News Anchor Strayed From Her Script and Reacted to Trump Criticizing Judge Juan Merchan’s Daughter

As Nicole Wallace of MSNBC covered breaking news on Friday about a fresh public attack by former President Donald Trump, she practically tossed out her prepared script. Speaking on Trump's absurd and sometimes deadly antics on and offline, the enraged host warned a panel of guests that 'it's time to do something different'.

As reported by The Daily Mail, the group was debating Trump's comments on Loren, the daughter of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. Wallace said, "Like, we're not going to have this conversation again! I have come on the air with breaking news about requests for gag orders because of threats for judges and their kids more times than I could count today before I got ready." Glenn Kirschner, Lisa Rubin, John Heilman of MSNBC, and retired federal judge Michael Luttig joined Wallace in her outrage, accusing the former president of using the 'highest court in the land' to thwart federal criminal prosecution.

Wallace replied to a post on Truth Social shared by Trump on Thursday about the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan. The judge had earlier imposed a gag order on Trump prior to his April 15 court appearance in his hush money trial. He wrote, "Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me. She works for Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, and other Radical Leftists who Campaign on 'Getting Trump'."

Wallace added, "Donald Trump brazenly and repeatedly attacks not just judges. Judges don’t have Secret Service protecting them. What are we going to do different, because Donald Trump sure as hell isn’t changing." According to Luttig, Trump wanted to 'delegitimize' the courts so that people would disregard their decisions if and when they came to an adverse conclusion about him. He added, "We all have to understand that from the first time that the former president began his attacks — vicious attacks — on the federal courts and the state courts and their judges, his objective was to delegitimize those courts so that when and if they ruled against him in the various matters that he’s been charged with, then at least his followers, if not a good part of the nation, would dismiss those rulings against him as having been politically inspired and motivated."

The purpose of the gag order in the Trump hush money case is to prevent both the president and his representatives from discussing the trial's witnesses and jurors in public. Additionally, he is not permitted to discuss the court's employees, prosecutors, or relatives. Trump is free to make comments against Judge Merchan or his family members notwithstanding the gag order. Out of Trump's four federal charges, the hush money case is the first one that will go to trial. He is charged with billing Michael Cohen, his former attorney, for legal expenses when, in reality, the payments were for Cohen's services rendered to him during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.