bars in clark county. >> you have potential victory is lying in those sales at least for now. i want to i guess is it makes a huge difference night, i step toward voters like elliot carver hall having their voices heard, it felt a little bit of empowerment, a little slow, a little tiny bit sara marie joins us now from las vegas. >> so this is the first time he's running boost had been used. how did the process go? >> it went pretty smoothly, although there were voters who showed up to vote and found out they were actually registered in a different county or in some cases, in a different state, which is negating the education gap that still exist for those who are behind bars. there were dozens of folks who wanted to vote from the jail today and we expect that that's going to number is going to be even longer when we get to the general election in november. this was sort of a dry run for the big event coming up, anderson be interesting to do polling and see if they're running for it? >> sir, maria, thanks so much in news continues. the source of kaitlan collins starts now i'm kaitlin collins. >> welcome to the source tonight. president biden wasn't scheduled to be back home in wilmington or what happened? inside the delaware courtroom earlier, abruptly changed his plants is only surviving son, hunter biden was convicted on all three felony gun charges just that he was facing today. hours later, hunter biden was standing on the tarmac, as you can see here, to greet his father when marine one landed in delaware it was striking to see the two of them embrace for the first time since that guilty verdict came down. >> in his only comment so far on the matter, president biden said, in part in his statement i am the president, but i am also a dad because he also praised his son for overcoming a battle with drug addiction. >> but this conviction also comes in the middle of a presidential election. there was also a message tonight and biden statement regarding his role as president he said that he will accept the outcome of this case, that he does accepted and they also respect the judicial process, seeming to reiterate a promise that he made last week that he won't part in. hunter biden but as biden balances both being an english parent and president in-between the verdict and that we're union that you just saw there on the tarmac. >> he also gave a speech on gun safety in washington it's time once again, do what i did when i was a senator, ban assault weapons before that speech, that was preplanned. i should note before the verdict came down this morning, it was in the delaware courtroom where the jury's decision on hunter biden was unanimous, guilty but notably three jurors told cnn after that they question whether or not these charges should have been brought at all a fourth, that was known to only us as juror number ten, said no politics were at play when they were deliberating their decision pressure, inviting never really even came in to play for me. you kinda put that out of your mind. politics was not even spoken about the first family was not even spoken about. it was all it was all about hunter and of course, as we know it, as far from over for hunter biden, he is facing sentencing on the gun conviction that is going to come at the height of the general presidential election and another potentially even more serious trial on tax charges. >> this fall. >> few people know more about the personal toll that this is taken on president biden than my source tonight. >> evan owls knows is one of the country's foremost biden biographers and a cnn contributor. he is the author of joe biden, their life, the run and what matters now and having joins me now, i mean, there's basically no precedent for what we are seeing right now. a president's a sitting president's immediate family member has never been convicted on any kind of crime while they were in office. and i just wonder what you make of it, what stood out to you have how president biden reacted today? >> yeah, it is something extraordinary to see. i mean, he is balancing these two distinct roles as father and as president and on some level, this combination of private life and public life has been at the center of his relationship with hunter since hunter was a baby after all you remember, of course, his mother was killed in that car accident when he was a toddler, joe biden at that point was between being elected and being sworn into the senate his hunters entire life has been in some ways straddling the struggles, the privileges, the choices, the risks that come with that. and i think of this tonight is a moment in some ways, it's part of this long arc, this really sort of epic american political story. yeah. i mean, the family seemed surprised when this came down today. >> it did it happened relatively quickly. hunter biden himself is not even at the courthouse today and you saw them them rushing back in there and including the first lady, jill biden. but after we didn't see any of this anguish or they're real response in front of the cameras. at least we saw the embracing the tarmac what do you think it's like behind closed doors and wilmington tonight? yeah. they've got abundant experience of tragedy on some level, and tragedy is not to be exculpatory here when nobody and least of all, joe biden is saying that hunter biden didn't make choices that lead to this result. but they have also learned over the years about how you get through this. they turn inward. they have this. it's not a coincidence that they're going to wilmington for this. that's sort of the ancestral homeland and they go there and they meet as a family. they have these traditions of these family meetings and the line that you often hear in politics from biden is that through pain you have to find purpose. it can sound like it's a line, except that for him, it is at the core of how he gets through this. and i can tell you that is no question what he is telling the other members of his family that if we're going to get through this part of our purpose is to demonstrate that nobody is above the law that a president does not interfere in the activity because of the court that a jury can still find its way to a result even in a time of intense partisanship, you've spent a lot of time with biden. i and his family as you are writing your book, did you ever think that you'd see a day like today? >> i'll be frank. no, i think when i first started interviewing joe biden back in 2014, a decade ago, beau biden was alive. it was actually kind of a hopeful moment in the course of his treatment. they thought that they might have had some good news. and in so many ways, this story, the one we are inhabiting today is the result of beau biden's death in 2015. it was like a bomb that went off in that family and i have to say one of the things we learned from this trial and it really was a revelation even to people who know the family well was the depth to which the impact of addiction rippled all the way through hallie biden, as we heard, of course, also ended up involved with crack cocaine. it was just a a period of his life and i think as as political observers, we study president's not only because it helps us understand the choices they in make the pressures that they're under. but it's also a reflection of ourselves, of our country and our time and what this family was going through between 2015 and 2021 and all toya all the way up to today is in itself a very american story as someone who studies biden. >> i mean, what is it? what did you take away from? >> they already had this pre-planned event on gun safety at the white house, which i think a lot of people were thinking to themselves. >> i mean, the timing here is unbelievable, but he came out, he didn't give the full speech. she actually was going to talk about a new gun restrictions that the doj has enacted what that has resulted in. he did not he spoke about it more broadly. his speech that had been previously planned, but he didn't seem to give anything away. i don't want i saw that speech. >> yeah, not a word. i think there's a way that he has drawn this bright line between what's happening with the family and what's happening in politics. and it can almost look, i think a little awkward because people are expecting him to talk about this thing in his life. but he is so concerned that it will be turned into a talking point by his opponent that i think he's almost going out of his way not to talk about well, i wonder how, how does a way on him when he hears three jurors who told cnn obviously they voted. this was unanimous. they voted to convict, but they were asking themselves if this would have been brought it all had he not been a hunter biden. >> that's been a fact for awhile. i mean, joe biden is said to have told people around him that he knows that had he not continued on in politics, that his son might not be facing the charges that must really weigh on it. i think to tap that i think it's a very heavy burden and look the joe biden's decision to be in public life as long as he has has added to the pressure on hunter biden, joe biden has always known for a long time that the gene of addiction, which is in this family is in hunter biden his life and by staying in politics, by being is exposed as they are in some ways, it has put pressures on hunter biden, and i do think that weighs on the president. >> and obviously officers coming in the middle of the election year, we will talk in a second about how republicans are handling this. but how does biden handle this at the debate? i don't think anyone thinks it's gonna have a huge impact on the election, but we'll see, but how does he handle it for the debate trump, who of course, at the last debate brought up a hunter biden. >> i think in the broader sense, there is a way in which this adds to the psychic load of what he is contending with. i mean, if you think about the middle please do you think about the us and now of course, within his own family, actually though as a pro, as a political matter and in the debate that's actually an area where joe biden knows how to handle this. you remember in 2020 there was a moment when he essentially telegraph very clearly back-off. i love my son and actually, and the data in the campaign was clear about this. that was a moment that americans responded to. i think there is some piece of the public that says we want to see not only that president, but also that dad. >> yeah. everyone else and it's great to have you on this. thank you for joining us. pleasure. >> of course, as i mentioned, the fallout from this verdict is already happening in a fast and furious way from capitol hill all the way to mar-a-lago. tonight, joining us here also, andrew mccabe, the former fbi deputy director and cnn senior law enforcement analyst, ashley allison, scene and political commentator and the former coalitions director for the 2020 biden campaign. and also david urban, cnn, senior political commentator and former trump campaign adviser. >> so we really got the entire gamut here. >> and andrew mccabe. but let me start with you because we did hear from the special counsel, david weiss today, someone we have not heard from very often in this case, he came out and spoke after the guilty verdict no one in this country is above the law everyone must be accountable for their actions. even this defendant however hunter biden, should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct obviously, andrew mccabe, a hunter biden's legal team has made clear they're going to challenge this, but this is not the end of the legal exposure. >> legal troubles front or biden. he's got another case pending this november or this fall yeah katelyn, he's not out of the woods by a long shot. >> the case that he has coming up in september on the tax charges very serious case, and it's one that on its own brings the threat of much more extensive potential jail time. now, of course, they'll go into that case, having already been convicted of another felony, so he's no longer considered a first-time offender in the resolution of the tax case, which could make his penalties if he's convicted even more intense okay. >> so you do believe age or became that it would it could impact the outcome of the case potentially yeah, there's no question. >> he goes into that case now is having been recently convicted of another totally unrelated offense. so that's not a good thing for him. >> i think it was interesting that weiss made those comments about the fact that hunter biden should not be held more accountable than anybody else there's no question that this the trial was conducted in the way you would expect to see any criminal trial conducted. >> the prosecutors had an overwhelming amount of evidence. their case went in very smoothly. >> the defense had a very, very limited range of motion to work with here, trying to get the jury to basically thread the eye of a needle and focus on the fact that hunter allegedly wasn't taking drugs the day he bought the gun that was kind of a hail mary pass and obviously didn't work for them. all of that aside, despite the validity of this jury verdict, i think mr. >> weiss is going to have some really tough questions to answer in the long run about the broader decisions that he made along this path. >> why he offered such a favorable plea deal that he then walked away from and wouldn't give back to the defendant once when he asked her that initially. >> so there's a lot of questions about why hunter biden was held to this standard. maybe prosecuted in a way that most other defendants who might be who were allegedly involved in similar conduct would not have been held to the same standard. >> those questions are still i think hanging out there for me. yeah, weiss, it we don't often see a case like this broad as we've noted and looked at the historical context david, can we talk about how the trump campaign responded to this day? because obviously republicans talk about hunter biden a lot, but this i noticed this today with the trump campaign where they first released a version of the state of a statement on what happened criticizing biden, criticizing his family, essentially saying that hunter biden should have been charged with with other things. but at the end, on the initial statement, they said, quote, as for hunter, we wish him well, in his recovery and legal affairs okay. but then they retracted that and put out another one striking that last line and no longer wishing him well and then resending the statement all together. what do you make of that? >> well well, kaitlan, i like i like the first version better, right? obviously, nobody wants to see anybody languish in an addiction and spiral downward any more than they already have been. and is well chronicled on the laptop and is andrew pointed out correctly, september 5, hunter biden stands trial. again on these tax charges, which is what are much more serious, they're seven charges, i think three felonies and for misdemeanor charges, he is facing for not paying over $1,000,000.5 in taxes over a five-year period on $7,000,000 earned and so he's he's in for, some rough sledding ahead and two, your earlier get to evan's point earlier, it's going to be right in the middle of that campaign, september 5th. and it was kinda right when people are getting ramped up in campaign season. and that's gonna be weighing heavily on joe biden mind, he is not campaigning and it's going to be in the news every day is american goods are contemplating what they're gonna do. i don't think it's going to have a positive impact on who votes for whom, but people republicans are going to point back to the laptop and the 50 plus national security individuals who said the laptop was rushing russian interference camp the pain and it wasn't real. and in this case, the laptop with the fbi said laptop was real. israel could be so it's going to provide a bunch of fodder for the campaigns. for the republican campaign moving forward. yeah. >> i just wanted to when we've had any of those officials who've signed that letter, james clapper, brennan, we've talked to them about putting their name on that and what not but ashley, in the sense of this of what we're hearing from republicans and then struggling to kind respond to this. some of them are saying that they believe that conviction is kind of dumb in the words of one of them. in other situations they've been arguing there was this two-tiered system of justice, but, but i mean the president's son was just convicted by his justice department yeah. >> i mean, it's interesting to see republicans contort themselves in certain moments to make the story work for them. downtown was prosecuted. will the state a state-level charge not joe biden, they blamed joe biden now, hunter hunter biden. joe biden's son is prosecuted by the department of justice, who joe biden are president nominated attorney general, and they still are not satisfied i love i think at the end of the day, i agree with david in terms of there will be another case that hunter biden and involved in. and i do not think that these outcomes of the case particularly related to joe biden, son joe biden, like donald trump, but joe biden's son will be determined them on how voters actually the decide to vote in the fall. but what i do get allows an opportunity to do is to draw a contrast. yet again, on how the two 21 former president, one current president, who both our fathers approach the situation, talk about the situation, handled it with compassion or lack of compassion, handle it with honesty. and i think that will be in there'll be opportunity hey, this fall to see the state contrast how one side handles it versus the other. >> well, and we heard from the house speaker mike johnson on this listen to what he told manu raju today. david mr. speaker, you've been saying two-tier system of justice for some time. here's the president sayyed being convicted on three counts as that undercut your it doesn't every case is different and clearly the evidence is overwhelming here i don't think that's the case and the trump trials and all the charges because it had been brought against that have been obviously brought for political purposes. a hunter biden is a separate instance okay. >> but david, is that really i mean, it does undercut the claims that it's a two tiered system what it does, it look, everyone's saying, look, two things can be true here, right? >> people are saying, oh, this wouldn't have been brought if hunter biden wasn't joe biden? in sun, but yet nobody is saying that same thing, right? except maybe for fareed zakaria, that nobody would have brought the case against donald trump if you weren't his name work donald trump so possibly both those things are true in this and these both cases, and i think that's what's getting republicans goats here. >> andrew mccabe, can i just get your thought on this? i mean, you were the deputy director vector of the fbi. how do you view this in the sense of, you the rule of law and justice system overall and how that is. but this new political weapon at the center of everything caitlin, i spent my entire professional life in it. the justice system in this country is not perfect. it's got a lot of flaws, but it is not two tiered. i have also seen that people who have outcomes, they don't like, generally don't like the system. and people who have favorable outcomes, they like it this politics aside, that's basically what shapes people's opinions i guess the speaker believes that his own judgments about the quality of evidence in each individual prosecution, which he admits they're all very different, his own judgment about those things should supersede the decisions of judges and juries. i disagree with that but i guess we'll just have to leave it there and i should n