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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, September 5th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The FBI said it did not directly investigate the subject in this week's tragic mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo has the latest.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: The suspect had been anonymously reported to the FBI last year for making online threats, including potentially targeting a middle school. The FBI, however, passed the tip along to local authorities who conducted their own investigation. The Jackson County Sheriff's Department interviewed the suspect's father but could not substantiate the threats. The suspect at the time denied the accusations and said his online accounts had been hacked.
--:-- Georgia Howe: These revelations come amid the fallout from yesterday's shooting at Appalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. The shooter, who has since been identified but will not be named due to Daily Wire policy, killed four people, including two teenagers, and injured several others.
--:-- John Bickley: Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to endorse Kamala Harris for president during an interview today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A smiling Putin said that if Biden supports Harris then so does he. Here's some of what he said: "I said that our so favorite was the acting president Mr. Biden. He been taken out the race but he advised all his supporters to support Mrs. Harris. That's what we'll do. We'll support her as well. That's the first thing. Secondly, her laugh is so expressive and infectious, that means that she's doing well."
--:-- John Bickley: The comments come after the Biden administration suggested this week that Putin would prefer a second Trump presidency.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In an unanticipated change today, Hunter Biden intends to change his plea to guilty on federal tax charges.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Biden's attorney, Abby Lowell, announced the decision during the trial in Los Angeles, where Biden initially pleaded not guilty. The move comes as Biden's defense team had prepared to argue that he was too impaired to pay his taxes. Federal prosecutors are now assessing the situation as Hunter Biden faces multiple charges stemming from a special counsel investigation led by David Weiss. This is Biden's second trial this year on separate charges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Former President Trump appeared with Sean Hannity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania last night, where he addressed key policy issues ahead of his upcoming debate with Harris.
--:-- John Bickley: Early on, the former president addressed the tragic school shooting in Georgia.
--:-- Sean Hannity: Well, it's a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons, and we're going to make it better. We're going to heal our world. We're going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetent American leadership. And we're going to make it better.
--:-- John Bickley: In another moment, Trump took aim at Harris over one of the biggest campaign issues this cycle, immigration.
--:-- Sean Hannity: Now she's all of a sudden saying, oh, I think we'll close the borders. She was the borders whether you like it or not. But even if you don't want to use that term, she was in charge of the border. It's the worst border in the history of the world, not just here. There never been a country that allowed 21 million people to come in over a three-year period.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump also hit Harris on the economy, predicting that if she wins, the U.S. will fall into a 1929-esque depression.
--:-- Sean Hannity: He also specifically addressed government-mandated price controls. Every time it's been tried, no matter over hundreds of years, you end up with no product, you end up with massive inflation, and you end up with the destruction of a country.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump outlined his economic plan while speaking at the Economic Club of New York today.
--:-- Sean Hannity: The former president promised to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and create a government efficiency commission led by Elon Musk. Trump vowed to make America richer and stronger, pledging energy independence, tax cuts, and regulatory rollbacks. He also addressed the vital need for the dollar to remain the world currency.
--:-- John Bickley: If we lost the dollar as the world currency, I think that would be the equivalent of losing a war. That would make us a third-world country, and we can't let it happen.
--:-- Sean Hannity: So I want to use sanctions as little as possible. One of the things that we have with tariffs is that I'll say to them, you don't honor the dollar as your world currency. Is that right? You're not going to do it? No, we're not. I said, that's OK. I'm going to put tariffs all over your product. And they're going to say, sir, we'd love to honor the dollar as the world currency.
--:-- Georgia Howe: ABC News has released the rules for the upcoming presidential debate on September 10th.
--:-- John Bickley: The 90-minute face-off will be moderated by David Muir and Lindsay Davis. It will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia with no audience present. Microphones will only be live when a candidate is speaking. Props or notes are not allowed. After winning a coin toss, Trump will get the final closing statement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Elections analyst Nate Silver says Trump is now favored to defeat Harris in November by the widest margin in months.
--:-- John Bickley: Silver's latest forecast shows Trump's chances of winning the Electoral College have increased to 58.2 percent, while Harris's odds have dropped to 41.6 percent.
--:-- Nate Silver: Silver notes that Harris did not benefit as much from the Democratic National Convention as expected. Recent polls in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Michigan show troubling signs for the Harris campaign. She's been ahead in most recent polling in the blue wall states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, all polling in the margin of error range.
--:-- Georgia Howe: People should remember, though, two things. One, we have three more months to go. There will be more surprises. And two, the polls have been wrong before. In both of the last two general elections, they underestimated Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: In other news, FBI agents raided the homes of top New York City officials yesterday, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The reason for the searches remain unclear, as the FBI has declined to comment. A City Hall lawyer stated that neither Mayor Eric Adams nor his staff are targets of any investigation.
--:-- John Bickley: This follows ongoing FBI probes into city officials, as well as an FBI investigation into a former aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who's accused of being a Chinese agent.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive-home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth reporting on the biggest stories of the day, tune into our latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley.
