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Biden Returns To Delaware To Be With Hunter After Verdict; Former House Speaker Paul Ryan: Not Voting For Trump; 1 Dead, Suspect in Custody After Bus Hijacking In Atlanta. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 12, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

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KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, June 12th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

Convicted. Hunter Biden surrounded by family in Delaware as Republicans peddled conspiracy theories already about his guilty verdict.

Drama in the desert. A MAGA Republican in Nevada snubbed by Donald Trump. Now he's trying to fight back.

Police in Atlanta chasing a hijacked bus through rush hour traffic before making a deadly discovery on board. This is pretty wild.

And Senate Democrats asking Republicans to join them as they prepare for a vote on protecting IVF.

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HUNT: All right, 6:00 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Wednesday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

For the first time in American history, the child of a sitting president has been convicted of a crime. A jury in Delaware finding Hunter Biden guilty on all three felony charges as members of the Biden family, including First Lady Jill Biden sat in court to hear it read.

His father, President Biden was not in court, but afterward, he headed straight to Delaware to be with Hunter. The president released this statement, quote, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.

That message does stand in contrast with how Republicans greeted the verdict that was recently handed down against former President Donald Trump. How did they take in the Hunter verdict? Let's watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Every case is different and clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. I don't think that's the case in the Trump trial.

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): So I think the American people are smart enough to know that these are two separate cases. There are two tiers of justice.

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): But first in this case, this is existing law in the case of Trump, they've made up something brand new that nobody's been prosecuted before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Okay. Let's bring in our panel.

Brandi Harden is managing partner at Harden and Pinckney PLC. Zolan Kanno-Youngs is White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal". We have former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield with us, and Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here.

Kate Bedingfield, I actually would like to start with you in terms of -- I mean, look, this is obviously extraordinarily difficult for the Biden family. Politically, when you look at them, whether Republicans are saying there, I mean, had he been acquitted? I think you would have had a quite different storm from them.

So I mean, maybe its political break as hard as it is?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Break maybe tough just because I think it is so hard on the president's family, but I absolutely agree this is not going to be a huge political winner for the Republicans for a couple of reasons. First of all, we've actually seen them try to make a Hunter Biden line of attack that sticks to Joe Biden for five years now, Donald Trump trying to make it central to the 2020 campaign. It didn't work and I'll tell you, we saw on the Biden campaign in 2020, not only did it not work, it actually wound up highlighting some of the things that people most love and connect to about Joe Biden, his love for his family, his humanity.

So this just hasn't been a winning line of attack for them. And then also if you look at the reaction Republicans had yesterday, it was all over the board to say the least. I mean, I think they recognize that the center of this conversation is really one about addiction. And that's a hard thing to seem like you're on the attack over.

There's also the gun politics here. I mean, this is sort of a weird, unnatural for Republicans to be, arguing, you know, for less strict gun laws essentially. So, no, I do not think there's going to be a political winner for the Republican by any stretch. HUNT: I mean, I think, Matt, I'm reading from "The Wall Street

Journal". They write about the guilty verdict and they say the guilty verdict is likely to minimize any political impact and acquittal by a Biden hometown jury would have fed Donald Trump's narrative of unequal justice, especially since the Justice Department tried to let Hunter off with a slap on the wrist plea deal.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yeah. I mean, look, I don't think there's going to move votes, one way or the other. I mean, look, you know, Hunter, at the end of the day is a 50-year-old man or so, he's responsible for his actions and you're lying on a federal form like that is something that is apparently great easily prosecutable, like it's fairly, fairly open and shut.

And so, look, I don't think this is going to move votes one way or another. I mean, you remember, I remember 2020 debate. I think when that became an issue, I wonder if it's become an issue this time. I think it's unlikely. I think if they try the convicted felon line and that could be easier retort.

[06:05:00]

But, yeah, I don't really think at the end of the day this is going to move votes one way or another. And, you know, he's responsible for his actions, and we had another case coming down the pike it with tax charges in a few months.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, he's also not the candidate, right? I mean, that's the other key difference here. I mean, if the response to Donald Trump being a convicted felon is like, well, your son is a convicted. Okay. Well --

HUNT: That's been kind of the whole -- the whole game all the way along, right? So, on and when you look at the impeachment proceedings against President Biden, that really fizzled what they were trying to do was muddy the waters and make it -- and this is why they use the phrase Biden crime family, right? They're trying to tag the president with something that may be associated with the son, but we haven't seen them actually come up with anything.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, without evidence, right?

HUNT: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right at this point, I think -- I think what you saw yesterday in terms of the reactions from some Republicans was some reaching, right? As well as an inconsistent overall message on how to react to this. You add some once again going to unfounded sort of conspiracy theories, almost not mentioning the trial yesterday, not mentioning this result, but trying to indicate that there are other charges -- again, without, without evidence.

You had other Republicans that seem to be saying that once again, trying to frame the justice system still as launching a witch hunt against, against Trump, which again, just this would seem to muddy to undermine that argument when you have a Justice Department that did just deliver a guilty verdict to the presidents son here. So, at this point, you're not seeing really a consistent response from the GOP on how to react to something that is really complicated.

I mean, just a couple of days ago, you also saw the former president talk about the issue that was clouding this trial, which is that of addiction, one that I think many Republicans and Democrats know, many Americans throughout the country are dealing with or know somebody who is -- who is struggling with that issue. So it's not an easy one to tackle here.

HUNT: Brandi, I mean, one thing that we've gotten in this case is that we've actually started to hear from some of the jurors --

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes.

HUNT: -- talking about this and this, of course something that when we have talked, obviously the former president's trial has become so political, but the jury itself, right? When you ask Republicans like, hey, like, this was a jury if normal people, yes, they'll say, well, they're from Manhattan, but you don't get the same kinds of attacks on the jury. And now, we have jurors here in this case arguing that, hey, like our decision was not political.

Let's watch a little bit of that.

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JUROR #10, VOTED TO CONVICT HUNTER BIDEN: If anybody was in that courtroom or the jury around, they would know it was not motivated by politics. Politics played no part whatsoever in my mind. I can't speak for the other jurors but nothing was -- nothing was ever said about this election year that was never brought up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Pretty interesting texture there.

BRANDI HARDEN, MANAGING PARTNER AT HARDEN & PICKNEY, PLLC: Yes, there is no better perspective than that from a juror. And so, to hear from a juror that there was nothing in their minds that had to do with the political nature of the fact that it was President Biden son, I think says a lot. I think jury systems work and I think to have our jury is talk about like, look, everybody knows is Joe Biden son, but at the end of the day, we're just looking at whether or not he lied on a form and whether or not he's guilty.

And I think that says a lot about how intact our jury system is, because obviously, there's a lot of noise surrounding the fact that its the president's son.

HUNT: So we're also learning about what he's going to potentially use on appeal. And the lawyers have indicated that they might try to use a Supreme Court ruling that actually came down in favor of conservative gun rights advocates. The president has criticized it to try to appeal this conviction. Is that something that you to see being potentially effective for him?

HARDEN: So I don't think its necessarily effective. One of the things is that when you have an appeal, you have all kinds of different things that you can argue. And I think you'd never know. It depends on who's on the court of appeals, who's actually hearing the appeal to determine whether or not it will actually be successful.

I don't know under these circumstances whether this will actually work, but I do think it's a good avenue to try to appeal the conviction.

HUNT: All right. Brandi, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next here, the former House Speaker Paul Ryan rebuking Donald Trump publicly, again. Ahead, we'll have the backlash to the former Republican leaders comments.

Plus, the Senate preparing a vote on IVF protections, Democrats trying to urge Republicans to join them.

And a bus hijacked in Atlanta, leading to a wild police chase during rush hour. It is one of the five things you have to see this morning.

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PAUL RYAN, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: What am I going to do when I vote for president? I'm going to write some conservative Republican who's in office. I haven't selected the person yet. I hate the fact that I feel I got it right in a Republican like I did the last time in 2020, I voted for him in 2016, hoping that there was going to be a different kind of person and office.

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HUNT: That was former House Speaker Paul Ryan telling Fox News he will not vote for the presumptive Republican nominee in November. Ryan, again, framing Trump is unfit for office and pointing to his record to drive home that point.

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RYAN: He's cost a lot of seats. I could probably spend some time with the numbers. He causes Senate twice. He causes the House because he is nominated. He is pushing through the primaries, people who cannot win general elections, but who pledged fealty. That's not a good way to build and grow a party.

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HUNT: All right. Matt Gorman, Paul Ryan, look, he's come under fire from the left for not being aggressive enough during the time that Trump was president. But he has actually maintained this -- this line in his refusal to vote for Donald Trump that some Republicans like Mitch McConnell is not doing that..

What is going on here with him? And what does it tell you about the state of the party today?

GORMAN: Look, I think it's easier for Ryan to do. He's not an office and he's -- he's kind of -- has a nice kind of private-sector job. God bless him. It's easier to have that when McConnell's still in office, who knows me going to run again? Probably not. We'll see.

But I think that is the kind of be different there.

And look, I think the parties changing last ten years. I mean, we were just came upon the ten-year anniversary of Eric Cantor losing a primary back in 2014, and from that data, this day, who would have kind of thought.

I will say, look, I respect what Paul Ryan is saying. He has obviously first-hand experience working with him as speaker of the house. I also don't think its going to change very many mines and this is kind of what the other thing I talk a lot about and the kinds of Democrats, but ill just say in the context of the setting, people price in the fact that, you know, Trump's has all this bad stuff. Trump does this, Trump says that, that's fine.

Now, were going to talk a lot about abortion later in the show. And I think that might be the more salient issue if you're a Democrat to push rather than look at what Trump said now, but I respect what he's saying. And I think you're right. This is the former vice presidential nominee from, what, 12 years ago.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But Paul Ryan's increasingly the minority of the party, right? I mean, anytime we mentioned sort of this --

HUNT: Kind of an island.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right, right.

HUNT: A small island.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Isolated. I mean, anytime we mentioned sort of these signs of dissent, I think it's also worth mentioning the reason why it's news in a way is because it's becoming increasingly rare to hear a Republican kind of come out and criticize Trump. Love that magnitude, I mean, right? I mean --

BEDINGFIELD: Also, he's not -- let's point. I mean, he's not an office, right? To me, it's like such an indictment of the Republican Party as it stands right now.

You have people for whom speaking up and saying Donald Trump is not fit to be present, United States might impact their electoral chances. That is, a position they should still take if that's what they believe, but they don't. And that tells you a lot about where the Republican Party is today.

HUNT: Well, let's look at how one elected office holder, Congressman Troy Nehls, talked about Paul Ryan with my colleague or my CNN colleague up on the Hill yesterday. Watch.

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REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): Paul Ryan, you're a piece of garbage. You're a piece of garbage. And we should kick you out of the party. For Paul Ryan to say he's not voting for Donald Trump, that's the problem with some of our Republicans. It's guys like that.

Don't go spout in your mouth off and saying you're a conservative. You spit in the face of the leader of our party, Donald Trump. I mean, grow up a little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A piece of garbage.

BEDINGFIELD: It's also like this message. It's just like fealty to the great leader rather than like making an argument that welcomes a lot of different voices and into your party.

It's such a bizarre electoral strategy. I understand, you know, Trump won in 2016 and since then, essentially Republicans have said only Donald Trump is the way we can win despite the fact as Paul Ryan pointed out, despite the fact that they've actually not win an election since.

And yet the message you get from Republicans is like how -- first of all, piece of garbage just course its language, but also it's like how dare he criticized the great leader. It's just a bizarre, I don't know. It's just a bizarre mindset.

GORMAN: I will say this. I think Troy has been of an outlier in a few respects because he was same guy, didn't you also came to the courthouse and like, he knows when he has to say to get on TV. And so, he knew the say something saying like this, we actually get them time on TV.

So I think he might be an outlier in this. I think if you asked almost anybody in the conference, they would not agree with that. But he knows what he has to do to get on TV.

But I think you're right. In some respects, look, it's easier when Paul Ryan is out of office -- in office, I know Trump is coming down to D.C. today to have kind of a meeting and looking is the leader of the party.

I will say this -- we had a primary, right? Like we had and he had a one-on-one race with Nikki Haley. He did, and he won, and I think that is -- it makes it a lot easier for Republicans, it's not like 2016 where there's this clown car at the end where people were siphoning off votes. So I think it's easier for Trump to take the mantle if he goes down

there today and say, look, you had a primary, I won fair and square, like we come together.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, this is the other key. I mean, Paul Ryan also says that he's not saying he's going to vote for Joe Biden. He's criticizing Trump, but he's not saying he's going to vote for Joe Biden.

And when I hear his comments, basically expressing disappointment with both candidates, I also wonder you were talking about the primary. What that means for other voters that may share similar views as Paul Ryan's, such as maybe some of the Haley voters, other members of the Republican Party are voters that are disappointed with both of these candidates. What will they do in November?

And it makes you think about that when you hear those comments.

GORMAN: Okay. I think -- think of Paul Ryan as a Nikki Haley voter, didn't vote for Trump '20, didn't vote for Trump -- can't vote for Trump in '24, did in 16? Where do they go?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right?

HUNT: Yeah. No, it's a really interesting way to think about it.

All right, coming up next here, Kevin McCarthy's revenge tour falling short as Congresswoman Nancy Mace wins her Republican primary.

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Plus, animal rights activists giving King Charles -- a portrait, the Wallace and Gromit treatments. Okay.

And they may seem worlds apart, but this K-pop group has at least one thing in common with the man in black. We'll explain.

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HUNT: All right, 24 minutes past the hour.

Five things you have to see this morning.

A man is in custody after hijacking a commuter bus and leading authorities on a rush hour chase through Atlanta yesterday. Police say 17 people, including the driver, were on board during this one of the passengers died after being shot on the bus.

[16:25:03]

Very scary.

Objects hurled once again at British right-wing leader Nigel Farage, who was campaigning from a bus on Tuesday. The man in the red hoodie was eventually caught and charged. Last week, a woman man in the red hoodie was eventually caught man in the red hoodie was eventually caught and charged. Last week, a woman threw a milkshake at Farage.

Plus --

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GEORGE LOPEZ, COMEDIAN AND ANCHOR: You think that I cancel it in April, that you guys would be happier to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) see me.

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HUNT: Comedian George Lopez taking heat after cursing at the crowd and walking off stage this past weekend. The California casino, where it happens says everyone will get their money back.

An animal rights group vandalizing King Charles' portrait in a London gallery, his head covered with a sign reading no cheese Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms. Charles recently became a royal patron of the non-profit and is reportedly a big fan of the Wallace and Gromit cartoon series, as am I, if you don't know it, you should check it out.

And a California homeowner or finding a bear squatting and his crawl space, as in living there. The animal had been enjoying their trash and occasionally, their yard for two weeks.

How would you like that as a house guest? No. Thank you all right ahead here.

All right. Ahead here, how Republicans plan to block a vote by Senate Democrats to protect reproductive rights.

Plus, can a TikTok sensation prepare propel President Biden to victory in November? That's a lot to ask of one person, but we'll dig into it.

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