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Coast Guard: About 40 Hours Of Oxygen Left; Hunter Biden Agrees To Plead Guilty To Federal Charges In Deal With DOJ. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 20, 2023 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: A search area as big as Connecticut and more than two miles deep. The hunt for a missing submersible in the North Atlantic is entering a critical phase. The coast guard just telling us 40 to 41 hours of oxygen remain for the five people on board. We are learning alarming new details about exactly how that vessel was built.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty. The president's son reaching a plea deal with the feds led by a Trump appointee. He's now facing the consequences of tax and gun charges while the political consequences play out in the nation's capital.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And he is still leading the Republican field but a new poll shows post-indictment support for former President Trump is softening. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SCIUTTO: New updates from the coast guard have just come in as the search for that tourist dive vessel becomes more dire, revealing just how complex, delicate, and huge this mission and searches become. They say the vessel had enough oxygen to last a total of about 96 hours, four days when it lost contact with its support ship on Sunday. Now, we're looking, if we do the math, anywhere from 39 to 40 hours until they run out.

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CAPT. JAMIE FREDERICK, U.S. COAST GUARD: Today, the vessel Deep Energy, 194 meters pipe laying vessel arrived on-scene with underwater ROV capability. They have rendezvoused with the vessel Polar Prince, and could then commence an ROV dive at the last known of the -- position of the Titan and the approximate position of the Titanic wreck. That operation is currently ongoing.

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SCIUTTO: The vessel, not that big, about the size of a minivan is the property of an expedition company called OceanGate. It is carrying a pilot and four passengers. The aim, to visit and view the wreckage of the Titanic, which is at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

U.S. Coast Guard says their search area is about the size of the state of Connecticut but one of the biggest challenges is the depth of that search area. 20 -- 3200 feet. Light can no longer be seen.

And while Canadian search equipment is equipped with sonar, the Titanic wreckage lies nearly 13,000 feet below the surface. About two and a half miles.

CNN's Paula Newton. She's been following this from Ottawa. Paula, we know we have U.S. assets, we have Canadian assets searching as best they can. This area is huge though. The depths involved are enormous here. Tell us what we know about those assets and what that means for the search going forward.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, that was quite a sobering update we just had from the U.S. coast guard. And here's the reason. While many people offered their assets, they are saying that there's about 40 hours left of survival for those five passengers there.

What was most interesting is that they talked about that vessel, right Deep Energy, and that's the best shot that they have in the next few hours of finding the Titanic submersible. And then trying to figure out how to bring it to the surface.

Now, they're going to launch what they call an ROV, the short form for remote-operated vehicle. So, what this commercial vessel -- again, remember this vessel normally is laying pipe at the bottom of the sea.

SCIUTTO: Right.

NEWTON: You will now -- it has already sent now we believe that remote vehicle to the ocean surface -- to the ocean bottom there in order to see if the submersible is there. That is only the beginning though, Jim. Because if they find it, they then have to figure out how to get it back to the surface.

SCIUTTO: Right.

NEWTON: And it's, especially dependent, obviously, on how far it is. Is it two miles down or did it happen to make it further up? Still, an immense task ahead of them.

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SCIUTTO: I have to ask you, Paula. It's a difficult question. When you speak to officials about this in Canada, do they manage expectations for the likelihood of a successful rescue?

NEWTON: They are not managing expectations right now. They are fixated, Jim, I have to tell you on the clock. We just heard in that press conference, 40 hours.

What does that mean? They have requested, Jim, even coming in from all over the world to try and help. The issue though is, Jim, is that who can get to the scene as soon as possible? And they are convinced if they can get more assets to the bottom near that Titanic wreck and actually, you know, keep an eye on the submersible -- this submersible, they do have a shot at bringing it back up to the surface and hopefully bringing the five passengers up safely. SCIUTTO: Well, that's encouraging to hear. Paula Newton, thanks so much for covering this from Canada. This is, of course, a joint operation of the U.S. and Canadian assets. Brianna.

KEILAR: Let's take a closer look now at the structure of this missing submersible. Joining us now, we have CNN's Tom Foreman. So, Tom, the space inside of the submersible, as you know has been compared to the interior of a minivan, very small, uncomfortable, claustrophobic inducing no doubt for some.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It could be, yes.

KEILAR: What more can you tell us about how it's constructed?

FOREMAN: I just talked to a man who went down two years ago. He said even though it's close, it's comfortable enough. And I asked him specifically about some of the video we've seen from David Pogue, over at CBS talking to Stockton Rush, the man behind this company, about the controls of it. Look at this piece of video.

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DAVID POGUE, CORRESPONDENT, CBS: And yet, I couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised.

STOCKTON RUSH, FOUNDER & CEO, OCEANGATE EXPEDITIONS: We can use these off-the-shelf components. I got these from camper world. We run the whole thing with this game controller.

POGUE: Come on. It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyvery jerry-rigged-ness. You're putting construction pipes as ballast.

RUSH: I don't know if I use that description of it. But there's certain things that you want to be buttoned down. So, the pressure vessel is not MacGyvered at all because that's where we work with Boeing and NASA, and the University of Washington. Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go. Your lights can go. You're still going to be safe.

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FOREMAN: Well, that video raised a lot of concern for a lot of people, Brianna. Because when you look at that, you're saying, what about the backups? A fellow has been there before. He said, look, yes, they use this sort of Xbox sort of controller but they also can go past that and operate the controls manually.

He said, yes, there are separate power supplies outside and inside and they might get in trouble. They might not work. None of what he says should keep them from being able to get back to the surface.

KEILAR: Let's talk about that a little bit. Without power, how would they surface?

FOREMAN: There are weights on the side of this. He said it is designed such that they were taught you rock the vehicle to make the weights fall off. If that doesn't work, you use these pneumatic pressure jacks to try to knock the weights off, and it should naturally float to the surface.

But still, a challenge if that happens. Remember, this is sealed entirely from the outside, bolted down from the outside, so even if you got to the surface unless somebody found you, you can't get out and you're still dependent on the air inside, not outside.

KEILAR: Why is that? Do we know --

FOREMAN: It's just the design of this vessel right now.

KEILAR: All right. Tom Foreman, thank you for that.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

KEILAR: Boris.

SANCHEZ: We now want to bring in a friend of one of the missing passengers. Retired Air Force Colonel Terry Virts has spent a lot of time with Hamish Harding and worked on several projects with him. Colonel Virts, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. Thanks for being here.

Oh, it sounds like we just lost the colonel. We're going to try to get him back and continue covering this stunning story. A submarine missing in the Atlantic Ocean. Stay with CNN. We're back in just moments.

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[14:13:00]

SANCHEZ: We're following new developments in the years-long investigation into Hunter Biden. The DOJ announcing deals with the president's son on two tax misdemeanors and a felony gun charge. It was struck with a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, David Weiss, in Delaware. The agreement likely will keep Hunter Biden out of jail. Though Weiss says the probe is still ongoing.

Let's get to CNN's Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez. Evan, we now have the charging documents. What do they reveal?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they tell us, Boris, on the two counts of time -- of failing to pay taxes, that is part of the plea agreement that has been struck between David Weiss's office and Hunter Biden's attorneys. According to prosecutors, for the years 2017 and 2018, he had income of more than $1.5 million and failed to pay on time. And so, that is the reason for that part of the charge. By the way, his attorneys say that Hunter Biden has now paid that -- the sums owed and he paid the penalties.

Now, as far as the gun charge. This has to do with a gun that Hunter Biden purchased during the time that he was addicted to drugs. He has, you know talked about this in a -- in a book that he published -- SANCHEZ: Right.

PEREZ: -- as well as television interviews, talked about how he was struggling with substance abuse and clearly should not have been able to buy a gun but did. And so, that is now going to be a charge that the prosecutors are going to deal with it through a diversion program which means that you know if he satisfies the terms of what a judge orders, he will have that charge completely dismissed.

We got a statement from Hunter Biden's Attorney, Chris Clark. And he says that I know Hunter believes that it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes that he made during a period -- a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward. Now, as you pointed out, you know, it's pretty standard in these public statements from prosecutors to say that an investigation is ongoing while obviously, this is pending before a judge.

SANCHEZ: Right.

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PEREZ: We do not know whether there's anything more certainly from the Justice Department that could be beyond that. However, we know that Republicans on Capitol Hill are far from done with this. We know this investigation began looking at money laundering, looking at Hunter Biden's business activities in Ukraine and China. That's something that is not part of this case anymore, but we can bet that Republicans are going to keep looking at that part of this.

SANCHEZ: Yes, they've often attacked President Biden and his son for foreign business dealings. But that is not included at all in any of this.

PEREZ: Right. None of that -- none of that ended up being part of what became part of this plea agreement, right.

SANCHEZ: Ivan Perez, thank you so much. Brianna.

KEILAR: We're joined now by former federal prosecutor Michael Moore. Michael, this probe is headed by a prosecutor that was appointed by former President Trump who stayed on during the Biden administration, kept on by Joe Biden to obviously avoid the appearance of political interference here. But when you listen to Republicans on the Hill, broadly, they are saying that this is a sweetheart deal. When you look at this, is this a sweetheart deal?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, it's a pleasure to be with both of you. You know, it really is not a sweetheart deal at all. This is sort of matter, of course, run of the mill. This is how some of these cases are resolved.

There's nothing here to indicate that there was any special treatment. You know, this is -- you know, when people try to poke fun or make distinctions about who the prosecutor is, or the prosecutor something else, you usually find out that those people who shout the loudest are the ones whose ox is getting gored. And in this case, there's nothing to indicate that there's anything improper or out of the ordinary with the deal.

And it's common, frankly, to keep a prosecutor in place from the prior administration if they're investigating somebody currently in a different administration. That's normal. That's been done throughout. You saw it in the Edwards case, and you can go back and back. So, nothing here that causes any red flags to go up.

KEILAR: It seems clear why Hunter Biden would take the deal here. These are difficult charges to fight. Why he would try to avoid a trial and potential prison time here? Why, from the DOJ perspective, is this something to move forward with a plea deal on?

MOORE: Well, you know, unfortunately, the DOJ is just like anybody else. And you've got to look at what resources you have to put into a particular case. And so, you know, when you have somebody of any note or celebrity who might be a potential defendant or defendant in a case, you want to make sure that you treat them the same across the board.

You don't go too hard on them because it would look like that they're getting negative treatment. You don't go to light because it looks like they're getting special treatment. And so, you try to maintain some consistency with cases that you've handled in the past.

And so my guess is that the prosecutor in this case if they looked at from a historical perspective of those cases that were handled and made a decision that this was in line with those types of cases. And I mean, frankly, it is. I mean, it's a non-violent offense. You have -- especially on the tax charges, those tax cases come up every day.

What's important, obviously, is to get -- is that the U.S. Treasury gets paid back its money, that by all appearances, and by accounts from the lawyers has been done. And so this -- you know, those needs for the department, those needs for the United States to satisfy the fact that the government was the victim in the case that had been met.

KEILAR: Michael Moore, great to have you for your analysis. Thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. Let's speak now to CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond, Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju, and CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein. Jeremy, I wonder if I could begin with you. What has been the Biden administration's reaction to this deal? And is there any indication that they were encouraging Hunter Biden to seek a deal with prosecutors?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we haven't heard very much from the White House other than one comment from White House spokesman Ian Sams. And in that statement, Sams says that "the president and the first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life." They sit -- he says, we will have no further comments.

And look, that is just a continuation of the strategy. And frankly, just the posture that we have seen from President Biden and his administration as this Hunter Biden investigation has unfolded over the last several years. The president has really A little effort to distance himself publicly from his son. Instead, he has really embraced him.

We have seen Hunter Biden with the president in public multiple times. You know, most recently, perhaps most prominently, when the president went to Ireland, Hunter Biden was at his side and near-constant presence. And you know, President Biden is someone who is extremely close with his family. And so, the notion of distancing himself from Hunter was simply never going to happen despite the fact that some Democrats privately have wondered whether the president should have taken more distance from his son, at least publicly for the possibility of the very outcome that we are seeing today.

[14:20:05]

But instead, the president and the first lady have both embraced their son saying that they are proud of him, proud of his recovery from his drug addiction. And most recently, the president said in an interview, that he doesn't believe that his son has done anything wrong.

We know that White House officials and the president's personal attorney, they have kept close tabs on this legal case throughout, keeping in touch with Hunter Biden's attorneys. Now the question is, will the president himself comment on this plea deal? We are expecting to see him on camera later today as he meets with AI experts in San Francisco. We will see whether or not he responds to any shouted questions on this, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Manu, there are a couple of hard facts here. This was a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware, one. And two, this is the sitting president's son prosecuted by DOJ run by his appointee and while the sitting president is running for president. What has been it has any of those facts influenced the Republicans' response to this on the Hill?

RAJU: Well, you know, I tried to ask the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, about the fact that this was initiated by a Trump-appointed attorney David Weiss, was a holdover in the Biden administration has been going on for several years, but McCarthy has downplayed that fact and pointed to the fact that the former president, Donald Trump, has been prosecuted after being indicted by a federal grand jury in the classified documents case, trying to compare the two issues. And I pressed him about that. The fact that they're -- these are completely different cases involving a different set of facts but McCarthy still claims his political bias at the Justice Department.

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MCCARTHY: Congress has to have a right. We have the constitutional right to investigate and to oversee. And for any investigation that we have or any information we need, they can't now stand behind that there's an investigation going on.

RAJU: But there's two separate cases. I mean, the Trump cases involving alleged obstruction of an investigation, alleged misstatements This is a tax case and a gun case. These are two separate cases. Why conflate them?

MCCARTHY: I'm not conflating them and coming back.

RAJU: But you're letting him lie to investigators. That's the issue here.

MCCARTHY: You should handle it differently. Well, that -- did Hunter Biden lie about his taxes? Did Hunter lie -- Hunter Biden lie about the gun?

RAJU: Well, I don't know. He pleaded guilty to the situation -- tax situation.

MCCARTHY: Well, there's no -- there's no time for him to serve. Remember, this will be no prison time, but they're trying to put President Trump in prison. That's what they're talking about --

RAJU: They're different cases. They're different facts.

MCCARTHY: -- talk about equal justice.

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RAJU: So, McCarthy is indicating that he expects the Justice Department now to provide documents and records to the House Oversight Committee, which is begun this Hunter Biden investigation really since the beginning of this Congress. And now that this investigation -- at least this part of the investigation appears to have concluded, wants those records.

And that's going to be the pressure point going forward. Whether they get those, whether they subpoena for those records, and whether the Justice Department complies as you can hear from the speaker right there, not satisfied with the results of this plea deal and comparing it to the situation involving Donald Trump, which of course is much different. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, and then -- and then presumably carry that congressional investigation into the election cycle. Ron Brownstein, there was another fact here. The president's son has pleaded guilty to federal crimes --

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- while the president is running for office. What are the political implications for Joe Biden's reelection campaign?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Jim, I think the odds are very high that this is going to have more impact on the Republican primary, and it's going to have on the general election. Joe Biden certainly has his problems with the electorate in particularly his very durable and stubborn majority that has concerns about whether he is simply too old to handle the job. But I think the prospect that there are a significant number of voters who would genuinely be open to voting for him and will not because they think his son you know is corrupt or got an unfair deal is pretty small.

On the other hand, the charges of dual justice or bias against Republicans that you're hearing from so many Republicans like Speaker McCarthy in Manu's report there, that has a real impact on the Republican primary. It basically forces the entire Republican race into the narrative that Donald Trump has set up, that essentially you know, it is him standing up against the deep state. And that makes it tougher for the other candidates.

Even as the CNN poll, like other polls, that's out today shows that in the broader electorate outside of the Republican coalition, voters are responding to the indictment of Trump pretty much the way you'd expect. They are deeply concerned about it. But within the Republican race, the primary focus is the idea that justice is being weaponized. And this reinforces that narrative, and in the long run, probably helps Trump.

SCIUTTO: It's a great point because that is one while you have had some Republican candidates, for instance, for office deny the president -- the former president's claim about the election. On this issue, they've been pretty uniform and that is, to your point under at least one of Trump's arguments that this is a weaponized Justice Department.

[14:25:02]

Almost despite the facts, right? Because in the same week, you had a report in The Washington Post that had delayed investigating him for his role on January 20. So, what does the Democrats' response to that?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I think you know there are -- there's very mixed feelings among Democrats. Certainly, the Biden administration's view has been to avoid almost any political commentary on this for fear of fueling this Republican narrative that, you know, he's the victim of a weaponized deep state.

I think there are definitely Democrats who are concerned that other figures in the party, whether it's senators or former National Security or intelligence officials are not out there making the kind of arguments that we are hearing from members of Trump's own senior you know, officials. His Attorney General, Bill Barr. His Defense Secretary Mark Esper. His National Security Adviser John Bolton. All have made the case that this is a very serious set of facts and that it raises fundamental questions about whether he is fit to be president again.

You really aren't hearing that from former Democratic national security officials, much less, you know Democrats in Congress. And I think there is a certain ambivalence in the Democratic about whether they are kind of letting the Republican arguments go unanswered to too great an extent.

SCIUTTO: Well, there's time. We got a few more months until that election. Ron Brownstein, Manu Raju, Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much to all of you. Boris. SANCHEZ: Still to come. Authorities estimate there are about 40 hours left of breathable air on that missing Titanic submersible. Getting salvage equipment to the area top priority right now. We're going to be talking to a friend -- a close friend of one of those on board.

And we have new reporting that China may be increasing its security footprint just across the Florida strait and Cuba. How the Secretary of State is now responding to all of this fresh off his trip to Beijing? We'll be right back.

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