Meet the Press NOW – June 20

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That's sunrisechallenge ca. If it's Tuesday, Hunter Biden, the son of the sitting president, will plead guilty to two misdemeanors but avoid jail time after striking a deal with a Trump appointed federal prosecutor. But that's not stopping Republicans from crying foul. Plus, former President Trump offers a new defense in his first interview since pleading guilty to federal charges.

Not guilty of federal charges tied to his handling of classified documents and abortion in America. Democrats launch a new push to expand abortion access and protect reproductive rights as we approach the one year mark since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Welcome to MEET THE press.

Now, I'm Chris Welker in Washington. We begin with President Biden son Hunter Biden reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in the Delaware after a years long investigation. This is the first time in history the Justice Department has brought charges against the child of a sitting president. Hunter Biden is expected to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes.

Two sources familiar with the agreement tell NBC News The Trump appointed U.S. attorney has agreed to recommend probation so no prison time for the president's son. Biden also faces a separate felony gun possession charge that will likely be dismissed if he meets certain conditions. The agreement also suggests prosecutors did not find cause to charge under Biden in relation to his business dealings with foreign entities.

We are expecting to hear from President Biden shortly at an event in on AI in California. We'll bring you any comments he makes on today's agreement. The president has largely stayed away from commenting on the investigation, but he recently spoke about it to MSNBC. 70 rule my son's done nothing wrong.

I trust him. I have faith in him and it impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of you. Republicans on the campaign trail and Capitol Hill today have been outspoken in their attacks on today's plea agreement, accusing the Biden administration of a two tiered system of justice, one for Biden, one for Trump. Donald Trump is of course facing federal charges related to classified documents posted on social media that quote Our system is broken.

Several of Mr. Trump's fellow 2024 GOP candidates echo those sentiments. Today on Capitol Hill, housekeeper Ken McCarthy condemned the justice Department's decision to cut a deal. My first reaction is it continues to show the two tier system of if you were the president's leading political opponent, DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time.

If you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart. I'm joined now by justice intelligence correspondent Kendallane and Wilmington, Delaware CNBC senior White House correspondent Kayla Touchy and Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, who has the very latest reaction from Congress. So, Ken, let me start with you. Break down these charges and this plea deal, what does it all involve?

Well, Kristen, you heard the president say his son Hunter Biden has done nothing wrong. This plea deal flies in the face of it. Hunter Biden is admitting to crimes. He's admitting to two counts of willfully failing to pay his taxes.

And in 2017 and 2018, the counts don't specify the exact sums. But we know that two years ago he paid more than a million dollars to the IRS to try to settle this back taxes bill. But it's also true that these are misdemeanors punishable by up to 12 months in jail. But this is a plea agreement that calls for no jail time.

It calls for probation. There's another felony gun charge that accuses Mr. Biden of essentially lying on a form where they used to purchase a gun, failing to disclose that he was addicted to drugs at the time, but that that charge is being handled through what's known as a deferred adjudication process, where if he complies with the conditions, the charge will not be brought and he will, it will not be on his record. So altogether, when you look at it, this is a pretty good outcome for Hunter Biden.

His lawyer told Katie Turner in the last hour that they're very satisfied with this and they thought the prosecution handled these negotiations fairly. And it comes to the context comes after a five year investigation that looked at the millions and millions of dollars that were paid to Hunter Biden by foreign entities, including in China, and whether he did anything inappropriate or broke the law with regard to that. And no charges have been filed in connection with any of that conduct, which is one of the things that, you know, really gets the hackles of Republicans. They look at that and they say, well, that was a conflict of interest.

That was corruption. But the justice part of the FBI looked at it and apparently found no criminal wrong deal with this. And Ken, just put this into a broader context for us. Is this the type of deal that would be expected in this type of investigation, this five year long investigation?

And also it was notable that the statement said the investigation is ongoing despite this plea deal, right? That's right. So, but first, in terms of the fairness, the harshness, the leniency of this, there is no way to judge it without knowing the facts because prosecutors cut deals all the time. The only way to know whether it was fair that they brought these charges is if you know what other charges they could have brought, more serious charges that they chose not to, that they chose not to bring as part of a plea negotiation.

We reported, for example, NBC News did that there was a felony tax charge on the table that wasn't fraud. Right. So my colleague Ryan Riley just published a story that quoted saying these kinds of tax charges are rarely brought and the gun charge almost never brought. But that often happens in plea deals where it's a settlement.

Right. So the defendant agrees to admit some charges and not others. In terms of the question of investigation being ongoing, it's pretty clear to us at NBC News Law reporting that when it comes to Hunter Biden, this is wrapped up. And that's really what his lawyers are saying.

They're saying they wouldn't cut this deal if Hunter Biden was subject to further charges. But the DOJ has made clear that there is some aspect of this, whether it's other, other elements of conduct by other people, other aspects of this case that remain under investigation by the US Attorney here in Delaware, David Weiss. He's remaining in place. He said very flatly, as usual.

At least this investigation is ongoing. But we don't think that that means that Hunter Biden is subject to further charges. Ken, thank you for that. Kayla, let me turn to you.

We did get a statement from the White House. Tell us what the president, the first lady, is saying today. I know that they're not saying much, but what are we anticipating? Because we are expecting these comments from President Biden on AI Well, Kristen, in this very brief statement, which is the extent of the White House response at this point, the president, the first lady speaking really in their capacity as parents.

I'll read you this brief statement. It says the president, first lady, love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment. The first lady and the president both have public events happening this afternoon.

President Biden in California. He's expected to talk for a few minutes about the threat of artificial intelligence and what the administration is doing to combat that and try to get in front of that threat. You can expect that reporters who are in the room will do their level best to lobby questions toward the president to get him to respond to this plea agreement. But as far as what West Wing sources are suggesting, silence is expected to be the strategy here, at least for the time being.

Let the news cycle blow over and let the Department of justice and the attorneys 400 Biden speak for themselves. Kristen? Well, and of course, we've been tracking this criticism from Republicans who say that this underscores the fact that there are two systems of justice, one for former President Trump and one for President Biden and Democrats. Are you getting any sense?

Because I've been talking my sources and it seems like it's still a work in progress of what the strategy is going to be to try to combat that narrative. Well, it seems like it's a strategy that's being built like a plane that's being built as it is in the air. I mean, certainly last week, some of our NBC News colleagues reported that there's a growing frustration among Democratic allies that the administration, the White House, haven't done more to respond to the indictment and arraignment of former President Trump, to let the GOP flood the zone and own the messaging there. And they want the administration to do more to defend the Justice Department and defend the rule of law in this country.

And so you can sort of extrapolate from that what might happen here, depending on how long the situation remains in the news, whether this silence can speak for itself or whether you're going to need more Democratic surrogates like Senator Chris Coons, who is out today suggesting that the fact that the U.S. attorney is a Trump appointee should indicate that this was fair, this was above board, whether you'll see more voices like that come out of the woodwork to defend the situation here and how long that will take to happen. And Ryan, let me turn to you what type of reaction you get on Capitol Hill, because I saw a number of statements that echoed what we saw from former President Trump, who called this a sweetheart deal. Yeah, it does seem as though the president, the former president, defenders here on Capitol Hill are following suit with that talking point, many of them suggesting that Hunter Biden was given nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

And what's also interesting is that there is still an ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden, the Biden family writ large and their associates about their foreign business dealings to the House Oversight Committee. And that committee's chairman James Comer is actually going into a secure location on Capitol Hill right now to look at auxiliary documents that are connected to that FBI tip sheet that Comer believes is an explosive piece of investigative information as it relates to what he's called robbery scheme. Now, there's been no additional evidence to back up that claim in the ranking member of that committee. Instead, that he has been told by officials within the Justice Department that the Justice Department under then Attorney General Gilbar looked at this information and decided that it wasn't enough to pursue any further.

But Comer actually latched on to that idea in the data white statement that their investigation is ongoing as a suggestion that perhaps there is more to this investigation into Hunter Biden than what will come to a conclusion here with this tax case. So that is a big part of the backdrop here on Capitol Hill. This is certain not something that House Republicans are just going to let go because this plea deal was reached. Yeah.

Let me just follow up with you on that, Ryan, because what are you expecting of the investigations in terms of the timeline of what obviously they are going to be taking place and unfolding against the backdrop of the 2024 election campaign of President Biden and the primary? Yeah, I think that's such an important part of this, Kristen, because the overset committee in particular, but also the Judiciary Committee, which has done a lot of work and has done a lot to try and to a certain extent tarnish the reputation of the Justice Department and the FBI, have given no deadline for their work to be concluded. They view it as an ongoing investigation. As information turns up, as people come forward, they're going to take that information in and add it to their investigation.

And they've never given any real kind of decision or definitive outcome as to what will be at the end of all this. Unlike January six electromagnet, which told us at the time that there'd be a final court report when legislative recommend nations a narrative for what they say led to the events on January 6th. We've not seen a similar promise from either the Oversight or Judiciary Committee. My guess is that this is just going to continue to be an issue that pops up time after time that we're going to hold public hearings on this, but they're going to make it an issue in part so that it clouds to a certain extent what happens in the 2024 campaign.

All right. Well, I know you're watching closely. Kayla and Ryan, thank you both so much for your great reporting. We are also following developments in the classified documents case against Donald Trump the judge in that case has set the trial to begin in mid August, less than two months from now.

Will the legal experts expect that date to be delayed because of motions filed by former president's legal team as well as the complex nature of the case? Mr. Trump, meanwhile, gave his first interview since pleading not guilty to 37 criminal charges and offered up a new defense when asked why he didn't return classified documents subpoenaed by the Justice Department. Take a listen.

The only way nary could ever get this stuff, this back would be, please, please, please could we have it back? Because they have no. We would talk and we would talk, and then they said they went to DOJ to subpoena you to get. Which they've never done before.

And, you know, why not just hand them over then? Because I had boxes. I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don't want to hand that over to NARA yet.

And I was very busy. As you've sort of seen, according to the indictments, you then tell the state to move to other locations after telling your lawyers to say you've fully complied with the subpoena when you hadn't. Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things.

I'm joined now by MDC News senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Hake and Mark Zaid, an attorney who focuses on national security and government investigations. Thanks to both of you for being here. Garrett, let me start with you and what we heard from former President Trump in an interview. The first time he's really spoken out since his last indictment, or your biggest takeaways from what we heard?

Well, to me, that last answer is gonna make his lawyers pull their hair out of him. They have tried to argue that the show be handled under the Presidential Records act, not the Espionage act under which he's charged. But Donald Trump misunderstands what the Presidential Records act requires of him. He talks about, why not sift through these boxes, pull out his personal items.

You've never moved or relocated. You know how frustrating is if boxes pile up after the fact? We get that, but that's not how this law works. The law is very clear.

You have to do this kind of thing before you are the ex president while you were still the White House. So even on his preferred legal defense, he's wrong on the facts. The other part of that that jumps out to me is his answer when Brett Bear asked him about the specific document that he's on tape. Apparently Sort of waving around and saying, look at this document, this war plan.

It's still secret. Don Trump tries to deny that was actually a plan. He says, no, we're talking about newspapers, press clippings, that kind of thing. That's the kind of thing where he's probably gonna be confronted with other facts under oath if this gets to trial.

So a frustrating interview from a legal perspective, perhaps for the former, but maybe the kind of thing that buys him time politically and cover from some of his allies who can say he's out there talking about this. Yeah. Mark, pick up on this great point that Garrett is making. Just how uncomfortable do you think this interview has made Mr.

Trump's attorneys? Is he basically undercutting his own defense here? Well, he's testifying this. You know, obviously, no criminal defendant can be forced to take the stand against themselves, and many choose not to.

And we've seen Donald Trump not take the stand in some of the other cases, including civil. But all of these interviews can and will be played during the course of the trial or hearings, as the case might be. So, look, I think the attorneys for Donald Trump have already decided and acknowledged that they can't do anything to control their claim that what is at play here is a political strategy, not a legal strategy, because the political strategy can impact the legal strategy if he can win in November of 2020. If he doesn't win, then this case is going to be a big, big problem.

So I think the strategies are in conflict with one another, and the political strategy is winning the day as far as which one he's pursuing. Talk about this August 14th potential trial date. A lot of legal experts say it's really unlikely we're going to see this case go to trial. Then why?

And what do you anticipate is going to happen between now and then to potentially push it back? And how far back are you thinking it'll get pushed? Right. I guessed when I saw the date, and then, of course, I realized it's just a routine scheduling order that has high hopes but is going to be impacted by so many other things.

I have a case against the US Government now in federal court, and we set a trial date for next year. And the judge in our case said the only thing that would move it is the apocalypse happening. Not so the case with the Trump situation, because there are many issues, particularly under the Classified Information Procedures act, which we lovingly call sepa, that will dec who has access to the classified records of his lawyers, the jury, etc. And there will be many motions pre trial, that if a side loses, especially the government, they can immediately appeal it up to the 11th Circuit.

So there are so many avenues that could reasonably, understandably and legitimately delay this case. And we've all heard it many times before. The Trump legal strategy historically has always been delay, delay, delay, delay. So his political strategy is to get the legal case to extend beyond the election of November 24th.

And because that could be his best saving grace here, let me turn back to you because we are waiting and watching to see if there will be more indictments on January 6th around the efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia. Take us inside Trump world right now. What is the thinking and the strategy as they wait to see how those other cases play out? Well, there's two pieces to this on the cases so far that they've seen.

Fundraising boosts, polling boosts. They don't look at this as a negative, politically speaking. It's forced the Republican Party to coalesce around Donald Trump. Everybody's using the language he wants them to use to talk about this, even the people who are running against him, with a few exceptions.

I think there's also an acknowledgement, including sources who I know you've spoken to, that, you know, this gets the degree of difficulty gets higher here as these cases get more serious. And this Stockton's case is particularly difficult for all the reasons Marshall slayed out the January 6th case, particularly the one in Georgia, which does look for all kinds of purposes like there's going to be an indictment in early August. It's gonna be a much harder thing to explain away, and opens more political vulnerabilities for his opponents. But the question has always been, are those opponents gonna take those vulnerabilities?

Are they gonna continue to make the same arguments that Donald Trump is making, which is that this is the DOJ out together. As long as other Republicans are using that same language, he can keep raising money off this and keep dancing with the plurality of Republican votes punched all the way through the primary calendar. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. Mark, let me turn to you again as we talk about these other cases.

As I just mentioned, one of them relates to January 6th. That, based on all my reporting, based on my conversations with legal experts, is trickier to charge. Talk a little bit about that. And what you're watching for there, it is a much trickier case.

Now, what is cleaner is that obviously it would be heard in the District of Columbia Federal Court. There's no venue concern, as there was with the Trump classified document. Case. But it is incredibly unprecedented to bring these types of charges against a public official.

Essentially incitement now in conspiracy to create such an incitement, as well as obstruct congressional proceedings, etc. I represent actually the estate of police officer Capitol Police officer Brian Sidnick. We're suing Donald Trump. To be very clear about it, part of our claim is on the civil side tying it to potential criminal charges.

That doesn't mean the Justice Department will go the same way that we have gone in that argument, but it is at least there. Our civil burden is much lower than obviously the criminal burden that the government would have to prove. But if that case is brought against Donald Trump, you can expect that it was based on a significant and serious considered level of determination and decision making by the Justice Department that they think they have a case. Right.

This is not going to be one where they push the envelope in any shape or form. This isn't a test case. That's not what the Justice Department wants. So if they bring it, that means they can win it.

And if I were Donald Trump, I'd be very concerned. Okay. Well, we will watch and wait and see what happens. Garrett Haig, Mark Zane, thank you both so much.

And coming up, we'll have more of the political fallout from legal investigations into both Donald Trump and Hunter Biden and what it means for the 2024 race. Plus, the scion of a Democratic dynasty running against President Biden. We'll talk to the NBC reporter who spent time recently with conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

You're watching Meet THE PRESS now. Welcome back. Turning to the 2024 presidential race, at this moment, the closest thing President Biden has to challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination is a run by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Despite being a member of a Democratic dynasty, Kennedy's views on Ukraine co, especially vaccines, do not align with the Democratic Party. He's long been one of the top anti vaccine advocates in the US My NBC colleague Brandy to Jersey recently spent some time with Kennedy and he told her as president he would order his Justice Department to investigate medical journals and gut the federal agencies that regulate childhood vaccines. Joining me now is NBC News senior reporter Brandon Apologies for mispronouncing your last name. Brandi, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it. So what were your key takeaways from your interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. So I wanted to profile in the first place because I've been watching his campaign events.

I've been watching his speeches, I watched his kickoff. I've been Looking through his materials and never once does he mention vaccines, which, you know, be like the president of Ford refusing to say the word car. It was really, really noticeable. This is his life's work, really leading the anti vaccine movement.

And so I wanted to talk to him about why he was doing that. And, you know, to us, like you just mentioned that it's pretty obvious because his policies and his ideas are incredibly unpopular with Democrats and that's, you know, the party he insists he wanted to lead. I think the public should know what these vaccine policies would be if he gets into office. Right.

We're not talking about odds here. I think we're more talking about stakes. So what would he do if he got into office and, you know, just said he would gut the agencies, fda, the cc, the nih, and he would, instead of the puppets who he says currently are there, he would install people that he believes would be better. Considering, you know, Kennedy's close contacts right now are anti vaxxers and discredited doctors.

That's really scary for public health. I asked about childhood vaccines. I asked her if he would ban them, sort of like Trump's Muslim ban. And he wouldn't say, but he suggested that they should be studied more, which basically means that effectively they be paused and withheld from children when we know that they're safe and effective.

Well, you know, it's interesting. He's not polling at zero. He does have some small support. Put his support into context, people responding to him because his last name is Kennedy.

I mean, I was reading something a lot of people don't, as you're saying, don't really understand what his policies look like at this point. Point. Yeah, the point that we've seen, he has up to between 17 and 20% of the recent ones I've seen. And then when we get into the meat of the poll, nobody knows who he is or what he's about.

They're sort of open to him because he's a comedian. We know, you know, what the American Commission can do and so does he. But, you know, we have that core group of sort of Camelot nostalgists and people who would love the Kennedy. But there's also a core of very interesting sort of spoilers some people are suggesting.

Right. And these are sort of. There's a lot of billionaire tech rows like Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, who are sort of courting him and suggested throwing. Some other tech billionaires were throwing fundraisers for him last week, and these sort of to be.

Seem to sort of be like a provocateur, right, who are pumping Kennedy as a spoiler candidate. So we have two really interesting sort of pockets of support right now. And of course there's a very, very large contingent of the anti vaccine community which has during COVID So that's a big, big bucket of support. And we focused largely on his anti vaccine agenda.

What are some of his other key policies? Well, as you might imagine right now they're very big picture. It's, you know, peace. He wants to be the peace candidate.

His campaign manager is Dennis Kucinich, who lost the Democratic presidential primary twice or lost once and then backed out once. So that's very big in his campaign materials. And it is. He just wants to be a candidate of peace.

He also wants to be and sorry, how he would do that specifically is again very unpopular with Democrats right now is that he wants to pull support from Ukraine. He thinks Ukraine is a proxy war from neocons and the Democratic Party. So he wants to pull support and broker a piece which he hasn't gotten into exactly how he'll do. But the talking points he talks about right now are very Russian apologists, I think it would be fair to say.

That's a lot of his criti. So the party of peace and then just his big thing is he wants to be the party of unity. He said on Joe Rubin this weekend that he was going on these podcasts because he could get the far left and the far right support that way. And in the end his campaign would be about, you know, bringing those pieces together.

It's this theory known as the horseshoe theory and political science speak, but it's where you have the two extremes of the political spectrum and that's what he wants to bring together. No real, no really how he's going to do this, but that is what his campaign is saying they're all about. It is a fascinating read. Brandi Zadrozny, thank you so much.

Appreciate it. And join me now on set as MCU Senior National Political Reporter, former North Dakota Democratic Senator Zambian CD junior Heidi Haikam and former Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent. Thanks to all of you for being here. Sal, I have to start with you and you just heard Brady talk about the fact he's polling in some polls at 17%.

What do you make of this campaign by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That's right. He is polling higher than many might have expected when this person came out of nowhere.

But I think RK Jr truth is revealed a little bit more about President Biden than he is about himself. Let's take the polls where he's doing the best high teens, maybe 20% the poll 20%. He's still 40 points behind Joe Biden. So he's not seriously in the picture.

But what he is showing is that a lot President Biden support is soft. A new poll today by CNN kind of confirms this is favorable rating. This is not a provable rating. The rule rating is a little high, but it's favorable rating.

We just have a gut feeling about him. It's only 30% nationally among Democrats at 73% among liberals, 65% among young voters under 35 is 24%. That's a lot of people who are deeply skeptical about John Order to get a campaign saying this is early. You know, once there's trends on the other side, they'll focus on the minds.

A lot of these people come home. But at the very least what Bruce Kristen is at this campaign, the Biden campaign has a lot of work to do to bring these voters home because they're concerned about his age. That's fans, you know, left center, left moderate. They're concerned about progressives, that he's not quite progressive enough, that he's not feisty enough about these things.

Young don't really identify cynically with the silent generation. So there's work to do. Senator, how concerned are Democrats about all of these numbers that Sahil just lays out? Because they don't necessarily think Robert Kennedy is going to be President Biden, but he certainly is exposing some weaknesses.

I think people are a lot less concerned about Robert Kennedy than they are the numbers that you just heard, the favorability numbers. Those are real numbers that need to be, they need to improve dramatically. And you know, if you're Joe Biden, what you say is don't compare me to no one, get to the almighty, compare me to the opposition. I think a lot of the strategy is Donald Trump is going to be the president.

That's a choice people have made before. Biden won that choice. We have he has now a record to run on. And so I think that their nose is down, their head is down.

Just get, get through this process. If on the other end it's Donald Trump with all of his baggage, they feel pretty good about where they are. And I don't think they're seriously concerned about Kennedy. But if you look you said 70 favorabilities among Democrats says in the 70s, that would explain the numbers where you see alternatives being about 20% representative, what do you make of this?

And then I want to turn to Hunter Biden. Yeah, I think there's a softness of support for joining a lot of Democrats. You know, he's going to be the nominee. But so some, some Democrats are looking for alternatives, whether it's Robert F.

Kennedy or Williamson, neither of whom are going to get real traction. I think at the end of the day we'll see how much tolerance Democratic voters have for conspiracy theorists with Robert F. Kennedy juniors. It's just not going to go anywhere.

But he's going to be gad flagged. I think that is one of the key questions. You're absolutely right. President Biden making remarks about AI on the west coast.

And he was just asked about his son, Hunter Biden. I want to play a little bit of what we heard from him and get everyone's reaction the other side. You, Senator, let me go to you on this because I'm very proud of my son. He's being very measured in his comments about this.

Just to remind everyone, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts, failing to pay his taxes. How significant is this? And politically speaking, fortunate Republicans saying this was a sweetheart deal? Well, I don't think it was a sweetheart deal.

I think, you know, is Donald Trump going to even plead guilty to misdemeanors and handling documents when you look at this and when, when you have these challenges as he did and America can identify with kids who are addicted, who make bad mistakes, who should pay the consequences. And Biden's response here is not as president of the United States, his response is as a father. And I think there's a lot of empathy throughout the country. We have a huge addiction problem in this country.

People have seen the consequences of that and I think they can be fairly sympathetic. It's not going to stop the conspiracy theories or the oh my God, you got a sweetheart with dealing kind of discussion. But I think it does show consequences for bad behavior on Hunter Biden's part. Can Republicans make the argument a sweetheart deal when this was a deal that was struck with a Trump appointed attorney USA it's very difficult for Republicans to make that case.

And in fact, I would argue that with Hunter Biden, he's not the principal in this case. The principals are Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Donald Trump's legal challenges are far more consequential than Hunter Biden's, who's a rat man, obviously. So I think at the end of the day, you know, unless they can really tie Hunter Biden directly to Joe Biden or Joe Biden to Jim Biden, they're gonna have a tough time with this.

So I think it's a losing issue here. Right. This is Trump appointed prosecutor who made the case. So it's really, I think it's bad for Republicans continue to go off about American law enforcement, FBI, Justice Department being, you know, being in the tank for the Democrats.

And can I add something to this? They tried for three weeks, weeks. This whole there was an FBI informant. Now we're coming forward, Biden took a break and the whole thing went poof because it wasn't real.

And so exactly to your point, Charlie, that they can't tie any of Hunter Biden's issues to Joe Biden, but Trump's issues he owns. It's also largely inevitable that Republicans will level this criticism. They're very committed to this argument that the DOJ is anti Republican, anti Trump has been. And they're in their words, politically targeting Trump for a while now.

You can't really push from that to say, oh, great job, doj, you busted the president's son, you now have criminal conviction, pleading the charges. That's not common. But I think they're very committed. That's narrative.

They are. And they're helped by the fact that these investigations are going to move forward on Capitol Hill. They absolutely will. I think Speaker McCarthy said they want more information about it.

There's a little tip going on about whether it's closed and whether it's now legitimate to demand that information. I think James Comer at oversec committee is also going to move forward with this. Another interesting figure, Steve Baines, the NRC chairman vocal on this side, which I'm claiming there's a two tier system of justice. I wonder how the Trump claims Saturday race is that playing Wisconsin in Michigan?

Yeah, there's definitely a two tier system of justice and Trump's taking advantage of it. What should the strategy be? This. And they're like inside, because I'm talking to Democratic officials, they don't quite have their head wrapped around what their counter argument is going to be.

You see how the White House is dealing with it. They're not really engaging to the extent possible. What should the strategy be? The strategy should be let the OGJ do its job.

And just as we saw with the January 6 committee, every time we saw more and more evidence being presented, the public got more and more concerned about what happened that day. Every day we see more evidence being presented in this document's case, the more the public is going to go, I don't like that. And you're Already seeing some Republicans back off. Chris Ray was appointed by Donald Trump, head of the FBI.

This is a pretty tough case to make him. He's not Democrat. I mean, he's a pretty fair mic. And so I think Republicans, as the party had always been historically party of law enforcement, is tarnishing his reputation on this particular level as much as the state, local level on this issue of undermining federal law enforcement.

Let's talk about what we heard from former President Trump Sahil, to what extent the president making some of the most extensive comments yet about the charges against him. I mean, if you're one of his attorneys, you've got to be nervous about the fact he's like, yeah, I couldn't go through all this stuff in my boxes because I'm a busy man. I had so many papers to go through. Everything Donald Trump says on television can and probably will be in a court of law.

If you're his lawyer, you must be very nervous about the fact that he's gonna be out there unfiltered, saying exactly what he, what he wants. And yes, there's no, there's no penalty for lying on the campaign stone, but that stuff can come back to haunt him. It happens again and again. His clean things up in court, judges sometimes to be differential about the stuff.

But now facing charges in New York and federally, there might be more coming in Georgia. How do, how do they handle that? Look, if the senator I had walked out of classified frequency, classified documents, and if they came home and the DOJ knocked on the door. So we want them.

That's what I'm saying. Trump's taking advantage. I just can't imagine. We went through so many classified breathings.

We just looked at paper we never had. And then you left. And then you left the room. We wouldn't even think of taking it with us.

You know, this whole idea of I was too busy to go through the boxes, well, then have somebody else through the boxes. You know, people who know classified documents. He is a hoarder, it seems to me. But he also, you know, you still wonder, was it just hubris and kind of their, My, my mind kind of a second greater kind of attitude, or was there some more nefarious reason for him keeping those documents?

And that's a question that I think needs to be explored in, in the political realm and the legal realm. And among the questions will likely continue to have to answer. Thank you so much for a great conversation. Really appreciate it.

And, Charlie. Up next, rescuers are racing against time to find a missing submersible loss deep in the ocean with five people on board and very little air left to breathe. They're watching me depress now. Welcome back.

The U.S. coast Guard and other rescuers are racing against the clock looking for a submersible to disappear during a dive to Titanic. To the Titanic wreckage site. The Coast Guard says so far the search for the missing vessel with five passengers on board has y no results.

Officials estimate this submersible has approximately 40 hours of breathable air left. If your submersibles can find this sub, is there any way to retrieve it and save the people on board? Yes. Right now all of our efforts are focused on finding the sub.

What I will tell you is we have a group of our nation's best experts in the unified command and if we get to that point, those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is. This submersible, part of an Ocean Gate Expedition tour that allows passengers to explore the Titanic wreckage went missing on Sunday after losing contact with its research vessel. The five people aboard include Stockton Rush, the CEO of the expedition company British billionaire and venture Hamish Harding, a prominent Pakistani businessman and his son and a maritime expert who works with a company that owns the salvage rights the titanium Titanic wreck. The price of a spot on the submersible was 250 000.

It was only on its third trip since Ocean Gate Expeditions began offering the trip in 2021. After the break Democrats in Washington prepared to mark one year since the Supreme Court's Hiddle Dobbs decision will have new reporting on Senate Democrats renewed push for abortion rights legislation live on Capitol Hill next. You're watching me the press now while the back Democrats in Washington are marking one year since the Dobbs decision the Supreme Court ruling overturned Roby Wade. He's an anniversary to draw attention to the fight for abortion access and the state of maternal health care across the country.

Today First Lady J. Biden held an event at the White House. The first lady will also join the President Vice President for an event on Friday for the anniversary on Saturday. And on Capitol Hill Senate Democrats are expected to bring a number of abortion messaging bills to the floor the of this week forcing Republican lawmakers to get on the record on this issue.

Joining now since all this is MC News Capital Horres Ali Vitali so we just heard from the first lady about this talking to Jen Klein who's of course the director of White House Gender Policy Council. What did we hear today? You look what we heard from Dr. Biden is the message that we've seen from her before, one of reassurance that her husband's administration is doing what they can to protect abortion access.

But also the reality here is what it is on Capitol Hill, which is that we're in a period of divided government. Even when Democrats held both houses of Congress, they didn't have the numbers they needed to pass any kind of federal codification that would protect access to abortion. And so now we're watching the White House just try to continue to bring awareness, to continue energizing this issue, because we watched the way it in 2022, in the midterms, it was able to galvanize voters in Democrats to directions. And they're hoping that that's something they can see again in 2024, making promises for the most part that if they were to retake the majority in the House and be able to expand their majorities in the Senate, then maybe something could be done on the federal level to reverse the court's action of getting rid of the constitutional right to an abortion, or at least those protections that previously offered.

And ally, of course, we've been tracking what the vice president, what the first lady are planning to do on Friday to mark this anniversary. What are you anticipating? How are they planning to mark this day? Well, look, already we saw those images of the first lady gathering with women who have their own abortion stories to tell.

I've been doing my own reporting about this with other people willing to share their stories ahead of this anniversary. And I think it's really going to be continuing to highlight the wide range of experiences here that show that abortion is health care. And so many of these conversations, conversations, you see women who are talking about having children who they very much wanted, but then having to go through miscarriages where they miscarry so badly that they are septic and their lives are in danger at that point in some of these states with more restrictions, that is the only point when doctors are actually able to intervene. So sharing those stories, bolstering the idea that abortion is healthcare, is so central to the way the White House and Democrats are trying to message around this issue.

I imagine what we're also going to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris, who's been a leading voice on this, not just talking about it through the lens of maternal health, but also digging into the numbers around black maternal mortality in this country. Those numbers are much higher than the national average. And certainly that's something Harris has been able to bring awareness to. But doing so now in light of the Dobbs decision at the one year milestone of that decision from the Supreme Court is going to be important.

And the way that the White House continues to leverage Harris is also going to be really interesting from a 2024 perspective as they expect this issue to be really energizing politically and role that she plays within the White House in affecting their policy strategies around this, too. And just very quickly, I were expecting some new legislation to be introduced by Senate Democrats. What can you tell us about that in the last 30 seconds we have left? Yeah, Kristen will at least try to introduce it because again, the reality is what it is here on Capitol Hill, but that Senate Democrats and Tolls are going to try to push several of what they're calling common sense reproductive rights bills.

Those are things like protecting data privacy, making it so that women are able to travel over state lines for care. All the things that we've heard them discuss before. They're going to try to get Republicans on the record for again because as we've noted, they can't do anything now, but they're going to try to leverage us politically for the future. Well, Alital, I know you have been doing a lot of reporting around this issue.

We really appreciate your joining us. Thank you so much. Good to see you. And this Thursday at 10pm Eastern, we have a MEET THE PRESS special examining the impact of the decision of returning Roe and the impact in medicine, in politics, culture and beyond.

Don't miss it. Silicon Today's World Refugee Day and the UN says the global refugee crisis has reached record levels. We'll delve into that. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now.

Welcome back. Countries around the world are celebrating World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the UN to recognize refugees around the globe. According to the UN, more than 108 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide due to persecution, conflict or human rights violations since taking office. President Biden pledged to reverse the Trump immigration policies, including rebuilding America's refugee program.

As the White House deal with immigration in a post title 42 world, it is increasingly relying on partner nations to stem the flow of legal migration. That includes countries like Colombia, which continues to support millions of Venezuelan refugees fleeing political and socioeconomic instability back at home. According to the un, Colombia already is already host to the third largest number of refugees. Joining now on C Colombia as ambassador to the US Luis Goberto.

Thank you so much for being here, Ambassador. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Christine, for participation. Appreciate you being here on set.

So tell me, you and I were talking about this a little bit in the break. What is the current situation as it relates to refugees in Colombia. As you know, Colombia has welcomed almost 3 million Venezuelan refugees. This is the largest number of refugees of migrants in the Western Hemisphere.

And we are having a very significant investment, almost 2 point of our GDP, to support the population in need. And also we are providing them with a legal pathway to integrate to Colombian society. Just almost 2 million of these refugees or these migrants from Venezuela already received temporary protective status. From then, almost 1.8 million receive health services and about 600,000 children and youth also have access to education, regardless of their migration status.

You're getting support from the United States, from other countries, but you say it's not enough. What do you mean? What is your message to these other countries about what you need to support these refugees? Well, we almost have like more than 200 years of relation with the United States.

This is a strategic relation. We are strategic partners and we are working together within the framework of scientists, the declaration to support migrants in the entire Western Hemisphere, particularly in Colombia. But the support that we are receiving is not enough. We need to look for other ways to support Colombia, for humanitarian response, for integrating Venezuelans to the Colombian society, also for providing them with dignity and hope in life.

And in that regard, we are also working with other countries in the region, with Ecuador, with Panama, to really respond to this challenge. That is, we have shared responsibility and that's something that we are working with the United States. We are thinking about improving the way those migrants can really access to some legal pathways to come to the United States, some of them. And obviously we've been tracking the impact here of Title 42 being lifted.

What has the impact been in Colombia? What have you? Well, we see more migrants using Colombia as a transit country. The numbers have only gone up in.

We're seeing migrants coming not only from Venezuela, but also from Haiti, from Cuba. And those migrants are crossing the Darian gap with a very difficult condition. It's very dangerous. And they are also target of all this criminal network of human trafficking.

And this is a challenge that we are trying to respond in a very collective manner with other countries. What we need really, what we need is really more support to have. We are working with the United States to create center of Safe, we're saying the center for safe processing of migrants for safe mobility. And the idea of this center is to really allow this migrant to have all the processing in country in Colombia to avoid crashing this daring gap and other illegal ways of coming to the United States.

That's very important in terms of responding to the challenge of exposing these families to these dangerous conditions. And I know that Colombia has called on sanctions on Venezuela to be lifted. Do you think it is time for the Biden administration to engage with the Venezuelan government? What would you like to see in that regard?

Well, what President Pedro discussed with President Biden is to look for ways to respond to the challenges of open democracy in Venezuela. And there are different ways to do that. First is to have Venezuela really moving into fair and open, transparent and competitive elections. That's very important.

And to allow to provide guarantees for the opposition Venezuela to participate in elections. Second is to see how in some kind of benchmark to lift some of the sanctions. But also you need to see some specific measures taken by the Venezuelan government. In addition to that is to have Venezuelan government and the opposition to the Toronto negotiation in Mexico to advance some of the commitment that you already were making of creating a trust fund managed by the UN to also have some funding for humanitarian response to the needs of Venezuelan within the country that are suffering.

And we are sure that within that pathway you can see really securing democracy in the country. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us to discuss this incredibly complex and complicated situation. We appreciate it. Thank you very much for being with us this hour.

Chuck is back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now NBC News NOW coverage continues with Hallie Jackson right now. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together.

Then one night the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Matiewitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Dayline. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now wherever you get your podcasts.