Donald Trump, after day three wraps in his first ever
criminal trial of a former president.
Various colleges all over the country and beyond colleges because
it's happening in other areas too.
You see what's happening on
the front having to do with Palestine and Israel and
protests and hate anger. Biden is sending an absolutely horrible
message.
Horrible, horrible message. He has no idea how to message.
He can't speak. He can't put two sentences together.
He doesn't know what to do.
This is not our president.
This is somebody that shouldn't be doing what he's doing
because he can't do it.
He can't do it. Well,
we're having protests all over.
He was talking about Charlottesville.
Charlottesville was a little peanut
and it was nothing compared.
And the hate wasn't the kind of hate that you
have here.
This is tremendous hater. We have a man that can't
talk about it because he doesn't understand it.
He doesn't understand what's going on with our country.
He doesn't understand that all over the world were being
laughed at as a country because of him
and his administration. And today we had,
I hear, because I was forced to be here,
and I'm glad I was because it was a very
interesting day in a certain way.
But the US Supreme Court had a
monumental hearing on immunity and the immunity having to do
with the
presidential immunity. And I think it was made clear,
I hope it was made clear,
that a president has to have immunity.
You don't have a president,
or at most you can say it would be a
ceremonial president.
That's not what the founders had in mind,
and they're not talking about ceremonial.
We want presidents that can get things done and bring
people together.
So I heard the meeting was
quite amazing, quite amazing. And the justices were on their
game.
So let's see how that all turns out.
But again, I say presidential immunity,
very powerful. Presidential immunity is imperative
or you practically won't have a country anymore.
Thank you very much. Thank you Yesterday.
Will immunity affect this
case?
All right, Day three wrapping,
as you see in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial
there,
the first ever criminal trial of a former president of
the United States.
You know he's he's the the man right now
that is leading in swing state polls.
He's tied with Biden nationally,
but using this this forum this time to take to
the mics.
It's really his campaign time coming out of the courtroom
and then using this opportunity
to to say whatever he wants.
Despite 11 violations of a gag order that
Judge Marshawn has
has mentioned already and still considering
that's a total side issue.
What at hand What's at hand now is,
is how testimony went today,
who we heard from. How far does it push things
down the road. Now as as only,
we've only heard from one
witness, David Pecker, the former publisher of of the National
Enquirer part of that scheme to buy and bury stories
about the former president before the 2016 election.
Our whole team has been covering this.
Olivia Rubin has been outside the courthouse.
Our political director Rick Klein is with me.
Also our executive producer, John Santucci,
our legal contributor Brian Buchmeyer and also our senior reporter
at Catherine Folders.
So guys, let's just, I'll take it just around the
room here.
Olivia, let's start with you.
As day three wraps up,
give us the highlights from inside the court.
Well, we flipped over from the direct examination of David
Pecker and finally saw Donald Trump's attorney Amel Boeb start
to cross examine him.
And we saw a little bit for the first time
of what their strategy is And what they tried to
do with David Pecker on the stand this afternoon was
basically distance their relationship of sharing information about stories from
the election.
Because, remember, prosecutors say that this was an election effort
to bury stories for the election.
But his attorney said, hey,
this is something that they had been doing for decades.
They took it all the way back to the
1990s when David Pecker alerted Donald Trump to a negative
story about Marla Maples.
And they also tried to paint it as what Emile
Boeuf said was standard operating procedure,
that this was something politicians and media outlets did all
the time,
that there was nothing wrong with it,
and that they went through other instances.
David Pecker spoke about paying
$20,000 to bury another story from another politician.
So Donald Trump's attorney getting their shot today.
Donald Trump seemed quite enthralled with the cross examination and
he seemed to be watching how his attorney was doing.
He was paying very close attention as he was trying
to sort of pick apart parts of David Pecker's story.
So a good end to the day for him and
also would say outside
not a bad end to the day for him.
He has been calling for some supporters and finally outside
today here we are hearing some Trump
2024 chance for him. So Rick Klein,
regardless of the legal outcome here,
just what we've heard in court so far,
and paying attention to the former president's highly questionable approach
to ethics,
the end of the day,
does it matter?
The Trump defense, to me,
boils down to a very simple sentiment,
which is this is politics as usual,
What was going on with his relationship with the National
Enquirer and through Michael Cohen and the payments to
the hush money. All of this is just something that
happens.
It happens in business and to his saying there's nothing
wrong his lawyers are saying with with it happening in
politics
now the the problem is as a matter of law
is that there might be other other people to say
something about that and the jury will have their say.
But essentially Trump's Trump is saying look what what I
did was exactly what people have done for a long
time and that it was just a continuation of the
practices that I'd engaged in for a long time.
To me, it's one of the things that's problematic about
this as a political matter,
as being the 1st and maybe only case to to
reach trial before the election
is that it does have
a lot of elements to it that that might seem
really unseemly
and deeply immoral and deeply wrong,
but maybe not all that illegal.
And that's going to be something the jury's going to
have to decide.
But that's the way the Trump defense has been,
has been set up, is,
you know, not nothing to see here.
But that what what was going on here was very
typical activities that anyone can and should do,
whether they're a private citizen or even a candidate for
president.
So John Santucci, if the content of the trial won't
lose in the election,
will the days of, you know,
being invisible and being stuck inside that courtroom
help him? Well, it's not going to,
you know, listen, I think the jury's still out on
that part of things.
It's going to make it difficult for him.
I think that look at the remarks he made outside
of court today.
You know, he reacted a little bit
to the testimony saying that it he believed it was
a good day for him.
The testimony then quickly pivoted to the Supreme Court,
then the economy, then the protest happening at universities around
the country right now.
I mean, this is sort of becoming the only outlet
Donald Trump has
were the moment in time because he's pretty stuck.
He can't go anywhere else.
You know, his schedule is not at his control for
the moment.
So even, you know, days like tomorrow,
for example, where you know,
he'd like to get out there and start campaigning over
the weekend to get things early given it's a Friday,
he can't, he has to be in court tomorrow for
another full day and that will be much of the
way.
His week is next week.
And I also think the other part of the thing
that's going to be complicated for him,
Kira, as we've now seen is that prosecutors are watching
even more closely his social media,
the comments he's making to this camera outside of court
that we're showing our viewers right now,
but also to other cameras.
And we've seen the way prosecutors have now expanded,
adding four more violations in their opinion of the gag
war and one of them with our our station WPVI
in Philadelphia leading up to the Pennsylvania primary earlier this
week. So he's really in a situation where the thing
that's helped him on the campaign trail,
given talking about these cases could hurt him in the
courtroom.
What about Catherine, the fact that he keeps saying I'm
a victim,
I'm a victim, I'm a victim.
And playing this part of I'm a victim,
does that improve his chances in November?
Sticking to that line, Kira,
it's a good question. And it's something that we've heard
Donald Trump refer to himself As for quite some time,
going back to investigations that he was under by special
counsels when he was president of the United States.
Look, I think it's certainly resonates with his supporters.
On the one hand, because he's saying I'm a victim,
I have to be sitting here in court.
I can't get out and campaign.
And look, it's true that he's sitting in the courtroom
and he can't be on the campaign trail when he's
required to be there in the courtroom.
But if you take a step back and think about
the victim nature of it,
the reality of it is that he is facing
multiple criminal indictments in multiple different jurisdictions.
He has to be there.
He's claimed that a lot of these prosecutions are selective
and vindictive,
if you will. Of course,
special counsel and investigators have said the opposite.
So, look, I think ultimately he's trying to get that
message to his supporters.
He believes that his legal troubles will ultimately improve and
help his political chances come November.
But again, we'll just have to see as this trial
goes on what kind of effect it has
on his supporters and what he's saying and also on
his fundraising efforts.
All right. Olivia, Rick, John,
Catherine. Thank you.