Perhaps you know me as, the kung fu panda. Ah, youre adorable. Huh. Oh, whah welcome back to msnbc state of the Union Special coverage. President biden gave a forceful speech and made clear that democracy is under threat. Not just abroad but right here in the u. S. In front of both chambers of congress, he reminded of the january 6th Capitol Attack in the very room, three years ago. History is watching. Just like history watched three years ago on january 6. Insurrection stormed the capitol , the threat of american democracy. Many of you were here on the darkest of days. We also, they were not patriots. They stopped to overcome the peaceful transfer of power. January 6th lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a threat to the u. S. Democracy since the civil war. They failed. America stood. America stood strong. Democracy prevailed. The Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute of politics and public service. And brendan buck is here but he is the for
now with elycia menendez in for alex. reporter: the bread and butter of conservative media for years now has been hyping up the investigation into president biden s adult son, hunter biden. it s never been seen to end. they used it to create asymmetry that didn t really exist between trump s alleged crimes and what they speculated was the crime ridden biden family, and so long as this case was open and the investigation was behind closed doors, they could really make it whatever they wanted it to be. and even though that was the case, even though republicans have been dining out on this hunter investigation for years, they also have been up in arms about how it hadn t finished yet. they were aghast that trump was indicted before hunter. they wanted hunter s case resolved immediately. well, today we have some closure in that case. today we got the news hunter biden is expected today enter a plea deal for two tax misdemeanors in that investigation. he s also expected to strik
keeps our democracy in place. and thanks to you at home for joining me this evening. in february of 2021 joe biden had been president for less than a month. the united states senate was still in the middle of impeaching the previous president for stoking insurrection. the house impeachment managers, all of them democrats, were making the case that even though trump was no longer president, he had to be impeached because otherwise future presidents would be free to commit any crime or misdemeanor as long as they did so right before leaving office. to rebut that trump s lawyers offered this counter argument. if my colleague on this side of the chamber actually think that president trump committed a criminal offense and let s understand a high crime is a felony and a misdemeanor is a misdemeanor. the words haven t changed that much over time. after he s out of office you go and arrest him. so there is no opportunity where the president of the united states can run rampant in
it is 4:00 new york. it is not every day that a former president of the united states is in a courthouse. much less as a defendant in the case that threatens to bring down the entire brand that he used to propel himself into office in the first place. today, donald trump was back in court in the $250 million civil fraud trial in new york. before walking in, trump lashed out as he so often does at the judge, the trial, at the new york attorney general who brought the lawsuit. he did not mention judge engoron s clerk, who has been a frequent target of his, he remains under a gag order that prohibits him from talking about court staff. inside the courtroom, accounting expert eli bartov took the stand and testified that in his expert opinion the attorney general s claims of a years long pattern of fraud, manipulating the values of trump s real estate assets were baseless. there is no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud, he said. dold trump was reportedly visibly pleased.
U.s. citizens when she was born in south carolina. you can call it rebirtherism. joining me now are my colleagues michael steele, simone sanders townsend, elycia menendez, all hosts of the brand spanking new msnbc show the weekend premiering this saturday. guys, i m so happy to have you here because there s so much to discuss and yet in a way so little as well. alicia, first off, the first question i pose to you is nikki haley s background has not been fully explored as fully donald trump would like it to be in the republican primary. and i wonder if you think that toxic line of attack could be a successful one? i am curious about why it is he is choosing to launch it aside from the fact it is, of course, his favorite attack.