Morning Wire XX
[0] Russian forces are edging closer to Kiev and targeting civilian areas.
[1] Meanwhile, Ukrainians continue to put up a fight denying Russia any easy victory.
[2] We have the latest on Ukraine.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Thursday, March 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] In 2020, trillions of COVID -relief funds were earmarked for Americans in need.
[6] But new evidence suggests the programs were defrauded of billions.
[7] Now, the government is going after these criminals.
[8] And President Biden addressed the nation this week in his first state of the union, and millions of Americans tuned in.
[9] Did the address change how Americans view his presidency?
[10] We have their thoughts on how he performed.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
[14] This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group.
[15] Russia's full -scale invasion of Ukraine is already leading to international turmoil.
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[23] As the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine comes to a close, more information is coming in regarding casualties on both sides, all while international partnerships emerge.
[24] Here to give us the latest on the ongoing conflict is Daily Wires Ian Howarth.
[25] So, Ian, the reports keep coming in from Ukraine.
[26] What do we need to know?
[27] Well, we're at the end of the first week of the Russian invasion, and a few things are becoming clear.
[28] The first is that the resistance of the Ukrainian government and citizens the attack is solid, which is a marked difference to the Russian invasion of 2014 when they took Crimea without really any opposition.
[29] But as we discussed yesterday, this is also having consequences beyond applause and hashtags.
[30] Russia is ramping up the viciousness of their attacks and broadening the range of targets to include non -military areas and residential neighborhoods.
[31] Biden said it was obvious that their targets had changed.
[32] You think that's intentionally targeting civilian areas.
[33] There are over 2 ,000 civilians.
[34] There they are.
[35] Back there's.
[36] One particularly telling example of a non -military target, given Putin's claim that Ukraine is dominated by neo -Nazis who must be removed, is the Russian bombing of a Holocaust memorial site where more than 30 ,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
[37] Wow.
[38] So the invasion has been going on for about a week now.
[39] What do we know about casualty numbers?
[40] Well, as of Wednesday, the United Nations reported that 136 Ukrainian civilians had been killed so far, including 13 children.
[41] 400 more so have been injured, but these numbers, as is the case with most conflicts, are expected to rise as more information comes in.
[42] Ukraine is claiming that the numbers are more like 2 ,000 killed, but that hasn't been verified.
[43] The death toll is rising with every single day that passes, and this is triggering more Ukrainians to flee.
[44] Right now, the number of refugees fleeing is rising exponentially, and it could hit 1 million people soon.
[45] more than 874 ,000 have left already.
[46] And according to the Ukrainian government, Russian forces are also looking at huge casualty numbers.
[47] As of yesterday, Ukrainian authorities say that almost 6 ,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, while 30 aircraft and 31 helicopters have been shot down and 211 tanks destroyed.
[48] In pretty surprising news, Russian state media actually admitted that almost 500 Russian troops have been killed, with almost 1 ,600 injured.
[49] And what's next in terms of the international risk?
[50] response.
[51] Well, many are hopeful about the next round of peace talks, which were agreed to begin last night.
[52] But really, the key issue here that needs to be addressed, given that the initial wave of sanctions didn't stop the attack, is the role that China is playing.
[53] So China's bank regulator said yesterday that they won't be joining Western governments in sanctioning Russia.
[54] China is a top buyer of Russian energy, and they've stated that they plan to, quote, keep normal economic trade and financial exchanges with Russia.
[55] So that could really undermine the effectiveness of U .S. sanctions.
[56] On Wednesday, the United Nations voted on a resolution to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
[57] The U .S. ambassador to the U .N. said that members should, quote, vote yes, if you believe Russia, should be held to account for its actions.
[58] Today at the United Nations, light has won over darkness.
[59] 141 states voted to support this amendment.
[60] But it's important to note that this is not legally binding and also notice the countries that voted against and those who abstained.
[61] Five countries voted against the resolution.
[62] These are Belarus, a Russian ally in the attack, North Korea, Eritrea, Russia, unsurprisingly, and then Syria.
[63] And then there are 34 countries who abstained, which included China and India, both massive economies who could continue to be a major importer of Russian energy.
[64] And China's involvement is becoming clearer as time goes on.
[65] We know that they passed US intelligence shared by Biden onto the Russians, and the New York Times reported that China did indeed ask Russia to delay the invasion of Ukraine until the Winter Olympics were over.
[66] So unless Biden and the West can find a way to counter the get -out -of -jail -free card for Putin that is China and potentially, but to a lesser extent, India, rounds of sanctions and flight bans simply won't be as devastating as the Biden administration is hoping.
[67] Well, Ian, thanks for the overview.
[68] You got it, Georgia.
[69] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[70] Coming up, billions of dollars were stolen from COVID relief funds.
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[74] In 2020, the federal government created several programs to help businesses impacted by mandatory COVID -19 lockdowns.
[75] but the programs were rife with fraud.
[76] Now, President Biden is promising to prosecute the worst pandemic crimes.
[77] And we're going to go after the criminals who stole billions of relief money meant for small business and millions of Americans.
[78] Two of the largest programs were the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, or EIDL.
[79] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
[80] Welcome, Ben.
[81] Good morning, John.
[82] So, Ben, this is a massive oversight.
[83] We're talking billions of dollars here.
[84] How did this happen?
[85] Well, it has to do with the size, scope, and speed of the loans.
[86] The Small Business Administration, which administered these programs, signed off on 1 .7 million loan applications worth $343 billion in two weeks.
[87] That means the SBA processed as many loans in 14 days as it normally approves in 14 years.
[88] The agency admitted that in the process it, quote, lowered the guardrails.
[89] They say they simply didn't have the resources to vet every application, so people filed for businesses that don't exist.
[90] They claim to have more employees than they did, or they engaged in identity theft.
[91] But the government instantly knew something was wrong, because during the first 18 months of the program, calls to the FBI's fraud line increased by 37 ,000 percent.
[92] Thirty -seven thousand percent increase?
[93] It was a massive increase.
[94] And even two years into the program, officials say they have no idea the full scope of the fraud.
[95] What do we know about COVID -19 payments that should never have been made?
[96] Well, we have a few hard figures.
[97] For example, the SBA says that by last February, in the EIDL program alone, they'd receive more than 845 ,000 complaints of identity fraud, that is, people filing for loans and other people's names.
[98] The SBA had already paid approximately one out of every four of those applications, totaling $6 .7 billion.
[99] That doesn't include the much larger PPP or other COVID relief programs.
[100] What kinds of fraud have been alleged?
[101] The worst allegation I've encountered is that a Florida woman fraudulently used her PPP loan to pay for a contract killing.
[102] Wait, to kill someone.
[103] Yeah.
[104] Whoa.
[105] Prosecutors say that last May 3rd, a woman named Jasmine Martinez and her boyfriend hired a hit man to kill a 24 -year -old woman named Lashonte Jones and her three -year -old daughter.
[106] Luckily, the child lived, but her mother died.
[107] Federal records verify that Martinez received a PPP loan in the amount of $15 ,000 in April 2021, reportedly for her beauty salon.
[108] Police say she removed about $10 ,000 of that amount in the days after the killing.
[109] An incredible story.
[110] What were some of the more conventional forms of government fraud?
[111] Two brothers and their wives defrauded the government of more than $20 million, which they used to purchase luxury homes in California.
[112] There was a Connecticut man who confessed that he spent $4 million in PPP funds to buy a Porsche or Mercedes and a BMW.
[113] Reality TV star Arkansas Mo, who starred in Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, admitted to defrauding the PPP program of $3 .7 million to cover the cost of a Ponzi scheme that he had been running.
[114] A judge sentenced Moe, whose real name is Maurice Fain, to 17 years in prison.
[115] Some of these schemes, though, allegedly involved massive numbers of people.
[116] On the first of the month, the Justice to Department announced that it charged 22 people in Atlanta and a grand conspiracy to defraud the program of nearly $3 .9 million.
[117] Prosecutors say the ringleader asked people how much money they'd like to receive from PPP, created the fraudulent tax documents to obtain that amount.
[118] Then he took a portion of the proceeds as what he called a, quote, success fee.
[119] Last December, the DOJ charged a Texas man named Hamza Abbas and 10 others with perpetrating $35 million in PPP fraud.
[120] Prosecutors say the defendants tried to cover their track.
[121] by writing checks to fictitious employees, but then they laundered the money to themselves and their relatives.
[122] Tom Shats of Citizens Against Government Waste says this just proves big government programs attract fraud and abuse.
[123] People take advantage of government money.
[124] Do prosecutors believe more cases of fraud are lurking out there?
[125] Absolutely.
[126] This is only the tip of the iceberg.
[127] Last December, the Secret Service estimated there's $100 billion in total fraud from all COVID -relief programs that haven't been prosecuted yet.
[128] And this is just one program, although a very large one.
[129] The federal government admitted to making $2 .3 trillion in improper payments between 2004 and 2020, according to a report from OpenTheBooks .com.
[130] Federal law defines that term as, quote, payments made by the government to the wrong person in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason.
[131] And of course, those are just the cases that we know of.
[132] Yeah, well, now we know a few more.
[133] Thanks, Ben.
[134] My pleasure.
[135] That's Daily Wire reporter.
[136] Ben Johnson.
[137] President Biden's first state of the union is now in the books.
[138] Instant polling shows his remarks received a less enthusiastic response than both Obama's and Trump's first speech.
[139] But the majority of Americans who watched did have at least a somewhat positive reaction.
[140] Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Allorty is here to unpack the highs and lows of the state of the union speech, according to the data.
[141] So, Marade, tell us what the polls look like today.
[142] Yeah, so a 71 % majority of Americans who watched Biden's state of the union had a positive reaction to the president's speech.
[143] That's according to a CNN poll.
[144] Forty -one percent of those polled said they felt very positive about Biden's remarks.
[145] That's the lowest very positive score CNN has seen in about 15 years of instant polling after the state of the union.
[146] For comparison, when Biden gave his address to a joint session of Congress back in April last year, 78 percent of Americans polled had a positive reaction and 51 percent had a very positive reaction.
[147] A big caveat here, these polls only take into account people who tuned in to watch the State of the Union, and those tend to be a friendly audience.
[148] Now for context, how does this compare to previous presidents in their State of the Union addresses?
[149] So even though a healthy majority of viewers had a positive reaction, the numbers were a bit lackluster compared to both Trump and Obama's State of the Unions.
[150] In 2018, when Trump gave his first state of the union address, 48 % of Americans who watched his speech said they felt very positive about it.
[151] Obama got the same 48 % positive results in his first state of the union in 2010.
[152] Those are both seven points higher than Biden's 41%.
[153] Well, could those numbers also reflect Americans' general mood towards the administration right now?
[154] Right.
[155] Biden's job approval has been sinking for kind of a while now.
[156] Currently, his job approval sits just under 41%.
[157] And that's according to real clear politics average of polls.
[158] About 54 % of Americans disapprove of the way Biden is doing his job right now.
[159] So what were some of the high points of the speech?
[160] Well, Biden did get some good marks on his policy proposals.
[161] Sixty -seven percent of those who watched the speech said they think his policy proposals would move the country in the right direction compared to 33 percent who said they are the wrong direction.
[162] Before his speech, that group was closer to split, with only 52 percent saying they think Biden's proposals would steer the country in the right direction.
[163] So he saw some improvement there.
[164] That said, Biden has an uphill battle on a multitude of issues, including inflation, the border, and, of course, the crisis in Ukraine.
[165] So it will probably take major action and not just a speech to turn his poll numbers around.
[166] Well, the president certainly has his work cut out for him.
[167] Marade, thanks for reporting.
[168] Thanks, Georgia.
[169] That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty.
[170] Another story we're tracking this week, Warner Brothers has halted the release of The Batman in Russian theaters.
[171] A spokesperson said, in light of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, WarnerMedia is pausing the release of its feature film, The Batman, in Russia, adding, we hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy.
[172] If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening, and give us a five -star review.
[173] That's all the time we've got this morning.
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