'His colorful personality turned gray': MSNBC's Mika sees 'subdued' Trump draining away
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski noticed her former friend Donald Trump seems to be wearing down already under the stress of his criminal trial.
The quadruple-indicted former president has been ordered by New York Judge Juan Merchan to attend every day of hearings, and the "Morning Joe" co-host said Trump doesn't seem like himself slumping in and out of the courtroom and dozing off occasionally during the proceedings.
"I know this is sort of looking at sort of the exterior things, in the courtroom just the demeanor of Trump and just watching this closely from home, seeing him coming into court from the beginning I feel like, I don't want to overstate it, he seems very subdued," Brzezinski said.
"His colorful personality is almost turned gray. If I could, I just wonder if it's the walking in and having to sit down, cameras in his face, arch enemies in his courtroom every day — is it getting to him or the case itself bothering him?"
The former president closed his eyes Tuesday during some potentially embarrassing testimony from his old friend David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who told the jury how he would seek out and bury damaging information about Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign in a scheme that forms the basis of the criminal charges against him.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said she expected Pecker — who is the first witness in the trial — to remain on the stand through the end of the week with at least several more hours of direct testimony before Trump's lawyers are able to cross-examine him.
"We left off yesterday with the beginning of the Karen McDougal settlement," Rubin said, referring to a former Playboy model who says she carried on an extramarital affair with Trump.
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"That means we have to talk through that story, the Stormy Daniels settlement and the Enquirer's involvement in that. As you mentioned, through 2017, when we know that David Pecker saw Trump at least twice where he was thanked by Trump for his contributions to the election. As you noted, a lot of conversations still to testify to.
"David Pecker testified yesterday to at least two conversations directly with Donald Trump – that August 2015 meeting that Trump and [his former attorney Michael] Cohen invited him to, when he got [asked], what can you do for us in relation to the campaign? What can you personally do? What can the Enquirer do?"
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MSNBC 04 24 2024 06 07 32 youtu.be