Morning Wire XX
[0] The first Republican debate did not disappoint, with the candidates trading blows early and often over the biggest issues facing the country.
[1] Do you want a super PAC puppet, or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth?
[2] I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like chat GPT standing up here.
[3] Now is not the time for on -the -job training.
[4] We don't need to bring in a rookie.
[5] You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.
[6] And you know what?
[7] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[8] It's Thursday, August 24th, and this is Morning Wire.
[9] While the other GOP candidates duked it out on stage, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump instead sat down with Tucker Carlson.
[10] Basically, they're suing me, and they're saying, you don't have any right to challenge.
[11] And if you challenge an election, we're going to indict you and put you in jail.
[12] We discussed the interview and Trump's plans to turn himself in today.
[13] And speculation grows after Yvgeny Progogian, founder of the Wagner Mercenary Group, reportedly died in a plane crash near Moscow.
[14] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[15] Stay tuned.
[16] We have the news you need to know.
[17] Eight Republican presidential candidates battled it out in Milwaukee on Wednesday night for the first 2024 GOP primary debate hosted by Fox News.
[18] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[19] Hey, Amanda.
[20] So a fun night last night.
[21] First, give us a general overview of how things played out there in Milwaukee.
[22] Who faced off in what were some of the issues that were discussed?
[23] Hey, John.
[24] Well, the candidates on stage last night were Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam.
[25] But really those who seem to stand out were Ramoswamy, DeSantis, Pence, Christy, and maybe to a lesser extent, Haley.
[26] Moderators Brett Bair and Martha McCallin kicked off the debate with questions on the economy, the most pressing issue for Americans right now, certainly, and moved on to abortion and then touched on crime, climate change and energy, funding for Ukraine, China, the southern border, education, and even UFOs right at the end there.
[27] The crowd in Milwaukee was pretty lively.
[28] They seemed to boo Christy and Hutchinson.
[29] when they were first announced on stage, and they also cheered when former President Trump was mentioned.
[30] Trump, of course, was not at the debate, despite being the GOP frontrunner, but he still took up some of the oxygen last night.
[31] Yeah, to no one's surprise.
[32] The moderators asked the candidates if they would support Trump as the GOP nominee if Trump were to be convicted, and all the candidates seemed to signal that they would, aside from Christy and Hutchinson.
[33] Here's a bit from Christy.
[34] Here's the bottom line.
[35] Someone's got to stop normalizing this context.
[36] Okay?
[37] Now, whether or not, whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of President of the United States.
[38] And, you know, this is the great thing about this country.
[39] Booying is allowed, but it doesn't change the truth.
[40] It doesn't change the truth.
[41] As you can hear a lot of booze to that answer, and not to belabor the point, but here's Haley also criticizing Trump and getting a similar, though, less harsh reaction.
[42] We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America.
[43] We can't win a general election that way.
[44] Even without Trump, there were a lot of fireworks between candidates last night, far more than I think we expected.
[45] Yeah, certainly.
[46] In one such case, there was a lot of contrast when the moderators asked.
[47] about funding for Ukraine.
[48] Many GOP voters have increasingly turned against aid to Ukraine.
[49] Ramoswamy took the harshest stance here, and he said he would end all aid to Ukraine and amp up our southern border instead.
[50] This turned into a pretty intense back and forth with Haley, who was very supportive of our financial support of Ukraine, and pointed out that Ramoswami has also floated ending military aid to Israel down the road.
[51] You were choosing a murder over a pro -American country.
[52] I wish you well in your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon.
[53] But the fact of the matter...
[54] Ramoswamy also took aim at Christie and, well, every other candidate, calling them all bought and paid for.
[55] That was a line that earned overwhelming booze from the crowd and the stage.
[56] Here's the tech billionaire addressing climate change.
[57] I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for so I can say this.
[58] The climate change agenda is a hoax.
[59] The climate change agenda is a hoax.
[60] And we have to declare our independence.
[61] And the reality is...
[62] Now, DeSantis, though, a long way from Trump in the polls is battling it out for second right now with Ramoswamy.
[63] How did the Florida governor do?
[64] Well, DeSantis perhaps made less noise than his supporters might have wanted, but he did garner a lot of applause touting his achievements in Florida.
[65] There was also a standout moment where DeSantis took a swipe at the former president with regard to lockdown policies.
[66] And this might have been the only time a knock on Trump ended with applause.
[67] And I can tell you, this.
[68] As your president, I will never let the deep state bureaucrats lock you down.
[69] You don't take somebody like Fauci and coddle him.
[70] You bring Fauci in, you sit him down and you say, Anthony, you are fired.
[71] Well, a fascinating and really entertaining first look at the candidates last night on the debate stage.
[72] Looking forward to the next one.
[73] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[74] Yeah, thanks for having me. Coming up, President Trump counter programs with Tucker Carlson.
[75] Former President Trump was absent from the first Republican debate, but made sure not to be totally absent from the spotlight.
[76] He sat down with Tucker Carlson in an interview released just minutes before the debate began.
[77] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here with the recap.
[78] So, Tim, I was watching the main debate.
[79] What happened during the Trump interview?
[80] He was asked some pretty interesting questions, but not necessarily hard ones.
[81] But the interview was mostly about counter programming anyway.
[82] Trump was protesting the debate over his high numbers in the polls.
[83] and Carlson was probably happy for the chance to steal some of the spotlight from Fox News after the network unexpectedly took him off the air earlier this year.
[84] Now, did they actually address the debate?
[85] Carlson asked him why he didn't go.
[86] Here's what he said.
[87] If you're leading by 50, 60, I have one point I'm leading by 70 points, and I'm saying, why am I doing it?
[88] And I'm going to have eight people, 10 people, whoever made the debate.
[89] I don't know how many it is, but I'm going to have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me, all of which I love answering.
[90] doing, but it doesn't make sense to do them.
[91] So I've taken a pass.
[92] And from there, the interview moved into some of those interesting areas I mentioned.
[93] For example, Carlson asked Trump, if he feared that the Democrats would try to kill him.
[94] Are you worried that they're going to try and kill you?
[95] Why wouldn't they try and kill you, honestly?
[96] They're savage animals.
[97] They are people that are sick, really sick.
[98] Carlson also asked Trump if he thought the country was headed toward civil war.
[99] Here's how Trump responded.
[100] I don't know because I don't know what it, you know, I can say this.
[101] There's a level of passion that I've never seen.
[102] There's a level of hatred that I've never seen.
[103] And there's probably a bad combination.
[104] On Biden, Trump's study still has doubts about whether the president will run for re -election.
[105] Trump also said Biden isn't actually running the country, and that his family's business dealings have compromised him.
[106] I believe he's compromised because China knows so much about him.
[107] They know where the money comes from.
[108] They know where it is.
[109] Who paid it?
[110] And they probably paid it.
[111] Trump also said he kept the U .S. out of nuclear war with North Korea and hit Biden for the Ukraine -Russia war, as well as for allowing China to reportedly gain a foothold in Cuba.
[112] But Trump's primary issue is still immigration.
[113] Here's what Trump said he would focus on above everything else his first day in office.
[114] Number one is a border.
[115] And taking hundreds of thousands of criminals that have been allowed into our country.
[116] and getting them out and bringing them back to their country.
[117] Okay, now, what did Trump say about his current legal problems?
[118] Well, he said they were nonsense, but he also said that if he is being indicted for leading a conspiracy to overturn the election in Georgia, then Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams are just as guilty.
[119] You know, every time you see her on television, she's saying, like, well, she's challenging the election.
[120] So that would mean that she should be indicted, but that would mean also that Stacey Abrams in Georgia should be indicted because she still thinks she won the election for governors.
[121] Well, Trump is also expected to turn himself in tomorrow at Fulton County Jail.
[122] Did he talk about that at all?
[123] Not so much, but that is true.
[124] Trump is expected to turn himself in and possibly have his mugshot taken to go alongside people like Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis who have already been processed.
[125] As a legal matter, it seems a bit excessive since Trump isn't a flight risk, But it does give Trump another opportunity to overshadow his competition in the Republican primary.
[126] On the day after the first debate, expect most media outlets to focus their coverage on Trump and Fulton County.
[127] All right.
[128] Well, we'll be watching.
[129] Tim, thanks for the recap.
[130] Anytime.
[131] Russian oligarch and founder of the infamous Wagner Group, Yvgeny Progoghian, was reportedly killed yesterday in a plane crash north of Moscow.
[132] Progosion was one of 10 people on the passenger list of a small plane, which authorities say was lost with all hands.
[133] Joining us with the details is Daily Wire Senior Editor Joel Needler.
[134] Hey Joel.
[135] So first, what details do we know so far about this plane crash and who was on it when it went down?
[136] So a report started streaming in yesterday that the plane personally owned by Progosian crashed in the Tiverr region, which is about 200 miles north of Moscow.
[137] The flight log showed that there were three crew on board and seven passengers, and one of them was Progosian himself.
[138] And all who were on board, as you said, died from the crash.
[139] The Russian authorities say that they've now launched a criminal investigation into what led to the crash.
[140] And there's a lot of speculation going on for good reason.
[141] Right.
[142] To that point, remind us why Progosian is considered a prime target for assassination by pro -Russian forces.
[143] So Progoshin was a major power broker in Russia and spent years in Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
[144] In 2014, he founded the Wagner Group, a private military company backed by the Russian government.
[145] As we've reported here previously, Wagner mercenaries have been involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine, even before the full -scale invasion.
[146] But they've also seen action in other war zones across the world and have been accused of numerous human rights violations.
[147] Yeah.
[148] Now, the turning point was the mutiny in June where the Wagner group briefly marched on Moscow before negotiating a truce.
[149] The key question there was, what drove Progosian and Putin apart?
[150] Well, Progotion was dissatisfied with the war effort in Ukraine.
[151] Wagner soldiers were doing much of the fighting and dying there.
[152] Wagner forces were also set to be more directly integrated into the Russian chain of command, which he objected to.
[153] Progosian's revolt was apparently meant to replace some of Russia's senior military leadership, not necessarily Putin himself, and he apparently had support from other high -ranking officers.
[154] But the plot was discovered a few days before it was set to begin, which caused a rushed chaotic revolt.
[155] Now this revolt ended in a negotiation.
[156] Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker that deal.
[157] Progoshin was supposed to have asylum in Belarus, but he left.
[158] What do we know about what happened after he left Belarus?
[159] Well, he reportedly left Belarus shortly after arriving and largely dropped off the grid, apart from a few scattered sightings.
[160] Progogian made a rare public appearance in Africa just days before his death, apparently in command of Wagner troops.
[161] All right, so back in command of his troops, but somewhere else.
[162] So the question driving so much speculation, is there any evidence that Putin himself was involved in the crash?
[163] Officially, not yet.
[164] Unofficially?
[165] Well, there's been some rumblings on Wagner's social media channels that Progogian's plane was intentionally shot down.
[166] Putin's been accused of killing rivals before, and Progotion clearly had a massive target on his back.
[167] Yeah, clearly.
[168] We'll see what details, if any, emerge.
[169] Joel, thanks for reporting.
[170] Anytime.
[171] That was Daily Wire's senior editor, Joel Needler.
[172] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
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