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[0] During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci spared over the origin of COVID -19 and whether the U .S. provided funding for gain -of -function research in Wuhan.
[1] In a heated exchange, Senator Paul went on to accuse Dr. Fauci of breaking the law.
[2] Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress.
[3] What are the details behind this ongoing clash?
[4] It's Thursday, July 22nd.
[5] Georgia Howe with editor -in -chief John Bickley, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] Amid a growing debate over critical race theory, teachers' groups are planning for the return of students this fall.
[7] A review of teacher training sessions shows that race and social justice will be a major focus.
[8] And negotiations over the infrastructure bill appear to be wrapping up.
[9] What's in the bill and what will it cost?
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
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[18] On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul clashed over American funding of gain -of -function research in China and how this may relate to COVID -19.
[19] The senator is also calling for Dr. Fauci to face legal consequences.
[20] Here to explain what's going on is DailyWire's Ian Howarth.
[21] Good morning, Georgia.
[22] Good morning.
[23] So, Ian, how did we get to this point?
[24] There's a lot to this story, with the feud between Dr. Fauci and Senator Paul going on for months at this point.
[25] The latest move in this ongoing battle came during a Senate hearing on Tuesday regarding the federal government's COVID -19 response, with Senator Paul implying that Dr. Fauci broke the law.
[26] Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress.
[27] Section 1001 of the U .S. Criminal Code creates a felony and a five -year penalty for lying to Congress.
[28] So Senator Paul openly accused Dr. Fauci in a Senate hearing of committing a felony?
[29] It appears so.
[30] The senator said that evening that he would be sending a letter to the DOJ asking for a criminal referral.
[31] So what specifically is he accusing Dr. Fauci of?
[32] The accusations tie into the broader lab leak theory, where COVID -19 was thought to have been released, whether intentionally or by accident, from a Chinese lab, specifically the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
[33] In this case, Senator Paul has pushed Dr. Fauci on the notion of gain of function research carried out at this lab, and whether funding for this type of research was provided through various grant systems by America's medical research agency, the NIH.
[34] An accusation, by the way, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has denied.
[35] Can I pause you for a second?
[36] Gain of function.
[37] We've been hearing that term a lot lately.
[38] Can you define it for us?
[39] Sure, that's actually a point of debate.
[40] There is some disagreement over what gain of function means.
[41] It's usually defined as a type of medical research which deliberately changes an organism or disease to increase various factors like transmissibility or the type of hosts it can infect.
[42] Scientists acting in good faith usually carry out this research to better understand new infectious diseases in order to prevent or treat them in the future.
[43] Okay, so how does this all tie in?
[44] Well, during the hearing, Senator Paul discussed a Wuhan Institute researcher named Dr. Shee, who wrote a paper titled Discovery of a Rich Gene Pool of Bats, SARS -related coronaviruses.
[45] Senator Paul said that Dr. She credited the NIH, provided the number of a grant she was given, and explained the research she carried out.
[46] In this paper, she took two bat coronavirus genes, spike genes, and combined them with a SARS -related backbone to create new viruses that are not found in nature.
[47] These lab -created viruses were then to shone to replicate in humans.
[48] The important detail here is that, according to Senator Paul, this appears to fit the definition of the gain -of -function research the NIH said it paused between 2014 and 2017.
[49] Okay.
[50] Back in May, Dr. Fauci denied that the NIH had ever funded gain -of -function research in Wuhan, so this led Senator Paul to accuse him of lying to Congress.
[51] Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded Gain of Function Research in Wuhan?
[52] Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement.
[53] The two then argued with Dr. Fauci accusing the senator, who is also a doctor, by the way, of not knowing what he's talking about.
[54] You take an animal virus and you increase his ability to accuse him.
[55] Right.
[56] You're saying that's not gain of function?
[57] Yeah, that is correct.
[58] And Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly.
[59] And I want to say that officially.
[60] You do not know what you are talking about.
[61] Okay, so a lot of drama here.
[62] The Battle of the Doctors.
[63] And it's certainly not over.
[64] Ian, thanks for the breakdown.
[65] Daily Wires, Ian Hauerth.
[66] Up next, we'll look at what teachers' groups are planning for the new school year.
[67] Watch Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tell his story.
[68] in Created Equal, a documentary that follows his journey from the segregated south to the highest court in the land and the contentious confirmation battle he fought to get there.
[69] The documentary is streaming now for DailyWire members.
[70] So go to DailyWire .com slash subscribe and get 25 % off your new membership with code justice.
[71] In recent months, parents have begun pushing back on how race and identity are being taught in public schools.
[72] With the national debate over critical race theory ramping up, some parents are speaking out over what they say is politicized messaging from teachers.
[73] Advocates for critical race theory are even arguing that merit is even racist.
[74] They argue that math is even racist.
[75] I am worried about the dumbing down the curriculum.
[76] I am worried about this about forced equality.
[77] I think we're going into Marxism.
[78] The Daily Wires, Luke Roziak, has been covering this issue and has an update on what teachers are working on this summer.
[79] Good morning, Luke.
[80] Good morning.
[81] So professional groups like the National Groups, Council of Teachers of English and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics set the direction for how those subjects are taught in K -12 schools, and most of them have an annual conference each summer.
[82] You went through the agendas for each of these groups' conferences.
[83] What did you find?
[84] Well, race is clearly dominating the discussion.
[85] In fact, the groups for every single subject have made race the focus this year.
[86] For example, the National Science Teaching Association is having a conference titled, What is Social Justice Teaching in the Science Classroom?
[87] It begins by racially segregating the attendees with white teachers going into one room and minority teachers going into another.
[88] I've heard about this.
[89] They call it affinity groups.
[90] Right.
[91] The mathematics conference, meanwhile, is oriented around sessions like social justice in mathematics, teaching, and learning, and how do you purposefully advocate with your mathematical curriculum?
[92] Nearly all the other sessions focused on race or advocacy in some form.
[93] So a lot of focus on social justice and race.
[94] What's the right?
[95] rationale for that from an academic standpoint?
[96] Well, the argument is that schools can improve outcomes for students of minority backgrounds if they focus on eliminating the hidden forms of racism, which they claim have been holding those students back.
[97] Is it working?
[98] Do we have data about whether this type of teacher training is improving academic achievement, specifically for minority kids?
[99] Well, we don't have data about these trainings specifically, but we know that in general, reading and math scores have been falling for a while since 2013, really.
[100] In 2019, only 24 % of all 12th graders were proficient in math and 22 % in science.
[101] And that data was from before coronavirus remote learning, which, of course, set students back even more.
[102] You've been tracking this issue for a while now, and you've reported that these teachers' organizations are focusing heavily on race and identity.
[103] But what do you know about the average teacher?
[104] Do you have any sense of what regular teachers think about this new direction?
[105] That's a great question.
[106] It's hard to know exactly what most teachers think.
[107] But as we've just seen, the agenda really is being set by these big national teachers' councils and, of course, the teachers' unions.
[108] And those who disagree with these organizations might be reluctant to push back, at least publicly.
[109] So if these conferences are an indicator, we can expect a heavy focus on race this year.
[110] Thanks for coming on, Luke.
[111] No problem.
[112] Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
[113] The Senate is nearing a bipartisan agreement on a $1 .2 trillion infrastructure package.
[114] Joining us to discuss the negotiations is Daily Wire Reporter Chrissy Clark.
[115] Chrissy, thanks for joining us.
[116] Thanks for having me. So there's been a lot of back and forth on this bill with multiple versions.
[117] What exactly is included in this infrastructure bill?
[118] Yeah, the bill allocates most of the money to what Americans traditionally think of when they hear the word infrastructure, think roads, bridges, and public transportation.
[119] Democrats and Republican negotiators, senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, have also agreed to spend an additional $15 billion.
[120] specifically on green infrastructure, think electric vehicle charging stations and electric school buses.
[121] But not everything in this bill is considered infrastructure.
[122] Right.
[123] We've seen a lot of debate over what exactly constitutes infrastructure.
[124] So what else is in this bill?
[125] Well, the most obvious example is that Democrats also want to add a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
[126] Okay, obviously not something Republicans will accept.
[127] How is this bipartisan bill different from the one President Biden proposed?
[128] Well, for starters, the price tag.
[129] President Biden proposed $2 trillion in spending, so almost twice the cost, and included a proposal to spend $400 billion on caregiving and expanding access to Medicaid.
[130] The caregiving proposal won't make it into this bill, but Democrats are moving it into their $3 .5 trillion reconciliation bill, which has zero Republican support.
[131] So some of the spending is being shifted to the other bill.
[132] Right.
[133] When will the Senate take up the vote?
[134] Democrats tried to pass the bill yesterday, but Senate Republicans delayed it in hopes of extending negotiations to Monday.
[135] When the Senate voted yesterday, the text of the bill was not finalized.
[136] Democrats are arguing that Republicans are obstructing this process by delaying.
[137] But Republicans, like Senator Rob Portman, say they are willing to move forward with a vote on Monday.
[138] Yeah, I mean, what they'd like to do is to be able to say today that we're not supporting it.
[139] We are.
[140] We just want time to get it right.
[141] It's too important for us to rush a vote here for an arbitrary deadline.
[142] So today, we're not going to be able to support moving forward.
[143] We will be able to on Monday.
[144] What parts of the bill are Republicans focusing on?
[145] Transit is a major focus.
[146] Republicans are hesitant to spend $48 .5 billion because $70 billion in COVID -19 relief funds already went to transit.
[147] Aside from this bill, Congress invests $12 billion each year.
[148] Republicans aren't the only ones that could stall this bill, though.
[149] Progressive Democrats in the House have indicated that they want to add more climate change provisions to the legislation.
[150] Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging progressives to take the bipartisan win and add those provisions to the Democrats' reconciliation bill.
[151] If the bill does pass, how does Congress plan on paying for this increase in spending?
[152] According to Senator Portman, this bill has no new tax increases, but again, we haven't seen the entire thing yet.
[153] Other plans include using unspent funds from prior COVID packages and using revenue from selling off oil reserves.
[154] So it sounds like we're really about to see this bill passed.
[155] Are both parties generally satisfied with it?
[156] Moderate Republicans are excited to get an infrastructure bill passed, though many feel that the price tag is steep.
[157] Republicans are now far more worried about the Democrats' reconciliation bill, which they argue will worsen existing inflation, whereas Democrats are arguing that infrastructure and spending bills will help the economy.
[158] Christy, thanks for breaking this down for us.
[159] Thanks for having me. DailyWire's Chrissy Clark.
[160] Those are the top stories this morning, but there's more in the news to keep an eye on.
[161] Other big developments that we're tracking this week?
[162] At least 25 people have been killed in massive seasonal flooding in central China, with thousands more trapped in schools, homes, and businesses.
[163] At least 100 ,000 people have been evacuated.
[164] About half of Australia's population is again under lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of the Delta variant.
[165] The state of South Australia has a lot of.
[166] initiated a seven -day lockdown after recording five cases, and the state of Victoria has extended its lockdown another week after cases exceeded 100.
[167] The country's largest city, Sydney, with a population of over 5 million, is in its fourth week of lockdown, reporting over 1 ,000 cases.
[168] And visitors to museums, theaters, and swimming pools in France will now be required to show a health pass proving they have been vaccinated for COVID -19 or that they have had a recent negative test.
[169] In August, the Health Pass will be required to enter restaurants, bars, some trains, and airplanes.
[170] This past weekend, over 100 ,000 people took to the streets in France to protest government overreach.
[171] If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five -star review.
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[173] Thanks for waking up with us.
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