it s the very soul of america. that s president joe biden marking memorial day at arlington national cemetery with a somber message about freedom and democracy. we ll have much more of his speech in just a moment. meanwhile, donald trump marked the holiday with angry posts on social media lashing out at the judges in his legal cases. the day comes as his hush money trial resumes today in new york with closing arguments. we ll bring you a preview of what to expect. plus, the latest fallout from israel s air strike that led to deaths of dozens of displaced palestinians in rafah. good morning and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, may 28th. happy birthday. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. in just hours closing arguments are scheduled to begin in donald trump s hush many criminal trial in a new york city courtroom with the case resuming after a long memorial daybreak. the defense will go first with trump attorney todd blanche expected to
good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. i m ana cabrera alongside my colleague and friend jose diaz-balart, bringing you special coverage as history unfolds this morning in a new york courthouse. closing arguments now under way in the first criminal trial of a former president. the dramatic final phase of donald trump s hush money case after 21 days in court, 22 witnesses and 80 hours of testimony. up first in today s closing arguments, trump s defense team. attorney todd blanche trying to convince a jury that the prosecution did not meet their burden of proof in this trial. nbc s yasmin vossoughian is outside the courthouse. also with us, chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi official, daniel leven, former prosecutor, jeremy solante, and jessica roth, former federal prosecutor and professor at cordosa law school. the defense closing is already under way. todd blanche saying to the jury, you should want or expect more than the testimony of michael cohen. what else are we hearing
closing arguments in the child where the fate of the former president hangs in the balance. a big four days or beyond. regardless the judge said get back to work today after taking a week after. i m bill hemmer, good morning. dana: you already having me laugh. i m dana perino and this is america s newsroom. great to be back in business after four weeks of testimony lawyers are about to give closing arguments in the trial of former president trump. a chance for both sides to make their final pitches. it is expected to last all day. the judge will likely give instructions to the jury tomorrow and then from there it s off to the races. bill: the 12 jurors will deliberate behind closed door. six alternates. no juror has left the main panel which may be a bit unusual. we shall see with the lawyers throughout the next two hours. how long that deliberation takes is anyone s guess. the verdict could exonerate the former president or make him the first commander-in-chief con fac
he s attacked the district attorney, he s even attacked the clerk. he had a gag order. he violated it. the restrictions seem pretty reasonable. the judge wanted him to focus on the material, and relevant facts in the case, and not to attack his adversaries. but trump s attorney, chris kiez, says this was untenable. this was not something they were going to agree on, so the judge shut the door on trump participating in closing arguments today, but he ll still have the opportunity to speak. one thing that makes this courthouse setup so different and unique is there are cameras set up inside, and trump avails himself, when he goes in and goes out, of stopping to talk to the press. we can expect he will likely do that today. i m sure he will touch upon the fact he was not allowed to participate in closing arguments. we can expect as he s done repeatedly throughout this trial, he will attack the district attorney, and he will try to frame himself as the victim of a witch hunt. and you know,
allegations. it s not as though the underlying crime would have necessitated you would have been held. because he kept having these interaction was the court and trying to interfere with that process, he has been held in jail. he actually got done with closing arguments today. and he is an individual who still believes the election was stolen. there are a lot of people still in that camp. what is interesting, when you get to the sentencing point, that s when you often see a little bit of a differentiation between people who continue to believe that the election was stolen, and between people who have sort of given that up. you can sort of it s a tough thing to admit that you basically threw a bunch of your life away because you believed some of these lies about the election. you have seen some of these defendants who have done that. but a lot of people can t bring themselves to accept that because i think it would break them in a lot of ways. i think there has to be a larger purpose