--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Start your morning with America's coffee from BlackRifleCoffee.com.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration has released a new report on the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan that left 13 service members dead and put most of the blame on President Trump. Who's going to get fired over this?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The purpose of the document that we're putting out today is not accountability. We break down the details of the report.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, April 7th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's no doubt of the independence of NPR's journalists. Taxpayer-funded NPR has been labeled state-affiliated media by Twitter just days after the struggling network announced massive layoffs.
--:-- John Bickley: What's behind NPR's decline and how are insiders reacting?
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a former federal prosecutor weighs in on the now unsealed indictment against Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: rich mocha, salted caramel, or vanilla bomb flavors. Go to blackriflecoffee.com and use promo code WIRE for 10% off your purchase. That's blackriflecoffee.com, promo code WIRE. Black Rifle Coffee, America's coffee.
--:-- John Bickley: The White House released a 12-page summary on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Thursday. The report characterized one of the darkest events of President Joe Biden's time in office as being largely the fault of former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to break down the report. So, Tim, how is President Trump to blame for what went down in Afghanistan?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, Georgia.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The summary is of an investigation into one of the Biden administration's worst moments, but it spends four of its 12 pages saying Trump set Biden up for failure in Afghanistan. It says that Trump's negotiations with the Taliban and the Doha agreement, in which the U.S. agreed to withdraw, left Biden in a tough spot with no good choices.
--:-- John Bickley: The summary suggests Biden's choices were either withdraw on a rush timeline or surge resources back into Afghanistan to fight a likely violent Taliban response.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, what about the actual execution of the operation? What did they say about that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, what the report doesn't blame on Trump. It questions whether anyone could have done better.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's what National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday about that. No agency predicted a Taliban takeover in nine days. No agency predicted the rapid fleeing of President Ghani, who had indicated to us his intent to remain in Afghanistan up until he departed on the 15th of August.
--:-- John Bickley: And no agency predicted that the more than 300,000 trained and equipped Afghan National Security and Defense Forces would fail to fight for their country.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Maybe the worst single day of the pullout happened days before the final plane left. 13 U service members and 170 Afghans died in a terror attack on the Abbey Gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport
--:-- John Bickley: Here Kirby on that The president at the time made it clear to operational commanders that force protection remained his highest priority.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In those tense days when the threat was particularly high, he accepted the recommendation of his national security team to extend the timeline for evacuations only after his senior military officials confirmed that they had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate threats, including those threats posed by ISIS-K.
--:-- John Bickley: Of course, Marine Sergeant Tyler Vargas Andrews, one of dozens of troops injured at the Abbey Gate, gave a very different perspective on the attack at a congressional hearing last month.
--:-- Tim Pierce: No one wanted my report post-blast. Even NCIS and the FBI failed to interview me. The withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The U.S. withdrawal ended while hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies were still in Afghanistan trying to get out.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The report, though, focused on what the Biden administration accomplished with a State Department workforce that had been cut under Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, having had plenty of time now to look back on how things have played out since the withdrawal, what does the report say about the fallout from Afghanistan?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, there's certainly been fallout. The withdrawal cost us some of Saudi Arabia's confidence and pushed it closer to China.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the disaster also played a part in how Russia estimated the West would react before it invaded Ukraine.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The report attempted to put a positive spin on the failed withdrawal, though, for example, claiming that the U.S. is now on safer and stronger footing because of the withdrawal and the important lessons learned from it.
--:-- John Bickley: They also claim that leaving Afghanistan freed up American resources to respond to terror threats in other parts of the globe, as well as better concentrate on helping Ukraine fight off the Russian invasion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's also worth noting the report was dropped at the end of the day before a holiday weekend, which didn't go unnoticed by reporters.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's CBS's Ed O'Keefe questioning Kirby.
--:-- Ed O'Keefe: Nowhere in here does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either the president himself or others. Is there any for what happened?
--:-- John Bickley: You can hear the frustration there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire's Tim Pierce.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, controversy at NPR amid mass layoffs.
--:-- Brandon: Hey guys, producer Brandon here. I want to take a moment to tell you about Nefarious, a supernatural thriller that comes out on April 14th and features the film star Sean Patrick Flannery from Boondock Saints.
--:-- John Bickley: On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer claims he's a demon. A psychiatrist who doesn't quite realize what he's up against is called in to determine if the man is insane or just pretending.
--:-- Brandon: Conversation and chaos ensues. Hollywood doesn't want you to see this film, an intelligent, suspenseful thriller made by Christians.
--:-- John Bickley: But I'm telling you, you don't want to miss out. Nefarious opens in theaters nationwide starting April 14th. Buy your tickets today at whoisnefarious.com.
--:-- John Bickley: This week, Twitter applied a state-affiliated media label to the account of National Public Radio.
--:-- David Marcus: The state media warning label has typically been used for accounts such as Russia Today and China's Xinhua News Network.
--:-- John Bickley: And NPR and its supporters are not taking kindly to the comparison.
--:-- David Marcus: The move comes as the publicly funded news source has been forced to lay off about 10% of its employees.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to discuss is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey Dave, so Elon Musk has weighed in saying that the state media label seems accurate to him. What is the controversy here?
--:-- John Bickley: So Musk was citing part of the Twitter rules about state-affiliated media which defines it as quote outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources direct or indirect political pressures and or control over production and distribution end quote.
--:-- David Marcus: And the controversy is really about the editorial content part. It clear that state outlets in Russia and China do not have editorial independence.
--:-- John Bickley: NPR says that it does and that therefore the label is being misapplied.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, NPR does get about 8% of its operating budget directly from the federal government. That's through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
--:-- John Bickley: Why wouldn't that be a state affiliation? I mean, it's actually much more money when you consider that tax deductible, corporate and private donations decrease tax revenue.
--:-- David Marcus: But their argument is that these federal dollars, which go all the way back to 1967, are meant to allow them to operate outside the constraints of the marketplace and to focus solely on the public interests.
--:-- John Bickley: Critics of NPR point out that its definition of the public interest often reads like a Democrat Party press release.
--:-- David Marcus: And they decry the fact that all Americans are financially supporting the biased, soft-spoken political soundtrack of suburban Volvos and college campuses.
--:-- John Bickley: But importantly, there really are no specific allegations suggesting the government is engaged in direct editorial interference.
--:-- David Marcus: Some current and former NPR employees have claimed that they're being targeted by Twitter leadership, specifically Musk, for their political coverage.
--:-- John Bickley: Does this echo similar concerns that conservatives had prior to Musk's takeover?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, the censorious shoe is on the other foot now, or so it seems.
--:-- John Bickley: And I think those on the right must be forgiven a moment or two to chuckle at the irony of it all.
--:-- David Marcus: But that having been said, Musk's policies in this regard have been a bit capricious.
--:-- John Bickley: He very publicly took away the checkmark for The New York Times when it refused to pay for Twitter, even though other non-paying accounts have retained their legacy blue checks.
--:-- David Marcus: But look, as those on the left were fond of saying for years and years, Twitter is a private company and it can do what it wants.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah.
--:-- David Marcus: Lastly, the radio network has announced it's cutting 10 percent of its workforce amid ad revenue declines.
--:-- John Bickley: And there have been some allegations of racism in the firings.
--:-- David Marcus: How bad are things right now for NPR?
--:-- John Bickley: Firing 10 percent of your workforce isn't ever seen as a sign of strength.
--:-- David Marcus: As to the charges of racism, they stem from the fact that some of the cuts impact programming about race created by producers of color.
--:-- John Bickley: This is a bit of a perfect storm, and NPR leadership certainly doesn't need this Twitter dust-up in the midst of these layoffs.
--:-- David Marcus: Well, David, thank you for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: The charges against former President Donald Trump were unsealed on Tuesday, and Trump's legal team has called for them to be tossed out.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: The case isn't officially set to recommence for another eight months.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to provide legal analysis of the charges against Trump and what to expect next is former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: Hi, Andy. So we have 34 felony charges against Trump all related to the Stormy Daniels hush money payments.
--:-- John Bickley: What do you make of these charges from Alvin Breck?
--:-- Andy McCarthy: Well, I don't think they state a crime. There's 34 counts, but the indictment fails as an indictment because under black letter criminal law principles, the purpose of an indictment is to put the defendant on notice of what crime is charged.
--:-- John Bickley: Without giving that information, the indictment is insufficient on its face.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: It's also indicative of a pretty serious grand jury violation because the prosecutor is the grand jury's legal advisor in the grand jury proceedings.
--:-- John Bickley: The purpose of the grand jury is to make sure that the prosecution has enough of a case to go to trial.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: So the standard is the grand jury has to find probable cause of every element of the offense charged. It not a high standard. Probable cause is a low standard which is why people say a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.
--:-- John Bickley: This is like a ham sandwich without the ham though.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: And the reason for that I think is that we have to conclude that the district attorney failed to instruct the grand jury about what crime it was finding that Trump tried to conceal.
--:-- John Bickley: And unless they found that there was probable cause of some crime he tried to conceal, then this violates the Fifth Amendment guarantee of an indictment by a grand jury.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: Now, Trump's legal team is really confident that this could just be thrown out and even quickly.
--:-- John Bickley: Do you agree this case should just be dismissed?
--:-- Andy McCarthy: I do. I think that it should get thrown out on the face of it because the indictment fails to state a crime before they even get to other pretty profound legal objections they have, which involved the statute of limitations.
--:-- John Bickley: To the extent that this indictment lays out a crime at all, the only thing stated in the indictment are the elements of the misdemeanor charge in New York of falsifying business records.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: That only has a two-year statute of limitations. So by the face of the indictment, where the action ends on December 5th of 2017, this was time barred probably by 2019, but in no event later than 2020.
--:-- John Bickley: So they have a statute of limitations issue.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: The other thing is when Bragg was meandering at his press conference about what the other crime might be, which he insisted he didn't have to say, which was among the more bizarre things I've ever seen a prosecutor argue.
--:-- John Bickley: Indictment doesn't specify that because the law does not so require.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: I further indicated a number of unlawful means, including more additional false statements, including statements that were planned to be made to tax authorities.
--:-- John Bickley: I also noted the federal election law cap on contribution limits.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: He seemed to suggest that the crime that he was saying Trump concealed was either a violation of the federal campaign finance laws or a violation of the state campaign finance laws.
--:-- John Bickley: I think the reason that Bragg is being coy and cryptic about this is because he knows he does not have jurisdiction to enforce the federal laws as a state prosecutor.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: And he also knows that the state election laws do not apply to an election for federal office, specifically the presidency here.
--:-- John Bickley: So I think it's not that he's dumb and he doesn't realize that this is problematic. It's that he doesn't want to flag how problematic it is because he doesn't have a case.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: If the judge agrees this case could be dismissed quickly, what is the process? What should we expect in the coming days and weeks?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, for the moment, they're not even supposed to be back in court until December, right? Eight months from now.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: If I were they, I would be under the judge's toes immediately saying, you know, look, you need to dismiss this because on its face, it doesn't state a crime.
--:-- John Bickley: And this is very important to the country because we have an important federal election coming up and this is going to hang over it and it shouldn't be allowed to hang over it unless the district attorney can show that he's got a serious crime that he has convincing evidence on.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: And there's no reason based on the four corners of what we have in front of us to believe that either one of those things is true.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, we'll see whether the judge chooses to let this play out until December or takes action sooner.
--:-- Andy McCarthy: Andy, thanks for joining us.
--:-- John Bickley: My pleasure.
--:-- [Theme music starts]
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
