next in the case. plus, officers who put their lives on the line on january 6th were at the courthouse yesterday for that hearing. we'll bring you their reaction. and there's still one more major legal issue on the horizon for donald trump. what the georgia prosecutor is saying about that case. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this friday, august 4th. it's friday, folks. we made it. i'm jonathan lemire, thanks for starting your day with us. history was made in the nation's capitol again yesterday where for the first time ever a former president of the united states was arraigned for his alleged efforts to subvert american democracy. just a few blocks away from where he took the oath of office and from where his supporters carried out an unprecedented act of violence just a few years later, donald j. trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges yesterday stemming from his actions after the 2020 election. the charges were conspiracy to defraud the united states, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. now, no cameras were allowed in the courtroom yesterday where only about 100 people were present. trump in a blue seat and trademark red tie was seated about 10 feet away from the man leading the prosecution against him, special counsel jack smith. when the former president's lawyers introduced themselves to the magistrate judge presiding yesterday they referred to their client as president trump. the judge then referred back to him as mr. trump. a reminder that everyone is equal in the court of law. the former president himself only spoke a few times mostly to acknowledge he was aware of his rights. he was asked to state his name and age to which he responded donald j. trump, john, and 77. most of the arraignment was typical in nature, but before trump agreed to the conditions of his release, the judge gave him an unusual warning. she reminded him that it is a crime to try to influence a juror to threaten or bribe a witness or to retaliate against someone providing information to prosecutors. when asked if he understood that violating those terms could result in his bond being revoked, the former president simply said, yes. now, trump had more to say after he left the courthouse. speaking to reporters on the tarmac before flying back to his new jersey club, trump lamented his return to washington, d.c. >> this is very sad day for america. and it was also very sad driving through washington, d.c. and seeing the filth and the decay and all the broken buildings in walls and the graffiti. this is not the place that i left. it's a very sad thing to do see it. when you look at what's happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. if you can't beat him, you persecute him or prosecute him. we can't let this happen in america. >> trump later reiterated most of those same points about the nation's capitol on his fledgling social media site, but it's unclear what he's actually looking at and quite a bit of his 10-minute ride from reagan airport from the federal courthouse was underground. now that the former president has been formally arraigned, the next court date in this case will be august 28th. in the meantime prosecutors must submit a proposed case schedule that includes a trial date and estimated length of proceedings, and that's by august 10th, just a week or so away to what trump's defense team will have just a few days to respond. when both sides meet again on the 28th, jauj judge tanya chutkan will be attending. during the proceedings judge chutkan plans to set the trial date for the case. it's likely the prosecutors will argue for a speedy trial while trump's team will push for the trial to be held after next november's election. joining us now msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst. he was most recently the top spokesperson at the department of justice under attorney general merrick garland. anthony, good morning. we're so grateful you're with us this morning. so you were working under the a.g. with he made the decision to appoint special counsel jack smith to that case. now, there have been some deliberations about the appropriateness of the investigation and how to handle it. tell us what you can. take us behind the scenes about what went into that now extraordinary and historic decision. >> yeah, thank you for having me, thonthen. that's exactly right. the attorney general made the decision in november of last year to appoint a special counsel. and number two, to appoint jack smith to the role. he did so to ensure independence and accountability. you'll recall he got some criticism from individuals at the time who did not think it was necessary for him to take himself out of the decision making process, but he appropriately in my opinion saw this was a pretty cut and dry decision. in his words he thought the extraordinary circumstances of the moment and those extraordinary circumstances being the former president who was under criminal investigation was running for his old job again and against whose cabinet the attorney general served. the attorney general in my view made the decision to appoint jack smith to this position, and importantly -- and this is important, jonathan, because what we're hearing now from donald trump and others is that the justice department is being weaponized against him. but that is not what is happening. jack smith is the one who has exercised his own prosecutorial discretion to bring this case. smith is not a political appointee like garland was, like i was. he is part of doj's career workforce. he's a political independent, and he doesn't have a political bone in his body despite what donald trump is telling his supporters. >> yeah, trump, of course, criticizing smith on his social media site. we should note those in his courtroom about a month or so down in south florida said smith didn't even make contact. yesterday in washington the two did exchange some glances, but no words were spoken. anthony, tell us about what we know so far about the timetable here, the calender. what does it tell you the magistrate judge gave prosecutors just one week to propose a trial date, and then we also know august 28th, just a few weeks from now, they're going to set a schedule for the trial itself. >> yeah, so judge chutkan is the district judge in this case who by all accounts is fair but she's also tough. she's one of the few judges in washington, d.c. who's actually handed down longer sentences than the government even requested. it does tell me she's committed to having a speedy trial which by all intents and purposes we -- all americans i think should want this. what's interesting to me, jonathan, is that typically when defendants are innocent, they want to have a trial as quickly as they can, right, so they can have their day in court and move on with their lives. this is trump undertaking the opposite tact here. he wants to delay the trial, understanding really he doesn't have based on my reading and more importantly the reading of notable legal scholars that have been on this network over the course of the last couple of days, he doesn't have any real legitimate defense in this case. >> yeah, certainly seems like the government wants to get this done before the election so voters have the information before they go to the polls. trump's team afterwards if he wins he can make it all go away. we really appreciate you starting us off this morning. we'll speak to you again down the road. house speaker kevin mccarthy had some responses. he tried to compare the situation to hunter biden and got upset when asked about trump's continued claims the 2020 election was stolen. >> i could say the same thing hillary clinton says about her election she lost. i can say the same thing about the dnc who said it about the 2016 race. i can say the same thing about those in the democratic party from the leadership on down about george bush not winning and al gore did. were any of them put in jail inwere any of them held with no response able to get out? the answer is no. so, yeah, you can raise that. and someone raised the question you know in america you're entitled to raise a question. you're entitled to question whether it was honest or not. that's the uniqueness of the first amendment. that's the uniqueness of america. but you know what, you shouldn't be prosecuted for your thoughts. and the difference here is when hillary clinton said it, nothing happened to him. when they said it in georgia's elekds, nothing happened to them either. when the dnc said it, nothing happened to them either. that is wrong and that should stop now. >> there's only one problem with all that, it's not true at all. hillary clinton did not challenge the results of the 2016 election. she gave a concession speech the very next morning saying she hoped trump would be a successful president for all americans. and back in 2000 you'll recall al gore won the popular vote, and then it took five weeks of florida recounts and court battles, eventually going all the way to the supreme court before george w. bush was declared the winner by 537 votes. gore in his role as vice president then presided over the certification of that election on january 6th, 2001. still ahead here on "way too early" fulton county district attorney fani willis weighs in on the status of her years long investigation into election interference in the state of georgia. what she's saying about any possible impacts from special counsel jack smith's probe. plus what we're learning about the arrest of two u.s. navy sailors on charges relating to national security. those stories, more on trump's historic arraignment, and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. r when we come right back businesses need 5g solutions today. that's why they choose t-mobile for business. mlb partners with t-mobile to not 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they sell out again! my most important kitchen tool? my brain. so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger. welcome back. at a press conference yesterday fulton county district attorney fani willis stressed that the special counsel's latest indictment of former president trump would not affect any charges she may bring in her own election interference investigation. take a look. >> have you read it? >> i have. >> anything surprising in there? >> no. >> are you coordinating with the special counsel's office at all? >> i'm not going to kmint on the investigation at this time. >> how much overlap between what you're planning to do and the special counsel? >> obviously we're concentrating on georgia and things that impacted georgia. >> does it have any bearing on the investigation at all? >> i'm not sure i understand the question. >> does it affect what you're planning to do? >> no. >> there's some people who say that there are already now three indictments against the former president. they argue that even if there were crimes committed here in fulton county, a fourth indictment isn't worth all the work that would come with this. to people who say that what would you say? >> that i took an oath. that if someone broke the law in fulton county, georgia, that i have a duty to prosecute, and that's exactly what i plan to do. >> you heard her. meanwhile, the fulton county courthouse is preparing for when willis announces her decision. starting next week the road surrounding the courthouse will be closed to general traffic, and parking won't be available on that street. barricades have already been put up outside as an additional precaution. willis has said chat she will make a decision on potential indictments by the end of this month. meanwhile, in other headlines, two navy sailors in southern california are under arrest accused of providing sensitive national security information to china. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has the details. >> the justice department says the two navy sailors have each been arrested for selling military secrets to china. >> sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the people's republic of china. >> the first defendant faces espionage charges. >> wey sent national defense information to china including documents, photos, videos, and technical manuals. in exchange his intelligence officer paid wey thousands of dollars. >> authorities say wey said the chinese officer had photos of vehicles and exercises. and 26-year-old from a naval base in california. federal authorities allege he received approximately $15,000 from a chinese intelligence officer in exchange for sharing operational plans, navy movements, and blueprints for a radar system at a u.s. military base in okinawa, japan. >> in short mr. jhao chose a path of corruption. >> with microsoft reporting chinese backed hackers broke into the e-mail accounts of state and commerce department employees including the secretary of commerce. >> keep you posted on developments in that story in the days ahead. next up here, we're going to turn to sports. football is back sort of. we'll have the highlights from last night's hall of fame game. plus, it seems the only thing that can stop baseball's best player, the cramps. we'll tell you who that is and what happened. you can guess it. that's all straight ahead on "way too early." ll straight ahen "way too early." day ticket. 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(vo) for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy s23. only on verizon. you're going to see a lot more of that than what you've seen historically and a lot more scrambling from this quarterback. >> robinson straight for the touch down. >> that touch down pass caught by the immortal austin watkins jr. in the fourth quarter. puts the cleveland browns ahead of the new york jets for good last night. it was the preseason opener. the gang green kicked off the aaron rogers era with a loss. rogers he didn't play. instead he helped coach the backup quarterback from the side line, there he is, with wilson giving rogers credit for setting up the play that gave the first score. the browns win the hall of fame game 21-16. and i've got to say there's very little that matters less than preseason football. turning now to major league baseball and the tex debut for the newly acquired max scherzer. scherzer of course traded to the new york mets for thursday while he threw 37 pitches and gave him three runs in the opening frame and then he settled in. the three time cy young winner would go onto tally nine strike outs as they rally to beat the chicago white sox 5-3 yesterday to complete a three game series sweep. to anaheim now. shohei ohtani left the mound after four scoreless innings because of cramping in his pitching hand, but he still hit his 40th home run of the season. he stayed in the game and hit that solo shot in the eighth and gave the angels a 2-run lead over the seattle mariners. but they're the angels so they found a way to blow it. loaded the bases and allowed that grand slam by the mariners rookie. seattle wins 5-3. the fifa women's world cup is now set after one of the most competitive group stages in history. top ten contenders canada, germany, brazil, they're all out while number 72 morocco competed in the first world cup play on along with number 54 south africa and number 40 nigeria as does 45 ranked jamaica which needed a gofundme to support its world cup preparations and then did not give up a goal in group play to become the first caribbean nation ever to advance. that's amazing. the u.s. women's national team meanwhile survived a near upset against portugal earlier this week. they will next play sweden on sunday as the knock out stage begins. time now for the weather and let's go to meteorologist angie lassman for the weekend forecast. how's it looking? >> a little soggy. i think you might need your umbrella demanding where you are. we already have flood alerts up for numerous regions of the country. so parts of the plains, parts of the midwest stretching into the southeast and even parts of new england, too. when we talk about the showers and thunderstorms already this morning they're mainly focused from jefferson city down to birmingham. back to the west wraefb got a line that's emerged from parts of the central plains and showers and more scattered thunderstorms over parts of the north east. we're going to add on additional rainfall here over the next couple of days and you can see picking up maybe an inch or two with highest amounts 3 or 4 inches across parts of the plains, and we'll see the severe weather take place. we do have a chance to see stronger storms in parts of the north east today and that shifts tomorrow and sunday. we're going to look ahead to parts of the midwest including chicago seeing some of those stronger storms. and the heat continues, 48 million people under the heat alerts and it's a tale of two sides of the country or two halves of the country. we have the triple digits that continues for the south. >> angie lassman, thank you. have a great weekend. >> you too. still ahead here on "way too early" donald trump is accused of asking his vice president to stop the election certification process. what his lawyer is now saying about that key conversation. plus we'll take a closer look at the coconspirators mentioned in the federal indictment and why the special counsel has not yet filed any charge against him. we'll be right back with all that. him we'll be right back with all that ahhh! my bottom's been saved! with its diamond weave texture, charmin ultra strong cleans better with fewer sheets and less effort. enjoy the go with charmin. pain hits fast. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser-drilled holes. they release medicine fast... for fast pain relief. and now... ...get relief without a pill. with tylenol dissolve packs. relief without the water. five... -it's happening, isn't it? with tylen four...lve packs. three... two... one. welcome back to "way too early." it is 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 23:50 out west. i'm jonathan lemire, thank you for being with us. we turn now to our top story and donald trump's attorneys appear to have confirmed one of the allegations in the special counsel's indictment. trump is accused of asking his then-vice president mike pence to stop the election certification process even allegedly telling pence he's, quote, too honest when he rejected that idea. attorney john larro provided more insight on those conversations just hours after trump pleaded not guilty in a washington, d.c. courthouse yesterday. >> president trump was getting advice from an esteemed constitutional scholar as to an array of options that he could take in light of the discrepancies and what was going on in 2020. those discrepancies were well-known, and they were being litigated. professor eastman laid out a series of options that were discussed with vice president pence. vice president pence disagreed on certain issues, but ultimately what president trump said is let's go with option "d," let's just halt, let's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that's constitutional law. that's not an issue of criminal activity. >> larro also said the department of justice is violating the constitution by pushing for an earlier trial date potentially as soon as this spring. joining us now, congressional correspondent for "the new york times," luke broadwater who has been following this investigation for months and months. luke, in your latest reporting you take a look at the possible reasons why special counsel jack smith has not indicted any of the coconspiracies in the matter. media outlets have identified some of them. rudy giuliani, sydney powell and the likes. one theory as to why smith did not bring charges is that he's hoping they'll flip. a second is that he wants to bring to prosecute trump's case that much faster. walk us through what could be going on here? >> sure. i mean there are a number of considerations when a prosecutor brings an indictment and determines who to name and who to charge. and one of them always is the defendant has to have a fair shot at a defense, right? that's paramount in the courts, but there's another political consideration on the table, in term of the timetable. and that is if donald trump wins and is elected president, he can essentially make this case go away. so this trial needs to wrap up within less than a year and a half. and one way to make it faster is to make it simpler, make it about one person, not bog it down with a bunch of coconspirators, and if you do name a bunch of different people and charge them, well, that creates more complications, slows the trial down more and we know donald trump's number one strategy in court is to delay, delay, delay. in this case delay could actually mean the case is dropped. so that's number one. the other, of course, as you mention is the potential of putting the squeeze on some of these other coconspirators who have not been named, not been charged. we in the media know who they are, but then seeing if they will provide more information in exchange for not being charged. >> and we'll know more about the trial schedule at the end of the month, but there's certainly a prevailing theory this one might go first next year even before the classified documents case was due to ramp up earlier. earlier in the show we played sound from a very angry kevin mccarthy with a lot of what aboutism about other election protests. none of it was true, but i'm more curious as to what your latest reporting tells us how the house republicans are going to respond to all of this. they're in recess now to be sure. but they going to ramp up, "a," the investigation of hunter biden, or do we think mccarthy after seemingly tapping the brakes on an impeachment inquiry into joe biden white start going full steam ahead? >> i think that they -- that both of those things are like leto happen. the investigation into hunter biden will continue to ramp up. we know that they have a number of his former business partners that they're demanding to interview. they believe that as much as they can keep hunter biden and allegations against joe biden even if they're unverified in the news, that it creates a situation where voters think, well, i don't know, both of these guys sound bad, yeah trump's charged or he's indicted, but i hear these other allegations about biden as well. it becomes some sort of gray area in voters minds, so they want to keep that going. so kevin mccarthy also has floated the idea of impeachment, and it does seem like there's increasingly a clamoring on the right for him to go forward with that after the august recess. >> congressional correspondent for "the new york times," luke broadwater, thank you for joining us this morning. we'll definitely talk to you again soon. still ahead here, we're going to take a switch to business news. cnbc will join us with the morning's big headlines. we'll also get some insights on the markets which appear to be bouncing back thanks to earning reports from two tech titans. don't go anywhere. ns don't go anywhere. hi, i'm katie. i live in flagstaff, arizona. i'm an older student. i'm getting my doctorate in clinical psychology. i do a lot of hiking and kayaking. i needed something to help me gain clarity. so i was in the pharmacy and i saw a display of prevagen and i asked the pharmacist about it. i started taking prevagen and i noticed that i had more cognitive clarity. memory is better. it's been about two years now and it's working for me. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. how are folks 60 and older having fun these days? 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let's start off with amazon, the e-commerce behemoth then managing to bet on the top and bottom line, positive numbers when it comes to their earnings picture, even saying they look to a.i. in the future being a key part of the business plan. yes, it was still the rart, aws or amazon web services offering a great positive for them here and saying that is a bigger part of the business and has certainly been able to grow even better than analysts have anticipated for that second quarter, the stock even rising a lot higher than as well. apple managing to keep things slow and steady somewhat. iphone sales are down. apple mac sales are down year on year. so not necessarily going into the positive direction that the firm would have probably wanted, but the second quarter or the june quarter should i say is usually seen as that lull quarter as we head towards a new iphone. so the iphone 15 may be the critical turning point then for apple as it looks towards its earnings. plus, of course, china moderating. but with that huge investment in india the question becomes whether they'll be able to see some growth come through from those indian operation. >> we should note while we're not sure what the fed will do with interest rates yet, the bank of england raised interest rates where you are for the fourth consecutive time. inflation remains persistently high there. still ahead here on "way too early," capitol hill police officers are speaking out on donald trump's arraignment. their reaction from watching from the courthouse overflow room and what they want to see happen next. t they want to see happen next. my brain. so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger. type 2 diabetes? 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>> yeah, i mean, again, there's something kind of soul crushing about recognizing that, you know, a major political party is still embracing somebody despite all the criminality. fraudulent practices in new york, and he's about to be indicted for subverting the election in georgia. yet, the republican party refuses, as they have for years now. having said that, and, you know, i don't want to get caught in the pundit loop on all of this, saying the same thing over and over again. there is the new reuters poll suggesting that half of republican voters will not vote forwi him if he was convicted oa felony. something is going on with mike pence. i don't think it necessarily makes a difference. but i think, you know, we've been telling ourselves that nothing matters for so long, that when something like this comesn along, and it in fact ds matter, there's the danger that we miss it. and that it's hardis to imagine that thiss does not affect millions of voters. maybe not the hard core maga voters, but it's hard to imagine -- and, again, i'm prepared to be disillusioned here -- millions of voters going, "do we want to go through this again?" the felonies are great in and among themselves, but what they say about the fragility of the constitution is even graver. this does make a difference. maybe something does matter. >> what will surely be a tight election. a poll inig michigan shows trum and bidenmi in a dead heat. maybe, just maybe, even if it is on the margin, as people impacted by this verdict, could be enough to tip the balance of power next november. founder of the conservative rv website, the bulwark," charlie sykes, thank you. have a good weekend, my friend. >> thank you. coming up on "way too early," we'll show what senator lindsey graham said about the judge ampresiding over trump's latest case, the same judge he voted to confirm. eh. our legal experts discuss the key take aways on what happens next. 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"washington post" writer, alexi mccammond. congratulations. >> thank you. >> glad you're with us this morning. graham made his thoughts clear on trump's indictment. what else have we heard from the republican party yesterday, particularly those vying with trump for the 2024 gop nomination? >> you know, as we've seen, even with this latest indictment, his republican rivals and his allies alike are still wanting to defend him and to rush to his side. that's because they can look at the entire justice system and try to paint it as corrupt, not just against trump, but against republicans and also against those voters who trump appeals to and those hard-right maga republicans also appeal to. now, we obviously know that that's not the case, as you were just talking about. senator graham voted less than a decade ago to confirm the judge he's now railing against, saying he's biased against former president trump and needs to be replaced. it just goes to show that no matter what trump does legally, even republicans running against him will twist themselves into binds to try not to upset him. one thing to watch, and we sort of saw this with mike pence, is weather and how the electability argument will be made in a more forceful way from other folks. as you know, former vice president pence has been saying that same line, about anyone who puts themselves ahead of the constitution should not be president, he's been saying that since his campaign announcement speech. it has a didn't ring to it now, but i'm hesitant to say that he is being more forceful against his former partner when he's been saying this, you know, all along. it's really not meant too much to him. >> no, and maybe just more people are paying attention to pence right now, so it is breaking through. but pence, let's note, still actually hasn't qualified for the debate, because he doesn't have enough individual donors, though his camp is confident he will. let's go to the debate, two, three weeks ago. donald trump, we believe, is going to skip it. this is a moment for the rest of the republican field to make some inroads, to make even talk about this. how do you foresee it happening? >> you know, it's interesting. i was talking about this with a strategist the other day, about whether and how trump not being on the stage will make it easier for his republican rivals to go after him in a way we haven't seen before. the flip side, of course, they say is that if he's not there to defend himself, perhaps they'll just use the time to introduce themselves further to the american people. i mean, as you know well, the first debate for anyone is really a proper introduction to the american people for the first time, no matter what position you've held in the past. so they don't want to spend too much time talking about donald trump at that first debate. though i do know, as you know well, folks like chris christie and others who have been hammering trump will be the ones to start this chorus of what i'm sure will be, you know, more voices really talking about, maybe not the criminal aspect of this indictment, but, again, the electability argument, especially if they can tie it into the 2022 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election. >> we'll see. i would imagine some new polls next week that will capture if there is movement after this particular indictment, an indictment on charges to try to subvert our very democracy. "washington post" opinion editor and writer, alexi mccammond, the new title has a nice ring to it. we'll talk to you again on "morning joe." thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning and all week long. "morning joe" starts right now. ultimately, what president trump said is, let's go with option d. let's just halt. let's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that's constitutional law. that's not an issue of criminal activity. >> that's actually an admission. >> you can say something is not criminal, but that doesn't make it true. >> wow. >> that's donald trump's attorney in the 2020 election case, seeming to admit that the former president did exactly what he is accused of doing. >> all he wanted to do is impede, like, the counting of electoral votes. >> tak