Morning Wire XX
[0] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[1] It's Wednesday, June 14th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
[2] The Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates for the first time in 15 months on Wednesday, but experts say this could be a temporary pause to gauge how the Fed's plan to combat runaway inflation is working.
[3] The Central Bank has increased its key rate by five percentage points since March 2022 as part of its goal to get inflation below 2%.
[4] In turn, those hikes have caused higher costs for things like mortgages, auto and business loans, and credit cards.
[5] Here's Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
[6] Looking ahead, nearly all committee participants view it as likely that some further rate increases will be appropriate this year to bring inflation down to 2 % over time.
[7] And I will have more to say about monetary policy after briefly reviewing economic developments.
[8] White House Press Secretary Corrine Jean -Pierre has been accused of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law blocking political appointees from using government resources for political campaign purposes.
[9] Daily Wire senior editor, Joel Needler, has the latest.
[10] The Office of Special Counsel, the government agency that enforces the Hatch Act, wrote in a recent letter that Jean -Pierre violated the law before last year's midterm elections by repeatedly referring to candidates as MAGA Republicans.
[11] Jean -Pierre defended herself this week.
[12] Do you believe that you violated the Hatch HACC with those comments about MAGA Republicans?
[13] So what I can say is at the time, I was given the sign off, right, to use that terminology.
[14] No fines and penalties are recommended by the office, but those who violate the Hatch Act can be suspended from serving in the federal government for a limited period of time.
[15] In reaction to the federal indictment of former President Trump, Republican Senator J .D. Vance of Ohio threatened to block all Justice Department nominees until Attorney General Merrick Garland, quote, stops harassing his political opponent.
[16] The senator went on to say that Trump's indictment is just the latest example of this form of abuse.
[17] I've heard from a lot of people that they're so frustrated as I am with the fact that Merrick Garland has used the Department of Justice for politics instead of law.
[18] And I think it's time we stopped just whining about this problem and debating this problem and actually do something about it.
[19] I think that we have to grind this department to a halt until Merrick Garland promises to do his job and stop going after his political opponents.
[20] The State Department announced today that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this week to meet with senior Chinese officials.
[21] The trip was postponed due to the Chinese government -linked spy balloon that traversed the continental U .S. in February.
[22] State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said in a statement that Blinken will discuss, quote, bilateral issues of concern, global and regional matters and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges with the Chinese Communist Party.
[23] Bud Light is no longer America's top -selling beer.
[24] Year -over -year sales for Bud Light for the month ending June 3rd shows that the brand is down 24%.
[25] That's in wake of the nationwide boycott over Bud Light's embrace of trans -identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
[26] According to the consulting firm Bump Williams, Mexican beer brand Modelo now tops the beer sales charts, capturing 8 .4 % of U .S. retail sales.
[27] Bud Light has dropped to 7 .3 % of sales.
[28] Shannon Phillips, the white Starbucks manager who was fired after her staff refused to let two black men use the bathroom in her store, has been awarded $25 .6 million after she sued the coffee company for wrongful termination.
[29] The incident occurred in 2018 at a Philadelphia Starbucks location, sparking national protests due to allegations of racism.
[30] The two men who were there on business were subsequently arrested for trespassing.
[31] Weeks later, Phillips claims that Starbucks began punishing white employees as part of its PR effort to show they were taking the incident seriously.
[32] On Monday, a jury agreed that Phillips was fired for being white, awarding her 25 million in punitive damages and 600 ,000 in compensatory damages.
[33] All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
[34] To learn more about these stories, go to Dailywire .com and for more in -depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to our latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.