Takeaways: Trump pleads not guilty in classified documents case

During his speech, Trump talked about how his indictment was an example of how the U.S. is becoming like Cuba and Venezuela, emphasizing those two countries very specifically. That comes after his lawyer slash spokesperson did the same during a quick statement outside of the federal courthouse in Miami where her client was being arraigned.

That’s not an accident. Trump’s case is being held in Southern Florida, home to generations of exiles who fled communist Cuba and their descendants and more recent arrivals who escaped the economic collapse of Venezuela. This group has both been a particular fount of support for the anti-communist wing of the GOP and a wellspring of support for Trump over the years. From overturning the Obama-era rapprochement with Cuba to publicly mulling military options against Venezuela, he has been pandering to this community for ages.

Now leaning in even harder, it appears that Trump is attempting to get that community — whose Miami residents may be called upon to serve on a jury in his case — to back him in his latest legal struggle. And as NBC News’ Chuck Todd said during “Meet The Press Daily” earlier today, it’s astounding that people whose forebears sought refuge in a place where the rule of law meant something are now cheering for the exact opposite.

Confession: I missed the beginning of Trump’s Bedminster remarks since our network isn’t showing them live. Quickly, though, I realized that he was on another tear, lying about the Presidential Records Act, how it works, and how it applies to the documents that were in his possession after he left office.

So maybe instead of listening to him lying about how Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden did the same as him or worse, maybe go read what the National Archives and Records Administration had to say on the matter. The full explainer is a savage rebuttal of Trump’s talking points about the documents. 

Last week, in the liminal space between news of Trump’s indictment and the document becoming public, former Vice President Mike Pence tried to both advocate for the rule of law and not alienate Trump’s supporters too badly. He demanded loudly and publicly that the Justice Department unseal the indictment so that the American people could see what’s inside. He insisted that “nobody is above the rule of law” — but also railed against the “Russia hoax.” 

Having now read the indictment, Pence was still trying to split the difference during in an interview with The Wall Street Journal: 

“Having read the indictment,” the former Veep says, “these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.”

He added:

“Having read the indictment,” the former Veep says, “these are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.”

That’s great — until Pence goes back to the same old talking points about how the Justice Department can’t be trusted anymore and that Hillary Clinton never faced indictment “for very similar behavior.” (It was not similar behavior.) It’s a sad commentary on the state of the GOP that Pence feels that this whataboutism is necessary in order to critique Trump’s actions, especially when this balancing act is trying to equivocate between things that are true and things that are demonstrably false.

The lack of a large pro-Trump protest today felt rather familiar, as such a gathering also failed to materialize at Trump’s arraignment in New York two months ago.

But it seemed different, too. As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem wrote tonight, it’s a “clear sign of weakness for the authoritarian populist” — and an indication that the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner “lacks the level of command over his base that’s needed to survive such an unprecedented political scandal.” 

Read Zeeshan’s full column below.

Among the attendees of Trump’s pending Bedminster diatribe is Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.

The former college football coach flew to New Jersey this afternoon but in doing so totally stepped on the Senate GOP leadership’s plans for the day. See, the Senate was voting today to advance the nomination of Jared Bernstein to be the new head of Biden’s head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., had already come out against Bernstein, so the idea was that Vice President Kamala Harris would have to come to the Senate to break the tie — but when the time came for the cloture vote, Tuberville was nowhere to be found.

The vote passed 50-49, showcasing an absolute lack of clock management skills from the onetime coach.

One question that kept coming up during today’s arraignment is: How closely are Trump’s and Nauta’s legal teams coordinating?

As Lisa Rubin noted earlier, Todd Blanche — one of Trump’s lawyers — was frequently whispering not just to his own client but also to Nauta and his lawyer. That’s weird considering that while they are co-defendants, they aren’t technically sharing a legal team.

That caveat is because Nauta is represented by Brand Woodward Law, whose fees are being paid by Trump’s Save America PAC, The Washington Post reported last year. That arrangement came under scrutiny given Nauta’s then-role as a witness before becoming uncooperative when prosecutors realized he was being less than forthcoming. The fact that Trump’s political operation was paying his legal costs seemed — and seems — like a pretty solid way to ensure that he stay loyal to his boss. That loyalty seems to have gotten him indicted — and left him with a lawyer who couldn’t even enter a “not guilty” plea for him at today’s hearing.