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--:-- Georgia Howe: Consumer prices continue to rise at a near record pace. Which items have been hit hardest by inflation, and what can we expect as we head into summer?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, May 12th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: New details emerge related to the Hunter Biden investigation, including that a Hollywood attorney has paid off his delinquent taxes. We talked to Peter Schweitzer about the latest in the high-profile case.
--:-- John Bickley: And Elon Musk says President Trump will be allowed back on Twitter, and he has some surprising supporters for that decision. Plus, the latest on the attempt to pass a federal abortion law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place.
--:-- John Bickley: Start now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com slash wire. Offer good for a limited time. Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Pay per qualified applicant not available for all users. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A day after President Biden announced that inflation would be his number one domestic priority, new data from the Labor Department shows that last month it continued to rise at near record pace.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here with more on what products are seeing the highest price spikes and whether there's any end in sight is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the latest data from the labor department showed that inflation remained incredibly high last month, sitting at 8.3%. Now, there were some who initially celebrated the numbers because it was the first time in eight months that we've seen a month-to-month decline in inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, in March, we were at 8.5%. But many economists say that data is hardly reason to celebrate, as the main reason inflation dropped to 8.3 is because gas prices had temporarily dipped in April.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But remember, we talked yesterday on the show that those gas prices are already way up in the first few months of May. Right, hitting record levels.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, and any positive gains on inflation that had happened because gas prices dropped have already been erased. So maybe not the good news that some hoped it might be.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, exactly. So what items are prices going up on the most? Prices were up on products pretty much across the board, but the number one driving force last month were airline tickets.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The price of a plane ticket went up 18.6% in April alone. Yeah, that's the largest one-month increase since they actually started tracking prices back in 1963.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And airline prices are now up 33% compared to this time last year. Elsewhere, we saw price increases for hotels, which are now 23% more expensive than last year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Furniture, which is at 15% and baby food, which is 13% higher. And on that note, the baby formula shortage that we talked about earlier this week has gotten even worse in the last 24 hours.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there is growing pressure for federal response. So a lot more bad news on that front. Is there any good news? One initial silver lining we saw last month was that wages did rise for workers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But again, it's not enough to keep up with inflation. For example, overall wages have gone up about 4% since January 1st. But when you remember that inflation is almost double that right now, people are still taking home less money than they were last year by a pretty considerable margin.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, President Biden addressed inflation this week. Any impact or response to that so far?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we're going to have to wait to see long term what the impact is. But we talked on the show about how he kind of shifted the blame in the short term on inflation from COVID to Putin and then even Republicans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But on Tuesday he appeared to say that inflation was actually a sign of strength for the U Listen I agree with what Chairman Powell said last week that the number one threat is the strength, and that strength that we build is inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, the president mentioned Jerome Powell there, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Tell us about how the Fed has responded to inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They've definitely shifted gears a bit. Back when inflation started taking off, Chairman Powell implied it would be temporary, but that it should return to their target mark of 2% soon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And when that didn't happen, when it stayed around 8% month after month, the Fed changed their tune and announced a series of interest rate hikes in an attempt to slow down the economy and cut back on the general borrowing power of Americans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They now maintain that as interest rates and mortgage rates go up, we should start to see inflation level off in the coming months. But more and more Americans are really starting to take what the Fed says with a grain of salt, given their track record on predicting things in the past few years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's not hard to see why.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, the latest in the Hunter Biden case. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The New York Post reported this week that a Hollywood attorney, Kevin Morris, paid Hunter Biden's delinquent taxes, which amounted to some $2 million.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Joining us to discuss is GAI president and author of bestselling book Red Handed, Peter Schweitzer.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: So, Peter, we have some new details on the Hunter Biden case, a case you've researched extensively. What do we know here?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Well, we know there's a lot of mystery, which is troubling. You know, you've got the president of the United States, his immediate family, who's having favors done, financial favors done by lawyers and outside businessmen.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And, of course, the question is, what favors or expectations are there that they want in return for providing these funds? Clearly, Hunter Biden has legal troubles.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: He owed back taxes. There's going to probably be some legal consequence for that. But, you know, the focus here seems to be on PR and the expectation of spinning the story.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: I think, John, the nightmare scenario for the Biden family is that there is actually a trial. I fully expect that Hunter Biden is going to be indicted.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: But I think there's going to be a very aggressive move by the Biden family and the Biden team to reach some sort of settlement agreement, maybe additional fines, maybe even jail time for Hunter Biden.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: But they do not want an extended trial because that would then introduce evidence and communications and information involving the president of the United States. And I think they want to avoid that at all costs.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Will paying off these back taxes take pressure off the investigation? I doubt it.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And what we do know is that it was a full two years after this grand jury was convened to look into this, that Hunter Biden's back taxes were actually paid now, of course, by this Los Angeles attorney.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: So that certainly does not speak to the fact that this was some error that they wanted to correct quickly. He was avoiding these taxes and tried to do so as long as possible.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: I think the other thing we have to factor in, John, that, of course, These are back taxes owed on income that the IRS knows about There is the prospect that you have foreign money It just the IRS doesn actually know the full income that Hunter Biden was receiving at this time
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Yeah. Can you remind us of some of the claims about that income?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Yeah. I mean, you've got far-flung interests providing money to Hunter Biden through his businesses.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: That stems from our Russian oligarchs like Yelena Baturina, who is a pro-Putin oligarch who wired $3.5 million to one of Hunter Biden's LLCs.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: You've certainly got the money from Ukraine to the tune of $4 to $5 million, payments basically of $1 million a year for multiple years.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And then you probably have the biggest mystery, which is China, a variety of transfers of funds going into Hunter Biden LLCs.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: There was also apparently, Team Biden is saying that he sold his stake in a financial firm called BHR.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Some of the estimates from scholars at the University of Chicago is that his state can be worth $20 million. But we don't know.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And there's no requirement for politician family members to disclose any of their financial dealings that they do overseas or in the United States for that matter.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: So there's a lot of mystery here, and that is certainly part of the problem.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Now, the Delaware Grand Jury is continuing to investigate Hunter's personal finances. Where does that investigation stand now?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: I would say that investigation is probably at the 11th hour and we are approaching the end.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: This was convened in the summer of 2018. My understanding is that a lot of people are expecting that something will be reported here by the middle of June.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: That's not a hard and fast deadline, but clearly things seem to be coming to a head. and the fact that back taxes have been paid is an indication to me that Team Biden does expect that there probably are going to be some indictments, at least as it relates to the tax evasion charges.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Okay, final question. Is there anything about this case that's not being highlighted enough in other reporting?
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: I think a lot of the focus has been on the issues of failure to pay taxes, which is certainly important.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: The bigger issue for me is who actually was providing the funds from overseas.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: When it comes to China, you can look at the emails and you can identify the four businessmen that transferred millions of dollars to Hunter Biden.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: They all have ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, which makes this, in my mind, a serious national security question, not just a question of whether he paid taxes on that income.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: And I think that warrants further investigation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was GAI president and author of Red Handed, Peter Schweitzer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Questions about how Elon Musk will handle account suspensions have been a major topic of media conversation since the Tesla CEO reached a deal to buy Twitter.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, one of the biggest questions, whether he plans to uphold the ban against former President Trump, has been answered.
--:-- Megan Basham: Here to give us the details about why Musk believes the ban was a bad idea from the beginning and how people are reacting is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, I'll admit I was a little surprised that Musk has been so open about the Trump question. So what was the context when he commented on this?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, Musk received this question at an automotive conference. So you have to give this motor industry correspondent for the Financial Times a little credit for seizing the moment to ask Musk about that Trump Twitter ban.
--:-- Megan Basham: So here's how he responded. I guess the answer is that I would reverse the perma ban.
--:-- Megan Basham: I think perma bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme My opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares his opinion, is that we should not have perma bans.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, that's a telling moment because initially, Dorsey reportedly didn't want to ban Trump.
--:-- Megan Basham: But he eventually came to agree with some of those other Twitter executives that it was necessary.
--:-- Megan Basham: Dorsey confirmed Tuesday that he agrees with Musk that Twitter made a mistake.
--:-- Megan Basham: He said that with the exception of truly egregious cases like posts that include material that sexually exploit children, permanent bans have been a failure of Twitter's and don't work.
--:-- Megan Basham: Dorsey said in retrospect that it was, quote, a business decision and it's one he shouldn't have made.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, remind us, what were the specific tweets that precipitated the Trump Twitter ban?
--:-- Megan Basham: So it came down to two tweets on January 8th, 2021.
--:-- Megan Basham: The first said, The 75 million great American patriots who voted for me, America first, and make America great again will have a giant voice long into the future.
--:-- Megan Basham: They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape, or form. That came with a lot of exclamation points.
--:-- Megan Basham: The second tweet said, to all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th.
--:-- Megan Basham: So we have to remember that Trump posted those comments in the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot.
--:-- Megan Basham: Twitter said that given the context around them, it needed to ban the account in order to prevent, quote, the risk of further incitement of violence.
--:-- Megan Basham: So what has the reaction been to Musk suggesting that he would allow Trump back on Twitter?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, it was pretty mixed, but there was at least one surprising supporter.
--:-- Megan Basham: The ACLU put out a statement saying that Musk made the quote right call and that big tech holds so much power over our forums for political speech now.
--:-- Megan Basham: They need to exercise that power with restraint. The statement said social media platforms should first use lesser penalties like deleting posts that violate rules rather than just outright banning political figures.
--:-- Megan Basham: They said, and again, I'm quoting here, like it or not, President Trump is one of the most important political figures in this country, and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, as for Trump, he's still maintaining that he's not going to get back on Twitter.
--:-- Megan Basham: And that really does make a lot of sense given that he's invested into the social media platform Truth Social.
--:-- Megan Basham: But at the same time, Twitter was an important vehicle for him in 2016. So if he decides to run again, you have to wonder if that's going to change his thinking.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Another story we're tracking this week. On Thursday, a Democrat bill that would federalize abortion law failed to pass the U.S. Senate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All Senate Republicans joined by Democrat Joe Manchin voted against the bill. It failed 49 to 51.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
