A tense day at the Trump trial: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, we have the latest news from a tense day at the Trump trial and what to expect next. Plus, senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen breaks down why Biden's debate challenge shows he's worried about where his 2024 bod stands.

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‘That was a lie!’: Trump’s lawyer gets heated during questioning of Michael Cohen

By Adam Reiss, Gary Grumbach, Jillian Frankel and Dareh Gregorian

Michael Cohen returned to the witness stand in Manhattan criminal court Thursday for a tense cross-examination by Donald Trump’s defense attorneys, who have been trying to paint him as a dishonest and unreliable narrator whose claims cannot be believed.

The key moment: In one heated exchange, defense lawyer Todd Blanche pushed Cohen about the details of a phone conversation he said he had with Trump on Oct. 24, 2016, about the $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Cohen had testified he got ahold of Trump through his bodyguard Keith Schiller to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it.”

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Blanche noted the call was at 8:02 p.m. and lasted 90 seconds, and at 8:04 p.m., Cohen texted Schiller the phone number of a 14-year-old he’d complained had been prank-calling him. He shouted that Cohen’s account of talking to Trump that night “was a lie!” The real conversation was about the teenager, Blanche insisted. Cohen said he “believed he was telling the truth, based upon the records