and katy tur pick up our special coverage, next. our special coverage, next good day, i m andrea mitchell in new york along with my colleague, katy tur. the prosecution is quickly wrapping up its case in the first criminal trial of a former american president. the state is gets its chance now to repair any damage done by the testimony of its star witness. moments ago, the defense wrapped up with michael cohen after three days of cross-examination. it was a grueling three days. the big wild card is donald trump himself. will he live up to his promise to take the stand or put his defense team rest without presenting a single witness? dramatically demonstrating their argument that the state has failed to meet the burden of proof. judge merchan has set a new schedule this week guaranteeing the case will not go to the jury until after the long memorial day holiday weekend. he announced this morning that closing arguments will not take place until next tuesday he says because
we will hear argument this morning in case 23-939. trump versus the united states. reporter: tonight, new testimony of the alleged criminal conspiracy to help elect donald trump. trump turned to the business at hand and asked david pecker how is our girl. as his argument for absolute immunity finally goes before the supreme court. this court has never recognized absolute criminal immunity for any public official. a private attorney to spearhead his challenges to the election results. what was up with the pardon for president nixon? if everybody thought that presidents couldn t be prosecuted what was that about? if it fails completely it is because we have destroyed our democracy on our own, isn t it? tonight, rachel maddow, nicole wallace, joy reed, chris liz. lawrence o donnell, lisa ruben all here as msnbc s special coverage of trump on trial begins now. who has the time? who has the time? you are telling me that simultaneously, we have nearly three hour
showdown in a florida courtroom. special counsel jack smith s team heading into court just an hour from now to defend charges in the classified documents case. will the growing tension between the government and judge aileen cannon spill over into today s proceedings? plus, democrats today honing their message on abortion down to a razor s edge, just two words, blame trump. the vice president taking that message today to arizona, the state now at the heart of the debate. and we could be entering into the most dangerous and fraught 72-hour period the middle east has seen in decades. with an attack from iran believed to be imminent, is there anything the u.s. can do to keep things from spiraling out of control? a lot to get to on this friday. we begin in florida where tensions are high and decisions critical in donald trump s classified documents case. special counsel jack smith s team will be face to face with judge aileen cannon today for the first time since smith sign
defend that. the lead starts right now. with cameras rolling, mr. trump s lawyers appeared in georgia and began their attempt to defend their client. what they presented today before judge mcafee and what s likely to come down the pike. we re going dive into all of it. plus, the cease-fire is over. the white house is blaming hamas and israeli strikes resumed in gaza, while prime minister netanyahu is facing new criticism and tough questions about warnings his government received and dismissed as recently as last summer about a pending hamas attack. and the locks changed on george santos office already, just hours after the historic vote, expelling him from congress. all the day s drama, the fire, the fury, the tears, the cheers, as we say not good-bye to george santos, but let us say, until we meet again. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with two major developments in donald trump s legal battles. first off to fulton county, georgia, trump s lawyers arg
hi, everyone, we made it to friday. it s 4:00 in new york. the very first person to earn the dubious of being first of the republican party is at this very moment playing a game of chicken with the rule of law with practically every prominent member of the gop either silenced or acting at his henchman, the ex-president is talking like a mob boss, amping up his threats of retaliation against his perceived political opponents and enemies in the wake of his conviction on 34 felony counts for concealing a scheme to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. over the course of a single day, trump openly mused about revenge, not once, not twice, but three times. even when he was practically begged to back off the threats by friendly interviewers. watch. i think you have so much to do, you don t have time to get even. you only have time to get right. well, revenge does take time, i will say that. it does. and sometimes revenge can be justified, but sometimes it can t