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--:-- Host John Bickley: Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off tonight in the highly anticipated presidential debate, and both candidates are expected to take drastically different approaches on the big stage. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Carol Markowitz. It's Thursday, June 27th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: A smuggling group with ties to ISIS has reportedly trafficked hundreds of illegal immigrants into the U.S. Individuals from ISIS and other affiliated groups have recognized it as a weak point in our defense, and they're using this opportunity to try to sneak in. And while inflation remains front and center in the race for the White House, a group of Nobel economists try to flip the script on Bidenomics.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Balance of Nature is my go-to source for whole food ingredients. They use an advanced cold vacuum process that encapsulates fruits and vegetables into whole food supplements without sacrificing their natural antioxidants. The capsules are completely void of additives, fillers, extracts, synthetics, pesticides, or added sugar. The only thing at Balance of Nature fruit and veggie capsules are fruits and veggies. So go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, plus get a free bottle of fiber and spice. That's balanceofnature.com, promo code WIRE.
--:-- Host John Bickley: After months of waiting, the first debate of the 2024 election is here, with Donald Trump and Joe Biden set to square off this evening. Here to discuss is a man who will be on the ground in Atlanta tonight for the event, Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, Cabot. So the most important night of the election to date, very high stakes and high stress. What are we hearing from each side?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So we'll start with President Biden, who has been holed up in Camp David all week, preparing with his top advisors. Incumbent presidents have historically fared poorly in the first debate of their reelection campaign. For lack of a better term, they're often rusty, having spent the last three and a half years surrounded by supportive, deferential staff, and yes men, and really only sitting for handpicked interviews.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: With that in mind, Biden aides have reportedly encouraged the president to keep the focus of the debate not on his own record, but on Donald Trump. According to numerous reports, Biden wants to portray himself as the adult in the room and draw out what they call the, quote, true Trump, meaning the bombastic name-calling version we often see on the campaign trail.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, in the first 2020 debate, Trump famously interrupted Biden and moderator Chris Wallace incessantly throughout the evening in a performance that was widely panned by voters. Biden wants to do everything he can to get that version of Trump tonight, so expect him to focus in on things that get under his skin, like the 2020 election results in January 6th, the fact he's now a convicted felon, and the sexual assault case brought against him in recent years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One thing he's likely to stay away from, though, is policy. The White House may claim publicly that Biden has had the most successful first term in modern history, but they are well aware of the fact that vast majorities of Americans disapprove of the job he's done on virtually everything, from the economy to immigration and foreign policy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And those are all things that we expect to hear plenty of from Trump correct Exactly While the two men are neck and neck in national polls Trump leads by a wide margin when voters are asked which candidate they trust more on virtually every policy topic including the economy and immigration.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Trump wants to make this a debate between each of their terms in office. Expect him to ask voters that famous electoral question, are you better off now than you were four years ago? The Trump campaign for their part released this short ad just ahead of the debate, giving us a good idea of what we might hear tonight.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The place is not going away. People can't afford grocery. Prices have skyrocketed. Shelter up 20 percent. Energy costs up 30 percent. Israel has declared it is at war. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Bad for working families. Bad for American jobs. Bad for the world order and stability.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And while the Trump camp says they want to focus on the issues, don't be surprised if he goes off script and hits Biden for his age and mental fitness. At that point, a number of Trump surrogates and even Trump himself have said the president will be given some sort of stimulant before he takes the stage. They want to get him good and strong.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass and that's they want to strengthen him up. I say he'll come out all jacked up, right? A trademark Trump there. Right.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now much has been made about the low expectations for President Biden coming into this debate. Talk to us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's no secret that President Biden has struggled to shake the perception among voters that he's dealing with mental decline. We've all seen the videos of him looking confused or lethargic in public appearances.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: From all on that, we caught up with Michael Watley, chair of the Republican National Committee. It's not about whether he can stand up and talk for 90 minutes or not. It's about what he says. It's about his vision for America, which is not the right vision. His path for America, which is absolutely the wrong path.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And so we really think that this is not about how he speaks. It's about what he says. And while some folks will wait until the fall to really tune into this presidential race, head-to-head debates like this one are one of the few singular events that can really shake things up.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: If you look at the numbers since the 70s, the first presidential debate has on average resulted in a one to three point swing in the polls. So with the race neck and neck, this is a crucial evening for both campaigns, a chance for one of them to pull away.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Indeed, and you'll be right there covering it for us. Kevin, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Anytime. And a reminder, the Daily Wire will have live coverage before and after the debate this evening. You can watch on the Daily Wire Plus app and dailywire.com.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee is a veteran founded company that's doing their part to honor both current and former military personnel, as well as first responders. They support such organizations as the Wounded Warrior Project, Adopt-a-Cop, BJJ, and the Burn Institute.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: An ISIS-linked smuggling group has reportedly trafficked hundreds of illegal immigrants into the U.S. in recent years. Dozens of these migrants are unaccounted for and likely somewhere in the country, alarming the Department of Homeland Security.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about this terror-tied smuggling operation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, Tim. So let's start off with the migrants linked to ISIS, the terror group. What do we know about them?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, according to NBC News, there are about 400 immigrants in the country that the DHS has labeled subjects of concern. All of them entered the U.S. through an ISIS-linked smuggling operation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Authorities have arrested over 150 of them, likely on some immigration-related offense. Many of those still at large are being tracked, but officials have yet to locate about 50 of these immigrants.
--:-- Tim Pierce: How did they get in How exactly did they enter the U I assuming the southern border Right Most of them crossed over from Mexico They were released by U Customs and Border Patrol into the country because they didn show up on the FBI terror watch list
--:-- Tim Pierce: That list is obviously not comprehensive, though, and recently federal officials have scrambled to arrest immigrants linked to terrorists or terror groups long after those migrants entered the U.S.
--:-- Tim Pierce: A good example of that took place earlier this month when ICE and the FBI arrested eight Tajik nationals with ties to ISIS. Like those 400 earlier, we know very little about the Tajik men, including what specifically prompted their arrest or what they may have had planned.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to the New York Times, federal agents moved on the eight men after officials grew concerned about the potential for a terror attack in at least one location.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And this is all part of a threat environment that FBI Director Chris Ray described recently as being one of the worst in his career.
--:-- Tim Pierce: When I sat here last year, I walked through how we were already in a heightened threat environment. When I look back over my career in law enforcement, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time when so many different threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at the same time.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But that is the case as I sit here today. And here's Ray in March detailing to Senator Marco Rubio about how the border plays into the threat environment, as well as concerns about terror-linked smuggling groups taking advantage of lax border policies.
--:-- Tim Pierce: From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, and that includes everything from the drug trafficking. The FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people. That's just on the fentanyl side.
--:-- Tim Pierce: An awful lot of the violent crime in the United States is at the hands of gangs who are themselves involved in the distribution. The Biden administration has taken actions lately to, as it argues, decrease illegal immigration into the U.S. That's been primarily done by expanding options for immigrants to legally migrate, though.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And that hasn't been effective at keeping out immigrants with terror ties. Part of the Tajikistan group, for example, was caught and released by Border Patrol agents.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah. Wow. And what kind of response are we seeing to this on Capitol Hill?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, this has obviously been a top priority for Republicans who have battered the administration over its border policies.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's House Intel Committee Chair Mike Turner on Fox News earlier this month blaming President Biden for the terror threat.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The administration has let in individuals who have ties to ISIS and Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups and organizations. That's why you hear Director Wray saying that we're at the highest level, a threat for a terrorist attack. And it's all a result of Biden's policies.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Certainly a troubling situation. Tim, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Tonight, the debate the world has been waiting for is here, and you won't want to miss it. Daily Wire Backstage, the presidential debate live on the Daily Wire Plus app and dailywire.com.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Join Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavan, and Jeremy Boring for our exclusive Daily Wire backstage coverage. Get expert analysis and unfiltered commentary on this pivotal debate.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The exclusive Daily Wire backstage pre-show starts at 8.30 p.m. Eastern, followed by a live simulcast of the presidential debate and an in-depth post-show analysis.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Be part of the conversation as we break down the candidate's performances and what it means for the future of our nation. Don't miss out. Watch on the Daily Wire Plus app or at dailywire.com.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Americans have seen inflation skyrocket under Joe Biden, a trend that's done major damage to his poll numbers. But this week, Axios ran a story headlined, 16 Nobel economists see a Trump inflation bomb.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The warning from the group has drawn comparison to the infamous letter from 51 intelligence experts falsely painting the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation
--:-- Host John Bickley: Joining us to discuss is E Antony economist with the Heritage Foundation E.J., thank you for coming on.
--:-- E.J. Antony: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
--:-- E.J. Antony: First, what are the main economic concerns these 16 economists have raised about a Trump second term?
--:-- E.J. Antony: Well, ironically, a lot of the concerns that they're raising are things that we're seeing under Biden right now, not even things that we previously saw under Trump, such as too much government spending, fueling ever-growing deficits, and therefore more inflation.
--:-- E.J. Antony: But a lot of the Trump proposals that they cite, they unfortunately just have things backwards, where they talk about increasing tariffs, for example, without acknowledging that former President Trump would like to have a corresponding decrease in income taxes.
--:-- E.J. Antony: In other words, net neutral. But for some reason, they ignore that second part and treat everything as a cost increase as long as Trump proposed it.
--:-- E.J. Antony: And what specific policies are they pointing to?
--:-- E.J. Antony: Well, aside from tariffs, you know, they cite the fact that President Trump would like to extend the tax reform that he enacted, but then also make that permanent. And they say that that would add to the deficit.
--:-- E.J. Antony: Now, of course, they neglect the fact that after that tax reform was passed at the end of 2017, we saw tax revenues to the Treasury not only increase, but increase to record highs.
--:-- E.J. Antony: And so the idea that just because you cut tax rates, you will automatically get a decrease in tax revenue that was yet again debunked during the first Trump administration.
--:-- E.J. Antony: Now, some counter arguments to the Trump team's discussions about national debt have been that the debt really spiked in the last year of Trump as a result of COVID.
--:-- E.J. Antony: Is that a valid point?
--:-- E.J. Antony: Well, unfortunately, the debt did absolutely explode in 2020 as a response to COVID. There's no doubt about that.
--:-- E.J. Antony: If you simply allowed that emergency spending to expire in 2021 and in 2022, then you'd actually have a balanced budget today. But instead of doing that, what the Biden administration did is simply replace that one-time emergency spending with new spending.
--:-- E.J. Antony: And so it made these multi-trillion dollar deficits not just a one-off that you have during an emergency or a recession, for example, but it made them permanent. It made it part of the D.C. establishment.
--:-- E.J. Antony: As we mentioned at the top, inflation has really impacted polling for President Biden. How have we seen concerns about the economy influence the strategies for both Biden and the Trump campaigns?
--:-- E.J. Antony: Well, it seems to me that because people's real incomes, in other words, their incomes adjusted for inflation, what those incomes can actually buy, because those incomes rose so much under Trump, And because those real incomes have declined so much under Biden, that's a very powerful talking point for the Trump campaign.
--:-- E.J. Antony: On the Biden campaign side, they're essentially trying to cast blame for inflation everywhere other than themselves. Blame it on supply chains. Blame it on Putin. Putin does not control the money supply. And supply chain problems have at this point all been resolved.
--:-- E.J. Antony: So we should not only expect inflation to come down, but prices to come down if those things were actually responsible for inflation. Clearly, they are not.
--:-- E.J. Antony: This seems to be a very powerful talking point for the Trump campaign, which is why they continue to hammer Biden on it. And it seems to very much resonate with the American people. Yeah, as the polls continue to indicate.
--:-- Host John Bickley: E.J. and Tony, thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
