Ari melber is next. Thanks for staying up late with us. Welcome to the beat, im ari melber. We are tracking big legal developments today. The judge in florida giving Trump Lawyers what they waned. A big delay and a big part of his overall legal situation. And there is this continuing fallout from the damning testimony by the key witness in the new york trial. One of the most famous people in this case, Stormy Daniels took the stand to tell her story under oath for the first time. The former president coming face to face with Stormy Daniels. Even the judge is pumped. He was like welcome to the stand. Stormy daniels. Stormy daniels gave a really detailed testimony. Reelly detailed. There have been some contentious moments as Stormy Daniels faces cross examination. Let me tell you, it is not over yet. Because daniels will be back on the stand on thursday. True, daniels is the first eyewitness to recount trumps conduct in their encounter. That he later paid to cover up. And thats been driving headlines here. We learned much about what happened yesterday. Headlines about how upset trump got. Well get into that right now. As well as how she will be headed back to continue what has been a damning set of details with corroboration for a jury that is trying to decide in some sense who is lying. Now with no cameras in court, some of what we learned about what happened inside the new york trial does come out more slowly. We have more information about a Court Exchange with the judge that did not break yesterday because most reporters could not hear it. You are looking at the court sketches. It is news tonight because it only became more fully detailed in the latest court transcripts. The judge who had hammered the das side at times yesterday, we are learning how the judge admonished trump through his lawyers and this came in a side bar that occurred during part of daniels testimony. The judge telling trumps lawyers i understand your client trump is upset. But he is cursing audibly and he is shaking his head visually and that is contemptuous. The judge noting that kind of conduct does have the potential to intimidate the witness. And the jury can see the conduct that trump was displaying. The point here is about legal fairness. Not just some abstract idea of decorum. Defendants must sit silently. Unless they get to the point in the trial where they choose to take the stand. They can weigh in that way. They cannot interfere with the other witnesses on the stand or interfere with the jurys task of listening to only the witness and the evidence. This jury was trying to listen to Stormy Daniels. To put it simply, a fair trial is not supposed to run like a live reaction on the internet. Sometimes the viewer observes that other persons reaction. Sometimes it is the reactor who can matter more than the witness. Now it is supposed to be in a trial you focus on listening only to the witness. If the Defense Perspective is raised. And thats a fair thing, trump obviously was upset by what she was saying and he had some view he wanted to share. But that is also measured through questions by the defendants lawyer. Not by cursing in court. That did occur when trumps defense team pressed daniels on parts of her story and tried to go at her credibility. But most of the people who looked at this do note that the key things that are at issue in the trial, not everything she has ever said. But the key part of this story and the money she received has been a consistent tale. And her credibility may ultimately be as nbc put it there, a lynch pin to this case. So, daniels testimony will continue tomorrow. And we are against the backdrop of the delay in the florida case that could go out to the election. The delay in the dc case. A lot of judges are out there clearly doing the things that fit Donald Trumps whole strategy of punting things out past the election. That is a problem for democracy. Meanwhile in new york, we have the one trial that is on pace to get us a verdict by the election. In fact, a lot sooner than the election. We are now bracing for the results, the verdict within roughly two to four weeks. So that is the update on that top legal story tonight. Next, i want to tell you, we will turn to this years election. And we will turn to something that i can factually stay so you right now. You will not see anywhere else tonight. It is a first time for us here at the beat as well. So i invite you to join me for that after our shortest break. Ill see you in 90 seconds. Eco most americans say they oppose biden and trump running right now. Most people say if they could, they would want other choices. And yet, here we are, barreling toward a rematch of as a factual matter two fairly unpopular candidates. And that has opened at least a possible or hypothetical lane for other challengers and new questions about the strength of any independent alternatives and which party they might ultimately damage more if they are not going to win out right. And there are questions about whether there is a line at all for a candidate with one of the most famous political names out there. And, well, the least experience in government. Environmental attorney robert f. Kennedy jr. Son of the late senator and u. S. Attorney general robert f. Kennedy. Making his beat debut on the beat tonight. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, ari. Glad to have you. Lets start at the beginning. If you became president , what would change in peoples lives . Our country would change a lot. What i promise to do is wind down the forever wars. Which both President Trump promised to do. But has not done. Unwind the merger of state and corporate power. The capture of our agencies by the industries they are supposed to regulate. I would immediately address the issue of chronic disease. We have a Chronic Disease Epidemic that is causing us 4. 3 trillion a year. It is five times our military budget. I will issue an Executive Order that any Government Official that lies to the American Public in conjunction with his federal duties will be dismissed. I am going to address the issues, the control of our agricultural agencies, by the processed food companies, we now have a thousand ingredients in this country that are illegal in europe and feeding that Chronic Disease Epidemic and i will issue an Executive Order. Stopping the Intelligence Agencies from propagandizing the American Public and ending censorship. Any federal involvement in censorship. So that is a big agenda. You have never served in government. 45 of the 46 president s have. Why should you become president to run the whole government when you dont have any low level, mid level, or high Level Experience in the government . You dont need Government Experience to run for president in this country under the constitution. The Constitution Framers anticipated that people would run who were not experienced in government. I have been around government my whole life. I would say my principle qualification is that i have litigated against almost every one of the major federal agencies i sued cdc, fda, usda, department of agriculture. The department of transportation. When you litigate against these agencies, you get a phd in corporate capture and how to unravel it. Respectfully, thats in court. But running the whole federal government, coming in with the problems you are tee fining, having never shown through your time. Not that government service. You mentioned your family. You brought up the family. Everyone in your family served in lower positions before pursuing the white house. Some of them with congressional experience. Running seven to 10, 15 years. You look at that and your name. And, while political dynasties run in both parties, do you think you would be doing what you are doing without your name . If you were a lawyer without the name kennedy, how would your campaign be going . I think im Better Qualified than anyone trained to run the government. And the reason for that is the Biggest Issue is the merger of state an corporate power. It feeds the war machine and the fed. The run away taxes. All of the issues. You have court cases on that. You have a different view of that than people. I am not intimidated by the agencies. That is the problem with every other politician in congress. I will jump in to say, there is the campaign math. This is not summer camp. This is not a brainstorms session. You have six months to try to run to be in a position to win the Electoral College. How many states are you on the ballot in right now . We have the signatures to get on the ballot. We are not immediately filing those for strategic reasons. How many states are you on the ballot right now today . We are on the ballot i think in two or three states. We could file tomorrow and be on the ballot in ten. Here is my question. I have seen you talk about this. If you are not on enough ballots to mathematically be eligible to win the Electoral College in enough states by election day, are you going to drop out . Im going to be on the ballot in every state. But if you are not . Im going to be on the ballot in every state by election day. Ill be on the ballot in every state by july. This is a big issue as you know. I want to read something. It is not for the media to say who is a spoiler or not. The whole reason i have different people on, cornell west, a lot of trump aides, the viewer get to hear. But i want to read to you what one said about spoiler candidates. It is wrong for a Third Party Candidate to claim there is quote no distinction between the major parties of candidates. Do you understand that point, do you agree with that point . I agree with that point if i were the spoiler. Ill let you finish. As you may have intuated, im reading from your statement you wrote about nader. Here is what you said in 2000. Take a listen. There is a political reality here which is that his candidacy could draw enough votes in certain key states from al gore to give the entire election to george w. Bush. I will give you time to respond but i want to be clear about this. The issue is not just whether there is a spoiler or not. In all fairness that depends on what the voters do. You havent spent your life as an independent Third Party Person fighting against both parties. You dont have that track record. You have been affiliated with one major party a long time. You made that argument on behalf of the same Democratic Party. And only here are you saying Different Things about how it works. How do you respond to that . Well i would probably say the same thing again if the Phak Churl Issues were the same. Ralph nader had no chance of winning. And we just did a poll that we did, about ten times the size of any other polls. A poll that is a 200,000 poll. We polled 26,000 people in 50 states. And what that poll shows and every other poll that has been between me and President Biden and me and President Trump says the same thing. Every poll. When im pit against President Biden. Just me against him, i beat him in 39 states. He only wins 11 states. I dominated the Electoral College. So, and when i run against President Trump, i beat him in the Electoral College. The same poll and most polls these days show that President Biden cannot beat President Trump. I will jump in. Your argument seems to be. You didnt let me finish my argument. We are having aback and forth. You say there is a poll you are doing so great. But you are under five states ballot and most polls dont show it that way. You are changing the subject, ari. The question is about whether i can be on the ballot. Im definitely going to be on the ballot. If your response to the Nader Comparison where you attacked him as a spoiler, you say you are not a spoiler, i say you have not yet proven that. Let me explain what is a spoiler. A spoiler is somebody who cannot win. And whose continued participation in the election will disrupt the expectations of somebody who can win. Well, i can win. Our polls and every other poll that has looked at head to head contests show i beat both President Trump and President Biden if the other guy leaves. You think it is a big if . You are talking the incumbent president of the United States. Under this criteria, President Biden is the spoiler. Because he cannot win. He cant win if i stay in. He does worse if i leave. You are comparing hypothetical polls to a guy who won the presidency. Yo do seem at time to be warm toward President Trump. And he is clearly warm toward you. I would definitely disagree with that. He just called me a radical f ing liberal. He said you are a common sense guy. And you guys have exchanged warm words and you said you are proud he likes you. I have said good things about President Biden, too. But here is where im going with the trump thing. You endorsed his opponent in 2016. Hillary. Right. What, since 2016, in his first term and him refusing to leaf leave office peacefully, has made you warmer toward him . Can you explain that for us . I can explain to you im running against him. So obviously, i dont want him to be president of the United States and i dont think he did a good job. If you look at my statements, im not mean spirited. I think President Trump and President Bidens administrations have been catastrophic for this country. They have run up 34 trillion debt. Would you say roughly equally catastrophic . I would say they have both been catastrophic. Similar . In their own way. Here is why people. You are trying to get me to quantify it so you can win a debate. And im not going to do that. Hold on. Its not a debating point. Theres a big choice coming down and you are inserting yourself as you have to legal right to do as a candidate for office. You are someone who in all fairness was giving these speeches against nader for this kind of thing. Supporting clinton against trump saying this is the danger of trump. And now, people hear you and this is a chance to talk about it. But people hear you as very similar to nader saying it is a pox on both houses. Lesser of two evils. What others call false equivalency. This is what donald trump stands for and why people hear you talk about false equivalencies. This is all debating tricks. This is not a trick. You are lighting fires faster than i can put them out. Every single thing you say, i can answer. Give me a chance. Take a listen to this and you can have the floor. I will pay for the legal fees. Very fine people. On both sides. These are not people. These are animals. Stand back and standby. The radical left thugs that live like vermin. I said i want to be a dictator for one day. It is nice to have a strong man running the country. People are not concerned this is nader, 2. 0, but you are losing the platform and the following you have to suggest that they are both catastrophic and they are similar and that you, they say, are ignoring not only the policy difference, but the actual possible democracy and autocratic threat of donald trump if he wins again. Perhaps thanks to you. Your response . I never said that. So you know, like i said, i think both of them did bat things to our country. I think both of them contributed, President Trump more than any president in history. Coming in, promising the country that he was going to run the government like a business. He shut down every business, 3. 3 million businesses, no due process. No just compensation. A violation of the constitution. He ran up an 8 trillion debt. More money he spent than every president between George Washington and george w. Bush. 283 years. President biden is racing to catch up with him. He has added a trillion dollars in the last hundred days. They are both catastrophic. Neither of them can solve that problem. Let me tell you Something Else they cant do. Neither of them can end the vitriol you are trying to pump upright now. What have i said that is vitriolic . What you are saying to me, i need to take a side. Im asking you about. You are running for president. You told me i would have the floor. Yes. I did. But you just suggested that i am perpetuating vitriol. What have i said today that is vitriolic . Let me finish what im saying. What i said when i announced a year ago is that we are facing a time in our history that is more i think you will grow, is more vitriolic, more polarized, more poisonous than any time since the civil war. Amplified by the Social Media Algorithms and it is hard to see a way out of that. If somebody doesnt come along and say i will not participate in that. Even if people act crazy on both sides i will not be part of that craziness. But you are not addressing the question i raised. What we just heard from former President Trump. And what he does in the racism, in the my sole judgeny. Refusing to leave peacefully. Through january 6th. Up throu