By somebody that is a serial liar . I mean there should be no reason that anybody should listen to this guy. Some of Donald Trumps allies showing their loyalty by saying what the former president cant say because of the gag order in his Hush Money Trial. Meanwhile, in the courtroom itself, trumps former fixer took the stand for blockbuster testimony. Well have expert legal analysis for you on what Michael Cohen had to say. Also ahead well have the latest out of ukraine on a surprise visit from u. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken. This as russian president Vladimir Putin will now make a twoday state visit to china later this week. And well go through the new developments in gaza where israeli troops appear to be ready to invade the densely Populated Areas of rafah. Good morning, and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, may 14th. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for being with us. Weve got a jampacked show, and well begin here in manhattan where in just hours Michael Cohen, the most pivotal witness in the donald trump Hush Money Criminal Trial will return to the Witness Stand for the second day of questioning. The exattorney and fixer for trump testified for more than six hours yesterday and directly implicated the former president in hush money schemes, telling jurors that trump approved hefty payouts to stop stories about sexual encounters that he feared could hurt his 2016 president ial campaign. Sitting just 10 feet from trump in a drudramatic showdown in the courtroom cohen testified about his former boss wanting to silence adult film stars Stormy Daniels claims about a 2006 sexual encounter. He recalled trump saying this, this is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to hate me because this is really a disaster, women will hate me. Guys might think its cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign. Cohen said the effort to silence daniels took on added urgency following the release of the access Hollywood Tape that october with the daniels payment being finalized several weeks after that revelation. In late October Of 2016 cohen said trump told him to just do it when it eventually came to paying daniels 130,000 to stay quiet about the alleged encounter. Cohen then detailed the steps he took to mask the payments to Stormy Daniels, Telling Trumpuct the actions he was taking and that trump had prompted to reimburse him. Cohen testified how the two men discussed how the reimbursements would be paid in Legal Services over monthly installments over former trump information chief Financial Officer allen weisselberg. And despite saying their client acted to protect his family from salacious stories, cohen contended trump was preoccupied instead solely by the impact they would have on his president ial run. Cohen added specifically trump was not thinking about his wife melania when the daniels story threatened to become public saying, quote, this was all about the campaign. Now, following that day in court, an irate trump complained once again to reporters about the judge in the case. We have a corrupt judge, and we have a judge whos highly conflicted, and hes keeping me from campaigning. Hes an appointed new york judge. Hes appointed. You know who appointed him . Democrat politicians. Hes appointed. Hes a corrupt judge, and hes a conflicted judge and he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this scam. Joining us now here on set in new york, msnbc legal contributor and host of msnbcs the katie phang show, katie phang. Good to see you. Lets start with your overall takeaways. How did Michael Cohen do yesterday . He did a fantastic job for the prosecution. There was the question everybody said which version of Michael Cohen is going to show up. Weve seen a bombastic side of him. Weve heard almost bullying side of Michael Cohen, but the Michael Cohen that took the stand yesterday was every prosecutors dream. Why . He was measured, he was calm. He said yes, maam and no, maam to the prosecutor. More importantly he showed if he needs to on crossexamination he can keep his cool, but he drove the narrative forward. And thats exactly what you want to have if youre the prosecution. You want your case ipchief if its riding on the success of testimony on someone like Michael Cohen you want someone competent to relay on the historical facts and evidence in this case. Cohen returns to the stand today. Theres a sense crossexamination could begin as early as this afternoon. You just hinted that. Cohen has real credibility issues. How do you see the defense trying to poke holes in them . You have early as this afternoon. You just hinted that. Cohen has real credibility issues. How do you see the defense trying to poke holes in them . You have to hope the jury will wholesale discount his testimony simply because he either has pleaded guilty to perjury or hes been confirmed today be a liar. But whats remarkable is if you look at the orbit of donald trump, lying is not actually a Disqualifying Factor usually for somebody like donald trump. I mean allen weisselberg, someone whos not been sent into the wilderness and still in the fold is currently in rikers and he wont be testifying because hes doing jail time for perjury. So, again, lying is not a disqualifier usually, but in this instance, though, thats all the defense can do. Why . Because Michael Cohens credibility september at issue if you consider the fact theres so much documentary evidence. Theres audiotapes of donald trump with his own voice agreeing to the payment of 150,000 through a Business Entity to get the life rights of karen mcdougal. Nobody made up trumps voice, right . You have all this independent corroborating evidence that should completely take away in terms of the jurors minds credibility. The prosecution did an excellent job in advance of cohens testimony of getting evidence entered into the record that was allowed today be used in his testimony. So they had prior bank statements, for example, that could enter through jeff mcconnie, the former controller at trump organization, the famous Consultant Bank statement that was entered previously, and of course thats Michael Cohens bank account. You have him on the stand and he walks the jury through the hand written entries by allen weisselberg. Terrific analysis as always msnbc legal contributor katie phang, thank you so much. Well be following your coverage throughout the week on msnbc and have more on Michael Cohens appearance in court all day on the network. Doug bergman played coy yesterday when asked if he would be Donald Trumps running mate or part of his cabinet if trump is reelected this november. It came after burgum. Are you talking with the president about being his partner and Vice President ial ticket . Not at all. The focus here is on President Trump winning that election, and i feel blessed to be among a large group of people that every day are getting up and whether theyre in the private sector, whether theyre elected officials, whether there are other surrogates, the people out there helping President Trump as hes tied up in these sham trials in new york. Are you expecting to be part of trumps cab isnt . I have no expectation, and of course i spent my career in the private sector, and theres so many opportunities to go back in the private sector. Ill be done being governor in december 15th, being governor of north dakota, one of the greatest jobs in the world, love that job and still loving every day of it. But i have no expectations about that. Meanwhile republican senator marco rubio of florida downplayed speculation yesterday he could be trumps running mate. Rubio says he has yet to speak to trump himself and also complicate the Electoral College because both men are from florida. Never. Ive never talked to anybody in the campaign about it. Im not trying to be coy. The reason i dont spend a lot of time thinking about it or talking about it is because, frankly, theres only person on the planet who knows thats going to be, and thats donald trump, not his advisor, not people with inside knowledge of the campaign. Hes the only one. Hearing it from anybody other than him is really not something i would put a lot of credence in. Just to be mentioned i guess is an honor in and of itself. And while trump was in court yesterday, President Joe Biden took his 2024 opponent to task for his response to the covid19 pandemic. At a white house event celebrating asian american, native hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage month, biden called trump out for publicly downplaying the severity of coronavirus in early 2020 even as Health Officials were sounding the alarms elsewhere within the west wing. Were lowering costs, expanding opportunities, and protecting freedoms. Thats in stark contrast to my predecessors view of america and his view of all of you. Ill never forget him lying about the pandemic, never forget the rise of antiasian hate crimes during the pandemic. Im proud to have signed this covid19 hate crimes act with your support. Another powerful split screen there on display for our 2024 contenders for the white house. Still ahead here on way too early, well bring you the latest from the middle east as Troop Movements suggest israel could soon expand operations in rafah despite international warnings. Plus, crews in baltimore carry out a controlled demolition on a massive piece of the collapsed Francis Scott key bridge. What that means for cleanup efforts. Those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back as the sun begins to rise here in midtown manhattan. N its a beautiful. Day to fly. Wooooo oh, yeah, man. Take it from your inner child. What you really need in life is some freakin torque. What . The dodge hornet r t. The totally torquedout crossover. Power e trades awardwinning trading app makes trading easier. With its customizable options chain, easytouse tools, and Paper Trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. E trade from Morgan Stanley ill be honest. By the end of the day, my floors. Yeesh. But who has the time to clean . Thats why i love my swiffer wetjet. Its a quick and easy way to get my floors clean. Wetjet absorbs and locks grime deep inside. Look at that swiffer wetjet. Remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer . Was that after i texted the age to screen was now 45 . [both] because i said cologuardĀ® hey there where did he come from . Yup, with me you can screen at home. Just talk to your provider. [both] well screen with cologuard and do it my way. Cologuard is a oneofakind way to screen for colon cancer thats effective and noninvasive. Its for people 45 at average risk, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your provider for me, cologuard. I thought i was sleeping ok. But i was waking up so tired. Then i tried new zzzquil sleep nasal strips. Their four point lift design opens my nose for maximum air flow. So, i breathe better. And we both sleep better. And stay married. Norman, bad news. I never graduated and from med school. Tter. 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 . Welcome back as we turn to some of the mornings other top headlines now. The Arizona Supreme Court granted a request to delay enforcement of the states 1864 near total abortion ban. The Court Granted a 90day stay of the civil war era law, preventing it from taking effect for the next several months. Without that ruling, the law could have become fully enforced on june 27th. The stay is in effect now until September 26th and gives state attorney general chris mayes time to potentially appeal the case all the way to the u. S. Supreme court. The action came after Governor Katie Hobbs signed the repeal of the states legislature. That repeal does not take effect until 90 days after the states legislative session ends. Yesterdays order essentially narrows the window in which the ban could be enforced. Meanwhile, Jury Selection in a federal corruption trial of democratic senator Bob Munenz Dez of new jersey is now under way. That process began yesterday morning in a Manhattan Federal Court after menendez lost a bid to have the case moved to his home state. No jurors have been seated yet. When the trial gets under way, prosecutors say they expect to take up to six weeks to present their case. Senator menendez is accused of being the center of an International Bribery scheme. His wife, also charged, shell be tried separately in july. The senator said he would be exonerated at trial and has left the door open to run for reelection in november as an independent, no official word there just yet. And crews in baltimore, maryland, carried out a controlled explosion yesterday to remove some of the largest remaining sections of the collapsed Francis Scott key bridge, that major thoroughfare there. Nbc news correspondent george solis has more on the ongoing cleanup efforts. Reporter with a reverberating boom, a major section of the collapsed Francis Scott key bridge disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The controlled demolition comes after weeks of careful planning to remove a massive piece of the bridge thats sitting on top of the 984foot container ship. Did everything go according to plan . Yes, so we did the blast. The section separated, so it wept according to plan. Reporter Demolition Crews made small cuts into the steel then placed small charges to ensure accuracy of the blasts. The dalhi has been sitting essentially frozen in time since it rammed the bridge on march 26. New Camera Footage shows the shock of First Responders that night. Six people were killed, all latino immigrants who were Filling Potholes when the collision occurred. The body of the final victim was found just last week. The ships 21member crew has remained onboard and sheltered in place during the controlled explosion. Federal investigators are still looking into how and why the ship lost power, but the governor said the Port Of Baltimore is close to reopening and vowing to rebuild. Rebuilding the Francis Scott key bridge is not about nostalgia, its about necessity. This is critical artery. Our thanks to nbc emphasis george solis for that report. Next up here well turp to Sports Andbri you last nights action in both the nba and nhl playoffs. Plus well show you the simply improbable night for one very lucky baseball fan. All of that and a check on the forecast when we come right back. The forecast when we come right back if you have Heart Disease and struggle with ldlc. Even with statins and a healthy diet. Listen to your heart. Talk to your doctor about repatha. Repatha plus a statin lowers ldlc Bad Cholesterol by 63 , and drops the risk of having a heart attack. 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