katty kay is with us this morning. joe, you got the end of this block to talk about the red sox. oh. you got up way too late last night so we are starting on time this morning. there were a number of developments since we left you on friday with the investigation into the january 6th attack of the capitol. the biden white house rejected a request by former president trump to use executive privilege to withhold documents under federal law the current president has the power to wave executive privilege claims by past presidents. in a letter to the national archives obtained by nbc news, white house council writes, president biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the united states. and therefore it s not justified to as to any of the documents, the white house now is authorizing the national archives to turnover an initial batch of documents covering trump s actions on january 6th including his rally at the ellipse. mr. tr
hardest, vladamir putin has finally become a wanted international war criminal. the lead starts right now. the international criminal court issuing an arrest warrant for vladamir putin today. the russian president and another top official are accused of committing war crimes by deporting ukrainian children to russia. then, could this be responsible for the covid virus? it s linked to raccoon dogs, raising question it is animals sold at the market were the origin and not a lab leak. are you sick of getting annoying spam texts? the new rules that will force phone companies to crack down on those robbo texts blowing up your phone. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our world lead and an arrest warm issued for vladamir putin. the kremlin is trying to dismiss the warrant for the russian president, issued by the international criminal court. earlier today, the icc alleged that putin and his commissioner for children s rights forcibly detained thousands of
law in those regions he annexed illegally. my interview with an iranian human rights activist, a star of popular shows, spotlighting the heroic women fighting for freedom in iran. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. president biden is taking steps to try to help democrats in close races, trying to hold on to congressional majorities. today s focus, bringing down gas prices. he will explain his plan to release another 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in december, with more potentially coming later this winter. it s a relatively small release, but what does it mean for the long-term? joining me now, gene spurling. we have seen the polls. voters say their focus is on the economy and inflation. this release will not happen until december. maybe the price comes down because markets are anticipating it. what s being done to anticipate hurting americans right now as we head into the midterms? let s remember that this 15 million
strained relationship between china and the united states. and on capitol hill, kyrsten sinema is in the spotlight. the arizona senator is staying sigh leapt on whether she will support a major bill for her own party. good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, august 3rd. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. we re going to begin with that major victory for abortion rights. voters in kansas have rejected an effort to remove the right to the procedure from the state s constitution. this marks the first time abortion rights was put to a vote since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade back in june. with the november midterms coming up, the kansas vote signals that abortion could be an energizing issue. according to an associated press estimate, turnout for yesterday s primary far exceeded other recent contests with about 900,000 kansas voters casting a ballot. president biden celebrated the win, writing in part, this vote makes clear what
number of significant procedural protections where the president even on the house side, as you know the role of the house is to act as the grand jury and the prosecutor and the actual trial takes place over in the senate, but still, we had significant procedural protections we invited the president and his counsel to attend, we provided the president s counsel the opportunity to cross examine witnesses and object to the admissibility of testimony, and we provided the president s counsel it make presentation of evidence before the full judiciary committee including the chance to call witnesses. the president chose not to avail himself of any of those opportunities. it reminds me the president blockading witnesses saying you don t have enough people with direct firsthand evidence. first of all, were those rights provided only in judiciary committee. you re not the principle committee of impeachment. you re sort of the final stop. did the president get those
rights in the intelligen