east coast, 8:00 in los angeles and this is america's late news, fox news at night. breaking tonight, a middle school student running for commissioner of school spirit and patriotism was apparently told his speech could not have any reference to patriotism. we will have reaction. california lawmakers think the answer to skyrocketing retail theft is to put an employee at each self check out machine. kind of defeats the purpose. and a former new jersey gym owner arrested for staying open during covid just won a huge legal battle. but we begin with donald trump's fate now being in the hands of 12 anonymous new yorkers and after deliberating five hours and sending two cryptic notes, the jury was excused back the courtroom confused. nate foy is live outside the courthouse in new york with more on this. good evening. >> reporter: good evening trace. you mention the jury deliberated nearly five hours today and at the end of court they sent two notes. one has to do with revisiting testimony from michael cohen and david pecker and another is a question about the judges jury instructions that he laid out this morning. and a key moment from that, judge merchan revealed that in order to convict former president donald trump, the jury does not even have to agree on the underlying crime that he's accused of. take a look at this. the jury has to pick one of these three following options. they need to find that trump unlawfully influenced the 2016 election by violating, we mentioned last night, the federal election campaign act. the falsification of other business records, or a violation of tax laws. these are the possible crimes that elevate trump's charges to felonies. here's the former president talking about the ambiguity of the accusations against him. >> the confusion is nobody knows what the crime is because there is no crime. nobody knows what the crime is. the da did not name the crime. they don't know what the crime is, that's what the problem is. it's a disgrace. this ought to be ended immediately. >> reporter: so tomorrow morning jurors will revisit testimony from cohen and pecker, they will hear about the trump tower meeting in 2015 with former president trump. cohen is the only person directly connecting trump to the stormy daniels deal and remember trump lawyers accuse cohen of lying on the witness stand during this trial. of course cohen has admitted to lying several times under oath and that is important because judge merchan instructed the jury "if you find that any witness has intentionally testified falsely as to any material fact, you may disregard that witnesses entire testimony." so deliberations are set to continue at 9:30 tomorrow morning. they will begin by addressing the two notes the jury sent today. if they are inching closer to a verdict, the jury has the option to stay late tomorrow until 6:0. trace. >> trace: nate foy live outside the courthouse, thank you. let's bring in florida attorney general ashley moody, attorney general, great to have you on the show. cnn said this about the crime that nate was talking about. watch. >> the crime here is not easy to explain and understand. i'm interested to see how they explain the tax crime. that one is tougher me to understand. falsifying business records in order to falsify business records. >> trace: the theme here is when cnn says the crime is hard to identify, you know this is a tough one. >> yeah, not shocking that the jury came back and said we need further instructions on this law by the way, the judge instructed the jury today, it was 55 pages of jury instructions, it took an hour and 40 minutes and numerous folks that were there said he was trying to speak very slowly, as if speaking more slowly would make this case make any more sense. and that is what i think the jury is left with, and that's what it will be groundhog day tomorrow morning. when they get there they are going to have to listen to the jury instructions again, they will have to listen to testimony again and then they are still going to go back there and have questions about what does this even mean. we don't have to agree on the unlawful deeds? it's insane. >> trace: and i want to put this up on the board because you make a good point. here are the crime options. apparently the jury can just kind of pick their favorite. federal election campaign act, full so the occasion of other business records, violation of tax law. you could go four, four, four, you could go six and six. it doesn't matter if you all coming guilty on something. >> and i almost feel badly smiling because it feels so complicated and comical, but this is serious for our nation. i mean this undermines so many assurances that our citizens have that our country was built on. that is an accused actually gets the right to understand the nature of the charges that are being presented against them. and donald trump's right, this is crazy, that you have a judge going you can pick, you don't have to agree, just pick. it's almost like he's saying find a crime and he will do the time. it's giving new meaning to the phrase trumped up charges. this will go down in history as really trumped up charges. >> trace: what if michael cohen's testimony is tossed? he gave them the option. if you don't believe what he says, you can for the whole thing out. i've only got about 30 seconds but what if michael cohen's testimony gets tossed? >> this whole case is built on his testimony and if they find that he is not credible, the judge is right, they toss out that testimony and it's like a house of cards, it all falls down. so we will see what the jury comes back with but i think today's questions bodes well for the defense, based on my experience as a federal prosecutor and judge. >> trace: that's a very good point. the questions and sometimes bode well for the defense. florida attorney general ashley moody, thank you so much, we appreciate your time. meantime actor dennis quaid and now going public with his support for donald trump saying the biden a ministration's weaponization of the justice system is pushing him in to the former precedence corner. the senior national correspondent kevin corke live with tonight's democracy 24 report. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, good to be with you. for famed actor dennis quaid, it's friendly pretty simple, rather than politics, it was actually the weaponization of the justice system and joe biden's policy record that ultimately convinced him to vote for former president trump in this year's upcoming election. >> i think i'm going to vote for him in the next election. he makes sense. i was ready not to vote for trump until what i saw his more than politics, i see a weaponization of our justice system. and a challenge to our constitution. >> are you ready for the blowback? >> trace: it's probably coming. dennis quaid was a guest on piers morgan uncensored on tuesday and he will portray president ronald reagan in the upcoming 2024 biopic which is set to premiere in august. >> trump is the most investigated person probably in the history of the world. they haven't been able to really get him on anything. >> people might call him a [ bleep ] but he's [ bleep ] >> trace: indeed for some he is that. meanwhile with vice president kamala harris by his side, president biden's campaign unveiled a brand-new campaign strategy today in philadelphia, an effort to regain ground among black voters. you may recall biden had an overwhelming amount of support among blacks in 2020, 92-8. a recent new york times survey finds that support is down to 69-18 with some polls showing even stronger support among blacks for former president trump. biden's new plan will rely on black student organizations, community groups and churches and surrogates to improve his standing with black voters. he's got his work cut out. >> trace: big time. kevin corke live in dc, thank you. [♪♪] >> trace: the "fox news @ night" commonsense department is amused by the comments of liberal singer john legend who says the reason more black and latino voters are supporting former president trump is because of disinformation and masculinity, saying "trump performs a form of masculinity that is appealing to some men." he did not go into detail. but legend says the real reason people move toward trump is because they wrongly believe the economy is bad. wrongly? really? a guy who lives in 18 million-dollar home, makes tens of millions a year and is worth 100 million plus is telling black and latino voters to suck it up because the economy is fine. is anyone anywhere thank john legend cares about an 18-dollar burger, no fries, no shake? legend believes the economy is good because of low unemployment and the return of manufacturing jobs. manufacturing what? hit records? legend says that people would simply observe what's going on with the economy they would realize biden is great. commonsense is pretty sure the people forking over $20 for bread, milk and weenies are observing what's going on because what's going on is money leaving their wallet in record time. seventy-five% of voters think the economy is fair or poor. legend thinks they are not paying attention. commonsense thanks they are paying too much. let's bring a new york post reporter lydia moynihan along with rnc surrogate an attorney mehek cooke, thank you for coming on. i just want to know lydia, for you, what do you think of john legend telling people to embrace the biden economy? >> i think tone deaf is an understatement. we are seeing especially among black men, in 202080% supported biden and that has dipped to about 57% and we are seeing from the biden campaign, they are at least trying to make an effort does go around. joe biden last time said that if you did not vote for him you ain't black so at least now he's realizing i need to offer something, i need to at least campaign among this cohort. but so far it does not seem like he's been very effective. a lot of what he's doing is talking down to blacks, basically saying they are all victims. and if you remember last week he was giving that speech, nine gaps in the span of 20 minutes reading a teleprompter speech. i think last time the strategy of basically staying in the basement might actually be a little bit more effective because it seems like the more he gets out there, the more it backfires for him. >> trace: meantime actor dennis quaid has this to say, and i will get your thoughts. >> i see a weaponization of our justice system and a challenge to our constitution. us as americans, that i don't think we are going to have. and trump is the most investigated ersson probably in the history of the world and they haven't been able to really get him on anything. >> trace: he is playing ronald reagan and now supporting donald trump. what do you think? >> well i think dennis quaid is saying what many americans are thinking today. you had robert de niro on one hand with trump and out dennis quaid that is truly speaking what americans feel today which is that there has been a great in dignity suffered by president trump. the law fair in this new york case is unheard of. you have a bias to judge refuses to give jury instructions so a juror can elect any crime to convict president trump on back on top of the on -- biased unconstitutional gag order on president trump. as we continue to see this bias coming out of new york city, more and more people like dennis and just average americans, middle-class voters are saying we have had enough. >> trace: they are just kind of moving that way. here's a poll, this is really deadlocked. biden won this in 2020, democrats have won this forever. it's now deadlocked, lydia. 42-42. the bad news comes in the next pool. for you, the fact that this is tied, that's mostly bad, we will let mehek cooke have that one but the fact this is tied, what do you think about that for the republicans? >> if virginia is in play, which it hasn't been for decades now, it wonders if new york and california could be in play. the reality is people are concerned about the economy and concerned about immigration and i think dennis quaid frankly it speaks to the way a lot of people are feeling. one of the things i thought was interesting is he does not necessarily like trump but he likes everything he did in office. i think as people are going into the poll booths, they are thinking about the reality of where we are now and the record of both candidates and that will be on the top of mind. >> trace: so if california, no chance, another chance at all california, but i want to go back to the last pole, biden's presidency, your view of it, mostly good 25, mostly bad 47. the number on the right is big. >> it is big but it isn't a surprise. just look at your bank accounts, look at your pocketbook, look at the border, we have a wide-open border, 12 million illegal immigrants, 250 known on the terrorist watch list under biden's presidency. he's a hamas cheerleader, he allows crts, he doesn't know what a woman is and the list goes on. he has degraded the moral compass in america and the only way to bring greatness back is to elect president trump in november. >> trace: mehek cooke, lydia moynihan, thank you. lawmakers in sacramento think they know best about how california businesses should handle rising theft and the mayor of oakland is facing a recall vote in november prevailing to address crime and public safety concerns. matt finn live with a wrap on the california crazy. >> reporter: good evening trace. the group organizing the effort to recall oakland california's mayor say that now collected more than enough signatures to get the recall on the ballot in november. the group known as oust claims they have more than 30,000 signatures so far, that's 5000 more than the 25,000 needed. the organizers say they will continue until they get 40,000 signatures. recall supporters say they want to oust oakland mayor over a number of reasons including the city's crime. a recent money geek report says fbi data shows that oakland has the country's highest robbery rate per 100,000 residents. a former judge is leaving the recall -- leading the recall effort against the mayor. >> with respect to the 40,000, that sends the message that we are having more people to recall you than voted to elect you in the first place. >> reporter: the mayor has previously said she is committed to tackling crime including the city's operation and cease-fire program which has been credited with reducing gun violence. all across california, including in los angeles, retail theft has become alarmingly common. if you walk into a target or a drug store, any number of common items from toothpaste to cleaning supplies are now locked behind glass. a new california bill called the retail reduction act has passed at the statehouse and is going before the senate. it's aimed at reducing rampant shoplifting here in california. however critics say it places an even greater burden on business owners by requiring them to have an employee overseeing the self checkout counters. the argument there is that many corporations have well-documented policies in place that prevent employees from trying to stop any theft in the first place. >> trace: matt, thank you. let's bring in california policy senator julie hamill and pete peterson. thank you for coming on, let's start at the top where matt did. the san francisco chronicle, which oakland has lost its basketball team, it's football team, about to lose it's baseball team, it's best restaurants, it's traffic lights because there too much copper in them and now the mayor. saying the following, campaign to recall the mayor says it has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. i mean this thing is, it looks like it's going forward. >> and it's worth pointing out that this is the third recall effort in the bay area in the last two years. obviously two years ago we had the former city attorney for san francisco recalled, than the san francisco school board members recalled and now this is the third so we are seeing some sanity on the part of bay area voters who are seeing these progressive policies go way too far. >> trace: they are tired of living like this. you talk to people there and they are like i'm just on living like this. california globes as california lawmakers trying to tell retailers how best to address theft. they want to tell retailers how to operate self-service checkout terminals, supposedly as a means of addressing retail theft. under a new state senate bill, such terminals will have to be manned by an employee, defeating the whole purpose of the terminals. has anybody not noticed that the thieves just don't just go to the checkout places, they go and walk out the front door right by all the checkout centers. >> it's objectively ridiculous. all of america by the way is laughing at california constantly for things like this. this is a federation of labor -- leader and it's her brainchild. if you want to stop retail theft, enforce the laws, put people in jail. >> trace: it's not a bad idea. this is my favorite story of the night, this is a kid it saint bonaventure catholic school. he's running for "commissioner of school spirit and patriotism ." but he could not speak until he removed the patriotic language from his speech, and here is the part they wanted cut out. watch. >> some people take their citizenship for granted. whether it is disrespecting the people who protected us or eating nachos during the national anthem at a sporting event back many people recite the pledge of allegiance without understanding it's meaning. if someone does not truly know what they are pledging to the united states of america, you might as well be reciting the lyrics to shake it off by taylor swift. >> trace: so the principal responds by saying this entire section needs to be removed. it went on from that. remember your audience is fourth to seventh graders who want to know more about pep rallies and spirit for their schools. like this was so complicated he's like listen, you sound like it's a shake it off taylor swift thing. this was good stuff and they wanted it out. >> i'd keep my eye on that boy. i think we are looking at a future political leader here for the country. but this happened in elementary school. i think so much of our attention is on colleges and universities and how progressive they've become, unfortunately we are seeing that all the way down to high schools and middle schools and even elementary schools as well. >> trace: we are going to get jimmy hayward on the show, it's going to be great, we will bring you both back. lastly, fox news.com, california's proposed parental notification policy for gender identity changes fails to qualify for the ballot. a california policy that would have required schools to notify parents if their child wants to change their gender identity did not qualify as a ballot measure for the november election. this was changed to the restrict rights of transgender youth, and nobody wanted to sign. >> well if it's to protect kids of california act, and without any money or professional backing, all volunteers, they gathered over 400,000 signatures they woke up a lot of californians, they got a lot of support. i'm looking forward to this coming back for another round of signature gathering, but the problem we have in california is we have a state law that allows boys to self identify as girls and use the facilities and play on those sports teams and so we need a ballot initiative to undo that law, we need to protect girls in girls sports. >> trace: we should note that the majority of californians are in favor of what we just talked about, the majority of the state , but the state for nichols things around so nobody wants to sign. thank you both. coming up, a jewish actress says anti-semitism comes from people on the right. late-night host bill mark correct the record, at least somew