Lying about election results, mailing personal insults at its critics. Making famously veil threats towards those who seek to hold him accountable. But none of trumps can change the cold, hard fact that the former president now faces serious criminal charges in three separate cases. In the coming days and weeks, it could even be one more. We start tonight with congressman benny thompson, democrat of mississippi. The former chairman of the january six commission. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Its always good to talk to you. Lets talk about trumps lawyer, john moreau. He did it washington and said recall the full ginsburg today. Almost a little bit about what he had to say becho and get your response on the other side. Take a listen. The defense is quite simple, donald trump, President Trump believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election. As an american citizen, he had the right to speak out under the First Amendment. He had the right to petition governments aroun
region aimed at leveling the economic playing field with china but his remarks on taijuan garnered the most attention. president biden said the u.s. would respond military if china invaded taijuan. this morning, the white house is walking back those comments. a source familiar with the president s thinking tells me biden was speaking about providing weapons to taijuan, not putting u.s. forces into any conflict with china if it were to invade taijuan so similar to the position on ukraine. weapons, not forces. we ll have more on that in a moment. in switzerland, the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy has taken center stage to the economic forum suggesting m maximum sanctions against russia. they are continuing to encounter russia and their impacts on the war in ukraine. jeremy diamond is traveling with the president in tokyo and cnn business editor at large richard quest is attending the world economic forum in switzerland. jeremy, first to you. the news the white house
a russian soldier is sentenced to life in prison in the first war crimes trial of this now three-month long invasion. the soldier admitted to killing one man but ukrainian president zelenskyy says as many as 100 ukrainians are now dying each day near the frontlines. we re tracking developments there, but first, let s go to japan where president biden is on the second leg of his trip to asia, and will ripley is in tokyo for us. will, the president wanted to send a strong message to china on this trip. but today a bit of a mixed message. yeah. and it certainly is a mixed message when it comes to the white house staffers but not a mixed message from president biden because as you mentioned, this is at least the third time he s publicly stated the united states would come to taiwan s defense militarily if thigh china were to attack. for more than 40 years the united states has had a policy of strategic ambiguity, leaving it an open question whether the u.s. would get involved m
militarily to defend taiwan if it comes to that? yes. you are? that s the commitment we made. now, a white house official be the pentagon tried to walk back the president s comments, insisting the decades old policy of strategic ambiguity has not changed. but the defense secretary had a different explanation than the president when asked if biden s comments could mean putting troops on the ground. putting troops on the ground defend taiwan? our one china policy has not changed. we reiterated that policy in our commitment to peace and stability across the taiwan strait. cnn s jeremy diamond is in tokyo. this is not the first time that president biden said something like this about taiwan. reporter: that s right, alison. it s certainly not, and that is what is is critical to understanding biden s words here. back in august, president biden said we would respond if there s an attack on taiwan. two months after that, he said the u.s. had a commitment to if it were
an explosive report of sex abuse cases inside the southern baptist convention. survivors repeatedly ignored and disbelieved by the largest protestant denomination in the united states as leaders themselves tried to protect their own reputations instead of protecting the victims. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our world lead and top white house advisers caught off guard by this response from president biden when he was asked in a news conference in tokyo if the u.s. would be willing to foe further than it has with ukraine to help taiwan in the event of an invasion. you didn t want to get involved in the ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. are you willing to get involved militarily to defend taiwan if it comes to that? yes. you are? that s the commitment we made. now, president biden didn t specify what he meant by militarily, but the question defined the term as the u.s. military getting directly involved as it has not done in uk