Maria good friday he morning thanks very much for joining us. Im maria bartiromo. I hope you are having a good friday morning it is friday, may 17, 8 00 a. M. On the east coast time for hot topic of the hour former President Trump socalled hush money trial entering final stretch defense prepares to resume crossex crossexamination. That is right maria 1k067ing crossexamination highlighted calling history of lying yesterday made the suggestion Michael Cohen continues to lie on the stand, right before the jury. Defense attorney todd blanche cross examined Michael Cohen about a phone call took place late october 2016 cohen testified he called trumps bodyguard schiller and trump about Stormy Daniels to temperature them the nondisclosure agreement deal was done on cross blanche used Text Messages to suggest cohen had been receiving harassing phone calls called schiller to discuss that that was a lie you were talking to mr. Schiller about the fact getting horaceing phone calls from 14yearold
To behave like an dictator, refusing to accept that the voters have spoken, erroneously declaring victory, bulldozing over our democracy and hunkering down in the white house, refusing to relinquish the reins of government or even to admit hes been fired by the American People. Trump is no longer an autocrat in the making, hes already there. In an election one has lost, an election that has zero evidence of fraud, thats what autocrats do. Trumps focus is on his power and his ego, and perhaps on that orange jumpsuit that may be waiting once he leaves office. His focus is nowhere near his duty to protect the American People from a raging pandemic which has now taken more than 251,000 lives. And behind every strongman is his supine party, the fixers and the kingmakers and the thugs who enable him. Trumpian mascots like mitch mcconnell, william barr and Lindsey Graham, seen here fist bumping Vice President elect Kamala Harris on the senate floor, despite his claims of voter fraud in the el
This is a plan that trump now supports. And Senate Democrats are ready to make it law but today, Mitch Mcconnell is blocking holding a vote on just that. Now, this part is a familiar story. Mcconnell obstructing a bill. Hes proud of that kind of thing but some democrats say they have more leverage this time, this time could be different and the reason its the calendar. It the end of the year. Congress wants to go home like everyone else around the holidays and senator Bernie Sanders is invoking that leverage warning hell use the rules to force senators to be stuck in d. C. With the senate open over new years unless Mcconnell Green lights an up or down vote. We have got to raise the direct payment to 2,000. So that is where we are right now in this historic moment. Do we turn our backs on struggling working families or do we respond to their pain . Republicans looking at a tough choice. If they vote against the money, they buck trump and oppose this clearly vital help for americans duri
Third obama term. A lot of people who worked in government before and we didnt hear a lot about their transition planning. The transition was so different this year. I think the reason they were able to take all these actions so quickly is because they knew exactly what they wanted to do, working on them and know the language they want to use. There might be legal challenges. I think because they had all this Establishment Experience they were ready to go on day one. Bill two things i would add. I wonder if its a nod to the difficulty of getting some of this done legislatively in congress with it 50 50 and i agree it feels like 2016 this morning. It does. Bill now the work begins. Dana we have to move forward. Inauguration is behind us. Bill overnight on the west coast. Check it out. Dana violent protests erupting on the west coast demonstrators in portland smashing windows at Democratic Party headquarters. More on that in a minute. Bill want to bring in White House Correspondent peter
Focus heavily on the crisis. The setting is also different to reduce unnecessary risk of transmission of the virus, cnn, the Democratic National committee and the campaigns moved this debate from phoenix, arizona, to here at cnn studios in washington without any audience. All of this comes as four more states, florida, arizona, ohio and illinois prepare to vote on tuesday with Vice President biden currently leading senator sanders in the race for delegates. Heres what were going to do tonight. Each of you will have 90 seconds to answer questions and 45 seconds for responses and rebuttals. As much as we can, we hope this will be a conversation between the two of you. So lets begin with the most important issue right now, the coronavirus and what you would do as president in the face of it. Vice president booiden, let me start with you. Were in a reality right now that might have seen unimaginable a week ago. Schools have been cancelled for more than 25 million students, Grocery Stores h