Trump's epic court smackdown leaves Chris Hayes taken aback: 'Stunk to high heaven'

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Trump's epic court smackdown leaves Chris Hayes taken aback: 'Stunk to high heaven'
President Donald Trump departs the White House for Palm Beach, FL (Shutterstock)

With President Donald Trump's IRS lawsuit that motivated the "anti-weaponization" slush fund officially declared invalid by a federal judge, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche facing possible sanctions as he heads to the Senate for confirmation, MS NOW's Chris Hayes took in the situation — and registered astonishment at how corrupt it all was.

Blanche, noted Hayes, appears to be "on a glide path to confirmation" despite it all — but concerned senators should still seize the moment to put him on the spot.

"They could also ask about his role in the creation of a slush fund for insurrectionists and an IRS audit shield for the Trump family, and that might be one of the most interesting lines of questioning tomorrow, because on the eve of his hearings, a federal judge has accused blanch of professional, unethical and sanctionable behavior for his role in that," said Hayes, noting that the judge, Kathleen Williams, is forwarding her ruling to the New York Bar to possibly discipline Blanche.

Williams, noted Hayes, concluded her opinion by writing, "this was an attempt to use the court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the president ... this lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights. It was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation."

Hayes then turned to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who dropped in for an interview on "All In."

This kind of order, noted Hayes, is "so rare," and "the case itself stunk to high heaven from the beginning, it seemed obviously pretextual ... but here's a guy who's going to come before the committee to be the most important lawyer in the country. And a federal judge has just said that the bar should investigate him and possibly disbar him."

Whitehouse agreed, comparing the situation to the GOP's confirmation of Trump's former attorney, Emil Bove, to be an appellate judge even while he was being investigated for contempt of court. "Rather than wait until that was resolved, they jammed him through before it could be resolved, so they didn't have to know the result of it," he said. "I'm worried that that will be the case here, but this is quite a big deal."

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'Can you hear?' Fiery debate breaks out as CNN panelists try to make sense of Trump's clip

A CNN panel broke out into a fiery debate as pundits tried to understand Trump's comments about his upcoming speech.

During a panel discussion hosted by CNN anchor Abby Phillip, conservative pundit and former Republican New York City Council member Joe Borelli spoke about Trump's announcement that he would give a speech about election security on Thursday. However, Borelli was more concerned with the assumption that Trump would make false statements about elections during that upcoming speech.

"Why are we presupposing that whatever the president says, whether it's evidence or it's opinion or there's some new evidence that a foreign government tried to hack our elections, why are we presupposing what the [Department of Justice], what the president, what the White House is saying is false?" Borelli asked. "There's a reason that we're at a big news program here, prejudging."

Democratic strategist Ashley Allison interrupted Borelli to tell him, "I'm prejudging" because "people have looked and they have found no evidence" of the kind of election interference that Trump has claimed happened, which includes rigged elections.

"We're actually reading facts," Allison went on. She also became frustrated and raised her voice as Borelli shot back, "You have no idea what he's going to say" on Thursday, and "you already decided it's false."

Allison yelled, "He told us!" as she countered that Trump made it clear what he would say. As Borelli repeated, "You decided" before Trump spoke, she shouted, "No! Oh my god," and then asked, "Can you hear?"

However, when Borelli mentioned the possibility of Trump planning to reveal evidence about the 2020 election on Thursday, Phillip was curious, asking, "What evidence is he going to present about the election that he lost?"

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GOP has 'shameful and cowardly' plan for Todd Blanche to leave hearing untouched: analysts

Political analysts warned that Republicans have a plan to move Todd Blanche through his upcoming confirmation hearing untouched.

During an interview on Morning Shots, conservative analyst Bill Kristol and journalist Ben Parker broke down the mechanics of the two-day Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which will decide whether to advance Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination for the permanent role of Trump's attorney general.

Despite the time senators will have to confront Blanche on a slew of topics, including the Department of Justice's anti-weaponization fund and the Epstein files, Parker and Kristol predicted that Republicans will try to limit the amount of time that goes toward hitting Blanche with tough questions.

Blanche will face "the least amount of overall questioning for a major cabinet or at least for an attorney general nominee that anyone can remember," Parker said, adding that "each senator gets 10 minutes, which means that they ask one question and Blanche drones on in generalities and platitudes for 10 minutes and then gets off scot-free."

Parker described it as "really depressing, and it shows you the Republicans know they're doing something unpopular. And their solution isn't to do something more popular. The solution is 'Let's just kind of try to hide it.' It's really shameful and cowardly."

Kristol pointed out that Blanche has been the deputy AG and then the acting AG for about a year and a half, and that he doesn't even need to drone on to hide much of his record.

"He's got a big record, and so just in terms of responsibly letting him defend what he's done, asking questions, raising things he's said, raising things from court cases where he's been rebuked by judges and so forth, let him respond, that takes more than the amount of time they're allocating," Kristol said. "So even if he doesn't drone on, even if senators succeed in interrupting him and making him answer a little bit, it's just not enough time."

Red state courts Trump-allied Hollywood giant looking to flee California: reports

A red state is capitalizing on a major Hollywood studio's rift with California over a Trump-backed merger, per reports.

According to a Tuesday article by The Hollywood Reporter, Tennessee is courting Paramount Skydance as it sets its sights on a new home. Paramount Skydance has threatened to leave California after a coalition of a dozen attorneys general filed a lawsuit to block a $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The Trump Department of Justice greenlit the merger earlier this year.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development sent a letter on July 2 to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, in which it tried to woo the Trump-allied chairman.

"Congratulations on this remarkable new chapter for Paramount Skydance. Few leaders have the opportunity to redefine an iconic company while simultaneously shaping the future of an industry," reads the letter, signed by Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter. "As you look ahead, I encourage you to consider Tennessee as the home for that future."

The Hollywood Reporter noted that Ellison used to live on and off in Tennessee for 11 years from 2014 to 2025. The Reporter added that Oracle, the tech company owned by Larry Ellison, plans on building a massive campus in Nashville, and Clay Magouyrk, the co-CEO of Oracle, lives in Tennessee.

Warner Bros. Discovery also used to maintain an office complex in Knoxville after a 2017 Scripps Network deal. Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of the historic Hollywood studio, sold the property in 2023, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Tennessee offers a compelling proposition: a state where creativity and technology converge, where talent is developed intentionally, and where innovation is embraced," the letter promised.

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