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[0] President Biden's call for more federal control of America's election laws has prompted pushback and fact checks.
[1] What they want to do is make it a federal law that you have to have ballot harvesting, that you have to have same -day registration, that you can't have voter ID laws.
[2] Basically, they would make that the federal law would be a federal takeover of our elections.
[3] What's in the polarizing bill being pushed by the president?
[4] And does it have any chance of passing?
[5] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[6] It's Thursday, January 13th.
[7] And this is Morning Wire.
[8] A new analysis is found that despite trillions of dollars in spending, the president's economic policies added zero jobs to the U .S. economy.
[9] We'll take a closer look.
[10] And a recent poll from the Associated Press shows a massive shift in which issues Americans care about in 2022.
[11] The results could signal trouble for Democrats in the upcoming elections.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
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[20] On Tuesday, President Biden delivered a widely covered speech, calling on Congress to overhaul the nation's election laws by passing the Democrats' Freedom to Vote Act.
[21] that speech has come under intense scrutiny, including from fact -checkers.
[22] Here with more is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
[23] So Cabot, this speech had been a long time coming, and critics certainly had a lot to say about it.
[24] But before we talk about the reaction, what did we learn from this speech?
[25] Well, we learned that heading into the new year, as inflation continues to hit record rates, the White House seems to be shifting their focus away from more economic issues and towards voting laws instead.
[26] Speaking alongside the son of Martin Luther King, Jr., the president framed the passage of the Democrats' Freedom to Vote Act as a fight between, quote, democracy and autocracy.
[27] The address was sort of a follow -up to his January 6th speech, where he implied that Republican efforts to pass election integrity laws, like the one in Georgia, were an attack on democracy, and more specifically, an attack on the rights of African -American voters.
[28] Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?
[29] Do you want to be in the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor?
[30] Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?
[31] This is the moment to decide.
[32] Now, many critics were quick to point out that when the president first ran for president back in 1987, he actually bragged to voters in the South that segregationist governor George Wallace, who we mentioned there, once praised him as an outstanding senator.
[33] And it's also worth noting the address comes at a time when many social justice activists are criticizing the president for what they view as a lack of action on voting legislation during his first year in office.
[34] While some leading Georgia Democrats were present at the speech yesterday, Stacey Abrams, who's really become the face of the Democrats' election overhaul push, was not there.
[35] She claimed it was a scheduling conflict, but a lot of people weren't buying that.
[36] And others were more up front.
[37] The Black Voters Matter Fund, for example, along with several other liberal groups, boycotted the event, saying it was nothing more than a photo op for President Biden.
[38] So not exactly a smooth day, a lot of controversy there.
[39] Now, there were some other comments the president made that have come under scrutiny.
[40] Tell us about that.
[41] Yeah, at one point he implied that he was arrested during the civil rights movement, but fact checkers say there's no record of any such arrest ever happening, and he's never mentioned it before, including in his autobiography.
[42] He also caught flak for using the term coup attempt to describe the January 6th riot.
[43] And he also compared Georgia's recent election integrity bill to the Jim Crow era south.
[44] So a good bit of controversy surrounding this speech, and then there's also controversy surrounding the bill itself.
[45] So what are Democrats proposing exactly?
[46] Yeah, as we've discussed on the show, currently voters in each state are allowed to decide their own state's election process locally.
[47] But the main goal of this new bill is to federalize the process and give Congress the power to decide election laws for all 50 states at once.
[48] I talked to Hans von Spakovsky, an election expert from the Heritage Foundation, about the more controversial elements of that bill?
[49] There's three different bills.
[50] All of them have the same purpose, which is to federalize and micromanage the election process.
[51] And they do everything from gut state voter ID laws to severely restrict the ability of states to clean up and maintain the accuracy of their voter roles.
[52] In essence, it's like they want to guarantee dishonest elections for the foreseeable future.
[53] I also asked him about the president's depiction of the bill.
[54] And And he said it was misleading.
[55] They've been pushing to justify these federal bills is a claim that there's voter suppression going on across the country and that people are being kept from registering and voting.
[56] That is a complete and total fabrication.
[57] The 2020 election, we had the highest turnout.
[58] And we had the highest voter registration rate of the last five presidential elections.
[59] So a lot of inaccuracies.
[60] Now, what does each side say?
[61] saying about the proposal?
[62] Democrats, they're framing the bill as part of a larger social justice fight.
[63] They say the new law is a response to Republican efforts, and in their words, to, quote, suppress black voters by requiring them to get IDs and standardized voting hours.
[64] Republicans, though, argued that the Democrat bill would weaken election integrity at a time when millions of voters have really lost faith in the process.
[65] They say there's nothing racist about requiring people to have an ID to vote and point out how even the vast majority of African -Americans, you know, support voter ID laws, including the one in Georgia, if you look at polling data.
[66] Now, is this bill expected to pass?
[67] Yeah, that's the thing.
[68] At the moment, no, Democrats need 60 votes to secure passage.
[69] And with a 50 -50 split between Democrats and Republicans, no one expects it to pass as it things stand now.
[70] That's why the president is renewing calls to abolish the filibuster in the Senate.
[71] If that happens, Democrats would essentially be able to pass any legislation they want.
[72] And there's little Republicans could do, even if they do hold.
[73] 50 seats.
[74] President Biden says the filibuster is anti -democratic and needs to go.
[75] But again, Republicans have pointed out how as recently as 2005, President Biden said any effort to abolish the filibuster was a, quote, power grab that would, quote, eviscerate the Senate.
[76] And Democrats have actually used the filibuster hundreds of times in the last two years.
[77] So it does seem a bit disingenuous to oppose it now.
[78] Well, several significant issues hanging in the balance here.
[79] Definitely.
[80] Cabot, thanks for talking to us.
[81] anytime.
[82] That's Daily Wires, Cabot Phillips.
[83] Coming up, a new analysis found that President Biden's federal spending spree did not result in added jobs.
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[89] President Joe Biden has said he's created more jobs than any president in the last 40 years, but the actual number of jobs his policies created may be zero or worse.
[90] That's according to a new analysis of the president's economic record.
[91] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
[92] All right, Ben, so the U .S. economy added 6 .4 million jobs last year.
[93] How can analysts say that President Biden didn't create a single one of them?
[94] Well, economists predicted the economy would produce that many jobs if the president had done nothing.
[95] Okay.
[96] So Matt Whitinger of the American Enterprise Institute points out that Biden's economic policies did not help, and they may have hurt the economic recovery.
[97] Can you walk us through those numbers?
[98] Sure.
[99] Last February, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the U .S. economy would add an average of 521 ,000 jobs a month between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2021.
[100] That amounts to 6 ,252 ,000 jobs.
[101] Fast forward to 2022, and we find the economy added 6 ,116 ,116 ,000 jobs during that time, basically in line with CBO estimates.
[102] Last week, President Joe Biden said the credit for those jobs belonged to his $1 .9 trillion stimulus bill, the American Rescue Plan.
[103] We have added 6 .4 million new jobs since January of last year.
[104] How did that happen?
[105] Well, the American Rescue Plan got the economy off his back and moving again.
[106] But the president and congressional Democrats, promised that if Congress passed his economic measures, they would produce millions more jobs.
[107] Last March, while promoting the American Rescue Plan, President Biden said that bill would create 7 million new jobs.
[108] Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi walked that back to 4 million new jobs later on.
[109] And in November, Vice President Kamala Harris promised the $1 .2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework would create millions more jobs yet.
[110] After this bill is signed into law, millions more Americans will go to work in good paying, good union jobs.
[111] Those jobs never materialized.
[112] So the administration promised several million jobs in addition to the six million it actually produced.
[113] Right.
[114] The president signed the infrastructure bill in November so we can say that really didn't affect the economy last year.
[115] And let's take Nancy Pelosi's lower estimate that the American Rescue Plan would create four million new jobs.
[116] At a minimum, last year the economy should have produced 10 .5 million jobs.
[117] Yet we didn't see anything like that.
[118] No, we didn't.
[119] In fact, the economy produced 136 ,000 fewer jobs than the CBO forecast without Biden's $3 .1 trillion in new government spending.
[120] And why is that?
[121] Why do we think the economy underproduced so much?
[122] Well, we discussed one reason recently.
[123] The American Rescue Plan paid an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits.
[124] That meant about half of all Americans made more money collecting unemployment than they would have earned at work.
[125] There's no doubt that depressed labor force participation.
[126] We also have to remember every dollar the government spends creating jobs has to be taxed out of the productive economy.
[127] Right.
[128] That depletes the capital in the private sector for job creation.
[129] Or it has to be printed out of thin air, which creates inflation.
[130] America under Joe Biden has experienced the highest rate of inflation in 40 years.
[131] That also hurts job creation.
[132] Sure.
[133] The bottom line is, at best, all of President Biden's economic policies have had zero impact on the U .S. economy.
[134] At worst, they've charged taxpayers trillions of dollars to destroy jobs.
[135] And you're saying here that maybe that wasn't the best use of our money.
[136] We could have done better.
[137] Thanks for setting the record straight, Ben.
[138] It's my pleasure.
[139] That's Daily Wire reporter, Ben Johnson.
[140] After one year in office, President Biden continues to grapple with multiple crises, including COVID -19, inflation, and immigration.
[141] What can the latest poll data tell us about how Americans' priorities match the Democratic Party?
[142] Here to explain is Daily Wires Ian Howarth.
[143] So, Ian, what do we know?
[144] Well, according to an AP -Nork poll, we're witnessing a really significant shift in how Americans are judging their top political concerns compared to this time last year.
[145] Let's look first at the handling of the COVID -19 pandemic.
[146] This was a central campaign issue for President Biden, but this year we've seen multiple COVID spikes, despite overwhelming availability of, multiple vaccines, and the Biden administration is now trying to pivot from ending the virus to just living with it.
[147] And there's also the issue of COVID fatigue.
[148] Americans have been living with COVID restrictions on lockdowns for more than two years when it was initially sold as just two weeks to flatten the curve.
[149] And as a result, COVID -19 is receding in terms of importance for Americans.
[150] Just 37 % say that COVID -19 is one of their top five priorities compared to a majority, 53 % at the same time one year ago.
[151] So what's motivating the shift in priorities.
[152] Well, like so many times before, it's the economy stupid.
[153] How could we forget?
[154] Right.
[155] Sixty -eight percent of Americans mentioned the economy is one of their top concerns for 2022, which is around the same number who referenced the economy last year.
[156] But one major factor that has changed relates to inflation.
[157] 14 percent now list inflation specifically as a major concern compared to less than one percent last year.
[158] And all of this is on the back of breaking news Wednesday that inflation in the U .S. jumped to a massive 7 percent in December compared to one year ago.
[159] That's the highest level since 1982.
[160] And around twice as many Americans are also mentioning their household finances, such as the cost of living as a priority, 24 % compared to 12 % last year.
[161] Wow.
[162] And what about other issues?
[163] What else do people care about?
[164] Well, immigration has climbed the ranks by 14 points to 32%, which is unsurprising, given the ongoing border crisis, which was ushered in when Biden took office.
[165] Climate change in the environment dropped by three points to 21%.
[166] Racism and racial inequality dropped by nine points to 15%.
[167] So to summarize, the economy is the main concern for Americans with a vast majority listing it as a priority.
[168] COVID -19 is second and immigration is third.
[169] Now, before you go, what does this shift tell us about the midterms?
[170] Well, it's still obviously early on, but there are reasons to think Democrats may be in trouble in 2022.
[171] While Americans are concerned about rocketing inflation, supply chain breakdowns, and COVID -19, the Biden administration's key priority right now is working to federalize election law as Kabbat just mentioned.
[172] Right, so kind of a mismatch there.
[173] Yeah, exactly.
[174] Ian, thanks for reporting.
[175] Of course.
[176] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[177] Another story we're tracking this week.
[178] President Biden's approval number sank to just 33 % in a new Quinnipiac poll, with 53 % disapproving and 13 % offering no opinion.
[179] 39 % approve of the president's response to COVID, while just 34 % approve of his.
[180] handling of the economy.
[181] These new polling lows come as inflation hit a 40 -year high last month, jumping up 7 % in a year.
[182] If you like 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.
[183] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[184] Thanks for waking up with us.
[185] We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.