MSNBC Guest: Trump Using "Nuts And Sluts" Defense, Arguing Stormy Daniels "Communicates With Dead People" And Is A Sex Worker

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin discusses watching the Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels show in court on Thursday, characterizing the former president's defense strategy as the "nuts and sluts" defense, portraying the adult film actress he is accused of improperly paying "hush money" to as a mentally unstable sex worker.

LISA RUBIN, MSNBC: As I remind our viewers all the time, I sat through two E. Jean Carroll trials and two cross-examinations of E. Jean Carroll and I have to say, this was very much what I'd call a "Nuts and Sluts" defense. There was a portion of the cross-examination where [Trump attorney] Susan Necheles was focused on the fact that Stormy Daniels now claims that she is a medium, and that she communicates with dead people, and has participated in a TV series about the paranormal where she explores things, including the fact that at one point an ex-boyfriend of her was inhabited by spirits. She was mocking Stormy Daniels. She wants the jury to think Stormy Daniels is a liar and she is crazy. And she also wants the jurors to judge her for her occupation.

Stormy Daniels gave no ground on that. She might be an exotic dancer, an adult film actor, but she was very clear when Susan Necheles used the phrase "selling yourself" to describe what Stormy Daniels was doing on a tour where she was making appearances at clubs, Stormy Daniels set her straight. "I was not selling myself. I was dancing." The implication always was, "I am not a sex worker and I don't have a sign around my neck that says consent given freely to everyone at any time."

She was a woman who seemed pretty self-possessed, in control of her own body, and wanting to maintain essentially, to quote Pretty Women, "I say who, I say when," and not, you know, Donald Trump was -- that I was for the taking by this man.

I increasingly see what Trump did to Stormy Daniels -- and she used the phrase "what happened to me" more insidiously than I think I ever have. It is a reinforcement of the predator frame that the Access Hollywood tape introduced. It brought into full vision a very new Donald Trump, not just a Donald Trump who was womanizing and liked beautiful women and was one of the world's most eligible bachelors, as David Pecker described him, but a Trump who knew what he was doing and wasn't just hitting on people, but making it impossible for them to escape, or at least downright uncomfortable. And Stormy Daniels today, I agree with Sue, the temperature was down, but the self-possession was up, and she would not give ground.

My favorite answer that she gave was when Susan Necheles basically said to her, "You make things up like this all the time. You've acted in over 200 pornographic movies and those are all made up." And she said, "If I was going to make this up, I would have made it a much better story." And I don't know how people in the courtroom reacted but in the overflow room, there was like an "Ooh," almost like "sick burn" because Stormy Daniels was in control.