thing that americans were really looking for most. what is gonna happen with those gas prices? the president is on his way back to the united states. he will have to answer that question in the coming days and weeks. all right. we ll be answering that question. carol lee, thank you so much for that. from there to capitol hill, that is where the january six committee has issued a subpoena to the secret service. it is over missing text messages from january 5th and sixth. we are joined now live from the capitol. julie, this is the committee s first public subpoena to an executive branch agency. what exactly are they looking for? what do we expect to happen? that is right. alex, the secret service text messages are highly sought after. it was revealed that they were arranged for those critical days of january 5th and sixth. this week, this secret service said in a statement that those messages were erased as part of a, quote, device replacement program. it caused some data to be lost.
but you need your groceries. you need to pay your rent. you re making a really good point. despite all the skyrocketing prices, retail sales rose by more than 1%. that s a lot lower than expected. what does that tell? you it tells us two things. number one, consumers are still spending so that s good news. but the second thing which is more hidden is that they re not spending as much as you think. a lot of that spending is nominal, it is not adjusted for inflation. so they re paying more for the same stuff. we re not seeing a big increase in their spending for goods and services, they re just paying more for them. that s a direct line of fire from the inflation to the consumer pocketbook. that s with the industry is seeing right now when it goes to the stores and biggest stations. let s talk about the president, who he talked, about the june economic report, saying the data doesn t actually reflect the full impact of 30 days of decreases and gas prices. do you agree with that? we
official told the panel that they raised text messages from the day of the capitol attack and the day before. we have new reaction from a congressman this morning. the odds of these texts being deleted that they are not the same odds that someone was audited by the irs randomly. the committee is gearing up for the final hearing on thursday. we have more on that in just a moment. also new today, growing frustration among democrats after senator joe manchin once again pulled up log on a climate, energy, and tax package. that is the latest here for the party. a tried for months to pass a slimmed down reconciliation bill that would require support from all 60 senate democrats. we now head overseas. joe biden this is his first trip to the middle east as commander-in-chief. they met with leaders in the region. they met with the saudi crowned prince, mohammed bin salman al saud. the president soul shared vail
veiled criticism of the saudi ruler. you always protect the rights and values and shine in the un charter. these are foundational to who we are as americans. it is in our dna. citizens can question and criticize leaders without fear of reprisal. i ve gotten plenty of criticism over the years. it is not fun. the ability to speak openly and exchange ideas freely is what unlocks innovation. joining us now is nbc s carol lee. she is in jeddah, saudi arabia. julie adjusters joining us from the capitol. we are going to start with you, what are we hearing from the president today about his controversial meetings from the saudi crown prince? alex, those meetings began with this fist pump that has drawn a lot of criticism on what was already a highly criticized trip to saudi arabia. the president is coming under fire from a number of democrats
from his own party. he s under fire from human rights activists and others who think that this trip is a bad idea. most notably, it is because of saudi arabia s, and most notably mohammed bin salman al saud, according to u.s. intelligence, he is responsible for the murder of a u.s. journalist, jamal khashoggi. having his meeting with the crown prince, the president said he brought this up directly right from the start. take a listen. with respect to the murder of jamal khashoggi the, i raised at the top of the meeting. i made it clear when i thought of it at the time. i made it clear when i think of it now. or the crowned prince s responses to your comments about jamal khashoggi? he basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. i indicated that i thought he was. not part of the end where the president said he indicated he thought the crown prince was