>> i've told you, i hate to have to do this. things are being done, things are going as normal. i mean, it is just -- i hate it that a lot of these officers are having to go through this. >> senator tuberville is so sorry, and in the same breath claims it's not a big deal that key positions in our armed forces are going unfilled because of him. even fellow republicans are done with him. also tonight, eric trump gets testy on the witness stand in the new york fraud case after claiming, i know nothing about the trump organization's financial statements that he -- when he was shown evidence that he did know. oops. plus, the more you learn about speaker mike johnson, the more you realize that behind that mild mannered temperament is an extremist with a history of inflammatory rhetoric on lgbtq issues. and a live report from the israel gaza border after a day of intense bombardment as israeli soldiers encircle gaza city. >> we begin tonight with the second day of testimony from donald trump's adult sons in the $250 million civil fraud trial against donald trump's family and their company. eric trump took the stand today, following his brother don jr., who testified for hours on wednesday and again today. turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, rather, it clings to the tree rather desperately, sounding very much like donald trump himself in their deflections and denials. eric and don testified they had no involvement with documents that a judge has ruled were fraudulently manipulated to inflate the value of their father's business. those major financial statements presented to them in court, what documents? eric said he was not even aware that such documents existed. as for errors in those financial statements, don jr. shifted blame, insisting it was the accountants' fault. >> before even having a day in court, i'm apparently guilty of fraud for relying on my accountants to do, wait for it, accounting. think about that. what does that do for literally any other business? you pay experts millions of dollars to be experts. you sign off on what they give you. and you're liable. >> okay. shortly after eric trump testified he had never worked on the trump organization's statement of financial condition, that he didn't know anything about it until this case came to fruition, new york attorney general letitia james' office got him to acknowledge that he was aware of those statements as far back as 2013. trump's two adult sons have spent their careers at their father's company. the trump organization -- his company, the trump organization, eric worked as an executive vice president at the company. trump continues to rage about his children having to testify at his fraud trial, sending dime store fake tweets like the ones you see here. remember, for trump, it's the new york fraud case that hits closest to home, and not just because of his sons. he's taking a potentially massive hit to his business and his self image. and it doesn't even spare ivanka. trump and his daughter ivanka trump are expected to take the stand next week. ivanka has filed a notice that she is appealing the judge's order that she testify. joining me now is msnbc legal analyst lisa reuben who was in court today. tell us about these fireworks, lisa. >> joy, today was one of those days that was one of the most bonkers things i have ever seen in court. the problem is every time i come out of this trial, i say some variation of that. today was a tale of two brothers, and we saw really temperamental differences between the two trumps as well as substantive differences between what they did at the company. when don jr. says that he did not have involvement in the creation of his father's financial statements, i actually take him at his word. i think he actually did not have that involvement. the problem is, the argument that he made to the court that, wait for it, he relied on accountants to do the accounting doesn't hold up here. the types of financial statements that were being created are called compilations, and in a compilation of a financial statement, the accountants don't do digging to verify the information presented to them. rather, they rely on the client to provide them with accurate and true data about the financial state of the company or a person. and that's indeed what donald trump jr. himself verified to muceres and lately to whitley penn, their two accounting firms. eric was different. don jr. was pleasant, he gave admissions easily. may it seem like nothing big happened with him. eric on the other hand refused to give an inch all day long. as you noted, in your opening, eric basically disclaimed responsibility for anything and everything except that the documents show that he actually did have some responsibility. so it's sort of a case of the evolving eric trump. no, i had nothing to do with iterse oh, i might have had a little something to do with it. at the end of the day, we're really going to see the blockbuster, eric trump's deposition in 2020 where he took the fifth over 500 times. >> lisa reuben, thank you for sitting in on the senanigans for us. let's bring in michael cohen, trump's former personal lawyer. he's the host of the mea culpa and political beatdown podcast and the author of revenge. good to see you, michael. i want to get you to respond to that. don jr. claiming he had no involvement whatsoever in the statements of financial condition and just relied on the accountants. eric trump being a little more squirrely on that. your thoughts. >> so, one of the things that don jr. stated, i read in the paper, is that he was really just a broker. now, i'm not even really sure what that means. yeah, he may have his brokerage license here in new york, but that's not what his job entailed. then you have eric trump's earlier testimony where he stated, get a load of this one, joy, that he poured concrete. now, i can tell you emphatically that eric trump has never poured concrete in his life. he probably couldn't even figure out how to make quick set using just the quick set and water in a bucket. i mean, it is so fundamentally flawed that it's comical. i mean, and i could understand lisa reuben's comments about the tale of two brothers. it was more of a comedy than anything. >> you know, the other piece of it is that, you know, you had another confrontation with the judge over his clerk. and this sort of seeming obsession that donald trump and one of his lawyers has with this clerk. what do you make of the fact, we know the first part of the case is over. they have already been adjudicated guilty of fraud. all that the judge gets to decide how much they have to pay. what do you make of the fact they don't seem to be understanding that pissing this judge off is a bad idea? >> chris kise, there's something seriously wrong with him. he attacked me vociferously when i was on the stand, getting up, calling me all sorts of -- that's all they do, is they know how to denigrate. it's not going to bode well for him. it's about the last thing that you want to do. especially when your co-counsel messed up and failed to check the box for the jury trial, hence of course why it's a bench trial right now. so before you want to sit there and attack, even after the judge has now sanctioned trump twice and placed the gag order on to him, all they're really doing is playing to a party of one. and how many times have i said this to the public? to those people who are maga supporters, whether it's maga supporters who are members of congress, look at what happened to me. i promise you, the same thing is going to happen to you if you don't wake up and extricate yourself from the cult. all chris kise is doing is playing to a party of one. why? i have no idea. >> and to your point about the cult and the big lie is the center of it. we have seen now that members of congress really have to get out of congress if they're republicans and don't accept the big lie. there's an interesting thing that's come out through this trial. donald trump jr.'s cross-examination, prosecutors presented a document dated january 15th, 2021, that shows the former president reinstating himself as trustee of the donald trump trust, full control would be returned to the former president on january 20, twunt 21, the day he left the white house. that means he knows he lost, right? >> it sure sounds like that. otherwise, why would he sign that document to take control back? obviously, he knows that if you are the president of the united states and if he really thought that he won and there was a legitimate challenge, he certainly wouldn't be asking to take back control because if in fact he was right, well, then he would have to go ahead and redo the documents all over again, transferring the authority again to don jr. and to eric and to allen weisselberg as the trustee. so it clearly shows that he knew that he lost. why he ended up -- i mean, again, there's no thought when it comes to this group. they just do things and then afterwards when confronted, what do they do? exactly what they accuse everyone else of doing, they deflect and they lie. >> let me also talk about donald trump's demeanor here at this point. i think it's clear that this case is enraging him, because it is about his money. there's an excerpt from jonathan karl's book on trump's outburst at one of his attorneys when the judge announced the court date of march 25th, 2024, and this actually in the case about the insurrection, he screamed at him, this is going to be in the middle of the primaries. if i lose the presidency, you're going to be the reason. we also had trump talking about i'm your retribution and that kind of thing and that reaction to things. steve bannon, one ofis aides, has said that he couldn't stop touting trump saying that, refein to it as his come retrue biegz speech. that served as the code words for the confederate secret service's plot to take hostage and eventually assassinate president lincoln. the escalating rhetoric in your view, what does that bode for us? >> well, look, i have often said, and i'm going to say it again on your show tonight, so hopefully people pay attention. you must listen to what donald trump says. he's not just speaking, you know, boldly and blindly. he's telling you exactly what's on his mind, probably foolish, but he is telling us what's on his mind, and more importantly, what he intends to do. so when he says that on day one, if he wins, he's going to rewrite the constitution, he's not joking. he thinks that he can rewrite the constitution. and if somehow because of all of the sycophants that are there, he manages at least to delay or to get ahold of the full power of the united states government by taking the power away from the judiciary and the legislative and conveying it upon the executive branch, i'm telling you, that's what he thinks he can do. and that's what he will try to do. he is by far the single most dangerous thing to happen to american democracy, maybe in the united states history. >> how much more dangerous does he become if he loses a large chunk of his wealth due to this trial? >> you know what, i think more important than that is what happens if he loses the election again. because look, i have often said that one of the things that donald will do is he's a copycat. he likes strong men. we know this. likening it to the fact of the relationship with muhammad been salmon, with kim jong-un, with vladimir putin. i think he'll end up copying. i know this sounds hyperbolic but it's not. this is actually what i truly believe knowing him as well as i do. he will try to do or he will attempt to do exactly what muhammad been salmon did when he grabbed all of the other royals and took i don't even know, $150 billion from them. that will be nothing compared to what trump will do to folks like elon musk, mark zuckerberg, bill gates, warren buffett, the waltons. he will go to each and every one of them and take from them the bulk of their assets. if you think that this is something he's not going to try, or he's not thinking about, you would be wrong. it's exactly what he's thinking, that overnight he will be the richest man in the world. he'll just say to elon musk, i know you think you're worth $300 billion. i'm going to let you keep one, but you're signing over the over 299 to me. that's how strong men work. >> it's certainly what vladimir putin did as well. scary stuff, but scaring is caring as we say on the show. believe what your eyes are telling you about this man. >> exactly. >> michael cohen, thank you as always. much appreciated. up next on "the reidout," coach tommy tuberville is starting to catch heat from all sides now, as his republican senate colleagues ramp up their pressure campaign to get him to lift his pointless hold on military promotions. "the reidout" continues after this. this ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ cargurus. shop. buy. sell. online. nice footwork. man, you're lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. now you can stream all your games like it's nothing. yes! [ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. prior to becoming wam bam's senior senator, tommy tuberville was a fairly successful football coach at auburn university. he translated that experience into a new gig in the united states senate. how he managed to pull off any of that is a marvel considering that shortly after winning that senate seat, he told reporters that the three branches of government are the house, the senate, and the executive. alabama's constitutional scholar and insurrectionist enabler is currently responsible for holding up nearly 400 military nominations and promotions due to his opposition of the pentagon's abortion travel policy. at first, he probably thought it would score him political points and media attention, which it did. but now, with all of the issues that we're facing around the world, people are sick and tired of the theatrics. sources in the department of defense are holding him personally responsible for the marine corps chief's hospitalization due to a heart attack. general eric smith had been filling both the number one and the number two marine corps posts from july until he was finally confirmed as commandant in september. he was part of the tuberville blockade. an official told politico, i cannotelp to think because at the end of the day eric smith is a human, tuberville's unnecessary stress he's put on the situation where you don't have a backup has added a level of complexity and danger to an already bad situation. you know who else is sick of tuberville's bs? republicans. who led an effort to move nominations forward just last night. >> you have just denied this lady a promotion. you did that. no matter whether you believe it or not, this is doing great damage to our military. i don't say that lightly. >> what are we doing to these military men and women? politics are being injected right here, today. >> we're going to look back at this episode and just be stunned at what a national security suicide mission this became. >> and they kept up their attacks this morning. >> senator tuberville says there's no risk to the military. >> there absolutely is risk to the military. and that's maybe because he hasn't served in uniform, he doesn't understand how the promotion system works. >> it's dangerous time. we need to field our entire national security team including these military officers who deserve their promotions. >> if we normalize this and every senator follows the lead of senator tuberville, you'll ruin the military. >> this afternoon, the senate was able to confirm three critical nominations but 300 remain blocked. democrats are considering tweaking senate rules for the rest of this year to allow a process for the senate to pass multiple military nominations together. it would not apply to other nominations and it's something republicans do not like. joining me now is paul rieckhoff, founder of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america and host of the independent americans podcast. paul, good to see you. it is pretty astounding that tuberville is still keeping this up. i want to play a piece of sound for you. he keeps saying things like i'm going to keep this up because i have principles and all they have to do is change their policy and i'll stop, but i want you to listen to what he said in august on the kimberly guilfoyle podcast. >> i don't care if they promote everybody, to be honest with you. we have 44 four-star generals now. we only had seven in world war ii. i think we're overloaded to begin with. >> there you have it, he doesn't care if anybody gets promoted. >> what we're overloaded with is stupid senators. this man is radical. he's racist. he's reckless. and he's a political suicide bomber. he is maybe the most dangerous member of the senate right now because of all those reasons. he's willing to go in there and blow it all up over his personal agenda, which is to try to deny reproductive rights to women in the military, which is absurd in its own right, but by linking those two, he's kept this going for months and months. it's about damn time somebody took him on. i have been talking to you about this for months. a lot of whining, a lot of complaining, and now democrats and republicans are finally taking him on. i think it's hitting him. dan sullivan is a marine corps veteran himself. joni ernst has served in the military. tuberville is so bad and radical and stupid, he's making lindsey graham look good. that's what's happening now. it's so ridiculous what he's done, and it's not just hurting our military. it's hurting our allies. hurting ukraine, israel, everybody else who depends on the american military right now. >> you know, the senate armed services committee majority put together a report i have in front of me. it's really kind of shocking when you go through and read, you're talking about 20 officers selected that have to assume duties of their higher grade officers so people have to do multiple jobs. there are kids who can't be enrolled in school because their parents don't know where they're going to live. it also pointed out if tomm tuberville got his way on the policy for abortion travel, members of the united states military would actually have fewer rights than federal prisoners. your thoughts. >> yeah, that's right. that's the world that tommy tuberville wants to create. a radical. and he's been backed up by about ten other members of the senate that i have talked to you about before. i call them the confederate wing of the gop. they want to drag our military back to the 1800s. they don't want women to have rights. they don't want there to be diversity, they don't want us to be strong and be ready to defend our enemies and they decided the military is the place to wage their culture war. i think republicans have had enough, in part because they see it's bad politics. they understand it's hurting the gop. it's going to hurt them in the general election. the democrats have underplayed this. i wish they hit them harder on this more often. last night, joy, it was almost like a saturday night live skit. he kept standing up saying i object, i object. 61 times he objected to honorable american heroes being brought before the senate. and he's not going to stop. so they're going to have to run him over, have to go around him. i hope reasonable republicans will run against him. this guy is an embarrassment not just to alabama and the gop, he's an embarrassment to the entire country. >> i don't have a reasonable republican to play, so i'm going to play josh hawley instead. >> what should the republican leaders do? >> give a solution, i mean, what are they good for? what is mitch mcconnell doing here to try to resolve it? i think it's embarrassing he allows this to go forward