Morning Wire XX
[0] The number of migrant captures at the border surges again over the last month, amid claims that the Biden administration is letting more people in than previously believed.
[1] The word still gets out.
[2] They call their friends and family back home.
[3] They say, I got through, you can get through, and so the numbers continue.
[4] Why do some think that cartels are ramping up trafficking, and why is New York calling the border a national crisis?
[5] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[6] It's Thursday, August 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Legal experts are pouring over the latest indictment of former President Trump, with many saying it will be an extremely challenging case to prove.
[8] I just think the three different varieties of crime that we're dealing with in the indictment are really infirm.
[9] And for only the second time in history, the U .S. credit rating was downgraded.
[10] It could absolutely have concrete impacts on the cost of...
[11] borrowing more money.
[12] How might a lower rating affect America's bottom line?
[13] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[14] Stay tuned.
[15] We have the news you need to know.
[16] The latest immigration numbers show apprehensions at the southern border surged again in July after a short -lived dip.
[17] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the latest border numbers and the rest of the immigration crisis.
[18] So, Tim, first, tell us about these latest numbers.
[19] The official numbers aren't out yet, but according to data obtained by the Washington, and Post, apprehensions at the southern border surged last month roughly 30%.
[20] The number of immigrants arrested trying to cross the border illegally rose from about 100 ,000 in June to 130 ,000 in July.
[21] And this comes after the Biden White House had touted progress on the border after the appeal of Title 42.
[22] It said illegal immigration had dropped by 70%.
[23] Here's what Laura Reese, the director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, had to say about the latest numbers.
[24] It's not surprising.
[25] The cartels are adept at observing what the Americans are doing, what Border Patrol agents are doing, and the cartels will change course accordingly.
[26] So word has gotten back that despite the Biden administration's words of enforcement and consequences, that's just not happening.
[27] The Biden administration's approach to border security has put less of an emphasis on curbing immigration, and instead focused on creating new legal pathways.
[28] And the number of migrants rising through ports of entry reflect this.
[29] In June, for the very first time, the number of inadmissible aliens encountered at ports exceeded the number of the legal aliens encountered by Border Patrol between ports.
[30] According to the figures viewed by the Post, the number is over 50 ,000, with the vast majority of those released on immigration parole through the CBP -1 app.
[31] The Biden administration has greatly expanded the parole program offered through that app.
[32] It set a limit of allowing 1 ,000 immigrants a day entry into the U .S. in May, but raised that by nearly 50 percent by the end of June to 1 ,450 immigrants a day.
[33] But the Biden administration appears to have already broken that limit.
[34] According to data viewed by the Washington Free Beacon, Customs and Border Patrol officials in July processed and released an average of 1 ,473 immigrants a day into the U .S. through the CBP1 parole program.
[35] So it sounds like the immigration crisis is not slowing down.
[36] Now, let's pivot away from the border and talk about immigrants already in the country.
[37] We saw some shocking pictures earlier this week of rows of immigrants sleeping on the sidewalks in New York City.
[38] What's happening there?
[39] New York City has received tens of thousands of immigrants from the southern border, largely thanks to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's busing program.
[40] The city has apparently run out of places to put them and is now setting up outdoor sleeping areas.
[41] Here's Democratic Mayor Eric Adams on Monday calling for a state of emergency.
[42] We need to control the border.
[43] We need to call a state of emergency, and we need to properly fund this national crisis.
[44] So Adams wants President Biden to step in.
[45] It's unclear what he'll do, if anything, but here's how Reese thought it could play out.
[46] As the numbers continue to go up in these cities, if the optics become bad, if mainstream media start showing up and taking pictures and showing video of this, then I imagine the administrative will shuffle some money around and give them to these cities and also transport some of the masses to other locations.
[47] But neither these sanctuary mayors nor the Biden administration seem to have any intention to enforce the law, the border, secure the border, and therefore shut off the flow.
[48] It's just a money game to them.
[49] All right.
[50] Well, Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
[51] Great to be on.
[52] The third indictment of former President Donald Trump, this time for his actions related to the 2020 election, has raised a series of legal questions about freedom of speech, election interference, and whether the specific charges brought against him hold water legally.
[53] Joining us now to discuss some of those questions as former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy.
[54] Andy, thanks for joining us.
[55] So first, I'd like to read from your recent analysis on the indictment.
[56] You wrote, quote, the latest indictment of Donald Trump is politics masquerading as law masquerading as politics.
[57] Can you unpack that statement for us?
[58] Well, yeah, as far as politics masquerading as law, the indictment arises mainly out of the fact that the political system failed to hold Donald Trump accountable the way the Constitution intends executive abuse of power to be addressed, which is by impeachment.
[59] And the criminal justice system is an inapt substitute for that, but having failed to impeach him, they are now.
[60] trying to do it by other means and the means they've chosen is the criminal justice system, but it's really just trying to attain the same political objective they were shooting for in the first place.
[61] And the reason I say there's yet another layer of masquerade here is that the timing of all this and the way the indictment is structured demonstrates that what they really want to accomplish is to try to push the case to trial and then get a bunch of evidence mainly about the Capitol riot, even though it's not charged as a crime in the indictment, they want to get that in a public trial in the stretch run of the campaign so that they can have January 6th imagery in the electorate's mind as it goes to the polls.
[62] So that's a political objective as well.
[63] I don't know that they really care whether they get Trump convicted or not, because given the weakness of the charges they actually brought, that may be uphill, even with the District of Columbia jury.
[64] Now, the indictment centers on Trump allegedly knowingly spreading and acting on false claims about the 2020 elections results, the claim that widespread fraud influenced the results.
[65] How much does the First Amendment play into Trump's argument?
[66] It plays a great deal into it, because let's put aside the monumental task that Smith would have in terms of proving that Trump knew what he was saying was false, which I think is going to be a tough row for him.
[67] to hoe, to say the least.
[68] Most of this indictment, I'd say a good 90 % of it, is politically protected speech.
[69] And the fact of the matter is, when you're talking about core First Amendment protection, which is what political speech is in a free republic, you're allowed to engage in aggressive speech, in obnoxious speech, and even in false speech.
[70] What you can't do is inside violence.
[71] And he's not charged with that, although, as we just discussed, Smith is going to want to make that suggestion.
[72] So really what this is is a criminalization of the electoral process or the campaign process.
[73] I would go beyond that and say it's also a criminalization of a frivolous legal theory, this idea that the vice president had the power to discount electoral votes.
[74] So it's got that overlay to it as well.
[75] But the First Amendment argument, I think, is going to be a very powerful argument here.
[76] How much does intent matter?
[77] And does the special counsel offer clear evidence that Trump did in fact know the results were not fraudulent?
[78] Well, it's an interesting question because what you run into is this idea of objectively what was his intent and subjectively what was his intent.
[79] And what I mean by that is the government's going to have a lot of evidence that people who were in a position to know were telling Trump that there was no material fraud that would have been of a quantum great enough to reverse the result of the election.
[80] Trump is going to show that he had a lot of other information that he chose to believe that indicated that there was fraud and there was reason for at least in some states to revisit their count.
[81] Now, what he'll say is he always believed that the election was stolen by fraud and he's not only been adamant about it, it's hard to get a word in edgewise when he starts to talk about it.
[82] And I think it's going to be difficult for Smith to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump actually believed everything that he was saying was false.
[83] But if I were the Trump defense, before you even get to that question of Trump's intent, the government has to have filed charges that state crimes that are legally cognizable.
[84] And I think that Smith has real problems on that count.
[85] I think there's on each one of the counties charged, I think the Supreme Court would have a lot of difficulty with the charge, completely separate and apart from any consideration of Trump's intent.
[86] Andy, thank you so much for joining us.
[87] To hear the complete interview with Andy McCarthy, look for our upcoming extra episode featuring the former prosecutor breaking down the indictment at length.
[88] Fitch ratings downgraded America's long -term foreign currency rating on Tuesday, pointing to what it called the steady deterioration of standards in government decision -making.
[89] Joining us to discuss the debt rating downgrade and what it means is Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[90] So, Cabot, give us some context here.
[91] What's the importance of this rating?
[92] Yeah, Fitch is one of a few influential ratings firms that essentially grades corporations, banks, and governments on their reliability for paying off debts and meeting other financial commitments.
[93] The grades are influential in helping investors and others decide where to do their business.
[94] Now, up until this week, the United States government had a perfect AAA rating.
[95] But on Wednesday, it was downgraded to AA plus, meaning Fitch has doubts about America's ability to make good on its IOUs.
[96] According to Fitch, the decision reflects a, quote, erosion of governance in the U .S. over the last 20 years, including political polarization.
[97] They also cited the country's rising federal debt and projected that our deficit will balloon to 6 .3 % of our GDP this year, nearly doubling the rate we saw last year.
[98] Now, what are the practical consequences for this downgrade?
[99] Well, in the short term, the news clearly spooked investors on Wall Street.
[100] In the long term, though, while the news is not actually likely to have a huge impact on stocks, it could drive international investors away from the U .S. For more on that, we spoke to Brandon Arnold, executive director of the National Taxpayers Union.
[101] The credit rating is an indication of our worthiness.
[102] So when that is downgraded, then that means our credit is adversely affected, essentially.
[103] And that means borrowing costs can increase.
[104] That's particularly troubling at a time when we've borrowed so much money, trillions and trillions of dollars.
[105] and already pushed these interest payments to the limit.
[106] Now, what sort of response are we seeing from lawmakers?
[107] Well, as you can imagine, each side said the other was the culprit.
[108] Democrats were quick to blame Republicans, saying that their attempts at cutting federal spending in exchange for raising the debt limit contributed to the downgrade.
[109] Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans, quote, reckless brinkmanship and flirtation with default was to blame.
[110] For their part, GOP lawmakers say the blame lies with President Biden.
[111] They say the trillions of dollars he spent since taking office and the ballooning national debt are to blame for the lack of global confidence in our economy.
[112] According to Arnold, though, both sides deserve some blame.
[113] I think we've shown a lack of seriousness when it comes to our national debt.
[114] Both sides don't take it seriously enough.
[115] And as a result, you have these 11th hour deals, which are usually horrible for taxpayers.
[116] They usually result in far more spending than they otherwise would have produced.
[117] internationally, people scratch their heads and wonder why the strongest, most powerful nation in the world can't come together on these basic, fundamental needs.
[118] Now, for her part, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blasted the ratings downgrade, saying it was not in line with economic reality.
[119] Here she is yesterday.
[120] Fitch's decision is puzzling in light of the economic strength we see in the United States.
[121] I strongly disagree with Fitch's decision, and I believe it is entirely.
[122] unwarrented.
[123] All right.
[124] We'll have to wait and see who's correct.
[125] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[126] Anytime.
[127] Thanks for waking up with us.
[128] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.