Today on Inside Politics a moment memorialized for all of history. For the very first time, Television Cameras capture the former president of the United States sitting stoic inside a croom. Lets be clear, his entrance was a madefortv setup, all about his campaign. Beyond trumps stage craft, the trial poses a very real threat to his business empire. Will he get by with help from new friends . The speaker readies for a revolt that will try to take the gavel, staying in his job may depend on democrats. Governor gavin newsom honors a promise to elect a black woman to fill the seat vacant by dianne feinstein. Barbara lee will join me in minutes. Im dana bash, behind the headlines and Inside Politics. Up first, the former president flanked by his lawyers captured sitting behind the Defense Table in a New York City cr courtroom. That glimpse will be the only one we get of donald trump. The judge overseeing His Civil Fraud Trial decided to keep the media from broadcasting Opening Arguments live. The trial is about money, power and yes, of course, politics. Before the trial began, the choreography made that very last part really clear. The former president s entraj son eric, senior advisors, striding into court as if this was a campaign event. They were followed by the former president who stopped and talked and talked and talked, delaying the start of his trial by nine minutes. His rant was typical and remarkable for venom aimed at the new York Attorney general. This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. We have a rogue judge who ruled that properties are worth a tiny fraction 0. 01 of what they are. We have a racist Attorney General who is a horror show who ran on the basis that she was going to get trump before she even knew anything about me. She used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor. She has virtually she said ill go back and get trump again and this is what we have. Its a scam, a sham. Cnn is live outside the court. What is happening at this hour . Yeah. Dana, theyre wrapping up a tenminute break at the moment. We understand that former president has now just walked right back into the courtroom so we expect the proceedings to continue. Again, as he did when he first went into the courtroom, he did not acknowledge Letitia James as you showed your viewers a sound of what he was saying about her, but didnt acknowledge her when he walked past her and seated next to his attorneys. Before this we heard Opening Statements from his attorneys, the defense, and then also from the states attorney. Let me get into what has been discussed. As far as the states attorneys, essentially they have said that trump and his family and the Trump Organization falsified Business Records for several years trying to gain interest, better interest rates, trying to get loans, and they did this knowingly. They showed a number of Deposition Videos from trump, former president , son, former members of the Trump Organization giving the deflection of who was in charge of signing off on all these Business Records and wrapped up his moment which lasted about a little less than an hour saying asking the judge to bar trump and his sons from ever doing business in the state of new york. Now as far as the defense is concerned, we know that trump has been talking with his attorneys as he was seated there, weighing in. On the defense side, essentially he has been saying that trump did everything by the book, that he complied with all regulatory requirements and that even bringing someone in from the stearns new York BusinessBusiness School to explain how he came up to evaluations of properties to explain again it was all by the book. We know that trump is eager according to his people to testify in this trial, and he is listed as a witness on both the states side and as the defense. We dont expect him to take the stand today, but its possible we could see that happen next week. This is right now laying out exactly how this trial is going to look, which could last, again, for about three months were hearing from the judge. Its unclear how long exactly it will last but thats how long its on the books. It all comes after a big ruling last week from that judge who decided that elements of parts of this trial he did, the trump and his family, were liable and they are going to owe money and business certifications were stripped from them. You laid out what trump said. I want you to hear what the Attorney General said before she walked into court. Good morning, everyone. Donald trump and the defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud. Last week we proved that in our motion for Summary Judgment. Today we prove our other claims. Our message is simple, no matter how powerful you are, how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. It is my responsibility and my duty in this job to enforce it. Both powerful and fragile, and today in court, well prove our case. I thank you all for being here. And again, justice will prevail. Thank you. Reporter shes making those statements, things weve heard her say and shes coming off the win, which the judge decided last week in her favor. The judge will be deciding everything in this case. This is not a jury trial. This is a bench trial. Of course as you said, this is a civil, not a criminal trial. Thank you so much for your reporting. Here with me to talk about it are some legal and political insights. Cnns cordero, defense attorney joey jackson and cnn kristen holmes. Want to start with you, kerry, talking about whats at stake. Were talking about properties, trump properties, like the trump tower, Trump International hotel, central park, the westchester golf club, 40 wall street, and i just want to look at the claims were discussing part of this, persistent and repeated fraud, conspiracy to falsify Business Records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Yeah. I think what this case is really about in this stage of the case is about is the Trump Organizations ability to continue to do business in the state of new york. The judge already issued the decision last week that pertained to some of the charges that found that they did engage in fraud already and so now there are some of the remaining allegations that the state Attorney General is making and there is the issue of liabilities and damages and how much they will need to pay and whether theyll be able to continue to retain their entities and do business in new york. And joey jackson, you are very familiar with the court system in new york, particularly New York City. What do you make of this coming up now and also the fact that somebody who observed donald trump in new york, even before he was on the political stage that notion of him inflating his worth was not like a big secret. This is now making a giving him a financial penalty . Sure. Its exactly that. This is a place for the new York State Attorney general to be clear. Not only prosecutes criminal cases, which this is not to be clear, as you noted, but also has a duty to the consumers with regard to unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices, and so what weve seen is a threeyear investigation by the state Attorney General and with respect to that investigation, the unearthing of significant fraud, fraud to the tune of valuations over 2 billion annually and to the extent that that assisted him the getting loans for better rates and conducting other business activities, and so based upon the new york state law, the Attorney General decided to move forward here and, of course, got whats called a Summary Judgment motion last week. What that means is that the judge concluded there is north a dispute in terms of material facts relating to many of the counts of fraud and with respect to those counts, you move on to the issue of damages, what now are the consequences for doing that. Just to be clear, as a civil case, mr. Trump is not required to be in court. He, of course, has the right to. It affects his monetary interest. He is, but the reality is, that theres place for this. The judge, and again hes made certain claims, mr. Trump has, with respect to this being unfair, et cetera, the judge in the 30some odd page ruling was specific and clear to the nature of fraud and took the attorneys to task in terms of the issues about, you know, look, you guys are making arguments, and im sanctioning you for that. Here we are to decide the other cases relating to fraud as well as the damages that flow from will there be an independent receiver, the role of that in terms of dissolution, the penalty look like with regard to the fees and whether or not all of The Business Certificates will be canceled. The consequences here are very significant. Very significant indeed. You mentioned, joey, kristen, im going to take this to you, that the former president didnt have to be there. This is his lifes work, his business, so its understandable that someone would want to be in a courtroom. It is also not a price. The former president is using this image, weve never seen an image like this before, it was brief because they didnt want cameras to stay in the courtroom, but that image to be a spectacle, a very trumpesque spectacle he is trying to use to his advantage. Already fundraising off of the fact that he is in this courtroom, kristen. Yeah. Dana, it appears they are treating this trial as though it is a campaign event. Remember, trump and his team are very good at manipulating the optics and they want good visuals, they want the Media Coverage on them no matter what coverage is. I have been asking them, how are you going to navigate a president ial campaign alongside these multiple looming trials, and the answer continued to be we dont know yet. Were working it out. Shorter days and rallies at night. It appears they have at least figured out one part of that which is turning these trials, in this case, into a campaign event. A Senior Adviser to trump told me as much, conceded that is what they had done in this case. They knew where the cameras were in that room. He knew to go. He knew to pause before he spoke so that the cameras were rolling, they were that he gave them time to take him, they were going to take him on news. He is aware of how to do this and take control of the narrative. And this is how theyre going to do it. I do want to note one thing here, yes, that can be true and it is true, based on the advisors and allies ive talked to thats what theyre doing here. The other part, this case is central to Donald Trumps brand and identity, not just as a human being, but as a politician. If you go back to 2016, one of the arguments that got him into the white house was this idea that i am a rich businessman. Because i am a rich businessman i can actually make these deals on your behalf. Deals that make me rich will make you rich. Look how i run this business so successfully, now i can run the country successfully. I hear voters talking about that. It does go to the very identity of the man who was elected in 2016. Im glad you mentioned that. Lets play some of the arguments that donald trump has made on the Campaign Trail about why voters should support him because he knows how to make a lot of money. Heres the good news. Im very rich. I have an unbelievable company. The money youre talking about is peanuts for me. All my life i made money. I made money. Ive always been good at making money. Number one best sellers. One of the bestselling books of all time. Ive been successful wait a minute ive been successful in every business ive been in. Real estate. I have made billions of dollars in business making deals. Im my own donor essentially. I have a lot of money in this deal. Hes definitely not his own donor right now, raising money as we speak as i mentioned. Kerry, look, he did make money. I mean, he has a giant plane, and he has made money. The question has been, about whether he has inflated that and its, again, what the trial is about, it isnt just a political question about whether he is speaking in hyperbole which everybody will say duh, hes donald trump, thats baked in politically, this is whether or not it costs taxpayers money and costs Insurance Companies and maybe not investors but Insurance Companies money. Right. Whats different about this particular trial as compared to his ability to make public statements or be on the Campaign Trail or some of the other cases that he may face that could have juries, this is a judge trial and this judge is presiding over who has already considered the prior cases and in the judges opinion last week, the judge indicated that he is not amenable to rhetoric and inflating ideas and things that are not true. He said, in fact, in his last opinion, he said that the defenses arguments, the trump teams arguments, quote, showed a continued reliance on bogus arguments and papers and oral arguments. And then he went on to accuse the Trump Defense team of living in, quote, A Fantasy World not the real world. So that is, i think, the fact that this is in front of this judge only and that is the trier of fact is going to be different for the former president. Very, very different. Thank you so much for explaining that. Joey and kristen, thank you. Congressional democrats weigh mccarthys fate as republican hardliners revolt against him and this blunt statement from the former speaker of the house, she was appearing with jake tapper on state of the union. Listen to this. Youre wasting your time on that guy because he has no sway in the house of representatives. Except to get on tv and to raise money on the internet. To take Speaker Mccarthys lunch money in every negotiation. The speaker of the house has responded to these reports of a secret side deal on money for Ukraine Opaquely stating that he still wants to fund ukraine and our border. I have a few replies to this. First, the speakers statement confirms the existence of a secret deal. And i have talked to members of our own leadership who have said, they didnt even know that Speaker Mccarthy was negotiating a secret side deal outside of our conference, outside of his own leadership team, for the sake of ukraine. Second, ukraine has lost the sip support of a majority of the majority. The last time there was a freestanding vote on ukraine, 117 republicans voted against it. According to the hastert rule, Speaker Mccarthy agreed to in january, you cannot use democrats to roll a majority of the majority certainly on something as consequential as ukraine. So for all the Crocodile Tears about what may happen later this week about a motion to vacate, working with the democrats is a Yellow Brick Road that has been paved by Speaker Mccarthy, whether the debt limit deal, the cr, or now the secret deal on ukraine. Third, this is swampy log rolling. The American People deserve single subject bills. I get that a lot of folks might disagree with my perspectives on the border or ukraine, but can we at least agree no matter how you feel about ukraine or the southern border, that each deserve the dignity of their own consideration and should not be rolled together where they might pass where each individually wouldnt . This is what were trying to get away from. This is the spirit of the january agreement we made with the speaker. No more lark these issues together so that American Peoples interests are subjugated here on the floor of the house. How we should stand up for our border, demand that United States state senate take up our single subject appropriations bill that funded the border, created republican unity. We voted for it. It has the policy demands that the continuing resolution that Speaker Mccarthy advocated for on this floor did not. Our Dhs Funding Bill requires he verify and then hours later after we passed that, the speaker wanted us to vote for a continuing resolution. Retreat is never a strategy to win anything. So mr. Speaker just tell us, just tell us. What was in the secret ukraine side deal. What commitments were made to President Biden to continue the spending of President Biden in exchange for doing things for President Biden . It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the house already works for. Its not the republican conference. Mr. Speaker, i would ask that these questions be answered soon because there may be other votes coming together or later this week that could be implicated by the answers to these questions. Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what speaker had to share with us about his secret side d