President s lawyers arguing it should be dropped. His Witness Presence Weigh on judge cannon . Tiktok turmoil. The potential ban on the wildly popular app now one step closer to a possible u. S. Ban amid concerns the chinese owner creates a National Security risk. I will talk to two democratic lawmakers who voted on opposite sides of the issue. Hell on earth. Haiti throw into chaos by armed gangs. I will talk to the leader of a Veterans Group trying to rescue trapped americans. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. Donald trump is inside a florida courtroom today as his lawyers are arguing to dismiss the entire maralago classified documents case, arguing the files were personal and that he is allowed to keep them. Special counsel jack smith saying the papers clearly the papers that are clearly marked classified are indisputably president ial, not personal. Todays hearing is happening before a judge before judge Aileen Cannon who has a track record so far of favoring trumps defense. No cameras are allowed in federal court. Our teams are inside relaying every detail. We start with ken dilanian who is outside the courthouse. Harry litman and Andrew Weissmann who is the coauthor of the trump indictments, the historic charging documents with commentary. Ken, you have been reading the lines we are getting from inside the court. The hearing is expected to last most of the day. What are the highlights so far . Its a requirement that donald trump show up. I think its significant. Is any ruling expected from judge cannon . Reporter not clear whether she will rule. The most significant thing about today is that judge Aileen Cannon decided to hold a daylong hearing on these two motions to dismiss, two of seven donald trump filed in this case, which a lot of legal experts think are borderline frivolous and didnt merit a hearing. Nonetheless, shes going to entertain that. We have hours of arguments ongoing right now. As you said, there are two issues. One is that the trump team is invoking the civil law known as the president ial records act, which was passed after Richard Nixon to make clear president ial records belong to the American People through the national archives. Its a civil law. Donald trump is arguing that this law meant that he could deem any record in the white house a personal record of his and take it home with no repercussions. Jack smiths team says thats wrong and theres a criminal law at stake that has nothing to do with the president ial records act governing classified information that donald trump had no right to these very highly classified documents that he took to maralago once he was no longer president. Thats the issue in that case. Or in that motion. The other motion, the trump team is arguing the Espionage Act is unconstitutionally vague. In fairness, the Espionage Act is a 1917 law. It is vague in some respects. Its been used over and over again to prosecute people for mishandling, for taking home classified documents, most recently Jack Teixeira who leaked documents. Theres a history of using that law. People have tried to argue its vague before. They havent succeeded. Mr. Trump is trying again today. Andrew, ken touched on the fact that this is considered by most lawyers to be frivolous, this argument. This was considered every analysis i read for nine months, the strongest of the cases in terms of the evidence, especially considering the witnesses, one who came out this week. Yeah, in terms of the underlying proof, the retention of the documents and not one but two forms of obstruction, this is what harry and i used to call when we were in the business a rock crusher. This is just an incredibly strong case both for the underlying crime and because you have these two types of obstruction that can be used not only as separate crimes but also to show consciousness of guilt. I would note to kens points, which i agree with, that the indictment here in paragraphs 23 and 24 quote donald trump as both a candidate in 2016 and as president saying theres a huge problem with former officials taking classified documents and possessing them after they left office and that needs to be cracked down on, and as a candidate saying that these laws these criminal laws, the ones he is facing, need to be enforced more strongly. He is really talking out of both siet sides of his mouth here as the indictment alleges. Harry, lets talk about the presence of the former president in the courtroom. He has been complaining that these cases are tieing him down during a president ial election, which is certainly objective fact, because he has to appear once trials take place and during other stages. This is not a stage where he had to appear at this pretrial motion. Completely voluntary. More than that, very unusual. Very, very few defendants would spend eight hours in a courtroom where all thats happening is legal argument. They have no evidence to present, nothing to really work with their lawyers about. Theres always with trump the advantage perhaps of coming out and playing to his faithful. There might be an extra element of being a few feet away from a judge whom he can remind that he appointed and events could yet transpire that she could again be in his favor. Its a long day. I think for most people, a boring day to spend in a courtroom. Andrew, given the delays and the fact that she was notably overturned by the 11th circuit unanimously on very early in this case on access by the defense to these classified materials i think it was, what do we expect now . This can delay the case. What if she does grant these motions . Would they appeal it . Sure. If she grants these motions, then the prosecution is going to appeal them. There are a number of motions that are pending before her. These are just two of them. I think im cynical here. I think that her goal is to not do anything that will cause an appeal that could lead to her being kicked off the case, because as you point out, andrea, she was reversed not once but twice by the 11th circuit in fairly scathing language. So she does not want to do anything thats going to lead to that kind of appeal. On the other hand, shes going to try and not do anything for the government. You can see that in all of her rulings and even in small comments she makes. I think i would expect that shes going to try and not do anything thats reversible but also delay this case as much as possible so that there is no trial before the general election. Harry, i know that all of us, lawyers and nonlawyers alike, pointed out that she everyone every judge takes their Oath Of Office and there have been plenty of instances throughout history all the time where the appointed judge is against democrats or republicans. In her case, there has been a pattern here. Yes. Thats what we hoped at the start. I will say there is ample basis for andrews cynicism. Look, theres an Alice In Wonderland quality to this hearing, where trump is the Humpty Dumpty figure. She is the equivalent of the red king dispensing very mysterious justice. Shes conscious of the concern of not doing anything too out of the ordinary. Both of these i want to stress where ken started. Balderdash is a kind word for these two motions and shes spending a day on these and five still in the waiting. She has a very strong motion for reconsideration that shes obviously wrong on. Yet, she sent weeks and they are under submission. She moves slowly and doesnt give an indication where shes going until her rulings come out. Harry, andrew, of course, ken, thanks to all of you. On the line. The outlook for the Bill Banning Tiktok looks less certain in the senate. Up next, alyssa slotkin, former cia officer, who voted to ban tiktok. We will be back in 60 seconds. N tiktok we will be back in 60 seconds. I hear that. This bad boy can fix anything. Yep, tough day at work, nice cruise will sort you right out. When im riding, im not even thinking about my painful cavity. Well, you shouldnt ignore that. And every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. Oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. You dont have to worry about anything when youre protected by americas numberone motorcycle insurer. Well, you definitely do. Those things arent related, so. Ah, yee oh, that is a vibrating pain. music have Heart Failure with unresolved symptoms . It may be time to see the bigger picture. Heart failure and seemingly unrelated symptoms, like carpal tunnel syndrome, shortness of breath, and Irregular Heartbeat could be something more serious called attrcm, a rare, underdiagnosed disease that worsens over time. Sound like you . Call your cardiologist, and ask about attrcm. The house has voted to force the chinesebacked owner of tiktok to sell the popular app over National Security concerns, effectively banning it from the u. S. Despite lobbying from the chairman of the company and protests on the app from many of its 170 million american users. President biden says he would sign the legislation if it passes. It faces an uncertain future in the senate, despite support from the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee. They have argued that china gains too much intelligence too much influence from tiktok and has, in fact, according to the worldwide threat assessment, influenced the 2022 election. Today, chinas government accused of United States of bullying behavior and leveraging state power against the company. Joining me now, congresswoman slotkin, former cia officer, now a candidate for the senate. Thank you very much for joining us. If you were a senator, presumably you would also vote to ban. What about the free speech issues that so Many Democrats well 50 democrats in the house i think voted against banning it and against the small businessowners, the others who are advantaged by tiktok . Yeah. To be clear, i think most of us we dont want a ban. We want the Chinese Communist party to not be affiliated with the ownership of this thing that has 170 million americans data. Its not like data isnt collected by facebook and twitter and all that stuff. Its that the affiliation with the chinese regime means that they are not subject to the same laws and regulations and accountability. All you need to do is look at how they have been using their users in the country to lobby congress. We are getting all these calls from kids as young as 9. What they did is they sent a push message to every single user in the United States. They geolocated every user, figured out who the specific member of congress was and then say, here is your member of congress phone number. We get calls from young users without their parents knowing. They have the location data. They have the facial recognition of everyone. Lots of social Media Companies have it. I dont want it in the hant han a company intertwined with the communist party. Let me just unpack that a little bit. It effectively is a ban. It would take a long time to unwind. Any sale at this point would be a ban. Supposedly they would loose the algorithms that are what helps them do all theseing and. People say Steve Mnuchins would bring americans to it. We know where he was and who started his billion and a half dollar hedge fund. That was from the people in the gulf. Once you try to track down where all the foreign money is in that world, its not that easy. In any case, wouldnt it in affect be a ban . The chairman certainly got on tiktok last night and said it would be a ban. It would be a sale. Its not the First Company that would have to sell its Parent Company. Grinder is another social Media Company that had to sell, had chinese ownership. Its not unprecedented. Most of us im a candidate, as you said, for senate. Most want tiktok to be available. You dont think i have nieces and nephews and staff who are on it . I dont want to ban it. I dont want the Chinese Government controlling the data. Im a former cia officer and pentagon official. I dont want them having facial recognition information on everyone who is going to be in our military or the intelligence community. I dont want them to send Push Messages of propaganda to vote or not vote to 170 million users. If this was controlled by sweden or a company in palo alto, they would be subject to rules and regulations of the western world. The Chinese Communist party makes the rules and has a strong affiliation with this company. Its not that we want to ban. We want them to sell the Parent Company so they dont have our kids data. Thank you very much. We will talk to one of your colleagues who voted the other way coming up. Thanks so much. You bet. Escalating violence. The efforts to help evacuate americans trapped in haiti. Thats next. You are watching Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us. This is msnbc. This is msnbc. I know what its like to perform through pain. If youre like me, one of the millions suffering from pain caused by migraine, Nurtec Odt May help. Its the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. Treat and prevent, all in one. 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Many civilians, including americans, are desperate to get out. Gabe gutierrez spoke to volunteers were evacuated to the u. S. Reporter how harrowing was the escape . The fear is the gangs will shoot at helicopters. We were in the air and trying to get out of haiti. Gabe joins me now from the Dominican Republic at the border. You have seen the border was open for a while today. You saw people crossing and then going back out. What is the Security Situation there . Reporter hi, andrea. It was temporarily open. It still is for the time being. Here in the Dominican Republic at this border town, its temporarily open once a week for the market so haitians can get supplies and go back. They are not allowed to go into the Dominican Republic. Hard to see with the truck in the way, but down there you can see haitians taking supplies and different goods. These haitians got up early. They came here. Where im standing is a no mans land. Its in the Dominican Republic but its not fully in the country. The haitians you see walking back, they are taking what they can back to haiti. For the most part though, the border remains closed. The Security Situation, we just heard from a spokesman for the National Security council, its deteriorating. The u. S. Monitoring this closely. As you said, the u. N. Is trying to set up this humanitarian corridor in the sky to bring in humanitarian aid from the Dominican Republic into haiti. I will step over here. Get out of the way of the truck. Reporter it has been busy throughout the morning. Exactly. My cameraman will pan around and show you. You can see a large Security Presence here. We noticed that since we got here yesterday. This is an ongoing humanitarian crisis thats unfolding here in haiti. You see these haitians going back with whatever they can into the northeastern part of the country. They tell us the worst violence, of course, is in portauprince. Things are calmer in the rural areas. The problem here that we have been seeing is hunger, an overwhelming need for food and extreme poverty here. Gabe, i know the u. N. Will try to do that. Again, the u. S. Is already preparing or already is possibly taking haitian migrants, people who have gotten out, to guantanamo. Thats what they have done in the past. Reporter thats wh