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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is a New Year's Eve edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. And we're kicking off the year with some big news.
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--:-- John Bickley: President Biden brushes more aid to Ukraine as another debt ceiling battle in Congress takes shape.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What they've always been trying to do here is just push as many weapons, as much material as they can, into Ukraine to strengthen the Ukrainian position. How does this impact the incoming administration? And will the House Speaker hang on to his gavel?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And we're joined by Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Tim, let's start with Ukraine. What does that aid package look like?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, Georgia, it's a costly one. $2.5 billion in security assistance, which includes artillery, other weapons, and air defense systems. Half of that is coming directly from the Pentagon, while the other half comes from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which essentially lets the U.S. government procure weapons from defense contractors on behalf of Ukraine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And on top of that, the Treasury Department is releasing $3.4 billion in additional budgetary aid to Ukraine.
--:-- Tim Rice: So that's about $6 billion altogether and brings the total amount of money dispersed to Ukraine under the Biden administration to around $175 billion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's pretty clear to anyone watching this that Biden is trying to send as much money as possible to Ukraine before Trump takes office and has a chance to turn off the hose.
--:-- Tim Rice: And in his statement announcing the grant, Biden pretty much admits to this. He said he's directed his administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And he stresses that, at my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine's position in this war over the remainder of my term in office.
--:-- Tim Rice: So President Biden is pretty openly thumbing his nose at Trump here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What kind of position is that going to leave Trump in when he comes into office?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, in terms of the aid itself, this doesn't really change much. Trump and J.D. Vance campaigned on reducing aid to Ukraine and have consistently criticized Biden for doing stuff like this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Trump's still in a good position to keep that campaign promise and stop the aid to Ukraine.
--:-- Tim Rice: But Biden's final gift could make things tricky for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson as they negotiate the ongoing battle over the debt limit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Remember, the House narrowly avoided a government shutdown days before Christmas when they passed the bill to fund the government until the spring.
--:-- Tim Rice: That was after conservative lawmakers helped kill a funding bill, backed by Trump and spearheaded by Johnson, that would have extended the debt ceiling for at least two more years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Trump has called for the ridiculous debt ceiling to be extended to 2029 or eliminated outright, which is a deal breaker for budget hawks like Senator Rand Paul and members of the Freedom Caucus.
--:-- Tim Rice: There have been rumblings of a plan to oust Johnson for his willingness to extend the debt ceiling, and this is where the Ukraine stuff comes in.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some of Johnson's critics have slammed his willingness to compromise with Democrats on Ukraine funding.
--:-- Tim Rice: So even though this most recent tranche of aid was going to Zelensky with or without Johnson's buy-in, the optics certainly aren't good for an already embattled Speaker.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And now listeners will remember, Johnson secured the Speaker's gavel after a pretty similar fight over the national debt.
--:-- Tim Rice: Does it seem like history is going to repeat itself?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, we'll have to see. On the one hand, Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House, just 219 to 215.
--:-- Tim Rice: That means Johnson can only afford to lose one member of his caucus and keep his seat.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But things have started to look up for Johnson in recent days.
--:-- Tim Rice: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised his leadership, and he got support from New York Congressman Mike Lawler, who said that anyone who thinks they can oust Johnson is being unrealistic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the Speaker's biggest boost came yesterday when he got a sweeping endorsement from Trump who wrote on Truth Social that Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking religious man.
--:-- Tim Rice: He will do the right thing and we will continue to win. Mike has my complete and total endorsement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Trump stressed that Republicans were the party of common sense and urged lawmakers not to blow this great opportunity we have been given to enact change by wasting time on internal squabbles.
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, as far as endorsements go, that's a pretty big one for Johnson to get.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, guys, producer Brandon here.
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--:-- Brandon: The Biden administration has agreed to stop the sale of border wall materials after a legal challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The administration has auctioned off bollards and concrete originally purchased for the wall since 2023, but a December report from the Daily Wire drew scrutiny to the practice.
--:-- Brandon: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the legal battle over the border wall.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Tim, what's the latest on this case?
--:-- Tim Pierce: President-elect Donald Trump received some good news from a Texas court on Friday.
--:-- Brandon: The Biden administration agreed to pause the sale of border wall materials for 30 days, enough time for Trump to take office.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to Paxton's office, this pause will be backed by a court order, so the Biden administration could face court sanctions if it breaks the agreement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The court also gave Paxton's office approval to investigate whether any of the sales were in violation of an injunction from back in March.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Paxton along with the attorney general in Missouri sued the Biden administration in 2021 over the administration's attempt to redirect funds set aside for border wall construction.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Friday's order says that Paxton can investigate whether any of the materials sold off would have fallen under that injunction.
--:-- Tim Pierce: If so, the officials responsible could be held in contempt of court.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So this is a big win for Trump.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He posted a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, calling the agreement a major, crucial win for America and our national security.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He said he intends to use those materials left to build the wall and, quote, protect our country from violent migrant crime, fentanyl smuggling, sex trafficking, terror attacks, and other heinous nation-ending disasters.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, while this controversy blew up in the past couple weeks, the sale of border wall construction materials has actually been going on since last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the White House, the sale was approved by Congress in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So what was the original intent of the law?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Presumably it passed a GOP-controlled House.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, according to Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the original intent of the Finish It Act, included in the NDAA, was to designate that the materials either needed to be used on wall projects or sold to border states to be used on the wall.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Department of Defense sold about 60% of the well materials to Texas, California, and the U.S. Border Patrol, but it sold the remaining 40% to GovPlanet under a sales contract that began in June.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And those sales were offered for pennies on the dollar.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Republicans say it wasn't supposed to be a fire sale just to liquidate the materials, which is what ended up happening.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So how did the original intent get misconstrued and end up as a fire sale?
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's unclear, but it led Trump to accuse Biden and government bureaucrats of trying to undermine the new administration before it even gets started.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, Trump and his allies have promised to clean out agencies of entrenched bureaucrats who abuse their positions to buck the president's what's known as the deep state.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, talking to The Daily Wire and warning those bureaucrats to get moving.
--:-- Tom Homan: God help them, because we'll be looking for those bad actors. Look, we know we pretty much know where the bodies are buried. We know who's who. the president of the United States is coming up with an agenda. If you don't like the agenda, they get another job. If you don't get another job, we'll get you another job.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So that warning could very well apply to anyone involved in this latest controversy of the border wall.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump and Homan are going to look at this and go after anyone that they think may try to impede Trump's immigration agenda.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Good to be on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A massive federal union, which represents some 750,000 federal employees, may be one of the biggest impediments to Trump's reformation of the federal workforce.
--:-- Tim Rice: The American Federation of Government Employees is slashing work from home for the operatives at union headquarters so they can work more productively against Trump's agenda.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's according to a new report from Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Hey, John, layers of irony is what's going on here.
--:-- John Bickley: The union bosses are suggesting that because battling Donald Trump is so important, their internal staff need to work really hard.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And that includes starting to work from the union's office rather than from home far more, at least four days a week in the office now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One of the big parts of what's keeping them so busy is fighting for federal employees to keep working from home, often four days or more at home.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So you have the union locking in extensive telework for employees it represents while clamping down on telework for its own full-time staff of operatives.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. The AFGE in employees actually have their own union representing them against AFGE management and they have filed a grievance against AFGE President Everett Kelly.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: They're saying it's hypocritical for the union to tell taxpayers that there are only upsides to feds working from home while telling employees of the union itself to report to the office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And how is the union trying to square that circle?
--:-- Luke Rosiak: About as well as circles are squared, I guess.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Kelly has responded by saying that as the boss, he has the right to make determinations about basic work requirements.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Now, the reason this is so important is that it seems like AFGE is acknowledging that telework isn't always the best way to get things done when you're working hard on an important mission.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's not what it's been saying in the five-year agreements it's been signing with the Biden administration, which say large-scale telework advances DEI, helps the environment, and increases productivity.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So even with COVID long in the past, federal employees still work from home at such rates that the government buildings are only 12% occupied.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's according to a Senate report.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Trump has said he intends to call workers back to the office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But in November, Joe Biden's Social Security Commissioner signed a contract through 2029, giving away the right of management to change telework from the status quo.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: 2020. So locking that in for Trump's whole term.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. AFGE, it turns out, has signed quite a few contracts binding the incoming administration.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: On December 18th, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission signed one agreeing that, quote, all EEOC positions are eligible for some amount of telework.
--:-- Georgia Howe: AFGE's contracts with agencies often lay out procedures for telework up to four days a week, plus some employees being fully remote.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: But that's for taxpayer-funded employees. It seems when it comes to their own union employees, that have sort of a different perspective here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Correct. If working from the office is helpful when the work is really urgent and important, like if you're stopping the Trump administration, then the implication is that AFGE doesn't view actually serving the public in these agency jobs to be as important or urgent.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So the union president contends he has the right to tell his own operatives that they need to come into the office and he rejects the claim that it violates a contract.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Is Trump going to be able to say the same thing about all federal employees? That's the question.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: I mean, no head of an executive branch can succeed unless he can mobilize the two million people working for him in service of his agenda.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right off the bat, forcing return to work could be crucial for shrinking the federal government because a lot of remote employees have moved to low-cost living areas and they'll actually quit rather than come back.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: I analyzed six long-term contracts signed by AFGE this year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And while all of them contain language praising and boosting telework, most or maybe even all of them contain loopholes that would enable management to stop it.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Although the language is murky enough that they could be tied up in court for a while.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it really gets to the question of whether government agencies exist to serve the public or their own workforce.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Luke, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure thing. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
