. good morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin with breaking news this hour. president biden announcing one of the world's top terrorists has been killed. the leader of al qaeda. the latest on what we know about the secret strike. also this morning, house speaker nancy pelosi is expected to land in taiwan this hour despite strong warnings from beijing not to do that. in kentucky, the death toll has climbed to 37 and crews are searching for more victims after catastrophic flooding devastated the eastern region of the state.

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 president meeting with his national security team on july 1st to discuss the operation. that wooden box you see in the center of the picture, is a model of the safe house where he was hiding. the u.s. has been trying to get al zawahiri for more than two decades. he became al qaeda's leader after bin laden's death in 2011 and continued to call for attacks on the u.s. and its allies. he was a driving force behind al qaeda's operations, helping to plan 9/11, the 2000 attack on the uss cole and the bombings of the embassies in kenya and

tanzania. jake sullivan was asked during an interview on the "today" show if the taliban knew al zawahiri was in afghanistan. >> we believe that there were senior members of the network who are affiliated with the taliban who did know that al zawahiri was in kabul. there may have been other members of the taliban who did not know. >> and with us now to talk about all of of this, ken dilanian, veteran foreign correspondent and an msnbc international affairs international, and a former cia officer and chief of operations in europe. thanks for being with us. ken, let me start with you. what do we know about this strike? how did it go down? >> much like the strike that killed osama bin laden, there was a remarkable detective story

behind this. and it starts with the u.s. intelligence community learning after years where al zawahiri was outside the radar, learning that his family has moved to pakistan to this safe house in kabul and that was a huge breakthrough. and then they started tracking the safe house and they were paying close attention to it and they realized that he had moved there as well. and then they began, you know, weeks of meticulous planning and, you know, all sorts of intelligence to confirm that he was there, to establish what they call a pattern of life, to figure out all of the movements inside and around that house. and that would have required a lot of signals intelligence, satellite coverage, but a lot of afghan assets on the ground with eyes on this target. the u.s. officials said there were no americans on the ground. and the strike was carried out with such precision, we're told, that they were able to kill al zawahiri on a balcony on that house without injuring or

killing any of the family members inside and that -- a lot of planning went into that, including that model that you showed of the structure and we're told that president biden asked a lot of questions and we're told that he never contemplated any civilian casualties in the strike. and one of the ways that they may have been able to pull that off, there are hellfire missiles that have no explosives. they kill by impact and have very little collateral impact. it's the way of -- the way the cia has carried out these strikes has really evolved over the years and the precision is rather remarkable and, of course, the other big issue here is as you heard jake sullivan say, members of a network which is a pakistan-backed terrorist group with ties to both al qaeda and the taliban were aware and were hosting al zawahiri in the diplomatic corridor and u.s. officials said that they whisked his family out and try to cover

up the fact that he was there. they are a key member of the taliban government and there are big implications going forward for their involvement. >> i would be interested in seeing if the post reports include no collateral damage. always, it seems like, there are initial reports and it all came out perfectly and no one else was injured and later maybe things change when the investigation goes forward. but, mark, tell us about the significance of al zawahiri. >> well, first of all, jose, thanks for having me on. ayman al zawahiri was one of the founders of al qaeda, an extremist involved way back in an assassination and he has a ton of u.s. blood on his hands from the bombing of u.s. embassies to the uss cole attack in yemen and 9/11. but to me it's also personal. i think to members of the intelligence community as well. i have actually, you know,

tragically helped bury some of our fellow colleagues who were involved in a hunt for al zawahiri. today is a pretty remarkable day. the former head of the cia tweeted something out yesterday and he said remember coast. and what that matters to a lot of us is on december 30th, 2009, a suicide bomber killed seven of my colleagues. that operation was designed to try and track al zawahiri. really remarkable day for america, america is safer today, but also for the men and women of the intelligence community. two decades later after 9/11 and after the tragic events at coast, we don't forget. >> and, mark, what about the influence, the impact, the importance of al qaeda in 2022? >> sure. there is a resurgence of al qaeda. the u.s. intelligence community reportedly, you know, in open testimony u.s. intelligence leaders have said this. there's been a u.n. report that's talked about this. al qaeda is down but certainly

not out. perhaps not a direct threat right now to the homeland, but certainly inspiring terrorist groups in south asia and in africa. and so, you know, when we take these strikes, two things occur, first, everyone remembers 9/11, but there also has to be a test and the test is that these individuals pose a continuing and imminent threat. and ayman al zawahiri and al qaeda certainly do. while a decapitation strike like this is important and it does prove that we can do over the horizon operations, it also means you keep sustained pressure on. that means continued strikes, continued monitoring. i think i know -- i know that my old colleagues in the intelligence community will certainly celebrate the events of the last several days but there's a lot more work to do because, you know, al qaeda is still -- they have a terrorist safe haven in afghanistan, they have allies, so we can't take our foot off the gas right now. >> you know the capital of afghanistan so well.

talk to us a little bit about where the strike was carried out and then there's been talk -- ken was talking about the diplomatic quarter. what is that and what was the area and the context in which this strike was carried out? >> well, thank you, jose. the neighborhood is a neighborhood that was very well known amongst the western community. it was a fairly new neighborhood post-2001. it used to be a military barracks and a lot of the afghan warlords came in and built poppy palaces. it was mansions built with a lot of money that came from the poppy industry, from corruption. unfortunately, there was a lot of westerners who rented these villas including the barracks that i lived in. fox was there, cbs was there, the spanish embassy was there. you could walk to embassies. this is hiding in plain sight. i don't think it was a shock to many of us that al zawahiri was

in afghanistan. i think the shock was the fact that he was in a neighborhood that is very well known, very predominant and centralized in kabul. >> and just taking off on what mark was talking about about the network, what exactly is the network and what is their relationship to the taliban? >> when we talk about the taliban, a lot of the times we make it seem as it's this one group. but really it's a group now that is a mixed group and the network is a pakistan-backed organization, a vicious organization, much of the bloodshed that happened in the last 20 years with u.s. and international soldiers dying, with afghan civilians dying, it was primarily backed by the network who had a safe haven and pakistan for all those years. now they're back. they're predominant within the government. they have high-level positions. ministerial positions.

so it was really interesting to me that the biden administration did point out that this was the backed taliban. they wanted the taliban to know that they were making that distinction as well. >> is it possible, probable, even in any way reasonable to think that if he was living in the diplomatic quarter in the capital of afghanistan, no one in the government knew he was there? >> i don't think it's possible at all. he was a welcomed guest. the taliban themselves have taken over a lot of these homes that used to be owned by the warlords. there's high-level taliban officials and members living in that neighborhood. i think that he was a very welcomed guest. i think that maybe even more than the haqqani group knew that he was there. many afghans are surprised that

he was in the neighborhood, but i don't think that anyone is surprised that he was welcomed back. >> ashley, what have we learned about what went on behind the scenes at the white house before this strike and this is something that clearly must have taken years in the making. >> that's right. and one thing i think that's important -- or at least fascinating to look at is to remember that president biden was president obama's vice president during the strike on osama bin laden and when they were having that debate inside the white house, which biden was integral part of, he cautioned at the time against that strike in part because he thought it was too risky and now you fast forward just over a decade later and he made a very different decision admittedly under a different set of circumstances. the bin laden raid involved u.s. assets on the ground. this one, the white house was careful to point out that it was

a drone strike. there were no u.s. members on the ground and in some ways that was a little less risky. another thing this white house has argued is that it shows that the administration with drew quite controversially from afghanistan and their argument now is that, yes, we withdrew but we can still carry out these sorts of strikes and that's one thing that biden and his team very much want you to know. the counter side from some of the critics i've been talking to this morning say, yes, biden absolutely deserves credit for this meticulous planning and operation and for giving the order to pull the trigger. but the idea that you would have this most wanted terrorist in the middle of the afghan capital hiding in plain sight coming out on a balcony in plain sight, again, owned by the haqqani network is brazen and shows that when we leave a country like afghanistan, you're going to see

networks reconstituting in a way that's dangerous for the united states. >> thank you very much for being with us this morning. still ahead, all eyes on kansas today as it becomes the first nation in its -- first state in the nation to let residents vote on abortion access since roe v. wade was overturned. we'll talk to sharice davids about what's at stake today. but first, kentucky's governor says hundreds still unaccounted for after more severe flooding. we're live with a search for survivors. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." ing "jose diaz-balart reports. you see, son, with a little elbow grease, you can do just about anything. thanks, dad. that's right, robert. and it's never too early to learn you could save with america's number one motorcycle insurer. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo.

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a new threat is on the way. sweltering temperatures. at least 37 people are now confirmed dead. the governor says hundreds are still unaccounted for. here's how he describes the devastation in one of the hardest-hit areas. >> these homes are gone, just gone. nothing left. and some of them we can't even find a portion of them. >> as we see some of the rescues playing out in the state, an 83-year-old woman airlifted from this home after a search-and-rescue team broke through an attic window to reach the family trapped inside. many, many remain stranded with floodwaters wiping out bridges and roads. nbc news had an exclusive access with the national guard as they made urgent deliveries of food and water yesterday. joining us now from lost creek, jesse kirsh.

>> reporter: i think the ride along yesterday illustrated several layers of challenge. it showed how tough it can be to get to some of these areas. there are a lot of mountainous portions of this county, this whole area of eastern kentucky. and so what we're looking at are places where it's not so easy to get even by a car and that's if you can drive up there. some of these roads are not in the best shape. but then there are others that have been completely slashed away by floodwaters. yesterday we were riding along with the national guard as they were getting to people who do not have road access. we're in the chopper with them and they get a call about potentially ten people who need food and water and can't get out by road. and so we go over there, but that's just the beginning of the challenges because even in a black hawk helicopter with the national guard, it took us three attempts to land the helicopter because you have to navigate

around electric wires, trees and these are narrow areas and you don't want to be landing too close to the home and put anyone at risk. and so finally we were able to touch down but we were only able to barely touch down. like they just put the wheels down and one of the national guardsman who we were with jumped out of the chopper because it was unclear how they were going to stabilize the chopper. and they were able to put down the water, the food, other supplies including diapers. we're talking about people across a range of ages. this is not in an area where it's easy enough to walk down a street to a grocery store. they're up in a hillside. the other broader challenge here for officials is trying to find people who are still missing. the governor said they don't have a full grasp on how many people may be unaccounted for right now and the scenes that we're seeing by air are just as harrowing on the ground. i was talking with our team on the ground and was just saying i think we've lost count of the number of vehicles we've seen,

jose, that are tipped over on their side. we talked to the colonel from the national guard about what this effort is like right now and here's part of what he had to say. >> we got multiple aircraft and they're constantly going. so when we find a spot that needs it, we'll load up the aircraft and take it all out there to them. like today, we had one aircraft go there three times because there's so many people there dropping -- two pallets in the back and more food. that's what we do. we keep continuous until they can make it through this. >> and, jose, that colonel from the national guard here in kentucky tells me he thinks there have to be thousands of people who are still trapped in that kind of way, jose. >> thank you very much. turning now to the wildfire that's raging out west. the mckinney fire is the largest blaze california has seen this year, burning over 55,000 acres

and still at 0% containment. the flames turning fatal. firefighters discovered the bodies of two people in a burned out vehicle sitting in a driveway near the path of the fire. the identities have not yet been released. joining us now with the latest is gotti schwartz. are firefighters any closer to getting any kind of handle on this fire? >> reporter: the good news is firefighters seem to be making a little bit of progress. they're shoring up fire breaks around some of the more populated areas, but, unfortunately, today and tomorrow's conditions could bring back high winds and no rain but instead dry lightning and dry thunderstorms that can bring that very dangerous lightning and that has proved to be such a big problem in this area. because it's been so dry under drought conditions for years. so right now it looks like about 100 buildings have burned including a community center.

a grocery store has also burned. two people have died. nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated and 1,000 more homes and buildings are in harm's way right now and, again, yesterday, we saw a lot of progress. but we haven't seen any updated containment numbers today. they're still officially calling this 0% contained. but the number of acres burned is holding at around 55,000 acres. after going from a few acres to more than 50,000 acres in a matter of 48 hours, it's explosive growth that we saw over the weekend seems to have slowed considerably at least for now. jose? >> thank you very much for that. coming up, today's residents in kansas will vote on abortion restrictions and the outcome of that vote could have national consequences. kansas congresswoman sharice davids joins me next to talk about what she believes is at stake. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." alart repo.

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and we're watching some key races in all five. in kansas, the big issue, abortion. for the first time since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, voters will weigh in on the issue in a statewide vote. meanwhile, michigan is one of the states that will prove to be a major test of former president trump's influence tonight. peter meijer faces re-election there today. we caught up with him this morning right after he cast his own ballot. >> i think it's important that we have somebody who is willing to do the hard work but also tell the truth. we're feeling very confident with the support that we've received. >> we've got reporters in both places this morning. shaquille brewster is in michigan and dasha burns in kansas. you just talked to meijer's primary opponent? >> reporter: and his message was similar to what you heard from

congressman meijer yourself. john gibbs is over here. he's about to vote for himself, obviously, and meeting with reporters and campaign staff there. he told me he's coming into this race feeling confident. he feels like he's ahead. his internal polling is going extremely well and he has a double-digit lead. meijer saying that his internal polling shows he has the lead. both candidates say there are two big factors in this race. one is meijer's impeachment vote supporting the impeachment of president trump after the january 6th riots, but former president trump weighing into this race. his endorsement having a huge impact on this race. former president trump weighed into the governor's race here. he had a town hall last night and i talked to a bunch of voters today about the impact of trump's endorsements and how that weighs for them as they're going in to cast their ballot. listen to what they told me. >> how much does former president trump's endorsement weigh into your decision? >> it doesn't. i was a trump supporter.

but you just kind of got to read on your own because you can't take what everybody says. >> reporter: why does his endorsement carry so much weight for you? >> we were in a good situation when he was in office and now we're in a really bad situation. >> reporter: another factor that you're seeing here in michigan are that both of those candidates, trump-backed candidates, dixon and gibbs, both of them have been getting financial support from democratic groups. one thing that i heard from some democratic voters is they're not happy about their party meddling in these republican races, but this is a race that has been extremely chaotic. there's been a lot of surprises and twists and turns. so we'll see what happens later today once we get the results in. jose? >> and take us, meanwhile, to kansas. what are people there saying about this abortion vote? >> jose, right now kansas is the

epicenter of the battle over abortion rights and the folks that are going to be casting their ballots here today are going to be among the first in the nation to actually vote on this issue since the fall of roe v. wade. and on the ballot here is an amendment that would strip the kansas state constitution of the right to an abortion. now, if this passes, what happens to the future of abortion rights in kansas has been the subject of some heated debate. here's what we do know. if the amendment does pass, the power to take action on abortion would then move to the kansas state legislature which is heavily conservative. it would open the door to further restrictions or potentially a ban on abortion. there's an an all-out, get out the vote effort and early voting is up more than 200% compared to 2018. we've been talking to abortion rights activists and proponents of this amendment who are against abortion rights and the stakes are high for both of

these groups. take a listen to what they told me. >> if we lose the protection in kansas, we know what's coming. this will open up the path for the legislature to ban abortions, create restrictions that target abortion care. >> i want to see a future where kansans are involved in the discussion. where unelected judges don't decide for the rest of us the limits on abortion in our state. >> reporter: and this morning we've been talking to voters on both sides of this issue while they disagree about what they want to see for the future here in kansas, what they do agree upon is that this is an incredibly important day in the eyes of the nation are on kansas because what kansans do today, how they vote and how many turn out today, will be a bellwether for what we may see in the midterms in november. jose? >> thank you so very much. joining me now is congresswoman sharice davids, a democrat from kansas. it's a pleasure to see you. thank you for being with us.

how significant is today's vote? >> well, just like what you just heard from the folks who are out in kansas, today is a very, very important day for the state of kansas and for the -- for all the kansans who are making their voices heard on this issue that we're not talking about hyperbole or hypotheticals anymore. kansans have watched as neighboring states like missouri and oklahoma have passed these very extreme bans without exceptions for rape or incest and, you know, kansans don't want politicians making their decisions for them. >> do you think this vote signifies a change in how these major issues may be going to be decided in the future? >> you know, i'm not really sure what the -- what kind of -- what

this means for other issues, but i can tell you that when it comes to a person's access to the full range of reproductive health care services, when it comes to doing extreme things like changing the kansas -- trying to change the kansas constitution to make it so politicians can interfere in our health care decisions, kansans don't want that. i heard -- i heard your on the ground reporter just a few minutes ago say that our legislature is conservative and there's a difference between conservative and extreme. and what we're seeing right now are extreme politicians pushing these extreme total bans, no exceptions, and, you know, the fight here today is so important to make sure that we continue to have -- that we continue to have the protections of the kansas state constitution. >> and interesting in that report by dasha burns, some of

the opponents of abortion rights say it's about giving people a say in the matter and not unelected judges. what would you say to that? >> well, i would say that the kansas legislature has already tried to pass some of these extreme pieces of legislation that would -- that would enact a total ban like what we've been seeing across the country, and the kansas constitution has protected us from those extreme pieces of legislation. and i think that it says a lot, that we have a legislature and frankly even people like my opponent in this third district congressional race that have supported those extreme out-of-touch positions and i'm feeling cautiously optimistic that enough people are going to show up and make their voices heard today and vote no on this amendment. >> interesting. some early voting is up over

200%. it seems as though at least in early voting you got a lot of people that are interested in coming out to speak via their vote. congresswoman sharice davids, thank you so much for being with us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, tensions with china are high this morning with all signs pointing to house speaker nancy pelosi visiting taiwan today. we're looking at a live picture at taiwan -- taipei airport. our understanding is that the speaker may be landing or about to land any minute now. china has expressed that they're not at all happy about this. we're going to talk about that. beijing warning of very serious consequences if nancy pelosi does get to taiwan. the latest reporting on this potentially high stakes trip next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." az-balart . it's a beautiful word. neighborhoods "open". businesses "open". fields "open".

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nancy pelosi is expected to travel to taiwan as china continues to warn of serious consequences if she makes that trip. it would be the highest u.s. figure to visit taiwan since newt gingrich visited in 1997. but with talks of potential trips in recent days, china has issued repeated warnings against it and has carried out large-scale naval exercises. taiwan is self-governed but china claims it's part of its territory. joining us now is andrea mitchell and global affairs reporter. what is the latest on the speaker's trip? >> well, we've been tracking as almost the whole world, reporters all over the world tracking these flights and the flight -- the plane that we think she's on is on final approach, about to land and the taiwanese officials have said an important guest is about to

arrive. there are welcome signs in taiwan, skyscrapers are lit up with welcome speaker pelosi and similar signs. it's a very, very big deal. apparently there was a scrambling of taiwanese fighter jets to escort her plane coming in. those pictures you were just showing, those still photos, there's a flight which could well be hers. and i can't positively identify that but that's what the taiwanese are putting up now on their livestream. the pictures you were just showing, those stills were from singapore, her previous trip. she was also in malaysia as well. in singapore, then malaysia and now on route to taiwan. and once she had said that she -- she never said she was going. it was always an unofficial trip. once it was signaled that she's going, it's always been off the record until she lands, the u.s. military was deeply involved and you're going to talk to dan about that. but the fact is, she could not

back down and that was something acknowledged by the white house and the state department as well. you could not be backing down and giving beijing veto power over a trip by the speaker of the house in the succession to the presidency, second behind, of course, only the vice president. you could not let beijing veto that. so that, jose, became the controversy. the president made it even more controversial according to some critics by saying on july 20th that the u.s. military wishes she would not take this trip. and that elevated it. there's been strategic ambiguity from within 40 years, since 1979, about this relationship, since the u.s. derecognized taiwan, taipei as an independent country and acceded to the one china agreement.

>> yeah, that light blue stripe on the plane which, you know, is very difficult to identify, but certainly that light blue stripe down the plane is what certainly some members on official planes in the united states look like. it's very probable, right? >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say that that plane appears to me to be the fleet that i have flown on, you know, for all of these decades. a fleet that's part of joint base andrews. >> it certainly does look like that. and we're going to keep monitoring these images, live images coming out of taipei. dan, meanwhile, in 1997, newt gingrich visited taiwan. didn't seem like there was so much reaction by the chinese back then. what's changed and why is this such a big issue now? >> well, at the time china was very unhappy about it. but you're right, our relationship with china has

transformed. china's position in the world, its economic and military power has just growned exponentially since then to the now we see china as our main adversary and tensions have now been building about taiwan in particular now for several years. really dating back to the trump administration. and you've seen on the one hand the u.s. increaing concerned that china has its sights set on taking back full control of taiwan. you've seen them build up their military around the taiwan straight. in washington, there's concern that the u.s. needs to deter china, it needs to send signals to china that the u.s. will not look at that lightly and they don't want to go through sort of what happened with russia where we were so concerned about confronting or provoking a backlash from russia that maybe some argue now somehow encouraged them and sent the

wrong signal. that's the argument in favor of a visit like this. all eyes are going to be on beijing. once this -- as this visit proceeds, as she likely meets the president of taiwan, what will china do? and the expectation is, they'll be even more provocative military exercises. there's concern they might fire off some ballistic missiles in the taiwan straight, a test launch that would be extremely provocative. they've already been kind of pushing the envelope now, flying military aircraft near taiwan. there's also a possibility of some kind of economic action over time. that they might try to assert this claim they have now, that they have full sovereignty over the taiwan straight which, of course, the u.s. and other countries don't recognize. so there could be some kind of a naval blockade partially even in the future. i think this is not going to below over quickly. this is going to be a difficult package we're entering into. >> and andrea, we see the very

clear american flag on that plane. >> exactly. that is clearly her plane. and i just want to add to -- dan covered all of the military possibilities, all that we know of. and the other thing diplomatically that has changed is president xi. president xi is approaching now what he hopes is going to be a party congress in the fall that ratifies a third term for him which is not their tradition, that puts him in a completely different category and he is much more aggressive militarily but also aggressive economically, nationalizing some companies that had been moving towards almost what you could call a capitalist/semiprivatized state, a whole different regime is now in place from the chinese figures that i've covered back when i was covering the agreement back in 1979 under the carter years. and so i've -- i've never, you know, seen a chinese leader assert his authority in quite

this way and it's quite different from the way he was when he was the vice premier and when he was traveling across the u.s. with then-vice president joe biden. so this is a very different president xi than the man we saw arising to power. >> absolutely. ruthless totalitarianism and human rights violations as parts of its pillar. it's also a different taiwan. the president there has just recently been inaugurated and she clearly has a very strong position towards taiwan's independence and its determination to live free from chinese totalitarianism. >> she's very strong. she's very well regarded and she was elected in a democratic election, one that was really applauded almost universally around the world in terms of its

democratic principles. there you see the arrival ceremony for speaker pelosi. she'll have a couple of meetings late tonight. but the important meeting will be with the president and another woman leader, by the way, which the way, which is always interesting. nancy pelosi has always been very hawkish about taiwan since she's been in congress. this is not a new posture for her. she tweeted on the 30th anniversary of the tiananmen square uprising in 2019. she retweeted something, some video from -- video taken in 1991 when she and two members of congress, two men, fellow congress members had gone to

tiananmen. two years after the uprising, she went to tiananmen square. they unfurled a banner. police immediately accosted them. their cameras men were pushed back. she was very aggressive. she said, well, they've been telling us for three days there's freedom of speech in china. that's something she retweeted just three years ago. >> so interesting. andrea, just your thoughts -- >> i see the speaker. she is dressed in a pink suit. speaker of the house is now coming down the steps i believe. that is an aide. no. she is behind. i saw her thanking the pilot.

she was heading to the cockpit just moments ago. you can see -- i think you can see some bags that are being taken out as well. so she's going to be coming down those steps solo i think after the staff came down ahead of her. the landing party going out to greet her. these are taiwanese officials and i would assume also someone from the u.s. diplomats who would be on the ground there. we don't have an embassy. we don't have diplomatic relations, per se. we don't recognize it as an independent country. that is part of the strategic ambiguity, jose. >> uh-huh, and, andrea, it's interesting -- president biden kind of initially said that the united states would step forward and support taiwan if they were

ever invaded by china. that was walked back a little. >> there she is. adds you point out, three times most recently in may, the president said we would support taiwan militarily, and that was very striking because it was something that has not been stated that publicly. the u.s. has said it is not a change in policy. they keep saying it's not a change in policy, although his rhetoric, his language has been different. jose? >> andrea, the significance of this visit, the last one by a speaker, then speaker newt gingrich in 197. of course, we've seen bob menendez, chair of the senate foreign relations committee go frequently to taiwan. this is a significant visit, especially, andrea, when you're talking about the reality that china is now. >> that reality is so

significant. dan de luce, i think he's still with us, was commenting on that. i was interviewing two weeks ago the head of the cia. he had to leave very abruptly after our interview instead of staying overnight. now we know in retrospect what they were working on which was, of course, al zawahri. my interview was the 20th of july. the president signed off on the hit on july 25th at the next possible opportunity when all the conditions were right. so that was going on. in any case, the cia director, william burns, said at the time when i asked him about taiwan and president xi, he said president xi is definitely wanting to control taiwan. it's only a question of when, not if. he thought that it would not happen militarily, any attack or invasion of taiwan between now

and the party congress becausement xi would not want to do anything to create a crisis between now and the party congress. now nancy pelosi walking across the tarmac, jose, and the possibility of a crisis at least with beijing is very much online. >> but, on the other hand, as you say, andrea, the united states is not going to let somebody else tell them where they can and cannot go. certainly nancy pelosi is not going to do that. >> exactly. what the president and the secretary of state have been saying, and most recently jake sullivan this morning on the "today" show was saying, that we have three branches of government and there's nothing that the white house will say to contradict the leader of the -- the congressional leader. she is the leader of congress. >> it's 10:54 p.m., coming up on

11:00 p.m. in taipei as the speaker of the house arrives at the capital of taiwan. she'll be received tomorrow, as andrea was telling us, by the president of thai want. two very powerful women talking at a time when china sees this as some major threat to them. now we have to see if at all they will react. live pictures from taipei coming up on 11:00 p.m. extraordinary pictures. andrea mitchell, dan deluce, thank you for being with us. i'll be back with more news after a quick break. next hour i'll talk to an afghanistan veteran who has been camped out on capitol hill for days demanding passage of the burn pit act. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports."

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good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart, here for another busy hour, including a historic scene in taiwan where we just saw house speaker pelosi arrive on a widely anticipated trip that has infuriated the chinese regime. there you see her walking down the stairs, getting off the plane in the light pink suit. she was greeted by a large group of taiwanese officials. this trip makes pelosi the highest-ranking u.s. official to visit taiwan since newt gingrich went there in 1997 whenwa