proves just how much donald trump flies better than donald trump, and he did that again today. and this time, he proved that his lawyers are liars, too. donald trump has claimed repeatedly that the manhattan criminal trial that he must now attend has kept him from campaigning for president. his lawyers have falsely represented the same thing, publicly. judge merchan said, at the outset , there would be no wednesday session in the criminal trial of donald trump so donald trump knew all along there would be no session today and today, when donald trump had no obligation in court anywhere in the country, donald trump did absolutely nothing . the crucial state of pennsylvania is an hour away from donald trump's manhattan apartment, at trump motorcade speed. president trump, president biden was campaigning, once again today in pennsylvania but donald trump did nothing. nothing. no campaigning at all, i need to be donald trump spent the day napping in a more comfortable chair in the courtroom chair that he has reportedly managed to doze off in this week. donald trump's criminal defen

can that help him help donald trump in a jury? that the jury has heard the basic allegation, the basic complaint from trump that this is all a political witch hunt? >> i think at the end of the day, it's not going to help. i think that the jury -- juries take their instructions very seriously, and the jury will be instructed here to decide guilt or acquittal based on were the records falsified and why were they falsified and the jury is now hearing testimony, the beginning of that story of the why, why were these records falsified and next they're going to hear how they were falsified and whether donald trump knew about it, and the jury will go off to deliberate and decide based on only that and the instructions. whether the d.a.'s office or pee deliberations. >> standard practice. this is how it works. >> they only need one juror yeah. >> i always think they are going to do their job. only one juror for schwarzenegger and that, why him? they're supposed to ignore that, follow the law, and look at the evidence. they just need one j

donald trump back in court for his hush money trial, where lawyers are arguing over whether he violatedrder. while trump's busy with his trial, president biden is scheduled to hit the campaign trail today. he's headed to florida to talk about abortion rights with the biden campaign saying this trip is intended to call out donald trump's abortion ban since roe was overturned. joining us now, former present congressman from florida, david jolly. and former biden 2020 senior campaign adviser alencia johnson. congressman, we're awaiting a decision on donald trump's gag order that he claims has kept him from defending himself in the court of public opinion. how could this decision affect how he campaigns going forward or will it? >> he could be facing pretrial detention. though i agree with most of the attorneys, probably not at this hearing, but it is hard to see a world in which his question of pretrial detention does not become more and more pregnant over the coming months. how does it affect the campaign trail and the election? today is a perfect example. you have donald trump in a court

you have donald trump, the defendant, and you also have donald trump, the candidate. he's testifying, everyone wants to know is donald trump going to take the stand, that is him taking the stand. but it's also him campaigning because he said i should be out campaigning. >> i should be in georgia. >> he's talking about the specific states where he thinks he could turn it, states that joe biden won narrowly, very narrowly. >> right. he knows i'm going to be in a courtroom for six weeks, and maybe if i can hop on a jet and campaign on the weekends, i'll be okay. but this is his opportunity to speak to the electorate because he can't be out there doing rallies. we all know how much he enjoys these rallies, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. these stops outside court are his opportunity to update people he believes are listening and interested, to try to continue to campaign even as he's stuck in a courtroom having to fight for his freedom. >> david henderson, let me get your take to what we've heard from donald trump and how it plays into all of this. >> i find

donald trump agreed to do to protect his campaign. and then how they did it. describing multiple conversations and multiple moments of the campaign on multiple topics including times when pecker directly advised trump saying quote, i think you should buy it, about karen mcdougle's story, to which trump responded he would think about it according to pecker and have cohen call him back. the question for jurors was any of this illegal. pecker is the man at the center of trump's catch and kill scheme in the run up to the 2016 election and he could be a more essential witness to cohen. because pecker is corroborating when cohen has long alleged. that there was a 2015 meeting in trump tower where he, pecker and trump hatched a plan to protect trump and hurt his opponents in his campaign for president. today, pecker called it a quote agreement among friends saying i would run or post positive stories about mr. trump and publish negative stories about his opponents. so what will trump's lawyers do with pecker on cross-examination? he did give

donald trump also said this. in his rebuke of lindsey graham today, many good republicans lost elections because of this issue and people like lindsey graham that are unrelenting, are handing democrats their dream of the house, senate, and perhaps even the presidency. donald trump is right, of course , that the repeal of roe versus wade is one of the issues that will defeat donald trump in the election, especially now that donald trump is announcing that abortion for him is just a political calculation. but, he is wrong to believe that he can teach ardent abortion opponents who believe that all abortion is murder that abortion is really just a political issue, that the republican position on abortion should just be a political calculation. it should not be driven by factors like the rights of women, medical science, or morality, just politics. that is now the official trunk position on abortion rights, just a political calculation. no principle is involved. the biden-harris campaign posted this video today about

david pecker will ride in national enquirer positive stories about donald trump and in return donald trump, especially during the apprentice years would give stories about either himself or apprentice candidates it was manna from heaven. news gold for david pecker because that was his stock in trade. they were trying to portray that this was just more of that and in the opening statements, donald trump's lawyers actually said that they tried to -- trying to influence -- is democracy. that's what people try and do. what was different about this and what the government lawyers were showing is that during the election, the arrangements that were reach and karen google who is the playmate that donald trump had a relationship with, nine months or a year, these payments that went to karen make google and others were larger than usual. the national enquirer national -- have a limit of $10,000. these went well over that. in the case of karen mcdougal, they had a contract with her and that was according to david pecker solely to keep her story off the market but she did in signing that get oth

, clinical psychologist and the niece of donald trump. us." she is also author of "the new york times" best selling book, "the reckoning, our nations trauma and finding a way to heal." mary trump, thank you very much for joining us on this important night . what do you think was going through your uncle's mind in that courtroom and what he might be thinking tonight? >> first and foremost, thank goodness he only had to sit there for three hours. other than that, he must know it is not going well. and, one of the things i find really quite interesting is the extent to which he seems incapable of connecting with the jury. so, i'm going to be very interested in seeing how that plays out. more than anything else, and i know other people have commented on it, it is incredibly important. it is the extent to which he has no control over the situation and he needs control in order to project the image that he has been able to project for so long. without that control, it all falls apart. we know that donald is a very weak person, or at least some

with donald trump.ith donald trump but they're scared of the consequences because it's well known, he will threaten people all the time who will say, you know, basically he'll say look, if you ever turn against me, i will destroy you. it's a common thing he says to people, it's a well known thing. i think there's a lot of people who would break with him but are scared to do so. pecker and hicks have been folks who have been managed to carefully walk the tight rope between telling the truth in these cases and getting to a place where donald trump actually turns his bazooka on them. and i do think, though, that being in that position does give them credibility in front of the jury. >> we have heard trump referred to repeatedly as the boss by david pecker in some of the transcripts we have seen. and cohen saying the boss will handle this or the boss will take care of this. how does that play into this trial? the people are calling rhona graff. >> that's a good one. >> what is that reaction for? >> so for f

the donald trump nobody knows, the babes and bucks. hates obama and the clintons. this one has a special place in my heart, "putin picks trump for president." or this one, "how trump will win" or following "how trump will win the debate." also hillary's nephew is in the klan." "trump takes charge" and also bill clinton is dying and hillary is dying. and also corrupt. it's one big word. and this was their election-eve bombshell edition. just make sure you hit all the bases here. hillary corrupt racist criminal. before 2016 the national enquirer never before endorsed a presidential candidate, right, but this is what they did in 2016. when they did those covers they were doing something very different with donald trump than they had ever done with any politician before, something that was in the face of every person who ever walked up to the little conveyer belt thing at a supermarket checkout line anywhere in america anytime during the duration of the alleged conspiracy which was the duration of 2016 campaign. whether or not you pecked u

it's a very sobering moment for donald trump. you can see it in the sleepless lines on his face. >> joyce vase, dave aronberg, charles coleman, thank you all very much for coming on this morning. i have a feeling we'll be talking a lot in the weeks to come. that does it form us this morning. we'll see you tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. eastern. ana cabrera and jose diaz-balart pick up the coverage right now. >>> good morning and thank you for joining us. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting alongside jose diaz-balart with our special coverage as history is made this morning in a new york courthouse. donald trump will be the first former president and presumptive presidential nominee to face a criminal trial arriving just minutes ago for the start of jury selection in the new york hush money cases. >> he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actress stormy daniels in the run-up to the 2016 president election. the focus of the trial today, choosing the men and

so, there is donald trump. summoning trump supporters in idaho to go to the courthouse in boise and stage a big protest for him. or in north dakota or utah or alabama or texas or somewhere there is a vast majority of voters for donald trump. any courthouse in america, florida, anywhere. and no one, no one anywhere in the country showed up at any courthouse to protest the criminal prosecution of donald trump. 74million trump voters said absolutely no. we will not protest donald trump's criminal prosecution. we do not care. they are not the only people who don't care. donald trump is the only criminal defendant i have ever seen who cannot round up a single family member to sit in the front row of the courtroom in support of criminal defendant donald trump. his third and current wife isn't there. neither of his daughters are there. none of his sons are there. not a single personal friend has shown up as a show of support for donald trump. not one. serial killer and sometimes cannibal jeffrey dahmer had his family i

donald trump here heard the words of david pecker testify, number one, that donald trump sat in a meeting in august 2015 with him at trump tower and told him he was pleased about this scheme to catch and kill stories, salacious story, and plant negative stories about rival candidates. we also had david pecker testify in front of donald trump today that trump picked up the phone to call him about the karen mcdougle story. karen mcdougle alleged a ten month affair with him. and what you get from david pecker's testimony in the middle of this karen mcdougle story here is the extent to which pecker was intimately involved with not only trump, but also michael cohen. saying and testifying today that he would have multiple conversations with him a week. sometimes when things were intense like around the mcdougle story, daily. i want to let everybody look at a part of the exchange that our team inside was able to transcribe where david pecker talked about encrypted messages sent back and forth between him and michael cohn which would suggest that perhaps not all the evidence that could be out th

faith, donald trump tried to chan . e 12 is. faith, donald trump tried to change the _ 12 is.ange the setting _ 12 is. faith, donald trump tried to change the setting of— 12 is. faith, donald trump tried to change the setting of the - 12 is. faith, donald trump tried to change the setting of the trial - 12 is. faith, donald trump tried to change the setting of the trial in l change the setting of the trial in manhattan and that is because new york is a city mostly made up of democrats. we can assume. what is esteem's concern and what will they be worried about when it comes to these juries? be worried about when it comes to thesejuries? will they be worried about when it comes to these juries? will they generally be concerned they cannot find an impartialjury?— concerned they cannot find an impartialjury? impartial “ury? again they will be able to impartialjury? again they will be able to find _ impartialjury? again they will be able to find an _ impartialjury? again they will be able to find an impartial- impartialjury? again they will be able to find an impartialjury - impar

donald trump did. if you're going to stage a criminal trial, if you're going to try mr. trump on criminal charges, you're going to choose as your witnesses people who are around mr. trump. that would be michael cohen. so think of this, again, if the analogy works as a brick wall that the prosecutors are constructing. and each of the witnesses add some number of bricks to the wall. hopefully at the end of the trial, you have a big sturdy wall and the jury understands the theory of the case and accepts your evidence. and so are you trying to build up mr. cohen's credibility? you know, i think of it in a different way. you're trying to corroborate him so that even though he can be attacked and he will be on cross-examination as a convicted felon who really has a passing acquaintance with the truth, other witnesses and other documents will show the jury they can trust the overall story. >> chuck rosenberg, andrew weissmann, vaughn hillyard, thanks so much. we'll be checking back with you later in the program. >>> and as donald trump is in that new york city courtroom with dav

some of the tees, donald trump, it's a big deal. for the judge to put him in trump -- in jail for a few days, he comes to the edge, tiptoes over it, the main show is the evidence presented in trial and i think that it's a difficult thing to be a juror in this case. if donald trump steps over the line with respect to jurors, which i don't think you will do, he is not that . he has a conflagration, this parrying, making fun of people around the judges circle or the court, which he is allowed to do. i think he can get away with that. >> thank you for joining us. they will be back tomorrow. i really appreciate your insight. >>> coming up, what was it like in the courtroom in downtown manhattan today? norm eisen was there, he has investigated donald trump in the past and wrote the book on this criminal case. he joins me in just 60 seconds. call leaffilter today. and never clean out clogged gutters again. leaffilter's technology keeps debris out of your gutters for good. guaranteed. call 833.leaf.filter today, or visit leaffilter.com. my l

stormy daniels, quashed donald trump. the breaking defendant trump news of the night is that stormy daniels has humiliated donald trump, once again come and while she was at it she humiliated his terminal defense lawyers. tonight, granted the motion to quash the subpoena from donald trump demanding a vast range of information about the making of a documentary film titled "stormy." the judge denied the motion saying this request is overbroad, six general discovery, and is not limited to the subject matter of this case. judge merchan already quashed a subpoena for essentially the same material from nbc universal the producer of the documentary, the ruling by judge merchan came at the end of the day that began with the hearing about the district attorney's claim that donald trump has violated a gag order that inhibits him from among other things, saying anything about jurors in the case. prosecutor, christopher conroy, told the judge about a social media post that we reported as breaking news on this program last week. and th

the pool after legal team discovered a social media post that said, quote, i would not believe donald trump if his tongue were notarized. a trump lawyer added that this got punched saying she had said that he was an impediment to everything she was talk about love. the court room has a blood to chip away at someone's armor when that someone is outrageous and larger than life as donald trump. at times the ex-president seemed less like the rollicking front runner and more like a child being disciplined grade school. judge juan merchan scolded him after he said something in the direction of one of the other jurors bring in another instance the judge told the former present to take a seat when he up the proceedings were over and he tried to get up and leave. that takes us to another issue, trump was having trouble staying awake, apparently reporting from inside the courtroom, maggie haberman said it trump appeared to not off a few times his mouth going slack and his head drooping into his chest. unfortunately, this is just the very beginning of a child but expected to last up to six weeks. it t

by donald trump. and that he was not cloaked with some protection because he was simply reposting them, but by doing that act, he therefore was affirming the content of those very posts. and now this is notable. number one, 9:30 a.m. eastern time, this upcoming thursday, there is another hearing about potential other violations that the d.a.'s office alleges donald trump has violated. and as you noted, each fine was just $1,000 for each of the violations. and judge merchan in his order made it clear the court in the state of new york does not have the discretion to increase that fine amount and noting that sometimes the individual, who is found to be held in contempt, perhaps a $1,000 fine does not have that much consequence to that individual. donald trump namely one of those individuals. and that is where in the last line of his order, he very explicitly writes here, quote, because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances jail may be a nece

someone who spent years working with donald trump. er executive vice president of the trump organization. also authored the book, tower of lies. jeremy is also with me. barbara, we have been hearing today for the first time in some detail people talking about karen mcdougle and talking now about stormy daniels. we heard at the end of last week that there were key people surrounding donald trump who not only knew of them but saw them at trump tower. people who donald trump had said unequivocally he doesn't even know who they are. as someone who was to close to him for so many years, i just want your general impression of this trial so far. >> as far as what you just covered, there's a woman that was interviewed, for 15 or 20 minutes. rona graf. she's been working for him for a long time. got to know her pretty well and was friendly with her. norma, trump's number one and she knew everything. and nothing happened with her. no reading. she made an arrangement, saw the people. she made sure people came and went and. she retired and rona st

living rent-free into donald trump's mind these days. e says i've never gotten the sense that joe biden or adam schiff or jeb bush ever got into mr. trump's head in the way that other women do. there are certain karmic justice is here, she writes, after mr. trump talked about grabbing women in the access hollywood tape. defeating at the ballot box in 20, maybe what we are seeing now is the grab bag moment, i'll be at more of a slow and steady paycheck your years of uniting women who refuse to do his bidding. he is getting a measure of comeuppance at their hands. this is lester out of tuscaloosa, alabama, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. caller: great day in america. this reminds me of the o.j. simpson trial. america would be able to watch a man all his life, he always talked about people. now he's going to come to court, and he committed the crime. if he was so worried about people going against him, why don't you get on the stand and tell the truth for once in his life? trump has always been a hater. tru

have you ever attended a campaign or rally event for donald trump? close friend ever worked or volunteered for any anti-trump group or organization. 20 9h, do you follow any anti- trump group or organization or have you done so in the past and question 30, have you ever considered yourself a supporter of or belonged to any of the following, the qanon movement, proud boys, oath keepers, three percenters or antifa. joyce, this list of potential questions for trump jurors has questions that we've never seen before. >> you know, some of these questions are very specific to this trial but really, lawrence, anyone who's been involved in jury service will find these questions to be very familiar. the whole point of this process is to determine whether jurors will be able to set aside any knowledge that they've gained outside of the course room, any prejudices or beliefs or affiliations they may have and try the case simply on the evidence that they hear in court and the law that the judge explains to them. that's the fair jury that we say that defendants are

and then in 2015, donald trump announced his running for president. >> they asked mr. en he did speak with trump, and he said after he announced his run for the president see, i spoke to him every couple of weeks, and if he called me or my office, very frequently. what is all your reaction to this with the full day of testimony from one of the key witnesses for the prosecution in this case? >> josÉ, i think the prosecution will be very meticulous for this witness. it's clear pecker and trump have a history. it's not clear at this point what will come out about that history, but it's interesting that pecker was paying trump money, and it shows trump trusts pecker, so when trump goes to pecker, and this testimony will come out, about covering up various sorted issues that he thinks will interfere with the election, pecker is somebody he could count on. we will see what will develop in the testimony. i cannot imagine it will end today and will probably go on until tomorrow. >> what about this whole gag order and the issues that have been brought up to the court this mornin

of the criminal trial of donald trump here in new york city. i am not too far from the courthouse right now where trump is about to face a hearing being on a gag order that is before testimony resumes the first witness who will be there is david. he was on the stand briefly yesterday he will get right back on that stand at 11:00 a.m. today. but first very shortly, we can see donald trump walk through these halls, enter the courtroom, and then a hearing i'm going to if he has violated a gag order over the last several days with all kinds of posts on social media that have at least directly or obliquely mentioned winning this is, in this case, let's go right outside the courthouse now seen as brynn gingras standing by brynn, what do we expect to see yeah, john, let's first just remind viewers of what that gag order is. >> it was put in place he's against donald trump at the end of march. essentially, the judge said to trump's, you cannot post you cannot talk disparagingly about the jury in this case, witnesses, court staff, and their family member

it was the gold standard for all of us of how to cover donald trump. we were in las vegas for the debate and trump trotted out all of the bill clinton accusers to try to humiliate hillary clinton. >> it was actually washington university in st. louis, and he brought out the accusers, he had that news conference to deflect. >> and they went into the debate, and he tried to seat them, the presidential debate commission, this is partly what made him so angry, the debate commission wanted to seat all of these women in a room, juanita broaddrick and others, right in front, so that hillary clinton would have to look at them as she was looking at the audience in the debate, and, in fact, the debate commission would not -- we waited there for 30 minutes while they fought this out. >> this was the idea of steve bannon, to bring them out and for donald trump to say, what i said was just words, it was locker room talk. that was their line, what bill clinton is accused of is actions, and he was going to try to make that difference, say to voters, this is not about

donald trump is walking out right now. the court is in a short recess. eric trump is there for the first time. we have been talking about how the family wasn't there. i have ten seconds left, but tell me what does it mean to have eric there? >> i think it is important for the people who are really paying attention. he did not have any of his family members there before and so the fact that now someone has finally showed up on his behalf is probably a good thing, but the question is are you going to stay and are you going to continue to be there? >> you say finally, only been a week. thank you very much. chuck rosenberg, catherine christian, love the polka dots today, my friend. court is in recess. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i'll see you back here for katy tur reports. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. >>> good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. a price to be paid in triplicate. today, the judge tells donald trump you're in contempt, slaps him with a $9,000 fine and threatens jail. a

i would be your eyes and ears, that's david pecker telling donald trump that. t the arrangement, he said that pecker responded -- or trump responded that he was pleased. you know, this is a clearly campaign motive here that was laid out by david pecker, talking about the purchasing of stories for the purposes of potentially releasing them after the election. if you are open to releasing these stories after the election, then your concern is not about your wife or your children one day finding it out. it is about making it through november of 2016, and a potential to win the presidency. >> as far as his defense about i was protecting my family, it was known. in new york, donald trump was never discrete about anything. it was always out and about. that's what makes it an inside joke that understand trump and the social scene. donald trump was never operating very low key, if you will. >> it was a joke to david pecker, too. one of the things that made me laugh out loud today is when he described donald trump as one of the world's eligible bachelor without any sense

trump organisation, just before the 2016 election to keep silent about her claimed affair with donald trumpis is michael cohen. he is the fixer, he pleaded guilty to making the hush money payment to stormy daniels in 2018 but says that trump directed him to send that money. next we have karen mcdougal, who is also expected to be a witness. she claims to have had a previous illicit affair with mr trump and also says she was paid hush money by american media incorporated, which is the parent company of the national enquirer, for his story, forcing her to keep quiet. which brings me finally to david pecker. he was the then chairman and ceo of that tabloid and part of a catch and kill the scheme to support donald trump's 2016 presidential run. so essentially what he would do is buy the rights to stories that made donald trump look bad, he would then refuse to publish them to suppress damaging information. and he is expected to be the first witness called after the opening arguments. a few minutes ago the former president made remarks to the waiting media. just president made remarks to the wait

that's part of donald trump. donald trump i have had experiences with is a much different human being. why is it necessary, at case like this, it's about documents, to make him seem i guess more likable. >> i think it's exactly what you said, there has to be a counter narrative. here he did it. right? he falsified, directed the falsification of documents. they're going to try to paint a broader picture, paint a picture of a businessman, somebody going about his business with people who like him, who respect him. she worked for him for apparently 34 years. she must have thought he was a good boss. >> it important for the jury to sympathize with him, and if so, is it kind of risky for the prosecution to call her as a witness if she's only authenticating things? >> not at all. they need to call her. she is his iphone for all purposes when it comes to things like contacts and messaging and administrative items like that. they need to call her, they need to authenticate things. they asked about specific days. we'll se

but am a little surprised that we don't see donald trump jr. or eric trump or ivanka trump who was so prominent in the former president's life before you're not seeing him flanked by his children as he walks into court. they're not sitting there every day. they're really not even sort of actively social media championing their father so that is a little unusual, especially considering as you just said this is a case that they the defense's is pinning on protecting family. >> yeah. a bucket trump the other day was pushing on earth de i noticed 12 while he was in court. >> but on what we're about to hear on the witness stand, we're hearing from david pecker right now, but we know that we expect stormy daniels and karen mcdougal to get up there potentially. >> i just remind everyone what karen mcdougal has said about her alleged affair with donald trump when i got what ham actually, there was a there was a real relationship there, there was real if they were real feelings between the two of us, not just myself, not just him. >> there was a rare rel

would that mean for donald trump if he is elected to a new term? how concerned are you that what a president trump would do with greater immunity well. >> i think presidents have acted for some time as if they had at least some kind of immunity. and i think that's right for their official acts. i don't think it's it should be subject to second later. trump, for example, uses the argument that harry truman could have been prosecuted for dropping atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki. and all i can say is not in any american court that is, those are functions. the president holds is commander in chief and chief executive officer. and the government so i mean, there are a lot of hypotheticals about what could change in trump's case. i think the court can decide it is very cleanly, very simply, and very quickly if it just says what to me is obvious that you don't have to get into the scope of official immunity. you don't need a separate hearing in the court before you actually get to trial on the immunity issues. none of what trump is alleged to have d

they acted to protect donald trump. act necessarily at donald trump's direction in the sense of, he instructed these people to do these things. those are the two things you do if you are his defense attorneys as far as how you deal with keith davidson. >> don't go anywhere. we will come back to you. >>> we want to get to the pro-palestinian protesters at columbia who broke into a couple puss building overnight. they smashed windows and barricaded doors. they will not leave hamilton hall until their demands are met. at ucla, police in tactical gear intervenes as protesters clashed with pro-israel demonstrators a. the university of texas, austin, troopers in riot gear detained some students. others surrounded the police who say they used pepper spray to get them to disperse. joining me from columbia in new york city is antonia hylton. they are in hamilton hall. it has a history of being occupied goes back 100 years. what are they demanding? what is columbia university saying? >> reporter: well, the dozens of students who

donald trump is not the president. yet, with one social media post, because we can't call it a truth. that is what we call his posts now, with one post on his social site, with one phone call, he can upend what the caucus is doing. i did meet the press now yesterday and i was sitting next to mark short, he was the alleged affairs director at the white house under trump and i was like i forgot about that part and he said he would wake up some mornings and donald trump would have treated while he was president and he has members calling himself and i thought he supported the bill, why is he treating this? so, this is, it's like groundhog day. donald trump, the caucus is allowing donald trump to run them and they are not getting anything out of it. they are not passing legislation. he took the fisa stuff and it wasn't even the right fisa, can -- >> and you walk us through the tick-tock of that ? he's trying to make this election about joe biden's mental acuity, when in reality, it is donald trump who continues to get conf

donald trump's hush-money trial is continuing tomorrow. ceeding to determine if the former president violated his gag order. prosecutors argued trump had done so at least ten times and wanted him held in contempt. the defense team argued he was reposting opinions of others on social media and was, quote, being careful about complying with the order. but the judge expressed extreme frustration with that argument and told attorney blanche he was losing credibility with the court. >> if i read every one of these articles, and i would read some of it and i will look at headlines, all good headlines, and the case is a sham, but i can't read the whole thing, this is like reading a novel. so i put an article in it and somebody's name is mentioned somewhere deep in the article and i end up in violation of the gag order. >> so he says he's innocently reposting articles and the judge has not ruled on if he violated the gag order. let's hear from barbara mcquade and lisa. judge merchan yesterday very frustrated and heard the argument from the defense

here in new york city, we're following donald trump's hush money trial. ed with david pecker, trump's attorney bove asking about that testify that pecker did on that 2018 meeting with the fbi, where he said one thing about whether donald trump had ever thanked him for the mcdougal money, or not. there appears to be some contradiction in that and that's what bove, trump's attorney, is starting to focus in on with david pecker. while trump has slammed this case as election interference, veteran republican campaign strategist stewart stevens says being stuck in court could be exactly what trump needed. he writes in "the new york times," quote, trial will afford mr. trump the opportunity to define the essence of his candidacy, i am a victim. joining us now, brendan buck, former press secretary to boehner and ryan, also an msnbc political analyst, and symone sanders townsend, co-host of the weekend here on msnbc. i'm looking forward to that show. she also previously served as chief spokesperson for vice president harris. this trial is already changing how trump

and obviously, david pecker loved donald trump. we talked about trump's style and what he was publishing. he was someone who when trump first one, the white house for all of this became a thing before ami sign this non-prosecution agreement, which is probably why he's in such a good mood sitting on the stand. >> david pecker came to the white house. he was in the oval office. he got a tour of the links in the trump tower when he came down the escalator, which i had not realized that he was michael cohen said it's very important for you to be here. >> you've been such a good friend. let's be on it at this point, trump is pretty used to people who worked for him, who were friends with him. turning on him and saying that he's a bad person. i mean, this is actually happening more often than not these days for donald trump. so this is just one in a series of things that donald trump is being confronted by people who were once very close to him who kept a lot of his secrets who knew him, who may be idolized him at a certain point. now, te

the negative stories about donald trump. the attorney for the prosecution, matthew spoke about a 2015 meeting in trump tower between donald trump, his former fixer, michael cohen, and a man named david. the negative stories about donald trump's relationships with women was allegedly hashed. it is a scheme commonly referred to as catch and kill. he said in the wake of the release of the "access hollywood" tape which was a political earthquake, michael cohen paid former adult film star stormy daniels $130,000 to keep her alleged affair with donald trump silent. according to reporting from the courtroom, he said this. at trump's direction, mike cohen negotiated a deal to buy miss daniels' story in order to prevent american voters from learning that information before election day. trump would later go on to reimburse michael cohen and try to cover up with the payment through michael cohen was for, leading to the expresident's indictment last year on 34 counts of falsifying business records. donald trump has pleaded not guilty an

donald trump's world. and especially if he think, look anytime you represent people in the media, like trump is like a lot of other high-profile people are in my opinion, they overemphasize the public relations aspect of the trial. they assumed the jurors are reading it. they assume the jurors are violating the judge's orders and looking at and they're trying so hard to influence them i haven't found that to be the case. i've found after a verdict, juror say, yeah, i was in a cab and the thing popped up. i was on my phone, but i've never found a juror after questioning them after a verdict, that layout blatantly violet, now they could be lying to me, but i will tell you there are certain defendants who like they really emphasize on getting the message out after the jury's and paneled when the jury's not supposed to email, see the goal might not be two, to influence the jury so much is really just to provoke a miss trial, right oh, that's a win for the defense in any case, particularly, what would it take to

the criminal defense lawyers argued that donald trump's comments about the daughter working for democratic political campaigns officially became part of the case when the trump use that for a resume for judge merchan in emotion. age notion judge merchan the ninth of the trump lawyers argued trump's comments concerning the daughter are properly understood and criticism of the court prior decision not to recuse itself, the challenge social media post reflect trump's exercise of core constitutional rights under the first and sixth amendment. the efficacy was also is necessary and appropriate in the current environment. that is 7:58 p.m. tonight the judge issued his decision and order. the judge quoted the trump's lawyer defense but the statements quote plainly constitute core political speech on matters of great public concern and criticism of major public figures. two which the judge said, quote, attacking family members of presiding jurists attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose. it merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings. that

his trash is donald trump because he said donald trump is threatening violence against this clown judgerump did not threaten violence against anybody. now chuck schumer did he threaten to supreme court justices. he said there's going to be a whirlwind and you are going to pay a price. i do not remember this judge leaving the bench, calling cnn, showing up in a word about violence as a result of that. do not member this judge waring about violence against supreme court justices after the dobbs decisions wit when their homes e being threatened and not a single one of them was arrested under federal law. what do you make of the judiciary today? what's what they decide it is it what is legal or illegal looking at the law they decided what is good and who is good and who gets to benefit. in this particular case and every scenario they will bend and contort to go after the primary threat not just political opponent but primary opponent to everything they cling to which is power and control the man willing to expose the underbelly of who they are and what they represent the man willing to call

living rent-free into donald trump's mind these days. she says i've never gotten the sense that joe biden or adam schiff or jeb bush ever got into mr. trump's head in the way that other women do. there are certain karmic justice is here, she writes, after mr. trump talked about grabbing women in the access hollywood tape. defeating at the ballot box in 20, maybe what we are seeing now is the grab bag moment, i'll be at more of a slow and steady paycheck your years of uniting women who refuse to do his bidding. he is getting a measure of comeuppance at their hands. this is lester out of tuscaloosa, alabama, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. caller: great day in america. this reminds me of the o.j. simpson trial. america would be able to watch a man all his life, he always talked about people. now he's going to come to court, and he committed the crime. if he was so worried about people going against him, why don't you get on the stand and tell the truth for once in his life? trump has always been a hater. t

>> i am donald trump is not trying to change who donald trump is. we all know who donald trump is. so that's already baked into this conversation. so if he was introducing himself to the american public, yes, i could agree with you. he's not he's known he's wrong quantity. >> can i ask what those abstract yeah you that question? >> i just the backdrop that's fine. >> but a backdrop for his campaign that is all about reinforcing the worst pieces of his personality that's where i don't that's where i don't want i might question that as a political winter question to the whole trial is about stories that he wanted to cover up from was it was going to write every day or every campaign has stories that whether it's you really would do damage or not do damage, have stories that they tried to cover up as reported? porter's, you all have been received calls from campaign officials who say, you know what, i think you've got the facts wrong here. yeah. well, i can really john john edwards exactly it worked out great for the man pain. >> let's look at his hair before and after but i guess all

if donald trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban. s what a second trump term looks like, more bans, more suffering, less freedom. the respect is coming here while former president donald trump is trying to distance himself from this arizona state supreme court ruling. he's vowing he's not going to sign a federal abortion ban if he were to be elected. he's going to come here, talk to people that would have a ballot initiative, that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. she wants to tell everyone don't believe donald trump when he says he's not going to sign an abortion ban. the vice president has become a vocal supporter of abortion rights. she's the most prominent voice in the biden administration. she's gone to wisconsin, michigan. she's coming to this as a campaign event. harris aides tell me she really wanted to come here as a campaign event because she wanted to take the gloves off. she wanted to be as aggressive as possible instead of on the official side where she sometimes is limited by the hatch act. it's

and not then be attacked by donald trump. donald trump did not attack judge cannon. donald trump did not do a social media post with pictures of judge cannon's children attacking her and her children. donald trump did not attack the judge's spouse. donald trump did not attack the judge's staff. in fact, donald trump praised the judge today who denied his motion to dismiss the charges. donald trump posted on social media that special council jack smith should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected judge alean cannon. he knows he was in a camp forced by jack smith who cornered her legally in a filing on tuesday to in effect force her to deny donald trump's months old motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that the presidential records act allows donald trump to do whatever he wants to do. a serving a search warrant at his resident. judge cannon wrote the presidential records act does not provide a pretrial basis to dismiss. the keyword there is of course, pretrial. judge cannon has reserved the right for later in the proceedings to

president decides to testify, judge juan merchan is allowing six various cases to be decided if donald trump it was. talking about the trump payroll judgment, the trump civil fraud -- gag orders as well along with e. jean carol assault case and the defamation case. -- a couple more things happening in court this morning. the former president spoke about how challenging it is to campaign. he said he should be in a lot of other places that are not here. take a listen to what he says. >> i'm here and i won't be able to be in pennsylvania and georgia and lots of other places campaigning. it's very unfair juror number nine returned to court today, worried about media attention. they went into private quarters with the judge along with attorneys from both sides. they had a conversation. they came out. juror number nine is remaining intact. we saw that court was going to go into recess at 2:00 p.m. instead of 12:30 now because of a dental emergency for one of the jurors. it was going to be from 2:00 p.m. because of passover. 2:00 p.m. recess tomorrow as well. 12:30 today. let me lay out what openin

what's in store for donald trump? trump?ina) with verizon business unlimited, i get 5g, truly unlimited data, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. (vo) if you have graves' disease... ...gritty eyes could be more than a rough patch. people with graves' could also get thyroid eye disease, or t-e-d, which may need a different doctor. find a t-e-d eye specialist at isitted.com. >>> what is house speaker mike johnson doing today at mar-a-lago? billed as an election integrity gathering, is that what johnson is there for. joining us from west palm beach, nbc news correspondent, ali vitali. is he there to talk about election security or is there something else going on? >> reporter: yes and no. there's always something else going on, katy. on its face, this is a gathering that will be focused on a policy the house will get to the next few weeks or months, focused on election integrity, and the idea of noncitizen voting. that's illegal,

one of the few men in the room with donald trump when the prosecution says the conspiracy at the heart of this trial was hatched. pecker testifying today about that critical trump tower meeting in which he, trump and michael cohen hashed out a plan to keep potentially damaging stories from becoming public. in pecker's words, it was mutually beneficial, helping to sell papers while simultaneously helping donald trump's campaign. i want to bring in nbc's vaughn hillyard outside the courthouse for us. in the studio, catherine christian, former assistant d.a. at the manhattan district attorney's office and msnbc legal analyst, chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, senior fbi official and msnbc contributor. a lot to get to today. vaughn what is the very latest? >> reporter: david pecker has now testified over the course of the last two hours, essentially corroborating public statements that michael cohen now made for years, that in august of 2015, at a meeting at trump tower between him, donald trump and michael cohen, that they concocted the catch and kill scheme. not only of salacious st

we had a visual of donald trump.orning he was quite engaged with his lawyers, passing notes back and forth, whispering, sort of the things you would imagine, and then around noon, it looked like he was nodding off. not sure, but you're watching, and all of a sudden his head went down and snapped back up. that was quite a moment. >> live tv is i don't always nod off, because i have a small child at home. i'm sympathetic to the snoozing. >> it is hot in there. >> when joe biden blinks too long, it's a major issue. that he nodded off in his own criminal trial is an interesting contrast to what we'll hear from him later. >> they're just finishing up jury selection. i think we got a real insight into why this takes so long. why is jury selection going to take two weeks, at least. today, the whole morning was consumed with procedure motions, some of the ones you mentioned at the top, whether or not one of them is the "national enquirer" if we should have a broad of view of the "national enquirer." there's a reeling that me

. >> thank you so much for joining us special coverage of the opening statements from the donald trump hush money trial starts right now in just minute, people the state of new york versus donald j. >> trump started the main event opening statement hey, miss, you're looking at my picture in downtown new york. the courthouse and you hadn't soon the judge will gavel in and cmt the jury for the first ever prosecution of a former united states president. minutes ago, we watched trump walk into court after his motorcade arrived at 100 centre street. we expect him to stop for the cameras and talk before heading inside get up in the judge and the jury prosecutors will chart a roadmap of what they intend to prove, how they say the former president helm, the scheme to buried the details of a sexual encounter with adult film actress. >> in the final month, the 2016 campaign remainders cooper, new york, you're watching cnn special live coverage of donald trump hush money trial. and i'm jake tapper in washington today, a courtroom collision filled with history shattering precedent, and a stock pos