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[0] The Department of Justice is intensifying the federal investigation into President Biden's son, Hunter.
[1] There's a very real concern that Hunter Biden is actually going to be indicted, at least on the tax charges, if not more.
[2] The question now, do Hunter Biden's alleged crimes implicate his father?
[3] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Wednesday, April 6th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Exploding inflation, rising interest rates, and the war in Ukraine could combine a to create the perfect economic storm.
[6] It gets to a point where the consumer says, are you kidding me?
[7] The 8 -ounce burger is now a 6 -ounce burger for the same $16.
[8] That's ridiculous.
[9] We speak to an expert about a potential recession and what this all means to you.
[10] And Ukrainian President Zelensky gives a powerful speech at the United Nations accusing Russia of war crimes.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[22] into Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is reportedly gaining steam as prosecutors begin seeking key grand jury testimony.
[23] Now, new information appears to indicate the president himself may be linked to his son's scheme.
[24] Joining us with the details is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
[25] So Cabot will get to the latest developments, but first, can you tell us where the investigation into Hunter Biden stands right now?
[26] So back in 2018, the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden that centered on potential money laundering, tax fraud, the violation of foreign lobbying laws, and more.
[27] And really at the heart of things is whether Hunter used his father's position in the U .S. government to secure millions of dollars in fraudulent overseas business deals.
[28] Essentially, Hunter is accused of running a scheme where he would secure these deals by promising special access to his father.
[29] So now the question for investigators and the general public is whether President Biden himself was in on this or, at the very least, aware of it.
[30] Yeah, that is one of the major questions.
[31] So what do we know about that?
[32] Well, there are two parts to that, his direct and indirect involvement.
[33] Indirectly, it does appear his position played a role in helping his son secure these deals.
[34] For example, when he was vice president, Biden took Hunter with him on a trip to Shanghai.
[35] Just 10 days after that visit, Hunter secured a highly sought -after Chinese business license that allowed him to set up a private equity fund there in China.
[36] That's something incredibly rare for U .S. businessmen to get.
[37] Then later, despite having no experience in the energy sector, Hunter secured a million dollar a year gig with a Ukrainian energy company.
[38] At the same time, Vice President Biden was in charge of America's Ukraine policy.
[39] Right, so at very least, some problematic parallels there.
[40] Definitely how it looks, yeah.
[41] And the president has so far denied that either of those deals had anything to do with him, but new evidence seems to implicate him in some other stories as well.
[42] For example, one text message that was confirmed to be authentic just last week shows Hunter in 2019 complaining that he had to give, quote, half his salary to his father, which obviously would be illegal.
[43] We talked to Peter Switzer, author of Red Handed.
[44] Here's what he had to say about those allegations.
[45] Hunter Biden was getting money from these overseas deals.
[46] He was paying some of his father's monthly bills, but he was also paying for things like renovations on his father's home in Delaware, etc. That's patently illegal in the United States.
[47] Politicians can't be subsidized by family members, and the fact that the money came from overseas, of course, means that that has further implications.
[48] The DOJ investigation is also looking into a 2017 email, which showed one of Hunter Biden's business partners outlining the proposed distribution for equity in that Chinese company I mentioned earlier.
[49] The email said, quote, 10 held by H for the big guy.
[50] That email got the attention of the grand jury who's investigating Hunter.
[51] They reportedly asked one confidential witness this week to identify whether the big guy referenced was in fact Joe Biden.
[52] So it appears the investigators are now really zeroing in on exactly what President Biden's role in all this is and what it means for Hunter Biden more broadly.
[53] All right.
[54] So how has the president responded to all this?
[55] Well, he's done his best to avoid talking about it, but his staff has routinely denied that the president had anything to do with this.
[56] And it's interesting to see the shift.
[57] They're really starting to distance themselves from Hunter the last few days.
[58] As earlier, they were kind of just saying, well, Hunter didn't do anything.
[59] For example, Ron Clayne, the current White House chief of staff, says the president was, quote, confident that his son didn't break the law and, quote, confident that his family did the right thing.
[60] But again, I want to just be really clear.
[61] These are actions by Hunter and his brother.
[62] They're private matters.
[63] They don't involve the president.
[64] And they certainly are something that no one at the White House is involved in.
[65] But these new details appear to show that not only was the president more involved than they're letting on, but also that Clayne himself has had run -ins with Hunter Biden in the past.
[66] On Tuesday, some new report surfaced showing that he'd emailed Hunter Biden.
[67] back in 2012, asking for help raising $20 ,000 for the Vice President's Residence Foundation.
[68] It's a group that furnishes the Vice President's house.
[69] Remember, at the time, Biden was Vice President.
[70] Clayne told Hunter Biden in those emails that he wanted to, quote, keep it low -key to prevent bad PR.
[71] So definitely seems like this story is far from over.
[72] Yeah, it seems that way.
[73] Cabot, please keep us posted.
[74] Absolutely.
[75] That's DailyWire's Cabot Phillips.
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[79] J .P. Morgan's CEO, Jamie Diamond, turned heads this week when he warned that the U .S. economy was facing an unprecedented risk, prompting more concerns about a potential recession.
[80] joining us to discuss how inflation and the war in Ukraine is impacting the economy is Mitch Rochelle, founding partner of MacroTrens advisors and Research Fellow at the University of San Diego.
[81] Mitch, thank you so much for joining us.
[82] Thrilled to be here.
[83] Thanks so much, John.
[84] So Mitch, the big question on everyone's mind, is the U .S. economy heading for a recession?
[85] I look at it this way.
[86] It's hard to imagine that Europe won't find themselves in a recession because of the war in Eastern Europe and how tied economies in Europe are to the Russian economy and the Russian economy is collapsing.
[87] What's going on in the Ukraine could be the tipping point that causes a recession globally.
[88] I couldn't imagine a scenario in which the United States didn't feel it.
[89] That said, you know, technically a recession is two consecutive quarters of a shrinking economy.
[90] It could be a short -lived as two quarters and not something that's protracted.
[91] but it's very, very possible.
[92] And the really, really smart people out there, the bond traders, they're indicating that they see one in the future.
[93] Maybe in 2023, but they see one in the future.
[94] Obviously, one of the key issues here is inflation.
[95] We've seen record inflation this year.
[96] Is it going to continue to climb, even with the Fed raising the interest rates?
[97] I think you're going to continue to see prices rise.
[98] And look at it this way, John.
[99] We're in a vicious cycle because if you think, about what drives our economy.
[100] Fuel and material costs are the things that are going up.
[101] And let's focus on food because we all can't live without eating.
[102] If grain prices are going up because of what's going on in Eastern Europe, if fuel prices are going up, if labor prices are going up, all of those are factors that or inputs that put that cheeseburger on your table in your restaurant.
[103] It's going to cost more to pay the server.
[104] It's going to cost more to pay the people in the kitchen.
[105] It's going to cost more to get the meat to the restaurant.
[106] and so on, and more for the bun.
[107] So the reality is, I think inflation is going to be here for a while.
[108] What about the housing market?
[109] Are prices going to continue to spike, or are we heading toward a housing bust?
[110] I don't know.
[111] I will absolutely say we're not heading towards a housing bust.
[112] Listen, this is basic supply and demand at work, and we have more people who want houses than there are houses to buy.
[113] What happens?
[114] People just pay more for it.
[115] I think that that's sad, dynamic for people who are trying to buy home is going to be around for a while.
[116] You have booms that drive up prices.
[117] You have busts when there's no demand in the market.
[118] Nobody wants to buy a house at any price.
[119] That's not what's going on right now.
[120] Final question.
[121] What about the Biden administration's handling of all this?
[122] Will the president's actions and proposals help or hurt the situation?
[123] The truth is, if we continue to spend and stimulate demand with more, more and more and more and more spending, all we're going to do is perpetuate this vicious cycle and that's not what we need right now.
[124] We need a recognition that inflation's a problem and policies on the fiscal front that tamped down inflation and more deficit spending is not going to tamp down inflation.
[125] Well, a lot of factors at play here and many working against the economy.
[126] Mitch, thanks so much for joining us.
[127] You bet.
[128] Thanks, thanks guys.
[129] That was Mitch Rochelle, research fellow at the University of San Diego.
[130] As more evidence comes to light of Russia's war crimes in Ukraine, pressure is mounting to remove Russia from the UN's Human Rights Council.
[131] Here with the latest is Daily Wires Ian Howarth.
[132] So, Ian, what do we know about these claims of human rights abuses?
[133] Well, on Tuesday, Zelensky spoke to the United Nations about the horrific scenes seen in Bukkah, an area just outside of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, as well as other regions of Ukraine.
[134] He accused Russian troops of deliberately and indiscriminately killing civilians for pleasure and describe the aftermath of the Russian invasion in detail.
[135] His one excerpt from his speech, which I'll read as he addressed the United Nations in Ukrainian with the support of an interpreter.
[136] Some of them were shot on the streets.
[137] Others were thrown into wells, so they died their suffering.
[138] They were killed in their apartments, houses, blown up by grenades.
[139] Civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure.
[140] They cut off limbs, slashed their throats.
[141] Women were raped and killed in front of their children.
[142] Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.
[143] That's horrifying.
[144] Yeah, and Zelensky raised a point which has been made a lot in the last few days, which is the fact that all of these actions, which are, as he put it, not different from other terrorists such as ISIS, are reportedly being carried out by a member of the United Nations Security Council.
[145] On Monday, the U .S. ambassador to the United Nations announced that they all be seeking to remove Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, a council, by the way, which is home to multiple human rights abusers, including China, Cuba, and Venezuela.
[146] And this is a move supported by U .S. allies, including the British government.
[147] Here's the UK Foreign Secretary lives trust calling for Russia's removal.
[148] We are clear that after these appalling crimes, Russia has no place on the Human Rights Council.
[149] And this was all on the same day, President Biden labeled Putin himself as a war criminal.
[150] And what about Russia?
[151] Have they responded to these accusations?
[152] Well, unsurprisingly, they've denied them.
[153] On Tuesday, one high -profile criminal spokesman called the claims groundless and a well -staged tragic show.
[154] He called it a, quote, forgery in order to try to denigrate the Russian army.
[155] But the fact is, the evidence of the Russian actions in Ukraine is becoming more clear by the day.
[156] Zelensky ended his address to the United Nations with a around 90 -second video which showed gruesome and honestly devastating images of civilian bodies, men, women, and children.
[157] Some of them burned or dismembered, strewn across city streets or buried in shallow mass graves.
[158] Right.
[159] truly terrible images coming out of Ukraine right now.
[160] Ian, thanks for keeping us updated.
[161] Absolutely.
[162] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[163] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[164] The Senate continued on the path to confirm Judge Katanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Monday, with three Republicans voting in favor to push forward her nomination.
[165] She's expected to be confirmed later this week.
[166] A 2020 California law that required diversity on corporate board, was struck down on Friday.
[167] The law mandated that publicly traded companies with headquarters in California must include people from different races, ethnic groups, and people who identify as LGBT.
[168] The court deemed that the law violated California's constitution.
[169] The city of Palm Springs in California will soon distribute $900 per month to transgender and non -binary residents, regardless of their earning levels as part of a UBI initiative.
[170] The taxpayer -funded pilot program will include 20 transgender and non -binary participants.
[171] On Monday, South Dakota Republican Governor Christy Noam said she's planning to sign an executive order banning the teaching of critical race theory in K -12 schools in the state.
[172] And on Tuesday, Twitter CEO announced the company will be placing Elon Musk on its board of directors.
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