Trump, the president ial candidates now agreeing to meet on a debate stage next month. They dont like each other, they dont respect each other, and the last time around it was a brawl. The move sends a bolt of lightning into a campaign thats been centered on a New York City courtroom. How the big change both sides agree to will make this debate sound and feel completely different from 2020. Plus, while trumps trial is dark, senator Bob MenendezsCorruption Trial is just getting going. Opening statements expected to start in the next hour. The new jersey democrat accused of accepting a car, cash, even gold bars in exchange for official acts. Well get the very latest from the courtroom in just a minute. And unicef just issuing a critical new warning about the children stuck in rafah, even as Benjamin Netanyahu says hes not backing down from a potential invasion. A unicef spokesperson who just left rafah will join us to talk about what needs to be done. An awful lot to get to on this wednesday, but first the countdown is on, more than 1,300 days after they last squared off on a debate stage, President Biden and donald trump are set to do it again. All the details arent finalized, and of course this thing could always fall apart, but as of now, the two campaigns have committed to debating on june 27th, just hours after biden taunted trump with this challenge. Donald trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then he hasnt shown up for a debate. Now hes acting like he wants to debate me again. Make my day, pal. Ill even do it twice. So lets pick the dates donald. I hear youre free on wednesdays. His campaign has even started selling tshirts saying free on wednesdays, a not so subtle reference to the day trumps criminal trial is off. All of that met with an equally biting response from donald trump telling fox, im ready to go. The dates that they proposed are fine. Lets see if joe can make it to the standup podium. I want to bring in eugene daniels, coauthor of the political playbook, as well as an Msnbc Political Contributor. Matt dowd is Msnbc Political Contributor and Vaughn Hillyard joins me in studio. Im going to start with something brand new. Stephanie ruhle sat down with mitt romney who knows about president ial debates, and she asked him about it. Lets just take a listen. I wont try to describe it, let him do it. Theres talk today about a president ial debate maybe as early as june. I know debates were important to you. They certainly got you a lot of momentum in 2012. Do you think they matter today . In many ways we know a lot about the two people running. Do you think it will impact votes, maybe even your vote . Well, the image that comes to mind is those two old guys on the muppet. Statler and waldorf. Thats what comes to mind. I think there will be a huge audience for these be debates. I think they have low expectations about what President Biden will do, i think they have Higher Expectations about President Trump and his combativeness. What are your expectations . Well see what happens. Ive interacted with President Biden and find that weve had good exchanges. Hes capable. I like the man. I know President Trump, i watch him at his rallies. He seems energetic and forceful, but you know, rallies are kind of easy. You got a cheering crowd and youve got teleprompters you can read. How will they do in person . I dont know the answer to that. I think america will be watching. Youll see much more of that on the 11th hour. And our thanks to stephanie for asking the key question as this story was breaking, matthew. Is he right . Will there be a lot of eyeballs, and do we have any idea how this might turn out . The first answer is easy, i think it will be a huge audience. I mean, i think that since donald trump hasnt debated, he county debate through the whole primary, i think theres a pentup, you know, feeling among his supporters, they really want to see it. It will get that. It will get democrats because obviously the concern of what this election might mean. Independents are going to be very concerned because thats ultimately whos going to decide this. Who of these two old gentlemen are most capable of being president of the United States, and this auspicious time in this moment. I think it will be a huge audience. I dont know exactly what to expect. I do think the biden folks got a huge concession of no live audience. I think that helps joe biden tremendously, and i think it hurts donald trump equally as much as it helps joe biden. Donald trump feeds off the audience and its going to be a more serious measured debate. There wont be an audience. I think hes going to have to change his manner. Can he do that . But i mean, im looking forward to it. I think it will be great. I think we could have the biggest audience ever for the debate. Literally the biggest audience ever . Yeah, i do. I think were in such a momentous moment, and i think theres questions about both of these candidates capabilities that i think the debate is going to get a big audience and could be much more important, i think it will be much more important than whatever political advertising they spend millions and millions of dollars on. I think the debates could be more determinative than anything else, but of things we dont know. We dont know things that could impact the race, but of things we know, it could be the most important point in the campaign. The other thing that mitt romney said, eugene, is that there would probably be low expectations of joe biden. Do you agree with that, and how much of an advantage does his campaign see that as being . I think mitt romney, the senators right, but thats largely because donald trump makes lowers the bar for joe biden immediately when he talks about these debates, right . He called him today in one of his truth social posts, the worst debater, the worst person hes ever debated, donald trump said. So like he is himself lowering the expectations for joe biden. He did the exact same thing in 2020 when they debated twice, and also republicans for thes last four years, you know, during the election and during his presidency have called him a dithering old man who doesnt know how to talk. The expectations have been lowered by republicans. You dont see democrats going out of their way to try to raise the expectations because, you know, you never know what happens on a debate stage. I will say the campaign largely feels like, you know, theres a feeling theyre still not sure that trump is going to debate, right . And that is one of the things that were trying to do. Were throwing out what they did today, throwing out the gauntlet, one, challenging someone who always tries to challenge at least publicly in the way that he speaks about it being donald trump, and so if he backs out at some point, they can always say were the ones who said we wanted to debate. We gave you parameters that you had to agree to, and you pulled out, right . And so theres always that, we dont know if donald trump is going to debate. We learned during the primary he doesnt really need to. The American People deserve to see these two men facing off as they go to vote. But also, you know, people know these two men. Theyve heard these two men. Theyve seen them debate before, and to matts point about the no audience, only one of them has done a no Audience Debate that we know of, and thats joe biden when he went against Bernie Sanders right before Bernie Sanders dropped out in 2020, and so those kinds of things are important in the way that they can prepare, but the biden people are feeling really good, as you can see from their trolling online today. Which brings us to donald trump and so much to talk about, including the lack of an audience, you dont have to be a deep political analyst to see how he has always played off of crowds from the very first day he decided to run for president. But it does seem to a lot of folks that he is playing right into joe bidens hands, the more he says this guy cant debate, and by the way, after the first debate last time, it was Donald Trumps numbers that went down. Hes lowering expectations while making it sound like hes the greatest debater ever. So raising expectations for himself. That doesnt seem like the best strategy. Right in his first social media post of the morning calling joe biden the worst debater ever, and yet, there was Expectation Setting for joe bidens state of the Union Address earlier this year in that in the aftermath of that when folks saw that there was an energetic lively joe biden who spoke before congress, donald trump accused him of being on drugs that night. So the reality is that were 43 days away from this first president ial debate here, and donald trump has done this before with joe biden. In 2020 he was calling him basement joe, he was too fearful. He was forgetting things. He was sleepy joe. We lived that, and in that first debate, what you saw were two men duking it out. Take a listen to it. Vote now, make sure you in fact let people know. He doesnt want to answer the question. Im not going to answer that question. The question is Supreme Court justice radical left. Will you shut up, man . Who is on your list, joe . Gentlemen, i think we have this is so one thing to note from this here, by going the commission and working with the commission, you know, that debate aired across 16 different networks, and so now this only airing on cnn, folks are going to have to be in tune and be very intentional about going to cnn for this. They may not be just going to watch survivor and ultimately finding a president ial debate taking place. Theyre going to have to be very intentional about finding this. Were 43 days away. In the meantime, there was also a little bit of the snideness, if we want to call it that, a little pushing in of the knife and then turning it on this whole wednesday theme by joe biden, matt, you know, now hes putting tshirts out. For the record, this is going to be on a thursday. Are we seeing a different joe biden . Well, i dont think were seeing a different joe biden. I think it was smart. Theyve stayed out of the whole court case. Theyve let the court case speak for itself against donald trump in the midst of this, and this was kind of funny way to remind folks that Donald Trumps in court in manhattan against charges against him. I thought it was a very funny way to point out, and the interesting thing to me about the june debate is that its going to come right in the aftermath of whatever that decision is of the court. So its going to be actually the first real opportunity for folks to see what donald trump has to say in the aftermath, right in the aftermath of that court case. I dont actually understand that early of a debate. I kind of dont get how you can have a debate before the nomination the nomination committee, both parties picked who their nominee is, were having a debate before that. As we know, anything could happen, but it will be the timing of it will be right in the aftermath of that court trial. Yeah, and we dont know what the outcome of that is going to be, but it clearly is one of the reasons that the Biden Campaign wanted to move this up. They didnt want to wait until september. Talk to me about how they think june and so i guess a lot of people might think june too early, people going on vacation. Kids getting out of school. How do they think this helps them . The biggest reason is early voting, right . So they one of the complaints that weve heard from a lot of people but from different over the years, people have started to vote earlier and earlier. You have people going to make a decision possibly without watching the two people who could be the president of the United States to debate on stage. That is something theyre trying to do here, right . And thats very clear in picking this june time period, saying, okay, we know and kind of accepting the reality of the world as it stands. These men theres not the formal nomination process. There are obviously all the things that can happen, but we have been going through the motions of primaries for months now, right . For months now, so i think its a realization, and an acceptance of like why pretend that these decisions arent made. I will say, you know, the biggest question is why two instead of three . You know, i when you tussle with the Biden Campaign, i think that they you know, they push back on that, they were a little they kind of waved me off and poohpooh away, why two instead of three, i think that it matters, right . This is a president who talks about and has shown that he cares about rules, actual written things down but also norms, and the three times that these people come together and debate is for if you miss it the first time, then you get to see it the second time, and if you only saw part of the first one, you can see the rest of the third one and watch how these people change the way that theyre speaking. Watch and see if you hear anything new as we get close to the election. Who knows if these actually happen. Trump himself was saying he wants to add. I dont see that happening from the biden point of view. A big change in the way this country does debates. Will that continue . The cpd, the folks that put this on eugene daniels, Vaughn Hillyard, matthew dowd, we will be talking a lot about this going forward. Thanks, guys. Appreciate that. Tonight watch more of senator mitt romneys conversation with Stephanie Ruhle on the 11th hour, coincidentally 11 00 p. M. Eastern right here on msnbc. In our next hour of Chris Jansing reports, well speak with a senior spokesperson for the Biden Harris Campaign about what to expect in this debate. But first, in 90 seconds, legal teams on both sides taking a breath ahead of what could be the most important day of former President Trumps hush money trial. Well dig into it next. Ps hushy trial. Well dig toin it next frizz. Dryness. Breakage. New dove 10in1 serum hair mask with peptide complex. Fortifies hair bonds at a molecular level. Helps reverse ten signs of damage in one minute. Keep living. Well keep repairing. 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. The trial and not to be hyperbolic, but the future of the United States could hinge on what happens inside Court Tomorrow in Donald Trumps criminal hush money case. Like a great finale from a legal drama, everyone is watching whether or not trumps attorney, todd blanche, can poke enough holes in the prosecutions star witness, Michael Cohen, when he resumes Cross Examination tomorrow. Then theres the wildest of wild cards thats still out there. Will trump testify in his own defense . I want to bring in former federal prosecutor renato mar ya tee, with me in studio, danny cevallos. I have so many questions, danny. Let me start with the whole goal for the defense, poke holes into Michael Cohens credibility and to his story. There seems to be a general agreement, no big holes were poked, so how do you adjust for tomorrow . I think reorganize. When you have a witness like Michael Cohen when theres so much out there, hes tweeted so much, hes said so much, hes written books about things that you can compare and find and you can mine those for inconsistent statements, it can be overwhelming to prepare a Cross Examination in this situation. And keep in mind, youre not just writing a script. Youre writing a script that for every question the person youre asking is looking to zing you, looking to throw you off, and to some degree Michael Cohen has done that. I wouldnt say hes been combative, maybe not quite so much like stormy daniels, but he certainly is somewhat unwilling to give a straight yes or no answer. Some witnesses are like that. Is that his biggest weakness right now . Were early in the Cross Examination. I would say thats his weakness right now. The key is will he get fatigued enough to start getting frustrated. Thats what the defense really wants, but so far i would say hes done better, i think, than expected. No one knew which Michael Cohen would show up. Would it be the demure polite Michael Cohen or the combative Michael Cohen, and what weve gotten is something in the middle. Someone whos willing to say maybe not yes but that sounds right to me when asked a leading question by the defense. So its a mixed bag. I think the defense has struggled to be organized, which i understand in Cross Examination, and i think Michael Cohen has not been as combative as he could be which is good for him, but he is showing signs of being not willing to give the answer that he thinks the defense attorney wants. I think renato, yesterday it was in the first couple of minutes that the judge called todd blanche because