This our, Princeton University professor eddie glaude talks to me about President Bidens graduation speech at morehouse. The interview in just a few moments. A very good day to all of you from msnbc World Headquarters in new york. Welcome everyone to politico reports. First two political headlines. Here is what is happening right now. President biden arrived in atlanta a short time ago. He will attend Campaign Events later today and is expected to deliver the Commencement Speech at Morehouse College tomorrow. Earlier today, The White House released photos of a friday meeting with members of the divine nine historically africanamerican sororities and fraternities. Biden also spoke at the National Museum of African American history and culture. Together, the naacp and this museum are monuments to the power of black history to black history is American History. It is american. It is a really important thing to continue. We have a whole group of people out there trying to rewrite history, trying to erase history. Donald trump will be in texas today as he campaigns before his criminal trial resumed on monday. He will address the Nra Convention in dallas. Last night at an event in minnesota, he falsely declared he won that state in 2020, despite democratic president ial candidates carrying that state for more than 40 years. We are going to win the state. 1952. Can you imagine . I thought we won it in 2016, i know we won it in 2020. We have to be careful. We have to watch those votes. We dont need the votes, we have to watch the votes. That is the big danger. Stop the steal. Also new today, texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett speaking out after a chaotic clash with georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene over a series of personal attacks during a House Oversight committee hearing. They decided they would skip work and go to new york to be involved in trumps trial. So then we get back at 8 00 p. M. And instead of focusing on the task at hand, which was whether or not ag Merrick Garland was going to be held in contempt of congress, Marjorie Taylor greene started talking about judge juan merchan, which is why i asked her do you know why we are here . And, ultimately, it devolved into the debacle that it did. New calls for Supreme CourtJustice Samuel alito to recuse himself from cases related to donald trump and january 6th. This comes after samuel alito denied involvement in the flaying of an Upside Down Flag in his yard in January Of 2017 as reported by the New York Times. He should recuse himself from any january 6th related case, from any case relating to President Trumps because he is associated with the stop the steal movement, whether he wants to be or not. We have a number of reporters and analysts ready to talk about all of these new developments and we will begin with nbcs Aaron Gilchrist joining us in atlanta. Welcome. The last we heard about trump and biden was the back and forth regarding the debates. Where does that stand now . Reporter the Biden Campaign, alex, has said the debate over debate is over. We know that this week the Biden Campaign announced that they were willing to participate in two debates with former President Trump. They went to the networks that eventually won the debates, cnn and abc with a set of rules, a set of guidelines they wanted to be followed in order for them to agree to take the debates. Those were agreed to and we later heard the Trump Campaign agreed President Trumps would participate in those debates on cnn and abc news. The first one happening here in atlanta in june at cnn. Later, though, the trump Campaign Announced it would also agree to bates or had agreed to debates at other points in time on fox news. The Biden Campaign said that, it talked about to the extent it was going to the debate it will participate in and that is it. The debate over debate is over. Of course, we know both men are campaigning today. President biden is here in atlanta. He landed a little while ago. Former President Trump will be making his way to dallas, texas tonight to participate in the National Rifle association convention. He was in minnesota for the Lincoln Reagan dinner, a gop fundraising dinner, where he spoke for roughly an hour or so and talked about things referred the former president address before. This was frankly a profanity laced speech he gave. He did indicate that he had some expectation that minnesota was in play. That is something we have heard from his campaign, that there is a possibility they believed they could win the state of minnesota. Now, he lost in 2020, that state, and he lost in 2016 as well. As a matter of fact, every republican president ial candidate since 1972 has lost the state of minnesota. So, that is something that was sort of put out there by his campaign, the Biden Campaign tried to strike that down. I want to hear some of what the former president had to say from the podium as it relates to debating President Biden. I just want to debate this guy. But, you know, im going to demand a drug test by the way. I am, i really am. My predecessor and his extreme friends are going after diversity, equity, and inclusion all across america. They want a country for some, not for all. Reporter that was President Biden at the National Museum of African Americans history and culture, speaking on the 70th Anniversary of the brown versus board of education Supreme Court decision that ended segregation in schools. The president here in atlanta primarily for the Commencement Speech that he will give at Morehouse College tomorrow. We should note that as he landed here, he was met by a group of Morehouse College alums, who had, led by senator Raphael Warnock as well as several other leaders from this area. He will address the graduates here, some 400 blackman tomorrow morning in a speech we are told by The White House official there that will be focused on a message to the graduates, not so much on the Broader Community and what we might want to hear from the president. Of course, there is that concern that there might be some protests here and The White House has said they are prepared for the university doesnt expect a large commiseration during the ceremony. Meantime, i thank you. Lets go to dramatic moments in Donald TrumpsHush Money Trail as his former fixer Michael Cohen prepares to return to the Witness Stand one day. Judge juan merchan told with signs they should be ready to present Closing Arguments tuesday if no Defense Witnesses are called. It is unclear whether trump will testify. Michael quinns 14 hours on the stand heated up thursday in a tent and theatrical showdown when trumps attorney todd blanche try to get Michael Cohen to admit to telling lies. Joining me now in the studio, hugo lowell, political investigations reporter with the guardian, covering this from the courtroom from the very beginning. Also with me, voicemail, former federal prosecutor, Law Professor at the University Of Alabama and cohost of the sisters in law, podcast and msnbc legal analyst. Welcome both of you. Hugo, you were in court this week, would you describe the showdown, how did trump react to it . Reporter it was very tense and we finally got it after a couple of days of Michael Cohen being on the stand. Two big things came out toward the end of Michael Cohens crossexamination. One is that trumps lawyer finally attacked the court charged against trump, that the prosecution has been burning, that it is a falsification of Business Records but to Michael Cohen and said there was a legal contract, there was a Settlement Agreement by to buy the rights to Stormy Daniels story and Michael Quinn affirmed yes. There was a legal agreement, hush money is not illegal. That was very important. Number two, he really attacked Michael Cohens credibility. He basically made a case that over the years, Michael Cohen has lied and has light whenever it has suited him. Whenever he needs something, he lies. He lied allegedly before the judge who presided in his 2010 tax evasion and false statements case. Todd blanche set Michael Cohen, you said you werent being quiet and taking a guilty plea. Now you are saying that he felt assured and you only had 48 hours to plead and you wanted to protect your wife. He admitted to that on the stand. So, the portrait that is emerging is that Michael Cohen lies with abandon, lies with ease and todd blanche was saying it is all in the motivation to get whatever you want. In this case, it is to see trump in jail. Let me just say, the timing of those lies, he had not served time in jail with those lies that he previously presented. Is that at all something that has made its way diffuse through the courtroom and that is the money . No, and it is because it got lost in the theatrics. Todd blanche, at some point, at one point accused Michael Cohen of directly lying. He wagged his anger and said cant admit that polite and Michael Cohen stuck to his story and said no, im not playing and this is the truth. Joyce, you wrote that todd blanche created confusion by skipping around the timeline of the events and that added to the chaos because it is creating doubt. Todd blanche struggled to land a real gotcha moment during crossexamination tuesday. How much of his yelling thursday might have been a performance for an audience of one . Todd blanche is a lawyers lawyer, a former federal prosecutor. He understands that his reputation hinges on a credible performance here. And, he has been widely panned, alex, by people who say he hasnt landed significant punches. Hugo is making this really interesting point about the evidence and how things look. The reality is the lawyers dont get to argue the evidence to the jury while they are examining or crossexamining witnesses. That will all happen in closing statements. That is when we really really find if any of these things that Todd Blanche Has tried, from creating this appearance of chaos, hoping that one or more jurors will be confused and perhaps refuse to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, to the specific instances where he has questioned credibility of Michael Cohen and other pieces of the governments case. We will find out when we hear the Closing Argument whether any of that is going to have the potential to lead with one or more jurors. My director is going to put up this document, we want to look at it. It is people exhibit 35. It was presented monday and appears to show the trump organizations plan to reimburse Michael Cohen for the 130,000. 00 payment to Stormy Daniels. How critical was this and the other documents presented to the jury during the trial . This is the key document. On this document, you seem the handwriting of the chief Financial Officer where it says we are doubling the payment back to Michael Cohen for tax purposes. The problem that Todd Blanche Has, despite trying to get Michael Cohen to say yes, this was all legal and legal work, the First Republic bank statement, which is what that document is, it lays out the entire repayment scheme and it lays out how Allen Weisselburg wrote about. For the jury to believe that Allen Weisselburg and Michael Cohen conducted essentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in repayment and for trump to not know about it seemed ludicrous. At the end of the day, if you apply common sense and look at this statement, you have multiple witnesses corroborating this is emil boves handwriting, everyone knew this was how the repayment would go, we will come up with a cover story this is Legal Expenses. That is the problem trumps defense team faces. Joyce, overall, give us Michael Cohens evidence, has he established a nexus between trump and the alleged Criminal Activity . If the jury accepts Michael Cohens testimony, he absolutely has. He puts trump in the center of things and he makes it clear that he never did anything without calling the boss for approval. That is by there are these repeated phone calls. This is why it was so important for prosecutors to, in essence, corroborate Michael Cohen before he ever took the Witness Stand. They used witnesses from early on in the trial who would say the same things that Michael Cohen would say but none of them go as far as he does in eliciting these conversations that are directly with donald trump. Thats the Leap Of Faith the prosecutors will ask the jurors to take to rely on Michael Cohens testimony. Well, and then there is Michael Cohens surreptitious recording of donald trump. What kind of a will is not expected to play . That was, it kind of came up on the sidelines. This was Michael Cohen recording trump saying yes, we are going to move forward with the repayment. He says he made that recording in order to reassure david pecker the reimbursement to him was coming. It is not directly on the Stormy Daniels payment but i think it kind of shows in a circumstantial way that trump was being kept apprised of all of the developments. Why would he know about that and not Stormy Daniels . You know about david pecker being reimbursed and you dont know Michael Cohen is going to pay back this money and Legal Expense is . It doesnt track. Joyce, feel free to state the obvious here but what are the challenges for trump if he insists on testifying . Right, there are so many of them, alex. For one thing, the first one will be for him to stick to the truth. That has always been a big challenge for him under oath. He could object himself to perjury or push the jury Over The Edge to convicting him. But, also, there is this entire demeanor issue. This is a judge who has shown ability to have great control of his courtroom. If trump makes the bombastic statement hes prone to understand, this is a judge who will shut him down. Nothing good happens for this defendant if he takes the Witness Stand. Ultimately, it is the clients call. If his lawyers are unable to persuade him to stay off, he can testify. But, we dont really see any great love on trumps part for the idea of getting on the Witness Stand, subjecting himself to crossexamination. The judge has already said prosecutors are entitled to a lot o