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CNN This Morning

Today: Hunter Biden Set To Plead Guilty To Tax Crimes; LeBron James' Son Out Of ICU, In Stable Condition; Unrelenting Heat Wave Continues To Break Records; Crews Battling Fires Here In U.S. And Around The World; Marine Vet, Freed By Russia In Swap, Injured In Ukraine; Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 26, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Good morning, everyone. We're glad you're with us. I am Erica Hill. By my side, good morning.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Good morning.

HILL: We have a lot of news to get to. Let's start with five things to know for this Wednesday, July 26.

Happening this morning, Hunter Biden heads to federal court to plead guilty to tax misdemeanors and resolve a felony gun charge.

In a last minute twist though, House Republicans are trying to block the deal that needs a judge's approval over what they say is political interference.

HARLOW: A major blow to President Biden, a federal judge has blocked his asylum policies. The measure was meant to curb illegal crossings after a Trump era immigration rule ended in administration vowing to fight this ruling.

LeBron James' son, Bronny, is in stable condition this morning after suffering cardiac arrest during basketball practice. We're told he is out of the ICU.

HILL: Ocean waters like a hot tub, off the coast of southern Florida. A buoy near Manatee Bay registered 101 degrees. That's how hot the water was. That's taking a toll on coral.

HARLOW: And gearing up for game time. Tonight, the U.S. women's soccer team is facing off the Netherlands in their second World Cup match. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

HARLOW: Here is where we begin this hour. Just hours from now, the president's son will walk into a federal courtroom and plead guilty to tax crimes. This is part of a contentious deal with prosecutors. This is a live look at that courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware where Hunter Biden's plea hearing is scheduled for 10:00 A.M. Eastern time this morning. He could finally see the end of the years long investigation that started during the Trump investigation, but it has been surrounded by political drama. House Republicans have accused prosecutors of giving him a sweetheart deal.

HILL: Just days ago, IRS whistleblowers who worked on that case were brought in to testify on Capitol Hill. Now, they claimed there was political interference by the Justice Department, by officials there. And also that Hunter Biden receives special treatment that is something the DOJ has strongly denied.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH ZIEGLER, LEAD IRS CASE AGENT IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE: The U.S. Attorney in Delaware, in our investigation, was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials, as well as other U.S. attorneys.

GARY SHAPLEY, IRS SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: At every stage, decisions were made that benefited the subject of this investigation. DOJ slow walk steps to include interview, serving document request, and executing search warrants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So you hear those allegations there.

Meantime, this bizarre new twist overnight. The judge is now accusing one of Hunter Biden's lawyers, a member of that legal team, of calling the clerk's office and lying about who she was in order to get some court filings removed.

Hunter Biden's legal team says this was all a misunderstanding. Kara Scannell is live outside that courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware for us this morning. So a lot to get through, some unexpected overnight. What can we expect today, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Erica and Poppy. So this morning, we expect Hunter Biden to arrive just before his 10:00 A.M. court appearance. And as you say, he will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors, that's for failing to pay taxes on more than one and a half million dollars in income in 2017 and 2018.

And he will also resolve that felony gun possession charge. That charge could carry a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison. But he struck a deal with prosecutors where it will be diverted, meaning, that if he agrees to certain conditions set by the court, he will not serve any prison time and that is for possessing a gun while addicted to a controlled substance. He's been very public about his addiction problems.

Now, this will all take place before Judge Maryellen Noreika. She is a Trump appointee, someone that was unanimously confirmed by the Senate and a longtime attorney here in Wilmington. So she will oversee this plea hearing.

The prosecutors are expected to go through the elements of these crimes. She will have an opportunity to ask Hunter Biden questions. So we may hear a little bit from him today in court as he answers her questions about what he did. And he admits to the guilt of this crime entering this plea of guilty.

Now, we may also learn from prosecutors, or potentially Hunter Biden's team, some more details about this plea agreement. Now, our sources tell us that prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for this tax misdemeanor charges. Each of those charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 12 months in prison.

And as you say, this could potentially resolve this five-year running investigation into Hunter Biden's finances. A longtime coming here but it certainly doesn't resolve a lot of the political issues as you were, you know, mentioning there with their House interest in this -- in Hunter Biden and the DOJ investigation.

You know, but in a year of firsts, this will be the first time an American president's son --

HARLOW: Right.

SCANNELL: -- has pleaded guilty to crimes. Erica, Poppy.

HARLOW: It's -- it also would be rare, Kara, for the judge not to sign off on this right, but a Republican on the House, Ways, and Means Committee is coming in last minute and saying, look, we want you to consider this testimony last week from those two IRS whistleblowers before you make this decision. Is there a chance the judge does not give this the green light?

[6:05:17]

SCANNELL: I mean, this always before the judge, but usually, they do honor an agreement reached between prosecutors and the defense attorneys. It doesn't mean that she won't ask questions about it today. But interestingly, the House did make this move asking the judge if they could file briefs to encourage her to consider the whistleblower's testimony.

Now, she hasn't decided whether or not she will hear from them. That's something that has kind of been held up by this twist, as you said, overnight, where Hunter Biden's lawyers are being accused of telling the clerk's office here that they were part of the House Republicans team and trying to get them to take down some documents that they said contain some sensitive information about Hunter Biden.

So the judge asking them to explain what had happened. And the filing overnight, Biden's lawyer said that this was a misunderstanding. But the judge has threatened that she could sanction them. So we might hear some additional back and forth about that and exactly what took place. And all of that could factor into the judges, deciding whether she wants to hear more from the House Republicans or if she just wants to kind of immediately resolve that issue. But this will be entirely up to her to decide how she wants to handle that today.

HARLOW: All in a first for the nation, as you said. Kara Scannell, thanks very much. Also this new overnight, we learned that the Special Counsel's Office, Jack Smith's team has talked to two more key witnesses in its investigation and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The top election security official who was fired by former President Trump tells CNN that he has spoken with the special counsel investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the election. That is Chris Krebs. He was the director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.

He publicly rejected Trump's claims of widespread fraud, saying, quote, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted, or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." And then he was fired.

And the New York Times is reporting that the former acting Deputy Attorney General, Richard Donoghue, has also been interviewed by Jack Smith's team. He previously testified before the House January 6 Committee that investigated Capitol riot and here's what he told them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM KINZINGER, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: You also noted that Mr. Rosen said to Mr. Trump, quote, "DOJ can't and won't snap its fingers and change the outcome of the election.

How did the president respond to that, sir?

RICHARD DONOGHUE, FORMER ACTING DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: He responded very quickly and said, essentially, that's not what I'm asking you to do. What I'm just asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Meanwhile, Trump told reporters in New Orleans last night, he's not worried about facing charges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know the guy who's concerned about that too.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not concerned. I'm not concerned. We have a real legit. We have very corrupt people running our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: If he is indicted on this probe, Trump's charges could include conspiracy to commit an offense or defraud the United States obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with a witness, victim or informant.

HILL: LeBron James' son, Bronny, is out of the ICU this morning and in stable condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during basketball practice on Monday. That's from a statement from a family spokesperson. Bronny James, who's 18, is an incoming freshman at the University of Southern California. CNN's Omar Jimenez is here with more for us. So what more do we know about how he's doing this morning and this -- and this situation overall, Omar?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, for starters, not much. I've been in touch with that family spokesperson. And the important part is that he's out of the ICU and appears to be in stable condition. And they said they're going to have an update once they have more information here.

Obviously, at the core of it, this is a family matter. But obviously, Bronny James was set to make his debut at USC this upcoming basketball season in the coming months which could still happen, but at this point, there are still more questions and answers about what's ahead for Bronny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: This is what Bronny James has been known for as of late. It's what made the son of LeBron James and McDonald's All-American, and among the newest stars at the University of Southern California. But it was during a practice at USC that he suddenly had a cardiac arrest Monday morning.

According to a family spokesperson, medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU. LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC Medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.

LeBron, a very visible figure throughout Bronny's journey to USC.

RACHEL NICHOLS, HOST, SHOWTIME "HEADLINERS WITH RACHEL NICHOLS": It's really been such a constant companionship, not just as Bronny has grown up, but as LeBron has grown up into the athlete that we know him to be today.

JIMENEZ: Reaction and concern from across the sports world has poured in. Magic Johnson wrote, we are praying and hoping he makes a full and speedy recovery.

[6:10:03]

Damar Hamlin, who suffered his own cardiac arrest during an NFL game in January wrote something similar. Here for you guys, just like you have been for me.

Shaquille O'Neal son, Shareef, who battled a heart condition that sidelined him from basketball temporarily, reacted to the news on Instagram simply commenting, "No, no."

There's no evidence Bronny's situation is similar to his, but moving forward, there are still major questions surrounding what exactly happened to one of the brightest new stars in the game. JONATHAN KIM, DIRECTOR OF SPORTS CARDIOLOGY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Sudden cardiac arrest and death is rare in young, competitive athletes, but these cases are tragic and they do occur. There are nuances we know that based off of sex, self-identified race, even sport type, risk can differ among different athletes, but it is important to know that, thankfully, these cases are really quite rare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And while these cases are rare, overall, this is actually the second time in two years USC basketball has had to deal with something like this. About a year ago, Vince Iwuchukwu, he was a forward on the team, had a similar type of cardiac arrest episode.

Now, he was treated. And then months later, able to return to the basketball court. So hopefully from a basketball perspective, that's what we see here. But, obviously, from a family perspective, there are a lot of decisions that James family will likely have to make when it comes to long-term health about what the future looks like.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Omar, appreciate the update. Thank you.

HARLOW: Let's bring in CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He is a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. He is also board certified in cardiovascular disease in cardiology.

You know everything there is to know about what this means. The fact that we've learned he's out of the ICU, he's in stable condition. What does that tell you doctor this morning?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it tells me the most important thing, which is Bronny James has survived what could have been a fatal event the other day. And, you know, everything else that we talked about will pale in importance compared to that.

We don't know anything really about the cause of his cardiac arrest. We can talk about the most likely things, but it sounds like he was treated credibly promptly by the medical staff at USC. And I say that because if he's out of the ICU, if he was discharged from the ICU in about 24 hours, that means that he was treated very, very quickly. And my hat's off to the staff there who apparently saved his life.

HILL: And we were talking about this yesterday amongst the show team, and even just talking about it with friends of mine who have kids around the same age. It can feel like we are hearing more and more about cardiac arrest with young athletes, teenagers, whether it's high school or whether it's college.

I know technically the numbers are low, 100 to 150 deaths a year. But that's a young athlete dying every two to three days. Is there something more happening here? Are kids more active? Do we just know about it more?

REINER: No. It's not happening more frequently. But the prevalence and pervasiveness of social media makes it -- makes it seem that way. There are about -- as you said, about 150 deaths of athletes in the United States every year. It does not look like that has changed for about 2,000 people under the age of 25 in this country who will die of a sudden cardiac arrest.

So, you know, those numbers are seem large. But for the population as a whole, they're actually fairly low. But because these people often are incredibly healthy, and are so young and vital, every one of these events is tragic and a catastrophe, which is why it resonates -- every one of these losses resonates in the community. And when this occurs with a public persona, it seems to hurt even more.

HARLOW: Once someone this age, at the height of health, right, in every other way, experiences something like this and come so close to potential death. Can they go back to living and operating the way they were? Meaning, can he -- should he choose to play maybe at USC this season? Obviously, he could be eligible for the draft after the season. Can you get back to where you were in a safe way?

REINER: Poppy, that's going to depend on the cause of this event. Damar Hamlin's event, six months ago, was a, you know, one-off, one in 10 million kind of event from a hit to his chest.

For an athlete just playing in a -- in a practice game who suddenly has a cardiac arrest, that's typically a sign of something more, you know, long lasting, a congenital problem either affecting the heart muscle or predisposing them to a cardiac arrhythmia. And those are lifelong risks.

And many people who have a cardiac arrest with the kind of circumstances that it appears that Bronny James did, many of those people will be at risk of another event going forward. Many of those folks will require a defibrillator.

[6:15:06]

And it's hard to think about circumstances where somebody with a defibrillator would be playing in the NBA. We're getting ahead of ourselves because we really know nothing about the circumstances of the event. But the cardiac arrest is a very -- is very ominous.

HARLOW: What matters most is that he survived. And you're right that care, the immediate care he got --

REINER: Exactly.

HARLOW: -- probably made all the difference. Dr. Reiner, thank you.

HILL: More than 100 million people are now under heat alerts across the U.S. The extreme heat is also cooking the ocean, wiping out coral reefs in the Florida Keys. The water temperature there, it's more like a hot tub, topping 100 degrees.

HARLOW: Also, politics, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy again opening the door to a possible impeachment inquiry of President Biden, but on what grounds? We'll talk about that ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: So we have live pictures here for you of Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami this morning. And look at some of those numbers there. All of this heat really being felt, not only by the humans, you see the hospital related -- hospital heat-related visits, but also by sea life, 570 heat-related hospital visits over the last week there in Arizona. In Nevada, 16 people have died because of the heat.

And as we've been talking about here along Florida coast the water feels like you're in a hot tub. In fact a buoy in the Florida Keys measuring that water temperature as more than 101 degrees on Monday night. And if that reading holds, it would then be the hottest sea surface temperature ever recorded on planet Earth.

[6:20:18]

So hot tub temperatures, by the way, we're not just throwing this around as fun. Those are typically sit between 100 and 102 degrees. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joining us live.

So it feels like the heat records are breaking almost daily. This is exactly what you don't want to see.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Erica, we have had over 5,000 heat records broken just in the past month alone. You can add another 180 to that through the weekend as the heat continues to build eastward. And places that you thought were shielded from the heat, or at least that have been so far this summer, namely New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, well, you have heat advisories posted for tomorrow and into Friday.

St. Louis, all the way to Minneapolis, you're also going to experience triple digit heat. Check this out. This is the actual air temperature Kansas City, the St. Louis, 100 degrees today. But notice the reds shifting eastward. So we're going to impact places like Cleveland, all the way to the nation's capital.

This is also impacting the temperature of our waters, especially throughout the Gulf of Mexico. They're running roughly three to seven degrees Fahrenheit above average.

And as Erica and Poppy just mentioned, we have a potential world record set yesterday. If this verifies, this is a buoy and very shallow water just off the Florida coastline, that is just unprecedented, incredible.

But this is also impacting a very fragile ecosystem, namely coral reefs. Remember, corals provide a natural barrier between that and hurricanes. And they also provide billions of dollars in tourism to the state of Florida.

So I went to Miami to talk to a reef restoration expert to talk about what they are doing in the sight of this unprecedented marine heatwave. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW BAKER, PROFESSOR OF MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ROSENSTIEL SCHOOL: The reef restoration efforts that are ongoing right now are really taking steps to plan for climate change, to try to make sure that we restore reefs to be suitable for future environment and not the victims of it.

We've had a few pilot experiments out there on the reefs that we've manipulated to try to make corals more thermally tolerant and this will be a natural test of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN DAM: This is what bleached coral looks like. And it's already occurring across much of the Florida Keys. If the heat stress does not abide or subside, I should say, the coral will continue to die off. That's what scientists are concerned about.

And remember, Erica and Poppy, the ocean absorbs about 90 percent of the excess heat associated with global warming. So we anticipate these marine heat waves to continue to get worse over time.

You know, just down to the brass tacks here, this is sad. This is really difficult to see.

HILL: Yes, it is. And it can have far-reaching impact, right, because of all of the various --

VAN DAM: One hundred percent.

HILL: -- ecosystems that are connected there in the water.

Derek Van Dam, appreciate it. Thank you.

HARLOW: Also being impacted by climate change, fires. Right now, you've got fire crews battling wildfires not only across the U.S. this morning Arizona, New Mexico, each reporting nine fires in Oregon. Six, Idaho. Four, California. Colorado, Montana, Texas, and Washington State have at least one burning right now.

And across the globe, Canadian officials are reporting more than a thousand active fires, more than 600 are burning out of control.

In Spain, a fire in Gran Canaria Island has forced the evacuation of hundreds of people.

Deadly wildfires in Algeria have killed 34 people there.

In Italy, you have crews battling 10 fires that are blamed for four deaths.

And in southern Greece, we've been showing you these evacuations ongoing on several Greek islands as an emergency -- state of emergency has been declared there.

Also in Turkey, officials say more than 400 acres have burned in the south. The fire there still not contained.

HILL: Well, he went from being wrongfully detained in Russia to fighting the Russian invasion in Ukraine. What we know this morning about Trevor Reed's condition after learning that he was injured fighting in Ukraine? That's next.

HARLOW: And it could be a game changer for new moms. What brand-new trial data is showing about the efficacy of a postpartum depression pill?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[6:25:13]

HILL: This morning, Trevor Reed is recovering after being injured while fighting in Ukraine. The former U.S. Marine was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap in April of last year.

A source telling CNN he was transported to a hospital in Kyiv and then evacuated to Germany for medical care.

The circumstances surrounding his injury in combat, not clear this morning. The Biden administration, for its part, is stressing Reed was, quote, not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. government. His decision to fight in Ukraine also raising concerns about whether it might jeopardize negotiations aimed at freeing two Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Russia, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich.

Earlier this year, Kaitlan Collins asked Reed what Gershkovich might be going through. This was just after the reporter was detained.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR REED, FORMER U.S. MARINE IMPRISONED IN RUSSIA FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS: The first few hours when you're wrongfully detained are extremely confusing. You're in a state of shock.

Unfortunately, for me, that kind of, you know, just surreal feeling lasted for basically the whole almost three years that I was detained.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The U.S. has warned American citizens not to travel to Ukraine or joining the fighting, although many have done so anyway, including our next guest, Malcom Nance, who was in Ukraine's International Legion, a band of foreign fighters who bolstered the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It's good to have you with us this morning. I think your perspective here is so important. There's a lot we still don't know about Trevor Reed this morning. What prompted the decision, who he was fighting with? I know you've been doing some digging talking to folks you know there in Ukraine. Any course this morning to know who he was fighting with? MALCOLM NANCE, FORMER UKRAINIAN LEGIONNAIRE: Well, at this point, if he was evacuated to a hospital in Kyiv, that means he was fighting under contract with the Ukrainian army.

The International Legion is an actual Ukrainian army battalion, series of battalions, that are attached to Ukrainian army.

[06:30:00]