Oh, my god, this is a nightmare. Well get the latest from a congresswoman who represents the district where the fire raged. And a fema administrator on what the federal government is doing to help. Then, the investigation into President Bidens son hunter expands after attorney general Merrick Garland elevates a prosecutor to special counsel. Well talk with Hunter Bidens attorney. Plus, iran is set to free five americans wrongly held there for years. What is washington giving tehran in exchange . Well hear from the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee mike turner, and the sister of one of the prisoners. Finally, former President Trump races for a possible fourth indictment as a grand jury considers whether trump and his associates attempted to subvert the will of georgias voters in the 2020 election. Well check in with a university of chicago professor who has new findings on the rising support for Political Violence in the wake of trumps indictment. Its all just ahead on face its all just ahead on face the nation. Captioning funded by cbs good morning, and welcome to face the nation. Im margaret brennan. We begin today with a horrific almost surreal scenes of devastations in hawaii where county officials now say 93 people are dead in the wake of the wildfires that continue to burn. Crews are bringing in additional cadaver dogs to sift through the rubble of thousands of buildings burnt to the ground, mostly homes. And Officials Say about 1,000 people have been reported missing. The death toll is expected to climb. Well look into the local recovery effort and the federal governments assistance. But we want to start with the latest on the ground. Here is cbs news correspondent carter evans. Reporter fire crews are still battling flareups across five square miles of scorched earth in the small town of lahaina. So far authorities have only searched about 3 of the area for victims. It may be the worst fire that america ever faced, by the time its done. Reporter rescue workers now have the grim task of identifying charred remains. We pick up the remains and they fall apart, and some of you thats what youre stepping on. I dont know how much more you want me to describe it. Thats what youre steppig on. Reporter on tuesday, the fire came with no warning. I didnt realize it was really that bad until like we started smelling the smoke. Reporter Latanya Parker and her family were staying at a hotel when they realized help was not on the way. They barely made it out through the flames. Others who escaped from their homes in lahaina are now eager to get back. We lost everything. Thank god we still have each other. Its like were the only things that we have now because everything that we had in the past is gone. Reporter investigators say whats left is a toxic mix of debris too dangerous for people to return. Questions remain about the cause of the fire, and the states attorney general is now investigating the response. There are studies showing that exactly this type of fire couldve happened in lahaina caused by a hurricane. What has been done to prepare for and prevent a fire like this from occurring . This is the first time weve ever experience ared a wildfire in the context of these dry conditions, global warming, and with a hurricane thats just passing us. Theres no question this catastrophe going to change the way everyone looks at fire across the globe. Reporter margaret, the response here is massive. The National Guard is on scene, along with a team of 150 people from fema, and more are on the way. Authorities are asking the public here for patience as they sift through the rubble. The road to recovery will be a long one. Thats carter evans in maui. We have a fema director who toured the damage yesterday with local visuals. Our Jonathan Vigliotti spoke with her after. You were on the ground touring the disaster zone. What did you see, and what struck you the most . Its absolutely heartbreaking to just see an entire community that is no longer there. And i think one of the things that was just really the most shocking, i guess i would say, is the row of cars of people that were trying to drive and escape and then couldnt get out fast enough. Ad these are the ones that ended up running or jumping into the water, and those cars just there. It was like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. Reporter we heard from the governor and the police chief who said only 3 of the disaster zone has been searched. What are your agents being told in terms of how many people they should be searching for . I was able to talk to the urban search and rescue teams today and see the dogs. And they have gritted out the area. They use thing tos and they have the teams that go in there, but its hot, the ground has hot spots. The dogs can only work so long before they need a break. The 3 coversthe 3 of the grids they have mapped out. And now they will just methodically continue to go through that. But i think one of the challenging things is many of the areas that theyre in searching, there are structures that are partially standing. So the engineers are embedded with them to evaluate the stability of that structure. Reporter there are currently hundreds of people still missing. How long do you think it will take to conduct this search effort . I think it just depends on the conditions around us, and how long the dogs can continue to go in there. The dogs are the ones that are really making a big difference in helping to identify the locations where the rescue questions can then come in and identify if theres any remains there. Were bringing in more teams and more dogs so we can speed up that process as much as we can. Reporter sources close to the search several of them tell me the death toll could be in the hundreds. Could that be accurate . If thats what theyre telling you, i wouldnt secondguess them. Theyre the ones that know best what theyre seeing and how many people have not been accounted for. Its Jonathan Vigliotti and fema administrator. We go now to democratic congresswoman jill. Lahaina is part of her district. She joins us from oahu this morning. Congresswoman, i am very sorry, as all of us are here, for the losses that you all are experiencing. You toured the area yesterday with fema, i understand. Do you know when the fires will be out, and where are we in this recovery . Well, you know, we walked trough the streets of lahaina yesterday, and i can tell you it was absolutely heartbreaking, shocking, surreal. To actually walk those streets and to still see fires smoldering in the distance, to see cars literally melted into puddles that have hardened over on the road, xs on ild aboutings and cars to say that it has been searched for signs of casualties or even life, we are not at a point where we can see a time frame in terms of when people will be allowed back into the area. But i feel the anger and the angst that people want to go home, Everyone Wants to go home. There are so many of our friends and family that never left, and thats what we have to remember. We are trying to respectfully make sure that every person unaccounted for right now, we are praying for their safety that theyre in shelters. But we know that too many are in buildings. The director was talking about the cadaver dogs that have been brought on site that are going to make the difference. Yesterday when we were touring there, we met the dogs, we met the handlers. We were talking about the gridding system. One of my aides mentioned, beause we heard the dogs barking loudly. When she turned to look at them, they were sitting in front of a building and barking. And, sadly, we know exactly what that means when a cadaver dog sits and barks towards a point. So every moment, every day right now we have front liners who are doing so muc to bring all of our family and loved ones home. And, congresswoman, the state claims to have had one of the largest hazard Warning Systems out there, Something Like 80 sirens in the maui area. How did this system fail to warn those people to flee . Everybody who has ever lived in hawaii knows the warning sirens. It goes off once a month at the beginning of the month at 12 00 noon and it blares. Unfortunately in this situation, sadly, tragically in this situation, those sirens likely did not go off, the Warning Signals that were on cell phones, we had no cell coverage or electricity in some of these areas. The reality is with those warning signs, it tells all of us to turn on the television or look at our phones or turn on the radio. The reality is how fast this burn was. You can see it in the videos and the wreckage. If you turned on your phone, you turned on a radio if you even could. Things were out at that particular point. You would not know what the crisis was. You might think it was a tsunami, you would run towards land, which in anythis case wou be towards fire. Fema estimated the cost will be close to 6 billion. But theyve also said they are facing a 4 billion shortfall by the end of september. How do you make the case to your colleagues back here in washington, that with so many natural disasters and so much need in this country right now that, hawaii needs to be the priority . Absolutely. We were never expecting this disaster and tragedy. No one ever does. But you heard it from my constituents that have been on air. This is a national crisis, this is a national prel. I problem. I cannot tell you how many individuals weve talked to, they are from hawaii, but they have been severely impacted. At the end of the day, loss of life will take place not just for hawaii residents but from individuals across the country that were in this area. This is a National Disaster we are facing. And one thing we have to remember, too, was this is rural america. Rural america is getting hit by these types of Climate Change chaoses every single day is a disaster. Rural america, which is what hawaii is, faces a crisis of also being able to get those First Responders and support as fast as they need to, to be able to respond in these situations. So we have to make sure fema has the tools and the resources to execute back home in hawaii. But this is going to be happening across the country and they need the money to be able to respond to wherever disaster strikes. I know President Biden has asked for another 12 billion to replenish Disaster Relief funds. This is going to be a continued conversation here in washington. Congresswoman, we wish you well. Thank you for joining us today. We turn now to the investigation into hunter biden, and attorney general Merrick Garlands decision to grant special counsel status to the prosecutor who has been on that case for years after a plea deal with Hunter Bidens lawyers fell apart last month. For more, were joined by our Senior Investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge and robert costa. The u. S. Attorney in delaware, had been said to have full ability to bring a prosecution. Why did he feel he needed special counsel status, and what actually changes now . Well, as you mentioned, margaret, david weiss has said that he had the ultimate authority. But based on the order friday for special counsel status at his request, he wanted that ultimate authority now in writing. And that makes a lot of sense to me based on our reporting here at cbs news, because we heard exclusively from these irs whistleblowers who said he wanted to partner with u. S. Counties in california and washington, d. C. To bring charges, but he was refused. If you look closely at the language here in the order, it says that the special counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes in any federal jurisdiction. So now hes got it in black and white so there can be no question. Does that suggest something political rather than legal . This is one of the lingering questions in the case is that why suddenly decided after five years that he needed this elevated status. I think that some of the clues, margaret, are in the Court Filings this week where he said that they had reached an impasse in the negotiations with Hunter Bidens team, and he saw no resolution short of going to trial. I just want to emphasize, that plea deal was not standard. So irregular that the judge in delaware hit pause on the it and at one point said to one of weiss prosecutors, what is the legal precedent for this case. And they said there was none. That is why the criticism from republicans that it was a special deal for a special defendant has resonated. Robert, democrats seemed caught by surprise by this announcement of a special counsel. Though, still dismissive of this idea that the president s son did anything more than what has been substantiated in this fiveyear investigation. But doesnt this status make it more difficult to just dismiss this as political . Inside the white house this weekend and inside the biden campaign, ive made a lot of calls. And its evident that they dont welcome whats going to be potentially a drip, drip, drip of developments on the Justice Department front with hunter biden. But they see it ultimately as a distraction, not something thats going to be a burden for President Bidens campaign. There is a real way they look at this inside the white house. The Justice Department is something they cant talk about, they wont talk about, but they will talk about the House Republicans and their investigation because they believe republicans are going to overstep here. Already Speaker Mccarthy is talking about a socalled inquiry on impeachment into President Biden. Hes getting pressured from the right to move forward on impeachment. But others ive spoken to, moderates in the house who say hold off on this, dont go too fast, let the Justice Department special counsel play out as its going to. Because if you move too fast, it could put republicans in a position where it seems like theyre overeager to get ahead of the Justice Department on this. But, robert, Bigger Picture here. Obviously the republicans think its continued, its worth continuing to talk about this, even if democrats dont think it sticks. You now have two special counsels directed at the biden family, in addition to trumps legal issues. Whats the bottom line here . What happens with the biden special counsel looking into his handling of classified documents . Theres a real emphasize right now in President Bidens inner circle to not allow the republicans, in their view, to make this some kind of a situation. They believe that President Biden has responded to the records request in a timely fashion, and that trump facing now potentially four indictments if georgia comes this week, across the board is in a totally different situation. And they believe republicans are going to talk about the special counsel on records, the special counsel on hunter, as much as possible. But when theyre out there, they dont believe that this is going to sit there as an issue. When they look at private polling and private focus groups inside the democratic party, and ive heard this from multiple top strategists in the party, the issue that theyre more concerned about is President Bidens age. Thats being raised by voters. What should we expect in regards to what you just mentioned possibly coming down the pike in georgia this week . Were all going to get very familiar with aspects of the peach state this week. Because fani willis, the Fulton County district attorney, is expected to move forward with sweeping indictments in a case about what happened in georgia after the 2020 election. Weve heard a lot about Brad Raffensperger in the call trump made to georgias top election offi al. Were also likely going to learn this week that others in this whole trump orbit are going to be indicted, those who try to be socalled fake electors in georgia, showing up to the Coffey County building. Fani willis is building a sprawling case. Youve heard the phrase rico, shes using a ricostyle prosecution to go after many people part of this sprawling alleged effort to overturn the election in georgia. Robert and catherine, thank you for your time. And we will be back with Hunter Bidens lawyer, abbe lowell, in one minute. So stay with us. Dealdash. Com, online auctions since 2009. This playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. This ipad pro sold for less than 34. And this nintendo switch, sold for less than 20. I got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only 56. I got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. Joining us now is Hunter Bidens attorney abbe lowell. Good to have you here in person. Its nice to be here. So lets start with why this plea kdeal hit the impasse. If you read about what happened on july the 26th or were in court, you have to ask yourself why. And there are only a few possibilities. Remember, it were the prosecutors who came forward and asked if there was a resolution possible. Theyre in charge of figuring out the form, the document, and the language. They did that. And so the possibilities are only, one, they wrote something and werent clear what they meant, two, they knew what they meant and misstated it to counsel. Or, third, they changed their view as they were standing in court in delaware. So, to answer that question, ill ask you a question, and everybody else whos paying attention. What group of experienced defense lawyers would allow their client to plead guilty to a misdemeanor on a monday, keeping in mind that they knew that there could be a felony charge on a wednesday . That wouldnt happen. How could there be such a fundamental disagreement on this issue of how broad immunity would be for your client. Because thats what i understand it came down to in that transcript from july. It did come down to fundamental that, and then a couple of issues as to what a judges rule could be in the proceedings that the prosecutors wrote the documents for. And how could it happen . They wrote the language, they insisted on that language, they insisted on two different documents. With the understanding that it would be broad immunity . With our understanding that it would be broad immunity. And the language as the judge pointed out is a very broad phrase. It says encompassing all the facts that were in the document that sets out the transactions. So, what happened is one of three possibilities. And i, again, point out that no good defense attorney and mr. Biden had quite a few of them, would allow somebody to do a misdemeanor on a monday, thinking that three days later there could be a felony. Are you saying that the government prosecutors are incompetent . Im saying theres one of three possibilities. And that was one of them is what youre suggesting. I didnt use that word, you did. I said that they changed their decision on the fly, standing up in court. The u. S. Attorney said, due to this impasse, a trial is in order. Is a trial going to happen . Can you avoid one . Well, the answer to the second question is you can. But let me answer the first question. When you do not have a resolution and somebody pleads not guilty, as hunter did, then two things happen, a judge could put together a scheduling order, the end of which would be a trial. There would be discovery and motions, et cetera. So its not inevitable. Its not inevitable. And youre trying to avoid one . Yes, we were trying to avoid one all along. And so were the prosecutors who came forward to us and were the ones to say can there be a resolution short of a prosecution. So they wanted it and maybe they still do want it. So, that was dealing primarily with the taxrelated charges. There was also this diversion agreement related to the gun possession. Is that part of the agreement still in effect . So, there are two different agreements, and on july 26th, what was very clear is that the prosecution presented the diversion agreement, which they signed, which we signed, and as an agreement of which they have described it as being a standalone independent Bilateral Agreement with two signatures on it. That agreement is different than the plea. The plea did not go forward. The diversion agreement is already filed in court, and it has the signatures necessary for it to be binding. You believe that it will remain binding . I believe that weiss is sticking with it . I cant answer look what happened on july 26th, one of the possibilities is the prosecutor stood up and decided for lots of reasons that might be apparent to the viewer they didnt like what people were saying about the deal they approved, and so i cant answer that. What i can say is that as recently as in the last week or two, they made a filing at court, they being the prosecutors, which called it a Bilateral Agreement between the parties. And that means its an agreement thats in effect. One of the things that the judge brought up in court that day was she said the foreign agents registration act, or fara, she asked specifically whether that would be handled within the scope of this deal. Is your client being investigated for that . Our client has been investigated in a fiveyear long, thorough, painstaking investigation for every transaction that he was involved in. But you specifically asked if immunity would cover that. Ut but you asked me whether or not that has been part of the investigation. What we know what happened in the grand jury after five years, of course that had to be part of what the prosecutor looked at, as well as every other false allegation made by the rightwing media and others, whether its corruption or fara or money laundering, that is part of what this Prosecutor Office had to have been looking over for five years. I can assure you that five years concluded that the only two charges that made sense were two misdemeanors for failing to file, like millions of americans do, and the diverted gun charge. Everything else had been thoroughly looked at. Is that possible that theyre going to revisit it . If the now special counsel decides not to go by the deal, then it will mean that he or they decided that something other than the facts and the law are coming into play. We have to take a break and finish this conversation on the otheher side o of i it. Stick w with us, abbebe lowell. No77s new fututure renew wiwith a worldldfirst pepeptide techchnology no otherer skincare e product. Eveven those t that cost 10 t times more. E. Rereverse visisible signss of skin n damage in n 4 wee. Iim amber, ive lost t 128 poundsds with g, evtakiking releasese. Ost 10 t times more. E. I hahave literalally trieied everythihing. I i was on thehe verge of f geg gastric c bypass sururgery, and i sasaw the gololo commerc, and d it was thehe last thing i trtried causese it worked. inspipirationalal music [spepeaker] atat first, jt leaving g the housuse was hah. [speakaker] but t wounded d wr projoject helplps you rereale its posossible toto get outute [speakaker] to f feel sense ofof camaradaderie agagain. [speakaker] to f find the toolols to live life b bette. [narrarator] thrhrough generousus community suppopor, weve coconnected warriorsrs d their fafamilies w with no ct physicalal and menental healah servrvices, lelegislativive adv, carereer assisistance, a ande skilill trainining for 2 20 y, and we a are just t getting g s. I am in love with mixtiles. You just pull the adhesive off the back and stick it to any surface, and theres no damage to your walls. Go to mixtiles. Com and pick sizing, filters and it really makes it fit the decor of your home. Order now and get up to 50 off. Fisher Investments in this market, youll find Fisher Investments is different than other money managers. other money manager different how . Arent we all just looking for the hottest stocks . Fisher Investments nope. We use diversified strategies to position our clients portfolios for their longterm goals. other money manager but you still sell investments that generate high commissions for you, right . Fisher Investments no, we dont sell commission products. Were a fiduciary, obligated to act in our clients best interest. other money manager so when do you make more money, only when your clients make more money . Fisher Investments yep. We do better when our clients do better. At Fisher Investments, were clearly different. Salonpas l lidocaine f flex. A super ththin, flexibible h withth maximum otc strerength lidococaine that conontours to t the y toto relieve p pain right where it hururts. And d did we menention, it r r, reallyly sticks . Salonpas, its good d medic. Welcome back to face the nation. We want to continue our conversation with Hunter Bidens attorney abbe lowell. Lets pick up on where we left off before the break. Because i know we were a little rushed. So, to answer your question squarely, people should keep in mind that while mr. Weiss t