Morning Wire XX
[0] Record -breaking numbers of migrants continue to cross our southern border, even as state governors try to stem the influx.
[1] The easiest thing to do today is to close the gaps.
[2] It will help everybody on the border save lives.
[3] How high are the historic numbers, and what action, if any, is being taken?
[4] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[5] It's Friday, August 19th, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that part of the affidavit used to justify, the search of Moralago must be released.
[7] What do we know now about the reason for the search?
[8] And after making its way through Congress without a single Republican vote, the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law this week.
[9] We talked to an expert about the impact of the law on inflation and our energy independence.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] While grocery store meat prices continue to rise, Good Ranchers has your back.
[14] Their inflation -proof model locks in your price the day you subscribe for the life of your subscription.
[15] Plus, you can pause your subscription for up to 90 days or cancel anytime you want, but you won't want to.
[16] You got to go to goodranchers .com slash wire and get $30 off your order plus free shipping.
[17] That's goodranchers .com slash wire.
[18] Enter promo code wire at checkout.
[19] Good Ranchers, American Meat delivered.
[20] On Monday, Customs and Border Patrol updated their data on migrant encounters along the southern border to reflect the July totals.
[21] Since President Biden took office, there have been over 3 .4 million border encounters, over a million more than under the previous administration.
[22] Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
[23] Hey, Tim.
[24] So what do these latest numbers look like at the border?
[25] Hey, John.
[26] Sources told Fox News that there are now about 2 million encounters for this fiscal year.
[27] We've never had this many encounters in that time frame, and we still have about six weeks left.
[28] Last year, we saw slightly lower numbers at 1 .7 million encounters, but that was also a record.
[29] There's also been a huge increase in migrant injuries and deaths.
[30] Border Patrol's search and rescue efforts have almost quadrupled from 2019 to today.
[31] Between 2019 and 2020, Border Patrol conducted about 5 ,000 search and rescues.
[32] They did about 19 ,000 this year.
[33] How are the numbers tracking month to month now?
[34] In July, Border Patrol reported a little under 200 ,000 encounters.
[35] That's a bit fewer than last July, which, some of the numbers.
[36] saw about 213 ,000 encounters, but even with these decreases, these numbers are still way above the norm from just a few years ago.
[37] During Trump's term, July encounters averaged about 46 ,700.
[38] Under President Obama, July encounters averaged about 32 ,000.
[39] So far with President Biden, July encounters average well over 110 ,700, double what Trump experienced, and triple what Obama experienced.
[40] And it's not just July either.
[41] Since Biden took office, monthly encounters have all been in the triple digits, which is completely unprecedented.
[42] Yeah, it is.
[43] What has the Biden administration made of these numbers?
[44] It's interesting.
[45] The head of the Department of Homeland Security doesn't appear to be concerned.
[46] Here's Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
[47] The border is secure.
[48] We are working to make the border more secure.
[49] That has been a historic challenge.
[50] All this contributes to the ongoing conflict between the state and federal government.
[51] Now, we've seen a lot of activity in real.
[52] response from the governor of Texas, right?
[53] Right.
[54] Governor Greg Abbott enlists the Texas National Guard to assist with securing the border.
[55] As part of that effort, the Guard has been locking gates to properties along the border.
[56] But Border Patrol is required by federal law to open those gates to process migrants if people are waiting on the other side.
[57] In a statement to Morning Wire, Governor Abbott said, quote, unbelievable, while Texas secures that border, the federal government is enabling illegal immigration.
[58] Biden's open border policies causes crisis.
[59] The federal government must do its job and fix it.
[60] What are some of the other border states doing to address this?
[61] We've seen some reports, for example, about border wall construction.
[62] Yes, Arizona's governor Doug Ducey is having shipping containers stacked in these border gaps.
[63] They're chained together, welded, and topped with razor wire.
[64] Installment of these containers is costing Arizona over $6 million, but that's a fraction of the cost of unfinished government contracts, which cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion.
[65] However, the shipping containers aren't foolproof.
[66] One set even toppled over recently, and they aren't impenetrable.
[67] The Biden administration did announce recently that they would complete construction on at least some portions of the wall.
[68] What's the timeline for that construction?
[69] They didn't state a specific timeline, but based on federal procedures, it could be well over a year before construction even starts.
[70] So it sounds like this could be quite a while.
[71] Tim, thanks for reporting.
[72] That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
[73] Coming up, how soon until the public can see the affidavit used to search President Trump's home?
[74] Do you like to be the first to know about trendy news and current events?
[75] If so, you've got to get the Daily Wire Plus app.
[76] Not only will you receive mobile notifications whenever something's happening, but you'll also have access to the best commentary to break it all down.
[77] Download the Daily Wire Plus app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
[78] Federal judge ruled Thursday that the DOJ would have to release at least part of the government affidavit used to justify the search of President Donald Trump's home.
[79] Here with the details on the ruling and what it means for the case.
[80] against the former president is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[81] So Cabot first, what can you tell us about this hearing?
[82] So just a quick refresher on where we stand, this affidavit is important because it lays out the government's roadmap for getting a warrant to search Trump's property.
[83] We've seen the warrant, which told us they were looking for classified documents, but the affidavit will hopefully give insight into the exact evidence the government had to justify the rate.
[84] At a court hearing Thursday, the DOJ argued that if the document were made public, it could ruin their investigation or compromise the identity of confidential informants that the document referenced.
[85] The DOJ also claimed the document had, quote, national security overtones that must remain confidential.
[86] Now, Trump's team, as well as lawyers representing a number of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and ABC, have argued that the public has a right to see the government's evidence and that releasing the affidavit was necessary if the FBI, you know, wanted to prove the raid was not politically motivated.
[87] So who did the judge side with?
[88] Well, that's the thing.
[89] He didn't really pick aside.
[90] Thursday afternoon, he ruled that the affidavit must be released to the public, but that sensitive information could still be redacted.
[91] So essentially what happens now is that the DOJ will have one week to remove everything from the affidavit that they think could compromise the investigation.
[92] And then next Thursday, they'll submit that redacted version of the document to a judge with a briefing explaining why they want certain parts kept from the public.
[93] And how was that ruling received among those who wanted that affidavit made public?
[94] a sort of cautious optimism because the judge could have just outright denied the petition to release it, so it's at least a minor victory that the public will get something.
[95] Now, obviously the question is what's left in the final version of the document.
[96] Now, keep in mind, legally speaking, the burden of proof is on the government to convince the judge that each redaction that they want made is necessary.
[97] Those arguing for its release say that it's not up to the government to decide what should and shouldn't be of interest to the public.
[98] On that note, here's Deanna Schollman, an attorney who represented the Wall Street Journal and ABC during the hearing.
[99] But it is not the government's job to tell the public what is meaningful in terms of the release of its own information.
[100] Did the hearing give us any more clues about what could be in that affidavit?
[101] So the big thing we learned was that the FBI has multiple confidential informants who've apparently been cooperating with the government and gave enough relevant information to help convince the judge to sign off on the search.
[102] And another interesting thing here that we learned this week is that President Trump allegedly has security footage of FBI agents conducting their rate on his property, and he's now weighing whether he wants to release those tapes to the public.
[103] Definitely a lot to track here.
[104] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[105] Anytime.
[106] That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[107] President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday, which invests heavily into climate initiatives and promises to promote energy independence and lower energy costs.
[108] The bill made it through the Senate and the House without a single vote from Republicans.
[109] Joining us to discuss is Kenny Stein, Director of Policy at the Institute for Energy Research.
[110] Thanks for joining us, Kenny.
[111] So this bill hands hundreds of billions in tax credits and subsidies to what Democrats call green energy sources and imposes new taxes and fees on the fossil fuel industry.
[112] Will this bill lead to greater energy independence?
[113] Well, of course, the great irony is, as of a couple years ago, we were a net exporter of oil, that export of natural gas, net exporter of coal, of course.
[114] and all, you know, refined products.
[115] So if that is your definition of independence, sure.
[116] We were already at that point.
[117] The pandemic threw a lot of wrenches into that.
[118] Our oil production dropped by about a million and a half barrels from where it was, and it hasn't fully recovered.
[119] So at this point, we are still net exporters in total, but it's much closer to balance than true independence, true surplus.
[120] And, of course, when we're talking about, as I was saying, you know, a bunch of money taxes and fees on domestic oil and gas productions, that obviously does not encourage domestic production, which impedes energy independence.
[121] Now, environmentalists, folks in the renewable industry, will say that, oh, well, you know, wind and solar are produced in the United States.
[122] That means we'll be independent.
[123] We get all electricity from wind and solar that comes from American sun and American wind.
[124] then we'll be truly energy independent as opposed to oil and gas.
[125] The problem is, of course, is that the solar panels are not made in the United States.
[126] They're made in China.
[127] Many wind components are made in China.
[128] Those that aren't made in China are usually made in drop.
[129] They're not made in the United States.
[130] Batteries for the electric vehicles that this bill wants to push.
[131] And the battery storage that is needed for backing up wind and solar, that is overwhelmingly manufactured in China.
[132] This underlying conceit that we're going to get off foreign oil, but we're going to make ourselves dependent on Chinese renewables.
[133] So we're swapping one sort of dependence for another.
[134] The underlying logic fails, basically.
[135] How much will the American taxpayer feel the heat of this bill?
[136] So that's really hard to tell.
[137] You know, ultimately, as the larger economic point, you know, more government spending, that's got to come from somewhere.
[138] It's either taken from you in higher taxes, which there's some tax increases in here, as we've already said.
[139] It's going to come out of debt payments in the future.
[140] This is spending money that we don't have.
[141] This isn't a surplus that's being spent on these renewables.
[142] It's borrowed money.
[143] But then also the tax comes in inflation, too.
[144] That's part of how the government makes up for overspending is that inflation is a tax on the population.
[145] It's another way of tax.
[146] So what we've seen over the last 10 years, and you especially see it in Europe, because they're further along on the renewables curve than the United States is.
[147] But the greater share of renewables in the electricity grid mix, the higher electricity rates, the two countries in Europe with the highest share of wind generation for the electricity mix are Denmark and Germany.
[148] They also happen to be the two countries with the highest average electricity rates in all of Europe.
[149] And you see similar things in the United States.
[150] The states that have the largest penetration of wind or solar tend to have either the highest electricity rates or in the last 10 years, their electricity rates have been rising at a higher rate than the nation as a whole.
[151] So some of this will be disguised just the way, this is why they're doing tax credits and subsidies for people and they're trying to hide the cost to this.
[152] But yes, this is going to make electricity more expensive.
[153] It's going to make energy more expensive.
[154] And it's for handouts to special interests.
[155] The renewables industry is one of the most powerful special interests in this country right now.
[156] Final question.
[157] The bill was named by Democrats the inflation reduction bill.
[158] Will it actually lower inflation?
[159] Well, no, there's basically no chance that's going to lower inflation.
[160] I would argue, actually, that if anything, it will make inflation worse.
[161] We're talking about spending, I think the total for the bill is around $700 billion in federal government spending.
[162] that excessive government spending is what set off this inflation boom in the first place.
[163] So, you know, adding more obviously is not going to decrease inflation.
[164] And if anything, will add to inflationary pressure.
[165] All right, Kenny, thanks so much for coming on.
[166] That was Kenny Stein, director of policy at the Institute for Energy Research.
[167] Other stories were tracking this week.
[168] Alan Weisselberg, the former CFO of the Trump organization, pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
[169] As part of his plea deal, he will pay nearly two million.
[170] in taxes and penalties, serve five months in Rikers Island prison, and be forced to testify as a prosecution witness against the Trump organization this fall.
[171] A school district in Texas is being criticized for removing a graphic novel version of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl and all versions of the Bible from school shelves.
[172] A solar storm is expected to affect Earth over the next few days, impacting the electric grid and satellite accuracy.
[173] An Aurora might also be visible in certain areas across the U .S. The Big Ten Conference signed a multi -billion -dollar TV deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC, making it the wealthiest conference in college sports.
[174] On Wednesday, the CDC announced a fast -moving E. coli outbreak in Michigan and Ohio.
[175] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
[176] We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
[177] If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five -star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
[178] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[179] Thanks for waking up with us.
[180] We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.