says the next time you do it jail is possibility, he's already said that. >> is he constrained by statute or an appellate court already said that would be $100,000 per violation? >> i think he is. i look add the criminal contempt statute in new york and it's pretty clear those two options as i just outlined it, does that mean he couldn't find trump in violation of some other statute that's not been briefed before him? no, but he also said i'm not going to summarily find contempt, right? these are things you have to bring before me. and he's made it very clear these are not summer proceedings. unless he does it in front of me, i'm not going to do of my own volition. we can keep going. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. so i heard the meeting was quite amazing, quite amazing. and the justices were on their

game. so we'll see how it all turns out, but again i say presidential immunity, very powerful presidential immunity is imperative or you practically won't have a country anymore. >> an ominous warning about donald trump following pivotal arguments on presidential immunity. we'll play key moments from the justices and what they're now poised to do as they learn of trump's actions. plus what we learned of david pecker during had hush money trial as well as instrumental role in payments to kill stories about trump ahead of the 2016 election. and new ads to court nikki haley supporters. we'll discuss the swing state where he plans to make his appeal and why. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this friday,

april 26th. i'm ali vitally in for jonathan lemire. and we begin this morning with yesterday's historic morning at supreme court where the justices heard oral arguments regarding donald trump's claim that he's immune from prosecution from his official acts while president. nbc senior legal correspondent laura jarrett as the latest. >> reporter: the u.s. supreme court weighing a monumental question that will decide whether the former president goes to trial for plotting to overturn the last election and when. >> i think that the supreme court has a very important argument before it today. >> reporter: mr. trump hoping to persuade the justices to find him immune from federal charges. his lawyers arguing the office of the presidency would be completely hobbled without that protection. >> without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, there can be no presidency as we know it. >> reporter: the special counsel's office indicted mr. trump on conspiracy and obstruction charges last year

for his efforts to cling to power, accusing the likely gop nominee of pressuring state officials to reverse the election results, actions doj argues were for purely personal gain and cannot be shielded from prosecution. >> there is no immunity that is in the constitution unless this court creates it today. >> reporter: the conservatives expressing concern if future presidents have no immunity for actions taken while in the white house, that could hoep the door for incriminations between political rivals. >> will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy? >> reporter: the liberal justices troubled by the prospect of insulating presidents from accountability, raising a series of dark hypotheticals to underscore the consequences of adopting mr. trump's position. >> if a president sells nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary, is that immune? how about if a president orders

the military to stage a coup? that sure sounds bad, doesn't it? >> i'm trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the oval office into, you know, the seat of criminal activity in this country. >> the fallout over efforts to subvert the election results in 2020 stretching beyond washington. in arizona a grand jury indicted several members of mr. trump's inner circle wednesday accusing them of falsely awarding the state's electoral votes to mr. trump despite his loss to president biden. the sending of phony slates of pro-trump electors to congress to disrupt the election certification on january 6th looming large at the high court as well. as the justices look to determine the line between a political candidate's actions taken for personal gain from a president's official conduct that could be immune from prosecution. >> that was nbc's lara jarrett reporting. and joining us now is msnbc

legal analyst danny cevallos. thanks for waking up early because i think one of the biggest legal issues i have to ask you about from watching and listening yesterday is the argument from trump's attorneys that the justices have to distinguish between personal and official acts of a president. what did you make of that argument? it got pretty dark at various points. >> yesterday was a day of doomsday hypotheticals, which really echoes the socratic method that is taught at law schools where you give someone a hypothetical, you speak the facts, and you take it to maybe an absurd result, but that's how you suss out what the law is. and that was on full display yesterday. essentially trump's side concedes if it's purely private conduct, then an ex-president can be prosecuted. if it is a presidential or official act, he is immune. the challenge, of course is what's the difference? how do we know what is purely presidential and what is official? and then ruly on the government's side there was a

concession as well. they didn't use the word immunity, but they certainly suggested for what they called core presidential activities, vetoes, pardons, there might be some form of immunity for an ex-president. but, again, distinguishing what is and is not core and protected is another problem. >> yeah, i think that's especially true when you look at the ways that it could be applied here. was it someone's personal capacity to take classified documents home with them at the end of their term? of course that is going to be something so central to this. based on what you heard from the judges yesterday, did they tilt their hands at all how they could rule here? >> i think judges particularly supreme court justices go out of their way to ask questions that don't always reveal which way they're leaning. but sometimes you can tell. i actually think at times amy coney barrett seemed hostile to the trump position. that is part of the appellate process is to play devil's advocate when you're wearing the robe. so some of these justices may

surprise you sometimes. but here's the thing, they are concerned with drawing a line. they all appeared concern with where do you draw the presidential immunity line. you could come up with arguments on both sides that make each side's argument a doomsday. we've heard the s.e.a.l. team 6 example or does every president on their last day have to pardon themselves because they might be politically prosecuted? this seems relatively easy for the litigants because they're advocating for each of their suggested bright line rules. >> so the best case scenario for getting this on the calender before election day, what would you say the ruling has to be? and then give me the worst-case scenario for voters not being able to hear the underlying cases here assuming the supreme court rules in a specific and targeted way? stl here's the likely results of that and we saw hints yesterday with a win from the trump team

it would be sent back down for a determination as to what conduct alleged in the indictment would be official conduct and what would be private conduct and divide those out. i don't see how that would happen. that would be a really difficult process, but of course that would be a huge win for donald trump for two reasons. because number one, it would reflect a recognition to some degree of immunity. and number two, it would take time. and we know at this point that has all to federal cases against trump delay is a win. if he can delay it past the election and more specifically the inauguration, he appoints an attorney general, and those cases go bye-bye. and if he can't find an attorney general to dismiss them he will attempt -- although i don't know if it works, a self-pardon. >> and once again we end up litigating what a president can and cannot do. stay with me because in new york we have more legal drama from the former president. attorneys for the former president are set to resume questioning on david pecker in

the president's hush money criminal trial. pecker, of course, was the first witness called by prosecutors, and they wrapped up their questioning yesterday. in just hours pecker will return to the witness stand for a fourth day as defense attorneys continue trying to poke holes in his testimony about helping bury embarrassing stories that trump feared could hurt his 2016 presidential campaign. during the cross-examination yesterday the defense grilled pecker on his specific memories of dates and meanings, appearing to lay the groundwork for the defense's arguments that any dealings trump had with pecker were intended to protect trump himself, his reputation and his family, not his campaign. pecker recalled how an editor at the national enquirer told him a representative of adult film actress stormy daniels was trying to sell her story for $125,000, but pecker said he put his foot down saying, quote, i am not a bank. he noted the tabloid was already $180,000 in the hole for another trump-related catch and kill transaction including paying

former playboy model karen mcdougal $150,000 for her story claiming she had an affair with trump. pecker said he told former trump attorney michael cohen to buy the stormy daniels story himself to prevent daniels from going public with her claim. additionally pecker said his conversations with cohen included asking trump to pay cohen back at cohen's request. trump has denied any sexual encounters with daniels or mcdougal. danny, we mention how it appears the defense here is trying to lay this groundwork any dealings trump had with pecker were meant to protect trump as a person -- again, we're talking personal not official capacities. but why is that so important here? >> the cross-examination yesterday started off in a very predictable direction. number one, attack the witness's memory. number two, he's essentially a cooperating witness so go into the deal he made with federal and state prosecutors. yes, specific to these facts, what the defense is trying to develop is that this is the kind

of thing that pecker, ami, cohen, that they were doing for a long time. this relationship, whatever you want to call it, this catch and kill relation existed in some form or another, and it dated back to the 2000s. for literally years, maybe decades before a presidential campaign. and that is the kind of atmosphere that they tried to create. whereas the prosecution wanted to show, hey, this thing started roughly before the election and increased in frequency. they want to instead show, no, this is purely personal. because if they can show this was only to protect trump's family, it's less likely that it was to aid in his campaign. and aiding in his campaign means that it helps the people elevate this otherwise misdemeanor to a felony because the campaign finance violations could be a violation as alleged of state or federal law. but they did signal they would be using new york election law as that aggravating felony that was concealed while they were

committing the alleged underlying crimes. what i should say it's the crime that elevates a two-way felony, the concealment of the second crime. >> yeah, that's really important there. so given the longevity of the relationship they're trying to show, the way they're attempting to make it sound personal, just givenen what you've seen, what side did his testimony seem to help at this point? >> oh, david pecker is the star witness for the people. and that may be a bold statement because so far he's been the only witness, but there are a few points why he must be. number one, they never would have called him first if he wasn't a solid witness. and number two, who isn't fascinated by this expose of how tabloid checkbook journalism works. i found it fascinating, and if you're fascinated as a juror, you're definitely listening. point three, he's part of a character i call a skoundological in that he's unabashed, unashamed of what he does. when you have witnesses like that, jurors kind of like them.

they realize they are who they are, and they will listen to them and find them credible. as to that credibility, he has somewhat less credibility issues than michael cohen. so i think a very effective witness for the state and a really tough witness to cross for the defense. >> we don't use the word scoundrel enough in our coverage enough, danny cevallos. thank you for joining us and giving us new vocab words. still ahead we'll look at president biden's new to nikki haley supporters. plus harvey weinstein's rape convictions in new york overturned. will it lead to a new trial? those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come back. a check on sports and weather when we come back

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supporters that gave joe biden his razor thin win in the state in 2020. the ad, which will run as part of a six-figure push using donald trump's own words against him quoting donald trump as saying he doesn't need her voters. >> birdbrain, i call her birdbrain. nikki haley has made an unholy alliance with rinos, never trumpers. she was sitting there like -- she's gone crazy and she's a very angry person. i don't need votes. we've got all the votes we need. >> how do you bring these nikki haley voters back in? >> i'm not sure we need too many. >> in a statement the biden campaign writes, quote, our campaign has been clear from the beginning that we will welcome anyone who knows what four more years of donald trump would destroy our freedoms and devastate our country. i don't know, i was looking at the suburbs in pennsylvania and i was seeing a lot of places where nikki haley was running up

margins that donald trump really knows he should need or at least his campaign knows, whether or not he's realized it yet. i guess we'll see. meanwhile, new york's top court threw out kis graced harvey weinstein's 2020 rape conviction. and now the court is doing everything in its power to re-try the case. the appeals court found the appointed judge in the landmark me too trial prejudiced the case by allowing women to testify about allegations that weren't part of the case. the judges argued that weinstein was not tried solely on the crimes he was charged with but instead for much of his past behavior. an attorney representing eight of weinstein's victims issued a statement calling the ruling, quote, a major stepback and tragic for victims of sexual violence. meanwhile, weinstein's attorneys hailed the ruling as a victory for every criminal defendant in the united states. weinstein's also faces charges in los angeles and was convicted in 2022 of rape and sentenced to

16 years in that case. and in tennessee governor bill lee says he plans to sign a bill that would allow teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on school grounds. earlier this week tennessee lawmakers passed a measure permitting faculty to carry hand gups in schools if their school's administrators agree to the policy. teachers who want to do so must also complete a background check, a mental health evaluation and at least 40 hours of training. the legislation comes one year after a shooter opened fire at a nashville school killing six people. still ahead, we'll have a recap of a quarterback-heavy first round of the 2024 nfl draft, plus highlights from both the nba and nhl playoffs. we're back in a moment. nhl plays we're back in a moment the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful,

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with the first pick in the 2024 nfl draft, the chicago bears select caleb williams, quarterback southern california. >> the commissioner fresh off back surgery, and as expected former usc quarterback caleb williams was selected first overall by the chicago bears in last night's nfl draft. a record crowd of more than 275,000 fans attended the event in detroit, which for the fourth time saw quarterbacks selected with it top three picks. the washington commanders followed the bears drafting jaden daniels out of lsu at number 2. and the new england patriots took drake -- off the board at number three. a record six quarterbacks were selected in the top 12 including the number 8 pick by the atlanta falcons who selected michael jr. less than two years after signing kirk cousins to a

four-year $800 million contract. the new york giants did not join the qb bonanza with the selection of wide receiver malik navers at number 6 overallch. we begin out west in los angeles. the lakers are on the brink of elimination after another loss to the champion denver nuggets last night. aaron gordon put up a cull rear high 29 points. nikola yokech added 24. denver will look to complete the sweep tomorrow night. the orlando magics got on the board handing cleveland its worst playoff loss in franchise history. the 121-83 victory cuts orlando's deficit from two games to one. game four is saturday afternoon in florida. and in philadelphia the 76ers avoided a 3-0 hole with a 125-114 win over the new york

knicks last night. i'm sorry to our colleague shaquille bruster. the reigning mvp announced after the game he's been diagnosed with a form of facial paralysis he has has affected him since before the play-in tournament. and a pair of eastern conference contenders pushed to the brink of elimination last night. in tampa bay two goals scored by matthew helped the florida panthers to a 5-3 road vict in a 3-0 series against the lightening. the hurricanes beating the islanders 3-2. time now for the weather to warm it up from the ice rink we go to meteorologist angie lassman for the forecast. angie, will be warming things

up? >> there are a couple spots across the country waking up chilly, ali. unfortunately it's the severe weather going to get your attention not just today but the next couple of days. this morning we're waking up to plenty of thunderstorms stretching from kansas city up into the dakotas. we already have severe thunderstorm watches and warnings in parts of the southern plains and more likely where that came from with 18 million people across the midwest and plains under this potential for strong to suvore storms. we're talking about all hazards, tornados, wind gusts included. notice where we're looking for that highest chance of large hail, tennis ball sized even from ohio to dallas. and i mention this is a multi-day event. that is exactly what we're going to see tomorrow across the great lakes and stretching as far south as texas. 33 million people at risk for severe weather as we head into our saturday plans. and once again damaging hail, 2 inches in size or larger is possible and a cup of strong tornados. a weekend you want to have away to get those weather alerts,

ali. >> yeah, absolutely. angie lassman, thank you for bringing them to us. one university in california cancels its graduation ceremony amid pro-palestinian protesters. we'll talk about the congressional response and unrest when "way too early" comes right back. sponse and unrest when "way too early" comes right back for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask an asthma specialist if nucala is right for you. hi, i'm greg. i live in bloomington, illinois. i'm not an actor. i'm just a regular person. some people say, "why should i take prevagen? i don't have a problem with my memory." memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. i started noticing subtle lapses in memory. i want people to know that prevagen has worked for me.

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welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 on the dot on the east coast, 2:30 out west. i'm ali vitally in for jonathan lemire. the university of southern california is canceling its main

commencement ceremony over the protell uses over the war in gaza. commencement typically draws a crowd of about 65,000 people, but now school officials are citing safety concerns. the announcement comes just one day after more than 90 students were arrested on campus. last week the school also announced its valed victorian who's muslim and shared pro-palestinian views would no longer speak at commencement. the university cited security concerns for that decision. meanwhile, more protesters are being arrested for demonstrations on college campuses. this brings the total number of people detained in a week to more than 500. joining us now congressional reporter for the hill. you have some new reporting how protests we're seeing on college campuses are being reacted to. tell us about tat. >> sort of this weak we've seen lawmakers fan out across the country visiting different universities. we saw a grew of jewish democrats on monday followed by a group of new york republicans

that same day. congresswoman ilhan omar was at the university of minnesota speaking to those pro-palestinian protesters and of course this all coalesced with wednesday's visit by speaker johnson to the columbia university in manhattan talking to these protesters directly saying they should pack it up, go back to class essentially and calling on the columbia president to resign in the wake of these protests happening on the camp and the encampment happening on the campus. so we're seeing morgue congressional response to these protests that have now sort of grown and roiling college campuses across the country. speaker johnson floating that the house could have a legislative place in this sort of debate about these protests on college campuses, saying the house may move to cut off federal funding for these universities that don't create a safe environment for jewish students. so we're definitely seeing a lot of lawmakers get involved with this. of course congress returns to session next week, so definitely expect to have more action on this front. >> certainly going to be part of the conversation because we saw not even just a week before all

this, the president of columbia herself testifying in front of the committee that we saw congresswoman virginia fox of course standing behind the speaker there when they went to columbia's campus. this has been a conversation on the hill. i wonder, though, if this is not a moment for the speaker to sort of take himself out of hot water by moving the focus onto an issue by by and large all of his members want him to focus on. >> i think johnson of course republicans at large are typically very supportive of israel but especially in this moment when you're talking about students having this sort of unsafe moment for jewish students on campus. it's definitely an aim for lawmakers up on capitol hill. and then when you bring in the element about the hot water -- >> that motion to vacate. >> as that looms he did that powerful step last week putting the foreign aid package on the floor and that has handed him with even more hot water with hard line conservative republicans. there's that motion to vacate by congresswoman greene. two other republicans are

backing it. so johnson can use sort of a rally around the flag moment right now, something that can bring his conference together, have his rank and file members back his strong support of something. will that be israel and the anti-semitism that's taking place on college campuses, quite possibly. seems he's going to lean into it and make it something. >> certainly makes sense to lean into it. if it gets him where he's going, i don't know we've seen generally much from marjorie taylor greene. >> still rutor clack saying she plans to do it. if speaker johnson doesn't resign she's going to force this motion. she says even if she were to force it we both know democrats are ready and eager to swoop in and save johnson after he put that foreign aid package on the floor. so she's sort of in a pickle right now with these large vows but not too much support to follow through with them. >> we'll see if that magic word privileged gets into the conversation at all. thank you for joining us.

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what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. options start at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate-lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information, and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner.

and it's yours free just for calling, so call now for free information. time now for business, and for that let's bring in cnbc charlotte reed live from london. charlotte, the federal reserve's preferred inflation gauge for march is due out in a few hours as investors worry about low economic growth and high inflation rates. how's the market shaping up for this morning? >> well, indeed, some of the futures are in the green this morning, but that comes as you were saying from after a couple of data concerning figures on the health of the u.s. economy. as you were saying gdp growth is surprisingly slow pace at 1.6% between january and march against a reading expected with

a forecast something closer to 2.4% there. there was some bad news on inflation front, one closely watched by the fed showing underlying inflation rose by 3.7%, the biggest jump in the year. so you kind of had the worst of both worlds here, a slowing economy as well as hotter than expected inflation there. so the markets slumped after the news, and they'll be watching for more inflation data coming in today to try to get a hint of if and when the fed may be able to start cutting interest rates. >> that's interesting. and wall street, meanwhile, is waiting for more earnings from two big energy companies, chevron, and exxon mobile, this after microsoft and alphabet both saw shares rally on strong reports. what more can you tell us here? >> indeed. alphabet owns google and youtube reported better than expected results yesterday with soaring profits in their cloud division and announced its first dividend ever. so revenue was up 15% in the

first quarter to $80 billion and jumped up 57%. so the board of alphabet approved a dividend of 20 cents per share as well as $70 billion share buy back. and of course the alphabet shares jumped after hours on the news. >> and finally, the federal trade commission is sending millions in refunds to crustmers of the popular doorbell camera and home security provider ring. i think a lot of people here might want to hear about this one. let's talk more about it. >> it's interesting the ftc sending out $5.6 million in refunds to ring customers. this is part of a settlement with the amazon-owned company that makes doorbells and security videos. last year the ftc accused ring of allowing employees and contractors to access some of the customers private videos without consent. ring was also charged with failing to implement security protection, enabling hackers to access some of the videos as

well. so as part of the settlement ring had to pay a fine, which is now being used to repay some of the customers affected. >> that's huge. cnbc's charlotte reed live from london, thank you for joining us. and still ahead we've got more than two dozen world leaders ramping up pressure on hamas to release the remaining hostages. we'll have the latest on the negotiations as israel continues its military operations in gaza. "way too early" will be right back. operations in gaza. "way too early" will be right back type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪

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the united states and 17 other countries are demanding hamas release the more than 130 people still being held hostage in gaza. in a joint statement the world leaders write in part, quote, the fate of the hostages and hostages in gaza protected under international is cause for concern. they call for a deal that would secure not only their release but also a cease-fire. qatari officials have been

mediating the talks. tay say some progress has been made, but the leader of hamas has vetoed the latest proposal. that deal would have included a six-week truce and exchange of hundred of palestinian prisoners for dozens of sick and elderly and wounded hostages. meanwhile tensions between poland and russia intensified this week. on monday poland's president suggested his country would be open to hosting nuclear weapons in order to strengthen nato's eastern flank. russia responded yesterday saying if that happened those weapons would be legitimate targets in the case of a direct confrontation with nato. in poland's lower parliament and the country's foreign minister warned it's not the west who should fear a clash with putin but the other way around. arguing although nato is a defense wassive alliance an attack by moscow by any of its members would end in russia's inevitable defeat. joining us now hagar shamali.

russia continues to make advances in the front lines. what are you watching for as the country receives that additional aid the congress and the president were able to get out the door? >> sure, ali, there's a couple of things i'm watching. first, is that the aid passed on capitol hill is extremely important. ukraine needed that aid yesterday. they needed ammunition and specifically mission first defense systems. as you've seen in the last few months russia has been taking advantage of that lack of ammunition and missile defense systems ukraine is having. so some of the worst bombing campaign since the beginning of this war have happened only in the last month. the question is how fast can they get it because it is still going to take time, so i'm going to be watching that. on the second part, on the part about the nuclear weapons, something important is know is that russia has moved nuclear weapons to belarus. that is bordering poland and ukraine and so it borders nato territory. when poland says, well we're

welcome, we're going to host nuclear weapons of our nato allies like the united states and others -- and by the way, as it is poland already hosting significant missile equipment and defense systems from the united states, that's what that is in response to. >> and so when you see the escalating rhetoric there, it makes sense given the way that we're watching this tit for tat play out there. let's also turn, though, to the situation in gaza and potential operation in rafah. what's the latest you've heard? has it begun in earnest in some ways? >> yes and no. and so what i mean is you do have air strikes that have begun in rafah, but you don't have the massive ground invasion that we've been all anticipating from israel. i do expect israel to move ahead with that invasion, but the question is when or how, they're still talking to the united states about their evacuation plans, and apparently satellite imagery shows that tents have been erected, hundreds of new tents have been erected to the north of rafah. so clearly there is some kind of plan moving ahead to create

these tents, to move to evacuate the over 1 million refugees who sought refuge in rafah because israel has said there's no or how they're not going into rafah to dismantle the hamas battalion, so what they're hoping as they've said is hamas surrenders from here. i believe israel is also using this as atictic in the negotiations to release hostages. >> and i wonder then we've talked about, of course, what's happening on the ground there, but when you look at the ways that protests are now spanning across college campuses in regards to the ongoing conflict between israel and gaza, what is your reaction when you see this? and what are the implications on this larger foreign policy debate? >> yes. i'm so glad you asked this. ali, i teach at columbia university as an adjunct member and professor there. it's shocking to see all of it unfold before us. listen, i don't think the administration expected the backlash after the arrests of the students last week to see

how -- how strong the protests came back but somehow they spread like wildfire. and the thing is on one hand you've got guidelines and rules across the country as it would be in any private institution or any public park where protestvers to follow when, where, and how they can protest. and separately they also have to follow rules about not inciting violence or hate or anti-semitic remarks. and a lot of the protesters are saying, hey, these are peaceful except by the way i've walked by them and when you're calling for entifada, you're calling for violence. and that's where you've got this clash. the issue i have is this going to grow and continue in the lead up to commencement with the effort to remove those tents, and it could really heat up all the way through november. >> we're already starting to see some commencements be canceled as well because of concerns around this. i think you're right it's spreading. i guess i wonder as i talk to

young voters as i've been out on the campaign trail, a lot of their information comes from tiktok. is that where the information is coming from now, this larger awareness of the conflict? >> a lot of it is social mead you and i've noticed as well. there's a lot of influence from tiktok because you see students, by the way, saying things they don't understand. they don't know this conflict. in some respects some parts of me wants as a professor in particular feels the need to teach and guide and educate and the other part of me feels frustrated because these are adults, they have access to google. there are things they should know what is an anti-semitic remark, what incites violence. if they were to protest for a cease-fire or anti-war protest ends up being a call for violence. the last thing i'll say on this is, there are extremists also taking advantage of young, impressionable minds on campus. we've seen it on columbia. a group associated with

terrorist groups come to talk to them. the students were suspended. that's because extremists see an advantage, to take advantage of that. that's something the students have to disassociate themselves from completely. >> that's something as i've been talking to people close to the situation, there have been concerns about the people on columbia's campus who are not of columbia's campus. that's a concern across the board, as well. former spokesperson for the united nations, the thank you for joining us for your perspective. >> thanks. up next, the white house is considering selling russian assets in the united states. we'll dig into the global ramifications that could half. and coming up on "morning joe," national security council spokesperson john kirby will be live in the studio with a look at how the foreign aid package will help ukraine, israel, and other allies. plus, donald trump returns to court in new york city in just a few hours. what we can expect to hear when david pecker takes the stand for more cross-examination. and the supreme court is considering whether the ex-president should be granted absolute immunity in his federal

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the white house is now considering selling russian assets with new powers included in the foreign aid package that was signed into law earlier this week. the move, which would be the first of its kind, faces complex legal issues and potential global ramifications. according to national security adviser jake sullivan, president biden will discuss the potential action when the leaders of the g-7 countries meet in italy in june. if they move forward on selling the assets, it'll be as a group, according to sullivan. however, the action would not be without consequences. critics warn repossessing russian assets could harm america's standing as the world's dominant currency. the potential move could lead countries like china, which holds the largest amount of u.s. treasuries, to question if it is safe to keep money in u.s. dollars. joining us now is senior washington correspondent for bloomberg news, also the author of "paper soldiers,"

saleha mohsin. help us break this down a built. it is a complex issue, part of the foreign aid package. they're calling it the repo act over there, but tell us how this works. >> ali, in 2022, the u.s. immobilized millions of dollars that the russian central bank parked in dollars, saying, now, putin, you cannot use this for your war chest to continue financing your war. now that the world is considering how to finance the rebuilding of ukraine and tapping into taxpayer money for that refinancing, here from the u.s., there's also a call to say, hey, the assets that putin had, that we've immobilized, we're looking for them, we think we know where everything is, let's use that. there needed to be a change of law. now, the u.s. congress which can agree on very little, agreed to give the administration the authority to confiscate those

assets or use the return on those assets to help ukraine. but, as republican lawmakers and a lot of folks inside the white house and the democratic party are aware of, is that this actually sort of continues on that theme of the weaponization of the dollar. why would another foreign central bank park their money in u.s. dollars if there is a threat of it being con fis skate confiscated? >> it could have global ramifications. we heard jake sullivan say biden is going to talk this over with other g-7 leaders. if they jump, they jump together. do you think they go for it? >> i think so, but it is really hard to say whether the u.s. can really lead on this issue. it is interesting, though, right? we're seeing that europe has a little more power over this, whereas, the u.s. is used to being able to call the shots. putin diversified away from the dollar and parked money more in euros, so europe can call the shots. this can happen more if the world moves away from the dollar. >> is this something we could

see european leaders similarly try to do? >> absolutely. they also need a change of law or regulations in order to take the euros that the russian central bank had their assets parked in. they would also need a similar rule change. right now, they don't even have the agreement to ask for the rule change. >> i think it is fascinating, hearing the way we're just talking about differences of using money. i mean, effectively, the bottom line here was this is making russia pay for its own par. >> that is true. it is making russia, maybe. >> should they go forward with this. >> you have to think about it. there is the short and medium-term consequences for what it means for the dollar, the longer-term consequences for what it means for a g20 country to do another land invasion in europe and cause what everyone thinks is, oh, are we on the brink of world war iii? you have to see, where are we going to draw the line here? >> can you talk more about the lessons china might learn for this if this is something the

u.s. pushes ahead with? >> absolutely, ali. they watched the u.s.-led sanctions come down on russia. seeing, what is the appetite for more economic sanctions versus military and kinetic action. if china decides to take action on taiwan, how painful could this be? what de-risking should we do now versus later? >> that'll be something to watch, especially if, come june, this is something the u.s. decides to press forward with, along with its g-7 allies. i think the other thing we're thinking about here is the sanctions the u.s. is now placing against iran in response to the strikes we've seen in recent weeks. does this play into that at all? i mean, i think it is a different package, obviously, but can you talk a little more about that? >> i think what it does is it gives a lot of other countries the impetus to come together and work outside the dollar. so you have brazil, russia, india, china, south africa, talking about de-dollarizing, right? let's find a way to go into the plumbing of the global financial system, build some new pipes, and work around u.s. sanctions.

that'll certainly help iran. iran, just like russia, is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on earth. >> workarounds is the name of the game there to lessen the blow of the sanctions. senior washington correspondent for bloomberg news, saleha mohsin, thank you. and thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. the trump legal team doesn't really believe the total immunity argument. they're just bringing it up to delay his trials. it is kind of like when your kid asks for water at bedtime, and you know they're trying to delay bedtime because kids don't need water. the conservative justices think trump should have immunity. liberal justices don't. how about we meet halfway? instead of complete immunity, presidents get a hall pass of five crimes that are totally okay if you have the chance. >> two of the criminal cases against donald trump playing out in two courtrooms yesterday across a couple different jurisdictions. at the u.s. supreme court,