this is only going to matter if it matters to donald trump. the rally tomorrow is a place where trump can either lash out at mccarthy or make nothing of this and mccarthy can continue on. we know he wants to be speaker. we heard from just one republican, hinson in ohio, saying she still feels mccarthy is the eventual speaker here. that s notable but of course that s not a loud chorus of people. unfortunately for us this story comes during the end of a lengthy recess so there s not many lawmakers around. at the same time next week, this will be pretty much the only thing that we re talking about, especially if the president is mad about it. the the waup said trump talked last night. they talked after the call was released. what do we know about that? you know, this is i think the
release of political prisoners. we ve heard this issue mentioned several times in the run-up before and after the meeting, waup of prisoner exchange. i hope if there s one practical deliverable after the biden/putin meeting today is that at least a handful of these nearly 400 political prisoners in putin s russia regain their freedom. secretary of state wrote to him after he managed to secure the freedom of a group of religious prisoners that it is a gift of wantonment to secure the release of a human being. it is a gift now in president biden s power and hope to god he uses it. given everything that vladimir just said give us your knowledge on vladimir putin how this summit and press conferences will be represented and received in moscow. well weerk know excuse me. in the lead-up to the summit
that s particularly bad for the president s republican supporters in congress who all have their own political fates to worry about. so the politics of the impeachment inquiry are a , on the move and b, trending badly both for the president and for republicans in congress. and while it technically should not matter who conducts a nationwide poll like this, as long as it s a scientifically sound poll, if we re being realistic about it, the fact that this is a fox news poll and is, therefore, being covered all over fox news, which the president waup watches 24 hour day, that has a particular sting and particular effect for president and his staunchest defenders. the other thing that is at work here, i think this is the most interesting thing about this impeachment even when you compare it to other impeachments of the last century, right, even when you compare it to the watergate impeachment effort and the bill clinton impeachment effort, the thing i find fascinating here that i really
they ve been trying to impeach me, from the day i got elected. i ve been going through this for three years. believe it or not, i watch my words very carefully. there are those that think that i m a very stable genius. okay? i watch my words very, very closely. watch my words very closely. so despite trump s continued claims there is no evidence of wrong doing on the part of either biden. former and current u.s. officials tell the waup, that prt repeatedly involved vice president mike pence in efforts to put pressure on the leader of ukraine. those officials tell the post that trump instructed pence not to attend the inauguration of zelensky back in may and something they pushed to put on the calendar. and they used pence to tell the ukrainian president that u.s. aid was withheld after demanding more aggressive action on corruption after the phone call with president zelensky.
washington post and political analyst for msnbc and nbc news, philip rucker is with us and former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama and an msnbc contributor, joyce vance. great group for this hour. stunning admissions, new excuses and absolutely no warning. the times says says the past few days suggest a president losing control of his narrative and that is what we re talking about this morning. as of this week, it turns out the statement about his health was not from trump s doctor but had been dictated by mr. trump himself, that the president has split with the leaders of his legal team and hired his same new lawyer he denied recruiting and that mr. trump himself had financed the $130,000 payment intended to buy the silence of the actress known as stormy daniels. the kwaup repo washington post that when rudy giuliani went on