pointe du hoc on d-day as he urges americans here at home to defend democracy, stand up to aggression abroad, and be part of something bigger than ourselves. the biden campaign message of democracy and freedom as the election gets closer, but is it landing? the defense calls its first witness at hunter biden s federal gun trial. key members who could take the stand and the impact they might have on this case. and polling says the rfk jr. could have an impact on the election. will challenges keep him off the ballot in some major states. we ll explain what it could mean and who is behind the effort. begin with president biden s appeal to americans to protect democracy and freedom. the president delivering that message more than 4,000 miles away at pointe du hoc in france. the dramatic backdrop at the stop where 80 years ago u.s. army rangers scaled the cliffs overlooking omaha and utah beaches as allied forces helped turn the tide of world war ii. to believe, to require
testifying in very tough cross examination by the prosecution giving details that might hurt her father s case seemed to really change the dynamic. and really, the entire trial is going on with this family confronting a very difficult truth, which is if president biden had not run for office, if he was not running for re-election, would this whole ordeal have been spared of them, and then to see president biden have to answer that question, the power that he has as president to potentially pardon his son, to lift this cloud from him is one he s choosing not to take because of the respect for rule of the law and the concern potentially about the politics as well. a difficult day for the family in what has been a long and difficult trial here. catherine, one big unanswered question, and it usually does wait until the last minute, but that is will hunter biden take the stand in his own defense? what goes into making that decision? if they prep him, and he doesn t do well when they re
it s a rare defendant that knocks it out of the ballpark. so we will see. he doesn t have to. there s no need to. why put him through that because then it opens up the door to asking a whole bunch of other things about his credibility. but if they feel at the end of this that they have not mounted a defense that s likely to work, would they do it? obviously it s up to him, so i m saying, you know, i m saying they won t, but if he wants to, he will. but you know, that s very close. i think through their cross examination questions, i would argue they ve built enough reasonable doubt. we ll see if the jury believes the same. ken dilanian, mike memoli, and catherine christian, thank you all very much. and coming up, inside the rnc s decision to hire a stop the steal advocate to help craft its party s platform for decision 2024 and how much influence his election conspiracy theories could have on republican policy making.
courthouse for us in wilmington. i also want to bring in former assistant d.a. for the manhattan district attorney s office catherine christian and msnbc legal analyst. so ken, the court just entered a lunch break, get us up to speed on what s happened today. reporter: chris, the testimony from naomi biden, hunter biden s oldest child, was really impactful and interesting. she s a lawyer in washington, d.c. she came into court today as a defense witness. hunter biden s attorney abbe lowell got her to testify that her dad, in her view, was doing as well as he had been in the summer of 2018 before he bought that gun. you know, she knew he had been using drugs since his brother beau died of cancer, and she knew that he was an addict, but she said she had seen him in rehab and that he seemed to be doing well. this obviously is a point for the defense because they re trying to argue that he wasn t using drugs when he bought that gun. but then on cross examination, prosecutor leo wise did