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A member of Donald Trump's legal brain trust was put on the spot on Friday morning over the former president's devastating 34-felony count conviction less than 24 hours after he indicated he thought the hush money trial went well and even praised the jurors.

Appearing with host Erica Hill, Will Scharf — who is also running to become Missouri's Attorney General — made the case that he feels there is a good case to appeal the conviction that has branded Trump as a felon.

That led Hill to remind him, via sharing an interview clip from Thursday, where he expressed confidence that Trump would be exonerated.

"Less than 24 hours ago you were complimenting this jury," she reminded him.

Former President Donald Trump addressed the public in an extensive address on Friday in which he rambled aimlessly about nondisclosure agreements, his gag order, and maintained that the crimes he was convicted of never happened or weren't illegal.

He was speaking from his Fifth Avenue tower about being found guilty on all 34 counts on Thursday.

Donald Trump spokeswoman and his former lawyer, Alina Habba, claimed that Judge Juan Merchan was forced to cover his mouth to hide his glee over the conviction of the ex-president — but others in the courtroom are calling the comment untrue.

Habba claimed on Fox News that Merchan covered his face and was "probably" smiling after hearing the jury's decision.

Republicans across the country have been denouncing the criminal conviction of their political leader and presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, by a New York jury late Thursday afternoon, but few have called for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in, until now.

The Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson, Friday morning told Fox News the nation's highest court should "step in," suggesting they should overturn the lawful criminal conviction handed down by a jury of Donald Trump's peers, twelve citizens from the state of New York, in order to preserve and protect the rule of law. He also said he was confident they would "set this straight."

An interview with one of Donald Trump's most rabid supporters in Congress went off the rails on Friday morning after CNN host Kate Bolduan tried to get a word in edgewise as he ranted about the conviction of the former president on 34 felony counts in a Manhattan court on Thursday.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who has a criminal history of his own, spent a great portion of his CNN interview railing at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for prosecuting newly-convicted Trump, and when Bolduan attempted to clear up some of his misrepresentations, he snapped "Hold on!" at her and then continued to talk over her.

Former Donald Trump National Security John Bolton took to CNN on Friday morning to urge the Republican Party to abandon him as their 2024 presidential candidate after he was convicted on 34 felony charges in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday.

Bolton, who has a contentious history with the now-convicted felon Trump, warned the GOP that Trump's criminal record could have a devastating impact on down-ticket Republican candidates who would be put on the spot over him as they campaigned.

Speaking with host John Berman, Bolton claimed he has no intention of voting for President Joe Biden, before warning the GOP about a potential disaster in November.

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"Well, I think it's gonna be a big mistake for the party, for the country to nominate Donald Trump," he told the CNN host. "Precisely because he may well win this election. I'm not going to vote for Biden either, but I think if there's any chance left to get somebody else to replace Trump, which is highly unlikely to be sure, this ought to signal it to people."

"We've never nominated a convicted felon before. And this is not a good time to start," he wryly added, before continuing, "I think people of conscience ought to be thinking about how to approach this. You've heard a lot of criticism of the case on this network the day the indictment came down, I said if Trump is elected it could be because of this case. But the fact is you had 12 jurors find him guilty and that is going to reverberate with a lot of Americans who are not part of the Trump base and it could endanger not only the country, if Trump gets elected, it could endanger other Republicans on the ballot in November."

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MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned Republicans that Fox News "disinformation" about Donald Trump's criminal convictions would hurt their election chances later this year.

A Manhattan jury convicted the former president on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up other crimes, and the "Morning Joe" host said he and Mika Brzezinski, his wife and co-host, watched some of the conservative network's coverage of the verdict and were appalled by what they saw.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," branding expert and MSNBC regular Donnie Deutsch claimed Donald Trump will never get past being known as a convicted felon no matter what he does from this point forward.

Combined with his string of courthouse losses that preceded his conviction on 34 felony counts of business fraud, Deutsch claimed the former president will have to live with the stench of being a "loser."

In a brutal assessment on Friday morning after the historic conviction of a former president, Deutsch stated, "It is interesting you mention branding. What hit me yesterday when I heard those guilty — the 34 guilty verdicts — was that from here on in, Donald Trump, the ultimate brander, the guy that gave you 'Little Marco' or 'Lying Ted' is simply branded: 'Convicted felon Donald Trump.' in the most simplistic way."

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"From here on in, the other side has the ability to take the great brander and brand him in the most simplistic term: convicted felon," he advised before adding, " That's powerful."

"Yes, I went on the show the other day and said, I don't know if it'll matter that much," he admitted. "When I heard the guilty verdict, it hit me. He simplistically is in a box now. Two things happened to his brand: number one, he is not invincible, the armor got pierced, and that is a big deal. If he had been acquitted, you can't get this guy, he's bigger than everybody, he is bigger than life — he's not. He's invincible."

"Now, the eight-year streak of losing for Republicans," he stated. "Donald Trump lost. He is a loser. He is anything but invincible. He is branded permanently a convicted felon, that's a big deal."

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Convicted felon Donald Trump is already hatching how he can exact retribution against any number of foes that led him to be convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records involving hush money payments to an adult film star.

Jack O’Donnell, who served as Trump's President and COO of the Trump Plaza Hotel, conjured the boiling fury that he suspects is boiling in the 45th president's head now that he's been found guilty on Thursday.

The entire panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," piled on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Friday morning for rushing to Donald Trump's defense after the former president was convicted of 34 felonies in a Manhattan courtroom.

After the jury returned its verdict, the Florida senator rushed out a video where he compared Trump's conviction for financial fraud related to paying off a porn star to Fidel Castro's Cuba.

After MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin called out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his "grotesque" comments about the jury's decision — adding that Republicans were engaging in "competitive sycophancy" — co-host Joe Scarborough brought up Rubio whom he also labeled "grotesque."

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"Speaking of grotesque, if a guy whose family escaped Castro's Cuba, communist Cuba, a country that Castro ran with an iron fist, there was no rule of law there. There was just repression. There was tyranny," Scarborough interjected with co-host Mika Brzezinski adding, "What an insult."

"Marco, like these other people, all because they want to cozy up to Donald Trump and maybe be his vice president, they degrade themselves, and they slander America," Scarborough continued. "Rubio said in the E. Jean Carroll case, a jury of his peers was a joke because he didn't like the outcome. Now, he is comparing America to Castro's Cuba, which I will say, yes, it's meant to kiss up to Donald Trump and shock everybody else. Doesn't shock me."

"It hurts me as a patriot to hear people hating on America, but I do know at the end of the day, it's only going to end up hurting Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and the Republican party even more, because people don't buy their propaganda," he added.

That led MSNBC contributor Katty Kay to assert, "Yeah. I mean, Marco Rubio of all people knows that this is absurd. The American justice system is not remotely like Cuba's justice system where there is no system of justice. He knows that, and he is only doing this to suck up to Donald Trump."

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Anti-Trump attorney George Conway on Friday got into an angry clash with Republican operative Scott Jennings over the Republican response to former President Donald Trump's multiple felony convictions.

During an appearance on CNN, Conway slapped down Republican claims that Trump is the victim of a political prosecution by laying out how Trump's actions led to him becoming a convicted felon.

Donald Trump tried to hide his emotions after a jury convicted him on all 34 felony counts, but a courtroom observer said his dejection was obvious.

A Manhattan jury found the former president guilty of falsifying business records to conceal violations of other laws, including campaign finance laws, and MSNBC's Lisa Rubin described the unprecedented scene inside the courtroom when it became apparent that a verdict had been rendered.

During an appearance on. MSNBC's "Way Too Early," State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg claimed Donald Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche, needs to shoulder a major part of the blame for the former president's conviction on 34 felonies on Thursday.

Speaking with host Johnathan Lemire and MSNBC regular Katty Kay, the prosecutor highlighted what he called two flubs by the former president's lead attorney that led to Trump becoming a convicted felon.

"I wasn't too surprised [by the conviction]," the prosecutor began. "The prosecution successfully established a firewall around Michael Cohen, and that was important because it neutralized Trump's best defense which is to call Michael Cohen a liar and to say you've got to just reject the case built around Michael Cohen."

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"And the failure of Todd Blanche to adequately wound Cohen on the stand was devastating because I thought Blanche made a couple crucial errors," he continued. "First he stuck by Trump's claim Stormy Daniels was lying, and that allowed Daniels to provide dirty details about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump, and also it cost Blanche and Trump credibility because no one believed that the sexual encounter didn't happen."

"And secondly, he claimed that the $35,000 a month payment to Michael Cohen was not a reimbursement but for legal services, and that poor close was, I think, was Trump's best defense which is that the legal services actually covered the reimbursement to a lawyer slash fixer and Trump didn't intend to deceive," he added. "But Trump's defense made it easier for prosecutors to prove that Trump acted deceptively and turning an obvious $130,000 reimbursement into a bogus $420,000 legal expense."

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