right now. good saturday morning and welcome to cnn this morning. it s saturday, july 8th. i m erica hill in for amara walker. nd i m victor black well. good to be with you. thanks for spending part of your morning with us. here s a look at what we re watching. sorry. this is a problem when we re in two different cities and there s a delay. it ain t easy. it ain t easy. we re working it out. we re working it out. it was a very difficult decision on my part. and by the way, i discussed this with our allies. in an exclusive interview with cnn, president biden defends his position to send controversial weapons to ukraine as part of a new aid package. what these cluster bombs do and why some senators and congress folks are calling this a terrible mistake. the job market is seeing a cooldown as job numbers come in below expectations. how that s actually a good thing for the economy and encouraging news for women in the work force. federal regulators stepping i
today on inside politics , new and exclusive reporting reveals the special counsel is asking questions about an oval office free for all, and the free yeo who pushed donald t trump. plus, hiring is solid, but new numbers fall short. does it all point to another rate hike from the fed that could crunch your credit? and the freedom caucus purges marjorie taylor greene from its ranks over questions about where her loyalties lie, to the hard right or to the house speaker. i m abbey philip in for dana bash. let s go inside politics . up first, the screaming patch at the center of the special counsel s investigation. exclusive cnn reporting gives new insights into jack smith s months long focus on that december 18th 2020 oval office meeting. the people inside that room and ses brat and legal ideas that then pushed donald trump. and cnn s caitlin pollonz is part a that report. what does this tell us about where jack smith is in the process? this reporting from a keep of us led
he is their multiple family members, and there is going to end up being between four and seven. biden s who received significant amounts of money from communist china. the white house, pushing back saying instead of bizarrely attacking the president s family, perhaps house republicans should focus on working with the president to deliver results for american families are priorities, like lowering costs in strengthening healthcare on the hill were also healing hearing from congressman raskin of maryland , who says after four years of investigations by the senate and house republicans they haven t found anything for any government official. this investigation is far from over and there is a point to all this. the committee hopes to introduce legislation barring family members of politicians and elected officials from benefiting from some of those connected in office to the family members. that legislation is being worked out. we ll see if the president talks about this when re
rescue crews on both sides of the border continue the frantic search for survivors. also, tensions rising between the united states and china after the biden administration shot down that chinese spy balloon saturday afternoon and criticism from top republicans for the president s decision not to shoot it down sooner. all this as the president puts the final touches on his state of the union address when he s expected to tout his accomplishments including a better than predicted campaign and a preview of his election campaign. good day. as a tragedy of epic proportions is unfolding in turkey and syria, a massive 7.2 earthquake taking nearly 2,000 lives already and devastating commercial and residential areas of both countries. there are also nearly 10,000 people injured and possibly hundreds more still trapped under the rubble from decimated buildings as the aftershocks rip through the region and hinder rescue efforts. those are live pictures in southern turkey of a rescue
good day. i m chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. as president biden gears up for one of the biggest speeches of his political career, can he use tomorrow night s state of the union address to address growing unease among his fellow democrats and drum out growing criticism from republicans over his handling of that chinese spy balloon? brand new polls show president biden isn t the only one facing discontent within his own party. donald trump is, too. the big difference, the dozen or so republicans who appear to be lining up to take trump on. will the bae hive make out better than the swiftys did? with sales about to get under way, the pressure is on ticketmaster to make sure it doesn t crash like it did in november. will today s test impact calls from washington to break up the country. we have a lot to get to. we start with the enormous political stakes in tomorrow night s state of the union address, a speech that will be watched by millions