Video

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin spent most of Thursday inside New York courtroom where day three of the defamation trial regarding comments Donald Trump made to E. Jean Carroll unwound.

And she had a view of the widely-mocked performance of attorney Alina Habba.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) on Thursday dropped the hammer on former President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for raking in serious foreign cash off Trump's four-year tenure in the White House.

During a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Garcia declared that "Donald Trump and his family, especially the Kushners, participated in the largest presidential grift in history."

As speculation continues about just who Donald Trump will pick as his vice presidential running mate, "The View's" Alyssa Farah Griffin suggested the Arkansas governor may be just the loyalist he wants.

MAGA is up in arms over the idea that Trump could choose Nikki Haley as a running mate. Griffin explained that conservatives see her as more of an establishment politician than one who bucks the system.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson quickly became a target overnight after admitting to Fox News that not only has he been talking about border legislation "pretty frequently" to ex-president Donald Trump, who adamantly opposes the bipartisan Senate border bill that would also deliver aid to Ukraine and Israel, but he agrees with him, despite trying to make the border the number one issue in the country.

"The president actually just got off the phone with me right before the show," Fox News host Laura Ingraham, referring to ex-president Donald Trump, told Speaker Johnson Wednesday night. "And he said he has spoken to you about this deal and that he is against it. And he urged you to be against this deal. He was extremely – President Trump was extremely adamant about that. Your reaction to that, given the fact that, look, he already knows how to do this enforcement stuff. You don't need some new bill coming out of the Senate to get the border enforced."

With Donald Trump all but certain to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, concerns are growing among Republican Party insiders over who he will select to be his running mate.

During a recent Fox News town hall, the former president claimed he had already made his pick but would not be making an announcement until a later date.

After watching clips of Donald Trump's "meandering" speech in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Wednesday night, MSNBC's Willie Geist responded with a stunned "wow" — and he and MSNBC co-host Jonathan Lemire suggested it was just one more example that the former president's mind appears to be going.

With Trump jumping from topic to topic and rambling about subjects that included "liquid gold," former GOP speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) "driving grannies" off cliffs — and then bringing up his mother-in-law dying — the two hosts suggested the former president is handing Democrats more ammo about his mental decline.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called out House Republicans for doing Vladimir Putin's bidding, seemingly at the behest of Donald Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down on his opposition to a bipartisan Senate border deal that would include aid to Ukraine, saying he had spoken frequently with the former president on the topic, and the "Morning Joe" host said that dynamic was suspicious.

Morning Joe co-host Mika Brezinski went on a long rant Thursday aimed at former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) for refusing to acknowledge that Donald Trump has been found liable of sexually assaulting New York writer E. Jean Carroll.

In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Haley claimed she was oblivious to the details of the widely reported Trump defamation case that is ongoing in New York as she and the ex-president battle for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Watching former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) claiming she is in the dark about Donald Trump's ongoing trial in New York for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after he was found guilty in an earlier trial of sexually assaulting her, the entire "Morning Joe" panel reacted with disgust on Thursday morning.

In a CNN clip from a Haley campaign stop in New Hampshire, the aspiring GOP presidential nominee was asked by CNN's Dana Bash, "How do you feel about your party’s front-runner being held liable for sexual abuse?”

"First of all, I haven’t paid attention to his cases, and I’m not a lawyer,” Haley offered. “All I know is that he’s innocent until proven guilty, and when he’s proven guilty, and he’s sitting in a courtroom—that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve got investigations on Trump and Biden.”

She later added, "Every one of these cases, they need to be heard out, he needs to defend himself. If he’s found guilty, he’s gonna pay the price. If he’s not found guilty, then we move forward. What I will tell you is that I’m focused on the economy, the border, and education, and getting our country back on track.”

As the clip ended, "Morning Joe" co-host Wille Geist stated, "It's hard to watch," as Mika Brzezinski exclaimed, "Just stop!" while another panelist muttered "Pathetic" in the cross-talk.

"'I haven't been following it,'" co-host Scarborough repeated. "You haven't been following the fact that a woman has been raped, according to a judge and a jury found him liable of sexual assault, found him liable for defaming the woman— the judge said Donald Trump raped?"

ALSO READ: A handy guide for translating Republican-speak into plain English

"After that defamation verdict came down, he continued to defame the woman, the woman the judge said he raped," he continued before disgustedly adding. "Even in court and on Truth Social, he continues to defame the woman the judge says he raped. Nikki Haley says she can't comment on it because she hasn't really followed the case, and she's not a lawyer."

"This is somebody who wants to be president of the United States? Sounds like this is somebody who wants to be vice president of the United States," he pointed out.

Watch below or at the link.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough mocked Republican lawmakers for exposing their latest impeachment gambit as a fraud from the start.

House Republicans have already held one impeachment hearing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over border security, but they're also threatening to reject a bipartisan Senate bill on immigration because it might help President Joe Biden.

On Thursday morning the entire panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" pounced all over Donald Trump and his attorney Alina Habba's abrasive and disastrous courtroom antics on Wednesday and agreed the former president's "tantrum" in the courtroom -- not his first -- will cripple his re-election hopes.

Reflecting on Trump's day of battling with Judge Lewis Kaplan in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, co-host Joe Scarborough said it may play well to the MAGA base, but independent voters will want nothing to do with Trump come election time.

Donald Trump has been antagonizing the federal judge overseeing his second defamation trial, but a legal expert said there's something holding him back from behaving even worse in the courtroom.

U.S. District judge Lewis Kaplan has told the former president to keep his muttered comments to himself or face removal from the courtroom, which prompted Trump to throw up his hands and say he would "love" that, and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said that obnoxious behavior seemed to be strategic.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" on Thursday morning, a blunt-talking Dave Aronberg explained that Donald Trump and his lawyers did themselves no favors with their antics in Judge Lewis Kaplan's courtroom on Wednesday.

Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County likened Trump's chances in the E. Jean Carrol defamation trial to the sinking of the Titanic.

"In your experience what is your read on how the jury will likely respond to Trump's behavior in the trial, behavior that included being reprimanded by the judge?" host Lemire prompted.

"Yesterday was a disaster for Trump as a defendant," the legal analyst quickly replied. "I would liken him to the Titanic but at least the Titanic had a band. Even though he's playing to his rabid MAGA base, that's the intent here, he's losing in the actual court because they're antagonizing the judge. They're showing contempt for the jury, and of course to E. Jean Carroll."

ALSO READ: Few Trumpers who embrace political violence understand its endgame

"You know, when it comes to damages there were only $5 million of damages in first trial," he elaborated. "I expect there to be a lot more in this one because Trump has continued to repeat the offense of defamation. Remember there's a doctrine here of collateral estoppel which means Trump and [attorney] Alina Hobba are not allowed to relitigate the first trial."

"But instead of trying to reduce the damages here by showing, look, it was her own words, E. Jean Carroll's own words that prompted the abuse and not Trump's words, they're just stoking the fire," he continued. "And Trump didn't even stand up when the jury was leaving today. He walked out of the courtroom. That's the kind of stuff that will get you bit at the end of the day. I expect a very large verdict here in punitive damages."

Watch below or at the link.