At the same time and For The First Time mp. Very high stakes now for the workers, for the companies, and for the broader economy. New reporting this morning that hunter biden could face more federal charges and soon. Rain and wind is threatening the east coast today. Hurricane lee heading north. New england and parents of canada are on alert. Im kate bolduan. This is cnn news center. Thousands of Union Autoworkers are on the picket lines. This isnt just any strike. This is an historic strike, a coordinated strike against all of the big three u. S. Automakers simultaneously For The First Time. United Autoworkers Union is using also a new strategy, using targeted strikes, theyre calling it, Calling Workers to walk off at only three plants so far, but that could change and this could grow. Union leaders say the plan is to slow production across North America while they negotiate new contracts. Nearly 13,000 workers across ford, gm, the owner of jeep and dodge, they are on strike now. What theyre asking for are better wages, better been fits, and Job Protections for the workers. Theyre also demanding what theyre calling a Just Transition as Automakers Pivot to electric vehicles. But there is a lot within this. Lets get to it. Cnns Vanessa Yurkevich is at gms headquarters in detroit. Arlette saenz is outside the white house, as weve also just learned well be hearing from pri President Biden on this. Java n you spoke to the c. Where does she stand . She is watching this closely as 13,000 members are heading on strike this morning and throughout the day. One of her plants is being impacted by this. And there is concern from mary berra, the ceo of general motors, what kind of longterm Ripple Effect this will have, especially as the company has invested so much money into the transition to electric vehicles. She also said that she was disappointed that they did not come to a deal last night before the deadline, and she expressed frustration with the union. She says she wants to get them back to the Negotiating Table to get a deal done as soon as possible. Take a listen to what she told me just moments ago. We have a very compelling offer on the table. Im very frustrated because i think we had an offer that resonates with our people. Its a historic offer, gross Wage Increases of 20 , that compound to 21 , maintaining worldclass health care. There are several other aspects. One thing thats most important is job security. Were in an incredibly exciting time in this industry as we make the transition from internal combustion vehicles to electric vehicles. And Joemgeneral Motors is well placed. We have a pipeline coming. When we look at that and how this could, you know, delay that, its at a critical juncture. So, we have a deal that i think is very, very important, the proposal sits at the table, our team is ready to be at the table. Theyre waiting. We need uaw leadership to get back to the table and resolve these issues so we can get people back to work. Now, mary barra has called her offer historic for her company. The union is demanding 40 pay Wage Increases over the next four years. But later today, we are expected to see the president of the uaw, at a rally with bernie sanders. The uaw does not plan to negotiate with the big three today. Mary barra is in contact with the white house, elected officials, explaining whats been going on, saying they want to get the uaw back to the table to make this deal. Today is day one, guys. Theres a lot more to come in the next couple days and possibly weeks if this drags on. Kate . Vanessa, thank you so much. To the white house, arlette, what are we going to hear from President Biden, do you think, when he comes out to speak . Because what he says is going to be very interesting. Hes been walking a fine line up to this point. Yeah, he really has, kate. People will be watching his remarks to see if he potentially could voice some support for one side of the negotiations or if he can offer any type of remedies for the potential economic fallout that could come from this strike. Whats unique in this situation is the white house does not have any Legal Authority to be a direct party to these talks. But they have been engaged as these negotiations have played out. In the final hours yesterday, President Biden got on the phone with uaw president sean feign as well as the leaders of the big three automakers, trying to get a firm grasp on where the negotiations stood. The white house has been encouraging both sides to negotiate around the clock to secure what the white house hopes will be a winwin agreement for both sides. One of the main concerns for the white house as the strike is beginning to play out is what the economic fallout could possibly be. We will see whether there are any steps that are under consideration to potentially blunt the economic impact. Of course, there are suppliers that could be at risk during the strike as well. Theres also political issues for President Biden as he is trying to get Union Support heading into the 2024 election. So, those are all some of the challenges facing the president as this strike is now in its early stages. All right. Thank you so much, arlette. Lets talk more about this. Vanessa, thank you, as well. Joining us now is bob king, former president of the uaw. Thanks for coming in. Were hearing from workers. We heard from mary barra speaking with Vanessa Yurkevich. From your perspective, what does today mean for this historic strike in this moment . Well, you know, i was there when workers made huge sacrifices, many, many changes in how we operated the plants. Workers are suffering. I think of the case of sara chambers. 16 years shes been working for ford, and this is true for gm and others, too, many members there long periods and still taking that long to get to top pay, thats wrong, thats morally wrong to me. And these companies are in great shape. I saw a Morgan Stanley report that said ford, gm, they could weather a 40 increase in labor costs. All this baloney about these are too rich in demands, theyll make the companies unstable, thats just untrue. If you know about labor costs, in the Morgan Stanley report, theyre only 4 of revenue for the labor costs and the manufacturing of the vehicle. Its less than 10 . Its probably about 4 or 5 . These are reasonable, legitimate demands. Members wont accept unless they get a good contract. I wanted to ask you about youre talking about some of the data youre seeing and what the companies could give and how could they give more. Mary barra calls it a compelling offer, a gross Wage Increase of 20 , and most importantly they say job security. I want to play what the ceo of ford said about the 40 Wage Increase over four years means for ford. 40 will put us out of business. We would lose billions of dollars. We would have to cut people, close plants. Whats the good of that . Does he have a point . You guys are clearly very far apart. He says theyre going to go under if they agree to this. I dont think thats accurate. Its only 3. 7 of the cost of manufacturing a car, labor dwost costs, its more in the u. S. Because we dont have National Health care. They should be working to get that done. They spend over A Billion Dollars a year on health care, yet they wont partner with the uaw to get medicare for all. They would go to President Biden and bargen. Every worker in the industry would get whatever is bargened at the table. W when they were in trouble, we worked together. Theyre making billions and billions of dollars. Put yourself in the place of a worker. Youre on the line, working every day, making half the pay or 25 less than a member right next to you . Nobody thinks thats right. The american public, 75 side with the uaw in these negotiations because people are tired of corporations really exploiting workers and getting these huge salaries. Jim farley, mary barra got 40 increases in the last four years, and yet 6 inflation, like double digits. Come on. Were not asking for something reasonable. We want something fair. President biden will be speaking later in the show and hes walked somewhat of a fine line talking about these negotiations up to this point. We do know that the administration has gotten directly involved in Contract Negotiations with unions in other industries. What do you want to hear from him . Does President Biden getting involved help you . I dont know. It depends on what he says. He should be i think advocating to give these workers a fair share, then he should be offering to work with the companies. Thats no easy task. But at least its a path and thats not only helping auto companies. It would help American Companies across many different sectors. If we want to keep good manufacturing jobs, good middleclass jobs in the u. S. , we have to have National Industrial policies that help do that. In germany, they pay, you know, tremendously more than what uaw members get. And their companies, volkswagen, all the German Companies are tremendously competitive. They have been forever. So workers can do much better than they are now. Again, think about that hourly worker every day busting their rear end for ford or gm or chrysler. They deserve a middleclass standard where they can buy a vehicle, they can buy a home. Workers in the system now cannot do that. Thats not good for the economy. Final point. Yes, the economy would be hurt for a little bit by a stlik, but the economy and the workforce would be far better off if the outcome, which i think it will be, is substantially improved wages and benefits for workers and job security, and then the economy will boom as workers get more money. Theyll spend more money. That will be good in the long term for the economy. Bob king, thanks for coming in this morning. Thank you very much. This morning we are learning that hunter biden could soon see even more charges. The Special Counsel david weiss has signalled the new charges gen biden could come in the next few weeks. He is currently facing three Felony Counts for allegedly lying about his drug use when he bought and possessed a gun in 2018. If convicted on all three counts, the stiffest possible sentence would be as much as 25 years in prison and up to 750,000 in fines. Thats unlikely, but still, its possible. Katelyn polantz joinings us with whats coming next. Hunter biden will have to go back to court. Hes in california. Hell have to go to delaware and enter a very likely not guilty pleading now that hes been charged with three different crimes related to Gun Possession, basically trying to enforce the Justice Department trying to enforce Gun Control Laws that are on the books to bar people with some sort of drug issue or have been taking drugs from obtaining and possessing a weapon. And so, what happened is this case against hunter biden right now in federal court in delaware, its about 11 days in October Of 2018 where hunter biden submitted written statements to a gun dealer and was able to get a firearm, and at the time was saying he was not under the influence of illegal drugs. He subsequently had said publicly that he was a drug user around that time. So, that is what is being charged here in this case. But this is the culmination of a fiveyear investigation by david weiss, who is now the Special Counsel, overseeing this probe around hunter biden, and there are a number of things that weiss has looked at in the past related to hunter biden that could still materialize in other legal issues for him, namely, the possibility he committed some tax offenses. Weiss has looked at foreign lobbying issues and other Financial Issues related to hunter biden in the past. So, weiss is still the Special Counsel and will keep pushing forward in this investigation as this case now moves in the court in delaware in federal court. But we also know, john, that Hunter Bidens team, they thought they had a deal before, and now theyre gearing up to put on a full defense, potentially take this to trial. They also want to contest whether this law the constitutional under the Second Amendment to charge hunter biden with Gun Possession and a false statements crime when he obtained that gun, and on top of that, theyll be contesting whether or not he had a deal and that deal should be honored by the Justice Department. If there are new charges coming, what might they be and when would they come . Is there any reporting on that . Well, we know, john, that david weiss, who previously, before he was the Special Counsel, was a u. S. Attorney looking at hunter biden, that he did want to charge him in some way, he wanted to have a deal on some tax misdemeanors, essentially related to hunter biden not paying his taxes a few years ago. And so there is a question that remains out there on Whether Weiss will be able to and will want to charge that against hunter biden in the knew v future. John . Katelyn polantz, thank you so much. With us is gene rossi, former federal prosecutor. Thanks for being with us right now. If you are defending hunter biden at this moment and youve now been charged with this gun issue, what would you be doing . Is there a way out of this for him . Yes. I have to say hikd has hired one of the best trial attorneys in america. And im going to give him some free advice. If he wants to pay me, he can. He has a four or fivepronged attack. Number one, given the Fifth Circuits ruling on 922g3, a user, the Fifth Circuit said thats unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. Thats motion number one. You file that the minute youre arraigned. The second motion would be a motion for specific performance to force the government to honor the diversion agreement, chsms a c which is a cluster and a kerfuffle in front of the judge in delaware a few weeks ago. I have to blame the Justice Department. They should have had their ts crossed and is dotted before they walked into the courtroom. They did not. The third and fourth motion would be a motion for selected prosecution and a motion for the prosecution. And the fifth would be the facts. When hunter biden filled out that form and he had the gun for 11 days, when he filled out the form, did he have the willfulness, the criminal intent, to lie . And theres an argument that he was recovering and he didnt think he was in violation of that form 4473, which is what the a6 charge, 922a6. I have to add this, john, i really do. I tried 110 cases. I supervised 500 or more baby and senior prosecutors. They were bringing this book into my office with mostly the tax code and the criminal code, and the issue for a prosecutor is not whether you can charge somebody, not whether you can, but whether you should, and whether you should exercise discretion. Let me give you a case real quickly. I charged Anthony Virgil jasper. He had 30 criminal convictions. Im not making this up. His nickname was weasel. He engaged in a Home Invasion with a buddy, and they beat the heck out of two people and stole firearms. In that case, we indicted 922g3, which i consider in this Hunter Case A Weasel charge, pun intended. But we exercised discretion to include it because it was intrinsic to weasels crime. Hunter biden is being punished because of his last name. And this really to me is a Bazooka Killing a mosquito. Thank you for citing the precedent of u. S. Reversal weasel. Gene, the fourpoint plan you gave here for hunter biden to deal with this was to try to beat it. Those four points are to beat this charge either with the facts in court or to get it thrown out all together. Is there any chance of a deal still at this point . I think the horse has left the barn. I dont think theres a chance. Im not close with abby laurel. He doesnt call me. I suspect this reading the tea leaves, theres no hope for a plea. I think theyll go to trial or final the motion. Its actually a fivepoint plan, and the fifth point is they have an argument before a jury that this is john, i have not seen a g3, a user charge, in any of those statistics that people are talking act. It was in my case in may of 20, id never heard of it other than my case, a g3, other than recent charges after hunter biden. Gene rossi, admiral doesnt need to call you because he can watch you on cnn news central. We appreciate your time as always. Kate . Coming up for us, destruction of mythic proportions. That is what some reporters are seeing as they get on the ground in libya. Over 5,000 people already confirmed dead, more than 10,000 people still missing. Cnn is on the ground. We will take you there. Plus, this morning, donald trump says that he would testify in the classified documents case against him. Really. He also said that he would not pa