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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Editor-in-Chief John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm co-host Georgia Howe. It's Friday, July 7th.
--:-- John Bickley: The missing Biden corruption witness has released a video while still in hiding, accusing the Biden DOJ of harassing and targeting him. Perhaps the most alarming information revealed was of a mole within the DOJ who shared classified information with Hunter Biden and his Chinese partners.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Is Dr. Gall Luft a credible witness? And what are his accusations against the president?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce to discuss this story.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Tim, who is Dr. Gall Luft?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Luft has an impressive resume. He's a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces who became a respected expert in energy security. He holds a doctorate in strategic studies from Johns Hopkins and has authored books on energy security and the international monetary system.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But he's also been indicted by the Department of Justice.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's right. He was indicted on charges of arms dealing, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and lying to the FBI earlier this year. He was arrested in Cyprus in February, escaped, and is now in hiding.
--:-- John Bickley: But he's released a video claiming he's being pursued by the DOJ in an effort to cover up Biden corruption related to CEFC.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's right. Luft says he made a fatal decision in March 2019 to share with the U.S. government his knowledge about the Biden family's relations with CEFC. He claims the DOJ went radio silent after the Brussels meeting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, if this information is true, the Justice Department knew about Hunter's dealings with CEFC much earlier than previously reported.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's correct.
--:-- John Bickley: But the central question is, how credible is Luft?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Some parts of the story appear to check out. A letter from U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman to Luft's attorney working out the details of the Brussels meeting has been published. But a major question that needs to be answered is the validity of the charges against Luft.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Luft says the charges are overblown and a clear case of malicious prosecution.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's right. But the indictment isn't public, so we can't judge the evidence for ourselves.
--:-- John Bickley: Morning Wire spoke with Seamus Bruner, the associate director of research at the Government Accountability Institute.
--:-- Seamus Bruner: If the DOJ is corrupt like Luft alleges, it could accomplish a couple of things by indicting Luft. The charges, whether they're true or not, discredit Luft as a witness, and it could give the DOJ cover to keep certain documents away from Congress through court gag orders and other tools.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, how is Congress going to get information or testimony from Luft if he's on the run?
--:-- Seamus Bruner: Congress has a few options. Staff could visit Luft wherever he's in hiding, or if Luft doesn't want to share his location, he could share documents and information through intermediaries.
--:-- John Bickley: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, progressives target the Supreme Court after several conservative-leaning rulings.
--:-- John Bickley: We're joined now by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus to discuss the decisions and the reaction to them.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, which cases have sparked so much anger from the left?
--:-- David Marcus: The three big decisions were one that found a web designer did not have to make websites for gay weddings, another invalidating Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness, and finally, the court ruled against affirmative action, finding that race alone cannot be used as a factor in college admissions.
--:-- John Bickley: These were all 6-3 decisions with the trio of liberals in dissent, and they were all wins for conservatives.
--:-- David Marcus: This has caused no shortage of consternation among progressives who are once again calling for drastic measures to curtail the court's power.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Who exactly are we talking about here? Who on the left is calling for reform of the court and what is it that they would like to see changed?
--:-- David Marcus: One of the loudest voices has been Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who along with others has called for the court to be expanded, presumably to get more liberal justices on the court.
--:-- John Bickley: There have also been vague calls for greater oversight.
--:-- David Marcus: But it's interesting. AOC said on a Sunday show that the court is, quote, unchecked. And her critics' reaction to that assertion is basically that there is a check on the Supreme Court. It's called amending the Constitution.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But obviously, that has a really high bar in terms of the popular support needed.
--:-- David Marcus: And none of these issues have that kind of broad support one way or the other.
--:-- John Bickley: Is it surprising that these three decisions all came down within about a day of each other?
--:-- David Marcus: I don't know if it was a surprise, but I think it was wise of the court to do it this way. We all saw what happened after the Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Protests outside of justices' homes, one guy showing up with weapons on a mission to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh.
--:-- David Marcus: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if the court reasoned that by dumping all of these at once, it could blunt some of the impact by not giving the left three bites at specific apples.
--:-- John Bickley: Chief Justice Roberts has tried very hard to maintain a good reputation for the court. But in these polarized times, that's no easy trick.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, no, it's not.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In all of these cases, there are already workarounds being discussed by Democrats to limit what they view as the damage done by the decisions.
--:-- David Marcus: What are those and are they likely to work?
--:-- Georgia Howe: No, you're right. So with affirmative action, for example, colleges can still use admissions criteria that are more likely to produce a diverse student body, including income level or zip code.
--:-- David Marcus: On student loans, Joe Biden is working on what the White House calls Plan B that can give some relief to those burdened with such debt.
--:-- John Bickley: And as far as the web design case goes, there's no shortage of web designers who would be more than happy to design a website for a gay wedding.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So in reality, the real-life impact of these decisions are not as dire or drastic as those gnashing their teeth and wailing their wails make them out to be.
--:-- John Bickley: And finally, what about public perception of the court? How is it doing in terms of popularity and trust?
--:-- David Marcus: Relatively recent polling shows that about 47% of Americans have trust in the Supreme Court. That is a historic low.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And there's likely a few reasons for that.
--:-- David Marcus: Obviously, we've had a slew of controversial decisions, at least from the left's perspective. But also, many Democrats still feel that Barack Obama was unfairly denied the ability to fill a vacancy in 2015.
--:-- John Bickley: That was when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's gambit happened, where he just refused to see to justice before the 2016 election.
--:-- David Marcus: Which obviously Donald Trump won and wound up filling that seat with Neil Gorsuch, one of the most conservative on the court.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Many on the left still view this as something that delegitimizes the court, and I'm not sure that's likely to change soon.
--:-- John Bickley: Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The medical journal Lancet posted a preprint paper reviewing autopsy findings in deaths after COVID vaccinations on Wednesday, but abruptly pulled it the following day.
--:-- John Bickley: We're joined now by Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo to discuss this story.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, what do we know about this paper and why was it pulled so quickly from The Lancet?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The paper, titled A Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings and Deaths After COVID Vaccination, was published July 5th in preprints with The Lancet. Now, preprints are early research papers that have yet to be peer-reviewed.
--:-- John Bickley: But according to The Lancet, these papers do undergo checks from the Social Science Research Network and The Lancet for appropriateness and transparency.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: There are numerous authors of the paper, including Nicholas Holscher from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor School of Public Health, Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Reich, former Health and Human Services official during the pandemic, Paul E. Alexander, and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I've obtained an archived copy of the paper, which says that there was no outside funding for their research.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Now, as you mentioned, the paper was abruptly pulled. It disappeared within 24 hours after being posted.
--:-- John Bickley: In its place is now a disclaimer that reads, quote, This preprint has been removed by preprints with The Lancet because the study's conclusions are not supported by the study methodology.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What does this pulled paper actually say?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The researchers say their aim was to investigate possible causal links between COVID vaccine administration and death using autopsies and postmortem analysis.
--:-- John Bickley: They reviewed 325 deaths that appeared to be connected with vaccination.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The paper said that of the 325 COVID vaccine autopsies they reviewed, nearly 74% of them were independently adjudicated as directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It was also found that the most implicated organ system in Vax-associated deaths was the cardiovascular system, and the average time from vaccination to death was an estimated 14 days.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The paper adds that further urgent investigation is required for the purpose of clarifying their findings.
--:-- John Bickley: And again, this paper has yet to be peer-reviewed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, as is usually the case, the paper being pulled was quite a story in and of itself, perhaps even making more noise than the paper initially did.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Yeah, that seems to be the case here. Twitter was abuzz on Thursday after the paper was pulled with little explanation.
--:-- John Bickley: There were accusations of censorship, and that carried over into prominent medical sub-stacks, including from Dr. Peter McCullough, who, as I mentioned, is one of the authors of this paper.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: McCullough's substack said The Lancet censored the paper after a high volume of downloads.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Studies have shown that since the pandemic started, there's been a decline in trust for health officials, institutions like the CDC, and even scientists, largely due to the suspicion or expectation of political bias.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Remember, there was a lot of censorship during the pandemic relating to masks and vaccines that was then deemed misinformation and is now acknowledged as truth.
--:-- John Bickley: I'll also add that there's still a lot of vaccine-related research being conducted.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Harvard and Yale scientists, for example, are currently studying a condition dubbed long-vax.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, interestingly, one of those researchers, Yale University cardiologist Harlan Krumholtz, said he was hesitant to do this research because he didn't want the anti-vaccine movement to seize on these findings.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: He ultimately decided it was his obligation as a scientist to have an open mind.
--:-- John Bickley: Open minds in the scientific community are obviously essential.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
--:-- John Bickley: Don't forget to follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And don't forget to support our sponsors, Nugenix and Genucel.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll see you later.
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