unfounded. these attacks have not, and they will not influence our decision making. i will not be intimidated. and the justice department will not be intimidated. >> that's attorney general merrick garland striking a defiant tone as he defended the justice department during a contentious hearing between house republicans. we'll show you how it unfolded and what happens next as garland faces a potential contempt vote in congress. plus we'll dig into donald trump's new comments that he may jail his political opponents if he is re-elected to a second term. and also ahead president biden signed an executive order drastically tightening the border, and now he's getting backlash from some democrats. we'll break down the divide in his own party and what the issue of immigration could mean for his base in the fall. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, june 5th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. president biden issued an executive order yesterday that will shutdown asylum kwlss at the southern border when crossings spike. under the order border officials will stop accepting requests when daily encounters reach an average of 2,500 migrants at legal points of entry. the shutdown will go into effect immediately as department of homeland security officials say encounters have reached 4,000 migrants daily. the border will only reopen once the number falls below 1,500 migrants. speaking at the white house regarding the border, biden said he would have prefers to do this with congress, but republicans blocked that effort. take a listen. >> republicans in congress not all but walked away from it. why? because donald trump told them to. he told the republicans as published widely by many of you, he didn't want to fix the issue. he wanted to use it to attack me. today i'm moving past republican instruction and using executive authorities available to me as president to do what i can on my own to address the border. frankly, i would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation because that's the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that's broken fixed. for those that say the steps i've taken are too strict, i say to you be patient, and the good will of the american people are wearing thin right now. we have to act. we must act consistent with our law and values. >> we'll have more on the move at the border a little later in the show. turning to some other political headlines now, donald trump is again threatening to jail his political opponents if he wins a second term as retribution for the guilty verdict against him in new york city. in an interview with the far right network news max last night trump continued to claim he didn't receive a fair trial, complaining that the jurors never smiled at him. he also threatened to prosecute his perceived foes, specifically former secretary of state hillary clinton who had simply nothing to do with this verdict against him. >> mother theresa couldn't get a fair trial here, i said that. and no, you couldn't. i never saw a glimmer of a smile from the jury. it was a trial that everybody said shouldn't have been brought including bragg didn't want to bring it. nobody wanted to bring it until i decided to run and then was beating everybody by a lot and then was beating biden by a lot in the polls. but, you know, it's a very terrible thing. it's a terrible precedent for our country. does that mean the next president does it to them? that's really the question. wouldn't it be terrible to throw the president's wife and the former secretary of state -- think of it the former secretary of state but the president's wife into jail? wouldn't that be a terrible thing? but they want to do it. you know, it's a terrible, terrible path they're leading us to, and it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them. >> really extremely dangerous rhetoric there. meanwhile, day three of hunter biden's federal gun trial will resume in just a few hours in a delaware courtroom, a day after both sides delivered opening statements and the prosecution's first witness took the stand. prosecutors used their opening remarks to tell the jury that the president's son was a high functioning drug addict who lied to friends and family. they said he broke the law when they checked a box on a government background check form that he was not a drug user during the purchase of a handgun back in 2018. the defense countered by offering a counter narrative about hunter biden being in recovery and was rushed into the firearm purchase at the center of the case against him and did not knowingly lie on that form. in the courtroom first lady jill biden and hunter biden's sister, ashley, appeared to become emotional when the prosecution played excerpts from hunter biden's 2021 memoir "beautiful things." it included a retelling of his first attempt to buy crack cocaine from a homeless person in washington, d.c. the jury also heard testimony from the prosecution's first witness, fbi special agent erica jensen, whose testimony assisted prosecutors in introducing evidence including text messages, bank records, and hunter biden's laptop. witness testimony is set to resume later this morning with hunter biden's ex wife, kathleen boule, expected to take the stand at some point, hunter biden has pleaded not guilty. meanwhile attorney general merrick garland pushed back against republicans at a hearing on capitol hill yesterday to rebuke claims the gop is being weaponized calling their efforts part of a wave of unprecedented attacks on the department. >> these attacks have not and they will not influence our decision making. i will not be intimidated and the justice department will not be intimidated. we will continue to work to do our jobs free from political influence, and we will not back down from defending democracy. >> garland faces the threat of being held in contempt unless he turns over audiotapes of president biden's interview with special counsel robert hur as part of that classified documents investigation. joining us now msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst anthony coley. he previously served as the top spokesperson for attorney general garland. anthony, let's start with that hearing yesterday. some pretty firm push back from the attorney general, and a lot of attacks from republicans on the justice department and the rule of law. give us your analysis. >> well, first of all, we -- when i was at the justice department that version of merrick garland that the world all saw yesterday, we call that spicy garland, jonathan. and i'm glad the country got a chance to see that. from my vantage point i was at the justice department in the first two years of the biden administration, and i saw this attorney general put in place both people and processes to ensure that whatever decision was appropriate particularly in these cases like the hunter biden case, like biden's handling of classified documents, i saw him put in place people and processes to reassure the american people that whatever decision was appropriate in either of those cases, it was the disputably determined by the facts and the law. and that's what we have here. if you step back and think about and i know we talked about the hunter biden case, you have a u.s. attorney from the previous administration who led this investigation and led this prosecution. and i really think that is evidence of how this justice department is committed to just following the facts and following the law and not being swayed by politics at all. >> that's so important when these institutions are being attacked. let's turn to the hunter biden trial. we should of course make this distinction hunter biden not running for office. this is not donald trump convicted last week, but he is the president's son. it's taking a personal toll as i've reported on the president himself. but simply from a legal analysis what did you make of the opening arguments yesterday? how strong do you think the prosecution's case really? >> well, let me start by acknowledging the fact that the most remarkable thing in this case to me, jonathan, is that the president has been hands off here. i just mentioned how you have a situation where the president's own justice department is prosecuting the president's own son. but not just that, the white house has indicated even if -- even if hunter biden is convicted by a jury of his peers on these federal offenses, the president would not pardon his own son. and i think that speaks a lot to the president's character and the president's commitment to the rule of law. as to this trial, i think the most interesting issue here -- and we saw this play out in opening arguments yesterday -- is the prosecution is going to use hunter biden's own words here. and if you go back and you read through this indictment, you see reference after reference to hunter biden's book, which is beautiful and poignant and it speaks to how he overcame his battle with addiction. but it also provided a road map to prosecutors for how he allegedly broke federal laws. and i think we're going to see more of hunter biden's own words play out through the course of this trial. >> the trial expected to last about a week or two. msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst, anthony coley, thank you for starting us off this morning. still ahead here the latest on a possible cease-fire deal between israel and hamas as top biden administration officials head overseas for yet another round for negotiations. plus, house speaker mike johnson accuses democrats of using the judicial system to go after former president trump. we'll show you his new remarks. those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. check on sports and weather when we come right back ♪ on your period, sudden gushes happen. say goodbye gush fears! thanks to always ultra thins... with rapiddry technology... that absorbs two times faster. hellooo clean and comfortable. always. fear no gush. 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the last active player kicked out of baseball for gambling was the giants outfielder jerry o'connell all the way back in 1924. the legal also announced yesterday one-year suspensions for four other players it found in violation of its gambling policies including the oakland a's relief pitcher michael kelly and three minor leaguers. none of them bet on games involving their assigned teams. in the case of all five players the league said there's no evidence to suggest any outcomes of the baseball games wagered upon were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way. speaking of gambling, federal prosecutors in california say the former interpreter for shohei ohtani could be deported after he admitted to stealing millions of dollars from the los angeles dodgers superstar to pay off his gambling dets. ippei mizuhara yesterday pleaded guilty to single counts of bank fraud and subscribing to a false tax return after allegedly stealing nearly $17 million from ohtani's bank account without the player's knowledge. mizuhara now faces up to 30 years in prison. his attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. ohtani later addressed the matter in a statement saying in part now that the investigation has been completed, this full admission of guilt has brought important closure to me and my family. meanwhile, the stage is now officially set for this year's women's college world series championship. >> deep right ball, back to the wall! coleman hits it out. the opposite field. walk off home run. and the quest for a four peat continues. >> that walk off home run in extra innings sent them past the florida gators and into the title series. number 2 oklahoma will take on the top ranked texas long horns in game one of their best of three series that begins tomorrow night. we turn now to french open and an abrupt end to novack djokovic's title defense and his number one world ranking. djokovic announced on social media he's withdrawing from the contest because of a meniscus tear in his right need reshealed in an exam yesterday. the 24-time grand slam champion was supposed to compete. time now for the weather and let's bring in meteorologist angie lassman for the forecast. angie, how's it looking out there? >> it's looking hot. temperatures well above normal in parts of the southwest, jonathan, and because of that these alerts are going to eare main in effect through tomorrow. 29 million in parts of the west coast stretching through texas included in those. temperatures surge in the triple digits today. las vegas set to hit 108, even as far as wichita and denver we're talking about temperatures well into the 90s. this going to be something we deal with aparts portions of of texas and particularly the southwest where records are being broken. 111 in las vegas, 112 in phoenix. we've got a really strong ridge of high pressure set in place, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. notice what happens by this weekend friday, saturday in palm springs 105, 110 by saturday. this is the kind of setup we'll see and likely plenty of records being broken across that region in the coming days. meanwhile across the east we've got some rain we're going to watch along a cold front. parts of the great lakes and interior north east and the midatlantic but specifically the ohio valley and southern plains is where we'll see stronger storms developing through the day today before the north east gets in on the action