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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  February 29, 2024 6:00pm-7:00pm PST

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anymore in the market. we need to make sure that the right items can get in. currently things like shelter, tent poles, fuel sometimes, generators or all stopped from going in. they are prohibited. >> those are prohibited items? >> they're >> prohibited, because it can also be used for nefarious reasons. everything that is useful can also use are not good reasons. so that is problematic. we need deconfliction to work. when we say we our office, our warehouse, our distributions have been in a certain place, we need those places to not be targeted. >> have they've been targeted? >> not targeted, but certainly collateral damage. we had -- in rafah that was hit a few weeks ago. collateral damage. people had to move and evacuate et cetera. that is happening over time. the deconfliction is not working. so our jobs are nice, it is creative, but it is a distraction, it is not
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effective, and it is not safe. >> -- thank you very much. that is all in on the thursday night. alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. thanks to at-home for joining me this hour. this evening, we've got some fairly shocking news. president trump is asking the court to schedule one of his federal criminal trials before the november election, specifically, trump is requesting that mar-a-lago classify its documents case to begin on august 12th. that is correct. donald trump asked for that trial to start just three months before the presidential election. except, that request may not exactly be what it sounds like. it could very well be a game of 3d chess. it does not sound like something trump placed on that often, but play with me here. trump pitching that august date could be a way of trying to block the other federal
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criminal case, the special counsel's much more serious a federal election interference case from going to trial before the election. yesterday we got that massive news, the supreme court has agreed to hear trump's argument, those criminal trials in the d.c. case should be thrown out because a presidential immunity. but the court did not schedule oral arguments on that case to start until the week of april 20 seconds. because of that delay, even if the supreme court decides this case incredibly quickly, this election interference case most likely could not start until late july. now we know from forms that were sent to potential jurors last year, once that case starts, the court expects it will last approximately three months, which means that the window in which they d.c. election interference case could take place and conclude before the november election, that window is a very small. it is basically sometime
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between mitch ally and mid august. so donald trump asking for the judge in another case, the mar- a-lago classified documents case to put that trial on the calendar in mid august seems like some 3d chess. okay, maybe just chess. right now it really doesn't seem like there's enough room in the calendar to have both of these trials take place and conclude before the presidential election. jack smith team thinks the mar- a-lago trial last 4 to 6 weeks. trump's legal team thinks it will last 8 to 10 weeks. now whether it is four weeks, or ten, weeks it could effectively block the judge and the federal election interference case from scheduling her trial in order to get a verdict before the november election, or another words, it could ice her. i saw her. that is when a person familiar with trump's trial strategy told cnn earlier this week. and we see news has not independently verified that reporting, more earlier this week that same person told cnn
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that as far as scheduling the mar-a-lago classified documents trial, the thing trump is really thinking about is blocking the d.c. federal election case. the idea is to make it impossible for the judge in that case, tanya chutkan, to jam a trial down before the election by using things that are out of her control. trump's team believes that mar- a-lago case, if it is moved to july, could box out judge chutkan from putting the federal election subversion case on the schedule. it looks like that is trump's strategy here. make sense to me. at the end of the day, this is his classic delay strategy with a few more bells and whistles admittedly. instead, what actually confused me today with special counsel jack smith's strategy. smith's team asked for the mar- a-lago classified documents case to start on july 8th. i do not know about you, but that also feels uncomfortably close to the very small window in which the special counsel
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federal election interference case could start and finish before the november election. so what is the special counsel thinking here? is there an order of operations? are there any special legal avenues to expedite any of this? something that would allow both of these cases to go to trial before november? well i have the perfect person to ask. joining me now is andrew westman nbc legal analyst and former fbi general counsel. andrew, thank you for being here. literally several times this evening and said we just need to ask weisman, so first, let's start with the special counsel. i'm finding it, my heart sort of sank when i saw they were requesting in july 8th trial date for mar-a-lago. that just seems to foreclose the summer, right? do read it that way? >> so i feel like we need to have a chessboard right here. >> how about checkers, that is more must be these days. >> i read it as jack smith reading the tea leaves with
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respect to the supreme court, what they did just yesterday, we are kind of warm speed, he and -- this is like dog years, everything is moving so quickly, and i think he realized that the odds of his getting a trial date in the d.c. case before september, and it would take the stars, the moon, and the earth to align, and everything to go right for that case to be starting in september. and there is a chance it is much longer than that. it is -- so i think this was reality. you know what, let's try and grab a bird in the hand. so i think that was his thinking. if you want, i can turn to donald trump. >> before we do, that that is, i think there are a lot of people after the news yesterday
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that are thinking, but can something be done here? but to have a feels like almost an admission on part of the special counsel that is probably not going to happen, even if it does have been let saints of timber, if they think it is going to take three months, it is not going to conclude before the election. >> so i do think that he has a number lady to slim it down. slim to win. it is standard procedures, you want to do that, as a prosecutor, just put on what you need. we saw that by the way in the trump organization trial, they really kept it tight. that is why i was really impressed. this is a good team. they did what they need, in and out, got a conviction. so i can see jack smith trying to do that. but just remember, he has to be thinking it is the start date unconcerned about. and, if you just, i did not do math in public, -- >> neither do i. i try i try
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not to. >> it is just not, it is just not looking good. that is all assuming that the supreme court does not do things to delay the case further, and there are various outcomes that it could. >> right, i'm operating in best- case mario here. >> yeah, but that, is you know, when you put your mind in your head in jack smith's thinking, he has -- not best-case an area, so he is thinking you know what, i have a very strong case in the classified documents case, i mean he has to be thinking this has jury appeal, it is not just the retention of classified documents, it is two forms of obstruction, by all accounts it looks like an incredibly strong case. we still have not heard any defense from the former president that passes the straight face test. honestly we will see what happens at trial. so he seems to be thinking okay let's see if we can get that. it is still an uphill battle because he has before judge
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cannon, and there are many ways that that case can be delayed, but this was an issue of his request. so in terms of what he is asking for, this seems doable, the case has been pending for a long time, the classified documents issue is the only issue that would cause this to slow down, that is largely been resolved, and so i think he has the right to -- right, exactly. >> let's talk a little bit about donald trump strategy here, because the reporting is, donald trump, it almost sounds like he thinks he has a willing audience in judge cannon >> yes, he does. >> it almost because he does. >> i'm giving you my opinion. >> i understand that. >> the request from trump's team sort of begins with all the reasons why judge cannon shouldn't really even schedule this before november, but if she has, to how about mid august. they give her a lot of runway to say, there are other things
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you could say, the presidential immunity claim we have launched in the mar-a-lago, case why don't you wait until the supreme court figures that all out, and not do anything until then. >> right, so, i do think you know, to point to note, he started by saying i did not want the trial in 2024. but she had ordered that they give a trial date, so he actually gave a trial, date but it is the backup position. this is his ace in the whole. i think it is not so much the i don't want it in 2024, or okay, it might plan be is august, he has made an immunity argument, the same argument that is made in d.c.. this one minor difference, he wasn't president. so his argument is, but i took the documents while i was president, i have said that is like a bank robber saying i legally got the gun that are used to rob the bank. >> i was a customer of the bank
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when i went in and take the money. >> it is just such an irrelevancy, but he has judge cannon, so the question is whether judge cannon will sit on the whether she will granted, or if she denies it and says it is not a frivolous argument, meaning all of these delays of appeal that we have seen in the d.c. case, donald trump is going to try that of course. >> the same road back to the supreme court. >> it is much harder factual argument and but that is not the issue. just remember, we were all sitting here going is arguing he can argue s.e.a.l. team six to kill an opponent, we are arguing that is laughable, and then yet here we are. >> novel defenses the supreme court. we need to weigh in on that. >> so he has many ways, even if he were to get that august date, two later move it and push it aside. >> i mean, give me the over under on how optimistic you are about judge cannon. we sit here now, it is like you
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know, the possibilities for holding trump accountable seem to be shrinking by the day. there is the alvin bragg case which seems like that is sort of full steam ahead, but everything else. >> can i stop you there, there is the oven by case, that is i'm not optimistic, i'm not optimistic on the d.c. case in light of what happened yesterday. i wish i were, but i really am not. i am not optimistic in florida, even that one if you look at it rationally, that should be able to go before the election, it is the biggest open issue, there is judge cannon, we will have more data on this tomorrow, that the parties are going to be heard, my judge cannon, and she either will set a date, or at least give something as to what she is thinking. >> new reality also, is andrew, there is so many reasons for delay here. even if you get to the point of actually scheduling a trial,
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finding an impartial jury in this is not going to be without its challenges. there's already fierce debate over the juror questionnaire, to believe the election was stolen as a question jacks mitt would like to have on the jury questionnaire, understandably trump's team is going to fight them every way. >> so i have picked juries in high-profile matters, nothing quite as high-profile as this, but in the and run cases, the special counsel case, yes it is a challenge, but it can happen. you are not looking for and -- the law does not require somebody who's never heard of the case. it would be impossible, it is also inconsistent with our history when we had a much smaller and people knew lots of people who were participants in the trial. so it is just required that somebody is going to be able to say, you know what, i would take my oath of office as a juror seriously, and i will decide this case based on the facts and the law. the biggest issue i see in that is at the juror who once on the jury. from either side you don't want somebody who sneaking on who is
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going to say they are going to be fair and impartial, but either only valid for the government or the defense, that is the biggest issue in that matter, you can see usually people do not go i can't wait today to get on the jury. most people are like how do i get off of jury. >> yeah, it is a good thing neither one of these cases released are public emotion. they are just, everybody is levelheaded about all of it. andrew weissmann, i'm going to say the carpenter of not great news, much to a wonderful guest to have on the show. i'm very grateful for your time and thoughts. >> pleasure. >> we have a lot more ahead tonight, president biden went to the border today, so donald trump, we will get into those dueling trips, an alternate realities. but first, trump is trying some very creative and probably highly illegal strategies to avoid paying his bills. if any of it going to work? that is next. is next. ovides n ,
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there were a lot of warning signs, plenty of reasons why getting into tonight's trump was never going to end well for them. if there was one moment where they should have walked away with their dignity intact at kept their distance from donald trump forever, it was probably
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this one. >> -- andy, you are just being pounded, on your being out debated, i just do not want somebody running one of my companies who is going to get beaten up so badly. you are fired. i just have to do this, i have no choice. west, you are fired also. >> andy and west moss, contestants on season two of the protests. both were fired by trump and traumatic boardroom scenes full of melodramatic music and a whole lot of reaction shots. but andy lewinsky and west moss did not learn their lesson. years later after trump became a twice impeached former president who tried to steal an election, and he lewinsky and west moss decided to go into business with him. and boy did they seem to regret it. these two former apprentice contestant's helped trump build his right-wing twitter knock
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off social media company truth social. but now they are suing trump claiming his essentially trying to cheat them out of their share of that company. who could have seen that coming. that lawsuit isn't your typical where are they now reality tv story. new lawsuit from those two former apprentice stars, now getting in the way of trump's latest attempts to keep accountability right now trump is on the hook for more than half a billion dollars from his civil fraud and defamation lawsuits. at the same time trump is in the middle of a big deal to try and effectively sell that would knock off for billions of dollars, the company that and he lewinsky and wes moss helped create. a lot of people think trump could try and use the proceeds from that sale in his legal bills, that way he could avoid having to salafists precious realistic holdings and get -- to cover -- of his misdeeds.
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-- -- throwing a wrench in the deal. it is delaying trump's access to those funds. it could be a real problem for donald trump, who sure seems these days like he does not have the money to pay the millions and millions in penalties that he owes. last week, trump tried to get the courts to delay his 83 million dollar payment in the e. jean carroll lawsuits. today carroll's attorney responded to that request for delay, saying he is to police asked the court to trust me, and offers the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers. trump is also trying to delay paying his new york civil fraud payment, the three trump and his lawyers asked the judge to allow him to pay only 100 million of the 450 million he owes in that case. yesterday, the judge denied that request. in a two line statement, he
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told trump's attorneys, you have failed to explain, much less justify any basis for delaying the payment. and seen. in the course of that back and forth yesterday, we learned about another possible attempt by trump to avoid paying the -- and it is a real doozy. in a legal filing yesterday, new york attorney general letitia james accused trump of quietly trying to move his assets to florida to avoid having them seized by the state of new york. quoting from the new york attorney generals office, after the court issued its february 16th order, defendants announced for the first time that various trump organization entities operating in new york are allegedly now located in florida. two of the companies that were part of that lawsuit -- and -- managing member llc have already been relocated to
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florida. now as of the year 2023, both of those companies were still located in new york. so did trump move his companies to florida after the attorney general bought a lawsuit against trump and those companies? that would be one creative way to get out of pay any penalties in the case. and it sounds like the court was concerned that trump would do something exactly like that, which is why at the very beginning of this case, the judge here barred trump from moving his assets out of the states. now donald trump is doing everything in his power to avoid accountability in a civil criminal trials, and yes in some case it is working. yesterday of course he managed to get the conservative majority on the supreme court to delay his case, in the d.c. election interference trial. well into the future. the georgia election interference case is that ben successfully stalled as well, we don't know what is happening in mar-a-lago, but the civil cases against trump, no one's from the new york attorney
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general of writer e. jean carroll, those have been the only cases so far where trump has really had to face -- now he is making these last-ditch efforts to avoid having to pay up. the question is, will trump be able to escape accountability here as well. we are going to talk about that coming right up. right up. - w! ♪ reality checkup ♪ there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3dwhitestrips white. whitens like a $400 professional treatment. [pilot] prepare for non-stop smiles. crest.
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okay here's a quote from the new york attorney general's latest filing in terms of a
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fraud case. contrary to defendant argument, there's substantial risk that defendants will attempt to invade a force meant of the judgment, or make enforcement more difficult following appeal. defendants have already during this action transferred $40 million from their accounts without disclosing the chance for it to the monitor in violation of supreme court's orders. the new york attorney general notes that donald trump secretly moved to $40 million out of his accounts right in the middle of a civil fraud trial. now she is accusing trump of secretly moving his companies to florida to avoid accountability. is donald trump trying to hide his assets to avoid paying what he owes? if he is, who will stop him? joining me now is kristy greenberg former federal prosecutor who served for over a decade in the u.s. attorney's office from the southern district of new york. kristie, thank you for being here. i find this, i had to put my eyes back in my head, the idea
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that two of the companies that are named in the civil fraud lawsuit, trump has suddenly moved to the state of florida. first of all, isn't there someone who is overseeing the trump organization right now and should she not have been aware of, or been made aware that these kind of things are happening. >> under the court's orders, he has to notify the independent monitor, former judge barbara jones of any kind of movement of assets, or any changes to those entities, certainly changing the address what about the banks, where are the accounts associated with those entities, she needs to be tracking all of that. the fact that they put this in a letter, and -- -- some addresses are wrong. no, you did not tell, them you did not tell the monitor who supposed to be a babysitter and make sure you are doubting your eyes and crossing your t's. you did not disclose any of it. so it is shady, they are clearly trying to make some
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moves here where they can move money, and have the monitor not be able to track, it that seems to be what is going on here. >> i want to bring in, we now have his shot, up the author of the daily beast story that broke a lot of this jose -- jose, thank you for joining me. if you could, can you explain, the indications we have right now, and the timing about whether donald trump is in fact trying to move organizations that are subjects of this fraud trial out of state to avoid having to pay penalties. can you talk a bit more about the sort of evidence that is at hand? >> sure, so like you said, all we know now is they have had these changes of address, is the person who should be first and it would be barbara jones, that former federal judge who is the monitor over the company. she has been babysitting the company for over a year now, this was exactly why she was put in place. justice engoron who is the trial judge knew that if this
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could happen. let us why a little over a year ago, he ordered this monitor to be put in place of the trumps could not move assets out of the state, which was a concern from the beginning. so with this change of address, we are starting to see hints at that. we knew that donald trump feared having to pay this amount of money, especially when he is going through such a big cash crunch now. let's remember the $83 million he has to pay up very quickly to e. jean carroll for losing the rape defamation case in january, it is coming to. this is a really bad storm for him. the fact that they have changed in these addresses, it is certainly suspicious. the fact they only alerted the court in a letter saying by the way, these addresses are incorrect. that is a backdoor way to get into this. it is why the a.g. in new york is calling them out on this. what is interesting as going to be how far this goes, because at this point trump's legal team has to answer some serious questions from the judge, and the appellate court isn't going to play this game either.
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they already issued a temporary stay so that this can be fought on appeal, but they chose not to hit the pause button on him paying this money. so at this point, he is not in a position where his post- removing assets, is actually in a position where he needs to pay up real soon, so we will get answers pretty soon, but the fact they did it this way at this hour, after they were told to, pay is certainly raising red flags. >> yeah, kristie, what are the options here if someone -- first of all, legally speaking, if indeed jt holdings, donald j trump holdings moves to florida, and doesn't want to pay the bill so dispute, what are the legal implications of that? what can be done? this ron desantis after step in? i'm kidding. >> these assets, if you can trace them, if you know where the money is, you can look to seize them. there are mechanisms in place for the new york a.g. to try to do that. the issue is once it moves to florida, where else does it go, doesn't go overseas, is it
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changing entities again, once you start layering here, again we don't know he is doing that, but once you start moving and you are not making notifications, it certainly makes it easier for those kinds of transactions to happen and harder to trace the money and be able to see the if you need to. >> i mean, the a.g. could say don't do this, the judge can say don't do this, but if donald trump will do anyway, i wonder what legal recourse exists. not to get slapped with more? what happens now if in fact he is moving his businesses out of state to avoid having to pay penalties? >> this could be a very choosy conversation, because of the fact of the matter is, the deadline is around the corner. sometime in mid march, the a.g. can go ahead and ask justice engoron for the ability to put or forcibly seize property. he can base whatever company he wants elsewhere, trump tower is not moving. it is stuck in manhattan. so she can go ahead and start seizing that. there are, someone brought this up the other day, there are pounded fees that will be due
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if she has to get for example the sheriff involved. we never talk about the sheriff in new york city, but the sheriff would become involved, and they can take up to 5% of the total. what is 5% of half a billion dollars with increasing interest every single day. there is no way he can truly escape, this and he also, it is a question as to whether or not he wants to suffer the embarrassment of having somebody put a padlock on that tower. but realistically, though he is running for president right now, he is under intense scrutiny, he is having to file disclosure forms with the federal government about what he, owns and where it is. so when we did the story, one of the first things i looked at was where did, minute when those those addresses change? so i looked up the disclosure forms he had filed, and those two entities always said they were in new york until, curiously, sometime last year in august. they no longer listed an address. now they just listed the assets. so he's under scrutiny, it is not like he can hide the stuff,
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he's going to have to reported that the federal government anyway as he runs for office. so we will all know where these things generally are, like i said, -- wall street in norman had, and that is not moving either. these are true real acids that the a.g. can move on. it is just a matter of time. what is interesting about the timing here, this is all going to happen in mid march when justice, you recall, this is when the dea office in manhattan, and the whole other law enforcement officers going to jack him into the court before the easter of his criminal trial, the first one ever involving former president. so he has his hands full, he does not have the time, or even the resources, or the legal team to be playing these kinds of games at this juncture. >> when we talk about other bills being paid here, jose makes a very quite obvious, but i did not think of it myself point that you can't move 40 wall street. so aj ms. can seize 40 wall street if it comes down to, it if his bad behavior to that degree, but i would wonder, it seems like he is trying to push
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off in liquidation of his real estate assets as the sort of plan and diane all of this. there is this potential deal with his social media company that could come through, and afford him maybe as much as four billion dollars. that does not happen until march 22nd i think at the earliest. the bill is do i believe march 16th, and at the bill is now 550 billion dollars. what is -- is there recourse, does he get a grace period in any of this if you're showing, if he does not much does bad behavior like moving assets to florida in on that grace period? >> so right now he has 30 days which brings us to mid march. this is just so he is able to appeal. that is all we are looking at right now, whether or not he needs to pay the money to be able to file his appeal, and there is no wiggle room there in the law. there is no i get a grace period, i can give you part of,
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it i can pay 25 cents on the dollar. you have to pay the full amount. you have to pay more than the full amount. so, yeah, there is no way he can get out of this. if he wants to peel, this is the deadline, he has to meet its. >> do you think the attempt to stave off payment in the e. jean carroll case, first of, all robbie, caplan a.g. hurls lawyer outfielder calling him the least trustworthy, this is like a paper napkin side yours truly donald trump, it is an iou, i promise i will pay it. what are these attempts? no judge is going to take that. is this just a delay tactic, i'm having a hard time understanding legal utility of that. >> in that case he didn't even put forth any evidence to say i want to secure it at all. i'm just asking for, stay i don't want to put up anything. mother way, i would not provide any evidence about where my assets, or what kind of debt, have any information about his, finances what it was just convicted of financial fraud. >> he doesn't mention in the
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500 million dollar penalty he has to pay in his effectively statement of financial conditions. >> well, robbie kaplan made sure to mention that. >> it is just, i, mean the of a station, and the tantrums, and yet sometimes it works for him. we will see what happens. kristy greenberg, jose, thank you so much for your time, really appreciate you. >> thank you. >> still ahead this evening, it was a tale of two cities, to order visits, and through starkly different visions for this country. which one will prevail in november, and what will it mean for democracy? that is ahead. stay with us. for democracy? that is ahead. stay with us. >> woman: why did we choose safelite? we were loading our suv when... crack! safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service the way we want it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ jordan's sore nose let out a fiery sneeze, so dad grabbed puffs plus lotion to soothe her with ease.
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to show that you're helping kids build a brighter future for themselves. thank you. families are struggling to make ends meet. these are hard times, but together we can help connect america's kids with meals. so please call now or go online to give. thank you. >> a horrifying incident today in northern gaza. crowds of palestinians desperately waiting for humanitarian aid after almost none has reached them. rushed the rare arrival of the convoy of food trucks are met with deadly gunfire by israeli soldiers. i want to warn you, the footage of the aftermath is disturbing. some of the people who were killed and injured, laid out on trucks. these people were desperate to get fed. palestinian officials and eyewitnesses said that israeli troops fired on the crowd as they raced to pull food off the aid trucks. israeli military said today that most of those killed died
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in the stampede for food, and its troops only opened fire in self-defense at a specific group of people who approached a nearby checkpoint. the officials on the gaza strip said more than hundred people were killed and more than 700 injured. the context here is that this comes amid an acute crisis of hunger and starvation. the u.s. is saying at least a quarter of the roughly two point million palestinians and russia are in gaza are one step closer to, famine in northern gaza when it six children under age of two are already suffering acute malnutrition. it's something that cindy mccain, head of the winds world food programme warned about last month. >> what we are looking at right now, and you reflect the numbers very accurately, is famine. the lack of food, the inability to obtain quality food, all of the things that produce the kind of situation that people of gaza are in right now, that's exactly what is happening. we are looking at famine. >> we are now weeks after that
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warning and we are seeing reports of children starving to death. babies dying from lack of nutrition in dehydration. just yesterday samantha power, the administrator of usa, one of the leading providers of assistance in gaza, released a video saying levels of resistance entering gaza palin comparison with what is needed at the israeli government needs to open up more entry points. part of the reason why the israeli government is not letting aid in has to do with political pressure from within prime minister benjamin netanyahu's far-right government. today, for instance, following that deadly incident, far-right national security minister ben- gvir said it shows gaza's madness and repeated calls that israel should stop letting any aid in entered all. there should be no aid going. in israeli protesters have camped for weeks at one of the crossings to block aid trucks from getting into gaza. every day as this war goes on things in gaza get worse. we are on the precipice now watching literally hundreds of thousands of people starved to death, unless something changes
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very quickly. this is the president ceo of save the children, one of the international aid organizations working to get food and other assistance into gaza. she was just in rafah late last month, on the egyptian gaza border. thank you for coming. first, i know you have staff inside gaza. what they are telling you about the conditions? >> as dire as you just portrayed their. when i was here a few months ago i said how can it get any worse? and clearly it got worse and worse and worse and we are now seeing less aid go and then i saw when i was at the rafah border a few weeks ago. >> there's less going in? now >> left going in now. when i was they are, about 130 trucks a day would go in and woefully inadequate because 500 days trucks were going on before the conflict, an hour at back to 30 and 40 strikes. day needs are spiking, up less aid coming in. talking about the north, 250
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300,000 people still trapped in the north. we talk a little bit about rafah. that's where most of the people are. the north, hundreds of thousands of people there. they haven't had almost any aid to go in. >> that convoy i think was the first in a month. 300,000 people in the north, 100 million in the south, crowded inside rafah. thousands of people left. they've been sleeping out in the streets waiting for convoys, trucks, they haven't come in a month. you saw what happened when a few came today. these really government basically says, and they said a bunch of different things, that it's the age groups, that there is aid that there is that they're not, taking that hamas is taking all the aid, and that they are not doing anything to stop the flow of aid. is that true? >> not from what we are seeing. we haven't got any aid supplies stolen from us and we haven't been able to get as many trucks again as we would like. we haven't been able to, when the trucks get in, to get them up to the north. we are not always able to get supplies distributed in gaza, in the last mile, because of security concerns and continued
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shelling. >> one of the things i think we've seen today and the reason the 300,000 people in the north of gaza, i think, are at an acute -- they might all starve to death. that's not a crazy or hyperbolic statement. >> our staff, our colleagues who are all now in rafah, they are telling us they still have extended families and friends in the north. people have resort to eating tree leaves, to eating animal food. there is nothing there. >> i read a quote from a man today who was in that melee and who said he had been eating animal feed for a month and part of what i think you see in northern gaza, my understanding is that there is a total, hamas has been routed more or less as far as we know. which means that there is no government, there's no civil order. these really government has said clearly we do not want to provide civilian government here. and so my understanding, tell me if i'm wrong, it's kind of close to apocalypse a puddle of landscape in which there is no
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civil order whatsoever. there's no governing institution. >> i think that's right. on top of that there is such huge need and desperation. people who haven't had any age whatsoever so they're already super weak and the resilience john and incredibly worried about their children. we are fighting for survival. which is what any parent would do. >> there's discussion today about the u.s. doing airdrops. there has been some airdrops that have gone into the water. it drops are usually used in incredibly dire situations, when you can't get in aid otherwise. what do save the children and other ngos, what has to happen now? >> what has to happen is that the fighting needs to stop. it's first and foremost. that is preventing aid from coming in and being delivered. >> i want to press on this, there's no means of providing aid necessarily amidst the ongoing war. >> not to the scale that is necessary. we do it in dribs and drabs,
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but our colleagues are trying everything. they will go out and put the lives on her line to get everything stuff out to people. when we can have it into it as safely as possible. but there's no real safe place. what we need to see happen is a cease-fire. a truce. a 90 truce. not just to release hostages. that needs to happen to, of course. we need to get more supplies in. we need to have commercial supplies to be restarted. there are no commercial goods anymore in the market. we need to make sure the right items can get in. currently things like shelter, tent poles, fuel sometimes, generators, are all stopped from going in. they are prohibited from going. and >> those are prohibited items. >> prohibited items. because they can also be used for nefarious reasons. everything that is useful can also be used for not-so-good reasons. that is problematic. we need deconfliction to work. when we say our office, our
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warehouse, our distributions happen in a certain place, then we need those places to not be targeted. >> have they been targeted? >> not targeted but there are certainly collateral damage. we had a guest house in an office and raw fire that was it a few weeks ago, collateral damage. people had to move, evacuate. that's happening all the time. the deconfliction isn't working. airdrops are nice and it's -- but it's a distraction, it's not safe. >> janti soeripto of save the children, thank you so. much alex wagner starts right now. >> thank you. and thank you to you trump's ar
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with those criminal trials on the d.c. case should be thrown out because of presidential immunity. but the court didn't schedule oral arguments to start until april 22nd. and because of that delay, even if the supreme court decided this case incredibly quickly,
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this election interference case most likely could not start until late july. now we know from forms that were sent potential jurors last year that once that case starts, the court expects it will last approximately three months. which means that the window in which the d.c. election interference case can take place and conclude before the november election, that window is very small. it is basically sometime between mid july and mid august. so donald trump asking for the judge in another case, the mar- a-lago classical documents classified documents case, to put that on the calendar in august, seems like sums 3d chess. well, maybe just jess. right now it doesn't seem like there's enough room in the counted or to have both of these trials take place and conclude before the presidential election. jack smith's team thinks the mar-a-lago trial will last for six weeks. trump's legal team thinks it will last 8 to 10 weeks.
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whether it's four weeks or ten weeks, it could effectively blocks a judge in the federal election interference case from scheduling her trial in order to get a verdict from the november election, or in other words, it could ice her. that is worth a person familiar with trump's trial strategy told cnn earlier this week. nbc news has not independently verified that reporting, but earlier this week that same person told cnn that as far as scheduling the mar-a-lago classified documents trial, the thing trump is really thinking about is blocking the d.c. federal election case. the idea is to make it impossible for the judge in that case, titania top, and to jam a trial down before the election by using things that are out of control. trump's team believes the mar-a- lago case, if it is moved to july, could box out judge chutkan from putting the federal election subversion case on schedule. sure looks like that's trump's
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strategy here. makes sense to me. the end of the day, this is his classic delay strategy, with a few more bells and whistles, admittedly. instead, what actually confused me today, special counsel jack smith's strategy. smith's team acts for the mar-a- lago classified documents case to start on july 8th. i don't know about you, but that also feels uncomfortably close to the very small window in which the special counsel's federal election interference case could start and finish before the november election. so what is the special counsel thinking here? is there any order of operations? are there any special legal avenues to expedite any of this? something that would allow both of these cases to go to trial before november? well, i have the perfect person to ask. joining me now, andrew weissmann, msnbc legal analyst, former fbi general counsel. andrew, thank you for being here. literally, several times this evening we said we just have to ask weisman.
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so first, let's start with the special counsel. my heart sort of cenk when i saw that they were requesting a july 8th trial date for mar-a- lago, because that seems to foreclose the summer. do you read that? way >> i feel like we need to have a chessboard right here. >> how about checkers? that's more my speed these days. >> i read it as jack smith reading the tea leaves with respect to the supreme court, where they did with just yesterday. we're kind of in warp speed, and he kind of anticipated reaction, dog, years everything moving so quickly. i think he realized that the odds of he is getting a trial date in the d.c. case before september it would take the stairs in the moon and everything to go right for the case to be starting in
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september. there is a chance it's much longer than that, like i said, it's a never. and so i think this was a reality of, you know what, let's try and grab a bird in the hand. so i think that was his thinking. if you want i can turn to donald trump's. >> before we do that, i think there are a lot of people, after the news yesterday, that are thinking but can something be done here? but to have what feels almost like an admission on the part of the special counsel that is probably not going to happen, and even if it does happen, let's say it's -- if they think it's going to take three months, it's not gonna conclude before the election. >> i do think that he has an ability to slip it down. this is the slim to win, which is standard procedure, you want to do that as a prosecutor. just put on many. we saw that by the way in the
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trump organization trial. they really kept it tight. that's why i was really impressed. like this was a good team. what they need, in and out. got a conviction. so i can see jack smith trying to do that. but just remember, he's got to be thinking, it's the start date that i'm concerned about. and i don't do math in public. >> neither do i. try not. do >> i try to add 88 to the various permutations, it's just not looking good. and that's all assuming that supreme court doesn't do things to even delay the case further. and there are various outcomes that could. so i think -- >> i'm operating on a best case in area here. >> when you put your mind, when you put your head in sort of jack smith's thinking, he's got to now assess odds. not best-case scenario. so he's thinking, you know what? i have a very strong case in the classified documents case. he's got to be thinking, this
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has jury a peel. it's not just the retention of classified documents. it's two forms of obstruction. by all accounts it looks like an incredibly strong case. we still have not heard any defense from the former president the passes the straight face test. obviously we will see him after the trial. so let's see if we can get that. it's still an uphill battle because he's before judge cannon. and there are many ways that that case can be delayed. but this was an issue of his request. >> right. >> so in terms of what he's asking for, this seems eminently doable. the case has been pending for a long time. the classified documents issue is the only issue that would cause this to slow down. that is largely been resolved. and i think he is right to -- look >> let's talk a bit about trump's strategy. your reporting is trump, it almost sounds like he thinks he
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has a willing audience in judge cannon. >> he does. almost. i'm giving you my opinion. >> yes, i understand that. the quest from trump's team sort of begins with all the reasons why judge cannon shouldn't really even schedule this before november but only if she has to, how about mid august? they give her a lot of runway to say, you could see the presidential immunity claim that we've launched in the mar- a-lago case, why don't you wait until the supreme court figures that all out? and not do anything until then? >> right. i do think, it's important to note he started by saying i still don't want the trial in 2024. but she had ordered that they give a trial date. so he actually gave a trial date. but it is the backup position. this is his ace in the hole. it's not so much the i don't want it in 2024 or okay my

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