Fake news, just fake news, i refuse to accept it. And onto the next question, here we go. Are, looking forward to the debates. Have a good weekend. Today was day leavening the first criminal trial of a former american president , the prosecution called to the Witness Stand One of Donald Trumps closest confidants, hope hicks, Communications Director and longtime aide. Hicks was constantly by trump s side navigating each crisis that came his way. And that was why prosecutors used hicks testimony to take the jury all the way back to one of the most important and memorable moments the 2016 campaign. As a warning, this next part is vulgar. I bought some to text in case i start kissing her. You know, im automatically attracted to beautiful kissing them, its like a magnet. And they let you do it, you can do anything. Grab them by the [ bleep ] the access Hollywood Tape. A recording of donald trump in 2005, openly advocating sexual assault, bragging about his ability to assault women. When you are a star they let you do it. That tape was first reported by the Washington Post on october 7th, 2016, a real October Surprise in the president ial campaign. It is hard to overstate just what a big deal that tape was at the time. The day that recording was first released Hurricane Matthew was just off the coast of florida, and News Networks had to break into their Rolling Hurricane Coverage to report on the trump tape. But maybe an even better sign of the significance of the excess Hollywood Tape was the Trump Campaigns reaction. Because for the first time, and perhaps the last time, donald trump was forced to apologize. Ive never said i am a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that i am not. I have said and done things i regret. And the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words dont reflect who i am. I said it. I was wrong. And i apologize. Within 24 hours republicans across the ideological spectrum were coming up to condemn donald trump. I was offended and dismayed by by what was said and done by mr. Trump. I think it is degrading to our women, to our daughters, our granddaughters, and the future generations. Im out. I can no longer in good conscious endorse this person for present. Step aside. Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner. House Speaker Paul Ryan canceled what was supposed to be his first appearance with trump on the campaign trail. Mitch mcconnell called on trump to apologize to women and girls everywhere. Even tictac was forced to put up a statement saying we find the recent statements and behavior completely inappropriate and unacceptable. So all of that was context for the prosecution today as they tried to show the jury the scandal caused by the access Hollywood Tape. It grabbed headlines, and it shook the party so much so that the Trump Campaign was immediately forced into Damage Control to try and reclaim the narrative. The prosecution was not allowed to play the access Hollywood Tape itself for the jury, but they entered a transcript of it into the record. Matthew asked hope hicks about the campings response in the hours after she first was approached for comment by the Washington Post. What was your first reaction when you heard the tape . Hicks, just a little stunned, just its hard to describe, its hard to describe, yeah, it was definitely concerning, and i had you know, a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and sort of dominate the news cycle for the next several days at least. Colangelo were you concerned about the effect . Hicks, i think there was consensus among us all that the tape was damaging, and this was a crisis. So the access Hollywood Tape was a crisis, and the election was a month away. After four weeks of dealing with that follow, Something Else that happened. Hope hicks got another request for comment from another reporter, from the Wall Street Journal. This email was the prosecutions exhibit 316 in court to today. The request from the journal. Here it is. We need comment soon as possible for a story we plan to publish today about American Media buying the rights to a story of a former playmate of the year, Karen Mcdougal, of an affair she told him she had with mr. Trump in 2006, when he was married to melania. We plan to report ami purchased the story to kill it. That landed in hope hicks inbox four days before election day, and it sent the Trump Campaign into another scramble. Here is transmitted after the Wall Street Journal article was published november 15 you discussed the article with mr. Trumps staff for mr. Trump . Yes. He was concerned about the story. He was concerned how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted to make sure that the newspapers werent delivered to their residence that morning. Colangelo, did he ask you whether you thought it was likely to affect the campaign . Hicks, everything we talked about in the context of you know, this time period, in this time period, was about whether or not there was an impact on the campaign. And it was in that climate of fear and concern that the prosecution alleges donald trump made secret payments to Stormy Daniels to save his campaign. Joining me now is michael roth failed to investigate reporter for New York Times and co author of the fixers. Michael is part of the Wall Street Journal reporting team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for its investigation of trumps hush money payments, and he was named checked several times at trial today. Michael, thank you for being here. You know, we learned today in court it was your correspondence that first informed hope hicks about Karen Mcdougal and the scandal that had yet to break open. Ill just read a little bit. This is matthew colangelo. When did you hear the name Karen Mcdougal . Hicks, november 4, 2016. Colangelo what context did you first hear the name Karen Mcdougal . Hicks i received an inquiry from a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Colangelo who is the reporter you heard from . Hicks, rothfeld. Can you go back and tell us what that was like . Well we had been chasing this story actually for about a month at the journal. We had received a tip there was a lawyer who is paying off women for trump before the election, and we had narrowed it down to two women, Karen Mcdougal, and Stormy Daniels, and were able to obtain the contract Karen Mcdougal had with the Parent Company of the National Enquirer which led to the story you were talking about, and the election was rapidly approaching, so obviously we were trying to move quickly to get to the story before the election. We need Stormy Daniels was also talking about telling her story, but we havent nailed that down at that point, but we did nail down the Karen Mcdougal story. Did you have a sense of how connected donald trump was to the mcdougal payments . Well, we knew david pecker, who ran the National Enquirer, in American Media, had a long elation relationship with trump. We had a sense this was done to protect trump. This was the first time anyone reported the term catch and kill in this context, that david pecker caught the story for trump and killed it. We did not have a direct connection at that time. We suspected it, which is why in the days before that email i sent to hope hicks we were talking to the National Inquirer primarily because they paid Karen Mcdougal, and we suspected strongly that trump was connected to it, but the evidence for that would emerge slowly in the months and years after we reported that story. Hope hicks is a noted Trump Campaign spokesperson, who said of the agreement with miss mcdougal, we have no knowledge of any of this. Hicks said miss mcdougals claim of an affair with mr. Trump was totally untrue. [ laughter ] in retrospect, what do you make of that maybe she didnt realize she was lying, because hope hicks was clearly not that familiar with what happened here. Yeah, i dont know that hope you about it. She was obviously speaking for the campaign. I believe that she didnt know about it. I dont 100 no, but she says she did not. Donald trump as we now know did have correspondence with david pecker and Michael Cohen about paying off Karen Mcdougal over the summer before she was paid in august. So, you know, clearly she was misled, and you know, i suspected that probably was not true, that donald trump did not know about it, but that was the campaigns response, and they denied it. They also denied he had any relationship with Stormy Daniels. The prosecution seems repeatedly trying to make this point the campaign was very concerned about these allegations regardless of whether they were true or not, and this panic it caused internally helps explain why the payments were in turn later made to Stormy Daniels. Can you give a sense as a reporter on the other side what you imagined or knew the reaction to be inside trump world . Well, i could imagine there was a lot going on at that time. There was a Hillary Clinton email scandal. We were a few days out from the election, and we now know from the emails and texts and calls that hope hicks had with Michael Cohen that they were very concerned about what impact the Karen Mcdougal story would have. It did not have an earth shattering effect with all the other noise, but in that period of time it would inform the daniels deal was the excess Hollywood Tape, and that had happened even before we reported the Karen Mcdougal story around october 7th. So, we reported that in early november. As of when the excess Hollywood Tape was reported that jumpstarted the, eiko cohens negotiations with Stormy Daniels to pay her, and they negotiated the deal a few days after the excess Hollywood Tape, and she had been trying to sell that way earlier in the campaign but was unable to. The payment didnt happen until the very end of october. Right, we know there were many efforts to quash stories that could be harmful to the campaign. Hope hicks testified, she reached out to Jared Kushner, Jared Kushner has a relationship with Rupert Murdoch, to see if kushner could Entreat Murdoch to buy some time. Were you made aware of any efforts to slow the publication . No, and i think she testified kushner told her he wasnt going to do that, and she should respond, but i can tell you we never at the journal had any interference from Rupert Murdoch or anyone below him when we were going to publish those stories. We were able to get them in, even the Stormy Daniels story, which was more sensitive, because it was the president s lawyer, he was now the president , and involving a pornstar, you know, the journal published that on the front page, there was no qualms. We wanted to be right, that was the main thing. Obviously you got it done, because its part of the prosecutions argument today in the first criminal trial of donald trump. Michael rothfeld but really appreciate your time and thoughts. The insight is invaluable. Coming up, chances are decreasing by the hour as new revelation, some violent, some just really weird, leaked from her forthcoming memoir. Hope hicks says trump admitted to her it would have been bad to have the Stormy Daniels story come out before the election. We will talk about the legal consequences of the Blockbuster Testimony from today, thats next. Its time to feed the dogs real food, not highly processed pellets. The farmers dog is fresh food made with whole meat and veggies. Its not dry food. Its not wet food. Its just real food. Its an idea whose time has come. [music] i enrolled in umgc because i became very passionate about Emergency Management. The professors were great because theyve had several Years Experience in the field. Theyve seen Emergency Management handson. Im able to learn from their experience and really make a difference. I picked University Of MarylandGlobal Campus because you get so much more out of it than just a diploma. Learn about our more than 125 online degrees and certificates at umgc. Edu [ music ] mom genes. She passed them down to you. But who passed them to her . Those mom genes helped make her who she is. Show her with ancestrydna. This mothers day, she can see the traits she inherited, the places where they started, and the people she shares them with. Best of all, its on sale for mothers day. Get it now, before she has to remind you. i thought water would help with these dry spots. Thats lawn disease. But Scotts Healthy Plus will cure it lawn disease . Been going around. So like other people have it and its not. Pick up a bag of the new Scotts Turf Builder healthy plus lawn food today. Feed your lawn. Feed it. try Dietary Supplements from voltaren, for healthy joints. With absorbine pro, try Dietary Supplements from voltaren, pain wont hold you back from your passions. Its the only solution with two maxstrength anesthetics to deliver the strongest numbing pain relief available. So, do your thing like a pro, painfree. Absorbine pro. Todays threehour testimony by former press secretary hope hicks appeared at times to be useful, sort of, maybe, for both the defense and prosecution. When asked today about trumps reaction to the release of the Hollywood Tape, it seemed to buttress the how it would be viewed by melania. It was destroying the tapes to prevent his family from finding out. Hicks also Cast Out Cohen made payments out of the kindness of his heart. Hicks told the court i did not know michael to be a charitable or selfless person. Hicks also recounted a conversation she had with trump as president when the Stormy Daniels schedule eventually surfaced in 2018, saying, i think mr. Trumps opinion was it was better to be dealing with it in 2018 than it would have been to have had that story, before the 2016 election. Joining me now are jeremy, former assistant District Attorney in the manhattan das office, trial division, and suzanne craig, New York TimesInvestigative Reporter focused on the finances and taxes of donald trump. What a beat thank you both for being here today. I have got to ask. Let me go to you first, jeremy. The idea trump was covering up story is, that he didnt want his Family Reading about it, that was somewhat established by hicks testimony. But, she was also pretty clear that everything that was done in this period was through the lens of the campaign, that this was decidedly a move that would benefit trumps candidacy. Doesnt matter if he also had personal reasons for doing it . The court can take judicial notice of the affairs, but they are not genuinely exclusive. You could also want to protect the campaign in addition to wanting to protect your family. Thats not what this is about. As long as you are doing it for expressly political or Campaign Purposes its still violation . Its not like you have a Self Defense Claim here. You could have done it for this reason, but also that reason. Whats your top line on hicks Testimony Today . I thought the end of the governments examination was very powerful when she put us in the room with that conversation she had wit