wedeman in zaporizhzhia. so, ben, i can just imagine how this is all being greeted there in ukraine. what has been the reaction? reporter: well, the general feeling is that, kim, this is christmas in june for the ukrainians, keeping in mind that, of course, ukraine is in the very initial stages of its counteroffensive against russian forces. and this could not come at a better time for the ukrainians to have the russian armed forces writ large, its mercenary corps as well as its regular army, seeming to implode at the moment. in fact, what is circulating on the internet here, on social media in ukraine is a picture of president volodymyr zelenskyy, a video of him from when he was an actor popping a beer, sitting down in a comfortable armchair, picking up a bowl of popcorn and watching the tv. and that seems to be the
just going after ron desantis whether we hear about culture wars, also though dre, directly attacking the former president. take a listen. top priority is culture wars and not managing spending, creating more opportunities at a localized level, draining the swamp which i was told was going to happen. never happened a bit. you know, former donald trump blew that one. securing the border, former donald trump blew that one. fiscal discipline, former donald trump blew that too. i think there are a lot of things within the mantle of the republican party that we have kind of lost focus on. maybe lost focus. but what is fascinating is what we see. donald trump can sit back with the poll numbers that we just saw and let everybody else fight it out for second place. so many republicans are trying to be this more moderate nontrump lane. does anybody have a chance at this point? i think they re all just waiting for him, erica, to implode in a way. they re waiting for that moment. they look
and i think it makes me wonder how else is she going to create a lane for herself? because she will not be the only candidate arguing that there needs to be a new generation. take ron desantis, who is a little younger than her, as well. michael smerconish, she was not openly critical of trump today, but she did take only veiled swipes that weren t all that veiled. what did you make of that strategy? first of all, i thought the rollout went as well as it could have gone. she s obviously smart, she s very good on her feet, and she s got a uniquely american story to tell. but to their points, i don t know where the lane is. i think her fate is going to be determined by the fulton county d.a., the manhattan d.a., and probably jack smith and merrick garland. she needs donald trump and/or ron desantis to implode, because if trump s at 45% and desantis is at 25% to 30%, there s not
he s going to be a very weak speaker. he s going to be beholden to this far right group that is going to be able to yank the speakership from him, with just five votes if they don t get their way. so, you know, this is something that the moderates were worried about initially. and you saw mccarthy trying the hold the line on some of these. but at this point, it looks like he s going to have to give away several stores at this point to appease this group of folks. they are playing this, i think, very, very smartly. they know that this point they are driving the bus. they are the ones that hold the key to kevin mccarthy getting the speakership, and they will be the ones to hold the key to him maintaining the speakership. so, he s going to constantly have to play to this crowd of folks. maggie haberman, do you think the former president down in mar-a-lago continues to make calls? or does he wait to see which way the wind blows?
so far, he appeared like he has been loyal. he hasn t floated any trial balloons or anything like that that we can discern. his only way to the speakership is for kevin mccarthy s bid for the speakership to implode. if you are steve scalise, it s not looking bad for that plan. there s nothing wrong with that. right? they have apparently a testy but good relationship. he said, i m going to support you until the end, until it s your call to bail out. if he bails out, then i think scalise has always been the obvious alternative. right. former congressman dent said i don t know if it was yesterday or a week ago. i don t remember when it was. let s assume it was yesterday. he thought theoretically it was going to end up with scalise. the republican party is rooted in the south now. they are not in california. beyond the mistrust of kevin mccarthy and all that. geographically, it makes more