the beat with ari melber starts now. happy friday. happy friday, nicole. hope you enjoy your weekend. it s been quite a week. welcome to the the beat. i m ari melber here on the beet both beet. up top, there are a lot more developments in the unprecedented story that broke last night. if you have been busy, you maybe didn t hear it. the new york times dropping this bombshell news that donald trump is likely to be indicted in new york. tonight trump s lawyers acknowledge a key point in that account. the d.a. has indeed invited donald trump to testify to the grand jury. this isn t hypothetical. this isn t some day. this is next week. an invite to testify next week according to trump lawyers. they are in florida over the weekend discussing strategy, taking this as a real thing. seriously, they tell nbc news they have no plans to meet with the manhattan d.a. mr. bragg. so, let s get some clarity up top. there are many stories we cover we say here is this thing and here ar
thank you so much for letting us into your homes for another week of shows. we re grateful. the beat with ari melber starts right now. hi, ari. hi, nicole. thank you. welcome to the beat. i am ari melber. right now this is a busy friday for news after a week that began with the abrupt firing of tucker carlson and the sedition case against the proud boys for january 6th reaching a jury and then just last night we reported that mike pence went under oath for the first time about the coup to the doj. each of those are distinct developments. each stem from the ongoing if tardy accountability for the insurrection. fox news reeling from a record payout for insurrection and election lies which tucker carlson doubled down on which compounded his problems and the transfer of power we should note that this week the current president formally announced he is running for re-election in a video that discusses and shows what he says are the stakes. usually when the incumbent president an
meeting of his national security team today. why the video feed of that quickly was stopped just after it began. alec murdaugh continues to maintain his innocence after a judge sends him to prison for life. what his defense team just told our craig melvin about an appeal. that brand new interview later this hour. and a renewed push to make daylight savings time permanent with support coming for both democrats and republicans. could we be springing ahead for good. around the globe with the latest developments, first let s start with the critical meeting between president biden and german chancellor olaf scholz. allie raffa is at the white house where we re expecting to see the two leaders any moment. what more can you tell us? reporter: you mentioned that this would be the third visit by chancellor scholz since he took office in 2021, but the first since the war in ukraine began over a year ago. it s also going to be the first time these two have met since we know they both
request to represent trump. that should be interesting. we have a report on how top republican ron desantis lost a free speech case. by the end of the hour, the beat will go full happy days. henry winkler, our special guest tonight on fallback friday. our top story is the escalation in the probe in georgia where rudy giuliani is being questioned. a judge is telling graham comply. ordering testimony, which the d.a. says will be crucial because of what graham knows. he will not be allowed to delay the revelation of relevant witnesses. georgia is something of an epicenter of more than one of the plots we have been covering for you that you see here. on the left you have some of the plots technically legal like filing lawsuits or the beginning of the electors scandal which turned into something that might be illegal. georgia has several of those red arrows, overthrowing votes, trying to install fraudulent electors. it s eyeing witnesses, lawyers who might not be as well-known
science guy coming up. and also making the beat debut is one of the few live witnesses from the january 6th committee hearings, an expert who stuck to the fact about donald trump s lies and found telling the truth can become something of an act in the maga universe. all of that is coming up here but our top story right now is about democracy, and i d like to clearly tell you what we re trying to do around here. so let me tell you up front right now this is a little different than our typical start to this news program the beat. right now i m going to try to walk through the broader path of how democracy is in danger even beyond how that point itself has become a kind of rhetorical refrain in washington, a refrain that is also true. so we re going to go through that right now, me and you together, and then turn to a special expert on this a little later. the mid-term elections may occur on one day in november, and we know that, of course, is election day. but these primari