watching the 11th hour tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. thank you both very much. that does it for us this morning. wow, what a day. ana cabrera and josé diaz-balart pick up the coverage right now. ♪♪ >> good morning, and thank you for joining us. i'm ana cabrera reporting alongside my colleagues josé diaz-balart and katy tur, who is with us from trump tower this morning where just an hour from now donald trump will hold his first news conference since that sweeping guilty verdict in his new york criminal hush money trial. >> making him the first american president to become a convicted felon. trump decrying the verdict as his legal team readies an appeal, sentencing set for the 11th of july. >> and joining jose, katy and myself to kick off this hour,

colleagues who have been covering the trial from the beginning. msnbc's legal analyst lisa rubin, "new york times" investigative reporter susanne craig, and former federal prosecutor and former sdny criminal division deputy chief, kristy greenberg. >> katy, let's set the stage for what's going on at trump tower where we anticipate him speaking in about an hour, right? >> the assembled press is here. this is the first time i believe everyone has been back in this lobby since the donald trump transition. donald trump is going to come town his golden elevators behind me as a man running for president again, as a former president, yes, but also as a man who has now been convicted on 34 felony counts. the first former president to ever be convicted of a crime and certainly the first one, former president to be running again now that they are convicted on all of those felony counts. and he's doing it, guys, at the

literal scene of the crime here in trump tower. this is where david pecker and michael cohen testified that the scheme to influence the 2016 election corruptly as the prosecutors successfully argued was hatched, that david pecker was in donald trump's office 20 some odd floors above me as michael cohen and donald trump asked him what he could do for the campaign and david pecker said i can catch and kill stories. your eyes and ears. i can find negative stories about you before they come to light and i can bury them. that is where donald trump is holding this press conference. it's going to start in about an hour. we don't know what he's going to say. we haven't had prepared remarks, but we do also know what he's going to say because he's been saying it all along, that the system is rigged against him, that the court was rigged against him, that the judge was unfair, the prosecution was unfair. will he go after the jury? he's been gagged and told not to

do so. will he do so now? he's claimed wrongly, falsely, that this is a political prosecution that the democrats foisted upon him. this is a plot by joe biden. that is not true, but the underlying message here is that he's telling -- overlying message, he's telling the american public, his supporters in particular, that you can't trust the american judicial system. he's already told them you can't trust the electoral system, our elections if he does not win, and we saw what happened in the aftermath of that in january of 2021. now he's saying you can't trust the courts when i'm on the other side of things, when i have been convicted. the question going forward is what does that mean for this election? nobody yet can say, there's been polling, yes, that's shown that people don't to want vote for somebody who's been convicted of a crime, convicted of a felony.

that was a hypothetical. it's always wishy-washy to rely on a hypothetical. how would it affect voters going forward, but also, if donald trump is running on an anti-democracy platform saying you can't trust our judiciary, you can't trust our elections, if he is elected again and serves as president again, what sort of president is he going to be when he's somebody who's run against all of these institutions? he decries political prosecutions. it's also something that he's threatening himself if he gets back into the white house. those are the questions that i'll certainly have for donald trump today. >> so many questions, we don't know if he will take questions, and of course there will be other questions that linger up until and beyond election day because this such a first, such an unprecedented situation here in the united states of america. let's talk more about what is to come. lisa, you've been in court every day of the seven-week trial as

trump was defendant. now he is convicted felon, and he will face sentencing. what happens next in the legal sphere? >> so in the legal sphere, we're going to see some briefing in the next few weeks on june 13th, the defense will have an opportunity to submit its brief. on june 22nd, we'll see one from the district attorney's office, and of course in between and prior to june 13th in all likelihood, todd blanche has the responsibility given to him by judge merchan of arranging an interview between his client and the probation department. that's necessary because as kristy well knows, prior to sentencing a probation department has to write a report that a judge can rely upon and use to take into consideration when determining what sentence here is appropriate. but most importantly in those briefs, you will see each side's position on what sentence is appropriate. the statute in question, the felony falsification of business records carries a penalty of up

to four years imprisonment as well as fines, but neither of those are mandatory and probation only can be the sentence here. the question is whether the d.a. will recommend some term of imprisonment here, and i believe that they will. one reason why is not only were there 34 counts here and anybody else who was convicted of falsification of business records as a felony would likely have that kind of term imposed, but more importantly, donald trump here is not showing any remorse, and remorse is a very important factor in sentencing. in fact, in addition to not showing remorse, he is showing the opposite. there are a number of alleged violations of the gag order that members of the press saw him do transparently in the last couple of weeks that the d.a.'s office never brought to judge merchan's attention in contrast to the ten that he's already found,right?

that will be a consideration for them in their post trial briefing as well. consider as you decide what sentence is appropriate that he still, despite your order went after my daughter or went after your daughter, for example, went after matt colangelo, one of the prosecutors. >> even commenting on michael cohen the date of deliberations. >> there's no doubt that trump's defense is going to appeal this, right? here was his attorney todd blanche on "today" about that process. >> i think the recusal issue is meaningful. i think the statute of limitation, the way -- the background of why this case was brought is meaningful. i think that the witnesses, i do not think michael cohen should ever be somebody who can be relied upon to convict somebody. >> what grounds do you see there for an appeal? i mean, that they don't like one of the witnesses, kind of i don't know of any defense attorney who likes the witnesses for the prosecution in any case.

>> that's what cross examination is for. in terms of recusal as a basis for appeal, that is an uphill battle. judge merchan went to the new york ethics commission and got an opinion and said, okay, here's the issue with my campaign donation. here's the facts relating to my daughter's employment. what do you think i should do? they said we don't see any conflict of interest here. we think you can partially adjudicate this case, and he agreed. that is in the record. they tried to say there were changed circumstances when there weren't any. there is a clear record here and i guess my question for todd blanche is if you think that judge merchan is compromised because of his daughter's employment, i'd love to see him come out about justice alito and, you know, his wife. i mean, in that circumstance you saw justice alito didn't go to seek any opinion from anybody

else before he said i'm fine to preside over the january 6th case. what's good for the goose is good for the gander here and there's one side that's doing this the right way in seeking outside counsel on whether there are conflicts of interest, and the other side isn't. and the double standard couldn't be more clear. >> what would be grounds for appeal? >> i think it's going to be more in the legal weeds, right? we haven't seen a situation where you have the state, you know, crime for falsified business records, and then the step up that makes it the felony in order to conceal the federal election -- it's a state crime, the state new york election law, but then the unlawful means that's part of that is federal. it's tricky and it has r hasn't -- that federal piece is the unlawful means hasn't been used before. i suspect they'll challenge that. however, again, the other crime here that they ended up using was new york election law. i think that was a very smart move from them, and i think it really incident latsed them from

the appellate challenge they were expecting if they had just said the second crime was federal. >> sue, we didn't hear from alvin bragg during the trial. he obviously faced a ton of criticism from trump. he did give a press conference. he didn't take a great big celebratory victory lap. he was pretty i guess somber you could even say in his remarks. he expressed a lot of gratitude to his team and really focused on the jury in his remarks saying the only voice that matter is the voice of the jury. saying i did my job, but most importantly the jurors have spoken. talk to us about your observations of how alvin bragg has handled this case from the beginning until now almost the end. >> what i think of how alvin bragg has handled it, i think about new york's attorney general and how after the civil case, letitia james took a victory lap, reminding him of

how much interest would be. alvin bragg has been in court some days, very quiet. when i was watching his remarks. i almost saw a thought bubble over his head that said, first of all, he's aware this is not over there. is an appeal coming and i also thought there was a question that was notable to joshua steinglass his leading attorney on this. alvin bragg handled the question. they are being so just even about this. you could barely detect a smile when their victory came in for them, you know, the guilty across the board came in. so i think they're just kind of being the too cool for school is -- they're just very even, and there's going to be long days ahead because this is going to go up on appeal. >> ladies, stay with us. we want to bring in michael cohen's friend and former attorney lanny davis now.

thanks for taking the time. have you spoken with michael cohen since the verdict? >> i haven't. he's obviously very busy and i'm just glad to start with the topic. this is a profile in courage, and all credit to michael cohen for taking paint and doing the time. according to donald trump's justice department prosecutors and i hope today somebody can ask him this question. his prosecutors charged this crime. michael cohen did the time and those prosecutors in a written report on sentencing publicly stated that donald trump directed michael cohen toot this crime so every time he complains about this case he forgets that his justice department supervised the southern district of new york prosecutor who is brought the same charges under federal law that exist under new

york state law for paying for silence before an election for political reasons that they said constituted a danger to our democracy, not just hush money for sex. they said his prosecutors said this was a serious crime, and michael cohen had to do the time, and then they added the time that michael cohen served was at the direction and coordination of individual one. so his own prosecutors said that mr. trump directed michael cohen to do this serious crime. that's really the focus i wanted all of you to remember today is that document. it's a public document. is the sentencing memo of december 7th, 2018. >> it's katy tur from tower. i know michael cohen is continuing to fight some legal battles, and yesterday there was an appeal to the supreme court regarding his remanding back to otisville jail after he was on

provisional release for covid. what can you tell us about that? >> again, i have to be careful. i'm not representing him anymore, but i'm still obligated in many ways. i can only tell you that what he's went through that's a public fact is that the same federal prosecutors who geoffrey berman said were under a lot of pressure from donald trump's justice department, those prosecutors told a federal judge that he was sent back to prison during covid when he came in for a check on his ankle bracelet, but he was asked to sign a document that he wouldn't write a book, and he refused to sign the document. the federal prosecutors denied that was the reason he was sent back to prison and a federal judge said that assertion coming from donald trump's justice department was false. so he went back to prison in the middle of covid because he declined to waive his first

amendment rights. a lot of people forget about this bravery. i'm not just lauding michael cohen. i'm stating a fact. all credit to him taking the pain and all of the cross examination accusations against him have been now contradicted by a jury that i always said and always knew were corroborating everything that michael cohen testified to by documents that don't lie, by favorable witnesses to donald trump that can't be accused of being biased and that jury saw the documents, listened to the testimony from someone like home hicks or david pecker, who are friends of mr. trump, and that's why this conviction was not a surprise to me because documents don't lie. >> lanny, it's good to see you. just on a bigger picture, what do you think this conviction, these 34 felony convictions mean to michael cohen? >> again, i'm very hesitant to

speak for michael on a personal level. i know his feelings, and i know the pain this family has been through. i know that he's been through a lot of pain, and i've experienced how he's related to his family. one of the reasons he chose to tell the truth and turn away from mr. trump after ten years of working for him was as he said at the time, it was july 2018 when he said i'm doing this for my family and my country. so the answer to your question is i think he feels and has over the time period spoken about the need for vindication at all the pain he suffered. loss of his law license during prison time, and federal prosecutors saying he did this at the direction of the president of the united states that he now has been corroborated, his credibility has now been vindicated by 12 people on this jury.

>> lanny davis, thank you so much for being with us this morning. really appreciate it. >> thank you very much. our panel is back with us now. lisa, your thoughts on what we just heard. >> one of the things that lanny davis said i somewhat take issue with and i want to explain why. it is significant that in filings, federal prosecutors said on multiple occasions, not just in the sentencing memo, that what michael cohen did he did at the direction of and for the benefit of former president trump. what i take issue with is the repeated characterization of those prosecutors as trump prosecutors. the career prosecutors in the southern district involved in michael cohen no more belonged to donald trump than some of the career prosecutors in this prosecution belong to alvin bragg. i'm thinking in particular of josh steinglass, for example, who has been with the office for decades throughout at least three different district attorneys. i think he would take umbrage as being described as alvin bragg's

prosecutor in the same way that prosecutors in the department of justice would take issue with being described as belonging to a particular president or not. that is antithetical to the way that career prosecutors in the federal or state system -- >> you're right, they're not elected into those positions. it's experience that gets them there. >> it's experience, but it's also a civil service job. it's something that trump very much wants to change about the civil service. you'll remember at the end of his presidency, there was this whole discussion about schedule c employees and sort of taking out of the civil as much as a number of jobs that historically have come with some tenure irrespective of a presidential administration. when we start talking about career prosecutors, we are no better than people who talk about trump judges or obama judge. these people have a commitment to the rule of law and justice. i think that generally speaking of our judiciary as much as i think that about people in prosecutorial offices. and i know that kristy who serves in the southern district

probably has a perspective too. >> the southern district of new york has a nickname sovereign district of new york for a reason. the office is fiercely independent. if you read jeff berman's book of what happened during that time frame of how much he was trying to protect the michael cohen prosecution when bill barr came in from the -- i mean, bill barr wanted to have michael cohen's plea vacated because he knew it could affect donald trump down the road. geoff berman kept it in place. this idea that they were beholden to whatever the trump doj was doing, they were not. i completely agree with lisa's point that that's not how the office works. >> katy. >> reporter: lisa, i want to ask you a question about what happened when the verdict was read. alina habba said judge juan merchan was smirking. i was watching donald trump the whole time, i was not watching

judge juan merchan. what did you see? >> i saw something so different, katy. i did see juan merchan cover his mouth. on that alina habba and i can agree. but i have a very different interpretation of what he was doing. it was after the verdict was read, after the individual jurors had been pulled. judge merchan put his head down and sort of covered his mouth like this, and my read of that moment was not that juan merchan was trying to cover a smirk or a smile but that he was taking in the gravity of the moment before him, that he had just presided over a five-week trial in which a former president was convicted of a felony for the first time in our nation's history. he was collecting his thoughts, taking a breath and almost sighing understanding what still remained before him and then moving on from there to thank the jurors. i saw a man deeply impacted by the gravity of the moment, not somebody who was mocking what had happened to the defendant

before him. >> i know you weren't there yesterday, you've been there every single day but yesterday. that moment, whatever that is, of taking it in, how did you take it in? >> i would think it was just out of character for what we saw with the judge in terms of he's not betrayed a lot of emotion. that didn't strike me as believable. but just it's interesting because we were there every day and sometimes you get really bogged down in the minutia, and we're all doing like minute-by-minute play by plays on the trial, and it really does feel the moment now, it's monumentous, and it's interesting matching those two having gone through the minutia of the case every day and sat there and trying to read the tea leaves. it's something to think that the former president of the united states and the presumptive republican nominee is now a felon. >> as we get ready to hear from him this morning, what are your

top questions about kind of where this goes next? >> well, i think, we've been very focused on covering the trial as a legal proceeding, but this has always been politics for them. they're out fund-raising. i think we've gotten fund-raising notes since we've been here. i'm going to be interested both to see his response on the way out of court after he made those quick remarks yesterday. somebody threw him a question that he just didn't and it was why should americans vote far convicted felon. i think that's one thing that is going to be dogging him multiple times a day for the rest of the campaign. and almost just looking to see how the democrats try and weaponize this. it's going to be interesting in battleground states to see if we're going to be getting commercials. we don't know yet. it's going to become a big deal this summer. >> that's something we're going to continue to discuss this morning as well, susanne craig, lisa rubin, kristy greenberg, thank you all for the conversation and your dedicated

coverage throughout the trial. >> extraordinary, thank you. our teams are everywhere but they're in position at trump tower specifically this morning, where we expect to hear from donald trump the next hour following the decisive verdict against him. stay with us. special coverage on msnbc. special coverage on msnbc. to-s make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley what if you could go from this to this. with just one step tresemmé silk serum. time for the ultimate humidity test. weightlessly smooth hair your turn. new tresemmé keratin smooth collection. hi, i'm greg. i live in bloomington, illinois. i'm not an actor. i'm just a regular person. some people say, "why should i take prevagen? i don't have a problem with my memory." memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. i started noticing subtle lapses in memory.

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we're back with our continued special coverage following the verdict in donald trump's hush money trial, guilty on all 34 counts, and in just under an hour, we will hear from donald trump topping off a morning of firsts for him in america. the former president, presumptive republican nominee now criminally convicted. >> trump set to be sentenced just days before his party's convention, but will this unprecedented first for our country change the presidential race with election day just 157 days away if you're counting. nbc's shaquille brewster is in

kenosha, wisconsin. symone sanders townsend, former chief spokesperson, michael and symone co-host "the weekend" here on msnbc. any reaction from voters on the ground? >> reporter: hi there, i came up to wisconsin right after we got news of ha conviction. we have reporters fanned out across the country frankly talking to voters about their initial reaction to the conviction, and there's a couple patterns that you're picking up on. one, i'll tell you from a lot of my conversations, this is still being digests. there are so many people who said i saw a headline scrolling through tiktok or instagram, but i haven't gotten to really see the details. i don't know exactly what he's been convicted of. it's going to take some time for the news to really get to some people who aren't paying attention to every detail of the trial. secondly, if you already had your mind made up whether you're supporting trump or planning to vote for joe biden, it's not

altering. it's not moving the needle in their perspective. i want you to listen to some of the conversations that we've been having and hearing from voters not just here but across the country? >> i think it's politically motivated. i think he's probably guilty of having done that, but i don't think it was something that is necessarily indictable offense. >> it's a witch hunt, but a witch hunt for what though? he seems like he's guilty of everything and they're not really hiding it. >> as an american, it's very disappointing to have this sort of behavior in anybody who is at that level of our national government. >> reporter: one conversation that stuck with me is one that i had here in kenosha with someone who said he's leaning to supporting donald trump, but he said the conviction gives him pause, but he said he's likely going to stay with trump because he doesn't like biden and doesn't think he's a good

candidate. those are the conversations that you're hearing. it's early read, lots more conversations to be had. but that's at least the early sense we're hearing. >> and michael, trump's sentencing now july 11th, four days before the start of the rnc and the presumptive nominee has been convicted of 34 felonies. where does this place the republican party in this moment? >> i think full steam ahead. you've already seen and heard potentially vice presidential running mates as well as other leaders in the party come out and decry this verdict as un-american and an injustice, demonizing and trashing the judicial system and the jury system. so that tells you right there there is no inclination at this point to move away from trump.

in fact, the ring around him tightens, that ring of individual support tightens, so when it comes to the actual convention, while that ultimately will rest with the leadership of the party to decide whether this now convicted felon should be their nominee for president and how they think they can sell that to the american people, they will likely not want to move off of that, even though you go back and look at the access hollywood moment where reince priebus and others were wringing their hands and threatening trump and telling him that he had to stay in town, donald trump looked him in the eye and said try to move me out, right? i'm not standing down. i think this is that same kind of moment, and so he's the nominee. he's going to run the campaign between the convention and the election, and as we heard from

some of the voters that shaquille was talking to, they'll ultimately decide whether a convicted felon is the proper extension of who we are as a country. >> symone last night after the verdict, trump attended a fund-raising event. after his fund-raising site crashed because of an influx of donations. this morning his campaign is saying they raised nearly $35 million in small dollar donations in terms of when the verdict came in and midnight. what is going on? what is this? >> well, first of all, we need to wait to see the campaign finance report. i say that as someone who in a previous life would be on the phone and talking to people about the fund-raising numbers and putting out these types of press releases. in all of the campaigns i ever worked on we went through great pains to ensure that what we were saying was both accurate and true, and it brings me no joy to say this, the trump folk have not necessarily been

truthful nor accurate. so we need to wait for the campaign finance report to see how much money was raised yesterday. but i think what is going on is, look, there are a subset of voters in this country who have decided that donald trump is their guy. that should not be a surprise to anyone. he is the republican nominee, and i have every expectation that the republican party is going to officially nominate him in their convention in july. that being said the republican party electorate does not make the entirety of the american electorate. there are independent voters in this country. there are moderate democrats. there are strong democrats. moderate republicans. there are people that don't even subscribe to a political party who are seeing not just what the results of donald trump's actions yesterday because that is what this verdict is, a result of donald trump's actions, but have also seen all

the things donald trump has said and done up and to this and the things he is promising to do if he becomes president again. i don't think that bodes well for him. this is going to be a close election come november, but this verdict yesterday didn't win over any of the folks that donald trump needs to win over if he wants to be successful. >> hey, michael, it's katie again still at trump tower. we saw a pilgrimage of vp hopefuls come up here to manhattan during the criminal trial. some of them went into court with donald trump including doug burgum who was there a few times. marco rubio and other republican law makers. i've noticed marco rubio in particular posting about how this trial was unfair, likening it to the castro regime. marco rubio is somebody who i remember vividly in 2016 how he called donald trump a con artist, he wasn't fit to run. who do you expect to be the vice presidential nominee that donald trump chooses and what do you

imagine what sort of concessions do you imagine or wonder if they're making to themselves or to donald trump in order to get that role? >> well, there's only one concession, katy, that they have to make and that is their undying fealty to donald trump. trump learned a lot from his relationship with mike pence that cuminated on january 6th when pence made it very clear that he valued the constitution and the country more than he valued donald trump dictating what he should do. that being the backdrop to all of this, you're looking, he's looking at individuals who he can rely on to do everything he wants them to do no matter the consequences, and so you see that. so the marco rubios are just shameful theatrics, when you compare to what they said about the con man. so you've been conned, marco, and you're now proving your point from 2016, you know.

not just in his case but in the case of many of them, they have become the example of everything they said and warned about. what that says of their interest in the power and the proximity to power, the belief that donald trump's going to pick them. in the end, i think donald trump recognizes i can use these punks all day long and they'll do -- they will jump through hoops. they will dress alike. they will bark and sound alike because i want them to, and i'm not picking any of them. i think donald trump's already decided who he wants, and i think donald trump's looking at the transactional calculations involved here looking at a general election where it won't be enough to have someone who is just a sycophant. they've got to bring some extras. so you're looking at female potential candidates, and elise stefanik i've said for the longest time of all of these candidates potentially is the

one who best aligns with what trump wants to get and needs to get out of this election. we'll see but i just think he's just punking the fellas, got them all dressing up looking alike, sounding alike, and he's going to go in a different direction. he will have used them and gotten out of them what he wanted and held them in check for the time he needs them to be held, and there they are looking silly. >> symone, let me quickly get your reaction to some other political news just in within the last couple of minutes. joe manchin has now registered as an independent. we only have about 30 seconds, but give me your response or your reaction. >> joe manchin is such a lovely man, i am not surprised by this. senator manchin is -- i think he's just been very clear he doesn't want to do anything to elect donald trump, so i don't think that this is a signal that he's trying to get into the race. i don't know who a manchin voter would be. people shouldn't be surprised. this is how the senator

conducted himself as a senator in the united states senate. i know some voters out there will say, oh, he often seemed like a republican, but i think he truly did view himself as an independent senator, and now he's made it official. i'm not surprised at all. >> all right, we'll see what implications that has, leave the door open for him to run for senate as an independent or perhaps as governor. shaquille brewster, michael steele, symone sanders townsend, thank you both and all. you can catch michael and symone tomorrow on msnbc's "the weekend" starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. up next, we're going to be speaking to democratic congressman adam schiff who served on the january 6th committee and as an impeachment manager. congressman, it's great to see you. we'll chat in jachlt just a minute. d built for adventure. which can also be your own quiet cabin in tust a minute

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>> reporter: and welcome back. we are live in trump tower where donald trump is going to be holding a press conference at

11:00 a.m. eastern. we say press conference, it could just be remarks. we don't know if he's going to be taking questions from the assembled reporters. it's notable and i'm here with vaughn hillyard our nbc correspondent who's been covering the trump campaign. i said at the top of the show, it's notable that he's doing this news conference here at trump tower because it is the literal scene of the crime. it's where the prosecution alleged michael cohen and david pecker both testified that donald trump and the men hatched the scheme to interfere corruptly with the 2016 election. what are you expecting for today? >> right, the 26th floor. we just watched todd blanche go into the elevator and go up. when we were covering the transition after his election in 2016, we watched a great number of people go into that elevator, michael cohen perhaps most often among all of them here. i think the question is, number one, is donald trump actually going to take questions over the course of the last two years, he largely has not taken mainstream news organizations' questions, and so i think that we have already heard him share some

grievances about why did the prosecution not call allen weisselberg and keith schiller. the defense could have called them as well and chose not to. donald trump chose to not take the stand, and now todd blanche has suggested he followed the advice of counsel. does donald trump regret doing that. >> we could see him essentially take the stand here today and say whatever he wants to say without cross examination. >> we have heard from him, his sons, his allies, that november 6th is the real verdict day. that's the way they're framing this. i talked to two people at a fundraiser at manhattan, and they say he came in upbeat. this is their characterization. eric trump was there with him, impassioned and november 5th, that is the opportunity for them to win over the court of public opinion beyond the view -- >> they're so publicly adamant that a conviction in this trial helps donald trump and certainly his poll numbers started to go up after the indictments, but we're in unknown territory.

why are they so convinced that this is going to help them? is it because the candidate himself so often rails against the system, riles up his supporters, claims that he's standing in the way of their political persecutions. is it because he's laid the foundation, and they're confident that his foundation is sturdy? >> he believes that his grievances, being aggrieved, being the martyr, helps him politically, and he has one particular moment that he is using as that reference point, and that was march of 2023 when he was indicted, and at that point in time, ron desantis was only a few percentage points behind him in the polls. after that indictment in new york is when you saw him go on the rise, separate himself. it is ron desantis who even said he would not help with his extradition to new york. you saw nikki haley, tim scott, all of his republican rivals come to his aid. he expects the same thing, not only out of republicans but across the country people come to his side. in one note we just got in the

last few minutes is the fact that the trump campaign is claiming since his guilty verdict they've raised $34 million online. if that is, in fact, true, if that's how much they've raised, at least for donald trump he's going to view that as millions of americans coming around and putting their money where their support is. >> we don't know what's going to happen, but say he does lose, the party apparatus is so firmly intertwined with donald trump now. there's not an rnc you can separate away from donald trump. there's not a republican party you can separate from donald trump. they have all bent to his image over the past nine years. what happens if he does lose again? the republicans try to run him in another four years? >> the trumps aren't going anywhere. looking at some of the videos from during that transition period, somebody like a bob corker was here during the transition period. those guys are gone. >> jeff flake, mitt romney, he's

leaving. >> the rnc are the trumps. lara trump is literally the cochair. those that have come into power are the activists because of their support of donald trump. this is a maga movement that has taken over the republican party. and despite guilty convictions and potentially losing again for a second time in november, this is donald trump's republican party for the foreseeable future. >> it's a sea change, it is an identity switch from the republican party to the maga party, and i think it's all the more in evidence today as we're about to see donald trump come down and address reporters, and a cheering crowd which likely will drown any of us out about how he feels he's been politically persecuted. >> let's talk about that with a member of the other party. we're joined now by democratic congressman adam schiff who was the lead impeachment manager during trump's first impeachment trial in 2020. he also served on the house january 6th committee. congressman, thanks for joining

us. you mentioned last night that anything trump says now about this case, the justice system, all of it can be considered by the judge in sentencing, which is scheduled for the 11th of july. d.a. bragg wouldn't say whether he'll seek prison time hear. you are a former prosecutor, would you ask for prison time? >> i would have to do research and say, okay, what's the sentence like for someone who's committed a similar offense. my feeling is this judge should continue treating donald trump like any other american citizen, neither better nor worse. i would want to look at other people who have been charged with these kind of crimes, what kind of sentence have we asked for, and that's what i think the prosecution should do. i do think that whatever he says between now and sentencing, like what he said yesterday, slamming the process, not taking responsibility -- his guilt, that should be considered by a judge, it would be considered by any other judge with any other

defendant in terms of sentencing, and that would mean a harsher sentence than if he were accepting responsibility. look, overall, i think americans should feel somewhat reassured, notwithstanding all the stresses on the system, our democracy worked, justice was done. 12 ordinary americans sat in judgment of a former president, but at the same time, we need to recognize it's going to become even more turbulent now. of necessity it's going to become more turbulent that. case had to go forward. it did go forward. because trump and his maga followers are digging in. because all of the enablers in congress including speaker johnson are essentially rallying around him and doing so trying to tear down the system, our democracy is going to go through a further test. but i do think your reporter hit it right on the nose. this is going to take a while to sink in with the american people, but i believe the

american people are not going to want a convicted felon running the country. they're not going to want to turn the country into some kind of a criminal enterprise. >> congressman, just thinking of your knowledge of history, your respect for history, what does this moment mean? >> well, i think this moment is a moment when the country is going through a turbulent time. at the moment, social media and how we get our information bitterly divided the country, sadly we had a perfect storm where a really gifted demagogue arrived on the scene at a time when the country was really vulnerable. and it has really put our democracy in question on the edge. we're seeingthings happen in a country we've never seen happen before. it would have been unthinkable that someone who was alleged to

have committed the acts donald trump committed would be considered viable for any political office. we have all the top republican officials in the country rallying around him. that is historic in the most negative of ways. we've never seen anything like it, and god help us if we do in the future. >> to your point about how the republican party is reacting, i want you to hear from your republican colleagues there in washington who have been attacking the verdict. listen to this. >> if they do this, if they turn the american system of justice into banana republic garbage, they're going to suffer consequences for it. >> this was a political smear job. this was an attack job. this is what you see in banana republic, and it is -- i am both furious and heartbroken at the same time. i'm furious at what we saw. i'm also heartbroken for the rule of law. >> this is the most outrageous

travesty i've ever seen and the problem is democrats have crossed this line. they have crossed line in which now the court system is a political weapon. >> what do you say to that? >> well, what can you say other than this is the most shameful craven demonstration of their political lives. what have they become? i just can't imagine that the three speakers you just heard from, if they were asked 10 or 15 years ago, do you see yourself ear standing out in front of a courthouse vouching for the character of someone paying hush money to cover up a payment to a porn star, can you imagine advocating for them to become president, what has happened to these people? i think the short answer is as the story in robert karo once said, power doesn't corrupt as much as it reveals, and power is

revealing some of the people to be utterly craven, to care about knock about gaining power. they're willing to fore sake our democracy, our justice system if they can just get to power or more power. and you know, it is horribly revealing. it also revealed people like liz cheney and adam kinzinger to be people of great courage and character. but it revealed how very rare they are. >> congressman adam schiff, thank you so much for being with us this morning. we really appreciate your time. now to breaking news from the current president. joe biden set to deliver remarks this afternoon on the situation in the middle east. these remarks come as this morning the israeli military just confirmed it is operating in central rafah for the first time, ignoring the international pressure to leave the area. president biden set to deliver remarks about the israeli situation this afternoon. up next, trump blasting the

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learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at tedhelp.com. we are awaiting donald trump's remarks any moment now following the jury's historic verdict. former president donald trump now a convicted felon. >> joining us this morning, catherine christian, a former prosecutor, jeremy salang, a former prosecutor. jeremy, i'm wondering what you think of these extraordinary times that we are living through and the reaction to the 34 counts. >> i think it's frightening and scary for our country. i think judge merchan has a

weight on his shoulders to hold him accountable and what alvin bragg and the district attorney's will ask for. i think probation and as much as -- >> what do you mean? >> i think what really would be just and the theory of the case that he altered the election is incarceration. that would be just. that said, he is a 77-year-old man or however old he is. the former president of the united states. there are a lot of collateral ripple affects to putting him in jail. >> and currently running for president. >> he gets a conditional discharge, which means you keep him out and he has to pay back through community service to not get into trouble or whatever it may be. putting him in prison will only continue and exacerbate the issues in this nation. at some point, you have to be the bigger person and look at that scoreboard and say, accountability, there's a felony, no matter what he says, no matter how he spins it, and

let's move forward as a nation. >> he has spinning it as he is the victim here not the defendant or in this case convicted felon. he is talking about this being a rigged system. he is talking about being a witch hunt and that he is the victim of political persecution, a rigged system and a liberal attack against him. what it has turned into now, catherine, is this perception he has created amongst his supporters of a problem with the judicial system as a whole in america. how concerned are you about that? >> very concerned because it's the opposite of a rigged system. it shows the system works. whether you are a former president of the united states or a truck driver, you are charged, you are given a fair trial and all objective views is that he received a fair trial, if you know criminal law.

this judge did not bend over backwards for the prosecution or defense. there's an appellate process. for me, it's a somber moment, because this is historic. he is a former president. it shouldn't be giddy and making fun, he will have to report to a probation officer. it's a somber moment. it's shameful that he and his supporters -- i'm talking high profile supporters, people who have the title senator, that are basically destroying the rule of law and making it seem that this was a rigged system and rigged against him. because that's just not true. that's not good for democracy, and it's certainly not good for the country. >> what's the process going forward for the trump team? >> what they're likely going to do, there are post-judgment motions to file and there's 30 days in which he has to file a notice of appeal, not the actual appeal, but notice of it. there's a midterm appellate

court, as i'm sure you know. ultimately, if he loses there, and he probably will, if he loses there, in theory you go to the court of appeals, new york's united states supreme court if you will. i wanted to catherine said. you are people trying to destroy the criminal justice system to get scraps from the president. i used the term bootlicking before. you can go with all sorts of analogies to describe these people. there was a fair system in place. if anyone got a benefit, it was him. >> we're learning that advanced democracy, a group looking at social media and flagging potential threats, flagged there are people already talking about trying to get the jurors and the judge. you think about the jurors, average citizens trying do their

civic duty. they have to worry about their own safety and security. >> i hope that they remember the jean carroll case. that judge advised them, if you were you, i would keep a low profile and not speak to the press and go on with your life. these jurors should probably do the same thing. go on with their life and stay out of the limelight. forget trying to get a book deal. it's dangerous, because there are people who are not well who will do horrible things. >> is it possible to remain anonymous in this day and age? >> do we know who the jean carroll jurors are? they have successfully avoided it. >> let's go to katy tur at trump tower. >> the e. jean carroll jury is anonymous so far. the judge told them not to talk to the press. they have not. what you are looking at in the box next to us is a shot of where we believe donald trump is

going to be walking in i think from our entrance of trump tower, not coming down from these golden escalators, as we described them, as we initially had thought. he will take the podium in a few minutes. there's -- it seems like a group of potentially trump employees, trump organization employees who are down here who are, we believe, here to support donald trump. one of the big questions i have, vaughn, is do any family members show up with donald trump today? eric was the only family member, the only one in the courtroom yesterday. don junior was there, ivanka wasn't there. we have never seen melania at this courthouse. does his family show up with him today? >> it's our understanding don junior is out of the country. eric trump was with him yesterday, including at a fund-raising dinner last night. ivanka has not been here. it lasted