outside the courthouse but, yesterday, the biden campaign held the surprise event there. i don t understand that. we will tell you who was there and dig into that campaign strategy. also ahead, the latest from gaza where israeli forces are moving into the city of rafah. it comes days after an israeli air strike ignited a deadly fire at a camp for displaced palestinians. let s dive in to our top story. after 21 days of heated testimony, the defense and the prosecution delivered closing arguments yesterday in donald trump s criminal hush money trial. nbc news laura jarrett has a recap. the first trial of an american president soon in the hands of seven men and five women. prosecutors closing their case arguing former president trump orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election to pull the wool over voter s eyes, they say, by ordering the payoff of stormy daniels and covering it all up. they tried to establish a pattern of mr. trump damaging stories
under trump this kind of government will perish from the earth. in a surprise move the biden campaign sent a surrogate of its own to lower manhattan yesterday. two-time academy award winner robert de niro. we ll have more of the actor s warnings about the dangers of a possible second donald trump presidency. and of course we ll go through what happened inside the courtroom as well. during closing arguments in the former president s criminal hush money trial as we are now just hours away from the start of jury deliberations. plus we ll go through new reporting on the deadly israeli air strike in rafah and the biden administration s response to the tragedy. good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, may 29th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. and we have a big show this morning. and in just hours donald trump s fate will be in the hands of a juror. both the defense and prosecution delivered their closing arguments yesterday in