Cnn prime time with abby philip is up next. In the early 20th century, the Marx Brothers became one of comedys most famous acts. They were showman, full of gags and stunts on stage in front of the camera as well. And in a wild twist, a century later, one of their most famous lines is now being used in the fraud trial of a former president. Your excellency, i thought you left. Oh no, i dont leave. But i saw you with my own eyes. Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes . That was the quote. It was used by a judge in a ruling that donald trump is liable for fraud, pointing out that trumps fantasy world when it comes to the value of his properties and himself, and like the marks brothers, the scene inside and outside New York Citys courtroom today became a Vaudeville Routine and a parade of insults. Good evening, im abby philip, and trump appearing today in court for the first day of his trial, which threatens to decimate his entire Real Estate Empire in new york. This is a continuation of the single greatest witch of alltime, we have a rogue judge, we have a racist Attorney General who is a horror show. Its a scam and a sham. And our countrys gone to hell, its all run by doj, which is corrupt. Frankly, our country is corrupt. So as you can see there, trump and his lawyers have now turned that courtroom into a campaign stop. And at one point, the judge told his lawyers to lower their voices as they shouted trumps side in the courtroom as if they were addressing the jury. But the thing is there is no jury. As you, know were not entitled to a jury, which is pretty unusual in the United States of america. So we think its very unfair that i dont have a jury. The judge, to explain today that neither side, neither the prosecution nor the defense requested a jury trial in this case. He also added that bylaw, a case like this, the judge decides the outcome anyway. Now remember, the new York Attorney general is asking for the Trump Organization to pay a quarter billion dollars and halt all his Business Activities in the state of new york as punishment for lying about the Property Values of his properties, among other things. Joining us now is michael cohen, to respond, and he will be with us here in just a moment. But first, i want to take you through the facts today. We have daniel dale with us to walk us through what happened in the courtroom today. Daniel, trump made quite a few claims, as usual. Some of them have already been rejected by this judge. But here is the former president claiming that this lawsuit is part of a coordinated effort by the Department Of Justice. Is there any truth in that . There this trial was railroaded and fasttracked. This trial couldve been brought years ago, but they waited until i was right in the middle of my campaign, the same with other trials and indictments. Its all run by doj, which is corrupt, in washington. Everything goes through them. So the doj, he says, its part of all of this. Is there any truth to that . No, there is no truth to that. There is not a shred of evidence that doj is the hidden hand behind the scene. This is a state case brought by a state Attorney General, who trump correctly noted today and on previous occasions, made it part of her Campaign Platform that she was going to be tough on trump. And the second significant inaccuracy in those comments there, abby, is the part about timing, wait until the middle of my campaign. Attorney general james launched the lawsuit that left this trial in september, 2022. Thats when she filed it. Trump did not launch his campaign until november, 2022. So the lawsuit that led to this trial was filed roughly two months before he wouldve announced his 2020 candidacy. Yeah, a good point there. Daniel, trump also talked about at length that what he called a worthless clause, a disclaimer that he put, or his aides had put in the Financial Statements, that are now at issue in this trial. Lets listen. We have a clause in the contract. Its like a buyer beware cause. It says when you take a look at the financial statement, dont believe anything you read, this is up front. Some people quote worthless laws, because it makes a statement. And if you read the statement, worthless. This is whats called a full disclaimer. We disclaim the financial status. But even with a full disclaimer, which immediately takes you out of any fraud situation and any litigation so what do we know about that, daniel . Trump is making this clause sound way stronger than it actually is. You can read it, what it says, and im paraphrasing, is that the Asset Valuations in trumps Financial Statements are estimates, that they used a variety of methodologys two companies estimates, including in some cases, the judgments of trump and his associates. It says you may not be able to sell these assets for the same price that is listed here. So does basically, in so many words, encourage readers to be cautious about what theyre seeing. But it does not say what is contained in these statements is useless or worthless. It doesnt say dont believe anything you read. And the judge himself noted this in his ruling last week finding trump and his sons liable for fraud. The judge said that theyre reliant on this socalled worthless clause is itself worthless. They say that you cannot rely on such a vague disclaimer to misrepresent facts and claim that that inoculates you against claims of fraud. So trumps assertions about what this clause says and how the supposedly protects him against any and all liability is just not borne out by the facts. Yeah, dowdy pretty hard to believe, honestly, if they were true. So daniel, also, shortly before trump appeared in court today, his campaign released a statement about New York Citys crime data, as if that is related to all of. This was an even accurate . So it wasnt false. They use actual numbers. But they were cherrypicking the and point for those numbers. So in talking what New York State, they ended their data in 2021. Talk about New York City, they ended in 2022. So they said New York City shootings increased 70 from 2018 to 2022, murder is up 48 from 2018 to 2022. But they didnt mention though is that we are in october 2023. And the trend line is now sharply downwards. So murder in New York City is down 11 this year. Thats in addition to 10 decline last year. Shooting incidents are down 27 this year, and thats after a 17 decline last year. So in addition to the broader point that you cant attribute any trend in crime up or down to any individual Attorney General, this is complicated, difficult stuff to pinpoint, those numbers do not and in 2022, theyre not going up anymore, theyre going sharply down. All right, daniel dale, thank you very much. And joining me now to discuss, trumps former fixer, michael cohen. He is now a principle of crisis x and also the host of two podcasts, mea culpa and political beat down, and the New York Times bestselling author of revenge, how donald trump weaponize the United StatesDepartment Of Justice against his critics. Michael, good to see you. You know trump very very well good to see you, abby. What did you take away from seeing him, his demeanor outside that courtroom, and even inside that courtroom . So, this is very typical donald. On the outside of the courtroom, he was all bluster, he was typical donald, he was in campaign mode, to the point that he was looking to figure out how to make this scenario into something profitable. Inside the courtroom, he was behaving the way that you would expect somebody to behave when theyre in a situation that they have no control over. And thats something that donald hates. He hates not being in control. He sat there like a good child. He didnt say a word. He didnt speak. He didnt get Out Of Control he was angry. Where he had to be reprimanded by the judge. Of course hes angry, how could he not be. Hes watching as his company, his 50 plus year company, is in a death spiral. I mean, basically what Letitia James did, our unsinkable Attorney General, she gave him the corporate death penalty. And judge engoron is in agreement with Laetitia James that the company should not be able to practice, neither should donald. Allen weisselberg, don junior, donald trump, or jeff mcconney, none should be able to operate any business in the state of new york. Sure, its understandable that he would be angry. Michael, you are at the center of todays hearing in some ways. I want to get your sponsors on the comments are made today in court by cliff robert. He is one of the representatives for Darwin Junior and eric trump. He said in part, quote, their major linchpins major michael cohen. So when you talk about credibility, youre going to have a guy who lives to everyone, whos a convicted felon. And he is a fixture of what their cases about. Whats your response to that . [laughter] i think Cliff Roberts is an idiot. First and foremost, i have now provided testimony to seven different congressional committees, to the mueller team, to the District Attorney on 23 occasions, to the Attorney General, and only cliff robert and donald trump, its all part of the gop all theyre going to do is sit there and try to discredit me to disparage me. Thats the name of the trump game. Look at what he did today, forgetting about michael cohen. What i brought to the table were documents and corroborating testimony. So theres listen, i dont even think that it would be 100 necessary for the a. G. To use me in order to find trump guilty of the crimes that, you know, hes been charged with. Look at what he did today, just with his james and judge engoron. Judge engoron, he called him all sorts of names, a rogue judge. Tish james, of course, is a racist, its a line hes used many times with many people. He said the same thing about jack smith. He says the same thing about fani willis. This is a guy who doesnt understand disparaging somebody is not the way to win a case. What you need to do is bring the evidence, bring the documents, in order to clear name, as opposed to thinking you are going to clear your name by disparaging somebody else. And the fact that you get guys like cliff robert, the fact you get even like alina halle or chris kise to make these statements, the fact that now jumbo jordan is now added as well. This is all part of the playbook. Ive watched that playbook since 2015, as it relates to the campaign. This is so part and parcel for the playbook it doesnt even affect me. Do you think that trump cares, to your, point about whether or not he loses this case . It seems theyre not as worried about the legal ramifications of all of this. This is actually a big one for donald, because donald entire id, his ego, his super ego, have all been predicated around the notion that he is this incredibly rich entrepreneur genius businessman. And what this does is it strips him of all of that. It demonstrates that hes neither rich, hes certainly not a genius businessman, and hes certainly not a good entrepreneur. Do you think he can survive so tish james i stripped him of everything that he has to think he can survive, do you think he can survive a penalty of a quarter of a billion dollars, or potentially more, because its really up to the judge what that number ends up being . Correct. Thats also something that people make a terrible mistake with. What Attorney General james stated is that it is a baseline of 250 million, meaning thats the bottom. That doesnt mean that thats the top. The way i calculate it based on the information that i know, its going to be at least, at least double, if not 2. 5 times that amount with penalties and interest and so on. And the answer, abby, is no. He cannot survive this. He cannot recover from this. Michael cohen, thank you very much for that perspective. Thank you for taking me away from my up next for us, Breaking News out of washington, republican congressman matt gaetz filing a motion now two outs speaker Kevin Mccarthy. I will speak live to one of the lawmakers who may end up joining his cause. Plus, Congresswoman Victoria Sparks explains why cs threatening to quit congress altogether. And Donald Trumps former Chief Of Staff john kelly is saying tonight god help us that trump may end up in the oval office again. But kelly is confirming tonight about trumps actions toward veterans. Never before in American History has the speaker of the house been ousted the rear move called a motion to vacate. That is when a single lawmaker can propose a resolution to remove the speaker with a majority of the house. The happened, William Howard taft was president. In 1910. Lawmakers then criticize that speaker, joseph scott, and for having too much power. He was known as the czar of the house, even becoming the first person to graze the cover of time magazine. The republican called the vote himself, daring all makers to go on the record. They backed down and the vote failed. Now, the current speaker, Kevin Mccarthy, will find himself at the center of the fire, calling the vote. This is the biggest thorn in his side from his own party . That is congressman, matt gaetz. He announced that move will happen sometime in the next 48 hours and he is accusing mccarthy of not following through through with promises he made including drastic cuts to spending. But gaetz has now made it clear that he will lead democrats to get on board with this. I have made no deal with democrats because i believe that democrats should vote against Kevin Mccarthy for free. Now, mccarthy, for his part, says, bring it on. He has not ruled out democrats to save his job. Interestingly enough, after nearly a decade of breaking norms In The Name Of donald trump, mccarthy is now the one touting the institution as the reason to keep him in power. Joining me now is a republican in the house, congresswoman of indiana, congresswoman, i appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you for having me. I think the most important question tonight is, where do you stand on this motion to vacate . Will you vote in favor of it . Im open minded. I havent decided yet. Ill tell you something, its very important that was that and his ability, to criticize the other party, write books and how youre fighting in the trenches. Its very hard to challenge your own party. If my party doesnt [inaudible] have to take full accountability. Its good to put pressure on iran speaker. Does it concern you that democrats will play a pivotal role in this . Either way. A deceive mccarthys job or to get him out of the job . Listen, you know, bipartisan is good. I think its good for them. Its good to save him. Unfortunately, we cannot get together on a bipartisan basis and deliver to the American People. The issue of debt, border security, very disappointing for me that we cannot get together, even though the issues of national security. If Speaker Mccarthy is removed, do you have confidence that there is another candidate, one that would have enough support to make speakership . Listen, people over 200 Million People, can actually deliver. People need to realize. You dont need to be a member of congress. We have a lot of great people that can deliver. Unfortunately, kevin wasnt. We have to decide, can we trust him to have another trial . At the end, im gonna be thinking about that. You have said that you are really frustrated with what has been going on. Especially with the deal that was struck this weekend to keep the government open. Really sustained saying, if congress does not pass the Debt Commission this year, to move the needle on questioning National Death and inflation, at least at that next debt ceiling increase, at the end of 2024, i will not continue sacrificing my children for this circus with a complete absence of vision and spine. I cannot save this republic alone. Congresswoman, i have to ask you, how would leaving Congress Help address any of the concerns that you have about the National Debt . Listen, not all of the issues, you know, result here stemming to me and dream presentation. Lets be realistic, nothing is going to be happening next year unless we force an issue for a vote because everyone will be campaigning and to fundraise. Its unfortunate that this Great Institution is not governed for the people. So afraid of special interest group. I think this is our last chance to force the nation. I think its a very reasonable legislation where we will have to sit at the table and decide how we can move the needle at the end of next year because dudley shun will destroy many lives of americans. We have to become serious. Listen, it wasnt created by this congress. It was for many years. We are charged today. We have no excuses to deal with that. Republicans already have this very slim majority in the house. Have you heard from your colleagues about what your resignation could mean for how much leverage they have to accomplish the agenda that they have for congress . Listen, its gonna be accomplished next year. Think a