Morning Wire XX
[0] Will Joe Biden end up being the Democratic presidential nominee?
[1] That question has gained more weight in recent weeks amid mounting challenges for him, including possible impeachment.
[2] This president has a pattern at this point of either inventing or embellishing stories about his own past, his biography.
[3] He did it three times in one speech last month alone.
[4] Are Democrats in the media turning on the president?
[5] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe.
[6] It's Monday, September 18th, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Another ambush -style cop -killing rocks Los Angeles.
[8] We have the details on the disturbing case and trend.
[9] And the state -level impeachment battle that split the Texas Republican Party officially came to a conclusion over the weekend.
[10] The thing that separates us from the banana republics is that we have due process in our legal system.
[11] There was no due process in the House.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
[14] We have the news you need to know.
[15] As GOP candidates battle for the chance to take on Joe Biden next November, the incumbent president is facing mounting headwinds from the media, Congress, and his own party.
[16] Here with more on the president's standing ahead of his re -election effort is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[17] So Cabot, as we've discussed on this show before, President Biden is coming into this race with a number of vulnerabilities, which seem to be growing, if anything.
[18] what are we seeing on that front?
[19] Well, President Biden enters fall facing lagging approval ratings in the low 40s and high 30s, an impeachment inquiry in Congress, persistent questions about his age and mental capacities and now growing pressure from a legacy media that really sort of turned on him after being largely supportive throughout the first two years of his term.
[20] That's all clearly having an impact on his standing within his own party.
[21] Numerous polls throughout the last year show the majority of Democrats do not want him to run again.
[22] It's really hard to overstate just how rare it is in modern history for an incumbent president to enter re -election with large portions of his own party, telling him to sit out.
[23] Now, you mentioned the media.
[24] Tell us a little bit about the coverage they gave Biden this past week.
[25] So throughout most of his first term, Biden enjoyed relatively favorable coverage from legacy media outlets.
[26] But there has been a noticeable shift in recent weeks.
[27] For example, CNN recently ran a feature segment pointing out Biden's pattern of lying or misleading about accomplishments and other life events after he falsely claimed to have visited Ground Zero the day after 9 -11 last week.
[28] Here's a portion of that segment.
[29] He claimed at one point he'd been arrested during a civil rights protest when in other versions of the story, he just said an officer had taken him home from a protest.
[30] He said that he used to drive a tractor trailer, used to drive an 18 -wheeler, never happened.
[31] So whatever his intentions, whether it's, you know, foggy memory about stuff that's going on decades ago or deliberate embellishment, this is an unfortunate pattern that keeps coming up again with Joe Biden.
[32] And remember, that's CNN, not exactly a conservative outlet.
[33] Right.
[34] So I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that.
[35] Right.
[36] And then there was a front page editorial in the Washington Post.
[37] titled, quote, President Biden should not run again in 2024.
[38] That piece was written by one of Biden's favorite columnists, David Ignatius, who said, quote, Biden's age isn't just a Fox News trope.
[39] It's been the subject of dinner table conversations across America this summer.
[40] Ignatius lauded Biden's accomplishments, but said he needs to step aside for the sake of America.
[41] And then there was a heated interview between Biden and NPR of all places.
[42] Former White House aides of yours who tried to warn you about the potential conflicts of interest.
[43] Nobody warned me about a potential conflict commutrist.
[44] Nobody warned me about that.
[45] And at the same time...
[46] George Kent, the State Department official, testified that he raised it to you.
[47] No, he did see me. He did not.
[48] To your staff.
[49] I never heard that once.
[50] To your staff.
[51] And their staff told him he has no bandwidth.
[52] Well, my son was dying.
[53] I guess that's why he said it, because my son was on his deathbed.
[54] A lot of Republicans, though, are happy to see coverage like that.
[55] They've also been encouraged by a number of.
[56] recent polls.
[57] Tell us a little bit about some of the polls that have come out.
[58] That's right.
[59] So while Biden has consistently struggled with low approval ratings, until recently he has still been beating GOP opponents, particularly Donald Trump, in head -to -head polls.
[60] But a new Harvard -Harris poll released a few days ago shows that Biden is not only under 50 % approval on every single issue, including inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, but he's also now trailing Donald Trump 44 to 40 in a hypothetical head -to -head.
[61] That matches with separate CBS and Fox polls released in the last week, which shows down one and two points respectively.
[62] So concerning data points for the White House there.
[63] Right.
[64] Now, of course, all of this comes as Congress just has launched this impeachment inquiry into the president.
[65] Is that going to play into the race at all you think?
[66] Yeah, that is going to dominate the conversation in Washington this month as GOP lawmakers prepare to present evidence to the American people, who, by the way, appeared to support the impeachment inquiry.
[67] A recent poll show that a plurality of Americans, 41 percent, support the idea of an impeachment investigation, while just 35 percent oppose it.
[68] So Biden can say it's a partisan in witch hunt, but a lot of folks clearly won answers.
[69] For his part, the president issued his first response to the inquiry, saying at a campaign fundraiser, quote, I get up every day not focused on impeachment.
[70] I've got a job to do.
[71] And look, while the Democrat -controlled Senate is unlikely to convict Biden if impeachment were to move forward, the court of public opinion is really what matters here.
[72] Right.
[73] If Republicans in the House can convince voters that Biden has broken the law and lied about his role in his overseas business dealings, it will have an immense impact on the race.
[74] Well, it looks like we have an extremely unpredictable.
[75] race coming up.
[76] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[77] Any time.
[78] A California sheriff's deputy was killed on Saturday night when a gunman fired into his squad car.
[79] Authorities believe this is yet another deadly targeted attack on a law enforcement officer.
[80] The shooting took place in Palmdale, a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
[81] Deputy Ryan Clinkin -Broomer was discovered slumped over in the car by a passerby and later succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital.
[82] Here to discuss the tragedy as Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
[83] Morning, Dave.
[84] What do we know about this killing so far?
[85] Good morning.
[86] Deputy Clinkin -Broomer was on duty Saturday night, and not long after he left the station, this shooting occurred.
[87] It's not entirely clear if he was parked in his squad car or merely stopped as he was driving, but it appears that some person or persons drove up to the side of the car and fired at him without any immediate reason to do so.
[88] This is according to surveillance video that police are studying and trying to verify.
[89] Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said it seemed that Clinkin -Broomer was targeted because, quote, he was in a uniform, unquote.
[90] No suspects had been identified by Sunday afternoon.
[91] Without a suspect or a complete motive, do we know why Luna is suggesting that being in uniform was the reason he was shot and killed?
[92] Luna didn't get into specifics in that regard, but there isn't a very good alternative explanation.
[93] There does not appear to have been any incident or altercation that triggered the shooting.
[94] And sadly, this would not be the first time this happened.
[95] Listeners will recall that in Dallas in 2016, five police officers were killed and another nine injured when a gunman angry over the issue of police brutality targeted them.
[96] So to be clear, Sheriff Luna is not certain that this is the motive, but it would not be an isolated incident if it was.
[97] No, would not.
[98] What do we know about this deputy, Deputy Clinkin -Broomer, whose life was taken so abruptly Saturday night?
[99] The deputy was 30 years old and an eight -year veteran of the department.
[100] He was also a third -generation deputy, so law enforcement was in his DNA.
[101] He served for the last 18 months as a field training officer, a highly prestigious position, which Sheriff Luna said was reserved for the best of the best.
[102] Adding to the brutality of this tragedy is the fact that Clinkin -Broomer had gotten engaged just four days before his untimely death.
[103] Along with his fiancé, he was survived by both his parents.
[104] And of course, all three of them, as well as the deputy's fellow officers, are in our prayers and the nation's prayers as they deal with this horrible event.
[105] Yeah, indeed they are.
[106] Now, this comes at a time when morale in recruitment for law enforcement across the country is very low.
[107] We've actually just done a report on that.
[108] Are killings of police in the line of duty, a part of that and has there been an upswing and those kinds of occurrences.
[109] Yes, and yes.
[110] According to the FBI, there were 73 officers who died in felonious killings in 2021, which was the highest number since 1995, excluding, of course, 2001 with September 11th.
[111] Yeah.
[112] That underscores just how dangerous and frankly heroic the work that police do is.
[113] And obviously, if they have a target on their back just for putting on the badge, it's a far, far worse situation.
[114] It's important that people who commit such killings are captured and dealt with harshly, which is exactly what police in California are setting out to do.
[115] Look, this is scary for cops.
[116] It's scary for citizens.
[117] It's scary for everyone to live in a society where there are people for whom the value of human life is so cheap.
[118] Turning that around is not just a job for government and law enforcement, but also for faith leaders and frankly, John, for all of us, or else this problem really could get worse.
[119] Indeed, we'll put.
[120] Well, Dave, thanks so much for joining us.
[121] Thanks for having me. Ken Paxton has returned to his office as Attorney General of Texas after he was acquitted on 16 articles of impeachment following a trial in the Senate.
[122] Paxton has been on mandatory leave since May after he was impeached by the State House.
[123] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Paxton's victory and what this means for Texas politics, which has gotten more and more complicated.
[124] Hi, Tim.
[125] Hey, John.
[126] So walk us through what's happened this last two weeks in Texas.
[127] The Texas Senate wrapped up nine days of arguments and testimony on Friday and voted to acquit Paxton on Saturday on all charges.
[128] This case was about allegations of corruption and abuse of power, but many saw it as a proxy for the power struggle within the Texas Republican Party, conservatives represented by Paxton against the moderates in the state house.
[129] The sentence vote on Saturday was a conclusive win by conservatives on that front.
[130] No more than two Republicans joined the 12 Democrats in support of any of the 16 impeachment charges.
[131] That left the pro -impeachment side short of even a majority of senators.
[132] far short of the 21 -vote supermajority needed to uphold impeachment.
[133] I should note Paxton's wife, Senator Angela Paxton, was recused from voting.
[134] Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, presided over the Senate trial and wrapped up proceedings on Saturday with a few comments on the entire saga.
[135] First, he gave credit to senators for a thorough and good faith investigation, but then he turned on the House in a pretty strong condemnation of the process.
[136] Here's some of that.
[137] The Speaker and his team ran through the first impeachment of the statewide official in Texas.
[138] in over 100 years, while paying no attention to the precedent that the House set in every other impeachment before.
[139] The Lieutenant Governor said he wants a full accounting of what impeachment cost taxpayers.
[140] Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on this impeachment.
[141] I'm going to call next week for a full audit of all taxpayer money spent by the House from the beginning of their investigation in March to their final bills they get from their lawyers.
[142] We will provide our cost as well that were forced on us by the House impeachment.
[143] Patrick also said the Texas Constitution should be amended to prevent this sort of process from happening again.
[144] He said Paxton should have been allowed to cross -examine witnesses under oath in the House investigation, and House members should get a minimum of two weeks to review the evidence for impeachment before vote.
[145] Patrick also said Paxton should have been allowed to stay in office while the impeachment process played out, similar to the federal process.
[146] Right, that's been one of the major complaints here.
[147] Now, to what this was all about, what were the specific charges against Paxton?
[148] Most of the case had to do with Paxton's relationship with an Austin real estate developer, Nate Paul.
[149] Paul is a financial supporter of Paxton and gave $25 ,000 to his campaign in 2018.
[150] Paxton was accused of helping Paul's real estate business by investigating competitors and running interference when law enforcement became interested in Paul.
[151] In return, according to prosecutors, Paul would do favors for Paxton, such as donate to his campaign.
[152] Rennivate his house and employ Paxton's alleged mistress.
[153] According to senators who voted to acquit Paxton, none of those allegations were substantiated.
[154] Here's Texas Senator Bob Hall.
[155] All of what they put forward were second, third, and forthhand interviews with hired attorneys.
[156] The House never heard a word of testimony.
[157] Nothing under oath.
[158] There was no evidence ever presented.
[159] And what has Paxton said?
[160] He's been very vocal throughout all of this.
[161] had to say about this acquittal.
[162] Yeah, on Saturday after the vote, Paxton accused Texas House Speaker Date Phelan of working with the Biden administration to set the attorney general up in a kangaroo court on sham impeachment articles.
[163] He called the process immoral and corrupt, but then Paxton pivoted to President Biden and told him to buckle up and get ready to be held accountable now that he's back in action.
[164] Phelan released his own statement standing by the House investigation and the decision to impeach Paxton.
[165] Phelan said the Senate trial had cheated.
[166] the people of Texas out of justice.
[167] So it sounds like there could be some lingering bad blood among Republicans in Texas over this.
[168] Indeed.
[169] Tim, thanks for joining us.
[170] Thanks for having me. That's all the time we've got this morning.
[171] Thanks for waking up with us.
[172] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.