President. Im alex wagner here with my colleague, chris hayes, who was in the courtroom today, as former Trump Attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen took the stand for a second day in a row. Today the defense began its crossexamination, which did not start off that well. Here is Trump Attorney todd blanche. Mr. Cohen, my name is todd blanche. You and i have never spoken or met before have we . Michael cohen, we have not. Mr. Blanche, but you know who i am, dont you . Cohen, i do. Mr. Blanche, as a matter of fact, you went on tiktok and called me a crying little this is a euphemism here poop didnt you . Cohen, thats probably something i would say. Judge merchan called lawyers to a sidebar, the official Court Transcript tells us what went down. Here is the court. Judge mershon, why are you making us about yourself mark easter blanche, im not making this about myself your honor, i have a right to show this witnesss bias, and he has expressed bias about the lawyers, just on who he represents. The court, it doesnt matter if he has bias towards you, it doesnt matter. The issue is whether he has bias toward the defendant. Dont make it about yourself. Im going to sustain the objection and instruct the jury, please dont make it about yourself through the crossexamination did not get much better from there. During roughly two hours of questioning, Trump Attorney todd blanche painted for the jury several conflicting profiles of Michael Cohen, and why he was testifying against donald trump. There was Michael Cohen, the unreliable narrator, who would lie about anything. Then there was Michael Cohen the jolted surrogate son, trying to get back at his father figure. There was also Michael Cohen the disparate prisoner, who would say anything to get out of jail, and then there was Michael Cohen, the greedy self promoter, trying to cash in on trying to turn on trump. What we did not get from the defense however, was a coherent narrative that explained why the jury should believe that donald trump is not guilty. I was stunned by the lack of effort put towards actually dismantling a legal argument about potential felonies. Yeah, and it did move around a tremendous amount. It had conflicting theories, which, if you are trying to rough him up okay fine. But, there was one point where they spent all this time, i mean, a lot of time on the fact that Michael Cohen keeps talking about the case, even though everyone involved in the case, the Prosecutors Office is like for the love of god, Michael Cohen, stfu. Right. They were trying to say look , this guy was not listening, he goes rogue and does his own thing. I guess. [ laughter ] doesnt work for the das office. Its not the relationship with the das office that you have with donald trump paying off a pornstar just because he is a rogue operator. Exactly. May build something, but this is a guy who does his own thing, and you cannot tell him what to do. It never went anywhere. Theres a lot of increase that felt like it started but never culminated. That was my feeling just sitting watching in real time, where i would even be they would get me, the rhythm where you are asking questions, and cohen is saying yes, boomboom, like okay. We are going places. Then it is like it would sputter out, and they would move to another topic. There were moments where he felt squarely. There was never any really satisfying narrative catharsis, in which i felt like hes caught in a lie, or he is oh, well, i hadnt thought of it that way. There was no lightbulb. Two of the people on the set i am sure have a lot of thoughts about the defense. Msnbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber, and katie feng of the katie feng show. From a legal perspective, guys, at some. Does the defense not need to address this idea that yes there was records manipulation, and the Step Up Charge to get this to a felony, campaignfinance violation of some sort. That was never, in the actual criminal charges at the heart of this. We are not seeing that addressed by the defense team during this crossexamination. Cohen is the witness, who they can go out on that. I think they are doing cross on him, and when its their turn they decide whether they will put up their case or not. It can say the prosecutors can prove it. Today, it was about showing the jury what they think are the worst of Michael Cohen. I dont think they had him knock out, i dont think they had a knockout blow, but i think they got a few more blows and jabs in there than against daniels, or pecker. If you compare it to how this trial has been going, and i was in there this afternoon, so i was watching the jury, it looked like a tennis match, between cohen and blanche. Its true, there was never a knockout. But what i kind of observed, it is if you are looking at jurors who were riveted, and then you see, blanche says but you wrote in your book you are obsessed with trump. He says oh, maybe i said that. And then he says oh, you are monetizing this . Youve lied to investigators before . It wasnt a great picture, though i dont think it dissolved everything he said. That, before i go to katie, that point is important. I think for me, and i know a lot about Michael Cohen. Its like if you tell me Michael Cohen has made millions of dollars off of an antitrump book, its like of course. He is selling antitrump merch. Thats making sense. To the jury, it may be like oh, hes grinding an ax. Birds of a feather, right . Thats very much the theme over the past two days. Giraffes mary giraffes, theres a reason why donald trump used Michael Cohen. Are you baffled by that one . Just processing it. But, theres a reason why donald trump loved using Michael Cohen. Because he was effective for what Michael Cohen needed to do for donald trump, and thats the reason why he jettisoned him when he went to the white house, because he no longer could use Michael Cohen in the capacity. But, when it comes to Cross Examination, its not direct. You wont necessarily have a throughline, nor are you necessarily going to have a Chronology Being followed, per se. You will want to hit specific areas, but what was so odd about blanche today is you got so disjointed following it that you didnt understand that the zingers were hitting, to aris point. We talked about the low information juror, you dont have the breadth of information as we do as we live in this space you are taking it in but not understanding the importance of it but, simultaneously, because the trump has a larger than life presence, trump is the ultimate selling merch grifter. So, its not like youre appalled when you hear somebody has successfully taken that model and is taking money. Are you supposed to begrudge Michael Cohen, because hes been disbarred, because he went to prison, that hes making money off of it . They are all doing it. Youre never going to get a clean person at this. Everybody has dirty hands. To that point, ari, they built scaffolding around Michael Cohen before they brought him out. We began with david pecker, Stormy Daniels, witnesses corroborating the fact that Michael Cohen he is the last witness we are told, from the prosecution. I think that is smart and made sense, but my observation is also, today is a reminder of why they saved him for last. Yeah. They had a sense as the questions gestured towards how unreliable he is. He was basically defying their requests. That doesnt mean he is lying, but it certainly leaves the jury saying, well, even now at the trial in the last few weeks the questions suggest he wouldnt follow the rules. And, again im not saying it breaks the case but, if one or more jurors think i have reasonable doubt as to this guy who doesnt have enough respect for the system and the rules, maybe hes playing with the timeline. Maybe he is playing with his accounting of trumps intent, because again, the records case has been established. It is what we call documented, signed checks by donald trump. But, the intent has to be that trump had the Criminal Intent to do it then, not as Reimbursement Afterword or some later date, and cohen is key to that. If you want your jury to believe beyond reasonable doubt that trump did it for the campaign, and that trump had that requisite Criminal Intent, which trump didnt write down, you need cohen or someone else to get you there. How meaningful is it Allen Weisselberg wont testify in this . Trump is the only the person of that potential and hes not going to take the stand, so the evidence stands. To aris point what the jury did today, though, if Michael Cohen gets a Search Warrant executed on his home, and stuff gets taken from his home and law firm, right . Why are you scrambling if you are trump to make sure that Michael Cohen, its okay, im going to take care of you, and then you look at costello, sleep well tonight, because you have friends in high places, why are you trying so hard to protect Michael Cohen, unless he is a critical part of a conspiracy, or something youve done wrong, you want to keep him quiet and keep him close, because you want to know if hes going to flip, and the jury heard that. One thing that also, to your point about the Criminal Intent, which is that this underlying crime is this intent to commit essentially an election crime there have been a few moments from this trial where, the presence of that is in the ether as people are discussing it. David pecker, i thought that testimony said it for all lawyer waiving the off of this deal precisely because we thought we were going to follow. Testimony from cohen communicating, i believe communicating with trump about what he was telling the fec, like we have this complaint donald trump had nothing to do with it, right . Then trump says, thats good. Exactly, he says thats good. Again, that is Michael Cohens testimony. You have to believe cohen is telling the truth and not just doing it, because , but again, there is this consciousness of guilt sort of that lit up. I think theyve done a good job showing the consciousness across the other witnesses. Anything they have, a document and two witnesses on, is pretty sturdy. Yeah. And you imagine, we dont always know, but where one juror says yeah, i dont know if i believe cohen, and theyve been following this, but remember that pecker said that, and later they will request the transcript. So again, it goes back to today and thursday, and they said we have no witnesses left, so we are in it. Does it add enough questions that one or mergers has that doubt that they cant get over a reasonable doubt as to this because of an element of the crime, like a checklist, you know . The intent that relies on him. That relies on his account. They asked questions where they said, you have such a good memory about what allegedly happened, but now you cant remember what happened last year. Thats pretty standard. But, again i am yawning. Like thats i think you were yawning to that question that weve heard before. We will regroup at tables like this pretty soon. And, if we have a hung jury, this is probably, i dont think its because they borderline harassed Stormy Daniels on the stand, i dont think its because david pecker says he still likes trump because of Michael Cohen. Okay. We will try and travel into the future. Katie and ari, thank you. 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Austedo xr the line to get into the courtroom today started forming last night. People camped out with Sleeping Bags and pillows. One woman told the New York Times she paid 750 for someone to hold a space in line for her. Another man reportedly sold his spot in line for 2000. But, as much as it seats inside the courtroom or the hottest ticket in town, The Real Circus Today was outside the courtroom , where first republican Speaker Of The House, mike johnson, and a gaggle of trump s Vice President ial hopefuls all held press conferences, defending trump, attacking the trial, and counterprogramming what was going on inside that courtroom. Michelle goldberg opinion columnist and New York Times, and andrew rice, with new york magazine, michelle, and andrew, thank you for joining us as we dissect what happens. Your thoughts on the group text as they coordinated their outfits . [ laughter ] they must have been disappointed that trump had a yellow tie. They got the wrong message. I mean, the thing i was glad that they were all in the courtroom today, i mean, i wonder if at any point they had a flicker of recognition that this was a trial, a day in the trial, that was all about what excessive loyalty donald trump gets you. A sense of irony . I dont know if some of them are capable of it, but there was a point at the very end of his testimony, when Michael Cohen talked about his regrets, and how he had, out of loyalty to donald trump he had betrayed his own moral compass, and at great cost to himself and his family, and i wonder if there was even a flicker and Mike Johnsons mind about what he was doing at that very moment. I dont know. I dont know if anybody knows the answer, including mike johnson. Andrew, i was struck by the fact , that these individuals showed up today, because in trumps mind, this is all politics. This is auditioning, this is about how he can milk this for damping contributions. This is what it does for his standing, and you write, before coming into court, in the morning, yesterday, trump waived the times story with this poll showing him being ahead, saying it shows us leading everywhere by a lot. Let the star witness testified, trump seemed to be testifying, that hes winning. I doubt it. The, i think the interesting thing thats going on in the courtroom, as you see these people, as you say, coming in to pay homage to trump sitting quietly and listening to this incredible damning testimony and drawing conclusions that are may be different from of the jury is drawing. But, the most interesting thing about mike johnson, you know, he didnt even come into the courtroom. He was in there for minute and came out and decried the witchhunt that was