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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Allegations of potential treasonous behavior have been leveled at General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We'll talk to former military officials about the allegations and what they expect will happen next.
--:-- John Bickley: If those reports are accurate, there's no reasonable defense that he could provide to justify those discussions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, September 17th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: As refugees from Afghanistan have arrived in the U.S., Northern Virginia is one of the regions tasked with housing them. We'll take an exclusive look at how local officials in Virginia are handling the influx of migrants.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's secrecy that's masking pandemonium.
--:-- John Bickley: And as public drug use and fatal overdoses increase in Washington state, Police are sounding the alarm about the state's new drug law, which they say is almost impossible to enforce and contributes to the vicious cycle of addiction.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What's in the new law and how is it impacting law enforcement efforts?
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: A bold allegation from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, Peril, accuses sitting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, of actively undermining President Trump during the last months of his administration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the bombshell new book, Milley made phone calls to foreign military counterparts in China, promising to warn them in the event that President Trump planned an attack.
--:-- John Bickley: If true, his actions would represent a radical subversion of the civilian chain of command.
--:-- Georgia Howe: John, you talked to some former military officials for their insights and perspective on Milley and the allegations. Who did you talk to and what did you learn?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, well, one of the officials I spoke with was Chris Miller, who was acting secretary of defense from November 2020 to January 2021.
--:-- Chris Miller: He worked closely with Milley during the last three months of Donald Trump's presidency, which was actually during the time of some of these allegations.
--:-- John Bickley: I asked Miller about his working relationship with General Milley, and he said it was positive and professional.
--:-- Chris Miller: He also said Trump and Milley's relationship was businesslike.
--:-- John Bickley: When I asked him about the allegations against General Milley, he said he'd be surprised if they were actually true.
--:-- Chris Miller: Miller said calling foreign counterparts is not unusual at all, But if the accusations of working to undermine the president are true, he said that's extremely serious.
--:-- John Bickley: He noted that he was calling his foreign counterparts. And that is routine.
--:-- Chris Miller: There's nothing wrong with that. A thing that is troubling is if the body of the calls as reflected in the Woodward book is accurate, then that's completely inappropriate.
--:-- John Bickley: There needs to be a thorough and independent investigation.
--:-- Chris Miller: If that true that Milie General Milie said something like that of that nature you know we talking about probably the greatest civil military crisis since you know MacArthur threatened to attack China during a Korean war
--:-- John Bickley: And you know how that ended.
--:-- Chris Miller: President Truman fired him.
--:-- John Bickley: Miller also pushed back on claims that President Trump needed safeguards when it came to national security, saying he got a bad rap because he refused to use political speech.
--:-- Chris Miller: Here's the one criticism people I think have all too often is he spoke in a business language as opposed to this kind of dark art of national security speak, which is a language all its own.
--:-- John Bickley: But I thought his instincts were right.
--:-- Kash Patel: I served as chief of staff for Miller while he was acting secretary of defense.
--:-- John Bickley: He also stressed the difference between a routine call and the violation of chain of command.
--:-- Kash Patel: So people are muddying the waters. If he wants to call his counterpart in China to talk to him about, you know, non-operational business, that's fine.
--:-- John Bickley: What you're not supposed to do is use that phone call authority and privilege to talk about something that's outside of your legal obligations, your legal authorities.
--:-- Kash Patel: And that is acting in the chain of command and discussing command operations.
--:-- John Bickley: I also spoke with retired U.S. Army Colonel Doug McGregor, who's served as senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense.
--:-- Doug McGregor: I asked him if he was confident that President Biden would order the release of the transcripts of Milley's call with his Chinese counterpart.
--:-- John Bickley: No, I'm not confident that anything will be done at all.
--:-- Doug McGregor: In fact, my expectation at this point is that nothing will change.
--:-- John Bickley: Milley will be retained in his position. Nothing will be discussed any further by the White House.
--:-- Doug McGregor: And they will let the left on the Hill, their friends on the left and others, including the controlled right for the Republicans, bill around and say whatever they care to, but I don't think anything will happen.
--:-- John Bickley: The president is the commander in chief. He calls the shots. He's judge and jury in this case.
--:-- Doug McGregor: So this is all on Biden?
--:-- Doug McGregor: Like Miller, McGregor also stressed the significance of the allegations.
--:-- Doug McGregor: If Eisenhower were the president and what you say is true, Milley would be summoned to the White House and he would be removed from his position.
--:-- John Bickley: Then there would be a decision by legal authorities and advisers to the president regarding whether Milley should be placed under House arrest pending court martial.
--:-- Doug McGregor: That's how serious these infractions would be if they turn out to be accurate.
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden defended Milley on Thursday, saying he has great confidence in the general.
--:-- Doug McGregor: So we'll see if McGregor ends up being right about what happens or doesn't happen next.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. We'll see.
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--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, an exclusive look at how the federal government is handling refugees from Afghanistan.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: As the U.S. evacuates Afghanistan following the Afghan military's effective surrender to the Taliban, the Biden administration has flown thousands of Afghans to the U.S.
--:-- John Bickley: Many landed at Dulles Airport just outside of D.C.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: But what happens after that?
--:-- John Bickley: Joining us from the area for some exclusive reporting is Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So, Luke, what's going on on the ground in Virginia?
--:-- John Bickley: John, essentially it's secrecy that's masking pandemonium.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Some of the migrants were taken to the Dulles Expo Center and apparently to hotels around the airport.
--:-- John Bickley: Others are being housed in military bases throughout Virginia and other states including Quantico
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Even top local officials don really know how many there are or what happening to them Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herity hasn't been able to find out.
--:-- John Bickley: I looked into this and found that one temporary facility they used was a Dick's Sporting Goods that went out of business in Fair Oaks Mall.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: A big black fence was put up and Afghans were living inside earlier this week.
--:-- John Bickley: So in the middle of a suburban shopping mall.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Yeah, a pretty big mall where I shop with my family right next to a Dave and Buster's and an ice cream store.
--:-- John Bickley: And then suddenly on Tuesday afternoon, big white trucks pulled up and started unloading things from inside the store.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And a Department of Defense subcontractor who was sitting on a folding chair out front said she was the closest thing to an official on site and that the migrants had been moved to somewhere else earlier that day.
--:-- John Bickley: I haven't really been able to find out where.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Take a listen.
--:-- Department of Defense subcontractor: Today, I believe, will be the last day that we're doing it because everything's getting shut down.
--:-- John Bickley: So it should go back to whoever just owns the door.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So the Department of Defense is not operating out of here now?
--:-- Department of Defense subcontractor: Not after today, I think.
--:-- John Bickley: So that was run by a DOD subcontractor.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So the federal government is kind of warehousing these migrants in closed-off facilities.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, many of them are actually coming into the community, including hundreds that have flooded hospitals seeking various medical treatments.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: At one point, authorities lost track of a baby.
--:-- John Bickley: And Americans were being turned away from medical treatment at their neighborhood hospital because it was too busy treating Afghans.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Now, despite some facilities being run by the DOD, a lot of this has fallen to really anyone who would do what the federal government was not doing.
--:-- John Bickley: An obscure local board with 12 employees found itself trying to pick up the slack.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Fairfax County itself has spent $300,000 ferrying the migrants around, taking them to hospitals and things like that.
--:-- John Bickley: County Executive Brian Hill said it's, quote, been very difficult to even get with the federal government on what the next steps are.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So the federal government brought them to Virginia, then sort of left others with the cost.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, and it's not just a financial burden.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: The Virginia Department of Health has put out an alert that Virginians who travel to certain hotels or hospitals or to the airport could have been exposed to measles.
--:-- John Bickley: Five migrants were diagnosed with the disease.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: This is a heavily Democratic area, but it sounds like a lot of local leaders are not pleased with the Biden administration's handling of this.
--:-- John Bickley: What are federal officials from the state saying?
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement that he will, quote, continue to do everything he can to ensure that Virginia's hospitals, many of which are already strained with COVID-19 patients, have the resources they need to care for our communities.
--:-- John Bickley: Okay.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: But he also had some compliments for the migrants.
--:-- John Bickley: Quote, good news is they're taking the coronavirus vaccines at a higher rate than Virginians.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, Luke, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: Police in Washington state are struggling to arrest people for drug possession thanks to a new law that some officers are calling unenforceable.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Meanwhile, drug overdose deaths are spiking in the state.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Alordi did some digging on this issue and has the details for us.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: So, Maraid, Washington police basically can't arrest people for drugs anymore. Why not?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, a new law passed this year prohibits police from arresting someone for drug possession until the third time they catch them.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: The first two times, they have to give the person a warning and contact information for rehab.
--:-- John Bickley: The exception is if it's a large quantity of drugs, suggesting a connection to drug trafficking. then police can arrest the person without the two warnings.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Here's the problem though. It essentially impossible for police to know for sure how many warnings a person has been given because there no statewide database for drug warnings
--:-- John Bickley: So police could ostensibly keep catching someone with drugs and then letting them go.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: That's correct.
--:-- John Bickley: If someone is caught in Seattle one day, for example, and Spokane the next day, there's no way for police to know.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Now on the local level, police have cobbled together their own local databases to try to comply with this law.
--:-- John Bickley: But outside of their immediate areas, they still have no idea who's been warned and who hasn't.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: And when did this policy go into effect?
--:-- John Bickley: It went into effect May of this year.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: And this happened because Washington State's Supreme Court ruled in February that the old law, which classified drug possession as a felony, was unconstitutional.
--:-- John Bickley: So from about February to May, drugs were actually essentially decriminalized until the legislature passed the looser drug law.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: So presumably the intent is a more compassionate approach to drug addicts?
--:-- John Bickley: That's exactly right.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: State lawmakers who supported the new law hoped that it would steer drug users into treatment rather than the criminal justice system.
--:-- John Bickley: But police chiefs in Washington state told me that the reality on the ground is much different.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Because cops are forced to let people go in most cases, the substance abuse cycle continues.
--:-- John Bickley: In the vast majority of cases, drug users are not calling the rehab number police give them when they issue a warning.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidel pointed out that in Spokane County under the old drug law, people who got caught with drugs actually got the felony removed from their record if they agreed to participate in the county drug court's rehab program.
--:-- John Bickley: What are the trends in terms of drug use in the state? Do we have any data on that?
--:-- Maraid Alordi: We do.
--:-- John Bickley: It shows that drug use is up.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Public drug use is rampant, and most concerning, fatal drug overdoses are also up, especially in places like Seattle.
--:-- John Bickley: There were 418 overdose deaths in the first three months of 2021, compared to 378 in the same time period last year.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Spokane County Sheriff Ozzy Nezevich told me police are now aware of children as young as sixth grade using marijuana at school.
--:-- John Bickley: Violent crime and property crime are also up in Washington state as drug users try to generate a little revenue to fund their addictions.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Also, the drug law is just one of the challenges facing police in Washington this year.
--:-- John Bickley: In May, the Seattle police chiefs said that 260 officers, about 20 percent of the force, have left in the last year and a half.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: So we have a situation here where the compassionate intention behind the new drug law might not be producing the outcome lawmakers hoped for.
--:-- John Bickley: All the police chiefs I spoke to agreed that they want to see drug users get into treatment, but how to get them there is the issue Washington state is still grappling with.
--:-- Maraid Alordi: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Of course, thanks Georgia.
--:-- [Upbeat music continues]
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: On Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott shut down six ports of entry from Mexico to stop a surge in illegal border crossings.
--:-- John Bickley: In a statement, Abbott said, The sheer negligence of the Biden administration to do their job and secure the border is appalling.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: France announced it killed an Islamic State leader who headed up a 2017 operation that killed four U.S. service members in Africa.
--:-- John Bickley: If confirmed, the success would be an achievement for France in its effort to fight against terrorism.
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--:-- John Bickley: If you like 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.
--:-- 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.
--:-- John Bickley: 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 past membership and get your first month for only 99 cents
