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Hunter Biden Convicted On All Charges In Gun Trial; Nevada Senate Race: GOP's Sam Brown To Face Dem Jacky Rosen; Ceasefire Talks In Turmoil As Hamas Responds To Proposal. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 12, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:30:26]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just before 5:30 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at New York City where the sun is already up on this beautiful Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

The jury has spoken. Hunter Biden has been found guilty on all three felony gun charges. One of the 12 jurors who voted to convict the president's son says he doesn't want to see Hunter wind up behind bars because of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUROR #10, VOTED TO CONVICT HUNTER BIDEN: Deliberating, a I was - we were not thinking of the sentencing and not -- I really don't think that Hunter belongs in jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A date for sentencing has not been set but the judge indicated it will likely occur before Election Day. Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000 for the three charges, but as a first-time offender, he is likely to receive a lesser sentence.

He also is facing another trial on the horizon. Hunter Biden's tax trial is set to start on September 5.

Joining me now, criminal defense attorney Andrew Cherkasky. Andrew, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here.

Can you talk us through what is a likely sentence in this case?

ANDREW CHERKASKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR (via Skype): For the gun charge alone, it is not likely that he will see jail time. If you run the federal sentencing calculator you can get somewhere between about six to 10 months as kind of the recommended sentence, but that's well within the area of when judges give some sort of a more probationary type of sentence that doesn't have jail time. The problem for Hunter is that this conviction, even if it doesn't see jail time on its own -- that combined with the September tax trial, if he's convicted of that, would most certainly result in some degree of jail time, likely in the neighborhood of a number of years. And this conviction would be used as an aggravator in that case as a factor that would increase the sentence under the guidelines.

HUNT: Really interesting.

What are the potential sentencing -- like, what would he be looking at if he's convicted on these -- on these tax charges? I mean, and realistically, does that put him at 10 years -- just give me a little bit more context on what that could mean.

CHERKASKY: This is an interesting tax case where he has paid his taxes since but had gone on for a number of years not only just not paying the taxes but also there's many kinds of underlying issues with the way in which he was reporting the taxes. What he was saying he was paying the taxes on versus what he was actually spending his money on. So there are kind of layers of that -- those tax issues at hand.

If he's convicted of everything, this is the sort of case that could be generally in the single digits type of years of confinement. I would see it generally in kind of the two to five range. But it's a very difficult number to give you a good idea of, at this stage, since we don't know what he's convicted of and the federal sentencing guidelines, which were once effectively mandatory, are now discretionary. And so it's more of guidepost. This type of case, though, I think would be in the low single digits of years of confinement.

HUNT: Yeah. Still interesting that there could be repercussions from this case even if there's no jail time here that we -- that could really dramatically affect the outcome there.

So, can we talk for a second about how the jury made this decision because we are actually -- and I'm interested to know why you think we're hearing so much from the jurors as it's come out. We saw some have spoken on camera to other networks.

This is what one told Politico. They said the defense's decision to call Biden's daughter Naomi to the stand didn't help his case. "I thought it was a mistake," the juror told reporters on Tuesday. "I think it was probably a strategy they should not have done. No daughter should have to testify against her dad."

What do you make of what the jurors have come out and said about how they reached this verdict?

CHERKASKY: Well, I think that it reflects generally the idea that Hunter Biden was pretty dead to rights. The evidence against him was so overwhelming that they had to get to this conviction. But we still see the jurors have sympathy for him. They see this, it sounds like, as a relatively minor criminal offense, which it is in the -- in the scope of federal law and federal criminal prosecutions that typically take place. But that's not necessarily for the jury to decide how serious is this offense. It's a question of what does the evidence actually show us and what's the law say.

[05:35:00]

You know, what the jury isn't essentially debating upon is the impact it's had to the family and the impact to those around. They seem to indicate kind of this idea that they're hoping that he gets clean and sober and go through his rehab.

That's all the sort of sympathy that perhaps the defense kind of put forward hoping for a different outcome, whether that was an effort by the defense to actually have jury nullification. We now know that the jury themselves were kind of immune to that. They saw this for what it was, calling it a more minor offense but nonetheless, coming back with a verdict that they say was justified by the evidence.

HUNT: All right, Andrew Cherkasky for us this morning. Andrew, thank you very much for that.

CHERKASKY: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, let's go to politics now.

The matchup is set. Nevada's incumbent senator, Democrat Jacky Rosen, will face Republican Sam Brown in the general election this fall. Nevada is shaping up to be one of the most important states this election cycle as Democrats look to hang on to their razor-thin control of the Senate when everyone votes in November.

Brown is a Purple Heart recipient and viewed as a rising star among Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM BROWN, (R) NEVADA SENATE CANDIDATE: And so, it is tonight that we continue to deliver hope that the American dream is not dead. The American dream is not dead and the American nightmare that is Joe Biden and Jacky Rosen begins to end tonight. As we celebrate tonight, we're not celebrating my campaign for Senate. We celebrate our campaign for Nevada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining me now, D.C. correspondent for The Nevada Independent, Gabby Birenbaum. Gabby, good morning to you.

GABBY BIRENBAUM, D.C. CORRESPONDENT, THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT: Good morning.

HUNT: So this race, of course, critical because the Senate is literally on a knife's edge, right, so every single race matters.

Talk a little bit about -- I mean, first of all, he's clearly adopted kind of this dark rhetoric that the Trump campaign has about the state of America. This is not the optimistic city on a hill type of message that you would have heard from a Ronald Reagan-era Republican. But this does -- I do think there are some Republicans here in Washington who think that this was a good outcome.

How did this play out?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah. I mean, Republicans -- like you said, this is -- the Senate hangs on literally any one of these seats for Democratic incumbents that could flip and Republicans would have control of the Senate. So they've had this Nevada matchup circled for years. In 2022, it was the closest Senate race in the country.

And so, with Sam Brown, this is who the NRNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- this is who Joe Lombardo, the Republican governor of Nevada -- this is they guy they wanted and they got there last night by, like, 44 points in the primary, so it was never really in doubt.

But, yeah -- I mean, like you mentioned, this -- he talks a lot about we don't have an American dream anymore; it's an American nightmare. It reminds me a lot of the American carnage -- sort of, Trump's first inaugural speech.

And I think it shows the question for Brown and all of these challengers will be how do you appeal to the base that's very pro- Trump in states like Nevada where Trump hasn't won? And polling this cycle shows maybe this is the year that he does it.

But how do you sort of know that this is how you win a primary and this is how you appeal to people while also knowing, in Nevada, it's the nonpartisan voters and the Independents who you really need to get to that 50 percent threshold.

HUNT: We've seen in some states that Democratic Senate -- and this is actually kind of backwards from what you sometimes see in other election cycles, but the Democratic Senate candidates seem to be running ahead of President Biden. Is that the case in Nevada?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah. So, I mean, you've seen polls where Biden is down by double digits and Rosen is up like plus-one. And I've seen polls where Trump is up five and Rosen is also up five. That would be a level of ticket-splitting, and I looked into this. Nevada does have, like, a pretty significant history of ticket-splitting but it was in a different time and that was just way more common.

In '04, Bush won by, like, three points and Harry Reid won by 35 points or something.

HUNT: Right.

BIRENBAUM: That was Harry Reid.

HUNT: A specific situation but I take your point.

BIRENBAUM: Right, right -- that might have been a little different, yeah. HUNT: Yeah.

BIRENBAUM: But so -- but I think as politics has become more nationalized as Nevada's sort of local political culture of boosting incumbents in the Senate no matter what as a small state -- that's sort of given way to this national political discourse that's so hyperpartisan.

I would be surprised if the split ends up being that big in my mind -- who is a Trump-Rosen voter. It's hard to think of who this person might be.

But, yeah, certainly, Rosen, like other candidates, is running ahead of Biden. And so I think it will be a question for Brown, now, of how do I get these voters who think they're going to vote for Trump or are considering Trump but might be skeptical of me? How do I speak to them?

HUNT: So let's talk across -- Nevada was not the only state that held primaries last night. We also had one in South Carolina. And the primary that was being most closely watched was Nancy Mace who, of course, voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And McCarthy had sort of made it a project to try to get the second name on that screen over the finish line, Catherine Templeton, challenged Nancy Mace in this. It's the Charleston area South Carolina district. So, Mace came out on top here.

How much of an embarrassment is that for McCarthy?

BIRENBAUM: I mean, look, I think it's curious to see what McCarthy will do next, right? There's rumors that if Trump wins, he could be chief of staff or something.

[05:40:00]

I think it just shows that once you're out of Congress, you're out of Congress, right? I think your influence is somewhat limited in what you can do.

He has been trying to, behind the scenes, enact some sort of revenge on the people who took him down. Mace, I think, particularly, really got under his skin because his office had tried to sort of help her with her legislative priorities. There was a good long piece in Slate this week all about, sort of, her interesting political demeanor.

But, yeah --

HUNT: Which confused a lot of people.

BIRENBAUM: For sure. But I guess -- I guess voters in South Carolina's first district still felt good about it.

So, yeah, I do think for McCarthy -- like I said, once you're out, you're out with Congress.

HUNT: Yeah. I -- before I let you go, I want to touch on what we could see play out in the House today. There is some reporting that we have here at CNN that there are a handful of House Republicans who are privately voicing concerns about a plan to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, but they did announce last night they're going to forward with this vote today.

What do you expect on the floor?

BIRENBAUM: I think that will be interesting. I mean, the fact that there's all these reports. There were reports that they might have pulled it. The fact that they're putting the vote on the floor -- I mean, look, this is not a Republican whip team that's been uber successful in knowing exactly where the votes are, so I don't think anyone will be surprised if it were to fail.

Typically, I think when the moderates have been upset about something they usually do keep it off the floor. They're pretty open with leadership about their concerns. They're not -- right, the Freedom Caucus -- they're not trying to wreak havoc on the floor. So the fact that they are bringing it to the floor -- I mean, we'll see. I think this is -- the closer we get to the election the more and more people are not going to want to take tough votes, particularly on such hyperpartisan things like this.

HUNT: Right, and this is a tough thing for some of the more moderates --

BIRENBAUM: Um-hum.

HUNT: -- moderate Republicans in the House.

BIRENBAUM: For sure.

HUNT: All right, Gabby. Thank you very much for your time this morning.

BIRENBAUM: Thank you.

HUNT: I appreciate it.

All right. Coming up next here, talks to end the war in Gaza in serious doubt this morning after a response from Hamas.

Plus, the Mavs facing a must-win situation in Dallas tonight. The Bleacher Report previews game three coming up.

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[05:46:20]

HUNT: Welcome back.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Qatar this morning as he continues to push for a ceasefire and hostage deal to end the war in Gaza. The negotiations were thrown into doubt last night when an Israeli official said that a Hamas response to the latest proposal was "a rejection." But a diplomatic source telling CNN this morning that Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected the deal. Hamas leadership quickly pushed back, calling the attempt by Israel -- calling an attempt by Israel to back out of the proposal.

Talks are expected to continue through Qatari and Egyptian mediators in coordination with the U.S. to see if an agreement can be reached.

Here was Blinken yesterday before Hamas' response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Everyone has said yes except for Hamas. And if Hamas doesn't say yes, then this is clearly on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining me now to discuss, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here.

So, our reporting is that Hamas did submit a response proposing amendments to the Israeli proposal, adjustments to the time -- or adding a timeline for a permanent ceasefire, and withdraw from Gaza. This -- there seems to be an awful lot of fog around where each side stands on this proposal at all.

Can you kind of try to help us understand clearly where are the Israelis on this? Are they a definitive yes? And what this means from Hamas that we saw yesterday.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: There is one key part of this peace deal that -- the ceasefire deal that each side keeps trying to change. Hamas wants to include some sort of permanent ceasefire in the deal. What they have -- what they've been offered right now is phases. Six weeks with some exchange and a temporary ceasefire that then becomes permanent after some negotiations midway through. They don't want that.

The Israelis, meanwhile -- Benjamin Netanyahu's government -- he cannot say yes to a deal that has a permanent ceasefire in it because that will instantly dissolve his government. The hard-right members of his coalition have threatened to pull out if he signs up to any deal that has a permanent ceasefire in it.

So that's why you've got a lot of stuff decided on the edges, but this one key point. Hamas wants to be able to survive and keep fighting and Netanyahu's political survival is based on making sure Hamas can't do that. Therein lies the crux of the matter.

HUNT: So is -- what is the way out of that? I mean, it's very hard to see a way out of that.

DOZIER: That's why the original deal, as the White House had shared with the world, has these phases where you get a bunch of the hostages back. You get prisoner exchanges, so that was sweetening it for the Palestinian side that they get some of their hardline prisoners out.

And then, you use that momentum of that progress to get through the second stage of the deal so that perhaps, Netanyahu could then go back to his hardline coalition and go back to the Israeli public and say see, I got all -- so many of the hostages out. Now it's time to have an off-ramp for this. But you've got to agree to the first part to get to that second.

HUNT: Yeah.

Kim, let's talk about the sort of broader tensions in the region because we have seen slight -- you know, escalating back-and-forth between Israel and Lebanon. The Washington Post says it's a war that's unfolding in slow motion. And rockets are being launched from Lebanon toward Israel.

[05:50:06]

How concerned should we be at this point that this is going to tip into something more significant?

DOZIER: All along, it seems that the overall strategy of Iran, which is supporting Hezbollah and supporting Hamas, has been to turn the tension up when Israel is already on the back foot just to keep exhausting its army. The Israeli army is having to go back to certain parts of Gaza that it had said it had cleared already. And all of a sudden, up in the north there's an uptick in fighting.

It's stretching and exhausting the army and pointing out to Israel that if you want to keep going on these two fronts, it's going to cost you more in manpower and eventually, in tax dollars because they don't have enough of a standing army to keep up this fight at this point. And that has put pressure on the Israeli people to think about do we want to be doing this forever and what that would cost.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, and what does that mean politically for Netanyahu? I mean, is he coming under pressure from people -- I mean, obviously, Israeli has conscription in a mandatory service in their country. That's got to put some pressure on him, no?

DOZIER: There's a local Israel issue specifically regarding that. Secular Israelis are upset that for the most part, very religious Israelis are allowed to opt out of military service. And there's been a fight to make more of them find -- to find some way to draft more of them into the ongoing fight. And that has been working its way through the Israeli Knesset. But the hard-right members of Netanyahu's coalition have said if you force our religious people to fight, we will pull out.

So again, Netanyahu is caught between the secular folks who he needs to win the next election and the coalition members he needs to stay in government.

HUNT: Cheerful -- OK.

Kim Dozier for us this morning. Thank you. DOZIER: Thanks.

HUNT: I really appreciate your time.

All right, time now for sports. Do or die in Dallas for the Mavs tonight in the NBA Finals. Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

You know, it's only game three but the Mavs -- they have to win -- they have to win tonight because no team in NBA history -- wow, struggling -- has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit.

And the big news coming out yesterday was the Celtics announced that star center Kristaps Porzingis suffered what the team called a rare injury to his left leg. He's now questionable for tonight's game. Porzingis said he felt something happen during game two but he's going to do everything he can to play.

And with or without Porzingis, the Celtics -- they are treating game three like a must-win despite having a 2-0 lead in the series.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYLEN BROWN, GUARD, BOSTON CELTICS: You've almost got to play like you're down 0-2 rather than up. And that's hard to do but, like, you've got to go into that mind frame -- that focus. It's like now we are playing like that.

KYRIE IRVING, GUARD, DALLAS MAVERICKS: I have been down 0-2 before, lost series, won a series, so I know what it takes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Game three tonight at 8:30 Eastern from Dallas.

The U.S. Open, meanwhile -- it tees off tomorrow from Pinehurst. And the big question is can anyone beat world number one Scottie Scheffler? He's won five of his last eight tournaments, including the Masters.

The worst he's done since March was tie for eighth at the PGA Championship. And he was arrested before the second round of that tournament. Those charges were dropped.

Scheffler knows all eyes are going to be on him tomorrow but says it doesn't bother him at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER, 5 WINS IN LAST 8 STARTS: I mean, as far as a target on my back, even if there was, there's not really much that we can do in the game of golf. Most of it is against the golf course and playing against yourself. So a target on my back doesn't really -- I don't really feel it and I don't really think about it much. REPORTER: What is the most impressive to you about what he's been

able to accomplish so far this year?

RORY MCILROY, 2011 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: The fact that the only thing that took him from winning a golf tournament was going into a jail cell for an hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. USA basketball has announced the official women's roster for the upcoming Paris Olympics and Caitlin Clark is, indeed, not a part of it. The selection committee said they were aware of the outside noise and pressure to select Clark but she did not have the experience of other players. Maybe they just want international experience because Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Sylvia Fowles, and Candice Parker were all on the Olympic team as WNBA rookies. Clark has a better college career than all of them.

All right. And finally, we Americans -- we've got great Fourth of July traditions -- barbecue, fireworks, and watching Joey Chestnut just dominate the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. But that's now being taken from us. Chestnut, a 16-time champ, has been banned from the annual competition because he signed a deal with Impossible Foods to rep their plant-based hot dogs.

Chestnut saying X that he's gutted about the decision, adding, "Sadly, this is the decision of Nathan's and Major League Eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday's usual joy and entertainment."

And Kasie -- you know Chestnut, one of the most dominant athletes of our time. No one can pound hot dog buns dipped in water better than him and it's going to be sad on the Fourth of July not to see him compete.

HUNT: It will be sad not to see him compete. I don't know if I can put him in the -- I am happy to see you doing this story, Andy Scholes, although I'm not sure -- it's a certain -- it's a certain very specific type of athleticism.

Thank you very much, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: I'll see you tomorrow.

All right. Coming up next here, what is next for the son of a sitting U.S. president just convicted in criminal court. We'll have more on Hunter Biden ahead.

Plus, why a Florida jury just ordered the Chiquita banana company to pay 16 people $38 million.

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