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mary trump gets tonight's last word. tonight opening statements in donald trump's first criminal trial. what happened today in court and why prosecutors say he orchestrated a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election plus what is next for speaker johnson, now that the house has passed aid for ukraine. then we are days away from supreme court arguments on trump's immunity claim. retired military leaders are warning, this case is about national security. three of them are here at the 11th hour gets underway on this one-day night. here we go. good evening once again. we are now 197 days away from the election. but we are not talking about the election today, opening statements got underway in donald trump's first criminal trial. the former president was forced

to sit in silence as lawyers from the manhattan district attorney's office alleged he and his allies were part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. the goal, to bury negative stories about trump so voters would never see them. trump's lawyers told the jury he had no involvement in any coverups and there was nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. laura jarrett was in court and has the details. >> tonight, prosecutors painting a stark portrait of former president trump in their opening statements during his hush money trial. a case mr. trump has argued, is designed to derail his campaign. >> this is done as election interference, everybody knows it. >> the prosecutor said it's mr. trump who was guilty of election interference by paying off an adult film star to silence her before the 2016 election, telling the jury, this is about a criminal

conspiracy to bury a story. it could've cost of the presidency. and then lying in his business records over and over again, to cover it all up. the alleged scheme stretches back to 2015, a meeting at trump tower between mr. trump, his former fixer and attorney michael cohen and david packer, the longtime publisher of the national enquirer. this is where prosecutor say the trio hatched a plot to buy and bury any damning stories about mr. trump, a tactic known as catch and kill. it was the release of the access hollywood tape that turned the campaign upside down in october of 2016, lead prosecutor angelo reading mr. trump's most incendiary remarks for the jury today. arguing the former president was so desperate to contain the damage with female voters he directed cohen to pay off stormy daniels so she can go

public about an alleged sexual encounter which mr. trump denies. but it's not the hush money itself that he is charged with in this trial, it's how then president trump documented his monthly reimbursement payments to cohen on internal records as legal expenses, prosecutors telling the jury today, it was election fraud, pure and simple. but mr. trump is not facing conspiracy or campaign-finance violations, something the defense sought to highlight today saying the payments to cohen were for legal expenses arguing there's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election, it's called democracy, not a crime. >> former national enquirer publisher and longtime friend of donald trump, david packer was the first witness called by the prosecution and testified briefly about what he called using checkbook journalism to pay for stories. he's expected to continue his testimony tomorrow.

donald trump has pleaded not guilty and denies having any relationship with stormy daniels. we need some help here. let's get smarter with the help of our lead off panel, what stuck out to you? >> how badly the day went for trump. i think his lawyer struggled in the opening statements, and it was really notable because the state put on a convincing opening statement and i think you know, in particular, what todd blanche ran into, he couldn't say what his client wanted him to say, the defense didn't charge this case and so, he was left having to say

things like, you know, this is president trump, you should all refer to him as president trump, there was stuff about how -- >> who cares. this the criminal trial and the argument you making is how you refer to, what you call them, that was his big moment? >> he led off with that. i think everyone in the courthouse kind of looked around and thought, is he really going with this argument, he eventually segued into saying, trump was ignorant and all of this and he couldn't be held accountable because this was all michael collins doing and he never signed off on the check. one argument that todd blanche didn't make which i've heard that new york team discussed in previous days was the idea about how voters weren't apprised of any information before the 2016 election because they would have been privy to the trump organization's work. it was all and opening statement for an audience of

one, which was trump. >> you've been following every step of this, what was your take away? >> very similar to hugo, i think the trump opening statement fell really flat, there were three arguments that the opening statement made, it wasn't trump's ideas, it was michael cohen's idea to do all of this, and i'm sorry, michael cohen took out a home equity loan of thousands upon thousands of dollars on his own in order to pay off stormy daniels? no lawyer does that, zero, the idea that he would have done it on his own out of the goodness of his own heart or something, thoroughly implausible. second, you put on the screen before, todd blanche, trump's lawyers statement saying there's nothing wrong with influencing an election, it's called democracy, that is illegally bogus department because influencing an election is sometimes legal or illegal, if you vote for someone to vote for you it's illegal, here

trump is accused of trying to hide the gifts essentially to him, and avoid the transparency that the campaign-finance laws require, that's a crime every day of the week third, he says, well, these payments are for purely legal experience experiment -- expenses, and that i think, is going to be a problem we will hear a lot about over the next month, stephanie as the child goes ford because as an attorney, the last thing you want to do is overpromise in your opening statement and tell the jury, the evidence is going to show something that it doesn't actually turn out to show and that's when you blow your credibility our colleague made this point earlier today, who is the witnesses going to testify that these payments were for legitimate legal expenses, it's just unthinkable. i think a poor way to start, which is why trump has always

been scared of not just the other trials but this trial in particular. >> david, what do you think? >> i'm struck by how this trial has given us something that i didn't think we would ever see which was, trump doesn't use female, he doesn't create a paper trail to show you what he's thinking or what he did and he makes decisions in a room with a small number of loyalists, that's why it was always a hard nut to crack to explain trump's motivations in a court of law or a newspaper story, you had to get one of those few people, now they have it, michael cohen, one of the people who's been with trump forever and trump has alienated him, and we will here in a courtroom somebody say, there were three people in the room but i was one of them and with david, we were two of them, so we will have an instance i didn't think we would see, that kind of person turning on trial. >> when the defense as their

witnesses, who is donald trump going to have because this family man, who, supposedly according to donald trump's team was really just protecting his family, none of his family members showed up in court to be with him, it was lawrence o'donnell earlier who said even jeffrey dahmer, his mom and dad, they came to court every day of his trial, so the only people who were ever in trump's inner circle were the likes of michael cohen or david what about his family? are they going to be defense witnesses? >> donald trump >> might have been a little bit involved in this transaction but i don't think they were really privy to this. i don't see them calling those folks that make a case that this was something good. i think what they will rely on the idea that it's a bunch of dots here but we don't know

enough to connect. they don't know enough to say this was trump's attempt. i think you need to prove this case. >> neil, do you think it makes a difference, do you think the jury notices that donald trump is a man standing on. we see other defendants show up with all sorts of family members and support to try and gain sympathy with the jury, will it impact the jury in any way that nobody has shown up for trump as of yet? >> i'm not sure that people in the spectator stands is going to make a difference but i think on a closely related point, which is basically the witnesses against trump, people like david, michael cohen, these are people that trump hired and paid, they are all his confederates and yes his strategy is michael cohen has no credibility, but he is trump's criminal, he's the guy

that trump brought in to start all of this in the first place, and so, i do think that the jury at the end of the day is going to be left with, god, every person that seems to surround donald trump is a criminal or a liar or a scoundrel or all of the above and in a way, that's going to rub off on donald trump, and so, i think that dynamic is definitely going to be at play and remember, there's a lot of charges here, there's 34 different counts. i mean, that's a big indictment, 34 is so huge, the superlong double album of taylor swift only has 31 tracks, it's an amazing record by the way, but that just shows you, there's a lot going on in this criminal trial and today, we started to see the prosecution layout those first three key elements that trump paid off the doorman, he paid off one national enquirer story, and now he's paying off another with stormy daniels. >> let's talk about david, former owner of the national enquirer at a number of other magazines through american media. he has been entangled with

donald trump for decades, right, he is the king of new york tabloids and nobody loves to be splashed across the tabloids or have bad stories about him hidden more than donald trump. the fact that is the first witness for the prosecution , what did he tell the jury today? and has trump said, we know trump goes bad on michael cohen every day and yesterday, what has he said about david, they've been friends and allies for decades. >> david was the false witness, at trial you start with your worst witness and and with your strongest witness. i think it was very telling in the opening statement from the prosecution that they wanted to make this link directly to the election, you know the whole groundwork leading up to david was trump entered into this catch and kill scheme for the

campaign, and it was for him to be the eyes and ears of the campaign from negative stories that could be coming down the pike and this is where it's going, he was being asked about how he operated and orchestrated the catch and kill scheme, over $10,000 that individual editors had to come and ask them if they could spend that kind of money on sources and trying to get stories, and he will narrate the entirety of the relationship between trump and him and the national enquirer that's what makes him such an important witness. >> the prosecution is hoping he will be that narrator? >> absolutely, that's the game of the prosecution, you start with him because he's the guy that's negotiating early, even well before he was president to adopt this catch and kill strategy, and look, everyone

would love to have newspapers and catch and kill situations if you're a candidate or any kind of high official or you know, a corporate ceo or whatever, right and would love to i'm sure, have someone who's going out and buying every story about his son and making it so none of them could be published because that's what he did here. and i think, we are going to see more from he just testified for a nanosecond today because one of the jurors had an emergency dental problem, so it's the next day or two, that we are really going to see that testimony come out. >> former national enquirer executive was on our air earlier and i want to share what he said about david >> he will be the star witness of this case.

and the prosecution will really be relying on him. you know, he can really set the table here, going back to that meeting, at trump tower in 2015, august of 2015, two months after donald trump goes down the escalator, where they have this meeting, it's michael cohen and it's trump and it's david and he said he will be the eyes and ears of the campaign. i will purchase negative stories off the market and we will run negative stories about your rivals. >> david, tell us more about this relationship, i can remember back in 2017, when donald trump's daughter and father, his wife, the two of them were disappointed and furious that the likes of vogue magazine weren't writing glamorous stories about them in the white house, so what did david do, he went out and bought us weekly entered into a lifestyle magazine a platform to showcase the trump family in the white house. talk to us about how these two men know each other and have

been essentially in business for decades. >> this is an ugly side of journalism, i should emphasize that that's not the way that we do journalism, we don't buy stories in order to kill or publish them. but that's the way the national enquirer worked for years, there's been recordings showing that there were instances where they killed negative stories about arnold schwarzenegger back when he was running for governor so they can sell more muscle magazines with his name on them. they did it for tiger woods to get a good interview, they buried a story about him. this was something that had been going on for a long time and that was the world that trump lived in for a long time. you see in the situation, yeah, he says, we are going to formalize this, the thing we've been doing informally all these years, now we will formalize it and i will do it to benefit your campaign because i want the access and the power and the stories that i will get out of that. my publication will benefit if you rise so i'm going to start

finding the stories that hurt you and make sure that no one else sees them. >> trump's lawyers are denying that there was any relationship between donald trump and stephanie clifford, a.k.a. stormy daniels, how did they do that without donald trump taking the stand? >> very, very hard. obviously the prosecution has to prove that to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, so the prosecution bears the burden but as long as they introduce some testimony, that says so, it's going to be hard to rebut that in the minds of the jury. it's true that donald trump has a fifth amendment right of course, not to have to testify, and whatever thought he might have had about testifying, i think it was destroyed this morning because the judge in what is known as the sandoval ruling, told mr. trump that if you do testify, everything is fair game, basically from the new yorker attorney general civil suit against you and all the things you were found

liable for there, the lying that you engaged in, in court when it comes to the gag order, what happened with e. jean carroll, all of that could come out as part of a cross- examination of donald trump, so he's not going to testify. i suspect they will not spend much time on this claim that there was no relationship because you know, there are tapes here, michael cohen, audiotaped donald trump telling him to go pay off stormy daniels. i mean, maybe he just wanted out of the goodness of his heart to give her hundreds of thousands of dollars but i suspect that something else was going on. >> before we go, this gag order hearing tomorrow, what you think is going to come from this? is this judge really going to send donald trump to jail, i mean, we know if it was just a regular old defendant, given

how he's conducted himself, they certainly would but what do you think is going to happen here? >> any regular defendant who did what donald trump is doing now, defying so flagrantly this gag order would be looking at a 30 day jail sentence. gelling trump is hard to judge particularly because the judge has been impaneled in this highly consequential case and i think that's where the prosecutors instead of asking for the 30 days in jail that's allowed under the law have asked really for $1000 fine which is peanuts for you, i don't know given donald trump's line about his finances weather $1000 is a lot or a little but it's obviously not jail time. there is a solution which is, the judge should impose a 30 day jail sentence and suspend the service of that sentence and tell trump, look, i'm adjudicating you, as violating this gag order, i'm sentencing

you to jail but i'm going to watch how you act that if you stay within the lines over the course of this trial, that i'll reconsider my decision at the end. you hold the keys to your freedom, mr. trump. i think that is the best way to make this more like any other regular case and protect the rule of law and protect what trump is doing which is interfering with the jury process and the witnesses. >> thank you offer starting us off on this important night. hugo, david, neil and before we go to break it's time for our dj t tracker, following trump's media company and how they are doing in the public markets, today the stock ended slightly closing at just over 35 bucks a share but here's what's important. the company has been losing money, as early as tomorrow, pay attention to this, donald trump could receive an additional 36 million shares for doing absolutely nothing, for spending absolutely nothing. he could get that amount of shares tomorrow in addition to what he already has and at

today's price, that would be valued at $1.3 billion, so on paper, as early as tomorrow, he could be handed over stock worth $1.3 billion. he cannot sell, but still, that is a wow. a foreign a bill that would send help to ukraine and israel heads to the senate. what's next for speaker johnson, and later, retired military leaders, have a warning for the supreme court. why they say trump's presidential immunity claim is jeopardizing our nations security. the 11th hour, just getting underway on an important monday night. it's a one speed. hahaha. hahaha. and if you have cut rate car insurance, odds are you'll be paying for that yourself.

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business. sign up at shiningthroughcidp.com. it's not a nine-to-five proposition. it's all day and into the night. it's all the things that keep this world turning. the go-tos that keep us going. the places we cheer. and check in. they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. see why comcast business powers more small businesses than anyone else. get started for $49.99 a month plus ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. don't wait- call today. mike johnson has betrayed america, betrayed republican

voters, he's past the biden administration's policies and fully funded them. mike johnson speakership is over. he needs to do the right thing to resign. if he doesn't do so, he will be vacated. >> turn up the volume for this one, tomorrow, the senate will begin taking up the long- awaited package for ukraine but infighting among house republicans, we've only just begun. house speaker johnson errs that the current praise for moderates from pushing ahead on the bill but far right members like marjorie taylor greene, are enraged over his decision to work with democrats and has now vowed to oust him again if he does not resign. stewart, i want to start with the wall street journal and the headline they wrote, quote, mr. johnson's behavior is called

leadership, and the gop would be more popular and better able to govern if more of its members showed such metal themselves or have more respect for those who demonstrate it. i'm going to take a wild guess here, you are down with that? >> i agree with that. two things can be true, mike johnson deserves credit, a lot of credit for really making a historic decision that was the first time in a long time that you saw members of a european senders, saying god bless america, but it's important not to over ., it's a dumbing down here, of what it means to be a speaker of the house. what he did, he didn't vote the way that putin wanted him to vote. and i think that's a pretty low bar for leadership. and we still have this reality that the majority of republicans voted, and i think

that shows how the party has collapsed, thank god this thing past, it should have passed months ago. a lot of lives would have been saved, a lot of innocent women and children and soldiers would be alive today but could have failed and it did in and give some credit for that. >> wanita, what do you think? >> i give mike johnson know credit. they should have passed six months ago. and i appreciate that president zelenski mentioned on meet the press that this is a that is meant to help protect and fight for premium -- freedom which helps globally not just ukraine, so i think this is long overdue. i also think it's explicitly motivated by johnson's

intention to cover himself with protection from democrats. i said weeks ago that democrats should not offer to save republicans from themselves or save mike johnson from himself, unless they get something in exchange and i think the foreign aid package as well as the sequencing on how it was voted is the first step in the process i think minority leader jeffries fully understands how to operate with this minority and hold that over mike johnson's head. >> here's what i want to know, stuart, mike johnson telling far right extremists know, does that mean it's the beginning of the end for him, or the beginning of the end for them? >> you know, i had a going out of business sale for any optimist him with the republican party. i suspect two months from now johnson will be speaker of the house. you have to realize, and look back, they were basically down to putting an ad in craigslist to find the speaker and to go

through that again, would be so painful for this party and the members of the party who were trying to focus on the reelection now that i don't think they will do it. marjorie taylor greene somebody who, nobody likes, and people think she's just this odd, angry person, she's not someone that people are drawn to, so i think he will still be speaker and i think he will stay. >> juanita, i want to go back to the last thing you said because some democrats have signaled that they are willing to save johnson if this was for but others are telling axios that they won't let him off so easily. what you think will happen? >> i think there could be an opportunity for democrats to get additional long-overdue legislation to formally get votes on the house floor as we know, this motion to vacate is dangling, of course i agree with stuart that marjorie taylor greene is huffing and puffing with no real action, no timeline, no clear next steps

or support based on the fractures that are visible within the republican party, but, i do know that hakeem jeffries knows how to negotiate even with the staging of how these boats rolled out over the weekend, with democrats hanging back while republicans looked chaotic well 112 republicans voted the way putin wanted them to. so i think that's something that democrats are going to continue to leverage, they're not going to come to the immediate aid of republicans and johnson but they will negotiate for other legislation and then when the boat comes, they will show up before the clock runs out. >> thank you both for being here tonight. i appreciate it. when we return, more than one dozen men and women who have led our nation's military are weighing in on one of donald trump's legal issues. why they say his presidential immunity argument could be a threat to our national security. that and more when the 11th hour continues. hour continues

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lighting every soccer match at shell energy stadium. we're moving forward with the houston dash. because we're moving forward with everybody. shell. powering progress. as trump's new york trial gets underway, his federal election interference trial has been stuck in neutral waiting for the supreme court to decide if trump is immune from prosecution. arguments in that case are set for thursday, and 19 retired military leaders, military leaders meaning nonpartisan, they are warning the court that this is not just about criminality, it's about national security. three of them join us tonight,

generally james served as a secretary of the air force from 2013 to 2017, rain neighbors, served as secretary of the navy from 2009 to 2017 and lewis called era, served as secretary from the army from 1998 to 2001. thank you all for being here. this is really important stuff. people need to understand. secretary james, in your filing, you say that donald trump's argument that president should have total immunity threatens to jeopardize our nations security, can you explain to our audience why? >> absolutely, stephanie, we wrote this amicus brief, my colleagues and i because we didn't want the supreme court to overlook in this very broad situation that there are important national security implications. it could be very detrimental to our national security because number 1, first of all, there are three principles that is

predicated upon. first of all, civilian control of the military, second principle, is the fact that the military is apolitical and will follow lawful orders from any president of any political party. they are above politics and number 3, they are obligated to disobey an unlawful order, and on the full order -- unlawful order might be something like attack civilians, that was the situation in vietnam. if they failed to disobey such an unlawful order, they can be held liable for prosecution and can you imagine a situation where the president is immune from prosecution but the soldiers who carry out the orders are? it just makes no sense at all. >> that's what i want to get into next. i want to lay it out slowly secretary mavis, when you look at the military, the brief points out that trump's theory would undermine the presidents moral authority as commander-in- chief because he would have to

obey the law while the military he commands would have to do so. walk us through that? how devastating would that be? >> it would be incredibly devastating. so, you've got a group of protesters outside the white house, peaceful protesters, and the president didn't like it, and ordered his military commanders to take them out. then you put the military and an incredibly impossible position because either they have to follow an unlawful order and risk being prosecuted themselves, or, they have to publicly disobey that order. and taking it one step further, what happens down the chain of command? what do the unit commanders, what do the kernels of the lieutenants, what do the sergeants, and the privates, what do they do if you have a commander-in-chief on one hand telling them to do something, they've got the top military leadership, the chairman of the joint chiefs telling them not to. what you would have, is you would have chaos, and you would

destroy the u.s. military as a fighting force and you would also destroy the u.s. military as a defender of democracy and probably as a side effect, destroy democracy. >> secretary, one theme of this document is this massive warning against authoritarianism. a lot of americans out there dismissed the concern of authoritarianism at home, they think we are alarmist when we bring it up, it'll never happen here. what would you say to them? >> well, it is important, our tradition of our constitution is that no one is above the rule of law. and if the supreme court were to find that the president can violate criminal laws then they would essentially be saying that the president is above the

laws that are passed by congress, that he can do whatever he wants, that is criminally, it can't be charged, that is to get them the kind of power that starts a decline toward authoritarianism, here at home, and it certainly sends the wrong message to countries around the world, where we are seeing populace, take control of democratic countries and then change the rules to try and entrench themselves, as authoritarians. we didn't want a king, we wanted the military to be subordinate to civilian control starting with the president the really responding to the will of the people through its elected officials. we didn't want a president who can use the military for his own personal purposes. there's an argument that's been made by some that the president needs to be able to take bold action and not be afraid of prosecution and we think that argument does not make any sense in this context because first of all, the decisions that former president trump is

being charged with, have nothing to do with wartime decisions, have nothing to do with protecting the national interest, that is not the case that is in front of the court and it would be a mistake for the court to start to carve out exceptions for national security in this kind of case. it's also unnecessary because usually the president has the advice of lawyers, from the white house, from the department of defense, department of defense, department of justice that even in what you might call gray area decisions, and there have been many in the course of our history, where there are people who have good belief that the president is acting within his authority to protect the nation and within the bounds of the law, and that is sufficient protection from anyone ever coming after a president and saying that he intentionally violated the laws, so there's absolutely no need to create a carveout and it's one thing we know about former president

trump and any future authoritarian, who might become president or would be authoritarian is that they will take an exception like the national interest, and they will drive a truck through what should be a very limited exception and claim that everything they do is in the national interest. that's what vladimir putin does, that's what kim jong un does and that's what authoritarians do. they are the national -- national interest so anything they want, personal, political, partisan, otherwise is by definition, national interest. we shouldn't want anyone to have the power. conservatives should be concerned about a democratic president who had the authority to violate criminal laws and to misuse the military for political purposes, just as much as democrats should. >> secretary james, today liz cheney wrote an op-ed where she's urging the supreme court

to decide this matter quickly so that the federal election interference case could go to trial and americans can see the evidence for themselves before the election, do you agree with her? >> i absolutely do. i have nothing but the greatest respect for liz cheney. she stuck her neck out big time while she was ultimately paying the political price for doing so but to the extent that the supreme court can make a decision, do it decisively so that it is no longer in question i mean frankly, as an american, i never dreamed such a matter would be in question. as you heard the secretary say earlier, the principle of no one is above the law in the united states is certainly one that i always grew up with, one that i continue to believe in. so for the supreme court to act

quickly and decisively, it's essential. i couldn't agree more with congresswoman cheney. >> thank you all for being here tonight. i appreciate it. our next guest has witnessed the rise of authoritarianism in the philippines firsthand. our keynote conversation with maria russell on the threat to democracy here in the u.s. when the 11th hour continues it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog. made by vets and delivered right to your door precisely portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. ♪♪ an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven

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underway right now in new york city, and in opening statements, prosecutors argue that the hush money payment is election interference, that was connected to the 2016 election. but let's not forget about 2020, where he is facing charges in both bc and georgia for trying to subvert the election. so what does 2024 have in store? our keynote conversation tonight with his with journalists and nobel peace prize winner maria ressa, the ceo of the philippines top digital new site and also the author of how to stand up to a dictator. the fight for our future. i'm so honored to have you back with us tonight because you witnessed the rise of authoritarianism power firsthand in the philippines. how does that compare to what you are seeing bubble up here? >> so, first, it is shocking to

see where things are. i've been a journalist for 38 years, and we have never lived through anything that we are living through today. it happens quickly, right, and it is, death by 1000 cuts, there are small little things that you let go of, and if you don't hold the line, you lose those rights. i still have to ask for permission from our supreme court to be able to travel here, right, so in the philippines, what we saw was shortly after the election, within six months our institutions collapsed and he became the most powerful leader we ever had. >> you know what firsthand to face a weaponized justice system. you were acquitted of the charges you face but are you worried that we could see that happen here? >> i think you are feeling it already, the signs are there. i had 14 investigations, i still have to criminal charges. and we had, in 2019 i kept getting arrested, i had 11 arrest warrant starting in 2019

and i just kept posting bail i thought it was going to have to workflow this to keep working as a journalist. the good news though, is we went from the of duarte, but now we are in purgatory. it takes a lot to come out of it. i worry about america, in 2016 when this was happening to us in the philippines, i said this is coming for you, and it did, and it still goes right back to what big tech is doing, this technology that connects each of us, that is literally inciting fear, anger and hate and rewarding the types of behavior that you see from leaders like to tear today, or bond, president trump. >> this death by 1000 cuts, because they are tiny cuts you've got all sorts of people

who are dismissing the idea of authoritarianism who say you are alarmist, you are crazy, how do you get people to take things seriously, when it's happening in tiny increments, that for many, are dismissible. >> madeleine albright called it slicing the salami, diving into fascism so you pull up and you realize, you know the first time i got arrested, in 2019, i never thought it would happen. and then it happened over and over and you realize, we are in a completely new place. the violence that we are seeing globally is fueled by the ai of social media, first contact of humanity and now, for the 2024 elections in the united states, it'll get worse. you have generative ai and none of the problems with social media have truly been addressed in fact, it's going to get worse. >> so this goes, on the show, we always say the truth matters but only if you see it.

how do we address whether it's the social media platforms or others, this, this monsoon of misinformation that is pouring into people's homes, and on their smart phones, day in and day out, with such speed and volume, people are believing it. >> first understand it is a design, understand that when you pick up your phone, it's not an accident, it isn't misinformation and disinformation, this is meant to keep you scrolling and last made the surgeon general actually said that there's an epidemic of loneliness, that teenagers in particular, gen z, greater incidence of sleeplessness, suicides, and when you look again, push it forward to generative ai that was rolled out in november 2022, you can already see the impact. if the first instance you had fear, anger and hate weaponized, now it's our biology, it's loneliness that could get weaponized by this. having said that, what do we do? well, first, understand that

governments, democratic governments have also advocated responsibility for perspective us. i said to submit nobel lecture, reform or revoke it because we must stop the impunity. the second thing is to look around the world and see what has succeeded, poland is one of the bright lights. it was interesting because we expected the government to take the win but right before elections it passed an abortion law, that brought the youth and the women to the polls. so, i mean, aside from that, you are seeing a lot of countries going back to the future. you've had, the world is in a

strange place, 2024 will determine whether or not democracy survives . >> thank you so much for being here, it's a privilege to speak with you. on that note, i wish you all at home a very good and safe night. for all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. i'll see you at the end up of tomor. w our biggest challenge? uncertainty. hidden fees, surcharges... who knows what to expect! turn shipping to your advantage. keep it simple...with clear, upfront pricing.

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