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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: It's Friday, April 29th, and we've got a packed show for you today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. We'll break down the latest news on the economy, the White House's new "disinformation" board, and the controversy surrounding the Homeland Security Secretary.
--:-- John Bickley: But first, a quick word from our sponsor.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The White House has announced a Disinformation Governance Board, a move that comes just days after Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter. What will the board monitor? Who will be heading it up? And why are Republicans sounding the alarm?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we're joined now by Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Ian, first off, tell us about this announcement. What's the purpose of the Disinformation Governance Board?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Sure. So, on Wednesday, we were told that the Biden administration would be creating a disinformation governance board, whose supposed purpose would be to combat the spread of so-called misinformation as we approach the 2022 midterm elections.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And who's going to be heading up this new department?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, Nina Jankovic, who the Biden administration describes as a Russian disinformation expert, is going to be heading up the board.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But this is where the board gets even more controversial. First off, Jankovic is arguably a critic of free speech. Just a few days ago, in the context of Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, she said, quote, I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what they would look like for the marginalized communities which are already shouldering disproportionate amounts of this abuse.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And this is really worrying because after it was announced that she would head up the board, she said that a huge focus of their work would be to maintain the Department of Homeland Security's commitment to free speech, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And not only has she drawn supposed links between free speech and abuse, Jankovic has really concerning ties to the notorious Hunter Biden laptop story.
--:-- Ian Howarth: As an apparent expert on Russian disinformation, she described the Bonshell story regarding Hunter Biden's laptop as a, quote, Trump campaign product, playing into the Democratic Party narrative at the time that this story was either Republican or Russian disinformation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As the Daily Mail pointed out, this is raising serious questions over Jankovic's ability to accurately judge what disinformation even is, given that several sources have shown the Hunter Biden laptop story to be true.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Right. And what's been the response to this announcement beyond Jankovic's involvement? It's been almost entirely negative on the conservative side, as well as from those who are supporters of online free speech or suspicious of governmental control of online speech.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Many are likening the disinformation governance board to George Orwell's Ministry of Truth in 1984.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But again, the concern here is also the timing. This is all happening soon after Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter based on the fundamental promise to address the subject of free speech online.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So when we consider the ever-changing definition of terms like misinformation and disinformation, as well as the fact that they are inherently subjective and partisan terms to begin with, This announcement is sparking a lot of concern.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, we'll be following it for sure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ian, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, in a surprise to some experts, the U.S. economy declines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. We'll break down the numbers and what it means for you.
--:-- John Bickley: And we're joined now by Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Cabot, walk us through these numbers. What are we looking at here?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, every quarter, the U.S. Commerce Department releases their official estimate on America's GDP outlook for the quarter. And they found that this quarter had actually shrunk by 1.4%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A quick refresher for everyone at home, the GDP is the total value of all the goods and services produced in a country. It basically tells the overall story of a country's economic health.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And according to the numbers, our economy is not very healthy right now. For context, last quarter, the economy grew by 6.9%. The quarter before that, it was 2.3%. And both quarters before that saw at least 6% growth. So this is a definite turnaround.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it's actually the first time we've seen negative growth since the height of COVID lockdowns, which obviously is not a great sign, given that the prediction initially was that there was going to be growth this quarter, definitely not anything this small, and in this case, negative.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it caught many people by surprise. What are the main reasons for the decline? So, as always, there are a few factors at play here. First, the obvious ones that we've talked about on the show a good bit, mainly inflation and supply chain backups that have been exacerbated by labor shortages and international COVID lockdowns like the one we've seen in Shanghai.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. But economists are also now pointing to a widening trade deficit for the decline in this case.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Essentially the problem is that the U is importing far more goods and services than we exporting which isn't always conducive for a strong economy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, back in January, the U imported a billion more than we exported. That's the largest monthly deficit on record.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Then a month later, we saw the second largest deficit on record.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So while demand is still high from American consumers, our production itself has started to slow down, and that's leading to the deficit, which has economists worried.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So is there any reason for optimism? I like the optimism. You know, I'm always looking for the silver lining. In this case, there is one. It's the numbers on consumer and business spending, which were up 2.7 and 9.2% respectively.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This essentially means that even though economic growth nationally slowed down, demand among the actual players in the economy, aka consumers and businesses, is still relatively high.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They're still spending money. The main things we've seen increased spending on lately have been hotels, airfare, restaurants, and other industries that had been hampered by COVID earlier in the year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But experts, again, are warning that even though people are still throwing money around now, as inflation gets worse and as the Fed keeps raising interest rates further, which is expected in the coming months, we are going to see that spending start to slow down.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, that would make sense.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, obviously, the economy is going to be a key factor in the midterms. How has the president responded to this news?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, if there's one thing we've seen time and time again in polling, as we've talked on the show, it's that the economy has fast become the number one issue in the mind of American voters.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So you just cannot overstate how much of a political impact all of this is going to have.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: President Biden responded, issuing a statement Thursday afternoon, saying, quote, last quarter's growth estimate was affected by technical factors, including Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and global inflation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So he's blaming outside factors. But critics naturally responded by claiming that Biden's policies are themselves a key contributor to inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they say it's ironic that he's now blaming inflation for our poor economic standing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They also jumped on his attempt to blame Putin's invasion, noting that Russia and Ukraine were relatively small trading partners of ours before the war, and also that this new data, a lot of it actually happened and was measured before the war started.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they say those aren't legitimate excuses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But bottom line, the president may be downplaying the issue at the moment, but he and his administration are keenly aware of how important this topic is for voters and how quickly they need to take action if they're going to prevent a red wave in November.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, November is coming fast.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks so much.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- John Bickley: The U.S. border with Mexico experienced the highest number of illegal border crossings in American history last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And the Biden administration is considering a controversial proposal that critics say could double that number.
--:-- John Bickley: Some congressional Republicans have responded by saying DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're joined now by Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Ben, tell us what is the situation on the border and how is President Biden proposing to change it?
--:-- Ben Johnson: The border continues to be in crisis. Border officials reported 1.7 million illegal encounters at the southern border last year, more than any time in U.S. history.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the number of illegal crossings increased every month of 2022, including another 221,000 in March.
--:-- Ben Johnson: As we've discussed, officials warn that Mexican cartels traffic in fentanyl, which has eclipsed car accidents as the number one killer of Americans age 18 to 45 this year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the Biden administration has announced that next month it wants to repeal Title 42.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's a provision that Border Patrol agents have used to expel about half of all illegal immigrants.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Border agents warned that that could lead to 18,000 people a day crossing the border.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Yeah, we've seen those numbers. They're stunning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, a judge has enjoined shutting down Title 42 for the moment, but the attempt to do so has led to calls to impeach Mayorkas, right?
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's right. And Mayorkas said earlier this week that he had quote effectively managed the border crisis which led Congressman to believe he either complacent or complicit in the problem.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The most recent example happened during a congressional hearing on Thursday afternoon.
--:-- Ben Johnson: During a heated exchange, Congressman Chip Roy of Texas noted the national security threat of an open border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We sent a letter saying there are 42 people on the terrorist watch list that are in the United States. You just said to Mr. Jordan, you don't even know where the hell they are.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Representative Steve Shabot of Ohio asked Mayorkas about the DHS's clandestine transportation of illegal migrants throughout the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Let me ask you this. How many bus loads have you sent to my state, Ohio? Do you know that?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, who introduced a measure to impeach Mayorkas last August, confronted Mayorkas directly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You're not preventing entries. You're fomenting entries. You're encouraging it. You're either accepting the Biden administration, and if that's the case, then you should be impeached. If you disagree with the Biden administration's program, you should resign.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's where we are.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado agreed.
--:-- Ben Johnson: My constituents want you impeached because they believe you've committed treason.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Buck added that his constituents have likened Mayorkas to Benedict Arnold. Not a favorable comparison.
--:-- Ben Johnson: What about Democrats on the committee?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Naturally, few of them joined the fray, although Representative Greg Stanton of Arizona mentioned opioids and the actions of Mexican cartels.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And on Wednesday, Michigan Democrat Elisa Slotkin said, Our immigration system is broken. Democrats and Republicans own that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In Congress, we are more culpable than anyone because we are the ones who set the laws.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And as a CIA officer and Pentagon official by training, if we are dealing with security issues on the very border of our country, we have failed. Our policy is failing. That is the place of last resort to protect ourselves.
--:-- Georgia Howe: OK, now, what is the status of the impeachment bill?
--:-- Ben Johnson: So far, he has a total of 30 co-sponsors.
--:-- Georgia Howe: During a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned Mayorkas, quote, At any time, if someone is derelict in their job, there's always the option of impeaching somebody.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So more of a threat than an imminent likelihood of impeachment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. Is it possible that Mayorkas actually could be impeached?
--:-- Ben Johnson: It's not likely with both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But if the majority changes hands after the midterms, look for impeachment calls to heat up.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well, we'll see.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for bringing us that report, Ben.
--:-- Ben Johnson: It's been my pleasure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. On Thursday, Moderna requested authorization from the FDA for its COVID vaccine for young kids aged six months to five years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The age group would be given a smaller dose than adults.
--:-- John Bickley: And President Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion additional dollars for Ukraine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: $20 billion would go to weapons and ammunition, $8.5 billion in economic support, and $3 billion for humanitarian aid.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- John Bickley: 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.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to Daily Wire members.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
