It might take several iterations of this going forward. Republican infighting and dysfunction, thats the theme in washington, d. C. Right now. Congressional investigations reporter for the Washington Post, Jackie Alemany, thank you. Thanks to all of you for getting up Way Too Early with us on this monday morning. Morning joe starts right now. Are you concerned about americas reputation on The World Stage given the level of brinksmanship we have seen this year . Based on the maga republican support, yes. Based on what my administration is doing, no. President biden blaming maga republicans as the country falters and how the movement is endangering democracy. This as House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy defied if right wing of his party. And partnered with democrats to Keep Congress running. Now his job could be on the line. Well discuss mccarthys fate and who he may need to turn for help. Plus, hours from now donald trump will appear in court in manhattan for the start of a civil trial scrutini
fraud trial against him, the penalty part. that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with breaking news in manhattan where donald trump is already inside the courtroom about to take the stand in his $250 million new york civil fraud trial. these proceedings are just getting under way this morning. nbc s vaughn hillyard is standing by outside the courthouse. also with us, peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times. chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi attorney and former investigative council for the january 6th house committee. we saw those live images inside the courtroom. we aren t allowed to have cameras inside the courtroom during the actual testimony. i understand, vaughn, trump spoke moments ago before he walked into the courthouse. start us off there in mann with what the president, former president is saying this morning and what we can e
smith. john: i m john roberts. the story with martha starts rights now. martha: good afternoon. i m martha maccallum. right now breaking on the story, israel s prime minister saying the fight in gaza is the second war of end. he calls it an existential battle. any calls for a cease fire, he says, would be a surrender as idf expands their ground operation and rescues an israeli soldier who was kidnapped october 7th. a huge development this afternoon. they have vowed to carry out more raids and put pressure on hamas to release the 229 or maybe north of that number remaining hostages that are believed to be in gaza including ten, is the estimate, we think is the right number of americans now being held hostage by hamas. the biden administration has teed up big meetings that could be central to what happens next. senior members of biden s cabinet will sit down with top saudi officials over the next few days. saudi arabia could be very pivotal in the future of the middle eas
to the ongoing investigation becomes part of any case is a question for the department of justice. the judge, as andy correctly pointed out, cannot tell them what to charge anybody with. what she can do is she can hit the pause button or i think she could say okay, i ll accept the plea of guilty on the charges that we have before us because if we re not going to do diversion. let s say she denies that. there is a ten year potential penalty on that and another 12 months plus 12 months for the two miss demeanors. that would be 12 years in custody she has to work with if she feels the penalty part of this is just not sufficient. i think, though, before she can do anything, the sentencing was never supposed to occur today. if she is not going to if she is inclined to not take the plea deal. she is probably going to be disinclineed to accept a guilty plea. that may be where we re left.
that. they re going to focus on the penalty part and possibilities of appeal afterwards? what they re laying out is their mitigation. they re going to put everything on tsarnaev s brother. obviously he s dead he can t come in and testify to the contrary, so they re going to lay their client out as somewhat of a victim somewhat of a patsy, and try to create as much emotion, as much sympathy for him as possible in hopes that the jury once they go to penalty phase that they don t find a death penalty. talk about the trial. the boston globe reports the trial is moving into a new phase with new dynamic, it will move away from personal accounts emotional accounts from victims the past two days to more technical aspects, such as expert witnesses, showing how the bombs were made and how they worked. what is the goal there, what will prosecutors try to prove with that kind of testimony? well it gets a little methodical. it is not as sexy as having