it is good to be back with you on this second hour of chris jansing reports. at this hour, we re officially on verdict watch. the fate of a former president now being debated by 12 new yorkers who have never served on a jury before. the final instructions they were given in a case that could alter the outcome of a presidential election. also ahead, trump s red hot reactions. his flurry of online posts before heading to the courthouse, and how his campaign is raising money off the deliberations. defining reasonable doubt, how dueling arguments on michael cohen, stormy daniels, and even the access hollywood tape could come into play. sifting through a mountain of evidence, two jurors, jurors number four and number six instructed on how to use a laptop to call up any evidence they want to take a look at. we look at the critical documents at the center of donald trump s 34 felony counties. our reporters are following all of the latest developments. let s begin with yasmin
arguments, the trial of the people of the state of new york versus donald j. trump is in the hands of seven men and five women, 12 jurors who will decide the first criminal case of a former president of the united states who weighed in just moments ago. mother teresa could not beat these charges. these charges are rigged. the whole thing is rigged. i mean that, mother teresa could not beat those charges. we will see. we will see how we do. today, white house saying a deadly israeli attack that killed at least 21 people in a tent encampment inside rafah does not cross the president s red line against a major ground offensive. questions though are being raised about whether israeli forces used american munitions in the strike. on the campaign trail, president biden and vice president kamala harris heading to philadelphia for a rally to try to shore up lagging support among critical a critical democratic constituency, black voters. good day, everyone. i m andrea mit
we are in the final stretch of the first criminal trial of a former president. the defense is presenting its closing arguments in donald trump s hush money trial. the former president s lead attorney, todd blanche, has spent the morning trying to plant seeds of reasonable doubt by saying the prosecution s trove of checks and documents do not link president trump to the crime. they can only believe this if they believe michael cohen. they moved on to stormy daniels, suggesting she hasn t told the truth either. once that s done we think it s getting close to the end of the defense case the prosecution will follow with what s expected to be four hours plus of their closing argument as they tie together their sprawling case after jurors heard from 20 witnesses. they saw about 200 pieces of evidence over a six-week period. the challenge? to sum up those arguments behind the 34 felony counts against the former president. remember, the prosecution has to connect donald trump n
we re covering today s climatic closing arguments in donald trump s trial. the trial is still ongoing right now. the prosecutor continuing the closing arguments. we ll continue in our live coverage to bring you that as well as what i m going to do with you right now, which is try to summarize what is the most important day and likely the last day or two before this jury deliberates. the day began with trump s lawyers doing their closing arguments for the defendant. they finished. the scene outside court was more rauk cause than usual. there was trump family members, robert deniro. i was downtown with our team, reporters and lawyers at the court today. we were out there. i made some videos. we kept an eye on it. all working together. the closing arguments give jurors the pivotal final last material. it s the culmination of a trial that s featured 22 exhibits, 20 days, emails, hundreds of exhibits. now it s all going down today. critical day, former president trump s criminal
defense attorney punctuating the defense s last chance to convince the jury to acquit in the first criminal trial of a former president. i m chris jansing, anchoring along side my colleagues andrea mitchell and katy tur has made her way back from the courtroom. we re here at msnbc headquarters in new york city. and in that downtown courthouse, history is being written during closing arguments today. donald trump s attorney todd blanche just wrapped his closing argument, leaning into the word lie, using it 25 times as he tried to attach it to the prosecution s star witness, michael cohen. and the court just broke for lunch. after that the prosecution is expected to start their closing arguments for the jury. can they deliver a powerful argument as to why 12 citizens should make a historic decision to convict a former president of the united states. i want to bring in former fbi general counsel and former senior member of muller probe and msnbc legal analyst andrew weizma