Justice Juan Merchan lashed out at Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's attorney, for making an "outrageous" and "highly inappropriate" statement during his closing remarks.
As Blanche was finishing his summation in Trump's hush money trial on Tuesday, he told the jury they shouldn't be "sending a man to prison."
The prosecution quickly objected, and the judge sustained it.
After the jury was dismissed from the courtroom, the prosecution asked for the judge to instruct the jurors to disregard Blanche's remark.
"I think that was outrageous, Mr Blanche," Merchan said, according to Harry Litman. "Someone who has been a prosecutor as long as you [should] know. It's hard for me to imagine how that was accidental in any way."
Merchan asked the prosecution to draft a statement for the jury.
MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang criticized a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that refused to acknowledge the danger Donald Trump poses to law enforcement.
In a social media post, Phang responded to Cannon's denial of special counsel Jack Smith's motion to modify Trump's bond conditions after he suggested Department of Justice agents were part of a plot to assassinate him.
Instead of granting the motion, Cannon chastised Smith for not showing "courtesy" to Trump's defense team.
"Any future, non-emergency motion brought in this case -- whether on the topic of release conditions or anything else -- shall not be filed absent meaningful, timely, and professional conferral," Cannon warned. "Failure to comply with these requirements may result in sanctions."
"Judge Cannon could have just ordered a quick briefing schedule and dealt with the 'lack of meaningful conferral' issue at the hearing," Phang wrote. "But this move by her just underscores how much she enjoys publicly chastising the Government."
"This is an issue of form over substance," she added. "Smith's bond modification motion seeks to address a serious and substantial issue. Cannon's order minimizes the import of the reasons behind the motion."
Fox News medical commentator Dr. Marc Siegel pushed back against a right-wing conspiracy theory claiming NFL player Billy Price got a blood clot because he was vaccinated for COVID-19.
During a Monday Fox News segment on Price's blood clot, Siegel addressed the theory.
"COVID definitely has increased the risk of blood clots directly, especially early in the pandemic," the doctor explained. "And everyone out there asks about the vaccine."
"I think we have the answer to that finally," he added. "A huge study out of the UK and Estonia just looked at 10 million people who were vaccinated and 10 million people who weren't and those who were vaccinated and then got COVID had 70% less chance of getting a blood clot less."
The Fox News anchor urged Siegel to focus on Price at that point.
"The vaccination or not plays no part that we are aware of in this NFL player's story," the anchor said. "I wanna bring you back to that for a second."
Figures on the right have suggested Price was forced to retire because of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Fox news doctor Marc Seigel just claimed that Covid and not the vaccine was causing the blood clots," one influencer wrote. "Is there anyone in public life not owned by Big Pharma?"
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) will have a difficult time winning over some Republicans when she runs for re-election in a new district.
CBS Colorado reporter Olivia Young spoke to Republicans in the state about which candidate they would back in the primary election later this year. In addition to Boebert, Republicans Deborah Flora, Jerry Sonnenberg, Richard Holtorf, Michael Lynch and Peter Yu are also running.
A video montage of Donald Trump disrespecting service members went viral on Memorial Day.
In a Monday social media post, The Daily Show show shared clips recalling how Trump considered fallen troops "suckers" and "losers."
"Never forget how much Trump respects the troops," the sarcastic caption read.
"Trump has faced major criticism for not reaching out to the families of four U.S. soldiers," MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle says in one clip. "He has played golf at least four times since these young men were killed."
One grieving widow recalled, "The president said that [her husband] knew what he signed up for."
A man claiming to be a U.S. veteran pranked C-SPAN on Memorial Day with a call into the Washington Journal program.
On Monday, Memorial Day, C-SPAN opened the phone lines to veterans and retired military personnel. The first caller identified himself as Jack from Kansas.
"I am retired military," Jack claimed. "Before I begin, I would like it if you could please thank me for my service."
C-SPAN host Pedro Echevarria seemed to be caught off guard.
"We'll do that all during the course of the morning, and thank you for doing that," the host said.
"As I said, I am retired military," the caller continued, identifying himself as Colonel Jack Strickland. "I fought under General Chad King in Iraqistan."
"I'm proud to say that I have over 300 confirmed kills, and the Purple Heart that I received after an oil drum fell on my foot," he insisted. "Now, despite all of that, the VA has been giving me a raw deal when it comes to receiving benefits."
Strickland said the VA had refused to cover his legal fees.
"A few weeks ago, I was at a grocery store, and I saw a young boy, couldn't have been more than six or seven, and he was wearing a camouflage jacket," he opined. "I found this deeply offensive because nobody that young has ever served their country."
"So I began screaming, stolen valor, and then I beat the child with a crowbar."
At that point, it was clear to Echevarria that the call was illegitimate, and he disconnected.
"Okay, we'll go to Danny in Arizona, a member of the military family," the host said.
Princeton research scholar Lauren Wright told Fox News that Republican candidate Kari Lake would likely lose her Senate bid against Democratic candidate Ruben Gallego.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Wright said that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden were a drag on candidates for their respective parties.
"Both candidates are a drag on these Senate races because they're very controversial to swing voters who are very mad at Biden over the economy, over immigration, over crime," Wright explained.
"And they're still not back with Trump from their vote in 2016 because, of course, he lost in 2020, and he's continued to alienate some swing voters with his positions on abortion and all of this legal trouble and making the election about himself," she continued.
"And this year, there's a lot of Republican parties who are nominating Trump-aligned candidates who are more extreme than the state is."
Fox News host Mollie Line wondered which presidential candidate hurt statewide candidates more.
"Well, that's hard to say," Wright replied, noting that former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) had an "exciting" chance to win his Senate race in Maryland despite his differences with Trump.
"But then you have states like Arizona, where Kari Lake is still denying the 2020 election," she added. "She'll very likely be the nominee. And that's maybe a state that Democrats will end up getting."
"And Republicans in any other election year with any other candidate at the top of the ticket and in the Senate place should win that state."
Fox News host Howard Kurtz warned that Donald Trump's rhetoric about an assassination plot against him was dangerous because "it only takes a couple of crazy people" to react.
During a panel segment on Sunday's Media Buzz program, Kurtz told Reason Senior Editor Robby Soave that Trump had falsely accused Joe Biden's Justice Department of attempting to kill him because a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago authorized deadly force, which is standard language.
"I mean, we've got to tell the truth," Soave admitted. "It is common practice. Also, they knew that Trump was not there at Mar-a-Lago."
"And deliberately timed the raid," Kurtz added. "So they were clearly not. You wouldn't go that day."
"So they were clearly not doing that," Soave agreed. "This is standard operating procedure."
Kurtz pointed out to guest Lucy Caldwell that a search warrant for Biden's home also used the same language.
"But a former sitting president pursuing and promoting the idea that we should act as though the current president sent and sicced FBI agents on him to shoot and kill him," Caldwell replied. "That is very, very dangerous."
"Right," Kurtz said. "But, you know, it only takes a couple of crazy people. So I hope this all settles down."
Fox News guest Lucy Caldwell dismissed a network segment on Hunter Biden's alleged addiction ahead of a possible trial over gun charges.
During a Sunday segment on Fox News, host Howard Kurtz focused on charges against the president's son.
"The question is whether or not they want to pressure Hunter into a plea," Kurtz said. "Hunter doesn't contest all this. It's in his memoirs as he was smoking crack 24-7. But he's got to be worried about a trial right now embarrassing his father."
But Caldwell disagreed.
"I actually don't think that this trial would be that embarrassing or the whole thing is that embarrassing because the question is, what is the impact?" she explained. "And yes, we can stipulate to a whole bunch of things about Hunter Biden."
"He is a person who has acted inappropriately and has behaved in a way that most of us could not, would not, should not," she continued. "But who really cares? The people who are Biden supporters are not going to be moved off of Biden because of this. And people who are hardcore MAGA supporters, Trump supporters, this is all confirmatory."
"So I don't see the timing of the trial having much of an impact."
Kurtz responded by defending the segment.
"Well, I would just say that on the who really cares part, I mean, the president's son has two trials coming up, both criminal, after that plea deal fell apart," he said. "And I do think there's an effort, both sides might have an incentive, let's put it this way, to settle this, which would undoubtedly include some jail time for the president's son."
Alina Habba, Donald Trump's attorney, said she had "worries" about jurors in her client's hush money trial being influenced by liberals and losing "all sense of reality" over the Memorial Day weekend.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, guest host Sean Duffy complained because Justice Juan Merchan delayed closing arguments and jury deliberations until after the holiday weekend.
"I want to tell you what, there's a silver lining in this, Alina," Duffy said. "I don't want a juror on Thursday or Friday going into Memorial Day weekend to go, you know what? I got a party going on. I want to end this case early."
"I think it could bode well for President Trump, for those people on the jury who understand the law and the facts to fight for him and fight for justice," the Fox News host added.
Habba offered a counterargument by suggesting the jury should have been sequestered.
"And for them to be able to be out and about on a holiday weekend with friends and families who have opinions, who are watching the news, TV's on the background at the pool party, I have serious concerns," she opined. "If they're left-winging and they're watching MSDNC, as my client calls it, or CNN, they're not going to get fair news."
"They're going to hear, but by the way, they have been saying that this case is a hoax, which is shocking, but they know that the jurors are out there listening," Habba continued. "I have worries about them going back to whatever friends might have, Trump derangement syndrome, forgetting all sense of reality and coming back and sitting in that box and saying, you know what, I've got to do, you know, take one for the DNC."
"I want law to fact, because if we can get that, we will win. We will not just get a hung jury. We will get an acquittal."
CNN host Dana Bash confronted Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) after he tried to flip every question about Donald Trump into an attack on President Joe Biden.
During a Sunday interview on CNN, Bash noted that some Republicans like Steve Bannon had suggested Biden tried to assassinate Trump because a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago authorized deadly force.
"Federal prosecutors are now asking for a gag order in that classified documents case after the former president said that FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago were, quote, locked and loaded, ready to take me out, and that he nearly escaped death," Bash noted. "But, Senator, that same language was also in the order for President Biden's home."
"So, do you agree with the attorney general that this is not only false, what the former president said, but extremely dangerous?" the CNN host asked.
"I haven't found myself agreeing with Attorney General Garland on any issue," Scott replied. "I will say I saw the video of the SWAT team from the FBI raiding Mar-a-Lago. I have not seen the same video of them raiding Joe Biden's garage. So I'd love to have that comparison."
According to Scott, Trump faced a "two-tiered justice system." But Bash pushed back.
"The reality is that, I mean, just using this case as an example, it's not two tiers if you have the Justice Department, which is the Justice Department, as Joe Biden is currently president, also going in to get classified documents into his house," Bash pointed out. "And what I really am asking you about is the language being used, which is misleading."
"People like Steve Bannon called this an assassination attempt," Bash said. "Doesn't that kind of language concern you?"
Scott, however, appeared not to be concerned about the dangerous language used by Trump supporters.
"Well, I will simply say that watching the treatment of Joe Biden by the justice system, when they have found him unable to stand before a jury of his peers because he's too old, frankly, and his memory is shot, that is not the kind of simple, fair justice system that Americans expect," Scott said.
"Yeah, you're referring to Robert Hur and his report," Bash noted. "There were other reasons why they said they didn't prosecute Joe Biden."
"Okay, and I just want to, one last time, what I'm asking you about is rhetoric that could end up dangerous, and you keep answering about Joe Biden," she continued. "So, is there anything you want to talk about with regard to that rhetoric?"
Scott deflected by talking about "anti-Semitism" on college campuses.
"We're actually seeing violence on college campuses, and yet the Democrat Party sits there, hands folded, letting it play out," he insisted.
Former President Donald Trump shared a video of a verbal attack on MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that was filled with expletives.
In a Truth Social Memorial Day message, Trump reposted a video from an Instagram account called "dannyboyhustlehard," which was also shared by Laura Loomer.
"I can't wait for uncle Donnie to win," the protester tells Scarborough. "I can't wait. He'll get rid of all you f***ing liberals."
"He's your uncle?" Scarborough asks.
"You liberals are gone when he f***ing wins. You f***ing blowjob liberals are done. Uncle Donnie's gonna take this election landslide cuz," the protester continues. "Landslide, you f***ing, half a blowjob. Landslide. Get the f*** out of here, you scumbag."
Investors in Truth Social, if they don't sell now, will eventually be "wiped out," according to Donald Trump's own biographer.
Trump biographer David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump's taxes and financial matters for years, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday, where he was asked about recent news involving the former president's social media company that went public. Specifically, the host asked about reports that Trump Media reported a net loss of nearly $330 million for the first three months of 2024, at a time when the stock was still rising.
"How big a problem is this? Can you explain for some layman's terms, quickly, how losing millions on thousands of actual revenue, how that even works?" the host asked. "Is that the stock that still has a huge market value? Is it really valuable? There's a lot of questions here."
"And the people who own it at the current price, if they don't sell out, will eventually be wiped out," he said. "The 300-plus million is not a cash charge, but even so, the company is losing money hand over fist and its revenues are barely in the millions of dollars. So there's no support here for a company worth four, five, six, at one point $8 billion. This is all fans of Donald Trump and others hoping to exploit the company and in some cases to sell it short so they can collect when the price falls to near zero."
