Us for right now. Cannot go anywhere. It is time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. You have been in that courtroom. Imagine the session is over, you had for that elevator on the 15th floor and you find yourself on the elevator with andrew weissman, the suburban and Adam Klasfeld and me, all of whom were in the courtroom today. That is what you are going to get. You will get that ride down the elevator but it will last an hour. I was going to say im polling the stop the Elevator Button so that we can get the most out of all of you. This is the Courthouse Table right here. Right on, thanks, lawrence. Thanks, rachel. The first thing judge juan merchan did in the courtroom before bringing the jury into the room or bringing the witness into the room was to rule in favor of donald trump on an evidentiary point. Donald trump pretends that never happens. He stands in the very hallway of that courthouse right outside the courtroom speaking to microphones every day ranting about how unfair judge juan merchan is. He appears to hate judge juan merchan, and is very convincing in delivering that feeling. But, he cannot hate the judge because the judge is unfair. He has to pay to the judge for some other reason. Even donald trump knows the judge is fair. Today, half of the trump lawyer objections were sustained. And, there werent that many objections because the trial was proceeding fairly under judge Juan Merchans guidance. But, the judge did Say Something today that we know enrages donald trump. It was in the round of the judges good mornings to the lawyers on both sides. He said good morning, everyone. Then he said, good morning mr. Trump. Of course, mr. Trump is blasphemy to the man who demands that his lawyers and everyone around him call him by his former official title. Good morning mr. Trump. It was not a good morning for mr. Trump when Michael Cohen took the Witness Stand to testify against him. Witness Michael Cohen delivered all of the essential elements of the criminal charges against donald trump in his testimony. District attorney alvin bragg was watching after being publicly called that alvin by donald trump at his rally in new jersey. At the same rally in new jersey, donald trump said he could not call former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie a fat big. Could not call him that. Said it out loud, of course. The Deep Perversion of trump that is on display in moments like that is that extremely overweight people at trump rallies, and i mean even more overweight than don trump, laughed at that use of the word fat, as if they are living on some other planet where harsh adjectives only apply to people they dont like and cant possibly apply to themselves. Such is the madness of donald trump, which apparently contains enough contagion to infect many millions of his followers. Michael cohen was once one of those followers. Before anyone ever thought of voting for donald trump, Michael Cohens view of donald trump was close to worshipful. According to his testimony today, Michael Cohen felt, i was on Top Of The World when donald trump told me it was fantastic. That was donald trump sword, fantastic that Michael Cohen got vendors who did work through Fraudulent Trump University to accept 20 of the amount of money donald trump actually owed to them for work done at the university. The word fantastic came up four times in Michael Cohens testimony, always quoting Donald Trumps reaction to good news, often involving the cover up of bad news about donald trump. According to Michael Cohens destiny, donald trump thought this was fantastic. The cover story in the National Enquirer entitled The Donald Trump nobody knows, the National Enquirer let Michael Cohen edit that article as part of the deal with donald trump to publish positive stories about him and terrible stories about his political opponents and to catch and kill any stories about trump having sex with women other than his wives while married to those wives. The word we heard in court almost as much as fantastic today was catastrophic. Let Michael Cohen paul dudley access Hollywood Video that showed donald trump bragging about his favorite methods of Sexual Assault and that is what Michael Cohen said Stormy Daniels story would be if it became public before the election. Catastrophic. So, in the final days of the president ial campaign of 2016, a scheme was hatched to buy Stormy Daniels assignments. According to Michael Cohens testimony, donald trump told Michael Cohen to take care of it. Did you ask him at that time whether he had had a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels . Did he enter you directly . Answer, no maam. What did he say, did he say anything in response to that . Enter, no man. Question, did he enter anything about what she looked like . He said she was a beautiful woman. Donald trump repeatedly told Michael Cohen just take care of it. We kept hearing that line today over and over again. According to Michael Cohens testimony, donald trump said this is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to eat me because this is really a disaster. Women will hate me. Guys may think its cool but this will be a disaster for the campaign. That is what donald trump thought the Stormy Daniels story could be, a disaster for the campaign. Michael cohen quoted donald trump saying what i want you to do is just push it out as long as you can, just get past the election. If i win, it has no relevance. I would be president. If i lose, i dont even care. Question, did you bring up, at the time, the topic of his wife and one of those conversations with mr. Trump, i did. What did you say to them in substance to him . I said to them, how are things going to go with upstairs . Were you concerned about that . Answer, i was. What, if anything, did he say to you about that . He goes how long do you think i will be on the market . Not long. What did you understand that to mean . He wasnt thinking about melania. This was all about the campaign. Michael cohen on the Witness Stand is like donald trump in aa. Michael cohen was once, in many ways, as bad as donald trump, threatening people, acting in a gangster like way. On the Witness Stand today, he was a different person. He said something donald trump would never say, could never say. He used a phrase donald trump could ever use. When Michael Cohen talked about wanting to at least be considered for white house Chief Of Staff, and he admitted he was not qualified for, he said he just wanted to be on the list, publicly on the list. He wanted people to think he was being considered for the job of white house Chief Of Staff solely for my ego. That is a line donald trump could never speak. Solely for my ego. It explains everything donald trump does, every breath he takes. Donald trump could never admit anything like that the way Michael Cohen admitted that today. That is the new Michael Cohen, who sees his ego now has one of the problems that drove him in a criminal direction with the egomaniacal and unrepentant donald trump. Michael cohen on the Witness Stand today, in the courtroom, was unlike any version of Michael Cohen you have ever seen. He was not fighting back at the questions and became belligerent the way he was when he appeared on tv in 2016 as a Campaign Surrogate for donald trump. He was not Something Like the gangster he wanted to sound like when he was calling up reporters then and threatening them during that first trump residential campaign. He was not making fun of donald trump or taunting donald trump, as he has done so frequently and recently on social media. It was not the emboldened Michael Cohen, who has turned against donald trump and publicly attacks him. It was Michael Cohen, the lawyer, knowing how a witness should sound on the Witness Stand. Calm, deliberate, careful. Clear. Sometimes a vivid. As the six hours of testimony wore on, Michael Cohen became more comfortable on the Witness Stand and more importantly, perhaps, the jury rapidly became more comfortable with him. Every courtroom becomes a community in a multi week trial like this, with the same people coming into the room every day. Michael cohen became the new neighbor in that community today. He was not the fault that he had been in the past. He was not the monster he had sometimes been in the past. He was for those manhattan jurors, who will judge this case very much one of them, everyone living in manhattan was a guy who looks and sounds like Michael Cohen. Most of the guys we know who looks and sounds like Michael Cohen dont have criminal records like Michael Cohen. They dont have a dark criminal past like Michael Cohen. Most apartments, Apartment Buildings in new york have a guy or several guys like Michael Cohen, you can run into on the elevator at any moment and exchanged a cheerful greeting. The jury did not look perplexed by Michael Cohen. But, this jury is especially good at not giving away the slightest hint of what they are thinking. Michael cohen, more than any other witness who has testified in that courtroom, delivered his testimony directly to the jury today. At all the right times when it could be effective, Michael Cohen physically turned toward the jury a little bit, turned his head and his eyes to them to deliver his answer directly to them, creating the effect of someone trying to help the jury understand. Given the wild range of public behavior we have seen from Michael Cohen over the years, the prosecution could not have delivered a better version of Michael Cohen to this jury today. The real test will come when crossexamination starts tomorrow. If Michael Cohen can maintain the sober tone he said today, if Michael Cohen can maintain his calm, deliberate response in the face of attacks, this case will go to the jury as solidly as the prosecution could help for. Michael cohen has, at times, been a horrible person. But, the jury also discovered today that he is the son of a Holocaust Survivor, a Holocaust Survivor who made it to this country and fulfilled his Dream Of Living A Better Life here. The jury discovered that Michael Cohen is devoted to his wife, his son, and his daughter and that Michael Cohen now lives a life full of regrets and what was donald trump doing during Michael Cohens testimony . 10 minutes into the testimony, donald trump closed his eyes, tilted his head back probably trying to communicate to us i couldnt possibly be falling asleep at 9 40 a. M. So dont consider my closed eyes to be proof of sleep. His eyes are closed in the course of the day much, much longer than anyone would reasonably close their eyes for any purpose other than sleep. And, his head tilts to a site sometimes and slumps. When Donald Trumps eyes were open today, i could see over his shoulder that he was frequently reading from of public commentators supporting him, the top of him on the page that i could see him reading was mark 11 in bold print. The rightwing commentator. And, underneath that statement was a statement by mark levin made about this case that donald trump liked. Below that, the bold print name of Andrew Mccarthy was there, a lawyer who said something donald trump liked about this case. If Donald TrumpsDefense Lawyers come up with this plan of handing him, in effect, fan mail to read it during the trial, it has worked brilliantly because to the jury, it looks like the defendant is maybe examining some Important Documents in the case because they cant tell what is on the other side of those papers that hes holding up to his face to read. And, those comments that donald trump spent the day reading, endlessly praising him and attacking this case, are the perfect behavioral corrective tool for donald trump in the courtroom. It means his eyes are open and hes reading and he seems alive instead of a sleeping baby. And, these papers that he holds up to read work with all of the power that a pacifier brings to a twoyearold. They keep him under control. The courtroom has four 60 inch or so tv screens around the room, which show exhibits when they are discussed and the rest of the time, those screens show four different video shots of the courtroom. The top of the screen is occupied by one box of video showing the judge and another box of video of a much closer focused shot of the witness. And, the bottom of the screen has a box on the left of the screen showing the district attorneys table of lawyers and the podium for the attorney asking the questions and then on the right side of the screen on the bottom is the Trump Defense table, which requires a much wider shot because it has been extended piece, which includes additional lawyers. And, there is a piece of the white screen that includes the date written out, may 13th, 2024, and under the prosecution box, that side of the video screen, it says new York State Unified Court system. On the right side of the bottom of the screen, right below donald trump, it says New York County supreme criminal. That is meant to be the description of the kind of courtroom you are in. Every day, donald trump spent his day on those tv screens, apparently without ever noticing the powerful irony of the words he is sitting on top of on those screens all day. New york county supreme criminal. Andrew weissman, Adam Klasfeld and lisa rubin were in the courtroom with me today, they will all join us, next. Save with drivewise and get a rate based on you. Youre in good hands with allstate. When you smell the amazing scent of gain flings. Time stops. and you realize youre in love. Steve . With a laundry detergent. gain flings. Seriously good scent. Lets get started. Bill, wheres your mask . i really tried sleeping with it, everybody. But im done struggling. Now i sleep with inspire. Inspire . Inspire is a Sleep Apnea Treatment that works inside my body with just the click of this button. 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