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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, August 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We've got a lot to cover today. First, Gold Star families are demanding answers for the deaths of their loved ones in the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Weird-held lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect. What are the families alleging and how is the Biden administration responding?
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. I'm game. Let's get it done. Just tell me when and where. We'll do it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: [laughs] Alright, let's get to it. On Monday, Gold Star families of service members killed during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan offered testimony to members of Congress, accusing President Biden of lying to them about the circumstances of their loved one's deaths.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Here are the details of the emotional testimony as Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So on Monday, California Congressman Daryl Issa convened a public forum with family members of some of those 13 servicemen and women killed by a suicide bomber at the Kabul airport in August of 2021 during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. This was the first time that many of these family members have spoken publicly on the deaths of their children, and they had a uniform message. They want answers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Throughout the day, family members said they've been lied to by President Biden and the Pentagon about the circumstances surrounding that day, and they want the country to know what really happened, and more importantly, who's responsible.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to Congressman Issa, quote, the Biden administration lied to every one of these Gold Star families. That's why we brought them forward. These are the words the White House doesn't want you to hear.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We heard first from Kelly Barnett, whose son Taylor was killed that day. All I wanted to know where my kid was, where he fell. How long did he last? Did he fight? I was told to my face he died on impact. That's not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth. I was lied to and basically told to shut up. That's the way it was.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We also heard from Taylor's father, Darren, who had very strong words for President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and other members of military leadership. Do what our son did. Be a grown-ass man. Admit your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn't happen ever, ever again. You all need to resign immediately.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We heard a similar message from Christy Shamblin, a family member of Sergeant Nicole Gee. When our leaders, including the Secretary of Defense and our Commander-in-Chief, call this evacuation a success as if there should be celebration, it's like a knife in the heart for our families. I live every single day knowing that these deaths were preventable. My daughter could be with us today.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then there was Steve Nkui who said that his son Kareem was used as a pawn by the president. My son needed a commander-in-chief who cared solely about his life. Instead, his commander-in-chief chose to use him as a pawn so he could meet his September 11th deadline and get the optics he wanted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What kind of response have we seen from the Pentagon and the White House so far?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the DOD released a statement in response to the hearing, saying in part that they, quote, express our deepest condolences to the Gold Star families who lost loved ones during the tragic bombing at Abbey Gate. We are forever grateful for their service, sacrifice, and committed efforts during the evacuation operations. So they're not saying much. We've also yet to hear from the president on the matter, though. Obviously, these families want to hear more from him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Walk us through the timeline of this withdrawal and why there's been so much criticism of its handling.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So you'll remember in April of 2021, President Biden announced that U.S. forces would withdraw from Afghanistan in September of that year after 20 years of fighting. Now, at the time, the president promised that he would, quote, not conduct a hasty rush to the exit and that the withdrawal would be done, quote, responsibly, deliberately, and safely. Right. But by August 15th, the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan had collapsed and Taliban forces seized the capital. Towards the end of August, in the midst of a frantic and chaotic evacuation, Biden promised that he would not leave any Americans or allies behind and that any attack on our forces would be met with a swift and forceful response. Then on August 26th, that suicide bombing at Kabul airport killed 13 service members and 170 civilians. A retaliatory strike on August 29th killed 10 people who we later learned had no involvement in the bombing, including seven children. The last U.S. planes left the country on August 30th, leaving billions of dollars worth of military equipment and thousands of American citizens behind enemy lines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, and lots of questions still yet to be answered. Let's hope some of those families get those answers.
--:-- John Bickley: Kevin, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, a debate in November will pit Gavin Newsom against Ron DeSantis. The debate between California and Florida, you know, has already been had. People have been voting on it with their feet. They have fled California in record numbers. Florida has been the number one state for net in migration. We have the number one ranked economy, number one now in education, crime rate at a 50-year low.
--:-- Stephen L. Miller: So, Stephen, you wrote a piece arguing that Florida versus California is the election we should be having. In other words, this debate is the debate we should be having. First, do you think this debate will actually take place? They say it will. And I think DeSantis said they want the date November 8th. And as of right now, Fox is trying to make it work as far as debate conditions and rules and preferences by both DeSantis and Newsom. So I think it is probably going to happen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the upside for Newsom is obvious. He's not even a presidential candidate yet. He's kind of lurking in the background. DeSantis however is a presidential candidate. Why would DeSantis accept this invitation? I think that it's a way to cause some noise. And I think that right now because Trump is very much engulfing everything to do with the news cycle which is a feature, not a bug, by the way, both by our news media and the indictments coming out of D.C., part of the strategy is to just keep him front and center at all times. This can't be done like 2016. This can't be strictly do-it-by-the-book-style primary. And so for other candidates to kind of get out there and make some noise, I think there has to be some unorthodox practices. And so this debate for DeSantis is a way to distract from some of the noise that Trump is obviously causing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: [laughs] I would quibble with the fact that people are saying, well, Newsom's not even a candidate. And I've written prior that Newsom right now is running basically a shadow presidential campaign. Has he announced? No. Is he basically the standby guy and is he making it very omnipresent that he is the standby guy should Biden decide not to run or if something happens to Biden or whatever? I think that they know that Kamala Harris is not a viable option. And so, again, I would argue Newsom to me already is running kind of off the books presidential campaign.
--:-- Stephen L. Miller: I think for DeSantis, this is high risk, you know, high reward. This is the kind of thing that can end the presidential campaign if it's not done right. But I also do believe he can pose a contrast that's other than to some of the discussions we're having right now in the country that simply Joe Biden and Donald Trump aren't having and that's largely in part to do with you know their age and just kind of not being in the conversation where the conversation is as far as parents as far as gender and critical race theory ideology being pushed in schools. COVID response, I think, is a big one. And so, as I said, I look at this and I say California versus Florida. Not so much the two governors, although it is them. It's the governing philosophies that we're seeing in both Florida as a state and California as a state. And I really do think it's the debate we should be having.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, these two states certainly are the leading edge of the two political parties. So we'll hopefully see these two governors make their cases soon.
--:-- Stephen L. Miller: Thanks for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, absolutely.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The city of Portland, Oregon, lost at least $1 billion in 2021 as residents fled the city. In the past few years, thousands of people have left Portland and taken their tax dollars with them.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Hi, Georgia. The $1 billion number is likely an underestimate of just how much money Portland is hemorrhaging. IRS data obtained by The Oregonian shows that in 2020 and 2021, the Oregon county where Portland is located, Multnomah County, lost more than 14,000 taxpaying residents, resulting in $1 billion in lost revenue. That means Portland lost nearly 3% of its population in 2020 and 2021. Another 8,000 people left between July 2021 and July 2022.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The people who moved away also tended to be wealthy, with incomes about 14% higher than people who moved out of the Portland area in 2019.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: This is a huge blow to the city which had been growing for about 15 years until the pandemic hit. In the 20s, Portland was a hot destination for outdoorsy young professionals and the economy was growing. Now, Portland is notorious for open-air drug dealing, public urination, and petty crime, and foot traffic downtown has plummeted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Portland's losses began during the pandemic, and they've accelerated since then?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Correct, but not necessarily the pandemic itself. Specifically, the losses coincide with the George Floyd riots. The riots were particularly violent in Portland and continued until as late as October 2020. According to the Portland Business Alliance, one riot in May that year drew more than a thousand people and it ended up costing local businesses tens of millions of dollars in property damage, looting, and lost wages.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, every major city experienced riots in 2020, but Portland never bounced back. That's due to the city's dual crises of drug addiction and homelessness.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Oregon depends on taxes, especially from wealthier residents, to fund its expensive drug and homelessness social programs. But as more and more wealthy residents leave, the tax base decreases. Meanwhile, Multnomah County's budget continues to grow to address the drug and homelessness problems. So the city is stuck in a vicious cycle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, we've reported in the past that Oregon decriminalized possession of all drugs, and there's been some concern that drug use rates have been increasing as a result. What are the latest numbers there?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Well, overdoses have increased significantly. From 2018 to 2022, opioid overdoses spiked fivefold in Multnomah County. Over the weekend of May 12th, for example, police said eight people died of suspected fentanyl powder overdoses. In 2022, a record 209 people died from fentanyl overdoses in the county alone. We don't have numbers for 2023 yet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As you said, Oregon voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020 with Measure 110. But since then, support for the measure has eroded, with 6 in 10 Oregon voters now saying they support bringing back criminal penalties for drug possession.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Violent crime has also increased since COVID. Shootings in Portland have tripled. Homicides have risen from 36 in 2019 to a record 97 in 2022. And car thefts have spiked to 11,000 last year, up from 6,500 in 2019.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The crime problem is compounded by the fact that Portland slashed its police budget by 15 million during the anti-police riots, which caused police to leave the force in droves. The city is still down 80 cops.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Another challenge for the city is homelessness. The homeless population in Oregon at large has increased by 23 percent in just two years, one of the largest increases in the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Overall, Portland has just not seen the kind of recovery we've seen in other cities. And understandably, residents who are able to leave are doing just that.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Well, it's really too bad because I remember just a few years ago, Portland was seen as this really attractive up-and-coming city.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mairead, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, thank you for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with our mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. You can also follow us on Twitter.
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