>> it seems like the only thing we are accomplishing is making sure trump is well rested before the election. >> cohen laid out tons of evidence. it is very impressive. i wonder if trump's lawyers might win a case. >> trump ordered him to pay daniels $130,000, telling him to just do it. in response, nike has changed their slogan to sneakers. >> michael cohen was questioned about his use of tiktok and other people are also using the platform watching the trial. >> michael cohen, donald trump's former attorney testified under oath. >> today was the straight up funniest day in court. >> this is where todd blanche is getting to cohen a little bit. >> the testimony has been nothing short of a complete disaster for donald trump. >> we are living through this together and the good news is

people taking in the actual facts and discussing it as a country and we will see what the jury decides. keep it locked right here on msnbc. tonight on "all in" -- >> the thing that was effective was the repetition over and over and over that michael cohen is a liar. >> michael cohen back on the stand and under fire. >> once he connected up to the text, i thought we are in for something here. it casts doubt on the veracity of a ton of his testimony. >> the ex-president's former fixer runs into trouble under cross as the latest round of republican sycophants swooping. >> there are things that we can say that president trump is unjustly not allowed to say. >> tonight how the courtroom became a campaign stop. >> why are we here is a good question to ask. >> is trump's entourage skips the line while members of the

public wait out in the cold. >> i've been here more than nine hours. >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i am alisa menendez in for chris hayes. day 18 of donald trump's criminal trial in manhattan began where it left off on tuesday with a cross- examination of the prosecution's star witness, michael cohen. trump's former fixer set 10 feet away from his old boss, once again flanked by his support team of maga elected officials. he faced me rendering -- faced moran during questioning. multiple instances of lying including that he perjured himself when he pled guilty to tax evasion in 2018. he did not dispute that he often lied on behalf of donald trump, including under oath. the heated moment came when

blanche finally got to the thrust of the case, the hush money payments. phone calls he made to trump. cohen says he called so he could hand the phone to trump so cohen could tell him he made the payment to daniels. the defense is that is not true. there are text messages that suggest he called to complain about threats he was receiving. blanche up until now had taken a calm tone. he grew increasingly loud and angry as he pushed going to say he lied. he said, quote, you said you had a recollection of a phone call on october 24 and you called schiller and he gave the phone to president trump and you gave trump an update and he said okay, good. that was a lie. you did not talk to president trump on that night. you talked to keith schiller about what we went through.

our reporters in the room note that cohen kept his cool, responding that i'm not sure that was accurate and i believe i spoke to mister trump about the stormy daniels matter. by and large the defense did not seem to land many blows, especially when it comes to his core claim. he paid off stormy daniels on behalf of trump and reimbursed him in the form of bogus payments. the former fixer is not in the clear. the cross-examination will pick up for a third day when the trial resumes on monday. andrew weissmann spent years as a federal prosecutor in the department of justice and now cohosts the award-winning podcast, prosecuting donald trump. lisa rubin is an msnbc correspondent in the courtroom today. suzanne craig is an investigative reporter for the new york times who also attended the trial and they join me now. you are outside the courtroom seconds ago. thank you for somehow teleporting yourselves here. help me understand, lisa, what it was that blanche was trying

to accomplish today. >> blanche had a number of different objectives today, but if we're talking about that testimony, the october 24 phone call, what he was trying to establish was cohen doesn't have an independent recollection of conversations with trump, which was the heart of his testimony, but rather has had his memory refreshed by reviewing documents and records with the district attorney's office so much so that he can't separate his organic memory from what he has been fed by the d.a. by casting doubt on the veracity of the testimony that on october 24 he did talk to trump by calling keith schiller, todd blanche then put in doubt the veracity of michael cohen's other testimony and his memory about a host of conversations between him and trump alone or him and allen weisselberg for example or david pecker. >> if his goal was to undermine

cohen, do you think he succeeded? >> somewhat. i think there are aspects of what he did that are completely expected and the d.a. knew. to the point that she has been making the finally todd blanche went through the prior bad acts. susanne said that and i agree it was effective, but it is like where were you on day one? yes i mean he has lied repeatedly. he has committed all sorts of crimes. crimes for donald trump and also not for donald trump. so you really do have to bring that out. the piece on the october 24 call was definitely sort of a gotcha moment that i think was, to me it was sort of theater, because there are so many other calls. okay, you may be able to say two things happened on the call. i did not view this as either

or, but you know what, we know keith schiller. by documents. he would be the intermediary like, i've got the phone and here is the president. it is not like the president always picked up his own phone. i sort of went okay, maybe on the 24th, but there are so many other calls. remember the key calls are on the 26th, because two days later there are phone records that are between the president and michael cohen and there are two of them and then the payment is made. the payment is not the 24th. the key payment that goes out from central consulting is on the 26th and you can be sure that michael cohen is not laying out $130,000 without knowing that donald trump approved it and that there would be some sort of agreement that it would get paid back. this is my big point for sort of closing and hope hicks

telegraphed this. michael cohen, the cross has showed, michael cohen is not altruistic. the idea that he laid out this money out of the goodness of his heart and is doing this for his former boss, but did not have any understanding that he was going to get repaid and he was not even going to tell him he was doing this? at the very least, get credit for it. the basic story from the defense side, i just don't think works and i did not think that so far i've heard anything that disputes it. final point, michael cohen in terms of his demeanor has been remarkable. the state and his lawyer have to be very happy. he just is not taking the bait and he is staying very calm, even after he is cross-examined about things about his wife and daughter, both of which i thought were sort of not fair cross and could backfire and

michael cohen did not explode. >> you have any sense in the courtroom of how this played with the jury? >> i was thinking about that because i want to pull back on what todd blanche was trying to achieve. he spent the whole morning talking about michael cohen being a liar and that repetition was there and went on and on. >> we knew that was coming. >> all of these things that he lied about were outside the trial. other things that happened. serious lies, lying to congress, lying in front of judges. then they zoom in on one thing that happened in the trial and what they were trying to do and i thought was effective. the hope, i believe is that you can't believe anything he was saying and here is one really good example and he landed it and they hope to cast doubt on the rest of it. what is really important is the prosecution has to get to

intent. the documents do a lot of work, but they still have to get to intent and michael cohen is not the only person who can get them there, but it is important that the jurors believe them. >> can you help me understand something strategically, which is michael cohen not disputing the characterization of himself as a liar? >> i think michael cohen has fought tooth and nail on even the most minor details. when he has presented clear evidence that he said something in the past that was not accurate, he was clearly coached to say yes, that is not accurate or correct, i lied. that had to be difficult for him, but nonetheless, very effective because there is no other answer to it. to just accept it and move on i think was the only strategic choice for him to preserve credibility with the jury. >> it was a level of discipline, let's just say, that we have not seen in some

of the television interviews we've done. robert costello, the rudy giuliani associate who cohen testified about is raising his hand and saying i will testify for the defense if they want me. listen. >> i kept going back and suggesting, listen, michael, if you have something truthful on donald trump, now is the time to cooperate. he kept saying over and over again, 10 to 20 times, i swear i don't have anything on donald trump. >> your face tells me the whole story. >> let's go back a year. that the indictment is sort of about to happen and everyone understood it and then it got delayed because the defense was saying that they wanted the grand jury to hear from mr. costello. at the time i was thinking to myself, that is a really stupid, that is the technical legal term, move on the defense part. because one of the few things

you have on the defense side is surprise. if this were a witness with impeaching evidence, the idea that the grand jury was not going to indict, that is far- fetched. you know this is not andy mccabe where there was really good reason for the grand jury not to indict. that was going to happen instead. mr. costello said he went to the grand jury and that means the d.a. heard his story, cross-examined him in the grand jury and they've had a year to figure out exactly what is wrong. in other words they know what he was going to say and they obviously thought that they could dispute it. the idea that he would take the stands now and there is not going to be any surprise, the d.a. is going to be aware of it. i'm not terribly concerned. also what has come out are the text messages that, let's put it this way. the state would have a very good argument that this was

lawyers reaching out to michael cohen to say do not flip, the president is watching and will help you and sort of dangling that. something i am very familiar with from the mueller investigation. sort of stay in the tent and things will be fine. >> you know, i think we have seen evidence that robert costello was probably someone that michael cohen continued to communicate with because he was advertising himself as a friend of rudy giuliani's and therefore a back channel to the white house, but there is no evidence that michael cohen ever retained him or said to him you will be my lawyer. at best this is like michael cohen led robert costello on and robert costello wanted to be paid, so he continued to try to entice michael cohen to hire him. at the end of the day that never happened. i'm not sure what costello can do other than talk about conversations between the two

of them that evolve into he said, he said. as andrew said, the emails and text messages between them and the kinds of messages that costello tried to transmit on behalf of rudy and other allies of trump are themselves devastating. i'm not sure it is in anyone's interest to hear from costello, least of all the defense. >> so no court tomorrow. monday we come back and you have michael cohen back on the stand. what are you expecting? >> maybe there are more surprises, but i think we will head toward the end of him on cross and then there will be some redirect and then we head into closing arguments, i think, next week. then the jury is going to be out. what did they say, half a day each for closing arguments? so we are looking at this going to the jury before the long weekend and if not, right after. >> can you pull back the curtain for me, andrew weissmann, in light of what we saw today and the way that each

team gets together, huddles based on where they find themselves today, knowing that there is now very little runway ahead of them. i heard you make the point that they leave this dangling question of whether or not donald trump is going to take the stand. whether or not they will mount some defense, because it forces the prosecution to stay on their toes, to continue to plan for a variety of possible outcomes, but if you are each of those teams, what are you doing tonight, tomorrow, saturday, sunday? >> so, both sides, if they have done this correctly and you got experienced people on both sides, so i have no reason to think they didn't. as a trial lawyer you start with a summation and work backwards. so i think a lot of us are looking at this going, if you have not been a trial lawyer, thinking i wonder what they are

doing. they know. there are things that you can see todd blanche leaving easter eggs. it's all going to come back and they are going to make arguments about it. they have already written that and yes, you have to tweak it based on things that happen with michael cohen, the last witness, but they already have the basic themes and structure ready. so you know they are probably rehearsing it a few times. getting some notes as to what people think is more effective or not. i have heard joshua steinglass will give the summation. the lead lawyer, fantastic in court. todd blanche is going to do the summation for the defense and you know he had a very good day today and he should be good at summations because even though he is not an experienced defense lawyer, he is an

experienced prosecutor, so the summation should be something he is comfortable standing up and doing even though he has not done a lot on the defense side and finally for redirect you can be sure that susan hoffinger, who did the direct, is keeping a path like this and has a list of things that she has to decide, you know, what really needs to be corrected and what doesn't? that is definitely more of an art than a science. >> so interesting to hear the way lawyers go about it. it is very different from the way that you and i do our work and yet we have a list of questions we would like answered and part of what we are watching and listening for is have my questions been answered or has this created new questions? >> i watch them and you can tell they are keeping a list of things they want to come back to. a lot that will be done on redirect, but they are keeping a list of how this will be framed. a lot like we do when we are

doing a big interview. you take notes and keep a list of things you want to come back to or weaknesses somebody said. i think it is very similar. >> when we were taking the subway we were talking about that. we have this team where we go to court, leave and race appear to do the show at 4:00 and we were talking about the similarities between being an investigator and a criminal prosecutor and being an investigative journalist and there really are a lot of similarities. >> i look forward to the miniseries. thank you very much. i feel like i need to allow you to go get a good night sleep. lisa and andrew are staying with me. i want to dig into what we saw today when the latest republican posse descended on the courthouse, next. i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me,

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today donald trump had what appears to be his largest entourage yet at his criminal trial in new york city. among them, nearly a dozen republican members of congress including matt gaetz and lauren boebert. congressman matt gaetz tweeting a photo with the message, quote, standing back and standing by, mister president. the same language trump used in the first presidential debate in 2020 when referencing the far right group, the proud boys. a message that the proud boys took as marching orders in the lead up to january 6. also at the courthouse today, jeffrey clark, the former doj lawyer indicted in the georgia case

and named as an unindicted co- conspirator in the prosecution of trump for the attempted q -- attempted coup. joining us is a senior political affairs reporter for politico with a focus on january 6 and andrew weissmann and lisa rubin are back with us. what a day for you to be in the room given the way this ties your expertise together. >> you see all of these threads coming together. this has become a loyalty test for a lot of his allies and that has brought in people like jeff clark, who is not just an ally of trump, but is charged with him in georgia. an alleged co-conspirator and an unindicted co-conspirator in his washington, d.c. case, too. to see him in the room as a show of loyalty, i'm not even sure they are allowed to have contact under some of the released orders in those cases. >> and having matt gaetz saying standing by. >> bringing this very overt

reference to the proud boys. i'm not sure what loyalty that is supposed to demonstrate, but sort of a brazen thing and the picture he put up was him standing behind donald trump in the hallway, so an unmistakable reference. >> speaking of brazen rhetoric, donald trump appeared to talk about one of the prosecutors in the trial today. take a listen and we will talk about it later. >> a lead person from the doj is running the trial, so biden's office is running this trial. >> not true, to fact check to that. what is he doing there? >> what he is really doing is daring judge merchan to put him in jail because the last time donald trump was penalized for violating the gag order, judge merchan made it clear to donald trump, you do this one more time and i have other remedies at my disposal. the statute only provides me with two. one is a fine up to $1000 and the other is jail. i don't want to execute the

jail option. it would be disruptive to the administration of justice, but i will if i have to end it almost seemed like donald trump was daring him to do it just to throw a bomb into the proceeding as it reaches its inevitable conclusion. we did not hear from the d.a. today. we have not heard the full transcript yet, so it is possible they mentioned it on the sidebar, but so far in open court the district attorney's office has not said this counts as a violation. that doesn't mean they won't and on monday or beyond we might hear from the d.a.s office that while they don't want this to interfere with the rest of the trial, it's possible they will say to the judge as it reaches its conclusion, hey, this happened while the jury was out and now it is time to take action. >> it is the challenge for the d.a. that you described this as being a distraction and there are so many distractions. we are talking about donald trump, so they are waiting, do we derail a case on its way to a conclusion or do we deal with the fact that he is clearly,

once again not playing by the rules? >> in addition to the statement you played there is at least some evidence that the sort of mini me auditioning for vice president because they want to be people hung out to dry like vice president pence. nobody thinks about what happened to that person. those people, it is not like they are just saying something that is unscripted. there is reporting that we reported on that donald trump was editing what it is that they are supposed to say, which is again another violation of the gag order. to tie it back to michael cohen, when he testified before congress while he was being attacked by republicans in his testimony said look, i know what you are doing. i used to be you. i used to do that for donald trump and i'm telling you it is a fools errand. your sing this again with people thinking now i can be

the vice president and look at vice president pence. what happened to him on january 6 and it is remarkable that you have a former vice president who is not endorsing the person he was serving as president. >> i think about what it was that matt gaetz tweeted out and all i can think about is that in so many ways they are creating a permission structure for future violence. whether that is related to the outcome of this court case or related to the outcome of the election, that they see it as a preamble to what is coming next, not simply something in the past. >> i think a lot of the forces that led to january 6 are still present in our politics. the outcome of these cases and whether the justice system is up to the task of holding a former president accountable. whether the cases even get tried at all, that is really the question right now. regardless of the outcome, to

not have them hanging over the election process is an issue and i think whatever happens is going to be telling about the direction of the country. >> can you help me understand, lisa, given the amount of time you've spent in the courtroom, how it is that people get into the courtroom, how they get seated and what it tells you that he has about a dozen folks? >> i'm so glad that you asked me this question because today on the record from the d.a.s office they said hey, you had a bunch of surrogates for the former president who came in at an awkward moment. they were disruptive of the cross-examination. they came in at a time when members of the public would not be allowed to come in and out, would you ask them to stop doing that? todd blanche that i don't control these people. they are members of the public. let's accept that he as a member of the legal team does not control them. the proposition that they are members of the public is belied by what we can see. they do not come in the same

public courthouse century that andrew and kyle and i come in every day. from what we can tell they are transported with the former president. they are admitted into his bubble by the secret service. whether they undergo additional security at the back entrance of the courthouse that trump enters is not clear to us, but i can tell you this. they enter the courthouse through the presidents holding room which we understand is an additional courtroom that has been cleared. they come out with him as he makes his statements to the press in the hallway and then they enter the courtroom with him in this bizarre procession that almost resembles a military parade. a long line almost in order of importance of who comes in with him. the legal team, the aids, members of congress, et cetera. to call them members of the public, akin to the guy you showed on tape earlier who had been waiting in line for hours and hours, that is not an apt or fair comparison. i want to say one other thing. matt gaetz might be making

statements that make our jaws drop and donald trump might be violating the gag order, but some of these people don't have to say a word. from where they are sitting each of the witnesses is marched directly into the first row of observers. each side has the first two rows of the gallery in the courtroom. if you were michael cohen this morning, who did you walk by? eric trump as you are trying to get into the courtroom to your seat. you are not walking down the center aisle of the courtroom as we see in procedural dramas, but rather in a separate entrance designed to maximize your security and protection from the public, given what is going on and how controversial it is with some members of the public. >> andrew weissmann, lisa rubin. thank you for being with us. still ahead, as republicans make the pilgrimage north to kiss trump's ring, their real jobs take the back seat. congressman dan goldman joins me on that ahead. lawn disease?

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new york's trump election interference trial has become, well, let's just call it the hottest ticket in town. with a line around an entire city block full of people hoping to snag a rare seat to watch history unfold. for weeks, regular folks have been lining up overnight or paying someone hundreds of dollars to stand in line for them. some support trump, some detest

him and many more are just drawn to this spectacle of something that has never happened before in america. >> reporter: tell me how long you have been out here. >> since midnight. >> i've been here more than nine hours. >> i watch it on the news all the time, but i am far from it all and so i thought i would lay eyes on it on the scene. >> i want to be part of history and see it in the making right before my eyes. >> it is fun to watch democracy in action. >> only the first six or so get into the courtroom and another doesn't get access to an overflow room where they can watch the proceedings on a closed circuit tv. in other words you don't show up on your own and get a front row seat unlike what trump's vip guests are saying to reporters. >> i am here and all of us are here as friends of donald trump. >> we volunteered our time. >> i'm here for the simple

reason to show tests -- shall report -- i'm here for the simple reason to show support for a friend. >> as we heard from lisa rubin it is impossible to grab a seat in front unless you come in with the defense team. they are exclusive members of an in group who get to skip the lines with trump's help. consider that when you listen to their talking points. >> this is a made up crime. >> this is a crooked, sham trial. >> this is corrupt lawfare. >> the radical left and weaponized doj. >> the persecution of a patriot. >> no man should have to go through what president trump is sitting through. >> in other words there are two ways into the trump courtroom. one, you can wait in line and hope to get lucky. the other, to be a republican politician who will say anything to please donald trump.

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handling of classified documents. it turns out several republicans had something they deemed more important to do today, attending donald trump's criminal trial in new york. no less than five republicans showed up at the courthouse today to defend the former president. andy biggs, lauren boebert of colorado, michael cloud of texas. so the committee was forced to delay that hearing until the members could make it back to washington. they just began apt, let's check the clock, 8:00 p.m. congressman dan goldman is a democrat who stepped out of the hearing in order to join us. thank you for taking the time to be with us. your reaction to so many colleagues ducking out of work to go to new york for trump? >> it is both pathetic and a dereliction of duty. the reality is that they are so desperate to prostrate themselves in front of their

dear leader donald trump that they will head up to new york, missed votes here. missed the job that they are elected to do in the house of representatives, in order to attack an ongoing criminal proceeding. it is an affront to the rule of law. in affront to our criminal justice system and it is shameful that they would choose to go and attack an ongoing criminal proceeding, rather than stay in washington and do their job. the farce of it of course is that we now have a markup for a bogus contempt charge that has no jurisdiction in the oversight committee to begin with and is trying to hold merrick garland in contempt because he cooperated with their subpoena. that's right, he gave a transcript of the interview with president biden, but that's not enough. they need the audio tape. i don't know if it is because they don't all know how to

read, but there is no other legitimate reason why they would need the audiotapes. >> i have to tell you that based on the talking points they have been using these past few days, they can in fact read, so we can cross that off our list of explanations. i understand that they are sort of taking a break from one circus in order to create another circus. can you help us understand how you expect this to go tonight. >> i expect it to be a circus. everything that the republican majority does in the oversight committee is and this is a circus to distract from another circus. the impeachment investigation was such a massive flop for the republicans that in order to avoid ongoing humiliation and embarrassment, they are trying to do anything at all to distract from their own humiliation and that is to hold the attorney general in contempt in unprecedented fashion.

there has been no department of justice, certainly no executive branch agency that has ever been held in contempt for when they have cooperated as much as this department of justice has done. they cannot, i assure you, enumerate a legitimate purpose for why they need the audio tape of an interview when they have the transcript of that interview and therefore they have all of the information. >> congressman, going back to new york there was an attack on judge merchan's daughter and in the process of that attack she name checked you, so i want our audience to hear it because i want them to understand the way in which republicans are trying to de-legitimize this court proceeding. take a listen. >> it is by no coincidence that you have goldman, a member of house oversight two is a democrat who prepared cohen for his testimony and is also

retained by the judges daughter as a client. it is corrupt lawfare -- >> congressman, i want to give you a chance to respond. >> look, i think this is actually a perfect example of the misinformation that republicans have been peddling all congress and that is at the core of the impeachment inquiry. i was a staff member for the house intelligence committee in february, 2019, when in that role i deposed michael cohen and in advance of that deposition i met with him to prepare him. i obviously have not and did not prepare michael cohen for this trial or any trials and the fact that these republicans are trying to manufacture some absurd conspiracy theory just shows how desperate they are and how much disinformation they are eager to spread to muddy up the waters to try to paint a

false picture for the american people. they can do it to me, i don't mind, i am a member of congress. but they are trying to do it to our rule of law, trying to do it to our democracy and tried to do it to the president through a bogus impeachment and they need to be called out for all of this nonsense. >> mind you it is not just representative luna, it is also speaker mike johnson. i won't play that sound because we are running out of time, but as you know democrats had to come to the aid of speaker johnson on the motion to vacate. given what you have seen from him and the things he has been saying outside the new york courthouse, if you have newfound reservations about choosing to preserve his speakership. >> we didn't choose to preserve mike johnson's speakership. we chose to prevent marjorie taylor greene from hijacking the congress. we cannot allow someone who is such an extortionist and arsonist to wants to tear this

place down, take control of the congress and so our vote and my vote for sure was not in favor or support of mike johnson, but it was a vote against marjorie taylor greene's effort to hijack the congress. >> congressman dan goldman, i want to let you get back to the people's business. thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. next, the former chairman of the republican national committee. the man, the myth, the legend, michael steele, he joins me to talk about the behavior and his party today. stay with us. us. es without using bleach. it even works on colors. i slide tackled. i see that. tide oxi white. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost.

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we've told you a lot about the trump entourage has been showing up and donald trump's trial day after day, some very clearly auditioning for the vp slot. virginia thomas men bob good and virginia state senator john mcguire, they are locked in a primary fight for goods house seat in virginia's fifth district. voters are going to the polls little over a month from today. these two men had to take their campaign more than 300 miles from the district with some vague hope of being photographed with donald trump and maybe getting an endorsement. i'm joined by michael steele, former chair of the republican national committee.

we just don't spend enough time together, sir. >> our weekend starts early. >> i saw the story, we talked about everybody who wants to be his vice president and the fact that he flirts with all of them. >> although he already knows who's going to pick. he's toying with the rest of us. >> he is. so why do you think these two virginia guys are there. >> it's a tough race. that race is a hot mess, and -- >> the way in which is a hot mess is interesting. it's a very conservative guy being outflanked by a very very conservative guy, so yes, this is the battle of conservatism. i love the fax was asian of the republican party right now. more, please. more, please. it's good because what it will exposes just how deep the rot is in the party. and they will at some point, there's more of this to come, to particularly if trump wins, where they are going to start to eat each other, cannibalize each other in primaries, because this is the signal that the new don is upon us, the new

age of trump-ism is upon us and this raises a good example, so good, who was there first, put it that way, has got the interlopers coming and who's running for the two his right and i think you will see more of this around the country. >> what does that even mean, now, you used to say, this person is more conservative? >> it just means that well you, you know, make his trump's ring, i'll kiss something else, that's what it means. >> sir! it is too early for that. >> i know the kiddies are still up. >> and the vp audition? the vp audition is laughable because trump knows who he wants. i think he has a very good sense of who he wants and so, if i can get you to tap dance for me for free, guess what, you're going to tap dance i'm going to help you do it.

and make you do it i'm going to incentivize you to do it. the word went out in the party, very simply put, the beginning of this trial was such that no one was there, not even his family, noted, not even his family. so they found eric and said eric, you've got to go sit behind dad and he's like, okay and then laura showed up and she's there, but that wasn't enough because the wife isn't there. and the sun isn't, the sons art, there was ivanka, well has anybody seen ivanka, daddy's little girl? where is she? she's not there. so the word went out, we need to send in the reinforcement so everybody in the party now giddyup and callie up to new york and we are going to do the walking together and we are all going to walk in like something out of, you know, you know, an nbc crime story, you know, you can just hear the, behind them as they come to the door and the reality of it is, they look

foolish, particularly when you show up in the same suit, same shirt and same type. and the reality again, speak to the point that everyone right now particularly those old auditioning to be his vp, think that they have the edge and by doing this, by self debasing themselves, by you know, capitulating and going out in front of cameras and saying the foolishness that they say that donald trump is going to love them more than the other. and in fact, he doesn't give a about any of it. and at the right moment, he's going to say the rest of y'all step down but do what i need you to do, i'm picking this one and they will do it. >> but they are not just abasing themselves, their fundraising from the courtroom . >> you can debase yourself and fund raise, too. >> you have lauren boebert already fundraising off of it. >> well of course, they have mocked it from the very beginning. their whole stick is to mock

the system and tear it down and to make money off of that. that doesn't distress me. none of that distresses me, you know, the theocracy is the idiotic. what i am bothered by is how many more americans after seeing this crap show, day in and day out, continue to buy it, and they think the threat is joe biden, when the threat is already in the house. >> michael steele, thank you. as always. that is all for all in, special coverage starts right now with alex wagner. >> do i get to be simone now that it's you and steal, does that mean, no? >> no one could ever replace simone but we love you, alex. >> i just meant, nevermind. that was