They become centers of their communities. What . Wifi . Wifi that works all over the house, even the basement. The basement. So i can finally throw that party. And invite shannon barnes. Dream do come true. Xfinity gives you reliable wifi with walltowall coverage on all your devices, even when everyone is online. Maybe well even get married one day. I wonder what i will be doing . Probably still living here with mom and dad. Fast reliable speeds right where you need them. Thats walltowall wifi with xfinity. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Stephanie Ruhle starts now. Tonight, day two of testimony in the former president s new york criminal trial. What we have heard about the catch and kill scheme to help donald trump. And what happened in a heated hearing on trumps gag order . The Senate Passes ukraine funding and a possible tiktok ban. Well break down the winner of the 118th congress. And my Keynote Conversation with the commissioner of the wnba. Whats next for Womens Basketball while superstar Caitlin Clark goes pro as the 11th hour gets underway this tuesday night. Good evening once again. Im Stephanie Ruhle. We are 196 days away from the election. Donald trumps new york trial featured two main characters. Long Time National enquirer Publisher David and one of trumps attorneys todd blanche. There was a fiery hearing over trumps partial gag order. Judge merchan told blanche to his face he was losing all correct. And here is my colleague with all the details. Reporter tonight, mr. Trumps long time friend david the former publisher of the National Enquirer offering the jury a rare glimpse into the underworld of Tabloid Tactics as they seek to show he covered his Business Records to pay off Stormy Daniels with hush money. Says he agreed to serve as the eyes and ears for rumors that could hurt mr. Trump adding what i would do is pub accomplish positive stories about trump and negative stories about his opponents. There was a series of glowing headlines about then President Trump a. Admitting today the enquirer made up a story linking cruzs father to the man who assassinated jfk and a completely untrue story about mr. Trump fathering a child with his housekeeper so the doorman couldnt take the story elsewhere. The day began with the judge taking the defense team to task over mr. Trumps post on social media. Targeting cohen and Stormy Daniels. The state seeking to hold mr. Trump in Criminal Contempt for violating the judges gag order. So they can talk about me. They can lie. But im not allowed today say anything. I would love to say everything that is on my mind. Reporter in court, the Defense Arguing mr. Trump should be permitted to respond to political attacks. And the gag order should not cover reposts of someone else. The judge didnt rule today but seemed exasperated telling todd blanche you are losing all credibility with the court. Minutes later mr. Trump back on truth social falsely writing the judge had taken away his right to free speech. This is a kangaroo court. The trial will not be in session tomorrow but testimony will continue on thursday. With that, lets get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel and we need help tonight. Susan glasser is here. Staff writer for the new yorker. Molly, Special Correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor. George conway is also a contributing writer at the atlantic. He is no town for this trial. And former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney charles coleman. I want to start wide and then we will go deep. George, i want everybodys but you first. Your biggest take iowas. The biggest take away was how trumps lawyers got creamed on the gag order and the second biggest take away is how good a witness david was. For the prosecution. He is telling the story in an orderly fashion. He is just the right demeanor to tell the story chronologically from beginning to end. The theme being this was all about affecting the election. And that is, he is taking the weight off of Michael Cohen. It will be the defense actually who will try to build up the importance of cohen. Prosecution doesnt have to. Combination of basically setting the stage for explaining why they ended up doing what they did with Stormy Daniels. And, basically explaining, and the paper work. You dont need that much from cohen. So it is a pretty, it is a pretty powerful presentation. We will see how he does on cross. What will the defense do in try to destroy his credibility . When you are the publisher of one of the biggest Lab Toyed Ins the world for decades there will be holes to fill. I guess there are. But i mean whose buddy was he . Yes. Yes. So im not sure how they will do that. Im sure they have something. But if acts with the demeanor and the calmness that he has been showing in the courtroom and doesnt try to fight on cross and do the things you dont want witnesses to do on cross like get defensive. Just stick to the facts. You can see what you have to concede. He could end up, just his credibility could win his case for the prosecution alone. We have several weeks to go. What did you learn today charles . Conservative lawyers side. I have to agree with george 100 . The prosecution had a really good day. It is one of those things where you want to do your best as a lawyer. But they got a lot of help with the gag order proceeding. To go further with what george was talking about, a large farther of it will be built on trying to chip away at the correct of Michael Cohen as well as Stormy Daniels with regard to her ulterior motives. With David Setting the stage the way he did, you dont have to rely on the correct as much. You can say you dont have to believe Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels. Listen to what he told you. That is going to be key. And then with regard to the gag order hearing. Stephanie. They blew it. In grand fashion. They blew it in terms of the performance but when it comes to consequences what will it face . Really jail . They had nothing substantiative to say in trumps defense. One was oh, well some of these were retreats and the other was he was defending against attacks. There is no exception in the gag order for defending against political attacks and show me, the judge said, show me the attacks. If you are Donald Trumps lawyer, you are Donald Trumps lawyer. There is a good reason not to be. That was the problem here. Charles brought this up. Clearly he knows what he is doing here is completely off. But he had no choice. I would have expected him to walk into court. And at least have some sort of a plan or guideline to present to judge merchan. To try and give his client some wiggle room. You know donald trump is not going to change. You know he is going to continue to violate it so you have to try to give judge merchan something he can work with. The fact june of this was done is a shocker to me and it reeks of a client. Lets say one ends up in jail because of the gag order. You have a lot of distinguished lawyers there. Donald trump is trying in my opinion to bait the judge. He is trying to bait them. Trying to provoke them. His strategy is to violate the gag order his whole play book he runs against any institution. The man does not have a strategy. He cannot be controlled. There will be a 10,000 fine. The thing i would say is the next time we have been clear here, the order says this. My explanation in my decision here is this is why these are violations of the gag order. If you do it a second time, it will be four hours. It will be eight hours and we will have you stay overnight. He is not going to like that. I mean, he may be trying to bait the judge, but it will make him look weak and sad and pathetic. Could donald Trump Control his behavior . Which it is not clear that he can. So, if you are saying these are consequences, it is not clear to me. Will he go to jail for violating the gag order . I think it is distinctly possible. The way you do that is to give the warning and say you are this close. How about the fact it is day two and merchan tells trumps lawyer you are losing all correct . You cannot have much trial in front of you and have a judge who is presiding over that trial tell you you are losing credibility. Once it is gone, it is very difficult, if not impossible to get back. And you dont want to have to deal with that in addition to trying to wrangle one of the most difficult clients in judicial history. That is not something you want to have to sort of balance in terms of what you are dealing with as an attorney. In terms of what merchan may do, i do believe he will lay out a plan and go forward but i disagree with the strategy. He is putting pressure across the board. Why . Because one way or the other, he finds a way to spin the narrative and he benefits. If judge merchan throws him in jail for contempt, he will turn around and raise insane amounts of money as a martyr. If he doesnt, he continues to act like a wild man. Could i adjust one thing quickly . For so long everyone has said you can hold trump accountable because this will happen or that will happen. You know, it is happening. This whole idea. And he will raise insane amounts of money. Are you so sure about that . In 2016, there were massive crowds. There were people day in and day out standing outside trump tower. I was standing outside trump tower. You know who was peeking to see he showed up . Passers buys going to tiffanys or the gucci store. So the story was this maga crowd but seems like the story of this trial in 2024 is that it is awfully quiet outside that courtroom. I think there is a difference. Donald trump the candidate and donald trump the defendant are sort of one in the same in this interesting amalgamation. I dont think it will be what it was when he was a novelty in 2016. But i still believe that he is going to be able to galvanize the Financial Support from other people across the country. If he positions himself as the martyr that he wants to believe that he is. He is growing old though. He is tapped these people out. That is the problem. And the ft reported he is 200,000 less small dollar donors. Thats a huge number. And in the primaries today, in pennsylvania, you know, nikki haley got a really good percentage and she is not even in the race. I would want to listen that something that senator mitt romney said earlier today. Watch this. I think everybody has read their own assessment of President Trumps character. And so far as i know, you dont pay someone 130,000 not to have sex with you. You do not pay someone 130 grand not to have sex with you. Susan glasser, i never thought i would say savage words coming from mitt romney but alas, here we are. Here we are and i have to say, mitt romney is a reminder. Look at his colleagues in the senate. People like ted cruz. Marco rubio. I have been thinking about them today with this extraordinary testimony and i think it is really gripping testimony from the former boss of the National Enquirer admitting under oath on the stand he is essentially working in concert with donald trump and his minions in 2016 to plant false stories about trumps opponents including ted cruz. Vicious lies about those senators. Now they are endorsing donald trump. Working for donald trump. They are sucking up to donald trump. Under oath, the former head of the National Enquirer is admitting he essentially humiliated these men in pursuit of Donald Trumps white house candidacy. And the shamelessness, the willingness of these folks to commit sort of like to basically base themselves. It is really humiliating. I think so. So george, you are the tabled republican. Listen don johnson. You are our table republican tonight. In republican circles, when news like this comes out. When you have david being like yep, made up the stories about Donald Trumps foes. It is what i did. Like, what happens in like, in republican cocktail parties tonight . What are they saying . Yeah. He made up stories about my dad. Still voting for him. Like, how does that work . I have no idea. I cant fathom it it. I think they just do this. I got, i was on the acella yesterday. And the first class car. And some guy. Oh im sorry. Like, im sorry. First you wear that outfit. And this guy gets into the discussion. Im headlining a Fundraiser In Dc for the biden campaign. And what am i writing . I was talking when i was writing and i told him and he starts going oh, Well Joe Bidenment i couldnt vote for him. Everybody was like why . Well, the guy had. He was having this discussion with him and it was like, basically he didnt know who e. Jean carroll was. They do this. They stop listening. They turn off the things that undermine their views. They shut themselves out from reality. That is why this trial is actually good. A lot of people had forgotten about these women. About Stormy Daniels. This brings them back into the news cycle. Theres a lot of folks who say i dont want to hear about all this. Okay, we have no more time. Im so sorry. You know what . Miami vice showed up. Doing thing. What is going on . There you go. Unfortunately, you are leaving us charles. The rest of the turkeys are coming back. Before we go to break, you know what time it is . A quick update of our djt tracker following Donald TrumpsMedia Company to see how it is doing. The stock fell 8 to close at 32 bucks today. The same day trump qualified for an earn out bonus of 36 million shares. This is important. While you are going that thing is tanking, it will be worth nothing. It is not worth nothing yet and at todays price, those shares would be worth under 1. 2 billion in that big boys pocket. Republicans came into congress with big plans to squash joe bidens agenda, but with tonights passage of the foreign aid bills is it proof joe biden is coming out on top . And the president is in florida reminding voters of the stakes when it comes to abortion. The 11th hour just getting underway on a tuesday night. Underway on a tuesday night. I dont want you to move. Im gonna miss you so much. You realize well have Internet Waiting for us at the new place, right . Oh, we know. We just like making a scene. Transferring your services has never been easier. Get connected on the day of your move with the xfinity app. Can i sleep over at your new place . Can katie sleep over tonight . Sure, honey this generation is so dramatic move with xfinity. Norman, bad news. I never graduated from med school. What . But the good news is. Xfinity mobile just got even better now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go. Plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free for a year. I gotta get this deal. Thats like 20 a month per unlimited line. I dont want to miss that. Thats amazing doc. Mobile savings are calling. Visit xfinitymobile. Com to learn more. Doc . The senate sends a unified message to the entire world. America will always defend democracy in its hour of need. We tell our allies we will stand with you. We tell our adversaries dont mess with us. We tell the world we will do everything to defend democracy and our way of life. The Senate Finally passed that 60 billiondollar aid package delivering a Major Political victory to President Biden. For a time et felt like ukraine was never going to pass. How big of a deal is this . Yeah. First of all, lets note that it is extremely important in terms of the timing for ukraine. Because of the delay. The pentagon ran out of the ability to keep supplying weapons to ukraine. Russia has gone back on the offensive in ukraine on the ground. Running out of ammunition. Commanders reporting they were unable to fire their weapons at the russians because of this aid hold up in washington. There is insufficient air defense at a time when russia was launching its deadliest attacks. This had a very significant real world consequence that republicans for months refused to allow even a vote on this. I think it is a very significant moment there is real concern without this Aid Provision which is an additional nearly 60 billion for ukraine out of the total bill of nearly 95 billion, this comes almost at the last possible moment to make sure that ukraine does not suffer major losses to russia as it goes back on the offensive. One is on the trail. One is on trial. They get this thing passed together. While donald trump is losing it in court. Amid all this, is joe biden winning here . This is a win for joe biden. This house came in and they had bold plans. They tried to impeach joe biden on vibes. And everything that they have tried has really failed and they had to wait on their appliance week. Their appliance messaging. They keep losing members. The most meaningful thing was that Marjorie Taylor greene who is trying to put together this coalition of her to get together and Thomas Massey to get rid of the speaker was sort of told by trump. Right . Trump went on a Radio Show Yesterday and sort of told her to back off. So i dont know what is happening here. But this is wild. And you. They are losing their footing. And you have four States Running against each other. If this is not disarray, i dont know what is. Heres what i want you to explain. Mitch mcconnell had an interesting take today. He offered high pr