Best in history. Asian american the best in history. Hispanic the best in history. Women, people with a diploma, people without a diploma. Donald trump yesterday making false claims about his economic record and the Unemployment Rate during his administration. Well have more from his rally In The South Bronx in just a moment. Also ahead well explain why ohios republican governor is calling a special legislative session to make sure President Biden is on the ballot this fall. And louisiana will soon become the first state to classify Abortion Pills as controlled dangerous substances. Well go through that legislation and its possible impact in novembers elections. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this friday, may 24th. Im elise jordan in for jonathan lemire. Well start this morning with the race for the white house and Donald Trumps rally in New York City last night. After spending weeks in Lower Manhattan for his criminal hush money trial, trump traveled uptown to the bronx to make his pitch to an area of predominantly black and latino voters. There trump claimed that the remaining israeli hostages gaina both of whom he said are possibly deadwood still be alive if the 2020 election wasnt stolen from him. He also complained about being in the news too much. Haha, and claimed migrants were overtaking public spaces while speaking from a public park. Many of the hostages that youre waiting for and everybodys waiting for, those hostages many of them are dead. Many of them are dead. And its a horrible thing. Its a horrible thing but many of those hostages are dead. Some will be alive, but many of those hostages are dead. Its a very serious, horrible thing. A lot of people say to me today the toughest business people, people that you know about, could i ask you a question . How do you do it . I say do what . How do you get up in the morning and put your pants on . Ill explain it to you someday. So tired of politics. Im odd. You know what that means . Im odd on politics am. Trump, trump, all different stories, trump. Theyre driving us crazy. Right now you dont have public spaces, theyre occupied by migrants in tents. Theyre coming from so many places we dont have any idea. In many cases we dont know what the language you have languages people dont even know about. And were not just talking about South American countries. Were talking about countries from africa. I think theyre building an army. They have 29,000 people over the last i think theyre building they want to get us from within. I think theyre building an army. This is not you know, its interesting. Did you see them . They all have tents. They all have gas fired stoves. I mean this is not like an illegal immigrant. This is theyre building something they have something in mind. They cannot stay. We will immediately begin the largest criminal deportation operation in our countrys history. Donald trump is now trying to fund raise off of false claims suggesting President Biden authorized his assassination during a search of his maralago estate in palm beach, florida, nearly two years ago. The expresident sent out an email yesterday members of his mailing list with the headline bidens doj was authorized to shoot me. Trump and his allies have pointed today a recently unsealed court filing which describes a Policy Statement outlining the Standard Operating Procedure by which the fbi is authorized to use deadly force if deemed necessary during any situation when a Search Warrant is executed. It was not unique to the fbis search of his maralago property and it actually is intended to limit the use of deadly force. Attorney general Merrick Garland yesterday called trumps allegation, quote, extremely dangerous. That allegation is false, and it is extremely dangerous. The document that is being referred to in the allegation is the Justice Departments standard policy limiting the use of force. As the fbi advises, it is part of a standard Operations Plan for searches, and in fact it was even used in the consensual search of President Bidens home. Were following some new developments this morning in the Donald Trump Criminal Hush Money Trial With Closing Arguments set to begin on tuesday, and Jury Deliberations to follow soon after. The judge in the case ruled yesterday that the manhattan d. A. Office will not be punished for a last minute Document Dump that caused the trial to start later than originally planned. Judge juan merchan rejected the Defense Request Prosecutors be sanctioned interest releasing a flood of nearly 200,000 pages of evidence just weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. The documents were from a previous federal investigation into the matter. At the same time new yorks Appellate Decision has upheld judge merchans decision not to recuse himself from the case. Trumps defense team was seeking the judges recusal base on his daughters work for consulting with democratic clients. Joining us now to break all of this down is msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. Danny, thanks for coming in today. Are there any surprises with the Appellate Court ruling that judge merchan does not have to recuse himself . No. The recusal standard is generally pretty high. After all, judges are political preachers. Theyre involved in the political process. They are lawyers and politicians who just wear a black robe. After all, thats what they do. Whether in the federal system when youre appointed realistically people understand even if youre appointed you have to do some politicking. And if youre an elected judge the same thing has to happen. Especially in a county like manhattan, theyre involve in the political process. We dont know what the numbers are at the courthouse downtown, but the odds are youre going to get a democratic judge. Now, if youre out in grailing, michigan, or deep iowa maybe you get a lot of republican judges in a particular courthouse, but the standard for recusal is high. That being said, this is very unique situation with a defendant who has been more politically polarizing than any defendant in american history. So it is a unique decision to have to make, but im not surprised that there was no recusal Orequire UnderJustice Merchan. Well, its a Holiday Weekend monday, day off for memorial day. Then tuesday, its going to start to be these Closing Arguments. What do you predict were going to see from the prosecution on tuesday . Well, the prosecution we know exactly what theyre doing. I mean they proved, i believe, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt elements of their case. What those payments were characterized as and what donald trump believe they were, that is probably the defenses best defense. Very quickly what i think youll see from the defense. Exactly. Thats where i was going to go next. What i think theyll see is point to the empty chair and say where was Allen Weisselberg . Why didnt the people call him . What were they afraid of . And i have to say throughout the trial i felt the prosecution laid out a pretty clearcut case. Where started to have doubts was during the charging conference, an event that people dont normally care about. But it was during that that i started to realize that if the lawyers are struggling so much to decide on what are the mental elements standards and some of the other things that the jury has to be instructed on, if we the lawyers are struggling with these novel concepts in a noveltype prosecution then what will the jurors do . By that i mean words like someone makes or causes a false entry. Did donald trump cause it, or was it just expected snd did people do it because they thought thats what he wanted . Does that constitute causing that false entry . Some of these difficult legal concepts are challenging even for lawyers to understand. And this is novel application of this particular law. So even though the prosecution may have the facts very well laid out, i think the defense is going to exploit in the Jury Instructions or whatever they end up being the challenges of understanding the requisite mental element trump needed and what did he do . What did he make or cause . People were paid. Its sort of the legal concepts i think the defense has in their favor. The factual side very much in prosecutions favor. Number one, theres no doubt about the transactions, and number two the whole thing looks fishy. And thats great for the prosecution because when things look fishy juries are more inclined to find in favor of the prosecution. Well, now lets talk about the jury because pretty soon their job are going to kick into high gear. What are the Jury Instructions going to be, and how do you see that Process Proceeding . Everything. And Charging Conferences for me are the least stressful part of trial because i know theyre the entire case. We all focus on, hey, did defense attorney todd blanche raise his voice before lunch monday with Michael Cohen . Okay, that was interesting. It was dramatic. But deciding the instructions the jurors get far more important than a moment at trial where a defense attorney tries to go on the attack against a cooperating witness like Michael Cohen. Who cares . When the comes to the Jury Instructions its the most boring and terrifying moment of a trial altogether because you are deciding the words that are going to be spoken to a jury by the judge because the judge is one they trust more so with Justice Merchan because of how eventempered hes been with the exception of the witness robert costello. And who can blame him because, look, judges get frustrated, too. This is very key moment. Whatever the Jury Instructions end up being, were going to pour over them. Its the Jury Instructions. This case continues onward hopefully to a conclusion soon. Danny cevallos, msnbc legal analyst, youll be back for mortgage. Thank you so much. Still ahead former President Trump is claiming that he can get russia to free imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter even gerschkovich if hes elected in november. What the kremlin is saying about that. Plus the latest from the middle east as israel looks to be expanding Military Operations in rafah. Those stories and a check on sports and weather right when we come back. Sports and weather right when we come back. Ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. psst psst ahhh with flonase, allergies dont have to be scary. Spray Flonase Sensimist daily for nondrowsy long lasting relief in a scent free, gentle mist. Flonase all good. Also, try our Allergy Headache and nighttime pills. When anyone in this house wears white, it doesnt stay white for long. White . To art class . Thats risky. Art has no rules, mom. Huh. White with coffee . A dangerous endeavor. White . To soccer . Im not gonna slide tackle. Hes gonna slide tackle. But now with tide oxi white, we can clean our white clothes without using bleach. It even works on colors. I slide tackled. I see that. Keep your whites white even without bleach with tide oxi white. We got this. Former President Donald Trump claims hes the only one who can get Vladimir Putin to release american journalist Evan Gerschkovich from a russian prison. He said so yesterday on his social media website writing in post if he wins the election gerschkovich would be released before he even assumes office. Trump added, quote, putin, president of russia will do that for me but not for anyone else, and we will be paying nothing. Gerschkovich has been wrongfully detained by the u. S. By the ussr government since he was taken into russian custody on Espionage Charges in march 2023. Asked about trumps post, a spokesman for the kremlin told reuters that Vladimir Putin has, quote, naturally not had contacts with donald trump. It appears israel expanding its operation in the Southern Gaza city of rafah. The idf says its now fighting in neighborhoods near the heart of the city. This comes after about three weeks after the Israeli Military first pushed into rafah carrying out limited operations against hamas. According to the United Nations more than 800,000 people have left the area. The move comes as the International Court of justice is expected to rule today on a request to order israel to halt its operation in rafah. The court, however, has no Enforcement Power and its rulings have been ignored in the past. Meanwhile, ceasefire discussions are set to resume at an undisclosed location in europe this weekend. Israel announced yesterday it will send its negotiators. Sources tell the New York Times cia director bill burns will also head to europe for the talks. Its not known if egyptian or qatari mediators will be there. Its official. Israel Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu will address a joint session of congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson made the announcement during a speech marking israels independence yesterday. And tonight im happy to announce Something Else to you, that we will soon be hosting Prime Minister netanyahu at the capitol for a joint session of congress. Yes. This will be a timely and i think a very strong show of support to the Israeli Government in their time of greatest need. Johnson had Given Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer a deadline earlier this week to sign the invitation for netanyahu. Schumer then agreed to it despite opposition from some democrats. Its not known yet when the israeli leader will address congress. Republican Governor Mike Dewine of ohio is calling in State Lawmakers for a Special Session next week to ensure President Biden appears on the states ballot this november. Ohio election law requires Political Parties to certify the president ial ticket by august 7th, but the Democratic National convention where biden will be formally nominated doesnt actually start until august 19th. In the past such issues have been addressed with quick legislative fixes, but some republicans have balked this time around. This is simply unacceptable. Ohio is running out of time to get joe biden, the sitting president of the united states, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous, this is an absurd situation. Still ahead well turn to sports with the latest Playoff Action in the nhl and nba including the 40point show put on by the celtics Superstar Jalen Brown against the Indiana Pacers when Way Too Early returns. Ana pacers when Way Too Early returns. man mm, hey, honey. Looks like my todo list grew. Paint the bathroom, give baxter a bath, get Life Insurance, hm. I have a few minutes. I can do that now. Oh, that fast . 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