the country, including a former president, was the subject of a hearing today in a federal courthouse in washington, d.c. attorneys for donald trump and federal prosecutors argued over trump s claim that the federal election case against him should be dismissed because everything he did in the postelection period was in his official capacity as president. the three-judge panel that is hearing the case appeared spectacle of that claim. the ex-president and jack smith were in the courtroom today. trump has been claiming that president joe biden has been forcing him to appear in court, which is not true, he did have no obligation to appear at today s hearing. trump s attorney argued that allowing the prosecution of donald trump would, quote, open a pandora s box, but the judge has pushed back on that and many of the arguments he was making. trump s lawyer also argued that the president could only be prosecuted if he was impeached and convicted by the senate first, no matter what
hard things. the question i leave you with tonight is what does that mean for you? on that note, i wish you a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i will see you tomorrow. you tomorrow. i was out sick. i finally got covid. i think and one of the last people in the country who had never had it before. but i finally tested positive like a week and a half ago. i m vaccinated so i think that helped me get an easier bout. i rested up, isolated from everyone. i took a five-day course of paxlovid which honestly is kind of grows while you re taking it. but it is, in my opinion, totally worth. it it s only five days of pills. by the end of those five days of the paxlovid, i had no fever, totally reduced symptoms, and most importantly, i was testing negative. and not a risk to other people. so, anyway, i m back, i m sorry, i missed you here last week. also had to cancel and reschedule the remaining book tour
2021 that essentially outlaws attempts to supersede federal gun laws in missouri. the justice department and a federal judge has ruled that s in complete contravention of the supremacy clause of the constitution. in missouri, he s arguing against a strong central federal government and here for trump he s arguing for the strongest possible central presidency. so he is somebody who has shown, i think, a flexibility in terms of his capacity to pivot from one legal argument to the next. for people who didn t listen to it, it s hard to do because there s no cameras. you re listening to the audio. worth listening to. there were a lot of interesting, and as kirschner would say, novel legal arguments made. thanks to the three of you. glenn kirschner, david jolly, and glenn thrush, a good start to the hour. one of the police officers who defended the capitol on
either. one official in fact said traveling with the president on air force one is like being held captive. they do seem glamorous. but remember in asia, this is exact opposite of our time. so he is he and all his aides not only have jet lag, they don t get accustomed to the time there because they re not there long enough. they re monitoring everything back home, so you kind of have to be up at all hours. there s briefings and talks and negotiations going on, so there s a lot going on, even though it seems like it s all festive atmosphere, the aides are working around the world, basically, you don t really sleep for a few days. going back to this controversial tweet that the president sent out as he s been hosted by the japanese prime minister, we heard from senator amy klobuchar yesterday and she said john mccain was worried about the influence of dictators on this president.
that his arguments aren t even substantial. we know that this is a president who is siding with dictators over the former vice president. he sides with dictators over the cia. he threatens to release top-secret information and compromise the national security in order to go after his political enemies. those who dare to investigate him. he s acting like a dictator. in the book i wrote, it s important to be cautious about the impeachment process but caution cannot translate into cowardess. i don t know what the guy wants, it is clear that under the constitution he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors that the evidence is almost