Morning Wire XX
[0] Consumer prices continue to rise at a near -record pace.
[1] Which items have been hit hardest by inflation, and what can we expect as we head into summer?
[2] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[3] It's Thursday, May 12th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] New details emerge related to the Hunter Biden investigation, including that a Hollywood attorney has paid off his delinquent taxes.
[5] We talked to Peter Schweitzer about the latest in the high -profile case.
[6] And Elon Musk says President Trump will be allowed back on Twitter, and he has some surprising supporters for that decision.
[7] Plus, the latest on the attempt to pass a federal abortion law.
[8] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
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[20] A day after President Biden announced that inflation would be his number one domestic priority, new data from the Labor Department shows that last month it continued to rise at near record pace.
[21] Here with more on what products are seeing the highest price spikes and whether there's any end in sight is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
[22] Cabot first, let's start with the numbers.
[23] What do we look at?
[24] out here?
[25] Well, the latest data from the labor department showed that inflation remained incredibly high last month, sitting at 8 .3%.
[26] Now, there were some who initially celebrated the numbers because it was the first time in eight months that we've seen a month -to -month decline in inflation.
[27] Remember, in March, we were at 8 .5 percent, but many economists say that data is a hardly reason to celebrate, as the main reason inflation dropped to 8 .3 is because gas prices had temporarily dipped in April.
[28] But remember, we talked yesterday on the show that those gas prices are already way up in the first few months of May. Right, hitting record levels, huh?
[29] Yeah, and any positive gains on inflation that had happened because gas prices dropped have already been erased.
[30] So maybe not the good news that some hoped it might be.
[31] Yeah, exactly.
[32] So what items are prices going up on the most?
[33] Prices were up on products pretty much across the board, but the number one driving force last month were airline tickets.
[34] The price of a plane ticket went up 18 .6 % in April alone.
[35] Yeah, that's the largest one -month increase since they actually started tracking prices back in 1963, and airline prices are now up 33 % compared to this time last year.
[36] Elsewhere, we saw price increases for hotels, which are now 23 % more expensive than last year, furniture, which is at 15 % and baby food, which is 13 % higher.
[37] And on that note, the baby formula shortage that we talked about earlier this week has gotten even worse in the last 24 hours, and there is growing pressure for a federal response.
[38] So a lot more bad news on that front.
[39] Is there any good news?
[40] One initial silver lining we saw last month was that wages did rise for workers, but again, it's not enough to keep up with inflation.
[41] For example, overall wages have gone up about 4 % since January 1st, but when you remember that inflation is almost double that right now, people are still taking home less money than they were last year by a pretty considerable margin.
[42] Now, President Biden addressed inflation this week.
[43] Any impact or response to that so far?
[44] Yeah, we're going to have to wait to see long term what the impact is, but we talk on the show about how he's kind of shifted the blame in the short term on inflation from COVID to Putin and then even Republicans.
[45] But on Tuesday, he appeared to say that inflation was actually a sign of strength for the U .S. Listen.
[46] I agree with what Chairman Powell said last week that the number one threat is the strength and that strength that we built is inflation.
[47] Now, the president mentioned Jerome Powell there, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
[48] Tell us about how the Fed has responded to inflation.
[49] They've definitely shifted gears a bit.
[50] Back when inflation started taking off, Chairman Powell implied it would be temporary, but that it should return to their target mark of 2 % soon.
[51] And when that didn't happen, when it stayed around 8 % month after month, the Fed changed their tune and announced a series of interest rate hikes in an attempt to slow down the economy and cut back on the general borrowing power of Americans.
[52] They now maintain that as interest rates and mortgage rates go up, we should start to see inflation level off in the coming months, but more and more Americans are really starting to take what the Fed says with a grain of salt, given their track record on predicting things in the past few years.
[53] Yeah, it's not hard to see why.
[54] Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
[55] Anytime.
[56] That's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[57] Coming up, the latest in the Hunter Biden case.
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[62] The New York Post reported this week that a Hollywood attorney, Kevin Morris, paid Hunter Biden's delinquent taxes, which amounted to some $2 million.
[63] Joining us to discuss as GAI president and author of best -selling book Red Handed, Peter Schweitzer.
[64] So, Peter, we have some new details on the Hunter Biden case, a case you've researched extensively.
[65] What do we know here?
[66] Well, we know there's a lot of mystery, which is troubling.
[67] You know, you've got the president of the United States, his immediate family, who's having favors done, financial favors done by lawyers and outside businessmen.
[68] And, of course, the question is, what favors or expectations are there that they want in return for providing these funds?
[69] Clearly, Hunter Biden has legal troubles.
[70] He owed back taxes.
[71] There's going to probably be some legal consequence for that.
[72] that.
[73] But, you know, the focus here seems to be on PR and the expectation of spinning the story.
[74] I think, John, the nightmare scenario for the Biden family is that there is actually a trial.
[75] I fully expect that Hunter Biden's going to be indicted, but I think there's going to be a very aggressive move by the Biden family and the Biden team to reach some sort of settlement agreement, maybe additional fines, maybe even jail time for Hunter Biden.
[76] But they do not want an extended trial because that would then introduce evidence and communications and information involving the President of the United States.
[77] And I think they want to avoid that at all cost.
[78] Will paying off these back taxes take pressure off the investigation?
[79] I doubt it.
[80] And what we do know is that it was a full two years after this grand jury was convened to look into this that Hunter Biden's back taxes were actually paid, now of course, by this Los Angeles attorney.
[81] So that certainly does not speak to the fact that this was some error that they wanted to correct quickly.
[82] He was avoiding these taxes and tried to do so as long as possible.
[83] I think the other thing we have to factor in, John, that, of course, these are back taxes owed on income that the IRS knows about.
[84] There is the prospect that you have foreign money.
[85] It's just the IRS doesn't actually know the full income that Hunter Biden was receiving at this time.
[86] Yeah, can you remind us of some of the claims about that income?
[87] Yeah, I mean, you've got far -flung interests providing money to Hunter Biden through his businesses.
[88] That stems from our Russian oligarchs like Yelena Batarina, who is a pro -Putin oligarch who wired $3 .5 million to one of Hunter Biden's LLCs.
[89] You've certainly got the money from Ukraine to the tune of $4 to $5 million.
[90] Payments basically of a million dollars a year for multiple years.
[91] And then you probably have the biggest mystery, which is China, a variety of transfers of funds going into Hunter Biden LLCs.
[92] There was also apparently, a team Biden is saying that he sold his stake in a financial firm called BHR.
[93] Some of the estimates from scholars at the University of Chicago is that his stay can be worth $20 million.
[94] But we don't know.
[95] And there's no requirement for politician family members to disclose any of their.
[96] there are financial dealings that they do overseas or in the United States, for that matter.
[97] So there's a lot of mystery here, and that is certainly part of the problem.
[98] Now, the Delaware grand jury is continuing to investigate Hunter's personal finances.
[99] Where does that investigation stand now?
[100] I would say that investigation is probably at the 11th hour, and we are approaching the end.
[101] This was convened in the summer of 2018.
[102] My understanding is that a lot of people are expecting that something will be reported here by the middle of June.
[103] That's not a hard and fast deadline, but clearly things seem to be coming to a head.
[104] And the fact that back taxes have been paid is an indication to me that Team Biden does expect that there probably are going to be some indictments, at least as it relates to the tax evasion charges.
[105] Okay, final question.
[106] Is there anything about this case that's not being highlighted enough in other reporting?
[107] I think a lot of the focus has been on the issues of failure to pay taxes, which is certainly important.
[108] The bigger issue for me is who actually was providing the funds from overseas.
[109] When it comes to China, you can look at the emails and you can identify the four businessmen that transferred millions of dollars to Hunter Biden.
[110] They all have ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, which makes this in my mind a serious national security question, not just a question of whether he paid taxes on that income.
[111] And I think that warrants further investigation.
[112] Well, Peter, thanks so much for coming on.
[113] That was GAI president and author of Red -Handed Peter Schweitzer.
[114] Questions about how Elon Musk will handle account suspensions have been a major topic of media conversations since the Tesla CEO reached a deal to buy Twitter.
[115] Now, one of the biggest questions, whether he plans to uphold the ban against former President Trump, has been answered.
[116] Here to give us the details about why Musk believes the ban was a bad idea from the beginning and how people are reacting is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham.
[117] So Megan, I'll admit I was a little surprised that Musk has been so open about the Trump question.
[118] So what was the context when he commented on this?
[119] Well, Musk received this question at an automotive conference.
[120] So you have to give this motor industry correspondent for the Financial Times a little credit for seizing the moment to ask Musk about that Trump Twitter band.
[121] So here's how he responded.
[122] I guess the answer is that I would reverse the perma ban.
[123] I think perma bands just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion.
[124] I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme.
[125] My opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma permabans.
[126] Now, that's a telling moment because initially, Dorsey reportedly didn't want to ban Trump.
[127] But he eventually came to agree with some of those other Twitter executives that it was necessary.
[128] Dorsey confirmed Tuesday that he agrees with Musk that Twitter made a mistake.
[129] He said that with the exception of truly egregious cases like posts that include material that sexually exploit children, permanent bans have been a failure of Twitters and don't work.
[130] Dorsey said in retrospect that it was, quote, a business decision, and it's one he shouldn't have made.
[131] Now, remind us, what were the specific tweets that precipitated the Trump Twitter ban?
[132] So it came down to two tweets on January 8th, 2021.
[133] The first said, the 75 million great American patriots who voted for me, America First, and Make America Great Great Again, will have a giant voice long into the future.
[134] They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape, or form.
[135] That came with a lot of exclamation points.
[136] The second tweet said, to all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th.
[137] So we have to remember that Trump posted those comments in the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot.
[138] Twitter said that, given the context around them, it needed to ban the account in order to prevent, quote, the risk of further incitial.
[139] of violence.
[140] So what has the reaction been to Musk suggesting that he would allow Trump back on Twitter?
[141] Well, you know, it was pretty mixed, but there was at least one surprising supporter.
[142] The ACLU put out a statement saying that Musk made the quote, right call and that big tech holds so much power over our forums for political speech now.
[143] They need to exercise that power with restraint.
[144] The statement said social media platforms should first use lesser penalties like deleting posts that violate rules rather than just outright banning political figures.
[145] They said, and again, I'm quoting here, like it or not, President Trump is one of the most important political figures in this country, and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech.
[146] Now, as for Trump, he's still maintaining that he's not going to get back on Twitter.
[147] And that really does make a lot of sense, given that he's invested into the social media platform, Truth Social.
[148] But at the same time, Twitter was an important vehicle for him.
[149] in 2016.
[150] So if he decides to run again, you have to wonder if that's going to change his thinking.
[151] Right.
[152] And even if he doesn't come back on, Musk has already changed the landscape of online speech pretty profoundly.
[153] Yeah, he has.
[154] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[155] That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[156] Another story we're tracking this week.
[157] On Thursday, a Democrat bill that would federalize abortion law failed to pass the U .S. Senate.
[158] All Senate Republicans, joined by Democrat Joe Manchin, voted against the bill.
[159] It failed 49 to 51.
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