Congress Being News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

a i'm aishah hasnie. alex alexandria hoff from washington. >> the chinese foreign ministry has imposed unspecified sanctions on speaker pelosi and her family. while in tokyo yesterday, the speaker says that china's action are part of an effort to isolate taiwan and she said her trip did not change to the statues quo. and calling the exercise in the taiwan straits a grave problem and several missiles landed in japan's exclusion zone. here is antony blinken. >> since china has launched a dozen ballistic missiles, we've been hearing from partners and allies across the region who are inc...

Admission that among swing voters, among women, among independents, they're dying. >> what's interesting is if you believe, any poll can be an outlier. if you believe there is this shift, it does seem there is some sort of shift, what's interesting to me and still an open question is the white house is actually running a very similar playbook on this as they did -- >> totally. >> -- to mueller. the president's trying to discredit it in the court of a public opinion. we're hearing congress being called a kangaroo court. we heard it's a coup. we heard the whistle-blower is guilty of treason. the...

The debt ceiling debate. i can tell you that republicans are already starting to drive their own narrative, sending out e-mails accusing the president of campaigning instead of legislating. so the rhetoric has already begun, even though congress is not back in session until september. and i expect president obama, leading up to september and congress returning, will continue to make these trips talking about the economy, talking about ways to improve job growth. thomas? >> kristen, i want you to switch gears. what's going on with the weather? this is supposed to be a vacati vacation. >> report...

Quite unpleasant. that might be why president obama went to have lunch. he got a lot of comfort food. >> comfort food on a rainy day. kristen welker reporting from martha's vineyard. thanks so much. >> reporter: thank you. our first read team notes with president obama on martha's vineyard and john boehner's on the congress recess. it's giving them time and space to ponder what are to do after a disappointing spring and summer. joining me now, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. first read is putting out that the president is still searching for a notable second-term legislative ac...

Discrimination in voting, and maybe a court will decide this is too big of a burden on racial minorities. certainly, a major tool that the justice department used to have in its tool kit to challenge these kind of laws no longer exists. that's been a big factor. >> michael, do you think congress will take up a new and improved voting rights act? >> no. frustratingly, the answer is no. superficially, you look at this and say, of course they will. in the last reauthorization it was nearly unanimous. in fact, i think in the senate it was a 98-0 vote, so it was unanimous. it's one of those things ...