Im norah odonnell, and thank you for being with us. We want to begin tonight with that firestorm on capitol hill. The former special counsel robert hur testifying about his investigation into president bidens handling of classified documents. The special counsel was defiant, standing by his conclusion that no charges were warranted. You may recall, though, it was his final report that angered the white house. The report included personal assessments about the president s age and memory, mentioning his son, beaus, death. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle used the hearing to score political points ahead of the 2024 president ial election. Republicans blasted hur for not charging biden with a crime, while democrats aimed to point out the differences between the current president and donald trump, who is facing charges for mishandling classified documents, saying trump obstructed all investigations. The white house views the matter as over and says the case is closed. Cbss ed okeefe is
presumptive republican nominee, defiant tonight, proclaiming his innocence, calling the process rigged, and accusing president biden of backing a political persecution as he addressed cameras outside the courtroom. the biden campaign saying, quote, we saw that no one is above the law. and how will a nation driven by political division react? our complete historic coverage, coming up. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening and welcome. guilty on all counts. donald j. trump, the 45th president of the united states, was found guilty late today in a new york courthouse on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments to a porn star just before the 2016 election. the stunning verdict was delivered by a manhattan jury of seven men and five women, who deliberated for two days, making mr. trump the first former american president to be convicted of a crime. he remains the presumptive republican nominee in the close race for preside
it is headed to air force base andrews or joint base andrews by washington, d.c. earlier today former vice president joe biden spoke to a memorial service about how to remember the senator and the war hero. the disease that took john s life took our mutual friend, teddy s life, the same exact disease nine years ago, couple days ago. and three years ago it took my beautiful son, beau s, life. it s brutal. it s relentless. it s unforgiving. and it takes so much from those we love and from the families who love them that in order to survive we have to remember how they lived, not how they died.
daughter had just been killed. my sons might not liver. we were able to rebuild that. my son hunter was beau s,er breath beau expelled hunter took in. i have to make sure that s all in place and everybody is in on look, unless you have my whole heart, my whole soul, all of my passion. all of my attention. i have to make that decision by the end of this year. but you re not ruling me out. no. if the lord came down and said the nomination is yours. you have to accept it now. i would not. there s too much more.
beau s, my son yes. and he was a great admirer of yours. and you know, you and i started talking about him on the air and i might find myself choke up. everybody looks at me and says, well, he s a good father, and well, well, what a decent guy. she chokes up and says, something, you know, for whatever reasons, and she s p y playing the woman card, man. and this is the way that, this is different. you know, this is a different number one. number two, the truth is. i don t think that i m a broken record of the democratic party on this. i don t think we speak enough to the plight of the family, the husband and the wife making $80, 90, $100,000 a year, two kids that are struggling. you know what they say. i talk to these voters, they sit there and they say, you know what? obama and biden. they worry about the minority group.