place as the first son faces up to 25 years behind bars. we'll watch how it goes. good morning. feels like we were here a week ago. >> ainsley: court tv. this is "america's newsroom," i'm dana perino. great to be here no matter what the news is. the jury is seated and opening statements have gun. first lady jill biden is there as well the show of support coming ahead of -- it could be a rough two weeks for her son. >> bill: prosecutors expected to call three of hunter's exs. ex wife, ex girlfriend and the widow of his late brother beau. prosecutors try to prove he lied on an application for a gun. >> dana: let's go to rich edson in wilmington, delaware to get us underway. >> another strong showing from the first family here as the first lady has arrived. hunter biden arriving as well for the first day of opening statements in this federal gun case. hunter arrived a half hour ago with his attorney abbe lowell. shortly after that jill biden. another s.u.v. showing up with hunter's sister arbery and filmmaker kevin morris who bankrolled much of his defense. open arguments begin with the prosecution. hunter's attorneys, 45 minutes for each presentation and special counsel begins presenting its case against hunter. the prosecution revealed last night it would open calling f.b.i. special agent area jenson to the witness stand. jury selection ended with a jury of six men, six women. one worked for secret service. have family members who own firearms, at least five have friends or family affected by drugs. hunter faces three felonies in connection with a 2018 gun purchase. prosecutors accuse him of lying on a federal firearm form that asked if he was a drug user and they say he illegally possessed the gun for a week and a half. prosecutors have signaled they may call hunter's ex-wife and hallie biden, the widow of beau biden, hunter's brother. a judge indicated the trial could go at least a couple of weeks. it could go into a third week when you factor in jury deliberations. >> bill: trey gowdy joins us now. good morning to you. let's talk about the facts, right? hunter was just out of rehab. he put in the application. the application asks whether or not you on drugs. he says no. and he gets the firearm. are those facts in dispute? >> well, i think the application asked whether or not you are an addict or unlawful user. let's separate the two. addict is probably a medical term. you will need an expert to say whether or not someone is addicted. there are no lawful users of cocaine base. so if this were a valium or other drug case there are lawful users of those controlled substances. there are no lawful users of cocaine base. his best defense is i really wasn't an addict. i may have told people i was but i don't meet the medical definition or really his best defense is one of jury nullification. think about how many gop second amendment tootists there are. they don't think there ought to be any gun laws. addict, convicted felon. you will hear a little bit of a jury nullification argument over the next couple of weeks. >> dana: the jury breakdown as of yesterday, six women, six men, three white females, plea black females. i thought this was interesting, too, just like with the trump case we're dealing with someone that has 100% name idea especially in delaware. the questions ranged from things like your views regarding the 2024 election. would that affect your thoughts? or do you believe hunter biden is being prosecuted because his dad is the president and a candidate for president? and do you believe the government should not be able to require a background check for a gun purchase? when they were going forward to try to get the jury, that's what they had to consider. your thoughts about the difference between trump trying to get a fair trial in new york city, and biden trying to get a fair trial in delaware. >> dana, i have this really bad habit, i'm working on it. i try to be fair. there is a small constituency for that. if it was donald trump or donald thomas we wouldn't have been in new york. if this were hunter jones or hunter smith we would be talking about something else this morning. so we have to get beyond treating people differently based their political status or what their last name is. i did gun prosecutions for six years and went after convicted felons, people who were fugitives from justice. i went after lots of different people proper prohibited from having a firearm. i bet there weren't a dozen about this application. of all the cases you could be pursuing in delaware, why are you pursuing this one? >> bill: here is one takeaway on nbc. it was impossible to escape the presence of the first family, their influence, and their long history hovering over the courtroom as we mentioned the first lady was there yesterday on her birthday. atlanta quickly, trey. there has been a hearing set for october 4th, which is 31 days away from the election that clearly shows right now that the fani willis matter in atlanta, georgia will not be decided pre-election time. the statement from trump's attorney we look forward to telling the judge why the case should be dismissed and fulton county d.a. be -- misconduct and violation of the georgia rules of professional conduct. in a bigger sense here do we believe right now that the only case for sure that will be decided was the one last week here in new york? if we believe that, with a supreme court still yet to rule on the issue of immunity and not fully understanding the appeals process, is the bragg case settled for now? and is that the only case that will be settled prior to the election? >> i think the answer to your second question is yes. the other three cases will not make it to a jury or a verdict between now and the election. as to whether or not the supreme court will reach down and take jurisdiction, i don't see it. i know a lot of people who made better grades than i did-in-law school think there is a way for the supreme court to do it. i think they're tired of being involved in political cases. it may work its way up to the u.s. supreme court but i don't think they'll reach down and say hey, because this defendant is donald trump and running for president, we're going to assert jurisdiction. i don't see that happening. >> dana: trey gowdy, thank you so much. >> bill: good to talk to you. come back soon. >> dana: happening today on capitol hill attorney general merrick garland will be testifying before the house judiciary committee. republicans say the department of justice has become politicized under his leadership. about two weeks ago that same committee voted to hold garland in contempt of congress. back again he goes. chad pergram live from capitol hill to get us set up for that news. hi. >> good morning. he is stepping into the lion's den, the judiciary and oversight committee voted to hold merrick garland in contempt of congress. at the hearing today he is going to punch back against that. a lot of questions about prosecutions and donald trump, whether or not there is any influence by the d.o.j. when it came to the prosecution of the former president in new york. here is republican missouri senator eric schmidt. >> former prosecutor i'm deeply concerned about our judiciary system being held hostage and taken advantage of the weaponization we saw in new york. this is a really dangerous road to go down for the country. >> the house has not set a date to vote on contempt of congress for garland. it is about the math. unclear if the house would have the votes. garland says he views contempt as a serious matter. he adds that he will not be intimidated. the house wants to hold garland in contempt for not releasing audio tapes of president biden's interview with special counsel robert hur. that's from the classified documents case. >> it's appropriate. all we're saying we want the best evidence. the actual recording. because the special counsel hur basically used the demeanor of the president as his rationale for not pursuing charges on the president. we want to hear the audio. >> republicans also want to defund special counsel investigations like the one for former president trump. democrats find that ridiculous. >> i'm sure there are scenarios were republicans were calling for special prosecutors to be put in place in order to address any kind of political concerns. and, you know, if you move away from that and don't have it, that just means that merrick garland would be left directly in charge of whatever prosecutions go forward. i know they are upset and i know they're flailing around right now. >> we're always going to hear about a letter that was written to garland by several republican members of the judiciary committee, including chip roy, thomas massey of kentucky. they want a full accounting of all the prosecutions pertaining to january 6th. dana. >> dana: chad pergram, thank you. >> bill: we'll be watching. there is this. >> president biden: folks, it's real simple. it is time to act. long past time to act. >> bill: three months ago and now we get the ruling from today. executive order. keep in mind the president signed more than 70 executive orders on the border and immigration when he took office. today he will do another one and it will go in a different direction. we'll see what kind of difference that makes. >> dana: a fundraising windfall for the trump campaign it keepsing up and new polling on the four issues that could decide the election. we'll have it for you. >> bill: the man many blame for locking down the country is called on the hot seat. congressman brad wenstrup was in charge of grilling anthony fauci and tell us what he found out next. >> do you agree that there was a push to downplay the lab leak theory? 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(laughing) call 1-800-388-8881 to schedule a free hearing evaluation and unlock our best deal of the year! >> dana: fox news alert here. the lapd issuing a tactical alert after a group of pro-palestinian protestors set up an encampment outside city hall yesterday. 20 tents and 50 people lining the downtown l.a. sidewalk. demonstrators seen waving flags and shouting slogans in support of a free gaza. police say they're monitoring the encampment. so far no reports of any arrests. we'll keep an eye on it as they deal with that over there. >> is it possible that covid-19 was the result of a laboratory-related accident? >> absolutely. >> and based on that answer, i think is the hypothesis that covid-19 accidentally leaked from a lab a conspiracy theory? >> no. the concept of it is not a conspiracy theory. >> bill: this went on for house. house republicans putting fauci in the hot seat. after he dismissed the idea may have emanated from the lab in wuhan, china. also pressed whether or not he was the one who is responsible for the six-foot social distancing idea. brad wenstrup, chairman of the house covid origin subcommittee with me now. good morning. it was interesting. i just think -- i have a few pointed questions, number one. was any of this policy criminal do you believe? >> well, everyone is asking me that question and that remains to be seen. we'll have to really review all the things that dr. fauci has said and then what he has said in transcribed interviews and what he has said yesterday and what are the actual regulations and rules and is there criminal liability within the agency? that's one of the problems we have, bill. no matter what you do wrong within your agency or people under with within your agency there isn't necessarily criminal liability unless you lie under oath. we saw people violating foia. was dr. fauci involved in that as well? we asked for his g mails. >> bill: did u.s. taxpayers help fund the lab in wuhan, china, yes or no? >> without a doubt. and what's even worse is the process that took place. dr. fauci signs the grants that went towards that and he says it is just comes from an advisory board and he signs it. he doesn't even know what the grants are for. we have so many millions of dollars going out in grants i can't keep track of that stuff so i sign them. in effort on the nia or niaid side and the compliance was not held when it came to the rules of the grant with dr. daszak. when i sign a prescription, bill, that prescription is on me and i'm responsible for it. apparently not dr. fauci. >> bill: he seemed to downplay the lab leak speaking. do you agree with that, yes or no? >> what's interesting is what he says now is that yeah, that could have happened. but you go back in time, here they were in their internal documents that we were able to get ahold of saying it looks engineer, likely came from the lab and he goes on the white house lawn and says it came from nature. so he never addressed the possibility of it coming from the labor created in the lab. he only went with nature. now he says oh, i was always open to it. well, he wasn't. he called it conspiracy theory and we brought that out on many occasions yesterday. >> that's an important distinction. you think about the early days of covid especially all the media running to fauci to get his view on this. question for you, did he screw this up? >> i would say in many ways that part of the problem that we had is there was just a lack of clarity across the board. when you come out and you say that everything i'm telling you is based on science and then we find out he says later the six-foot rule just sort of appeared. now he is blaming that on the cdc. when he talks about the masking, there was no science behind that. he didn't say that when he addressed america and he didn't say that it possibly came from a lab when he was talking about it coming from nature. so yeah, a lot of people have been harmed by the decisions that have been made. >> bill: this is dr. mccormick republican from georgia. the one asking this question. audio clip that's played with a journalist who is doing an interview with fauci. >> when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological -- and they get vaccinated. >> thank you. are all objections to covid vaccinations ideological [bleep]? >> no, they aren't and that's not what i was referring to. >> in reference to making it hard for people to get education, traveling, working, i would say it very much was in context. i take great offense to this. >> bill: i don't know how you heard that. i want to go back to the opening line there. fauci says when you make it difficult for people in their lives, there is no question in hindsight, this was a difficult way to live for everyone. how did you hear that? >> same as you did, bill. there is no doubt about it. not only that, what he wanted was to be able to mandate people getting the vaccine. he clearly wanted that. he was for that. and let me just say something about that. while people were being mandated to get the vaccine, we have people coming across our border by the thousands unvaccinated, not only unvaccinated for covid-19, but unvaccinated for all the things that we were vaccinated as children and now these kids are in our schools and you are seeing a rise in other things. i will tell you this, dr. mccormick, i wanted him on the committee. he was the only one of us that was actually out treating covid patients during covid. he is a freshman member of congress. he was in the thick of it and i thought it was important we have him on there and that proved it yesterday. >> bill: from one doctor to another. let's see what you can get next. thank you for coming on. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> senseless act of violence, a total disregard for life. >> dana: new york city mayor eric adams after two nypd officers were shot chasing a suspect in queens yesterday. what we are learning about the gunman. another busy morning on capitol hill. merrick garland at a hearing on congress and president biden's new executive order on the border. we're monitoring that and we'll be right back. no mask? 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