As the legal battle heats up under former President Trump, MSNBC’s Ali Melber is having a good time.

The parade of legal experts who make daily appearances on “The Beat with Ali Melber” also includes lawyers for the 2024 Republican presidential candidates, giving them ample time to make their case. It is

It has produced memorable encounters, including the recent appearance of Joe Tacopina, who represented Trump in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

In a heated 21-minute exchange in March, Melber held up a page from a 2018 dossier in which Trump told reporters that Daniels had been hired to cover up the affair allegations. He said he didn’t know about the $130,000 he paid. Panicked, Tacopina reached his hand across the glass table and tried to grab the paper.

Despite the tense skirmish, which was spiced up by a touch of Melber’s courtroom drama, Tacopina told the host that she was “fair.” Not much of a kicker in the Trump section of cable news.

The unprecedented story of the former president being indicted twice and being the subject of two other criminal investigations made Melver, an attorney who joined MSNBC in 2013 as an analyst, a sought-after member of the Daily Show. boosted the rate.

He’s also the only newscaster to quote a few lines from the late rapper DMX’s “Slippin'” to explain Governor Ron DeSantis’ early run-off stumble.

MSNBC is taking advantage of discord within CNN to entice viewers to embrace more Republican voices. As of May, MSNBC had a 77% lead over CNN in average total viewership, the largest gap in the network’s 27-year history under NBCUniversal, according to Nielsen data. became. MSNBC also overtook CNN in the 25-54 age group coveted by advertisers.

Mr. Melber is a big beneficiary. Total viewership for his shows has increased by 29% for him compared to May 2022, and by 47% for the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. Melber’s shows average 1.4 million viewers, second only to Fox News, but well ahead of CNN.

When news broke Thursday that Trump had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to the handling of classified documents, Melber appeared on MSNBC’s primetime line-up, appeared all day Friday, and appeared on his own show. I clarified the incident in the conversation format adopted in. .

“OJ had a book called ‘If I Did It.’ Trump’s book will be ‘I Did It,'” Melber said on one broadcast. “He started out worse than most defendants.”

Melver’s influence extends far beyond the declining cable TV population. His show has surpassed his 1.27 billion total YouTube views since his launch in 2017, more than any other personality on the network.

Engaging viewers on digital platforms is an ongoing challenge for traditional TV news businesses.

However, Melver accepted and said, “MSNBC moms” – a term that describes the enthusiastic core fans of networks around the world. He recently saw a Spanish guitarist perform at a club on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After the performance, an artist approached him.

“I’m thinking, ‘Maybe he’s interested in the news,'” Melver, 43, said in a recent interview at his Rockefeller Plaza office. “He said, ‘My mom in Spain watches you every day.’ Every morning I wake up and she has a new YouTube video of you.”

Prior to joining MSNBC, Melber practiced law as a protégé of legendary First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams. Mr. Melber was involved in Democratic political activism for some time before pursuing his legal career, but is no longer a registered member of the party.

He’s opinionated but not partisan, he’s an advocate (“follow the facts” is his mantra), so “The Beat” is never Trumper Nicole Wallace’s show Deadline: White It is kept in a neutral zone between ‘house’ and its line-up. Liberal commentators chasing him in prime time.

“The way Ali talks is refreshing,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who has been a regular on MSNBC since 2011. You can refer back and trust. ”

Melver has booked entertainers and artists as guests on the show’s backend, including: “Mavericks” Some of them have become friends, like Curb Your Enthusiast regular Richard Lewis, who coined the name “Beatniks” for the show’s followers.

“He’s fearless when he interviews people who cause him problems,” Lewis said by phone. “He looks at them like a professional boxer in the ring.”

According to Lewis, Melber shifts from heavy news topics to pop culture chatter with the ease of a late-night talk show host.

“He can take jokes and he can tell jokes,” Lewis said. “I sometimes tease him about what he said, ‘That joke, it might have been good, but you’re not in front of the Supreme Court.'”

Melber grew up in Seattle and attended Garfield High School, which also produced music icons Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones. Her Melber father emigrated from Israel and her grandparents fled Nazi Germany. His father and mother, sociologists, raised him and his older brother to have a curiosity about the world.

“At dinner, we talked about everything under the sun,” Melber said. “When I went to other places and they had kids tables, I didn’t understand. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be demoted.'”

Melber’s house was full of books and records, which gave him a passion for music. As a teenager in the 1990s, he became an avid hip-hop fan during the golden age of hip-hop. A St. Eyes Special Brew ad poster featuring Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, which Melber sought out in a Seattle bodega decades ago, hangs in his Brooklyn apartment.

As longtime viewers know, Melver still has the beats of that era. He regularly drops his rap lyrics to convey the gist of legal and political reports.

“Whether it’s Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, or many hip-hop artists, it’s my view that music brings us together, bridges the gap, and helps explain things. ‘ said Melver.

Melber is looking for lyrics that offer insight into issues of social justice. She quotes poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron’s “No Knock” in a corner about the shooting of black Louisville health care worker Breonna Taylor by police in a failed apartment raid. . .

“When you learn that Gil Scott-Heron wrote a song 51 years ago protesting the use of police tactics only in black and brown-majority neighborhoods, it does something. I think,” said Melber. “It’s a history lesson.”

Last year, Melber made an appearance on the show to analyze Jay-Z’s portion of the Grammy-nominated song “God Did” by DJ Khaled as a way to examine the social impact of the country’s long-running war on drugs. Spent 11 minutes.

Melber deciphered all the references and included a clip of Mike Wallace’s famous “60 Minutes” interview with Louis Farrakhan that Jay-Z quoted in the lyrics.Jay-Z Releases Melver Segment Audio YouTube channel and other platforms, Melver was “honored and impressed.”

Melber has been mildly ridiculed for his obsession with hip-hop. Comedian John Oliver, on his HBO show Last Week Tonight, aired a montage of Melver quoting her lyrics to guests (“She said it wasn’t Drake or”)Game sold separately“?”), looking back at him, slightly perplexed. Melver is knowledgeable enough to laugh with, Play Oliver’s “Rap Genius Ali Melber” segment In “The Beat”.

Some in the hip-hop community have welcomed Melber, who has been invited to concerts and even secured a seat at the pre-Grammys brunch hosted by Jay-Z’s management company, Roc Nation. New York hip-hop radio station Hot 97 sponsored a 5th anniversary party for ‘The Beat’ at a gallery space in the Chelsea neighborhood where an exhibition of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat opened last year.

Artists are appearing on the show to showcase new music and offer perspectives not always heard in the mainstream press. Veteran rapper Fat Joe, who was a Melber viewer even before his guest appearance, occasionally teamed up with conservative commentator Bill Kristol on “The Beat,” forming an odd couple who bonded over his disdain for Trump. are doing.

“I expected them to do the show,” Fat Joe said in an interview.

Melber’s references to hip-hop may be lost on some cable news viewers. Half of the viewers of MSNBC’s linear channels are over the age of 70. But self-proclaimed “newsfreak” Fat Joe can prove he’s a fan. It’s been played for decades, but it’s been tuned.

“Hip-hop fans are now CEOs and billionaires,” said Fat Joe. “Kids who grew up watching Public Enemy and LL Cool J are now 50. I think they understand.”

Fat Joe added that Melber tends to change his demeanor whenever “The Beat” hits a new ratings milestone.

“Ali always reminds me every time I’m No. 1,” said Fat Joe. “He sent me a short text.”