Morning Wire XX
[0] President Biden and former President Trump have agreed on a time and place for at least two debates after Biden threw down his gauntlet.
[1] Make my day, pal.
[2] We break down the list of Team Biden's restrictive conditions and who's set to host and moderate.
[3] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with guest host Katie Pavlitch, editor at Town Hall VIP.
[4] It's Thursday, May 16th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The latest inflation numbers are in.
[6] in and while they eased slightly, signs point to more bad news next month.
[7] Rates aren't getting cut at all this year.
[8] The Fed is under no pressure to cut rates.
[9] And meme stock mania is back.
[10] But will the resurgence have as big an impact on Wall Street as it did the first time?
[11] I think the institutional people are probably a little embarrassed about what happened the first time.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
[14] We have the news you need to know.
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[22] After a stunning set of events Wednesday morning, the dates and times for at least two presidential debates have been set and agreed to by both the Biden and Trump campaigns.
[23] President Biden took to social media with a video challenging Trump to two debates, saying to the former president, make my day.
[24] And in response, Trump quickly accepted.
[25] Here to discuss where this whirlwind debate negotiation leaves us as Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[26] Hey, Dave.
[27] So that happened fast.
[28] First, can you give us the timeline of how this all went down?
[29] Morning, John.
[30] Yeah, it was quite a flurry of activity that started with Biden's early morning video in which he mocked Trump while announcing he wants two debates, the first to take place in late June.
[31] Here's a bit of that audio.
[32] Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020.
[33] The Senate said he hadn't shown up for debate.
[34] Now he's acting like he wants to debate me again.
[35] So let's pick the dates, Donald.
[36] I hear you're free on Wednesdays.
[37] I hear your free Wednesdays is, of course, a sharp elbowed reference to the schedule of Trump's criminal trial, which has hump day off.
[38] It quickly became clear that the Biden team had sent a letter offering two debates, one in June, one in September, with some pretty severe conditions, including no live audience and having candidates mics cut off after their answers.
[39] There was initial skepticism that Trump's team would agree to these terms, but an hour later, Trump posted that the debate was on, and about an hour after that, CNN announced it will be hosting it in Atlanta on June 27th, and ABC News announced a second debate in the fall.
[40] Later in the day, we heard reports from Trump's team of a third debate, said for October 2nd on Fox News, hosted by Brett Baer and Martha McCallum.
[41] It's not entirely clear that Trump has accepted.
[42] all of the conditions, but he did say in March that he would debate anywhere, anytime, and that, quote, the corrupt DNC can run it, end quote.
[43] Instead, CNN will run it, which some conservatives might see as a distinction without much of a difference.
[44] Yeah.
[45] A June debate seems awfully early in the election season.
[46] Is this, in fact, unprecedented to have a debate before the conventions even happen?
[47] Yeah, absolutely.
[48] In the 21st century, no general election.
[49] debate has ever taken place before September.
[50] And many observers see this as evidence that Biden feels he needs a bump in the polls going into the summer.
[51] Trump, who polls show sitting in the poll position right now, could be taking a risk by giving Biden this chance to shake things up.
[52] But back in March, when he basically told Biden he'd debate in any format the Democrats want, many Republicans thought Biden wouldn't debate at all, especially since Trump refused to debate in the primary.
[53] So there's an upside for Trump here.
[54] He's getting his debates.
[55] Yeah.
[56] In presidential debates, the expectation game is often very important.
[57] Where does that stand now, especially given that so many Trump allies have said that Biden is not capable of a debate?
[58] Look, painting Biden is senile for months may have helped Trump amass his current lead in the polls, but yeah, the bar has been set for him in a debate about an inch off the floor, and it does matter.
[59] This was sort of perfected by George W. Bush, who consistently set expectations so low that if he didn't get confused trying to tie the laces on his cowboy boots, he looked like Henry Kissinger.
[60] But it's possible that by agreeing to Biden's CVS receipt of conditions, Trump gives himself a bit of a backdoor if the sitting president does better than expected.
[61] And that includes giving Biden a kind of home field advantage on CNN and ABC News.
[62] Speaking of CNN, they were also very quick to say yes to this and have already chosen moderators.
[63] How are they playing this?
[64] It's interesting.
[65] CNN's Chris Wallace moderated the first of two debates between Trump and Biden in 2020, though at that time he was host of Fox News Sunday.
[66] Media critics slammed Wallace's performance not only for bias against Trump, but just for losing control of it.
[67] On the other hand, some high -profile polls showed that Biden won that debate.
[68] So Joe probably wouldn't have minded a Wallace Redux.
[69] But reports say that it will be Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, not exactly known as Trump neutral in their own rights.
[70] And look, I think American voters know that.
[71] And many, especially independents, will already have it baked into their debate night party cake.
[72] And they might also need a few stiff drinks.
[73] Dave, thanks for reporting.
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[81] According to the latest CPI report, inflation cooled very slightly in April after months of coming in higher than expected, but prices still remain high across the board.
[82] Here at the details is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips, Cabot, a highly anticipated report.
[83] What did we learn?
[84] Well, in April, inflation eased ever so slightly as the all -important consumer price index, which tracks the cost of goods and services across the economy, rose by 3 .4 % from a year ago.
[85] At the same time, the core price index, which removes more volatile products like food and gas, rose at 3 .6 % annually.
[86] Now, the good news is that means the inflation rate is at its lowest point since April of 2021.
[87] That report sent stocks soaring with the S &P 500 rallying to record highs amid optimism that rate cuts could still be on the horizon this year.
[88] The bad news, though, is that prices are still going up on a number of critical goods and services.
[89] rent prices, for example, rose around half a percent last month and are now up 5 .6 % in the last year, while energy costs went up 1 .1 % in April as gasoline jumped nearly 3%.
[90] So even if things have slowed, the cost of living continues to rise.
[91] All told, in the last four years or so, grocery prices are up 25 % housing, 22%, car insurance, 46%, energy 36%.
[92] You can read that list all day.
[93] It just goes on and on.
[94] And for more on the numbers, I spoke.
[95] with Kenny Polkari, chief market strategist at Slate Stone Wealth.
[96] So they're trying to flip the script and tell you, we should be happy.
[97] Prices are only rising at 3 .6%.
[98] They haven't been this low since, you know, 2021.
[99] They're trying to get you to accept the fact that today's report was a good report.
[100] Now, look, I'm not saying it's a horrendous report, but the fact is inflation is not slowing.
[101] Now, we also saw a report this week on PPI, which had a bit more concerning data.
[102] Yeah, while CPI tracks inflation from a consumer standpoint, the producer price index or PPI tracks prices for those actually producing the goods and services in our economy.
[103] This week, we learned that in April, the PPI inflation rate rose half a percent exceeding expectations.
[104] According to Pocari, that spells trouble for average Americans who ultimately will end up footing the bill for those higher production costs.
[105] What is important to understand is, as those prices at the producer level increase, who do you think is really going to pick that up?
[106] the end of the day.
[107] The manufacturer is not going to say, oh, let me swallow these higher prices.
[108] They're going to push it on to you, the consumer, you, me, and everybody else, in terms of higher prices.
[109] But it usually takes four or five weeks for those higher prices at that level to make their way through the system.
[110] So what does all of this mean for potential rate cuts in the near future?
[111] That is the million or really trillion dollar question.
[112] Throughout the winter, the expectation was that the Fed would finally provide some relief and cut rates from their multi -decade highs.
[113] Most economists projected two or even three rate cuts beginning as early as June, but that now seems increasingly unlikely.
[114] But look, it's important to note the window for rate cuts this year is continuing to shrink, in large part due to politics.
[115] Historically, the Fed has avoided rate cuts or hikes just before an election for fear of influencing the race one way or the other.
[116] Remember, the Fed is supposed to operate independently.
[117] So if cuts did not happen by July or August, it is unlikely they'll come until after election day.
[118] That is bad news for President Biden, who, for obvious reasons, would prefer the Fed cut rates to give his economy a much -needed bump ahead of November.
[119] Well, the economy is certainly a big concern for Americans and will definitely be impacting their vote.
[120] Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.
[121] Anytime.
[122] Stock prices for GameStop, the video game retailer, experienced another spike early in the week before falling off over the last few days.
[123] This increase comes from the reemergence of Keith Gill, known online as Roaring, Kitty, who led GameStop and AMC theaters to increased stock prices in 2020 and 2021.
[124] Here to discuss the latest developments is Daily Wire Senior Editor Ash Short.
[125] Hey, Ash, so break this down for us.
[126] What are we seeing with GameStop in AMC?
[127] Okay, so basically in 2020 and 2021, an investor Keith Gill rallied people into buying stock and GameStop and AMC, which naturally caused their stock prices to increase.
[128] In January 2021, GameStop stock rose 15.
[129] 100 % before dropping to its regular share price.
[130] Gill believed GameStop was being unfairly targeted by Wall Street, who was betting on the stock price to decline, so they were shorting the stock.
[131] Chris Alexander, chief analytics officer at Pioneer Development Group, explained how this worked to Morning Wire.
[132] When you're shorting, you're putting money up saying that the price of the stock is going to decline, and then you're able to make money on that based on a certain point in time when the stock's liquidated.
[133] well, if you say, I think the stock's going to be worth 80 and it's currently at 120, you pay premiums on that, and then the day comes due, and they look at the stock price.
[134] And if the stock fell, the person doing the short makes money.
[135] If it goes up, they lose.
[136] And it was big Wall Street hedge funds who did lose, billions of dollars, in fact.
[137] Alexander also explained that venture capitalists appeared to be draining GameStop so that it would fail and be liquidated.
[138] But Gill thought the company was viable and worth saving, same way.
[139] AMC.
[140] And I mean, I worked at GameStop in high school and college, so I can see where he's coming from.
[141] So this was kind of a David versus Goliath situation.
[142] It certainly turned into that.
[143] Here was all these small investors sticking it to the man, so to speak.
[144] Alexander explained.
[145] So on the one hand, you had the quote unquote smart money, the institutional investors who were betting against the company, taking kind of a pessimistic view, as the Aurora and Kitty crowd would say.
[146] And they were taking this optimistic, I believe in this company.
[147] and we're going to help this company.
[148] We're going to make money and we're going to hurt the big money that's the so -called smart money.
[149] Now, all of this was in 2020 and 2021.
[150] This whole thing kind of started again this week.
[151] What are we saying?
[152] Yes, although it didn't see the same success as three or four years ago.
[153] GameStop stock rose 180 % on Monday and Tuesday before falling 30 % on Wednesday.
[154] AMC's stock rose 95 % earlier in the week and fell 27 % on Wednesday.
[155] Is it the same people buying the stock again?
[156] Gill is definitely behind it, but it's unclear if others buying the stock now also bought it a few years ago.
[157] Alexander explained what type of people are likely buying the stock now.
[158] I think this time around, you're going to see the same thing.
[159] You have his devotees and they're going to jump back in and the people with FOMO, you know, hey, this guy got it right last time.
[160] Maybe I should put some money into it this time.
[161] All right.
[162] So how are GameStop and AMC doing after these stock?
[163] runs.
[164] GameStop is managing, still hanging in there, according to Alexander, who said they were surviving, and it seems to be the same with AMC.
[165] Well, really a fascinating development with AMC and GameStop.
[166] Again, we'll see where this leads.
[167] Ash, thanks for reporting.
[168] You're welcome.
[169] Thanks for waking up with us.
[170] We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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