MSNBC's Joe Scarborough observed that Donald Trump seemed to be struggling under the weight of his abundant legal problems.
The former president appeared to doze off for a spell during the first day of his criminal trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, and panelists on "Morning Joe" analyzed his courtroom demeanor.
"Reality has arrived," said panelist Jonathan Lemire. "He doesn't have a choice in the matter. We heard Trump yesterday afterwards complain that the judge wouldn't let him leave to attend his son's high school graduation, to leave to attend the Supreme Court oral arguments, which are set for next week. The judge is, like, that's not how this works. We're going to treat you like everyone else. You're a criminal defendant, you have to be here. The judge could issue a waiver for a day if he wants, perhaps for the graduation, but he certainly doesn't have to. We could see the frustration from Trump was obvious in the Truth Social posts afterward, as well. His demeanor in court, some reporters are allowed in the room, and they suggest he looked frustrated. He closed his eyes. We don't know if he was asleep or not, but he closed his eyes."
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Scarborough then interrupted and asked the others to consider previous coverage of president Joe Biden closing his eyes at public events.
"Hold on a second – you've seen the Trump standard for judging Joe Biden when he closes his eyes and prays at a memorial service in Hawaii, then he's sleepy and dopey," Scarborough said. "I saw something this past weekend, a headline, and I won't even say what the newspaper was. I was like, oh, okay, I have to see it because it said Biden was addled or whatever, like, him walking across the White House lawn. Using their standard, they would say, if Joe Biden did that in the courtroom, he was comatose and had to be rushed to Bellevue or something like that."
"Yeah, Trump, obviously, though, we can -- we don't have to be the Bill O'Reilly – what'd he have?" Scarborough added, and co-host Willie Geist recalled the former Fox News host speaking to body language experts to analyze Hillary Clinton's behavior. "Yeah, we don't have to be that. You can look at his face and see the weight of all this is finally weighing down on him."
Lemire then highlighted an interview he conducted on "Way Too Early," the program he hosts, with a legal expert who described his own experience attending criminal trials.
"We spoke to Charles Coleman, one of the MSNBC legal experts on 'Way Too Early,' who notes, again, sitting in a criminal trial, it is draining," Lemire said. "You're there for seven, eight hours. It is intense, it'll take a toll on anyone, particularly someone who is in his late 70s, under a lot of pressure right now, that is. That is a real thing. Otherwise, yesterday proceeded as it was expected, proceeded as a matter of routine. But that doesn't take away the history of it. This was the first time a former president and about to be presidential nominee is sitting as a criminal defendant."
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