trump.s. trump: he said that i wanted to attack iran. isn't it amazing? i have a big pile of papers that say that. folly: media outlets anita: have obtained recording in which the president appears to acknowledge keeping classified documents after leaving office. it was reportedly made in july of 2021. the documents apparently referred her a possible attack on iran. trump is facing 37 federal charges of classified documents. he has plead not guilty. so how damaging is this recording, and will it affect next year's presidential race? we will put these questions to our guests in just a moment, but first, this report from our white house correspondent. >> >> ♪ and i want forget ♪ meaning in his first public remarks since the release of a controversial audio recording, donald trump lashed out at those investigating him for allegedly removing classified documents from the white house. >> this stuff doesn't hold up and people know it. this is a continuation of the greatest witchhunt of all time, t

in trump world. it's always about what the boss wants and nothing else, and employees are hired by donald trump in the hope and believe that he is hiring and finding the kinds of employees who will do whatever the boss wants, no matter what, whether it is legal or illegal. this was trump employee 4's moment. he could make the conspiracy work. he could prevent the fbi from ever knowing the truth about the way the boxes were moved to prevent materials from being handed over to the fbi, subject to a federal subpoena. trump employee 4 could commit a crime for the boss or do the right thing. de oliveira told trump employee 4 that the boss wanted the server deleted. trump employee 4 responded that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that. trump employee 4 told de oliveira that de oliveira would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for trump's business organization. de oliveira then insisted to trump employee 4 t

it is secondary to trump.ncerns that trump has about the things that are happening to him. and that's what a lot of the movement aside the party is focused on. that is why these candidates aren't saying anything. these muted tones, the desantis, the day he obliquely referenced the idea, this is not a good thing, you know the party should not have a nominee who is having all these kind of legal woes. dude, come out and say more directly what you mean! but until you do, every moment of silence, acquiescence, sort of tap a response to all of this, ali, just makes it harder for that base to be pulled away from him, not that they ever would really, but for all the other republicans to begin to galvanize around the idea. we can move in a different direction because we have leaders taking us in that direction. >> this ideal, olivia, of telling ron desantis, come out and telling us what you actually need, could apply to your old boss, mike pence. sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. right now, he's been fairly mut

that same day trump called de oliveria and told him trump would get him an attorney. >> yeah. conflict of interest there perhaps? right? i mean, look. trump is free to pay for his employees' attorneys. but he is not free to tell them what to say, to expect silence, or to put any kind of pressure on them in leveraging the paying of that attorney. so i think a lot of these folks might say at some point, trump is not looking out for me. maybe i should get my own lawyer. >> what do you make of the fact that there is so much more evidence here of trump being as described in the indictment -- >> being trump. >> -- the boss. yeah. it is almost this elaborate scene out of some kind of mob movie. >> when i was a federal prosecutor with my good friend here, one of the most wonderful charges was obstruction of justice and the reason it is a great charge is you can be innocent and still commit obstruction of justice but here we have great underlying evidence, allegations of violations of the espionage act, but the obstruction of justice shows the consciousness of guilt. i have to say para

trump doesn't have that.esn't care if we -- destroy the whole thing -- >> so let me just go back to your point, which is, and let me play devils advocate here for a second, given the gravity of the moment that jack smith must be aware of, would he bring an indictment against a former president if he did not have substantial evidence of beyond just simply hearsay of a witness? don't you think he would probably have, perhaps, a text message saying hey, the boss wants this deleted on somebody's phone that he was able to recover? as opposed to just simply saying hey, i have a witness who saying the boss told him to delete it. i get your point, but i suspect that jack smith, knowing what has happened in the past with donald trump, realizing the severity of the moment and these superseding indictments, is probably not coming to bring these charges forward without substantial evidence. >> one assumes, but we only know what's in the indictment. so in the indictment he does not disclose that. he simply says conversati

with donald trump, and see that very often, even if donald trump -- the people around him are not. and it's just another lesson here, don't work for donald trump. from that kind of most low level person to the vice president, there is nobody who comes out unscathed from their association with this person. >> andrew goldstein, we're not, all you might remember he is the lead investigator for the bob mueller obstruction investigation. he told the new york times quote, demanding that evidence be destroyed is the most basic form of obstruction and it is easy for a jury to understand. he also said that what's described in this indictment is actually more quote, straightforwardly criminal, then the obstructive acts detailed in the mueller report. based on what you've seen, do you agree? how does evidence like this play in front of a jury? what would be your threshold to convince a jury that an obstruction request, or destruction of evidence request, did in fact take place? is it simple to say hearsay is going to be enough to convince jurors? >> well, first of all, great question. i agree

of course, the question trump brought up trump me. idea that in going forward with trump and sending him a target letter like this, there has to be conversation around what trump knew in regards to having lost the election. that's actually something that the january 6th committee did a lot of work to establish. the idea of his mindset. the idea there were people around him telling him he lost the election, that he was hearing them, he internalized that, and he then went forward and applied these pressure levers anyway. that's going to be really important. again, for the sake of transparency, it's something that we have the benefit of knowing. it gives us some rare insight here after having seen a year and a half's worth of investigation here on capitol hill, that casts some rare light on the fact that now this special counsel investigation is obviously coming to a close, and we're understanding a little bit more of what they may have found out and the lineses of questioning they may been answering. >> we have two sources with direct k

trump. they watch us now. harry, i wonder what you make of this latest development? >> in a sense, it is cumulative, alicia. right? we have known about the pressure campaign to the governors, michigan to georgia, with electors in nevada. so, on the one hand, it is not a surprise. kind of par for the course for trump. on the other, if you look at it in isolation, you know, really troubling for the same reasons the others were. the big difference here? no actual audiotapes. if -- it seems to me, smith is right about the business about taking this sprawling january 6th mountain of cases, which really comprise five or six potential chargeable crimes. winnowing out perhaps, a single charge of the false electors. nevertheless he's covering a lot of front. i'm not exactly surprised he has brought d.c. and before now. i expect he has. he already had all of the goods on the arizona call probably through other witnesses. so, it's just building and building and building. the real question is, how will

who's being paid for by donald trump super pack were has been paid by trump super pac. that seems interesting to me, because if one of his clients is potentially cooperating witness, and the other's time a tricky opposed to him legally speaking, how do you represent both of them without a conflict of interest? >> i don't know. there is a conflict there as far as we can tell looking from the outside. that is a clear conflict. i would be surprised if that is not raised by the prosecution, and they don't ask the judge for what is called a -- to decide whether, objectively whether or not there is intact conflict, and so i think that that is one of the things that we can probably look to see. >> there's so many question marks and so many more questions that i have including everything that you just raised. thank you so much for your time, please hang with us, we have a lot more to get to in tonight's big breaking news. including new information about a sensitive classified document that trump allegedly took to his golf club in new jersey. danya was just talking about it. and

donald trump is a liar. donald trump is a national security threat.ald trump willingly knew that he had this country's secrets and he was trying to tamper with evidence to hide that he had that information. all of those things are true and it doesn't matter who the head of doj and fbi is. and that's what we have to be honest about. and if we want to change how the doj operates or the fbi operates, then we have to win elections, and we're not going to win in november if we nominate donald trump. >> how will the administration restore confidence among voters left and right. how do you do it? does it change the way we appoint the attorney general? >> it starts with appointing people that have immediate respect, right? >> joe biden -- merrick garland was -- whatever you think of joe biden in his defense, that's the way he was thinking. he had democratic halls criticizing him. hey, you need more of a defender there. don't put a federal judge there. >> well, but did the population know who merrick garland was? no. all they knew about him he was the dude tha

of donald trump. i'm anderson cooper in new york. >> i'm jake taper on the campaign trail with governor desantis in south carolina. >>> today the world learned donald trump is a target in the criminal investigation into 2020 election interference. this morning trump revealed he received a target letter from jack smith. the special counsel has not commented but cnn confirmed trump's attorney got the letter on sunday. >> it's notable that trump did not go public until today. the same day as a key pretrial hearing for the special counsel's other probe into trump's mishandling of classified documents. trump's attorneys and his indicted aide, walt nauta were sen entering the federal courthouse in florida. just a short time ago prosecutors are set to make their arguments in front of the presiding judge in the case for the first time, judge aileen cannon told all parties to be ready to discuss a specific trial date. >> we are tracking all of these fast moving details from all angles. let's begin with this ta

and they heard from members of trump's inner circle, trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, and trump's vice president, mike pence. smith's team in just eight short months has interviewed all of the key players in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, not simply those who would come forward themselves, but reluctant witnesses who had everything to lose, by testifying against a former president who aims to be president once again. and now, nbc news reports that donald trump himself is officially a target of the special counsel's investigation. trump today confirmed that he received a target letter from the special counsel's office, which almost certainly means that jack smith will bring federal charges against the 45th president for his efforts to overturn an american election. joining us now is a former member of that january 6th committee, someone who helped usher in this moment. congressman jamie raskin of maryland. congressman raskin, thank you for being here. it's impossible to look at where we are today without remembering all of the work you and the committee did. what is your

donald trump has other ideas. we may learn more about what is happening without regard today. >> and i want to let you go to the courtroom. and obviously, anything that happens there, if you can get in front of a camera, we're on for the next hour and 45 minutes. thank you. so paul, we know trump's side is claiming it won't have enough time to prepare for a december trial. that it would be unfair to disrupt his campaign for president. the prosecution says that the complicated nature of the trial is a reason to start earlier rather than delay. do you have a sense who has the better argument here? at least tell us what judge cannon will consider before deciding. >> hopefully, she'll rule that running for president is not a defense in a criminal trial including to showing up for a court date. i think it is revealing that trump released the news of this target letter for january 6th on today, the day of his hearing in the mar-a-lago case. i think he may be trying to deflect from today's hearing. once again, his lawyer

, and trump fatigue is a real thing. for good reason. but i'm sorry to say that for millions of americans, being under federal indictment and soon to be under indictment for what looks like overthrowing the government of the united states, it just doesn't mean anything to them. i am from massachusetts. we are the guys that once elected a guy who was in jail. you know, this is an old tradition from the 1930s and i just don't think it will matter much to republican's, because they take that as a signal that trump is doing things right. >> we have a minute left. i want to get your thoughts on ron desantis who is floating this idea that if you become president, he will pardon trump. is this a missed opportunity for the sentence once again to carve out that space by the donors want him to carve out to go after trump? >> yes, it is. at this point desantis has been damaged goods. it's exactly what tom says. imagine if we are at the augusta beating trump decides not to show up. the moderator asks the republican candidates about

whether it's donald trump, some children donald trump, junior. and there's a, there's a culture of personality here that lends itself to what has happened. and as far as our democracy, we're always one generation away from losing that. but we, we bring it back and i think we're going to do that again. okay, melanie, what are your thoughts on this off the trump? will us democracy ever be the same again? well, certainly other players have tried to emulate trump's playbook, but be smarter. and that's what rhonda santa as governor of florida and what tried to do, but so far he's failed miserably. and he once looked like the, the answer to trump for the republicans. and now hesitating is fading fast. there are other people on the republican side of the aisle, really crazy republicans like marjorie chandler green lauren over at matt gauge. we're all trying to seize that mantle and trying to get those trunk voters. but so far they, they just don't capture public attention. the same way, but i agree with your uh, the other guess and this has changed poli

trump has learned from that.stration, god forbid, we'll have more notches in it they're not. >> you're absolutely right. >> michael steele, thank you very much. we'll be right back. ht back. how are folks 60 and older having fun these days? family cookouts! [blowing] [dice roll] ♪ playing games! [party chatter] dancin in the par—! tired muscles and joints were keeping me from my family. now i can be myself again. blue-emu supports healthy muscles and joints. blue-emu, it works fast, and you won't stink. hi, i'm jason. i've lost 228 pounds on golo. so when my doctor told me i needed weight loss surgery, i knew i had to make a change. golo's helped me transition to a healthier, sustainable lifestyle. i'm so surprised just how crazy my metabolism has fired up. i have a trust in golo 'cause i know it works. golo isn't like every other program out there, and i'm living proof of it. (announcer) change your life at golo.com. that's golo.com. >> thanks for watching. that's tonight's read out. stay with nbc nbc for contin

trump. >> maya, donald trump notoriously known for not keeping notes, meaning we're not texting, he's not emailing right? how damming do you think it could be to have yet another codefendant or defendant added to this classified documents probe that could impute direct admissions or statements made by donald trump that could implicate donald trump even more so? >> well, very important, because of course as emily said, this is a really strong case. but you're always going to build for more. i would just say this. there already is so much evidence in the public record about what donald trump said and did, and even his own statements, even his own statements that were in some instances contradictory. so, the question is i think whether or not they're going for someone when's going to flip because they have been charged so that they will directly cooperate. again, i do think that this is a special prosecutor who's also shown that he is interested in making sure that justice is done, that the law

trump ordered that his aides delete mar-a-lago surveillance video server -- now, keep in mind, trump's aides are accused of moving boxes of classified materials all over the property to hide them from investigators, and even from his own lawyers. so, that is the new obstruction part of this indictment. in addition to that, jack smith's team now confirms that trump indeed possessed a top secret plan to attack iran. and he did show it to people who did not have the security clearance necessary to see it. by alleging this, prosecutors are calling one of trump's defense is a lie. >> who is no document. that was a massive amount of papers and everything else, talking about iran and other things, and it may have been held up or it not, but that was not a document. i didn't have any document per se. there was nothing to declassify. these were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles. >> i'm just -- >> so, knowing what we know from this indictment, remember trump's own words here. >> in my administration, i am going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified informati

david, trump is a loser. us, but is this message stinking in with chris back to voters, or they just -- by never trumpers now, digging in their heels? >> i think it is the latter, based on the 30 point lead that ron -- don trump has overrun desantis. that translates over the primary states. what you're seeing, and you see donald trump despite all of the crazy that you heard in that clip, returning to a theme that got him to the white house in 2016, which is economic populism, angry economic populism. even though for trump it was laced in's enough will be a and racism, and a diverse economy is going to take away your privilege and your place in society. donald trump is pursuing a message of economic populism. the reason that ron desantis continues to trail is that he is not competing on that field. he is trying to make this about cultural populism, about this war on woke. frankly, cultural populism is showing that it has a lower ceiling in terms of how far rhonda sanchez can go with republican voters than dona

he covers the trump campaign. katie benner, pulitzer prize-winning justice department reporter for the new york times. former new york attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. and tonight, tonight we needed to former federal prosecutors because there was so much legal news. glenn kirschner is here as well. katie, i turn to you first. jack smith began this investigation in november. what does it tell us that trump is getting this letter nine months later? >> well, it tells us a couple of things. first of all that a tremendous amount of work did happen for jack smith walking the building. and we know this in part because of some of the witnesses that were coming in, speaking before the grand jury, some of them haven't come in before jack smith even got there. he's the kind of prosecutors who want to hear from the witnesses. he loves knowing what had happened before. he wants to get a sense of them. who wants to know what it would be like from their stance. he wants to know what they're weakne

around a figure to oust donald trump. and i don't understand what the republican party, look, i'm not a math guy, i'm a simpleton at politics, but of 35% of the base likes donald trump, that means 65% would prefer somebody else. why can't they agree, why can't they get together and say hey, let's all fields a candidate that we think can go up against donald trump and get rid of this nightmare? >> dude, i've been preaching it for the last six or eight months. i don't know why the party doesn't corral one of these individuals on the stage to just say, this is the horse that's going to write us to the brave new world. and that base, small though it is, it's outsized in the money it produces, and the power it wields. and that, even in a parliamentary system, can overwhelm the system sometimes. >> just like what happened to will hurd. as you said, booed there just for speaking truth to power. on a personal note, i just want to say that it's the first time i've seen you in person. thank you so much for filling in for me a coupl

25 trump's attorney talks to donald trump about the spoena.35 walt nautaagaithis trump employee, is infd that donald trump wants to see him. less than two hours after that, waltauta, who we know is traveling wiald ump all the time, changes travel plans to go to palm beach instead of traveling with donald trump he is cagey about this situation. when you read the indictment is sending shh'ing emojis to people. it's june 27 we get into some the meat about this alleged plot footage.e the surveillance that's wheos doliveira is told the footage lasts about 45 days and he tells another trump employee that the boss wants the footage deleted. when you look over the timeline, guys, you can see why there were a variety of activities going on, moving boxes out of store alk room that nevemake their wa back in ahead of the attorney searching the storage room that people might have been a little concerned of being caught on camera. >> thank you for that. count 32 in the superseding indictment is about that document that goh attention, the iran potential atta

of donald trump. supreme court of georgia to prevent the use of any evidence developed by a special grand jury supervised by fani willis in georgia. the supreme court of the state of georgia, with eight of the nine justices having been appointed by republican governors, issued an opinion that marks donald trump simply by reciting exactly what donald trump was asking the supreme court to do. the georgia supreme court said that donald trump was asking that court, quote, to allow him to circumvent the regular judicial process. the georgia supreme court ruled that donald trump was wrong procedurally and then went the extra step to say that donald trump was also wrong on merits. trump was asking the supreme court of georgia to find georgia's special purpose grand juries unconstitutional and dismissing that plane. the georgia supreme court said, according to him, the entire special purpose grand jury scheme in georgia is so vague that it violates his constitutional rights. to every point made by donald trum

, trump. i mean, if you think about what he has done in florida, he says he, you know what, really against covered restrictions with the records. a little bit mixed on that in state did have a fair, really, really badly under cove it. but he is really going after the social issues, and i keep saying in the forward as we're woke, goes to die. and you might be saying, wait a minute, what's woke? you would wish you wouldn't be alone. it's basically any of the far left policy. you so would run the chances that in florida is he's gone after trip transgender kids could you see themselves as the different genders and they were assigned it birth. he's bad medications for children like that. his slavery in, in florida are taught that there was some benefit to slaves because they learned valuable skills that they could use for the benefit of and that has been incredibly controversial. disease, headquartered, and florida. biggest one of the biggest, if not the biggest employer in the state of disney, the

trump with. and that has reportedly led team trump to believe the counsel will prosecute a bigger case against trump than they were previously expecting. so, again, all eyes are on special counsel jack smith. today mr. smith's motorcade was spotted leaving his office at 11:35 a.m. it was again spotted at 1:10 p.m. between that coming and going a grand jury was meeting. the jury broke for the day at half past noon. we have no idea what that grand jury is working on. the grand jury of special counsel jack smith's 2020 investigation have been meeting on tuesdays and thursdays. this is something you know when you watch this stuff carefully. what was special counsel smith doing at the courthouse on wednesday? well, could be a grand jury, could be a different case. if the past is prologue jack smith enjoys multitasking. more than a month after he indicted trump in the documents case we learned the grand jury in florida is still working. it is still investigating. it is still potentially mulling over mo

donald trump. and from the new york times, the letter to mr. trump from the special counsel jack smith referred to three criminal statutes as part of the grand jury investigation into trump's efforts to reverse his 2020 election laws. and two of the statutes were familiar from the criminal referral but the house january 6 committee and months of discussion by legal experts. conspiracy to defraud the government and on instruction obstruction from a proceeding. and the "times" said that there is a new twist in the january 6 investigation. they could charge with violating a civil rights statute. and the "times" adds that the modern usage of the lalaw raise the that trump could face prosecution on accusations of trying to rig the election himself. this is a looming judgment day and the american president is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. tim and andrew weissmann is back. and also we have the investigations reporter and contributor here. and so tim, let's start with you.

trump's allies on capitol hill, rushing to his defense. >> president trump went up in the polls and wasually surpassing president biden for re-election. so what do they do now? weaponize government. >> reporter: with the threat of yet another indictment looming, trump's lawyers appeared in a south florida courtroom tuesday to discuss his indictment in the classified documents case where he is facing 37 felony counts. trump-appointed judge aileen cannon signaling the justice department's suggest to hold a trial in mid june may be too soon given the sensitive nature of the case and the evidence it's based on. she did not appear, though, willing to delay the trial indefinitely. saying she plans to rule, quote, promptly. a trial starting in 2024 could collide with the republican presidential primary where trump is the current front-runner. his rivals in the race now facing yet another round of questions in what could be yet another indictment. >> i think the doj continues to try to find a way to weaponize its powers against the former president. >> reporter: yesterday in court, lawyers on b

the de oliveira request of the trump employee floor for, and we're gonna talk about trump employee for a lot, stepped away office so that the de oliveira and trump employee for could talk. >> the man went into a closet together, doesn't seem sketchy at all, where they had this conversation, which sounds like something out of the sopranos. i'm just going to read directly here from the indictment. they de oliveira told employee four that their constant conversations with should really between the two of them. he has then asked trump employee four, how many days the servers retained footage. trump employee four responded that he believed that it was approximately 45 days. then de oliveira told trump employee four that quote, the boss, we know who that, is one of the server deleted. trump employee 4 responded that he would not know how to do that and that he did not believe he would have the right to do that. trump employee 4 then told de oliveira that de oliveira would have to reach out to another employee, a supervisor of security for trump's business organization. de oliveira then insis

this christie is in there to take down trump. -- chris christie is in there to take down trump. that is what he has decided. you don't really hear a lot, and that is part of the oxygen sucking environment trump has created and that we in the media are participating in. we are talking about this and not the economy, not ukraine, not abortion access, etc., but we have to talk about this precisely because it is unprecedented. precisely because it is tremendously important, but i don't see anything, republicans saying anything about the economy, cultural issues, ukraine, nato, foreign affairs, the rise of china,nd ai. when have you heard a republican candidate or really any candidates, to be fair, come out and give a considered, thoughtful position on how do we regulate or not regulate ai into this sort of circus-like atmosphere? nothing substantive can penetrate, and that's a problem because we have a lot to talk about. >> there are a lot of existential issues facing the country, but for now, as we await this potentially third and historic indictment, that is what we will be coveri

trump. he had that one moment on january 6th, the phone calls you just laid out, that night lindsey graham was another of them who said, "enough is enough. he bears responsibility for this." you can't change that video. it does make you wonder, we've talked about this, joe, how someone like kevin mccarthy looks in the mirror at night. what does he tell his family? what does he tell his kids? he was there. he knows what happened on january 6th. we show the video because we have to remind people, yes, your eyes were right that day. the thing you saw is exactly what happened, no matter what now speaker mccarthy wants you to believe. the political question, joe, is for what? they're putting their political lives, their political careers on the line, their integrity on the line for donald trump, for a guy who has lost them election after election after election, and may well lose them another one next year. >> yeah, i mean, they're putting -- they're putting everything on the line to defend a los

donald trump is a loser. it's a message republican candidate will hurd is preaching to anyone who will listen. in iowa, heard predicted friday that if the party sticks twice indicted, twice impeached former president, then the grand party will get what it got the last time. >> donald trump is not running for president to make it america great again. donald trump is running to stay out of prison. if we elect -- i know, i know. i know. i know. i know the truth is hard. if we elect donald trump, we are willing lead of joe biden for more years and the white house. america can't handle that. >> will hurd got booed telling the truth. telling the truth, which proves the latest sign the gop voters are not ready to move on from trump. at what cost? could trump's mounting legal troubles helped turn the needle? well, you know, the bill work -- quote, one classic wisecrack of the trump era's is, lol, nothing matters. the idea glean from bitter experience is that nothing trump does, no matter how bad it is, will turn repu

trump at all -- not vote for donald trump at all-— trump at all -- not vote for donald trump at all.o voting for — trump at all. there those were open to voting for someone _ trump at all. there those were open to voting for someone else - trump at all. there those were open to voting for someone else in - trump at all. there those were open to voting for someone else in there l to voting for someone else in there 'ust to voting for someone else in there just waiting — to voting for someone else in there just waiting for something better to come _ just waiting for something better to come along at this point, ron desantis _ come along at this point, ron desantis has not proven that he is a better— desantis has not proven that he is a better alternative in his attempt to try to _ better alternative in his attempt to try to turn — better alternative in his attempt to try to turn things around and show that he _ try to turn things around and show that he can — try to turn things around and show that he can be at least as good as donald trump on china and foreign policy— donald trump on

donald trump is a lying liar who lies. and as you barbara, know it's, for many years, there is a legal process at the justice department that is going to play out by non career political professionals who were going to present evidence to a jury of donald trump's peers, and they're going to make a decision based on that evidence. but i think what's important to recognizes that, beyond the legal process, there is a political process that everybody watching right now has the ability to engage in. donald trump was in pennsylvania today, lying again about the election. and he has the nerve and the audacity to come back to pennsylvania asking for votes after he and his acolytes tried to throw out the votes of pennsylvania voters, when he didn't like the way we voted. but i think as this conversation unfolds, it can't just be about accountability for donald trump. it has to also be for the republican elected officials, who supported his lies and continue to parrot them to this day. >> speaking of a -- elected official -- he was

he's not taking on trump. angling to be on the ticket with trump if trump succeeds as being the nominee. he's danced around taking on trump. but he's going after desantis. is he doing something that he knows will not upset at donald trump -- 's last running mate was kanye west, no, no, it was pence, i am sorry. do you think that might be tim scott's strategy? >> it's very well could be. it seems like those who are announcer running for president come down to nikki haley and tim scott for possible bp choices. i don't think donald trump would want either one. i don't think that scott would take it, necessarily. if trump's numbers continue to go down against biden. they are. that gives chris christie, like, we should give kudos for him for going after trump. he's bringing trump numbers down. >> susan,, let's turn to mitch mcconnell. you raised questions this week after he appeared to have freeze for more than 15 seconds during a news conference. he was escorted from the podium. he returned to say he was fine. wou

, from donald trump. at 9:21 am this morning don trump posted on social media something that has since been confirmed by nbc news from other sources, quote, jack smith, the prosecutor with joe biden's department of justice sent a letter, again, it was a sunday night, exclamation point. stating that i am a target of the january six grand jury and giving me a very short for days to report to the grand jury, which almost always means interest and impeachment. that was the only thing donald trump had to say today to the federal judge who he appointed, who, four and a half hours later, was discussing a possible trial date in a hearing in the case in which jack smith is already prosecuting donald trump. that social media post this morning was very much targeted pet judge aileen mercedes cannon, who had a hearing today to consider scheduling for that federal prosecution, in which donald trump, in which he already faces charges. and donald trump wanted that judge to know that anything she wants to schedule is goi

zeros in on trump and his mind set. we got an indication that's something jack smith was looking at. >> but it's trump himself. >> it's what it had seemed to focus on. it was the fake elector scheme that he was zeroing in on and talking about. then it was that crazy meeting that happened in the oval office six weeks after the election. >> with rudy giuliani and the land of mitt fit toys. >> yes, it was one of the craziest meetings. then he was looking at trump's mind set specifically. he brought in jared kushner and hope hix. they are not people involved in planning january 6th, the fake electors and what that was going to look like, but they are people who can offer insight into trump's mind set that very few can do so. so hope hix, i had a conversation with a source last week who said the idea they brought in hope hix in june, not even that long ago, what does that tell you. they said it's very clear they are looking at trump himself in a way they did not know previously. i think this caught the team off guard. it's n

trump is still facing.nta yesterday, orange barriers were put up outside the fulton county courthouse. this is where a district attorney, fani willis has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about alleged election interference by trump and his allies there in georgia. we don't know for sure that's why they're there, but fani willis has signaled that a decision in that case could come as soon as next week. i want to bring in nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian. i know you've been burning the candle on both ends. thank you so much for being here with us. i heard you describe this as the third inning for the legal troubles of donald trump. jack smith's other probe dealing with election interference. where does that stand this morning? >> good morning, ana, yeah, with apologies for the baseball metaphor, i made that assessment because as important as this classified documents case is -- and it's hugely significant, as someone who's covered the intelligence community for more than a decade -- the cas

and from the very beginning his thing was to sort of out trump trump.e has picked these really odd, weird battles that you know every day voters do not really fully understand stephanie. like people are out there saying, why are we attacking disney? why are we, what's wrong with the military? it is our military to woke? this doesn't make sense. and now this board of education stuff in florida where he is talking about slavery was somehow okay. this is not the stuff that republican voters really care about. and i think that shows. >> read, you just saw former new jersey chris christie go after ron desantis. that particular line was slightly cringiness christy sang. how can you blame your staff when you are the guy in charge. that does remind you of what his own excuses work during bridge gate. but that aside, christy is landing serious punches. whether it is against trump, desantis or his other opponents. and democrats are actually absolutely cheering it on. but do you think he has an actual chance? how are republicans responding to the chris christie un

we're halfway done with this year now and the story of the primary has been trump, trump, trump. for any of these guys to get any oxygen at all. eventually at the end of the year, the field will narrow and people will come to their senses. there's no evidence to of that happening yet. >> reporter: let's look at the fithirtyeight polling. this is the average of all the major polls and you have trump with 52.4%. nobody else is even close. the real story besides trump's strength and growing stronger is desantis' fall. >> mm-hmm. that's right, and that's what? a 30-plus-point margin over any of these opponents. i am skeptical for those saying there is a lot of potential for his other candidates, including desantis. the closest comparison is mccain. this is not a john mccain ron desantis thing. >> jonathan: he came back from the dead in 2008, and now we have desantis laying off a third of his staff. >> desantis, the guy who is asleep at the switch? i mean, are we surprised that desantis cannot capture the imagination of the republican base at a time when america is still trying to hea

>> i mean, it is clearly not trying to outdo trump when trump is in the race, because he is who the primaryting for. honestly, i've seen the reports about desantis trying to commit incidents type of underdog posture. and let's be real, steph, all he's got to do is show donors and voters just how far he has fallen. this is somebody who was pulling within ten points of trump six months ago, and now he is dropping down to the likes of tim scott and nikki haley. like, it just shows failure. and i think the debates next year are only going to confirm that when the time comes. >> he's not just laying off staffers, his campaign fired one staffer for cause, for retweeting and allegedly producing a pro desantis video that had actual nazi imagery in it. you have been following it and reporting on it, tim, what can you tell us? it caught my eye because ron desantis does some pretty extreme things, and for him to fire somebody for a cause, that's a high bar. >> yeah, the never back down guy did finally have to back down, it turned out when it came to nazi imagery. this caught my eye back in march, beca

elliott, prosecutors have heard from several key trump allies and state officials targeted by trump. what could they charge trump with right now? >> all this flows around the january 6th efforts to upend the 2020 election, leading and end being at january 6th. the number of crimes could be, number one, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct acts of congress. because of the actions that happened on january 6th, it got in the way of congress. conspiracy to defraud the united states is another one. because of the fact that the former president or as evidence is indicating might have been aware that he lost the election and still proceeded with acts and formal statements and documents filed, and that could be evidence of conspiracy to defraud the united states. these are all serious conspiracy crimes that involve acting in concert with multiple defendants so, frankly, others could be charged as well. >> these are all felonies as well. >> all felonies. >> that's really important. paula, did the january 6th target letter actually come up during today's hearin

trump term. if you go ck to 2017, you'll have seen that he staffed his administration with a lot of mainstream republican figures. you'll see that the first major legislative accomplishment, and really the only major legislative accomplishment, it was really only by 2019, 2020 that you began to see the administration take on the fully trumpian flavor, where a lot of the establishment people had either been turned completely into trumpists or had been expelled or left the administration. and so what you'll see coming into a new trump term is a team very similar in nature as the team he had around him at the end of 2020. and as we saw that team around him, and trump combined with that team put our democracy under unbelievable strain. and so that's why i'm concerned. the trump of 2025 and the trump administration of 2025 would be very different from the trump administration and staffing of 2017. - you wrote recently, david, that quote, "there may have been a time when trump truly commanded his movem

what trump knew that he had no ability and no legal recourse to prevent trump from certifying himselfnt theories. but they do both rely on having a very clear position as to what trump's intent actually was that day. >> i want to play some -- from my interview with sarah matthews, former trump white house -- who spoke with the special counsel, and told me earlier that she did not testify to the grand jury. >> given what we know from the select committee, do you think that the special counsel eventually will be able to have enough evidence to charge the former president. i think, so i don't want to get into specifics of what i think those charges will look like i will leave that to the legal experts and obviously we need to see what a potential indictment, does what it even looks like, and what additional evidence that the special counsel uncovered that may be the house committee did not uncover. and so obviously i think of the house committee laid out a lot of evidence. making the case for some charges. >> what do you make of what she said? and what's missing -- smith seems to be focu