we ll hear from both sides of the legal debate. he s the failed republican candidate accused of orchestrating the shootings at the homes of democrats, now investigators are looking into whether solomon pena s campaign was funded by fentanyl. also, this a massive loss for music. david crosby dying at 81. we ll speak live with one of his best friends. cnn this morning starts right now. to all of those stories in just a moment, but first we need to talk about ukraine s president, volodymyr zelenskyy, making a desperate plea for more weapons before it is too late. there are signs that russia is regrouping and preparing to launch a major offensive. and cnn has learned cia director bill burns personally flew to kyiv for a secret meeting with zelenskyy to brief him on vladimir putin s plans. this morning, the defense secretary, lloyd austin, is at ram stein air base in germany to huddle with western allies. president zelenskyy spoke virtually at the meeting. the war st
i m john king in washington. thanks for sharing a busy news day. alec baldwin staring down charges. he will be indicted for involuntary manslaughter after the onset death of the rust cinematographer. we ll bring you details plus, brand-new cnn reporting. sources say questions about classified material and a special counsel investigation will not alter joe biden s 2024 campaign launch. the view in the west wing, the documents scandal. team biden says it s a beltway obsession and hope not much more and go to hell. a homeless veteran accuses george santos of a new low. swindling money from a gofundme intended to pay for a dying dog s lifesaving surgery. i don t want him to do it again. he took a piece of my heart when he did this. prosecutors in new mexico just last hour are announcing alec baldwin along with the film s armorer will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in that fatal shooting on the shoot of the western movie rust. let s bring in elie honig and crimi
halna hutchins and he pulled the trigger. reporter: in an interview with cnn in august, baldwin blamed gutierrez reid and assistant dave halls who handed him the bullet. why didn t she check that bullet? why didn t halls obey her? according to osha, she said, don t give him the gun until i come back. why didn t he check? did the dac.a. get the charg right? joining me now, criminal defense attorney ken belkin, thank you both. so just very simply, i ll ask the question, did the d.a. get the charges right, starting with you? i don t think. i think this is a stretch and an overreach on the d.a. with respect to alec baldwin. i think the charge against hanna gutierrez reid is stronger. the reason is that what she has to prove here, i don t think she can prove. you know, this is a criminal negligence case. this isn t simple negligence like in a lawsuit. that s been done.
august, john, and he was adamant the entire time of one thing i want to point out which i find so interesting, and maybe our experts can help. the d.a. saying with josh that we may never know how that live round got to set and that at the end of the day they believe due to the fbi forensics investigation and their report that alec baldwin, she believes, pulled the trigger. he says he never did. but when speaking to the legal team for the last year, their attitude is, well, there never should have been a live round on the set. alec telling me why didn t hannah gutierrez-reed recheck that bullet. why didn t halls obey her. why did he give me the gun? why didn t he check? why did he tell the crew it was a cold gun? it s what alec baldwin told george stephanopoulos. it s what alec baldwin told me. why was he handed a gun in the first place that was supposed to be a prop gun that he should have been able to fire that gun a hundred times and a live bullet should have never come out.