the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. e starts now ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tonight, donald trump's ramped up rhetoric, setting the tone for his 2024 campaign. plus, trump jr. is back on the stand in new york's fraud trial. we will break down what happened in court today. and with a potential government shutdown just days away, house speaker mike johnson faces his first major test. then, a message of unity amid an ongoing war. to peace activists joining us with a mission to stand together, as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good evening once again. i am stephanie ruhle. we begin this evening with increasingly alarming messaging from criminal defendant and gop current front-runner donald j trump, about what he wants to do if he wins a second term. reports describe a potential second trump administration focused on mass deportations, immigration raids, and a u.s. government filled with trump loyalists ready to carry out his extreme policies. trump's 2024 campaign responded to those reports, calling them, quote, purely speculative and theoretical. but this past veterans day, when millions of americans honor those who sacrificed for our country, this is what we heard from the former president. >> we pled stick to you that we will root out the communists, marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. the real threat is not from the radical right. the real threat is from the radical left, and it is growing every day, every single day. the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. our threat is from within. >> you want to get alarmed? the washington post accurately points out similar language was used by dictators, including hitler and mussolini. and one journalist who has covered donald trump extensively said trump's words point to the theme of his upcoming 2024 campaign. >> they are embracing this idea. they are embracing the idea that they are out to get retribution against the deep state, against the communists, the radicals, the rhinos, and the vermont. i mean, they are bracing this idea. that is a different campaign, i mean, it just is. and he's been proving that over the past two weeks. >> even as trump himself faces 91 felony counts, he is also battling the civil fraud case here in new york that could and history to state business. today, his legal team began their defense and that trial. their first witness? trump's eldest son, donald trump jr., we are nearly two weeks ago he went under oath for the prosecution. he is back. on the stand today, he reportedly praised his father's business calling him a, quote, missionary. of course, the former president, his company, and his sons don junior and eric, all defendants in this case. with that, let's get smarter this evening with the help of our leadoff panel. it is an excellent one. peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times, he is here in person at 30 rock. we never thought we'd see him. luke broadwater, pulitzer prize -winning congressional reporter for the new york times. and kristy greenberg, former federal prosecutor and former sdny criminal division deputy chief. peter, i'm so happy to see you in person. however, we need to stop with the legal questions. i want to start with this tape obtained out of georgia by abc and the washington post, jenna ellis, a co-defendant and former trump campaign attorney shared, told prosecutors about a conversation she had with dan scavino, long, long time trump a back in 2020. let's watch this. >> i thought that the claims and the ability to challenge the congressional results was essentially over. we said -- we said to him, well we don't care, and we're not gonna leave. he said what do you mean. he said the bus is not going to leave under any circumstances. we are just going to stay in power. and i said to him, it's not working that way. he said i don't care. >> okay, nbc has not independently verified this video. but what does it mean for fani willis's case and trump's defense? he's not leaving no matter what. >> well, it is powerful evidence potentially. so one thing that was racing through my mind when i saw that, okay, dance gavino who said this, how are we getting that statement into evidence? , how are we getting tit's not e necessarily admissible through jenna ellis. it is double hearsay. and he's not a charged party. he is not a coconspirator, at least identified yet in the indictment. so how does that come in? at the very least, she provided an investigative lead. she provided information for the d.a. to go and follow up on and hopefully flip dan scavino because this could be really important evidence as to trump's motive for why he was involved in the fake electors scheme, all of the r.i.c.o. conspiracy ties into, i did not want to leave office. >> so, jack smith could potentially use this video in the federal election's case? >> i don't think he can use the video, only if potentially jenna ellis said something different, and then potentially who could use it to confront her for changing her story. but the statement itself, the truth of it, not admissible on its own. it is dan scavino told her what trump told him. so, he would have to find a way to try and get it in, either through dance gavino saying with trump told him, trump's party, so it can be admissible then. or maybe somebody else heard it in the case. again, it's going to lead fani willis and jack smith potentially to investigate further. >> we have not heard dan scavino name in a while, and he's a trump ride or die. peter, what does this video tell you about what was going on inside that white house? >> i think it is very revealing, what trump people say is he did it ultimately in january 20th. so even if he said this to dan scavino, so what? ultimately he does walk out of the white house. but i think it is very emblematic of the attitude of this president towards the constitution, towards the system, as we saw time and time again in that postelection period, he was willing to fill out every norm, every standard -- >> still is. >> and he still is, may not be admissible in court. lawyers have to meet certain standards. but we, citizens, journalists, take that into account and evaluate what it tells us about a president. he wants to be able to stay in power regardless of what the voters think. >> look, jenna, ellis let's just think about who she was, she worked hand in hand with sydney powell and rudy giuliani. we know that powell has already pleaded guilty and she has talked to prosecutors. how that could this video be than for giuliani? >> well, i think quite bad because i think what you are seeing here is that, you know, jenna ellis and sidney powell, there's a reason they were off for plead eels, right? they were providing very valuable information to the prosecution as they work their way up the chain. we always thought this was how it was going to kind of go with the fani willis prosecutions, right? they started with so many defendants and we expected it to narrow and narrow as people fled and then turned state evidence. so that's exactly what the prosecutors are doing here. and they are really revealing more information than even those of us who covered the january 6th case so closely. we knew trump had been told time and time again that he lost the election. but now, we are hearing it from even more people and even more examples of its. >> let us change topics. i want to talk, peter, about donald trump and his supposed plans for the white house. and i want to share what historian ruth ben-ghiat said about trump's speech over the weekend. watch this. >> we are talking about people like vermin, that goes together with the plans for instant, you know, actions to purge civil servants, plans reported elsewhere by the new york times to find lawyers who will be unethical because, you know, if you are trying to have an autocracy, you need corrupt and lawless people to be part of the government. otherwise, you don't get anything done. you also need to convince people to see violence differently, and donald trump has been doing that since 2015. >> peter, you know this man so, so we'll. you wrote a book on his white house. is this extreme even for him? house. >> well, it is. but, i mean, you have to understand the pattern of donald trump. the pattern is he tells us what he's gonna do, right? we don't have to get. he is very transparent about it. he is transparent, he was transparent five, six months before the 2020 election, telling us he would accept no result other than a win for him. he will call it rigged if he lost. he followed through on that. he told us time and time again that he would, you know, pursue policies or ideas out of bounds. time and time again, he tried to batter his own justice department, the prosecutors enemies. to hear now that he is planning a second term to do some of these things, we should take the past as prologue. but what we try to do in some cases, wasn't able to do because we had people surrounding him, trying to restrain him, republicans who did not agree with where he was going. and if we see a second term if he's elected, i think the kind of people who are developing those plans you've been seeing in the newspapers in the last few days are the ones who are planning her how to purge the bureaucracy, not just political people, but much deeper than any president has done in the century. he plans, massive camps for migrants, plans to prosecute his enemies, not because they committed any crimes. they don't even mention any crimes, but just because they criticize him. by the way, his own chief of staff, his own attorney general, his own chairman of the joint chiefs, his own former lawyer, he's telling us in advance what he's going to do. >> when people show you who they are, believe them. , kristy, isn't this a direct challenge, though, rule of law, essentially in our constitution. >> absolutely. i think about the fact that there were people within the white house that were his lawyers, people that were doj officials, any number of people who stepped in and said, no, you can't do this. had they not done that, who knows where we would be right now? there were people that donald trump had appointed who stood up to him when all of this went down. so, now to think that those kind of people who have some kind of a conscience are no longer going to be in office, if he were in office, and that he would just appoint a bunch of yes men's terrifying. >> luke, the rnc chair woman, rana ronny mcdaniel, did not condemn what he said. are any republicans on the hill, and i don't mean those retiring like mitt romney, are they concerned about his comments? >> you know, i did not hear any concern today as i walk the halls of the capitol. you know, the republicans were fighting amongst themselves about whether or not they're gonna have to shut the government down. and they were attempting to impeach the homeland security secretary, alejandro mayorkas. so, i did not hear a lot about these comments from the house republicans today. yes, there are people who think donald trump is very dangerous for the party, and think he is an election loser. i think this kind of rhetoric is terrible, but we have not heard them speak out publicly. >> so, no major groups in the republican party are listening to his rhetoric, and saying this man needs to step aside. however, peter, democrats are saying that joe biden, maybe he is too old, maybe they need somebody else for this position. when you put the two side by side, that just seems crazy. so, is this white house going to, campaign at least, planning a much bigger response to this, to get the american people to focus on what donald trump is actually saying. >> frustration, actually, among a lot of democrats that the president has not done that himself. a lot of the surrogates do, but the president himself more or less stays away from these kinds of discussions. every once in a while, he would give a speech about his view of the threat to democracy that donald trump poses. but he doesn't do it on a sustained basis. they think he needs to do that because the choice, the election next year is going to be between incumbent that people are disenchanted with, at least some people disenchanted with on this side. >> disenchanted, although he's gotten almost everything done that he campaigned on, including being a bipartisan president. >> it's nothing they don't like what he's done, democrats who are disenchanted, they just think that he needs to step aside, that his time is done. they like his policies, his program, a lot of his accomplishments. they just need that he, will turn 81 next week -- >> essentially, same age as donald trump who was facing 91 trump -- >> that is the white house strategy, get these democrats and independents to come back to biden by making them understand what they face as a threat that donald trump poses. that's a contrast. they're not gonna win, they think, by pumping biden up. they don't feel that's gonna be possible. they answer this to make people scared of donald trump for a good reason, they think. and a lot of democrats are frustrated they haven't done more to do that. but there still a year to go. >>, kristy let us, let us talk about trump's civil case. had there been cameras in the courtroom today. don junior basically sent a big infomercial for his dad's business? how does this help the defense, calling him a visionary, some of the sexist projects out there? come on now. >> it doesn't. the judge said it was completely irrelevant. but he let it in, he said he doesn't want to get overturned on appeal. essentially, it sounded like he was trying to sell the judge a timeshare, as opposed to illegal defense. >> oh my god. let's be clear, that never works for anyone. >> exactly. like many bad presentations, this was also a scam. i mean, he was going through the trump history with photographs and hours of a power point of showing pools, penthouses, and golf courses, and describing in those flowery terms if missionary, iconic, and spectacular. and he is skipping over the multiple bankruptcies, all the workers that have been stiff, all the time that trump's slum lords, like, all of that kind of fell off the hours long presentation. so, as the judge said, it was irrelevant. but he let him do it. and, you know, we are all -- >> we are probably in the most important part of the case, misrepresenting the value of the assets both to the government and to potential lenders. peter, let's talk about the supreme court before we go. they now have this new app ethics code of conduct. most are not new in their guidelines, they're not enforceable. on one hand, you can say, wow, this is the first time the supreme court has responded to public pressure and done something, but all they really did was just write down what already existed on a piece of paper and handed it in. >> a lot of people haven't done that. why don't you put it down on people -- >> because you can blow your nose with that paper. >> look, we don't have an enforcement methodology. that is the obvious problem here, who can police the supreme court other than the supreme court? that's a structural issue in our system in that sense. but at least, some people say they have finally outlined what they believe their standards to be, and we as a public can hold them to it. before that, we did not know what the standards were because they were more or less what each justice wanted to make of them. >> except holding them to it is just saying, look, dishonest piece of paper, you really shouldn't have done that. and they can go, i guess. and i'm still going back to work tomorrow. quickly before we go to break, look, you are on the hill, speaker johnson is facing his big first test this week, the shutdown just a few days away. where are things standing tonight, luke? >> yeah, he is still facing a lot of pressure from the hard right about his plan to try to keep the government open. if i had to bet right now, i would guess they do get a deal to have the continuing resolution. but he will need democratic votes to do it, and that will put him in some of the same hot water that eventually caused kevin kathy to lose his job. so, he has a bit of a honeymoon period right now. but he is getting a lot of pushback from the hard right for trying to keep the government open. >> let's see what happens. , peter baker great to have you here in person. kristy greenberg, thank you. luke broadwater, you are going to have a long and busy week. when we come back, a top democrat seems open to the new speakers strategy to avoid the partial shutdown. conor lamb and mark mckinnon are here. and later, israel says hamas has lost control of gaza as the fighting rages on. to these activists joining us on their mission to unify israelis and palestinians. the 11th hour just getting underway on a very important mundane. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it's easy to get lost in investment research. introducing j.p. morgan personal advisors. hey david. connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. let's find the right investments for your goals okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi - this is my moment. there's nothing on my skin and that means everything! ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time. ask your doctor about skyrizi, the #1 dermatologist-prescribed biologic in psoriasis. learn how abbvie could help you save. only unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans learn how abbvie could come with the ucard - one simple member card that opens doors where it matters for you. what if we need to see a doctor away from home? 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