Well, it is a busy Newsday today and moments ago
we saw the former President Donald Trump walking back into
his New York criminal trial
and they are resuming at this time after a very
short break.
And you know, it's the former lawyer now
who'll get a cross examination by defense attorneys.
That lawyer represents the former sex film worker Stormy Daniels,
and that former lawyer is going to take the stand
for cross examination,
as I mentioned by the defense and earlier today,
both sides, the defense and the prosecution were arguing if
Trump committed more gag order violations.
Prosecution says there were four additional ones.
They're not asking for jail time this time.
Well, how generous are they?
Because that would be just a gift to a Republican
candidate running for the White House,
Donald Trump, right? Because it would put him right in
a spot where the optics of that would be horrible
if it ever happened.
So we are all over it.
Stem to stern, we're getting moment by moment updates that
we will share with you in real time from our
producers and journalists who are inside the courtroom.
First though, let's get new reaction from President Biden on
the violent anti Israel protests,
the Jewish hate that is sweeping across college campuses in
America.
He says dissent is a key part of our American
democracy.
However, that dissent should never lead to disorder that we've
been seeing.
We've all seen the images
and they put to the test 2 fundamental American principles.
Excuse me.
The 1st is the right to free speech
and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices
heard.
The 2nd is the rule of law.
Both must be upheld. So let me be clear,
peaceful protest in America, violent protest is not protected.
Peaceful protest is it's against the law when violence occurs.
Destroying property is not a peaceful protest.
It's against the law. Vandalism,
Trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses,
forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations.
None of this is a peaceful protest.
Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not
peaceful protest.
It's against the law. There should be no place on
any campus,
no place in America for anti-Semitism
or threats of violence against Jewish students.
There is no place for hate speech
or violence of any kind,
whether it's anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or
Palestinian Americans.
It's simply wrong. There's no place for racism in America.
It's all wrong. It's not American.
I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions
in America. We respect the right and protect the right
for them to express that.
But it doesn't mean anything goes.
It needs to be done without violence,
without destruction, without hate and within the law.
We wanted to give you those hour ago comments that
we took live during the Faulkner focus so that we
can really get into what was there and what might
be missing. This is outnumbered.
I'm Harris Faulkner here with my Co host Kayleigh Mcenany
and Emily Campano also joining us today.
Fox News contributor and former State Department spokesperson Marie Harf,
Fox Business anchor David Asman.
David, I'm going to start with you about what we
heard and what you feel may be missing.
By the way, he didn't take any questions.
He spun on his heels and walked right out the
door.
That's what I was going to say was missing some
some sort of some sort of dialogue between the president.
This is one of those moments.
I think you'll agree, Kaylee,
when it it's really important for the president to play
the role that you play,
to have a dialogue with the press who were there
to ask the questions that Americans have.
I had no problem with what he said.
I thought what he said was well phrased.
I thought he delivered it in a in a straight
fashion.
But why was it so late?
I mean I this is something that's been going on.
How much of what we've seen over the past
48, if not 48 hours,
if not the past week could have been
prevented had he said that earlier?
But again, I mean I don't want to bury a
a good statement,
which is what that was.
It was read, though and there wasn't that dialogue.
That's that's what I think was missing.
Well, and I'm glad we started off with,
you know, mostly his full comments.
Yeah, because I think it's it's important for everybody to
kind of keep seeing it and digesting that because we
may not get another nugget for 9 days.
We don't know Emily, right?
I I think it was a little too little,
too late. However, I appreciated that he acknowledged that even
vandalism,
even property destruction, even threats,
that all of those things are not only criminal,
but that they are not peaceful protests.
And I really appreciated that,
he delineated. For everyone who has been saying this entire
time,
oh, they're peaceful. No they are not.
They are anything but that.
If you sit there cross legged in the middle of
grass and yet you are holding a sign that is
calling for the extermination of the Jewish people in some
veiled way, yes, that is violent.
So I appreciated that. And I also just have to
point out
the drama and the joke that is these outside agitators
that are coming in and then requesting a laundry list
of items that isn't just,
you know, food and and water like we saw the
plaintiff students at Columbia doing,
but they are asking for utility gloves and zip ties
and skateboard helmets and no bagels,
please. And no bananas. But yes,
we want this. It is.
It would be affable if again,
it wasn't violent, violent that these people are thinking that
we are going to somehow
acknowledge and therefore like provide their Santa wish list and
ignore that they are calling for for the death of
an entire group of people.
I mean it's it's a joke to me and I
hope these,
I hope these campuses come out and acknowledge that part
of it too.
So I just want to follow up quickly with you,
Emily, because you make such a good point.
I mean, in some instances,
they're calling for the death of Jews
on their campuses and widely,
but they're not calling for the life of Palestinians,
which is what I thought all of this was about
are are they taking the food that they accumulate
to Rafa? Because I I want to know these are
some of the most privileged people on the planet
and and if they're not paying for it,
Biden's going to pay for it through student loans.
So I'm really curious to know which means we're paying
for it.
Yeah. Which means we're paying for it.
I mean, you bring up the death.
I want to talk about the life.
None of it really has anything to do with what
they're doing.
That's helpful to anybody, Marie.
You know, the one question I had was why the
president didn't lean in on calling on these universities,
particularly the private ones that have the policies to do
this
to, to suspend and expel,
to go through their roster and see who has a
foreign visa to be here and to put them on
a list for deportation for actions that violate policy,
that violate laws. Well, clearly they're violating laws because they're
getting arrested.
Harris, I thought, what was interesting,
he didn't take questions. You're right.
But he did get 2 shouted questions that he answered
at the end.
And I want to mention those because I think they're
very interesting.
One is they asked if he would change his policy
towards Israel because of the protest and he said no.
You know, Biden is getting a lot of pressure from
parts of his political constituency over this issue.
He is squarely stood by Israel.
He keeps getting more and more aid to them.
He's standing up for them in the international community.
And that was an interesting answer to me that he
said no,
you know, he believes this deeply.
He is a a Democrat of a of a generation
and a certain political bent that really believes this Harris.
And the second question was about whether the National Guard
should go.
And he also said no.
So I think that he struck a really good tone
in this statement,
delineating as as Emily said,
between the different kinds of protests.
I think, you know, it's also up to each university
and each city and each state to figure out how
to deal with this themselves.
I think Biden being too forceful on that is maybe
when when each of them are trying to navigate this
in different ways is maybe not the most helpful thing
to do. I think what he did say was helpful
though.
I want to get to this Kaylee before I come
to you.
Earlier today before the president spoke,
former President Trump had words about the anti Israel protesting
unfolding.
I will comment just quickly on the colleges and universities.
It's a shame. I'm so proud of
the New York's finest. They're great.
They're great people too. I know so many of them.
They're incredible. They did a job at Columbia
and likewise in Los Angeles.
They did a really good job at UCLA.
It was very much embedded.
And just so you understand,
this is the radical left.
This is a movement from the left,
not from the right. The right is not your problem,
despite what, like law enforcement likes to say.
The FBI director said that he worries about the right.
Now. Don't worry about the right.
The right's fine. Worry about the left,
because this is a movement from the left.
These are radical left lunatics.
And they got to be stopped now because it's going
to go on and on and it's going to get
worse and worse.
And, you know, they take over countries,
OK? And we're not letting them take over the USA.
We're not letting the radical left
morons take over this country.
You can't let that happen.
So it's a political issue in the presidential campaigns now?
Yeah. Bingo. OK, stop talking to me about the right
and anti-Semitism.
This is a problem of the left.
Joe Biden hails from the left.
He is a Democrat president.
I'm sorry, but I give him no credit today.
Zero credit today. I like to give Biden credit when
credit's due,
not today. April 22nd is the last time you spoke
about this.
Well, why did you speak today is the question.
Here's what I postulate. Axios put out a piece yesterday.
MMM. Democrats are petrified about this issue,
They asked a Democrat lawmaker,
Are you worried about this issue?
How could we not be right?
Does it give you political heartburn?
How could you not be right?
So Biden speaks today because politically,
the moment demanded it. But what did he have time
to do over the last nine days?
Take issue with the effort of Florida to protect unborn
babies.
He went to the White House Correspondents Dinner.
He did a campaign event in DC.
He did a campaign event in Delaware.
He found time for all that.
He even went on Howard Stern.
He found all the time in the world for that,
but he couldn't speak out about this.
You don't get credit for that.
And then about a minute into his speech,
which, by the way, only lasted about a minute or
two.
So yeah, clearly not prioritizing this about a minute or
two to speak.
He says this is not a moment for politics.
It's a moment for moral clarity.
Oh, wow. If it's not a moment for politics,
then why have you treated it so politically?
Here's the sad part. The press will let him get
away with this.
If Donald Trump had delivered those exact same remarks in
the exact same timeline,
the White House press briefing room would be at a
fever pitch.
I would be yelled at.
He would be yelled at.
We would be asked do you denounce the support from
any anti-Semitic protester?
And unless we denounced every young person in the country,
that wouldn't be enough. And then we would be asked
will you pull their student loans?
If we didn't answer, there would be a ferocious roar
from the White House press corps.
As Donald Trump said, Joe Biden is the moral authority
for this country.
Has he acted like it?
No, he's LED from behind.
The former president has been the moral authority on this
issue,
not the current one. Can I just add one quick
thing,
which is that the old phrase actions speak louder than
words.
We heard good words. I thought they were good words
from the president.
But where are the actions yesterday?
We We heard not only good words from the mayor
of New York,
but he had action the night before.
So he delivered something in addition to his comments,
very different presentations of one of the that side of
the story.
So what people would ask then,
what would the equivalent be to what Eric Adams did
and what the president could have done?
This FBI has said, and that's what you and the
former president were pointing to,
that, you know, hate crimes,
particularly among white supremacists, were the thing that they were
really focusing on,
right? They hate Jews too so they say.
I mean that's what the signage is where's the FBI.
I thought they were going to defend against
anti-Semitism only when it's Congress should bring the FBI.
I mean, so the president could have called for that
too.
And on a re ask
maybe he would have gotten that question.
But when you walk away on your heels,
bye, bye, bye. What do we call it's a game
where where in the world is Carmen San Diego.
Joseph. Robinette. Biden.