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President Biden's Son Hunter Biden May Take Stand in His Own Defense at Federal Gun Trial; Donald Trump to Meet with Probation Officer Ahead of Sentencing after His Felony Conviction; Secretary of State Blinken to Meet with Netanyahu; Far-Right Parties Projected to Win Record Number of Seats. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 10, 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]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They've 14 consecutive days where the mercury in the thermometer has climbed above 100 degrees, and we have no relief really in sight, especially this week -- 20 million American under some sort of heat alert, including heat warnings for Vegas, Sin City. It is sizzling there, 11 consecutive days with temperatures above 100 degrees. This is the warmest start in the month of June for the Sin City. And we continue to see the above-average temperatures well into triple digit territory, all thanks to this heat dome that is suppressing cloud, allowing for maximum sunshine overhead. And that means we bake underneath that heat dome. Triple- digit heat for Palm Springs, Phoenix, Sacramento into Las Vegas. And guess what? It doesn't stop here. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: No break, not even summer yet, I think. I can never remember when summer starts, but I'm just going to say not yet here. We're already there. It's great to do, Derek. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What will Donald Trump tell his probation officer? They meet today, talk about a historic first for a former president.

Hunter Biden's federal gun trial could go to the jury today, and we could learn any minute whether Hunter Biden will choose to testify.

And brand new trial data on a combination COVID and flu vaccine, a first of its kind. When might it be available?

Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: The president's son Hunter Biden just arrived at a federal court courthouse once again in Delaware, and the first-order of business and really the most anticipated order of business today is to find out if he will take the stand in his own defense. The court is not just minutes away from resuming. Hunter Biden is facing charges related to a 2018 gun charge. He has pleaded not guilty -- sorry, 2018 gun purchase. And he has pleaded not guilty. If he does not take the stand, then closing arguments may soon begin.

CNN's Evan Perez is live outside the courthouse for us. Evan, it seems pretty stark either-or today. Either his legal team says he's going to get ready to take the stand, or things really start wrapping up.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Kate. We just saw a Hunter Biden arrived a short minute, or a couple of minutes ago. He had a lot of family members around him, including the president's sister and brother. There's going to have obviously a full courtroom right now with family members offering his support -- offering their support. Rather.

The defense has raised the prospect that Hunter Biden could testify on his own defense, but this is a risky proposition for this defense. The prosecution has already warned essentially that if he takes the stand, they're going to bring up a number of things, including his Navy discharge allegedly for testing positive for drugs about a decade ago as well as his tax charges, and the fact that he had admitted guilt as part of a plea agreement that fell apart spectacularly last summer here in this very courtroom. The defense wants to argue, in part, that he has been sober since 2019, and so that's part of what they would like to bring to the jury.

Now, again, it's very, at this point, unlikely that this will happen. The risks are very high for Hunter Biden if he takes the stand. But he has been very, very forceful in trying to do a very public defense of himself over the last few months against Republicans, and there is some feeling around him that he believes he is his best advocate. We'll see in the next few minutes whether the defendant takes the stand. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Remind people of how things also ended on Friday. It was even more, it was more emotional and personal testimony, even coming from Biden's daughter.

PEREZ: Right, Naomi Biden testified on Friday. And really it was tearful. It was very powerful, emotional testimony. And part of what she was brought here to do was to blunt some of the impact of the testimony of Hallie Biden, who is a Hunter's brother's, Beau Biden, widow, who he was also in a relationship with after the death of his brother. And one of the things she told prosecutors, the most important thing she brought to the trial was the allegation that she believed he was doing drugs, that he was addicted to drugs and struggling with his addiction in October of 2018.

[08:05:00]

Now that's when he bought this gun. He bought this gun and had it for about 11 days according to this case, according to prosecutors, and that's what this case is about. Prosecutors say that because Hunter Biden was addicted to drugs, that he lied on the government form that he used for this to fill out to buy that firearm. And they also say that by possessing it while he was an addict, he also broke the law. He is facing these three charges. And again, this hour we're going to find out whether he actually takes the stand. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Evan, thank you so much. It's great to have you there. John?

BERMAN: All right, with me now, CNN legal analyst, criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson. Joey, Evan says extremely unlikely Hunter Biden will take the stand. We could learn any minute. If he doesn't, why not?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because it is just -- the risk is too great, John. Good morning to you. Now, here's the way it goes. What you always want to do as a defense attorney is prepare your client for that eventuality. How? Asking them questions, furthering your narrative. And then you moot them by cross-examining them, giving them the pressure of what it would be like in the courtroom.

But here's the problem -- number one, when you look to doing your case as the defense, the first thing you look for is raising the specter of reasonable doubt. The case becomes without your client testifying, have you raised that spectrum? You have to examine here, have they done that? The defense has shed a lot of light on at the time of this this purchase. Was he addicted then? Was evidence presented to the court and to that jury with respect to what he was doing at that time? Yes, prosecutors have shown that he was addicted in general. Have they shown he was addicted then?

The other issue is you're then attacked in cross-examination with collateral issues. What am I speaking of? It's not so much that he cannot, that is, Hunter Biden get on the stand and advance his narrative with respect to addiction, advance his narrative with respect to the dark moments. But then you're cross-examined, not only factually with respect to what the case is about, what you were doing, who you were doing it with, the drugs you were having, you were ruining peoples lives, but other issues. You heard Evan Perez speak to the issue of when he was in the military. A discharge, what does that have to do with it? It goes to your credibility. It's just not an advisable thing. It changes the equation, puts too much focus on him.

And then, final point, John, it then opens up this other pandora's box. What pandora's box? If you testify, guess what? Prosecutors say, judge, I'd like to rebut that testimony. We're going to bring more witnesses. And it just gets too messy.

Leave it where it is. I think the defense has done a lot with respect to reasonable doubt. Make your arguments to the jury, but then again, John, expect the unexpected.

BERMAN: That reasonable doubt seems to be over the issue of whether Hunter Biden was literally on drugs the moment that he signed that form, saying that he was not on or addicted to drugs, correct?

JACKSON: So yes. Now, what will happen is, just to be clear, it's not even that the form says that, right. At this moment, are you addicted? The defense is trying to really narrow the timeframe, saying prosecutors, you've shown our client was drug-addicted for sure. I think the defense will also say you're shaming him as a result of that. Why are we shaming an addict? Shouldn't we be uplifting, getting people help? Are we really dragging people into court to humiliate them based upon this? The defense is saying in the 11 days that he owned that weapon, have

you demonstrated then that he's been on drugs? Don't tell me about text messages about him sleeping on cars a day, after another text that he sent with respect to him using. Show me someone who saw him using drug. Can you do that, prosecutors? And if you don't, the defense will say it's not enough.

The other issue, John, you know, trust me, because I don't know what I was doing at the time. He was in a deceptive state of mine, and as a result of that, you can't --

BERMAN: Twenty seconds are left, assuming that we're going to closing arguments shortly. The prosecution, though, knows that the defense will do that. So what does the prosecution say?

JACKSON: I think what they do is they continue to lock him in. I think we're going to see in closing arguments the pictures of him, and really humiliating pictures, and what he had in what those pictures in terms of paraphernalia. I think they'll point to witnesses that talked about his addiction, et cetera. I think they'll say prosecutors that he knowingly knew what he was doing. He did it anyway. And that we're not here to shame anyone. What we're here to do is to hold a person accountable who lies on the form.

Defense's narrative, John, far different than that, of course. What will ultimately the jury decide? I think we'll know soon.

BERMAN: They could get the case by the end of the day. Joe Jackson, great to see you this morning. Thank you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also this morning, Donald Trump has a meeting, a meeting with his probation officer ahead of his sentencing that's coming next month. So this is standard procedure for anyone convicted of a crime, but it's absolutely anything but standard, obviously, when it comes to the historic conviction of a former president. The meeting will help decide Trump's punishment after he was found guilty of all 34 charges in his New York trial.

CNN's John Miller has new reporting on all this. John, we also know that Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche is going to be present for this meeting. Its kind of leading me to wonder what's normal about this and what's definitely not normal about all this?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So it is not unusual for an attorney to ask to be present, and when they ask, it's generally granted.

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But just about everything else is unusual. I mean, the probation department is going to want to go through what they call an intake process. Now, the other day I spoke to New York City's Commissioner of Probation Juanita Holmes, who said she could not discuss the Trump case or any specific case, but walked me through the process. And what Commissioner Holmes said is the interview is family history, education, criminal background. Donald Trump will have to tell the probation department what they already know, which is he has three other open felony cases that are pretrial right now. Employment history, he's worked for himself his whole life. Substance abuse, not an issue there. Medical condition, financial status, living conditions -- I have a triplex penthouse in a building with my name on it.

And he may have questions for them. Can I vote? Yes, while on probation. What will the conditions be? When do I have to report? How often? It'll be a routine experience for the probation department on one hand and very strange on another.

BOLDUAN: And also we're talking about someone who is convicted who has Secret Service protection as well. I mean, you've done a lot of reporting on kind of the coordination that's necessary between Secret Service and all other forms of law enforcement around just the trial, around the trial. What does that -- how do you now throw the Secret Service protection into all of this? What does that do?

MILLER: Well, for today, not much because it's going to be a virtual meeting via Zoom or something like that. But the conditions of his probation, the Secret Service will be with him all the time. The probation department could call them in as witnesses if there's an alleged violation.

And I think one of the first things that's going to come up, A, travel. If you're going to travel, and by the way, if you're a presidential candidate, you're going to travel. You need the permission your probation officer.

And number two, I don't live in New York. I mean, I have a building here in an apartment, but I'm a Florida resident. Can I get my case transferred to Florida? I think that's going to be likely request. And the answer is it can happen. One probation, one state's probation can transfer to another state for supervision if that's where the person lives.

And then there will be some administrative stuff such as he's a convicted felon in New York state. They're going to ask him for his DNA and he's going to have to give that. They can do other things like unannounced home visits to check on his living conditions. That probably would be unlikely in this case, but the rules will be the same for him as anyone else.

BOLDUAN: John, thank you so much. Always getting your insight on this and all of these things is always so interesting and important. Thank you.

Something so normal and also so completely abnormal about this whole thing. We've seen all along, but such stark --

BERMAN: The Secret Service could be called as witnesses to find out if he's violated his probation. Just as the founders intended, as we like to say.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Something like that. BERMAN: -- to say the least.

This morning, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveling in the Middle East as the political turmoil there reaches a peak.

A major us city partially shut down after it got hit by a large scale cyberattack overnight.

And it is like a battlefield, new details on a fire that was jumping from boat to boat inside a harbor.

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BOLDUAN: Any moment now, we are expected to hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and he has just -- as he has just arrived back in the Middle East to try and push forward the hostage and ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken has been in Cairo, Egypt. He will soon head to Israel to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also expected to be meeting with Benny Gantz, who just resigned from Israel's War Cabinet in protest of how Netanyahu is handling the war.

Now this happened after the dramatic rescue operations Saturday that brought home four Israeli hostages after eight months in captivity in Gaza.

CNN political and global affairs analyst, Barak Ravid joins us now. He also is, of course, a political and foreign policy reporter with AXIOS.

Barak, it is great to see you. A very long weekend for so many especially you reporting on all of this. What are you hearing now about the operation Saturday and also what, if anything, is being learned from the four hostages who were rescued?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Hi, Kate.

I think what we learned by what the hostages have been saying during that weekend since they were rescued, is that once again, there is a very different MO that Hamas has in different cases of different hostages. Some of them are in the tunnels, some of them are in houses of families who are affiliated with Hamas, with Hamas guards.

And according to the place that those hostages were being held, they get different treatment and for example, Noa Argamani was held hostage and rescued, said that she was held with a family that had quite a lot of money, so the conditions were better than other hostages. And this family used her as a cleaning lady and told her to clean the house, to clean dishes, to make food, which is something that we haven't heard from other hostages.

[08:20:00] BOLDUAN: And I want to ask you about Tony Blinken and what his

mission now is as he is going to be landing because this is where kind of all of the focus will be quickly shifting.

But also even before that Jake Sullivan, Biden's National Security adviser has been on since the operation and asked what the impact of the rescue operation would have on the hostage and ceasefire negotiations. He basically said it is hard to say. They haven't heard yet from Hamas and he doesn't know.

What are you hearing about this?

RAVID: So I think it is interesting because in previous cases for example, when Israel started its operation in Rafah or in cases that are even before, every time that there was some sort of a big blow up, Hamas immediately said that it is freezing the negotiations. There is nothing to talk about and that's it. It did not say this in this case. So I think this is one interesting point.

Another interesting point is that three of the hostages who were rescued, were men who are supposed to be released in a second phase of that deal in return for a big number of Palestinian prisoners who are serving life sentences.

The fact that they were rescued took a lot of leverage from Hamas and was a big loss Yahya Sinwar because a lot of those prisoners that he wanted to release are people that he worked with together in prison.

So I think the message that Hamas gets out of this operation also is that every day that passes, it could lose even more leverage. And therefore, maybe now could be a good time to cut a deal.

BOLDUAN: And what then do you think is a conversation between Tony Blinken and Benjamin Netanyahu? Tony Blinken and Benny Gantz? You know, especially after Gantz just leaves the War Cabinet.

I mean, it is really new kind of reality that they are facing right now.

RAVID: Yes, so Blinken, obviously is going to push again for the hostage deal and this is mainly also in his visit to Cairo that he just finished and another visit to Qatar that he is going to have later this week, but I think that there are also so many other issues on the table, mainly how does the Biden administration is going to deal with the current Israeli government without this bulletproof vest called Benny Gantz?

For eight months since the war started, he was there and he was seen by the Biden administration is a more moderate person that can sort of like, you know, tame the push from the radical right members of the coalition. Without him, those people -- Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich are going to have much more influence in decision making and it will also influence how the Biden administration sees this government.

BOLDUAN: That's really a great point. You are also seeing of new reporting on the United States circulating

a new draft among the UN Security Council calling on Hamas to accept the hostage and ceasefire deal. What are you learning about this one this time?

RAVID: I think there is a good chance the vote will be today and it seems that at least for now, according to what I hear, there is a good chance that Russia and China will not veto this resolution, which means that it could most likely pass.

And if it passes, I think it is interesting because it is sort of, I think will be the first time that the international community will speak in one voice about something that has to do with Gaza, which is something we haven't had in eight months.

And this is, again, if it passes, it means that Hamas can look all over the world and see that basically everyone is telling him take the deal, even Russia and China. But again, let's see first how this vote develops.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Great to see you, Barak, as always. Thank you for your reporting.

RAVID: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: New this morning, a political shakeup across Europe that could become an earthquake. Far-right parties projected to win a record number of seats in the European Parliament.

And back-to-back shark attacks are now sparking new warnings along the Florida Panhandle.

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[08:27:51]

BERMAN: This morning, political tremors in Europe. Far-right parties are projected to win a record number of seats in the European Parliament. This is having an immediate impact.

Protesters took to the streets in Paris, outrage at gains for the far- right parties there, and French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved Parliament and called snap collections after his party underperformed.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is with us now.

And Fred, I think this was expected. Still, major, major tremors.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it was expected to a certain extent, but certainly not as powerful as then it actually happened, especially if you look at France, John.

I mean, just a couple of days ago, we of course had Emmanuel Macron, the president of France standing together with US President Joe Biden at the D-Day commemorations talking about transatlantic relations and European unity, and now you have in France, the far-right party, the Rassemblement National, winning 30 percent of the vote and Emmanuel Macron's party one 15 percent.

So they got twice as much, the far-right, than the president's party and of as you mentioned, he came out and he immediately called for snap parliamentary elections. So he is not putting himself up for election there, but it is the Parliament that is going to be up for election, and that is really soon, that's on June 30th where Emmanuel Macron is hoping that if there is a national election, not as many people will vote far-right. But of course, it is a huge gamble and certainly also a big issue for Europe.

And here in Germany, it is exactly the same thing. You have the right- wing AFD that got about 16 -- almost 16 percent of the vote, also more than the party of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

And there are a couple of trends that I think are really fascinating about all of this. First of all, in the former communist east of Germany, the far-right party called the AFD, is by far the strongest political force, but also a lot of young people voted for the far- right parties, and that is certainly something that is of grave concern here in Europe, of course, as far as a lot of foreign policy issues and relations with the US are concerned as well -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, I was just going to ask, what does that mean for the United States, Fred as the Biden administration looks to Europe for partners particularly in dealing with Ukraine?

PLEITGEN: Dealing with Ukraine, dealing with Russia, dealing towards Russia, of course, dealing with the Middle East as well. Right now, of course, you do have Europe very much in the US' corner on all of these issues, and the other big one of course, is China as well and what could happen in that regard. Will that be the same in the future? I think that is something that is very much up for grabs.

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