterdays key moments in Donald Trumps Hush Money Trial including the judges warning about potential jail time for the former president. And well get an update live from capitol hill on the looming threat to remove Speaker Mike Johnson. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this tuesday, may 7th. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. And well begin this morning with the Israeli Defense forces announcing theyve taken operational control of the gaza side of the Rafah Crossing. The military released this video overnight of troops entering the area and beginning a, quote, precise Counter Terrorism operation. Israeli Officials Say they seized a crossing after receiving intelligence it was being used for terrorist purposes. No evidence to support that claim was provided. The idf also conducted air strikes th
rocked american s pocketbooks. as a result, really hurt democrats politically. yeah, increased prices that loom over the upcoming midterms, and we see president biden still saddled with pretty low poll numbers right now, despite receiving largely high marks for his handling of the crisis in ukraine. that s where i wanted to go next, justin. earlier, it was a few weeks ago when he deemed president putin a war criminal. white house walked that back. he then, while in europe, said putin should be removed from power. the white house kind of walked that back. yesterday, when he said what he is seeing in ukraine is a genocide, the white house didn t walk that back. talk to us about what this means. reporter: yeah, i think the white house is learning a lesson, that if the president makes these rhetorical declarations that don t carry specific penalties but reluctant to use before because of the moral calling they result in, it is better to kind of lean into it.
americans aren t afraid of describing the actions of vladimir putin as extreme and severe, and so, you know, even though it might not necessarily reach legal definitions within the state department, there s a political advantage, i think, the white house has seen, sort of leaning into the president s rhetoric here. as a result, you know, when the president came and clarified his remarks under the wing in iowa last night, he wasn t kind of walking them back, pulling them back, as he did in earlier cases that you mentioned. justin, one last quick one for you. any update on terms of the military funding and equipment that the u.s. hopes to send to ukraine in the coming days? reporter: yeah, so we re expecting another package of around $750 million to be announced in the next couple days by the white house. the specifics of it are still being worked out. the white house wants to keep pushing that military aid to ukraine. all right. certainly, we ve heard from the ukrainians saying th
your local gas station and see a bag over the pump that has the cheapest gas. you re going to be able to keep filling up with e-15. it is going to solve a whole problem. environmental groups say the move will lead to health and climate risks, while oil companies worry it ll cut into their bottom line. joining us now, white house correspondent for bloomberg news and pessimistic philadelphia sports fan, justin cink. thanks for being with us this morning. so this week, we see the white house trying to turn back to domestic issues. we had ghost guns on monday. yesterday, on fuel prices. later and tomorrow, he goes to north carolina to talk about supply chains. obviously, inflation and rising prices all over this white house s radar. what other steps are they trying to take to bring down prices at the pump and grocery stores anywhere else? well, in terms of gas prices, which, obviously, has been kind of the leading driver of inflation concerns and the thing weighing most on american s
battling senator rand paul and it s getting nasty. in fact, really nasty. governor perry firing the first shot accusing senator paul blind threat poses to the united states. now senator rand paul firing back. governor perry dead wrong in mischaracterizing him. joining us our political panel. rick klein. the washington post rick lowery and the hill s justin cink. rick, it doesn t get more interesting than this. this battle. this is the most basic level of political warfare. it s a stand in for the larger debates going on inside the republican party right now. you have rand paul who is talking maybe to a larger swath of americans. including some republicans but a lot of independents maybe democrats talking about noninterventionism what critics would call isolationism. wait, the man tell of ronald reagan i represented that more. i am telling you now we can t be soft on national defense. we will see this play out. rand paul will be jousting owith almost everyone. that may be his bigges