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STEWART: “But I think we can move household appliances down on the threats to democracy list, just below aluminum-free deodorant. Clearly, this was an overblown reaction. But that doesn’t mean that this trial coverage isn’t obscuring some true horrors.” [Clip starts] CAIN: “They’re dead. The Boy Scouts are dead.” (...) Hannity: “The Boy Scouts, we can pretty much declare, are dead!” [Clip ends] STEWART: “Oh, my God! The Boy Scouts are dead? While we were all fixated on the titillating details of the Stormy Daniels’ testimony, the Boy Scouts all died? I’m assuming in a terrible s’mores explosion, engineered by one Joseph ‘Charles Manson’ Biden!” [Clip starts] The boy scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in history. The organization will be renamed Scouting America to emphasize its commitment to inclusion of all youth.” [Clip ends] STEWART: “Oh. The Boy Scouts are alive, they just rebranded as an organization. Partly because they started letting girls in five years ago, and partly because they had a giant molestation scandal. I say that so that no one can hear me. A giant molestation scandal. Rebranding yourself is a tried-and-true formula for many such organizations. In fact, it’s why the Catholic Church now goes by the name Gary. (Laughter and Applause) So — I feel terrible for anybody at home named Gary right now. So what is the issue? [Clip starts] COMPAGNO: “There used to be sacred organizations where the children could really flourish.” (...) NEWSMAX Reporter 1: “Is anything sacred, Bob Brooks?” NEWSMAX Reporter 2: “No.” [Clip ends] STEWART: “Yeah. Nothing is sacred. What did happen to all those sacred organizations, Gary? (Laughter) But as you all were saying?” [Clip starts] SCHLAPP: “What happens to institutions in America, and really all over the world, is patriotic people start these institutions and the left must destroy it. It’s a sad day when young boys can’t learn how to be strong men. We’ve wrecked it. Actually, they wrecked it.” [Clip ends] STEWART: “Okay, I don’t want to break character here or anything, but this [bleep] , this guy, who is blaming the left for the loss of our institutions where young boys can become strong men, his name is Matt Schlapp. You may remember him, he’s the head of the American Conservative Union. You may remember him as the strong man who was sued, this guy was sued by another fella for non-consensually grabbing his dick in 2022. (Audience reacts) Yeah. That only got dropped after a reported $480,000 settlement. The point being, when this guy talks about the depravity of our institutions, he knows of what he speaks. (Laughter and Applause) All this false outrage is starting to make me cynical about America’s media ecosystem. Is there anything else going on that does merit a DEFCON 1 freak-out?”

UNKNOWN: “The biggest thing is that we do not control the border. The cartel controls the border. Everything that we do is a reaction to things t hat they have planned. Usually, we’re chasing around pawns while the kings and queens are doing whatever they want.”

Biden: “It’s been a banger year for women’s basketball. More watching you all than anybody else. The most watched women’s college game ever. It matters to girls and women finally seeing themselves represented. And it matters to all of America. That’s why, as a nation, we need to support women’s sports. By showing — (applause) — by showing up in person, watching on TV with more sponsorships and programming, and helping grow the business of women’s sports and keep — that keep inspire, you keep inspiring an entire nation. That’s not hyperbole. You really do. Think about what this year has been.”

UNKNOWN: “ — protests, as we see in the U.S.?” THUNBERG: “I think they should be everywhere. And, once again, young people are leading the way, showing the world how we should react to this.”

RUBIN: “And, you know, as I remind our viewers all the time, Chris and Andrea, I sat through two E. Jean Carroll trials and two cross examinations of E. Jean Carroll, and I have to tell you, I agree with Sue wholeheartedly. This was very much what I call a nuts and sluts defense. There was a portion of the cross examination where Susan Necheles was focused on the fact that Stormy Daniels now claims that she is a medium and that she communicates with dead people and has participated in a TV — TV series about the paranormal where she explores things, including the fact that at one point an ex-boyfriend of hers was inhabited by spirits. She was mocking Stormy Daniels. She wants the jury to think Stormy Daniels is a liar, and she is crazy, and she also wants the jurors to judge her for her occupation, and Stormy Daniels gave no ground on that. As Sue just said, she might be an exotic dancer and adult film actor, but she was very clear when Susan Necheles used the phrase ‘selling yourself’ to describe what Stormy Daniels was doing on a tour where she was making appearances at clubs, Stormy Daniels set her straight. ‘I was not selling myself, I was dancing.’ The implication always was I am not a sex worker and I don’t have a sign around my neck that says consent given freely to everyone at any time. She was a woman who seemed pretty self-possessed, in control of her own body and wanting to maintain essentially — to quote Pretty Woman — I say who, I say when, and not you know, Donald Trump was mine — that I was for the taking by this man. I increasingly see what Trump did to Stormy Daniels and she’s used the phrase what happened to me more insidiously than I think I ever have. It is a reinforcement of the predator frame that the Access Hollywood tape introduced. It brought into full vision a very new Donald Trump. Not just a Donald Trump who was womanizing and liked beautiful women and was one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, as David Pecker described him, but a Trump who knew what he was doing and wasn’t just hitting on people, but making it impossible for them to escape or at least downright uncomfortable. And Stormy Daniels today, I agree with Sue, the temperature was down but the self-possession was up and she would not give up. My favorite answer that she gave was when Susan Necheles basically said to her, you make things up like this all the time. You’ve acted in over 200 pornographic movies and those are all made-up. And she said, if I was going to make this up, I would have made it a much better story.”

RAPAPORT: “Smoking Joe Biden, Cadaver Joe Biden. You know who I am? You know my work. I’m the one who came up with. I’m the one who invented D*** Stain Donald Trump, Pig D*** Donald Trump. That’s me. That’s my work. I didn’t ask for a thank you. I didn’t ask for an invite to the White House and everybody and anybody shows up at the White House these days. I did it for the love. I did it for the love because I couldn’t stand that motherf***er. And you dumb old motherf***er. You have the f******. You bat s*** old f*** you. You’re not sending weapons to Israel during a f****** war, while American hostages, American hostages and hostages from 22 countries are still in that f****** **** ***. You’re not sending weapons now. You dumb f***. You — let me tell you something, man. I never ever ever thought I would say this, OK? But I could promise you this right now Smoking Joe Biden, Cadaver Joe Biden. Me, Michael Rapaport, I’m not voting for you. You’re not getting my vote. And plenty of us also ain’t voting for you. You f*** you. I said it once and I’ll say it again. This is why voting for D*** Stain Donald Trump, Pig D*** Donald Trump is on the f****** table.”

[Clip starts] Biden: “It was 9 percent when I came into office, nine percent.” Reporter (voice-over): “Inflation was actually 1.4 percent when Biden was sworn in peaking at 9.1 percent in June 2022. It has since come down to 3.5 percent, preventing a further drop housing costs. In New York City one survey found rent is rising seven times faster than wages. In California, a condo in West Hollywood just sold for record smashing $24 million. Food costs also playing a role, grocery prices are up 26 percent since 2019, and fast food prices are up 33 percent. Many consumers saying enough is enough.” UNKNOWN FEMALE: “I don’t mean to be broke. But for an 8 count menu and a lemonade, $14.” UNKNOWN FEMALE: “I joked that this was fine dining now because I might as well go at a sit-down restaurant and be served if I’m going to pay those type of prices.” [Clip ends]

Biden: “Well, so — but, I mean, no president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9 percent when I came to office. Nine percent.”

BURNETT: “Consumer confidence, maybe no surprise, is near a two-year low. With less than six months to go to Election Day, are you worried that you’re running out of time to turn that around?” Biden: “We’ve already turned it around. Look — look at the Michigan survey. 65 percent of American people think they’re in good shape economically. They think their nation is not in good shape, but they’re personally in good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along. How many — you guys do a poll at CNN. How many folks you have to call to get one response? The idea that we’re in a situation where things are so bad, folks — I mean, we’ve created more jobs. We’ve made — we’re in a situation where people have access to good-paying jobs. And the last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation and all those things, that’s really worrisome to people, with good reason. That’s why I’m working very hard to bring the cost of rentals down, to increase the number of homes that are available. Let me say it this way. When I started this administration, people were saying there was going to be a collapse of the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say it again, in the world.” BURNETT: “Although, GDP last week was far short of expectations.” Biden: “Oh, it wasn’t — look, GDP still — look at the response of the markets, overwhelmingly positive. Overwhelmingly positive. And one of the reasons why people feel good about it, not being as strong as it was before, is they believe that the Fed’s going to respond.” BURNETT: “They hope they’re going to get a rate cut.” Biden: “Yeah. Well, so — but, I mean, no president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9 percent when I came to office. 9 percent. But, look, people have a right to be concerned. Ordinary people, the idea that you’re — you bounce a check and you get a $30 fee for bouncing a check. I changed that. Can’t charge more than $8 for that. Or your credit card. You know, your late payment, $35. I mean, there’s corporate greed going on out there and it’s got to be dealt with.”

CABRERA: “Other thing interesting in this polling was more independents said that they worry about President Biden weakening democracy than Trump, 53 percent to 42 percent. What do you make of this?” DEL PERCIO: “I find it shocking, honestly. I — I can’t — I can’t you know, make sense of that number. I wish I could. I wish I had some really great insight to it. But I — I don’t know if it’s an outlier or not, because the other numbers with independents and Biden are going in the right direction. So that may be it. But also just one thing I want to add on to what Basil said. You know, this trial is not on TV. You guys do a great job reporting what’s happening, but if there aren’t those images coming out of the courthouse, people feel like they know this story. We kind of — we’ve heard about it for a long time. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re not interested.” CABRERA: “Well, thank you both so much for being here. Basil Smikle, Susan del Percio, it’s nice to see you.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Madam Secretary, you know, yesterday, we interviewed Andrew Ross Sorkin, who talked to one of the Founders of well of Silicon Valley revolution in the — in the late 80s, early 90s, who said, as much as we’re talking about AI, we’re not talking about it enough. I feel the same about Donald Trump. We, fortunately, we talk about him so much in the media that, that that it’s just, it’s just hard to do it. It just really gets nauseating after a while. At the same time, a fear that for some Americans, they’re not focusing enough on a president who said he would be a dictator on day one, that he would terminate the Constitution, that he would execute the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff’s, that he would immediately jail reporters who he didn’t like, that he would immediately find guilty of treason news organizations that didn’t talk the way he wanted them to talk or run the way they wanted him to run. We can go down the list. He said he was going to fire U.S. attorneys that wouldn’t immediately jail his political opponents. We can go on and on. And I find myself thinking back and people will say I’m being too dramatic, I don’t think I am. I’m thinking back to Richard Cohen column there was written probably in 2007, 2008, where he talked about this scene around a lake in Germany, in 1937, and how peaceful, how beautiful it was, and everybody was going about their business. 1937 kids were playing. And — and then he — he said nobody saw it coming. Nobody saw it. A year later, the world had changed. Jews were being rounded up, slaughtered, executed. So we find ourselves in this sort of a dilemma, we seem to talk about him so much and yet, I don’t know that people are really getting their arms around just what a threat, a democracy, American democracy, the American experiment is facing right now. Help us out with that, if you will.” Clinton: “You know, Joe, I — I think you make a really important point. I mean, it’s one thing to cover the circus, and the circus is covered. I mean, people can’t stop covering the circus, every utterance, every insult every outrageous action or comment, it gets covered. The context is often missing. What does that really mean? And I think it’s imperative, especially for members of the press who understand, as you were just pointing out, the world has been here before, people did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should, including American journalists. You know, people were taking at face value that oh, this can be controlled. He may have said some outrageous things, but you know, it’ll — it’ll — the institutions will hold. A determined demagogue, unfortunately supported by members of his political party, other enablers, people who care more about a future tax cut than the sanctity of the Constitution are falling in line behind him. They are trying to excuse some of the most outrageous things that you just recited. And I don’t think the press has done enough to basically say, OK, the circus is here. You can watch the circus. But let’s tell you what that means. Let’s talk to people who have a real understanding of how dictatorships evolve. Let’s look at the people that he admires, and what they’ve already done. You know, back in 2016, we didn’t have interviews with him. We didn’t have a track record of four years in office. You know, there was a lot of speculation. And, you know, I understood that people wouldn’t take what I said, necessarily as gospel about what I thought could happen, I get that. But now we know. We — we’ve seen him, and we’ve heard him. And so we need to do —“ BRZEZINSKI: “Right.” Clinton: “— a better job of making it absolutely clear that someone who says these things, you know, maybe he wouldn’t jail all of his political opponents. One is one too many. Maybe he wouldn’t try to force out of business, the members of the press who didn’t agree with him. One is one too many. We’d go down the line. And maybe this would be our last election. Because someone who will not accept the validity of an election is someone who doesn’t believe in elections. He believes in his own power, his own right to power and his demand that he be installed regardless of whether he gets the votes or not.”

GUTFELD: “Well, Marie, he is pointing this whole thing at you. You have a chance to respond.” HARF: “I felt that. So, here’s the difference. January 6th was encouraged by Donald Trump.” GUTFELD: “When he said peaceful?” HARF: “When he said, ‘Go down to the Capitol, I’m going to be with you — ‘“ GUTFELD: “‘Be peaceful.’” HARF: “All of his — “ GUTFELD: “Why do you avoid that?” HARF: “Because, Greg, that does not erase the months of rhetoric where he was encouraging groups to protest the result of this election.” GUTFELD: “Peacefully.” HARF: “No, no, no. He took away — “ GUTFELD: “You hate — hate the words he says.” HARF: “You hate — “ GUTFELD: “No, I’m actually saying what he said.” HARF: “You ignore many of the words he said. To bring this to today, though, the comparison, one of the reasons these protesters are out in the streets is Joe Biden is standing squarely by Israel. Joe Biden, John Fetterman, Tony Blinken, these are the people in the administration who are standing so squarely by Israel that a lot of progressives are angry at them. So the difference is, Donald Trump encouraged political violence from his supporters on January 6 — “ GUTFELD: “No, he didn’t. You didn’t prove that.” HARF: “ — and Joe Biden is doing something these protesters are angry about, because he is refusing to back away from Israel. And the one question he answered when he gave remarks last week was, ‘Have these protests changed your policy?’ And he said, ‘No.’” GUTFELD: “I don’t think Trump ever encouraged people to get in other people’s faces. The Democrats did.” HARF: “He absolutely did. 100%.” GUTFELD: “Show me that clip.” HARF: “I will roll that footage.” GUTFELD: “All right, I gotta go to judge. We gave you your chance, Marie.”

BURNETT: “I want to ask you about something happening as we sit here and speak, and that, of course, is Israel striking Rafah. I know that you have paused, Mr. President, shipments of 2000-pound U.S. bombs to Israel due to concern that they could be used in any offensive on Rafah. Have those bombs, those powerful 2000-pound bombs, been used to kill civilians in Gaza?” Biden: “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven‘t gotten to Rafah yet — they go into Rafah, I‘m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem. We‘re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of the — least recently. But it‘s just wrong. We‘re not gonna supply the weapons and artillery shells used — that have been used — “ BURNETT: “Artillery shells as well?” Biden: “Yeah, artillery shells.” BURNETT: “So, just to understand what they‘re doing right now in Rafah, is that not going into Rafah as you don‘t — “ Biden: “They haven‘t gone in the population centers. What they did is right on the border and it‘s causing problems with, right now, in terms of what Egypt, which I‘ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help. But I‘ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet. They‘re not going to get our support if, in fact, they go in these population centers. We’E not walking away from Israel‘s security, we’re walking away from Israel‘s ability to wage war in those areas.” BURNETT: “So it‘s not over your red line yet?” Biden: “Not yet, but it‘s — we‘ve held up the weapons. We‘ve held up that one shipment as an old shipment design for them. We held that up.”

Graham: “Would you have supported dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General, Brown, in World War II?” BROWN: “Well, senator, I think based on the situation, what — “ Graham: “Well, we know, I mean, it’s happened. We know — I’m not asking. They did it. Do you think that was disproportionate?” BROWN: “It was definitely a — “ Graham: “In hindsight, do you think that was the right decision for America, to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities in question?” BROWN: “Well, I’ll tell you, it stopped the world war.” Graham: “Okay. Well, also — do you agree, General Austin. If you’d been around, would you say drop ‘em?” Austin: “I — you know, I agree with chairman here — “ Graham: “I mean, if we go back in time, says, ‘Hey, we got two atomic bombs, should we drop ‘em?’ What would you say?” Austin: “You know, I think the leadership was interested in curtailing the — “ Graham: “What’s Israel interested in? Do you believe Iran really wants to kill all the Jews if they could, the Iranian regime? Yeah. Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say, ‘We’ll keep doing it over and over again?’ Do you agree that they will, if they can?” Austin: “I do. I — “ Graham: “Okay. Do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, also bent on the destruction of the Jewish state?” Austin: “Hezbollah is a terrorist — terrorist organization.” Graham: “Okay, so Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, dedicated to their destruction. And you’re telling me you’re gonna tell them how to fight the war and what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews? And you’re telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight, the existential fight for the life of the Jewish state, it won’t send the wrong signal? Do you still think it was a good idea, General Austin, to get out of Afghanistan?” Austin: “I support the president’s decision.” Graham: “Yeah, I think you do. I think it was a disastrous decision. If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose. This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”

Harris: “Let me just tell you, you guys are gonna have to be ready for this, ready for certain language. And I said very loudly, ‘Ovaries!’ Ha-ha-ha! ‘And Fallopian tubes!’ Right? ‘Fibroids!’”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: So when you talk about the economy, of course, it is by far the most important issue for voters. It‘s also true right now, Mr. President, that voters by a wide margin, trust Trump more on the economy. They say that in polls and part of the reason for that, maybe the numbers and you‘re aware of many of these, of course, the cost of buying home in the United States is double what it was when you look at your monthly costs from before the pandemic, real income, when you account for inflation is actually down since you took office, economic growth last week, farm are short of expectations consumer confidence, maybe no surprise is near a two-year low with less than six months to go to Election Day. Are you worried that you‘re running out of time to turn that around we‘ve already turned it around. >> Survey for 65% of the American people think they‘re in good shape economically, I think the nations not a good shape. There, personally good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along how many you guys do a poll? CNN, how many folks you have to call to get one response the idea that we‘re in a situation where things are so bad. A folk that we‘ve created more jobs, we‘ve made, we‘re in a situation where people have access to good paying jobs. And the last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation, all the things that‘s really worse than two people with good reason. That‘s why I‘m working very hard to bring the cost of reynolds down to increase the number of homes that are available what of them, but let me say it this way. >> Administration people were saying are going to be a collapsing the economy. >> Economy in the world let me say it again. In the world, although GDP last week was far short of expectations, oh, wasn‘t looked, GDP is still look at the response to the markets overwhelmingly positive. >> One of the reasons why people feel good about it, not being a strong as it was before is they believe that the fenves got respond. >> Rid cut. >> No president has had the run. We‘ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation was 9% when I can do office, 9%. but it looked, people have a right to be concerned ordinary people. The idea that you‘re, your bonds, a check and you get $130 fee for both and check. My chase you can‘t. charge more than eight bucks. Or your credit card. You don‘t you‘re late payment

Biden: “My theology professor at the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Riley, last name. And he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers.”

[Excerpt] CUOMO: “I’ll tell you something else that’s going to get you a lot of hits. I am taking a — what do they call it? Like a regular dose, you know, whatever, they they’re trying to build up, of Ivermectin. Ivermectin, was a boogeyman early on in Covid.” BET-David: “You couldn’t talk about it.” CUOMO: “That was wrong. We were given bad information about Ivermectin. The real question is why? Everyone’s going to say ‘Joe Rogan was right.’ No, Joe Rogan was saying — yeah, he was right — but that’s — that’s not what matters. What matters is the entire clinical community knew that Ivermectin couldn’t hurt you. They knew it, Patrick. I know, they knew it. How do I know? Because now I’m doing nothing but talking to these clinicians, who at the time, were overwhelmed —“ BET-David: “Wow!” CUOMO: “— by Covid.” BET-David: “Yeah.” CUOMO: “And they weren’t saying anything. Not that they were hiding anything.” BET-David: “Yeah.” CUOMO: “But it’s cheap. It’s not owned by anybody. And it’s used as an anti-microbial, anti-viral, and all of these different ways. It has been for a long time —“ UNKNOWN MALE: “For malaria for over — almost 20 years.” CUOMO: “Yeah. So — and my doctor who — who is now my doctor was using it during Covid on her family and on patients. And it was working for them. So they were wrong to play scared on that. Didn’t know that at the time. Know it now, admit it now, reporting on it now. Because I think that’s the job. The idea that well, you were a vaccine proponent? Why wouldn’t I have been a vaccine proponent? Now, there are questions, ‘Oh, no, but I knew at the time.’ No, you didn’t. What you knew was that there were people telling you to be resistant to what the government was telling you to do. That’s fine. But I think for Byron Donalds and for other leaders, that’s not the standard. The standard is what is the basis of you telling people it’s OK if you don’t take it. And I felt that he didn’t have a good basis.”

COLLINS: “And, Paula, if I was describing the intensity in there, this morning, I mean, this cross-examination took on a whole other level just now.” Reid: “Yeah, and remember at the start of the day the Trump team was outraged that they had so little notice about who the witness would be. And so little time to prepare their cross-examination. Well, clearly Kaitlan, they’re doing just fine. This is a devastating cross-examination. They’ve gotten Stormy Daniels to concede she hates Trump. That she said that she would dance if he went to jail. They have pointed to the fact that she has said she will never pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars that she owes him. They’ve effectively undercut her credibility by getting her to talk about conversation she had, impeaching her with her own book. I mean, this has been devastating for Stormy Daniels’ credibility. Now, big picture, what does that mean for the case as a whole? Well, maybe not much because she doesn’t have any direct evidence of the falsifying business records. What she could explain today is what exactly Trump was trying to hide between the Access Hollywood tape and Election Day in 2016, this illicit sexual encounter with a porn star back over a decade prior. She was able to explain to the jury that and how she got paid. But I think what we should really take away from today is this is a preview of what Michael Cohen can look forward to, this kind of sort of devastating, eviscerating cross.”

HOSTIN: “I’m sort of conflicted about whether or not he should be held in contempt and put in — he’s already been held in contempt, but put in jail for it. But I do think that 71 percent of Americans have said that he should be put in jail if he is convicted. The other thing I will say, we all saw, many of us are old enough to have seen the O.J. case. Remember how Judge Ito lost complete control of the courtroom? And I think that had a lot to do with the win. You cannot let Donald Trump be a runaway train in that courtroom.” Goldberg: “No. No.” HOSTIN: “It’s not his courtroom. It’s the judge’s courtroom. And so, I think to make a point, to prove a point, put him in the clink! Why not? Put him in the clink!” [Applause] Goldberg: “Ooh, ooh, oh! If – I don’t want this to sound like I’m doing wishful thinking.” HOSTIN: “Yes.” Goldberg: “But which prison would be best?” [Laughter] HOSTIN: “I know which one.” Goldberg: “I’m going to give you—“ HOSTIN: “Rikers.” Goldberg: “Well, that’s what I – That’s number one; is Rikers! But you know, I’m okay if he goes to Alcatraz and they re-open it.” HOSTIN: “Maybe.” Goldberg: “You know? What about Guantanamo Bay? Okay.” NAVARRO: “Oh, that would be close to Mar-a-Lago. Melania can come and visit. [laughter]” Goldberg: “That’s right! What about Supermax? Supermax would be interesting. El Chapo was in Supermax, you know, hey now, he wants to be with the hip people, come on. So, these are my suggestions in case anybody wants to know.”

AIDALA: “He’s gonna have no choice. And don’t forget, he’s getting prepped and prepped amd prepped. But, Anderson, can we just touch about how sick it is that Stormy Daniels said that here‘s Donald Trump hitting on her, wants to have sex with her, and he‘s like, ‘You remind me of my daughter?’ That‘s weird stuff, man.” COLLINS: “Well, he was saying this because she‘s smart — “ PHILLIP: “ — pretty — “ AIDALA: “But when you hit on a girl, you don‘t say, ‘You remind me of my daughter.’ That‘s nuts. That’s disgusting.” COLLINS: “To that point, one thing that stood out to me, as someone who‘s covered Trump since even before he was in the White House, watching him sitting there and having to listen to the way she talked about him, it wasn‘t just what she said and the salacious points. She was so derisive, she was mocking him, basically, at several points. She was saying, ‘He was old enough to be my dad. He was older than my father.’ She was 27. He was 60. She was saying she didn‘t enjoy it, she didn‘t want to be there. You know, she‘s had all these points where then in the cross-examination she was like, ‘Yeah, I do hate him and I do want to see him held accountable,’ and she was not shying away from her past statements about him. Trump never has to sit there and listen to someone talk about him like that or talk to him like that and describe him as arrogant and pompous, and today he had no choice, he was just sitting there. Speaking of what this trial has done to him, regardless of the outcome, seeing him sit there at that table and just have to kinda take it is remarkable.” PHILLIP: “And this is one of the things that he has always been the most sensitive about, this Stormy Daniels allegation in particular. Kaitlan knows this actually really well, because asking him about this at the White House would be like World War II for the White House staff, they absolutely hated this line of questioning. And it really gets to — it reminds me of how he responded to the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape. That‘s definitely him, right, on the audio tape, but he still likes to deny it. So when he‘s confronted with the sort of worst parts of himself, he really reacts very strongly and very negatively. And that‘s what this whole case is about. However, I do think Stormy Daniels, the way that she conveyed that, you know, Trump is going to make the argument — and I don‘t know what his lawyers are going to do, but he‘s already been making the case this is a concocted case to dirty him up before the election, to make him seem bad in front of the American public, even though there‘s no legally illegal thing that happened here. That‘s his argument. I don‘t know that Stormy Daniels helped the prosecutors in batting that down, because she seemed to have a personal vendetta against him. It may be justified, but that‘s what it seemed like based on her testimony.” COOPER: “Well, the defense, when they cross-examined her, I mean, they attacked her motivations about talking about the encounter.”

HONIG: “So it‘s interesting, because I was doing our live coverage, following along with our minute-by-minute updates from inside the courtroom, and I had the exact opposite impression. Now, you had the benefit of being in the courtroom, so I will defer to that, but we do also have to be careful when we play sort of amateur psychologists to the jurors’ movements, right? They were leaning forward, they were taking taking notes. Okay. They could be taking notes because they think this is a great point, or they could be taking notes because they think ‘This makes no sense and I don‘t believe it.’ So let‘s just all be cautious in reading into the jurors physicality. My impression was she was plausible on her explanation of what happened in that hotel room. It‘s hard for me to believe that a juror heard that and thought this is entirely made up. There may well be some embellishments, which Arthur I think pointed out effectively in the last hour, but I think it‘s quite clear they had sex in 2006 in that hotel room. But the cross-exam, boy, her responses were disastrous. I mean, do you hate Donald Trump? Yes, of course she does. That‘s a big deal. When the witness hates the person who‘s liberty is at stake, that‘s a big damn deal. And she‘s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility. The fact that she owes him $500,000, she, by order of a court, owes Donald Trump a half million dollars and said, ‘I will never pay him, I will defy a court order,’ the defense is going to say, ‘She‘s willing to defy a court order. She‘s not willing to respect an order of a judge. Why is she going to respect this oath she took?’ So I thought it went quite poorly on cross-exam. At the end of direct, I thought, ‘Okay, they got what they needed,’ but I think the cross is make real inroads.’” TOOBIN: “Can I ask you both about part of the cross that that has been a theme of the defense, which was, this whole thing is just extortion? These are people who had a way of extracting money from Donald Trump, and that‘s what they did with the threat of disclosing stuff he didn‘t want disclosed. How do you think that plays into this case?” HONIG: “You go first. You were there.” EISEN: “Look, I thought that the importance of starting with Pecker, who makes clear that there is an agreement, and he was very persuasive, and the rest of the case, including — put the documents half of the case two, the cover-up to the side, Stormy didn‘t have anything to say about that. The rest of the case is all a follow-on to Pecker, establishing the contours of this campaign finance election interference conspiracy.”

DERSHOWITZ: “Well, first of all, it was clear reversible error today committed by the judge and the prosecution under the reasoning of the recently reversed Harvey Weinstein case. So much information came out that was utterly irrelevant. Let’s start with whether they had sex at all. Utterly irrelevant. The only issue is whether she threatened to expose him and whether she extorted him and whether he then paid money to avoid the embarrassment to his family, to his business, to his children, and, according to the prosecution, to help himself get reelected. The issue of what actually happened is utterly irrelevant. And then we get to the details, the silk pajamas, the kind of lotion he was wearing. I can’t imagine how the court of appeals in New York that reversed Harvey Weinstein conviction, which was a harder case to reverse, wouldn’t reverse this conviction if it got up there. I would certainly recommend to the prosecutors in this case that they study the Weinstein case very carefully because it gives a roadmap to what you can do. This prosecutor is just following the roadmap of what you can’t do.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Yeah, I mean, so, Ben, since you wrote this book, it — as Jonathan was saying, the situation has gotten tougher and tougher, more fragmentation but also more failure. You look at what happened over the past year, from The L.A. Times” to The Messenger to you name it, it seems one business, whether it is traditional newspaper or whether it’s website-based, one after another is falling. A couple questions. One, why is it that The New York Times seems to only be getting stronger? And two, what is the lesson from all these failures for the startups of the next few years?” Smith: “You know, in some sense, the big story is the decline of local. The New York Times is getting stronger, in a sense, because why would you read The Los Angeles Times or The Cleveland Plain Dealer when you can just as easily get The New York Times? And the same way as something like search engines, you know, the rich get richer, the best platform gets more data and more money and gets better. In some sense, The Times is the winner of this kind of nationalization of news, and local press everywhere is the loser. The way in which the industry is shrinking, the real thing that is hitting the news industry, isn’t tech journalism or media journalism, or business journalism — it’s local news. That is just continuing to get decimated and eroding this very baseline foundation of news gathering in America. And I think those of us who are trying to build new things. Like us at Semafor, being very careful, very focused, in a way that’s not totally unlike television, actually, on the voices of individual journalists who can connect to people, who may be a little skeptical of the institutions. But I do think that None of us are chasing at the kind of scale that we were, for instance, at Buzzfeed.”

GEIST: “Joy, I’m struck by how often she mentions those who have not left yet. Paul Whelan, she continuously brought up his name over the course of your interview, reminding people, yes, she was free, but there are still some left behind.” Reid: “Yeah. And in the back of the book she lists all of the Americans who have been detained around the world, including those who have been detained by Russia, and writes a lot about the connection that the Whelan family and the Reed family and her family and her family all made back home, all rooting for each other’s freedom. This was not just about getting one person out. For all of them, it was about getting everyone out. She’s really thrown herself into this cause of freeing all of the Americans who have been left behind, and as she said, hoping that when she got on that plane, Paul Whelan would be on that plane, as well. It really does show you the torment that these people are going through. Think how long Paul Whelan has been there. She went through years. To me, it is sort of shocking to think about spending nearly a year far from home, wondering if you’ll ever get out. Because she was sentenced to nine years, nine and a half years’ incarceration for what, in this country, would amount to nothing, and for something that wasn’t even deliberate. But I think the Putin regime understood that they had not just a black celebrity, a black queer celebrity, somebody who could be used internally as a pawn, somebody who they could sort of internally mock and hold hostage from the United States, knowing the trauma that it would cause back home.” BRZEZINSKI: “Joy Reid, thank you so much. We’ll be watching The ReidOut tonight at 7:00 P.M. Eastern for part two of Joy’s exclusive interview with Brittney Griner.”