Morning Wire XX
[0] Special counsel Robert Herr testifies on Capitol Hill about his investigation into the president's mishandling of classified documents.
[1] We identified evidence that the president willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency.
[2] How did Hur defend his conclusion about Biden's mental acuity and how do newly released transcripts back him up?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe and John's on vacation this week.
[4] It's Wednesday, March 13th.
[5] And this is Morning Wire.
[6] Testimony uncovered by a congressional oversight committee reveals the January 6th committee excluded evidence that did not fit their preferred narrative.
[7] This is the exculpatory evidence that Liz Cheney and company have buried for two years.
[8] And the FAA has uncovered several more safety concerns at Boeing as a whistleblower is found dead.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
[12] Hey guys, producer Brandon here.
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[19] Word Wire.
[20] Former special counsel Robert Herr appeared on Capitol Hill to talk about his investigation into President Biden's handling of classified documents.
[21] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about what happened in hers testimony.
[22] So Tim, before we get into the testimony, I want to first ask you about the transcript of President Biden's interview with her that was released yesterday morning.
[23] Did we learn anything interesting there?
[24] Only that the transcript tracks with hers report and at times contradicts President Biden's attacks on her and his investigators.
[25] For instance, when Biden suggested in his press conference after the release of Hur's report that the special counsel improperly dragged Bo Biden into the interview, the transcript shows that it was actually the president who first mentioned his son.
[26] The transcript also confirms that the president had multiple mental lapses during his interviews with her.
[27] Now, Her's report was quite controversial when it came out because it really called into question President Biden's mental fitness.
[28] How was the memory issue addressed in the hearing?
[29] Right.
[30] Biden's mental decline was arguably the biggest issue of the hearing.
[31] For context, Her declined to recommend charges against Biden, in part because the prosecutor said a jury would likely see the president as, quote, a sympathetic, well -meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
[32] That assessment was based off of hers own experience interviewing Biden for the investigation.
[33] Her said Biden presented himself that way to investigators and that Biden showed evidence of mental decline.
[34] Here's her in his opening statement defending his report.
[35] The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue.
[36] We interviewed the president and asked him about his recorded statement, quote, I just found all the classified stuff downstairs, end quote.
[37] He told us that he didn't remember saying that to his ghostwriter.
[38] He also said he didn't remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency.
[39] My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president's memory was necessary and accurate and fair.
[40] Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows.
[41] Democrats disagreed.
[42] Congressman Hank Johnson suggested that her trashed Biden in the report so that it could be weaponized against him in the election.
[43] And you're doing everything you can do to get President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice.
[44] Isn't that correct?
[45] Congressman, I have no such aspirations.
[46] I can assure you and I can tell you that partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work.
[47] It had no place.
[48] in the investigative steps that I took.
[49] It had no place in the decision that I made, and it had no place in a single word of my report.
[50] I should also mention, in addition to all the pushback from Democrats, the White House itself actually asked her to tone down parts of his report as it regards Biden's memory.
[51] Her was asked about that during the hearing.
[52] Did the White House try to weigh in with your investigation on elements of that report and, frankly, get the report changed?
[53] They did request certain edits and changes to the draft report.
[54] So Democrats took issue with the characterization of Biden's mental acuity, but Republicans also had some issues with this report.
[55] What were those?
[56] Right.
[57] Some disagreed with hers conclusions about Biden's memory and how that could impact a jury.
[58] Others actually agreed with her's conclusion, but said that it still showed a double standard at the Department of Justice because Trump is currently in court over his handling of classified documents.
[59] Another issue that came up is that Biden's ghostwriter, Mark Zwanitzer destroyed recordings of his conversations with the president in which Biden admitted to having classified documents.
[60] Here's Congressman Matt Gates on that.
[61] What does somebody have to do to get charged with obstruction of justice by you?
[62] If deleting the evidence of crimes doesn't count, what would meet the standard?
[63] So, Congressman, as we state in the relevant chapter of the report, one of the things that Mr. Zwanitzer did not delete was transcripts of the recordings that he had created that included inculpatory evidence relating to Mr. Bond.
[64] Oh, so if you destroy some evidence but not other evidence, that somehow absolves you of the evidence you destroy?
[65] Like, here's what I see.
[66] Zwanager should have been charged, wasn't.
[67] Biden and Trump should have been treated equally.
[68] They weren't.
[69] And that is the double standard that I think a lot of Americans are concerned about.
[70] Well, Tim, thanks for reporting.
[71] Anytime.
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[80] A new report alleges that the January 6th Select Committee suppressed evidence relating to a Trump administration request for thousands of National Guard troops to secure the U .S. Capitol, along with evidence that seems to refute other explosive testimony.
[81] Here to discuss is Daily Wire Reporter, Amanda Prestige Giacomo.
[82] So Amanda, we're now seeing some additional details from J6's witness testimony.
[83] What did we learn?
[84] So Trump's White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Anthony Ornado, apparently told the J6 committee that Trump wanted 10 ,000 National Guard troops to secure the capital, but was turned down.
[85] The transcript of this was uncovered by Republican rep Barry Loudermilk.
[86] He's leading an investigative into the actions of the J6 committee and the security failures surrounding the breach.
[87] Loudermilk claims the critical witness testimony was intentionally withheld from the American people because it contradicted the committee's predetermined narrative.
[88] Now, the interview with Ornado was attended by former rep Liz Cheney and other members of the J6 committee, but still the committee concluded that they found no evidence that Trump called for the National Guard to protect the capital.
[89] Now, do we know exactly what Ornado said during his interview?
[90] We do.
[91] According to reporting from Molly Hemingway at the Federalist, Ornato said that he overheard then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows asked D .C. Mayor Bowser if she needed National Guard support leading up to January 6th.
[92] He said Trump didn't know of the coming breach, of course, but he was concerned about clashes between protesters from the left and the right.
[93] Ornato recalled Meadows saying, quote, the president wants to make sure you have enough.
[94] He's willing to asked for 10 ,000.
[95] He then recalled Mayor Bowser saying that she was, quote, all set and had around 350 officers mainly for traffic control.
[96] Following Bowser declining those 10 ,000 troops, Ornato said he recalled Meadows telling him that they had put in a request for troops to be at the ready at Joint Base Andrews, which is about 10 miles outside of D .C. Ornato testified that Meadows repeatedly pushed acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller to deploy the National Guardsmen following the breach, but was effectively stonewalled.
[97] According to Ornado, Meadows told Miller, quote, get them in here, get them in here to secure the Capitol now.
[98] Troops, however, did not show up to the Capitol until around 6 p .m. Now, turning to the other conflicting evidence that just came out, who is Cassidy Hutchinson and why is her testimony being scrutinized again?
[99] So she was the J6 Committee's star witness.
[100] She formerly worked as an aide to Mark Meadows.
[101] She gave some pretty dramatic testimony that she heard about Trump lunging at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV and getting into a physical altercation with his lead Secret Service agent after Trump was told he couldn't go to the Capitol on January 6th.
[102] But the transcript of testimony from the Secret Service agent who drove Trump's armored vehicle that day contradicts her accusation.
[103] This interview, too, by the way, was attended by Cheney but was not released to the American people.
[104] Here's a direct quote.
[105] I did not see Trump reach.
[106] He never grabbed the steering wheel.
[107] I didn't see him, you know, lunge to get into the front seat at all.
[108] The driver added that Trump did want to go to the Capitol and he did notice Trump seemed irritated they weren't headed there but said he wasn't angry.
[109] Loudermilk's report also states that no White House employees were able to corroborate Hutchinson's account.
[110] Now, keep in mind that Hutchinson's testimony was about something she heard, but the Secret Service agent whose testimony was not released was actually present.
[111] Now, has anyone from the J6 Committee responded to the new report?
[112] We have heard from Congressman Benny Thompson, who chaired the committee.
[113] He suggested that these interviews were withheld from the American people to protect sensitive information and the privacy of witnesses.
[114] Well, I think at this point, the American people really just want the truth.
[115] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[116] You're welcome.
[117] An audit by the Federal Aviation Administration finds dozens of problems with Boeing planes.
[118] Meanwhile, the former quality control manager who first blew the whistle on unsafe practices at the company has been found dead of apparent suicide.
[119] Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with more.
[120] So Megan, let's start with the FAA audit.
[121] What did they find?
[122] Well, we'll probably all remember that this audit was launched in the wake of a 737 losing its door plug during an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.
[123] Well, after six weeks of audits in 89 sections, Boeing failed 33.
[124] Regulators identified 97 instances of failure to comply with best practices that the company itself had set for its manufacturing process for those 737 max jets.
[125] Well, according to the New York Times, which broke this story, those problems included things like a mechanic lubricating a door seal with Dawn liquid soap and another checking a door seal with a hotel keycard.
[126] Regulators also found problems with Boeing's primary supplier of materials, and when they tested Boeing engineers on quality control processes, the average score was only 58%.
[127] So after failing its audit, the FAA has stopped production expansion of the Boeing 737, and it has told the company it has 90 days to provide an action plan for exactly how it's going to address these issues.
[128] Now, is the FAA issuing any statements about the safety of air travel, or can people still feel pretty confident?
[129] They're not officially issuing any statements right now, though Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has given a number of interviews lately that are somewhat downplaying concerns.
[130] For example, at a press conference Friday, he said, quoting, American aviation is the safest means of travel in the world.
[131] But just last week, the engine of a United Airlines plane sucked in bubble wrap and caught fire mid -air.
[132] And a few days later, right after takeoff on another flight, a tire fell off and smashed into a car.
[133] And the day after that, the airline said one of its aircraft ran into a hydraulics problem and had to be grounded.
[134] And of course, that's all in just one week.
[135] But to put this in perspective before our listeners panic about the safety of air travel, the International Air Transport Association had recently just announced that 2023 was actually the safest year in global aviation that we've ever had.
[136] There were zero passenger jet fatalities.
[137] All right.
[138] Well, let's turn now to the rather shocking development in this story.
[139] There was a whistleblower who went public with evidence of safety issues at Boeing and he was just found dead on Saturday.
[140] Yes, that's correct.
[141] Only a few hours before he was set to give his third deposition in a defamation suit against the company.
[142] So John Barnett's lawyer started calling him when he didn't show up for that deposition and they grew concerned.
[143] Police then found his body in his truck in the parking lot of a Charleston Holiday Inn.
[144] He was deceased from a gunshot wound to the head.
[145] Only the day before, Barnett had testified for several hours about problems at Boeing.
[146] Now, he had worked for the company for more than 30 years, and starting in 2010, he was a quality control manager for a South Carolina plant.
[147] He retired in 2017, and then in 2019, he began speaking to the press about safety issues.
[148] He witnessed while on the job.
[149] He said that Boeing was putting pressure on employees to cut corners to save money.
[150] This is from an interview Barnett gave TMZ only a few weeks ago.
[151] Well, I'd taken a team of four inspectors to spirit aerosystems to inspect the 41 section before they sent it to Charleston.
[152] And we found 300 defects.
[153] Some of them were significant that needed engineering intervention.
[154] When I returned to Charleston, my senior manager told me that we had found too many defects.
[155] and he was going to take the next trip.
[156] So the next trip, he went on, he took two of my inspectors.
[157] And when they got back, they were given accolades for only finding 50 defects.
[158] So the coroner says the gunshot appears to be self -inflicted, but Barnett's lawyer is making it pretty clear that he has doubts.
[159] Police are still investigating, but right now they're not saying they suspect foul play.
[160] Well, this reminds me so much of the whistleblower at Theronose.
[161] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[162] Anytime.
[163] Thanks for waking up with us.
[164] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.