paul: welcome to the journal editorial report, the federal trial of hunter biden is underway, the first son is facing three felony count stemming from his purchase of a gun in 2018. prosecution rested its case friday after calling hunter's ex-wife and former girlfriends to testify about his drug use during the period in question and introducing his infamous laptop into evidence facing a bruising election campaign remounts against donald trump. president biden told abc news he will accept the jury's verdict of his son is convicted. >> will you accept the verdict no matter what it is? >> president biden: yes. >> have you ruled out a pardon? >> president biden: yes. eric: let's bring in dan heninger, bill mcgurn, bill, how strong is the case against hunter? >> the case is very strong. three felony counts, lying about being a user, lying to a licensed gun dealer, possessing a gun illegally. he had 11 days, he would have more if haley biden hadn't founded and gotten rid of it. eric: you think the evidence is strong. critics say, people aren't usually charged for this kind of crime and if hunter weren't the president's son, he wouldn't be charged. >> talk to andy mccarthy, federal prosecutor, he says they are conflating that with cases, you didn't charge, he got the gun, was reckless with the gun and so forth, it's a fair trial. something has gone on with georgetown, bill clinton famously didn't understand what the word is meant when they asked if he was carrying on with monica lewinsky. hunter biden's lawyers are making the same argument. it depends what is meant when you say that. he didn't identify as a drug addict. but there is all texts. there's text about drug dealers after he got the gun. eric: the prosecution called haley biden his brother's, 1-time girlfriend, what did they add to the case? >> he did do time in rehab. he was very much doing well during that period. the witnesses, he attested he wasn't an addict to buy the gun. it's a clear case, the best perspective of hunter's status at the time, refuting his attempts to evade. to purchase the gun. eric: the arguments, seems to be they don't dispute the fundamental facts of hunter's statement of mind. >> that is true, abby lowell is throwing some hail marys, hunter biden was not response will, he was under pressure for doing this sort of thing. it has been a very weak case. the question is where is this case going to come out. they got it in delaware, and they exonerate hunter, what if he is found innocent, within days of donald trump being found guilty in manhattan. the political effect is just another weight on the scale for president biden and a lot of republican leaners, whether they vote for donald trump or not. a lot of them leaned towards trump. more than those republican leaners will head towards trump. eric: not to contest the facts, what's known for jury not of occasion. the evidence, and vote not guilty no matter what? >> and let's know the trial, one thing is notable about it, the biden department of justice, recognizing the validity of the laptop, they are contested that. president biden actually lied to the american people in the debate when he denied the laptop was real and so was russian disinformation, incited former intelligence officials who put out a statement to help with that. he is implicated a little way. i believe president biden when he says he will not pardon his son? >> there's no one in america who believes that. president biden has covered for his son at every turn, has denied all of the allegations about hunter's struggled and tried to portray this as just attacks coming from conservatives. he knows hunter is counting on him to pardon him in the eventuality of a conviction. i don't think there's any reason to doubt he would follow through with that. he's going to think that maybe he will take a little bit of a political history doing it but certainly that is something he will think is worth it. eric: especially after the election. still had as donald trump turns the campaign trail, a closer look at the political fallout from his conviction in a new york ct. . we will talk to karl rove about what posttrial polls are telling us next. it. paul: donald trump returned the campaign trail after his conviction in a manhattan court, it stopped thursday in the battleground state of arizona where a new fox poll shows him in a five point lead over president biden. he has touted his fundraising in the wake of the verdict and predicted a voter backlash against the case claiming in an interview this week that his numbers are better now than they were three weeks ago. are they? let's ask wall street journal columnist and fox news contributor karl rove. the hunter biden trial, what do you think of the political into -- impact? >> not going to be good for the sitting president because it is going to give voters were not enthusiastic about either of their choices this time around a chance to say all politicians are coca-cola look at the son of the sitting president, drug addict and lied about purchasing a gun and apparently charged with not paying his taxes. a pox on all their houses. paul: let's turn a week or so to the trump verdict. some polls out there, do you see any trend in the polling? >> two contradictory trends. on the one hand a number of polls showing a significant number of independents, high plurality or majority of independents think donald trump ought to end his campaign and a significant number of republicans, 10% republicans said he should end, another one was 16% so in terms of specific reaction, it's not helpful for donald trump but the ballot hasn't changed much. we don't have about of national polls, other polls have shown the race is where it was before the announcement. my view is it will take a wild for this all to sort of make itself felt and work its way through the system but the biggest thing will be how these two men conduct themselves. if they make it a centerpiece of their campaign either in the case of donald trump in order to complain with rage and a a over how he was treated or president biden to point finger and say convicted felon convicted felon convicted felon, whichever campaign if either campaign adopt that strategy they are going to hurt themselves. it was significant that at the speech on thursday in arizona donald trump spent very little time on the court case and lots of time on the broken southern border. that was smart on his part. we don't know how the president and his team will handle it because he's on a foreign trip where inserting the topic into a speech like the day not being particularly smart. in the immediate aftermath of it, he was at oppressor in the washington white house on the middle east and at the end a shouted question about it let him to turn around and with a very weird grimace on his face, for seven seconds he grinned at the camera. i don't know if that was intentional or not but wasn't a good look. paul: let's start with the president. he's making the centerpiece of his campaign about donald trump. she wants he wants to say he is a threat to democracy, to reminder people he will bring chaos. he is divisive. seems to me, his initial response to the verdict by using the phrase convicted felon, he is trying to attach that as part of his larger theme. you are saying that is a bad strategy. why? >> people are going to say it is clouded by they prosecuted him in the first place, what about his son. it's one thing to go after that and another to say on january 6th, he sat for nearly two hours and didn't do anything as this riot was attempting to take down the capital and we need a president who will lead the country in a moment like that. that is an effective attack but to do as they didn't say convicted felon, this case is not easy for people to understand. it is a business records case, for misdemeanor to a felony because it involved campaign election law violations. it's murky for people. yes, attack, biden art to attack trump but on things people care about and what matters to them and what matters to them is the broken border, the cost of living, the world that we live in and energy costs. none of these things are things people are worried about an everyday lives particularly people up for grabs in this election. paul: it seems i agree with you, the president, donald trump will be very smart not to focus on this verdict because that plays into biden's hands of making the election about donald trump. make this about president biden's policies and record and how trump spent the next four years making your life better. >> absolutely. that's the challenge for each one of them. we are tired of hearing about them in the here and now. we want to hear what they will do in the future and if they have something to say about the other guy, it ought to be concerned with the things we are concerned about as ordinary americans making our way through our lives each day. eric: when we come back, an appeals court in georgia halts the election interference case against donald trump and a major setback to one of the three case is still pending against the former president. frustrated by skin tags? 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>> a lot of people watching beforehand expect a lot of the country made up its mind about charges brought against donald trump. most republicans believe with credibility that it was a politically motivated indictment in new york and so when the verdict came out, they thought the judge helped to engineers this, the outcome was for gone and rally to donald trump's defense and make the more enthusiastic about supporting him. a few people did think that conviction was unacceptable but by and large it seems like republicans really rallied to his defense. on the other hand there was no doubt democrats were going to try to make this their main campaign theme. donald trump is now a felon and tried to convince independent voters he's no longer an acceptable option for office. if you look at the earliest polls, doesn't seem the battle lines have shifted that much after the verdict. paul: you have republicans who through recent years were highly critical of trump, mitt romney, susan collins, mitch mcconnell, the senate minority leader, they criticized the case and said it never should have been. were you surprised by that? >> i'm not surprised. you see the momentum building inside this case which was hard to understand that, they took some business record misdemeanors and build them into a felon related to new york state campaign finance laws that most people watching, watching the legal analysts, this was happening, people having trouble getting their hands around what alvin bragg was attempting to do. ultimately the president was convicted by this manhattan jury. what's the word on the lips of every democrat in america since? convicted felon, convicted felon. paul: that is redundant. you don't need to say convicted if you are a felon. >> that is what they are going to do, redundancy or not. it is striking that this process has caused people like mitt romney to say that donald trump was the subject of an unfair effort by the democrats. if you look across the electorate, one indeed, it is clear many republicans standing back saying i don't think i can vote for biden or trump are now saying i think i am going to have to support trump just to put some balance into the system against what the democrats are attempting to do. paul: it has political ramifications, larry hogan, who has the republican nomination for senate in maryland, the only republican anywhere in the world who could win in that state, said before the verdict, i want to be calm, i want everybody to trust the jury here. he was roundly criticized by lara trump running for the national committee, donald trump's daughter in law. she threatened to withhold support from larry hogan. is that smart? >> no, it isn't. i agree with lara trump. in a sense, people see the trial was unfair, not to win in maryland, you're not going to get the same kind of republican you get elsewhere. i am in new jersey. i have a similar problem. i think larry hogan has the best chance republicans have. you need their votes on things later. even donald trump would need -- eric: he couldn't run if he didn't take the senate. >> the larger problem i think is that all these verdicts, saying felon, don't scratch the itch of voters who are worried about inflation, crime, borders. looks like an invasion. it might move the polls slightly now but i don't think by november it will help president biden on the big issues. paul: it looks increasingly like the new york case will go to trial before the election, the georgia case, the prosecutor has messed it up. that helps trump enormously in terms of not having to face another trial. let me ask you a question about new york. president biden could pardon trump for a state offense, should he say governor hochul, you should pardon him? >> there are few things in this world less likely than joe biden deciding not to pardon his son hunter, that might be one. paul: wouldn't he get a benefit from that politically? >> i think he would get attacks from his own base, to the point of insanity, would not be worth whatever political bump he might get out of that. he will stick with the strategy of convicted felon all the way to november. paul: shot down again. president biden issues and executor for he says will stem migrants at the southern border but will it be enough to contain the political damage from three years of inaction? ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪ everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. when you're in the military you're really close with your brothers and your sisters that are in the military with you. and when you get out of the military, you kind of lose that until you find a new family. we can talk about our struggles and the things that we did overseas and not everybody can do that. adam! how's it going, brother? we live pretty close to each other. so he's always coming over. when i go to jack's house, we watch a lot of football, hang out. we go outside the friendship has kind of grown into a family i was overseas on a deployment. i got separated from my marines and i got hit in the neck, and it broke my neck and paralyzed me. 14 years ago, i was on a training mission. did a military freefall, and i had some faulty equipment. i hit the ground. going, 30 to 40 knots and was instantly paralyzed. i met jack fanning when he invited us to park city, utah, through his foundation. i was able to actually get on the mountain and ski with my family, i can't put into words what that meant. i got paid in the military to do crazy fun stuff. and after my accident, i'm still that same guy. and when i was able to jump out of a perfectly good, helicopter, at 10,000 feet, i did it. i was talking to some vet■s last week amazing how we have these houses where they can come over because they■re in chairs too. carpet and wheelchairs don't mix very well. tunnel to towers, they got rid of all that. they redid my whole bathroom. that's probably the favorite part of my house. i thought they were just going to do the upgrades. but the surprise to me was they paid off the entire mortgage. when they told me they're going to pay off my mortgage, i cried. please contribute $11 a month by visiting t2t.org now >> president biden: using executive authorities to do what i can on my own. to address the border. migrants restricted receiving our asylum at the southern border. unless they seek it after an established lawful process. paul: mounting political pressure, president biden on tuesday signed an executive order that he says will stem the surge of migrants at the southern border. the president blamed republicans for scuttling the bipartisan border package saying he was left with no choice but to go it alone on the new rules which would block migrants seeking asylum when the seven day average of illegal processing sees 2500. we are back with dan heninger and bill mcgurn and wall street journal columnist alicia finley. you've been looking at this executive order on policy merits, and improvement over current policy? >> and improvement, it puts a on migrants who claim asylum between ports of entry at 2500 just to put that in comparison, we have been getting 6000 this year. during fiscal year, 7500. practical difficulties and legal challenges that will inevitably come up and hamper their ability to force it. paul: you think it would make a difference at the border and readers the flow and send a message to migrants around the world, don't come? >> i think it could. it is a little too little too late but if it gets implemented and that's the big question. it could make a difference. there are various carveouts for unaccompanied minors. and exemption for the conventions against torture. and as written, could actually be an improvement over the status quo. paul: the president is getting criticism from members of his own party, the political left, because he has broken from his policy of 31/2 years. is this going to help him politically with voters who say a mildly -- he is finally broken out of the progressive jail he put himself in for 31/2 years on not only this policy but so many others? >> support for israel and hamas and palestinian protesters the political team is so upset about. the same problem has persisted all three years of his presidency, allowing the border to stay open the way it is and now that he is doing this, the president does run some risk. we are talking with younger democratic voters. this election is going to be based on turnout. you have to have people motivated to turn out. both sides, especially president biden, has some problems on the democratic left with motivating younger voters, they don't vote in presidential elections. he had to do something. with the broader electorate, migration across the border had become a major issue. hard as it is to be leave, you would not have expected this to be the top 2 or 3 shoots out people's minds but it is. the question is have voters already discounted, already absorbed it and could be that mister biden has done this too late to make a difference with the broader electorate. paul: the effect that voters say five months before an election, come on, man. i think about we are going to pretend to crackdown on immigration until the election and the voters understand that. president biden's problem is not just the progressive