Is still photos and
courtroom sketches convey
about the former prisoners
demeanor as a defendant.
These historic proceedings
are not televised,
which is why it's good to be.
Joined now by New York Times sen
political correspondent
Maggie Haberman,
who not only has spent
time inside the courtroom,
but is also a Trump biographer.
So what do you make of the forme
president's demeanor today?
What was it like?
There were a couple of things
that were striking.
He looked very unhappy.
He looked very unhappy on the mo
where you can see his face.
He looked in court, were well be
So we can't see his face
when we're in there.
We have a better view
when we're in the overflow room,
There's an overflow room
that has monitors.
And there's monitors
in the courtroom, too.
But it's much easier to see the
in the overflow room.
They're right up at your face.
It's just different.
He looked unhappy when he left f
He looked unhappy when he left
when court ended for the day.
It was tense in the room
when David Becker was on the sta
It was tense in the room when Co
the prosecutor, was going
through the narrative of the cas
and talking about Stormy
Daniels and Access Hollywood
and Karen McDougal
and all of these things
that Trump does not want to hear
I said this on air earlier today
when we're covering this,
but I just kept imagining
what is going through Trump's mi
when he's sitting there
at the defense table
watching David Pecker, his forme
friend Dish, who knows a lot of
about him going back
a long time on this stand.
It's it's just it's
fundamentally different
than what we have seen with
Trump over many years now,
which is a lot of former aides
or allies or advisers
going on television or writing b
This is this is a courtroom
and this is under oath.
And this is David Pecker
opening his testimony.
And we only heard
a little bit of testimony
is coming back tomorrow.
But him opening, saying
we practiced and I'm paraphrasin
but we re practice checkbook jou
That is a quote at the National
We we paid for tips about celebr
and so forth.
And Trump
knows what that means
and he knows what kind of inform
that meant that David Pecker had
And David Pecker was very poised
And I think that he's
going to tell a story
that the jury is going to find
pretty compelling.
David Picker essentially made a
I mean, for a nonprofit,
he has a non-prosecution agreeme
And so that's why
I mean, he's testifying.
Yeah, he's testifying under subp
I mean, he is not doing this
because he was a.
He was the prosecutors
say he's a coconspirator.
But he is not there
because he wants to be there.
But the prosecutors are going to
to suggest
that his testimony
the same way they're going to tr
this with Michael Cohen
is credible for X-Y-Z reasons,
and that these are things Trump
just didn't want to have come ou
defense of former
president, I mean, has
no family with him, No,
you know, friends.
He's just got his legal team.
I understand he was he
he talked about this.
He was upset about
the lack of proximity of support
outside the courthouse. Yeah.
So it has been striking
that there's no family,
because I know that
there was some discussion
at some point in the last couple
about who would be with him in c
And last week,
which was just jury selection,
there weren't that many people t
There was a phalanx of lawyers
from his other cases
and from the Trump org
who showed up in court.
But I think it's
because they were next door
dealing with this New York
attorney general appeal.
He is he is by himself.
And when he feels boosted
is by his supporters.
And so he has been hoping
for something of a circus
around his trial.
But the reality, Anderson,
is that only
2 to 3
dozen supporters, Max, over the
have shown up
and they're positioned to protes
demonstrated such whatever.
Across the street from the court
Trump started trying to suggest
that that's
why the number has been so small
is that they're all being blocke
But that's not it.
It's the people are not showing
You also wrote a really interest
for The New York Times
about how the trial
this trial strips Trump of contr
And I mean, you really see that,
you know,
there was the famous example
just the other day of,
you know, he got up to leave
and the judge admonished
him, said, sit down, we're
still in session.
But it's just I mean, you know,
for anyone
who's been in those courtrooms,
it's a dreary
I mean, it is like it's like old
New York.
It is it is trapped in a somber
You know, Tom Wolf, New York.
And it's the New York
that Trump thrived in.
But this is not the part of it
that Trump ever wanted to be cap
And he has to sit there,
no cell phone,
bored, you know,
which is not something he ever h
well while he is being insulted
or described negatively.
He doesn't have the same methods
to push back.
Remember, there is a hearing abo
whether he is violent,
whether the judge agrees with pr
that he has repeatedly violated
the gag order against attacking
and others in the case. Tomorrow
And, you know,
there are people around him
who believe that
that this is part of the goal of
the prosecution
is simply that this process is
is so shrinking and small.
But courts
and particularly state
courts are really their own nati
Essentially,
there are rules
that get made from on high
and you are at someone else's wo
Will it is your life is not your
Thank you. Ever. Thank you so mu