That does it for the weekend. The sunday morning, can we say happy mothers day . Happy mothers day. I have the other version. You have the other version . I didnt know there were multiples. Happy mothers day to the mommies. To the step mommies to the grand mommies, to the mommy figures. We will see you next saturday. Follow the show on social media. And make sure that you days we got to talk about giving dads the big piece of chicken on fathers day and i think the mommies, they need the big bad backs. Make sure you bring the nice flowers and big backpacks for mothers day. Ive got my flowers and big backpacks. Thats how we are going to do it. Ali is going, what is in the bag . Im sitting here going, i hope someone tidied up will i was at work. My poor mom will be surprised when she gets the big bag that says. What is this about . Anybody over there on your end, want to know how that suit worked out . Two of you are looking at me like, you took the jacket off. I did take the jacket off. It all worked out. Im wearing my regular clothing this morning. Vector normal. Good to see all three of you. Happy mothers day and have a great weekend. We will see you next weekend. And by. Thanks you at home for joining us. Today on velshi, Donald Trumps former takes her turn to nemesis expected to take the stand in the criminal many trout tomorrow. The defendant candidate is unraveling in front of us. With major Russian Ground assaults underway, it is time to talk about how much the future of ukraine is tied to the outcome of the president ial election. And Public School teachers did not ask for it, but they have none the last days nonetheless found themselves in the wrights world on days were on box. Randi weingarten to joins me to talk about that. We know that donald trump rogue american politics. We dont have to talk about how he did it. One political scientist has a provocative theory, and he is suggesting democrats give it a try. That conversation is ahead. Velshi starts now. Starts now. Good morning, the sunday, maine 12th. About 24 hours from now, prosecutors in Donald Trumps criminal trial in new york are expected to call to the stand, their star witness, Michael Cohen. On monday the expresident s former longtime personal lawyer will begin testimony which is expected to take several days to complete. Despite questions about his credibility, Michael Cohen was once part of trumps innermost circle of confidants. For many years he was privy to closeddoor meetings related to some of the most sensitive aspects of the former president s business and personal life. Prosecutors will likely use his testimony to Connect The Dots between the tawdry Tabloid Aspects of this case, and the actual criminal allegations at the center of the prosecution, the false falsifications of Razzie Awards did keep Stormy Daniels quiet. Stormy daniels, the former film actress with which trump is alleged to have an affair, took to the stand to testify about her interactions over the years with the former president , much to his obvious to dissatisfaction. Last week, trumps attorneys filed two motions for a mistrial may days based on her testimony which about and denied by the judge. Additionally at one point judge mershon called a sidebar to notify the defense that the judge could hear the former President Cursing and making comments during daniels testimony, actions the judge said could be contemptuous. Trump continue to make frustrations known during the Campaign Rally yesterday in new jersey. At times a bizarre affair even by trump standards. At one point he veered into a tangent and congratulated quote, the late, great hannibal lector. That is a fictional cannibal, Serial Killer from the silence of the lambs. Like many other recent rallies, trump aired out grievances about his current legal situation as well. The gop twice impeach four times indicted presumptive present solid president ial nominee continued attacks against the judges and prosecutors. He repeated baseless accusations that judge mershon in new york is highly conflicted and that the case in manhattan is quote, a biden show trial. Trump even got crude, marking Manhattan District Attorney alvin bragg and former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie for their physical appearance. And in a couple of instances used at the expletives in reference to his cases. This language and behavior has grown increasingly common, trump as his legal bills and political troubles have mounted and there could be more trouble on the way. Just yesterday the New York Times and propublica reported that trump could owe the irs more than 100 million. The dispute relates to a dubious Accounting Method used by Trump Company that effectively met they took the same tax writeoffs twice on one of their properties in in chicago. If he does end up having to pay, this would also add to the hundreds of millions of dollars that trump already owes in financial penalties as a result of some of his other legal case is. And it could become an item on the former President List of grievances that he rents about on saturday nights. As the New York Times recently pointed out trumps rhetoric and his recent rallies is unlike Anything Else that has come before in american politics, no major american president ial candidate has talked like trump now does at his rallies, not richard nixon, not george wallace. Not even donald trump himself, end quote. The former president was already known for brash and controversial comments during his past campaigns. He significantly escalated rhetoric this time around as his legal troubles have piled up. Trumps promise to exact retribution and revenge upon a possible return to the white house, is not normal political speech either. And yet, its become the Central Tenet of the third president ial bid. Joining me, steve bennett, producer for the Rachel Maddow show and political contributor. Also author of the book and pastors, how republicans quit governing and these american politics. Also with us, molly john asked, for vanity fair, host of the Fast Politics Podcast and msnbc political analyst. Good morning to both of you. Im trying to figure out, because we have always tried to figure out, he steps away from normalcy, he goes further than anyone else does and we wonder what that is supposed to mean. Some are numb to it. It is donald trump doing what donald trump does. Is there anything about the way he talks, the physical marking, the crudeness, the language he uses about immigrants, the discussion about bloodbaths, does any of this trouble you more than normal, or are you troubled the same . The scariest part of Donald Trumps rhetoric now is he wants to root out enemies that are domestic. Along time he focused on lies about people, from mexico and lies about immigrants and immigrant children. By the way he did a long tangent last night about immigrant children not speaking english. While he was slurring, which is both ironic and also awful. But the thing that strikes me as the scariest, is the part of his plan where hes going to go after domestic enemies. That is totally new and reminds me of very scary mccarthy staff. In the 50s. It could really open the door to some terrifying stuff for all of us. You said that you and steve lets talk about some of the language as the results to immigrants. Just this week, im going to talk to a member of congress, but democrats helped keep mike johnson in his spots. To avoid sort of a chaos in congress and mike johnson immediately started talking about a bill to make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote prior to citizenship. I dont know about you steve, but i always assumed it was illegal for undocumented immigrants that are not citizens of this country to vote the red meat continues all the way down to mike johnson, some democrats just saved. And you notice when he said his remarks on capitol hill, that in his mind, intuitively, he knows there are not Illegal Immigrants voting in elections, intuitively. We should Pay Attention to what actually happens and data, all the resources and intuitively understand that Talking Points are true, which is absurd. The same way donald trump says when it comes to Election Results we should follow our hearts. Not the results, just believe what we want to believe. Stephen colberts old care, we Pay Attention to what we want to believe to be true and now we have comments that of a comedic character we have the speaker of the house, presumptive republic all nominee presenting these tactics to the public as if they are legitimate. Molly, The Trump Trial Last Week was compelling. Stormy daniels with understand. She made for a compelling and relatively relaxed seeming witness in that kind of environment because she has been one of those people who have been subject to scorn and derision by donald trump. But if you liked what you saw last week, this week is going to be much hotter. Michael cohen, whos now, he was fixer and now arch nemesis, is set to testify for several days beginning tomorrow. This is going to get very hot because trumps folks are all there to discredit Michael Cohen, to say hes an admitted liar. The prosecution has to prove that whatever you think of Michael Cohen, hes got literally receipts. One of the things they have done, that i think is very smart in this trial is they started the trial with david pecker. And david pecker did not have an ax to grind on donald trump. Is good friends with donald trump and he really set the table for this case. He showed that this was a catch and kill, that this was something they did, and he even knew it was Finance Violation because he talked to his in house lawyer and it was just one of these really good examples of how donald trump has emotional ways of dealing with this trial, candidate trump, and defendant trump are often at odds. So what you saw with pecker , his people did not go hard on pecker because he is his friend. Pecker had him a lot of the facts that you write so now we had Stormy Daniels last week, Stormy Daniels again did not it didnt matter if there was sex. That was not part of the case. Because trumps people went so hard on this your lying thing, it ended up being part of the case and i think that was really unhelpful for trump, too. For me, as a feminist, what made me most upset about the Stormy Daniels situation is that they were so hard on her and in a really kind of misogynistic way. Now we have Michael Cohen, again, this case has gone worse for trump because trump has been involved in sort of pushing his lawyers to do his bidding. I think that is a very likely scenario. Which by the way is how it goes in the supreme court. It is one of the situations where it is like are the lawyers in charge of this or are they trying to figure out ways to get Donald Trumps not legal arguments into a legal setting. This trial comes at a time when polling does indicate that the selection is very close. Some people pay much more attention to actual polls than i do. I Pay Attention to trend lines. More than the actual pool. But 538 at the beginning of may said fewer than one Percentage Point separated right in and trump. At the same time years ago, biden was ups points. What is your take away from the world we are in, the world donald trump is in, and the upcoming election . Theres good news and bad news no matter what your perspective. If you are looking at this from the perspective of somebody wants to see President Biden win and donald trump lose, you can take solace in the fact that polls are incredibly steady for months. Donald trump has a narrow lead, possibly less than one Percentage Point when you average them together and with six months to go, it is easy to imagine that the incumbent president is able to undercut them overcome that margin. We are talking about half a Percentage Point. But compared to four years ago the mutt the picture is much brighter for republican every day throughout all of 2020, that we are not seeing right now and from the perspective of a democrat who wants to see biden win and trump lose, it tells us that the party has a lot of work to do between now and november and if you are republican you have reason to believe youre in a better position but at the same time the threat remains. Molly, i want to go back to what you said about Stormy Daniels and the misogyny. It was very obvious, they do what people call shaming. It did serve to do, including the part in which Stormy Daniels brought up the discussion about sex, that didnt as you say need to be part of the trial, is that it reminds people about who donald trump is. On the most treatable side you could say hes a womanizer, hes also been somebody who has been credibly convicted of sexual assault. So that part of the story remains there, for women who i think have a lot to think about in the selection, particularly with the fact that in half of the country, reproductive rights are gone. Yeah, it was a stark moment, i thought when we saw her up on the stand and we heard her talk about the way she retells the story, it is not, it does not sound it is just a very dark kind of story, and in the end she says i took responsibility for this, and what happened is on me. But to have this lawyer on cross saying, since you are a star, doesnt he have the right to do whatever he wants, im sorry, but as a woman, and as a feminist, and as a mother, and her daughter, it was just pretty horrific to see and the fact that trump, the president ial nominee is behind this, and we know he is because he has that kind of relationship with his lawyers, is in my mind that he dark. And that will be a reminder to everybody about the way of these things. Thank you both, it is fantastic to see you. Molly, extra tanks you, we got to spend extra time on friday night in york. Thank you for that. Steve bannon is clinical contributor and author of the imposters, how republicans quit governing and seized american politics. Molly jongfast as an msnbc political analyst. Still ahead, lessons from work. The white house and the world, the former pro sex terry and msnbc host jen psaki joins me to discuss her brandnew book and more, plus the white house announced the 400 million aid package for ukraine but is it enough to counter russias new and expanding Ground Offensive near kharkiv. Later, why donald trump is still getting his message across to voters despite spending the last few weeks on trial and off the trail. And how democrats can counter. Nothing dims my light like a migraine. With nurtec odt, i found relief. The only Migraine Medication that helps treat and prevent, all in one. To those with migraine, i see you. For the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of Episodic Migraine in adults. Dont take if allergic to nurtec odt. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. Most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. Its time we all shine. Talk to a Healthcare Provider about nurtec odt from pfizer. 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