thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. we are grateful. the beat with katie phang in for ari starts right now. hi, katie. thanks, nicole. i think extraordinary is an understatement these days, but thank you, i appreciate it. have a good show. thanks. and welcome to the beat, i m katie phang in for ari melber. the supreme court today handing down a win for donald trump in his federal insurrection case. a consequential decision that will affect presidential power for years to come, ruling that trump has immunity for some of his official conduct as president but not for private, unofficial acts. here s how that played out. the high court has just issued one of its most consequential rulings in decades. the president has absolute immunity for core constitutional powers, however, not for unofficial acts. five alarm fire. supreme court has decreed him a king. how the justices rule could well define the parameters
bret: did i see that. greg: what is happening? bret: thank you, greg. dana: wow, i m never bret: good evening, welcome to washington. i m bret baier. breaking tonight, closing arguments in president donald trump s criminal trial in new york. prosecutors trying to convince a jury the presumptive presidential nominee engaged in conspiracy and cover-up. defense attorneys organization the prosecution s star witness michael cohen is a massive liar. in fact, they said cohen is the gloat, the greatest liar of all time. and they are pressing for an across the board acquittal. both sides trying to score points with the jury before it starts deliberating the first felony case against a former american president. correspondent nate foy is outside the new york state supreme court has he has been tonight. good evening, nate. nate: hey, bret. as prosecutors continue making their closing arguments tonight, former president donald trump described it on truth social in one word
fact had authorized this not op research but weaponizing of a false claim, when they did that, they in fact changed the outcome, whether criminal or not, of many things including certainly some things in voter s minds, isn t that correct? generally speaking there are lots of bad things that people do that aren t crimes. we can only charge those that are crimes. i appreciate that. when people are making the point that somehow you didn t put enough people in jail, you gave us 300 pages that give us a responsibility, as i said i m not going to try to pretend i m a lawyer but i am somebody that understands organization, oversight and transparency. in your report you do note the changes made and so on. but unless we make changes in transparency to outside individuals who can be counted
saying about prosecutorial overreach, but that given these problems and more cases to come, that the president should step out of the race, that is donald trump. he s obviously not heeding that, but what do you think of that? i think that s wrong on many counts. first of all, it s politically motivated by mr. hutchinson running against him. and the president top in the country responsibility to the constitution. neil: he s the only candidate saying that among the republicans, maybe to your point he s trying to stand out among the field. what do you think? well, i think he s wrong. i think it almost disqualifies him as being a president, a president has the responsibility to serve and protect the constitution. he himself says he s a weaponized prosecutors. why would you let weaponized prosecutors get away with destroying our constitution and charging somebody, a former president with i think so this that aren t crimes? i want a president that s going to stand up and fight back to pr
himself, but a duty to all of us to defend the rule of law. he knows that he didn t break any laws. and the people persecuting him know he didn t break any laws. i speak from my own life experience. and you have a responsibility when you have a high office like that, president, governor, to never give in to that. we took oaths of office and those should mean something and there s something more than the immediate politics of today. it s our responsibility to self-government, the constitution, and the right of the people to choose their leaders and elections. you get a corrupt politician taking money in a brown paper bag, by all means prosecute him, but don t prosecute leaders for political things that aren t crimes. neil: back to your weaponization argument, a lot of people concurred, governor. do you think that the republican house risks weaponizing things itself, using their powers to try to get alvin bragg to speak, other prosecutors to go before them, that it s a tit-for-tat when i