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Hunter Biden's Ex-Wife to Testify in Federal Gun Charge Trial regarding His Drug Addiction; President Biden Travels to France to Join World Leaders in Commemorating 80th Anniversary of D-Day; Biden in France for Critical Trip Amid Global and Domestic Crises; Biden's Executive Action Restricting Asylum Seekers Now in Effect. Aired 8- 8:30ET

Aired June 05, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: And all voters should have concern with universal absentee voting where voters not requesting the ballot and it shows up to their house one day.

But I think President Trump hasn't sort of nuanced this issue because he's not a nuanced gut, but we should --

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: No, we have to get rid of mail in ballots, you can add some nuance in that without having to pull a hamstring. It's not hard to say that with the appropriate caveat, Bryan.

(LAUGHTER)

LANZA: Listen, he's just a blunt force trauma guy. He sees the absentees, and I'm sure he's looking at a universal absentee. He's just saying this is bad, and I think everybody agrees universal absentee is bad. I come from California where we have a very successful absentee program, but I have also seen the flaws in universal absentee. I've gone to the post office where you see ballots in the trash because a voter has changed address. Well, those ballots are being picked up by party officials on the Republicans side and the Democratic side. I can't see anyplace where that is good for our democracy.

BOLDUAN: Bryan and Bennett, blunt force trauma politics. Here we go. It's good to see you both. Thank you very much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for crucial emotional testimony in the federal gun case against Hunter Biden.

New executive action at the border in effect as of now. What impact is it having on the border this morning?

And where exactly are you putting those shoulders? The promising new birth control for men. It is a gel rubbed on the shoulders.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. Sara is out this morning. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

And we are standing by for what could be some of the most emotional testimony in the federal gun case against Hunter Biden. The first of several witnesses that could be uncomfortable for Biden, to say the least, starting with his former wife. At issue, if he was abusing and addicted to drugs when he filled out a form to purchase a handgun in 2018. Prosecutors have already shown jurors photos of drugs taken from his electronic devices.

CNN's Evan Perez joins us from outside the courthouse this morning. What are we expecting to hear, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: John, we've already seen a lot of that emotion on display in the courtroom yesterday. We saw Hunter Biden's current wife, Melissa, choke up and get emotional as you saw prosecutors play hours of his audio book, his memoir. They showed pictures. They showed the infamous laptop. They displayed it in the courtroom.

They also showed pictures and text messages of his interactions with people who were selling him drugs to drive home the point prosecution is trying to make, which is that Hunter Biden knew he was an addict. He knew that he should not be able to buy a gun and that he lied when he bought the gun back in October of 2018. Prosecutor Derek Hines trying to say that no one is above the law and that Hunter Biden made the choice to break the law.

For about an hour, though, it was a Hunter Bidens own voice that filled that courtroom. Jurors were paying attention. They were taking notes. Again, a lot of emotion that came from that. Listen to one excerpt that was played in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER BIDEN, PRESIDENT BIDEN'S SON: I possessed a new superpower -- the ability to find crack in any town at any time, no matter how unfamiliar the terrain. It was easy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And John, Abbe Lowell, who is a Hunter Biden's attorney, spent his time trying to focus on the idea that Hunter Biden did not knowingly violate the law. It's his state of mind. He talked a lot about his trauma. And I can tell you, watching the jurors, there's at least one juror who seemed to get emotional as Abbe Lowell was making his presentation.

We could see them certainly paying attention. She certainly was paying attention, taking notes, reviewing her own notes when Lowell tried to get an FBI agent who was going through some of those text messages to get her to knowledge that a lot of the text messages that the prosecution has are for months before and after the purchase of the gun, meaning that on the day that he went to the to buy that gun in 2018, prosecution doesn't really have any evidence to show that he was on drugs that day. And that's the key part of the defense argument. Today, we're going to hear from Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen

Buhle. We expect her to make her first appearance later this morning, John. And I think that's one of the three exes that were going to hear from, again, driving home, the point about his struggle with addiction. John?

[08:05:07]

BERMAN: All right, this will be something to see today. Evan Perez, thank you so much for that report. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers. Jen I liked how you framed it as yesterday wrapped in terms of the opening statements. You say the openings were a tale of two trips to the gun store. Explain.

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, so it really was. It's like who was in there and what were they doing, right? Prosecutors say it's a simple case. He's using drugs, he's an addict. He goes with the gun store, he buys a gun, he lies on the forum. Case closed, right?

The defense is like, wait a minute, you have to prove that he knowingly made those false statements. He had just been in rehab. They don't explain what it means to be an addict or a user. Users are often in denial about what they're doing. He may not have had the requisite mental intent.

And by the way, they say that the gun store employee actually, he goes in there for something else and the guy takes him over, shows him a gun, and doesn't say he talks him into it, but that's kind of the suggestion. So really different takes on what happened. They're all designed to say, if you're the defense, what are we doing here? You all on the jury know about addiction, and so on. This man has a disease. He made a mistake. No one was hurt. Let's just leave it alone.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about that last one, because when prosecutors play parts from a Hunter Biden himself, from his memoir narrated by himself, reporters -- Evan was getting at this -- reporters in the courtroom noted that there were jurors taking very close notes, including when he described the utter shame and depravity of his lifestyle previously. We know that several jurors from jury selection, that they have experiences with people in their lives suffering from battling addiction. What does this do or not do for prosecutors? What does this do or not do for the defense? From a layman, I feel like it can cut both ways.

RODGERS: It definitely can. I mean, prosecutors want to prove that he was using at the time, right. They have to prove that. So they're using these autobiography excerpts read by Hunter Biden to do that. But the problem is, I think he's not going to testify, right. It's too fraught with risk. But he's effectively testifying through them hearing, in his own voice two, by the way -- celebrities often do their own memoirs, right, for the audio book. So he gets to tell them about that experience. And as you said, that really resonates with a lot of people on the jury. I also think that prosecutors, of course, are playing the clips that

they want to play about when he was using and how he was getting drugs and so on. Defense will probably be allowed to put in excerpts to complete that story that are more favorable to a Hunter Biden about how he was suffering and so on that will resonate even further with those jurors.

WALKER: Hunter Biden's ex-wife is going to be taking the stand, being brought to -- what does cross-examination look like, and how delicate is that when it when it comes to the defense?

RODGERS: Yes, that's a big strategy piece for the defense, right? And it depends what kind of witnesses she. Of course, they'll know a lot about her from Hunter Biden himself, so it could go either way. If she -- I don't know what the relationship is like now. If she is adverse to him, if she's aggressively against him in the direct, than they may be aggressive with her on cross. Or they may kind of treat her with kid gloves. I think it really depends on how the direct goes.

BOLDUAN: The defense approach, you were getting at it. They're going to -- Abbe Lowell says they're going to disprove the key contention that prosecutors are trying to make that he knowingly broke the law when he went into on that gun application. But talked about the -- it's very clear the defense approach is also trying to endure and engender sympathy from the jurors. Logical, smart, necessary, risky, which are all of the above all?

RODGERS: All of the above a little bit, but not too risky, to be honest. I mean, yes, you're asking for jury nullification. In a way you're saying to the jurors, why are here? Here's a man who is sick, right? He has a disease. You want to put him in jail for owning a gun for 11 days. No one was hurt, no one was threatened. What is the point? The real question to me is, how far did they try to suggest the political prosecution piece of this. They are not supposed to do it. So if they do it, it'll have to be subtle. But that's another way to say to the jury, why do you think we're here? What is the purpose of all of this? Let the guy go.

BOLDUAN: That's very interesting. Great to see you, Jennifer. Thank you so much. We'll see what happens today. John?

BERMAN: So a new report in the wall street journal quoting Republicans who have met with the president raising questions about his age. The White House is not happy, to say the least.

And what else can the love of my life do for you? Alleged words from the now wife of Senator Bob Menendez, part of the new evidence presented in his corruption trial.

And someone stop that giraffe -- a scary scene as a safari drive through win when a giraffe kind of snatches a toddler for real.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:13:44] BOLDUAN: Happening right now, President Biden is in France kicking off a big trip at a really big moment, both at home and abroad. He's joining world leaders there to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D- Day. The trip also offering him an opportunity his White House is no doubt looking to capitalize on, which is drawing an even sharper contrast, once again, between him as commander in chief and his opponent, Donald Trump, at home as a convicted criminal.

And then there is also this new headline the White House is forced to confront and contend with this morning. From "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that with the headline "Behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping."

CNN's Kayla Tausche is traveling with the president this morning. She's joining us now. First, let's talk about the trip at hand. What's happening today? What does the president want to get out of this trip?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a lot of goals, Kate. Today, the president, we are not going to see him. He arrived earlier this morning, and officials have said that he's using today to prepare for the meetings and the events later on this week. Later on when he has the state visit, there will be specific deliverables on China, on defense, and on commercial partnerships.

But the goals for the president are much broader than that. He's embarking on the last series of these anniversaries and summits with this group of allies of his term, and he wants to shore up those relationships, to deepen those ties.

[08:15:00]

He is constantly and consistently pointed to the deepening of the partnership and in the transatlantic as a hallmark of his foreign policy at a time when voters are giving his foreign policy handling relatively low marks.

Some of these allies have disproved of his handling of the war in Gaza and have broken been with him and said that they are ready to recognize a Palestinian State and there are also discussions over how to source new funds to continue aiding Ukraine's defense.

Now, on that front, President Biden will sit down on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He is expected to get the state of play on the ground and in the air as Ukraine is now for the first time, using American-made weapons to fire into Russia to those Russian positions that they've been using to fire into Ukraine, which National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan called common sense.

But after that meeting, President Biden is going to be delivering a speech to remind Americans why the fight against tyranny is so important and advisers say he is going to seek to make a connection, drop parallel between what happened in World War II on those beaches in Normandy and what is happening in Ukraine today -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And also on that headline I read from "The Wall Street Journal" about behind closed doors, people are reporting that Joe Biden is slipping in meetings with lawmakers, reporting from Republicans and Democrats according to "The Wall Street Journal" reporting. What is the White House saying about it? How big of a problem is this for them, do they think?

TAUSCHE: Well, the White House is hitting back hard in response to this reporting, which "The Wall Street Journal" says that it conducted over several months in interviews with more than 45 people on both sides of the aisle, although most of the anecdotes that they cite in the piece are relayed by Republicans.

The White House, saying this: "Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders, and nonpartisan national security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment. Now in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues," pointing the finger back at Republicans and slamming this as a partisan piece -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Kayla Tausche, it is great to see you. Thank you so much.

So President Biden's new policy at the southern border dividing Democrats, some applauding his approach; others saying it goes too far. So what do they do about it now in the party?

And nearly one month since the original launch date, Boeing makes its third attempt at its historic mission to space today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:40]

BERMAN: This morning, President Biden's sweeping executive at the southern border is in full effect. The new policy is designed to effectively shut down the border almost immediately to most asylum seekers.

With us now is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Ron Nirenberg.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being with us now.

I know technically, San Antonio is not at the border and this executive order just went into effect, but in these early hours, what impacts are you seeing if any?

MAYOR RON NIRENBERG, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Well, John, we are about 150 miles away from the border, so for all intents and purposes, most of the migration that happens at the southern border in Texas comes through San Antonio.

We've had 617,000 migrants come through our Migrant Resource Center, which is operated by Catholic Charities. We have focused on maintaining order, protecting public safety, and treating people with compassion. Now, I will tell you that in cities, we have to operate balanced

budgets and we have limited resources to do the things that we need to do for our local communities.

We have had the federal assistance from FEMA to operate the Migrant Resource Center as my colleagues in other cities have had, which is fantastic. But those resources are limited, too.

Obviously, if we were allowed to choose between basic services like streets and infrastructure and then treating people with compassion, we would choose compassion in every sense every single day, but that shouldn't be this way.

And so what I am seeing is a lack of action and doing nothing is not an option. So the president has stepped into this void and is doing something to get this moving and to encourage Congress to act, which I am grateful for.

BERMAN: What are you hearing, if anything? Again, this morning in just the last few hours, the order has actually been in effect.

NIRENBERG: Well, we have had significant decrease in numbers since the beginning of the year in our Migrant Resource Center. And a lot of that has had had to do with the diplomacy from the State Department and the work that the Biden administration has done in absence of federal action to accelerate the asylum process. But what is really needed is resources.

We know that these policies are just one step of the action. We also need resources, additional asylum, court resources. We need additional border security resource for border protection, et cetera. Yes.

BERMAN: So Mayor, so talk to me about that because these are new restrictions without new resources. So how far can then actually go?

NIRENBERG: Well, so what I am seeing is the fact that we have in an asylum process that is overloaded and under-resourced. And so what the president is attempting to do is keep the asylum process open, but managed to the resources that we have.

The challenge is that we have folks coming over who need assistance. And so what they do is they show up in cities like San Antonio and we have no other choice other than to, again, maintain public safety and treat people with compassion and humanity, which we are doing, but we are limited with the resources that we have.

[08:25:00]

So what I would do is encourage everyone who has thoughts and concerns about this issue to get in the game. The time for talking is over. We had real solutions with a bipartisan border bill that was negotiated by senators on both sides of the aisle. It was a real solution that was left on the floor because of a few phone calls from a former president.

That is unacceptable. It is not acceptable to our cities, and that's not going to help us in this situation.

BERMAN: As far as the former president goes, I don't remember you, I could be wrong, but I don't remember you supporting a similar executive action that he took when he was president to limit asylum seekers, am I right?

NIRENBERG: Well, this is far different, John. I would argue with that.

The Biden administration is focusing on keeping families together, making sure that we have a safe and orderly asylum process. And look, we have a president whose convictions are rooted in faith and family. He is faced with inaction from Congress, even though solutions were there and negotiated.

And then we have a former president whose convictions are rooted in literal felonies. Yes, I am going to give President Biden the benefit of the doubt in this situation. In the absence of congressional action that would offer a real solution, the president is stepping up and doing something.

Is it going to get us to where we need to be? No. But for those folks who have concerns on both sides of the aisle and I realize, this is not a perfect solution, but this is a step in the right direction.

I would encourage my, friends on both sides of the aisle to get in the game and help us deliver a freer, fair, and more compassionate community and country and immigration system that we deserve. It is there. Solutions have been negotiated. Let's pass the bill.

BERMAN: I don't know if you've had a chance to see it because I know you're doing a lot this morning, but there is a new article in "The Wall Street Journal" which has quotes mostly from Republicans questioning the president's age and alertness in meetings, they say that they have had with the president.

Now, you were with him just yesterday and I know you were with him at the border a short time ago. What did you see in terms of his age behind closed doors?

NIRENBERG: I see a president who is listening to communities, who is working to try to act where there is literal inaction and paralysis at Congress.

I see a president who is competent and experienced in the issues that are before us, who is willing to deal with the nuance necessary to deliver good policy.

And I see a president who is willing to work on both sides of the aisle. This is the kind of leadership that we need for this country. Leadership that people all across this country have been longing for and then we have Congress whose -- and then we have congressional Republicans who are literally trying to make the situation worse.

Look, I have full faith in our president to deliver on the promises that he has made as he has continued to do throughout the last three- and-a-half years of his term we have challenging times in this world and in this country. I want somebody who is competent, compassionate, experienced, and capable of doing the job and President Biden has demonstrated that time and time again.

And this action today that he announced yesterday, it takes a bit of courage. Look, this is not satisfactory. There are things to dislike on both sides of the aisle on this issue, but inaction is not an option for the president. He is trying to do something and I applaud him for that.

BERMAN: Mayor Ron Nirenberg, I appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you.

So a booze-filled dinner and a bizarre offer, new evidence in the bribery case against Senator Bob Menendez.

And the science of female birth control meets the simplicity that men require. That wasn't written by me, that was written by one of our female writers. A new contraceptive gel for men.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]