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[0] U .S. military advisors call the Afghanistan withdrawal a strategic failure and contradict President Biden's statement that no one advised him to leave troops in Afghanistan.
[1] Now it's clear the president has misled us more than once.
[2] Day two of testimony leads to more questions for President Biden over his handling of the withdrawal and the backlash.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Thursday, September 30th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Dozens of container ships sit idle off the California coast, one symptom of a record -breaking backlog in the global supply chain, leading to shortages in consumer goods across the country.
[6] What's causing the delays, and what are major retailers doing to fill their empty shelves?
[7] And NBA stars are speaking out about vaccine mandates.
[8] Which players are refusing the shot, and, to the surprise of many, getting support from LeBron James.
[9] We're talking about individuals' bodies.
[10] You know, we're not talking about something that's, you know, political.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
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[19] After U .S. military leaders testified to Congress this week about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden is facing further questions about the decision -making behind the widely criticized strategy.
[20] Here to explain is Daily Wires Ian Howarth.
[21] So, Ian, we covered some of this testimony yesterday, but what are the latest updates on the foreign policy front for President Biden?
[22] As we discussed yesterday, several high -profile U .S. military figures testified to Congress, saying that they warned President Joe Biden that Afghanistan could collapse.
[23] I recommended that we maintain 2 ,500 troops in Afghanistan.
[24] And I also recommended earlier in the fall of 2020 that we maintained 4 ,500 at that time.
[25] Those are my personal views.
[26] I also have a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.
[27] And given that this flies directly in the face of Biden's claims that he was never warned and had the full support of his military leadership, this has sparked a major backlash.
[28] Top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline.
[29] They wanted you to keep about 2 ,500 troops.
[30] No, they didn't.
[31] It was split.
[32] That wasn't true.
[33] That wasn't true.
[34] They didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay?
[35] No. Multiple Republican politicians label the president as a liar following the hearings.
[36] House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted, someone is lying, saying that either Biden ignored the advice of his top military advisors, all these advisors lied under oath.
[37] And Senator Tom Cotton said Biden was, quote, as dishonest as he is incompetent, saying he lied about not being warned, lied that we'd evacuate all Americans, and lied that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was an extraordinary success.
[38] And how is the Biden administration handling this criticism?
[39] It appears that they're trying to avoid it.
[40] On Tuesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, head of Sentcom and the commander on the ground, all testified that they recommended that 2 ,500 troops remain in place in Afghanistan.
[41] Given this fact, a reporter asked White House press secretary Jensaki who actually advised the president to withdrawal troops, and Jensaki basically refused to answer.
[42] So who in his military advisors told him it'd be fine to pull everybody out.
[43] I'm not going to get in specific details of who recommended what.
[44] And this isn't the only controversy coming out of Millie's testimony, is it?
[45] No, during his testimony, General Mark Millie not only defended his controversial calls with Chinese officials, but discussed another phone call, this time with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, claiming that she sought to undermine the nuclear launch chain of command in the final days of the Trump administration.
[46] Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the President's ability to launch nuclear weapons.
[47] She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the President.
[48] And this is all happening during ongoing crises at home and abroad.
[49] Looking to Afghanistan, for example, the Biden administration reportedly blocked a charter flight from Afghanistan to the U .S., which was carrying more than 100 American citizens and green card holders.
[50] And this is all while the government's estimates of the numbers still trapped in Afghanistan are being described as falling far short of reality by volunteers on the ground.
[51] Ian, thanks for the update.
[52] My pleasure.
[53] Coming up, record -breaking delays in the global supply.
[54] chain are causing consumer shortages across the country.
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[58] A record -breaking backlog in the global supply chain has left dozens of massive cargo ships stuck outside ports across the country.
[59] Here were details on what's causing the backlog and what sort of impact it's having is Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips.
[60] So Cabot, give us a quick overview here.
[61] What's going on at ports?
[62] Yeah, so this is a part of the economy most people never think about.
[63] They order something online and it gets to their house.
[64] That's it.
[65] But the supply chain then actually gets those products to them is facing a record backlog right now.
[66] So about half of all imported goods come into the U .S. through ports on the coast of California.
[67] Now, typically those ports have at most one cargo ship waiting to unload.
[68] Right now, at two ports in L .A. alone, there are 62 cargo ships.
[69] Sixty - Sixty -two?
[70] Yeah, 62, just waiting around to unload their goods.
[71] Now, the average ship is sitting and untouched for nine days before being offloaded.
[72] They're just sitting there for nine days.
[73] Nothing happening.
[74] Nothing.
[75] We've also seen reports of similar backlogs at rail yards.
[76] How does this all fit together?
[77] Yeah, once the ships are unloaded, the cargo containers are either loaded on to 18 wheelers or shipped via train.
[78] But the problem is there's also a huge backup at rail yards themselves.
[79] Six months ago, the average shipping container is waiting five days to be unloaded at rail yards.
[80] Now, at the 10 largest rail yards in the country, the average shipping container is sitting untouched for nearly double that amount of time, 9 .8 days.
[81] So it's just gotten worse over the year.
[82] Yep.
[83] What do we know about the causes for this backup?
[84] There are a few reasons.
[85] First is the labor shortage.
[86] We've all noticed local restaurants begging for new servers and cooks.
[87] That same thing is happening at shipping companies and ports across the country.
[88] But the difference is when there's a shortage of waiters, you have to wait a few extra minutes for food.
[89] When it's a shortage of supply chain workers, you've got to wait a few extra days for your stuff.
[90] COVID precautions have also played a role as government health regulations have really slowed down the amount of time it takes to process each container that's being offloaded.
[91] All right, so what's being done to alleviate the problem?
[92] Well, as you might expect, many businesses are lobbying for looser COVID protocols at ports.
[93] Okay.
[94] And others are taking matters into their own hands.
[95] Walmart and Target, for example, they're chartering their own cargo ships in an attempt to cut out the middleman.
[96] Some companies are even chartering their own cargo planes so they can avoid ports altogether.
[97] Really?
[98] Yeah.
[99] And from a government standpoint, there hasn't been a ton of action.
[100] For the most part, the Biden administration, their main act.
[101] action here has been considering lowering the minimum age of truck drivers from 21 to 18 and also loosening immigration restrictions for trucking companies so they can hire more workers from abroad.
[102] They're hoping that more truck workers and more truck drivers will mean less of a backlog.
[103] Okay.
[104] So some action being taken in terms of trucking, which businesses are most impacted by this backlog?
[105] So right now it's mostly impacting businesses that rely on goods from Asia because those products are imported through California where the bottleneck is most noticeable.
[106] So Nike, for example, has been hit really hard.
[107] They just recently lowered their revenue projections for the year, and they said supply chain backups for the main reason.
[108] Costco is dealing with the same issues, and they're actually limiting the purchase of some goods to compensate, most noticeably, toilet paper.
[109] So you might see some of the early COVID -days protocols for toilet paper.
[110] We all remember that.
[111] Toy manufacturers, they also ship their product in bulk to stores around the country.
[112] And now many are actually telling places like Walmart and Target that they've got to figure out shipping on their own if they want to get their toys.
[113] Oh, my kids are not going to like to hear that.
[114] No, they will not.
[115] So look, we've seen a lot of empty shelves and delayed orders.
[116] What should we expect going forward?
[117] Yeah, this is going to impact the average person.
[118] There's no doubt about that.
[119] The two main things are increased shipping times for stuff you order and increase prices for what you're actually buying.
[120] On the shipping front, the average package traveling from Asia to the U .S. is now taking 43 % longer to arrive than this time last year.
[121] On the other side, businesses are being forced to raise prices on their goods to compensate for the increased cost of shipping and higher wages due to the labor shortage.
[122] So experts say that the average person should expect fewer Black Friday deals this year, as fewer imports means fewer products to sell.
[123] And for anyone who's children are listening, cover their ears because experts are already predicting a toy shortage at Christmas this year.
[124] which means fewer options to choose from and higher prices for the toys that are being offered.
[125] And that's all on top of the ongoing chip shortage that's causing a huge spike in the price of cars, appliances, and even gaming systems.
[126] You know, I think a lot of people were hoping that last year we were going to see the end of this, but it's getting worse.
[127] It's not great news.
[128] But thanks for coming on, Cabot.
[129] Anytime.
[130] Daily Wire Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[131] NBA Media Days came and went on Monday and the main topic of conversation was the COVID vaccine, specifically players that have either refused to disclose whether they are vaccinated or those that have openly admitted that they are, in fact, not vaccinated.
[132] Here with the details of what's going on in the NBA is Daily Wire Sports reporter Joe Morgan.
[133] So, Joe, what happened on Monday in the NBA?
[134] Well, Monday was quite the interesting day.
[135] So for those who don't know, Monday was NBA media days across the league.
[136] Normally, very high energy as reporters have access.
[137] to the players for the very first time, but the topic of conversation on Monday was much different.
[138] As is the case in the rest of society, the topic of the COVID vaccine was front and center.
[139] Reportedly, the league is around 90 % vaccinated, and that does include players.
[140] Referees and team staff who work within 15 feet of players are required to have the vaccine.
[141] So there was a lot of back and forth between players that have either said they're not getting the vaccine or have actually not come out and said it either way.
[142] Okay, so which players have admitted to not taking the vaccine?
[143] Well, the most high -profile player would now be Bradley Beale of the Washington Wizards.
[144] He was the second leading score last season in the NBA.
[145] ESPN ranked him, I believe it's 11th overall, going into the 2021 season.
[146] Beale was forced to miss the Tokyo Olympics after contracting COVID, and he did tell them that he's unvaccinated.
[147] He spoke about the antibodies and had a bit of a back -and -forth, actually, with reporters regarding the COVID vaccine and those that are still testing positive.
[148] And then there's also Jonathan Isaac, right?
[149] Correct.
[150] For those who are not familiar, Jonathan Isaac was in the news not all that long ago in the 2020 season for standing when all of the other teammates were kneeling during the national anthem.
[151] He came out yesterday and he said that he is not getting the vaccine and he actually spoke at length as to why.
[152] I don't believe that being unvaccinated means infected or being vaccinated means uninfected.
[153] You can still catch COVID with or we're not having.
[154] the vaccine.
[155] Now, are these guys going to be allowed to play?
[156] Yeah, they'll be able to play, but there are going to be cities where it's going to be an issue.
[157] New York City and San Francisco will require professional athletes to show at least one dose of the vaccine in order to play indoors.
[158] This is going to impact 2014 number one overall pick Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors and then Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets.
[159] Wiggins is not vaccinated and was recently denied a religious exemption by the NBA.
[160] He won't be able to play in any of the home games if in fact he's not vaccinated at the start of the season.
[161] Irving, on the other hand, and not attend Nets Media Day in person due to New York's vaccination requirements, instead doing an interview via video in which he really refused to say whether he was vaccinated or not.
[162] The same rules are going to apply for Irving as they do for Wiggins, meaning Irving won't be able to play in Brooklyn if he does not get the shot.
[163] So Wiggins' religious exemption was denied, but we also haven't discussed LeBron James.
[164] He made a big announcement on Tuesday.
[165] The king himself finally spoke about the vaccine, correct.
[166] In May, he actually avoided the conversation with reporters, which got him in a lot of trouble.
[167] But on Tuesday at Lakers Media Day, which was the only remaining NBA team to have a media day on Tuesday, he announced that he did get the vaccine.
[168] But surprisingly, he pretty much said it's everybody's individual choice, whether they should receive it or not.
[169] But you don't think the issue is important enough for someone with your stature to speak out on it?
[170] You know, we're talking about individuals' bodies, you know, so I don't feel like, for me personally, and I should get involved in what people should do for their bodies and their livelihoods.
[171] So LeBron is really at odds with the media here.
[172] He is.
[173] Thanks, Joe.
[174] Absolutely.
[175] That's Daily Wire Sports reporter, Joe Morgan.
[176] Those are our big stories for the day.
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