Prime minister netanyahu, trying to close a hostage deal. While the trump trial dominates the headlines, President Biden is campaigning in wisconsin today. Jen psaki joins me with her inside look. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. President biden is set to speak later this hour in the critical State Of Wisconsin after his major speech tuesday condemning the rise of antisemitism across the nation. Former President Trump is at maralago today while his Hush Money Trial is in a oneda break. On tuesday, the judge denying a request for a mistrial. This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from said the defense. The judge said some the details were bet he left unsaid but denying the Mistrial Request and pinning part of the responsibility on trumps defense team, saying that he was surprised that his lawyers did not object more during the testimony. At one point even the judge stepped in when the defense failed to do so. Judge merchan calling a sidebar calling trumps behavior contemptuous. Could the cursing of donald trump during daniels testimony be seen as a violation of the gag order . Its not the issue of the gag order. Its an issue in the courtroom of maintaining courtroom decorum. You cant be acting like that as a criminal defendant in the middle of the trial. Its intimidating to the jury. It can be intimidating to the witness. The judge would have real grounds to hold him in context if he continued to act like this in the middle of the trial while the jury is present. At one point judge merchan interjected when the defense failed to object. Could that be part of the defense strategy, hoping for a mistrial or opening a door to reversal on appeal . The Harvey Weinstein reversal comes to mind. It was the Supreme Court in new york with that same lower court being reversed. Certainly, a mistrial is a victory for trump and for his legal team. Its an embarrassment to any lawyer when a judge makes an objection for you. The judge is making a record by telling trumps defense team, you are not objecting often enough. By putting on the record his objection, he is proving to any future appellate court, i had to step in, the Defense Attorneys could have stepped in. For the prosecution, this was a witness that had its own inherent risks. The prosecution to push as far as they did here means the prosecution was balancing the benefit that they hope to receive from some of these details and balancing the risk that, in fact, they might raise the ire of the judge. You dont want the judge unhappy with you or with your case. The defense had daniels admit, she hates trump. What are you watching for in the crossexamination tomorrow . It was rough yesterday afternoon. Was that admission problematic for the prosecution . I think the prosecution is putting daniels on the stand for a very limited point, which is to corroborate the encounter actually happened, something which trump has consistently denied. The defense has to, to crossexamine her, find 18 holes to poke in this story, which theres nothing they can refute, so they need to crossexamine around it, to find 18 other places where they can highlight inconsistent past statements, problems in her story over time, where they can undercut her as a witness and come back later in closing and say, shes a liar. They can come back later in closing, this is their goal, and say, shes making up stories. Thats an important point not only for her but for every witness, that they need to poke holes in their stories. Thanks so much. Paul, stay with us, in florida john cannon suspending the classified Documents Trial indefinitely. That delay, a major win for donald trump, likely pushing the trial past the election or even beyond. Joining us now is ken dilanian. Ken, the trial was supposed to begin two weeks from now. Not only did she move the date, she postponed it indefinitely. Shes been, as i said, accused of foot dragging. Now many critics, including a lot of our lawyer contributors, are saying that this is just really Andrew Weissmann saying this is terrible judicial action on all of the pretrial actions. A fairly simple case, keeping classified documents, denying it to the fbi. Theres a search. Hiding things during a search. Witnesses to the hiding the alleged obstruction, all of this about pretrial motions being so complicated, is unnecessary delay. Thats a rationale. We cant have a trial. Not only did she suspend the trial date, she set five separate hearings on these various motions, some of which many legal experts say, you dont need to have a hearing on that. You will burn a day of court time . Thats exactly whats happening. The issue is, for those who say, this shows shes unfair, cant they get her to be recused . What shes saying is i need more time to hear the evidence. Thats a plausible explanation but legal experts say it doesnt hold water. In fact, paul, lets talk about the fact that some of the motions have to do with jury instruction, before shes even convened a jury. Thats what pushes it over the edge. I was watching some of your colleagues saying its hard to go with a mandamus appeal to the 11th circuit. The Justice Department doesnt like to do that because it could poison the well for future prosecutions. Jack smith doesnt have an option of getting another judge assigned. All of the missteps that judge cannon has made, for all of the continual delays, for all of the gifts shes giving the trump team because delay is a victory, those really arent sufficient pieces of evidence or information that the prosecution would need in a federal case to remove a judge. You need to show something closer to actual bias. Here that is yet to be shown. Theres a great deal of justified reason for frustration on the Jack Smith Team and on the government team, but not yet the kind of information they need to remove judge cannon from this case. Because of judge cannons continual refusal to set a date and a time that will make this trial or cause this trial to take place soon, it seems almost inevitable that this case isnt going to take place until after november elections. Paul, this is a case that most people felt was the most open and shut case and perhaps one of the most important for a candidate who could be the next president. I want to ask you about a delay in another trump case, the Georgia Court of appeals agreed to hear mr. Trumps appeal on a Lower Court Decision not to disqualify d. A. Willis. If it takes weeks to decide this, it would further delay the start of the georgia case. This decision to accept this appeal falls into the no surprises category. The Trial Court Judge knew it would come. He also said, im going to keep control of this trial. Im going to keep control of the motions. These issues are going to continue to be decided by me. We will continue to move forward. What this does show though is that all that happened with willis and her associate, the other prosecutor on the case, has caused a distraction and has given fodder to the trump team to cause distractions and to take away from the momentum that this prosecution had so very early on and so well deserved early on. I think this trial will continue to move forward, but its an unfortunate piece of information for the trial team and for the prosecutors. Ken dilanian and paul charlton, all things legal and intelligence related. The critical moment. Ceasefire and hostage talks inching forward. Could the deal be threatened by israels operations in rafah . We will be right back. Andrea mitchell reports is here in 90 seconds here on msnbc. Id rather work on saving for retirement. 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Live claritin clear®. Israeli forces say they have reopened the critical crossing into gaza two days after Prime Minister netanyahu promised President Biden he would. The u. N. Says that that aid is still not getting through. So open, not open . The Critical Rafah Crossing is closed. Care this comes as israeli officials are frustrated with the Biden Administrations decision to withhold ammunition. William burns is in israel consulting netanyahu on ceasefire talks underway in cairo. U. S. Officials say they are narrowing differences. Joining me, raf sanchez. I understand you have seen more than i in the days after october 7. What did you see today . Are the survivors there hoping those negotiations continue . A deal could bring home more hostages. Reporter absolutely, andrea. As you know, a mile from the gaza border, it was home to 400 people. Around one in four of them were either murdered or kidnapped on october 7th. There are still 36 hostages from there who are being held inside of gaza right now. Perhaps more than any other community, its a lace thats absolutely praying for a breakthrough. We spoke earlier to a woman who say nurse. She was kidnapped on october 7th from her home. She spent 55 days in captivity. She was released in the first ceasefire deal. One of the points she made was that not a single israeli bullet was fired on october 7th. The army did not show up during the hamas attack. She feels strongly that the government now has an obligation to bring those people home. Take a listen. The army never came here. People were left here for hours until late in the afternoon until the army came. By the time that the army came, there was no one here. No terrorist. They all left. They did whatever they want. We were abandoned by our own government. That government has the obligation to our citizens. Reporter her father was killed on october 7th. His body is still in gaza. Its one of the bargaining ch s hamas is using. The cia director updating the Israeli Government about the negotiations. Publically, israel is playing down any tension with the u. S. Over these 2,000pound bombs being withheld. Privately, an israeli official tells me theres deep frustration with the decision. Thank you so much. For more on this, former israeli ambassador to the United States, michael orin and ben rhodes, former National Security advisor to president obama. Let me drill down on that, the frustration israel is feeling, according to all of my reporting and rafs as well about the withholding of the weapons right now, because of concern about the impact in rafah and the possibility of civilian deaths there, dissatisfaction by the u. S. With the plan for sheltering all of those people before operations started. Good to be with you. Theres frustration. Its not without precedent. President obama withheld certain forms of ammunition during the two team battles with hamas. Under the claim there were too many civilians being killed. This is a wider, much more all encompassing delay in the shipment of essential munitions. The frustration stems for the return of the obama precedent on a Grander Scale and the message it sends about americas willingness, ability to stand with israel against those enemies. Its a message throughout the world. The president has made it clear that while it does oppose a wholesale incursion into rafah, it would not necessarily oppose Surgical Strikes. The israeli maneuvers in rafah are more closely resembling a Surgical Strike than an allout incursion. Its just around the border areas of the border between egypt and gaza and along the coastal area with an attempt to move civilians away from the combat zones. Moreover, you mentioned this crossing, that israel reopened the crossing at the request of President Biden. That was a very tough decision. We had four soldiers killed earlier this week by hamas shelling. The shells were fired from within rafah. That was reminiscent of october, the horrors of october 7th and israelis killed within israel by hamas artillery. To reopen it was not easy. The fact that aid has not gone through that crossing so far is probably due to the fact that drivers wont drive through it because the area is under hamas shelling. It was at late as yesterday evening. Im not sure i would drive a truck through that crossing as well. Tremendous disappointment and i guess head scratching. How does the Biden Administration expect israel to regain, to release the hostages, those who are alive, without maintaining significant Military Pressure on hamas . Clearly, hamas has rejected the very generous offer as described by Secretary Of State blinken that israel made for Hostage Release. A very generous and controversial offer within israel. Barring any hamas willingness to negotiate, a serious effort, israel has no choice but to maintain Military Pressure on hamas. Hopefully, it will release hostages as it did twice in november. Let me follow up and then bring in ben rhodes. Hostage families i have been talking to them. I was there last week when they were talking to Secretary Blinken outside the hotel. They want the hostages to be the top priority, not getting the last battalions in rafah. You have the cia director in israel today talking to the Prime Minister. We are told that these talks are very close. Whats emerged in the last couple of days is a narrowing of differences. Is there a Point Of View of put the hostages first, agree to it, then worry about going back into rafah or whatever else has to be renegotiated, ironed out after those people are alive and home . Im not a spokesman for the government. Im speaking as a citizen. My position reflects those of a majority of israelis. We are putting the hostages first at this stage. Israel is willing to go the extra ten miles to get those hostages back. Israel agreed to in return for the release of 33 hostages, going from 40 because we understood there were no 40 hostages that were alive, that met the criteria of being aged or infirm or women, there werent that many that were left alive in hamas captivity, going down to 33, willing to agree to a 40day ceasefire with the possibility of renewing that ceasefire should further hostages be released. Also, releasing from our prisons a great number of palestinian convicted Palestinian Terror i haves, many with blood on their hands which is traumatic for the israeli families, the victims of the terrorists, to explain why their loved ones arent going home, but these terrorists will go home to a here roses welcome is not easy. Hamas comes back with an agreement that says, israel has to say it lost the war, withdraw entirely from gaza and in which case all the soldiers have given their lives, thousands wounded have done in vain. You get a handful of terrorists and hamas can emerge a handful of hostages, excuse me, hamas can reclaim over gaza, rearm, regroup and mount the next assault, which hamas leaders say quite openly, 10,000 times until israel is destroyed. The final cherry on the top, we are talking about nearly 1,000 very dangerous criminals released from israeli jails. Leaders released to the west bank. You could at that point kiss the Palestinian Authority goodbye. I cant see where these two positions are getting closer. I hope you are right. I dont see it. Theres a lot to unpack there. Ben rhodes, jump in here. Your reaction to the u. S. Halting the shipment of the weapons, including 2,000pound bunker buster bombs. I dont think it should come as a surprise. I think for the last several months, President Biden and the Biden Administration have made clear their concerns and if not outright opposition to a largescale Israeli Military operation in rafah. Given the fact that you have well over a million palestinians there, many of whom are civilians. Yes, theres some hamas, but an enormous amount, over 600,000 children, given the near faminelike conditions that are prevailing and the reality that if you have a significant Military Operation that includes narrow bombardment, ground incursions, that you would have an enormous loss of civilian life. This has been building for some time, because i think what the administration has been looking for is a different plan. They sent different officials to israel to consult about what are the precautions taken . Aid get in. Im not privy to the conversations like the ambassador. Its pretty clear that those consultations have not satisfied the concerns of the administration. This is not coming out of nowhere at all. I think we have all known that the potential for rafah Military Operations was the potential Breaking Point in terms of military assistance. The administration has been transparent about that. I think this is them sending a message that if rafah goes forward in the way that it has been briefed to american officials, that the