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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, March 9th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- John Bickley: Extreme weather continues to hit California. Forecasters predict the Golden State will be pummeled yet again by heavy rains, thunderstorms, and up to eight feet of snow in higher elevations, such as the Sierra Nevada. The ominous weather also threatens flooding as the mountain's snowpack begins to melt. The state has been hit by numerous storms in the past month, which have killed at least 30 people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In related weather news, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that the weather phenomenon known as La Nina has ended after three years. La Nina is known for increasing hurricane activity on the Atlantic and worsening drought conditions in the West.
--:-- John Bickley: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday evening after falling during a dinner. A spokesperson said Senator McConnell suffered a concussion during the fall and will remain hospitalized, quote, for a few days of observation and treatment. McConnell was attending a private dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund when he tripped and fell. The 81-year-old senator is a polio survivor and he suffered another fall in 2019. during which he fractured his shoulder.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On Thursday, Congress held its first weaponization of the federal government hearing on the Twitter files. In the hearing, independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger testified on the release of their emails, allegedly showing collusion between the social media platform and the government to censor or silence some viewpoints.
--:-- Matt Taibbi: The two journalists were pressed by multiple Democratic representatives to reveal their sources behind the Twitter leaks, among other questions. Here's one exchange involving me, Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, and Republican Committee Chair Jim Jordan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you're telling me you can't answer because it's your source, well, then that only logical conclusion is that he is, in fact, your source. Well, you're free to conclude that. Well, sir, I just don't understand. You can't have it both ways, but let's move on. No, he can. He's a journalist. No he can What he has said is he not going to reveal his source And the fact that Democrats are pressuring him to do so is such an amazing thing We asking him about his conversations with Musk
--:-- Matt Taibbi: Taibbi also explained what he thinks the Twitter files helped reveal Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, the DHS, the HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA. For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps 20 quasi-private entities doing the same thing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: FBI Director Chris Wray stunned U.S. senators during a Wednesday hearing when he revealed that the Chinese Communist Party has the ability to take control of millions of Americans' phones through the wildly popular TikTok app. Take a listen. If you look at the Chinese government's gobbling up of information and data and then the use of AI and other tools, ultimately supercomputing, things like that, to marshal all that data to conduct targeting for espionage, targeting for IP theft, targeting for all the things that I and others on this panel have been calling out about the Chinese government. Data is the coin of the realm. Those who have the best information have the power and that what that enables them to do
--:-- Georgia Howe: Comments come as Congress could give President Biden authorization to outright ban the app in the U
--:-- John Bickley: This morning Russia launched an aerial assault on Ukraine. Here with more is Daily Wire managing editor Greg Wilson. The pre-dawn skies above Ukraine were lit up Thursday by what's being described as an unprecedented blitz on major cities, including Kiev and Lviv. The barrage of 81 missiles included six hypersonic weapons capable of penetrating the capital's air defenses. Critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions across the country were bombarded, according to Ukrainian officials. At least six deaths and numerous casualties have been reported so far.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Ukraine President Zelensky called it a difficult night in a Facebook post, but vowed to make the Russians pay for their, quote, miserable tactics. And the drug cartel behind the kidnapping of four Americans in Matamoros, Mexico, has turned over the men they say were behind the deadly kidnapping. The five men were tied and dumped onto the street, along with a letter from the Scorpion faction of the Gulf Cartel, apologizing to the families of those killed and the citizens of Tamaulipas.
--:-- John Bickley: Those are your drive-home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
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