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welcome to the journal editorial report, i am charles payne. the case rested. without the former president taking the stand. closing arguments set for tuesday after jurors spend the long holiday weekend at home. here with a look at what to expect when the court reconvenes next week is a former federal prosecutor, also former attorney ford donald trump. jim, thank you for joining us. monday morning quarterbacking in real time. the first thing everyone has debated is smart for trump not to take the stand or not. >> it was for a couple of reasons. preliminary warnings by the judge as to what the fair scope of examination would be. they were told they would be allowed to cross-examine.

i feel awfully collateral. don't feel like the type of stuff we reflect on directly. beyond that, the whole strategy in this case, charles, make it about the credibility. it is the only battlefield you can be fighting on. it is all coming down to michael cohen. you dignify the government's case. just focusing on michael cohen. allowing them to focus on credibility issues for the president and :. i think it was absolutely the right thing to do. don't signal the government has made its case and keep the focus on michael cohen. charles: speaking of the government making their case in the prosecution, often times when subjects or witnesses were brought into this. zero to do with the case itself. may be other political ramifications. headlines in a washington post and new york times, things like

the #metoo movement. in the closing arguments, how will it make the shift from all the things that seem nonsensical to really proving the case. to be quite frank, a lot of the american public not sure what the alleged crime is. >> i am still waiting for clarification. look, just a quick starting point on that. it is unheard of to get to a point where only at the time of the charging happens is there clarification as to the government's theory of making felonies out of misdemeanors. long criminal justice for 35 years. cannot think of a trial that had this much mystery of what the government was trying to do to avoid. argument from the prosecution, it will focus heavily on saying how -- this was and michael cohen is corroborated.

they will act like they did this painstaking job of corroborating michael cohen. you can corroborate on undeniable things. there was an nda in stormy daniels is involved in. he is the witness for the involvement of president trump. for his knowledge and participation to commit some other unknown crimes. it really does come down to michael cohen. saying they have corroborated the living heck out of them. the defense on the other hand has a lot of stuff to play with from the cross examination and the concept of reasonable doubt which in any other jury pool would probably grow drink -- grote deeply into this deliberation. charles: to that point, a lot of liberal and progressive commentators have acknowledged

this case itself would not have been brought anywhere else. it is there. the jury, apparently, to lawyers they are. could that sway this one way or the other. some sort of professionalism they may be able to bring and the liberation process? >> it is pretty scary, i think, particularly from the defense side. this is a complicated mess of a prosecution. when the judge gives instructions there will likely be questions in the jury room. what exactly does this mean? how do we interpret this? deferring mightily to these two attorneys. that does not bode all that great for the defense. essentially, respect for them being attorneys lead to cohesion which leads to can -- convictions. the flipside is these are attorneys who i think have

experience in civil or administrative law which means a concept of reasonable doubt is a much higher standard than they are used to. they could waken heavily and say this sure feels like reasonable doubt. >> jim, before i let you go, i know you testified with representative jim jordan on representation of the evolution of this. no matter what the outcome of this is it feels like we enter into a new era. many would say very dangerous era. your thoughts there? >> that is a great point. i do not say this out of some political motivation. i gave the committee a 10 page singlespaced written statement laying out evidence. it talked about all of the unique, inventive, hyper aggressive moves that have been made at president trump success

whether it is doj which was a primary focus or georgia or new york. these are bad signs when prosecutors run for office saying you will target somebody and they use welfare the way they do. again, there may be short-term celebrations for the proponents of welfare. you are letting the genie out of the bottle. we will see where they are if this type of misconduct is allowed to stand. >> absolutely. thank you very much. appreciate it. much more on the political fallout as a jury gears to deliberate. while they plan to beat the former president in a courtroom rather than the ballot box backfire? we will ask our panel next.

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box backfire? along with editorial board. let me start with you, dan. it certainly has failed so far in opinion polls. almost everyone agrees that every indictment, every time one of these has popped up, former president trump's popularity has gone up. >> no question about it. what were the democrats thinking ? let's just try to look at this case in the simplest terms that alvin break has brought. a case against the former president of the united states in which his former key witnesses are former porn star andy former fixer. hushing up his alleged relationship with this porn star the whole country has been watching this. they have been covering it round-the-clock. hard to avoid it.

republicans are stepping back and saying there is something fundamentally unfair about what is going on. even as you know, charles people that have been sympathetic to this case have had difficulty wrapping their heads around what exactly the point is. what will the charge be? i don't know what alan bragg thought. man, i think a lot of democrats feel it could have been stronger because it is helping donald trump. >> i think there is not too much to add to that. democrats figured that by this point in the election with the new york indictment and the other three that trump now faces that he would be completely out of contention for the general election. what you have seen is trump slightly increasing his leads and some of the swing states, arizona, georgia and also in the midwest. your average voter who is just now starting to tune into the

election does not necessarily understand the deep contraries to what they are bringing. they do not think that trump is deeply guilty of anything he wants to give them a shot at the ballot box as opposed to having the decision made for them. >> president trump also made, really spoke out about how this has kept him off the campaign trail. whether or not it is effective in terms of a legal point of view, it has kept him from campaigning. he has found some creative ways to make his time useful in new york. >> always a side benefit for democrats doing this. they wanted a conviction so joe biden could take i am running against a convicted felon. one of the bonuses was to try to cost a lot of money for donald trump. obviously, these trials are indeed costing money although he is also raising a lot of money by sending out e-mails, talking

about his unfairness of the court process. that is not necessarily as damaging to him as they thought it might be. then there is a campaign trail point that you made. he has been outdoing these rallies in new jersey, in the bronx, again, not where he naturally wants to be. not swing states. he is getting a ton of unearned media. people waiting in the hallway for him to give his comments. some of them covering these campaign rallies that he is doing. i am sure he would rather be in other places, but that has not been as effective as they had hoped it would be. >> let me check in on what jim trustee was talking about. our nation is really seeing a massive decline in faith and institutions including the justice system, obviously the white house, obviously congress which i think has the absolute lowest rating.

how critical is it that we somehow find a way to stamp the use of welfare to this extent? are you concerned about this? >> absolutely. let's also remember why we get to welfare. one party loses elections, back when they lost to donald trump in 2016. even though it's pretty clear as you can see from joe biden's polls, the public may not like their views. getting rid of the opposition for other means in particular law fair. it is not just the loss of faith and institutions, but it is a terrible falling apart of the parties in themselves. they really need to be out there winning on ideas and convincing people, not just using other tools to try to recap the opposition. >> where do you see it going from here then?

>> at the moment it's going up the wrong direction entirely. probably will not get better as a result of this election. the cynicism will increase. the democrats have been doing this for years. including the supreme court attacks on justice thomas, trying to undermine the critical credibility of the supreme court that is an institution that the entire country looks for for resolution of the most difficult legal issues. not the political arena. the democrats by polling the supreme court justices and the legal system into the political arena as you suggested are just damaging the whole system's credibility. >> absolutely. the sudden death of iran's president is raising questions about the future of their region in turmoil. ordering israel to halt military operations in rafah. we will have the latest on a busy week in the middle easts de after the break.

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wrapping up a busy week in the middle east as israel reels from the death of its president. this as a top un court orders israel to halt operations in rafah. they will recognize a palestinian state. here to discuss the senior vice president of research and the foundation of defense for democracies. jonathan, let's start with the death of iran's president. looking at markets, not much of a ripple. certainly a lot of finger-pointing. >> i think right now there is an interesting question about the trajectory of iran in the

aftermath of the death of this man. i think that we can say with some certainty he has been part of the planning and the direction of this multi- front war that iran has been waging by proxy throughout the region. some hope may be early on that we could see iran began to retrench a little bit. the regime may feel a little less stable, a little less worried about outsiders or even those from within the regime trying to erode the power of those that are at the helm. i think that what we saw in the aftermath of the death is that there is actually a meeting of a number of those proxies that came together in iran and they have vowed to redouble their efforts in this war that they are waging against israel. that includes hamas, hezbollah. the meeting was attended by senior officials.

the people truly responsible for coordinating these activities. doomed for more violence, more mayhem and more unrest at the hands of the regime. how important is it that the role is still supremely important here or it feels like no matter who the president is it will still be the direction. >> correct. at the end of the day this is a religious autocracy. a theocracy, if you will. there is one man that runs all of it. they are getting up there in age they have not been particularly healthy. questions about succession there as well. we have seen that presidents can get along with the supreme leader. we have seen presidents aligned with the supreme leader. the government that surrounds

him and all of it is subjugated to that vision, that resolution that iran pursues around the middle east. >> let me talk about the international court of justice now ordering a halt. does this have any teeth? obviously israel has been on the back foot with respect to the public relations aspect. how does this intensify that? >> it intensifies it quite a bit you can get a sense that they are nervous. on the one hand you can say that it was a ruling that barred israel or was intending to bar israel from operating in rafah but not the rest of gaza. they feel like they still have a free hand to battle hamas and all these other places around the gaza strip. at the same time, a very clear

attempt to restrict israel from finishing off the war that hamas started. this really does appear to be a lifeline and it remarkably, it was drawing on evidence that came from the un relief and works agency. just earlier, a couple hours before the icj statement come down. that ruling came out. they identified three bodies of hostages that were being held. it has been a partner for years. it is just outrageous when you look at how this case was built out. look, there is one last thing we need to be aware of. if the israelis decide they want to divide this war, then this will be brought to the un security council. then it will really be on the shoulders of the biden administration to determine whether it is time to enact the

veto. israel can continue to do what it has been doing to engage a surgical war with all the gaza strip with the intent to destroy ultimately if biden administration declines to veto. then we are in uncharted territory. they will find themselves alone having to make a decision and all of these other proxies or it is acceptance in the international community. >> i'm trying to educate myself on the icj. i see one of the covenants that help to may be, at least they claim to make this decision was the genocide convention. i bring that up because we heard that word used on college campuses here. ireland, spain and norway saying they will recognize a palestinian state. israel being backed into a corner alone. them

and their fight to make sure that october 7 never happens again. >> look, first of all, just the term genocide is just insane. it is ridiculous on its face. you have seen the growth of the population of palestinians over the last decade. israel has not been waging a genocide. it is part of a playbook that has been designed by those that up perpetrated they called the boycott divestment. they are attempting to turn israel into the apartheid regime of the 1990s. they are trying to destroy it with legalistic approaches. >> jonathan, thank you very, very much. still ahead. republicans accusing democrats of political theater after they forced dave vote on border security in the senate. will this fail to change the dynamics of the debate?

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the battle over the order is heating up once again on capitol hill. resurrecting a bipartisan bill that fell earlier this year. forcing a procedural vote on the measure thursday hoping to inoculate members of the party from accusations they are soft on border security.

the vote fell as expected with republicans blasting the move as a political stunt. >> senator schumer and president biden thinks the american people are stupid. they think that they can pull the wool over their eyes and after three and half years of open border policies claim that they are now the party of border security. >> we are back with our panel. >> frankly, i think that voters will see that just like everything that they have done in the past few months. it has nothing to do with border security or policy. they have seen immigration has become some of the top concerns for voters around the country. vulnerable senators like john and montana. they want to be able to give them a vote to say i was tough on the border even though they know they have no chance of becoming law. the house of representatives

have considered this bill and already rejected it. they have not offered to make any additional changes. they know there is no chance of actually becoming policy, but they wanted to go to the home states. one thing down at the southern border of the united states. >> the whole border issue, it brought quickly to border states to enroll america, the inner cities. the democrats have seriously miscalculated on this one. >> absolutely. we already know this will not work. when that first bill failed back in february, the white house realized it had a problem. that is why the president keeps threatening to put out these unilateral executive actions at the border. in the meantime, as you note,

this problem has only continued to grow. some of the open border types thought these would run in, i don't know where they thought they would settle and locate, but of course they have all ended up in blue cities. now this is a problem just for the president in terms of bipartisan condemnation, but he also is a problem within the party. they are pushing back on this again as well. >> that is exactly right. trying to put this in the context of the history of this kind of immigration. illegal immigration. there are immigration communities all over the united states. in the past where they have come up from mexico and central america, they have known there were families inside newark new jersey or minneapolis and so forth and they would go there and they would get kind of absorbed.

this has turned out to be different. it is not just families connecting with families. a lot of single men coming across the border from all over the world who do not know anybody appear. they end up in cities like new york, chicago and los angeles in these hotels, no connections whatsoever and now we've got to the point where the mayor of new york is kicking them out. he is evicting them. no one knows where they will go but even democratic mayors are saying we have a situation here that we just cannot absorb. that goes back to joe biden. the idea that chuck schumer will insulate a couple with the boat that no one will remember to place on memorial day weekend is kind of absurd. >> it feels like a hail mary. typically more progressive from a political stance. this whole migration thing has

saved this economy. one of the ways it has been kept in check. the employment numbers have been so robust. slowly but surely, suggesting even the illegal part of it. it feels like a major again. i feel like i've seen some politicians mention it. >> there certainly is some truth high levels of immigration hoping to boost an economy that could otherwise be sluggish. a log of their job growth on and off the books probably coming from a number of workers that are entering this country and finding jobs. the problem for president biden is his own policies are inhibiting that. the biggest class of immigrants actually prevent people from being able to find work within the first few months of their time within this country. he should be trying to find more ways both to secure the border

and slow the flow of illegal immigrants to make sure when they entered this country legally they are able to find work. >> 30 seconds. how about securing the border. >> how about that. the border was functioning pretty well before joe biden came into office. a great deal of his policy caused this. he has the ability to fix some of it. he could be doing more than he is doing at the moment. >> still ahead. vowing to let the trump era tax credits expire. now they are cheering move. what it could mean for american businesses and their families, next.

>> the last administration enacted a $2 million tax cut.

it added more to the national debt than any presidential term in history. due to expire next year. guess what, i hope to be president because that will stay expired. >> going to let key provisions of the tax cuts and job back expire next year. now they are lining up against the autoworkers and national association. top lawmakers this week. and demanding they were killed. let bring in senior policy advisor at the tax foundation. what you do not know about taxes and how they rule your daily life. do we need to know more about them? we will try to get to this.

the whole notion of the tax cuts we have heard about this a lot. president biden screams out the top of his lungs and how great the american economy is versus all the other economies in the world. >> it is because of the 2017 tax cuts that we have the best economy as you point out. i think americans need to be very aware that if congress does nothing next year that they face a tree —-dash $3 trillion tax increase. for the typical person then new jersey facing a tax increase of $2600. southern california could face a tax increase. what is interesting about this, charles, my colleagues measured the impact by congressional district, blue districts face a

higher increase if biden allows them to expire and read districts. he would be hurting his own constituents if he allows us tax cuts to expire. >> what about the notion that anyone making less than $400,000 won't feel anything from that exploration. >> if you think the tax codes complicated now, wait until they try to manipulate those earning less. it will be very, very difficult and make it much more complicated as a result. it will increase the amount, if you will, that comes from this kind of policy. >> our stock market running out of this as a percentage of the whole world. it is sort of american exceptionalism on display.

we have seen all other nations lowering their taxes. at a time when everyone else is trying to lower their taxes, how smart would it be to go to 28% or even 35% as some have suggested. >> perhaps one of the dumbest economic policies you can imagine. looking at the budget recently, jacking up the corporate tax rates. one of the highest in the industrialized world. the capital gains rate under biden would be one of the highest. personal income taxes. up in the stratosphere with france and sweden and some of the other socialist countries. that is where he is taking the tax code. not only what americans fuel it overall, but the economy would be damaged as a result. lower gdp, lower job growth,

lower capital investment. everyone up and down the scale would feel the economic burden. >> summers saying one of the niches here that would be perhaps a return of massive benefits for folks that own mansions in new york and new jersey, a way of benefiting political donors. >> the tax code given in the tax code take away. yes indeed the salt cap gets taken away. one thing comes back into play. the old alternative minimum tax which eventually took away your salt deductions. it didn't and directly. one of the things that is often missed in this whole debate is between all of these different proposals and how they work. what can happen for those

wealthy people that get this back, you are paying higher income tax rates. it is kind of like going in neiman marcus and having a 10% coupon. you have to feel little bit better about paying higher prices. >> i always say that that is the ultimate cautionary tale. about 150 people that were not paying taxes and congress had a hearing and everyone was in an uproar. they created the alternative minimum tax so they would pay their fair share. tens of millions paying it here it this is something you talk about all the time. just the dangers of tax policy particularly when we come added at an angle of politics rather than rational. >> it is interesting. talking about trickle-down economics. they will try to tax the rich

through things like the alternative minimum tax. before the tax cuts and jobs act , more than 5 million families hit by the alternative minimum tax and now very, very few of them deal. we would have to be very careful about the policies aimed at the rich because eventually they hit the middle class. >> absolutely. thank you very much. always a pleasure to see you. >> thanks charles. >> another round of student loan forgiveness as a president travels to ensure support among younger voters. a look at what else he has in store. ♪

white house said on wednesday that it had canceled an additional $7.7 billion of criminal loan that. shoring up support among younger americans ahead of the younger election. a new fox news poll followed them dramatically with voters under 30. it is all part of what they call joe biden's 2024 election bribes we are back with dan and the rest of the panel. was that a calm? was that a mini book? [laughter] a lot of bribes out there. >> a lot of stories about the spending. student loan debt forgiveness. joe biden reminded me of nothing more than the 1920s democratic party boss. they turned and pulled cash out.

billions of dollars to produce votes. the supreme court said wait a minute. you really overstepped your presidential authority. doling out this cash to student debt. clearly the democratic liberal press and get them to vote for them. and to the infrastructure spending that was done. responding to all these projects taking credit for it. simply trying to bribe his way. >> we have come a long way from

a chicken in every pot, haven't we. >> oh my gosh, it is amazing. talking about obviously the student loans. we have had the recent argument for changing the penalty for marijuana use. the green subsidies are out of control. one estimate is certainly more than a trillion dollars for people to buy their ev. the thing that i wonder about, whether or not this works. these are not quiet bribes. they are open one spirit for everyone you are offering this bribe to you are also offending another taxpayer that is covering the bill for this or does not agree with the policy for instance. i can understand the desire for the young people. concerned about the reaction for the independent and swing state

voters. >> also part of a transition. the president see the democratic party in my mind shifted further towards annalisa's party. talking about joe from scranton. so many things that he does helps the delete. child tax credits designed for the truly working poor not for couples making $400,000. i am not sure it is working. >> no better example of that trend in the student loan. these are people that have mostly finished. these are people who would willingly decide to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans with the expection of paying them back. most of them are gainfully employed. joe biden going out of his way

to cancel debt for these people. americans struggling. violating the own policies. not getting any kind of debt relief or their auto loans or anything like that. it is completely a policy that benefits the elite base of the party today. >> american households able to benefit from that's all it go up it was something absurd. people do those kinds of things. propensity to consume. >> we saw that after the pandemic. sent checks for $3000. it gave an injection into the economy that ended. people are now running up credit card debt. when you disrupt people's financials expectations they start to behave erratically.

joe biden, i think, doing that in a monumental way. there may have been an argument for adjusting the program in a way to make it easier for people to pay off this debt, but he is basically giving them a get out of jail free card and it will be very, very politically and financially disruptive. >> we have to take one more break. the hits and misses of the week. ♪ with the freestyle libre 3 system know your glucose levels. no fingersticks needed. all with the world's smallest and thinnest sensor. manage your diabetes with more confidence

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they'd lease did outright learn the lessening come out and condemn anti-semitism they still had no answers for why they have been capitulating to the demands of the protesters who were spreading the anti-semitism on the campuses. >> might miss it this week goes to elizabeth warren for a week attempted to blame inflation on grocery stores of all things. sheet led to six et cetera sever house representative sending a letter to the by administration urging them to take action against kroger, albertson's and other stores. suggesting the reason bill are paying more has nothing to have democrat policies of dumping extra money into the economy and is to blame on greedy grocery store operators is complete nonsense for a quick 3% profit margins are a doozy. the data? >> is of course is memorial day weekend. i'm getting my hit to the monument to the 107th infantry which on fifth avenue and 67th street in new york city. this monument or memorial was

desecrated recently by pro- palestinian protesters and almost immediately cleaned up by the cops. the wa report was carried by sculptor named karl who served with the 107th infantry in a world war one is based on his personal experiences. that said this is an absolute beautiful memorial. it could serve as a testament to all americans who died in our wars and we salute them this week. >> yes we do. remember folks if you have your own hit or miss be sure to send it to us jtr on fnc. that is it for this week show but thanks to my panel and of course all of you for watching. i'm charles would paint you can catch me making money on the business channel weekdays at 2:00 p.m. paul is back next week, hope to see you then. ♪ ♪ ♪. rich: 's this threat