trump vowed to appeal and there s a possible legal strategy. what i would do is target the piewnty damage awards 65 million dollars that basically say this is excessive and unconstitutional. this is an extremely large amounts. the writers attorney arguing in the two week long trial that carroll reputation have been destroyed and carroll had been tormented with online threats and harassment. court was very tense on friday, the former president stormed out as carroll attorney gave her closing arguments urging jury to set a high amount in damages later, trump s attorney alina firing back telling the jury the former president did not intend to hurt carroll and he shouldn t be punished for what people write online also arguing it was carroll who would actually sought out the attention. now carroll won another civil lawsuit against trump last year, and that case jury ruled that trump was indeed liable for sexual abuse, and did indeed defame her and now vowing to appeal this mo
reporting from new york. josé diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i m josé diaz-balart. this morning president biden vows to retaliate after three u.s. service members were killed in a drone strike on a base in jordan. it s the first u.s. service member deaths in months of attacks by iran-backed militants. we ll ask retired four-star general what retaliation could look like. back at home, senate negotiators are inching closer to a bipartisan border security deal as president biden promises to shut down the border if it means locking in an agreement. new this morning, e. jean carroll speaking out for the first time on camera since a jury ordered donald trump to pay her more than $83 million for defamation. and breaking overseas just a short time ago, king charles and the princess of wales both released from the hospital after medical procedures. we begin this hour with president biden vowing to re
hi, everyone. it s 4:00 here in new york. for about three minutes, a former president of the united states and current front runner for the republican presidential nomination was on the stand today. in case that seeks to hold him accountable for his words. that extraordinary courthouse moment today came on day four of ft defamation trial. donald trump testified in his defense. his attorney allowed to ask him only one question. do you standby your deposition? he said, 100%. he also added that he considers carroll s allegation false. that was stricken from the record immediately. that single question by his attorney is the result of a lengthy back and forth between the judge and trump s attorneys in which the judge warned trump not to relitigate the first trial in which he was found liable for sexually abusing carroll. there are no do overs. he ruled out the kind of statements trump has made outside of court. carroll s attorneys entered into evidence some of those statements in
an autocrat facing dozens of ny charges with an ax to grind against the government he seeks to lead. that s a question that republican candidates are either unable to answer or unwilling to answer at this moment. there s now just one major challenger to ex-president trump after florida governor ron desantis dropped out and endorsed donald trump. it s hard to remember but for a time, ron desantis was seen as the much vaunted trump slayer, the one candidate who could break the hold on trump that he had on the voters in the republican party. appeal to those alienated by trump and ultimately beat joe biden. back in 2022, the new yorker asked, can ron desantis displace donald trump as the combatant in chief? the new york times asked, quote, is ron desantis the future of the republican party? but a las as it turned out, voters didn t want a trump alternative, they wanted trump. that became clear as his legal troubles mounted with every indictment the trump got stronger in the pol
ahead. possible indictment of a former president trump. wall street journal is today reporting this, that special counsel jack smith has all but finished obtaining his evidence into whether donald trump mishandled evidence at the mar-a-lago. and some of the trump close associates are bracing for his indictment. they say that clashes within the trump legal team have led to the departure of a delawyer. and the wall street journal goes on to report that jack smith appears to be tying up loose ends saying in recent weeks prosecutors working for smith have completed interviews with nearly every employee at trump s florida home from top aides to maintenance staff. they have pressed witnesses on questions that appear to hone in on specific elements that they need to show to include a crime. and questions aimed at undermining potential defenses that trump could raise reports are that the special counsel as assembled evidence and much of that appears to obliterate many ofhe argume