Anderson Cooper describes the moment Hope Hicks took the stand at Trump's trial

I want to go

quickly to Anderson Cooper,

who just got out of court.

Court, of course, is taking a break.

The jury had left the courtroom there

so they could go on there

on the lunch break.

Anderson,

you have been there

all this time today watching.

Tell us about your observations

Well, it's fascinating to see Hope Hicks

coming out.

Obviously, the testimony before that was

a little bit more of more mundane

you know, talking about documents,

talking about emails.

But when Hope Hicks came in,

you could feel sort of

the electricity in the room.

Certainly people were perking up.

She seemed very nervous

when she first came on the stand,

seemed very hesitant.

She did not look

directly at Donald Trump

as she walked by him.

It wasn't clear to me

whether he looked at her.

I don't think he did.

But I couldn't see from my vantage point.

But she did not look at him.

She went right to the stand

There were some

she was a little bit away

from the microphone.

And part of that

may have been nervousness.

But also once

she actually got closer to the microphone

and she could actually hear herself

she sounded she

she commented to the jury

that that now it was easier for her.

And she certainly seemed more confident

after that.

She's certainly been

you know, came off I think is very

respectful, credible.

Certainly reticent.

She's there

under a subpoena,

which was made clear

when she first sat down.

She clearly is not giving

elaborate answers.

She's giving the very basic answers.

And she did seem to kind of downplay

a little bit

or search for how to describe the lady's

point earlier,

how to describe the impact,

the bombshell impact

that the Access Hollywood

tape had on the campaign.

She kept turning to the word no.

She was concerned or very concerned,

but sort of intimating that there was

it was

that was just one word

she was kind of landing on,

but that there was a huge concern,

certainly that she had

and maybe even more than that.

Yeah,

because as she mentioned, Anderson,

it had kicked a big storm, right?

A big storm out of the news.

She said for 36 hours it was

a catastrophic Trump.

Yeah.

And she was

also then questioned

about the actual debate,

which I happened

to be the co-moderator of

And it was interesting to hear her.

The question to from the

the prosecutor was, you know,

what was this brought up in the debate?

Hope Hicks says yes,

at some point it was.

And then the moderator,

then the prosecutor said, you know,

was it brought up?

Do you remember when it was brought up?

And Hope Hicks said

she thought

it was one of the first questions.

It actually was the very first question.

I asked that question.

But it was interesting to hear

the importance

suddenly now of of sort of ends

asking that question

again as another indication of just

how big a deal this was.

Because I can tell you

from the debate preparation

that we were doing Friday,

when that Access Hollywood tape came out,

all the debate preparation

we had done up to that point.

Everything changed after the Access

Hollywood tape came out.

And it was a big question of

are we going to lead off the debate?

I mean, there was really no question

that we knew Friday

as soon as that tape came out, that

that would be the lead

question in the debate.

Yeah,

it is a rare story like that

that has this seismic feel about it.

It did it the time.

I remember going on air myself.

And before we actually had the tape

and we just had the transcript

of what was said.

It was pretty stunning.

And so

I think it really speaks, Anderson,

even though she's talking

about being concerned

and sort of landing on that word,

there's really no escaping

just how big of a moment

this was for Trump.

No doubt about it.

And clearly, you know,

as soon as she received

the question from,

you know,

from the reporter

about the existence of this tape,

from then on,

I mean,

that dominated the campaign for four days

after and probably even longer.

But certainly for that

that Friday

that Saturday Sunday was the debate.

You know,

they were reeling

and trying to figure out

exactly what this meant

and what the impact of it would be.

And in, Anderson,

can you get a sense of how

Trump is reacting to

some of these moments that he's hearing?

We understand from Hope Hicks

they haven't spoken in some time,

but clearly she is trying to speak

very positively of the former president.

What is his reaction

It's very hard

to see from the vantage point

that we're at.

I mean, you can see on our monitor,

but it's been somewhere far.

Some people actually have binoculars

in the audience.

Who are watching from the court press.

And before they excuse me,

the court orders

and also even some of the reporters

covering it, I couldn't see his face.

While Hope Hicks was testifying,

I could see him

whispering to Todd Blanchard

or to Emile Beauvais.

They definitely

there's a lot of communication

between all three of them

there on the stand.

There was a recess

at one point

in which the former president stood up,

kind of surveyed

the crowd to see who was who was there.

But he he doesn't give much reaction

in the actual courtroom

or at least not that I could see today.

What was her demeanor like?

Because we see the transcripts

essentially in the descriptions

of what she's saying.

But I understand that she's sort of had a

you know, she's been laughing

at some moments. What did you see?

Yeah.

I mean, she came in

very sort of hesitantly.

It appears she came in with an attorney.

The attorney sat in in the galley

as she went up to the stand by herself.

She she clearly

she definitely seemed very nervous

and she even said

she was very nervous, too,

that she spoke to the jury, saying

that she was very nervous.

She definitely seemed to kind of

relax into it a little bit more.

But she she was very cautious,

I think, and careful in the words

that that she she used

while on the stand.

There wasn't a lot of.

Yeah, she wasn't extrapolating.

She wasn't sort of elaborating on things.

She she tried to kind of

I think she was being very careful

in what she said.

And I

understand, Anderson, I

saw that Trump greeted

you as he entered court.

What can you say about that?

Honestly, I did not see that.

I somebody told me that I was turning.

I turned away.

I did not know that he'd

come in the room so we we

I saw him

looking at me once during the break,

but I did not communicate with him

directly.

I didn't think it was appropriate.

Very interesting moment, nonetheless.

Anderson,

thank you so much for your observations

as you've been

the eyes and ears there in court

where, of course, we do not have cameras.

Anderson Cooper, thank you.

Our panel is back with us here.

And something very interesting,

Audie,

that you were bringing up in the break,

which is about hope

Hicks's legal representation.

Right, which is that

it's not paid

for by Trump

or necessarily

a superPAC or anything like that.

And I think that that has always been

kind of a little bit of a question for me

with witnesses.

People are also describing

their relationship

as being a lot cooler than it was.

And the notes from our courtroom

team are a lot

about how

they are not looking at each other

the way they were not interacting.

And I think this is remarkable,

given the role she had in his life.

Leading up to this point.

I think she's also important

on the McDougal's story.

I mean, she she called Michael Cohen

testified that she called Michael Cohen

about this.

And it explains, I think, the panic

we saw when David Pecker testified

the panic that Michael Cohen had

when he was trying to deal with

the financing for McDougal.

And when we heard from the banker

about how panicked he was.

So you sort of see this

this chain of events where she calls

Michael Cohen, like, what is this real?

What do we do about this?

And then he

sort of tried to toss it off

like he was not truthful to her

or so she testified.

And then we see it from the other

point of view

through Pecker and the banker that

or Davidson

actually that he becomes the then lawyer

just to be the lawyer to both of that,

he becomes increasingly panicked.

And now we know why

this he knew this

story was going to come out and

and you know,

she was asking him questions about it.

She also said

that she has Donald Trump about it.

I don't know what he said.

The real sense

of what the kind of press war

room is for Trump during that period,

which for reporters,

it was a little bit opaque, right?

Like people are texting you.

Maybe they say it's not a big deal.

They deny it.

Maybe it is. Maybe it's not.

But now you're seeing

how they scurried around

that they really did think

that these stories about

women would be a problem,

especially in the cumulative.

And that they thought

they could reach out

to, say, The Wall Street Journal

to set to buy some time. Right.

They were pulling on

every media relationship that he had.

And it gives you a real glimpse

into sort of

how they approach these things.

Up until this point,

we've got a fairly clear view.

But from outsiders,

it sure look like the campaign was

where ideologically

they would have been wary.

Now we're getting the real inside

and they're beyond worry.

They're panicked.

And just to understand

how this fits into the case,

prosecute, it's

not a crime to be worried.

It's not a crime to be in panic mode.

It's not a crime to pay hush money.

Prosecutors have to prove

the reason

they paid

Stormy Daniels was to benefit

the campaign

that's part of what they have to prove.

They also have to prove

that the documents were false about Hope.

Hicks knows

nothing about that,

nor would she

or should she know anything about that.

So this is an example of,

I think, a powerful,

productive witness for the prosecution,

but also fairly limited in what she does.

She gives them one important

building block.

But it's not as if

this is the smoking gun.

This is the witness case over

prosecutors win

But she's an important piece

of the puzzle.