Hello and welcome to our special, new york versus donald trump. We have breakdowns on this entire riveting week of testimony including fridays emotional moment for longtime trump aid, hope hicks on the stand. This is one of those weeks that showed how prosecutors are proving on this case, putting forward Stormy Daniels. Called to confirm a very damning story that we have heard will come from Michael Cohen. They have done it this way to confirm it from the jury. Then, corroborating all that is what we told you about, the receipt of checks, the contract send then, ending this week with a rearview inside Donald Trumps uppermost senior aide and brain trust, longtime trump eight Hope Hicks Taking The Stand Friday and taking jurors and the rest of us into the secret meeting discussions as the access Hollywood Tape broke as trump and the aides assessed its damage. Hope hicks, you see there with donald trump. That is a coveted post in any campaign, especially in his, someone who is up on this page and on the plane and that is the role she had. This is important testimony, including the deals to silence these women. It matters because this is reliable testimony from a longtime trump loyalist. That is hard for the jury to ignore. It is also, from a person as a witness who has clearly decided to cooperate with these kind of probes, to testify under oath. That is the better course for ms. Hicks. I want to mention that she did not today. We have some context leading up to fridays testimony. She did not in testifying against january 6 and the high stakes probe, you may remember, she cooperated. She discussed what she knew under oath. She talked to investigators. Even discussed her own private text on that day, january 6, when she told others she was so upset. Quote, everything we worked for wiped away. What you see on the screen is the way we experienced different probes. January 6, they had the cameras on and we saw her talking. Under new york law, it is transparent. We have the sketches but we dont have Video Cameras in court. Both times, to be clear, hicks was a key witness. She is cooperating and that itself has led to this reported falling out with trump and now the defense. She said she was nervous today, from the stand. She answered questions confirming she is under subpoena, paying for her own lawyer. In a moment that does matter for jury, hope hicks broke down crying on the stand at one point. She was seen there crying as was reported and discussed. It was, apparently, best we can tell and from the reporters in the room and the wider context that we have, a genuine displays emotion for her as she felt the weight of this motion, though raw pressure about testifying on her longtime boss who literally sat through her entire testimony, watching. Maybe the details were tough for her to share in this manner. Remember, hicks went from eight close aid in the trump business to that campaign as press secretary, a key post for a candidate obsessed with press. While trump has had his famous following up with many different aids, a lot of people do not last through the first year of the administration. For example, she kept his trust and became the white house can negations director. She witnessed every trump scandal. Her testimony this week hurt trump when she said that he had his hand in everything. He was very involved. We were all just following his lead. She discussed the priorities of the campaign and communication. Why does that matter . The point is not whether hes some apprentice style boss or not. It is a much narrower point for the jury. It undercuts one of the trump defenses i have told you about. He is entitled to his defenses but one is i am out of the loop, i am busy, other people are getting this stuff done. This is hope hicks. This is not just nobody. She is saying pretty much the opposite. He was handson. He set the lead and they followed. She also confirmed about what we heard from another witness this week, that rhona graff was crucial. That was corroboration. If the trump attorneys get up and say who is this, who is that, the jury has hope hicks. They have the evidence. They see how senior a position she held and she is the one corroborating this evidence. In another blow to trumps efforts to find some sort of distance from the inquirer, hicks also confirmed with her own Eyewitness Account that she has seen and heard trump talking to the inquirer chief, david pecker , who was a witness earlier. Some congratulating him on a phone call after the tabloid went after then trump rival ben carson. Here is what is interesting about that. At the time, in the room, she knows more than most people but she might have still thought that trump was just working the press like usual. You call the inquirer one day. You call fox the next. Now, however, the jury is hearing this wider testimony and understanding that this is a potential confirmation of how the tablet was carrying out Donald Trumps campaign this is not like calling someone and discussing them doing their independent reporting where you might share ideas or a quote and then see what they report. This was, according to the da, more like him calling someone who was operating publicly, commercially, as an arm of the campaign but doing it the book. That is part of the crime the da is trying to prove along with the Hicks Testimony Being so significant. I will tell you, there is more. Hope hicks also took the jury inside trump world in a very unusual way. In a very private panic moments when the campaign was rocked by the video you see on your screen, the bombshell access Hollywood Tape. Remember, nobody knew this thing existed at the Upper Echelon of the campaign except for maybe donald trump might or might not remember what he said. This is not just any witness as i emphasize. Prosecutors determined hicks was actually the first person to bring the news of this impending Video Bombshell inside the campaign to the Campaign Manager to trump. Again, you and i might remember hope hicks. Part of the jury might not. Not everybody memorizes every aid on every White House Campaign staff. Boy are you going to think she is important if you determine when the Washington Post had this bombshell, the person they went to they knew was a top aide who would get right to trump and the other leaders, was not the Campaign Manager, was not some other friend or family member. They went to hope hicks the Washington Port Reporter contacting hicks with this impending Bombshell Scoop and a deadline for any additional response they wanted to get. She rushed into the Campaign Leadership. There was a palpable panic and she testifies that the initial response was that you need to hear the tape to be sure but, quote, deny, deny, deny. She recounted how candidate trump privately knew this was going to be a massive story, she said. This was a crisis. Now, take that in and say what are we talking about . We are doing Campaign Memories . We are doing one of these documentaries where we go back and look at the old campaign . No. The point is not that hope hicks has fascinating and sometimes never before heard details about that Pivotal Campaign moment, although she does have them. The point is, that she was eyewitness to Donald Trumps apparent motivation, which the prosecutors say, is now part of the criminal intent in what they have indicted as this cover up and campaign ability. Hicks testified that trump saw all of this as chiefly a problem for the campaign. I will redo this key passage. Sometimes the key passages are just someone saying yes or no. Prosecutors said trump was concerned these reports could hurt his standing with voters . Hope hicks says, quote, yes. That is some of the strong testimony the jury heard to end this weekend a lot of folks probably remember where you were when you first heard about this tape and its raw admission of grabbing women by the. You might remember the fallout. Hicks recounting that very intense period, describing to the jury how it dominated coverage, leading up to the next big moment which is the president ial debate. This was back with clinton and trump when a lot of people that trump was already down. This was a body blow like no other. This is legally relevant to whether donald trump was, as his lawyers have suggested, either not involved, did not know what is going on or to the extent he was involved, it was a personal thing or was it a campaign thing. We put together in the context of our reporting, beyond what ms. Hicks said today, some of that explosive period in the campaign homestretch. Donald trumps president ial campaign in turmoil tonight, facing withering political fallout. House Speaker Paul Ryan release this statement, canceling trumps event. I am sickened by what i heard today. Former republican president ial nominee senator john mccain pulled his endorsement. He drops from 41 to 38. On the weekend after everybody has seen the tape, he falls through the floor. That is why they are driving the Republican Party and donald trump off the cliff and into the political abyss. Mitch mcconnell called trumps comments repugnant and unacceptable. You do not recover from this. This election ended. All i can say is i am sorry. Now, it did not end but that was the mood. Republicans did turn on trump in the 2016 homestretch. That kind of reaction might be a little bit politically unrecognizable today. In the last few years we have seen entire crimes and convicted sedition and insurrection dismissed by Republican Party leaders. A reminder of how much i changed once trump did get out from under that October Scandal to go on to win the Electoral College. This all matters in the trial because it speaks to the Campaign Motivations that i keep mentioning to you. Hicks was standing on that point, telling the jury that Republicans Ran Congress or had the nomination of pat cycles and particularly sharply worded statements against trump over this issue, over what he said on the tape and whether that is how he dealt with women. She mentioned, for example, romney, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell. Executors view hicks accounting as key to what they are still trying to prove to the jury, why donald trump would, in october, take such extreme they allege criminal acts in the campaigns waning weeks. He was losing party leaders. His whole campaign was panicked. His own top loyal aides saw the problem. He was losing the narrative. He was losing the press, a lot of the mainstream press. While trump still thought by the way, lets be clear. Politically, this was true. He thought at the time that he did have a narrow path left to the Electoral College and to winning. He also perceived that one more story or allegation that linked up with this tape scandal would certainly do him in, a guy who has all this bluster in public, a guy who never admits to losing and private. According to his own aides, under oath, he is a bit of a different guy. That is why he is affected. When you deal with someone like this, they play different roles. In private, he thought, i am losing for sure and i am toast if one of these stories comes out. That, prosecutors say, is how he and his Campaign Leadership viewed the Story Daniels and Terry Mcdougal story. Hicks confirming the das argument with evidence, with her Eyewitness Testimony that Michael Cohen and the inquirer enquirer had to bury both of those stories and do it as a Campaign Block for trump to keep that open. Hicks asking Michael Cohen to get the tabloid publishers number on november 5. I told you about the receipts. It does not matter what the jury thinks of the two people in this communication or what they are doing. What matters is whether they think people have told the truth and what they have said about what happened matches the other documentation. This is bad news for trump because these texts are in the evidence for the jury and this is a good confirmation that you can get in writing between key people who were both Trump Loyalists at the time, going back to the Tabloid Chief david pecker. Hicks testifying she asked because trump wanted to speak with him and so she connected the two of them. But, she did more than that. She also connected the dots. If this sounds like it is bad and damning evidence against donald trump, it is. I would remind you that just because it sounds bad doesnt mean the story is over or he is guilty. He is legally presumed innocent and they have to use the high bar of the unreasonable doubt for 12 people. So, if they convinced 10 or 11 people that everything you just heard really did happen and it amounts to this crime and it was this cover up, that is not good enough. They need all 12. I say that to say that when we followed this case, as we do in our special, we are not looking at the jump ball. We are not saying is a more likely than not . We are saying whether the da is carrying this burden and how the evidence may play with this a jury. They certainly seem to have moved the ball this week. We have Melissa Murray and Andrew Wiseman as part of our special leading us off. We are back in 90 seconds. Seco. Nothing dims my light like a migraine. With nurtec odt, i found relief. The only Migraine Medication that helps treat and prevent, all in one. To those with migraine, i see you. For the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of Episodic Migraine in adults. Dont take if allergic to nurtec odt. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. Most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. Its time we all shine. Talk to a Healthcare Provider about nurtec odt from pfizer. I was becoming increasingly concerned that we were damaging his legacy. What did the president say in response to what you just described . He said something along the lines of, you know, nobody will care about my legacy if i lose. Trump eight hope hicks, that is what she looks like testifying under oath. That was in a different proceeding where we had cameras, generally six probe in congress. We are now joined by our lawyers for this special, Melissa Murray and andrew weissmann. Andrew, i know both of you watched this closely today. What did you think of ms. Hicks testimony . I think your description of her testimony being a body blow is totally accurate. This, i think, took a sledgehammer to a major defense. Prior to her testimony, a big gap in the das arsenal was, did donald trump know about the payments to Stormy Daniels as Hush Money Payments . The da had conceded he did not sign the actual agreement that Michael Cohen signed and that Stormy Daniels and her lawyers signed but there was a blank with respect to the Signature Block for the president. Also, Michael Cohen had said with respect to the payments he had sent to mr. Davidson, maybe i will have to pay on my own. Donald trump will not pay in advance. There is a lot of concern about how will they link donald trump to the actual Hush Money Payments with respect to Stormy Daniels. David pecker had already given a link with respect to Karen Mcdougal at the doorman but the case is really about the Stormy Daniels payments and her picks, a reluctant witness who tearfully said this is from within the Trump Campaign donald trump told her that he was aware that Michael Cohen had made these Hush Money Payments. He tried to say i only learned after the fact. By the way, it doesnt matter. As long as he learned it and knew it before he was making all of these reimbursement payments, that is good enough. Hope hicks if you reimburse someone for buying you crap, use are still on the hook. Yeah. She also suggested she did not believe Donald Trumps story, that this was something that Michael Cohen did out of the goodness of his heart. She said, that is not who he is and he likes to take credit for things. She also said, i dont believe that story. Her words are substance. It doesnt matter. You will hear from the da. It does not here whether she believes him or not. As long as you now have donald trump knowing about the Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels, that is the predicate for the false business records. A major gap that the defense seemed to want to exploit has been completely closed by a witness who i say is going to be just impossible for the defense to say was lying and just remember this because it was so palpable in court, that she did not want to be there and did not want to give this testimony. Melissa, your view on the testimony this past week . I think i am a little less muted in my response to hope hicks. She did close that loop for the prosecution but she did also close some loops for the defense as well. She emphasized that donald trump was very, very cognizant of his own view of the things that had happened, certainly in the wake of the access Hollywood Tape, she was very concerned about her, he respected her a great deal and had instructed hope hicks not to deliver certain newspapers that would cover the story to their residences so she would not see them. That would be a big part of the defense here. They only have to establish reasonable doubt for a single jury. Again, they will make the point that this was never about the election. This was always about his wife. To be fair, as andrew said, she does link donald trump to all of this and his concern about the election. There is a lot of testimony there when the Stormy Daniels situation does come out in the press in 2018 where he uses that better for this to have come out now rather than before the election. I think that goes right to the prosecutions case. It is also the case that hope hicks herself may have opened the door for some probable impeachment of her character by the defense. She notes that she did not even see the access Hollywood Tape but her Immediate Response was to deny, deny, deny. A classic thing to do but it does suggest that she was already making the case for donald trump without actually knowing what had transpired on the tape. We are talking about alternative facts so that is where it becomes common. The question is, which had do they have on . I do think she has some potential standing with the jury there and unless she is the most incredible actor ever, most people cant cry on command. Most people are not able to do that. What juries do is use their eyes and ears to assess whether they think the current version that they are hearing is true or not or if somebody is lying on the stand. I want to also draw your attention to how different a world it is. We all know what things have been like the last few years, how people feel about politics. I mention that in our reporting at the top of this program. Just go back and look briefly at how donald trump sounded in one of the only public statements he has ever made that could be called a partial apology. I will remind you how much of a problem this was in october. Take a look. I have never said i am a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that i am not. I have said and done things i regret and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words dont reflect who i am. I said it. I was wrong and i apologize. I was wrong and i apologize, quote, unquote. Not a deep fake, melissa, an actual statement under duress. How does that work in the story that the prosecutors are trying to tell through these witnesses . That goes to the point that the prosecutors have been trying to make. Andrew is right, hope hicks helps to furnish that that he was concerned about this, concerned about what it might mean with the electorate if news of Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels came out especially hot on the heels of the access Hollywood Tape. It is a long time since this happened. We have had a pandemic. We have had all kinds of things. Are the jurors going to remember that in october 2016, this is all anyone could talk about . It seems like literally the worst thing that he could do. We have been somewhat ignoring what he can and will do and i think it is very likely that this might seem really quaint to the jurors, in sort of piecing all of this together as a campaign to get elected and to silence some of these facts that could come out and be really damaging to him. That may be harder to piece together. She did a lot of good work for the prosecution. I am interested to see how the defense uses her in their closing arguments. I think they were very tentative today. She immediately began crying. I think he would have bloodied her up a little bit more if she had not been so obviously in distress. That is the human side to this as mention. Any thoughts on that . I just want to take up something melissa said which is that it is right to anticipate that the defense will be saying this is about melania. As melissa notes, there is contrary evidence in the record but the jury will be instructed did that you can have a dual motive. The state does not have to prove that the 100 intent in his head was the election. If there was a dual motive that he was concerned about the election and his wife, he is still guilty. The state will be wrapping themselves around that Jury Instruction to say the hope hicks testimony should be believed, including the part about the concern about what melanias reaction will be but that does not mean he was not concerned first and foremost or in part about getting elected. They can embrace that part of the testimony and still win. That speaks to how people understand other peoples motives. We talk about terminal intent and why Jury Instruction can matter so much. Sometimes i might go running to get fresh air but i also hope to lose weight. You can just say, i only went running for pressure, that was the only reason. Obviously, the Criminal Motive has to be substantiated enough even if there is other stuff in the mix. Andrew and melissa, thank you to both of you. Appreciate it. Coming up, we have what the judge told trump to his face about all of this. A real rebuke. I am thrilled to tell you president ial historian Douglas Brinkley is here as we make sense of how all of this will live on for years and years. It is the firstever trial of a president. First, the tape. That is next. Next. Alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. Say hello to your Fairy Godmother alice and longlasting gain scent beads. Part of the irresistible scent collection from gain i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Thanks to skyrizi im playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. And skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. Serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. With skyrizi, nothing on my skin means everything nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. Learn how abbvie could help you save. Remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer . Was that after i texted the age to screen was now 45 . [both] because i said cologuard® hey there where did he come from . Yup, with me you can screen at home. Just talk to your provider. [both] well screen with cologuard and do it my way. Cologuard is a oneofakind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for me, cologuard. Tech at safelite, well take care of fixing your windshield. False positive and negative but did you know we can take care of your Insurance Claim . That means less stress for you. Woman thanks. Tech my pleasure. Have a good one. Woman you too. Tech schedule today at safelite. Com. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. 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 . Our special continues as we track the Star Witnesses damning evidence and the judge letting donald trump, the defendant, know exactly what the rules are. This has been the third full week of a bruising period for defendant trump. The expresident s election interference scheme was blown wide open. Prosecutors call Keith Davidson, talking about how deals came together for Karen Mcdougal. One of the most significant patches of testimony expect trumps legal team tried to Paint Davidson as an extortionist who made a career out of targeting celebrities. Donald trump has never been closer to spending a night in jail. They are threatening to throw the republican nominee for president in jail for talking, harris. City prosecutors have now called hope hicks to the stand. I think the jurors will not only be listening very carefully to everything that hope hicks is saying, theyre going to be looking over at how mr. Trump responds. That is just some of what we lived through in one week. The judge also held donald trump in contempt for the first time. He was fined and warned he could go to jail if he does not shape up. Keith davidson, the former lawyer for mcdougal and daniels said trump was worried about the campaign. Hope hicks has back that up. National enquirer payments for mcdougal were all about helping the candidacy. Prosecutors played that audio discussing trumps dealings about, and therefore his knowledge of, his own reimbursed payments that went to daniels. I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, i hate the fact that we did it. And, my comment to him was, every person that you have spoken to told you it was the right move. Our special continues with a special guest. We have a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. Welcome back. Thank you. Was stood out to you in this very dramatic week . You know whitecollar criminal cases are really pretty boring. Testimony can be a drag. Very document heavy, very complex but that is certainly not the case in this trial with donald trump. What stood out to me was Keith Davidson. You know, this strategy that the defense has in really distancing trump from davidson, from these payments and that they establish that davidson only communicating with cohen, never trump. They brought out this fact that the only time that davidson had ever been in the same room as trump was in that manhattan courtroom. He had never spoken to him about this. That was a slamdunk for the defense or the prosecution. That is to establish that there was a transaction, that cohen did in fact pay Stormy Daniels, he facilitated this whole thing 130,000 in exchange for her silence. For me, i think that Keith Davidson did what he was supposed to do for the prosecution but i certainly think he helped the defense and hope hicks testimony today corroborated what he said. What he did say after the payments were done, cohen called davidson and complained because he was expecting a job at the white house. I did so much for this guy and i have been left out. Then you have hope hicks saying i dont know cohen to do things out of the goodness of his heart. He does things because he wants credit. He does things for self interest. The defense is saying that cohen made these payments on his own because he had other instances to bury the story. Lets dig in on the point. We talked a lot about how much ground was made by the prosecution. Again, i remind everybody that it is not like picking between two stories. It is not like, either trump did it or did cohen do it . It is a much lower bar. It is only if the jury has reasonable doubt as to whether cohen did it. I think that is important for us to emphasize because if you are watching this as a viewer, you may say this story is more likely. Based on the evidence, the trial is not over. I do think that another story is more likely but is there reasonable doubt as to whether cohen went rogue . You are saying the defense is getting its points on that . You just have to get one person to really think about this in the way the defense is playing it out to be. Trump had other things in mind. Cohen does go rogue. He has selfinterest. He wanted a job. He did this because he wanted to protect the big guy, his boss. The defense is scoring points, at least enough to change one persons mind. Okay. You still paid it back. Even if you say this popped up in a different way, Take A Look At Cohen describing then President Trump paying him back. Okay. I am visiting President Trump in the oval office for the first time. He says to me something to the effect of, dont worry, michael. Your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. That is if the jury believes cohen. The jury is attacking cohens credibility. They are going to say they have the check. Yes. Cohen is a Convicted Perjure her. That is not necessarily as convincing for me. Again, it is up to the jury and whether they find cohen to be credible on the stand. Are you surprised or doesnt make sense to you that the da delayed cohen . We heard about Star Witnesses and he had not come up yet. I am not surprised. They have to tell a story and they have to go in a particular order. They started with the first witness, david pecker to lay the foundation on how all of this even came about. This deal with trump and cohen. The order that they are going in, i am not surprised. They are telling a story and they were building up to cohen being their star witness. Hes got to be watching this. Hes got to hear what is being said. I know he is watching it. I want to say that the prosecution is warning him against that. That is something that he can cause some damage on. I am not surprised by the strategy of the prosecution. Really interesting point especially against your expertise with some of how these lawyers work. We will see both sides of it. Yodit tewolde, thank you for being here. Thank you. Up next, we lived there history together. I am excited about this one. That is when we come back. Bac. Get the rest to be your best with nonhabit forming zzzquil. Unnecessary action hero. The nemesis. It appears that despite my forsinisterquil. Efforts, employees are still managing their own hr and payroll. Why would you think mere humans deserve to do their own payroll . Because their livelihoods depend on it . Because they have bills to pay . Hear me now, paycom return the world of hr and payroll to its rightful place of chaos or face a tsunami of unnecessary the likes of which you have never seen choose advil liquigels for faster, stronger and longerlasting relief than tylenol rapid release gels because advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. So for faster pain relief, advil the pain away. If youre living with hiv, imagine being good to go without daily hiv pills. Good to go off the grid. Good to go nonstop. With cabenuva, theres no pausing for daily hiv pills. For adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, longacting Hiv Treatment you can get every other month. Its two injections from a Healthcare Provider. Just 6 times a year. Dont receive cabenuva if youre allergic to its ingredients or if youre taking certain medicines which may interact with cabenuva. Serious side effects include allergic reactions, postinjection reactions, liver problems, and depression. If you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems, Mental Health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or considering pregnancy. Some of the most common side effects include injectionsite reactions, fever, and tiredness. With cabenuva, youre good to go. Ask your doctor about switching. Try killing bugs the worryfree way. Not the other way. Zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. They work continuously, so you dont have to. Zevo. Peoplefriendly. Bugdeadly. Its time to get away and cache in, at cache creek casino resort, to rock and to roll. To go all out or. Go all in. With four stars and rising stars, northern californias Premier Casino Resort is the perfect place. To do as much or as little as you want. Make your get away now and cache in at cache creek casino resort. This firstever trial of a former president matters. It matters to the people involved. It could matter to the defendant if he is convicted of a felony before the election and it matters and many other ways in our life and history and rule of law. Is it breaking through . Are people hearing about it . Do you ever wonder . You are following it if you are listening to my voice right now but there are interesting ways we can try to understand how this is playing out as it happens. It is making headlines All Around The World because this is something the United States has never done before. If you check around the country on local papers where a lot of people still get their news, it still makes the front pages including the cohen tapes, the phone calls recorded by the former trump mixer. Those are not only newsworthy but, for many americans, they have echoes in past president ial style, scandals and tapes of the president. Im going to get that closely involved. What can we learn from history as we lived through it . I mentioned, we are very excited about our next guest. The acclaimed historian, author of many books including the nixon tapes. Welcome. I am thrilled to have you on the special. I am glad to be here. It is just a riveting week. It seems to me that trump has really painted in the corner. Today was a kicker for a long week. I do know that it is a spiders web. Youve got to follow all of these tentacles. Some people may be bored a bit. You may not know certain lawyers or who is on deck tomorrow with the forecasting but we all know and feel trump did this. If he is found guilty, it will be a shocking moment that the president , the leader is substantively facing jail time or house arrest. He may not need this but nonetheless, it takes your breath away that we have allowed our political theater to get to this sort of bottom ground line. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. As with anything in a society, it matters what other people think. What are our common understandings . Those of us in the news, which is they say that the old the whole point is in the news, we are doing it hour by hour. You guys are doing it allegedly at a little bit higher pay grade, more sophisticated. You are looking at all of these trends. People are following this more than some other things in the last years of chaos. Here is a poll that we have for your view, 45 of people say they are either following this closely or very closely. That is certainly more than, say, a congressional bill battle or other assorted legal issues that you and i and others might say are important but dont captivate the country. It, i am guessing you would say that is probably not at the high watermark of watergate and nixon. How do you make sense of Something Like that, if it is broadly 40, 50 of the country following this trial . With nixon in june 1972, june 23, you have that tape, the smoking gun, where you hear the nixon is asking the cia to get the code to call off the investigation. All these things start unraveling for nixon. Trump is going to come up if he is found guilty. These jurors say you are guilty because he will have to go july 15 to milwaukee. Wherever he goes, people will realize he has been convicted. He could pretend to wear it as a badge of honor like he does when he was impeached twice but the truth of the matter is, this cuts close to home. When you are talking about melania trump, his wife, former first lady having to endure the mcdougal and daniels in the seediness of it, anyone who is having dinner with pecker has issues to start with because it has been jump paper from its inception but this is the can of worms that trump revels in. He does give good speeches. If he goes to the convention, he might be able to hold his base. It is nibbling away at him in wisconsin and michigan. There is no way this trial, particularly if he is found guilty, will be found as an asset reelection campaign. That is what is so funny about all of the ridiculous propaganda. I use that word, deliberately. Everybody knows that it is bad if you are indicted and worse if you are convicted. That is true whether you want to run a company or country or be in a local community club, golf club, whatever is your sport. It is certainly bad in todays politics because so much is involved with the accusations of criminality. Donald trump was a master of that. Cricket hillary. He was impeached over trying to create a fake ukrainian investigation. You dont need to be a news buff to know that he thinks this is bad and it will hurt him. How do we perceive, had we make sense of the history and real time . Is this like nixon . Is it like vietnam . Is it like the Civil Rights Movement in the way that they become common experiences . Covid would be another. Is this the other half of the country that is tuning it out and does not want to deal with it . I think it is still divided. I bet if you went to fox news right now, theyre covering campus protests. They are not really covering a lot of what is going on this trial. Why would you go to fox news right now . Im kidding. People can watch what they want. Im kidding. We are divided that way. It comes together come summer, come the fall. People will have to look at this guy with scrutiny. The mistake we made with Book Ending Trump with the elevator ride, really, we should be looking at it as Election Corruption on both ends meaning the access Hollywood Tape followed by the hush money coverup, showing he would do anything to not lose Election Corruption at the outset and then insurrection on the back. Those are the bookends in my mind of what the Trump Presidency is really about. Can i add a book . So, you have the 16 issues that are now indicted as campaign crimes. You have the 2020 what you just said and you also have two impeachment no other president twice impeached. Both of those were allow about the power. We have not passed the criminal line yet in terms of conviction. That is a heck of a lot of evidence of election times. I will let you have the last word. I know you love quoting from hiphop artists and others but you know that bob dylan used to say, you dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. None of us Need Somebody to tell us whether trump is part of the hush money payment. Of course he is. This is not a rogue cohen. This is some lapdog for donald trump doing the dirty business. Trump was pleased cohen bought them off for cheap. He probably thought he would go up to a quarter of 1 million and save himself some money. We do have to give trump credit for recognizing what a dire threat it was because he could not have survived the access hollywood right on top of Stormy Daniels. As the testimony showed, i appreciate the dylan reference. He also said hello and bradley both probably lied, the newspapers. They all went along for the ride. In this case, the tablets. Good to see you, douglas. Good to see you. As we look at how this is all playing out, we will show the memes and the internet also following the trial, when we come back. Come back. And there were some days i was so short of breath. I thought id have to settle for never stepping foot on this trail again. I became great at making excuses. But i have people who count on me so i talked to my cardiologist. I said there must be more we can do for my symptoms. He told me about a medication called camzyos. He said camzyos works by targeting whats causing my obstructive hcm. So he prescribed it and im really glad he did. Camzyos is used to treat adults with symptomatic obstructive hcm. Camzyos may improve your symptoms and your ability to be active. Camzyos may cause serious side effects, including Heart Failure that can lead to death. A risk thats increased if you develop a serious infection or Irregular Heartbeat or when taking certain other medicines. So do not stop, start or change medicines or the dose without telling your Healthcare Provider. You must have echocardiograms before and during treatment. Seek help if you experience new or worsening symptoms of Heart Failure. Because of this risk, camzyos is only available through a restricted program. Before taking camzyos, tell your doctor about all of your medical conditions, including current or planned pregnancy. Today with camzyos, i dont lose my breath as often. My symptoms have improved, helping me go from expecting less to experiencing more. My name is mike. And this is my camzyos moment. Call your cardiologist today and see if a camzyos moment may be in your future too. ella fashion moves fast. jen and see if a so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. marquis with a custom private 5g network. ella we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. jen thats enterprise intelligence. vo its your vision, its your verizon. Were here with Chris Counahan of our local leaffilter. So chris, tell us how leaffilter is different from every other gutter protection on the market. With leaffilters, patented filter technology, there are no gaps, no openings, no place for debris to get in at all. And we install leaffilter on your existing gutters. Its a permanent solution. Youll never have to climb a ladder to clean out your gutters again. Thats amazing, chris. Tell me about the process. Simple and easy. Just give us a call, set up an appointment. Well come out and give you a free gutter inspection. If theyre sagging, well repair them. If theyre broken, well replace them. If theyre in good shape, our local team will install leaffilter in as little as a few hours. Wow. And i understand you guys have a lifetime no clogs guarantee . We do. Its actually a lifetime transferable no clogs guarantee. You know, thats Peace Of Mind and then some. So, how do people sign up . To schedule your free inspection. Call 833leaffilter today our agents are standing by. Or visit leaffilter. Com. She runs and plays like a puppy again. His 2s are perfect hes a brand new dog, all in less than a year. When people switch their dogs food from kibble to the farmers dog, they often say that it feels like magic. But theres no magic involved. dog bark its simply fresh meat and vegetables, with all the nutrients dogs need instead of dried pellets. Just food made for the health of dogs. Delivered in packs portioned for your dog. Its amazing what real food can do. Our Founding Partner would appear to be very upset about reports that say he has been sleeping during the trials. Eventually, we will have to put him on a baby monitor. Oh no, hes on his stomach again. I got to flip them over. 9000 for violating his gag order nine times. Trump was like, but i get the 10th one free, right . Comics roasting this trial but as we continue to keep an eye about how this is playing out, we have noticed that on one of the most popular platforms in the country, especially among younger people, tiktok, the trial is breaking through with people watching, reacting and debating it. Oh my gosh. Do we need to talk about the Trump Criminal Trial . Hope hicks is now testifying and she is spilling the beans on her former boss, donald trump. Speaking of punches, trumps attorneys got a number of them in and crossexamination and we got to get a look at how that things will be for Michael Cohen. He can absolutely testify in his own defense. The gag order is not preventing that. These folks care about nothing but donald trump. This man is known for fooling, talking big and then using the back door to bail out. It is another sign of how our society and our world and our technology is changing. People cannot only watch, they can talk back. Some of these videos going viral. It is interesting to see how everyone is making sense of it. We will be right back. Back. Deep down, i knew something was wrong. Since my fatigue and lightheadedness would come and go, i figured it wasnt a big deal. Then i saw my doctor and found out i have afib, and that means theres about a 5 times greater risk of stroke. Symptoms like Irregular Heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or Light Headedness can come and go. But if you have afib, the risk of stroke is always there. If you have one or more symptoms, get checked out. Holding off on seeing a doctor wont change whether or not you have afib. But if you do, making that appointment can help you get ahead of stroke risk. Contact a doctor and learn more at notimetowait. Com woman ugh, of course it stops loading at the best part. tony hale lp you get ahead you need verizon. Get their crazy powerful network out here, and get six months of disney bundle on them vo stream with six months of disney bundle on us. And watch it all on the new Samsung Galaxy s24 , also on us. Only on verizon. Have you ever considered getting a walkin tub . Well, look no further safe steps best offer, just got better now, when you purchase your brand new safe step walkin tub, youll receive a free Shower Package. Yes, a free Shower Package and if you call today, youll also receive 15 off your entire order. Now you can enjoy the best of both worlds the therapeutic benefits of a warm, soothing bath that can help increase mobility, relieve pain, boost energy, and even improve sleep or, if you prefer, you can take a refreshing shower. Allinone product call now to receive a free Shower Package plus 15 off your brand new safe step walkin tub. Were signing off from this special hour. Thanks for smebding time with us and keep it right here on msnbc. Good evening, and welcomeo