--:-- Host: John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire, with co-host Georgia Howe. It's Monday, September 18th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're discussing the mounting challenges facing President Joe Biden, including possible impeachment. We'll also be covering the latest developments in Los Angeles, where a sheriff's deputy was killed in an ambush-style attack. And, in Texas, the state-level impeachment battle that split the Republican Party has come to a conclusion. Let's start with the president. Will Joe Biden end up being the Democratic presidential nominee?
--:-- Georgia Howe: That question has gained more weight in recent weeks amid mounting challenges for him.
--:-- John Bickley: This president has a pattern at this point of either inventing or embellishing stories about his own past, his biography. He did it three times in one speech last month alone.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Are Democrats in the media turning on the president?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Monday, September 18th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Another ambush-style cop-killing rocks Los Angeles. We have the details on the disturbing case and trend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the state-level impeachment battle that split the Texas Republican Party officially came to a conclusion over the weekend.
--:-- John Bickley: The thing that separates us from the banana republics publics is that we have due process in our legal system. There was no due process in the House.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As GOP candidates battle for the chance to take on Joe Biden next November, the incumbent president is facing mounting headwinds from the media, Congress, and his own party.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more on the president's standing ahead of his reelection effort is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, Cabot, as we've discussed on this show before, President Biden is coming into this race with a number of vulnerabilities, which seem to be growing, if anything. What are we seeing on that front?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, President Biden enters fall facing lagging approval ratings in the low 40s and high 30s, an impeachment inquiry in Congress, persistent questions about his age and mental capacities, and now growing pressure from a legacy media that really sort of turned on him after being largely supportive throughout the first two years of his term.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's all clearly having an impact on his standing within his own party. Numerous polls throughout the last year show the majority of Democrats do not want him to run again.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's really hard to overstate just how rare it is in modern history for an incumbent president to enter re-election with large portions of his own party telling him to sit out.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, you mentioned the media. Tell us a little bit about the coverage they gave Biden this past week.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So throughout most of his first term, Biden enjoyed relatively favorable coverage from legacy media outlets. But there has been a noticeable shift in recent weeks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, CNN recently ran a feature segment pointing out Biden's pattern of lying or misleading about accomplishments and other life events after he falsely claimed to have visited Ground Zero the day after 9-11 last week.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here's a portion of that segment. He claimed at one point he'd been arrested during a civil rights protest when, in other versions of the story, he just said an officer had taken him home from a protest. He said that he used to drive a tractor trailer, used to drive an 18-wheeler. never happened.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So whatever his intentions, whether it's, you know, foggy memory about stuff that's going on decades ago or deliberate embellishment, this is an unfortunate pattern that keeps coming up again and again with Joe Biden.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And remember, that's CNN, not exactly a conservative outlet. Right. So I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then there was a front page editorial in the Washington Post titled, quote, President Biden should not run again in 2024.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That piece was written by one of Biden's favorite columnists, David Ignatius, who said, quote, Biden's age isn't just a Fox News trope. It's been the subject of dinner table conversations across America this summer.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Ignatius lauded Biden accomplishments but said he needs to step aside for the sake of America
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then there was a heated interview between Biden and NPR of all places
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Former White House aides of yours who tried to warn you about the potential conflicts of interest Nobody warned me about a potential conflict of interest.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Nobody warned me about that. And at the same time... George Kent, the State Department official, testified that he raised it to you. No, he didn't say me. He did not say me. To your staff, I stand corrected. I never heard that once. To your staff.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A lot of Republicans, though, are happy to see coverage like that. They've also been encouraged by a number of recent polls. Tell us a little bit about some of the polls that have come out.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. So while Biden has consistently struggled with low approval ratings, until recently, he has still been beating GOP opponents, particularly Donald Trump, in head-to-head polls.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But a new Harvard-Harris poll released a few days ago shows that Biden is not only under 50% approval on every single issue, including inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, but he's also now trailing Donald Trump 44 to 40 in a hypothetical head-to-head.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That matches with separate CBS and Fox polls released in the last week, which shows him down one and two points respectively. So concerning data points for the White House there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, of course, all of this comes as Congress just has launched this impeachment inquiry into the president. Is that going to play into the race at all, you think?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, that is going to dominate the conversation in Washington this month. as GOP lawmakers prepare to present evidence to the American people, who, by the way, appear to support the impeachment inquiry.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A recent poll showed that a plurality of Americans, 41%, support the idea of an impeachment investigation, while just 35% oppose it.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Biden can say it's a partisan witch hunt, but a lot of folks clearly want answers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For his part, the president issued his first response to the inquiry, saying at a campaign fundraiser, quote, I get up every day not focused on impeachment. I've got a job to do.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And look, while the Democrat-controlled Senate is unlikely to convict Biden And if impeachment were to move forward, the court of public opinion is really what matters here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: If Republicans in the House can convince voters that Biden has broken the law and lied about his role in his overseas business dealings, it will have an immense impact on the race.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it looks like we have an extremely unpredictable race coming up. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: A California sheriff's deputy was killed on Saturday night when a gunman fired into his squad car. Authorities believe this is yet another deadly targeted attack on a law enforcement officer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The shooting took place in Palmdale, a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
--:-- John Bickley: Deputy Ryan Clinken-Brumer was discovered slumped over in the car by a passerby and later succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss the tragedy is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, Dave. What do we know about this killing so far?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. Deputy Clinken Brumer was on duty Saturday night, and not long after he left the station, this shooting occurred.
--:-- David Marcus: It's not entirely clear if he was parked in his squad car or merely stopped as he was driving, but it appears that some person or persons drove up to the side of the car and fired at him without any immediate reason to do so.
--:-- David Marcus: This is according to surveillance video that police are studying and trying to verify.
--:-- David Marcus: Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said it seemed that Clinken Broomer was targeted because, quote, he was in uniform, unquote.
--:-- David Marcus: No suspects had been identified by Sunday afternoon.
--:-- David Marcus: Without a suspect or a complete motive do we know why Luna is suggesting that being in uniform was the reason he was shot and killed?
--:-- David Marcus: Luna didn get into specifics in that regard but there isn a very good alternative explanation
--:-- David Marcus: There does not appear to have been any incident or altercation that triggered the shooting.
--:-- David Marcus: And sadly, this would not be the first time this happened. Listeners will recall that in Dallas in 2016, five police officers were killed and another nine injured when a gunman angry over the issue of police brutality targeted them.
--:-- David Marcus: So to be clear, Sheriff Luna is not certain that this is the motive, but it would not be an isolated incident if it was. No, it would not.
--:-- David Marcus: What do we know about this deputy, Deputy Clinken Brumer, whose life was taken so abruptly Saturday night?
--:-- David Marcus: The deputy was 30 years old and an eight-year veteran of the department.
--:-- David Marcus: He was also a third-generation deputy, so law enforcement was in his DNA.
--:-- David Marcus: He served for the last 18 months as a field training officer, a highly prestigious position, which Sheriff Luna said was reserved for the best of the best.
--:-- David Marcus: Adding to the brutality of this tragedy is the fact that Clink and Brumer had gotten engaged just four days before his untimely death.
--:-- David Marcus: Along with his fiancée, he was survived by both his parents, and of course, all three of them, as well as the deputy's fellow officers, are in our prayers and the nation's prayers as they deal with this horrible event.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, indeed they are.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, this comes at a time when morale in recruitment for law enforcement across the country is very low. We've actually just done a report on that.
--:-- David Marcus: Are killings of police in the line of duty a part of that? And has there been an upswing in those kinds of occurrences?
--:-- David Marcus: Yes and yes. According to the FBI, there were 73 officers who died in felonious killings in 2021, which was the highest number since 1995, excluding, of course, 2001 with September 11th.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. That underscores just how dangerous and frankly heroic the work that police do is.
--:-- David Marcus: And obviously, if they have a target on their back just for putting on the badge, it's a far, far worse situation.
--:-- David Marcus: It's important that people who commit such killings are captured and dealt with harshly, which is exactly what police in California are setting out to do.
--:-- David Marcus: Look, this is scary for cops. It's scary for citizens. It's scary for everyone to live in a society where there are people for whom the value of human life is so cheap.
--:-- David Marcus: Turning that around is not just a job for government and law enforcement, but also for faith leaders and, frankly, John, for all of us, or else this problem really could get worse.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Indeed, well put.
--:-- David Marcus: Well, Dave, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Ken Paxton has returned to his office as Attorney General of Texas after he was acquitted on 16 articles of impeachment following a trial in the Senate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Paxton has been on mandatory leave since May after he was impeached by the Statehouse.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Paxton's victory and what this means for Texas politics, which has gotten more and more complicated.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim. Hey, John. So walk us through what's happened this last two weeks in Texas.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Texas Senate wrapped up nine days of arguments and testimony on Friday and voted to acquit Paxton on Saturday on all charges.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This case was about allegations of corruption and abuse of power, but many saw it as a proxy for the power struggle within the Texas Republican Party, conservatives represented by Paxton against the moderates in the state house.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Senate's vote on Saturday was a conclusive win by conservatives on that front. No more than two Republicans joined the 12 Democrats in support of any of the 16 impeachment charges
--:-- Tim Pierce: That left the pro side short of even a majority of senators and far short of the 21 supermajority needed to uphold impeachment.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I should note, Paxton's wife, Senator Angela Paxton, was recused from voting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick presided over the Senate trial and wrapped up proceedings on Saturday with a few comments on the entire saga.
--:-- Tim Pierce: First, he gave credit to senators for a thorough and good faith investigation, but then he turned on the House in a pretty strong condemnation of the process.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's some of that. The speaker and his team ran through the first impeachment of a statewide official in Texas in over 100 years while paying no attention to the precedent that the House set in every other impeachment before.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The lieutenant governor said he wants a full accounting of what impeachment cost taxpayers. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on this impeachment.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I'm going to call next week for a full audit of all taxpayer money spent by the House from the beginning of their investigation in March to their final bills they get from their lawyers.
--:-- Tim Pierce: We will provide our cost as well that were forced on us by the House impeachment.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Patrick also said the Texas Constitution should be amended to prevent this sort of process from happening again.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He said Paxton should have been allowed to cross-examine witnesses under oath in the House investigation, and House members should get a minimum of two weeks to review the evidence for impeachment before vote.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Patrick also said Paxton should have been allowed to stay in office while the impeachment process played out, similar to the federal process.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right, that's been one of the major complaints here.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, to what this was all about, what were the specific charges against Paxton?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Most of the case had to do with Paxton's relationship with an Austin real estate developer, Nate Paul.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Paul is a financial supporter of Paxton and gave $25,000 to his campaign in 2018.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Paxton was accused of helping Paul's real estate business by investigating competitors and running interference when law enforcement became interested in Paul.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In return, according to prosecutors, Paul would do favors for Paxton, such as donate to his campaign, renovate his house, and employ Paxton's alleged mistress.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to senators who voted to acquit Paxton, none of those allegations were substantiated.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Texas Senator Bob Hall. All of what they put forward were second, third, and fourth-hand interviews with hired attorneys.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The House never heard a word of testimony, nothing under oath. There was no evidence ever presented.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And what has Paxton said? He's been very vocal throughout all of this.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, on Saturday after the vote, Paxton accused Texas House Speaker Date Phelan of working with the Biden administration to set the attorney general up in a kangaroo court on sham impeachment articles.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He called the process immoral and corrupt, but then Paxton pivoted to President Biden and told him to buckle up and get ready to be held accountable now that he's back in action.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Phelan released his own statement standing by the House investigation and the decision to impeach Paxton.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Phelan said the Senate trial had cheated the people of Texas out of justice.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So it sounds like there could be some lingering bad blood among Republicans in Texas. over this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Indeed.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
