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welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. and today is the day actress stormy daniels taking the stand against donald trump in the trial today. she's the key witness. so prosecutors had an important goal here today, showing the jury that she's believable, that she's telling the truth, that the facts are on her side. and while defendant trump is not on trial for lying about the underlying encounter. that itself would not be a crime and is not charged, they want to use the d.a., this testimony to show this was the first of many lies by trump, trump of which if prosecuted are crimes. this is her chance to be heard in a legal process that has spanned years and often said has involved many claims about her at the center of this scandal. >> donald trump's personal attorney paid a porn star named stormy daniels to keep quiet about her alleged relationship

with the republican candidate for president. >> the former president accused of paying $100,000 in hush money to stormy daniels. >> stormy daniels became a household name for shaking the corridors of pow. >> everybody wants to hear what stormy daniels will say. >> riveting, bombshell, sometimes icy testimony from the woman at the heart of the first ever criminal trial of an american ex-president. >> as our colleague nicolle there put it there, riveting, bob shell, and icy all at once. the world knows the bob shell with stormy daniels is what catapulted the trial today. daniels finally speaking out as trump looked on today. we have those sketches and many reporters inside the room who viewed him as having a sour expression. today's testimony grew heated at

times with the judge getting angry and stormy daniels raising her voice to a degree that was described as yelling or almost yelling. daniels testified she didn't care about the money per se, but she wanted to get that payment deal done. if that is familiar it is a view she shared many years back when the story broke in 2018. >> was it a hush money to stay silent? >> yes. the story was coming out again. i was concerned for my family and their safety. >> i think some people watching this are going to doubt that you entered into this negotiation because you feared for your safety. they're going to think that you saw an opportunity -- >> i think the fact i didn't even negotiate, i just quickly said yes to this very, you know, strict contract and what most people will agree with me extremely low number is all the proof i need.

>> that is how daniels put it then. and there is this balance on the money side that was on display today because on the one hands she popped back up with her lawyer and took the money. on the other hand -- took the money for silence. on the other hand, there is the kind of view or feeling that there was a lot of other dirty work going on both during the rushed october payment but also afterward. and again, this is a business fraud and campaign case. so the after period could matter a lot. now, daniels says trump benefitted from the 2016 deal and that she understood his lawyer, michael cohen, to be acting on his behalf. now, her view does not settle the matter. other witnesses could be called insist trump was out of the loop. that's what his lawyers tried to say. again the jury is hearing her view as a key participant and hearing a lot more evidence suggesting trump was involved in

this and this all wasn't just sort of cooked up without him. daniels recounts the last time she saw trump was in 2007 and he seemed blase then about keeping their history secret. this is important again because it builds on the what the d.a. is tell. he didn't seem to be concerned people was finding about then daniels says under oath today. now, she was very explicit on the stand, and that included at times clearly offering more than what was asked. remember this is not some random conversation or dinner party chatter. this is a very narrow proceeding. i've told you how in some other days of the court they've had people from c-span come in because they couldn't get to an agreement what could be stipulated, and witnesses are supposed to respond to questions not just give speeches. this was the most potentially sensitive witness we're going to hear in the whole trial. for one point for example

daniels was detailing the feeling she had, her hands were shaking, she wanted to leave. i'm not saying it's not true, i am saying the judge at times thought she was going farther than what was right for the evidentiary testimony they had agreed upon. as a matter of fairness the case is about business fraud and the campaign. it is not about adjudicating the encounter itself. now, i would remind you trump's lawyers have been chided on other days for what they and their client have said or done, but today we saw something a little different. the judge, quote, angry with prosecutors. that's from one of our write ups from people watching over daniels testimony and directing prosecutors to avoid what was clearly, quote, unnecessary detail because we know the judge's view is some of that would have no legal point and could even be prejudicial. they were hammering prosecutors

arguing they said the only reason the government's asking some of these very personal questions aside from pure embarrassment is to inflame this jury. and the judge understood that concern and tried to narrow prosecutors or sustain objections, which again means you don't keep going down that road of questioning. the judge also rejected a bigger reach by the trump lawyers when they requested that they basically toss or stop the whole case with a mistrial motion. there were things that were better left unsaid the judge agreed in part with the logic there and said daniels was a little bit difficult to control, but that didn't get to the point, quote, where a mistrial would be warranted. now, prosecutors did try to talk to daniels about keeping her answers focused or short. there was also a tense cross exam from the trump attorney who asked am i correct you hate president trump, to which she

said, yes, and you want him to go to jail. daniels replied i want him to be held accountable. the idea there is to doing something we're going to see with both daniels and witnesses like michael cohen, which to participate them as so vindictive, so angry they're less than truthful. remember we talk about free speech and first amendment and your right to your views and opinions. these witnesses can have views of trump just like they can vote for or against him. but in the court of law they are not supposed to let those views infect or distort their actual under oath testimony about fact, what did or didn't happen. we're going to talk about that with our guests tonight, whether that could affect the jury at all, how credible they see even a very key witness like stormy daniels. they also asked about a goal of, quote, extorting trump. so that's a way to kind of push that defense, but daniels resisted that. you can see the exchange here. you were looking to extort money

for president trump, right, asked the lawyer. stormy daniels, false. trump lawyer continues, well, that's what you did. false, daniels said. this is one of the most explosive and emotional days we've seen in this trial yet, and it is clearly on the line. when i say on the line i don't mean in some sort of made up observation. i mean under the rules of the court and the reason the judge had to actually limit some of the testimony is that it was at, on, or sometimes over the line of how much of this was just stuff that sounds bad about trump -- and it might be true and sound bad but that's not enough to convict, and what was necessary to show according to the d.a. that they had a truthful witness who had this encounter and was paid off for it, and there was a cover up, and it was a campaign crime. we have vanity fairs molly jonfast and prosecutor to get back into this. we're back in 90 seconds. o this we're back in 90 seconds

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testified against former president trump on a story as we can see there that has been brewing for so many years. we're joined by molly jonfast and prosecutor mario renatti. this is striking testimony for the jury who certainly may not be up-to-date on everything. it certainly was wow testimony. do you think it did everything prosecutors needed it to do given the trial viewing as objectively as we can they certainly ran into more turbulence with the judge than any other day i can remember. >> they definitely made a judgment call here. and the judgment call they decided they wanted to show the jury why this testimony from her would be embarrassing to trump, why this story would be embarrassing. why trump had a motive to keep it all silent, why he was willing to put himself out there. why he was willing to take time

from his busy schedule as president to deal with this. they thought this vivid testimony would accomplish that. they may be right. i will say, though, upsetting the judge in the middle of a trial is not a good idea. because he did tell them on the front end do not get into details and they got into everything from the sexual position to whether there was birth control used and also was there a dawnedm used and so forth. but also the other issue, how is the jury going to react to this? i did say i thought stormy daniels came across in a way that's going to be very relatable for jurors, but i wonder if some members of the jury might dislike the level of detail that was solicited here. i think there may be some jurors that may react negatively to that. >> yeah, let me add to that point with some reporting for you and then molly will join. but just on that legal point "the new york times" reporting here says the judge's visible

disapproval, meaning the way we just reported this went back and forth, might be bad news for the prosecution. because when a judge seems impatient with a witness jurors can feel that as almost permission to feel the same way. and i would put it slightly differently but i think it's a valid point. i think what people forget day in and day out when your in this kind of trial the judge is the key authority the jury sees the lawyers are always fighting, these witnesses are paraded in and out. and i've been in this courtroom and i've found the judge generally to be quite measured comes off as kind of the referee, right, and when they go further and act like hey, woe whoa, it can shake the jury almost in ways lawyers wish it wouldn't. your thoughts on that and then

molly. >> i think that's right, ari. people forget sometimes what it's actually like to be in a courtroom for hours and hours. here we're in the courtroom and tips for interesting tidbits. they've got to go through a slog. they can't wait for lunch or can't wait to go home and be with their kids. for sure they are easily distracted. they often are just looking to the judge for cues. and i think, look, the judge is so important on multiple levels. we're in the middle of the nba playoffs, both sides are trying to work the refs. some are yelling and some are pleading with the ref. here you've got the ref pleading by your side hoping there was an interjection and at times intervening. not exactly the right move for the prosecution, not where you want to be as a prosecutor. >> molly? >> i think it would be really weird to have this story that you're telling as a trial and

not have the woman at the center of it and she's not a bad witness, and i think they were pretty careful with her. and this story tracks to other stories about trump. though the jury won't have that information, they will be able to sort of see her and hear her story. i also that that was true that she talked a lot, but then his lawyer went really hard on her, like really hard. and this some of this stuff he said to stormy really i think from some of the reporting i read that it might have affected the jury, that they felt pretty bad for her. i mean this is not -- this is a former president versus a woman who was an adult film actress/director. i mean this is not a fair fight. these two people are not occupying the same position in american life, and she is very much at a disadvantage. so i think she's a good witness, and i think more importantly she's sort of after someone like

pecker who didn't have that animus, to have have someone who was really involved and is the reason that they're there in the first place i think is important. >> yeah. and molly, when you look at that with regard to what i mentioned in our setup, the trump defense is michael cohen's lying, he set this up. everyone else is lying. oh, stormy daniels is lying, there wasn't any encounter. and while some of those people can only punch back without trump there in the room of the story meaning if it's a documents case you have people in trump world and elsewhere saying we viewed it as definitely trump, but a reasonable doubt might be, well, that's your view. and we've all seen situations and i've seen cases where people have genuine differences of -- a misunderstanding of something that happened. this part of the story, this lie, right, if they prove that he's lying is well, two people

were in the room and either they had this encounter, intimate encounter or not. and on that core point, do you think that the jury was able to see that she was telling the truth and was later paid to hide that truth rather than the more fanciful defense -- again, i try to cover things fairly, molly, but i don't have to pretend they're all equally reasonable theories. the more fanciful theory that she made this all up, and they paid her anyway, that's their defense. >> yeah. and there were little details like what she saw in his dog kit, what she saw in the bathroom, the gold toenail clippers. that kind of thing has been consistent throughout. she's been telling this story since 2017 whenever it came out. she really has been consistent all this time. but i also think the jury needs to see there's a human consequence to this. right, this is woman that while

she's made some money off it because she had to, i mean it wasn't like she could go into investment banking after that, she was sort of set -- she was sort of made famous by this and i think there's a real human cost. this is not how a lot of people would necessarily want to get famous. >> respect. yeah. i know what you mean. molly and renato, on one of the biggest days of testimony we've had, my thanks to both of you. we have a special show tonight barrelling through all of this including coming up why some of trump's critics say this testimony was about a whole lot more than a single criminal case. >> and nobody should be untouchable. it doesn't matter what your job description is, whether you're the president. >> here we are, and we as part of our special coverage have one of the very first journalists to speak with stormy daniels. this was back before trump ever woman any elections, and what she testified today. that's next. s, and what she testified today. that's next. we're talking about cashbacking. we're talking about... we're not talking about practice? no... cashbacking.

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a day many thought might never come, we are covering this trump trial with the stormy daniels testimony, her first time on the stand. we're joined by former sdny civil attorney maya wily. and veteran journalist, he was one of the first journalists to speak with stormy daniels all the way back in 2016. he was then editor-in-chief of slate. daniel shows weisberg at the time that nda agreement of course there wasn't even signed, but that was one of the slate items that was part of the evidence then that's become a big part of the criminal evidence now. thank you for being here. i want to jump right in, but i wanted to give that context because, jacob, you had those conversations then, and they came up in court today. daniels testifying she spoke to slate magazine, that's one of things i think she means you but we make it seem more formal. spoke to slate in 2016 about her sexual encounter with trump and

the magazine wasn't going to pay her for her story. you did not publish it at the time because you could not get her on the record or enough of the details. after the story went public you wrote about that, and you noted she went silent right before election day. a week before election she stopped responding to calls and texts. starting with you, jacob, it was in a way foreseeable some of your early reporting would come up, and all of this matters legally as they try to disentangle who bought her silence, who covered it up, and whether that is ultimately part of a campaign scheme. but first i give you the floor since you were invoked today. your thoughts. >> well, i wasn't in the courtroom today, ari, but i was following -- >> i'll jump in because i've got -- i think we got audio issues -- >> the testimony was remarkably

consistent. >> we've got a little bit of delay but try restarting because we lost you for a sec, but i think we have you now. >> okay, i hear you fine. her testimony today was remarkably consistent with what she told me in 2016. it was consistent on the facts. i think her feelings about what happened have changed. her description of being in the room with him, about -- what he was wearing, all of that totally consistent. but i think she now feels there was more of an element about in 2016. her deal was very blase, i had sex with donald trump, no big deal, it didn't affect me. now she seems increasingly unhappy about what happened.

she doesn't he forced her, he didn't her from leaving the room, but she didn't like what happened. that's the only element that i think is really significantly different from what i heard from her eight years ago. >> maya, your thoughts on all of that, and it's always a challenge if an incident is old enough -- there are many incentives in the law to try to deal with things recently. and even if they get old enough you're not allowed to deal with them. and yet it is fine from the court's view for her to have more feelings. she has been attacked and maligned, and people have human reactions to that, as long as her underlying account does not somehow become perjerous. >> yeah, the jury's job is decide the fact and decide which witnesses they believe or don't believe. so the most important thing is whether the facts are consistent because the job of the defense here is to suggest that stormy daniels was interested in money

and willing to lie for it or has had and changed her story over time for different reasons. and i think jacob's point is an important one, one that molly also made in a previous segment which is the consistency, and that is something that helps juries figure out who they want to believe. but i would say, you know, the most important testimony from a legal standpoint when you look at what facts matter most is the when she was asked on direct examination by prosecutors when the question was you try to sell your story and not getting a bite until that "access hollywood" tape, right? and that was basically the line of questioning, and she said, yeah, it was after the "access hollywood" tape that we started getting a lot of calls. and so when you really get to the root of the case, there is testimony after having established her, you know, what the prosecutor's job, her credibility in terms of the detail of her memory and the

case and why she should be believed is believe her when she says traffic picked up and the desire of donald trump and michael cohen to buy her story was after that "access hollywood" tape. >> right. and you mention the money, which was an issue, of course. she told prosecutors under questioning today, quote, the money didn't -- excuse me -- the money didn't matter to me. she said she didn't even pick the number. in cross they push back, well, you were looking to ectort president trump, right? and she says false twice. and jacob, money came up during your interviews as well. you wrote i told daniels slate did not pay sources but encouraged her to come forward without compensation. this statement she made today -- and again, the jury may care about this given this is a hush money case -- does also echo something she said before about her motivation. >> trying to keep the story from coming out so that it would not hurt my husband and my daughter.

and i wouldn't lose my life. and that there would be a paper trail and money trail linking me to donald trump so that he could not have me killed. all i had to do was sign this piece of paper and collect $130,000. >> so jacob, i think, again, being as fair as we can try to be, you can break it into two pieces. one is she telling the truth today, which is what the jury is instructed to care about. and two, was money ever a factor? in other words, it could have been a factor without it meaning that she's making anything up. the trump folks are trying to sort of muddy that. given the exchange your thoughts on the above. >> well, she definitely cared about money. i don't think she cared whether the money came from the press paying for the story or the money came from michael cohen to suppress the story. i think she thought this thing happened, the story has economic

value. and that was at the root of my argument when i sit with her is i wanted her to come forward and reveal the story without payment. and she said, no, this story is worth money and if you won't pay me for it, i think someone else will. i think she was simultaneously trying to negotiate with other media organization and with michael cohen. i think she was indifferent to what she got paid for it, that is whether to reveal it or her silence, but she thought the story had value. >> yeah, and maya, here's where we can be as transparent as possible. we've got lawyers and journalists all around. sometimes when we're working on a story in the press, people want things that we do not give them. i know there's plenty of cynicism about media, but we operate under nbc's standards and handbook. we have reviewed layers, lawyers. we don't buy stories. we don't make deals. we don't say, oh, if i can get you for the story and interview

then we won't bring up x, y, z. and that is sometimes why you lose out on a story particularly in british media if you go to a tabloid or tmz, they don't use those rules. >> or the national enquirer. >> clearly. but i mean let's talk about factually what they do or don't do. i'm talking specifically for the jury. for the jury i want to be clear that trump lawyers are trying to say if you wanted money and then you took money, then maybe you'll say anything for money. and she's sort of arguing, and i think by an extension the prosecutors are kind of arguing the opposite. the thing she had as jacob said, it may have had value in the marketplace quote-unquote economically, and so that thing was not a made up story. it was a provable or largely true story at least according to the d.a.'s side of the case.

untangle that for us, maya. >> yeah, i mean, just again the simplest terms, there's a big difference between extorting money and, which makes you someone who maybe is not as either likable or believable versus profiting from a story, right, and one of the things the jury has to decide is whether they believe her. or part of what the defense attorneys are trying to do and why, you know, it's a great cross-examination tactic we heard from defense attorneys is actually use the word extortion when what you're really saying is didn't you want to make some money? because there's a big difference between a story you can sell but it's a true story versus we're going to suggest you wanted today make money by any means necessary. and so it's a way of trying to cast dispersion on her character. doesn't actually matter why she wanted to make the money. it matters whether the story was

true. and that's why i keep going back -- and what parts of the story were true. our job as lawyers if you're the prosecutors is to establish the real point here was the unlawful interference in an election outcome, right? that's part of what prosecutors were trying to establish as motive. because there's nothing illegal in a hush money case. meaning there's no case in hush money. the case comes from falsifying business records and then why you falsified them and whether you were covering and concealing another crime. so that's why it's -- the defense tactic is the distraction of of extortion as sort of the red herring in the case suggesting she's not someone you should trust, meaning she's not someone you should believe. that's why i go back to the testimony on direct, which was the story picked up after that

"access hollywood" tape. that's the argument and motive for donald trump, they have to show his the intent. this was in a sense another example of evidence that was saying, yeah, and in in fact it did pick up as a sale when i was having trouble selling it before. >> yeah, that makes sense. i want to turn finally, jacob, to louisiana and the story of temperament which is interesting because you dealt directly with her, so i'm sort of talking with you but also our team in the control room. if we can jump down to something we cooked up from the louisiana section on her demeanor. prosecutors asked her at times to slow down so jurors could understand. they said tell the jury about growing up and life in louisiana. this, again, goes to the human side of testimony. i think we have her talking about that outside of court. let's take a listen. >> i grew up in this pretty rough neighborhood in batten rouge, lots of drugs, a lot of

violence. and my step mom, susan, who gifted me with my love of horses. my first horse show. i started riding horses when i was 11. >> just a little bit of the human being here rather than only defining her either public life or in court by this interaction although that's what makes her a witness. i'm curious anything you can tell us in court and coverage how that came across because anything from the speech patterns to slowing down and at the end of the day -- and i mean that quite literally the end of the day of testimony the jury says, yeah, this may not be a perfect person. they may not exactly relate to her, but is this a truthful person that i can understand, or do i dismiss this person? for example, between her and cohen you can imagine there may be jurors who find her more relatable than him. your thoughts on all that having dealt with her as a source. >> well, again, the consistency.

i remember in 2016 when she wanted to sell the story to slate. she said she needed the money because taking care of her horses was expensive. and i think her daughter was having riding lessons. and i said, oh, you have horses, and she ended up telling me about that. and that's a passion of hers. that's -- all of that goes to her truthfulness, i think. i think she's also a performer and i don't mean that in just a perjorative sense. she tells stories well. maybe that's part of her louisiana background. she has that kind of gift of gab, and i think she was up there on the witness stand, again, i didn't see it i read about it, but i think she started going into this mode where she's performing in a way, and that doesn't take anything away from the truthfulness. it's a narrative sense, which she's very good at, but i think she was also very nervous. and that probably accounted for her talking really quickly. and how the jury will read all

that, anybody's guess. >> well, you got a new york courtroom with a reality tv star turned president and actress on the stand and a bunch of loud lawyers. yes, there might be some unavoidable performative moments. i think that's fair. but all this is interesting. and both of you i think being very thoughtful and fair about the history, what we know, and what this jury might make sense of it about. jacob and maya, thanks to both of you. still ahead we turn to whole other aspect of all this, which is in the ensuing years when the "access hollywood" came out to the presidency of donald trump and the me too movement, there is a wider thing happening here. and we have a very special guest on all of that next. a very spect on all of that next. there are places you'd like to be. like here. and here. not so much here. farxiga reduces the risk of kidney failure

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the king has been dethroned. he's no longer untouchable. >> he, himself, was nothing. it was an astonishing discovery for me. he's nothing. we don't need to be afraid of him. >> and nobody should be untouchable. it doesn't matter what your job description is, whether you're the president. >> it's now about fighting for all women. >> women who dealt with donald trump and then faced him down in court, that's the wider context for stormy daniels key testimony today as a witness. and we're joined by a special guest on what is a big legal day

here. nancy erica smith is a civil rights attorney who's represented many women including gretchen carlson in her case against fox news. welcome back. >> thank you, aaron. >> we thought of you today. very curious what you thought of the testimony, but we thought of you more broadly because of what we just saw there from carol, from daniels, from others is part of a shift from donald trump's political life and electoral college victory in '16 helped catalyze. all of your thoughts welcome now on both today's testimony and big picture. >> well, thank you. i was very impressed with stormy daniels testimony, although it's outrageous we americans can't watch it live. it's really outrageous. it's our courtroom. it's our public courtroom, and this is a historic and important trial, and it only helps donald trump that we can't watch it. but i do think it's very, very wonderful that it may be women like e. jean carroll and stormy

daniels who are incredibly brave to take on maga, to come forward and tell their stories. you know, women always from the beginning of time have been accused of lying about the abuse that men heap on us from the beginning of time. and the judiciary from the beginning of the judiciary has failed women hoshably. it used to be you couldn't claim you were raped unless you screamed enough. it's only recently in some countries it's illegal for a husband to rape his wife. and there's this basic belief that women are lying that the weinstein verdict is an incredible travesty. overturning that important jury award because modus operandi has been admissible for the beginning of time. >> sure. >> if you have a certain way of abusing women just like if you have a certain way of being a

serial killer, it should be something that the jury has a right to hear. there's a big difference between he said, she said, which is how it's always portrayed. and he said, she said, she said, she said. so i think that while we've made some headway, and i really admire e. jean carroll and stormy daniels for what they're doing, the pearl clutching and the mistrial motions and some of the commentators saying, well, you know, she went too far when she said he blocked the door, why are we always sigh lnsing women? why can't we put total context why donald trump would break the law so that the american people never heard this? >> right. i mean the judge had that view because this is not technically a sexual assault case, conviction overturned on grounds as you mentioned and

commentators seizing on that and may be the powerful structure that allows men to victimize women may still be in place. trump's new york lawyer that was initially on it when we had him on was making the argument this will all backfire. take a listen. >> if they bring this case, i believe this will catapult him into the white house, because this will show how they're weaponizing the justice system. they're taking the vote out of the voter's hands. >> joe, that's not relevant is it? >> relevant to what? >> his innocence. >> now, if they bring this case because he's innocent, this will catapult him to the white house. >> the court isn't supposed to care that he's a candidate, but the voters do. and so i'm curious that claim, how you respond to that and that view this kind of case with this kind of allegation at its heart is somehow helpful to him

officially. >> i can't believe it's helpful to him. he has brought us the supreme court that overturned roe v. wade. he's been found guilty of rape of e. jean carroll. and now he's paid hush money in order to hide after the "access hollywood" tape -- to hide another sexual event that he didn't want the public to have. and if he didn't think if it was relevant, why did he bring the accusers of bill clinton to the debate with hillary clinton? he clearly thought it was going to affect the election. and the whole fake invoices going to the convicted felon weisselberg to pay off his lawyer, pretending it was for legal fees, it's all illegal. the thing is that donald trump should have been in jail decades ago. and he's gotten away with everything. and the idea that how -- if you ever hold donald trump

responsible and accountable for anything he's done, that maga is only going to really go crazy and put him in the white house, i don't believe that. donald trump keeps saying that his great maga supporters are being kept from out of new york and they can't cheer him on. they're not there. it's just another lie. the wall street -- now, "the washington post" found he told 30,000 lies just while he was president. i don't believe that. i don't believe that women -- and i know that white women helped put him in the first time although he lost by 3 million votes the first time, and i think 17 million the second. >> seven. >> but i don't think we'll allow it. >> we want to hear from you especially on a wider context on a day like today. thanks for coming back. i'll see you again. now is rikers island ready to handle trump if he's imprisoned? stay with us. imprisoned? stay with us

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people minimizing or forgetting the holocaust. >> we grieve, we give voice to the 6 million jews who were systematically targeted and murdered by the nazis. the terrorist group hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the jewish people since the holocaust. i have not forgotten nor have you, and we will not forget. we have seen a ferocious surge of anti-semitism in america and around the world. let's rise against hate, and god bless the victims and survivors. >> that's just some of the pred's remarks at the holocaust memorial, a memorial to deal with facts, that just with bigotry against black americans and muslims and other groups, involve propaganda and lies. as mentioned, we'll be right back with that news about trump and the possibility of going to the rikers jail.

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trump has been warned about being sent to jail by the trial judge again, and today, the norm mayor was asked about it all. take a look. >> they were talking about how he might end up in jail, if he continues to violate the court orders. is rikers prepared for that? >> our amazing commissioner, she is prepared for whatever comes on rikers island. we don't want to deal with a hypothetical, but they're professionals. they'll be ready. >> the new york mayor without fanning the flames says they are ready for whatever the judge decides. you can bet trump's lawyers are listening. that does it for us on a very big news night for nbc. keep it locked. we have special coverage starting with "the reidout" with joy reid. tonight on "the reidout" -- >> i have seen him naked. he's -- there's no way he could