‘David Pecker worshiped Trump’: Catch and Kill architect takes the stand in hush money trial

Donald Trump has tried to control the message to shape public perception and shape the way people see and experience it. He lied about his wealth. He lied about the 2020 election. his booking in Fon County, Georgia, bafflingly listed him at 6'3 215 lbs. 30 pounds lighter than his last White House physical, which was always questionable in itself and, well, yes, he's been punished for some of those things, including a $350 million fine in the civil fraud

trial

. Trump has always been able to shape his own narrative. telling his own story to this day is because the cold Manhattan courtroom where Trump now spends his days awake is not under his control at all and despite all his threats and all his intimidation efforts, this is territory strange for the disgraced former president.

I am completely immune to his particular brand of exaggeration and misrepresentation where only one thing really matters: the truth, opening statements began today in that historic election interference and

hush

money

trial

in New York City. Lawyers for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney attempted to frame the case. As they are prepared to face the jury, while the defense framed Trump, tried to frame Trump as a sympathetic figure somehow separate from Michael Cohen's payments to Stormmy Daniels, the prosecution laid out the facts of the case that are not really in much dispute. before the jury Matthew Colangelo, a lawyer on Alvin Bragg's team, suggested this quote that we will never know and it does not matter if this conspiracy was a different factor in the close election, but as our colleague Lisa Rubin reported from inside the courtroom, the prosecution appears set to provide evidence of how worried the Trump campaign was at the time and how Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Keith Davidson, texted David Pecker, the former editor of the National Investigation, on election night, he wrote this quote: What have we done?

Colangelo insisted this was a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up. designed to hide important information from the American voter to ensure that such embarrassing details would never, ever see the light of day, of course they did, and here we are years later, possibly on the brink of accountability, definitely on the cusp of another showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden again Donald Trump, although he has no choice in the matter, is forced to sit there in his own trial listening to all the testimony while lawyers go over his past in excruciating detail, stripped of his ability to shape his own narrative.

It's increasingly easy to imagine Trump seeing him for what he is, a criminal defendant accused of some pretty serious crimes. It's the subject of a new ad by Republican voters against Donald Trump. I was wondering if you guys are hiring right now. I was thinking. About applying for a job, I was thinking about applying for a job here. I am currently facing 88 felonies. I am currently facing 88 felonies for the detention of classified information. Do you all take people who have been found responsible for sexual assault trying to Overturn the 2020 Election falsify business records. I was wondering if that was going to be a problem.

I think working with diamonds and Jewel are going to do a background check. Yeah, so that's the only one. Probably not. Yes. So can you hire? people who sexually assault other people or we want a pH history, it goes through no, I don't believe it, I don't believe it. Okay, Donald Trump ran on that ad, and in reality, here on Earth, one probably couldn't get a job. in a shopping mall David Aarod summed it up quite eloquently in the Atlantic Today quote. As Trump sits back and watches the criminal trial he hoped to avoid unfold, he should know that a potential reckoning could come that he has spent his entire life avoiding, and he has found himself reduced to a criminal defendant in a courtroom where another person has absolute power and the rules are applied in very definite ways, the exhaustion and vulnerability captured in those courtroom images betray a growing recognition that he could end up being what his father despised most: a convicted criminal and no worse a loser. is where we start the hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends here with me at the table, Bloomberg Senior Executive Opinion Editor and MSNBC Political Analyst Tim O'Brien, and Law Fair Legal Fellow and Courts Correspondent , Anna Bower, is here.

They are both in court today and they also join us. MSNBC contributor and columnist Charlie Sykes is back and former senator and co-host of the msnbc podcast on how to win in 2024, our dear friend CLA mccal is here, take me inside the day in court. Very cold waiting in line for a few hours at least two to get in there, even before Trump walked into the courtroom, you know, for the first open day of opening statements, in the criminal case that was criticizing the state from New York. Attorney General Tish James in connection with his civil case in which there was a hearing in an adjacent courtroom, you talk about his worst nightmares, not only is he the object of ridicule, he is in this, you know, we talked about this the last week, but also from this bonfire. of the vanity court that sets up multiple rooms and he is the center of attention in both for things he does not want analyzed, in one it is his

money

and in the other it is the truth and the third is his personal life, right, I want That is, he had a penis. bury these things if he wanted them, his friend went to get them and

kill

ed them and I think you know they ultimately failed to keep them under WPS and that affects, I think his marriage, it affects his sense of who he is in the world. only.

You see the images he wants to create because I think he loves on some level being a macho womanizer. I think he's holding on to that thing that shows he's attractive and rugged and a winner, but now that's all unraveling. the courtroom um it was nice I think the opening statements were good. I think Trump has a very capable legal team with him this time, which he traditionally doesn't have because he usually acts as a lawyer and, secondly, because he's a nightmare client. and some people get into it for the publicity and then they are polite and don't want to go near him again, but after that it became very process oriented, you know, the Big Show of the day was David Pecker taking the

stand

, but that was cut short and the hearing ended earlier, so sooner than I expected, but it will resume tomorrow and Pecker's testimony is going to be really interesting and the whole idea of ​​who's in charge, so the court ended earlier I was supposed to because one of the jurors had a dentist appointment, so it's not even Trump's teeth I'm talking about.

It seems like the judge would accept a dental emergency from anyone, but that just shows where the power is, where all the accommodations are and The considerations are that they are on the jury that will correctly decide their fate and I think today we saw how much effect the jury can have in Trump's conduct and also in the conduct of the lawyer, er, Trump. I've seen him in multiple jurisdictions where he's accused of often frowning uh it may be, you know, uh talking loudly to his attorneys uh making faces uh today he still made some of those faces, but he swayed a little bit uh it was scolded last week for trying to get out of court too early, uh, but today he seemed to be at least in court on his best behavior and we also seem to see that Todd Blanch, who gave opening statements, seems to be a little more restrained in the way I've done it.

I've seen him present arguments before other judges like Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida and I think part of that has to do with the jury being there and everyone being on their best behavior and acting before their audience, you know, before that I want to bring. um Claire and Charlie on this, but David Pecker walking in the room is a totally different initial witness than Michael Cohen. I mean, Michael Cohen and Trump have tried to villainize Michael Cohen probably with some success in Trumpland. um, but David Pecker was his guy. What was that moment like? Well, I was surprised at how comfortable Pecker was, he was laughing at some points, it was almost like laughing out loud, uh, the other reporters in the room he was in started laughing when he started laughing, we couldn't be heard. but it had a little bit of the theater of the Absurd about um uh you know, but you know it again with Trump is this is this guy of him is like this Crypt Keeper from the 1980s and 1990s and all these characters from that era come rolling around.

You know, he and Pecker launched a MAG magazine together with a Trump style that was hilarious in itself because I think there's no one who's ever been in the public eye that has the worst taste on the planet like Donald Trump, he absolutely has his style. it's so bad it's his style and he and PE Pecker

worshiped

it in the same way that I think the people who line up around Trump in his orbit have this unschooled hero worship and he burns them down and eliminates very few of them. He lasted a long time and Pecker lasted a long time because he was useful to Trump.

Trump knew how to weaponize it. He got Page Six and the gossip pages and publications like the National Inquirer to go after the enemies of him to feather his own nest and keep alive this myth that he was the greatest. real estate developer in New York and very smart and very attractive when in reality he is a mess of insecurities who needs media attention to feel good about himself, well, it is clear that the prosecution does not plan to make friendship not the crime it is the illegal cover-up the timing of the cover-up with the intent to deceive voters it seems like we didn't get much visibility into how the prosecution plans to use

pecker

as a narrator or storyteller, but that's all indications I suggest that's where they're going well and I think they certainly will be a key witness in terms of proving Trump's intent - there has to be an intent to defraud and then there also has to be an intent to conceal or aid another crime that is What makes this charge a felony?

And I think the prosecution, although there wasn't a lot of information about what exactly the theory will be in terms of the exact theory about that escalated crime, there was a lot of mention that Pecker was You know, from that 2015 meeting at Trump Tower onward, he's someone who can speak to Trump's state of mind, his intent, and I think that's one of the reasons why he's going to be a powerful witness and he's a factual witness, yeah, and what everyone said. was down, from everything we know about this episode and these characters, there was already new evidence today, new text messages, new emails, new information, did you find that?

I think there was and there were some discussions at the end as well. of the day about what exactly will be admissible there is a lot of discussion about documents that we have not seen that are not public and it is to be determined whether some of those documents will be admissible or not, we hear a lot about phone records that the prosecution intends to present, so I think we'll certainly see new evidence, but the question is whether there were these questions about whether it would be admissible on hearsay grounds, those kinds of things are still to be determined, so if we get to that point.

And in fact, we'll look at some of the tests that were discussed today, but I certainly think a lot of new things will emerge over the course of the test. Hello everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app. Get real-time alerts and analysis Live blogs In-depth essays Featured videos and the best 2024 election coverage Download the new MSNBC app Here's how to do it Tap the App Store on your phone Press search in the bottom right corner Type MSNBC Click in the MSNBC app you click get or cloud icon and enjoy it