Morning Wire XX
[0] Hamas releases two additional hostages, but negotiations over the 200 remaining have stalled.
[1] Hamas is doing this the way they are, because they believe by slowing down the inevitable Israeli attack, they can build momentum.
[2] After 18 days of conflict, what's the latest on the war and why do Israeli officials believe Hamas may use chemical weapons?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Tuesday, October 24th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] New evidence reveals several prosecutors in the George Floyd death case resigned after they were pressured to file charges against the additional Minneapolis officers involved in Floyd's death.
[6] We speak to the reporter who broke the bombshell report.
[7] And we talked to Senator Bill Haggerty about President Biden's $100 billion aid proposal for Israel and Ukraine.
[8] If anybody doesn't think that Iran is behind all of this, they need to wake up.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
[12] The Pentagon is ramping up America's military presence in the Middle East amid fears of a spiraling conflict in the region.
[13] Here with the latest from the front lines and the growing concerns over escalation is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[14] So, Cabot, what can you tell us?
[15] Well, we'll start with a bit of good news.
[16] On Monday, Hamas released two more hostages, a pair of women in their 80s, who were transported out of Gaza Monday evening.
[17] However, the husbands of those women, along with roughly 212 others, were still being held captive.
[18] Throughout the day, Hamas was reportedly looking to negotiate the release of 50 additional hostages.
[19] Though talk stalled after Israel balked at their demand to allow fuel shipments to enter the country, Israeli officials said those materials would almost certainly be used in the war effort against the Jewish state and would only consider the demand if all hostages were set free.
[20] In the last 24 hours, we've also heard shocking claims from the IDF that Hamas may have plans to use chemical weapons in their war against Israel.
[21] According to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the IDF recovered USBs from dead terrorists that contained instructions for producing a, quote, cyanide dispersion device.
[22] In the last day, we've also seen increased aid flowing into Gaza across the Egyptian border, with dozens of trucks now supplying water and food for civilians who fled to the south.
[23] Prime Minister Nanyahu says there will be a, quote, continued flow of those supplies in the coming week.
[24] So Israel is still focusing their military efforts on Gaza, but there's still growing concern that the conflict could spill into other countries across the Middle East, correct?
[25] Right.
[26] So according to Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, quote, we don't want escalation, but that does not mean they aren't preparing for a broader conflict.
[27] In the last two weeks, the Pentagon has deployed multiple carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean as a clear show of force.
[28] And they've now gone a step further.
[29] This week, the Pentagon gave prepare to deploy orders to thousands of troops stationed across the U .S. in Europe.
[30] And also in the last 48 hours, the Pentagon has moved additional missile and air defense systems to the Middle East, including high altitude defense batteries and Patriot missile battalions.
[31] Now, it's worth noting.
[32] Those defense systems protect against weapons that are not in the arsenal of Hamas or Hezbollah, which appears to imply they're preparing for potential attacks from more advanced militaries, like Iran.
[33] So tell us a bit about that dynamic.
[34] Well, it's no secret that Iran is the single most important ally of Hamas, providing hundreds and millions of dollars worth of aid and weapons to the group, using them as a proxy to fight against Israel.
[35] To give you an idea of Iran's influence in the region, earlier this week, and Iranian general in charge of the country's Quds force arrived in Syria to, quote, supervise pro -Iranian militias along the western border of Israel.
[36] At the same time, Iran's foreign minister had a phone call with Hamas leaders the next day, urging them to continue their fight against Israel.
[37] Hours later, the Iranian government issued a statement warning that the war could, quote, spiral out of control if Israel did not end its war on Hamas.
[38] Now, the White House and Pentagon are not just worried about other countries like Iran or Lebanon entering.
[39] They're also concerned about the potential for attacks on American troops who were already stationed in the region.
[40] Well, right, there have already been a number of attacks targeting Americans, correct?
[41] Yes.
[42] In one 24 -hour period last week, for example, weaponized drones and rockets were launched at four different bases housing American troops across Iraq, including in Baghdad.
[43] While those attacks only resulted in minor injuries, the potential for escalation would obviously grow dramatically if American service members were killed.
[44] by a similar strike.
[45] That has the Pentagon and White House on high alert.
[46] To that point, here's U .S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, on ABC this week.
[47] We're concerned about potential escalation, and because of that, we're going to do what's necessary to make sure that our troops are in the right, good position, they're protected, and that we have the ability to respond.
[48] All right, well, let's hope it doesn't come to that.
[49] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[50] Anytime.
[51] Bombshell new court documents and the case of, against the police officers convicted of killing George Floyd have been released.
[52] Morning Wire contributor, Liz Collin, broke the story, and she joins us now from Minneapolis.
[53] So, Liz, I understand these new court filings are connected to another case.
[54] That's right, Georgia.
[55] They are depositions related to a lawsuit that was filed by one of Hennepin County's top prosecutors, Amy Sweezy, against the former county attorney Mike Freeman.
[56] Now, she's alleged sex discrimination and retaliation in the workplace in the past.
[57] But what really stands out are these pages and pages that spell out the extreme pressure that prosecutors face to charge Derek Chauvin and the three other Minneapolis police officers back in May of 2020.
[58] The depositions were conducted this past summer.
[59] They were just recently made public.
[60] Several attorneys reveal in the depositions that they oppose charging the other three officers in George Floyd's death.
[61] In fact, the two attorneys who were tasked with the case against the three other officers withdrew due to, quote, professional and ethical rules.
[62] In the deposition, senior assistant county attorney Patrick Lofton was asked why he wanted to formalize his withdrawal in a letter that he wrote to Mike Freeman.
[63] And he said, quote, I wanted it in writing and I wanted to make sure it was documented that I wasn't going to let that situation, what was going on in the world, affect my judgment because I have to sleep at night no matter what.
[64] And he added this, quote, I can tell you that everyone that I associate with to any degree professionally or personally agreed with our decision.
[65] There, he's referring to the decision to not charge the three officers, Georgia.
[66] Now, who ultimately was responsible for that decision to charge those other officers, in that case going against the prosecutor's recommendation?
[67] Yeah, in the end, it was the Attorney General of Minnesota who stepped in Democrat Keith Ellison.
[68] He took over the case and charged the three officers with aiding and abetting murder.
[69] That's Thomas Lane, Alex King, and Tutow, their serving prison sentences, that range from three to nearly five years now.
[70] And Derek Chauvin, you'll recall he's the officer convicted of second and third -degree murder.
[71] He's serving a more than 20 -year prison sentence in a federal prison in Arizona.
[72] His legal team has filed a petition asking the U .S. Supreme Court to hear his case after the state Supreme Court here in Minnesota declined.
[73] Nelpha News can now confirm that these new documents are under review by the attorneys representing the imprisoned officers to see what they could possibly mean in their cases moving forward.
[74] Now, you've also reported on some statements that the medical examiner who performed Floyd's autopsy made.
[75] What did he or she tell Sweezy?
[76] Yeah, Suzie, the prosecutor who filed the lawsuit had a rather revealing conversation with the medical examiner.
[77] His name is Dr. Andrew Baker.
[78] This all happened the day after George Floyd died.
[79] And she says, quote, he called me later in the day on that Tuesday, and he told me that there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd's neck.
[80] There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.
[81] And then she said, he, talking about Dr. Baker here, went on to say, quote, Amy, what happens when the actual evidence doesn't match up with the public narrative that everyone's already decided on?
[82] Then Sweezy says that Dr. Baker remarked, this is the kind of case that ends careers.
[83] All right.
[84] Well, Liz, thanks so much for coming on today.
[85] Thank you, Georgia.
[86] That was Alpha News reporter Liz Collin.
[87] Her documentary on this topic, the fall of Minneapolis, will be out November 16th.
[88] President Biden has proposed a $105 billion aid package that includes billions in aid to Israel, Ukraine, and to the southern border.
[89] But Republicans in the House and Senate say the president is badly mishandling the myriad crises.
[90] Joining us to discuss as Senator Bill Haggerty of our home state, Tennessee.
[91] Thanks for joining us, Senator.
[92] First, what do you think of President Biden's proposal?
[93] and do you believe there's going to be any support for it in Congress?
[94] I was not surprised to find that Joe Biden would tie everything, including the Kenshinx, to aid for Israel because he knows that there's a strong desire to deal with that on the Republican side.
[95] But when he talks about border security, I've already seen the language, and what it is is more billions of dollars, more of taxpayer money, that would go to the resettlement of people inside the United States.
[96] The language that he slipped into the last document that I saw, What he wants to see is the ability to reprogram all of ISIS funding.
[97] And ICE is the only law enforcement agency we have that actually deports people, deports people with criminal records, deports people that shouldn't be here in America.
[98] And Joe Biden wants the ability to reprogram all of their budget into resettlement programs.
[99] And so what that means is that he's going to take U .S. taxpayer funding and use those funds to more rapidly resettle people here in America to send them to a city near you or me. What I want them to do is use those funds to deport criminals that have come into this country, particularly violent criminals that are coming into this country.
[100] We ought to be thinking about our national security first and foremost.
[101] That's not where the Biden administration is nor is it where they have been, and they've made our country far less safe as a result.
[102] And I think even my Democrat colleagues are beginning to wake up about this, at least in private, they're sharing their concerns as well because of the number of people that we've seen come here illegally from Iran.
[103] It's Iranian funding.
[104] It's Iranian know -how that's been deployed by Hamas and is being deployed by Hezbollah.
[105] All of this is coming from Iran.
[106] All of this because Joe Biden is enriched Iran to the point that they could do this again.
[107] Now, you've recently sounded the alarm about President Biden directing $30 million to a Palestinian relief group that's been accused of harboring Hamas and helping fund the ongoing war.
[108] What is going on with that issue?
[109] Look, this is just one example of the Biden administration carelessly deploying U .S. taxpayer dollars in a way that.
[110] that can enrich people that are terrorists that hate America.
[111] The Biden administration has been willing to do this time and time again.
[112] But I'd like to highlight what I think is the greatest oversight by the Biden administration.
[113] And maybe it's not an oversight, perhaps, and I think actually it is intentional based on some statements that have come from the White House.
[114] From the point in time that Joe Biden took office, what we've seen is an unwillingness to enforce the sanctions that are in place against Iran.
[115] During the Trump administration, we were successful at driving Iran's foreign reserve accounts down to below $8 billion.
[116] We had to burn off the pallets of cash that you may recall that the Obama administration delivered to Iran.
[117] This was under Jack Liu, then Treasury Secretary, that now ironically, Jack Liu has been put forward as the Biden administration's candidate to be ambassador to Israel.
[118] What an insult.
[119] We drove those funds, though, down to below $8 billion.
[120] Joe Biden comes into office in 2021, starts looking the other way on sanctions enforcement, and what we've seen is a massive enrichment of Iran.
[121] The estimates are as high as $80 to $90 billion of illicit oil sales that Iran has been able to generate since Joe Biden took office.
[122] We're all aware of the fact that the Biden administration okayed Iraq's payment of $10 billion to Iran earlier this year.
[123] And then most of the attention most recently has been on the $6 billion ransom payment that Biden wanted to pay to the Iranians.
[124] But the $6 billion is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of our funding.
[125] And the result has been, again, 2014, 2015.
[126] you saw the violence coming out of Gaza into Israel under Obama.
[127] Biden comes back into office.
[128] We get the 11 -day war in 2021 from, again, Gaza into Israel.
[129] I flew over there right after that happened to see the damage.
[130] And now we have the worst slaughter of Jews that we've seen since the Holocaust.
[131] Again, under Joe Biden, while they look the other way and allow Iran to enrich itself.
[132] And again, if anybody thinks that this is Iranian funding, Iranian technology, and Iranian know -how behind Amos, they need to wake up.
[133] Well, Senator, thank you so much for talking with us.
[134] Great to be with you.
[135] That was Senator Bill Haggerty.
[136] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[137] Thanks for waking up with us.
[138] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.