I apologize for the
those weeks of not knowing what's going to happen in
terms of funding
because
we had trouble getting the
bill they had to pass.
They had the money in it,
some, some of our very conservative members who were
holding it up.
President Biden met with Ukrainian President Zelensky,
reaffirming US support and announcing additional funding for their war
against Russia.
But first week one of Hunter Biden's federal firearms trial
is wrapping up.
Prosecutors have rested their case,
focusing heavily on details of Hunter Biden's past drug addiction.
Hallie Biden was called to the stand,
with prosecutors revealing text messages between the two,
hoping to create a timeline of Hunter's crack cocaine use
during the time of his gun purchase.
But today, defense attorneys are planning to call Hunter's daughter
and uncle to testify in an effort to dampen the
impact of Hallie Biden's testimony.
Hunter is facing three charges and as much as 25
years in prison,
plus fines up to
$750,000. Joining me now is my good friend and national
political reporter,
Kate Martel. Kate, it's always so good to see you.
Want to dive right into it.
We know as Hunter Biden's criminal trial is wrapping up
its first week,
what are the biggest takeaways?
We saw this week? There was some pretty dramatic testimony.
It has been really dramatic testimony,
Julia. And you know, it's been almost a tough week
to watch all of this testimony.
Addiction has been a really key theme.
And there have been a lot of really tough details
that we've had to listen to,
some relevant to whether or not he is guilty or
innocent,
but some that were just part of the Biden family
during that era that have been pretty tough to listen
to.
One of my biggest takeaways is how the timing is
going to be so key in this case.
Now, the defense has a pretty tough time making their
case because Hunter Biden has been so open about the
struggles that he's had with addiction.
And so now the defense is going to have to
make a very fine point that,
you know, that they are arguing that when he signed
this document in 2018 to purchase a firearm,
he was not actually lying because he was not actually
on drugs in that exact precise time.
But that's a really tough case to make where,
you know, as you're saying,
Hunter Biden is facing potentially up to 25 years in
prison.
He is a first time offender.
So that is fairly unusual for him to get a
sentence like that if convicted.
But it is putting the defense in a really tough
spot because they're hearing all of these details from the
prosecution this week.
Like you mentioned with Hallie Biden,
you know, some of these details are really hard to
listen to and are really setting up for the defense
to have a pretty tough case to make.
Coming up, Julia, certainly a tough case and we know
historic because this is the first time a sitting
president's child has been involved in a criminal trial or
the defendant in a criminal trial.
So Speaking of this trial,
the defense called Naomi Biden to the stand on Friday.
What was revealed in her testimony?
Yeah, she had some pretty interesting testimony,
Julia, by, you know, talking one of the darkest times
in the Biden family's life.
This is after Beau Biden had passed away and talking
about both of their struggles with addiction.
I think the prosecution was really able to effectively,
you know, describe some of the details
through Hallie Hallie's testimony into,
you know, how she was involved with Hunter Biden
in talking about him being high strung on
when he was on drugs.
But also mentioned that he was also very functional,
that he was able to,
you know, still carry on with day-to-day life when he
was on drugs.
That, you know, all of this testimony really does paint
a picture of a dark time in their lives,
you know, and something that I think that is going
to come in time and time again and,
you know, something that the defense is going to have
to really try to rebut.
Now, Halle Biden, who we should know is the wife
or widow of Beau Biden,
who is Hunter Biden's brother.
In her testimony, she revealed intimate details of her relationship
with Hunter Biden after her late
husband's death. She also spoke on when she threw away
the gun in question,
worried her children would essentially find it.
How big of an impact is Halle Biden's testimony having
on Hunter Biden's trial?
His having a pretty big,
you know, effect on the trial because like you mentioned,
some of these details, you know,
over her throwing away the gun.
This all brings the family into it.
And, you know, while the defense can make the argument
that in theory he wasn't on drugs at this precise
moment in time when he signed this document,
the one, you know, that prosecutors allege that he lied
on this federal form when he was purchasing a gun
and lied about his addiction.
That when you hear the family pulled into it and
you hear her throwing away this gun and talking about
the intimate details of their relationship,
that all of that really does paint a tough picture
on Hunter Biden.
And I think that's what we're going to continue to
see play out and something that as the defense is
now taking the stand,
they're going to have a really hard time trying,
you know, to find a rebuttal to.
You know, it's been interesting watching this trial take place
this week.
We know that President Biden has been overseas and France
commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day and meeting with world
leaders.
But what what has his reaction been to Hunter Biden's
criminal trial?
He's in a really, really tough spot,
Julia. You know, he is,
yes, the commander in chief,
but also he's a dad.
And the Biden family, from everything we've seen,
is a very close family.
He has tried to keep his distance by understanding,
you know, the potential conflicts of interest.
He has actually said that if convicted,
he would not pardon his son,
You know, because of some of these conflicts of interest.
He is not attending the trial and we do not
expect to see him attend the trial even later on.
But we did see a statement earlier this week from
President Biden really talking about how much he loves his
son and talking about it from that stance,
but also then separating himself by understanding he's the he's
the commander in chief and he cannot get involved.
Other family members have been able to get involved in,
you know, be in the trial to support Hunter Biden.
But I think it's a line that President Biden has
not been able to cross,
you know, for good reason.
And he's been having a hard time,
I think, you know, finding this correct balance.
And that's why we saw that statement on Monday to
just start out the trial.
This is day one. And I just want people to
know how much I love my son.
So I mentioned President Biden flying overseas.
We know that first lady Jill Biden has been literally
crisscrossing the Atlantic,
lying to be with her husband,
then to be with her stepson in court.
What type of role is the first lady playing in
Biden's trial?
She's playing an incredibly active role.
Julia, you know, on on Monday,
it was her 73rd birthday and she spent it in
trial.
There was actually a little tidbit from the trial that,
you know, when she saw her son in court,
he was like, hey, I got you a special event
for your birthday,
mom. But, you know, more seriously,
she has been in this trial as many days as
possible.
Like you said, she crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean.
She was supposed to head to France even earlier than
she did go.
But when they got to the airport,
she decided to go back,
back to Delaware, while her husband then went to France.
And then she stayed for the 80th anniversary of D-Day
and Normandy yesterday,
jumped back to United States,
was in trial again today for Hunter Biden and is
expected to go back to France.
So you really do see how much he just wants
to support her son because,
you know, that's some crazy mileage when,
you know, a week that is really critical to the
Biden administration.
You know, some pretty important speeches for her husband to
be making and,
and she is being pulled in both directions and has
been trying to find a way to still be there
for her son.
She has made a really,
I think, big role in this trial by being there
as many days as possible.
Yeah. That's a common theme we've seen with how President
Biden has approached any news story with Hunter.
The family has just continued to embrace him.
We know that Hunter is often at White House events
and he himself has gone on overseas trips with the
president.
Want to switch gears here,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Yahoo is set to address Congress on July 24th.
Kate, we know that even though this is a foreign
conflict happening thousands of miles away,
there are political implications here in the United States.
And we have seen these protests on college campuses and,
you know, major cities in the US over this war.
What can we expect during
Netanyahu's address to Congress? We know that he's a pretty
controversial figure.
Controversial figure is definitely right and I expect
the day in DC when he is here for this
address to be particularly tense.
Like you mentioned, we've seen a lot of these growing
protests on college campuses and you know,
we've even seen a big contingent of Democratic voters who
are unhappy with the support that President Biden has had
for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to actually vote uncommitted over
voting for Biden. You know,
all of this together that were the way that this
will culminate on July 24th when Netanyahu is here.
I expect this to be very tense,
you know, to the point where Republican and Democratic leaders
that were making this announcement made separate statements that they
couldn't agree to the same language and had very different
messages. I also expect to see some boycotts.
For example, Senator Bernie Sanders has already said he will
not attend the speech from Netanyahu.
What I'm going to be interested to see is how
President Biden handles
this week when he actually comes
to Washington, DC, and how intimately is he involved in
these meetings or does he keep his distance?
Because this really does put Democrats in a tough spot
because historically,
President Biden has been supportive of Israel.
But now, because of some of the atrocities that we've
seen,
it's put him in a tough spot.
And he's really seeing the political ramifications,
particularly from progressives and young Democrats
who don't seem as motivated to vote for Biden because
of this conflict that's happening in Palestine.
Absolutely. Well, moving was staying with foreign leaders,
like I said in the open.
Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and apologized for
the delay in US funding for their war,
for the war against Russia.
What else was brought up during that bilateral meeting?
And, you know, was that a little surprising to hear
Biden apologize for the delay in funding and sort of
pinned that on conservatives in Congress?
It was fascinating, Julia, to hear him directly blame Republicans
for holding up the bill.
And, you know, that I think there's a fairly important
meeting that he had with the Zelensky,
you know, on the heels of the first speech that
he made yesterday calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a tyrant.
You know, as part of this meeting,
Biden also announced $225 million
in additional aid to Ukraine.
And a really big key theme of this
meeting we saw was that he is reaffirming the support
that the US has for Ukraine,
that in their war against Russia.
He wants to make sure that Ukraine knows that despite
some of the internal tensions that are happening within the
USA,
lot of Republicans are really hesitant to continue giving Ukraine
funds as this war continues on.
But he wants to show that,
you know, not all Americans feel that way.
And we are very much by your side and want
to do everything we can
to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
So want to move towards the campaign trail with former
President Trump.
He sat down for an interview with Doctor Bill and
spent most of their hour long discussion railing against President
Biden.
No surprise there. Trump also insisted that revenge can be
justified.
What has been the reaction to this?
Sit down. I hear it was quite an interview.
Yeah, it was quite an interview.
And like you said, most of that hour was spent
very much railing against President Biden.
Former President Trump really is been vocal in his criticisms,
particularly after he was convicted of all four felony counts
of falsifying business records in the hush money trial last
week.
You know, he did mention,
you know, like you were saying that he was going,
you know, wants to go and have revenge against some
of
the people that were involved.
That reminds me a lot of the tyrant or sorry.
It reminds me a lot of Trump saying that he,
on day one, wants to get back at some of
his political opponents.
So overall, the reaction that we're hearing is it was
a fairly controversial interview from Trump.
Some of the quotes that he had really did make
waves and really did get some attention.
But overall, Trump just seems vocally very angry and wants
to get a lot off his chest and really wants
to vent.
And Doctor Phil gave him that opportunity.
Yeah, definitely seems like a bit of a therapy session
from what we've read about it.
So going back to President Biden,
he's facing pressure from voters after more than half a
million uncommitted voters during this year's Democratic primaries essentially voted
did not vote for him,
mostly over his handling over the Israel Hamas war.
Will Benjamin Netanyahu's address in July essentially add more fuel
to that fire?
Absolutely, Julia. I think that's
entirely what we're expecting that it's definitely going to put
on the forefront.
I'm going to be interested to see when Netanyahu is
delivering this address,
what is the reaction from the White House?
What is the line that they draw and how do
they balance both wanting to support Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
and Israel in the war against Hamas,
but also at the same time trying to appeal to,
like you mentioned, the half a million
Democratic voters who chose vote uncommitted.
I think it's going to be really tense when
Netanyahu is here and might bring it to a head
because this is really,
really politically important that if these Democratic voters,
I'm not suggesting that they'll vote for former President Trump
and,
you know, turn Republican. But if they stay home and
don't feel motivated by President Biden,
that could very well cost Biden the White House and
that could also cost
Democrats the House and the Senate.
So it's a really important and it's not that far
away from the presidential election.
So we're really is starting to see some of these
ramifications,
you know, being closer to the election.
And I think we're going to have even more of
an effect as this plays out.
I want to move further down the ballot in the
Senate.
The race to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is
heating up.
But Republicans are divided over its messaging on key issues
like women's reproductive rights.
Who are the front runners,
you know, for the
in terms of Republican Senate candidates and how are they
showcasing their leadership in messaging these messaging battles?
So the early front runner is Senator John Thune.
He is somebody who is arguing
that basically when these votes happen over women's reproductive rights,
that they shouldn't be going to debate,
that you should shut it down as quickly as possible.
Basically, Democrats are trying to pin down Republicans in as
many vote votes as possible on
Women's Health issues, that they think that this will really
help them at the ballot box to remind voters
what they think about reproductive rights when it comes to
IVF or when it comes to birth control.
And actually, next week, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is
going to be forcing a vote on in vitro fertilization.
That's IVF. So Senator John Thune's strategy has been,
hey, let's shut this down as quickly as possible.
You know, another person that comes to mind that's looking
to replace McConnell is Senator Rick Scott.
He's been more critical of McConnell and
McConnell's leadership team for not having having a more
coherent, stronger strategy to be able to rebut the Democratic
strategy for trying to force as many of these votes.
Now, a third person is Senator John Cornyn.
And he's basically saying, however Republicans vote,
we need to stay unified so that we can keep
this message
unified. Instead of having some Republicans vote some ways and
some others to really set some Republicans in some tough
votes in some some tough races,
they'd rather all stay on the same page.
Kate Martell, as always, thank you so much for your
expertise.
Good to see ya. Thanks,
Julia. Deliveries of humanitarian aid will soon resume from the
US built pier off of the coast of Gaza.
That's according to the deputy commander of U.S.
Central Command. The Causeway broke down just days after it
was completed when high winds and rough seas disconnected the
floating pier from the beach and caused 3 army vessels
to run aground. 3 service members were injured in the
incident.
One is still in critical condition.
In the first week of operations,
the pier delivered more than
£2,000,000 of aid into the Gaza Strip.
That's expected to increase when operations resume.
The whopping 1,000,000 lbs of aid are expected to cross
the pier every two days.
And good news for job seekers.
The May jobs report showed the US economy added
272,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department data
released Friday.
That's almost 100,000 more jobs than economists expected.
That's welcome news as the same report showed the unemployment
rate ticked slightly higher to 4%.
The increase ended the longest streak of under 4%
unemployment since the 1960s. Meantime,
interest rates will likely remain high through the summer.
Inflation has remained above target through May,
dashing economists hopes of a rate cut this month.
The Florida Supreme Court has denied an effort to reinstate
Democratic state attorney who was removed from office last year.
The decision sides with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis,
who removed Orlando State Attorney Monique Worrell over an alleged
neglect of duty.
Worrell maintains that her removal was politically motivated and was
doing her job as she saw fit.
DeSantis also removed Hillsboro State Attorney Andrew Warren in
2022 for neglect of duty over refusal to enforce bans
on abortion and gender affirming surgeries.
That's it for today's Daily Debrief.
I'm Julia Manchester. Be sure to like,
share and subscribe to The Hills YouTube channel and come
back here soon for the intersection between politics and policy.