It's Tuesday, the judge and Donald Trump's criminal hushman trial, instead of holding the former president in contempt for repeatedly attacking witnesses and jurors while slamming Trump's lawyers, telling them you're losing all credibility. Plus another day, another split screen, President Biden hits Trump on the trail in Florida, tying him to sweeping abortion restrictions in the state and beyond, as the White House tries to ward off a number of potential political headwinds. One of them, rising tensions on college campuses over U.S. support for Israel, as pro-Palestinian protests at major universities lead to hundreds more arrests than the new security concerns.
Right. Welcome to me to press now, I'm David Terres. On another here day in Donald Trump's hushman trial, as the former president and current presumptive Republican nominee's kind of outside the courtroom was front and center inside the courtroom. In a contentious hearing at the start of the day, Judge One Rochon clouds with Trump's attorneys in hearing on whether he violated a gag or on multiple occasions by repeatedly attacking witnesses and jurors.
In the hearing, the judge, telling Trump attorney Tom Blanch, quote, you're losing all credibility with his court. Every Blanch argued that his client was attempting to comply with the order. First of all, one of the prosecutors in the case named with the possibility that Trump could be jailed if his behavior continues, telling the judge we are not yet seeking an incarcerated penalty, but the defendant seems to be angry for that. Prosecutors take through Trump's social media posts, campaign press releases, interviews, and public comments all made since the trial began, showing how the former president has gone after two key witnesses in the case while questioning the jury's impartiality.
Shortly after the hearing, he took the social media to attack, Judge Rochon directly. Hosting Kylie conflicted the voted mildly, Judge One Rochon has taken away my constitutional right to free speech. Everybody is allowed to talk and lie about me, but I'm not allowed to defend myself and continue the rail against the gag order as he left court this afternoon. We've got a gaggler, which to me is only a constitutional amendment to talk about me.
So they can talk about me and they can say whatever they want, they can lie. But I'm not allowed to say anything. I just have to sit back and look at my conflicted judges. I don't think anybody's interested in this.
I love the talking people. I love to say everything. It's not a lie. But I'm restricted because I have a gaggler.
We're not waiting on a ruling from the judge on what penalties the former president will face. Following that hearing, former National Enquirer, David Pecker, took the stand for a second day. Pecker, a close friend of Mr. Trump, testified about so-called cash and kill efforts to keep scandalous stories about Mr.
Trump out of the news, while publishing salacious stories about Trump's political rivals in 2016, like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And for more now, I'm joined by the news correspondent, Dasha Burns. She's following the action inside court. And also with me is NBC News legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Danny Zafala, and Catherine Christian, former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, and also NBC News analyst, I want to start with you.
Today's gag order hearing didn't go particularly well for Trump's legal team, so walk us through what happened and did the judge indicate when he made you a ruling. Well, I'm not going to show a ruling really anytime. He did ask both parties to send any additional materials today or tomorrow. And this is something that we are all leading on, because in the meantime, the former president can and already has according to prosecutors, again violated that gag order.
And if there isn't a response from the judge, it's going to really continue to be disruptive to the proceedings here. It was really contentious back and forth between John and Trump attorney, Todd Blanche, who gave that kind of explosive quote. They're saying that he's losing credibility with the court. But basically, in that exchange, it was that the judge kept asking Blanche.
Can you give examples of what you're talking about when you say that former president Trump is just responding to attacks? What are the attacks that he's responding to? And Blanche couldn't really give an answer. But the overall argument from Trump's defense is, look, people are coming after him.
He is running for president right now and he deserves to be able to defend himself. But the way that they argue that the court didn't seem to go over too well. What did David Pecker say? He was a pre compelling first witness now.
Yeah, in some ways, perhaps the star went even more so than Michael Cohen. He was the guy in the room. He was friends with former president Trump. Since throughout the day today, they really extensively talked about their relationship from early on.
They had this sort of mutually beneficial relationship where the publications that Pecker was overseeing, like the National Enquirer, were incredibly interested in former president Trump, as with, you know, BTV star, the apprentice, all that. And Trump would give access to Pecker and Pecker would use the information that Trump gave him to juice interest in his publications. And that is what led to that ultimate meeting in 2015 when Trump decided he was going to run for president. And Pecker described a meeting with him Cohen and former president Trump, talking about how Pecker could help, how he could publish stories that were official to former president Trump, negative stories against his opponents, and at the heart of this all gave that catch and kills him.
Pecker saying that he would be the quote, eyes and ears for Trump and Cohen, looking out for any women who had been looking to shop their stories around. He would buy those stories and make sure that they didn't see the light of day. And as we got to the end of the day, he just began talking about Karen McDougal and her story and their attempt to buy that story and make sure that it did not damage former president Trump. Dr.
Burns following you all in the case takes a break tomorrow and picks back up on Thursday. Don't you know what to announce it? Danny, if you were Trump's lawyer, how concerned would you be about? What would you be about?
He lost our credibility. Not a good thing to hear from the judge. Yeah, look, I do have a brain defense counsel. Sometimes it feels like a world against you, and that's often when the prosecution or the government has a solid case.
And when they have a solid case, it can feel like you're just bashing your head against them all. That's maybe more difficult when you have a difficult client. I take this, for example, Tom Lynch. I'm sure it's not told that we hours of the night preparing this cross-examination exhibit memorizing the facts.
And yet today, because of his client's behavior, he now has to try and memorize what social media postings said what, on what day. If I'm Tom Lynch, I'm being really frustrated with my client because his activities are creating overnight more work for me to do when I could be getting ready for the case. That was one of the things the judge criticized Tom Lynch for today. And I really have to be born because Tom Lynch was probably prepping his case.
He probably wasn't prepping social media postings for a gag order here, and it never had to be done if his client had just remained quiet. And so, Dan, would you pick any solace in the fact that the judge reserved judgment on the gag order so far? No, not likely. I mean, I think this is the kind of thing that Judge Richard and the reason he put it off in the next week was that he was right.
By doing so, you roll together all the other future violations that you know are coming. But at the same time, Justice Richard does need to be a decision because this is something that is an ongoing problem and trouble that's going to continue to violate it. I think it's a really difficult decision. It's not as clear to cut as you might think because gag orders themselves are very existent.
They're relatively rare. They don't know that often. And they're always, they always duplicate First Amendment, right? So, every judge must read carefully because all speech is different, especially when you add in the context.
And Catherine, this is going to be a long trial. If you're a judge, I was already losing patience with Tom Lynch. So, what do you take away from today's proceedings if you're in the DA's office? Well, the DA's office should be happy, but I can tell you they probably aren't.
Why? Because why hasn't Judge Michonne made a decision yet? So, he put the gag order hearing off from last week to today, and today he said he's a reserving decision. So, on that, they're not happy.
But they should be happy at the direct examination so far of clearly, if not their name, it's one of the main minutes. It's obviously his argument that Michael Cohen is. Because so far, the direct exam is going very smoothly. And they've gotten some great nuggets out of Mr.
Packer, namely that from his experience with Donald Trump, that he found him to be very detailed oriented and almost a micromanager reviewing invoices. So, any defense that he was aloof and just let Michael Cohen do everything. The jury might, if they believe, they believe, they might say, well, that's just not true because Mr. Packer said that Donald Trump is very detailed orient, and he's a micromanager.
And Catherine, prosecutors have accused Trump of violating his gang order by speaking about potential witnesses, but they did not yet cite this interview conducted just last night in which he commented on the jurors list. That's your respect. So fast. Ninety-five percent Democrats, the areas, mostly old Democrats.
You think of it as a purely Democrat area. It's a very unfair situation. Catherine, why do you think this will just be another long under fire? Yes, it's another, I argue, violation of the gag order, which prevents Donald Trump from making public statements out of prospective jurors or jurors in this criminal proceeding.
And you don't want a domino effect. You don't want one juror to find out about and get intimidated, not with the show, but court, and then you have another juror. That's the whole purpose of this gag order, to stop the intimidation of jurors and witnesses, because that will affect the integrity of the proceedings. He goes after Michael Cohen, and some people say Michael Cohen goes after him.
Well, Michael Cohen doesn't have a gag order. And it's not really about Michael Cohen who is not intimidated and really doesn't care and just wants to be on TV and wants to be criticizing. Donald Trump is about the other witnesses, who might say, oh my goodness, look what Donald Trump is doing to Michael Cohen. He might do that to me.
I don't want to come to court. So that's the purpose of the gag order, to stop the intimidation of witnesses and jurors. And, Catherine, we talked a little bit about this with Joshua, but how effective was David Packard today as the first witness for Frosty? I thought he was very effective on direct, though I should give everyone a caveat.
You know, direct example by wonderfully, and then you have an excellent defense attorney stand up and then destroy witness on Cross. So we haven't seen the Cross examination yet. I don't think Mr. Packard will be destroyed on Cross.
He was very authentic. He is. He's the former head of the National Enquire, which according to him, just paid for the, he calls journalism, check journalism, made up stories. And he was, he seemed very credible and outside.
I didn't see him, so I couldn't judge as a meaner. But from reading all of the reports about it and the kind of transcript, he seems to be a very solid witness with prosecution. Thank you, Catherine. You mentioned Cross examination.
I want to turn out the Danny. How would you question David Packard if you were the defense attorney in this case? It's tough. I mean, they're going to challenge his credibility.
They're going to challenge his motive. They're going to say, you know, you're here. You have immunity arrangement. They're going to point different reasons he may have to fabricate, maybe that he's afraid of being prosecuted himself.
They're also going to challenge the publishing sort of independence of the National Enquire. We already saw that in the opening statements that the defense made the point that, hey, the National Enquire makes its own publishing decision. Donald Trump doesn't have anything to do with that. The problem is, because I think David Packard would deny that if he starts examining it.
He would say, no, no, we do have some degree of independence. But when Donald Trump won it's done, we did it. Not because he ordered us to, but because there was a quid pro quo. And actually, he says about today, that is a piece of the puzzle that thinks very helpful that David Packard benefited.
Although, you wouldn't see it just looking at the arrangement. It looks like somebody just trying out how that went every good, but instead Packard's like, look, a couple of fantastic sources of good guy to have on your side. He provides information. So I was willing to get into this ongoing arrangement because there was a quid pro quo.
Everybody got something. The only thing I think I really focus on is that most of these communications work with Michael Cohen so far. We haven't heard the rest of the direct exam that most of the communications work with Cohen. And for a lot of these agreements, maybe Trump wasn't in the room.
But, oh, everyone knows, the government and the defense. Packard's going to be probably the toughest winners. Well, Catherine, you know, we mentioned that the case takes a break tomorrow, picks back up again on Thursday, you know, past cross-examination. What do you think prosecutors then go?
Then they might call either Ms. Meduyl or Ms. Daniels, or Ms. Clifford, I'm sorry, that's your real name.
I don't think it's going to be right to Michael Cohen, but they might. I would call Michael Cohen. I just sort of want to get him out of the way about his prosecutor. And then, you know, we start off with Pecker who basically corroborates Mr.
Cohen and then follow him up with others. They are not going to reveal that next witness because of Donald Trump's tweeting about the incoming witnesses, so they will probably, like they did last week, only with the night before. So I anticipated the cross-examination from Mr. Pecker will be long, but he's crippled.
They're not going to really be able to state his credibility. They're going to have to do other things with him to help them, their case. All right. Thanks, Wallace and Catherine.
Thank you so much for both of your expertise. We really appreciate it. And turning out a dynamic we have seen more than a few times since this trial began. While former President Trump spends his day on trial, President Biden is on the trail.
This time his rival's home saved Florida, where he hit Mr. Trump on the issue of abortion, where the six-week ban is set to take effect in the stage in just over a week. There's one person responsible for this nightmare, and he's acknowledged any brags about Donald Trump. Now he's worried the voters will hold him accountable for saying he's responsible for getting ready to return.
Donald Trump is worried the voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created. Folks, the bad news with Trump is we are going to hold him accountable. We are going to have to be able to effectively cut off abortion access for millions of women in the Southern United States and guns since the Biden campaign is hoping the issue will supercharge turnout. This November, not just in Florida, but also Arizona.
The issue will be on the ballot in both states, giving voters the chance to effectively overturn to the strictest abortion bans in the country. He's also cast the ballot for President. And as he's pulling charge, abortion is one of the few issues where President Biden holds an advantage over Mr. Trump.
And 19% say they vote for against the candidate based solely on that issue. And turning out from Tampa, where the President just focused and he's watching the correspondent, Yamicheauson, and it has been the vice president as you know in the forefront of the reproductive rights and assets. So why have the president himself front and center today? Well, it's a key issue because the vice president has held a number of events more than 80% since the overturning of Roe v.
Wade. But really the president wanted to lean in today. Now, there's some who were telling you were close to the president who say that he feels passionately about the issue. He's been a vocal supporter of abortion rights, but it also forced the politics of this.
He laid out abortion seems to be a winning issue for him. It's also a tough motivating issue for voters across the country. And today, he wanted to make sure that he was a packing Donald Trump by name, because it was a campaign that he could be a little looser, he could be a little bit more biting in his words and officials telling me. And he laid the blame solely on Donald Trump saying that this is not a states rights issue.
It's a women's rights issue, so over and over again he said that voters should hold the president accountable. Of course, he's doing this badly because there's a big band that's going to go into effect here. But all of it is, Donald Trump's home state is where he would likely be if he was on trial in New York. And you've been speaking with voters there on the ground floor.
How is the message being received? Well, people who are supporters of abortion rights really welcome president Biden coming in. He said that Florida feels like ground zero for this fight on abortion right now because of that six-week ban. So I'm so happy to see the president and self come down here.
But I also talked to a opponent of abortion rights. And one man told me that he really sees this sort of political rhetoric and political jockey. He is nervous about a ballot measure that's going to take effect here. In November, voters are going to be able to vote and not be white, stand up.
They really want to see abortion clips close in Florida. They also make the abortion unthinkable. So there are people here in Florida who are also not happy that the president came to the game. In the meantime, we're just looking at some pro Palestinian protesters in video of them earlier today.
And the president is leading to a strong issue of abortion as a campaign. He's also trying to shy away from his weakest. That issue of how he's handling these were Hamas war. So how is the democratic backlash over that effecting how the campaign plays about president Biden on the trip?
Well, again, it's an important issue. Of course, both of us have covered how this war is impacting the way that the president is being seen by a number of people in his base. And this is really impacting in particular, what could be this commencement address at Morehouse College's sector announced that he's going to be delivering the commencement address with their faculty members that are now voicing concern against president Biden when he comes to that college campus. So it's really interesting to get some good digital reporting up on NBC News.com.
Taking through this issue, it's going to be a meeting we're factored and able to sort of talk about their concerns with the president coming here. And it's really remarkable when you think about the fact that there's now a meeting about whether or not him going to Morehouse College, whether or not it's going to be something that's too raucous for that campus. Because we know often springtime, commences, that's when you see the president, the vice president, other surrogates talking to young people. But in this case, it could be a liability.
You could in fact see protests and possibly even embarrassing protests for the president. So this is an issue that continues to be a vulnerability. And of course, we'll be following up again. Yeah, that's right.
You mean, you know, certainly Democratic candidate is having trouble or controversy going to college campuses. You have to prove a challenge as his campaign ramps up. You mean, Johnson or in Tampa, you mean, thank you so much. We've got the intentions all rising on campuses that some of America's most elite universities as you usually do.
Protests are intensifying over Israel's world in Hamas and we're a lot of Columbia University. One of the hotspots really rests right ahead. Plus new fallout in U.S.A.'s relations is the idea of facing allegations of human rights abuses in the West Bank. And potential U.S.
sanctions in response. You're watching. Welcome back to the Discord over the ongoing Israel Moss Wars going to lower by the day. Especially on college campuses across the nation.
Those protests are now spreading from coast to coast with pro Palestinian encampments being set up at dozens of colleges all calling for their universities to divest from companies that provide weapons to Israel. The demonstrations also playing out as Jewish students marked the pass over holiday. Those growing anti-war demonstrations here at home comes as the U.S. State Department released its annual human rights report which cited several reported human rights violations being committed in the region by Israel, Hamas, and other Palestinian Milton groups.
Yesterday Secretary Blinken denied the suggestion that the U.S. has a double standard for Israel when it comes to examining such violations. And that report comes as the administration considers new sanctions on a battalion unit of Israel's military type of human rights abuses. For more on that, the latest in the war and the U.S.S.
response and joined out by U.S. international correspondent Josh Letterman. Josh, thank you so much for joining us. The U.S.
is expected to impose sanctions on that ultra-Orthodox unit of Israel's military. So how much pressure is the Israeli government putting on the U.S.? And could this further strain the relationship between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu? So much pressure gave that they're trying to preempt it.
It's pretty rare to see a government come out swinging against something that another government hasn't even done yet. But that's what the Israelis are doing, based on essentially a leaked report saying that the U.S. intended to sanction the unit of the Israeli military. As far as how this could affect the U.S.
Israel relations, I mean they're pretty bad already. It's hard to see how they could get that much worse. But it is fair to say that there's some irony in the fact that this is coming just after the U.S. came to the defense of Israel during those Iran strikes.
The U.S. military shooting down huge numbers of Iranian drones and missiles launched towards Israel. And so while the Biden administration may have earned back some of its good graces from the Israeli government in doing so, I think the Biden administration feels comfortable now that they can say, look, nobody can question our credibility on coming to Israel's defense. But we're also going to stand up when we feel like a military that we are directly funding and assisting, maybe committing human rights violations, at least in some parts of the military they're operating in the occupied West Bank.
Josh, meanwhile an independent review announced their findings about Israel's claim that some U.N. aid workers were linked to the military groups. What did they find and what allowed them to boost its operations in the Gaza Strip? Yeah, so this review in particular didn't focus on those allegations that a dozen or more UNR employees were actively involved in the Hamas terror attacks.
Of October 7th, instead, this looked more broadly at allegations of bias within UNR. What this UN investigation found was that the Israelis never put up any evidence to substantiate their allegations that UNR is essentially become a hold-in to Hamas. Now, there are going to be additional investigations into those other allegations. In the meantime, a ten of the nations that had cut off funding to UNR in the wake of those allegations have now restored funding.
So that may help UNR continue to be able to be important work that it does on the ground in Gaza. But notably, the most significant and largest one, the United States, has not yet resumed that funding game. Josh Letterman, thank you so much. And as we mentioned, student protests hide in the ongoing war of spreading college campuses across the country putting renewed pressure on administrators as well as government officials.
Last night in New York City, police officers clashed with protesters at NYU, and one of the hundreds of students were arrested. One of the mayor, air gunners and NYPD officers had bottles of even chairs running down as they tried to disperse the crowd. The followers protested largely began at Columbia University last week. It also resulted in your rest of the students.
My colleague, Mr. Holt, sat down today with FBI director Christopher Wray, who discussed the current environment on college campuses and raised concerns about the increase in anti-Semitic threats. There's an environment right now we're seeing play out on some college campuses, the protests over what's happening in Gaza. Are you watching that rarely?
Are you concerned about threats emanating from these demonstrations? Well, of course demonstrations themselves are not something that we get involved in, but when violence ensues, that's when we get threats of violence. And so we have seen, even before October 7th, we saw a significant increase, especially in anti-Semitic threats and anti-Semitic violence. And since October 7th, that number has gone up quite substantially.
Are you actively monitoring these protests? We don't monitor protests, but we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence with campuses with state local enforcement, but we don't monitor protests. And if you catch more of Lester's exclusive interview with the record Wray tonight on NBC Nightly News. And joining me now from outside Columbia University's campus is NBC News correspondent Valerie Castro.
And Valerie, these protests at Columbia have been about urging the University to die best from companies that provides weapons to Israel. And as we watch demonstrations spreading out to other college campuses, is that still the core issue for these profiles to use suits? Yeah, that continues to be the central demand for the protesters, for the people who have set up those encampments. And actually, earlier today there was a rally held at Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan that's near New York University.
That rally was in response to a resume at NYU last night. And a protesters there today were rallying and saying, we will not rest until you die best. So that certainly continues to be the core issue. They say this encampment will remain until that demand is met.
Earlier this afternoon, University officials here at Columbia held a virtual press briefing. They say one of their main concerns is that people who seem to be behind most disruptive actions during these protests appear to people who are not affiliated with the University. They don't attend school here. They're not students.
So they say that is one of their greatest concerns. But they say protests on campus by students are allowed. Is the motivation of other students or the disruption of classes? Take a listen of what they said just a short time ago.
There have been accidentalism on our campus since the protests began, reported harassment and discrimination. The current protest is in violation of the University rules. Full stop. Okay, another concern is graduation here at Columbia University.
It is less than a month away. Traditionally, the main commencement ceremony happens in the area of the campus where that encampment is currently set up. We have reached out to the University if their plans were commenced and have changed in any way. We are so waiting here back.
And also now we call the University's president also facing intensifying calls for her resignation. That's the latest on that and how she responded. There were several U.S. House Republicans from New York yesterday.
They drafted a letter calling for her to step down. In the letter they say she has failed to provide a safe learning environment and say anarchy has involved the campus. Again, calling for her to resign so far she has not responded to those calls here. And I'll quickly refer to Mayor Eric Adams today.
A day after hundreds of NYU professors were arrested, as you mentioned. How is he handling the situation? And what level of information is there from Mayor's office and the University? So the Mayor echoed the sentiments that the University had earlier today.
Concerns that these are people unaffiliated with the universities that are causing the most problems he called them outside. Aditators, he urged not just Columbia University but leaders at other colleges to also meet with the city to meet with NYPD to discuss best practices for continuing to handle the situation as it was forward. Okay. Now we're cast here in New York.
I'd like to thank you. And up next critical aid for Ukraine and Israel along with the law to force the sale of TikTok. There was its first major hurdle in the Senate as an inches closer to the President's desk. And live on the Hill with the very latest next.
You're watching with us now. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle who dismissed the value of our allies and partners, ignore what history teaches about times when we've lacked such friendships. We'll send it indulge the fantasy of pulling off a drawbridge. Will we persist in the 21st century with an approach that failed in the 20th?
A way we dispense with the myth of isolationism and embrace reality. Welcome back. That was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Of course, slamming the isolationist stance of some of his colleagues as the Senate considers a $95 billion aid package passed by the House this weekend.
That package is a good funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific as well as a bill to force the sale of TikTok from Chinese owner by dance. And in overwhelming the cast's first procedural hurdle, this afternoon in 18th to 19th. Joining me now from Capitol Hill, I've seen Ryan Nobles and Ryan. What's the latest from the Senate vote and how likely is all this expected for battle by the end of the day?
Well, the overwhelming vote that you pointed to there gave on that procedural motion is a good indication that this could wrap up at some point today. They're in a period now where the senators have up to 30 hours to debate this measure before it comes to a final vote. Now, it's very unlikely that they take up all 30 hours of that debate, especially because it looks as though this measure is going to pass easily. So we do anticipate that there'll be some sort of a final vote sometime tonight either in the early to late evening, but it seems very clear that this package, at one point, seemed impossible.
That it would never pass is likely to become law by the end of the weekend. Ukraine could see funding flowing their direction in the very near future. So it could potentially be a late night for you, Ryan, and your colleagues. We just saw his live pictures of the day on the Senate floor.
And Ryan also heard their sharp words from McConnell. What kind of opposition is he facing from Republicans? How much of that is about the policy versus the process? You know, what's interesting about all this gave is that Mitch McConnell's circumstance is banging his chest in victory.
And he actually made the argument to us. You heard him on the floor there, but also in a sub-superpress conference that the way that this process played itself out is an indication that his Republican colleagues are backing away from these loud voices that are calling for isolation as foreign policy. He actually believes that he's been successful. He and his Republican colleagues who believe that the United States has to have a more forceful approach to defending democracy around the world are actually winning the argument.
The point is the fact that they were able to bring over about half of the Republican caucus on the House side and that more senators voted for this particular package this time around than even the first time that they passed a package along these lines. He pointed back to what happened in the lead-up for World War II. He said, how America sat on the sidelines right up until the Pearl Harbor bombing before they finally got involved. And he warned that that cannot happen this time around.
Well, during World War II era, the United States had only two big principal allies in Germany and Japan. Now he points to at least three when it comes to Iran, China, and Russia. He believes that this is a pivotal moment for America to use its force for power and for voting back to the Reagan doctrine of peace through strength. And he believes that he is winning that argument.
And Ryan before I let you go, if I can ask you quickly about Speaker Johnson. Johnson, former President Trump appeared to defend him yesterday, and they threats to his job. And so will that peace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who announced your trust? Yeah, and so he also agreed that time for that faction to back off.
We're not going to answer that question for sure again until next week. But there is no doubt that President Trump coming out, at least giving some type of support to my Johnson, should prevent this kind of avalanche of opposition from conservative Republicans. It's not guaranteed though, because it only takes a couple of them to force that motion to vacate. That would still likely mean he needs Democrat support.
So this still remains an open question going into next week. Ryan Nobles, I'm Robert Hill. Ryan, thank you. Depending on some major legal developments for victims of disgraced sports position, Larry Nassar, the Justice Department announced a $137.8 million settlement with the victims coming after years of internal probes concluded that the Indianapolis FBI did not alert the necessary channels and offices about Nassar during investigation.
Multiple sources familiar with the settlement negotiations described in two years of talks. Leading to today's settlement as long and complex. Nassar, the 60-year-old convicted sex abuser, is currently set to serve his prison sentence from 2068, meaning he won't likely be behind bars for the rest of his life. After the great new reporting on Trump campaign's concerns that Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.'s third party big win in the party in November. We're heading to next. We're watching the press now. Welcome back, running out of the presidential race.
We've heard Donald Trump say time and time again. And he's confident Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will take votes from President Biden.
Not Kim to November. But according to the new reporting from NBC News, that's not the entire story. My colleague Allen Smith reports that Trump is pariderly unsure of how Kennedy would affect the race. And to ask people if Kim and he's run is a good or bad thing for his candidacy.
Our latest NBC News poll had Donald Trump up two points on President Biden and had to have match up. And that's of course inside the margin of error. But when we expanded to a five-handed field, it was President Biden up two points also inside the margin of error. But with Robert Kennedy Jr.
support seemingly coming from Trump supporters. Check this out across that sound. At 15% of Trump supporters went over to RFA Jr. when the field expanded compared to just 7% of Biden supporters.
Joining me now on set is a pound. Ron Nicole and senior reporter from the Washington Post. RTA S. Kumar, President and C.O.
Volga Labino and NBC News contributor, and hoping to get former press secretary in the 2020 Trump campaign and former deputy press secretary in the Trump White House. Thank you all so much for joining me here. I want to start with you. So it looked like Democrats are going to have to be worried about RFA Jr.
but business law's polling should Republicans be more worried. It appears that way these things can always fluctuate. But one thing that has been standing out to me while looking at some of the primary states that have gone on after Haley has dropped out is that it appears that there is a slice of the Republican electorate that wants to consider another candidate. So this somewhat is not surprising that you do have people who are still trying to figure out their choices in Republican Party and they're landing on RFA or at least see him as a favorable option to Trump.
Why do you think there's some overlap between some of the issues at the Trump supporters and the RFA supporters? There could be, you know, as widely reported that RFA has a stance on being anti-vaxxer. So that might be appealing to those in the Republican days who feel that same way. Also, and I know this for talking to voters on the trail, a lot of people who like Trump is because he is an outsider.
That's how he won in 2016. So despite RFA's last name, he is an outsider. And that is what appeals to a lot of voters who may not want Trump or Biden. That's right.
Outside of the candidate last name. I want to turn to you. I don't want to play something about what Trump said in a video he released. This is not the bad part of this.
RFA Jr is, as you know, the most radical left candidate in the race. He's more so than the Green Party. He's more so than even Cricket Joe Biden. But he's got some nice things about him.
I happen to like him. Kennedy is a radical left Democrat and always will be. But he's a better man than Joe Biden. I can tell you.
It's great for Maggie. I hope he continues to run. He is a Cricket Joe Biden political opponent. Not mine.
So which is it? He's a backing on. But he's praising and saying nice things about him. It's a strategy world.
You act surprised, though, that never happens with Donald Trump. Listen, I think there's some things at play here that need to be fleshed out. I was looking onto where we came on and someone was saying that on the left was saying that RFA was actually ultra-radical magga. So this is interesting.
So the right is saying he's a radical leftist. The left is saying he's a radical magga. It's a long time until November. We're going to have this fight for a while.
But I really don't pay attention to much of the polling on this matter at least at this point. Most focused on, actually, is really the media at large and the left. They're very angry about an RFK run, which tells me they're really concerned about who RFK will pull away from Joe Biden. Not to mention the fact that the NCHAR 2 operatives that were really focused on making sure RFK isn't on the ballot in a lot of these days showcasing the concern they had still for that Kennedy name and that Kennedy brand.
So Marie, I'm going to ask you about that. The DNC has been taking this candidate very seriously. They're going to be staffing and whatnot. Should Democrats be that concerned about RFK junior?
Do you think what they've done so far is working? I think they should be concerned. I would be interested to see who was holding where. We came out of a series of focused groups just last week.
And we're finding an interest in third party. We're sitting it out. That comes out mentioned of RFK is an event and Arizona among younger voters. And what we're finding though is when we start unpacking why the interest of third party is that right now in this moment in time, neither party is resonating with them.
If you were to ask, even around the issue of abortion, this was fascinating. Part of the focus was among young Latinos, Gen Zers. All of the excited abortions that you should really hear about. None of them could cite which party was trying to suppress their access to abortion.
Here in Washington, BC, we only had one here. But the fact that the lower-density low-formation voters don't recognize that we're basically living in a triplet system. You can vote for a Republican or Democrat. Anything for third party, basically this is the vote.
We actually have to do more education at large. For the American people to recognize what that means, whether it's just not, whether it's our vote for that party actually means. Yeah, some issues. This campaign moves forward.
I wonder the thing that's really sucking up a lot of the oxygen right now. This trial in Manhattan, you know, Donald Trump lashing out against the judge. He saw the hearing of the gag. Is that a good campaign strategy?
I know the thinking was that, oh, well, he's getting up all the media attention, but he's going after a judge and potentially witnesses. Do you think that that is a good campaign strategy for a general election? Well, look, it's a difference between the political strategy, of course, and the legal strategy as you well know. To this point, it's been very positive for him to go after the people who are weaponizing potential or, excuse me, digital branch, for example, for their agencies, federal government against them.
Politically, of course. And lashing out, I would take, you know, to issue with the term. The fact is, this judge obviously is a don't have to go by, and his daughter has made millions of dollars pushing Democrat causes and candidates. Well, he would take issue with that.
He hasn't involved before that. He doesn't have anything directly to his case. Right. But she makes money off of Donald Trump being in court as she pushes those emails out.
Even if he could be completely unbiased in this as a judge, just the thought, the appearance of him for pride. You think he'd want to go, you know what? I'm going to sit this one out and let someone else do it. You know, people don't like the thought of the judicial system being unfair, regardless of who is in the crosshairs of the system.
And so it's worked well for him so far. We're going to have to wait and see. It's like up for him, down for him, down for him, down for him. Like I said, long time from him.
I want to pick up on that point. You know, I asked him during the primary. He's not trying to benefit a lot from all these indictments. Where do you think it goes forward as these legal issues play out in a general election?
Do you think that, you know, we just don't like this polling? You know, I'm thinking up a little bit. Do you think that his, the country's legal issues will keep that trajectory for pride? Yeah, you know, again, these things flush away.
But right now it appears that there is voter fatigue among a lot of voters who are just tired of hearing about a lot of cases, and the baggage that comes along with those cases. I think each case in front of the former president is very different because this one is not televised. Perhaps it's not really landing with a lot of people in the electorate because they're not able to see what's going on. But if the voting county case moves forward or even the January 6th case, the federal case moves forward before the election.
That might be a different story. There was an interesting poll taken by EP since the start of this New York trial. I noticed in it today that it said 47% of independents say they believe that Trump is unfit to serve if he is convicted to serve as president. So when you look at any metrics associated with people in the middle, it's really, it's just a lot of like where people are right now.
And everywhere he pulls into third party, right? Everything that we're following and we'll do is exacting things. Is this conviction, if he gets convicted, then independent moderates. Actually, I may not want to be side with Joe Biden, but I don't want to be on the track.
Maria, he's been a candidate for nearly nine years. Do you really think that? It's not a conviction. I don't want to be a candidate.
Do you think people watching his drive? Do you think people watching his drive? The only thing I didn't point to is the red wave that wasn't. And that was because during the summer of 2022, you saw this January 6th committee come up and basically prosecute him in front of daylight and everybody that was happening.
And that really influenced independent voters because you know what? You can't break the law and you can't undermine the judicial system. And that's one of the things that actually gave people the breath to say, Wait a second. Let me take questions.
Why the red wave? What? I don't think the convictions are going to matter so much because they're really going to these trials are basically trying to muddy selling his name amongst independents. They're doing that also to bleed and drive financially.
So we can't come out and stroke checks to his own campaign. And of course take them off the campaign trail because Joe Biden obviously doesn't do well out there on the campaign trail amongst the people. So they don't want to talk about the judges. The Biden campaign with the district.
I hope you thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your time. Your time here on the press now. Consider count.
Voters are voting right now. I'm not around Pennsylvania. We're spotlighting. Keep on our faces.
I'm putting a contentious thousand pits. We're watching the press now. See with us. Well back this Tuesday.
Voters are voting somewhere. And today that somewhere is a commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is hosting its house and Senate primaries. We're not expecting too many surprises in the Senate primary with both Republican and Republican and Republican Senator Bob Casey facing uncontested primaries. We'll be one of the most closely watched races this November.
We've also got our eyes on some key house primaries. My Republican Brian Fitzpatrick is facing a challenge from his right for anti-abortion rights activists. Matt Hauck. If it's Patrick Luce is the primary.
This he could very well be in play for Democrats in November. And over in Pittsburgh, Democratic Congresswoman Summer Lee is facing a primary from Edward Burrow council member Evini Patel, largely over a position on the Israel Moss War. He is a member of the Progressive Swab in Congress and was one of the first lawmakers to call for a ceasefire and accuse Israeli government of committing war crimes. And now you see Tali Patel, who was on the ground with the latest in Pennsylvania.
Allie is so good to see you. It was on the ground today myself last week. But you spent some time in Pittsburgh with Congresswoman Summer Lee. And this race has almost become a referendum on her stance on the Israel Moss War.
So what do you hear from her? Yeah, a really fascinating moment. I'll let Miss Tess on issue that we talk a lot about in all the Congress. Congresswoman Lee actually just voted on that large package of foreign aid, which included a bill that would have set billions to Israel.
Leave voted against that. I asked her. Why? Watch.
The world has looked at the way this war has been conducted. They've been concerned about that. And so even with the 9 billion in humanitarian aid, that wasn't enough. What we're hearing is that humanitarian aid is scarcely getting ahead.
It's scarcely getting ahead. It's not good enough to send bonds to Israel and Van Dijk's Gaza. We need to stop the bombing. We need to stop the bleeding before we can even do anything else.
It's just not helpful at that point. And look, it certainly is not the only Congress person. We're the only Democrat who voted against the Israel AP. So that package under Democrats will have to go home and tell their voters why they made that vote.
But here is a very specific community. This is a historically Jewish community. They have the Swirl Hill neighborhood here. But you also have the Tree of Life synagogue, a place back in just 2018.
So a gunman come in in a hate crime and kill 11 people in a shooting here. It's certainly not far from memory. And it's something that voters will likely think about when they go to the ballot bus. This race has really changed after October 7.
But it's important to also keep in mind that while this could be an early limit test for the way that the Israel got the conflict, it's playing in the minds of voters in an area where it's crimes to be played out. This is also something we're saying primarily anyway before this. This just gave for a more reason to challenge her. And now that you're speaking of a protest vote on the Israel Moss War.
Are we going to see an uncommitted, a strong uncommitted vote here in Pennsylvania? Not from summerly. I may sure to ask that question. She did tell me she respects the people who would vote uncommitted that way.
And look, this is a concern for people on the ground here in Pennsylvania. We watched out close it was in 2020, days of counting ballots. And now of course we'll see how it plays out after the printer. All right.
Thank you so much. A lot to watch for, especially as it's campaign for inside. Thank you all so much for joining us. I'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now.
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