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people talked about, he is talking about retribution and imprisoning political opponents and people are worried about that. >> we keep hearing about a sense about amnesia, not just around president trump but around the events of january 6th. when you're out on the campaign trail speaking to voters in pennsylvania, how much are they thinking about it? how much do they remember what happened that day, how central is it in their thinking as they plan to go to the elections in november? >> one of the things that we have been hearing a lot is a lot of people say, democrats need to move on from january 6th but donald trump talks about it every day he holds a rally. he is front and center about -- donald trump is making it a campaign issue also. let's be completely clear about that. but people want to nope the truth. and there are voters out there that no matter what donald trump says, no matter what he does,
that's what we're dealing with. that's what voters have to consider. executive order, republican voters against trump, sarah longwell, thank you very much for being on this morning. >> thank you. okay, hunter biden's federal gun trial will resume in a delaware courtroom later this morning. yesterday, prosecutors used their opening remarks to tell the jury the president's son was a high-functioning drug addict who lied to his friends and family. the defense offered a counternarrative about hunter biden painting him as a man in recovery who was rushed into the firearm purchase at the center of the case against him and did not knowingly lie on the form. the jury also heard testimony from the prosecution's first witness, fbi special agent, erica jenson, whose testimony assisted prosecutors in introducing evidence, including text messages, bank records, and hunter biden's laptop. joining us now, u.s. national
wilmington. also with us former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, paul butler. mike, court adjourned for lunch just a short time ago. what can you tell us about what is clearly already been a pretty dramatic day? >> yeah, that's right, chris, and to use your word, we've moved from the sensitive to the salacious. the court had been hearing testimony from zoe kestin who worked with hunter biden first met her as an exotic dancer at a gentleman's club in new york. they developed a romantic relationship for about a period of over a year. the prosecution is walking through the time line of that relationship right before they broke up for lunch, they were in march of 2018. ultimately trying to get to the time when hunter biden purchased the gun, which again is the center of this trial, was he still abusing drugs when he purchased that gun in october of 2018. prior to that, we had heard from kathleen buhle. i was struck by that detail that you mentioned, chris, how quickly she was on and off the stand, just about 15 minutes. they were very efficient, both the prosecution and the defense
that in the 2012 cycle. >> i want you to put on your hat, if you will, matt, back when you were communications director at the national republican congressional committee because you know a little something about ground game, money, messaging, what would it take for republicans to beat jon tester? >> i think, honestly, an even atmosphere, right? as you put at the start of your segment, trump won this by 16. so tester needs to win a lot of trump voters. so he only won by about 18,000 votes. you're right, it was against a relatively lackluster gop candidate in an era where trump was not on the ballot and he was very unpopular, 2018 democrats won back the house as well. the nrsc senate committee projects about 50,000 new right of center voters in the state of montana, a lot of those during covid. those in and of itself could be enough to push him over. he has to do a lot of work.
established is that hunter thought of himself as an addict, but the defense is during the time that he filled out that form, at that point he wasn't thinking of himself as an addict. the question is are you an unlawful user or addicted, and the defense's answer is at that moment, the answer was no. the judge, chris, has ruled that if hunter was generally using drugs during this period, then his answer was inaccurate. he didn't have to be using drugs on the specific day that he filled out the form. >> the defense attempted, paul, to poke holes in fbi agent erica jensen's testimony, that's how the day started. there was a lot of conversation about texts that were about hunter biden's addiction before and after he bought the gun, and of course that's at the center of the charges, right? that he filled out that form untruthfully. these were from october of 2018. i want to talk about two texts
asking her about what she observed of hunter biden's addiction. now, she first met him in late 2017 and testified about what she observed throughout a big part of 2018, and she's sad when they would be in these hotels. he would be smoking crack every 20 minutes. she detailed how she helped to facilitate drug buys. she would withdraw cash from him. this was the testimony that prosecutors are seeking from her and she testified that she did see hunter biden's smoking crack in september 2018. now that is significant because it goes against the defense's narrative that at that point he was clean and just using wine, but on cross-examination by abbe lowell, she testified she didn't see him in october 2018 after she saw him in mid september, students see him again until november. so she has no direct knowledge of whether he was using illegal drugs or if he was addicted to illegal drugs during the time in question at the center of this case, and her testimony just wrapped what i'm telling you the jury, they were very interested in the details of these luxury hotel stays, a
won the election. >> you talk about transactional, and aspirational voters, you make a point that's interesting, the aspirational voters have decided. if you are worried about democracy, you're worried about democracy, and you know who you're going to vote for. it's certainly not going to be donald trump given what's going on. why is the biden campaign still running so heavily on donald trump as a threat to democracy. >> it's a great question. every strategist not working if the biden campaign is asking the very same question. right? the only ones defending this strategy are those that are working for the biden campaign. it goes to not that -- and nobody wants to say it isn't important, it is. the question s if your goal is to get one more vote than your opponent, you've got to be talking to the voters that are left and why aren't they with you, right, and this is where it's more front and center. look, we have a bad track record, both in the media, and frankly, political strategists do. they always are trying to fight the last campaign. and at the end of the day,
center of this case, abbe lowell, the defense attorney, also got her could see that she never actually saw hunter biden using drugs. she was only on the stand for a short period of time. and then after her was a young woman that hunter biden met in late 2017 and gentleman's club and then subsequently spent long spans of time with at various hotels on the east and west coast she testified at how often she would see him smoking crack. she said he was doing that about every 20 minutes. now, her testimony is not done. she's still being questioned by prosecutors, but baur is she was a very compelling witness, very articulate, clearly had a lot of warm feelings, 400 talked about how charismatic he was, how much people liked him how is demeanor did not change even after he smoked crack. so she will continue her appearance on the stand unclear how long she's going to go, but definitely some captivating witnesses for the jury and paula earlier in the day, the defense tried to discredit the
matter? well, does it matter to those that are undecided. that's the way i would ask the question. i think right now, all the polling, i titled the column "the fog of polls" for a reason. it's a little foggy because we have never been through this before. we've had two presidents run against each other in over a hundred years in this country. oh, by the way, that's only happened once. right? so we don't have a lot of historical context. i will say this. if you look at it through the prism of personal failings, character and moral failings, well, i think the verdict is in. right? every presidential candidate that has had this front and center, it's turned out not to be as damaging as maybe a lot of the professional types thought it would be. the voters thought differently, you can go back to grover cleveland who had a child out of wedlock, they thought it was going to end his candidacy, he
million last month. now that's not part of the 100 and 41 million that donald trump's campaign and the rnc raised last month. and a lot of this, they also attribute to being off of his conviction and look, i mean, this there was a memo that they sent to donors yesterday that really laid out their pathway for how they think donald trump can secure 207 i'm in electoral votes in november and i thought it was fascinating because they talked about four states in particular pennsylvania and nevada, arizona, georgia, all states that trump lost in 2020. but they think they can win in the upcoming election. i think it's a really good look at just how his outside groups think this is how we're going to win in the fall all right. >> alaina, very interesting i think stuff. appreciate it. thank you. >> still ahead, pudding lawmakers on the record. the senate is set to vote on a bill guaranteeing the right to contraception as reproductive rights remain front and center for the election the ceo is