and out west, two people dead in their cars as an explosive wildfire in california rips through a national forest. crews struggle to contain the blaze. and it s primary day in five key states with just three months till the november midterms. in kansas today is the first direct vote on abortions post-roe. sharice davids will join us today. and we begin this morning with a strike that took out one of the world s most wanted terrorists while still in isolation from covid, president biden announced that al qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri was killed in a drone strike in kabul, afghanistan, where he and his family had been hiding. justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. people around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer no matter how long it takes. no matter where you hide. if you are a threat to our people, the united states will find you and take you out. this morning the white house released this picture of the pr
americans with president biden declaring the mission a total success. we will explain how it was carried out, also, china is now threatening a military response over how nancy pelosi s expected visit to taiwan, the u.s. is warning beijing not to turn the trip into a crisis. we will go live to the white house to speak with john kirby. it is primary day across five states with major implications for abortion rights and election integrity. meanwhile donald trump stirring up confusion in missouri after an endorsement that has leading candidates in the senate primary both claiming the former pete president is supporting them. good morning and welcome to morning joe on tuesday, august 2. good to have everyone with us. good to have you with us. every september 11th for 20 years we have reflected either personally or on air about what was lost on that day, who was lost and you talk about people on the street, you talk about loved ones that you knew, it was deeply personal for me
speaker. at home we re watching a major test of former president trump s influence over the republican party. in the five states where voters are headed to the polls today to vote in primary elections, all eyes will be on the slate of candidates who the former president endorsed and have embraced the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. will that message resonate with republican primary voters? today will also be a big test for these three house republicans who were among the ten who voted to impeach the former president. will they survive after taking a critical stand? one of today s biggest tests will happen in kansas where abortion rights are on the ballot for the first time since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. we ll have the latest into the massive implications of that vote. let s get right into it with nbc s steve kornacki at the big board. steve, what are you looking for this morning? a couple things, jose, you touched on. i think this referendum in
during a call with house gop leader kevin mccarthy while the capitol was under siege on january 6th along with congressman the three had been facing trump s wrat. republicans in two of those states, arizona and wisconsin, set to make their picks for statewide offices in the next few weeks. arizona today and wisconsin next tuesday. amid a rift between donald trump and mike pence that dates back to january 6th. the washington post reports, quote, two gubernatorial candidates in arizona and wisconsin backed by trump will face-off this month against those endorsed by former vice president mike pence. who split with trump after refusing pressure to reject the results of the 2020 presidential race. but make no mistake, this year s republican primaries have been shaped in large part by who donald trump is endorsing. and competition for his endorsement took a surreal turn last night when trump endorsed eric in the missouri primary. just eric, no last name, you know, like beyonce
than last year. still you have people out there looking for the cheapest gas they can find in their neighborhood and it is a welcome reprieve for consumers. yesterday we saw that those falling gas prices one reason why consumer inflation looks to have moderated a little bit in the month of july, we have producer price inflation, that is a factory-level gauge of inflation that comes out at 8:30 this morning. i will certainly take it if it s going to be, what, $3.70 versus $5 a gallon in the near future. thank you for that. the other major news this morning, reports that point to the possibility of someone inside donald trump s orbit raising concern about possession of classified documents. the wall street journal reports this morning that sometime after trump first turned over 15 boxes of material to the national archives last winter, someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club. so who could