Morning Wire XX
[0] President Biden, touched down in Maui on Monday, where residents remain angry and frustrated, nearly two weeks after the devastating wildfires.
[1] I don't see why any president wouldn't step up and take care of what's part of their, you know, territory.
[2] We have the latest on the federal and state response and the controversies plaguing them.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Tuesday, August 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Hundreds of legal firearms dealers are sounding the alarm, claiming the Biden administration is revoking their licenses to sell firearms over technicalities.
[6] They are over -enforcing things in order to achieve a political means.
[7] The victim here would be gun shop owners, would be Second Amendment advocates, with the strings being pulled by a far -left White House.
[8] We break down the specifics of the crackdown.
[9] And records analyzed by the Daily Wire show that Hunter Biden allegedly helped a business partner get a federal job in order to gain influence abroad.
[10] We talked to the reporter who broke the story.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
[14] President Biden made his first visit Monday to Maui since a historic wildfire devastated the island where nearly a thousand residents are still missing.
[15] Here with more on the recovery efforts and the growing outrage at the government's lackluster response is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[16] So, Cabot, it's now been two weeks since the fire.
[17] Where do things stand?
[18] Well, at latest count, the official death toll in Maui stands at 114, though 850 people are still missing.
[19] While 85 % of the rubble has been searched by teams with cadaver dogs, officials say the growing fear is that most victims will never be recovered, as the overwhelming heat of the blaze left nothing behind.
[20] In recent days, anger from locals has really boiled over as government officials have been unable or unwilling to provide more details about those missing, especially with regard to how many children are feared debt.
[21] In one heated moment over the weekend, Maui's mayor was confronted by residents and reporters during a press conference.
[22] How many children are missing?
[23] You know.
[24] I know the answer to that.
[25] I'll be happy to answer that.
[26] You have no estimate of how many children are missing?
[27] I guess we can end this right now.
[28] This is not the biggest question that the people have watched.
[29] kind of happened.
[30] You're a disaster.
[31] You've been the worst mayor we could possibly imagine.
[32] While there's also anger at the lack of warning as the fires were coming.
[33] You're right.
[34] So we've talked on the show about how the island's alarm warning system never sounded, leaving many residents unaware of the impending danger.
[35] Initially, there were speculation that the alarms had been destroyed by the blaze, but it now appears the decision not to sound them was intentional.
[36] Herman and Diap, the county's emergency management chief, has the ultimate say on when to sound the alarm.
[37] arms, and he chose not to.
[38] When asked about that decision by a CBS reporter, Indias said he did not regret it.
[39] Do you regret not sounding the sirens?
[40] I do not.
[41] The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded.
[42] Had he sounded the siren that night, we're afraid that people would have gone malcha.
[43] And if that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.
[44] So he's arguing that the sirens would not have saved people?
[45] Right.
[46] He is claiming they could have killed more people, potentially forcing them towards the fire.
[47] But according to the state's official website, those sirens are meant to go off for a number of disasters, including wildfires.
[48] Last week, as pressure mounted on Indyah, he submitted his resignation, citing health reasons.
[49] The state's attorney general, however, has launched an independent investigation into the response from Endaya and other local officials.
[50] And there's also anger brewing over a general lack of preparedness from the local government.
[51] For example, the state's official guide for how residents should respond to natural disasters, includes details on hurricanes and tsunamis, but makes no mention of wildfires, despite the fact that locals had long warned the area was unprepared for an event like this.
[52] Well, there's also been some considerable frustration with the president in the aftermath of these fires.
[53] Tell us about his visit.
[54] Yeah, you're right.
[55] So on Monday, President Biden appeared in Maui for the first time touring some of the destroyed town and visiting with survivors and first responders.
[56] Now, the president has faced criticism for taking nearly two weeks to visit the site of the fire.
[57] And look, the optics are not great.
[58] He's vacations twice since the disaster first on a beach of Delaware as the fire raged, and then again this weekend in Lake Tahoe.
[59] Critics say the president's absence from the disaster zone is unacceptable and that his $700 payments to victims are not nearly enough.
[60] Why aren't you taking care of what you claim to be in charge of rather than sending out all these funds and whatever else you guys are sending to Ukraine or anywhere?
[61] Take care of here first.
[62] Now, for his part, the White House says that they've delayed a visit because it could slow down search efforts and strain the town's infrastructure.
[63] But that's done little to alleviate the anger of many locals.
[64] Right.
[65] Well, Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.
[66] Anytime.
[67] Coming up, the Biden administration cracks down on firearms dealers.
[68] The Biden administration is cracking down on gun dealers and has stripped hundreds of their federal firearms licenses since taking office.
[69] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us now to talk about the ATF's hard -nose approach to gun sellers.
[70] So, Tim, tell us a little bit about this crackdown.
[71] Hey, Georgia.
[72] The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the ATF has revoked the licenses of over 120 gun dealers this fiscal year.
[73] That's on top of the 90 it revoked last year.
[74] Compared to just 27 revocations in fiscal year 2021, that's about a 350 % increase.
[75] There are roughly 50 ,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States, so odds are this hasn't had a measurable impact on buyers.
[76] But some worry about the effect that it could have on law enforcement.
[77] Licensed gun dealers are helpful.
[78] sources for reporting suspicious buyers and potential gun traffickers.
[79] Some former officials think that the Biden administration's current zero tolerance policy towards dealers isn't wise because of the strains that it could put on the gun seller law enforcement relationship.
[80] Now, what specifically is different about how the Biden administration is approaching this versus how previous administrations did?
[81] Like I said, it's the ATS current zero tolerance policy.
[82] According to data collected since 2013, former president's Obama and Trump never revoked more than 81 licenses in a year.
[83] Biden's ATF has smashed that record twice now, and that increase appears to be due to a change in the ATF's approach.
[84] The Gun Rights Group, Gun Owners of America, obtained documents in February that detailed the ATF's internal guidance on policing gun sellers.
[85] The document said the agency would have a zero -tolerance policy for willful violations, but the ATF has taken a hardline approach to what constitutes willfulness.
[86] According to the guidance, outside of extraordinary circumstances, license revocation is the assumed action if a violation inherently demonstrates willfulness.
[87] The guidance emphasizes that the ATF doesn't need to prove the offender has a track record of mistakes.
[88] A first -time offender can have his license revoked.
[89] Now, how are sellers reacting to this new guidance?
[90] They say the way it's been implemented is over the top.
[91] Some of the dealers say the government is at times pulling licenses for what amounts to paperwork errors or less.
[92] For instance, Tom Harris is a seller out of Texas who was interviewed by the second Amendment Foundation after the ATF threatened him to give up his FFL.
[93] Harris says he was targeted over supposed errors that involved him aiding a non -licensee to sell firearms.
[94] The ATF first investigated and cleared him of wrongdoing before higher -ups at the agency ordered agents to take his license away.
[95] There are other lawsuits going on as well.
[96] Gun owners of America has partnered with a gun store in North Dakota for one.
[97] Their lawsuit claims that the ATF's enforcement decisions are actually being made by a computer algorithm.
[98] The lawsuit says that whether a particular violation breaks the agency's willfulness standard is, quote, based on nothing more than the category of record -keeping violations that are discovered and fed into the computer system.
[99] Well, I guess we're going to find out more as these lawsuits make it through the courts.
[100] Tim, thanks for reporting.
[101] Thanks for having me. Records obtained by the Daily Wire show that after Hunter Biden helped his business partner, Eric Schwerin, get a government job.
[102] Schwerin seemingly used that job to try to help Hunter to get a lucrative payday from an Eastern European business.
[103] Investigative reporter Luke Roziak broke the story and now joins us to discuss it.
[104] Hi, Luke.
[105] So tell us what you found here.
[106] Hey, John.
[107] So Eric Schwerin was Hunter Biden's partner in their foreign influence peddling business.
[108] He emailed Hunter an article that said that one government commission, the commission on the preservation of America's heritage abroad, could, quote, use its influence to leverage cooperation from foreign governments.
[109] In 2015, Schwerin was appointed by Barack Obama to serve on this commission.
[110] Now, the commission was established to work with other.
[111] countries to preserve monuments to remember the horrors of genocide, mostly preserving World War II era cemeteries in Eastern Europe.
[112] Commissioners get an official passport and travel as U .S. representatives.
[113] They use the prestige of this role to raise money for private businesses and individuals and use it for projects that they work out with those other countries.
[114] All right.
[115] So this mixture of government connections, international deals, and private fundraising seems to have a lot of overlap with what Hunter and his business partners were doing in Ukraine and elsewhere, as we've learned from various reports, did Schwerin's commission appointment intersect directly with his business deals?
[116] Yeah, I mean, the first project Schwerin undertook for the commission was a project in Latvia.
[117] He said he had connections with a business called Norvik Bank there that would pay for restoration of a memorial.
[118] Hunter was at the time in negotiations to join Norvick's board.
[119] But after Latvia blocked the bank from publicly getting credit for a donation, Schweren balked.
[120] On May 5, 2016, he wrote, this makes it a little heavier of a lift if they can't get some recognition.
[121] Later that month, he, Hunter, and a lawyer strategized about how to get appointed to Norvick's board, but it never happened.
[122] So there was an attempt at using a government role for Hunter's financial gain here, but it wound up falling apart.
[123] Yeah.
[124] Even so, the commission appointment gave Schwerin the appearance of being an important government official in the very region where he and Hunter was seeking business deals through perceived government power.
[125] For example, Hunter had also sought to be appointed to the board of another bank owned by a Latvian oligarch, which he and Schwerin decided to pursue even after noting that that oligarch was, quote, accused of helping facilitate the theft of millions of pounds worth of state assets.
[126] Hunter was behind the scenes of Schwerin's government appointment every step of the way, with Schwerin asking him to edit his speeches for the commission and sending updates as he met with the president of Latvia and other international leaders, even comparing himself to Joe Biden.
[127] Now, recall, this is the same commission that the lady who bought Hunter's art was appointed to, correct?
[128] Yeah, it's got a history of being a place where insiders built the government and mixed government business and foreign lobbying.
[129] During the time when Schwerin was on this commission, government investigators slammed it for agreeing to pay its executive director $145 ,000 for one day of work a week.
[130] A whistleblower told investigators the situation was even worse than that.
[131] The rest of the week, he allegedly ran a for -profit lobbying practice out of the government office, including representing international clients.
[132] I'm making matters worse, even though this government agency was ostensibly dedicated to stopping genocide, his lobbying partner in that firm was actually married to the daughter of a dictator convicted of genocide.
[133] So this happened in 2016, but it's just coming out now.
[134] How did you break this story?
[135] Well, I submitted a FOIA request back in 2021, and the agency at first ignored it and then said Schwerin was refusing to turn over the records.
[136] After the Daily Wire's lawyers got involved, we got a partial response.
[137] So using government connections to raise money from international businesses in dubious ways.
[138] There certainly seems to be a pattern here.
[139] Luke, thanks for reporting.
[140] Thank you, John.
[141] That's investigative reporter Luke Rosiak with a Daily Wire exclusive.
[142] Another story we're tracking this week.
[143] Former President Donald Trump's bail was set at $200 ,000 in the racketeering case that also charges 18 of Trump's associates with alleged election interference in Georgia.
[144] racketeering cases are notorious for being long and costly for defendants.
[145] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
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[150] Thanks for waking up with us.
[151] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.