you know he was really quick to say that there was no fraud in georgia. there are not thousands of dead people and thousands of convicted felons voting. he made it clear that he actually stayed away from mark meadows. we heard testimony from brad that there was repeated attempts by mark meadows to contact brad raffensperger. again, why would a white house chief of staff be trying to conduct the secretary of state to sort of calls? they are eventually was the call from january 2nd 2021 and there were tons of testimony about them. brad raffensperger made a very clear, he thought it was inappropriate for somebody like mark meadows to be actually calling cam to get involved in this. he thought that, you know what, i m not going to bother to respond, but he did that call and said very clearly during the call to donald trump as well as mark meadows and donald trump s lawyers, look, i cannot help you. there s nothing i can be able to do. so, brad raffensperger testified on behalf of the state
on january 2nd, 2021, on that call, saying that the illegal saying the election was fair, that we counted, we recounted and counted again, and joe biden won this state. what did we learn from his testimony yesterday, if anything? yeah, the secretary of state has said this over and over. he wrote a book about it, right? he actually wrote a book that annotated that entire phone call. the public didn t necessarily learn anything new, but now it s admitted in a court of law and can be used. his testimony can be used every single hearing going forward, every legal proceeding, every motion, every document that is filed in this case, him saying that he followed the law. he was not going to be coerced or intimidated or bullied by the former president and his top aides to find enough votes to reverse the election results. yeah, he is a powerful witness in all this. greg, with all this in mind, everything we ve seen in the state of georgia, particularly in the last week, you at the ajc hav
mr. secretary, i can tell you, you said there was only two dead people that would vote. i can promise you there are more than that. that is mark meadows, donald trump s former chief of staff making a brief appearance on the infamous find the votes call with georgia secretary of state on january 2nd, 2021. that exchange was part of his legal team s defense yesterday as meadows spent five hours on the witness stand. we ll get expert legal analysis on that hearing, and on the trial date set now for the former president in the federal election interference case, which could come the day before super tuesday. plus, president biden is clearing the way for a major federal response in florida ahead of hurricane idalia s expected landfall. we ll have the latest forecast for that storm, which is projecting to be a big one. good morning, welcome to morning joe. it s tuesday, august 29th. i m willie geist, with us the host of way too early, author of the big lie, jonathan lemire,
is not criminal. he s also saying that he was acting in his capacity as a federal official. he said part of the interest of federal officials is making sure state elections run smoothly. we re expecting a very long day today at the federal district court behind me. four witnesses at least have been subpoenaed. we re also expecting a preview of sorts from the d.a. s team about their case going forward. this is the first courtroom test of d.a. fani willis and her indictments. it ll be interesting to see if there s any kernels about what might be ahead in this case. interesting that secretary of state brad raffensperger, one of the four witnesses today, the man on the other end of the phone call on january 2nd, 2021 we heard from president trump, quote, trying to find the votes. three people chargd alongside trump in the georgia interference case have apparently flipped. the three georgia republicans falsely claim to be electors for trump but say they took the
so look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. there s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you ve recalculated. january 2nd, 2021. meadows plans to argue he was acting in his capacity as the top aide to former president trump, so it should be in federal court. also today, the court will be considering a push by several of the defendants for a speedy trial. let s bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. ken, good morning. let s go back to the federal matter first in washington with judge chutkan, announcing, we think, about 10:00 this morning after that hearing, a trial date for the jack smith special counsel prosecution of donald trump for an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. what are you hearing about that gulf between the proposed dates,