john. >> john: interesting to see those voices not only being heard by exercising the options at the ballot box as well. alex hogan for us. thank you. >> dana: hunter biden's defense team getting ready to pull the trigger deciding whether to put president biden's son on the stand or just rest his case and move on to closing arguments. welcome to a new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm dana perino. bill hemmer is off today and i'm pleased to be with you, john. >> john: i'm pleased to be with you as well. we've known each other for a long time and great to work together. a big decision for hunter biden. his defense attorney considers the best course of action. at this point it is not certain that indications make it seem likely hunter will not testify. andy mccarthy earlier on all the reasons why hunter should keep his mouth shut. >> looking at his potential sentencing guidelines, it looks to me like even if he gets convicted here he has a good chance of avoiding a prison sentence. that calculation can change if a defendant takes the stand, gives a version of events that the jury obviously rejects. >> john: rich edson at the courthouse in wilmington, delaware, where we're still awaiting news as to whether or not hunter biden will take the stand. what do we know at this point? >> good morning, john. it is slow going right now. the attorneys for the prosecution and hunter biden are in a side bar with the judge. the update we got ten minutes ago. they have been talking quietly with the judge for more than a half hour here. it appears to be that the lead defense attorneys seems to be doing most of the talking but unclear what they are saying. hunter at times leaned back and talked to his uncle james biden and business partners and first lady both seated behind him. through some of these proceedings earlier this morning, there is a suggestion that hunter biden will not take the stand but we're still waiting for that to confirmed. still waiting for the jury to be brought into the room while this side bar continues. hunter arrived for the second week in court with his wife melissa and jill biden is here as we mentioned and his uncle jim biden is here and the president's sister and aunt val are also here. if hunter declines to testify, this could all finish very, very quickly. we could be into closing statements today and jury deliberations by the afternoon. if he does testify, the prosecution has said that it is probably going to call rebuttal witnesses and that extends the trial out throughout the week. prosecutors have spent all last week put their case together and called witnesses, including three ex-s for hunter biden, played excerpts from his audio book and bank statements. the defense put its case friday calling hunter biden's daughter. we're waiting to see if hunter takes the stand. proceedings are ongoing and give you an update as soon as we get it. >> john: send up a flair as soon as you know. >> dana: fox news alert here. former president donald trump will take part in a virtual pre-sentencing interview with probation officers today after his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. eric shawn live in new york city with more. what should we expect? >> yeah, former president trump has a date with his probation officer today. the type of session that's required of any convicted defendant. as a convicted felon the former president will be interviewed virtually with his lawyer at his side. do it from his mar-a-lago estate. the person is the probation officer who reviews the case and examines the defendant's personal history. conclusions will go into the pre-sentence report that will recommend trump's sentence and go to judge juan merchan. the report can help the former president. here is what the new york courts say about that. the pre-sentence report is a chance for the defendant's lawyer to say good things about the defendant like the defendant is in a counseling program or has a steady job and takes care of an ailing family member. it's a chance for the defendant to try to make a good impression and explain why he or she deserves a lighter punishment. the trump campaign said this in part, quote, president trump and his legal team are already taking necessary steps to challenge and defeat what they call the lawless manhattan d.a. case. with this comes as manhattan district attorney alvin bragg accepted a request to testify before the house judiciary committee about the case but not until the former president is sentenced. the republican-led panel wants to ask bragg about the prosecution and if the biden justice department had any input or involvement in the charges. tumble has attacked prosecutor colangelo, a former department of justice official. the former president claiming without any evidence that colangelo somehow engineered the case. the white house has denied that and bragg has not so far commented on that specifically but he certainly will likely do that when he testifies. the president is set to be sentenced july 11th. that just four days before the republican convention is expected to nominate him again. dana. >> dana: thank you, eric sean. >> john: all right, dana. joining us now for more on hunter biden's gun trial the former u.s. attorney and executive director on right on crime. brett, as they make a decision -- wait to make an announcement as to whether or not hunter biden will testify. i'm sure they've already made the decision. weigh the pros and cons of him getting on the stand. >> john, dana, thank you for having me. i will tell you that it should be a no-brainer to not take the stand. in the federal system you are punished if you take the stand and are found guilty. the way they can do that is they can actually elevate the sentence that he would be given for obstruction of justice or perjury. those could be added by the judge in the sentencing guideline range and it would elevate what exposure he may have. i really am surprised that they are even contemplating it especially in a case like this which is as close to a strict liability case as there is. will he take the stand and say disregard all the evidence i was on drugs and i was not on drugs at the time? and disregard the fact it is my gun. those are the two elements they have to show, which is why its is very surprising they went to trial even in this case. >> dana: last week president biden told david mueller that he will not pardon hunter. >> as we sit here in normandy your son, hunter, is on trial and i know that you cannot speak about an ongoing federal prosecution. but let me ask you will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict no matter what it is? >> yes. >> have you ruled out a pardon for your son? >> yes. >> dana: so as andy mccarthy pointed out it is not enforceable. biden could change his mind. as we look forward, there is this case and then there is the other case, the one involving taxes, which is happening just before the election and brett, who hunter biden perhaps be in more trouble because of that one? >> that one will carry a significant greater risk for a longer prison sentence. and if he is convicted in this case and he is actually going to have a higher criminal history, which will elevate the guideline range in that case if he is convicted. so there is a lot at stake here for hunter biden. i'm not sure that i buy that the president is not going to pardon him. i think that his track record has not been one of the most reliably honest politician and it wouldn't surprise me. it is a father and it is a son and it wouldn't surprise me. but there is great exposure in both cases. >> john: the former president will do an interview of some sort together with todd blanche with the new york state parole division. apparently alvin bragg as well has been invited to come and testify before congress and said my schedule is too full now but i'll reserve the possibility of doing it in the future. here is what bragg said about the trump case. listen here. >> i did my job. our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor and that's exactly what we did here. i did my job, we did our job. many voices out there. the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury and the jury has spoken. >> john: the jury did its job but many people say the cards were stacked. if bragg were hauled before congress what would people want to ask him? >> i will tell you that there is a supreme court decision, i believe scalia, that said that a case is brought, an indictment is brought and then a judge and jury, you know, finds a conviction and all of that legitimizes the action, right? because the results are saying, you know, that a jury found him guilty and it legitimizes regardless whether it was to be brought or not this is one of those instances where a case was cobbled together. i think it was bad on the facts and it was manipulated on the law, and now it has a layer of validity because of the jury verdict. that's why we have appellate courts, though. and the d.a. saying that he did his job is quite a stretch when he ran on the notion of prosecuting donald trump regardless of what the facts might be. they did that, now let's see what the court will do in response and then i have little faith that there will be much value by him appearing in front of congress. but we'll see. stranger things have happened. >> dana: they have. brett tollman, thank you. >> john: thanks, brett. >> dana: right now we are waiting for an update from inside the court as hunter biden's federal gun trial is underway right now. the question of the hour is will hunter take the stand or will closing arguments get underway? we're expecting a decision any moment, john. >> john: former president trump taking a closer look at potential running mates. what the campaign is looking for as they consider a list of top contenders for vice president. >> dana: israeli commandos rescued four hostages. the dangerous and daring mission to bring them home. jack keane is next. >> hopefully we'll see more of those. israel is at war and the dig strategic picture has not changed even though this is a great event. and doug. 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[music playing] >> john: fox news alert. update on the three-alarm fire in downtown miami. it is at the temple court apartments. it is a four-story building west of downtown near the miami river. per the miami fire department, the fire spread quickly through the common area of the roof. you can see it there. the flames coming through the roof structure. numerous crews on the scene right now battling the blaze. it is a three-alarm fire. several people were trapped in the building but apparently they have all been rescued by the fire department. some 50 people were evacuated from the complex. some of them are people who are sheltering in place due to disabilities. we're trying to get more details on one other aspect of this as well and that is that one person was found with gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital. unclear at this point if that was related to the initial ignition of this fire or if that was related to something else. we have our teams down there in miami bird dogging this and get information as soon as we can. >> dana: okay. scary stuff. thank you. a massive anti-israel rally taking place in washington, d.c. over the weekend. did you see this? the protest took place outside the white house. president biden was in europe commemorating the 80th anniversary of d-day. protestors also harassed a park ranger during the demonstration. [shouting] >> dana: demonstrators also unfurled a large palestinian flag and vandalized statues as they voiced their opposition to u.s. support for israel. this on the day that the hostages were rescued. >> this was a high-risk, complex mission based on precise intelligence conducted in daylight. in two separate buildings deep inside gaza. while under fire, under fire inside the buildings, under fire on the way out from gaza, our forces rescued our hostages. >> john: israel's military conducting a dangerous mission rescuing four hostages from hamas captivity in gaza. said to be in good health and reunited with families. general jack keane, former vice chief of staff of the army and chairman of the institute for the study of war joins us now. echoes on the raid in this general in that they practiced for days, if not weeks, to get these hostages out and they managed to do it, however did incur a lot of casualties on the palestinian side. >> it's a remarkable operation. obviously very daring operation with highly competent and skilled forces. an operation like this go through a number of phases, one is the planning and decision phase. the israelis have had to pass up a number of hostages operations because they knew they would be detected before and they wouldn't get them out and hostages killed as well as many of their soldiers. they had to pass on them. this one they had precise intelligence. knew the apartments in the buildings where the hostages were. that in itself is remarkable. then they had can we get in there and not get detected? at night was the first option. we could fast rope on top of the building and move a force on the ground and get in there. i think they recognized this both of those from the point of detection to the point of rescue there is too much time and the hostages would likely be killed. these forces that did this, the national police anti-terror unit and the security operators, they are used to operating inside palestinians where they live, etc. culturally attuned and speak the language without an israeli accent. they look like palestinians and dressed like palestinians. they may have selected daylight because they could look like palestinians and conceal their weapons as opposed to coming through in uniform, which would be easily detected in an intense refugee camp where this rescue took place. a lot of thought had to go into this, john. as you indicated, they put up a mock buildings to represent what they were going to deal with much as we did in preparation to take down bin laden. that certainly is extraordinary in terms of the preparation for that. yeah, this is a remarkable operation that will be historic in the anals of israeli rescue operations. >> john: jake sullivan said the united states played a role in the operation but he wouldn't say exactly what. >> i won't get into the specific operational or intelligence-related matters associated with that. we need to protect those. i can say we have generally provided support to the idf so that we can try to get all of the hostages home including the american american hostages still being held. >> john: what do you think the role would be? >> we have had people assisting them right from the outset in terms of intelligence collection. i don't think we have to tell the israelis how to conduct an operation and do hostage rescue. they are experts themselves and they are dealing with a population that we're not used to dealing with. i think in terms of intelligence gathering, there is a lot we can do as reported openly that we had drones assisting them with that. then we have, john, we have huge intelligence capability that exceeds any other country in the world. and so all those sources are put on that target in terms of trying to find those hostages and likely we have assisted them in finding those hostages as i mentioned before. but we weren't -- they weren't able to execute because they couldn't get them out there alive. yeah, i think we're providing meaningful contribution to the hostage rescue operation. >> john: one last question. bennie, opposition leader resigned from the unity government cabinet yesterday. he was going to hold a press conference to announce it but decided that the hostage situation was taking precedence and stayed quiet about it. what do you think it represents, the fact that he has said i'm done with the way netanyahu is conducting this war, i'm out. >> yeah, well, i think it's remarkable that there was a war cabinet with people sitting in it who were political opponents to begin with. i think that demonstrated clearly the threat that israel was facing here from the outset and what the implications october 7th meant for the whole nation in terms of its very survival. but now with seven months plus into the war it is not surprising to me that political opponents would have policy differences that they can no longer continue to exist without separating themselves. after all, bennie gants wants to be prime minister and wants the job netanyahu has and wants to force an election so he can get that job. so those are some of the realities. when it comes to the war, when you look closely at where he is from, he wants the destruction of hamas. he thinks it will take year, not months to accomplish that. where there is absolute disagreement is he believes netanyahu should be talking about a plan now, what is the post-gaza plan after hamas is effectively defeated? what is the political plan to govern and sustain hamas? he sees no evidence of that. >> john: that's a big question and one to be answered in the days, weeks and months ahead. thank you for being with us. appreciate it. see you again soon. >> great talking to you, thank you. >> dana: as he promises to lower corporate tax rates and reduce regulations former president trump is gaining support among american businesses, including $12 million raised in no place else than silicon valley? that was over the weekend. fox business's grady trimble live with more in washington. grady, have they had a change of heart in silicon valley? >> it certainly seems that way because that event you mentioned was packed wi