'Cringy' Access Hollywood tape reading was more 'damning' to Trump than the video: expert

Manhattan prosecutors Monday read to the jury transcripts of former President Donald Trump's notorious "Access Hollywood" tape, prompting one legal expert to describe it as both "cringy" and "damning."

The reading came after a debate between District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team and Trump's lawyers over whether the video could be aired in Trump's criminal hush money trial. Judge Juan Merchan ultimately ruled the transcript was permissible but not the video.

Speaking to MSNBC on Monday afternoon, legal analyst Lisa Rubin argued the ruling was not helpful to Trump

"Hearing it today in the words of Matthew Colangelo — whom I will describe as a sort of cerebral, quiet type of prosecutor — was just as damning," Rubin argued. "Do you want to hear the 'Access Hollywood' words out of the voice of someone normal and calm and polite? No! It was almost cringier."

Prosecutors argue the tape shows why the then-candidate would have wanted to cover up anyone with a salacious story about him.

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"There is been a lot of discussion about what is Hope Hicks going to testify about," Rubin went on. "Probably the importance of that moment and why it was that paying off Stormy Daniels was actually essential. The tape was that explosive."

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace recalled the "Access Hollywood" tape on Oct. 7, 2016, just weeks before the presidential election. Some of Trump's top aides assumed that the campaign was over, she said.

"I understand Hope Hicks comes in and shows it to everybody," Wallace said. "The first thing is Trump talking about himself in the third person. The thing that takes the longest is to go upstairs and tell Melania. The conversation in the room: Is it over?"

See the discussion in the video below or at the link here.