at kaiser permanente, we care for all those who make your family, well, your family. that's why all of us work together to give them the care, and caring, that any family would. kaiser permanente. for all that is you. >> this is abc 7 news. >> what we do here is every day we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area

and get answers for you in real time. today we get to know a whole new level. we will talk to a senior reporter with the san francisco standard who spent about six months interviewing more than 50 people to learn more about who the woman is behind closed doors. first let's talk about president biden stomping around the bay area today. he is talking tech and raising campaign cash the very day we learned his son hunter will plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors. joining us live is daniel lippmann, political white house and washington reporter. we want to take a live look outside because from what we understand, the president has landed and is approaching christie field. you see his motor field going down marina boulevard. this is in san francisco happening as we speak. later in the day he will be going to more campaign events.

this all comes on the heels of his touchdown at moffitt yesterday and visited hollow alto to in nature -- and a visit to palo alto. let' guest today who is from politico and talk about hunter biden. let's recap the charges against him. did you see this coming? daniel: this investigation has been going on for a number of years. almost five years. they would not have been investigating unless there was something there. and what they found was in 2017 and 2018, he evaded more than $100,000 of federal income taxes on more than $1 million of income. there is also a gun charge where he said never used drugs when he was applying for a gun, and that

was not true. so he is doing two years of probation and staying sober and the reaction in the white house is relief he will not be spending time behind bars. dion: i want to talk a little more about that. you know more anymore details about this plea agreement with the justice department? daniel: republicans are crying foul that this was kind of a slap on the wrist, like a speeding ticket. they wanted hunter to go to jail. but we should remember that this was a u.s. attorney who negotiated this, who prosecuted this arrangement, who was appointed by president -- former president trump. almost every other u.s. attorney resigns at the beginning of a president's term so that a new fleet of u.s. attorneys can do their work. but this one was asked to stay

on because of this investigation. david weiss from deleware. because they did not want criticism from republicans about how they put in a biden u.s. attorney and then hunter biden got off easy. so the justice department said they did not interfere in this investigation at all. that the fbi director christopher wray said he wanted the fbi to pursue this aggressively. so i think it is very rare for a president's son to be charged with a crime, but we have that today. dion: the gop you touched upon very briefly has said they will continue to investigate hunter biden. they have been for a number of years. what are they hoping to find further from what has come down today? daniel: they want to make sure that there is no interference from the white house, or the attorney general merrick

garland, into giving hunter biden special treatment. there is no evidence that there has been here. misdemeanor tax cases are uncommon, but in those rare cases, they don't often lead to prison time. so they often resolve themselves with a plea agreement where the person agrees to plead guilty in exchange for not getting jail time. so that's the case here. he paid back all those taxes, paid a fine, doing the probation. so obviously when you are the president's son you have access to great lawyers. he does not make a ton of money now, now he has been able to pay it back, i think with a loan from a family friend. but republicans are like a dog with a bone here. they want to exact as much political carnage as possible. they still are trying to prove

that hunter biden's work for that ukrainian energy company influence the obama administration's policy on ukraine, but that will be a very hard issue to prove. dion: and of course how can we forget about that issue. and speaking of the president and the 2024 race, i can't imagine this not having implications, election season. has he actually spoken about these charges? as we speak right now he is arriving at crissy field in san francisco. daniel: his spokespeople has said that the president loves his son. biden has long said he did not think hunter did anything wrong. but with this plea deal he is admitting that he did. and so of course no parent wants to see their kid face charges from the u.s. government.

and so this is pretty embarrassing for biden. his son had struggled with addiction for years, and the death of his brother, beau biden. and so we kind of see the aftereffects here. there was also a messy situation where he was with that gun, this gun charge. and let's get this straight. he basically had a his late brother's w then she found the gun i vehicle, tossed it out, they tried to fin it. then there worries that would be used in criminal cases. the lesson hunter biden probably learned is try to stay on the straight and narrow. dion: certainly a complicated

issue i am sure we will learn more of any coming days. i want to broaden things out to joe biden's visit to the bay area. he has been talking about artificial intelligence, its role in america, how it needs to be approached with caution. daniel: what do you make of that assessment? daniel: they have started this ai task force. they put kamala in charge of that. they have people from big companies like microsoft and openai to the white house to discuss this very important matter which has implications of reshaping society in very significant ways. and we saw with automation there are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs -- were not gained jobs -- or not gained jobs. you can see not many people manning cash registers. this will have a huge impact

also on america and the world in terms of our economy and letting ai do a lot of the jobs that people do now. but it also has the ability to lead to a lot more economic growth and efficiency. it is kind of a balancing act that biden and the was government are trying to play. the government is often behind the eight ball on tech regulations so i would not be surprised if that holds here too. dion: you took the words out of my mouth. it is a balancing act, and that ai component is something our mayor has been sending a message as the future of our economics. daniel lippman, we appreciate you being with us. as we head to break, we want to take a live look outside. from what we understand, the president has landed moments ago, and he has plans to make

his way to luxembourg. -- to larksburgh. these two campaign events he has going on in the bay area today. london breed, she saved herself. can she save san francisco? that question is at the core of a new article in the san francisco standard. coming up week talk to the reporter who took a deep dive into who london breed here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit. what's my price?

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to record your important information and give helpful direction to your loved ones with your final wishes. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. dion: today we are doing a deep dive into san francisco mayor london breed's past to understand her motivations behind her policies on many issues plaguing the city today. our media partner the san

francisco standard published an article, london breed saved herself, can she save san francisco? it gives readers one of the most intimate and revealing looks at the mayor's life. joining us now is josh kane, senior reporter but the s.f. standard and a journalist who wrote the article. so great having you with us today. i am just blown away by the tremendous efforts it took. you spent more than six months making more than 50 interviews with people who are close to london. can you paint a picture of who she is as a person, but then also as a politician, someone to work with? josh: absolutely. london breed is one of the more fascinating people to come out of politics in the bay area in generations. she rose out of a very tough public housing complex in the western -- plaza east, its nickname was the uc, out-of-control.

it was out-of-control with gangs, murders, drug dealing, a lot of extreme poverty. london breed grew up with her grandmother raising her, siblings, aunts, all crammed into a small apartment. they were on food stamps. she essentially had almost nothing to begin with. somehow through perseverance, grit, determination, and a community that really did embrace her and protected her. the one thing about these tightknit communities in which not a lot of people have a lot of things, when they see potential in someone, they make sure they can help a person succeed. there is a lot of pride and love in the community. she became justice really unique talent that people in local politics wanted to gravitate towards. and she was a worker, she was great at connecting with people. and she also is intense. if she feels like you are not about the business, she will

give you the business. she will come after you real quick. she's definitely one of the more engaging people to be in san francisco politics in a long time. and at the same time, she also has some issues where some of her strongest traits can cut both ways. also they can kind of hurt her because politics is all about relationships and compromise. and mayor breed has really butted heads with a lot of people. dion: it is interesting, she is very complex from what i gathered from your article. and some of what we have gathered from having her on our show and having interactions with her. you paint her as almost aggressive in her messaging. but yet at the same time she has this plaque on her desk that says what would beyonce do. josh: beyonce super talented obviously as well. also does things her own way. london breed has never been afraid to set her own path. in two interviews we had over

the course of the six months of reporting, i sat down with her in the mayor's office. there was just this one quote that we actually used near the end of the story where she says, yeah, i am a fighter and i am a beast when it comes to getting what i want. and so she is not afraid to really go toe to toe with her political opponents and call them out further arguments. the issue that a lot of people have raised is whether or not it is enough to just be tough talk. she blames her lefty political opponents on the board of supervisors. she talks about the bureaucracy and red tape that obviously is a real issue at city hall because of generations of ordinances past that essentially make it this weird labyrinth to try to navigate how to deal with problems. so these are real complaints. but at a certain point you do have to rise above that and work with people. so what this story i hope accomplishes is really trying to lay out for people to challenges

that she personally had to overcome. housing instability, economic instability, a sister who died from a drug overdose, a brother who went to prison for a deadly robbery, an aunt who had mental health issues. these things all impacted her. but now she has to find a way to solve those not just for herself, but all of san francisco. so it is a really complicated question, which is probably why this story is so darn long. dion: it does make for great reading if anyone is looking for a long nighttime breathe. i want to talk about her personality and how that has played out. we will get to that and maybe the next segment. before that, she's tremendously private, but you have been able to unearth some aspects of her life that directly parlay into some of her policies that she makes today. can you give us some examples of that? josh: absolutely. the mayor is intensely private about her family because she

does not want to embarrass them. she does not want to put all their business out on the streets. in the reporting, i did learn from multiple people that she has actually never met her father and does not know who that is. she recently took a dna test and revealed to a group on a sister city trip to israel that she is part jewish, which was a big revelation in her life. these are the kind of things that we all want to know more about the people who represent us. and this does not necessarily explain some of her policy decisions, but it does explain just the way she surrounds herself with people that she trusts fiercely and if she does not trust you, then you are definitely on the outside looking in. so, when it comes to issues like crime, she has a pretty nuanced view on crime because she was surrounded bride -- by drug dealers, murders. she witnessed a person's corpse when she was 12 years old, a

shooting in her neighborhood. she also knows that police treated her aunt really kindly when they were called out. her aunt had a nickname from one of the cops, called him beefcakes, which is a really cute story. she said at her aunt's he came out and said, some of you might know me by beefcakes. but she wants to be tough on crime while also balancing calls for reform. when it comes to druggies, she's now taking a very hard line on people using drugs on the streets and refusing to go into treatment. this will basically put her at odds with people who call for harm reduction strategies. when it comes to issues of the local economy, which is really huge, we had a $780 deficit projected for the next two years and we are still negotiating that.

her efforts to actually deal with that are very much in question. is it a real strategy or are we just throwing things against the wall? dion: let's talk more about those issues of the bit after the break. stay with us. we are going to look into the crystal ball, see how london breed's future is showing up, especially with that reelection campaign happening

dion: if you are just joining us, you are watching video of a military helicopter leaving crissy field in san francisco. the president is heading to luxemburg. more campaign events on the horizon. we have more on abc7news.com. once again back with josh koehn, our partner at the s.f. standard has done so much extensive research into london breed's past. let's talk now about her future because there are so many issues plaguing san francisco right

now. issues we have both reported on. what is it going to take for her to secure reelection come next year? josh: right now, as we say, we have 1.5 years until the 2024 election. and three quarters of san franciscans say the city is headed down the wrong track. more than half of voters are disapproving of her performance as mayor. and while she did it by a large -- most people say she didn't excellent job of handling covid and the pandemic -- did an excellent job of handling covid in the pandemic, but our memories are very short-term. we are seeing street conditions that are still a mess. we are seeing open air drug markets going on unchecked. we are seeing people struggling on the streets and having mental health break downs. we are also just experiencing a loss of culture and commerce. so, these things are building

towards this kind of groundswell of opinion that something is rotten in san francisco. what she as mayor needs to do she has to, one, really make progress on the issues of drugs and crime, and a perception that people feel unsafe, which is obviously something you have covered a lot in your reporting. to do that, she needs to be on the same page with police and the district attorney who was brought in by an appointment of mayor breed after the recall. so i think people need to see real progress on that front. maybe even bigger though, is the local economy. the storefronts that are leaving the downtown area. dion: let's talk about that. it would be remiss of me not to mention this. good morning america went live for their show not too long ago, and said it was too dangerous to go live so early in the morning. the mayor denounced this, saying

that it did not give a good perception of the city, that it was actually hampering our economic rebound. is that the right message in your opinion? is the public buying that? josh: i think that the public is probably on good morning america's side a lot of the time when it comes to a statement like that. this is a big challenge for mayor breed. not only does she have to show real improvement, she also has to manage her messaging. when she goes after the media, that is rarely a good strategy that plays out well for elected officials. it also shows that there isn't necessarily enough nuance. andf if she wants to highlight the positives, it is not a good idea to attack the media when they say these things. as someone who is the former editor of the san francisco chronicle, i used to walk the streets at 5:30 a.m. every day. if i was a producer, i might have some questions too. so instead of attacking the messenger on something like that, there's going to have to

be a shift in how she balances being tough and really combative he feels things are unfair, and other times saying this is criticism we are going to take and we will do our best to improve it. there has been a bit of defensiveness on mayor breed's past, especially in the last few weeks. we saw an open outdoor hearing in which a united nations plaza, in which she was called to explain her handling of the drug crisis in the downtown area. mayor breed and her administration did make a pretty huge error when they had a tenderloin lincoln center in drug services and connecting clients with health. it ended up becoming a safe consumption site, which is not actually legal in a lot of ways. and so, a lot of people blamed her administration for making the drug crisis worse. being combative, being someone who just wants to have that fight, it's not necessarily an

effective communications strategy, especially with 1.5 years until the next election. dion: i want to wrap up by asking two more questions. how has your relationship then with the board of supervisors and the last few months, and how has that played out with making things effective? josh: i would not say they are going to go on vacation anytime soon. i would say things are going to get worse before they get better. mayor breed has called them out for being too lefty, because she is a bit more moderate and centrist in her politics. she has also called them out for being obstructionist. there is likely going to be a doubt measure put forward by someone to make her stronger resume or. sent-- stronger as a mayor. san francisco already has a very strong mayor system, but she feels she needs more power to get things done. so that will become a big clash if that comes to pass next year. dion: i am sure we will have you on again as we inched closer to

that election. and you can check out more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting as well at their website, sfstandard.c om. we will continue to bring more stories. but do they really? do they see that crick in your neck? that ache in your heart? will they see that funny little thing that wasn't there last year? a new bounce in your step?

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dion: thank you so much for joining us. two break stories as we come on the air tonight. time running out. the unprecedented search for the missing sub touring the wreckage of the titanic. and hunter biden agrees to a plea deal. first that race against time. at this hour, the tiny submer