you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. just days after a conservative judge labeled him a clear and present danger to democracy, former president donald trump got up on stage and proved yet again he d rather spread lies than admit the truth about what happened on january 6th. these are government tapes where they re stuffing ballot boxes to put it crudely. they re stuffing ballot boxes on government tapes. and what did they say? that was debunked. that was debunked. okay. most people say, oh, it was i didn t know that. no, these are tapes. one, two, guys looking up at the camera, let s see, where s the camera. there it is. trump s own justice department, republican officials in numerous states did not find a single shred of evidence to corroborate any of the nonsense you just heard there. yesterday trump also sided with the capitol rioters again just like he did during the attack. if it were an insurrection that took place at the capitol, you
what was it? [ sighs ] i can t remember. top of the hour on cnn newsroom. good to have you along. i m victor blackwell. we re starting this hour with the questions of potential legal jeopardy for former president donald trump and his attorney john eastman. the january 6th committee made its most forceful case yet that trump was responsible for the capitol insurrection. this was their third hearing and the committee revealed evidence that trump and eastman knew that their plot to push then vice president mike pence to delay the certification of the election results was not legal but kept unrelenting pressure on pence anyway, with trump berating and cursing at him on the phone. listen to former trump white house lawyer eric herschmann on his conversation with john eastman. i said are you out of your effing mind, and that was pretty blunt. i said, you re completely crazy. you re going to cause riots in the streets. and he said words to the effect of there s been violence in
the conversation was pretty heated. i remember hearing the word wimp, he called him a wimp. i don t remember if he said you are a wimp. it was a different tone that i had heard him take with the vice president before. these pictures of pence never seen before, the vice president being hidden by the secret service in an underground garage under the capitol, reading the president s tweet that said that pence lacked courage to overturn the election. that tweet helped inflame the mob, a mob that had come within 40 feet of the vice president when he was making his escape. markets are mixed today after thursday s disastrous day on wall street and president biden gets defensive about economists predicting a recession. two american veterans fighting in ukraine have gone missing, along with a possible third who volunteered to fight the russians. we will have the latest from kyiv. follow the money, nbc justice correspondent pete williams retracing the steps of the watergate bre
the president s visit comes as his administration is facing mounting pressure following this, you know, 41-year inflation high that we re seeing and a huge surge in gas prices. the nation s national average for gas, $5.02 a gallon now. all of this as a key inflation measure slowed slightly last month. also this morning, the white house is now confirming that the president will be traveling to the middle east, specifically to israel and saudi arabia, in july. we re also learning his visit will include a meeting with the saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salman. remember, president biden had previously called the kingdom a pariah for its role in the killing of washington post journalist jamal khashoggi. that was before he became president. we ll have much more on that in a moment. plus, the january 6th committee is postponing now a hearing that was scheduled for tomorrow. a member of the committee saying this was due to technical issues. we ll be live on capitol hill with
investigators aren t hearing from him either. chief pete arredondo essentially gone radio silent, not responding to a request for followup interview with investigators there for days. that according to the texas department ofof public safety. chief arredondo made the decision of course not to send officers into that classroom while the carnage was still taking place. every key piece of testimony and evidence will help those families get answers. the last thing we need is silence in the face of a need for those answers. the chief has not responded to multiple requests from cnn for comment on this. we are also learning more this morning about the gunman and how he got into that school. texas investigators now forced to walk back a claim they made that teacher propped over a door prior to the shooting that day. the teacher s lawyer pushed back on that account noting that the teacher shut the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus. authorities are looking into