Brand, wealth, everything hes worked to build is under threat right now. The former president just left a new york courtroom for a lunch break after facing off with the Attorney General. Just moments from now well lay out the significant stakes that trump faces. Plus Kevin Mccarthys speaker ship is in danger. His lastminute deal to avoid a Government Shutdown could come at the cost of his gavel. The new and growing threat from inside the Republican House caucus. The pointed warning that this is the new normal, flooded streets, floating cars, water pouring in from the walls. As challenges grow and infrastructure increasingly buckles across the country, what can be done to combat Climate Change . Ill speak with two leading experts. We begin with the empire that made donald trump into a mogul and a president , on trial right now in New York City. Trump decided to be in court and face the judge that has already ruled he consistently committed fraud. Before arriving he acknowledged on social media hes fighting for his name and reputation and once there echoed familiar complaints that he is the victim of a Rogue Prosecutor and judge. This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. It was never a default. It was never a problem. Everything was perfect. There was no crime. The crime is against me because we have a corrupt district attorney. We have a corrupt Attorney General. Attorney general Letitia James sitting in the direct line of sight to trump today put out her own statement, quote, no matter how rich or powerful you are, there are not two sets of laws for people in this country. I want to bring in nbcs Vaughn Hillyard outside the courthouse, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst paul butler, also writer at large for the bulwark and msnbc political annual nift tim miller and New York TimesInvestigative ReporterSuzanne Craig who has been listening inside the courtroom. Suzanne, i think you were in the overflow room. Whats going on today . Reporter i actually had a pretty good view because we had a view of the whole court including the former president. We started with opening arguments like a lot of trials do. The new York Attorney general, they made her case today saying, and what they have to prove, because remember, weve already had a finding and Summary Judgment that the fraud the main allegation has been proven, and now what the Attorney General has got to do is naive got to show their evidence and theyve got to show it was a conspiracy. Theyve got to convince the judge how big it was because theyre looking at damages. Theyve asked for 250 million in damages. It could go above that. It might come in below that. Theyve got to make their case. On the other side which was just fascinating to see, we saw as mr. Trump looked on, one of his lawyers got up and made a very audible and angry speech to the judge saying this was a witch hunt, donald trump was a victim here. I was surprised, she just continued i wouldnt say i was surprised. It was probably not surprising, but kind of shocking to hear, they immediately started doubling down on some of the things they said that are false, things like maralago is worth a billion, more than a billion dollars, things that hes said in these Financial Statements that are in question. Doral is worth more than a billion dollars. Even at one point she said to the judge, you said it was just worth 18. This is not a jury trial. Its from the bench. The judge actually stopped her and said, i have never said that. Donald trump repeats a lie and peemd think its true. Hes doing that even here today, now accusing a judge of saying something that the judge hasnt said. This is so different, paul butler. Its one thing to play to a jury. Its one thing to be emotional, to make that kind of vociferous appeal to 12 men and women, a jury of your peers. Very different from a judge. Tell us about the dynamics that play out thats very different from what most of us are used to saying on law and order. Trump actually had the option of a jury trial, but he preferred a judge decide his case. He didnt get to choose the actual judge, and he probably wasnt counting on judge eng engoron. Last week when Trumps Team Asked for a delay of the trial, the judge had a twosentence response, decline to sign. Defendants arguments are completely put out there. The judge is going to decide this case on the law, not on whether he likes donald trump. The judge has sworn an oath to be impartial. The judge also knows that however this trial is resolved, there is certainly going to be an appeal. Vaughn, whats behind trumps decision to voluntarily be inside the courtroom today . He got to choose a judge. He didnt have to be there today. He made that choice. Why go facetoface with a judge youve called deranged . Reporter i think its important to note that what donald trump, by being inside of that courtroom today, sure, yes, the political angle of this. This is him telling his supporters hes defiant. Hes going to stare down the judge, stare down new York Attorney general Letitia James. As he was leaving for the lunch break, he looked directly at the new York Attorney general and glared at her. Also part of this is hes able to listen directly to his own attorneys attempt to defend him in front of the judge. Not only alina habba who is the spokesperson for his legal team, she went before the judge and said she hadnt intended on speaking today until new York Attorney general Letitia James went and smoke from the steps and she went on a monologue making the case this is a politically motivated case, the likes that Michael Cohen shouldnt be believed. Also, this is Donald Trumps opportunity for him to hear from chris kise, his lead attorney, go and present the defense on his behalf. This could have very broad implications for donald trump, not only politically but financially in the future of the Trump Organization. Chris kise, his lead attorney, that future in so many ways is now in his hands. So for donald trump outside of being able to come and sit here in trial and hear from his attorney specifically defending him, there are no cameras that are streaming this line or recording this in realtime. For him, donald trump has gone through attorneys quite frequently in the past. He has led some to exit on their own accords and has fired other attorneys. Notably in just the last year, except for chris kise, this is an important opportunity for him to watch his attorney go and present the case and see whether hes happy with the work of his own defense attorney. I want to bring in msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin who has joined susanne. Give us your impressions of what you saw today. What is legally significant and what is the mood inside that courthouse . Notably after his florida indictment and at his arraignment. There is a lot of excitement in the courtroom and a lot of folks in that courtroom including tons of Court Security officers and secret service. Then, of course, you have the defendant himself, donald trump who, although accompanied by his adult son eric, who is also a defendant, sat at the counsel table. Eric did not. He sat in the gallery. Donald trump, you could told how he felt the arguments were going by his Body Language all throughout. In particular as judge engoron was going back and forth you saw a lot of arm crossing, head shaking, even pushing from donald trump, almost as trying to push chris kise to say certain things, doing the same thing with alina habba. I think the demonstrated performance by alina habba, in marked contrast to chris kise, was not as intellectual or methodical, just all passion was because donald trump prodded her to that, because he was dissatisfied with the performance of chris kise who is talking about very, very specific and Pond Rouse Accounting Principles in his opening statements. Let me follow up on that. We talk about how extraordinary everything is from donald trump. To have him in the courtroom, very nearby is the Attorney General who decided to pursue this case, in addition to the judge whom he has tried to rip apart. What was that like . Give us your impressions of just that dynamic. Tish james came into the courtroom much earlier than donald trump did. She sat there with the press for almost an hour as we awaited the former president s arrival. She sat in the gallery, not wither lawyers. At one point trump seemed like trying to get her attention, almost to dare her to make eye contact with him. She didnt want to. Then when he left the courtroom at this last break, he walked very slowly. As he passed her in her front row seat, he looked down and gave her a defiant glare. Tish james looked directly ahead. There could not have been a more dramatic staredown than what we just witnessed. I was reading everything from your piece, sue, that donald trump believes just by being there he can influence the outcome of this trial and he took advantage of it. When he went in, he spoke. At the lunch break, he spoke. I want to play what we just heard from him. Were going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. Its ridiculous. Hes a democrat judge. Hes an operative and its ridiculous. Other than that, things went very well. Sue, he doesnt often let sort of a temper show. He has these lines he uses all the time, but you can feel and see and hear the frustration in his voice with that. You really could. You could also see it in court today. He was angry. He walked in angry, and at times he looked a bit bored during some of it. Boy did he perk up when his second lawyer got on. She was audible, almost yelling at times at the judge. I have to say the idea this may help him being here, im not sure about that. This is the judge that just last week found him liable on the fraud charges, on the main charge. Today in court the lawyer one of the lawyers was sparring with the judge and was saying things that the judge has never said. I can just imagine this is not sitting well with the judge. This judge is the one thats ultimately going to decide when we go into the Penalty Phase what is it going to be . So i found that was just interesting, his decision to show up today and just the temperature in the room was very high. He was very angry. Well, that leads me back to the judge, paul, if i can. If i can call them antics. I dont know. You can forcefully defend your client, sfliet again, how is that likely to play . Is he going to be immune from the fact that donald trump goes out in the lunch break and rips the whole process to shreds . I think the judge will be immune from trumps antics. But lisa used just the right word to describe what the lawyers are doing in court. Its a performance. Its a performance for donald trump, their client. It has nothing to do with the rule of law. Trump out of court called the judge a deranged democrat who is trying to take away his property. Thats playing more to his Political Base than a court of law. If the lawyers do that in court, theyll get in even more trouble. I say even more trouble because last week the judge fined five of trumps lawyers 7500 each because he thought they were acting inappropriately in court. Thats more money, a bigger sanction than tish james asked the judge for. Its the lawyers on the line here in terms of how the judge responds to this case, much more than the defendant donald trump. Tim, it may not help him legally. Apparently isnt helping the pocketbook of his lawyers. Having said that, trump truly believes, right, that this is going to help him politically. We know from Michael Cohen, at least what cohen says is trump did all this because he wanted to be higher on the forbes list, inflate the numbers, increase the value of his assets. He wanted to be higher in ranking. For him, his reputation, his standing, peoples belief that he is this great businessman is so important to him, i dont know if this will change the opinion of a single supporter of donald trump. Is there any way in which you see it helps him, it advances him politically . I dont think that this case is the particular threat to him politically. I guess if you were going to look at how this could conceivably help him, he is running as an antiestablishment candidate. I think theres a theory among some of the establishment republican times that all of these court cases will add up and people will get sick of him. I think the opposite has happened. Despite the fact hes a former president , its ridiculous from an objective standpoint. But it plays into the narrative that hes antielite, that people are out to get him. That helps him with the maga base. I dont know how much that will help in the general election with general election voters. Theres another case about the Trump Organization thats coming up which is this fraud case where he was involved in a multilevel marketing scheme, acn, and he screwed over for people that signed up, thinking they were going to get rich like donald trump and they lost their savings. I think that type of case is much more vulnerable than his lying to deutsche bank. I think it depends on who his victims are, on which ones are more vulnerable for him politically than others. Let me take you back into the courtroom, sue and lisa. First of all, what comes up next after the lunch break . Sue, im curious, what are you looking for Going Forward . Who are the key witnesses in a legal sense. People want to see what some of the people closest to him have to say but who the other folks are. Lisa, let me start with you and what youre looking for later today. After the lunch break, chris, the first thing i think thats going to happen is were going to see the prosecution call their first witness. We understand that witness is likely to be donald bender. He was Donald TrumpsLead Accountant. One thing interesting about alina habbas presentation, in addition to her tone being so different than chris kise and cliff robert who represents donald trump jr. And eric trump, she put the blame on ms. Czar. Essentially they had disclaimers saying these were performed by accountants, why is nobody investigating the czars. I think we can look to that crossexamination to be a much more strenuous and heated one than we might have expected than someone who served as Donald TrumpsLead Accountant for a period of many, many years. Accountants are traditionally Mild Mannered people. I dont think this examination will be Mild Mannered. After that, sue, who else . Who will you be looking at . One other point this afternoon is alina habba, trumps lawyer saying not only diz ms. Czars prepare the statement, thats not what my reading says. Theres disclaimers on them. Theres a big defense for trump, there are these disclaimer. They say we were provided information and this is all on donald trump. So i think how that exchange goes this afternoon is going to be really important. Going forward, were going to see a number of trumps testify. Whether or not they take the fifth i think will be really interesting. At the end well have someone come in who is a discouragement expert. Thats going to be crucial because it will determine ultimately the penalty that will be paid. I think part of what we saw today, and i really want to make this point because i think its important. Today the other audience for what was going on, donald trump was clearly the most important audience for his lawyers, but the Appellate Court is very, very important in this. This is going to go on appeal. Trumps team is very angry at a number of the rulings that have happened and they are playing to the Appellate Court as well as their client. Would you expect, paul, a difference in tone between crossexamination, again, always an interesting thing to watch, but in terms of the prosecution and defense, what would you look for . The prosecution is basically already proved its case. The main issue thats going to take three months to resolve is just how much money in damages trump has to pay. Im not sure what the defense is. Again, theyre going to say that how much real estate is worth is subjective and theyre going to also make that point about they have all these disclaimers that said were not saying these Financial Reports are exactly right. The problem, chris, for that defense is that the judge already resolved many of those issues when he ruled in favor of tish james, that motion for Summary Judgment last week where the judge said basically the receipts of this case, the evidence including that submitted by donald trump makes it clear that there was fraud. Again, the main issue is just damages. Of course, donald trump who spoke, as i said, going in, coming out for the lunch break isnt the only one who had something to say. Here is Attorney General tish james. Donald trump and the other defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud. My message is simple, no matter how powerful you are. No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. So, tim, this isnt a trial that could send trump to prison. And as you rightfully point out, it isnt one where you can look at a lot of victims that people might relate to. Deutsche bank is probably not going to gender a lot of sympathy for what happened there. What do you think is at stake beyond trumps personal wealth, obviou