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--:-- John Bickley: Good morning, I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe, co-host of Morning Wire. It's Friday, September 29th.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to the show. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's get right to it. The House holds its first impeachment inquiry hearing involving corruption allegations against President Biden.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. Hunter Biden referred to access to his father as the keys to his family's only asset. Those words are going to come back and haunt Hunter Biden and his family forever.
--:-- John Bickley: Who went on the record and did the hearing help or hurt the president?
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're joined now by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus to discuss the events of the hearing.
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, who were the first witnesses and what exactly did they bring to the table yesterday?
--:-- David Marcus: The expert witnesses that Republicans invited were law professor Jonathan Turley and former prosecutors Eileen O'Connor and Bruce Dubinsky. Democrats brought in Professor Michael Gerhardt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An issue in this first hearing really was what the bar is to actually impeach Joe Biden.
--:-- David Marcus: The three GOP witnesses all said that there was sufficient evidence for the inquiry and that if that evidence continues to be investigated and bears more fruit, that an impeachment would be in order. Professor Gerhardt disagreed, arguing that the inquiry is akin to Hunter Biden getting a speeding ticket in Joe's car and holding Joe responsible.
--:-- John Bickley: Let's start with these GOP witnesses. What was the thrust of their arguments in favor of moving forward with the inquiry, despite these objections from Democrats?
--:-- David Marcus: Pearlie urged the committee to focus first on the criminal bribery allegations against Joe Biden, arguing that though the Constitution does not require a crime to impeach, they should set the bar as high as possible.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Democrats in the White House continue to argue that there is no evidence that Joe Biden took money directly.
--:-- David Marcus: The GOP witnesses made clear that money flowing to a family member has been considered bribery by the courts in the past. So, in fact, the committee doesn't need a smoking wire transfer to the president. It's enough to establish that Hunter Biden was selling influence and that Joe was aware of it.
--:-- John Bickley: The hearing got testy at one point as one Democratic member leveled some really personal attacks on the witnesses.
--:-- David Marcus: Representative Raja Krishnamurthy launched into an attack on all three of the GOP witnesses, pulling up a social media post about the southern border by O'Connor to paint her as biased.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then, shockingly, he attacked Turley for having written a 2006 op-ed in defense of polygamy.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's a bit from those exchanges.
--:-- David Marcus: Professor Turley, you liken polygamists to, quote, persecuted minorities. And you said polygamy is, quote, a practice with deep and good faith religious meaning. Isn't that what you said?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I represented the sister wives family in challenging a polygamy prosecution. The answer is yes. You've been crusading for legalizing polygamy for years.
--:-- John Bickley: That's something which Turley strenuously objected to.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, unsurprisingly so.
--:-- David Marcus: What was the main argument that Democrats made to support their claim that this whole inquiry is a sham?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrats continue to argue that this scandal is all about Hunter Biden and has nothing to do with Joe Biden, though they didn't really grapple with the evidence that shows Joe's involvement, such as Devin Archer's testimony about phone calls and dinners with Hunter's business partners.
--:-- John Bickley: They also brought up Donald Trump a lot, either to allege that he is really the one behind the impeachment inquiry or that it's only happening to deflect from Trump's own legal woes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, didn't see that one coming.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, final question. The big three news networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS chose not to air the hearing yesterday.
--:-- John Bickley: Should we read into that?
--:-- David Marcus: Yes, and it doesn't take a PhD in mass communications to interpret it. The reality is that the legacy media has made it very clear they don't want to cover the allegations against Biden as much as they do want to cover the allegations against Donald Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The GOP has taken some steps to force some coverage of the sitting president, but it'll take more than a hearing, apparently.
--:-- John Bickley: Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: We're now going to talk about the looming government shutdown. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the likelihood of a government shutdown.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: So, first off, what specifically is Congress fighting about?
--:-- Tim Pierce: A mix of things, but the bottom line for Gates and his conservative coalition is spending. The holdouts say that the United States can take more deficit spending with a national debt of over $100 trillion roughly per American citizen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But they've placed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in an impossible situation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He wants to pass at least a stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown and give lawmakers a longer runway to negotiate on. Otherwise, Republicans will be in a political battle over who takes the blame between them or Democrats.
--:-- John Bickley: Republicans Americans historically have not done well in these types of fights, and that's got to be on McCarthy's mind.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He said he plans to bring a stopgap measure up for a vote today that would fund the government through November 17th, but he may not have the votes in his caucus to get it through.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Nearly a dozen Republican members have said flatly they'll vote against a stopgap.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The holdouts want Congress to negotiate and pass separately each of the 12 appropriations bills necessary to fully fund the government, and to do that without a stopgap.
--:-- John Bickley: That's pretty much impossible at this point, as each bill takes weeks or months to iron out, and government funding is set to run out just after midnight on Sunday.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, given that, what are McCarthy's options?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, from his position, his best option would be to convince the budget hawks into passing a continuing resolution and then continuing to work on appropriations.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He's got to work within his conference, though. Any attempt to cut a deal with House Democrats or move forward on a bipartisan spending bill in the Senate could spark a coup among House Republicans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What does that mean to you?
--:-- Tim Pierce: It will be World War III within the Republican Party.
--:-- John Bickley: If McCarthy can't convince enough the Republicans to support a stopgap, then we're likely headed for a shutdown.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Colorado Republican Ken Buck said on CNN that he thinks that's the most likely outcome.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This is more the same type of theater that we've seen in the past. When we had a debt ceiling problem, we ran it right up until the end, and then we spent too much money.
--:-- John Bickley: So, what are Republican priorities when it comes to spending?
--:-- Tim Pierce: They mainly have to do with Ukraine and the southern border. House conservatives want to reduce aid to Ukraine or at least get better oversight on how it's spent.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They also want more funding for border security.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This conservative bloc also wants to cut spending across the board and take a step toward a more responsible budget.
--:-- John Bickley: So, what would happen in the event of a government shutdown?
--:-- Tim Pierce: A lot of federal employees would stop receiving paychecks. A lot of programs will go unfunded. But the government will still continue its necessary functions, and Social Security checks will also continue to go out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it's important to remember government employees will eventually get paid. They'll receive back pay after the shutdown is over.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, I guess we're down to the wire with just two days left.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: After going quiet for several years, the Clinton Global Initiative is back, and they're focusing on raising money for Ukraine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Bill and Hillary Clinton's group says they're working to mobilize their existing partners, as well as new leaders from around the world to create and finance new commitments for Ukrainians.
--:-- John Bickley: But a leading investigative author says there's more to this campaign than humanitarian aid.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Peter Schweitzer joins us now. He's the president of the Government Accountability Institute and host of the Drill Down podcast.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, you've been following the money with the Clintons for years now.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: The Clinton Global Initiative has returned after laying low for a bit, and they're advancing a plan to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You've said that the Clintons have turned disaster relief into disaster capitalism. Could you explain what you mean by this and what you expect to happen in Ukraine?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: If you look at the way that the Clintons have operated the Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation, it's basically an iron triangle that includes government elites from a country that is usually resource rich, but undergoing a crisis.
--:-- John Bickley: It could be a civil war in Africa. It could be a shooting war in a place like Ukraine.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: But you've got corrupt local government officials. You have the Clintons, and then you have as a third point of the triangle companies like mining companies and energy companies that are interested in the extraction of natural resources.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what those entities need in a country like Ukraine or a country like Congo is the government sign off because in those countries, the government controls the energy and natural resources.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And the Clintons become the convening authority that brings the other two together. And of course, they get their cut.
--:-- John Bickley: So, this is a commercial venture. It's a sophisticated approach.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: After Hillary Clinton left the political scene in 2016, donations tanked by more than 75%. Pretty clear that people saw the access is not something worth buying anymore, but they're now trying to resurrect it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we'll see if they are successful.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: In picking Ukraine as the focal point, they have picked a country that is rich in natural resources, highly corrupt, but also faces this existential foreign threat from Russia.
--:-- John Bickley: So, it's ripe for the kind of disaster capitalism that the Clintons have practiced in the past.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, who are the major players now in the Clinton Global Initiative? Obviously, you have the family, but which companies or entities are helping drive that organization?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: What the Clintons do is they bring in corporate sponsors and corporate entities that operate the Clinton Global Initiative. They fund part of it, but then they are interested in deals that can happen in foreign countries.
--:-- John Bickley: So, in the case of the Clinton Global Initiative right now, one of their sponsors is SAE, which is a South Korean company that if you go back to the Haitian earthquake when Hillary Clinton was in charge, they got a sweetheart deal from the Haitian government to basically set up a sweatshop manufacturing clothes with federal government support and the support of the Clinton Global Initiative.
--:-- Georgia Howe: SAE is now sponsoring the Clinton Global Initiative again, and I would fully expect them to be given commercial deals and valuable deals in Ukraine.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: There's also a smattering of energy companies from Canada and elsewhere that I'm sure are looking to tap into the very lucrative Ukrainian natural gas and energy sector.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, we'll keep an eye on what partnerships come out of this effort.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Peter Schweitzer, president of GAI and host of the Drill Down podcast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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