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in the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts right now. tonight, michael cohen's cross-examination. donald trump's defense team is trying to paint him as motivated by revenge and money. plus, what the former president's entourage said outside the courtroom. then president biden announces new tariffs. what it means for the economy and the campaign. and it january 6th takes center stage in tonight's primaries. an officer who protected the capital and a convicted rioter are both on the ballot as the 11th hour gets underway on this tuesday night. good evening, once again, i'm stephanie ruhle live from washington, d.c. and we are now 175 days away from the election. and today at donald trump's criminal trial in new york, defense attorneys got their chance to go after trump's former fixer, michael cohen. the defense tried to portray cohen as obsessed with the desire for revenge against donald trump himself.

here is my colleague, laura jarrett, with more. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump's defense team tearing into the prosecution's star witness, suggesting mr. trump in self-described fixer turned critic michael cohen is out for revenge on his former boss. do you want president trump to get convicted in this case, trump attorney todd blanche asking? sure, cohen responded. cohen recently thing the former president belongs in a cage, like an animal. the defense trying to cast cohen as motivated to lie, that he previously fed prosecutors dirt on mr. trump to get out of prison early, and that now his financial livelihood including media appearances and podcasts centers on trashing mr. trump. cohen acknowledging he has made more than $3 million office books, disloyal and revenge, and that he had been going on tiktok six days a week to slam his former boss to paid subscribers, saying of his past praise of mr. trump, at the

time, i was knee-deep in the cult of donald trump. the defense getting cohen to admit he previously described himself as obsessed with mr. trump, insinuating he was jilted once pushed outside the trump orbit. the state case largely depending on jurors depending cohen's word, as he is the only witness who said the former president knew his internal records were falsified. to cover up cohen's payment of an adult film actress before the 2015 election. mr. trump has pleaded not guilty to those low-level felony charges. >> had a very good day. i think we are exposing this scam for what it is. thank you very much. >> reporter: earlier today, the prosecution questioning cohen, who told the jury these invoices seeking repayment for services rendered in 2017 were false records, and that the retainer agreement he references never existed. prosecutors guiding cohen through check after check with the retainer language included, all false statements, he said, because they weren't for valid legal fees, but reimbursements for the hush money.

cohen describing a meeting with mr. trump at the white house in 2017 where he posed with this picture. cohen says they discussed mr. trump reimbursing him for paying off stormy daniels, an arrangement developed by trump organization cfo allen weisselberg months earlier. i was sitting with president trump and he asked me if i was okay. he asked if i needed money, i said no, i'm all good. he said because i can get a check. i said no, i'm okay. he said all right, just makes you deal with alan.: testifying later he was frightened when the fbi raided his office in 2010, saying mr. trump told him don't worry, i'm the president of the united states, stay tough. which cohen took to mean don't flip. but cohen says he turned against mr. trump after consulting with his family. my wife, my daughter, my son all said to me we are supposed to be your first loyalty. cohen has been disbarred and convicted of lying under oath. tonight the defense zeroing in on his mother's.

trump attorney blanche asking cohen if he was motivated by fame. cohen responding that is not fair to say. blanche then quoting this excerpt from cohen's book, saying i wanted it all, power, the good life, public acclaim, fame. those are my words, cohen said, yes. the trial will resume thursday morning when the defense is set to continue his cross- examination of michael cohen. with that let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. i have some great friends here in d.c. with me. pulitzer prize-winning investigator with the washington post. former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. in a federal prosecutor for the eastern district of michigan. her new book, attack from within, how disinformation is sabotaging america is out now. all right, what stuck out to you in this cross-examination?

>> what stuck out to me is that former prosecutors don't make particularly good defense attorneys. take it from a former prosecutor, i would never pretend i could do a searing cross-examination. why is that? prosecutors deal with what is. defense attorneys deal with what could've been, what might've been, what should've been. they have to be creative, they have to think outside the box when they are trying to tear down the building that the prosecutors figuratively are trying to build. todd blanche, i don't think, did a very effective job. but you know, the prosecutors did a great job of drawing the state. that is fronting all of the weaknesses in michael cohen, the person he is, the witness he is, because they rented the fact that he is a liar, he is a perjure or, he is a convict. he did all these horrible things. so then, when todd blanche started saying wait a minute, mr. cohen, you're a liar, the jury is probably thinking to itself the prosecutor told us all this already. i don't think blanche was the most effective cross examiner. >> what you think about that?

this is lance's only second criminal trial as a defense attorney. that is almost amazing to me, that donald trump would choose someone. even if blanche has a great reputation, the fact that he has never done this specific thing. >> i do agree with lynn that prosecutors tend to get a lot more practice on direct examinations and his defense attorneys who do more cross examinations. nonetheless, he was probably aggressive the way trump wanted him to be. i thought some of his aggressiveness really failed to land, the way he came out of the box with the very first question about an insult but cohen made on tiktok about blanche himself. and that drew an objection and a rebuke from the judge who said this isn't about you, mr. blanche. so i thought that was a really awkward way to start, and one that really just did not land. as the prosecution has already portrayed, michael cohen is not a nice guy.

people within the trump family and the trump organization described many of his flaws already, and i think that it may be that they are going, instead of the targeted, laserlike approach, they are going for the wear him down approach. maybe that will happen, but i didn't think they got into many licks on day one. >> michael cohen knows where all the bodies are buried. next allen weisselberg, cohen is a number two. if donald trump could do the whole thing over again, do you think you would've done more to keep cohen in the family? >> one of donald trump's absolute worst mistakes in this setting, according to michael cohen, was to quibble about repaying and paying michael cohen's legal fees. while he was under investigation. remember, michael cohen gets his home raided by the fbi, his wife and his children are sort of freaking out, saying dad,

what's going on. his phone and his computer are taken. and then he stopped hearing from trump world, and there is some bickering about paying his legal fees. a lawyer whose office is right around the corner basically gets silenced, and that is when michael cohen starts to wonder am i on the outs? am i no longer in? and he begins to cooperate with the feds. >> along those same lines, it is fair to say that both the civil fraud trial in this one largely happened because cohen flipped on trump. >> yeah, cohen is important. i mean, i would go so far as to say he is an essential witness. all of the other testimony from the and the stormy daniels, and the hope hicks, and all the corroboration by checks that donald trump was writing out of the oval office to reimburse michael cohen. the false ledger entries, the emails, the text entries.

they are great, they are important. but michael cohen is really essential. he is the one who gets the direct out of donald trump's mouth. and i think he is been corroborated in enough ways that they were ready to accept and credit his testimony by the time he hit the stand. >> let's go back to the scene that carol just said. the last time michael cohen said he spoke to donald trump was 2018 when the fbi raided his home. in the hotel room. and trump called him on the phone and allegedly said don't worry, i'm the president of the united states, stay tough. that is a staggering quote, if true. but does it help the prosecution? it because there is the if true, his word against trump's. >> i think so. nobody has to like michael cohen here. whether he is loyal to donald trump or not loyal to donald trump.

for by many accounts he is a despicable person. but i think the way the prosecution will use that and say you bet he is a despicable person, and he is the person that donald trump chose to be his fixer and work for him closely as his personal attorney. donald trump was the person who chose michael cohen to be with him. but i think that book that you just gave suggests that this was an enticement to michael cohen, to be loyal and to work with me. and if the jury believes that happened, they could suggest that when michael cohen became disloyal, the opposite became true. which explains, i think, the rift between them. one of the things todd blanche tried to do today with say hey, in 2013 you said trump was great. and in 2016 you said trump was great. yeah, that's what i was working with him and i don't think that anymore, because he abandoned me, he isolated me. so i decided to confess to my own crimes, i decided to cooperate, and now i don't believe he's a great guy anymore.

>> do you think this could blow up in the prosecution space? i mean, todd blanche is painting cohen, we have all laid it out, as a thug and a liar, and beyond a trump loyalist. carol and i both covered trump back in the day, and i can tell you first hand, michael cohen was impossible to deal with. he was like a human gangster shield for trump. and by the way, he loved that gangster persona. he was desperate to be super important. he has since turned. what if the jury only believes the first half? >> you know, you ask could this blowup in the prosecution space? first of all, there is no such thing as a sure win. a short guilty verdict. take it from someone who had plenty of not guilty verdicts in his career. but here's the thing.

everybody else suffered all the consequences. we think he is part of this criminal conduct. and i think that common sense may help win the day. >> do you really need to believe michael cohen, to your grade point? do you really need to believe michael cohen is a great guy, and a truthful person, to look at all of those checks written for a phony retainer agreement that clearly michael cohen didn't have? that is just demonstrably false. and who was signing the checks? as you pointed out, from the oval office, starting in 2017. donald trump. it sort of strains credulity that a man, regardless of what his moral value is, regardless of how annoying --

>> let's talk about the work he was doing. >> regardless of how bullying he was from you and me on the phone at time to time, and other reporters. he confessed to crimes and went to prison for a series of events that involve this. this transfer of funds from donald trump. and there is no way there isn't a crime being committed on the other side of the ledger. >> donald trump had another entourage of high-profile defenders at the trial today. it was extraordinary. the first few days of the trial, no one, zero, not a family member, not a friend, not a spouse. now it is like the gop all- stars. today the speaker of the house had nothing better to do, nothing in d.c. but to go and sit in the courtroom with trump. one of trump's primary opponents was there. is this sort of a strategy to get closer to trump, or is this

part of a strategy to get around the gag order on trump? he cannot go after the judge or the jurors or the judges family , but maybe these jokers can. >> yeah, and fact, senator tupper built made a comment that was really quite similar. he said he was going because he wanted to take a stand against the gag order. what exactly does that mean? it doesn't mean that they are there to violate the gag order? that they are taking their cues or orders from donald trump? you know, he's not allowed to say these things, and in fact, he has been ordered not to direct others to say things. but as michael cohen has testified, we know what he wants us to say. we know what he wants us to do. he wants us to defend him. so it could very well be that they are there either because they see it in their own political best interest to do that, they want to help donald trump, they want to intimidate michael cohen, i don't know what it is. but today they were all in unison saying almost identical

things about this trial. so it is hard to imagine that this is some grand coincidence that they all showed up on the same day and said the same things. >> they didn't just show up on the same day and say the same thing, they were all wearing the exact same outfits. we actually have that sound bite. let's play it. >> hopefully we have more and more senators and congressmen to go up every day and represent, and overcome this gag order. that is one of the reasons we went, to be able to speak rp's for president trump. >> there he is saying it. at what point does the start actually bump up against a line of violating the gag order? >> well, donald trump is prohibited from threatening witnesses or jurors, or directing somebody to do it. do we really think we are going to have evidence, anyone is going to go on record to say yeah, he directed me to do it?

no, they are doing donald trump's bidding. but what a difference 50 years makes. because in 1974 the congressional republican leadership marched to the white house and told the republican president resign or be impeached by a rum party. 50 years later, some of the congressional republican leadership marched to a new york courthouse and stood outside and stood by a republican former president. this is mike johnson announcing we are all in, we are the pro crime party. >> liz cheney actually called out speaker johnson for showing up to support trump. she said she is surprised he wants to be in the quote i cheated on my wife with a porn star club. meanwhile, johnson says he is working to rein in what jack smith is doing. do you think democrats who saved mike johnson's job are starting to have second thoughts? >> i'm sure they were always worried about whether or not that was a good idea.

i mean, what is mike johnson standing for? and i'm not picking aside with liz cheney or with donald trump. but what is mike johnson standing for their, by going outside a courthouse and saying this is a sham? i question whether or not these are real jurors. i question whether this is an appropriate way to pursue this case. i think this is all a scam. i'm paraphrasing, of course. he also, steph, almost verbatim repeated the claims that trump was sanctioned for about the judge's daughter, claiming that she is a westernized democrat, making money off of this. >> none of which is true. >> but interestingly, to choose those words and that exact thing of attacking a judge's daughter. i sure hope nothing happens to any of the judge's family members after this. >> you realize just saying that, you sound like we are talking about a mob trial. i sure hope nothing happens to

the judge's family. you realize, we do need to take a moment and realized how crazy that is. >> but remember, we have lived this already. the ei field office in cincinnati, if i am remembering that right, was attacked the day after donald trump said that the raid on his home was the fbi inappropriately targeting him. you know, the incredible liberal polls at the fbi were coming for him because he was a republican future candidate. so it is not like these actions and these statements and this whipping of rhetoric doesn't have consequence. >> we lived it, but we still can't normalize it. carol, glenn, barbara, thank you so much. when we return, joe biden's sweeping new tariffs on chinese goods, including electric cars. what is intensifying the trade fight with trump. and later, it is primary night in three different states. and july 6, of all dates,

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powering progress. >> i am announcing new tariffs in key sections of the economy that will be sure that workers are not held back by unfair trade practices. bottom line, i want fair competition with china in that conflict. today president biden announced new tariffs on chinese imports.

the administration is targeting electric vehicles, solar cells, steel, and aluminum. the president also hit back on the former guy for his handling of china. >> trump said today china is eating our lunch. what do you say in response? >> he's been feeding them a long time. >> let's break it down with the founding partner and reporter at puck news, who writes about silicon valley and the impact those tech giants are having on our world. and ask u.s. political reporter, my dear friend, hans nichols. is this a smart thing in terms of timing for the white house to get ahead of trump and republicans criticism of biden in china? >> i don't know of the timing. they have been telegraphing this for a while. there is a big debate inside the administration about whether or not you wanted to actually lift trump's tariff or embrace them. and they eventually workshop a place to get the entire

government on the same page. everyone is rowing in the same direction. >> janet yellen has been a ton of time on this. >> and yellen did come back on this. a year ago the arguments were let's reduce some terrorists because they are inflationary. now you ask are they not theoretically inflationary? now it is just such a small section of the economy, they are not really inflationary. the got to a place they wanted to be. they roll this out in two charges. first they talked about 18 billion in tariffs on electric vehicles, solar panels. all the protectionist policies the joe biden wants to really run on. and a day later they quietly had the u.s. tariffs and said we are keeping all of trump in tariffs. this is really a two step dance. they keep the trump tariffs, but they're making them tougher, targeted, more strategic, more surgical. whatever phrase you want to use, that is what biden wants to say about it. now we all except tariffs are a tool of the u.s. government policy. bipartisan consensus. >> how are the tariffs going to

impact the industry? >> let's take a leisure vehicles, for instance. there are a ton of people, including elon musk, who feel that the u.s. government has not been pro-tesla enough. pro-ev enough. now elon musk would feel slighted that joe biden would not even mention his name for a really long time. now, the politics, as hans is pointing out, you cannot ignore that. the fact that there is an election happening right now where trump has designed himself in the last four years as more pro-american companies, more pro-electrical vehicles, even more pro-elon musk. now you have biden who can outflank him on production, outflank him on the upside of tariffs. and you cannot ignore that part of this. >> but trump can always go further to write on china. trump is always willing to escalate on china. so biden wants the story quadrupled on the ev tariffs, 100%. donald trump says i will go to 200%. biden talks occasionally about

having tripling the tariffs on steel and aluminum. trump wants to do 60% across- the-board. so yes, it does seem as though he is trying to protect himself from the attack. immunize, if we are going to use the terminology from a couple years ago. but trump can always escalate. especially with china, especially when you look at some of these core emotional issues that trump has somehow been able to put his finger on. it seems like he can always go one step further. could be wrong, it just seems like it. >> let's talk about elon musk. because joe biden has definitely not gone out of his way to extend any olive branch to elon musk. he did not invite him to the white house when they did an electric vehicle summit. but in terms of policies, joe biden has done a ton for electric vehicles. look at all the batteries, the charging stations that are being built. elon musk is no friend of joe biden. he is clearly in trump camp.

but if you think about the maga universe, they think ev is for wimps. >> elon musk is not thinking about electric vehicles when he is thinking about joe biden. that might've been true years ago at the beginning of the biden administration. i think of the forces around elon musk are not any different than the forces that are around your average maga voter in ohio. >> or your ceo . >> and according to my reporting and people i've talked to in his circle, he is incensed about the border. more than any other issue. and that is not driven by his personal experiences there. he obviously has a lot of business in texas. but this is a creature of the internet. this is the person who is influenced by the 100, 200 people who he follows on twitter who are part of his personal network and his group chats on signal, and i would not understate the amount of energy that he is going to spend on politics, whether that is in front of the camera, or

behind it. he, reported, has been spending a lot of time egging on other leaders to get involved in politics and vice versa. there are a lot of major leaders across silicon valley who want to see elon and his $200 billion fortune aimed like a bazooka at joe biden. and that is going to be one of the big questions i am thinking about in silicon valley over the next six months, how prepared is elon musk to actually act on his impulses which, at this point, are pretty right-wing? >> and the biden white house is working on swaying more and more ceos. he reported on a dinner that just happened. >> look, a little of that is protected by the biden administration. they want to make sure the ceos don't come out three or four months later and say why haven't you ever invited us to the white house? >> okay, but that's what every president does. do you remember all of those, when president trump, how many ceo summits? it is a show. >> yeah, you know the ceos

better than i do. they like having their calls returned, they like coming to the lighthouse. they like telling people that the president, not a surrogate, they like telling people the president called me today. >> i think it is more like i was talking to joe earlier. it is a trick people do in washington where they always referred to a senator as their first name. i was talking to john. you mean senator kerry? that is something they like to do. the broader issue with ceos that the white house needs is that they need them to stay confident about the economy. they need them to keep spending and keep investing. as you look at the amount of public money they have put in through chips, i.r.a., the bipartisan infrastructure act. a lot of money coursing throughout the economy. but they want to be mash with private dollars so you get a multiplier effect. we can talk about holes, we can talk about all these things here in may. the one thing they are looking at inside the white house is what is the fed going to do and what is the economy going to

do? because that is the big potential change in the selection in the next five months. >> before we go, melinda gates stepping down from the gates foundation. why? >> i think a lot of this has to do with her assessing the political impact she could have over the next six months. melinda gates and bill gates were sort of royalty for a long time across the globe. they have power akin to foreign governments. >> what are you talking about? >> melinda and bill for a long time when i do politics. decades long policy. melinda has, according to people i have talked to, been very influenced by her kids and she is believing that she has one life and the election is in six months. i think she could be a huge player over the next few months. >> reproductive rights are a huge issue for her. >> yet, although she also supports some women who are republicans who are not necessarily pro-abortion access. she believes this is a once-in- a-lifetime threat to american women into democracy.

i think she could very well be a huge force in the 2024 election. >> quick question, who spends more on the campaign? elon musk or melinda gates? >> i will say undisclosed, elon musk. disclosed, melinda. a >> that is the best answer ever. that is also completely accurate. gentlemen, thank you both for being here. if i don't see you, have a great weekend. when we come back, polls are closed in west virginia, maryland, and nebraska. we are getting into tonight's primary results and what it can mean for november when the 11th hour continues. hour continues. get a light scent that lasts with no heavy perfumes or dyes. ( ♪ ♪ ) when you have chronic kidney disease, there are places you'd like to be. like here. and here. not so much here.

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primary elections are underway in several states this evening, and january 6th has taken center stage. in west virginia, convicted rioter derek evans lost his race against the gop incumbent carol miller. and in maryland, former capitol police officer harry dunn, who defended the capital on january 6th lost his congressional bid to maryland's youngest female state senator. for more i want to bring an nbc white house correspondent mike manley. you know him because he has covered the president for over a decade, and his family and his inner circle. and political reporter for semaphore. and not in d.c. with us tonight, but back in new york, is wanita tolliver, host of the what a day podcast. what are your thoughts on

tonight's races? there were some surprises here. >> a couple of surprises here, but i feel like looking to west virginia specifically, there seems to be a barometer on how maga is too extreme for voters. because we have someone like derek evans running who really campaigned as a prisoner after confessing to live streaming his entering the capital building on january 6th. it shows the voters really weren't down for that. i think it is also important to point out that carol miller did also vote with trump, a large percentage of the time. including voting against certifying the election results in 2020. so it doesn't show that she is not on the same path as far as questioning the election results, but it is the degree to what she took her actions. and i think that is something listed out to voters. when i think about harry dunn's race, i think there is absolutely a place in politics for him. he is a demonstrated servant

and leader. i think his race was extremely crowded, and what he did show that he was a prolific fundraiser, even though that was neutralized, what sarah had going for her that was her proximity to community. she had been representing voters in that district since 2018 and i think that is something, paired with name recognition, that really shone through in maryland three. >> and dave, what were some of your takeaways? we did not talk maryland, angelo also brooks. >> well, david spent his own money from his total fortune, $62 million of it. you could detect some fatigue from democratic voters who had seen a lot of him and were not convinced that he was as inspiring as angela. the state has never elected a black female senator, or a black senator, period. in harry dunn's race, there was

not an animus towards him, that he raise a lot of money and did not have deep ties to the district, despite his story. that was a neutralized advantage. people were not as impressed. but maryland voters, and this is a closed primary, very educated voters in montgomery county, and then in and around baltimore were not impressed by the candidates who spent the most time introducing themselves again and again with more generic messaging. >> let's talk about that closed primary. it was a closed primary, yet 20% of the gop primary voters didn't vote for donald trump, they voted for nikki haley who dropped out, what is that, two months ago? >> 70 days. 10 weeks, steph, since nikki haley dropped out of the republican primary. and she is still getting one fifth of the vote in nebraska. >> and you can't say it is democrats who just slid over. >> this is something that the biden team is watching very closely. be not in a blue state like

maryland, maybe not in west virginia, a solidly republican state. and nikki haley got 10% of the vote there, which is a good showing. but they are watching very closely the nikki haley vote that has come up in sylvania, wisconsin, and michigan. the critical battleground states this fall. they're going to be committed getting to those voters. they have gone up with paid media in each of those states right after the republican primaries to try to court the nikki haley voter to bring them over to president biden. and the biden campaign pointing out donald trump is the nothing to try to win these voters over. when we know how close those dates are going to be, the nikki haley voters could be the difference in a close election. >> what is your take on that? >> i am completely fine with the biden campaign trying to go after these nikki haley voters, considering how much of a margin she has had. 70 days, and she is still pulling 20, 25% of voters across the country. so i think that is completely fine for the biden campaign to go after her. but i have to add a clause to that, as long as it is not at

the expense of reassuring democratic voters and shoring up his base. president biden can't take anything for granted in this race. while he is out there creating an on-ramp for those disaffected republicans who absolutely can't stomach trump, he also needs to make sure he is investing heavily with that big cash advantage that he has over donald trump, and making sure the democrats are with him. i am talking about voter contacts on the ground, in person, digitally, on television, every which way. because he absolutely needs to make sure that he shores up his base as he expands. >> that takes me directly to my next question, because there is a new poll from the new york times that suggests that rfk is drawing from voters who usually back democrats. why is this happening? >> it is joe biden's unpopularity. specifically, unpopularity with younger voters, with male african-american voters, with latino voters. their frustration with the economy, and there is a sense,

this comes up in some of the interviews, a sense that kennedy is a change and he is speaking the things they care about. the biden campaign is talking a lot of time talking about its economic agenda. it's record, it's housing plans, stuff like that. it has been outplayed a little bit on social media by kennedy, who is reaching out to nontraditional media sources. he is reaching out on tiktok, on podcasts, very directly to voters. his answers are always consistent, but they are new. and he is not joe biden or donald trump. so he has appeal to those more disaffected younger male voters, especially. >> the biden campaign, really, you can see what the priorities are the moment. that is solidifying the democratic base. you are going to see the president spend a lot of time this week speaking to black voters specifically. he will be sitting down with the divine mind, he is giving that commencement and morehouse college. they have a new adit today

talking about the economy specifically to black voters. there is a point in the race with a pivot to a broader general election audience, those swing voters in a much wider scale. the other thing to look for, and we talked about january 6th in the vote tonight, june is going to be a big month for the democracy and freedom pillar of the biden campaign message. traveling overseas, he is going to be talking about the strength of our alliances. we are looking at the supreme court with potentially major rulings on abortion rights, on immunity with former president donald trump. so you will see the biden campaign really hitting that message hard in the weeks ahead. >> i feel like i can guess your answer here, but if you are the biden campaign, how do you address this? where do you put your efforts? is it in those younger voters who may be now leaning towards rfk? or do you go for those nikki haley voters that you think you can convince? >> i would prioritize shoring up the base before everything else, steph. i think that the biden campaign might be looking at this race very similar to 2020, right? it was a come-from-behind race,

it was a choice election and the threat of trump being in office was enough to motivate voters. but i think biden is also working against a couple of factors happening right now, whether it is gaza and youth voters reacting negatively to his policy on that, i understand that the administration has just approved another batch of resources and munitions for israel in spite of what they said just a few days ago about pausing. as well as other issues around the economy. so i think that he has a lot to keep his eyes on, but we also know he has some advantages here. cash advantage. he is not in a courtroom four days a week. he has freedom of movement and autonomy over his time. so i think that as he, again, has to do both. it is not an either or, it is a yes and. shore up the base and expand and make sure you pick up those disaffected voters, those republicans who just can't stomach voting for trump.

>> all right them, wanita, mike, dave, thank you all for being here. when we come back, a story you may have heard about. and if you haven't, you should. because people are talking about it everywhere. how a single social media posts and some stocks of companies that made absolutely no sense skyrocketing to the moon today again. you know what we are talking about. good old meme stocks. when we come back.

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it is time for our djt tracker. president trump media stock. finish the day up more than 3% closing at a little over $53 a share for no good reason. it certainly appears to be the greatest legal strategy to curry favor with someone who could potentially be president. we will keep a close eye on trump's media stock and make sure you know what is really going on. and apparently, this week, meme stocks are having a moment yet again. meme stocks, remember them? shares of amc and game stop are rallying thanks to one single post on social media. you got to hear this story. here is my colleague christine romans. >> reporter: this picture on social media posted by a guy called roaring kitty after nearly three year of silence did this on wall street. >> gamestop which is soaring another 57% this morning. over seven million shares a volume. >> reporter: amc and blackberry

joining gamestop. >> there is no fundamental reason for them suddenly to move 70%. it is a speculative run. >> absolutely. there is no fundamental reason for some of them to be worth what they were last week. >> reporter: an echo of 2021. when unloved stocks like game stock soared as much as a thousand percent propelled a cult like social media following of this guy. >> the first stock i will talk about is gamestock. >> reporter: that is roaring kitty featured in the movie dumb money which told the story of those amateur investors sticking it to the wall street pros. >> how much did we make today? >> 5 million. >> how much did we lose? >> a billion. >> reporter: it wasn't just a get rich quick scheme. they also championed what they saw as a revolt against wall street. but the real way to beat wall street is to get rich slowly. >> what wall street hates isn't a meme stock. they hate people basically buying and holding index funds,

being very passive. doing the financially smart things that work over decades. >> reporter: for most investors, boring is better. choose low cost index funs. keep management fees to a minimum and check your retirement accounts twice a year. >> boring is better but not for the meme stock boys. i just want to put this in perspective for you. gamestop is now currently worth more than walgreens. the pharmacy. and gamestock sales are just 5% of walgreens. this makes no sense. when we come back, history on the hardwood. caitlin clark making her pro debut tonight when the 11th hour continues. the 11th hour continues. thanks guys. [ surprised scream ] don't panic. gift easy with etsy.

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second grade. get a basketball scholarship. play in the wnba. this is something i always wanted to do. >> you could guess what the last thing before we go was going to be. caitlin clark's next chapter. clark made her wnba debut tonight with the indianapolis fever. they lost a tough game on the road against the connecticut sun. she scores her 20 points, then ten turnovers. where caitlin clark goes, excitement and dollars follow. and according to stub hub, wnba sales are up 93% since last season. stephanie gosk has more on the hype and the effect she is having on the league. >> scale of one to ten, how excited are you to see her play tonight? >> ten out of ten. >> reporter: and among the players,. >> everyone is excited. everyone is pumped. >> reporter: while the star herself is as cool as ever. >> what will it feel like to be

in the sold out crowd? >> it will be good. i don't think it is any different from college. >> clark for three. >> reporter: preseason games drew huge crowds. >> let's go. >> reporter: since she joined the indiana fever, ticket prices have skyrocketed. her number 22 jersey is one of the top selling jerseys in any sport. >> what a slick pass. >> reporter: it comes as the wnba announced the addition of a new team. the golden state valkaryies. clark's record breaking time in the ncaa has fans sticking around to see what the 22-year- old can do in the prose. hoping for a few more of those logo threes. >> what's a logo three? well, this is the logo. in the middle of the court. she shoots from here. all the way to there. and makes it all the time. >> reporter: clark went first in the draft. just last month. >> the indiana fever select