unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. four imprint.com i'm or how, solomon in new york and this is cnn it's thursday, june 13, right now on cnn, this morning, house republicans taking on the doj bold, voting to hold attorney general merrick garland in contempt of congress and south florida battered again by heavy rain. and now facing life-threatening flash flooding donald trump back in washington to meet with allies, former enemies, and some of the richest ceos in america plus chaos at the congressional baseball game after protestors stormed the field all right. 6:00 a.m. here in washington alive. look at the capitol on this thursday morning, or at the height really heading into summer since sun's already up here. good morning, everyone on kasie hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us the most powerful law enforcement officer in america, waking up this morning in contempt of congress all right. apparently, we don't have the gavel falling, but we should have been seeing the house of representatives voting to hold attorney general merrick garland in contempt. for refusing to hand over subpoenaed audio recordings of president biden's interview with special counsel robert hur in that interview, biden is questioned about his handling of classified documents. >> her of course, famously infamously described the president as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory we should note republicans do already have a full transcript of the interview. >> they just want the audio to garlin responded to the contempt vote this way, quote, it's deeply disappointing that this house of representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. today's vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers and the justice department's need to protect its investigations here was how speaker mike johnson, after the vote look, we did our job on the contempt i think it sends an important message. we're defending article one and our authority for oversight and we have to do that we'll see what happens next, but the house has to do its work and i'm pleased with the outcome. >> all right, our panels here, let's bring in jeff mason. he's white house correspondent for writers in his cnn this morning debut, former federal prosecutor, elliot williams is also here. kate betting field, former biden white house communications director and mike dub key, former trump white house communications director welcome to all of you. i'm elliott. let me start with you on the legal situation here because i mean, first of all reality by justice department's not going to prosecute merrick garland. this is also not the first time that this has happened. this has become i don't want to say commonplace, but there are now three attorneys general who'd been held in contempt. eric holder back in 2012, because he refused to turn over documents. in effect fast and furious guns scandal, which was a big republican political focus at that time. then there was bill barr who defied a house oversight committee subpoena for documents related to changes to the us census that might not sound political, but actually the census is one of the most political areas that congress often deals with. >> and then now we have eric garland. now, garland has been a very aggressive in saying it's this house that is undermining the rule of law in the system. but look, there's a track record here going back to 2012. now, congress has the right to put someone in congress in contempt that doesn't comply with the things they do, right? and they can request any documents that are related to in the language of the law is very clear legitimate legislative purpose. that's the background here. the problem is that they have the thing that they're claiming that they want in the form of a transcript, all those other instances certainly, eric holder and william barr, involved documents that were not turned over here. congress has as the transcript of the robert hur interview and there's no place in the law that they can point to. anyone can point to that says that a transcript isn't sufficient for congress to do its job. and so the idea that somehow they need an audio recording of this thing that happened just isn't the case. it's never been something that congress has requested in law enforcement ought to fight this to the death because they should not. it gets in the way of law enforcement purposes to have every audio recording possibly turned over to congress. >> so jeff mason, let's dig into why it is that they might want the audio recording. i mean, if you read the her report basically, they seem to think, well, this is going to really make president biden look like an old man, which is one of their most let's potent arguments in the presidential election for sure. and it's the primary reason the white house doesn't want it out there, or the biden campaign for that matter. >> not that they have a voice in this, but the republican side has said that they want the audio recordings in order to compare them to the transcript because they accused the white house of doctoring transcripts of the president. but i think you can neutrally and objectively say that this is about politics, this is about getting out a interview that did not generally go well for the president in terms of the political ramifications of it, they would like to have his voice. they would like to have him looking old. they would like to have him looking like an elderly man with a poor memory and being able to play that in a commercial trawler played on tv or play it for their supporters. mike deputy, do you want to make an argument? this isn't just pure politics shore for the same reason that most of the news organizations have requested this audio recording. i believe cnn cnn has made this audio recording writers? no no. >> you sure. >> well, this is your not not not aware of it. >> here's the point of this. >> you can make the political argument, however, to eliot's point earlier, this is congress exercising its right to make a request of the executive branch. >> this is us us political one-on-one. so there's nothing wrong with making the request and there's something frankly wrong with holding the attorney general in contempt for not acquiescing to that request, but for the same reason that the news media wants the transcript. there are things that get lost. or i'm sorry, the audio recording. there are things that get lost in transcripts that you do pull out if audio recordings, you can write one line of script in an actor, can make that sound 1010 different i work in television and i understood the power of the visual medium and it sounded sure. >> so i mean, you can make the argument that its political, but i think you can also make the argument for all the same reasons that news organizations are requesting the audio recording that there is some import to, there's one big caveat news organizations aren't congress and they have a very different function and a very different job. if congress is investigating something with the goal toward either congressional oversight or passing legislation, they do not need a video that has been the practice of both parties of congress but presidential administrations, going back to time in the warm is being broken. >> i know we should be glad that the news media is different than congress or the newsmaker would hold. are the attorney general in contempt almost every day for things i'll for sure. >> what i that's but that's part of what makes this so blatant. >> when you political right, it's outside the traditional scope of the way congress, he uses these, these authorities. and so i think we're talking about the politics of this. i think for the average voter who's watching this, this is an extension of the republican congress being incredibly focused on these incredibly political issues that using their time to i've tried to hammer biden and then biden administration rather than trying to actually get things done that impact the american people. so for the democrats, that's an argument that they can make about all of this as well. well, let me ask you this as we right before we had to break punchbowl, put it this way this morning, house republicans have impeached the homeland security secretary, alejandro mayorkas. they voted to hold garland in contempt. they've thrown threatened to hold secretary of state antony blinken encount in contempt. gop committee chairs have handed out subpoenas like halloween candy, but just about the only person the house gop's oversight hasn't really touched is president joe biden much to the chagrin of former president donald trump? yes. but they've tried, by the way, i mean, they've spent months and months and months. >> jim comer has been months and months and months trying to make a case. they have they it's like they wound up and we're like ready to hit the pitch. and then there was nothing because they haven't been able to make this key connection that they want to be able to make. and so this is in some ways, i think them doing this is also a little bit of face-saving, right? it's like, well, we couldn't get the big fish, so we're we're over here trying to grab all the medium fish. i mean, it just it seems like they'd they didn't quite get didn't quite get what they were going for one, a very quick one. no, i've been lucky just wanted analyze the ways of gone after the democrats have also going after themselves around the second speaker. >> so there's a large you're going a while. >> and then of course, there's this donald trump is gonna be back in washington today. >> we're going to tell you the officials will be meeting with and the ones who simply are too busy to make it. plus president biden vowing not to pardon his own son. might he be? 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x marks the spot. now you can add the new xfinity streamsaver™ that includes netflix, peacock, and apple tv+. that's xfinity streamsaver™ for just $15 a month. all your favorites. all in one place. only from xfinity. for more watching and less spending... x marks the spot. do it all on the network made for streaming, and bring on the good stuff. for veterans go to dab.org the most anticipated moment of this election. and the stakes couldn't be higher. >> the president and they'll former president, one stage two, very different visions for america's future that cnn presidential debate thursday, june 27th, nine life, i'd cnn and streaming and backs to the prison what i'm saying is he was asked about a pardon. >> he was asked about he was asked about the trial specifically, and he answered it very clearly, very forthright the white house, they're not ruling out the possibility that the president could commute the sentence of his son, hunter, who was found guilty on three federal gun charges earlier this week. >> prior to a hundreds conviction, the president vowed he would not pardon his son on the commutation question, the white house response yesterday was a little bit different from what we had heard last september. watch one with the precedent parking commute, his son if he's convicted. >> so i've answered this question before it was asked of me not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago, and i was very clear and i said no so again that was the old answer, but keep adding field. we actually were talking about this yesterday on the show that for the president, a commutation it's a little bit hard to see him. the president, the father, not trying to do something to help his son, but obviously the political ramifications are intense. what do you make of how corinne john pierre answered this question yesterday? yeah. well, she definitely left space. i mean, they're clearly leaving themselves space. i think there's no question about that. they obviously know how to answer the question in september, she gave a vaguer answer yesterday. certainly intentionally, i would imagine to give them to give themselves space. i think politically look, he he was very clear about the issue of the pardon. he understands the signal that it sends. he obviously is trying to draw really stark contrast with donald trump in terms of presidential behavior and keeping your thumb off the scale and not inappropriately interfering with the justice system. i think he certainly wants to maintain that contrasts in terms of whether he ultimately commutes the sentence of his son. i think there would be an understanding for most people who have children that you're looking to protect your child from the very worst of the ramifications of potential prisons commutation wouldn't be a pardon wouldn't erase the conviction, would not clean the slate but you wouldn't potentially to find it based on what i see from their answer there, i think i think they're considering it and yes, i do think they could. i do think they could defend it on the grounds that he's looking out for his problems. >> the public doesn't know the difference between pardon and commute like virat asked what happened to scooter libby, people would say, wait, was he pardoned? was he can be like what and bush commuted him, but it's just confusing right now. you're exactly right. a pardon would would wipe the slate clean, commutation means he's still felon, but doesn't have a sentence on his on his record, so he if the state doesn't allow him to vote or run for office or getting insurance license or whatever that we still know. >> there's there's a question. it would be cleaner for them to just say no. yeah. yeah. but i think the reality of family here is what it is kate knows better than i do about how preparation goes into briefings and gaggles, but i have a slightly different take on that answer. >> i would not have taken that answer to me. they're not ruling it out. i take that answer to mean craig didn't have another talking point prepared and i don't mean that pejoratively. i think that she was did her job was to stick to what the president said president said, i'm not going to pardon him. she wasn't really prepared to talk about the difference was preferred and said, it should september should have mean i heard the question that was my colleague, honor, from the ap. he included both of those words in that question. i don't know you know, better than i do. >> yeah. it's certainly happens the press secretary has to deal with incoming on every topic and sometimes they aren't prepared on a particular topic i sort of have a hard time believing given that this is so front-and-cente r that they hadn't prepped for this. i mean, typically, the biggest piece of the briefing each day of the prep for the briefing each day is going through what are the five things that are talking? top of mind for every reporter and what are the questions that i'm going to get? so i don't know. i was it was not part of this prep and you you're absolutely right. sometimes that is the case i have a hard time believing they didn't prep for this question titration. fair enough. >> i just like i didn't walk away from that. i listened to that gaggle yesterday and i didn't walk away writing a story that they're not ruling this out. she didn't answer. she just said is already said no to a pardon. very interesting for those of our viewers, we're just at meeting jeff on this show. >> you have done this for so many years, sat on the plane, ask questions of people like kate, probably to jeff go bad. >> it actually was really awkward when we sat down yeah. when i hold my very professional rods anyway, it's it's why i love having both of you. thank you. both. all right. come coming up next here. we've got more flooding on the way for south florida creating life-threatening conditions plus protesters stormed the field at a congressional baseball game. at the congressional baseball game, there's only one. it's one of five things you have to see this morning juneteenth celebrating freedom and legacy wednesday at 100 and cnn. so the irs is auditing your company happened to me a couple of months ago. >> it was nothing i asked mark them ever wonder where the people with all the answers get all the answers. ask markham, accountants and advisers and the furniture business things move fast. >> ziprecruiter helps us hire qualified candidates who keep up. >> we needed a project manager yesterday. >> we posted a job on ziprecruiter and had our guy on the site and five days, he was qualified and everyone zip recruiter finds the best candidates for all our jobs and they helped us build our dream team. and then you did it fast does that too fast for you 44 out of five employers who post on ziprecruiter data quality candidate within the first day, try for free at ziprecruiter.co m slash higher i have moderate to severe crohn's disease. >> now, they're sky rosie, things are looking up. i've got some really control macron's means everything thanks and may feel significant symptom relief at four weeks with sky rosie, including less abdominal mental pain and fewer bowel movements. sky rosie is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improved damage. the intestinal lining and the majority of people people experienced long-lasting remission at one year, serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur tell your doctor if you have an infection o