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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, January 31st.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: A new bipartisan law seeks to ban members of Congress from trading on the stock market in order to prevent insider trading. What's in the bill and why is it gaining traction on both sides of the aisle?
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--:-- John Bickley: Here with the details on the proposed legislation, as well as how members of Congress are responding, is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, currently, members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell individual stocks as long as they aren't trading with non-public knowledge, according to the law. Critics say that that's too vague a definition and leaves the door open for members of Congress to unfairly leverage the information they hear in closed-door meetings for their advantage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So right now, leaders from both sides, including Republican Senator Josh Hawley and Democrat Senator John Ossoff, have proposed similar laws that would ban members of Congress and their immediate families from buying individual stocks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Instead, if they wanted to invest in the market, they'd have to put their money in a blind trust. Now, under Hawley's proposal, members who violated the law would have to pay all of their profits directly to the U.S. Treasury, while under Ossoff's bill, they'd have to pay a fine equal to their congressional salary.
--:-- John Bickley: Members of Congress shouldn't be padding their own pockets and lining their own wallets. They ought to be focused on doing what the people sent them there to do. And that means they shouldn't be trying to make a quick buck in the stock market.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So how much proof is there that members are benefiting from inside information? Well, that's the thing. It's tough to prove why they bought what they bought when they bought it. But there are plenty of examples that look sketchy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, in November, Lockheed Martin won a $10 billion contract with the U.S. government to modernize the F-22. Two weeks before that deal was public, House Democrat Kathy Manning bought $30,000 worth of Lockheed stock. And it just so happens that she sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and presumably would have known this contract was coming.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: House Republican Kevin Hearn, who sits on the Budget Committee, did more or less the same. He bought $100,000 worth of Lockheed stock just weeks before the contract was announced. Obviously, that deal caused those stocks to soar and make them a lot of money.
--:-- John Bickley: Nancy Pelosi was also a big earner here. Back on March 19th, for example, she and her husband bought over a million worth of Microsoft stock. Just 12 days after that purchase, the stock spiked 12% when it was announced that Microsoft had secured a $22 billion contract with the U.S. military.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Members of Congress were so successful trading stocks that many traders actually started following their stock activity and copying their exact moves and turning quite a profit. It actually became a pretty popular trend on TikTok and Twitter.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So if this has been going on for years, why is there a renewed push right now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, for years, there have been scattered calls for a law like this. But two things happened recently that really served as a catalyst for actual movement. First was COVID. Numerous politicians, both Republican and Democrat, made significant profits buying and selling stocks related to vaccines and other COVID products.
--:-- John Bickley: In multiple instances, it looked like they were trading with information that they'd received in closed-door briefings during the early days of the pandemic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And do we expect this bill to pass? It's hard to know at this point, but there's definitely plenty of momentum. We know that 75% of voters in one recent poll said members should not be playing the stock market.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So there's broad support from both sides of the aisle. And even members who've apparently benefited from the practice are now supporting reform, at least publicly. Nancy Pelosi, for example, who initially opposed the measure because, quote, we're a free market economy, said last week that with pressure building, she would change her tune. And that, quote, if members want to do that, I'm okay with that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Fascinating.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for digging into this.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
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--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the Biden administration turns up the heat on Spotify. Looking for a great way to bring amazing flavor to your meals?
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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome back to Morning Wire. First, it was Neil Young, then Joni Mitchell. Now the Biden administration is also turning up the pressure on Spotify to drop Joe Rogan's podcast. What does the debate around COVID misinformation mean for free speech online?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to catch us up on just who is asking for Spotify to suppress Rogan and why is Daily Wire entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, Megan, the Neil Young thing was kind of a big story last week after he asked Spotify to choose between his music and Rogan. Not surprisingly, Spotify chose Rogan. But then Joni Mitchell joined Young, saying that she's going to take her music off the platform if they continue to host Rogan's show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then just yesterday, Harry and Meghan Markle jumped on the anti-Rogan bandwagon as well. They're challenging the streaming platform to, quote, meet the moment.
--:-- Megan Basham: But now, in addition, the Biden administration has also sort of signaled that it wants Spotify to reign in Rogan. So tell us about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. So I think the Neil Young, Joni Mitchell thing, that's sort of entertaining to watch. We've seen these kind of celeb showdowns in the past. But a member of the Biden administration saying something similar is very different, and it's much more serious.
--:-- Megan Basham: So last week on MSNBC, hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough specifically asked U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Muthi about Rogan's podcast and the role they believe it's played and spreading COVID quote misinformation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now this was his answer: I know when it comes to how we root out the misinformation in society right now and give people access to accurate information, we got to do several things. Number one, we got to recognize that our technology platforms, particularly social media, these have an important role to play. These are the predominant places where we're seeing misinformation spread. These platforms have still not stepped up to do the right thing and do enough, I should say, to reduce the spread of misinformation.
--:-- Megan Basham: So that's a pretty pointed statement, you know, especially in light of the debate happening in Washington about reining in big tech.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So you have some legal scholars on the conservative side who have argued that as private companies, part of big tech's free speech is having the liberty to censor speech on their platforms as they see fit.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, that argument would say, for example, that Twitter shouldn't have to platform speech or speakers that they don't like. And that's fine because it's not the government doing the censoring.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But other constitutional experts have said that's too simplistic because the government has been coercing big tech to suppress speech. So in that case, big tech would be acting as an arm of the government engaging in censorship.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now here, with the Surgeon General's comments, you could argue that you see an example of the Biden administration attempting to do just that, pressure Spotify to censor Rogan on its behalf, especially since it's been clear that Spotify wasn't particularly inclined to silence Rogan before this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And is this the first time we've seen a member of this administration say something like this about big tech?
--:-- Megan Basham: No, not at all. In fact, this was a bit more mild than we've seen in recent months. To give you one example from July, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki outlined a series of what she called asks that she said the Biden administration has presented to the big tech companies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, since that time, we've started to see YouTube and Twitter in particular take some pretty strong action against Rogan. YouTube has removed some of the episodes that centered on COVID treatments, and Twitter has completely banned one of his most popular guests, Robert Malone, who was the doctor that pioneered mRNA vaccines.
--:-- Megan Basham: Then, just yesterday, Bloomberg reported on a leaked internal email that says Spotify is now planning to add warning labels to Rogan's show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Spotify is becoming one of the last holdouts right now for free speech.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, I think you could say that. And the pressure is really ramping up on that company. Now, they may not care what, say, a Neil Young or Joni Mitchell, or as you said, Georgia, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex think. But they probably care a lot about the federal government suddenly turning its attention to them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for bringing us this story.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, no problem.
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--:-- John Bickley: With just a few days until the beginning of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the news is not centered on the games themselves or the Olympians who will be competing. Instead, the focus is on the location of the game as Beijing's communist government cracks down on free speech and their human rights abuses continue to be highlighted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to tell us more is Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So, Joe, for good reason, the fact that the Olympics are taking place in China is really dominating the conversation. Yeah, which is to be expected from the U.S. side. This officially ratcheted up in December. That's when the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the game, citing China's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.
--:-- Georgia Howe: China's communist government responded, of course, by saying that the U.S. will pay a price for its wrong practices.
--:-- Joe Morgan: But many feel that the diplomatic boycott by the administration is not enough. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said the administration had no plans to protect our athletes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But for the IOC, the question is, why Beijing? With all we know about the PRC, the oppression of the Uyghur people, the silencing of the dissidents, why did the IOC decide to give the Chinese government another shot at the Olympic Games?
--:-- Joe Morgan: Here's what veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas said about the situation: The IOC deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Costas mentioned COVID's impact on the games and concerns over freedom of the press. Can you unpack those issues a bit more for us?
--:-- Joe Morgan: I mean, as far as COVID, all athletes will be separated from the rest of society. They will be in a, quote, closed loop, and participants will will also be subjected to daily testing throughout their time in China. Athletes that break protocol will face repercussions such as expulsion from the Games.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Athletes and team officials must be fully vaccinated in order to avoid a 21-day quarantine in China. Unlike at the Tokyo Games, the vaccine will be a requirement for members of the U.S. Olympic team.
--:-- Joe Morgan: As far as fans attending events, China announced a change in plans in mid-January, with the organizing committee announcing that the original plan to offer event tickets to the general public had been scrapped, with tickets now being offered to, quote, selected groups.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then NBC Sports will not send announcers to the 2022 Beijing Games. In China, over growing COVID concerns, that makes this the second straight games NBC Sports has mostly announced from its headquarters in Stanford, Connecticut, rather than the host city itself.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Right. So one of the big questions here, will the press and athletes be able to speak freely, you know, without fear of repercussions from the Chinese government?
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's a great question, John. The IOC has stated that athletes will be allowed freedom of speech in China when it comes to speaking with journalists and posting on social media, though how the IOC will protect athletes against Chinese law is unclear.
--:-- Joe Morgan: But two weeks ago, the deputy director general of Beijing's 2022 International Relations Department, Yang Zhu, told reporters that Olympians who violate the, quote, Olympic spirit will be subject to punishment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And this is a direct quote from Yang: Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit, I'm sure, will be protected, and anything in any behavior or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese law and regulations, are also subject to certain punishments.
--:-- Joe Morgan: While political demonstrations are not allowed at the Olympics, the IOC announced in July 2021 that protests would be allowed prior to the start of competition and during the introduction of an athlete or a team.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Whether that will be allowed in Beijing is a completely different conversation.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Indeed it is.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, the games kick off on Friday, so we're about to see how all this plays out.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, and it's going to be fascinating.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, Joe.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Thanks, John.
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--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. California gun rights groups are suing the city of San Jose after the city approved a proposal to make gun owners get liability insurance and pay a yearly fee directed to a nonprofit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, Subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
