that is the last word, the 11th hour with stephanie starts now. tonight, michael cohen's cross-examination. trump's defense team is trying to paint him as motivated by revenge and money. what the former presidents entourage said outside the courtroom. president biden announces new tariffs. january 6 takes center stage in the primaries.

a officer that protected the building and a convicted rioter are both on the ballot. the 11th hour gets underway tonight. good evening once again, we are live from dc and we are now 175 days away from the election. today trumps criminal trial in new york, defense attorneys got their chance to go after michael cohen. the defense taught portray him as obsessed with a desire for revenge against trump himself. here is my colleague with more. tonight trump's defense team tearing into the star witness. trumps self-described fixer turned critic is out for revenge on his former boss. do you want trump to get convicted in this case the

defense attorney asked, sure cohen acknowledged. confirming he recently said the former president belongs in a cage like a animal. the defense trying to paint him as motivated to lie. that now his financial livelihood including media appearances and podcasts centers on trashing trump. cohen acknowledging he has made more than 300 million on his book disloyal to and he has been going on tick-tock six days a week to slam his former boss, saying of his past praise of trump, saying at that time i was knee-deep in the cult of donald trump. he described himself as obsessed with trump, insinuating he was jilted once pushed outside of his orbit. the case relied on jurors believing cohen's word since he was the only witness that knew the president knew his internal records were falsified to cover up his payment to the adult film actress. mister trump has pled not guilty

to those low-level charges. earlier today the prosecution questioning cohen, who told the jury these invoices seeking repayment for services rendered in 2017 were false records and the retainer agreement he references never existed. prosecutors guiding him through check after check with the retainer link which included, all false statements he said because they were not for valid legal fees but reimbursements for the hush money. when describing a meeting with trump at the white house in 2017 he posed for this photo, he said they discussed trump reimbursing him for paying off stormy daniels, a arrangement developed by the trump organization cfo months earlier. i was sitting with trump and he asked if i was okay, he asked if i needed money and i said no all good, he said i can get a check and i said i am all right.

he said all right make sure you deal with alan. alan said he was later frightened when the fbi raided his home in 2018, trump told him do not worry i am the president, state half which he took to mean do not flip but he said he turned against trump after consulting with his family. my wife, daughter and son said to me we are supposed to be your first loyalty. cohen has been disbarred and convicted of lying under oath. the trump attorney asking cohen if he was motivated by same, cohen suggesting that is not fair to say. then quoting this excerpt from his book, i wanted it all, power, the good life, fame. those are my words cohen said. >> the trial will resume thursday morning when the defense is set to continue the

cross-examination. this get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. carol is here, a investigative reporter with the washington post. a former federal prosecutor and analyst brett and a former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. her new book, attack from within, how this information is sabotaging america is out now. what stuck out in the's cross- examination? >> what stuck out to me is that former prosecutors do not make a good defense attorneys. take it from a former prosecutor. i would never pretend i can do a searing cross examination. prosecutors deal with what is. defense attorneys deal with what could have been. they have to be creative and think outside of the box you are trying to tear down the building the prosecutors are figuratively trying to build. todd blanche i do not think did

a effective job but the prosecutors did a great job of fronting all of the weaknesses in michael cohen, the witness he is. they fronted the fact that he is a liar, he is a convict, he did all of these horrible things so when todd blanche said wait a minute you are a liar, the jury is thinking, the prosecutor told us all of this already. i do not think blanche was the most effective cross examiner. >> this is only his second criminal trial as a defense attorney. it is amazing to me that trump would choose somebody, even with a great reputation, he has almost never done this specific thing. >> i do agree with glenn, prosecutors get more practice on direct examinations and defense attorneys do more cross examinations. nonetheless, he was probably

aggressive the way trump wanted him to be. i thought some of it failed to land. he came out of the box with the first question, about a insult he made on tick-tock about blanche himself and that drew a objection and a rebuke from the judge that said this is not about you. i thought that was a awkward way to start and it did not land. as the prosecution already portrayed, michael cohen is not a nice guy. people within the trump family described many of his flaws already. i think it may be that they are going, instead of the targeted laserlike approach, they are going for the wairham down approach, maybe that happens on date 2 but i do not think they got too many licks in on day one. >> michael cohen knows where the bodies are buried, next to

alex, if trump can do this all over again, do you think he would have done more to keep him in the family? >> one of trump's absolute worst mistakes in this setting according to michael cohen was to quibble about repaying and paying cohen's legal fees while he was under investigation. remember his home is raided by the fbi, his wife and children are freaking out, his phone and computer are taken and then he stops hearing from trump and there is bickering about paying his legal fees. a lawyer whose office is right around the corner basically gets silence and that is when michael cohen starts to wonder if he is on the out and he starts to cooperate. >> along the same lines, it is fair to say the civil fraud

trial and this one largely happened because cohen flipped on trump. >> cohen is important, i would say he is a essential witness. all of the other testimony from stormy daniels and keith davis and all of the collaboration by way of checks trump was writing out of the oval office to reimburse for cohen, the falls ledger entries, the emails and text messages, they are great and important but michael cohen is essential because he is the one that gets the direct admissions out of trump's mouth so the jury really has to credit him and i think he has been corroborated in enough ways that they were ready to accept and credit his testimony by the time he hit the stand. >> let's go back to the scene carol set, the last time michael cohen said he spoke to

trump was 2018 after the fbi raided his home and a hotel room and trump called him and said do not worry, i am the president of the u.s., stay tough. that is a staggering quote if true, does it help the prosecution? it is his word against trump's. >> i think so, nobody has to like michael cohen here, whether he is loyal to trump or not, by many accounts he is a despicable person but i think the way the prosecution will use it is you bet he is a despicable person and he is the person trump chose to be his fixer and work as his personal attorney. i think the quote you just gave suggests this was a enticement to michael cohen to be loyal and work with me and if the jury believes that happened it

can suggest when michael cohen became disloyal, the opposite became true which explains the rift between them. one of the things blanche tried to do is say in 2015 is a trump was great. yes that is when i was working with him and i do not think that anymore because he abandoned me. so i decided to confess to my own crimes and cooperate and now i do not believe he is a great guy anymore. >> do you think this can blow up in the prosecution's face? todd blanche is painting cohen as a thug and a liar and beyond a trump loyalist. carol and i both covered trump back in the day and i can tell you firsthand michael cohen was impossible to deal with. he was a human gangster shield for trump and he loved the gangster persona. he was desperate to be

important, he has since turned but what if the jury only believes the first half? >> you ask if they can blow up in the prosecution's face, first of all there is no such thing as a sure guilty verdict, take it from somebody that had plenty of not guilty's in his career. here is the thing we are all overlooking and over analyzing, the fact that who benefited from all of these crimes. donald trump. >> certainly not michael cohen. >> i told every jury, the defense is asking you to check your common sense at the door, you bring it into the jury box and importantly you bring into the deliberation room. i think the jurors are real people assessing, trump got all of the benefit here and everybody else suffered the consequences. we think he is part of this criminal conduct and i think

common sense will help take the day. >> the you need to believe michael cohen is a great guy and a truthful person to look at all of those checks written for a phony retainer agreement that clearly michael cohen did not have, that is the monstrously false and who was signing the checks? starting in 2017 it was trump. a man regardless of what his moral value is, or how annoying he is or how bullying he was to you and me on the phone from time to time and other reporters, he confessed to crimes and went to prison for a series of events that involved this, this transfer of funds

from trump and there is no way there is not a crime being committed on the other side of the ledger. >> trump had another entourage of high profile defenders at the trial today, it was extraordinary, the first few days, nobody. not a family member, friend or spouse, now the gop all-stars, today the speaker of the house had nothing better to do and went and sat in the courtroom with trump, one of the primary opponents was there, is this a strategy to get closer to trump or is this part of a strategy to get around the gag order on trump? he cannot go after the judge wore jurors or the judges family but maybe they can? >> in fact the senator made a comment that was similar, he said he was going because he wanted to stand against the gag order.

what does that mean? does it mean they are there to violate the gag order? they are taking their orders from trump? he is not allowed to say things and in fact he has been ordered to not direct others to say things but as cohen testified, we know what he wants us to say and do, he wants us to defend him so it could be that they are there either because they see it in their own political best interest to do it, they want to help trump, intimidate cohen, i do not know but today they were in unison saying identical things about the trial. it is hard to imagine this is some grand coincidence they showed up on the same day and said the same things. >> they did not just show up on the same day and said the same thing, they were all wearing the exact same outfits. we have that soundbite from the senator. >> hopefully we have more

senators in congress going up everyday to represent him and overcome the gag order. we went to speak rp's for trump. >> at one point does this start to bump up against the line? >> trump is prohibited from threatening witnesses or jurists were directing somebody else to do it. do we really think we will have evidence that mike johnson will say he directed me to do it? what a difference 50 years makes. in 1974 the congressional republican leadership marched to the white house and told the republican president resign or be impeached by your own party. 50 years later some of the leadership marched to a new york courthouse and stood outside,

this is mike johnson announcing we are now all in, we are the pro-crime party. >> liz cheney called out speaker johnson to show up and support trump, she said she is surprised he wants to be in the i cheated on my wife with a star club. meanwhile johnson says he is working to rein in what jack smith is doing. do you think democrats that saved johnson's job is starting to have second thoughts? >> i am sure there were always worried if that was a good idea. what is johnson standing for? i am not picking a side with liz cheney or donald trump but what is johnson standing for thereby going outside a courthouse in saying this is a sham, i question whether or not these are real jurors, i question whether or not this is a appropriate way to pursue the case. i think this is all a scam, i

am paraphrasing of course. he almost verbatim repeated the claims trump was sanctioned for about the judges daughter, claiming she is a weaponized democrat making money -- >> none of which is true. >> interestingly to choose those words and attacking a judges daughter, i sure hope nothing happens to any of the judges family members. >> you sound like we are talking about a mob trial. we need to take a moment and realize how crazy that is. >> remember we lived this already. the fbi field office in cincinnati if i am remembering it right was attacked the day after trump said the raid on his home was the fbi inappropriately targeting him.

the incredible liberal polls at the fbi were coming for him because he was a republican candidate. so it is not like these actions and statements and rhetoric does not have consequences. >> we lived there but we still cannot normalize it. thank you all so much. when we return, biden's new tariffs on chinese goods including electric cars. how it is intensifying the trade fight with trump. later, it is primary night in three different states, january 6 is on the ballot. the 11th hour is just getting underway on a tuesday night in washington dc. washington dc.

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>> today biden announced new tariffs on chinese imports. the administration is targeting electric vehicles, solar cells, steel and aluminum. the president also hit back on the former guy on his handling of china. >> trump says today china is eating our lunch. >> he was feeding them a long time. >> let's break it down with teddy, a reporter a pup news. he writes about silicon valley and the impact the tech giants are having on our world. and hans nichols. is this a smart ring in terms of timing for the white house to get ahead of trump and republicans criticism on biden in china. >> they have been telegraphing this for a while, there is a debate on whether or not you want to him lift trumps tariff or embrace them and they

workshops the idea to get the entire government on the same page. >> janet has spent a ton of time on this. >> two years ago the argument was to reduce the terrorist because they are inflationary. now if you ask them if they are potentially inflationary, they say it is such a small section of the economy, they got to a place they wanted to be and rolled it out. they talked about the 18 billion on electric vehicles and solar panels, all of the protectionist policies biden wants to run on. a day later they say by the way we are keeping trumps tariff's so it is a two-step dance. they say they are making trumps tariff's tougher. whatever phrase you want to use. now we all accept tariffs or a tool of the u.s. government

policy by partisan consensus. >> how will the tariffs impact? >> there are tons of people including elon musk that feel that the government has not been pro-tesla enough or eb enough. musk would feel slighted that biden would not even mention his name for a long time. now, you cannot ignore the politics, the fact that there is a election happening where trump has designed himself as more american companies and pro- elon musk. now you have biden who will outflank him on the political side of tariffs. trump can always go further to the right on china. trump is always willing to escalate on china. biden broke the story, the ev

tariffs will go to 100%. trump says i will go to hundred percent. biden talks about tripling the tariffs on steel and aluminum, trump wants to do 60% across the board. it does seem he is trying to protect himself from the attack. immunize if you want to use that terminology but trump can always escalate. especially with china. you look at some of the core emotional issues that trump is able to put his finger on. i could be wrong. >> let's talk about elon musk, biden has not gone out of his way to extend a olive branch to elon musk, he did not invite him to the white house when they did the electric vehicle summit. in terms of policies, and biden has done a time for electric vehicles. look at all of the charging stations are being built, yet

elon musk is no friend of biden , he is an trump camp but when you look at that universe they think ev's are for wimps. >> elon musk is not thinking about electric vehicles when he thinks about joe biden. that may have been true before but i think the forces around elon musk are not any different than the forces around your average mag a voter. >> or ceos. >> elon according to people i talked about in his circle, he is incensed about the border. it is not driven about his personal experience there, this is a creature of the internet, this is a person influenced by the 200 people he follows on twitter who sent him memes and are part of his personal network and i would not

understate the amount of energy he will spend on politics, whether that is in front of the camera or behind it. reportedly he is spending a lot of time egging on other tech leaders to get involved in politics and vice versa. there are major leaders across silicon valley that want to see elon musk and his fortune ain't like a bazooka at joe biden. that is one of the big questions i am thinking about, how prepared is elon musk to act on his impulses which at this point our right wing. >> the biden white house right now is working to sway more and more ceos. >> a little of that is just protective by the administration, they do not want ceos coming out later and saying why have you not invited us to the white house? >> that is what every president does. when trump was in the office

how many ceo summits? >> ceos like having their calls returned, they like coming to the white house, they like telling people the president called me today. >> i was talking to joe earlier, a trick people do in washington, referring to senators by their first name. it is something they like to do and they like to show they have stroke and that is fine. the broader issue with ceos is the white house needs them to stay confident about the economy, to keep spending and keep investing. you look at the amount of money they put into chips, ira, a lot of money in the economy but they want to be matched with private dollars to get a multiplier effect. we can talk about polls in may, the one thing they are looking at in the white house, what is

the fed and the economy going to do? that is the big potential change in the election in the next five months. >> before we go, melinda gates is stepping down, why? >> a lot of it has to do with her assessing the political impact she can have over the last six months. melinda and bill gates were short of royalty for a long time, they have power i can to foreign governments. for a long time they would not do politics, a decades long policy. linda has according to people i talked to, has been influenced by her kids and she is believing she has one life and one warchest and the election is in six months and she can be a huge player. >> reproductive rights are a huge issue. >> she also support some women that are republicans that are not exactly pro-abortion. she believes this is a once in

a lifetime threat to american women and democracy and i think she can be a huge force in the 2024 election. >> who spends more on the campaign? elon musk war melinda gates? >> undisclosed, elon musk, disclosed, melinda. >> that is the best answer ever. it is also completely accurate. >> thank you both for being here. if i do not see you, have a great weekend. when we come back, polls are closed in west virginia. we are getting tonight's primary results and what it could mean for november. when the 11th hour continues.

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the primary elections are underway in several states in january 6 is taking center stage. in west virginia, convicted rioter derek evans lost his race against the gop incumbent carol miller. in maryland, the former capital release police officer harry dunn who defended the capital lost his congressional bid to the youngest state senator. i want to bring in our correspondent, you know him, he has covered the president for over a decade and david joins us, a political reporter, back in new york is wanita, host of

the podcast. what are your thoughts on the races tonight? >> a couple of surprises here but looking to west virginia specifically, it is a barometer for how mag a is too extreme for voters. we have derek evans running who campaigned as a prisoner after confessing to live streaming his entering the capital building on january 6. it shows voters were not down for that and it is important to point out carol miller also voted with trump a large percentage of the time including against certifying the election results so it does not show she is on the same path as far as questioning election results but the degree of her actions and that stood out to voters. i think there is a place in politics for harry dunn, he is

a demonstrated public servant and leader. i do think his race was extremely crowded in maryland, he did show he is a prolific fundraiser even though that was neutralized. what sarah had going for her was the proximity to the community. she was representing voters since 2015 and the name recognition shown through. >> we did not talk maryland, angela defeating david. >> david spent his own money, 62 million of it. you can detect some fatigue from democratic voters who had seen a lot of him and who were not convinced that he was as inspiring. the state has never elected a black senator period. in harry's rate, it was not

unanimous but he did raise a lot of money and did not have deep ties to the district despite his story. people were not impressed, maryland voters, this is a close primary, very educated voters in montgomery county, there were not impressed by the candidates that spent the most time introducing themselves again and again. >> let's talk about the closed primary, yet 20% of the gop primary voters did not vote for trump, they voted for nikki haley who dropped out two months ago. >> 10 weeks since nikki haley dropped out of the republican primary and she is still getting 1/5 of the vote in nebraska and maryland, -- >> you cannot say it is democrats who slid over. to make this is something the biden team is watching closely,

maybe not a blue state like maryland. a solidly mag a state where nikki haley got 10%, they are watching closely the nikki haley boat that came up in pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan, the critical battleground states this fall, they have gone out in paid media to court the nikki haley voters to bring them over to biden. trump has done nothing to try to get these voters. those voters could be that difference in a close election. >> what is your take on that wanita? >> i am fine with the biden campaign trying to go after the nikki haley voters, considering how much of a margin she has, 70 days and still pulling 25% of the voters across the country. i think that is perfectly fine

but i have to add a clause to that, as long as it is not at the expense of reassuring democratic voters and ensuring his base. biden cannot take anything granted, while he is creating a on-ramp for disinfected republicans that cannot stomach trump, he needs to make sure he is investing heavily with that big cash advantage over trump, in making sure that democrats are with him, i am talking about the voter contacts on the ground in person, digitally, on television, every way because he needs to make sure he shores up his base as he expands. >> that takes me to my next question, there is a new poll from the new york times that suggests that rfk are drawing from voters that usually back democrats, why is it happening? >> it is biden's unpopularity. specifically with younger voters were male african-american voters were latino voters,

their frustration with the economy and there is a sense that kennedy is a change and he is speaking to things they care about. the biden campaign is spending a lot of time talking about the economic agenda in the record, it has been a played a little bit on social media by kennedy who is reaching out through nontraditional media sources but podcasts have been around for a while, his answers are not always consistent but they are no and he is not trump or biden so he appeals to disaffected younger male voters specifically. >> the biden campaign, you can see their priorities and that is solidifying the democratic base, you will see the president spend a lot of time speaking to black voters specifically. he will sit down with the divine nine universities, they have a new ad talking about the

economy to black voters but there is a point in the race where they do pivot to a broader general election audience. the other thing to look for and we talked about january 6 in the vote tonight, june is a big month for the democracy and freedom pillar of the biden campaign message. he will travel overseas and you will talk about the strength of our alliances. we are looking at the supreme court with major rulings on abortion rights. you will see the biden campaign hitting that message hard. >> i feel like i can guess your answer here wanita, if you are the biden campaign, how do you address this? where do you put your efforts? is it in the younger voters leaning towards rfk or do you go for the nikki haley voters? >> i would prioritize shoring up the base before everything else. i think the biden campaign may be looking at this race similar to 2020.

it was a come from behind race, it was a choice election and the threat of trump being in office was enough to motivate voters but i think biden is also working against a couple of factors happening now, whether it is gaza and voters reacting negatively to his policies, i understand the administration approved another batch of resources for israel despite of what they said a few days ago about pausing. as well as other issues around the economy. so i think he has a lot to keep his eyes on but we also know he has advantages, a cash advantage, he is not in a courtroom four days a week, he has freedom of movement, so again he has to do both. it is not either/or. shore up the base and then expand and pick up the disaffected republican voters

that cannot stomach trump. >> thank you all for being here. when we come back a story you may have heard about, people are talking about it, how a single social media post sent some stocks of companies that made no sense sky rocketing to the moon today again. you know what we are talking about, mean stocks when the 11th hour continues, they are back. back.

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it is time for the the jt tracker. the trump media stock finished up more than 3% closing at $53 per share for no reason. it appears to be the greatest legal strategy to curry a favor with someone who could potentially be president. we will keep a close eye on trump media stock so that you know what is going on. apparently mean stocks are happening again, shares of amc and gamestop are rallying thanks to a single post on social media. you have to hear this story. >> reporter: this photo on social media posted by a guy called roaring kitty after three years of silence did this on wall street. >> gamestop is soaring over 57% this morning. >> reporter: this afternoon,

amc and blackberry joining game stock in a eye watering surge. >> there is no reason for the stocks to move 70%. >> absolutely, there was no reason for them to be worth what they were last week. >> reporter: an echo of 2021 when unloved stocks soared 1000% following a cultlike social media following of this guy. that is keith gill, a.k.a. roaring kitty featured in the movie dumb money which told the story about young amateurs sticking it to wall street pros. >> how much did we lose today? >> reporter: it was not just a get rich quick scheme, they also championed the revolt against wall street but experts say the real way to beat wall street is to get rich slowly. >> what wall street actually hates is people buying and

holding index funds and being passive and doing the financially smart things that work over decades. >> for most investors, boring is better, keep management fees to a minimum and check your retirement accounts twice a year. nbc news. >> boring is better but not for the mean stock boys. gamestop is now currently worth more than walgreens. gamestop sales are just 5% of walgreens. this makes no sense. when we come back, history on the hardwood, katelyn clark making her probe debut tonight as the new wnba season tips off. when the 11th hour continues.

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something i wrote on a piece of paper in second grade. good a basketball scholarship, this is something i wanted to do. >> you could guess the last thing before we go is katelyn clark's next chapter. weeks after leaving her college career behind, clark made her debut tonight with the fever, they lost on the road against the connecticut sons. scored 20 in 10 turnovers but the trend continues, where clark goes, excitement and dollars follow. according to stop hub, wnba sales are up 93% since last season. we have more on the hype leading up to the game and the effect clark is having on the league. >> a scale of 1-10, how excited are you to see her play? >> 10. >> among the players, while the star herself is as cool as ever

-- >> what is it like to be at this sold-out crowd tonight? >> her preseason games drew huge crowds. since joining the fever, ticket prices have skyrocketed. clark's 22 jersey is one of the top selling jerseys in any sport. it comes as the wnba announces the addition of a new team, the golden state valkyries and teams have started flying private trotters two games. clark's record-breaking time in the ncaa have fans sticking around to see what she can do in the pros hoping for more logo threes. >> what is it? the logo is in the middle of the court, she shoots from here and makes it all the time. >> clark went first in the

draft last month. >> the indiana fever select katelyn clark. >> tonight her pro career officially begins, bringing in new fans and transforming the league. nbc news. >> clark and her teammates will be in new york city taking on the liberty, if you want to go get tickets soon. i wish you a very good night. you do not want to miss tomorrow night's show, senator mitt romney will join me for a exclusive interview, he is reflecting on his final year in congress and offering his view on how conservatives should approach the 2024 election and beyond. thank you for staying up late with me. i will see you at the end of tomorrow. tomorrow. major testimony. this is the second day of convicted former