Morning Wire XX
[0] The FBI responds to claims that it influenced social media's suppression of a story damaging to Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
[1] They come to us and tell us that we need to be on guard about something, then I want to take that seriously.
[2] We discuss what sparked the controversy and how Republicans are responding.
[3] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl.
[4] It's Monday, August 29th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] California is moving to ban the sale of new gas -powered cars with the hopes of setting the agenda, for other deep blue states.
[6] We discussed the Golden State's aggressive vehicle mandate and what it could mean for the rest of the country.
[7] And the affidavit justifying the raid on Trump's Mar -a -Lago home was released Friday.
[8] What did we learn about the reasons for the raid?
[9] And what key questions remain.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
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[20] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Joe Rogan's show Thursday that an FBI warning prompted the platform to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election.
[21] Zuckerberg's comments are now sparking calls for congressional hearings.
[22] Here to give us the details on what exactly the Facebook CEO said and the reactions it's garnering as Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham.
[23] Hey, Megan.
[24] First, did Zuckerberg explicitly say that Facebook limited the story at the direction of the FBI?
[25] Not expressly so, no. But he did make it clear that it was a warning from the FBI to be on the lookout for Russian misinformation that led the platform to throttle the distribution of that New York Post report.
[26] So quick refresher for those who may not remember, that post story involved emails found on Hunter Biden's laptop that suggested that then Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in illegal business dealings with his son.
[27] And of course, all of this happened in the heat of the 2020 presidential campaign season.
[28] So it could have had some impact on the outcome.
[29] Now, Zuckerberg said he took the FBI's warning to heart and decided to limit the distribution of the post reporting.
[30] Now, here's a bit of the exchange he had with Rogan about that post story.
[31] I mean, basically the background here is the FBI, I think, basically came to us, some folks on our team.
[32] I was like, hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert.
[33] We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election.
[34] And for the, I think it was five or seven days when it was basically being determined whether it was false, the distribution on Facebook was decreased, but people were still allowed to share it.
[35] So fewer people saw it than would have otherwise.
[36] So it definitely.
[37] By what percentage?
[38] I don't know off the top of my head.
[39] But it's, it's meaningful.
[40] We got a lot of complaints that that was the case.
[41] At that point, Rogan asked if the FBI had.
[42] had specifically warned Facebook about the Hunter Biden laptop story.
[43] Zuckerberg said he couldn't remember but that it, quote, fit the pattern of what the agency had told them to watch out for.
[44] Facebook later said in a statement that the FBI did not specifically mention Hunter Biden, but the warning came at the time that the story was published.
[45] And of course, it's important to note that virtually all major media outlets have now confirmed that the post story was accurate and was not part of a foreign discipline.
[46] information campaign.
[47] Right.
[48] Now, what's the FBI's response to all this?
[49] Well, the agency put out a statement on Friday saying that it, quote, routinely notifies social media companies about disinformation concerns.
[50] But they stressed that it was only a warning, and they didn't demand Facebook take any particular action.
[51] They said they will continue to, quote, work closely with private companies to keep the public informed of potential threats.
[52] All right.
[53] So they said they're going to keep working closely with social media.
[54] They did.
[55] How are Republicans reacting to that?
[56] Well, they're not too happy with the platform or the FBI, as you might imagine.
[57] They want Zuckerberg to testify under oath before Congress.
[58] Just to give you a small sampling of what they're saying, Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde tweeted, this isn't just insane.
[59] It's election interference.
[60] The Oversight Committee must immediately invite Mark Zuckerberg to testify under oath about the FBI's attempts to circumvent the First Amendment.
[61] The American people deserve.
[62] of answers and accountability.
[63] And then House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed that.
[64] He said, again, quoting, the FBI colluded with big tech to silence news stories weeks before the 2020 election in an attempt to control your access to information.
[65] When Republicans are back in charge, we will hold all of them accountable.
[66] And then finally, Texas Senator Ted Cruz agreed that it's not just Zuckerberg who needs to give Congress some answers.
[67] So does the FBI.
[68] Quoting Cruz here, He said, complete corruption, plain and simple.
[69] The FBI and DOJ must provide answers about why they interfered on behalf of Joe Biden.
[70] Well, I think we can say this issue of free speech and big tech isn't going away anytime soon, so we'll keep tabs on it.
[71] Thanks for reporting, Megan.
[72] That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[73] Coming up, California steers towards outlawing the sale of gas -powered cars.
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[77] California has taken steps to make gasoline -powered cars a thing of the past, as state lawmakers approved new regulations last week that will outlaw the sale of non -electric cars by the year 2035.
[78] Now, over a dozen other states are considering the same.
[79] mandate.
[80] Here with the latest on how it'll impact the automotive industry and what it means for the price of new cars is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
[81] So Cabot, a pretty big announcement here.
[82] What can you tell us?
[83] Yeah, it definitely is.
[84] So on Thursday, California regulators approved Governor Gavin Newsom's sweeping executive order that goes beyond anything else we've seen in the fight against gasoline -powered cars.
[85] According to the California Air Resources Board, which issued the rule, by 2035, all new cars sold in the state must have zero greenhouse emissions, meaning the inevitable death of gas -powered cars in the state.
[86] The ruling will have a bit of a ramp -up phase, with 35 % of new cars needing to be emission -free by 2026, and then 68 % by 2030.
[87] So this is coming up very soon.
[88] Yeah, exactly.
[89] And the move is even more important when you consider that California is the country's largest market for automobiles, and also that 16 blue states around the country typically follow California's lead to a T when it comes to environmental policies like this.
[90] So if those states act as expected, this ruling could impact about a third of the country and over 40 % of the country's automotive sales.
[91] And to that point, here's Governor Gavin Newsom earlier in the year talking about the ruling.
[92] If you want to mitigate the rise of sea level, if you want to mitigate the loss of ice seats around the globe, then this is a policy for other states to follow.
[93] Newsom went on to discuss the elimination of gas -powered cars, saying our kids will one day view tailpipes the way we view a rotary phone.
[94] Now, it is worth noting this won't outlaw gas -powered cars already owned by Californians, just the sale of new ones, but regardless, a momentous ruling with widespread ramifications.
[95] So what does this mean for the automotive industry?
[96] Well, according to Governor Newsom, car companies like Toyota and Ford are celebrating the decision because it'll drive more people to buy electric cars, which it's worth pointing out, a new electric car costs around $62 ,000, that's compared to $48 ,000 for a gas powered car.
[97] So definitely more of a big -ticket item.
[98] And remember, California might have taken the most extreme steps to date, but similar regulations on the federal side have already had a huge impact on car manufacturers.
[99] For example, back in April, the Biden administration announced that by 2026, the average miles per gallon for new cars must be 49 MPG.
[100] So that's already forced a lot of manufacturers to begin shifting their approach.
[101] As a result, we've seen companies discontinue certain makes.
[102] because they aren't energy efficient enough or because companies are reallocating money towards electric alternatives to comply with these new government mandates.
[103] The most recent casualty on that front was the Dodge Challenger, which last week it was announced would be discontinued next year in large part because of its poor gas mileage.
[104] Now, where will the power come from to power all of these electric cars?
[105] That is a big point to remember here.
[106] Electric vehicles, they may not use gas, but they do require a lot of electricity, which has to come from other power sources.
[107] And in this case, there isn't really a clear answer at the moment.
[108] According to the state government, over the next 20 years, the plan would lead to as much as a 68 % surge in electricity consumption, which is a scary thought when you consider how fragile California's power grid already is.
[109] We've covered on the show how they've struggled to find enough energy after closing nuclear plants for environmental reasons and also relying more heavily on wind and solar, which are often less reliable.
[110] And even if you get enough power to charge all those new electric cars, you have to have enough charging ports themselves.
[111] Projections call for 1 .2 million public ports to meet the requirements.
[112] But right now, California has just 80 ,000 charging stations.
[113] So there's a lot of work to do if this is going to be feasible.
[114] Right.
[115] It's a very ambitious goal.
[116] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[117] Anytime.
[118] That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[119] A federal judge has released a heavily redacted affidavit used to justify the FDivus.
[120] FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's residence in Mar -a -Lago.
[121] The release comes after a series of legal filings from news organizations and watchdog groups.
[122] Here to discuss what we learned from the affidavit and what we didn't is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
[123] So, Tim, what have we learned over the weekend about the reason for the Trump raid?
[124] Hey, John.
[125] Just some background.
[126] This affidavit is the document the FBI presented to Judge Reinhart to convince him to approve the August 8th raid on Marlago.
[127] The affidavit itself was 32 pages long.
[128] and it had five more pages of attachments.
[129] Of those 32 pages, 11 were entirely redacted, and more pages were redacted in part.
[130] So what we have is the bare minimum the DOJ is fine with us seeing.
[131] The rest contains information too sensitive to either the investigation or something else the DOJ couldn't risk at getting out.
[132] Even the reasons the DOJ gave the court for the redactions were redacted.
[133] How significant is it that the document was so heavily redacted?
[134] Well, the affidavit was released at all as noteworthy.
[135] This sort of document typically isn't made public until after charges are brought.
[136] Judge Reinhart believed that the case was of enough public significance to make an exception here.
[137] Obviously, the fact that Trump is seen as a political rival of the current administration makes it a unique case.
[138] Right.
[139] So the DOJ obviously felt this was very sensitive information.
[140] What can we learn from the viewable portion?
[141] Well, we got some numbers on the amount of supposedly classified information we're dealing with.
[142] The FBI went through those boxes in May and found 184 classified documents.
[143] documents, including 67 marked confidential, 92 marked secret, and 25 marked top secret, the highest level of secrecy.
[144] But we still don't know what was in those classified documents.
[145] The Washington Post reported earlier that the documents at Mar -Lago contained information related to nuclear weapons, but we still haven't seen anything, including in the affidavit, to substantiate that claim.
[146] We also haven't seen any other media outlets corroborate that story.
[147] One of the attachments in the affidavit is a letter that Trump attorney Evan Corcoran sent to the DOJ on May 25th.
[148] Corcoran warned the DOJ about the political implications of investigating Trump and said that as president, Trump had plenary authority over classifying and declassifying documents.
[149] The letter was included with the affidavit because Corcoran asked it be included in any issue brought before a judge that involved the documents in Mar -a -Lago.
[150] And by the way, the letter was sent a little over a week before the FBI served as a subpoena to retrieve documents from Trump's residence in June.
[151] What has the response been in Washington to the affidavit?
[152] Well, this wasn't due to the affidavit, but Biden's director of national intelligence, Avril Haynes, wrote a letter to lawmakers Friday, saying the U .S. intelligence community would conduct a risk assessment on Trump's keeping classified documents at Marilago.
[153] Over in Congress, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, said Sunday on Fox News, he still hasn't seen anything that justified rating Trump's residence.
[154] In the affidavit itself, they cite the archivist.
[155] They don't cite the intelligence community.
[156] They don't cite the director of CIA, Department of Defense.
[157] or even the Director of National Intelligence as opining that these documents or this situation is a national security threat, they cite the archivist.
[158] So this sounds more like a bookkeeping issue than it is of a national security threat, which means it doesn't rise to the level of justifying, raiding the foreign president's home.
[159] He also said Trump needs to produce some kind of documentation to support his claim that the documents stored at Mar -a -Lago were declassified before he left office.
[160] All right, Tim, thanks for walking us through that.
[161] Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire's Tim Pearce.
[162] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[163] The Department of Transportation declared a regional emergency on Saturday for four Midwest states after a fire caused an unanticipated shutdown of an Indiana oil refinery.
[164] The refinery, BP Whiting, is the sixth largest refinery in the U .S. A man evicted from a Houston apartment shot five other tenants Sunday morning after setting a fire to lure them out.
[165] Three of the victims have died.
[166] The U .S. Navy sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday in the first such transit publicized since U .S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier this month.
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