Grabien

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.”

SIDNER: “‘Who could sign the checks,’ he asked, ‘for the accounts in 2016 and 2017?’ And she says, ‘Well, you‘re talking about Mr. Trump‘s personal account?’ And the attorney says, ‘Yes.’ And she says, ‘Only Mr. Trump.’ The attorney asks again, ‘Was that true back in 2017 and 2016?’ She said, ‘Yes. And she said that it‘s still that way today. So, she is still working for that organization. She further says that if Trump didn‘t want to sign a check, he certainly wouldn‘t do it. Can you give us some sense of how important this kind of testimony is and how far this went to help potentially the prosecution make their case that Donald Trump knew what was going on here because he signed the checks?” MOORE: “Well, her testimony was important because it starts to connect some of the dots and that is, can you actually put a pin in Donald Trump‘s hand, can you put a check in his hand under his signature? But that really is not the crux of the government‘s case. The case deals with has he falsified records as it relates to federal election law? And so, that has not been accomplished yet. So, they‘re moving that way to it. I mean, this is a paper case. Paper cases are not inherently interesting. This one is a little different because of it involves a former president. But the prosecutor has to put some meat on the bone. They‘ve sort of started building out a little bit of the flesh and they‘re getting that way, but they‘re going to have to now go from he knew about the checks, he signed the checks, over to he actually was involved and gave some direction as it relates to these false business records that are at issue in the indictment.”

KRONE: “... sends this really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are and they can — they will be welcomed here. The argument that I make with the people that say, ‘Well I always liked Boy Scouts of America or BSA, why do we have to change?’ You know, membership is at historic lows, right? Part of my job is to reduce all the barriers I possibly can for people to accept us as an organization and to join.”

HOCHUL: “Young black kids growing up in The Bronx, who don’t even know what the word a computer is, they don’t know. They don’t know these things. And I want the world open up to all of them, because when you have their diverse voices, innovating solutions through technology, then you’re really addressing societies broader challenges.”

Biden: “He wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. He says, ‘There’s a lot we can do in terms of cutting.’ I’ve got one really serious idea how to cut, he-he. A candidate. Anyway...”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: >> Greg: gathering vp choices at Mar-a-Lago including J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, camren mcdonald, governor and Christine know them. Some say she is barking up the wrong tree after her dog killing both. Jesse, governor is going to be on your show tonight. Are you going to roll over and play dead is to mark >> Jesse: we will have our own at the top. But Trump said Byron Donalds. I like diversity as they say, diversity. He goes, it’s not diversity. We need a little diversity. That is what we are calling an African American on the ticket now. >> Harold: be careful. >> Greg: is that all you’re going to say? >> Jesse: he goes, I love your

Dale: “And I‘ll add, there‘s a couple of things he said in comments after court that we haven‘t played yet, that were just not true. He said he‘s leading in every poll. He‘s not leading in every poll. He‘s leading in many polls, but we‘ve had a couple polls in recent days, from ABC, from TIPP, in which he’s trailing.”

Biden: “In the land of possibilities, they represent something essential about America. We are a nation of immigrants and we shouldn’t forget it. No, we — it’s why we’re so good, why we’re so strong, why we have such potential. We’re a nation of dreamers. And Cinco de Mayo represents we’re a nation of freedom. That’s America, the America we share, the America we’re fighting for together.”

CAVUTO: “Juan Merchan now indicating that he’s going to find Donald Trump in contempt for the tenth time. He’s recognizing fairly quickly that when you slap $1,000 fines on a billionaire, you’re not necessarily going to get him to change his ways or his comments or what he says in public or otherwise. But he said — this is the judge now — that he would consider jail for further violations. To that extent, prosecutors have urged him to do so. Will that likely happen? Let’s go to Andy McCarthy on that, former assistant U.S. Attorney, Fox News contributor. That would be a big leap, but what do you think, Andy?” McCarthy: “Well, I think it’d be politically disastrous for Democrats to have Donald Trump be put in jail over this. I think it would just cause more scrutiny for this case, which is very politicized. I don’t see how that helps them politically. So I think that judge is backing himself into a bad corner by continuing to draw a line in the sand that I think he really doesn’t want to cross with these threats of incarceration.” CAVUTO: “You’re, the legal eagle, I’m not. As I’ve often told you, I’ve watched a lot of law shows so I think I qualify. But the one thing that struck me, couldn’t to judge make this easier on himself and everybody else if he just said, ‘The standards I’m applying to you, Donald Trump, I will apply now to Michael Cohen?’” McCarthy: “Well, there’s less law for the proposition that you can — you can stifle a witness than a party, but you’re quite right that there’s what the law exactly says and there’s what the judge could do if the judge really wants. If the judge made it clear to prosecutors that he wants their witness to stop talking about Trump and talking about the case, that would happen quickly. He’s not doing that on the rationalization that Trump is the only one who’s on trial. But the thing is, Neil, what he is saying is that he’s trying to shield the proceedings from heightened publicity and other potential things that could undermine the proceedings. It really does doesn’t matter which participant in the trial is doing the talking, whether it’s Trump or somebody else. That still generates what the judge says he’s trying to shield the jury in the rest of the process from. So I think it’s a disingenuous argument. My own view of it, for what it’s worth, is that he doesn’t, the judge doesn’t want Trump talking about the fact that the judge’s daughter is a political operative for the Democrats who gets a lot of money working for people who define themselves by how much they loathe Trump. I think that’s problematic for the judge and he doesn’t want Trump talking about it, so he’s pretextually saying that Trump is threatening witnesses, which Trump isn’t doing, so that he has an excuse to tamp down that line of argument by Trump.”

WHITE: “Not my thing, so I’m going to keep this short like Gronk’s bus. Actually, let me get into this real quick. It pisses me off. I flew all the way out here, and you guys give me 60 seconds. My name is Dana. Is that not trans enough for you liberal f**ks? No. All right. Tom, you played for the Patriots for so long that I was actually starting to feel like you were from Boston. Then I saw you running. I was like, no, he’s definitely from San Francisco. (Laughter) You led the league for 20 years in passing as a straight guy. Come on. Hey, I got two of the baddest dudes in the world here right now, Sugar Sean O’Malley and Max Holloway. (Cheering and Applause) Tom, you would have been a great fighter. You’re already the master of the ground and pound. That’s what you call coffee dates with your boyfriend, Alex Guerrero. One more thing. You people probably don’t know this, but Jeff Ross was very interested in the UFC. He thought it meant unlimited fried chicken. I love you, Tom.” UNKNOWN MALE: “Dana White, ladies and gentlemen. Great job, Dana.”

UNKNOWN PERSON: “One of the most common comments I receive in the comments of all of my videos is that if I went too Palestine as a non binary queer person that I would be unalived by them. I just want to say that the majority of my followers at this point are Muslim, many of them are Palestinian, and not a single time have I received a death threat or unkind words from any of them. I have been invited to people’s homes. I have been called dear, and I have been called habibi. These people do not know hate the way that Zionists know hate. I am less afraid of a Palestinian or a Muslim than I am of a Christian man. Because all of the Christian men in my comments are hateful, and I have received death threats from them.”

HEGSETH: “But this weekend he was able to go down to Mar-a-Lago for a major donor retreat, featuring a handful of prospective VP possibilities. I know you were there, congressman. Talk to me about the state of the Trump campaign considering what they’re up against when your candidate can’t travel, can’t do events, can’t fundraise, still looks like a very strong showing, what do you see?” DONALDS: “Well, first, the campaign is in great shape. The president is in great spirits, even though he’s having to deal with these crazy Biden trials that have all been pulled together by Joe Biden and the crazy Democratic left. But look, you got to understand a couple of things, Donald Trump is not going to — he’s not going to wither under these attacks, it’s only going to make him stronger. And the polling demonstrates this. We’re now leading in all of the battleground states, because the people are seeing that Donald Trump has the strength to stand against the radical left. And Americans — America remembers what his presidency was all about. So I would implore Americans, make sure you get out there your vote for Donald Trump. We need strength on the world stage. We need strength here at home. Joe Biden has been a disaster of a president. And so when you were there this weekend, with a lot of people supporting the president, over 400 people coming to support the president and the Republican National Committee, it demonstrates the strength and the resolve. You couple that with poll numbers, and then of course, the reality that Joe Biden, the master of disaster himself, is the very worst president our country has seen, that is why people are rallying around President Trump. He’s going to be the 47th president of the United States.”

Trump: “There’s many other articles, many of them having to do with the gag order and the unconstitutionality, having to do with the gag order. It is unconstitutional and it shouldn’t be allowed, and I wish people could move a little bit quicker, the appellate courts, because the whole world is watching this and they see what’s happening. More importantly, frankly, they have no case. They have absolutely no case. It is a political hoax, it’s election interference, anything they can do. And even the witnesses they want to bring up, they have nothing to do with the case. This is a ridiculous situation. Not fair. Not fair, but we will fight. Thank you.”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: >> Now you mentioned ucla. We are learning this afternoon that ucla would return to regular operations tomorrow. The New York Times analyzed hours of footage from violent clashes last week. They say the video show the count of protesters attacking students in a pro-Palestinian encampment for hours using sticks, chemical sprays, and fireworks with little or no police intervention. As of Friday, no arrests have been made in connection with the attacks. Are you confident that law enforcement is doing enough to deescalate these demonstrations and protect everyone on all sides of the violence? These were the counterprotesters that were against the Palestinians that made these attacks? >> Well I believe law enforcement should be the last resort. Rules of engagement are incredibly important when you are talking about protests. What the administration should be clear about. What protesters should be clear about. And the student protesters should also be very vocal about outside agitators and those participating in the non- violent student movement. I know that ucla has come under fire about the uneven application of title vi and calling in law enforcement. I know they have just announced they are going go starting up in office, I think public safety or community safety to help address this on a go forward basis. There is also going to be tension between the First Amendment and expressing your right to demonstrate and have decent. But at the end of the day, the property must not be vandalized. Students should not be violated. So ucla will continue to answer these questions because the images that we saw were deeply concerning, and there has been information that has come out that has not really answered the questions that many of us have been asking.

(Cheering and Applause) PROTESTERS: “Arbor, Arbor, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide! Arbor, Arbor, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide!” (...) (Applause) DEL TORO: “I’ve served for 26 years in uniform to, again, protect the liberties of all Americans to protest peacefully in this country.” (...) PROTESTERS: “Israel bombs, U-of-M pays, how many kids have you killed today? Israel bombs, U-of-M pays, how many kids have you killed today?”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: LEVIN: “I thought it was pretty funny when Biden talks about he is there to protect free speech. Tell him it was he there to protect free speech when his attorney general issued a memo threatening parents but was he there to protect free speech when Department of Justice is randy cap Graham of the suture to protest against abortion and abortion clinics? Was he there to protect free speech when FBI other instrument tells of the federal government for setting up this information committee and putting the shoulder on social platforms to silence free political speech? Was he there for the First Amendment when his FBI was secreting itself into various catholic churches? The idea this guy stands for the First Amendment or any of the bill of rights as a joke is it not?” TERRELL: “Absolutely moves not for so it shows like yours and Fox News, I will say this to every time I’m on the show. He is protected by 90% of the media do not want to mention any names, CNN and MSNBC, “New York Times,” “Washington Post,” los angeles times. They protect him if we do not have shows like yours at Fox News this country would not know the truth the truth is not being told to the American public. It is getting out there. We have got to keep hounding the truth to the American people because they do not know they do not know the truth. Mark: we will be right back.”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: Biden, they‘re looking at the policies, not at the people, and they were better off on her chosen Trump‘s policies. >> Plurality of the American people think that President Trump did commit a crime when it comes to this case and if you add in those who think it was unethical, but not illegal, it‘s a vast majority let me just ask you if Donald Trump becomes a convicted felon because of this case, will that affect your support for him for president well if he becomes a convicted felon in this case, that‘s a just a travesty of justice because as I just had, when you‘ve got a business filing error, that is for something that was again, it‘s not illegal to pay people for non-disclosure agreements that happens all the time. Sure. This network and others have done that. So that‘s not a legal. And then you‘ve got a again to trying to do this. And the only reason this trial is happening right now, it‘s the only one that could actually be brought forward. The other four couldn‘t be brought the other three of the four couldn‘t be brought forward before the election. >> Intended to try to achieve a result before the election. >> As Americans would know, that any kind of appeal would be pushed until after the election. So that‘s why everybody sees this is politically motivated. And like I said, a filing error is not something that would affect any American people that are trying to put food on the table and gas in the car. It doesn‘t affect check them. And so it this is why the outcome of this trial is not going to change. A lot of people‘s minds. It might actually, in some ways help President Trump because it reinforces the idea that the Biden Administration is willing to use lawfare to try to attack a political opponent. >> Biden has anything to do with this case from brought forward by district attorney Bragg and you keep it‘s grabbing there‘s a filing error. I guess that‘s one interpretation. Another interpretation is that Donald Trump‘s attorney, Michael Cohen, paid hush money for to hide from the American people before the election. The fact that Mr. Trump had had a rendezvous with a porn star, and that they wanted to hide that from the American people until after the election. So far the the evidence and I‘ve seen suggests there are at least was some political motivation to this and they hit it so as to hide that from the public. That‘s a little bit more than just checking wrong box on a form. But let‘s move on because I want to ask you about something else, Mr. Trump

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: CAPEHART: “In less than a minute Congressman Mondaire Jones, if you win back the seat against Congressman Mike Lawlor, what is your first priority?” Jones: “The first priority has to be making sure that we codify Roe v. Wade and rescue our democracy. We are staring at a situation right now where there is not a democratic majority in January, Republicans may not certify a Joe Biden victory. It is just really important that we have adults in the room in the majority, unlike the chaos, extremism, and incompetence, that we’ve seen. But we have to do more than that, Jonathan. We, of course, have to secure our border. We, of course, have to make sure that we are banning assault weapons so that kids can stop getting gunned down in schools around the country, and we have to continue to lower the cost of prescription drugs and healthcare, which is something I’m very passionate about, as someone who watched his grandmother work past the age of retirement just to pay for the high cost of prescription drugs.”

O’DONNELL: “How big of an issue will abortion rights be this election year=” Jeffries: “It’s gonna be an incredibly significant issue. Because on it’s own, it’s about freedom, and the extreme MAGA Republicans have set in motion the erosion of reproductive freedom. We’re going to fight for it with every thing that we’ve got at our disposal. If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself in full. If Roe v. Wade can fall, then anything can fall. (...) Every single thing that we care about is on the ballot in November.”

LEMON: “Well, then Taylor, how do you reconcile the way marginalized — many of the people in these marginalized groups, obviously, they’re fighting for Palestine, for the Palestinians, for what’s happening in Gaza, but yet in Gaza, they would not have any freedom.” LORENZ: “They don’t have freedoms in Texas, in Florida. Does that mean we should go bomb Texas. That’s an absurd — ” LEMON: “I understand that, but, Taylor — Taylor, I’m a member of the LGBTQ community. If I go to Texas, they’re not going to throw me off a roof.”

Wilson: “But there is light on the horizon. There is a break in the storm. They still have a lot of money, but they are a fundamentally broken party. There are a lot of Republicans out there who are — who are struggling with one of the biggest issues that — one of the biggest mistakes the Republicans have made in a long time. Now, whether you are pro-choice or pro-life or anti-abortion or pro-abortion, however you want to phrase it or look at it or think about it, between 22 and 28 percent of Republican women are pro-choice.”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: LEVIN: “Welcome back America we are here with her friend leo wrote civil rights attorney, Fox News contributor and dear friend of mine. You are also a teacher. You so it is and has been taking place at ucla and all over the country. Civil rights attorney, the idea of the federal government does not have enough authority does not have enough police state power with the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the ability to monitor, the ability to find the funding sources deal with the funding sources, use domestic terrorist and statutes for the idea the FBI sits on the side lay with this counterrevolution of marxism and Islamic’s going on. Destroying our educational system the idea of the attorney general says nothing for nothing effective. The president of the United States and blurts out a few comments but nothing effective. Nobody is directing the federal government to address what is taking place in this country. We have never seen anti-Semitism, Jew hatred in America like we have seen before. What you make of this?” TERRELL: “First of all let’s be very clear let’s not use the First Amendment to describe the criminal anti-Semitic conduct an that happened at ucla, school which is a national embarrassment and throughout the entire country. Listen there’s there is enough f law and protection that is not being used by the Biden Administration, why? They are playing politics let me mention something I’m sure you know title vi civil rights act I’m old enough to remember when black kids were protected by the federal government in the 50s and 60s. Joe Biden has abandoned Jewish Americans throughout this country. Jewish Americans deserve the same detection as any American citizen in this country but he is playing Michigan politics how dare they allow these criminals to dominate these universities and then be released on the street? Where are the federal chargers? Where is the department of education? Cut off their funds. Cut off every nickel and dime of federal taxpayer dollars to these Ivy League schools and colleges that promote Hamas and the Palestinians over there. Where’s the FBI investigation? Where is Merrick Garland? Or is the power of the federal government where the federal marshals to escort Jewish American kids to school? Nothing. The federal government Joe Biden have given these terrorists the green light to attack, harm, damage, and denied Jewish Americans to exist in this country. It is embarrassing and shameful.”