good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. i m ana cabrera alongside my colleague and friend jose diaz-balart, bringing you special coverage as history unfolds this morning in a new york courthouse. closing arguments now under way in the first criminal trial of a former president. the dramatic final phase of donald trump s hush money case after 21 days in court, 22 witnesses and 80 hours of testimony. up first in today s closing arguments, trump s defense team. attorney todd blanche trying to convince a jury that the prosecution did not meet their burden of proof in this trial. nbc s yasmin vossoughian is outside the courthouse. also with us, chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi official, daniel leven, former prosecutor, jeremy solante, and jessica roth, former federal prosecutor and professor at cordosa law school. the defense closing is already under way. todd blanche saying to the jury, you should want or expect more than the testimony of michael cohen. what else are we hearing
So theyre scrambling. Theyre trying to figure this out as well, chuck. No indication as to whether the president has been briefed on this. Hes about to hold an event with sheriffs. In fact im told he just entered and so well try to get more questions to him about all of this. But this is unprecedented, as you say, the fact we have someone inside sounding the alarm like that. Thats what it is, someone sounding the alarm. The call is coming from inside the house. By the way, i should make a point, no Press Briefing today, no Press Briefing yesterday. How many are we up to how many Press Briefings have we had in the last six weeks . We havent had one in two weeks and we had less this summer. I think then its typical, for the record. So its becoming sort of the diminishing Press Briefing. Now, they would argue, hey, look, you had four different chances to ask the president questions today. That is true, and well take it. But of course shouted questions, yeah. Exactly, exactly. Shouted ques
So this may be investors saying, oh, maybe you are okay with ending some of these trade wars. Well talk about this trade deal and what it means. Lets get to the white house where right now the president and first lady are wrapping up a meeting with the president of kenya and his wife. Geoff bennett joins me. I want to get back to senator mccain and the controversy over flags that are at half staff in congress and many other places in the country but not at the white house. They were at half staff and are now back to full staff. Reporter flags are lowered by president ial proclamation so its the president who decides who receives that honor and the recent tradition for senators who die in office have been to have flags lowered in their honor from the day of death until their burial. So during president obamas time in office, he had four Sitting Senators die. There was ted kennedy, robert byrd, daniel inouhe. John mccain under President Trump did not receive that
honor. He appears to be
While republican White House hopefuls are focusing on iowa, President Biden and Vice President harris are heading to two important States Today to mark mlk day. President biden will be in swing state pennsylvania. Hes arriving right now. Hes volunteering at a Hunger Relief Organization there while the Vice President heads to South Carolina which holds the first sanctioned primary for democrats in a couple of weeks. Shell be speaking at an naacp event. They have some wind in their sails, announcing a hefty Reelection War Chest as we begin the slog toward november. Nbcs Aaron Gilchrist joins us from philadelphia where well see the president. Is this their version of counterprogramming today . Reporter ana, i think you can look at it a couple of different ways here. First the president practicing what he preaches, in his proclamation for this holiday, Martin Luther King day, the only congressionally designated national day of service. The president encouraged
In contrast to the republican candidates. As we mentioned, the Biden Campaign raised 97 Million in the last quarter of 2023. Theyre heading into 2024 now with 117 Million cash on hand. Aaron, how significant is this with that long road to november ahead of us . Reporter its a significant amount of money. The campaign called it a historic haul in releasing that information today. I think we cant ignore the fact that it was these numbers released today on a holiday, but also on the day of the iowa caucuses. There, i think, is a little counterprogramming, countermessaging. The campaign saying this amount of money, cash on hand, really proves what they say is Peoples Recognition of whats at stake and trying to help the Biden Campaign beat what is likely