trump has been warned about being sent to jail by the trial judge again, and today, the norm mayor was asked about it all. take a look. >> they were talking about how he might end up in jail, if he continues to violate the court orders. is rikers prepared for that? >> our amazing commissioner, she is prepared for whatever comes on rikers island. we don't want to deal with a hypothetical, but they're professionals. they'll be ready. >> the new york mayor without fanning the flames says they are ready for whatever the judge decides. you can bet trump's lawyers are listening. that does it for us on a very big news night for nbc. keep it locked. we have special coverage starting with "the reidout" with joy reid. tonight on "the reidout" -- >> i have seen him naked. he's -- there's no way he could

be scarier with his clothes on. >> do you want to see him jailed? >> i don't think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration. i feel like the other things that he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely. >> stormy daniels, the woman at the center of trump's hush money scandal, takes the stand. revealing in vivid detail the alleged sexual encounter that she says left her shaking. and the $130,000 payment that bought her silence. plus, more of my exclusive interview with wnba star brittney griner including how she survives a russian gulag. the letter she wrote to putin, how trump turned on her, and her joyful homecoming. but we begin on the day that probably most trump trial watchers have been anticipating. and one donald trump has likely been dreading. today was the day that stephanie clifford, aka stormy daniels,

took the witness stand in trump's hush money election interference trial. trump was dreading this day so much that even before daniels entered the courtroom, he tweeted and then quickly deleted a social media post ranting about her impending testimony without explicitly naming her. he also made his lawyers argue that she should not be allowed to speak about the alleged sexual encounter at all. it is clear that trump not only did not want the story to come out before the 2016 presidential election, he didn't want it to come out today before the jury. when daniels took the stand, she appeared nervous and was asked multiple times to slow down in her responses. she spoke about the events of july 2006 when she was working at a celebrity golf tournament in lake tahoe, where she met trump for the first time. as we have seen immortalized in this photo of the two of them. she said she was 27 years old at the time. when asked if she knew his

approximate age at the time, daniels said, she knew he was as old as her father and guessed 60. when trump invited her to dinner that night, it was her publicist who encouraged her to take up his offer, according to daniels. it will make a great story. he's a business guy. what could possibly go wrong, daniels recalled him telling her. that line drew laughter from the court's overflow room, though we all know now what daniels said happened that night, and it's not funny at all. she recounted when she arrived at the hotel suite, he was wearing silk or satin pajamas to which she asked trump, does mr. hefner know you stole his pajamas. she testified whether she is a porn actress could ever be on the apprentice, trump told her, you remind me of my daughter. smart and blond ivanka. then while showing a picture of

melania who at the time was home looking after their newborn baby, daniels said trump told her, they did not even sleep in the same room. at one point, daniels describes how she spanked trump with a magazine, which per news reports had a picture of his face on the cover, for being rude and continuing to cut her off in their conversation. someone should spank you with that, daniels recalled saying to trump about the magazine. danielsed that trump rolled up the magazine and gave me a look as kind of a dare. so i took it from him and i said, turn around. and i swatted him right on the butt, she testified. then came her testimony about the sexual encounter with trump that caught her off guard. daniels said that she went to the restroom, while waiting for a friend she called to come up to the room. when she walked out of the bathroom, she was startled to find trump sitting on his bed wearing only boxer shorts. it was like a jump scare, she said. and that's when i had that

moment where i felt like the room spun in slow motion. she described her internal thinking. great, i have put myself in this bad situation. he didn't come at me. he didn't rush at me. he didn't put his hands on me, nothing like that, she continued. she said trump's response was that if she ever wanted to get out of the trailer park, he could help her. i thought you were serious about what you wanted, she testified trump told her. it was at that point that trump's lawyers objected and then objected again multiple times as daniels continued to describe her alleged apparently brief sexual encounter with trump. daniels, i was trying to think about anything other than what was happening there. when it was done, daniels recounted trump said to her, oh, it was great. let's get together again, honey bunch. to which daniels claimed i just left as fast as i could. the prosecution also asked, did he express any concern at that point about his wife finding

out, to which daniels said no. not more than ten feet away, trump was forced to listen to every word of her testimony, reportedly growing visibly uncomfortable multiple times. shaking his head and pushing his lawyers to object to various lines of questioning. in fact, when the court convened after their lunch break, trump's defense team called for a mistrial on the grounds that daniels' testimony over their alleged encounter was unduly prejudicial to trump and included information they claimed was not relevant to the case. trump's lawyer todd blanche argued the only reason the government asked these questions aside from pure embarrassment is to emflay the jury. the judge denied the request saying i don't think we're at a point where a mistrial is warranted and i think you have the remedy of cross-examination. that croakation by trump's lone female attorney accused her of profiting from more than a decade off her claims that she had sex with trump.

at one point, trump's lawyer questioned daniels claiming you are making this up as you go, right? which daniels vehemently denied. daniels will be back on the stand thursday morning to continue her cross-examination. joining me is adam reese who was in court today. katie phang, trial attorney and host of the katie phang show on msnbc, lockland cartwright, former executive editor of the "national enquirer," and michael rothfelt, coauthor of the fixers, the bottom fielders, crooked lawyers, gossip mongers and porn stars who created the 45th president. an apt title. adam, i'm going to start with you. we don't have a transcript unfortunately of every word stated, but it seemed to me just reading the notes you and our great reporters put in, that the part where stormy daniels actually describes this encounter with trump was pretty

dramatic. go through it with us in a little bit greater detail. >> she was very compelling. she was riveting. she looked directly at the jury as she told this story. took us back to 2006 when she met trump, lake tahoe golf course, a celebrity tournament. and she meets him on the golf course and a little later his body guard says, mr. trump would like to have dinner with you. she goes up to his hotel room and she recounts in vivid detail every little moment, the black and white tile floor, the furniture both in the antiroom and the living room. they sit down, they have a conversation. mr. trump is asking her about her work, about the adult film industry, about stds, about do you get tested? are there doctors on the set? he said you remind me of my daughter, ivanka. beautiful, blond. he says don't worry, melania and i don't sleep in the same bed anymore. we're not in the same bedroom, even though they had been

married only a year. they continued to banter about, and they talk about wrestling. he's very into wrestling, and she picks up a magazine, rolls it up and hits him on the back side. eventually, she goes into the master bedroom, she says i need to go to the bathroom. she goes into the restroom in the master bedroom. she again recounts details in the bathroom, there is a toiletry kit with old spice toiletries, and she says she freshens up and when she steps out, lo and behold, to her surprise, mr. trump is on the bed in his boxer shorts. and from there, it only got more graphic, more detailed. >> right, and katie phang, the notes, you know, it's quite harrowing to read them. and i'm sure it was harrowing for the jury to listen to it, because she sort of describes kind of being like, i put myself in this position. kind of didn't seem to know what to do. she describes something that sounded consensual but not something she really wanted to do.

but that she kind of did anyway and just tried to leave her body and not be there and get out as soon as she could. the thing that is sort of striking about it is it isn't part of the case. it isn't necessarily part of the case, but donald trump's lawyers are contesting whether they had this sexual encounter at all. and so as just the notes were recounting, as she's describing this, they keep objecting which is sort of prolonging the story. just i'll let you say more. >> yeah, so it's a necessary part of the prosecution and for those that are criticizing the decision by either merchan to allow it to happen or the prosecution to bring it in, there really wasn't any other way, joy, that the story could be told. you had to have the underlying context of why it was so important for donald trump to desperately try to get her silenced before the november 2016 election. why? for exactly the reasons you just heard from adam reese, my

colleague. that level of detail would have been humiliating for donald trump. it would have been embarrassing to have the presidential candidate of the gop in 2016 saying that he doesn't sleep in the same room with his, you know, bride of less than a year and that he could be spanked on the bottom with a magazine and he's lounging in hugh hefner's pajamas. these are visions and images now branded in the minds of the jury because the prosecution called a witness like stormy daniels who took the time to walk through that humiliating moment in her life to make sure that jury went on that ride with her. whether you wanted to hear it or not, it was, again, something that needed to be said because if you didn't have that testimony, then why in the hell would donald trump be so desperate to keep it silenced? if it was just them hanging out having tea and crumpets, why be so desperate to make sure the public doesn't hear about it? that's the reason they needed to know the context of why that silencing happened. >> right, and lockland, you had

donald trump's son, eric trump, who is the only one showing up in court for him, going out and start railing on social media saying the prosecution doesn't give an s about the merits of the case, the prosecutors are sitting at their table giddy at the salacious show. this is the intent. the entire case is a massive extortion play. but the reality is, it is this story and the details of it that for a publication like the "national enquirer," would have been salacious gold if they had published such a dramatic story. the fact they didn't almost makes the case. >> most definitely. i was sitting just two rows behind eric trump as stormy daniels was giving testimony today in court. his head was down for most of it. on his phone. but as i'm listening to stormy daniels tell this tale and in very graphic detail, i'm sitting there thinking, this is the type of scoop i came to the enquirer to break, this is the type of scoop that could have changed the course of the election. that's why today was so

important. because the timeline here, joy, is that once the "access hollywood" tape hits, the campaign is scrambling. and while stormy daniels and her manager gino rodriguez were looking to shop her story in the summer, there wasn't much interest. fast forward, the "access hollywood" tape, and all of a sudden, it's a massive priority to catch and kill this story off the market. my boss, dylan howard and the chief content officer is in commune cautions with keith davidson, her attorney, and michael cohen, making sure the story would never so the light of day. >> and michael rothfeld, welcome to the show, you had people like yourself looking to break stories like really going up to days before the election about these catch and kill agreements. including your story that you were working on for the "wall street journal." talk a little bit about that. >> well, we had gotten some information just a few weeks before the election in 2016 that

there were some women being paid off for donald trump, and you know, within a few weeks the election was coming up. we were able to get a copy of the contract that karen mcdougal, a former playboy model, playmate of the year, had signed with the "national enquirer," where lockland was working at the time, and they had paid her $150,000. for this catch and kill. as he said, and we reported that four days before the election. it did not make tremendous waves at the time, but it sort of set in motion the chain of events that has led us to today. at the time, we knew stormy daniels was also being represented by the same lawyer as karen mcdougal, keith davidson, and she had been talking to people about telling her story but she went dark. we didn't know who paid her. it took us another year to determine that so that when we reported at the journal in january of 2018 that michael cohen had paid her $130,000,

just less than two weeks before the election. >> one thing that's interesting is hope hicks is who was his communications director, right, and that's who you all were calling to get confirmation of the story, no? >> yeah, for the mcdougal story, we were dealing with the enquirer, and we called also hope hicks who was the press secretary for his campaign. she testified last week, you know, she ran this by michael cohen, she ran it by david pecker, the publisher of the enquirer. trump was very insistent because we did mention stormy in that story as well, that they deny he had any sexual relationship or romantic relationship with either woman. that was what hope hicks had testified was the most important thing to him. and you know, she told us at the journal, we have no knowledge of any of this, and she said for her, that was true, but obviously, we know now that trump and michael cohen both knew about that deal with the

"national enquirer." >> let me come back to you, adam. just to talk about some of the demeanor and i don't know how much you could see. i think you were in overflow watching it, but donald trump, you could see donald trump and his lawyers sitting there. what was the demeanor during the -- as these details came out? >> i had a direct view of donald trump. he was more alert today than he usually is. when she walked in both in the morning and in the afternoon, he did take a noticeable quick glance of her, and then during her testimony, he would look up at the monitors. so he could get a good look at her. eric trump did the same. he was trying to avoid being seen looking at her, but he was taking occasional glances up at the monitor. it's hard for mr. trump to see the witness and in fact when stormy daniels was asked by the prosecutor to identify mr. trump, she actually had to get up out of her chair to stand up and point over to mr. trump in his blue suit. >> adam reese, thank you, my

friend. appreciate it. and we appreciate your notes. katie, lockland, and michael are sticking with us for much more of stormy daniels' dramatic testimony in the first criminal trial of a former president. "the reidout" continues after this. ter this you love because of asthma? get back to better breathing with fasenra, an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma that is taken once every 8 weeks. fasenra is not for sudden breathing problems or other eosinophilic conditions. allergic reactions may occur. don't stop your asthma treatments without talking with your doctor. tell your doctor if your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. step back out there with fasenra. ask your doctor if it's right for you.

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commercial break. the judge, i guess, said this to todd blanche, donald trump's lawyer. the court, i understand your client is upset at this point, but he's cursing audibly, and he's shaking his head visually and that's contemptuous. it has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that. mr. blanche, i will talk to them. the court. i'm seeking to you at the bench because i don't want to embarrass him. mr. blanche, i will talk to him. >> the court, you need to speak to him. i won't tolerate that. >> mr. blanche. i will talk to him. >> your thoughts on that? >> there was a moment today where stormy was telling the story of being in the hotel room and a spanking donald trump, to which he obviously got pretty aggravated, i think, uttered a certain word that was audible at least in the well, in the front of the court. and was admonished for it quite some time later. >> katie, could that lead to

more contempt charges? >> i mean, yes, it could be literal contempt in front of the court. there's different ways to assess contempt. it can occur outside the court. if it's in front of the judge, it's direct criminal contempt. it depends. this was all done outside the presence of the jury, so todd blaunch as the lawyer for donald trump, incumbent upon him to say mind your ps and qs. this is an important point. the jurors are watching everything. it's not that they're focusing on stormy daniels when she's testifying. they're looking at donald trump, at eric trump, at the other people. that's why it's important if you're todd blanche, you don't want donald trump visibly reacting. you don't want him getting upset, doing anything that is going to flirt with contempt or have the jury look at him in any way with any disgust. >> michael, i'm going to come to you. you wrote this story about susan macdougal just before the election. there was something today that i thought was important.

stormy daniels corroborated a somewhat minor but could be interesting point. she testified that donald trump told her that he and melania did not sleep in the same room. let me let you listen to what karen mcdougal told anderson cooper about donald trump when she finally did go public and give her interview. take a listen. >> you went to his actual apartment in trump tower. >> i did. i didn't know i was going there. i actually had a hotel room in the city at that time. well, for this trip. >> what did you think of the apartment? >> it's very gold. no, actually, it's quite pretty. the views were amazing. it's a beautiful apartment. they have great taste. >> and he showed you around the apartment? >> he did. >> did he reference melania at that point? >> he did. we passed a room, and he said this is melania's room. she likes to have her alone time or to get away to read or something like that.

i'm like, oh, okay. that's when i kind of thought, maybe they're having issues. i didn't ask. it's not my business at that point. >> michael, karen mcdougal also said she was also compared to ivanka. weird. your thoughts. >> yeah, i mean, it does certainly corroborate for us what stormy daniels was saying. i mean, i knew that karen mcdougal had said they slept in separate bedrooms at trump tower. the jury is not going to hear about that. that's really the relevant part, but i think that all of these sort of very detailed testimony that you heard today, stormy daniels giving about her time in the hotel suite, was as the prosecutor told the judge, you know, he was saying it's too much, too much, the pajamas. but the purpose was to show the jury that this actually happened, to convince them, because even though it's not necessarily directly relevant to

whether he falsified business records, the whole notion that he was doing this to cover up an actual sexual encounter as opposed to an extortion attempt is going to be important. so all of that detail and all of the, you know, the things like, i mean, again, they have said they were not going to tell the jury certain more lurid things about karen mcdougal's story and they have not done that, but it's the same point about what stormy said today. >> to come back to stormy daniels, there is this written denial that she did do. she goes and she writes down and keith davidson has her sign an attestation that she did not indeed have a relationship with donald trump. but she then goes on jimmy kimmel and says this. >> did you sign this letter that was released today? >> i don't know. did i? >> wait a minute, that you can say, right? >> that doesn't look like my signature. >> it doesn't. you're saying perhaps this

letter was written and released without your approval. >> hmm. >> do you know where it came from? do you have any idea? >> i don't know. >> you do not know where it came from. >> it came from the internet. >> you did not anything to do with that. >> i also work for the fbi and i'm a man, according to the internet. >> she testified she deliberately signed the letter in a way that wouldn't look like her signature because she was trying not to violate her nda. >> she did it in a twhat would be a wink to jimmy kimmel, that it wasn't her signature. she was under with this nondisclosure agreement she had entered into it didn't want to be seen to be violating that. and so she went about signing this, but wasn't with her actual signature. >> and katie, there was an attempt in cross-examining

stormy daniels to essentially, not essentially, to accuse her of e torsion. susan necklace, you were looking to extort money from mr. trump, right? >> false. >> that's what you did, right? false. >> yeah. and this is -- this is the theory of many of donald trump, joy. you saw this when you were in court. there's all these theories thrown on the wall by the defense. one is she extorted money. how does she extort money if her lawyers negotiated with michael cohen for the amount, and donald trump signs the agreement that allows them to use pseudonyms to be able to have a nondisclosure agreement? that's the most elegant form of extortion i have ever seen. if he didn't want to pay her the money, he didn't have to. if he didn't want to silence her, he didn't have to. what's key is when the prosecution gets up in closing and weave it all together and

remind the jury what was promised in opening statements. the lies by the defense that there was not a repayment to michael cohen for a reimbursement, that there wasn't anything that happened. think about that, the only person who was in the room with stormy daniels is donald trump. do you think he's going to take the stand? he's not. the evidence in the jury's mind is what stormy daniels tells them. >> he's still fudging whether he's going to take the stand, but he's not. katie, lockland, michael, thank you all very much. up next, more of my exclusive interview with wnba star brittney griner on being imprisoned in a russian gulag and the deal that set her free. you do nay want to miss it. to mt

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yesterday, you heard wnba star brittney griner in her own words tell the harrowing story of being arrested and jailed in russia. our conversation didn't end there. we were just getting started. we talked about so many other topics including her trial, what it was like to be the first american woman imprisoned in a russian gulag and her reaction when she was finally freed. >> let's talk about the trial. so you eventually get moved to a place where you are now with other women. you're not by yourself.

you make friends. you have some people who can translate for you. they put you in with a couple people who spoke english. one was a spy. listen, let me let everyone know, one is a spy and i spotted her from the beginning. i didn't trust her. but you do make some genuine friends there and they're going through it with you. then the trial happens. your wife says plead guilty. get it done so that you can be traded. the state department, the united states, they say plead innocent. >> mm-hmm. >> how did you make that choice? if you're going to be designated wrongly detained, as mr. reed was, as other people were who have been detained, the normal course would be to say i didn't do it. i'm innocent. you decided to plead guilty. why? >> in the end, to be traded, even if you plead not guilty, you have to reverse that. and you have to say that you're guilty. you have to sign a paper saying you're guilty.

so and then taking ownership, it goes back to how i was raised and everything. you know, i did not -- and i made sure to say that when i pled guilty, but taking ownership for my actions. as much as i didn't mean to do this, and it was an accident. >> did you believe that once you pleaded guilty your sentence would be something on the lower end of the spectrum? it was five to nine years potential. but then they said the word, you have to tell me the word in russian because i'm looking for it and can't find it. it's nine. when you heard that, after having done the right thing, taken ownership, you're in this court where they essentially put you on display. you're there, you give a statement that is heartfelt, that says i didn't mean to bring drugs into your country, yet you're given near the top of the

sentence. when you heard that, how did you feel? >> i wasn't shocked. i prepared for the worst. i thought they were going to give me ten. when they gave me nine, i thought one year off. as much as i thought they would be lenient, especially with everything that went into my trial, and i didn't cause any problems, i didn't make a spectacle. i followed the rules of their law. and all my character references and my team and the city stepping up and speaking on my good character and what i did for the city, i thought okay, maybe there's a chance they'll go on the lower spectrum, but when they didn't, i just kind of just sat there, just stood there and let it sink in. >> how did you process the idea of spending nine years in what then would be a gulag. it was no longer going to be county, it was no longer going to be with the women who had become your support system. this is you going on your own, i

think it's ik-2, by yourself. how did you process just the idea of spending that much time in a foreign prison? >> i had to tell myself, you're an inmate now. you can't think like oh, this is wrong, i'm innocent or any of this. you have to just say, i'm an inmate, and do what i have to do, whatever that's going to be in the work camp. and yeah, it was tough. when i got back, because your mom starts going -- you start adding up the years. my dad is this old. he'll be this old. my wife, that's nine years. we plan all the things we had planned to do. i'm like, that's all on hold. nephews graduated, nieces in high school. i was like, oh, my god. my parents might not be here when i get out. that's when i started to, like, kind of break internally. that was really a hard pill to swallow. >> it was also really cold. russia is notoriously cold. this one strikes close to home.

my husband used to have long dreads like yours. you eventually cut your locs. every black woman is going to feel this in your soul. you know a black woman only when you know her hair journey. the two are tightly interwoven. having to cut your locs, and your hair looks great. we love your beautiful curls, but cutting your locs, how did that feel? >> it was hard, but it was more for my health. >> survival. >> because standing outside with wet hair and my dreads are literally freezing, and there's no stacking up on top of my head because you're outside for hours during morning checks and night checks as well. i couldn't do it. i was going to get sick. the one thing you don't want to do is get sick. you do not want to get sick in prison. >> one thing in the book, it's harrowing. any time there was a chance you had to go to the infirmary, i was like, don't go, it's not safe. were you aware or how much awareness did you have? you didn't have your phone, you

weren't able to call your wife. you really just had your lawyers as kind of your support system. how aware were you that there was a campaign building back home to free you? and celebrities were involved, that it was a big deal. >> he would bring print-outs for me to read, and we called them tape backs. he would take them back, but i would see different things. i would see different artists and actors and people in the public supporting me, my cause, fighting for me to come back. and i was like, oh, my god. this is crazy. >> did you feel hopeful? did you think it could work? >> i did. i did think it would work, but it was also weird seeing it as well. it's like, normally you don't see that. you don't get to see that. normally people, when people see all this abundance of love, it's unfortunately, the person is no longer there. and especially when you see your name on the court in basketball, you don't see someone's name on the court unless they're no longer with you. >> there were a lot of people in this country who made the point,

if it was lebron james or an nba player, the outcry would have been bigger and sooner. i started by saying this. it literally would only be a black woman wnba player who could possibly be in this entire situation. everything that you went through, from the anti-lgbtq bullying, to trying to say do you have sick thoughts, to putting you as a spectacle to the fact that you had to fly commercial rather than private, right? and the fact that you had to play overseas at all. because it is only wnba players who have to do that. >> unfortunately, yes. we're the only ones that really have to go overseas to close that pay gap. and it's a shame. you know, i started off two years in china and then went from china to russia because they offered me the most. and that's where i was able to make the living for my family. and it would have been a little

different. i don't want to say different players' names, but it could have been way different. you know, they probably would have asked for autographs and sign it or something, and it would have been a different outcome. >> well, don't go anywhere. much more of my interview with brittney griner after the break, including a letter she wrote to vladimir putin, and what she wished she could have told him. plus, her response to donald trump saying she shouldn't have been a part of the prisoner swap since she, quote, openly hates our country. we'll be right back. no other mattress cradles your body and simultaneously supports your spine. memory foam doesn't come close. get your best sleep guaranteed. save up to $800 during our memorial day sale. visit purple.com or a store near you i bought the team!

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here's more of my exclusive interview with brittney griner. you eventually wrote to vladimir putin. you wrote him a letter. it was a very careful letter, i guess the way i would put it. you were very careful in what you said in trying to make sure his ego remained in tact. >> really hard to do. >> what would you have really wanted to write to him? >> i don't think i can say what i want to say. >> it's cable. >> i didn't want to have to write him at all, honestly. i didn't want to have to write him. it was very carefully done and it ended up being two letters i had to write because they made me write one in russian as well which took me two hours to write because i don't write russian. it was more tracing the letter than anything. but trying to pump up someone' ego that already thinks they're

on top of the world, and you know, the horrors he does, not only to his own people, but he tries to put on other people in the world. it was hard to do. >> there was at one point kind of almost a competition to see who could get you out, between the current administration, the biden/harris administration, and donald trump. because he has connections to -- not to world wrestling federation, but some athletic federations. he thought i'll be the one to fly over and get you out. in the book, you said anyone to get you out, you were down with that. what do you make of the fact that after attempting to at least verbally say he was going to compete to get you out of russia, donald trump then turns on you. >> yep. >> and whips up the crowd against you, saying that you should not have been the one traded. you should not have been the one that the deal was made for, that it should have been paul whalen or someone else, and that essentially he sicced the maga

mob on you. >> yeah, i was already being used as a pawn. and then to turn around and publicly be used almost be used again as a pawn, you know, here in the states with his administration, you know, it was disheartening. it was like, wow, at my lowest moment, you want to use this as a game. when it doesn't work or someone tells you not to do, now you want to flip it. like really? really, guy? come on. >> eventually, you did get liberation. you got freedom. talk about that moment when you realized a deal has been made. >> i was very happy. very happy. i will never forget ann coming to get me from the prison or from my workshop and telling me you're going home. like, you're leaving. i was thrilled but then scared also, because like, it could fall apart at any moment. and then also happy because i'm like, okay, well, maybe it's me

and paul's turn now. when i get on this plane, hopefully we're both on this plane. you know, when trevor went home, paul wasn't able to go. i wasn't able to go, my trial was still going on. i was really hopeful everyone in russia was coming home. >> and trevor reed's family and paul whalen's family and your family were in connection, in contact. cherelle, your lawyers were all in contact with these families. that forms a bond, i can imagine, that your families. this is a group effort. it's not about getting one person home. >> it was definitely a group effort. there's no way you go through this, get through this without a unit, without a family, without the other families getting together,getting together. it really takes a village, because it is a lot of emotion. it is hard to work through as well. >> you spent 293 days in russia, in captivity in russia in

various places. what did you learn about yourself in that 293 days? >> that i am a little bit more resilient than i thought. i was listening to all of the stories pops told me back in the day. he used to work in the prison system as well and he would tell me stories about how certain inmates would treat them and he would treat them with respect as well, so i definitely use that, too. i treated everybody with respect. even though they don't know what i'm saying, yes ma'am, no ma'am. yes sir, no sir. you can see how some would treat you with the respect you deserve as a human and sometimes it just did not work. >> i want to talk about a couple of causes you include in this book and it was very generous at the end. you listed the still detained americans around the world and the organization trying to get them home.

talk about your involvement with that cause. >> yes, bring our families home. the wnba, i give credit to them and my team for everything we've done last year and we will continue to do this year, playing videos. one of the big things is to get these families in front of the camera, as well, so we can get this coverage so they will know. up until my detainment i knew we had americans detained overseas, but i did not understand how bad it was. regardless of what is going on, regardless of the alleged crime, these conditions and what these families are going through should never happen. it should not happen. with our coverage, we are using our platforms for something good, something really good, and giving these families a voice to be in front of america. >> you have a message that you want to send to those who are still held hostage around the world, if there is some way they can get that message?

>> do not give up. we are fighting and we are not going to give up. i am not going to give up. my release date in october, 2030. and i am not stopping. i am not stopping. we are going to make as much noise as we can and keep fighting to bring them home. >> what do you make, the real necessity of people in your situation to get access to the white house? that was key for you. it was key for the whelan family. what does that mean, like how do you do that? >> everyone pick up your phone, pick up a pen. right here senator, right to the governor, right to the white house. flood the phones, be heard, be seen. >> president biden and the vice president got involved and at some point they met personally with your wife. do you think their efforts were

soon enough, effective enough and talk about them and their efforts to get you home? >> i want to thank them and everything they did. we got to see a different side of politics and how it all works and everything and they have a lot thrown at them. it is the hardest job in the country, honestly, and i want to thank them so much for never letting me or my wife feel like we were forgotten or not heard and i appreciate them for everything else. and the people they are continuing to bring home right now. >> what was the conversation like? i believe president biden called you first and then vice president harris. >> they were good. i remember him saying kiddo and i immediately felt young. he was just so warm. so warm and so personal. the same with ms. harris, as well. so warm and personal and i will never forget saying i wife and

she was talking and looking so proud back there. i was so happy. >> i got the pdf version of your book so i can read it, so i can prepare for this. now i have the hard copy. i was able to turn to the last page. this was not in the pdf. to my son, i pray that you learn from my hard times so that you can have a life with a little less pain in it. i love you. is this baby born? >> not yet. >> but you know you're having a boy? the baby is in the oven. >> yes. >> what will it mean to you to be a mom? >> it will mean everything to me. you're doing it for someone else. every movement, everything you do, everything you say. watching this person develop into whoever they are going to become. i am just so ready for that chapter, we both are, and we are so excited. >> what advice would you give this baby boy about how to deal

with difficult times? >> hold your head high and keep moving forward. you can't please everyone and as long as you are staying true to yourself, that is all that matters at night. >> brittney griner, i believe a lot of people will be buying your jersey. i believe the wnba will have its biggest season ever and i believe you are a big part of that. it is heroic how you stood up for yourself and also stood up for other people during the time of your greatest trauma, so i want to thank you for writing this book and for sitting down with me. god bless you. when that baby boy comes, tell him he's got an extra godmother. >> i will do that. thank you for having me. >> we will be right back. back.

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and that is tonight's "reidout". stay with msnbc for special coverage of the drum trial. rachel maddow joins alex wagner and 9:00 p.m. eastern. "all in with chris hayes" starts now. tonight on "all in" --