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(vo) switch to the partner businesses rely on. it is good to be back with you on this second hour of chris jansing reports. at this hour, guilty on all counts. the president's son, hunter biden, nodding slightly, but showing no emotion, as the jury convicted him in a gun case that made public his dark history of drug addiction. the special counsel declaring no one is above the law. how the biden family is grappling with the verdict while the president fights to hang on to the white house. joe biden saying he will always be there to support his son. and we expect to hear from him any minute now in washington, d.c. for the first time on camera since the jury found his son guilty. with a pardon already ruled out by the president, does hunter biden have a strong case for appeal? we'll dig into that, plus how trump world is reacting. our nbc news reporters are following all the late es. we start with reaction coming from all sides in the wake of the conviction on felony charges. ken dilanian is following it from delaware. what are you hearing there, ken? >> reporter: chris, we're hearing from many of the key players in this saga including david weiss, the trump appointed u.s. attorney in delaware tasked by merrick garland with investigating biden then appointed special counsel in this case after the plea agreement from a year ago fell through. take a listen to david weiss. >> no one in this country is above the law. everyone must be accountable for their actions. even this defendant. however, hunter biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen >> reporter: we also have a written statement from hunter biden himself who said he's more grateful for the love and support i experienced this last week from his wife, melissa, my family, friends, and community than i am disappointed by the outcome. he added recovery is possible by the grace of god and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time. in terms of what comes next, it's sentencing. that will take place two to three months from now. the judge will set a date. meantime, there will be an investigation, confidential report written, and that will include an interview with hunter biden, assessment of his offenses and him as a person. then the judge will make a decision. the guidelines in this case we believe call for around a year in prison but the judge is free to go below that and take into account this kind of case is rarely brought as a stand alone. one more thing. if he is sentenced in this case, just the fact he's been convicted, that has a bearing on what happens in the september tax case which is viewed by many as more serious. if he's convicted, he will no longer be a person without a criminal record and that will impact the sentence he would get in that case in california, chris. >> ken, thank you and thank you for your coverage throughout this trial. now to the white house and ali as we wait to potentially hear the president's first on camera reaction. i know he's released a statement. what are we hearing from the white house? >> reporter: yeah, chris. in just a few minutes, we expect to see the president for the first time since his only surviving son was found guilty on all three of those federal gun charges. charges brought forward by the president's own justice department. justice department he has vowed time and time again to remain independent from. and we know ironically he's going to be speaking at this previously scheduled event talking about gun control legislation. this is the annual conference for the organization every town for gun safety. we do not expect him to react beyond the statement that he put out earlier today reacting to his son's verdict in which he said in part, quote, he's president, but he's also a dad. he said that he and the first lady love their son and are so proud of the man he is today. they continue, jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. says nothing will ever change that. and chris, we saw that love and support on full display throughout this trial. we know the president as it was going on was kept up to speed on all of the developments from it. even while overseas late last week and over the weekend, the first lady remarkably shuttling between france and wilmington, delaware, where the trial was taking place. we saw the emotional toll it took on her. she walked hand in hand with hunter biden, wiping away tears. it's that reaction from not just her, but other members of the family, the president, as we have seen this trial and decision impact the white house's plans. we learned in the last hour that the president after this event is going to go straight to wilmington, delaware, in the wake of this verdict. those actions, those changes, are really underscoring concerns those closest to the biden family have about how this could change the president personally moving forward. especially moving forward into such a critical time in the 2024 election. the president of course at the end of the month having that first general election debate with former president trump and the election now just five months away. so this in addition to the fact that hunter has as ken mentioned, a second trial he is facing for tax evasion charges in california, really raising concerns on the potential impact that could have on the president personally. >> thank you. several member of trump world are already reacting to the guilty verdict. let's bring in dasha burns who's been following this for us. what can you tell us? >> so we haven't heard from former president trump himself directly just yet, chris, but we got a statement from his campaign. it reads this trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the biden crime family, which is raked in tens of millions of dollars from china, russia, and ukraine. crooked joe biden's reign over the criminal empire is all coming to an end on november 5th and never again will a biden sell government access for personal profit. a lot of unsubstantiated claims there. we also heard from the spokesperson for maga inc. they say the evidence that led to a guilty verdict came from the same laptop that's driving hunter's tax fraud case on the money he made from foreign business deals. this decision is only the first step of unraveling of the biden crime family. and congresswoman stefanic who is rumored to be a potential vp contender also saying this is the first step in delivering accountability for the biden crime family. there's this narrative starting to percolate in maga world sort of calling this a red herring. a distraction from other crimes that might lead more directly to former, to president biden. and there's one more set of republicans, most of whom are going, not going on the record, but are telling our colleagues on background that this does, chris, undercut some of the main arguments from the trump campaign that the justice system is weaponized against him. one source telling our colleague john allen that's less of a bumper sticker now. can't be used in the same sort of mantra way it has so far. his most ardent supporters, that doesn't matter. it is something that sort of dampens that message, maybe doesn't ring as loudly now that we have the son of the president of the united states convicted here. >> dasha burns, thank you. joining me now, lisa rubin. i want to talk about what comes next. hunter biden's lawyer says they will quote continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available. what does that look like? >> like going through sentencing first then entering what's called a notice of appeal. they have 14 days to do that. to indicate they are going to appeal both the verdict and the sentence together. now, when they do that, their best chance on appeals as andrew weissman has noted, is a constitutional one. there's a case percolated through the federal courts now that forces people to answer the question, are you a user of or addicted to a narcotic, stimulant. the fifth circuit ruled that is unconstitutional as it interferes with a person's second amendment rights. if the supreme court were to agree or even the fact that a fifth circuit court of appeals, texas and louisiana, does agree, that is going to be a strong basis for hunter's lawyers to say this conviction isn't even sound in the first place. he didn't violate a federal law that can be upheld. the other bases might be for example the exclusion of the gun form. hunter's lawyers wanted to argue it wasn't clear he even filled it out himself, but the judge didn't allow the form into evidence and also prevented them from introducing the testimony from a forensic psychiatrist who was going to talk about addiction and how it impacts what a person does in terms of intent and knowledge. >> i want to talk to you about what happens between now and sentencing. what is hunter biden's role in what will be decided by the judge? >> first of all, hunter biden is going to have to go through and interview with a probation officer. part of that is understanding whether he accepts responsibility for his actions. they never said during the trial he didn't purchase the gun, make the visit to the gun shop. never even said that hunter biden wasn't involved in this events that led to the recovery of the gun. i expect that hunter biden and abby lowell will make a bid for a lower sentence in part by saying hunter biden does accept responsibility. that he was a different person in 2018 than the man he has become today. they will also aggressively work to compile letters of support from people in the community. not only his close friends and family, but other people whose lives he has touched. for example, the galleryist who shows hunter's work now can testify to his talent and the fact he's turned his life around. if i'm lowell, i'm thinking about that presentation to the judge starting now. >> what kind of timeline are we looking at for an appeal and is it likely to just overlap with these tax charges that he's facing another case? >> you know, it's hard to say what timeline any federal court of appeals will be on in terms of an appeal when that briefing will be had. i think it's unlikely we would see a decision prior to the election let alone maybe even an oral argument. in all likelihood, he'll be sentenced on this jury verdict first then in september, assuming he doesn't plead out before then, will go and have his trial in california on those tax charges then the election will come. >> do you think it's likely he'll get jail time? >> i don't. >> just based on what we know of people in this same situation in the past. >> i don't. i'm thinking about david weiss who today said no person is above the law and no person should be more accountable on this, on these charges if they are convicted. that to me is him sending a signal he doesn't believe hunter biden necessarily deserves a stringent prison sentence. maybe no prison time at all. when you're thinking about how the jurors saw this case, one gave an interview today to another network where they said it was important to them for example the way the gun was retrieved had nothing to do with hunter biden. rather, hallie biden took the gun from him and deposited it into a trash can. when asked if he wanted to file charges against his sister-in-law, he said no. he also didn't want to repo repo success the gun. >> thank you. coming up, a former special assistant to the first lady shares his insight on the emotional toll that hunter biden's case has had on the family despite their decades of experience in being in the glare of the public eye. of the public eye. it's never a good time for migraine, especially when i'm on camera. that's why my go-to is nurtec odt. for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults. it's the only migraine medication that helps treat & prevent, all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec odt. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. people depend on me. without a migraine, i can be there for them. talk to your doctor about nurtec odt today. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. 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pregnant. done settling? ask your rheumatologist for rinvoq. and take back what's yours. abbvie could help you save. hunter biden's guilty verdict today put an emotional punctuation mark on a trial that shined a glaring spotlight on the president's only surviving son. the first lady was seen tightly clutching hunter's hand as they were leaving the courthouse. while she was not inside for the verdict, she's been in court almost every day sitting right behind her son, the son she worked to help get clean. addiction is an issue that ties the biden family experience to millions of other americans who have had their own personal relationships tested and sometimes tormented by addiction. it was even a through line for some of the jury, including number ten, who shared in selection both his brother and brother-in-law struggled with alcoholism and both are now dead. he spoke to cnn. >> i can't speak for everyone but i can speak for myself. it was very sad. that he was being not convicted of these crimes, but that his life had turned out the way it did. >> i want to bring in mike memoli who was inside the courthouse for the verdict, also the former press secretary for the first lady, and the author of it was all a lie and senior adviser to the lincoln project, stewart stevens. i want to get personal to start with if i can, michael, because this is a man how as a boy, lost his birth mother and sister in a car accident. his father, joe biden, remarried jill biden, who said many times she never saw him as anything but her son. talk about the relationship that they have. the fact she was in that courtroom, that she flew back from france to be there and then flew back for a formal event. and just what you saw of this family as you watched this trial play out. >> yeah. thanks for having me, chris. when she started dating joe biden as the first lady often says, she wasn't just dating joe biden. she was dating joe biden and those little boys. and she helped raise them from the time they were 5 or 6. so she's always been mom to them. and she's, you know, she would probably say never saw herself dating someone with children or marrying somebody who had little boys at the time. she fell in love with them. it's why it took her so long to say yes to him because she knew what they had gone through just a year before. year and a half before she met joe biden. and she wasn't willing to break their hearts again. and she assimilated and adapted into family and they made their family whole again. what you saw, this story has been evolving and unfolding over the last six years. through our primary campaign, through the general election, through the white house. but what you saw i think is a remarkably grounded and remarkably normal family despite some unusual circumstances. but dealing with a, and coping and supporting each other through very private family ordeal that unfortunately they're having to deal with in public. seeing doctor b. with our sister and sister-in-law clutch hands today, it was pretty powerful and i'm sure her heart is a little broken today. >> mike memoli saying that this is a tough and emotional day for the biden family. obviously an understatement. i wonder what it was like being in the courthouse for this. >> reporter: well, i was so struck, chris, to see valerie biden, the president's sister. she, when the accident happened in 1972, she moved in to her brother's home to help raise those boys so in some ways, hunter is almost like her son in many ways. she was such a part of his life and the reaction i saw on her face, the grief when she walked out of the courtroom after hearing the verdict really did strike me. she was also hear for so many days of the trial. i think one of the most difficult things for the entire family during the course of this six-day trial has been really the fact they've had to relive some of the darkest days as a family. those weeks and months and years that followed after the death of beau biden. hunter talking about in his book the ways in which he unfortunately fell into addiction after that. his ex-wife testifying that it was only weeks after beau died that she discovered the crack pipe. the way in which even hunter's own daughter had to testify. dr. biden was there not just as a mother, but as a grandmother, knowing the entire family was having to live through this difficult moment today over the last week. it's something that i think is part of why the president is coming back here so quickly to spend this night with his son. we know he's about to fly out to the g7 summit in italy where he'll see among other people, pope francis. we know what a close relationship they have built over the last 15 years. then the president will travel to los angeles where hunter has been living the last few years. he's there for a fund-raiser of all things with president obama as well as some celebrities, but it's not unlikely that they might spend that father's day weekend together once he returns from italy. important time for the family. >> stewart, this is something that the late president reagan's daughter patty davis connected to. she wrote an op-ed for the "new york times" talking about her own addiction and how hunter is not alone. there are a lot of hunter bidens in this world. people who fell in way over their heads, who long for someone