now. welcome to the beat, our top story is new developments right now in what s shaping up to be the case of the decade for trying to hold liars accountable with real swift justice. fox news on defense, facing over a billion dollars for punishment and lies, it served up and fed the insurrection. as you see here, top fox hosts have clearly been on team trump in public for a long time. we know that. we know sean hannity broke all journalistic rules of pretense by endorsing and publicly campaigning for trump. there s no court punishment for breaking that kind of rule. there just isn t. but there can be penalties for malicious lying, for defamation if you can prove the defendant acting knowingly, maliciously, intentionally. that s hard to prove and that difficult standard is deliberate, which is why this case has to turn on hard evidence, not asking whether hannity is biassed for trump, he is. but asking whether hannity knowingly and maliciously pushed lies that caused immeas
thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. we re grateful the beat with ari melber start right now. never more extraordinary than now. right j hi, nicolle. thank you so much. good to see you. welcome to the beat. tonight we are here as a nation. everyone got up, everyone started their day. if you re on the east coast you re ending your day, and everyone s doing just about fine you can have the america and do what you re supposed to and not worry about who gets as long as it s faithfully and fairly executed. we re a day out from what happened yesterday and everything s okay. the reality, though, is one that is different for defendant donald trump this is his first full day deal welcome an open criminal case against him not his lawyer, not his cfo, not one of his many aides. this is something he never experienced himself, and only he can say how much he thought about or emphasized with all the other many people who wer
opinion. it didn t help that as the wall street journal reported, the fbi decided earlier there was no need to send agents to supervise biden lawyers collecting classified papers that they said they found. that reeked of a double standard. the washington post says biden world adopted a strategy of caution and deference toward doj, it was the goody two-shoes approach, more concerned with pleasing investigators than the public. here s a classic example. after white house sat on this story for two months, officials confirmed the cbs scoop about the first batch of documents found at penn biden center. now, the prime minister and his people already the president and his people already knew about the second batch but said nothing. it smelled like a cover-up. the post says some of biden s aides now regret the strategy. you think? here s the thing, anyone if can defend himself even when there s a justice investigation. i m howard kurtz, and this is mediabuzz. if. howa
we must vote knowing what at stake and not just the policy of the moment. but institutions that have held us together as we saw a more perfect union are at stake. we must vote knowing who we have been, what we re risk of becoming. president biden laid ous the threats to democracy. ahead of an election that he says will be a defining moment for our country. we ll have much more on his speech straight ahead. meanwhile, there are new details in the plot by donald trump s attorneys to overturn the 2020 election. his lawyers had a specific judge in mind. we ll tell who you that is. and also ahead, the latest from a major meeting in germany. the united states and allies are outlining the next steps in support of ukraine. good morning. welcome to way too early. thank you for starting your day us with. we ll begin with president joe biden s speech on the midterm elections and the future of our nation s democracy. the president delivered the remarks last night from washington s
governor, as your senator, as your secretary of state, as your attorney general, then democracy as we know it may not survive in arizona. that s not an exaggeration, that is a fact. that was former president obama hitting the campaign trail hard for democrats talking on election deniers in battleground states. that guy is pretty good. he s good at what he does. he s got a future in politics if he decides to go that way. president biden makes the fate of our democracy a key issue just days before voters decide who will control congress and the future path of our country. also ahead, new polling in several crucial races, including pennsylvania where voters are weighing in on the only debate between senate candidate john fetterman and dr. oz. plus, there are new details in the plot by trump s attorneys to overturn the 2020 election. his lawyers had a specific justice in mind, and we ll tell you who that is. and one of former president donald trump s top advisers has