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today, what was supposed to be a slamdunk court hearing to approve hunter biden's plea deal. spear will join us to discuss what this means now. also, amy schneider pledges to boycott this fall's tournament of champions if the hollywood writer strike is not resolved. she will join us to update us on a major project. first, mitch mcconnell phrases on capitol hill, seemingly unable to speak for over 23 seconds. this follows ronnie james' cardiac arrest a few days ago. we will discuss with chen hong, joining us. i just want to show our viewers for us what we are talking about. the scary 23 seconds involving mitch mcconnell today.

watch this. this happened at a press conference. >> this cooperation and a string of -- do you want to say anything also the press? >> go ahead, john. kristen: so he left, then eventually came back to the podium. not too much later, then took a couple of questions, gave very short answers, saying "i'm fine." what did that look like to you, what could that have been? >> there are two things, one

lack of blood supply to the brain temporarily, and the other might be electrical activity in the brain, like a seizure. of course, the third possibility could be something benign, though 20 something seconds is a long time. what was also obvious was what wasn't seen, which was loss of consciousness, falling to the ground, so i think those are all helpful. i think we will have to think about whether or not he has a vessel to the brain temporarily, that might have compromised, then restored. it could have been like a mild seizure. i thought it was interesting that in march of this year, people might remember, he was hospitalized for a concussion after tripping at an event, at a dinner.

in 2019, he also had a fall. he is 81 years old. many individuals in that age group fall a lot. the falls could be due to a lot of different things. that will be the way that i would think about all this. of course, it could be medicine related as well. kristen: you mean like an allergic reaction to medication or something? >> maybe he is taking blood pressure medicines, he might've been dehydrated and the blood pressure medicine causes less blood to go to the brain of it is too high avoid those at that point in time. kristen: these are all just possibilities, what commonly could cause what we saw there. we don't actually know anything, he will be having tests to find out. but the fact that he was able to walk away on his own and he didn't fall, does not rule out -- does not rule out anything

major -- does that rule out anything major? >> the reason that he didn't fall unconscious was significant because it just indicates how much, if we think it is blood supply to the brain, how much was involved, it could have been a small amount. it could have been the most benign case, that it was temporary and just related to low blood pressure at the time. it could also be related to the heart, as well, if he had arrhythmia or a rhythm problem, temporarily stopping the blood supply to the brain. which recovers as the heart goes back into normal rhythm. people working up can be very come brands of. he is 80 years old. it's not uncommon to have these issues. in that age. kristen: what do you think might part of his medical follow-up process now? >> of course,

will have access to his history, but you want to explore medications, you would want to do a scan of his brain, probably a cat scan, to see if there were any areas, remised. you would want to look -- in areas compromised. you would want to look at his heart. at the blood vessels in his neck, to see if they were abnormally small in diame that problem sometimes syncopal, lightheaded, and dizzy, because you compress the vessels in one way. you treat that by making diameter of the vessel bigger so you can give more blood supply to the brain. i think all of these things will be looked at.

of course, the list is long. low blood sugar as well, these are all things we think about. if somebody falls and somebody sees someone like that, or feels lightheaded for a while, one of the things you want to do is give orange juice. low blood sugar is just an easily reversible thing. the other thing of course, this is related to ronny the person loses consciousness, of course you would want to administer cpr or have a defibrillator close by. kristen: right. he was so very lucky that he did have that close by. seems like he's recovering now out of the icu. all of that is good news. a lot of people are wondering, what do we do if we see someone going through that? the other question is, what are some of the warning signs? for a young person, seemingly healthy to have a cardiac arrest, are there signs,

anything we need to watch out for? >> i think the heart and the brain are related, so thinking about related in some ways, because some of the warning says that we think about -- two of the possibilities again are abnormal electrical activity or abnormal blood supply. abnormal blood increase the blood supply demand when you exercise. that is why one in 300 young people have similar events, which is cardiac arrest. kristen: one and 300? -- in 300? >> one in 300 at some point had it.

there's a debate about or not to screen athletes. the most important thing is to know how to use a different but later. -- a defibrillator. we don't really know all the details but certainly in other cases the defibrillator really saves lives. the second best thing would be cpr. those are the things you think about. warning signs, whether or not somebody is getting lightheaded, the heart is not working, so they may have similar symptoms as senator mcconnell in terms of not being aware for a few seconds. kristen: before we let you go, how can we better support our cardiovascular health? >> course, nutrition, seeing a

clinician and getting screened for some of the risk factors high blood pressure,, cholesterol. probably the most practical thing that i think americans can do is to learn how to do cpr. the american heart association has many classes that are free. know how to use a defibrillator. even when you're on a plane. you never know when you might have to use it. kristen: thank you so much for joining us today. great information. >> thank you. kristen: a stunner for hunter biden today, a judge rejected his plea deal, so what's next for his legal fight and what impact could today's decision have on his father's political career and reelection? we will ask abc7

kristen: a plea deal between hunter biden and the justice department is on hold after a dramatic court hearing wednesday, today, rena roy breaks it down for us. reporter: hunter biden had been expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a pretrial diversion program which would've allowed him to avoid prosecution on a separate felony gun charge. instead, a dramatic turn of events when the judge raised her concerns about whether the deal was constitutional. hunter biden ultimately pleaded not guilty to the charges. the judge, deferring the initial agreement. >> he thought he was walking away clean. but the judge as questions where there wasn't an agreement on what he's actually giving up. and he thought he was walking away with less liability. that the prosecutors actually were holding over him. reporter: the judge was concerned about the parties linking the agreement on the

deal with the gun charge and whether or not a provision of the deal would grant hunter biden blanket immunity, meaning the government would not prosecute them for the. several republicans had criticized the plea arrangement brokered back in june calling it a sweetheart deal. the way it was negotiated by david weiss, who president biden kept in his role to oversee the probe. sources telling abc news in a closed door meeting speaker kevin mccarthy set an impeachment inquiry is on the table related to the criminal investigation of hunter biden. but suggest that it's not imminent at this point. sources also added some members have privately called on mccarthy to focus solely on impeaching president biden over any other administration official. the judge has requested additional briefing from the parties in the next 30 days before deciding next steps. kristen: joining us now about this and other national news is political analyst jackie

speier. nice to have you today. >> nice to be with you. kristen: i don't want to get too deep into this, but this deal collapsed, over the scope of the immunity offered. can you help us understand what that means? >> in part, the judge was concerned about the process. they included the diversion in the document which probably complicated issues. it's important to point out what hunter biden was willing to plea on. he owed about a $1 mil taxes and he has since paid those taxes. the diversion dealt with purchasing a gun when he indicated that he was not on drugs, when he was. it is a tragic situation for the bidens. it is tragic for some 30% of families in this country that have kids who have been drug

addicted and created lots of personal problems for themselves. i think the issue that is probably outstanding right now is what is called a fera declaration. if you're a foreign agent, you have to register with the u.s. with the act and he is not registered. the question is, was he representing any foreign countries? we will know more about this certainly in the next few days. but it's a headache for hunter biden and a headache for president biden as well. kristen: i want to ask you, to what extent do voters look at the families as a whole? there are certainly democrats saying, hunter biden is not on the ballot, which is absolutely true. those of us who have children know that we can't control everything our kids do. but to what extent do you think voters do somewhat hold the parents somewhat responsible or

at least influence how they view the person if their child was going through something like this? >> i think most voters who have children recognize that you can't control them after a certain age. so what hunter did in his adulthood was not something that president biden as a dead control -- dad could control. was there any influence imposed by the president or influence attempted to be imposed by hunter? that is something we will have to wait and see about. i would also point out that when you look at jared kushner and how he left the white house, and then was able to have a $3 billion fund with the saudis, when you look back at jamaal khashoggi, who was murdered by the saudis, how there was a very light touch in terms of our concern about that, you can point to a lot of issues that

are problematic here. but i would say that what's happening here is out of the playbook that the republicans used with benghazi. we lost an ambassador and a number of contractors in libya. there was hearings held at the time. kevin mccarthy was suggested -- kevin mccarthy had suggested that this was going to be used against hillary clinton. there were four that were public, some were not, $7 million expense of taxpayer funds, and in the end, what did they find out? what they find out was the security by the department of defense was not adequate. but they use that as an effort -- used it as an effort to muddy the reputation of then secretary of state clinton. it is being used now as it

is in politics by the other side trying to complicate the president's reelection bid. kristen: regardless of how political some of these investigations might be, or the accusations, i wonder if you worry a little bit about the justice department, in the sense that the republicans are saying this deal was a sweetheart deal and the justice department is now tainted. do you worry about any public perception the justice department may be tainted? because obviously they are doing a lot of other works such as the investigation into donald trump and election interference. >> all of our great resources in this country are being called into question. whether it's the justice department, the supreme court, the congress of the united states, the presidency, i think the noise for the average voter is such that they just want to step back from it. in this case, you have -- they say it's a sweetheart deal,

but when you appreciate what happened here, if this want to trial, would -- went to would a set of jurors find him guilty when he has paid back all his taxes that he owed and diversion situation where he purchased a gun when he was using drugs and said he wasn't, those are somewhat lame, in terms of getting a jury to convict him. what may not be lame, though, is the foreign agents registration act which was the one that paul manafort got convicted of and then of course donald trump was successful in pardoning him. that is something we should be concerned about. if they don't register, that is a serious violation of law. kristen: you are talking about that in reference to possible dealings my hunter biden, in

terms of business dealings representing china or ukrainian interests. we will wait to see what comes out of that. . thank you for your analysis today. jeopardy master amy schneider says she is boycotting the game show in reaction to a controversial decision by jeopardy bosses about the upcoming 40th season. up next, we will talk live with amy abou

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kristen: the ongoing strike has stalled production of many shows, but the buses at jeopardy say that they plan on the games are returning for its 40th season in september. controversially, they were considering future includes that were previously on the show. -- featuring clu previously on the show. in a tweet, amy schneider says she will not be appearing on the show in the current climate, saying she will not "we participatin in any jeopardy productions that don't use new clues written by their amazing

unionized writers under a fair collectively bargained contract." joining us as amy schneider to tell us why she is taking a stand and tell us what else he is working on. great to have you on the show. >> happy to be here. kristen: i saw your tweet. i think i saw jeopardy saying, no, what is your understanding of how jeopardy is going to handle this and the possibility of using old clues because they don't have the writers working right now to write new ones? >> typically are, i don't have any inside information on this. i was just seeing things online and some of the people who have qualified for the next tournament of champions saying that's what they were kind of hearing, that they might be trying to produce shows with recycled clues from previous seasons. and, you know, whether or not that's going to be the case, that is something i wouldn't feel comfortable participating in. kristen: can i just ask you, because you have done so many

jeopardy shows, talk about how essential you think the writers are and whether -- i know you probably don't know all the salaries, but how much work and how much value they bring? >> it's something that i said long before this writers' strike, they are the unsung heroes of jeopardy. alex trebek used to say the contestants are the star. but i always felt that the writers are. because you don't really notice the work that they do. but if you ever sit down to try to write trivia questions, especially trivia questions that have to fit into little boxes on the screen, and all of that sort of thing, it is really hard. the fact that they've been able to do that over decades, keeping a consistent level of quality and consistent level of difficulty is really impressive. i think that is the real reason the show has been so consistently popular over the years. is the writers. kristen: i have never tried to

write clever little clues that fit inside a box. i'm pretty sure i don't have the experience, intelligence and wit for that. they do an amazing job. we hope everything will work out for them. in the meantime, i know you are staying very busy. you are getting ready for a book tour. >> that's right. . i finished writing a book. a few months ago, i was not sure i was ever going to finish it. but i did. i've done it. the audiobook is coming out october 3 or second. i keep forgetting which is which. one of the two. i'm just kind of lth moment, i'm kind of on hold, waiting for it to come out, waiting for people to chance to read it and hear what people think. but it's s that i'm actually really proud of and really excited to get that out into the world. kristen: ken jennings calls it funny, canted and confident.

message -- what is the take away message? what do you want people to learn? >> i think the main thing is the key thing that made me successful at jeopardy was the fact that i have always been wanting to learn, that i've always been open to new knowledge, open to being wrong and open to experiences. and, yes, one thing that got me was the answer to a bunch of trivia questions that won me a bunch of money on jeopardy but that's really not the biggest thing. it's given me so many more benefits in my life. so anybody, whether or not they are going to be on a game show someday, could really benefit from being open to a new experience, valuing learning, new ideas, you experiences. kristen: amen to that. i could not agree more as a journalist. i do know that your first book to her appearance in san

francisco is september 28th. definitely keep us posted. thank you so much. >> i will. thank you. kristen: jeopardy airs every week night at 7 p.m. right here onbc7. we will take a short break

kristen: thank you so much for joining us today for "getting answers." we will be here every weekday >> tonight, the president son hunter biden's plea deal collapses in federal court. so what happened? the horrific crane collapse here in new york city. multiple injuries. and republican leader mitch mcconnell suffers an episode in front of the cameras appearing unable to speak for a time. first, hunte