it is saturday, november 4th. i'm ali velshi. we begin this morning with a split screen image that perfectly represents this moment of american politics. with democracy hanging in the balance, donald trump on the campaign trail, and on trial. trail, >> on one side we see a disgraced, twice impeached, multiply that former president raging at the system as the walls close in on him. on the other, the seemingly untouchable front runner for the republican nomination giving his supporters and the rest of the country a preview of his return to power. what it will look like. in the eyes of the backup base, trump is barreling towards the white house in 2024, despite witch hunts on all sides. as he continues to lead his republican competitors by a long shot, he is also continue to undermine and disregard key elements of what it means to be in a democracy. and how democratic processes work. he is refusing to attend the third republican debate. instead he will hold a counter programming rally nearby next week where he is likely to continue a disturbing line of self aggrandizing rhetoric. casting himself as a political murder. even as two states are currently awaiting the question of whether trump is disqualified from appearing on the 2024 ballots of the early insurrection clause, the 14th amendment of the constitution, last night, donald trump, once again, took the stage at a rally to songs son by criminals who attacked the capitol and said, about january six rioters who have been convicted in their serving jail time, he said, quote, i call them the j six hostages. not prisoners. meanwhile, of course, trump is facing federal charges as well as 91 felony counts and multiple cases. the civil fraud case in new york seemed, at first, to a lot of, people like the least of trump's legal woes. but it has shown, in an explosive week at trial to be potentially an extremely consequential. the judge in the case, justice arthur engoron, has ruled the trump and his company committed years of fraud by inflating wealth and assets by millions of dollars. the trial is just to determine what the penalty is going to be. we've seen during the trial a man who crafted a personal professional, and political identity based on his real estate empire and financial winds unraveling in realti. just yesterday, the judge in the case ed an existing gag order not just to trump, but to include trump's lawyers. the court order, issued friday afternoon, reads in part quote, mike chambers had been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters, and packages, end quote, since the start of the trial. this gag order extends the initial gag order that the judge imposed a month ago after trump shared a social media post attacking the judge's main locklear. but trump has already violated that gag order two times, earning two fines totaling $15,000. more importantly, calling the judge to threaten trump with jail time if he continues to violate that gag order. at the same time, this week, the former president's two eldest sons testified in the case, and sometimes heated exchanges, attempting to shift the blame of the fraud to the organization's primary accountant. and while trump wasn't in the courtroom this week, he's clearly watching this closely. he's posted on his social media site quote, so sad to see my sons being persecuted in a political witch hunt. joining me now is michael cohen. the former personal attorney for donald trump. he is the principal of the crisis management firm, crisis x, and the new york times off of the, new york times bestselling author of the book revenge, had donald trump weaponized the department of justice against his critics and disloyal, 8 am. are we also hosts the podcasts, mea culpa, with and -- the political beat down. it's good to see. you want to talk to you because you have testified. you have really been the main witness in this trial. how are you doing? >> i'm hanging in there. as judge engoron said, he's received hundreds of voicemails and threats and, you know, letters. emails and so on. that's just a small amount of the hate that i have received from maga supporters of donald trump over the course of the past couple of weeks. first, when i was initially supposed to testify, and then, of course, when they ultimately did testify. i would like to see that gag order include witnesses in here. witnesses should be protected to the same extent that law clerks and staff and the judge himself, prosecutors, chris kise, trump's attorney, alina hobbs, and cliff roberts. they are out of control. they are trying to take on donald persona, and in so doing, all they are doing is fostering this hatred and this inappropriate behavior by even now, by civilians outside of the process. from continuing, you know, continuing to do the things they are currently doing, which are really abhorrent. it is witness intimidation. it's obstruction of justice, and it would be nice to see and go around include that in the gag order. >> chris kisen experienced lawyer. alina hobbs, you mentioned, is. not she has largely done nothing in her career except worked for donald trump. i want to get your reaction to this. she stormed out of the court and said this. >> president trump wanted to inflate his network on that statement of financial condition. his brand alone could double triple its. >> she called that the presidents adult sons, who are in their 40s. she said they were innocent children. let's go back to this brand thing. the whole point of this case, the reason why this is so troubling to donald trump, is arthur engoron and letitia james and you have proved that the emperor has no clothes. donald trump, this self made billionaire, is neither self-made and possibly not a billionaire. >> i'm sure if you take the assets and you add them up, they are certainly worth a billion dollars. that, of course, discounts the fact that there are outstanding obligations, liabilities on those assets. putting all that aside, you are correct. alina habba has no idea what he's doing. she is playing to a party of one. all she's doing is parroting the buzzwords that donald likes here. in her mind, she thinks she is effective in all of their combined minds, they think what they are doing is going to help them in this case. one of alina its biggest problems when she parrots trump about the brand value is she has no idea how you even determine abrams value. are you going to take a two page document from an individual that claimed it was worth three billion dollars? that is what they want today. that is what they want you to believe. but how do you determine eight grams of value? obviously, i know you have had on the show donny deutsch. he is a great guy to be asking about stuff like this. but the brand value should be predicated upon what that brands will bring to a deal. so, take a look at trump's name. in areas outside of real estate. trump vodka. trump mortgage. trump university. trump stakes. trump ice. you can go on and on of the failed business ventures that we're license to use his name. so if something produces a company that cannot generate profit, how do you anticipate that there was a brand value here of three billion dollars or more? why? the same way trump talked about the statement of financial condition. it's all about what he believes and what he believes, he thinks everybody else should believe. >> let me ask you. mary trump tweeted about eric trump's testimony. she said, quote, unbelievable. eric testified today and basically just lost the entire case. after testifying he had never heard about the trump organization's statement of financial condition, until recently. he later admitted he knew about it in 2013. after saying he never worked on it, he was shown an email where employees were told he was working on it. they like so much they can't even keep track of their own bs. sounds like perjury is on today's menu. end quote. talk to me about this. >> listen, mary trump's spot on. i've been saying the exact same thing. you know, don junior and eric lied under oath. in fact, all they are doing is emulating their father, who was put on the stand under oath by judge engoron, in regard to statements that he made outside the courtroom about the judge's law clerk, claiming it was me. she is 100% correct! i mean, the guy lies the way that you breathe, and the kids are doing the same thing. how stupid do they have to be? i really, it is sad to stay, how stupid do you have to be when you are eric trump, for example, executive vice president of the trump organization, and you claim all you really do is, you know, you pour concrete? let me be very clear. eric has never poured concrete in this life. he wouldn't know how to pour quicksand by adding water to it. and don jr. claims he was just a broker. they were not just brokers. eric did not pour concrete. they were in charge of running the company while their father was presidents, under the control of allen weisselberg, who is the trustee. plain and simple. and the emails, did they not think that government had the emails? did they not think they were going to show it to them? they think this is some sort of a joke? that this is just, hey, we're going to rely upon michael cohen's testimony, who claims he was there in the room with allen weisselberg and patrick bernie and jeff mcconney and so on? we're just going to rely upon them? is that what they thought? they thought this case is not going to be predicated off of documentary evidence? i mean, again, chris skies, alina habba, and you have cliff robert. what sort of preparation did they get from these three legal beagles? the answer is clearly zilch. >> michael, you are brave for what you're doing. this has been tough. you are in there, facing donald trump for the first time since your own troubles. between looking at you and looking at letitia james and looking up at judge who were coming down on him, this is definitely taking a toll on donald trump. thanks for being here, my friends. >> always good to see you, ali. >> michael cohen, former personal attorney to donald trump, usually bestselling book of prevention disloyal, and the host of the podcast mea culpa and political beat down. as the white house pushes for a humanitarian pause to the war between hamas and israel, overnight, israel's bombardment of gaza continues. prime minister benjamin netanyahu maintains there will be no cease-fire unless israeli hostages are released. we're going live to the ground for the very latest. plus, in the wake of the hamas attack, and israel's ensuing attacks on gaza, there have been accusations from the international community that both sides may have committed war crimes. coming up, we will look at what determines a war crime, and take a look at how the rules that govern war came to be. you are watching velshi on msnbc. on msnbc. new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. is it possible my network could take my business whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. today, the u.s. secretary of comcast business, powering possibilities. state, anthony blinken, is hearing demands for an immediate cease-fire in gaza as he meets top middle east officials in amman, courted. the trip comes just one day after he wasn't israel, pushing for a pause, not a cease-fire, in the constant bombardment of the enclave, which would potentially allow israeli hostages to be released and permit humanitarian aid to get in. the situation in the region continues to grow more bleak by the day. roughly 1.4 billion people, more than half of the entire population, have been displaced from their homes in gaza. either because they have left out of fear for those homes being destroyed, or, because the homes have been destroyed. according to the palestinian health ministry, more than 9400 people have been killed, including nearly 4000 children. the israeli prime minister's office reports more than 1400 people have been killed in israel. it also says the number of hostages held by, held captive by hamas currently stands at 241. meanwhile, israeli airstrikes continue to break down on the entire gaza strip. earlier today, and attack ripped through a city in gaza south. at least ten people were reportedly -- and the palestinian red crescent said reportedly 15 people in a caravan of ambulances were killed yesterday by shelling outside the al-shifa hospital where many gazans have sought century. joining me now, nbc news foreign correspondent just letter. majestic, you so much. what more do we know about the israeli attack on the convoy of ambulances? >> well we know that the palestinian health ministry run by hamas, ali, it's saying that there were 15 people killed and it was a whole convoy leaving the largest hospital in gaza that was hit by that air strike. now, the israeli military are not disputing that the hit an ambulance, but they say the ambulance was being used by hamas. they also say they are planning to release more information to backup their claim that hamas is transporting both weapons and terrorists inside ambulances within the gaza strip. we haven't seen that evidence yet. but it comes as the white house is really starting to put more pressure on israel over its military strategy. both over the mounting civilian death toll from incidences like this. also, over israel's refusal to consider the type of pause in israeli strikes that the u.s. now urgently wants to see. we saw prime minister netanyahu emerge yesterday from eight meeting with secretary blinken here in this rail, saying not going to happen. we're not going to consider that. that sort of sets the tone for the meetings that blinken is now having today in jordan with the foreign ministers from many u.s. allies in the region, like egypt, like the emiratis and the saudis. all of whom are now calling not only for pauses but for a cease-fire. the u.s. not going as far as to call for a full cease-fire, but it is clear that this is starting to deteriorate some of the relations in the region. in fact, just today, we heard from the government of turkey they are now recalling that their ambassador to israel is basically, in protest, if israel's refusal to consider a cease-fire. just within the last hour, secretary blinken has announced that once he wraps up his current set of meetings in jordan, he is actually going to make a last-minute stop in turkey. so, you could see the u.s. government clearly trying to stem the damage here and try to keep u.s. allies on the same page. as they work to facilitate this humanitarian aid getting into gaza, more civilians getting out, some unfortunate news on that front today, which is that the border authorities in gaza say no more foreign nationals are going to be allowed out into egypt until injured palestinians are let out into egypt as well. and that appears to be alluding to a disagreement we heard from last night, from a senior biden administration official, who said when there was the initial list of injured palestinians that hamas wanted to get out along with the foreign nationals, the u.s. took a look at it and it turned out the third of them were actually hamas fighters. so, that has been one of the key areas of disagreement that is now holding up getting more people out of gaza. ali? >> you make an interesting point. not only are these countries that blinken's meeting with american allies, but turkey, egypt, and jordan enjoy or at least have enjoyed, until the last few weeks, strong diplomatic relations with israel. that, too, is at stake. josh, thank you for your excellent reporting, as always. please stay safe. nbc news foreign correspondent, josh lederman, is in israel. believe it or not, there are rules that govern war. the law of armed conflict informs the modern definition of war crimes and sets guidelines for protecting civilians and non combatants. these laws begin to take shape after the aftermath of the holocaust. we will get into that, after a quick break. ick break. dryness and frizz that keeps coming back, could be damaged hair that can't retain moisture. you need pantene's miracle rescue deep conditioner. it's filled with pro-vitamins to help hair lock in moisture, visibly repairing six months of damage in just one use, with no weigh-down. guaranteed, or your money back. for hair that looks healthy and stays healthy. if you know, you know it's pantene. ♪ today, my friend you did it, you did it, you did it... ♪ centrum silver is now clinically shown to support cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your health. so every day, you can say, ♪ youuu did it! ♪ with centrum silver. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. >> there has been no shortage of horrific images and stories coming out of the middle east since hamas attacked israel on october the 7th. 1400 people were killed in israel that day, and almost 10,000 people in gaza are believed to have been killed in israel's subsequent invasion. for a few trucks i get in from egypt each day, got us 2 million residents are largely cut off from freshwater, electricity, fuel, and other resources until as israel demands, hamas releases the 241 hostages that is believed to be holding captive. the brutality of the conflict has given rise to an intense global response, including accusations that both israel and hamas, the de facto governing body in the gaza strip, have committed war crime. contradictory as it may seem, there are rules that govern war. in particular, there are a set of rules known as international humanitarian law. sometimes called the law of armed conflict. it's a set of laws that apply when two or more states engage in arms conflict regardless of which party initiated combat. international humanitarian law aims to strike a balance between addressing a nations need to defend itself and sparing civilians and non combatants from the dangers of war. it includes five basic principles. that actions carried out must, by the military, must be necessary. they must distinguish between civilians and legitimate targets. that military actions must be proportionate in order to avoid incidental harm. that they must avoid unnecessary human suffering, and that military actions must be honorable. the modern understanding of international humanitarian law began to take shape in the aftermath of the holocaust. shortly after the end of world war ii, 21 top not see officials were arrested and indicted on a number of charges. including herman gehrig, the infamous chief of the german air force and the last president of the reichstag who gave the order to carry out quote, the final solution of the jewish question, end quote. beginning in november 1945, and lasting until october 1946, goering and other not see officials were brought before the international military tribunal in the romberg, honey, to stand trial for their crimes. in preparation for the prosecution, the international law commission of the united nations drafted a set of guidelines that became known as the nuremberg principles. it defined war crimes as quote, violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited t