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Inside Politics

GOP Fumes Over Hunter Biden Plea Deal; Weiss: I had "Ultimate Authority" In Matter; GOP: Hunter Biden Got Sweetheart Deal; Durham Defends Barr From Trump Attacks; Biden Labels China's Xi A Dictator; Biden: Xi Embarrassed By Spy Balloon; U.S.-China Tensions Simmer; 2024 GOP Candidates Slam Hunter Biden Plea Deal: "Two-Tiered System Of Justice". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 21, 2023 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, a plea deal and a firestorm. The White House wants to put the Hunter Biden criminal saga behind them. Republicans say there is no chance that Biden's will get off that easy.

Plus, so much for that thought. The president says Xi Jinping is a dictator, China calls it an absurd provocation. And King Salman private jets and a Wall Street Journal op-ed. New reporting reveals Justice Samuel Alito took a lavish free trip with a Republican billionaire who later had business before the Supreme Court.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Up first, justice and a partisan divide over whether it's been served or severed. Yesterday DOJ revealed that Hunter Biden struck a plea deal. Today that deal is at the center of a big fight over the Justice Department fairness and what should happen now.

Mr. Biden's attorney calls the deal the end result of five years of diligent dogged fair work. This morning, the attorney general weighed in for the very first time saying, he left the Biden matter entirely in the hands of the Trump appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: As I said, from the moment of my appointment as attorney general, I would leave this matter in the hands of the United States attorney who was appointed by the previous president and assigned to this matter by the previous administration, that he would be given full authority to decide the matter as he decided was appropriate. And that's what he's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Let's get straight to Capitol Hill for more on the Republican reaction from Manu Raju. Manu, you are in the halls, like you always are talking to members. What are you hearing today so far? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. House Republicans are still trying to map out their strategy. But how this would affect their investigations as really began at the beginning of this Congress into Hunter Biden and tried to tie actions, business dealings involving bet Hunter Biden with Joe Biden at the time that he was vice president, trying to suggest that there was some sort of potentially illegal or corruption that was happening at the time.

They have yet to provide evidence to tie the two together, but they are digging for that, and they believe that they will ultimately come up with it. The question that they have is what to the U.S. attorney in Delaware when he initiated this investigation under then President Donald Trump. What did he find? And why did he not pursue some of those questions that they have?

So, the big question at the moment from Congressman Jim Jordan, chairs the House Judiciary Committee and Congressman James Comer, chairs the House Oversight Committee, both key committees investigating this matter are always, what does the Justice Department mean when they say this investigation into Hunter Biden is still quote on going. Because if this investigation is ongoing, it will be difficult for them potentially to get the records that they are seeking.

So, that is one issue that James Comer is planning to try to figure out behind the closed doors. He's meeting with his attorneys today. And also, for Jim Jordan, who has yet to decide whether at what point to try to bring the U.S. attorney himself, David Weiss to come testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

That is an ongoing discussion. Jordan indicating that he wants to see the actual plea entered in court of Hunter Biden before deciding on those next steps. And also, Dana, other Republican efforts as well in the House Ways and Means Committee tomorrow, they plan to go behind closed doors to look into allegations from an IRS whistleblower alleging that the Hunter Biden investigation over his tax issues was mishandled.

So, what they actually come out of that remains to be seen. But it is Dana worth noting, not all Republicans are on the same page over all this. One of them, Senator Mitt Romney telling me yesterday that he does not believe the efforts to tried to conflate the Donald Trump's situation with the Hunter Biden situation is the right way to go. So that he said the Republicans need to be more selective in what they decide to criticize.

BASH: Very interesting. And one of the many important points that you made, Manu, was that this has not yet been approved by a judge. We're still waiting to figure out which judge is even pick, could be a Trump appointee. We'll see. Thank you so much for that, Manu.

Here to share their reporting CNN's Abby Phillip, Host of Inside Politics Sunday, CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Margaret Talev of Axios. Hello, nice to see you all. Really interesting to see and hear the way Republicans on Capitol Hill have jumped on this.

[12:05:00] I just want to play a little bit more of what our colleagues on the Hill are gathering from those Republican members, particularly in the House, but also the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY MACE, (R-SC): A lot of people, they get smacked with a gun charge. They don't get to walk away like Hunter Biden.

REP. MIKE TURNER, (R-OH): This is a ridiculous sweetheart deal. They didn't even bring charges against Hunter until they already had this deal buttoned up, which is basically giving him a free pass.

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH): That's the big overall overarching concern is this double standard that the American people now see clearly and know that it exists.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY, (R-LA): They've made a very good deal. And he sucked it up like a hoover deluxe, and I don't -- I came by me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, do we think that Senator Kennedy practices those lines because he just nails every single one of them.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That was right off the tongue?

BASH: Right, right. But in all seriousness. It's important for us to give some context around some of those accusations. But just first on the raw politics.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, the raw politics are exactly as you would expect. When you listen to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, especially the ones who are in-charge of the investigations like Jim Jordan and James Comer. They have a very specific outcome that they want out of this. They want to have an investigation that substantiates corruption, which is a huge accusation, bribery, that's a huge accusation.

And I just think that that is the objective that I think the Republican base wants, that's what they believe they were elected to do. That's why they're in those chairmanships. However, the Justice Department has a completely different job to do.

I mean, if they bring a case against anyone, whether it's Hunter Biden or anyone else, they have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, or they do what they did with Hunter Biden, which is get to a plea deal. And it just seems very clear that after five years, which is an extraordinary amount of time, they were not able to substantiate some of these huge accusations against Hunter Biden. And anything less than bribery and corruption is never going to satisfy the Hill. And that's just the reality of the politics.

BASH: Yes. That's totally right. And as we continue the discussion, I want to inject some more facts in here and one is from David Weiss, who is the U.S. attorney, appointed by Donald Trump in Delaware kept on by Joe Biden. This is a letter he wrote to Jim Jordan, the judiciary chair last week.

"I've been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges and for making decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of the prosecution."

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think we know, though, that Republicans in Congress who wants to make political hay of this are not going to be daunted or deterred by the fact. I think that was very evident yesterday, when we saw Manu, speaking with Speaker McCarthy, and he repeatedly kept pointing out this was overseen by a Trump appointed U.S. attorney. And yet the allegations are going to continue.

And so, from the White House's perspective, look, this brings an end to some uncertainty that has hung over the president for and his administration for the last two and a half years. But it certainly will not end the political side of this.

And the White House is very much aware of the fact that congressional Republicans are going to continue to push and prod and probe on this matter, trying to substantiate the allegations that so far have not come true in any sense of the word in terms of tying any of this to Joe Biden, or even validating some of the corruption allegations related to Hunter Biden.

But this White House knows that this is going to continue. It's going to be something that they have to continue to push back on. But at least now they can say, look, a U.S. attorney appointed by the previous administration looked into this, they charged, and they found the plea deal with Hunter Biden. And that was the end of it from a legal standpoint.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: But you know, in the polarized landscape that we're in, there really are two Americas, they're watching two different sets of TV, reading different sets of digital information. And so, just because a politician says something doesn't make it true, but if that's the media, you're consuming, and you keep hearing that it's true, you believe it's true.

So, there is a significant portion of the electorate that is convinced that Hunter Biden did more than tax on gun related stuff, that there's some kind of a Biden crime family or whatever Trump's expression is, and that anything short of being held accountable for it proves, you know, some sort of conspiracy, and that actually becomes -- that becomes a real issue in terms of voting.

But I know there's that new CNN polling today, there really shows the split where the base, the Republican base is in one place, and independent voters as well as Democratic voters are really in a different space. So, I don't know where the rubber meets the road for the general election. But you can understand that this is a motivating factor for the base right now.

[12:10:00] BASH: OK, everybody standby. It's very busy on Capitol Hill today. I want to go right there. Testimony from the special counsel who investigated the origins of the Trump, Russia probe, John Durham. CNN's Sara Murray is following that. So, Sara, Mr. Durham is calling his findings sobering. He is talking a lot about crossfire hurricane, Hillary Clinton, Peter Strzok. What are you -- what are we learning from this testimony from John Durham?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I mean, we've heard a lot from John Durham today about his concerns about how the Russia investigation and the opening of the Russia investigation was handling, handled. Of course, his big takeaway is that there should not have been a full-blown investigation. So, he's trying to drive home that point in his testimony today.

But as you might expect, Dana, from the House judiciary hearing held with a bunch of cameras, there's a lot of playing politics going on. I mean, Democrats are basically saying that Durham work to keep Donald Trump's talking points alive with far-right conspiracy theorists. They're accusing Republicans of holding this hearing to try to distract from Donald Trump's indictment.

And we heard from House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, who is basically still saying that he has concerns about how the FBI continues to handle investigations, including how the FBI handled the search of Donald Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago.

Now, there was also an interesting moment where John Durham was essentially asked if he wanted to defend the attorney general who appointed him, Bill Barr. Take a listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE COHEN, (D-TN): Mr. Trump has called Mr. Barr gutless pig, a coward, and a rhino. Which of those is correct, which isn't?

JOHN DURHAM, SPECIAL COUNSEL: In my experience, none of those are correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, I think this just gives you a difference, an idea of a difference between tone and this public hearing and what we heard from John Durham, who appeared behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee in a secure room at the Capitol yesterday.

Yesterday, we saw the top Republican, the top Democrat on that committee both come out, both expressed concerns about how the FBI handled themselves during their investigation. It was a very united, bipartisan front, a different vibe, Dana, than what we're seeing in the hearing today.

BASH: A different vibe when there are cameras in the room. I am shocked, Sara. Definitely breaking news there. Sara, thank you so much for that reporting. Up next, the president gets maybe a little too truthful. Just days after a goodwill trip to China by his secretary of state. We're going to explain what we mean after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Now brand-new reporting out of the White House after President Biden called Chinese leadership Xi Jinping a dictator. Biden made that comment at a California fundraiser last night, recounting Xi's reaction to the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down earlier this year.

He said in part, the reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is if he didn't know it was there. That's what the great embarrassment was for dictators.

U.S. officials tell CNN's Kevin Liptak that they're surprised by the president's comments, specifically that he revealed what had been private intelligence in public and more broadly about Biden's remarks on China, barely a day after the secretary of state, his Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Xi Jinping in Beijing and that trip was reportedly aimed at reducing tensions.

CNN's Arlette Saenz joins us live from the White House. So, Arlette, what is the strategy here? Is there any part of this that could be a game of diplomatic chess that we are not seeing? Maybe it's intentional?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, I think it's notable that the White House hasn't worked to try to clarify or walk back any of these comments from President Biden as he labeled Chinese President Xi Jinping a likened him to dictators in that fundraiser last night.

Now, the first time the president revealed the information that the U.S. had believed that China's leader was embarrassed by this Chinese spy balloon incident was on Saturday in an on-camera exchange with reporters. But then the president went a bit further last night when he used that dictator label in his explanation.

Of course, the president does tend to speak a little bit more freely and candidly at these fundraisers, where the cameras are off. But these comments do come at a complicated Kayden (Ph) moment as it was just days ago, that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on this visit to China to try to smooth over some of the tensions over that Chinese spy balloon incident, over some of the close calls that the Chinese and U.S. military have had in the air in the sea in recent weeks.

Now, these comments from the president have earned a fierce rebuke very swiftly from the Chinese government, with a Chinese foreign ministry saying things like calling it absurd, also accusing them of engaging in an open political provocation. And saying that the comments from the president violated diplomatic etiquette. I think the question forward is how exactly these comments from President Biden will impact those relations with China. The president himself has openly talked about how he has hoped that there will be a thaw in these relations, in these conversations between the U.S. and China as they are remaining great competitors. But certainly, this moment adds another wrinkle to an already very tense relationship.

BASH: It sure does. Arlette, thank you so much for that reporting. Back here at the table is Jeremy Diamond, who you also covered the White House. What's your answer to the question that I posed about, what the assessment is of what's going on here in President Biden's mind or more importantly, his strategy?

DIAMOND: Yes. I mean, I think the fundamental point is the one that Arlette made about the fact that the president when he is at these fundraisers, where there are reporters in attendance, but there are no cameras. He tends to be far, far more freewheeling especially, in the foreign policy space.

It was also at a fundraiser where he talked about the possibility of nuclear Armageddon amid the Ukraine war. He talked about Italy's rightward swing after their elections elected a far-right leader as prime minister. So, this is a setting where he tends to go off script far, far more.

[12:20:00]

Now, what's especially remarkable about this is the fact that it's been four months that this administration have been trying to get Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China. They finally get him there. They finally seem to be moving towards a thaw in relations.

And then the president throws out these comments which U.S. officials, I can't imagine find those to be helpful amid the administration's broader diplomatic push to get these relations back on track, especially when they have stressed that those military-to-military communications, they need to get those back on for fear of some kind of unpredictable mistake.

BASH: Yes. And it doesn't sound like you have to imagine it. Our colleague Kevin Liptak is hearing that they were quite surprised, people inside the president's own administration.

TALEV: There's a lot of whiplash if you're just watching this as a spectator. But there is another factor here, which is domestic politics, both in China, but U.S. domestic politics. The White House, President Biden hearing Republicans like push back hard against what Tony Blinken went there to do, what Secretary Blinken went to do, to dial back the heat over Taiwan to reiterate that the U.S. is not changing its ambiguous, complicated, long standing multi presidential policy towards Taiwan and China. And Republican saying, it's weak, he looks weak. Biden's weak, weak on China. So, now -- -

BASH: Just think it was the reaction to that.

TALEV: I don't know how strategic it was or how much it was just Biden being Biden. But the effect is, it's obvious dissonance. If you're in the U.S., and you're watching this, you're like, what is it? Are we telling China it's OK to walk right up to the line with Taiwan, or they try to embarrass Xi.

BASH: OK. You mentioned Taiwan?

TALEV: Yes.

BASH: The president says things and fundraisers that maybe weren't planned. But when it comes to the issue of Taiwan, it's sometimes in front of the cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS NEWS, CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Would U.S. forces defend the island?

JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes. If in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.

JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: He was asked a question, a hypothetical question. In this interview, when the president of the United States wants to announce a policy change, he will do so. He has not done so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: Yes. I mean, this is on foreign policy issues. Here's the thing, the president is -- this is like his thing. This is his niche, right, foreign policy. He's been -- was chairman of Foreign Relations Committee. I mean, he's very steeped in these issues.

And on Taiwan, he has leaned in far, far further than any other U.S. president. That is not an accident. It's something that he has done. And some officials have said, hey, this puts keeps trying on their toes. It is strategic ambiguity, in a sense, although they're not in the conditions.

PHILLIP: But they do need to take the temperature down on Taiwan. And that's why Biden's comments at that fundraiser are just not helpful to that outcome. There's a real strategic foreign policy and also a national security need for the relationship to at least be a working relationship. And so, those comments are not helpful.

The other thing I think is will be interesting to see so far as Arlette said, the White House NSC, they have not walked back President Biden's comments. We'll see if they do that, they had been known to do that.

TALEV: They have, we just heard it. Yes.

PHILLIP: Not only there, but remember when he called Putin, he suggested that Putin might -- the United States might want Putin out of his position in power. They are not sometimes shy about doing that. And that actually undermines President Biden. So, we will see what they end up doing. BASH: I would be remiss when we're having this discussion about President Biden in China. If I didn't just quickly play what the former president, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, said to Bret Baier about China last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: I have a very good relationship with President Xi.

BRET BAIER, FOX CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: If China invaded Taiwan, would you go to war to defend Taiwan?

TRUMP: I don't want to say that because that hurts me in negotiations with regard to President Xi. Now, he knows what I do. President Xi and I had a very strong relationship just like I did with Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Because everybody can consider, marinate on that. And we're going to take a quick break and talk about somebody who passed on his own presidential run in 2024. But New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu vowed to do everything he can to make sure Donald Trump does not get his party's nomination. Chris Sununu is here in Washington today and is going to join me live after a quick break. Stay with us.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: The Hunter Biden plea deal provoked anger on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is unacceptable and un-American to weaponize the Department of Justice against your political opponents. Is just wrong.

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I like tens of millions of Americans is concerned. As I said on that prior program about a two- tiered system of justice, like one set of rules for Republicans and one set of rules for Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Joining me now is New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu, who declined a 2024 presidential run. Nice to see you here in Washington. You just heard that. You've heard lots of other Republicans since the news of the Hunter Biden plea deal broke yesterday, talking about the two-tiered system and so on and so forth.

But my question for you is, since your whole strategy now when it comes to 2024, is to make sure that Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee. Isn't that messaging playing right into his hands?

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