Transcripts For MSNBCW The 20240703

They become centers of their communities. What . Wifi . Wifi that works all over the house, even the basement. The basement. So i can finally throw that party. And invite shannon barnes. Dream do come true. Xfinity gives you reliable wifi with walltowall coverage on all your devices, even when everyone is online. Maybe well even get married one day. I wonder what i will be doing . Probably still living here with mom and dad. Fast reliable speeds right where you need them. Thats walltowall wifi with xfinity. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts now. Tonight, day two of testimony in the former president s new york criminal trial. What we have heard about the catch and kill scheme to help donald trump. And what happened in a heated hearing on trumps gag order . The Senate Passes ukraine funding and a possible tiktok ban. Well break down the winner of the 118th congress. And my Keynote Conversation with the commissioner of the wnba. Whats next for Womens Basketball while superstar Caitlin Clark goes pro as the 11th hour gets underway this tuesday night. Good evening once again. Im Stephanie Ruhle. We are 196 days away from the election. Donald trumps new york trial featured two main characters. Long Time National enquirer Publisher David and one of trumps attorneys todd blanche. There was a fiery hearing over trumps partial gag order. Judge merchan told blanche to his face he was losing all correct. And here is my colleague with all the details. Reporter tonight, mr. Trumps long time friend david the former publisher of the National Enquirer offering the jury a rare glimpse into the underworld of Tabloid Tactics as they seek to show he covered his Business Records to pay off Stormy Daniels with hush money. Says he agreed to serve as the eyes and ears for rumors that could hurt mr. Trump adding what i would do is pub accomplish positive stories about trump and negative stories about his opponents. There was a series of glowing headlines about then President Trump a. Admitting today the enquirer made up a story linking cruzs father to the man who assassinated jfk and a completely untrue story about mr. Trump fathering a child with his housekeeper so the doorman couldnt take the story elsewhere. The day began with the judge taking the defense team to task over mr. Trumps post on social media. Targeting cohen and Stormy Daniels. The state seeking to hold mr. Trump in Criminal Contempt for violating the judges gag order. So they can talk about me. They can lie. But im not allowed today say anything. I would love to say everything that is on my mind. Reporter in court, the Defense Arguing mr. Trump should be permitted to respond to political attacks. And the gag order should not cover reposts of someone else. The judge didnt rule today but seemed exasperated telling todd blanche you are losing all credibility with the court. Minutes later mr. Trump back on truth social falsely writing the judge had taken away his right to free speech. This is a kangaroo court. The trial will not be in session tomorrow but testimony will continue on thursday. With that, lets get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel and we need help tonight. Susan glasser is here. Staff writer for the new yorker. Molly, Special Correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor. George conway is also a contributing writer at the atlantic. He is no town for this trial. And former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney charles coleman. I want to start wide and then we will go deep. George, i want everybodys but you first. Your biggest take iowas. The biggest take away was how trumps lawyers got creamed on the gag order and the second biggest take away is how good a witness david was. For the prosecution. He is telling the story in an orderly fashion. He is just the right demeanor to tell the story chronologically from beginning to end. The theme being this was all about affecting the election. And that is, he is taking the weight off of Michael Cohen. It will be the defense actually who will try to build up the importance of cohen. Prosecution doesnt have to. Combination of basically setting the stage for explaining why they ended up doing what they did with Stormy Daniels. And, basically explaining, and the paper work. You dont need that much from cohen. So it is a pretty, it is a pretty powerful presentation. We will see how he does on cross. What will the defense do in try to destroy his credibility . When you are the publisher of one of the biggest Lab Toyed Ins the world for decades there will be holes to fill. I guess there are. But i mean whose buddy was he . Yes. Yes. So im not sure how they will do that. Im sure they have something. But if acts with the demeanor and the calmness that he has been showing in the courtroom and doesnt try to fight on cross and do the things you dont want witnesses to do on cross like get defensive. Just stick to the facts. You can see what you have to concede. He could end up, just his credibility could win his case for the prosecution alone. We have several weeks to go. What did you learn today charles . Conservative lawyers side. I have to agree with george 100 . The prosecution had a really good day. It is one of those things where you want to do your best as a lawyer. But they got a lot of help with the gag order proceeding. To go further with what george was talking about, a large farther of it will be built on trying to chip away at the correct of Michael Cohen as well as Stormy Daniels with regard to her ulterior motives. With David Setting the stage the way he did, you dont have to rely on the correct as much. You can say you dont have to believe Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels. Listen to what he told you. That is going to be key. And then with regard to the gag order hearing. Stephanie. They blew it. In grand fashion. They blew it in terms of the performance but when it comes to consequences what will it face . Really jail . They had nothing substantiative to say in trumps defense. One was oh, well some of these were retreats and the other was he was defending against attacks. There is no exception in the gag order for defending against political attacks and show me, the judge said, show me the attacks. If you are Donald Trumps lawyer, you are Donald Trumps lawyer. There is a good reason not to be. That was the problem here. Charles brought this up. Clearly he knows what he is doing here is completely off. But he had no choice. I would have expected him to walk into court. And at least have some sort of a plan or guideline to present to judge merchan. To try and give his client some wiggle room. You know donald trump is not going to change. You know he is going to continue to violate it so you have to try to give judge merchan something he can work with. The fact june of this was done is a shocker to me and it reeks of a client. Lets say one ends up in jail because of the gag order. You have a lot of distinguished lawyers there. Donald trump is trying in my opinion to bait the judge. He is trying to bait them. Trying to provoke them. His strategy is to violate the gag order his whole play book he runs against any institution. The man does not have a strategy. He cannot be controlled. There will be a 10,000 fine. The thing i would say is the next time we have been clear here, the order says this. My explanation in my decision here is this is why these are violations of the gag order. If you do it a second time, it will be four hours. It will be eight hours and we will have you stay overnight. He is not going to like that. I mean, he may be trying to bait the judge, but it will make him look weak and sad and pathetic. Could donald Trump Control his behavior . Which it is not clear that he can. So, if you are saying these are consequences, it is not clear to me. Will he go to jail for violating the gag order . I think it is distinctly possible. The way you do that is to give the warning and say you are this close. How about the fact it is day two and merchan tells trumps lawyer you are losing all correct . You cannot have much trial in front of you and have a judge who is presiding over that trial tell you you are losing credibility. Once it is gone, it is very difficult, if not impossible to get back. And you dont want to have to deal with that in addition to trying to wrangle one of the most difficult clients in judicial history. That is not something you want to have to sort of balance in terms of what you are dealing with as an attorney. In terms of what merchan may do, i do believe he will lay out a plan and go forward but i disagree with the strategy. He is putting pressure across the board. Why . Because one way or the other, he finds a way to spin the narrative and he benefits. If judge merchan throws him in jail for contempt, he will turn around and raise insane amounts of money as a martyr. If he doesnt, he continues to act like a wild man. Could i adjust one thing quickly . For so long everyone has said you can hold trump accountable because this will happen or that will happen. You know, it is happening. This whole idea. And he will raise insane amounts of money. Are you so sure about that . In 2016, there were massive crowds. There were people day in and day out standing outside trump tower. I was standing outside trump tower. You know who was peeking to see he showed up . Passers buys going to tiffanys or the gucci store. So the story was this maga crowd but seems like the story of this trial in 2024 is that it is awfully quiet outside that courtroom. I think there is a difference. Donald trump the candidate and donald trump the defendant are sort of one in the same in this interesting amalgamation. I dont think it will be what it was when he was a novelty in 2016. But i still believe that he is going to be able to galvanize the Financial Support from other people across the country. If he positions himself as the martyr that he wants to believe that he is. He is growing old though. He is tapped these people out. That is the problem. And the ft reported he is 200,000 less small dollar donors. Thats a huge number. And in the primaries today, in pennsylvania, you know, nikki haley got a really good percentage and she is not even in the race. I would want to listen that something that senator mitt romney said earlier today. Watch this. I think everybody has read their own assessment of President Trumps character. And so far as i know, you dont pay someone 130,000 not to have sex with you. You do not pay someone 130 grand not to have sex with you. Susan glasser, i never thought i would say savage words coming from mitt romney but alas, here we are. Here we are and i have to say, mitt romney is a reminder. Look at his colleagues in the senate. People like ted cruz. Marco rubio. I have been thinking about them today with this extraordinary testimony and i think it is really gripping testimony from the former boss of the National Enquirer admitting under oath on the stand he is essentially working in concert with donald trump and his minions in 2016 to plant false stories about trumps opponents including ted cruz. Vicious lies about those senators. Now they are endorsing donald trump. Working for donald trump. They are sucking up to donald trump. Under oath, the former head of the National Enquirer is admitting he essentially humiliated these men in pursuit of Donald Trumps white house candidacy. And the shamelessness, the willingness of these folks to commit sort of like to basically base themselves. It is really humiliating. I think so. So george, you are the tabled republican. Listen don johnson. You are our table republican tonight. In republican circles, when news like this comes out. When you have david being like yep, made up the stories about Donald Trumps foes. It is what i did. Like, what happens in like, in republican cocktail parties tonight . What are they saying . Yeah. He made up stories about my dad. Still voting for him. Like, how does that work . I have no idea. I cant fathom it it. I think they just do this. I got, i was on the acella yesterday. And the first class car. And some guy. Oh im sorry. Like, im sorry. First you wear that outfit. And this guy gets into the discussion. Im headlining a Fundraiser In Dc for the biden campaign. And what am i writing . I was talking when i was writing and i told him and he starts going oh, Well Joe Bidenment i couldnt vote for him. Everybody was like why . Well, the guy had. He was having this discussion with him and it was like, basically he didnt know who e. Jean carroll was. They do this. They stop listening. They turn off the things that undermine their views. They shut themselves out from reality. That is why this trial is actually good. A lot of people had forgotten about these women. About Stormy Daniels. This brings them back into the news cycle. Theres a lot of folks who say i dont want to hear about all this. Okay, we have no more time. Im so sorry. You know what . Miami vice showed up. Doing thing. What is going on . There you go. Unfortunately, you are leaving us charles. The rest of the turkeys are coming back. Before we go to break, you know what time it is . A quick update of our djt tracker following Donald Trumps Media Company to see how it is doing. The stock fell 8 to close at 32 bucks today. The same day trump qualified for an earn out bonus of 36 million shares. This is important. While you are going that thing is tanking, it will be worth nothing. It is not worth nothing yet and at todays price, those shares would be worth under 1. 2 billion in that big boys pocket. Republicans came into congress with big plans to squash joe bidens agenda, but with tonights passage of the foreign aid bills is it proof joe biden is coming out on top . And the president is in florida reminding voters of the stakes when it comes to abortion. The 11th hour just getting underway on a tuesday night. Underway on a tuesday night. I dont want you to move. Im gonna miss you so much. You realize well have Internet Waiting for us at the new place, right . Oh, we know. We just like making a scene. Transferring your services has never been easier. Get connected on the day of your move with the xfinity app. Can i sleep over at your new place . Can katie sleep over tonight . Sure, honey this generation is so dramatic move with xfinity. Norman, bad news. I never graduated from med school. What . But the good news is. Xfinity mobile just got even better now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. Plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. I gotta get this deal. Thats like 20 a month per unlimited line. I dont want to miss that. Thats amazing doc. Mobile savings are calling. Visit xfinitymobile. Com to learn more. Doc . The senate sends a unified message to the entire world. America will always defend democracy in its hour of need. We tell our allies we will stand with you. We tell our adversaries dont mess with us. We tell the world we will do everything to defend democracy and our way of life. The Senate Finally passed that 60 billiondollar aid package delivering a Major Political victory to President Biden. For a time et felt like ukraine was never going to pass. How big of a deal is this . Yeah. First of all, lets note that it is extremely important in terms of the timing for ukraine. Because of the delay. The pentagon ran out of the ability to keep supplying weapons to ukraine. Russia has gone back on the offensive in ukraine on the ground. Running out of ammunition. Commanders reporting they were unable to fire their weapons at the russians because of this aid hold up in washington. There is insufficient air defense at a time when russia was launching its deadliest attacks. This had a very significant real world consequence that republicans for months refused to allow even a vote on this. I think it is a very significant moment there is real concern without this Aid Provision which is an additional nearly 60 billion for ukraine out of the total bill of nearly 95 billion, this comes almost at the last possible moment to make sure that ukraine does not suffer major losses to russia as it goes back on the offensive. One is on the trail. One is on trial. They get this thing passed together. While donald trump is losing it in court. Amid all this, is joe biden winning here . This is a win for joe biden. This house came in and they had bold plans. They tried to impeach joe biden on vibes. And everything that they have tried has really failed and they had to wait on their appliance week. Their appliance messaging. They keep losing members. The most meaningful thing was that Marjorie Taylor greene who is trying to put together this coalition of her to get together and Thomas Massey to get rid of the speaker was sort of told by trump. Right . Trump went on a Radio Show Yesterday and sort of told her to back off. So i dont know what is happening here. But this is wild. And you. They are losing their footing. And you have four States Running against each other. If this is not disarray, i dont know what is. Heres what i want you to explain. Mitch mcconnell had an interesting take today. He offered high praise for this bill and i want to share why he explained this thing took so long to pass. Watch this. I think the demonization of ukraine began by Tucker Carlson who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along which is interviewing Vladimir Putin. So he had an enormous outside yens which convinced a lot of rank and file republicans that maybe this is a mistake. That is kind of a wow. That is a wow. From Mitch Mcconnell. He is not wrong. But there is this other guy complaining about the Air Conditioning in the manhattan courtroom today who was also substantially responsible for this. We should talk about him as well. The one who wants to give Eastern Europe back to the russians. But what he is saying is that his own Party Members of his own party arent thinking about governing. They are thinking about the media. The right wing media and how they can appear. Right. But they dont. It is also all about opposition. If biden wants to help the country, its bad. Thats essentially trumps view. If biden wants to have border security, we have to stop it. We have to. It is all just this oppositionism. You are defining the right wing media defines conservatism saying wow, these other people are for x. We cant be for it. In some ways, Mitch Mcconnell making a Statement Like that. Is he admitting he lost control of his conference . Well look, Mitch Mcconnell represents the past in many ways of the Republican Party and not its future. Not only is he clearly coming to the end of his tenure as the longest serving party leader. But this view of a hawkish International Foreign policy mcconnell represented is on the down swing in the Republican Party. I agree what you cant just talk about Tucker Carlson. You have to talk about donald trump as well. There is a strand you can call. Liz cheney calls it the pro putin wing of the Republican Party. It is something donald trump talked about in his first president ial campaign in 2015 and 2016. He has had a skeptical view of ukraine that predates this latest full scale russian invasion. Even when he was in the white house according to our reporting in the spring of 2017, he talked to the previous president of ukraine in the white house. And looked him in the eye and said he didnt believe that ukraine was a real country. You know, and so i just believe this is core to who donald trump is. And he has pulled millions of republicans who wouldnt otherwise be inclined to support Vladimir Putin and he has turned this party into this sort of his own alice in Wonder Land View of foreign policy. I think it is much more about who trump is as a politician showing in a way this cult of personality is such he can bring millions of republicans with him. To the fact he is not more vocally opposing the bill is fascinating and i do wonder if there is a calculated sense among republicans including the new Speaker Mike Johnson that they didnt want to be blamed for ukraine doing poorly on the battlefield in the midst of the president ial election. It is a very important victory for anyone who cares about ukraine. This is a major step forward. And for many months it wasnt clear that we would get to this moment. So you have to say without mike johnson making that call, in the end it would not have happened. Susan, thank you so much. Molly. Thank you for being here. When we come back, joe biden pins floridas new abortion ban squarely on donald trump. How he is using reproductive rights to put florida in play in november. We will get into it when the 11th hour continues. 11th hour. What is cirkul . Cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. Cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. Cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. Cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul. Com. For 50 years the court ruled there was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy. But two years ago that was taken away. Lets be real clear. There is one person responsible for this nightmare. And he is acknowledging it and he brags about it. Donald trump. Today, President Biden took his abortion rights message on the road. He was in florida where a six week ban is about to go into effect. For more i want to bring in hans nichols. Lets talk about abortion. Because it is a major issue in this election. Why . Because of the Dobbs Decision courtesy of donald trump and the current Supreme Court. What else do we need to know about the president s trip and his message today . The trip itself isnt that significant. Yes, florida might in be play. I dont see a lot of everyday on the polling side that florida is in play. But any day President Biden can talk about abortion is a day he will talk about abortion. The fact pattern in florida really allowed them to make their case. Right . You just ran through some of them. Sick weeks you have to travel. If it is now banned in florida, you have to travel many, many miles all the way to North Carolina if you want access to an abortion. This is the story biden wants to tell. This is the warning he wants to make. As you said it, he wants to play this at the feet of trump. And every chance he gets. Every day he can talk about abortion, he will. And if he is not talking about abortion, his Vice President will. And that is clearly a corner stone of the strategy Going Forward. And he can be on the trail and she can be on the trail while donald trump is on trial. This is trumps home turf. And the Wall Street Journal Points out on the florida law, trump had mostly avoided give ago clear answer. But he also said this. Quote. Florida is probably maybe going to change. Then he added its the will of the people. How much does it hurt the former president he doesnt actually have a clear answer on something that is life or death and needs one . Absolutely. It is incumbent upon the democrats to tie donald trump to the party. The extreme right wing faction wants to make it illegal for the woman to have the right to choose. This is nothing about being propro life. We know republicans are for the death penalty. So, it is clear that donald trump moves across the scale whether it is six week, 15 week. A full ban, he is not sure. He doesnt really care. He was pro choice before he became a republican candidate. So he is not giving them any clear direction. So as long as joe biden and Kamala Harris stick to the script that works, we have seen it in 2021, 22, and 23. When abortion is on the ballot and democrats are steadfast and clear they believe in a womans right to choose. They win elections so that is the path that joe biden gets to stay on and he does not need to deviate, waver or bet pressured by any sort of moderate to conservative democrats who want him to say otherwise. But do we even buy that . On the surface, he is not giving a clear message. But under the hood, he is the one who got us here. So he delivered far right evangelicals their dream of the Supreme Court decision. So are we even buying this well he is waffling now. Hes the reason we are here. The difference is this. We keep talking about this thing called the economy. It is all about pocketbook issues. And people go to the polls based on pocketbook issues. If you take away a womans right to choose, that is a pocketbook issue not just for a woman but a man adds well. If the republicans get what they want, if you say that birth begins at six weeks or whatever it may be, they are saying they cannot take care of, so then does that mean women can go to men and say well then you know what . So do these Child Support payments. This is getting a lot more moderate and weak leaning republicans paying attention to what this means for them economically, down the road. So democrats need to link this not only to the womans moral issue, but we have to make it a fiscal issue and not just for women but families across the board. That means mothers and sons as well. Lets go back to what you pointed out earlier. Is florida on the table . Is it potentially winable . Republicans in the state are quick to point out that the gop has more registered voters than democrats do. But joe biden is trying to open a lane for himself. How real is it . I will believe florida is on the table when we see serious spending buys. It is one thing to do the discreet surgical trip and the president made all the points they wanted to get. But until you see and like polls this time of year. It is april. My gentle joke on polls it is like the sun. Dont ever look at it. But, the big thing to look at is spending. And, when i talk to senior biden officials privately. They say North Carolina is absolutely in play. North carolina, it is not necessarily the stretch state. They think they have a real chance of winning. I dont hear florida lumped into that yet. I want to remind everyone it is april. Every time it is on the ballot, democrats have sort of been pleasantly surprised and out performed. You have to be willing to snap back on the other side and say if things go in a different direction, a lot of other states might be in play for donald trump. And so, we can expand the map and the universe. You have to find something this side. I want to make one correction. I was a runner up. You know i am loyal and to the truth. And i wouldnt want to sort of mislead any of your viewers. In my world, hanz, coming in second place is still a winner. I forgot you are a winner take all hard core. You win it or you dont. I was trying to give you props for coming in second. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The one time i decide to be nice to hanz. Thank you both for being here. When we come back, Womens College basketball had major star power this year. And it fueled fanfare to a whole other level. So can the wnba take that momentum . We it into gold. When the 11th hour continues. When the 11th hour continues. What is cirkul . Cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. Cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. Cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. Cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul. Com. You already know this. Womens College Basketball has just come off a phenomenal season with record numbers of viewers. We may be at a turning point for womens sports but will the wnba be able to capitalize on the success of the College Stars who are now part of the league . That is the challenge for the wnba commissioner. I sat down with her for tonights Keynote Conversation. Kathy, this has been an extraordinary few weeks for you. What has this been like . It has been amazing. The attention on Womens Basketball and womens sport overall. The confluence of so many positive factors at one time. Including these generational players coming into the wnba we drafted on april 15th. And our current players. Come into the league. It has been fun. We are looking forward to tipping off our 28th season. Why do you think there is a gap. There is a drop off when it comes to the wnba. I wouldnt call it a dropoff. There are three things you need in sports. You need household names. You need rivalries, and you need games of consequences. Three Million People were viewing that wnba draft last week. It was so exciting and the days that followed there was outrage over the salaries of players like Caitlin Clark. And there is a lot of misinformation. Do you want to help us understand . I think everybody thinks we should be on par with leaks that has been around to 7500, 10 years. They are all over 100 years old. We will tip off our 28th season. It is all about an economic model to get more evaluation of our media rights of an ad buy. Of a patch on the uniform. A placement on the court. You know, getting more people to sign up and i think to be looked at as a legitimate sports media and entertainment property. Yes, that funds revenue. It is just an economic model. Do you get enough support from the nba . Huge support. There is a reason the wnba is the longest tenured womens professional sports by double any other at 28 years because of our big brother, the nba. You are in this ideal moment. How do you take this momentum and super charge it . What is the biggest craziest idea you have for growth Going Forward . It is a great challenge because one of the things i start out every meeting whether it is my team, the board of governors with our Team President s. With our gms and head coaches is the bold will win. Everything must change. We cant look at the wnba the past 25 years. We have to look forward and the bold will win here. And, but sports comes down to marketing. If you build it they will come. As we have more of our games on national platforms. More people watch. More people attend. More people buy your merchandise. Your brand goes up. Your evaluations, your franchises go up. Do you fear a perfect storm . You have all this positive momentum. What if the viewers dont come . Here is why i dont fear it. The quality of the game is great. There is a lot more recognition of who the athletes are. They are generational players. The only thing we have to work hard on is getting the fans to watch it. I feel so blessed to be in Womens Basketball. Because it is not just this class. It is page paige beckers next year in her class. It is kiki rice. Talent on the court and the quality on the court. It will win viewers. Sue bird who is obviously a legendary player and an optimist did Say Something telling. She said there is a lot of support and interest for girls sports. It fades off when it is womens sports and when you look at Womens Basketball, it is sort of this trifecta of marginalized groups. In many cases black, in many cases gay, and all women. Has that contributed to the lag or the lack of interest . I dont. I think what has contributed is Media Companies and Corporate Partners years ago. The first statistic i heard is they support sports as womens sports. Less than 5 of all Media Coverage of sports. How can you compete . You cant compete when the dollars are not flowing in. What we have seen, Capital Inflows coming into womens sports. I dont think it is as much as the demographic. 80 women of color and lgbtq plus community. My perspective is not that. And also people not knowing the quality of the game is so good. I dont want my , i want my sons first game to see a womens professional basketball game. Do you believe until recently, people have looked at the wnba or womens sports like it is an important investment or a Passion Project but they havent looked at it like a profitable business imperative and that has been the barrier. I totally agree with that. Like a charity. Everybody now wants a wnba team in their city which is great. Because we are expanding. It is just such a great time when capitals start to flow in. You are viewed as a legitimate sports and media property. And not just a Passion Project. If we are in these two chairs next year, what does success look like . Success is growing our fan base. We have about 35 million fans today. I want 100 million. We have a lot of low hanging fruit globally. Growing it for young girls to see and young boys and see these players leading womens sports. Now i think this will lift everyone in the league. Thank you and congratulations. Look forward to hosting you in a game. On that winning note, i wish you a good night. From all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. See you at the end of tomorrow