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will bunch hits last night last word. tonight, donald trump's dangerous social media tax continue while the judge in the hush money case expenses gag order. what is next as we learn from finally post the $175 million bond within his civil fraud case. then more reporting on the church of trump. how the former president is mixing christianity into his movement as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. good evening once again. i am stephanie ruhle, live at 30 rock center where we are now 218 days away from the election and covering a lot of big news this evening.

donald trump has now officially posted that reduced $175 million bond in his civil fraud appeal. it was provided by a california- based insurance company. tonight, the judge expanded the partial gag order in the new york hush money case to provide family members of people involved in the court, including the judges own family. if you recall last week, donald trump attacked the judge and his daughter on social media. remember, the judges daughter has absolutely nothing to do with this case, donald trump chose to call her out by name. of course, this is just the latest example of how donald trump uses social media, attacking, demeaning, and targeting people that he views as enemies and highlighting them for his millions of followers. on friday, trump shared a video that included an image of current president joe biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck. as you can imagine, a presidential candidate sharing

violent imagery of his opponents, not to mention the sitting president, caused immediate backlash and discussed, even from those who have nothing to do with politics. a trump campaign spoke ursin said the picture was on the back of a truck just traveling down the highway, and then hurled accusations the democrats. this isn't new. last year, donald trump sheridan article, including an image of him holding a baseball bat near the head of manhattan d.a. alvin bragg. even trump's lawyer at the time called that post in advised, and it was deleted after millions of people saw it. with that, let's get to our panel tonight. caleb gardner is here, christie greenberg, former federal prosecutor, and former deputy chief of the seventh district of new york's criminal decision, now she is an msnbc legal analyst and george conway, contributing writer at the atlantic.

he posted the $175 million bond in the fraud case, a couple of days to spare. this is the reduced amount. supposedly he couldn't post the 464, but now he's got it. what's your reaction? >> it's good. that's a good thing. i think a lot of people reacted negatively to the reaction of the bond, but i think that's based on the misapprehension of what an appellate bond is. the purpose of an appellate bond is to protect the judgment holder, the person who won the judgment in the court below. if there had been no bond because it was simply too large to post, the state of new york would have had no protection and would have had to go out and these assets, which is something that really is a very, very difficult task and a very costly task. the taxpayers of the state of new york should be glad that the court reduced the bond, enabling the court -- enabling trump to be able to post the

bond and once the appeal is over and the state wins the appeal, they automatically get the $175 million. >> assuming the state wins the appeal, let's talk about that. now he can appeal. how is that going to go? >> there's going to be an expedited appeal now. these things move slowly, but -- >> i don't think there is an expedited in the justice system. >> it will be expedited, meaning we're going to see this process start in the fall. look, i don't think he has a leg to stand on. as to the appeal, this is a very detailed decision by the judge that was based in fact, in his credibility findings, of all of the witnesses. you know, i don't see -- and you also had defense experts that were found to be unreliable and really didn't put up much of a fight on the core legal issues here, so when it comes to factual disputes, really, that's for the appellate judges had to stay away.

this is such a fact-based inquiry here that i think it should stand up on appeal. >> let's talk about the leg he is standing on, because he's using it to kick. i want to talk about judge merchan . now basically being forced to expand his gag order to protect his own family and other people and family members involved in this case. what you think of the judges decision and just sort of where we are? >> we are two weeks from trial. and so you have to figure, two weeks before trial, alvin bragg and his team are meeting with witnesses to try to prepare for this trial and keep their eye on the ball. these witnesses are coming in and saying, this judge can't protect his own daughter. how am i going to be protected? what am i subjecting myself and my family too? there's that pushback that is coming that alvin bragg details in his brief about why this gag order needs to be expanded, because the judge needs to show that he can administer this trial in a way that people feel

protected, and they are not scared and not motivated by fear not to do their civic duty. and so that is very clear in this order. the judge is saying, this is it really about you. this is about my responsibility to everyone in this trial to make sure people can do their duty and protect themselves. this is about a strategy that is not just delayed. this is to distract, distract the prosecutors. they don't want to be worried about this kind of briefing. they want to distract them with all of this nonsense and disrupt the trial. make the jurors -- make the witnesses, make people afraid to do what they need to do to administer justice. >> we actually have a quote from this expanded gag order that i want to share. where he writes, it is no longer just a near possibility or reasonable likelihood that there exists a threat to the integrity of the judicial proceedings. the threat is very real.

what is your take? is this expanded order even enough to deal with that threat? >> it may not be, because donald trump is a sociopath. he's a psychopath. nothing will stop him from trying to do what he wants to do, which is to intimidate and rollover and attack anybody he feels is a threat to him. and he is feeling that threat more than ever, from all different fronts. and it is quite possible this may not be enough. i mean, he is a very, very destructive individual. he is mentally ill. he's very self-destructive, in particular, which we saw with the e. jean carroll trial, where he basically acted out in front of the jury , and basically bought himself the punitive damages award that he had to post his $83 million bond for. this man isn't well, and he is going to continue to behave in an irrational fashion and in a bullying fashion and in a

threatening fashion, because that is -- that's just the way he is built. and it's not -- you know, it not part of some grand strategy. >> you worry that is working? if you were a potential juror, if you were a witness -- i don't know. it might affect you. >> it could, but again, i think that's the reason why you have to have protections of -- you have to have jury anonymity, as judge kaplan did in the e. jean carroll case. and you have to have strong people in the judiciary, articulately this judge, judge merchan, was a no-nonsense and very tough judge that is not going to take this . i think these people are showing the world that you can stand up to donald trump, and that's with the justice system has been doing. it's been a little slow. it is slow going. the justice takes time. but i think finally, we are beginning to see that people can stand up to donald trump

when it comes down to donald trump versus the law versus society -- society better win. and that's what this is about. this is about whether one man can change the rules of the game and control the rules of the game, and completely destroy and undermine the rule of law. and justice merchan here is saying, no, that's not how this works . we all need to stick up for the court and the court system and the prosecutors and, you know, second this and support this, because this -- donald trump is threatening the entire judicial process and the entire legal system just for his own personal benefit. >> society better win, but the biden white house is making the argument -- what if they don't? in response to donald trump's post over the weekend that included that image of president biden tied up in the back of a truck, a biden campaign said donald trump is now regularly inciting political violence and it is time for people to take this

seriously. how is the white house dealing with it? >> well, on the campaign side, they held a press conference at the dnc headquarters directly addressing this with two police officers were at january 6th, and this is really a strategy that we have seen them use time and time again to really center democracy in their fight for 2024. this is something i think we will continue to hear, and particularly because biden voters continue to say they are voting more against trump than they are for biden. i think this is something that they are continuing to use the more that they talk about trump, the more they are going to hole in some members of their coalition who are right now threatening to stay home, or worried about the state of the economy, and this is exactly the kindest takes their trying to lay out. >> and we just put into perspective that we cannot look at this election like two peers running against one another? the former president posting an

image of the current president tied up, and what does treat team trump do? they dismiss it. you got a judges daughter now being threatened, and time team trump is like, this is just the way it goes. how far have we devolved? >> we devolved a lot, because this has become a threat to our society. not just donald trump, but the normalization of his behavior. and i have to commend the biden campaign and the biden administration for basically -- they have to go right after this and say, this man is sick. or to quote what apparently the president said about donald trump a few weeks ago, he is a sick puppy. he's an unwell man. he is mentally ill. he is not somebody you want in any position of power, and he is getting worse. you can see his conduct. it is getting absolutely worse as the walls close in around him. and that is -- the press can't

walk away from that, either. the press has to point this out. this is sickness, and it is madness. i think at the end of the day, people are going to reject that. >> christie, i want to talk about the hush money trial, because it starts later this month, and a source tells nbc news that former white house communications director hope hicks is expected to testify for the prosecution. people are all excited about it. but just because she is going to testify does not mean she is going to say anything. and if history is a guide, hope hicks is an absolute expert at standing next to donald trump and saying absolutely nothing. >> that is true. the prosecution is calling her, so they have to think there is something of value that she adds to the case. one element in particular, she had a phone call that she was on with donald trump and with michael cohen right around -- maybe a day or so after the

access hollywood tape. and so they may be calling her to say, donald trump was worried about how that access hollywood tape would affect the campaign. he cared about that. and so this idea that, you know, with donald trump's defenses is, these hush money payments really have nothing to do with the campaign. this was more about milani and protecting my family and reputation. but actually, he cared a lot about how these things would affect the campaign, and that's an important element that the state needs to approve of this trial. >> is hope hicks there to show that michael cohen is not full of it? because we know the donald trump's team is going to paint michael cohen in the worst light possible, and it will make it tricky if hope is forced to say, yeah, michael is right. >> yeah, absolutely right. i agree with what kristi just said. this is testimony. we don't know exactly how good or how strong it is, the fact

of the matter is, they all held hope hicks before the grand jury for a few days at least, and her story is locked in, they know what she's going to say, they've asked for all the questions no doubt that anyone could expect to ask, and it must obviously -- for they wouldn't be putting her on. it must corroborate their story. it corroborates michael:, it corroborates the documents, which i think are the most powerful evidence against trump. so i think her testimony may not be a bombshell in and of it self, i don't know. we will have to wait for the trial to see. you know, the corroboration is what the prosecutors need to get a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. >> two mixed rulings today from the florida supreme court. they allowed a six week abortion ban to take effect soon, but the court also cleared the way for voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution come

november. for the biden campaign, did they see this as their opportunity to possibly win florida with the reproductive rights? is there one avenue to get out the vote in that state ? >> the biden campaign and people close to the campaign have been saying privately for weeks now that they believe they have a chance, which is crazy to say knowing that trump won the state three points in 2020, desantis won by a landslide, and his policies are really further to the right and even trump. and yet they still cite this abortion ballot initiative as something that could be on their side every time abortion has been on the ballot in states red and blue. voters have sided with abortion rights. but also because of entitlement programs. laura has a large population of retirees and biden has been very much strong about supporting social security, the care and medicaid. meanwhile, trump has really

flip-flopped on the issue and they have a very diverse population. so this is really a state where they don't think that they can win in 2024, i definitely think it's a state that the dnc is targeting in the long-term to once again be a swing state. >> we need to clean up some lies that people may have heard over the weekend. some on the right, including donald trump himself, are outraged, saying that president biden, a devout catholic, reclaimed easter sunday as transgender visibility day. forgetting, putting aside that it was easter sunday. for fax sake, that is not the case. the transgender day of visibility has been held on march 31st for 15 years. president biden did not have anything to do with that. george, here is the issue. we are talking about it. i heard about this because i was walking out of mass on easter sunday, and i heard people talking about it. he discussed in dismay, so angry with president biden.

how challenging is this? it's nonsense. in fact, if president biden were to move the date, that would cause a bigger issue. this is a nonsense argument that is rooted in lies, but they can damage the president. >> yeah. lies are effective, and we have seen that for a number of years with donald trump. but the thing is, we have to keep going back to reminding people that you can't trust him. he is a liar. he lies about everything. and this is just another sorry example of that. >> that's pathetic. easter sunday was recognized, trans day of visibility was recognized, nothing changed. the only thing that changed was more american people were fed lies, and it worked tonight. thank you for joining us. george, thank you. kristen, always great to see you. when we come back, the wave of

wall street. transmedia stock was riding high last week when it debuted and today took a tumble. but it is still worth a lot of money despite the fact that the company does almost nothing. and later, how the republican party is transforming into a church of trump. were going to go through talking actual religion to nonsense in the 11th hour, just getting underway on a monday night. clinically proven to help reverse the four signs of early gum disease. a new toothpaste from parodontax, the gum experts.

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plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free. that's like getting two unlimited lines for twenty dollars a month each for a year. so, ditch the other guys and switch today. buy one line of unlimited, get one free for a year with xfinity mobile! plus, save even more and get an eligible 5g phone on us! visit xfinitymobile.com today. >> the popular narrative right now is that donald trump is broke and he has no money to pay these astronomical judgments or even fund his campaign. it is true that biden is lapping trump when it comes to campaign cash. however, the former president might have an ace up his sleeve. his media company -- i can't even believe i'm saying this to you -- is currently valued at 6.6 billion bucks. just one week after it went public. that is despite the fact that

it totally unprofitable. a new filing just told us about how unprofitable it is. last year, trump media netted 58 million bucks in losses, and it made $4 million in revenue. so there's that. so maybe it's not an ace after all. for more, i'm joined by one of the best reporters covering this. matt goldstein. in my dear friend dan nathan. a cnbc contributor and the host of the on the tape podcast. matt, you are tracking every in and out of this. it was the latest. what we need to know. >> well, today was down almost 21%, and it fell -- there's no real reason why it fell and also white went up. but the main reason is they put a bunch of filings today that show the losses continuing to grow. the revenue -- use of the 4.1 million for the year. there was only 750,000 in the

fourth quarter, so they've actually been worse going into the end of the year. you know, i think people are realizing -- a lot of people got into this last week because they were trying to catch the wave going up. the long-term thing is, the core shareholders still are the 400,000 retail investors, and they are not budgeting. there will sort of be a floor on this for the time being. so until there is more float out there, more shares that can be shorted, it is probably going to -- i would predict disorder stay in this range for a while, as stocks can go up and down based on use, and, who knows, maybe it will make of the stock go up tomorrow. >> here's what's been asked. even with the stock down 21, 25%, the company at this point on paper is more valuable than harley davidson, companies that

make products and make billions of dollars. what do you make of this insanity? >> here's the deal. a week and a half ago, we had read it go public, a company around for more than 20 years. they had $8 million in revenue. they lost money, they're getting the cost is in order, but this is an actual legitimate company. it's got a similar market capitalization there, something that wall street investors have had a chance to look at very similar companies like this for years. using twitter go public, the list goes on and on. >> they are unbelievable companies. this company has one thing -- donald trump hosting. >> it's a scheme. it's not really a company. he got kicked off of twitter and facebook and wanted to go direct to his people. he has 5 million monthly users. to put that in context, twitter has 250 million active users. when they went private a couple

of years ago and elon musk taught them, he had over $4 billion in revenue. it wasn't particularly profitable, either. it's expensive to run these companies and run against behemoths like facebook. but you know this, on wall street, it always wins out. you can't beat a scheme. you can't beat a money-losing scheme to exist for one shareholder, which is donald trump right here, and not have -- the fact of the matter is, when you buy a stock, you do it because it's going to go higher and you think someone else is going to pay more for it because their prospects are going to be better in the future. that is not the case for this company. the moment he goes to sell the shares of his stock, you're going to see a snowball effect of other shareholders doing the same thing. i just don't believe these people, the whatever the reason they are buying for, will prop up his candidacy, will suffer massive losses just so he can cash out on this thing, whether if it's six months when the lockup expires or prior to

that. >> given this house of cards he played out, isn't it the perfect one to go short and sell? >> too short a stock, to bet against it going lower, you have to borrow it, and you often have to pay someone to do that. right now, there are no shares to borrow because donald trump owns 57% of the shares and they are all locked up for 6 months. too bad it right now, it's an uneconomical back. just like buying the stock is not economical. >> since none of this economics works, how concerned should people be that this could be the darkest of dark money flooding into a potential presidential candidate, and it will be legal? >> i mean, that is one of the concerns that out there. it's hard to see, you know, the problem, as you know, we often know who buys stock, and they are just holding it until much later. so with the big investors, we won't know until the middle of may what they have to report back. you know, i think you will see

some of that. i don't know if it's really the best way to contribute to a campaign overall. because you are putting a lot of -- you are risking a lot, as dan says, at the end of the day. it's not going to be a profitable bet for you. it's profitable if you are donald trump or one of the other insiders who owns a lot of shares. >> and it didn't make a lot of sense for foreign governments to book entire hotel floors in the hotel in d.c. it didn't make a lot of sense for nbs to give jared kushner $2 billion to manage money when he didn't manage one dollar before hand. it makes sense if you are an adversary and you want to curry favor with the leader of the free world, which donald trump is a 50% chance of becoming. >> the point is, with the dark money, we have campaign finance laws. >> i thought we did. >> we always got around those

sort of things, but i think what's different here, is to book a bunch of hotel rooms into a bunch of goofy stuff, whatever, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, or billions of dollars to prop this thing up. he's going to try to break out and make hundreds of millions of dollars, and someone needs to buy that. with the incremental buyer of the stock here? there are too many constituencies who want to buy the stock other than his diehard followers here. so again, you can follow the money, as you've done most of your career here. if you have north korea or u.s. saudi arabia or you the russians or the chinese for whatever reason buying this stuff to help prop up his -- i we are going to find out about it sooner. >> you think trump doesn't make i like a bandit here? >> i don't. the minute they try to go to sell stock, the stock collapses. have to go and look at 80% of the public's throughout the last three years, leading below sizes. i think it's going to be a half- size. if we can find a hat size that will maybe fit his head, that's like a 15.

>> dan, always good to see you. matt, thank you for joining us. more and more trump supporters are hailing him -- i have to just take a deep breath on this one. as an evangelical hero. were going to hear how he's infusing christianity into his movement. that's not the kind of catholicism i grew up, when the 11th hour continues. continues. shingles doesn't care. shingles is a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. ahhh, there's nothing like a day out with friends. that's nice, but shingles doesn't care! 99% of adults 50 years or older already have the virus that causes shingles inside them, and it can reactivate at any time. a perfect day for a family outing! guess what? shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome

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>> when jesus died, he died for

us. he felt what we felt. he was wounded for our transgressions. he did it for us. when he's doing all these things, he's doing it for us in his place. >> jesus died for me, and so it connects in my brain that way, like, he is doing this for us as a country to make the changes we need to make, and he is the target. where we don't have to be. >> as election day approaches, donald trump is embracing his own version of christianity and the campaign trail. our next guest says the goal is simple -- to transform the republican party into the church of trump. one rally at a time. we want to welcome new york times political correspondent michael bender. he wrote the book, frankly, we did win the election. the inside story of how donald trump lost. and stuart stevens joins us, a veteran republican strategist who is now at the lincoln

project. michael, can we start with this article? you took my doors off. you have attended these rallies, met his supporters, this is different than the trump rallies of 2016. what do we need to know about trump and this new strain of christianity and trumpism? >> yeah, thanks. i think they're sort of a bigger picture here and a more narrow one. when it comes to trumps rallies, what is different here is over the past year or so, he is been refining the end of these rallies. we've all known for a long time, as a kind of volatile off script kind of rock concert show, and now, there's a very big in the last 10 or 15 minutes, there's a very somber, ambient music that fills the event. and trump talks in a kind of whispering voice and a tightly scripted kind of creed of the political movement that he is

leading upon conservatives. and his followers here have become effectively his congregation. so they will bow their heads, or hold their folded hands close to their chest. as if they are praying. along with trump. and i think what this shows is how he is really -- demanding -- you know, he's demanding sort of these tides of absolute loyalty from every level of the party. whether he is twisting arms in congress, replacing loyalist with people even more loyal to him at the republican national committee, and then here at the rank and file level, he is keeping up the enthusiasm of his base by leaning into this sort of, kind of churchlike experience at the rallies. >> but how did this happen? is this all because of roe

versus wade? you spoke to a woman who said the donald trump has been chosen by god. >> yeah. evangelicals have always been a big part of the republican presidential candidates, you know, for the better part of our lifetimes. it's different here with trump compared to bush with reagan, is that evangelicals largely view him as the greatest champion. they feel that he has delivered for them more than these other republican leaders. yes, roe versus wade, the supreme court that overturned roe versus wade was at the top of the list, but that list goes on and on. there are lots of policies that he has and his administration have implemented during his four years. putting evangelicals right in the center. it was effectively their wish list. >> stuart, your work on multiple republican campaigns for actual men of faith. have you ever seen anything

like this? >> no. you know, it's not uncommon for candidates to say that they think that god wants them to win. you know, this happened back when mitt romney was running, and someone close to romney observed that god was tracking. what happens when these people lose? does that mean that god was not for them? but look, i think there's something here that we really need to talk about, and that is race. the white evangelicals that are for donald trump, one of the biggest, strongest groups against thomas trump is the black evangelicals. i think it sort of raises a question, is it evangelical as much as it is about race? i know that there was an african-american gentleman there at the beginning, overwhelmingly, these are white rallies that are happening

here. you know, i believe that trump has always seemed a televangelist. there's something about him that -- so -- this is part of just -- when a party collapses, and it has no core, and it has no policy, it sort of becomes this article of faith that you have to believe in donald trump, because there's no policy here, there's no party that supports it. and i think this is very typical of autocratic movements. >> democrats clearly see this as an opportunity to attract voters, as none of this is rooted in truth, especially when they can get moderate or swing voters. can democrats actually take advantage of it in this age of misinformation? joe biden is an actual devout catholic, but you would never know it listening to all sorts of republicans talk about him.

stewart? >> look, i think most people are uncomfortable with this. i think that most people find it creepy. the majority of people. you know, there is this hard- core for trump that increasingly becomes demanding of you to break faith with what it means to be un-american, in an american tradition. if you go back to his announcement, that was really a declaration of war against the united states as we know it today. when he opens these rallies with not the pledge of allegiance of the united states, but these convicts now who are convicted for trying to overthrow the government, when they sing their own anthem, it sort of a separate world. this is happened with trump flags versus the american flag. and i think that that is intent, but i think it's reducing his appeal.

>> gentlemen, thank you so much. i appreciate you joining us tonight. always good to see you both. that is some extraordinary reporting. when we come back, he's one of the finest thriller novelists of our time, and now don winslow is retiring. why he's leaving the world of fiction for the very real world of political activism. when the 11th hour continues. more cash. you think those two have any idea? that they can sell their life insurance policy for cash? so they're basically sitting on a goldmine? i don't think they have a clue. that's crazy! well, not everyone knows coventry's helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. even term policies. i can't believe they're just sitting up there! sitting on all this cash. if you own a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. even a term policy. for cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. someone needs to tell them, that they're

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>> this is not an april fools joke. legendary author don winslow is officially retiring from publishing to focus on activism full-time. he warned us that this was coming two years ago. here's how he explained it to me at the time. >> i think that we are in an existential point in american democracy. we are in an existential crisis. i think we are going to move ahead as a country that guarantees rights for everybody, regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation, or we are going to fall back into the sort of shoddy, sorry fascism represented by trump and his imitators. >> well, i am thrilled to have don with us here tonight. the last novel of his extraordinary career is being released tomorrow. it is called city in ruins. you don't need me to tell you it is a must read. i can't believe this.

but the six books you have written, and you now say, i'm done. a lot has happened in the last two years since we last spoke. why have you said i am done with my storied career? and i could retire. i could relax on my ranch, but no, you're going to go full- time activism. why? >> because i am outraged. >> you are outraged a couple of years ago. >> i was remarkably calm last interview. can we speak plainly? let's do it. donald trump should have been taken out of the white house in handcuffs before the sunset on january 6th. and if he had been, if people had done the jobs that they were supposed to have done, we wouldn't be where we are now. and then the justice department spends a year dotting i's and crossing tees, and now donald trump gets to run out the clock on 91 counts on federal indictment, more than al capone, more than john gotti.

and now, he threatens judges, judges families, and the president of the united states. and i want to know why donald trump is not behind bars tonight ? >> you live in a pretty republican district in california. those people aren't members of the justice department. why do you think so many people still support him? >> because i think you make some people feel important that otherwise wouldn't feel important, and i also think that people get a lot of disinformation, which is something democrats need to be attacking. we need to be talking about the disinformation. we need to be talking about the violent rhetoric that trump uses. bloodbath? showing an image of the president in the back of a pickup truck hogtied? if you are out on bail for one

count of an indictment -- nevermind 91. let's say the average guy in rikers gets out on bail, he starts threatening the judge, and the judges family, where would that guy be tonight ? in prison. and the insanity of it is that donald trump could possibly win. that a trader -- yeah, i said it. a traitor to this country, a man who tried to overthrow the government of the united states , as a path to victory to become president again. and that's not only a national embarrassment, stephanie, that's a national disgrace. >> have you ever written a character, a villain like this? could you ever think that it would even be plausible? >> well, if it were a cartoon, no, i haven't. i wouldn't. >> and what you want the world to know? you are here in theory to talk about your book, but that's not

what you want to talk about. >> you're right. >> why do you want to do this? what is your message to this country? >> my message to this country is that we are on the brink. if this man is re-elected, a man totally devoid of honor -- maybe that's the thing i'm dislike most about him. no honor whatsoever. if he is re-elected, he's already told us where he is headed. we won't recognize this country for what it once was, the country that you and i grew up in. the country that we should be handing over to our kids. and the message i want to get out to my fellow democrats is, we need to get tough, we need to get organized, we need to fight, we need to speak in plain, tough language. we need to stop bringing a spoon to a knife fight. that is what we need to be doing. we have to be talking to blacks and latinos and reminding them that trump's history of

segregation goes back 50 years. 50 years. the indictments, right? charges against trump for not renting or refusing to rent to minority people. so this is nonsense. this is insanity, what we are doing. and democrats had better get tough, organized, and speak plain truth. >> thank you so, so much. congratulations on the book. austin butler will be playing -- i'm going to say the character that's you. >> because we look so much alike. >> so much. when we come back, local news getting a lifeline. one final story from one of our favorite people at nbc, harry smith when the 11th hour continues. continues. the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your

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>> the last thing before we go

tonight, a local paper lifeline. on friday, we very sadly said goodbye to our dear friend and colleague harry smith who is leaving nbc news after 12 years and tv news after decades of absolute excellence. but we wanted to make sure to air his final piece highlighting the importance of local news. watch this. >> at rowley's in central maine, many a customer digs in to the lewiston sun journal along with their breakfast. locals have relied on it since 1847, but like many a local paper, its future was anything but certain. >> it's been tough. i mean, it's no secret. advertising spending is down exponentially. our subscriptions are down. >> reporter: son publisher has lived in lewiston all her life. >> we did as much as we possibly could not to pull the

resources out, and everybody was tight. >> until last summer, when the sun journal, four other maine dailies and 16 weekly papers were sold to the not-for-profit national trust for local news. >> it was a huge relief. huge relief. the newsroom was static. they were so thankful. >> reporter: executive editor judy meyer introduced us around. a newsroom full of experienced journalists who knew exactly what needed to be done last october, when a gunman opened fire in a bowling alley and a bar here. >> almost everyone in this newsroom has bowled at that bowling alley. we know where it is. we know the people who are involved. and i think we approached it as, this is not a crime story, this is a crime against our community. >> a story the sun journal continues to work on five months later, long after the rest of us have left town.

as a local daily, high school sports drive interest, as does restaurant use. >> and we still run birth notices in our papers. who does that anymore? >> reporter: not everyone loves the paper, though. some elected officials, community leaders, they are like past. >> there's a lot of mischief that can go on in the dark, and that happens when you don't have local journalists keeping track of what is going on. >> reporter: they have relied on the sun journal for more than 175 years. thanks to the trust, they still can. and be assured, the delivery person that comes will see that you get your copy, even at your back door. >> thank you to the amazing harry smith for one last piece of good news to take us off the air tonight. and on that beautiful note, i wish you a very good night. all of our colleagues across the networks at nbc news, inks for staying