rockefeller christmas tree have been on for just over an hour, which means the christmas season is now officially underway. 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. our with stephanie ruhle starts now >> >> tonight, donald trump's banker takes the stand. what she said about deutsche bank long relationship with the trump organization in the civil fraud trial. and what is next for the israel-hamas war? after a new group of hostages were released from gaza, including one american. then setting the record straight on the former presidents campaign claims, while the current president hits the road and draws a direct contrast with maga republicans, as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle. we have got a lot to get to. on donald trump's civil fraud trial and efforts to extend the temporary israel-hamas truce. but first, this evening's broadcast begins with breaking news. former secretary of state national security adviser henry kissinger has died at the age of 100. kissinger shaped decades of america's foreign policy, advising a dozen presidents while defining this nation's role on the global stage. but kissinger was also a controversial and deeply divisive figure. and we seize lester holt takes a look back at his life and his legacy. >> thank you. nice to see you. while >> he was brilliant, ambitious, controversial, and one of the most influential secretaries of state in american history. >> i think we made further progress. >> henry kissinger served richard nixon, gerald ford, and was consulted by presidents of both parties and international issues throughout his life. >> henry kissinger has been a friend of mine. >> messenger nixon made him a national figure and together they reimagine he was foreman possibly, they turn with the soviet union, shuttle diplomacy in the middle east. kissinger helped shaped nixon's policy in vietnam, and negotiated an end to the war. famously he declared success prematurely, just days before the 1972 election. >> we believe that peace is at hand. >> he was awarded the nobel peace prize. >> nothing that has happened to me in public life has moved me more than this award. >> though he's co-recipient, north of vietnam's leitao, declined the honor. four years later, president ford awarded him the medal of freedom. he was a master of pragmatic big picture diplomacy, but he had his critics, who described him as manipulative and in secure. some called him a war criminal for his role in bombing cambodia and widening the war in vietnam. born in germany in 1923, kissinger's jewish family fled to america as hitler rose to power. it became a u.s. citizen, served in world war ii, and earned a ph.d. at harvard, where he became a professor. he caught the eye of richard nixon, who made him national security adviser, then secretary of state. the only person ever to hold both jobs simultaneously. >> there is no country in the world where it is conceivable that a man of my origins could be standing here makes to the president of the united states. [applause] >> but their relationship was complicated, and white house tapes revealed kissinger sometimes enabled the worst in nixon. >> it was very curious relationship because we were not personally very close. >> the night before he resigned in disgrace, nixon asked kissinger to kneel and pray with him. >> and of course it was a crushing event, but i think that evening is an experience of dignity and very moving. >> kissinger is one of faceless bureaucrat. he was a world renowned celebrity. >> i love your for an accent. >> and he loved the spotlight. he was even something of a pop culture icon. after leaving government, he opened his own consulting firm, remaining active in sought after four decades. and 95, eulogizing john mccain 's life, kissinger sounded a wistful note about his own. >> like most people of my age, i feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. >> henry kissinger was a man of great accomplishment and controversy. but as he once told nbc's barbara walters, he had no regrets. >> if i had to do it over again, i would do it again, substantially the same way, which may make me on reconstructed, and maybe one reason why i'm at peace with myself. >> lester holt, nbc news, new york. >> thanks to lester holt for that report. meanwhile it was also a crucial day for donald trump's new york fraud trial. a trial that poses a lethal threat to his business because this was the day that the spotlight shifted to the real money behind his fortune. former deutsche bank executive, rosemarie viropa like, who we have never seen, have never heard from, was on the witness stand testifying about how she arranged hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for trump starting back in 2011 when deutsche bank was the only financial institution would do business with him. some of his major real estate moves in florida, chicago, d.c., and new york. the attorney general accuses donald trump of inflating his net worth to get those loans and more faith favorable rates and he should have. but the relationship between deutsche bank it on trump's back decades. how one reporter who knows trump well described it. >> deutsche bank has been involved with donald trump since the 1980s, starting with 40 wall street. it was the first loan that they extended to him in 2008 they got into a huge fight with him over the chicago loan, to the point where don't from sue them in the middle of the financial crisis. the bank was so upset at the time that they said we are never doing this with you again. there's were so burned that this customer would sue them that they just said forget it and then on behold three years later another arm of the bank looking for profit, looking for a customer or the way it was put today got back into bed with him. >> that will comment refers to an email that rosemary vrablic wrote to her colleagues bag it deutsche bank when she was trying to win this business. as she put it back then, quote, we are whale hunting, mean meaning that was on for a high net worth clients. with that, let's get smarter with our lead off panel. we've got a great. when lisa rubin who was in the courthouse today, our nbc legal analyst, pulitzer prize-winning writer for the washington post, undated in, rich business investigations editor for the new york times. there's about the only reason he is. here he is the author of dark towers, deutsche bank, donald trump, and an epic trail of destruction. david, there's no one better to talk about this with the new. rosemary vrablic, and i am passionate about it because there were to that bank for eight years. let's talk about this whale hunting expeditions she was on. it is true, private well client services, that's what they do. they look for a big high net worth clients. but once they find them, there are rules and regulations around serious due diligence to find out if these whales, or just a bunch of blubber or if there is real meat and business to do. how on earth could she sit on the stand and say we were looking for these big clients went three years prior the institutional side of the bank sent him packing. >> yeah, and one of the things i found a little disappointing about her testimony today, we did not get an answer from for that very important question that you and i have been asking each other for years now and i think the closest we got to an explanation was a deutsche bank wise crazy with greed and was desperate to grow. they saw trump as not only a lucrative potential client but also as this keith would introduce the bank, which was trying to make a -- he would introduce the bank to some of the other wealthiest people and wealthiest families in the world. but to me that is still not a complete or satisfactory explanation for why they were willing to overlook his long history of default, and if someone else just said, lawsuits against the very same bank. and i found that trump's lawyers in by the state of the questions to be just scratching the surface, honestly. it made me wish that i were a lawyer who had rosemary vrablic under oath, which is something i've long dreamed of. >> me too. lisa, you are in the courtroom, under david and i. i mean speak for both of us. we have been dying to speak to this woman for the last six years and we have a laundry list of questions, most of which weren't asked. but for you, what stood out today? >> one of the things that stood out to me was just how tourists and not forthcoming she was as a witness, to the extent of the trump defense got anything from rosemary vrablic, it was really through her documents and not through her testimony in south. she really didn't add very much to her testimony other than confirming or reiterating the things that she said in emails that were sent to her. that said, she gave up some stuff on cross examination. that cross-examination was not his detailed or as withering as i expected to be, but she explained that she did not have any idea what the due diligence that deutsche bank did consisted of. why? because she is principally a relationship manager, kind of client services person whose job principally was to ensnare the whales and then to cross sell to them, which is to get them to invest liquid assets or bring in other clients in addition to establishing a lending relationship with down. so i thought on balance she was not particularly helpful to the trump defense and, if anything, was slightly helpful to the attorney general in establishing how much she didn't know as opposed to establishing that this was a big no harm no foul, which is what the trump line of defense has been. deutsche bank wasn't hurt, they made money throughout the relationship, it was lucrative for them. the attorney general's response to that is, it doesn't matter that they were a so-called happy lender if the statute was violated in the markets were corrupted. >> david, what do you think about that fact? she is basically saying, i never looked under the hood to see what his finances were, and no one else in the institution did. think about how highly regulated the banking industry wise and deutch is like, he was a big flashy name and we were down with that. >> well i think in fairness there were other people at the institution. some of the more revealing elements of her testimony was that she said i didn't look at in the hood but she also knew that she was willing to learn to him without any personal guarantee from him. ultimately the bank decided, before it cut off business with him altogether, that it would be willing to make hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to him on the condition that he would put his personal guarantee. in other words his personal assets would be held as collateral against loans. to me that does indicate that even though rosemary vrablic and her direct bosses were not being terribly careful here, at least some other people in the bank were, and surely that was in part because they had memories of just a few years earlier when trump had decided to not pay back the loan in the turn around and sue the bank. >> right in the middle of the financial crisis. carol, this woman was not just on trump's banker. she was also jared kushner's banker, lending hundreds of millions of dollars to his business. then of course storm trump becomes president, jared becomes a senior adviser. doesn't all of this speak to how tangled this family is with one another in all aspects of their lives? >> absolutely. i think thanks to a lot of dave's reporting, frankly, we know a little more about how careless deutsche bank was in terms of basically how do we make the most money and we don't really care that much how. being with somebody flashy includes a presidential candidate but also a guy who's putting his name on towers all over the world and i think most interesting you will see the nexus that you focused on so often in your program between deutsche bank and host of other foreign countries, interesting ones, where jared kushner and donald trump seemed to have some powerful relationships as well. let's talk about deutsche bank and its relationship with the kremlin. let's talk about deutsche bank's work all over germany. let's talk about how jared kushner was trying to get money in a lot of different countries from a lot of different sovereign some south. it's just unfortunately as steve said if we were reporters who were in that room and able to ask the questions, we will try to figure out a lot more than even laetitia james was trying to learn, or the donald trump's defense lawyers were trying to bring out. we want to know so what did you get for that, and whose special access money was funding some of the deals in some of the towers? how did donald trump, with almost no real assets, not being a billionaire, how is he able to pull off some of this work with your health? this is a tiny window, unsatisfying. unfortunately i think even to your question, it's unsatisfying because we don't really have a great grasp of the interconnection of jarred, his family, his finances, and all the trump money as well. >> okay then my last question on this topic, david, because they want you to explain to our audience how unusual her relationship with with kushner and trump. rosemary, in 2013, once personally bought an apartment with two of her deutsche bank colleagues with a company partially owned by kushner while the bank was loaning him hundreds of millions of dollars. this raises so many red flags and clear conflict of interest, yet it happened. >> not only did it happen, it wasn't even reported internally at the bank until my colleague jesse drunker and i heard about this years after the fact. this speaks very clearly to the lack of internal controls and proper procedures that were going on. it makes a lot easier to understand the air in aggregate how a bank with that kind of sloppiness, recklessness, and lending to trump, and kushner's in the first place. >> tower of terror. all right, new topic, carol. we have to talk about liz cheney's book, coming out next week. she is warning about what to trump's second term would look like. she and the book with a very ominous quote where she says, every one of us, republican, democrat, independent, must work and vote together to ensure the donald trump and those who have appeased, enabled, and collaborated with him, are defeated. this is the cause of our time. i mean, just reading that gives me the chills. it's going to resonate with a lot of people, that anyone who isn't already aware of who donald trump in the risks that he poses, anybody knew? >> now, i think that liz cheney's book has a lot of interesting revelations about her time in the cause, that she has basically taken on, the work that she is championing. she believes donald trump is a threat to our democracy. it's not a big stretch to say that, given what donald trump has been saying that he's going to do if he's reelected. he's going to weaponize the department of justice to go after his political enemies, pretty much eviscerating the central core of our country's founding principles. one of the surely disappointing realizations that liz cheney must be coming to is that while she feels strongly, passionately about this, and she led, in many ways, the january 6th committee to focus almost exclusively on the risk to donald trump posed, she has seen one after another fellow republican come forward and say we cannot reelect this person, and yet that's not making a dent in his poll numbers. that's not changing how a host of conservative members of the public feel about donald trump, that he is their savior, that he speaks for them and that he says things out loud that they feel have been basically tamped down. their values are upheld by him. even when that's not true, that's what they say they believe. it's not merely making a change, what liz cheney says on the book circuit. as chilling as it may be for many of us to hear her say it. >> and of course polls aren't votes. we will wait and see what happens there. carol leonnig, lisa rubin, david enrich, so thank you for being here today. when we come back, the former president says he will bring the greatest economy in the history of the world. but we're gonna fact-check that. new report says his plan would massively increase inflation. david gore is here and breaking down how americans could pay the price for trump's big plans. and later, more freed hostages and an extended cease-fire could be coming in the israel-hamas war jeremy bash is here on what comes next. the 11th hour just getting underway on a busy busy wednesday night. ay on a busy bus wednesday night. wednesday night. >> vraylar helped give it a lift. adding vraylar to an antidepressant... is clinically proven to help relieve overall depression symptoms... ...better than an antidepressant alone. and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, as these may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain, and high cholesterol may occur. movement dysfunction and restlessness are common side effects. stomach and sleep issues, dizziness, increased appetite, and fatigue are also common. side effects may not appear for several weeks. i didn't have to change my treatment. i just gave it a lift. ask about vraylar and learn how abbvie could help you save. [city ambience sounds] [car screech] [car door slam] [camera shutter sfx] introducing ned's plaque psoriasis. [camera shutter sfx] he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade. otezla is also approved to treat psoriatic arthritis. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. [crowd gasp] ♪♪ with clearer skin, movie night is a groovy night. [ting] ♪♪ live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla. detect this: living with hiv, i learned i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. if you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. serious or life-threatening lactic acid buildup and liver problems can occur. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems, or if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. dovato may harm an unborn baby. most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato. the power goes out and we still have wifi i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to