simone sanders-townsend, joined by my coherence, alicia menendez and michael steele. the clock just struck midnight a couple of hours ago. three republican candidates made their case why they should be the republican party s nominee in the 2024 presidential election. former south carolina governor nikki haley and florida governor ron desantis sparred in a debate hedrick university in des moines. meanwhile, the front runner of the republican party, former president donald trump, took a break from court appearances to take questions in a fox news town hall. in this town hall, he said absolutely nothing new. it was the same lies, same talking points and essentially a rally with questions. let me be clear, folks, the only normal aspect of tonight s debate was the presence of podiums. the candidates took the stage just after vocal trump critic, former new jersey governor chris christie, suspended his campaign, refusing to endorse any of his former opponents. in a normal world, a r
Joining us, msnbcs Yasmin Vossoughian outside the courthouse. Temidayo agangawilliams, a former prosecuor and Defense Attorney caroline pull lisi. Yasmin, Jury Instrekss under way right now. Whats going on . Jury instructions under way ahead of Opening Statements, jose and ana. 45 minutes for the prosecution, 25 minutes for the defense. Theyre doing that because theres going to be a lot of details, much of a timeline, a lot of dates and they dont want to overwhelm the jury in the Opening Statements process. Judgments made from the bench that i want to talk about with you quickly, first, when it comes to the evidence if, in fact, the former president decides to testify, judge juan merchan is allowing six various cases to be decided if donald trump it was. Talking about the trump payroll judgment, the trump civil fraud gag orders as well along with e. Jean carol assault case and the defamation case. A couple more things happening in court this morning. The former president spoke about ho
Carolines point that they didnt charge them, conspiracy is nevertheless the agreement to do something the law forbids. It did dont on for decades. It was a relatively short period of time. Theres 34 counts, but theres really a much more limited number of acts that led to those 34 false documents. So prosecutors have to make it simple, avoid the simplistic, keep it linear and chronological, not overpromise and make sure they have a witness that will back up everything they say in the opening. This is not an inordinately complex thing to do. I forget who made the point earlier, but theyre exactly right. I think it was maya. If theres a weakness in your case, you front it. You want do make sure that the jury hears from you, the prosecutor, where the weaknesses are, where the traps may be. Otherwise then the defense gets to tell them and it looks like you as the prosecutor is hiding something. Its not an inordinately complex
election yet? look at don t on schedule this month. trump is jumping straight from iowa to new york, we plans to be in court thursday for closing arguments in a civil fraud trial of his family business practices. and then it s back to iowa, as if nothing happened. campaigning on saturday and sunday ahead of monday s caucuses. vin next tuesday, another trial gets underway to determine damages and ian writer e. jean carroll s defamation case against donald trump. msnbc legal analyst charles coleman joins us now. he s a former brooklyn prosecutor. okay, charles, i want to talk about on trump in the legalese things. but before we get there, in the debate tonight there was a interesting exchange on crime. i want to play ron desantis free while. and we will discuss it any other aunt. the lamb riots in the summer 2020, when i saw that happening in minneapolis and florida i called out the national guard. we had state law enforcement deployed. we said we re not burning down your cities and yo