much. that is all in on this tuesday night. alex wagner starts right now. >> some other stuff lending itself to an era of tension and politicization of the high court. >> yes. >> amazing reporting. by the way, if any of the neighbors want to come speak to me about what they saw open invitation. n invitation. okay, do you remember the 1980s mobster comedy wise guys >> a jacket for me, mr. costello, thanks >> a gangster's life is a brutal calling i will one day. >> it's part of a grand design >> a super error into a date with destiny

if they just do on wise guys. >> i can't believe how things keep going our way. >> wise guys a buddy comedy about a two low level gang centers who work for a mafia don named costello and get into all sorts of high jinx. probably not the highlight of danny devito's long and successful career but it was sort of the high point for his co-star joe piskapoe. he wept onto play a hapless mobster from the 1930s alongside michael keyton from the movie dangerously. two years later he played a modern version of the same character in wise guys. after that he did not get a lot of other leading roles until today when joe piscopo was among

the retinue of odd characters who came to a manhattan courthouse to support donaldma trump. the witness on the stand was robert costello, the trump affiliated lawyer who michael cohen says pressured cohen to stay loyal to donald trump. now, you might say to yourself is it really a good idea to have a criminal defendant, donald trump, sitting next to joe piscopo, a guy named for playing a mobster g in the fictional costello crime family while a brash trump lawyer fellow named robert costello took the stand inok real life to face question about his own mauf mafia-like brush up. cause playing mafia oc is sort of trump world's whole thing.

yesterday costello was smacked down by the judge in the case by his smacky wise guy attitude in court. today susan haufen jr took him apart on the stand reading a series of e-mails that revealed costello to be acting like a hired gun for donald trump at a time when costello was supposed to be acting like michael cohen's lawyer. he was just one of the e-mails about cohen read today in court. our issue is to get cohen on the right page without give the appearance we'reiv following instructions fromce rudy giulia or the president, donald trump. it was not subtle at all. what prosecutors today were able to do with the help of supporting cast member joe piscopo is once again highlight the mob-like quality of the entire trump affair. here's how he described the pressure he was getting from trump to congress in 2019. >> mr. trump called me a rat for

choosing to tell the truth, much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government. >> over theer years we sl seen lot of people describe trump's pressure campaigns and demands for loyalty as mob-like. but probably the most high profile person to do so is this man, former fbi director james comey. before becoming fbi director comey made a name for himself investigating the gambino crime family, so he's a guy who very much knows what mafia crime tactics lookcr like up close. trump put pressure on comey to end michael flynn. trump told comey he wanted loyalty from his fbi director. when comey did not give trump that idloyalty, trump fired him. this was how james comey went

onto describe his interactions with president trump. >> i had a flashback to my days investigating the mafia. i felt this effort to make us all -- maybe this wasn't their intention but how it felt to me, we're all part of the message, all part of the effort. the boss is at the head of the table and we're going to figure out how together how to do this. >> how strange is it for you to sit here and compare the former president to a mob boss? >> very strange, and i do it lightly. and i'm not trying to suggest president trump is off breaking legs and shaking down shop keep, but instead what i'm talking about is that leadership culture constantly comes back to me when i think about my experience with the trumpou administration. >> so james comey had a front row seat to observe this mafia-style management and we were reminded of that during this trial. during one pivotal moment in the testimony david pecker testified he walked in on a trump tower

meeting in early 2017 between president-elect director comey and several members of trump staff. pecker was there to update trump on the hush money arranget that his magazine had orchestrated karen mcdougal on trump's behalf. comey was there to update trump on a shooting and privately brief him on the existen of the steele doss yr. pecker testified when trump introduced pecker to comey and the others trump joked here's david pecker. he's the owner, the publisher of the national enquirer, and he probably knows more than anybody else in this room. the suggestion beingn that a tabloid publisher would know more than the director of the fbi because in trump's world the person who knows the most is the one who is the most loyalty. joining me now is james comey, thes author of two fictional crime novels. the latest is called west port,

it details a murder at the world's largest hedge fund and is out today. director, it's good to see you. thank you for being here, author. we're going to get to the book in a minute, but i do have to ask you when we thought so much about the way you characterized the trump administration and his management style over the course of the last few weeks revelation upon revelation about how trump and his associates operated, as you have watched this from the side lines given this sort of hypothesis you made public, this is a form of organized crime that operates like that, what have you thought? >> it felt familiar to me. i found my own reaction so dramatic i tried to suppress it, but it kept coming back and coming back. it's back fully now watching thisll trial. even did the trick. like godfather 2 he brings franky's brother from sicily to

try to rattle him. >> they didn't have to travel as far. >> and even dressed as the mobsters do. it felt familiar. >> wae read that excerpt from david pecker's testimony talking about the meeting. trump says he knows more than anybody else. do you remember that meeting? >> i wrote down everything that happened w and if you read my memos that's not recorded in it. doesn't mean pecker is being dishonest. he may just have a different recollection than i do.ec some of the checks donald trump allegedly signedon also on key dates in the administration. for example, the day donald trump sent aex $70,000 check to michael cohen reimbursing him allegedly for theg hush money payments to stormy daniels, that's the same day trump was

pressuring you to end -- it does suggest throughout the trump presidency heut may have been shall we say multitasking. i do wonder as we go back to the idea that the trump organization indeed the trump presidency may have operated in the kind of organized crime, syndicate crime fashion what parallels do you see in the boss being involved in alls of the business, if yo will? >> well, he, kind of turned th oval office into a social cub, a version of john gadi's ravenite social club. i wasn't there to that time to see him. i was his chief of staff who thenta said hey you want to vis the boss, no, he's busy. no, don't worry about it, come on, come on. >> that sounds very much like a godfather come in and kiss the ring. >> yeah, you wantan to see the g man basically, and i tried very

hard not to, but he ushered me in. that was one of my encounters with the president. >>er it seems like there were these colorful characters to be uf mystic about it mixing in the normal day to day affairs of the white house. did it strike you odd or was it the way trump was? >> odd that wasn't the way other pre-s operated. i'd seen other presidents up close and they exercised discipline, information management. but this was chaotic, but that was the way of this particular boss. >> i've got toy ask you becaus we've been talking about so much the way in which the prosecution is laying out a case that suggests the trump campaign was desperate to quell another october surprise, right? we didn't learn about stormy daniels in the literal hours leading up to election day. we did hear more about hillary clinton's e-mails. i know you played an instrumental role in all of that, and i wonder how you're thinking about the sort of

information control in and around the election and whether, you know, you have anyn regret? >> i have a deep and lasting regret we were involved at all. i felt in the exact moment i was brief on the investigation on the 27th of october. it's interesting now to look back and see trying to figure out which of our options was the least bad, all of this was going on the trump side trying to suppress information. obviously i knew nothing about it and tried not to think about the political in making that decision, but it's a strange overlap of events. >> can i ask you about this desire to not think about the political? because this department of justice especially in its early days seemed very concerned about appearing too political. in the aftermath of january 6th there are a lot of t folks on bh sides of the aisle that say merrick garland and the doj were too concerned about the appearanceer of going after tru

after january 6th. do you have an opinion on that? >> as someone who's caught a lot of rocks i'm reluctant to throw any, but i think they learned lessons from my own experience and from the trump administration, and they were too slow. and it cost us because we got a special counsel late in the game. given what they were trying to accomplish i get why they did it, but i still think it was a mistake. >> how do you feel when this hush money trial is likely to be the onlyli criminal trial that goes forward? given where the calender is this is the only one where it looks like the american public will have a verdict on before the election? and a law enforcement guy are you frustrated by the way this is unfolding? >> yes. but i also have found this trial to be a great civics lesson for

the american people.vi it appears more paying attention than i would have expected and this is how it works. you may not lose supporters when you shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue but you will be held accountable, and this is what accountability likes like. you have to sit at that table no matter who you are and shut up. the jury is what matters. this is how it works and it's a great lesson for the american people. the rule of lawhe in this count especially the court system has passed its stress test slow on the federal side but this is a great example for our people. >> you say it's passed its stress test. are you concerned it may get a test unlike any other if donald trump is elect snd when you think about a second trump administration what do you think the implications would be for the fbi? >> oh, serious for the justice department and fbi because trump is coming for those institutions. he knows their power and i think he has regrets he did not work hard enough to corrupt them last time, so he's coming for them

and that's a danger for all americans. he's going to put people in thoset positions. he'll have the bottom of the barrel b this time but people w will want p to do his will, and that should worry every american. this election matters because of a reason like that. people have to participate. you can't sit on the side line. i don't care how t you feel abo joe biden you must vote for him because the consequences on the other side aree too severe. >> i will note so you've written two books, and they're best sellers. you're billed as "the new york times" best selling author, not to mention oh, yes also director of the fbi. is this just another act we're not looking back, we're only looking forward? >> no, it's something i've done i've fallen in love with so i'm a grandfather and a full-time writer and that fills my life. so i'm writing about things i know, the worlds i know, but i'm glad other people are bearing

those responsibilities i once. >> i'm sure in a moment like this you're happy to be a footnote in the mention ofy th trial and not the subject of it yourself. former fbi director and "the new york times" best selling author james comey, author again of the novel westport, which is on sale right now. it's been a real pleasure to talk to you about this. great to get your perspective. >> thank you. coming up, election denialism. it is proving very, very expensive for rudy giuliani. his new financial lifeline decalf rudy, i'm not even kidding. and the criminal trial of the former president and now the very tricky part begins. i'll have more on that and what happens next after the break. t happens next after the break

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president trump, are you going to testify? >> yes. >> do you plan to testify in court? >> probably so. i would like to. i mean i think so. >> today the defense rested in the new york criminal hush money trial where donald trump did not end up testifying. but robert costello, the former legal advisor to the prosecution's star witness, michael cohen, did testify with the goal of undermining cohen's credibility. it didn't exactly work out that way. instead mr. costello ended up

corroborating parts of cohen's testimony. on may 14th he testified i didn't trust him. meaning bob costello, i believed upon all our conversations he would immediately run back to mr. giuliani and that conversation would be divulged to president trump. multiple e-mails confirmed exactly that, showing that costello was indeed acting as a back channel to trump and giuliani precisely as michael cohen claimed he was. joining me now are kristi greenberg, former federal prosecutor and former sdny criminal deputy chief, and duncan levine, former district attorney for the eastern district of new york. there's a lot of legal stuff i want to get to, but first on the big picture, kristi, was it a good idea for the defense to end with bob costello? >> it was a bad idea. it chaep helped bolster michael cohen's credibility. anything that makes michael cohen smelling like a rose, you have to think that's a bad idea

interest the defense, but these e-mails today oozing with slime. michael cohen testified this guy wanted to me by lawyer, but i didn't really trust him, i thought he was working for donald trump, and sure enough we get e-mails today where the e-mails are pretty explicit, we've got to make it appear as though we're not acting under the instruction of rudy giuliani or the president. like it's it in writing, and the defense knows these e-mails exist so like why in the world would you call this guy? putting aside all the antics that also happened in front of the jury where he was just blatantly disrespectful not something you would expect with a lawyer as a witness much less somebody who held my position as a former federal prosecutor. it's maddening. all the things the style and substance, it was a total train wreck for the defense. >> okay, in no uncertain terms, bad idea. the stage we're at now judge merchan is deliberating on a number of instructions the jury is going to be given, which is

very important if a little bit dry, but this is kind of where the rubber meet the road, right? >> yeah, i mean not all lawyering can be sexy as hush money payments and recorded tapes, but is more like reading the fine print of a contract. but it's so important because this is the way in which the xi interacts with all the evidence before it. the proscaution -- judge merchan hasn't ruled formerly on most of the requests but looks like it was a mixed bag for most of the defense. the prosecution won a big victory today or i should say a somewhat big victory today -- >> a meaningful victory. >> in some of the small precipitate. two of the elements of the offense is that the falsification of business records was done with the intent to defraud and the intent to conceal the commission of another offense -- >> that's the felony charge step up. >> that's the bump up. and on that bump up the prosecution went through two victories. one is that those are not too separate things, the intent to

defraud and intent to conceal the commission of another crime are the same thing. the more interesting thing is it looks like judge merchan is ruling not all of the jurors need to be unanimous in the way in which he covered up this conspiracy to promote an election by unlawful means, meaning that one juror could decide the stormy daniels payment does it. one jury could decide it was the karen mcdougal payment that did it. another could decide it was a pax payment that did it. that gives the prosecution a lot of flexibility. >> and that seems like something alvin bragg fore saw because we understand what the misdemeanor, there needs to be that secondary step up charge, and blag long maintained correct me if i'm wrong, it could be a number of things. what are the things you're going to pursue? he never outlined clearly one thing and sounds like the judge said that's fine, it could be a

number of different things and jurors come to conclusions. >> yes, the one caveat i believe is still an open question is whether those unlawful means must be criminal, which is what the defense may be arguing as to whether it could be unlawful, meaning it could also be civil, and the defense was really key on wanting to have this willfully language put in meaning that you know you're acting intentionally, and what you're doing is going to result in a violation of the crime -- of the law. so the judge hadn't quite decided on yet, but i agree with duncan this is a win for the prosecution and gives them more flexibility. >> there's a moment it sounds like judge merchan is giving a meaningful victory. >> it changes the way they interact with the jurors. the first element is that donald trump caused the false records to be -- the new records to be

falsified. now, the statute itself doesn't define what is cause, and the prosecution's asking for a very expansive and his actions basically led to this foreseeable event, that his actions were reasonably foreseeable. >> that he was ordering or he is suggesting to weisselberg to sort of come up with scheme by which to pay off stormy daniels -- he was the chicken that laid the egg in the machine of payments to stormy daniels. >> one thing started the ball rolling and what he did basically set in motion some events that reasonably was foreseeable that would have caused this, so the judge indicated he is unlikely to give that instruction. the reason that's important is there's really no evidence in the case yet donald trump picked up the phone and called michael cohen or allen weisselberg. it puts a lot more emphasis on michael cohen's direct testimony where he said he ordered it, he

authorized it whereas before you could say even without michael cohen it's a strong circumstantial case. there may be one juror who said maybe he didn't cause the false records to be filed, so you can see where these instructions, look, it may be there are two lawyers on this jury, and these things just change the way the jury is going to look at the evidence and think about it. >> well, just to think about donald trump's role in it, right? i mean all along the defense has tried to cast doubt on the degree to which trump was really engaged in this, and the prosecution has suggested he knew where every dollar was going to go. he didn't want to pay $650 for a tiffany frame and it sort of sounds like there's a potentially higher standard of proof. >> yes, though i will say he signed nine of the checks. like there are 34 counts but nine of those counts is the check he personally signed. and again attached to that is the invoice that says it's for a

retainer for legal services, which is false. so hard to see at least with those nine counts how even with an instruction like this we couldn't get to a guilty verdict on those nine. and those nine should be enough. >> should the operate chb word. i want to ask you about the timing here. we're ending with costello. merchan is going to give the instructions -- going to finish writing the instructions whatever that means later this week the jury will get them next week. this is a delay, duncan, right? there's several days during which a jury is like potentially marinating on things, and i wonder if you have a thought about who is at an advantage in that. >> its an unforeseeable scheduling issue. what the judge decided is he didn't want too much time and skenling issues this week with some of the jurors anyway. there's going to be some dead

time later this week and then memorial day, and he made a decision to have a break now rather than try to muddle through this week and have a break for memorial day and get started on tuesday. i don't know it benefits one side or the other. probably it benefits both sides. the lawyers are going to be feverishly working until tuesday morning when they make these closing statements and they'll be working on both sides like crazy to hone these arguments. they'll be moving them to their colleagues and friends and practicing in the mirror. i think for both sides it's benefitting everybody. >> that was spoken like someone who's practiced in the mirror before. >> once or twice. >> duncan levine, kristi greenberg, so great to have you on here to decipher what's happening. still ahead tonight a booming economy, a closed border, the restoration of law and order and oh, a unified

reich. the new conservative priorities coming up next. the new conservative priorities coming up next

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headlines that read economy booms and american prosperity is back are sort of the things you might expect from a trump campaign video about what a second term might look like, but then there's this one. industrial strengthen

significantly increased driven by the creation of a unified reich. that would be a reference to the third reich, the official nazi designation for hitler's murderous genocidal regime. the headlines reposted to the social media account of the republican front-runner. now, the trump campaign says the video came from a random account that a staffer reposted on truth social account and also his instagram while trump was in court yesterday. this is how the biden campaign has responded. parting mein kampf while you warn of a bloodbath if you lose is the type of unhinged behavior you get. ginning me is a person who knows the republican mind better than most. mckay, thank you for being here. i should say your colleague, david graham, points out there's

a stock template that could be part of a plausible explanation how these headlines made their way into that video. we have no reporting on that. we can't confirm that one way or another, but the fact of the matter is anti-semitic nazi language seems to be winding its way into conservative circles with more frequency here, but i wonder if you can talk about the way this instance is part of a larger and broader pattern of radicalization on the right? >> i think that's well said because this is part of a pattern. i think people see stuff like this and it's easy to jump to the conclusion trump is like a crypto hitler fan. it's something more nuanced but actually maybe more alarming, which is that throughout republican politics and throughout the conservative movement at the activist level, a -- the rising generation of conservative activists and people who are going into conservative media and republican politics have been raised on a steady diet of --

of, you know, trigger the libs-style politics, which is to say they parrot fascistic rhetoric, racist rhetoric in a quasi-ironic way but meant to gin up support among unseemly people but really frighten people on the left, and they think it's funny, right? the problem is that the longer people kind of live in that digital universe where they're pretending to be fascists or neo-nazis or racists, the more the line between performance and reality starts to blur. and you've seen this time and again with people who are found out to be, for example, producers on tucker carlson's fox news show or, you know, writers -- speechwriters in the white house. stephen miller, for example. these people are people who have spent so much time, you know, kind of trying to upset the left

by parroting nazi or fascistic rhetoric they've sort of started to adopt those views unironically. i think that's bay why to make this point quickly why repeatedly when trump's campaign is caught using fascisticic rhetoric or trump is caught blatantly dining with someone like nick fuentes they're like it was bad staffers. at some point you have to ask, well, why is the staff so willing to make these mistakes over and over again. >> right. i thought immediately of your stephen miller piece that suggests he's so intent on owning the libs and melting the liberal snowflakes he starts embracing a sort of radical right vision that comes to fruition once he's in the white house with a muslim ban or child

separation policy he wholeheartedly embraces that he's not actually an architect of. i understand the stephen miller point of it 2.0. i do wonder how you think the josh hawleys and churning the libs style self-radicalization of republican politics, how they fit into that context you laid out? >> i think it's a great point because i think ted cruz is an example of somebody who was raised in a republican party where being a young conservative meant being kind of a young william buckley, right? he was probably like he was a nerd, he went to harvard, he wore blazers and, you know, with flag pins. he was like that kind of guy coming up through the republican party of reagan and bush, but, you know, he's in the senate now, and i can think of relatively few senators who are better at adopting that kind of

lib-triggering snowflake melting right-wing trolling attitude than ted cruz. would he approve of a campaign ad that uses an oxy rhetoric? probably not on the record, but is it possible in private that he's chuckling about it? i think that's possible. there's a generational thing that's happened where i think a lot of republicans i think who are currently in office have had to adapt to this new ethos that donald trump has championed, and you see it at every level of the gop. >> yeah, and that would be my next question, which is what of the republican voters, right? biden is making the argument people are rejecting anti-democratic fascist ideology. we all have seen the polls. this is going to be a very tight race between the man the figure head of this movement, donald trump, and the man who stands in opposition to it, joe biden. does that argument about

fascism, does the shadow of the reich whether intentional or unintentional move voters in the republican party at this point? i mean are they along with the ride with trump and stephen miller? has the roller coaster left -- you know, has the train left the station? >> you know, i think certainly some of trump's supporters are along for the ride and they cheer stuff like this or think it's funny. i think a lot of republican voters -- the thing is there's negative partisanship is such a strong force in our politics at this point that a lot of republican voters who wouldn't approve of stuff like this or even be scandalized by it, when they live in their kind of algorithmically tailored information bubble it's always framed in this kind of what about fashion. the pivot is to look at this terrible thing democrats are doing. and so i don't know if these

sentiments are really widely held in the republican party, but i will say joe biden has staked his campaign on denormalizing donald trump in this type of rhetoric. i'm not sure if as a campaign tactic it's going to be successful, and i guess we'll find out in november. >> we'll find out what our country's all about after that. mckay, thank you for being here. i really appreciate your time and reporting on all of this. mckay coppins with the atlantic. when we come rudy giuliani's money woes continue in arizona. but don't worry he's got plans to earn some cash. more on that just ahead. to earn some cash. more on that just ahead.

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you all know i stand by the truth, and if i put my name on something i truly believe in it. >> that was former trump attorney rudy giuliani this sunday. this time the famed mr. giuliani is putting his name and claiming is the truth isn't an election lie and it's not a conspiracy theory. it is this. >> today i'm thrilled to introduce you to something i'm incredibly proud of. my own brand of organic specialty coffee, rudy coffee. believe me when i say it's the best coffee you'll ever try. it's smooth, rich, chocolaty, and gentle on your stomach. >> chocolaty.

on sunday giuliani launched this, $30 direct to consumer coffee. now, we already knew that rudy giuliani was desperate for cash because of the nearly $150 million defamation judgment against him and the million dollars plus he still allegedly owes his former lawyers and the loss of income after he was fired from his long running radio gig earlier this month. in bankruptcy proceedings giuliani has claimed he owes more than $153 million to 49 different creditors. and today we got one more reason why rudy giuliani might be desperate for his followers to buy his gentle on the stomach coffee. today rudy giuliani was arraigned in arizona for his role in that state's fake elector scheme. not in person, though. he appeared virtually. at that hearing prosecutors explained that for weeks now their office had been attempting to serve mr. giuliani with his

indictment, but giuliani had been avoiding them. not particularly well, though. prosecutors claim they could tell where giuliani was because he was constantly live streaming video of himself at identifiable locations. but whenever authorities tried to serve mr. giuliani at those locations they were turned away and told he wasn't there. giuliani even taunted authorities online this past friday saying if arizona authorities can't find me be tomorrow morning they must dismiss the indictment. sort of a weird dare. he's not waldo. less than two hours after that tweet, arizona authorities did indeed find giuliani outside of his 80th birthday party where they served him the papers. today in his virtual court appearance, giuliani claimed he did not resist being served at all and claims it was all a misunderstanding. the judge, however, did not buy it and he hit giuliani with a $10,000 bond to secure his next appearance in person.

giuliani now has 30 days to get to arizona and get booked into the system or forfeit $10,000 he likely can't afford to lose. if that doesn't wake rudy giuliani up to the fact that he actually has to comply with law enforcement, well, maybe his coffee will. we'll be right back. coffee will. we'll be right back.

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today senate majority leader chuck schumer told reporters that he is in discussions with house speaker mike johnson about whether to invite israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to appear before a joint session of congress. this comes just two months after schumer issued a scathing rebuke of netanyahu's handling of gaza on the floor of the senate and it comes just a day after the international criminal court, the icc, announced it would be seeking arrest warrants for netanyahu, israel's defense minister, and senior hamas leaders alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity. joining me now is ben rhodes,

former national security advisor under president obama and co-host of course of "pod save the world." thank you for being here. you and i have talked about the iergscc before under different circumstances, and i wonder what you think of biden's reaction that these arrest warrants are, quote, outrageous? >> it felt a little over the top to you the truth. i think anyone expects the u.s. to support icc warrants related to the israeli officials. the u.s. is not a signatory to the icc. the u.s. generally has not supported icc jurisdiction over israel or palestine, and icc believes its jurisdiction is based on a recognition of palestine. that said, there's some real problems with this for the u.s. one is the icc does recognize -- or the u.s. does recognize icc jurisdiction over russian war crimes even though russia's not

a signatory, so the kind of hypocrisy in u.s. foreign policy is pretty glaring in this case because the argument we make about why the icc can't investigate is kind of literally indirectly in contrast with the airport we made about why they should be able to make those kinds of investigations as it relates to russia. and also the u.s. itself has said that israel has restricted the flow of aid into gaza. u.s. officials including samantha powers said there's a famine in gaza, and the icc determination around the request for a warrant was tied to the use of starvation as a weapon of war, so it's kind of tied to things u.s. officials themselves have said, so kind of puts the u.s. in this position where we seem to be applying a different standard in this case than what we would apply in other cases, so i'm not surprised that the u.s. is refusing to support the icc, but the kind of decibel level of the response and

frankly the indulgence of some kind of maga republicans who want to sanction an institution like the icc feels like they're a bit over their ski zones. >> and speaking of inkulging maga republicans i do wonder what you make of the strange choreography between chuck schumer and mike johnson of this invite to netanyahu to address this joint session of congress given schumer's position he took effectively two months ago saying netanyahu has to go and the way the republicans seem to be successfully splitting the democratic coalition and even the democrat himself who's leading the senate. >> look, here's the reality of the situation. netanyahu is leading the most far-right coalition in the history of israel. netanyahu has been a thorn in the side of democratic presidents. he last came to congress at ininvitation of the republican speaker of the house to literally give a speak arguing against barack obama's foreign policy. and president biden himself has

criticized repeatedly increasing levels netanyahu's conduct of the war in gaza. and yet there's a reluctance to kind of follow that all the way to the logic of saying on the democratic party we don't want to continue to provide offensive military weapons to israel. we believe that there should be a cease-fire. i think what the republicans can sense is a kind of ambivalence in the democratic party. there are a lot of democratic constituencies that are appalled by the humanitarian crisis in gaza and don't understand why we would kind of give a blank check of support to a far-right government in israel that is ignoring repeatedly the president of the united states. there are also people in the democratic party deeply uncomfortable with being out of step with the israeli government, and the republicans smelling that are going to do everything they can whether it's trying to sanction the icc, whether it's inviting netanyahu to take advantage of that. in those circumstances i think the best thing you can do is

stand by your principles, and that would be my advice to democratic leaders. >> i do wonder you talk about the hard right government in israel that does not particularly want president biden to win re-election. israeli officials are -- sorry, netanyahu's meeting with former trump officials including robert o'brien and other, you know, high level former trump aides. do you read into that? >> this is not subtle, alex. in 2012 netanyahu supported mitt romney. he was very close to president trump. they literally named streets and settlements in israel after donald trump under bibi netanyahu. there's every reason to believe netanyahu has a preference for trump in this election. that's not a new dynamic. part what is so frustrating to me we continue to be surprised netanyahu would completely ignore the u.s. president, would kind of undermine the u.s.

president. well, he's been doing this to democrats certainly as long as i've been around. the eight years that barack obama was president and now the nearly four years joe biden was president. democrats have to kind of get their minds around we like to project onto israel the kind of government we would like there to be in israel. we have the government that is, which is bibi netanyahu is beholden for his political survival to the most far right elements that has ever been in his coalition, and that's just the reality staring us in the face. >> the world as it is. ben rhodes, thank you for your time. that is our show for this evening. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. testimony wraps up in donald trump's criminal hush money trial without the former president taking the stand. we'll recap what happened in court yesterday and go through with the remaining time line for the case. also ahead israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu may soon give a joint address to