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maria: welcome back. good thursday morning, everybody. a thanks very much for joining us this morning. i'm maria bartiromo. i'm is thursday, may 16, 7:00 a.m. on the button on the east coast. time for the hot topic of the hour. we are talking about markets this morning. take a look. dow industrials up 20, nasdaq up 28, s&p higher by 3 and a quarter. we're waiting on earnings from walmart and those numbers should be out momentarily. we'll see if it lifts or moves rather other ra retail companie. i want to take a look at interest rates this morning as well. interest rates are pulling back ton 10 year. we'll bring that to you as well. time for the hot topic of the hour, day 18 of former president trump's so called hush money trial. lydia hu is outside the new york supreme court with the very latest t. lydia, good morning. >> reporter: good morning there, maria. today the cross examination of former trump attorney and fixer

michael cohen will continue, this will be his third day in the witness chair as the defense attorney is trying to paint cohen as an angry liar who is out for money and wants to see donald trump in jail. some of the most powerful testimony undercutting cohen's accounts happened yesterday and it was actually not inside of the criminal court. that testimony came from an attorney named robert costello who testified on capitol hill, costello said he gave cohen advice after authorities raided he cohen's home and office and he said cohen's testimony in the criminal trial that trump approved a stormy daniels nondisclosure agreement is not true. costello's prepared statement to the committee reads this. cohen explained he negotiated the sum of $130,000 in, change for the nda with storm heyy dan. when asked if trump had any knowledge of this, cohen told me know. when asked whether cohen got the

$130,000 from trump, any trump entity or of friend, cohen said no. costello added this before the committee. >> he said i didn't want to embarrass melania trump, he said that's why i decided to take care of this on my own. went back to that several times. you did this on your own? on my own. did donald trump have anything to do with it? no. >> reporter: now, cross examination continues starting at 9:30 this morning and we expect this to be the last witness called by the prosecution and then the defense will have an town opportunity o present its case and decide whether it's going to call any witnesses so we'll see whether robert costello could be called to the stand on behalf of donald trump. for now, i'll send it back to you. maria: thanks very much. walmart meanwhile out. let's get to cheryl casone with the numbers. >> we've got a double beat, we came in at 60-cents on an adjusted base a sis and the

estimate was 52, so that is a strong showing for walmart. revenue, 161.5 billion, the estimate was 159.5 billion. u.s. same store sales, we were looking for that to come in higher by 3.15%. that was a jump of 3.8%. so that was a strong number on u.s. based same store sales. revenue growth, that was 6%. operating income grew almost 10%. even on an adjusted basis, even better, up 13%. e-commerce in particular he globally picking up steam family room for the company, this is the online story. they're sitting on more than 4 billion in operating cash flow and they repurchased 18 million shares for 1.1 billion. if you're looking for bad news on walmart, you're not going to find it right now. overall, it looks that even with their ad business growing 24% and 21% jump in e-commerce sales on a global basis, and the share

repurchase, maria, the story continues to show us that value consumer is going to walmart. i'm looking for a breakdown of the grocery store numbers. i'll bring that to you before word on wall street, maria, but overall it's what we've been talking about, the consumer is going to walmart for groceries, for fuel, they're going to sam's club for groceries and fuel and they're trading down and this is the wealthier consumer that is going to walmart. with the walmart marketplaces that they've been building out, they're taking over empty grocery stores and turning them into walmart marketplaces. the story of walmart, dow component, there it is. maria: stock is up 3 and-a-half percent right now. we're not seeing that much of an impact on the dow industrials but this is a dow component and we'll be watching this. despite -- here are the markets, dow industrials up 27, nasdaq up 28, s&p up 3 and three quarters. mark, your reaction to the walmart quarter. >> when you look at walmart, to cheryl's point, one of the main

drivers contributing to their beat is the fact that they're doing incredibly well with the higher income shopper. so you continue to see the tradedown effect taking place. you see target shoppers becoming walmart shoppers. i bet if we look closer at the financials, you're going to see within walmart consumers buying less name brand product and buying more generic product so you're seeing a tradedown effect happen and i think that speaks to a consumer that is certainly weakening. maria: i think it's interesting that walmart is saying higher income consumers are visiting walmart. >> that's like a no-no. maria: we talked about at the high end of -- the top end of the company. >> five to 10 years ago, higher income consumers wouldn't be caught dead in a walmart, now it's a go-to place. maria: that's what happens when you have inflation where it is and such expenses when it comes to the essentials, food, fuel, and shelter. >> there's no way main street can compete with this. because they're operating in

volume. how can main street compete on pricing with walmart. they can't. maria: despite former president trump being stuck in a courtroom all day, he's ahead of president bocaraton voter. he's leading on the economy and immigration. >> you're seeing virginia and minnesota are in play for president trump. this brings me back to the debate point. if i'm seeing in battleground states my candidate getting clobbered, am i going to keep biden as the candidate or am i going to try to replace him before august? i guess june, we'll see. maria: we'll see. we don't have any indication that they're going to swap him out. who would be the person they swapped him out for? >> well, michelle obama. i mean, i don't think that's going to happen. but these are the things that democrat operatives should be asking. if they actually want to win in november, this is not their best case scenario. maria: you mentioned virginia. how about new jeer c you s -- nw

jenewjersey. you see the crowds the other night. >> nobody goes to the jersey shore prior to memorial day, okay. trump got over 100,000 people to go and keep in mind, he also got a lot of people from pennsylvania. wildwood is the shore for pennsylvania. if donald trump is able to win pennsylvania, this thing is over before it even starts. maria: look, i don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. we were expecting a red wave. we were expecting all these win these last couple elections and what happened? >> abortion. >> abortion. >> the democrats are going to go after us for two things, aabortion and the trump trials. how do we come combat that? let's talk about vps and surrogates. who can go out and articulate these issues. maria: ken griffith said he thinks trump is going to be a good candidate but he's reserving becoming a big donor until he figures out who the

vice presidential candidate is. >> it's sad that right now donald trump, while being stuck in a courtroom, is more presidential than joe biden. i mean, so i just want to bring attention to something that happened in cleveland over the weekend that we had a police officer in euclid, ohio, jake durbin, he was murdered while on the job, went to the same high school as me. i didn't know him opinionly. i do know his -- him personally. i do know his mother. my heart goes out to the family. one of the things i do know is what on monday, president trump's team reached out to try and a attempt to make a phone call to express their condolences. maria: wow. >> you heard nothing from president biden and his tomb. team. you have one person who is doing everything necessary to act in a presidential capacity and the other guy who he needs five, six cuts to just he produce a 15 second video. maria: the same thing happened with the nypd and trump went to see the family and biden went to

do an interview. >> yeah. maria: they were both in new york. >> it's so simple. it's the most simple thing you can do, act presidential, show compassion. joe biden can't do it if it's a police officer, firefighter, or somebody of that ilk. maria: quick break. we'll be right back. if your business needs a new application then developers will have to write code. a lot of code. if an application needs to be modernized then you'll need time, resources... and caffeine. if this sounds daunting then use watsonx code assistant ai designed to multiply developer productivity so you can generate code quickly. let's create a more modern foundation for business, with watsonx code assistant.

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maria: welcome back. time for the word on wall street, top investors watching your money. joining me right now is greenwood capital president and chief investment officer, walter todd, infrastructure ceo jay hatfield and mark tepper with us this morning. great to see everybody, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. walter, want to kick things off with you with the walmart quarter. stock is up -- look at the stock, it's moving and moving fast, up 5 and-a-half percent after reporting a double beat on first quarter earnings, revenue up 6%, same store sales up 3.8%, global e-commerce sales up 21%.

walmart's global advertising business up 24%. now, ahead of the numbers and this was much better than expected the wall street journal brings this, walmart's reign as america's biggest retailer is under threat with amazon at its heels. your reaction. >> good morning. thanks for having me. the quarter was exceptionally strong as you just pointed out. doug mcmillon at the end of last quarter's call said they were in execution mode and they demonstrated that with this quarter. the commentary around amazon at their heels when you break down amazon and the online store, 375 billion in sales, walmart's on pace to do 675 billion in sales this year so i think there's still a good bit of distance there. i think too, the commentary around the tradedown and attracting wealthier customers, i think that's not -- they're not able to do that without investments they made over the past several years in the stores, in the people, and in

their online platform. online sales w were up 22% in te latest quarter. you can see the benefits of the investments they made there. maria: when i think about amazon,ism thinking the growth is coming from cloud and coming from elsewhere aside from retail so i -- you know, point taken on the walmart, amazon comparison. mark, there's also mcdonald's announcing plans to sell a $5 meal bundle for cost conscious customers, it's only for one month. a new fox news poll finds 89% believe that rising grocery prices are a problem for american families, 62% say it's a major problem. what is your reaction here? it used to be like go to mcdonald's, you get a meal for a dollar or two. now it's $5. >> the dollar menu. [laughter] >> the 5 a d $5 deal, it's a gt deal. you get a lot of food for five bucks. looks like it's going to be a loss leading for mcdonald's, especially if we talk about mcdonald's in the california where the minimum wage is $20 an

hour. that's certainly an issue there. look, the consumer overall, whether it's the higher income consumer now shopping at walmart, you have consumers who are a heck of a lot more cost conscious, price conscious. they are trading down. so i think you're going to see more of these opportunities, more of these offerings over time. where these restaurants are trying to use something as a loss leader to get consumers to walk through their doors. we're seeing this at fast casual restaurants, like apple bees and chilis, you've seen at olive garden, the $75,000 and below crowd are not eating there very much but the 250,000 and above is trading down and eating at olive garden. the consumers are certainly tightening belt buckles. maria: all of the stories this morning, mcdonald's or walmart, it goes back to the story of inflation.

jay, i wantto know how you're ag capital in the environment where food, fuel, shelter, the essentials are still elevated and part of the issue is oil, right? oil prices, they may have come -- broken $80 a barrel but we're talking about expensive oil. it goes back to policy many how do you trade around all of this? >> well, i think we're actually bullish about inflation for the next couple months. not pcest but at the end of the month because it's an overhang but everybody ignores that oil is absolutely critical to inflation. so 5% bleed-through, it caused most of the inflation they the '70s. stagflation is caused by high oil prices. it doesn't magically appear. it's terrible when there's high oil prices. thankfully we continue to produce a lot of oil he despite the policy from the administration, primarily because of texas. everybody is ignoring we had a $12 pullback. that's going to feed into inflation. that's going to be bullish.

we think our 5750 target is too low. we'll get ecb cuts followed by fed cuts. maria: when do you think you'll get the ecb to cut rates. we talked about this before. you are always -- you've been expecting the ecb to move before the fed for a long time. >> they all but said they're absolutely doing it, using banker speak. they don't really say they're absolutely going to do it. maria: sometime this summer. >> june 6. maria: june 6. >> we think that's going to be super positive. there is no dial to reduced interest rates in frankfurt, in the new york fed. you have to inject liquidity and that's what drives markets. we saw it in '20 and '21, all that liquidity injection and we're going to get that globally. it's not just the 25 cut, it's all the liquidity coming in, it's going to drive stock and bond prices higher during the summer. maria: you would think if you get a cut from the ecb, that's

more pressure on the federal reserve. >> i would think they would be more likely to follow suit. the ecb, they're doing a better job taming inflation than we are. we've seen a reacceleration in inflation which is certainly troubling. jay, you're expecting a cut this year by the fed? >> we actually think two, 50% probability in july and 50% in september. >> wow, that's -- that's kind of what they've been saying. maria: that's going to be criticized, if that happens in september, october, that will be criticized, so close to the election. walter, you agree with all of that? >> that's a lot to digest. i agree with the comments about the fed. we would estimate two cuts as well. we think one in september, then one in december. agree with the comments about the consumer being under pressure as well but final comment i would make, u.s. has been the only game in town from an investment perspective over the past couple years, we're seeing evidence that outside the u.s., the markets are starting to pick up and we would be looking there as well. maria: and you're looking for this market to pick up as well. you just said -- krc is a real

estate play that you like. >> yes. so a lot of people are focused on this. the reason there's a huge homeless problem in the west is a ninth circuit ruling that made it cruel and unusual pun bishment to clear -- punishment to clear encampments from public lands. if you listen to the hearing, there's a 99.9% chance it will get overturned and that will slowly turn around the west coast markets and krc, kilroy, is mostly in the west coast. maria: great to have everybody this morning. really nice conversation. we appreciate it. walter, jay, thank you so much. mark, you're with us all morning. we appreciate it. james comer is here with breaking news on the house's impeachment investigation. you'll want to hear this one. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us.

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maria: welcome back. house oversight committee chairman james comer has been investigating the biden family business dealings for more than two years. the probe launched the impeachment inquiry of biden, it's now entering the final phases. the house oversight committee wants biden to testify. he is refusing. comer sent this letter. the committee accounted for over $24 million that flowed from foreign sources to you, your family and their business associates. the committee has identified no

legitimate services to merit such lucrative payments. you denied playing any role in your family's business activities. but the committee has amassed evidence including bank records and witness testimony that contradicts your position on these matters. the committee traced money from foreign transactions including from china, straight to your bank accounts. certain checks are described as loan repayments. the person who provided you free bookkeeping during your time as vice president didn't remember any evidence of a loan from your accounts. joining me is the man himself leading this investigation, kentucky congressman, chairman of the house oversight committee the, james comer. mr. chairman, thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> good morning, maria. maria: where does this investigation stand? >> well, hopefully we're in the final stages. today, this morning, i issued a subpoena for targeted financial information from a certain financial institution related to jim biden, sarah biden and hunter biden. this is a result of many of the

documents that he devin archer turned over. remember, we subpoenaed and he turned over 3.7 million documents, documents that never before had been seen by any of the irs investigators, the securities and exchange commission investigators, or any of the different groups that have been investigating the bidens for years and years and years and we've been able to connect some dots, we believe, that will finally answer pretty much every question we've had about the source of these shady transactions that went into the biden family members and what role exactly joe biden played in his family's shady business dealings. maria: so you've sent out the subpoena this morning to a major bank? >> yes, that is correct. maria: and what specifically do you want to know from this bank in terms of these documents that you're looking for to connect those dots? >> we believe we found new accounts. and remember, the number of bank accounts they we discovered over the past year and-a-half since i've had subpoena powers, since

the republicans flipped the house, is unbelievable a. i mean, i don't think you would find very many people that have billion dollar net worth that have as many different bank accounts as this biden family had. many were shell companies as you and i discussed, companies that's sole purpose was to launder the money that the bidens were receiving from china, from romania, from russia, and never one time through the course of this entire investigation even during the depositions with hunter biden and the transcribed interview with jim biden were they able to answer exactly what the family did to receive this money so we believe we found some more accounts that will answer some more questions and hopefully we can prepare to close this investigation and present our findings to the american people. maria: how many bank accounts are associated with joe biden? >> with joe biden, that's been a harder nut to crack there.

we found some accounts. we found some different expenses and things like that that coincided with some of the hunter biden llcs and shell companies and things like that but at the end of the day, the biden family were the ones that were taking the initial wires and laundering them through. we found two specific checks that went from the biden family influence peddling to joe biden personally, one for $200,000, and one more $40,000. so we've identified a quarter of a million dollars in direct payments that joe biden received from his family's shady influence peddling schemes. as far as the son and the brother and the daughter in law and sister-in-law and all that, you're talking about does. dozens ofaccounts, dozens of lld no answer yet as to what they did to receive this money. i mean, i think, maria, the

biggest public corruption scandal in our lifetimes and the fact that so many of the mainstream media don't want to the write about this -- remember, tony bobulinski testified at our last hearing that what the money was from china was a bribe from the government of china to the biden family, that there was no legitimate business there. so i think we found a lot of information. hopefully, this subpoena will be some of the last bits of information that we have to have to be able to finalize this report and send it to the american people. maria: i have the tony bobulinski transcript in front of me. it is really damning. but look, you've made a couple of comments this morning, you said money laundering, you said bribery, you said influence peddling, obviously, mr. chairman, these are very, very serious charges and the white house is denying it. how will you prove it? >> well, we're going to present the american people with the report, hopefully very soon and there are going to be a lot of footnotes in the report, there's a lot of hard evidence, bank statements, e-mails, sworn

testimony and remember, maria, i have given both the president and the president's son an opportunity to come in front of congress and come in front of the house oversight committee and explain themselves. they know exactly what we want. with respect to joe biden, i understand he probably wouldn't want to go in front of the house oversight committee. we sent him a letter with specific questions to give him an town answer these questions. he has refused to do so, merrick garland has obstructed our investigation time and time again. that's why today, later today, we plan along with the house judiciary committee to hold merrick garland in contempt of congress. we're serious about trying to hold this administration and this family accountable for wrong-doing. maria: i've got the letter in front of me. you ask questions like have you met, spoken to or otherwise interacted with joh jonathan ly. have you met or spoken to or interacted with ji ming of

cefc. >> we've had interviews and depositions with many witnesses. when you have witness testimony. mails, photographs that were found on the laptop, the evidence is overwhelming that joe biden was involved and there's three different biden associates have testified, joe biden was a central figure in the biden family influence peddling scheme, he knew full well what the family was doing. some suggested he was the closer. he would go in when jim biden or hunter biden had made their pitch as to why they need to invest in the biden brand, what had joe biden would then you appear, shake hands, have a conversation, have dinner, just so the people that were paying the bidens would know joe knew exactly what was going on. if you were paying the biden family for the biden brand, you were buying joe biden and joe biden wanted to make sure all the shady people who sent the

shady wire transfers through all the llcs to the biden family, they wanted to know that joe biden was front and center and i think that the evidence will prove that. maria: again, very, very serious charges about the commander in chief, particularly now when we are in two wars around the world and we're wondering in fact we should be seeing different policy with regard to communist china. have you heard back from the white house on any of this? have you heard back from this -- this letter was dated march 28, 2024, have you heard back in any answer from any of this? >> no, no we have not heard back from anything. in fact, the information we requested from the department of justice, from national archives, complete obstruction. maria: mr. chairman, i want to ask you about the other investigation that is underway. you're investigating the white house's so-called push to boost voter registration. earlier this week, attorney general merrick garland said his election threats task force has

accelerated its work and we know that merrick garland said he vows to fight voter id. specifically, what are you investigating with regard to voters and this upcoming election? >> well, one of the things we're doing is we're trying to follow the money, much like we've done in the biden family investigation. we're trying to identify bank accounts that we can subpoena to see who is paying for many of these campus protests, voter registration drives, things that influence the election. we know that the white house, the department of just is the, --justice, the fbi, they're doig everything they can to come up with some kind of r russian collusion. we know there are millions that have crossed the southern border illegally. we know the reason for this democrats hope to get many of these voters registered to vote to impact the presidential race.

we're identifying voter roles in certain states, trying to follow the money to see who is playing for many of these political activities that would involve illegal voters and we're going to do everything we can to ensure that we have a safe and fair election this fall. maria: we reported this week on a flyer that was being handed out according to another congressman, basically telling illegals who are coming across the border, don't forget to vote for joe biden. it's illegal to vote if you're not an american citizen in a presidential a election. are you saying that the administration and the democrats are trying to do just that? is that what you're saying? >> well, somebody's paying for that. somebody's doing it. and we're going to try to find out who it is and do what we can to hold them accountable. maria: mr. chairman, we'll be watching your work. thanks so much. >> thank you. maria: all right. congressman james comer there in d.c. we'll be right back.

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so you can reach today's financial goals and look forward to a more confident future. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. maria: welcome back. president biden and former president trump agreeing to two debates only under certain conditions. biden's campaign has requirements, he says he requires the debates to be held in a television studio with no live audience, no third party candidates participating including rfk junior, and each candidate's microphone must be muted after their time expires. trump meanwhile says he wants both debates to last two hours, he wants both candidates standing up the whole time and that it must take place in a large venue. fox news' white house correspondent peter doocy grilled the white house on the president's desire to have a debate. >> does a person generally want to debate when they are winning or when they are losing. [laughter] >> i am not going to do political punditry from here, my

friend. >> should we see this sudden offer from the president to he debate as a signal that you guys realize you need to change the subject after some really bad polling. >> this is a president that has had a pretty successful legislative -- special legislative tenure in the first three and-a-half years and has delivered on many things that are popular to the american people. as relates to the debate, you've got to talk to the campaign about it. that is a question for the campaign and i'm sure they're eager, eager to answer your questions, peter. maria: joining me now is former acting attorney general a matt whitaker. great to see you, matt. thanks very much for being here. your reaction to these two debates coming up. >> well, it's something. i don't think it's enough. i think these two candidates should debate more and my kudos to both of them to agreeing to do something in june. the primaries have been over obviously nor quite some time. we can do an entire debate betweensthesetwo on the border,o

another debate on inflation, you can do another he debate on so many he specific topics. the fact that donald trump has to go to cnn and atlanta and be mod rated by jake tapper and dana bash tells you everything you need to know which is joe biden is retreating to a very safe place and that's -- i don't think that's going to be good for really getting into these big issues. maria: it's a great point that you make. by the way, we just spoke with james comer, the chairman of the oversight committee and he sent out a subpoena today. we have breaking news that he sent out subpoena to a major bank because he wants to connect the dots on what he called influence peddling, money laundering and potential bribery out of the biden family. your reaction to this ongoing investigation. >> yeah, i heard the chairman right before this and one of the things that struck me as a former federal prosecutor is money laundering is a very serious federal crime and his point that there are billionaires with lots more

money than the bidens ever that had far less bank accounts. obviously, the structuring of these money transfers, trying to hide behind various llcs with their names not on it, i think is clear evidence of money laundering and i'm glad he continues to pursue this because the american people need to understand what was going on and how joe bidens was benefiting from his family's business and selling ininnoc influence and ao him. maria: dozens of bank accounts and llcs is what they identified. the letter is compelling that he sent the white house in march of 2024. we'll keep following it. let's go to president trump. the former president's so-called hush money trial is resuming, michael cohen will return to the stand for cross examination. trump's lawyers grilled him about negative statements about trump on tiktok. cohen is expected to be the prosecution's final witness. the new york appeal's court re; correcting trump's bid to have -- rejecting trump's bid to have the gag order in place.

he has a gag order in place while joe biden is going around the country talking about how bad trump is. what are you expecting to see today and how would assess the case so far. >> first of all, really related to debates, i thought it was poor form of joe biden, shows that this is politically motivated prosecution. he mentioned that donald trump was free on wednesdays. i thought that was very poor form and below the office of the president but that being said, the government's entire case is resting on michael cohen who is as we know a convicted perjurier, he can't be trusted. a federal court said he was a serial seaserial perjorer. he was recalling conversations that may or may not have happened with president trump. this is as weak as it appeared. it's all depending on michael cohen. i think it falls flat on its face. if the injury convicts him

somehow, i don't think they will, i think it's the biggest travesty of american just at this. maria: have you identified the crime? >> the crime they've alleged, no, they have to show he intentionally altered documents with intent of interfering with an a election, i goes. there's no testimony about the mental state of donald trump, nobody can even michael cohen can't say that he intended to interfere with an election. they said it had an affect on the election, possibly but that's not enough. if this judge, which again, i don't trust him because he's conflicted and should have recused because of his daughter's business but if this judge doesn't issue you a directed verdict at the close of michael cohen's testimony i just can't imagine a jury convicting because there is no crime here and there's been no crime that's been proven. maria: would you compare this in any way to hillary clinton in 2015, 2016, paying her campaign paying for a steele dossier that was a lot of trash about her

competitor, donald trump? did she use campaign money? is there n any similarity to the russia coll c collusion lie thal lived through. >> there is. they falsified business records as well. they said these were legal expenses. it was to do research. they laundered it through a law firm and i think, again, if you're going to charge donald trump with this type of crime, then they should have charged hillary clinton and her campaign with the same crime because in the end -- in donald trump's case the fcc found it was not a campaign expense and there was nothing wrong. in hillary clinton's case they found it was a campaign expense that had been hidden through the law firm. maria: todd piro. >> ag whitaker in light of what you said about the prosecution's case or lack thereof or lack of evidence or really nothing there, would you even put on a case if you were in charge of trump's defense team or would you say look, i'm going to try to curry some favor with the

jury, be like we're not going to waste your time anymore, we're going to rest right off the bat unless bob costello, notwithstanding. >> well, as you know, i was a prosecutor for five and-a-half years, tried cases and i he tried cases as a defense lawyer after that and my experience is if you have a good feeling that the government has not proven its case, you don't put your witness on the stand and really you do not present a defense because again, they have the burden. the burden has to be beyond a reasonable doubt. i cannot believe that a jury is going to find beyond a reasonable doubt solely on michael cohen's testimony because he is such a poor witness, has been so torn apart with his being all over on these issues and then obviously you just referenced the testimony of michael cohen's former lawyer in front of congress yesterday that laid bare that michael cohen at the time he met with the lawyer who -- he's waived that attorney/client privilege. he said that donald trump did

nothing wrong and did not commit these crimes or anything near it. so it is, todd, to your point, i think just completely ridiculous and if the judge is fair, he's going to issue you a directed verdict because the government has not met its burden and cannot with this set of facts. maria: do you see coordination with all of these indictments against president trump, i moon, -- imean, you've got new york, you've got alvin bragg, you've got fani willis in georgia, you've got tish james in new york, jack smith who had to admit that there was potential tampering of evidence. has there been coordination with the white house? >> i don't think so there's any doubt. i mean, you look at nathan wade made a couple trips to the white house, matthew coangelo went from being the number three at the department of justice, very senior position and took prosecutor jobs at latisha james' office while doing the civil case and now on the trial team for alvin bragg.

that is the thread you pull through this entire situation to show not only the white house but the department of justice are clearly on top of this and trying to interfere with an election because again, if you watch the left's coverage of this, this is the same theories and the same themes on msnbc and cnn and other outlets that was happening during the mueller investigation. this breathless hope for a knock-out shot against donald trump. i can tell you, i know him well, he eats this like an energy bar. they're not going to knock him down. he's going to continue to fight through this. i look forward to the first debate in june. maria: thanks for your insights as always. quick break and then a series of bad weather stretching across the country. we'll give you an update on that after the break. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. stay with us. ♪

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and they're all coming? those who are still with us, yes. grandpa! what's this? your wings. light 'em up! gentlemen, it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. food isn't just fuel to live. it's fuel to grow. my family relied on public assistance to help provide meals for us. these meals fueled my involvement in theater and the arts as a child,

which fostered my love for acting. the feeding america network of food banks helps millions of people put food on the table. when people are fed, futures are nourished. join the movement to end hunger and together we can open endless possibilities for people to thrive. visit feedingamerica.org/actnow maria: welcome back. flash flooding unfolding in the south as heavy rain, winds and a hail slam the carolinas, cheryl

casone with details now. >> that's right, maria. parts of the south are bracing for another round of dangerous flash flooding, some areas expect canning another half foot of rain after already seeing more than 20 inches in recent weeks and look at this. carson, indianapolis submerged in water after heavy rain pounded that city and more heavy rain, hail and strong winds are plaguing the carolina as severe thunderstorms move up the east coast. let's give you a live look at today's severe storm threat in the gulf, looking at a live map right now and as you can see, the south is bracing for another rough day. well, the prime minister of slovakia expected to recover after assassination attempt was caught on camera. the prime minister was greeting supporters when a gunman fired at least five close range shoots toward him, security tackling him and whisking him away to get treatment. no longer in critical condition

this morning, authorities say the shooting was a politically motivated attack. well, a fifth u.s. tourist has been arrested at the airport in turks and kaye caicos, detainedr ammunition was found during a routine security check. there's no connection between the five americans that have been arrested, this comes in the wake of strict new gun laws past in the vacation hot spot. some facing up to 12 years in prison for weapons charges. u.s. lawmakers are facing calls to step in and help these american citizens get home. and multimillionaire donors who called themselves never trumpers are changing their tune over president biden's, quote, betrayal of israel and fight against hamas, they wrote they spoke with four donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars, saying they're reconsidering political giving in light of the president's

approach to the israel, hamas war. 64% of registered voters disapprove of president biden's handling of the israel, hamas war, maria. maria: i found the same, speaking with various he voters and sources that there was a red line for certainly jewish voters and independents, that was their red line. when biden said that he was going to hold back shipments to israel in the middle of this war, cheryl, it's pretty incredible. thank you. we're going to take a short break and come right back. stay with us. you're watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. we'll be right back. ♪ ymoon. what about africa?

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maria: good thursday morning thanks very much for joining us this morning. i am maria bartiromo. i hope you are having a good thursday morning, thursday, may 16, 8 a.m. in 3 seconds 8:00 a.m. on the button east hot topic of the hour day 18 former president trump so-called hush money