what don trump was asking mike pence to do. and went on trump's criminal defense lawyer tonight admits on television the donald trump was asking mike pence to do. the pause the don trump's criminal defense lawyer says don trump was asking for was a crime and it was the very last crime the donald trump and his coconspirators asked vice president to commit. they asked him to commit the crime many times. but the very last time donald trump's coconspirators asked mike pence to commit that crime was not before mike pence went to the capitol on january six to preside over electoral college vote count ceremony. it was at 11:44 pm on january 6th, after the trump mob attacked the capitol, attacked police officers, said they wanted to attack mike pence, so they wanted to kill nancy pelosi. after the was capitol under attack for hours on end with trump doing nothing to stop it, hours after the trump criminal mob was driven out of the capitol building and in the middle of a congress's continuation of the official process of counting the ele

i want to begin tonight with a special word to and about don trump's criminal defenders, all of whom are offered a standing invitation to appear on this program at anytime. all of donald trump's defense lawyers have failed more spectacularly in the representation of donald trump than anything they have ever done in their professional lives because they have all failed at the most basic task, the first task, of a criminal defense lawyer, which is to control your client. donald trump is out of control, spewing poisonous hateful, racist, sexist lies about the prosecutors and judges who are involved in the cases, the criminal cases against him. or, as in fani willis's case, still investigating him. and every one of donald trump's criminal defense lawyers knows that every poisoned, filthy word donald trump has said about the prosecutors, every one of those words is a pathological lie. and not one of those criminal defense lawyers has the professional dignity or human decency to disassociate himself from donald trump's vicious, hateful lies about prosecutors who those criminal defense lawye

and today in a florida court, don trump's criminal defense team tried to get away with the most absurd delay ever proposed to the magistrate judge who heard the proposal. today donald trump and his codefendants, walt nauta and carlos de oliveira, we're supposed to be arraigned on the attempts to delete security camera footage, the indictment quotes defendant carlos de oliveira telling trump employee number four twice, the boss wanted the server deleted. trump employee for is obviously a corroborating witness with the prosecution who will testify under oath that de oliveira said that and that de oliveira asked him to commit that crime of obstruction of justice because the security camera footage was already under the subpoena by the justice department when donald trump wanted the footage deleted. that was a crime. that was the oliviera's in his deep trouble as you can possibly be in this indictment. he went into federal court today in florida and bought a washington post lawyer paid for by donald trump's gullible contributors to tell the magistrate judge that he couldn't enter a plea to

move our nation forward. >> we begin with nbc's julie tsirkin in columbia, south carolina where don trump will be speaking later today. and julie, how is trump's later indictment impacting his campaign? >> erin, it is good to be with you. well the short answer is, it is not impacting his campaign. 24 hours after he appeared for his arraignment in that third federal indictment that, you are just talking about, the top of the show, he went to montgomery, alabama last night. that is where we were to. he spoke in front of a friendly crowd, a fund-raiser for the alabama republican party. he touted endorsements with an entire slate of house -- republicans from the state of alabama that serve in congress where we spent a lot of our time. now, today i'm in south carolina, in columbia to be specific. and he is going to talk before another friendly crowd, being introduced by sandra lindsey graham, one of his biggest allies and staunchest supporters in congress on that stage. we already heard that the house speaker here in the state plans to endorse the president. he said he's the only choice. that

coming up, don trump has already been indicted three times in four months, where there could be anotherany day. senator raphael warnock joins me on the presidents attack on his states elections. trump's own legal advance advisers talks about how to overthrow democracy, and he does it on tape, next. >> there are six alleged coconspirators mentioned in special counsel jack smith's latest indictment of donald trump for attempting to steal the 2020 election. we know that one of them is likely john eastman, the lawyer who advised trump that mike pence could unilaterally choose the next president on january 6th. last year federal agents seized eastman's phone and a judge ruled that he had, quote, more likely than not broken the law. just last week eastman's lawyers admitted in a court filing that their client had renewed an intensified concern that the government might bring charges against him. if you thought eastman might lay low, but you'd be mistaken. he just gave an interview to his friend, right-wing donor michael--. -- get a good sense of the legal advice don trump was getting inside t

that photograph of don trump tomorrow will be the greatest humiliation donald trump has suffered in these 77 years of his relentlessly humiliating life. surrender is a legal word for what donald trump will do tomorrow. today was a very busy day of surrender and losing for donald trump's codefendants in the georgia case. seven of donald trump's codefendants surrendered today and two of them lost in pleadings they made to a federal judge about the case. and another codefendant surprised everyone with the request for a speedy trial while the other defendants seemed to be trying to delay a trial as much as possible. here is today's timeline of the action in the state of georgia versus donald j trump and his 18 codefendants, 2:50 a.m. david schaffer and kathy latham surrender. 9:15 a.m., kenneth chesebro and ray smith surrendered. 1:45 pm, kenneth chesebro files for a speedy trial. two pm, rudolph giuliani reaches a bond agreement with district attorney fani willis. 2:38 am funny willis files a brief in response to defendant jeffrey clark's emergency motion to federal judge steve jones asking

it's really remarkable, we feel now under indictment was don trump those were indictments of for him doing things either before or after he left office and they weren't core to his role as president. the hush money scheme, that was something that needed to get himself elected, but it wasn't about what he was doing as president. keeping those documents, trying to destroy evidence of mar-a-lago, that was something that -- but here this is about trump acting as president to corruptly stay in power. i think it's so important, and it really has nothing to do with freedom of speech. >> what a little upgraded's, harry? again, it's not about what trump said. jack smith is like yap, he's a liar, but it's about what he. did >> yes, but smith frames in a particular way. this is, remember, were blitzing through, at finding this detail in that. you can be sure these 45 pages were very carefully scrubbed, talked about, i went through many reviews in the department, and he is telling the story and you can tell it in different ways. first of all, he starts out, paragraph one, he lost the election. l

as i emphasized here, don trump saying you are too honest to mike pence is gonna be the headline of the trump trial coverage of the day mike pence raises his right hand to take an oath as a witness to tell the truth about donald trump. that is the day mike pence will tell a jury in a criminal trial in washington, d.c., and jennifer, astonished when he won, when you told donald trump, once again, and the vice president did not have, quote, the authority to reject a return votes to the states under the constitution. the defendant told the president, the vice president, you are too honest. everything the jack smith needs to prove, under the laws cited in the indictment, is in that exchange. there is the president united states trying to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiring to defraud the united states. that exchange contains non trump's knowledge of the what mike pence said to him as true. the vice president has no authority to reject electoral votes. that exchange contains what appears to be proof beyond reasonable doubt that donald trump knew that he was lying about the vice pr

coming up, don trump has already been indicted three times in four months, where there could be another any day. senator raphael warnock joins me on the presidents attack on his states elections. trump's own legal advance advisers talks about how to overthrow democracy, and he does it on tape, next. it on tape, next. that's entirely incalculable. oh, i think that's legalese for... for true! apartments.com the place to find a place. when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and k

trump requested to be done was done with the advice of counsel, was don with lawyers giving him advice. those lawyers are gonna come in and testify. nothing was done in a way that wasn't constitutionally permissible. >> given the seriousness of what donald trump is accused of, does it make any sense whatsoever for his current lawyer, just two hours after the charges, to bob on cable tv to batted around? we >> it doesn't make any sense, but it is what defense attorneys do. it's not a criticism of the defense attorney. but they step out there, they try to zealously defend their client, even when the conduct is indefensible. the problem is, none of that is going to play in a court of law. none of the soundbites biden drops attorneys or importantly, staff, anything that donald trump said in his interview on those false news networks or that he posts on his social media platform, those statements are never going to see the inside of a courtroom, because statements that a defendant makes or his lawyer makes outside of a courtroom i hearsay. they can't be introduced by the defense at trial. c

. >> it's obvious what don trump is doing, what he is trying to cultivate, a sense of menace. the possibility of reprisal, retribution, violence, from his die hard supporters. when he calls the prosecutors calling him deranged, accusing him of committing an atrocity. this is me bending over backwards to be charitable. let's say trump turns to be unbothered when his supporters make good on the implicit requests in his inflammatory language. i want to be clear, because i think this gets memory hold. we're not talking about hypotheticals or thought experiments were obstructions. a few months ago a qanon supporter bashed in the head of nancy pelosi's elderly husband with a hammer after breaking into her house and describing how he was there for the speaker who he wanted to torture in her own home. that man, after that break-in, was then excused and defended, outright lied about by nearly everyone on the political right. from elon musk to donald trump himself. in the run up to the 2018, another thing that has been memory hold. a guy with the trump than who mailed pipe bombs, the di

don trump has the roommate problem.you have a friend who complains about their ban roommate and then they get a new roommate and they keep complaining and then the third roommate, who was also apparently terrible, until you're forced to conclude that it is your friend who is in fact the bad roommate. any rational person would have to conclude that it is far more likely that donald trump is the bad roommate, the cereal wrongdoer, than what he claims, which is that the whole world is out to get him. but all the people that support him, the party, republican allies, will not state that obvious truth. so instead every time he commits a new offense or he gets charged with committing an offense we all already know, they have to come up with a painful new form of some of pleading. it goes all the way back to donald trump's first impeachment after he was caught red-handed to extort of foreign leader in manufacturing dirt on his political opponent until the election. that's why republicans claim it should be up to the voters to

today in florida, don trump's newest codefendant in the espionage an obstruction of justice case was finally arraigned. the two defendants facing criminal charges with donald trump in florida probably believe that there is virtually no chance of them being sentenced to prison even if found guilty in that case, because the judge in the case was appointed by donald trump. and he has in the past issued extraordinarily favorable rulings for don trump. and because there are no mandatory minimum sentences required in that case. it is fully within that federal judges discretion to give no prison time to any of those defendants, even if found guilty. the prospect of prison time is the strongest pressure in convincing coconspirators to cooperate with prosecutors. that pressure is virtually nonexistent, possibly in the florida case but that pressure is much much stronger in the georgia case tonight. with 18 codefendants of donald trump, each wondering how much prison time they could be facing in that case. none of donald trump's 18 accused coconspirators in georgia can just sit back and bet on

while fani willis's case against don trump overlaps with special counsel jack smith's january six investigation trump, there could be one key difference. fani willis could bring state racketeering charges against don trump and some of his allies. georgia's version of the racketeer, influence, and corrupt organizations act or, better known as rico, was modeled after the 1970 law aimed at taking down the mafia. the atlanta journal-constitution reports, quote, rico is often used to try to prove that illegal business was being used for illegal means and, in the beginning, the law was used to prosecute those involved in drug trafficking or organized crime. but, in recent years, prosecutors have also applied to government officials accused of using their offices for personal gain, such as those named in the indictment against various former and current atlanta public school officials. in 2020, one fani willis retained john floyd, a lawyer, and expert in racketeering shortly after opening up her investigation into donald trump. reuters reported at the time that john floyd was hired recently to provide

this was going to be the first big thing of the season, and now don trump is probably not going to showawkward position in that debate stage about defending donald trump and going after donald trump, poking of somebody else. given your experience in this field, what is going to happen on wednesday and how important is it? >> well i think that it is awkward, but it is also an opportunity. and it is an opportunity for someone to be able to figure out how to use a awkward moment to their advantage and really show up the other candidates lack of political skill. the fact of the matter is that if donald trump was doing this programming as reported, most of your audience are not the hard-core maga crowd, they will be watching donald trump. and so you should make the argument on why you, not donald trump, and not anyone else on this stage can defeat joe biden. if i was on that stage, i would focus on who can win in november of 2024, and this is why i can win, in this is my vision, which is parallel to your vision of people watching, which again, will not be the default maga crowd. i think that

he may have been to your field and, said don trump is to blame any pointing the finger at him, blamingday a bunch of trump supporters yelled at him in an airport so he said forget it. i still love that guy. and ng i think that's what happened. symone sanders-townsend, tim miller, thank you so much for closing out the show on this very important night. on that on that note, i wish you all a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. meet the future. a chef. a designer. and, ooh, an engineer. all learning to save and spend their money with chase. the chef's cooking up firsts with her new debit card. hungry? -uhuh. the designer's eyeing sequins. uh no plaid. while mom is eyeing his spending. nice. and the engineer? she's taking control with her own account for college. three futures, all with chase. freedom for kids. control for parents. one bank for both. chase. make more of what's yours. (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! (josh allen) is this your plan to watch th

. >> one of the attorney internees representing don trump, is part of the arsenal of tools are talkingut, we'll see how that all plays, out but as you know the false claims by trump and his allies that are alleged here, they have had a real life impact. i want to remind our viewers of the impact on former poll workers ruby freeman. remember, this is her testimony before the january six committee. >> i've lost my name, and i've lost my reputation. i've lost my sense of security. all because a group of people, starting with number 45, and his ally, rudy giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter. to push their own lives about how the presidential election was stolen. >> as you know, one of the co-defendants here, rudy giuliani, has already had to contend with what she has had to say. and of course she and her daughter, as our other election workers in this country, what 439, 438 days away from the election, doesn't bode well about how they feel about their safety. but one of the attorneys, and i want you to comment on it, new attorney steve sadow. you know him, and i think you've

the country to come to the supreme court, it has set up real implications as it set out up to what don trump was trying to do on january 6th. so we already know that clarence thomas's wife, julie, was corresponding with mark meadows about the election and also corresponding with one of trump's lawyers, john eastman, that man there, after the election. now eastman is kind of in the thomas circle. he was the author the regional memo and he was also a former thomas clerk. december 4th, 2020, cheney asked eastman if he would proves it a status update to a group of great upstate leaders, presumably an update on eastman and other possible unindicted coconspirators efforts to have donald trump steal the election. we also know that john eastman spoke about his theory to overturn the 2020 results with a lawyer for vice president mike pence, mike jacob. in that conversation john eastman talked about he thought it would play out it's a dispute of election needed all the way up to the supreme court. this comes from jacob's testimony, to the january six committee, last year. >> mr. jacob, you discussed a

the people are not standing up when they should be. >> barry berke you know the evidence against don trumpy six, partly impeachment being on a very incident, what is the most important thing you've learned and the jack smith's indictment that you did not know during the impeachment investigation? >> there are quite a few things that jacks mitt and the january 6th select committee were able to get with the power of subpoena. but i think some of the strongest evidence that is the hardest to combat in court are the contemporary nia's notes, and statements by those witnesses who were close to the president who can say in the the presidents own words help to make the case. he made representations vice president pence, who took down in the notes of information and claims that he knew to be false, that the doj had found repeated claims of voter misconduct. they had not. he had said repeatedly that this was a crazy legal theory. he was told again and again, these are not true. so i think a lot of statements that came out puts the defendant front and center. he has someone who has great skill in av

it is the governor christie sort of back off as some of the tougher things he said about don trump over shows you where the republican party, where these candidates believe the race is going. >> adam, do you think there is a path here for republicans to address this directly head on, as kate said, while also getting vote that they need to potentially become the nominee? >> well, if they all did it and actually lead, like the word leadership means, to lead, and told the base of voter that donald trump is corrupt, which we all know, they all know, they all know he's corrupt, they know he broke the law. everyone kind of jump off the cliff and tell the voters the truth, yeah, there be a path, because people would listen to them. but instead, i mean, it's amazing to me when people are sitting around reading the stuff about donald trump and they're probably open to maybe this was wrong, maybe this is corrupt. and they see ron desantis stand up and say this is a weaponization of the doj. of course they're going to believe it's weaponization of the doj, because they trust ron desantis, they tru

hard to conceive of any scenario where don trump can win the white house if he doesn't give george'snt, the most interesting thing to watch. where this happened. where the alleged crimes occurred, where this is going to love coverage. even if that hurts him half percent, a percent more than it hurts him in wisconsin or arizona, it could be a decisive set of voters in the next election. >> that's such a good point. especially when you think about the fact that the michigan a.g. as bringing charges against the fake electors. there could be action in arizona. who knows what happens in nevada and wisconsin. those states really matter if you're trying to win the presidency. do you think it is incumbent on democratic ags to pursue those fake elector plot in states where they have not happened yet? >> not based on where the states are but just based on what happened. what he said is, this probably 30% of the country, maybe even 45%, who thinks a concerted effort to basically circumvent the will of the voters and leave someone in office, is happens in many countries, is okay. but those of us

when donald trump says -- don trump says, if you come after me, i will come after you. who is the u you. >> it's everybody. discovery is the evidence that the government has collected, and criminal defendants have a right to that before the trial starts. so, it names witnesses. it name sources. from it, you can garner the governments investigative techniques. and all of those people need to be concerned, given -- i mean, this is -- it sounds like he is threatening violence or some kind of severe repercussion. if this weren't donald trump, he would be in serious jeopardy of getting locked up in the trial. because he sounds dangerous. >> in other words, if a mob boss said. this right? that we would all sort of know that, oh, wait a second, this is an intimidation. >> yeah. that's right. and again, trump has earned this kind of condemnation in his speeches and in social media outbursts. he consistently has targeted judges, prosecutors, and witnesses. and because he has not faced any real sanctions before -- i guess he has felt empowered to -- i will bet that judge tanya su

hearts of republicans at the moment, according to the latest polls that were conducted and even after don trump was brought several criminal charges against all 10 republicans still have a very favorable attitude towards donald trump and evaluate him quite positively, and as the moderators who will actually conduct these debates say, they say if donald trump will be there or if he will not be there all the same, either in the questions or in the answers, he will be heard at these debates, and also what kind of debate is this? what will they influence and who else will participate in them? debates in order to qualify for the actual a two main conditions must be met that is to have at least 1% of nationwide support but also to have $40,000 individual or at least $200 in more than 20 states and in addition to donald trump ronadesantis, there are several more people who actually qualified, among them such well-known ukrainians, for sure, niki gailey, this is a former representative of the united states at the united nations, also through christie, this is mike pence, a former vice president of the

and could this now affect other cases invol vvolume valving don trump's form and former attorney. >>> tonight, the kremlin sighing the biggest drone attack inside russia yet. four russian military planes destroyed. russia retaliating, and britt clennett is in ukraine for us. >>> back here in the u.s. tonight, hall of famer david ortiz claims he's being extorted by hackers who broke into an old cell phone. what he says they're threatening to do. >>> several recalls for you tonight. tens of thousands of popular newer ford pickup trucktrucks. we'll have the models and why. >>> and the fda warning tonight, the eye drops recall now expanding because of potentially dangerous bacteria and concerns over your eyesight. >>> also, trader joe's recalling its sixth product in five weeks. and something m >>> and something millions of americans will be able to see tonight, and it's definitely worth taking a look. >>> good evening. it's great to have you with us here on a wednesday night. we do begin, of course with the major hurricane slamming into florida today, moving across several states. the de

don trump is not written able to substantiate the allegations he made that the election was stolen.tted he lost that election and these charges relate, in the words of the prosecutor, to his attempt to overturn that election defeat, and these are now the latest in a long line of criminal charges that donald trump faces. find line of criminal charges that donald trump fam— trump faces. and 'ust remind us of that lona trump faces. and 'ust remind us of that long line — trump faces. and 'ust remind us of that long line of — trump faces. and just remind us of that long line of criminal _ trump faces. and just remind us of that long line of criminal charges, l that long line of criminal charges, because with this latest raft of charges, is he going to have any time to campaign at all? it's really interesting- _ time to campaign at all? it's really interesting. the _ time to campaign at all? it's really interesting. the prosecutor- time to campaign at all? it's really interesting. the prosecutor in - time to campaign at all? it's really interesting. the prosecutor in this | interesting. th

number two, i think the third parties can take away enough votes to make don trump win. ng about the -- donald trump win with. you're talking about the professor out of princeton -- rachel: cornel west. pete: and, number three, we cannot underestimate the dissatisfied mood of the public and his ability, trump's ability, to mobilize voters. i think there's going to be a very close race. he seems impervious no matter how many indictments. you can run for president from jail. so, obviously, this memo was meant for public consumption. rachel: yeah. pete: but it's a recognition that when you look at the polling, it's a horse race. and what really matters are those four or five states are where donald trump polls very strongly. will: take a look at in "the new york times"-sienna poll, biden versus trump matchup if it were held today, you're looking at a dead even heat. the operative part of this, to me, the part we should be talking about, i think, increasingly more, is that prospect of a third party run. you know, rfk just took a trip to the border, and he came back, and he wa

. >> you know, so many republicans, especially in iowa, i believe don trump's election lies, are republicanst concerned that this could affect them negatively in the general election? how could they if expect epel to believe in the system? on the one hand they say the system is like, the election is rigged rigged, and then they say go out and participate in this rigged system. >> i don't think it's gonna hurt republican voters but i think in a general election with swing voters. we saw in arizona, with kari lake, the election denialism, it didn't work. in pennsylvania we're doug mastriano an election denialism, it did not work. talking about the past until he about the election being stolen is not a good message to run on. these candidates, they talk about economics, they talk about foreign policy, they need to talk about things that american voters speak. that's part of the concern with donald trump being the nominee of the party. are we going to keep talking about what happened four years ago? or are we gonna talk about what should happen over the next four years? if it's about the past, i

get arrested, and the very first thing he did was change lawyers useful tavares dumped the lawyer don trump was paying for got another lawyer and then apparently cooperated with jack smith and when the next indictment came out useful to various was not a codefendant but his story was told and full in the new indictment a story that prosecutors could only get from him, the current star witness trump employee for. carlos is 56 years old and with good health east has at least 30 years of an active life ahead of him. he has to ask him self tonight how many of those years as he prepared to spend in federal prison for donald trump he has to ask himself will 77 year old donald trump take care of him financially for the next 30 years will donald trump's children continue to financially support him after donald trump is gone and donald trump asked ask him self how long can he count on carlos when employee for has already shown carlos and all other trump employees the to react to a target letter from jack smith carlos came to this country from portugal he has worked at mar-a-lago for approximately 20

democrats know don trump isn't going to be a good general election candidate. and everybody knows that, you know, i think we can agree as americans, insurrection is a good, thing overturning the election is not a good thing. if you lost, you lost. but people didn't do that. there should be consequences. but the problem is the people, i many of the people in the republican base, or with president trump and now the leadership of the apparatus, they cannot turn away. they miss the opportunity. >> tim, for years we have been asking, when is the george bush wing of the party going to reclaim it? if they do not do it now and a guy charged with conspiring to defraud the country gets the nomination, is it fair to say your republican party ain't never coming back? >> i think it already is not coming back. i think the time to do that was january 7th of 2021. so i have to agree with symone on this. the day they decided not to convict donald trump of the obvious times he committed -- crowd crimes that he committed, sticking the mob on the capitol. -- mitch mcconnell -- mar

in other words, smith was able to convince a judge that there was reason to believe that don trump'stwitter account contain positive cause. but at this point to twitter was in the hands of elon musk, busy building public images right-wing trolls. the company was operating such a state of manifest disfunction, smith prosecutors couldn't even get through to them, initially. i quote again, the government faced difficulties when it first attempted to serve twitter with a warrant. on january 17th, 2023, the government tried to submit the papers through the company's website, only to find out the website wasn't operative. two days later the government successfully served twitter through that website. so smith gets through to twitter or on the 19th, and the deadline to comply is the 27th. quote, on january 25th, when the government contacted fritters counsel to check on the status of traitors compliance, today's council stated that she, quote, had not heard anything about the warrant. two days before the deadline, twitter's lawyer says she had no idea there was even a warrant from the depar

well tonight, securities increasing for the federal judge assigned to don trump's case. his rhetoric against judged tanya chutkan gets more inflammatory. a comment over the weekend, trump took to truth social writing there is no way he could get a fair trial with that judge and would immediately ask for her to recuse herself. back to the table now, i wonder, we have been following, what we would then call tweets, and then truth socials, social media more broadly. we've been following it for a long time and not long ago we would say that this is hyperbole, pay no mind. are we not passed that? >> the line that everybody used was that, should you take him seriously not literally, which is a great way for somebody to avoid accountability for anything that he says. look, i think that we have seen from the very beginning of trump's political rise that words have consequences. remember there, was back in 2015, two of his supporters attacked almost people in boston and trump was asked about it, well i have sat very passionate supporters. that was his response, that was the patte

but don trump is the far away, far away, far away, far away, far away, i could go on, front runner -- now, anything could happen. but i think that the proof they, are watching ramaswamy, who we slogan after slogan after slogan -- there's not a lot of depth there. maybe fills that in as the campaign goes on. i'll give him the benefit of the doubt. but the establishment politicians are so frustrated by him, just like they were frustrated by donald trump in 2016. he was, essentially, trump fill in tonight in that stage. and the reaction in the room tells you it is going to be very difficult to take the party away from donald trump. that is what every one of those candidates were trying to do. ramaswamy was his proxy tonight. and the crowd loved it. >> yeah, i agree with that. i would have to say that -- you know, people last beforehand, was it a gamble for trump not to be there? i don't think it was a gamble. but if it was a gamble, he won big tonight, i think because of what john said. he is in control of this race. and the only way that he can lose this race is if someone consolidates

that the evidence they hand over to don trump's attorneys. essentially what they want to do is make sure that trump cannot then take some of that material and publicly weaponize the information if he learns about potential witnesses as a means and intimidating them or otherwise tampering with the prosecution's case. judge chutkan did ultimately grant protective order covering some but crucially not all of the information the ex president will see during discovery. it was a victories project smith's team because they didn't get everything they were asking. something of a prebattle to trump's lawyers arguments, judge chutkan announced at the start of the hearing, quote, mr. trump like every american has the first amendment rights to free speech but that rain is not absolute. later elaborating to the ex presidents attorney, quote, if that means that he can't say exactly what he wants to say about people who may be witnesses in this case, that how it's going to have to be. and, quote, he is a criminal defendant. he is going to have restrictions, l

. >> maggie, i know better, we've no better we've noticed on, to ask you what's don trump thinking, what's innocent. so i ask you what he's doing, about what he's doing. because we are seeing him lash out, on his social media network, in campaign speeches. he has talked about the special counsel, he is talking about the judge, he is talking about the trial date. he is talking about mike pence. how much of this is a strategy, and what does he think he's getting out of? this >> i don't think strategy is ever a great thing to how donald trump comports self to social, media or in a lot of his public remarks. but, if there is a strategy, it is essentially to tarnish all the prosecutors who were involved, which is what we've seen him do over and over. again he is a man of very few moves, and he uses them repeatedly. he is very very angry about these indictments, that's clear. the main thing that he's doing, jonathan just get stressed enough is, putting aside all the arguments against prosecutors. he is airing an app that's attacking prosecutors as well. but, he is trying to reinforce for everybo

concerned that donald trump, this is a must-win state for republicans in -- their very where the don trump's problems stu continue here in. georgia >> all right, greg -- catherine christian, thank you vote floater quit kicking us off today. i now want to turn to hawaii and the devastating wildfires. now the deadliest wildfires in modern american history. officials in maui county say at least 93 people have died, and an early damage assessment from lahaina report, more than 2200 buildings destroyed or damaged in that town. -- steve patterson is on maui. steve, you talked to people trying to get back into their communities. tell us, what are they saying. >> simone, as you can imagine, there's a lot of frustration. imagine having the three year home as the flames are encrypting. and you don't hear warning sirens. that is what i've heard from a lot of people, no sirens, no text messages, no notification whatsoever. now, the government says there were notifications sent out through text via radio, via different methods to get people notice. but a lot less spoke to said, they simply never heard th

and then i said, i brought up the case that bill barr said don trump should never take the stand in hisdifficult to me, not a person with a law degree, for trump to make this for his defense team to make the case that he was simply relying on the council of john eastman when he went through with all the suggested plans for overturning the election. it's hard to make that case without trump himself taking the stand. parlatore threw cold water on that and said you can do it but it seems like a tough defense without principle. >> criminal defendants very rarely take the stand. when they do it in extreme circumstances. when the trial has gone so left that they think they are losing, there have been murder trials where the evidence is so strong that they are saying, if nothing changes, we're losing, and they put him or her on the stand and try to get the jury to empathize. it's really considered a hail mary. every so often there is someone who is somehow so likable in the community that they put them on the stand. we have seen that. those are exceptions. i don't think we can say this would h

legislatures so that the republicans there could say, you are right, these are the real electors and don trumpn. it was all part of the same big spiraling conspiracy, and that is why they focused in on these calls. they're looking for the evidence for trump and his team trying to push that conspiracy forward. >> and to your point, specifically. so all, right let's take a look at a handful of trump's tweets that have been listed in the indictment. directing followers to hearings in the gop dominated georgia senate. you have falsely claiming to have far more votes than needed to flip georgia, and then of course karen governor brian kemp a full and suggesting two senators could have a bad day, whatever that means, on january 5th. calling blatt raffensperger clueless for refusing to engage the false claims, and in pressuring mike pence falsely claiming that states wanted to correct their votes. christian, tell me why these are not being treated as free speech? >> they're not being treated as free speech because it really goes into the conduct. look, d.a. willis's approach is very clear based on he

apparently don trump is uncomfortable with his age, so uncomfortable that he doesn't like to say 77. imagine for just a moment, if joe biden ever answered the question of, how old are you, the way donald trump did today, the network where john lauro which trying to defend donald trump would accused biden of being mentally capable of serving as president. if he ever answered the question, how old are you? the way donald trump did, under oath, in that courtroom today -- we have a lot of legal ground to cover tonight, especially with this breaking news and our team of lawyers is here, including one who was in the courthouse in washington today, leading off our discussion tonight is andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and former chief of the criminal division in the eastern district of new york. he's a professor in practice at nyu law school. also glenn kirschner, former federal prosecutor who was at the courthouse today. they are both msnbc legal analysts. glenn kirschner, let me start with you, as our eyes and ears to everything that happened in that room. and i read the transc

particular will be interesting because he is going to use the lines he is prepared to use it to don trump's the camera. i also think he could be an m c of the whole thing, saying, folks, imagine this. this is what his presidency would be like. it'll be too busy in court when we are trying to run the country. i think that he could distinguish and self a little bit. >> these other candidates are not gonna come out unscathed, the kids what kristie does is that he will listen to the talking point and call it out in the moment and -- >> he destroyed marco rubio. >> i want to play a flashback for you sleep, this is you playing donald trump in this debate prep with hill who clinton back in 2016. >> first, i admit, i made a mistake and using private email. >> breaking news. >> i made a mistake running against this guy, to. >> >> that's the most trump tie. >> the tie was dragging on the floor. >> how do you prepare a candidate for a moment like that? >> that was before the second debate and trump had never debated one-on-one before 2020 general election in the 2016 general election. i thought he wou

next, don trump wants impeachment, the republican attempt to smear joe biden, next.m frances rivera, monitoring the latest on hurricane idalia expected made landfall in just a few hours. the national weather service is now predicting that this will be an extremely dangerous category four hurricane when it hits the big ben area. also, that means sustained winds of at least 130 miles per, hour or greater. the last time florida was hit by a category four storm it was hurricane ian late last year. that storm was blamed for at least 150 deaths and over hundred billion dollars in damage. mandatory evacuations were ordered in the tampa area, up to the panhandle. the major concern is the life-threatening storm surge, which could bring a rush of water of up to 15 feet deep in some areas. let's turn now to nbc meteorologist michelle grossman who is tracking all of this and we are inching closer as the clock takes landfall, michelle? >> that's right, frances, we expect that landfall around 8 am this morning as a category four storm. it's a major storm, already in that major cat