[applause] president biden gets tonight s last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, donald trump s day in court, as his lawyers put forward some shocking arguments to back his sweeping immunity claims. what went down and what happens next. then, count down to iowa. republican candidates making their last-minute pitches while the front-runner is pushing lies on social media. then, a dangerous rise in 9-1-1 calls to report fake crimes. the real life consequences for victims as the 11th hour gets underway on this tuesday night. good evening, once again i m stephanie ruhle, live at msnbc headquarters right here in new york city. today, donald trump showed up in person at a d. c. courthouse for the most important hearing so far in his federal election interference case. keep in mind, he did not have to be at the appeals court proceeding, but given he is the front runner for the republican nomination and his legal team s strategy is delay, de
reporter: judge florence pan, a biden appointee posing stark hypotheticals on what a president could do if mr. trump s view prevailed. could a president order s.e.a.l. team 6 to assassinate a political rival? reporter: the answer yes, as long as the president was convicted and impeached first. pinning much of the senate on acquitting mr. trump at his 2021 impeachment trial, a position doj cast as frightening. what kind of world are we living? the president has a unique constitutional role. he is not above the law. and laura, what can you expect going forward in this case? the court is likely to rule very fast, even this week or next. now, if mr. trump were to lose in front of this court, he could appeal even further, potentially up the supreme court. all the while, though, the march trial date is ticking and his lawyers have not been shy about the fact that their gel is to delay.
smith s indictment. what s fascinating is to see how judges are responding. again, appointed by republicans, appointed by democrats, seeing that alarm, seeing the alarm the arguments trump is making, which mirror the public statement he s been making the people have also grown somewhat numb to. when you take a look, step back, see the full graphic, it s startling. and also what s not captured in that is the fact that even after donald trump won in 2016, he took office and one of the very first things he said in his first major network interview was that there was voter fraud and that he felt that he shouldn t have lost the popular vote. and that must be because of fraud. this is a line he is taken for so long. and now, because it led to january 6th, a violent attack on the capitol, were being forced to take it seriously. it is the judiciary that is in a position to weigh in in a new way with fresh eyes. or maybe the mistake is that i m asking people, not what people, because right no
fundamentally subvert the democratic republic and the electoral system. it would be awfully scary if there weren t some sort of mechanism by which to reach that, criminally. judge florence pan, a biden appointee, posing stark hypotheticals on what a future president could do if mr. trump s view prevailed. can the president order seal team six to assassinate a political rival? the answer, in sauer s view, yes, as long as the president wasd impeached first. he was spending much of his argument on the impeachment of trump during his 2021 trial, a position doj cast as frightening. what kind of world are we living in? the president has the unique constitutional role, but he is not above the law. so that s what went down in court. there was not a lot of space or time for political theater, so donald trump saved that for after the hearing, and when it was all over he and his lawyers went to the d. c. waldorf