“We Got Locked in the Bathroom” by Secret Service: Notes From the Trump Trial

Is Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush money case the trial of the century? This is the question host Brian Stelter begins with on this week’s Inside the Hive. “It’s not O.J., but then again, nothing is O.J. anymore,” says guest Dan Adler, Vanity Fair staff writer. “We live in a much more fractured media environment.”

Stelter and Adler are joined by Olivia Nuzzi, New York magazine Washington correspondent, to examine the media circus surrounding the ex-president in Lower Manhattan and discuss exactly what it’s like to cover Trump’s criminal trial today while it feels like 2016.

There are obviously no cameras in the courtroom, so Nuzzi emphasizes that it’s critical for journalists to shout every detail and talk about every aspect. Adler notes that we’re back in 2016 because of the contents of the trial, “litigating everything that happened after the release of the Access Hollywood tape.” There’s a sad, “dreamlike, weird vibe” being back in Manhattan in New York with this man, adds Nuzzi. “Not that I’m sad for Donald Trump, but it’s more like I’m sad for the country.” She recounts a phone call with someone she’s known for a decade in which she said, “I don’t know, was it always inevitable that we were going to end up in criminal court covering this?”

As a reporter in the courtroom, your movement, according to both Adler and Nuzzi, is very scripted. The two share similar stories with Stelter about being locked in the bathroom by the Secret Service when they took breaks while Trump was holding informal pressers with reporters in the hallway.

The group also reflect on the personalities in the courtroom amid the controlled environment and what’s to come, as the trial hasn’t even gotten to the alleged crime. No, it’s not quite a spectacle yet. However, Adler says he expects when Michael Cohen testifies, “It will be more of a sight to behold, and the coverage and the energy will reflect that.”

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