Welcome to the beat. Im ari melber. We begin with Donald Trumps criminal trial. The judge late today denying another attempt by trumps lawyers to just run away from this thing. Indeed, the judge admonished trumps lawyers for insinuating that actress Stormy Daniels has changed their story. The judge said i disagree with your narrative there is any new account here. Daniels wrapping up her testimony. She spoke under oath for hours and basically rhetorically stood her ground during the reports we have. It got very tense with the questioning from trumps Defense Lawyers. All of this about trying to make a bet that the jury wouldnt be as offended by some of the line of questioning as they would be concerned about the potential questions raised on her credibility. You wanted money. That phrase repeated multiple times by Donald Trumps lawyer today as she grilled Stormy Daniels during cross examination. It bordered on shaming a sex worker. Stormy daniels getting the most attention. You see donald trump, that it is his motivation to really shame this woman and it is not working. It felt like something that might have happened three decades ago. She was not going to let her story be mischaracterized. That is the clash because donald trump is running for president and there are many layers to this. The first and most important legal layer is whether this will work on the jury or backfire. Then we can also have of course at the same time, the wider discussion about what you heard legal experts there describe as mysogeny and out of date. Is any of this helping Donald Trumps defense with the jury . Is it a wash or might it backfire . One of the things trying to Frame Daniels history in a very certain way. They asked daniels pointedly you made this up. They said it was about money. She said i asked for money to tell my story. Thats a distinction between the allegation of extortion. Did she want money for no reason or did she have something that had essentially market value . We know the tabloids thought it did. During one heated interaction, daniels said to trumps lawyer you are putting words in my mouth. That was the tone. This is definitely more tense back and forth than we have seen on many different days. The defense got daniels to concede she had not have a firsthand knowledge of how trumps role evolved in paying for the transaction because it was at this distance through the intermediate lawyers. Trumps lawyer asked daniels you have no personal knowledge about his involvement in that financial transaction. Do you . She is under oath and said not directly. No. Prosecution also came back at daniels because that is how it works when you go back and forth and they asked if telling the truth about trump has been a net positive or a net negative for her. That is a straightforward question. Given what she has been through, this is her view under oath. You can mark it by what she has been through publicly, tax. Person security. I will tell you. She says it has been negative. The point being if she did all this to get money or improve her life, well, by her statement under oath and a lot of other indicaters did it not improve her life. Many Court Reporters and legal experts say daniels basically had a good day today although again, the question is how this plays out. If the defense team basically added doubt to a couple of jurors by a very old or unfair play book, that will be tested in this trial. Her attorney spoke to nbc after the testimony saying it was an excellent job of responding directly. Simply, and thoroughly. And the lawyer saying he is proud of how she conducted herself. Now when you look at the broader context and why it is so tense, she might be the only woman who has this history with donald trump that the jury will hear from. The other was part of the catch and kill payments. Karen mcdougal who said her story was bought by the enquirer and silenced. Shh e will not testify. They also called a bookkeeper. This is a big one because theres all the financials. There you have this testimony that trump and his now convicted top money man, the cfo were talking daily. That corroborates the point that trump was involved in these things. If one of the defenses i have told you is he president , a lot is going on. Wasnt involved. Well, the problem for donald trump is that paperwork and his own aids, these are not critics. His own trump financial staff say actually, even while president , he was this involved. Prosecutors will continue to hone in on this because they want to show that this wasnt some after the fact thing. That trump was in on it. Trumps former White House Assistant will be testified. She worked at rnc. Discussing on the stand the release of the access Hollywood Tape rattled the leadership. Also testimony about internal conversations about it got so bad, that they were looking at replacing trump as a candidate if it came to that. That matters because again, a jury looking at a former president thinks well, he won. The point here in the Campaign Crime Theory is this was how close he was, to not only losing, but maybe not being allowed to finish the race if the rnc pulled him off the ballots. Trumps team has down played this. They say there is always some of that, that causes total consternation for a couple of days and she did agree with that and confirm to the prosecution trump met with cohen at the white house in 2017. There was an email on that. Michael cohen described the meeting as a time where they discuss. The testimony showed she thinks highly of trump and she got emotional on the stand. The defense sees that as potentially humanizing her. So, what you see here is what we told you would happen. You get some exciting testimony. Some human moments whether they are for oar against the defendant. We saw that emotional testimony from someone the jury might sympathize with. We also saw Stormy Daniels go clashing. Very directly with trumps lawyers. And then you have all of the paperwork and the receipts which is boring compared to discussions of intimate details or someones history in the adult film industry. But the das team here is hoping to do something methodical. To combine the human and emotional and the memorable with the wrote and the written and the boring so by the end, they can say this wasnt just about shaming this defendant and candidate or making him look bad or overdoing it against him. It is well, it has been supported in a lot of evidence. He is legally presumed innocent. But there is a lot of evidence they covered it up. Then the Campaign Crime is why we keep talking about how he might have been knocked off the ballot or this or that. If they buy the Trump Defense that well, he was going to win anyway or was also controversial or this wasnt such a big deal, this undercuts the idea this was a planned mentally intentional Campaign Crime. It is not good enough the say they wanted to cover it up. They needed to Campaign Part too. That witness i told you from the rnc will be back on the stand when court resumes tomorrow. So this whole thing is barreling forward. Emily is our special guest tonight. I want to get into this with you in 90 seconds. You in 90 seconds. start your day with nature made. The 1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. But st. Jude has gotten us through it. St. Jude is hope for every child diagnosed with cancer because the research is being shared all over the world. Bladder leak underwear has one job. I just want to feel protected especially for those sudden gush moments. Always discreet protects like no other. With a rapid dry core that locks in your heaviest gush quickly for up to zero leaks. Always discreet the protection we deserve it was that kind of thing. I dont need somebody to speak for me. And i relish the day that i get to face him and then speak my truth. Stormy daniels speaking her truth today. And, unlike some people who havent testified, there is legal pressure around that. We are joined by emily basilon. Legal writer. Welcome. Thank you. Now lets start with the most narrow question. The 12 jurors here. Based on what we know when we watch this back and forth now, your thoughts on how they will take this in. The Stormy Daniels testimony. Well one thing i was thinking about was that trump has denied the sexual encounter and that opens the door to Stormy Daniels coming in and talking about it. Trumps lawyer i gather from the judges comments today did not object to some of the details. That now trumps defense team is trying to use to call for a mistrial. So you have that problem. And you have another problem, that the defense has to attack the credibility of Stormy Daniels. As you were saying earlier, it is kind of antiquated the way they are attacking her and maybe there are jurors sexist and Old Fashioned enough to hold her past against her. And there may be jurors really troubled by the way she is being criticized for the kind of career she has. The work she has done. It all is so tied up in gender politics. It is kind of hard to predict how that is going to play out with the jury. It is incredibly gendered as you say. And the stigma or attempt to kind of unfairly impugn someone is different from the more shall we say factual claims you can raise. In other words, in a case like this, asking someone about their work history and their use of money and about getting money and improving her life. Those are questions the judge is allowing. They are saying did all of this make your life so much better . She said no. And the jury will look at the treatment in the courtroom and the general sense of going up against someone as powerful as this. And does the theory that it was made up for selfinterest after all these years, does that hold or not . Second, whether the stigma stuff backfires. The New York Times where about the trump lawyer saying derisive of daniels sex work. The Public Perceptions of sex work have changed. What jurors make of the accusation that pornography is akin to fabricating a sexual encounter is very important. It is the afternoon on the west coast emily. And we want to keep it as appropriate as we can here in the news. But i think it is fair to say that the article is referring to the fact that as a general thing, social media is common. I will try to take gender out of it. A person of any gender is involved in that industry, that automatically diminishes them. That makes them somehow less trustworthy. Unreliable. They dont have a quote real job or what all of these things is not only not true, im not sure that for an average informed jury that will resonate. We hope we have moved beyond. It gives daniels a chance to seem sympathetic and turn the tables. Obviously, she accepted money in the form of a Hush Money Payment and she said i wanted to get paid for telling my story. This was money to silence her but originally she came forward to the National Inquirer trying to tell her story. But that is different from saying i wanted to get paid for having sex with donald trump and you cant rely on me at all because i used to be an Adult Film Star which just seems like we should be past that. Judging people in that way. Right. And to be as linear as possible, in the johnny depp case, he and her were actors. And like wise here, the fact she has a job the defense team referred to as at times fictional doesnt tell you much about what was under oath, telling the truth today. And i remind viewers the jury will judge that. They have to decide who they believe. Emily, i appreciate you joining us. Thanks so much for having me, ari. Absolutely. Well see you again soon i believe. As we cover the trials. When we come back, we look at the fox news play book and why it might have been the first draft of some of what the Trump Lawyers are saying in court. T. And i saved hundreds. Thats great. I know, right . Ive been telling everyone. Baby liberty. Did you hear that . Ty just said her first word. Can you say mama . Baby liberty. Can you say auntie . Baby liberty. How many people did you tell . Only pay for what you need. Jingle liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Baby liberty. Tech does your windshield have a crack . Trust safelite. This customer had auto glass damage, but he was busy working from home. So he scheduled with safelite in just a few clicks. We came to his house. Then we got to work. We replaced his windshield. And installed new wipers to protect his new glass. 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At Fisher Investments, were clearly different. Her uncles unhappy. Im sensing an underlying issue. Its tmobile. It started when we tried to get him under a new plan. But they they unexpectedly unraveled their price lock guarantee. Which has made him, a bit. Unruly. You called yourself the uncarrier. You sing about price lock on those commercials. the price lock, the price lock. so, if you could change the price, change the name its not a lock, i know a lock. So how can we undo the damage . We could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. Their connection is unreal. And we could all unexperience this whole session. Okay, thats uncalled for. You may have heard the first draft in history. History gets it better than we do. There is a twist we wanted to dig into. On whether fox news has become the first draft of a one sided Trump Defense play book. We heard trumps lawyers trying to discredit Stormy Daniels on crossexamination. As i mentioned as a general matter, that is not only fine, it is kind of their job. But whether they went over the line with antiquated Gender Attacks is a big question. Thats something a lot of legal observers are looking at. So the contradictions they wanted to get at, really drew attention to the idea that could be somehow supported or buttressed by her history working as an actress. Specifically in adult film actress. So they brought up the number of movies she was in and inflated the figure. They said daniels had appeared in about 250 movies. She said over 150, 150ish. The defense tried to undermine her testimony that trump had made her uncomfortable. Not the first time someone made a pass at you, the lawyer asked. Implication combining stigma or idea about ms. Daniels is that somehow that is relevant to whether or not she is telling the truth. The jury is asked to listen to her and decide if she is telling the truth. Did they have this encounter. And were there payments to cover it up . A lot of this over stuff can feel derogatory. Several outlets covering this as looked at the problem and said the defense is trying to shame the witness and it raises the question, is this the kind of strategy that will work in court which is the lawyers job, or is it sort of a bubble of getting high on their own supply of their client and his Media Echo Chamber made them think these are great arguments. Stephanie clifford. How many people have you had transactional sex with . Stormy daniels is now doing comedy. Which is a step up from doing porn. We are taking the most low and degrading kind of work a woman can do and somehow pretending that it is empowering of women. Number one, why is it assumed that the porno actress and the explayboy bunny are telling the truth . Again. It is fair game in court to ask whether someone is telling the truth and look at the evidence that may support or contradict the claims but it is not a legitimate legal argument that says they have the kind of job that is full of liars. If that is a gendered thing or a fiction thing, a lot of juries might not find it compelling. You say oh, this guy writes novels, how could you believe him . Or you have a Lot Of Experience Quote Making Phony Stories about sex. Daniels replying on the stand, wow, that is not how i would put it. The sex in the films is very much real. Just like what happened to me in that room. Now, there are many different aspects to all of this. We spoke just this week to a prominent womens rights attorney. Who discussed the importance in the difference in dynamics. The pearl clutching and the mistrial motions, and some of the commenters saying she went too far when she said he blocked the door. Why are we always silencing women . Why cant we put total context why donald trump would break the law so that the American People never heard this . It is a good question from an experienced lawyer. On this matter tonight. She gets the last word. Why. Would maga lawyers and Defense Lawyers try to silence this woman to show there is maybe a different story . That is the question. With e have a lot more in the program tonight including the chaos that riles the Republican Party as their new speaker had