--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we're covering the latest on the war between Israel and Hamas.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. Hamas has released two additional hostages, but negotiations over the 200 remaining have stalled.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to reports, Hamas is slowing down the inevitable Israeli attack to build momentum.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. And after 18 days of conflict, we're seeing a lot of concerns about the potential for escalation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Let's go to our latest update from the front lines. Cabot Phillips is joining us with the latest from the Pentagon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks, Georgia. So, we'll start with a bit of good news. On Monday, Hamas released two more hostages, a pair of women in their 80s who were transported out of Gaza Monday evening.
--:-- Georgia Howe: However, the husbands of those women, along with roughly 212 others, were still being held captive.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Throughout the day, Hamas was reportedly looking to negotiate the release of 50 additional hostages. Though talk stalled after Israel balked at their demand to allow fuel shipments to enter the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Israeli officials said those materials would almost certainly be used in the war effort against the Jewish state and would only consider the demand if all hostages were set free.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In the last 24 hours, we've also heard shocking claims from the IDF that Hamas may have plans to use chemical weapons in their war against Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the IDF recovered USBs from dead terrorists that contained instructions for producing a cyanide dispersion device.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In the last day, we've also seen increased aid flowing into Gaza across the Egyptian border, with dozens of trucks now supplying water and food for civilians who fled to the south.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Prime Minister Netanyahu says there will be a continued flow of those supplies in the coming weeks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Israel is still focusing their military efforts on Gaza, but there's still growing concern that the conflict could spill into other countries across the Middle East.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, we don't want escalation, but that does not mean they aren't preparing for a broader conflict.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In the last two weeks, the Pentagon has deployed multiple carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean as a clear show of force, and they've now gone a step further.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This week, the Pentagon gave prepare-to-deploy orders to thousands of troops stationed across the U.S. and Europe.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And also, in the last 48 hours, the Pentagon has moved additional missile and air defense systems to the Middle East, including high-altitude defense batteries and Patriot missile battalions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now it's worth noting those defense systems protect against weapons that are not in the arsenal of Hamas or Hezbollah, which appears to imply they're preparing for potential attacks from more advanced militaries like Iran.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, it's no secret that Iran is the single most important ally of Hamas, providing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid and weapons to the group, using them as a proxy to fight against Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To give you an idea of Iran's influence in the region, earlier this week, an Iranian general in charge of the country's Quds Force arrived in Syria to supervise pro-Iranian militias along the western border of Israel.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At the same time, Iran's foreign minister had a phone call with Hamas leaders the next day, urging them to continue their fight against Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hours later, the Iranian government issued a statement warning that the war could spiral out of control if Israel did not end its war on Hamas.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, the White House and Pentagon are not just worried about other countries like Iran or Lebanon entering. They're also concerned about the potential for attacks on American troops who were already stationed in the region.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, right, there have already been a number of attacks targeting Americans, correct?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yes. In one 24-hour period last week, for example, weaponized drones and rockets were launched at four different bases housing American troops across Iraq, including in Baghdad.
--:-- Georgia Howe: While those attacks only resulted in minor injuries, the potential for escalation would obviously grow dramatically if American service members were killed by a similar strike.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That has the Pentagon and White House on high alert.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To that point, here's U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on ABC this week.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We're concerned about potential escalation. And because of that, we're going to do what's necessary to make sure that our troops are in the right position, they're protected, and that we have the ability to respond.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, well, let's hope it doesn't come to that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, let's move on to some new court documents in the case against the police officers convicted of killing George Floyd.
--:-- Liz Collin: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, these new court filings are connected to another case. That's right, Liz. They are depositions related to a lawsuit that was filed by one of Hennepin County's top prosecutors, Amy Sweezy, against the former county attorney, Mike Freeman.
--:-- Liz Collin: Now, she's alleged sex discrimination and retaliation in the workplace in the past.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But what really stands out are these pages and pages that spell out the extreme pressure that prosecutors face to charge Derek Chauvin and the three other Minneapolis police officers back in May of 2020.
--:-- Liz Collin: The depositions were conducted this past summer. They were just recently made public.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Several attorneys reveal in the depositions that they oppose charging the other three officers in George Floyd's death.
--:-- Liz Collin: In fact, the two attorneys who were tasked with the case against the three other officers withdrew due to professional and ethical rules.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the deposition, senior assistant county attorney Patrick Loftin was asked why he wanted to formalize his withdrawal in a letter that he wrote to Mike Freeman.
--:-- Liz Collin: And he said, I wanted it in writing and I wanted to make sure it was documented that I wasn't going to let that situation, what was going on in the world, affect my judgment because I have to sleep at night no matter what.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And he added, I can tell you that everyone that I associate with to any degree professionally or personally agreed with our decision.
--:-- Liz Collin: Now, who ultimately was responsible for that decision to charge those other officers, in that case, going against the prosecutor's recommendation?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, in the end, it was the attorney general of Minnesota who stepped in, Democrat Keith Ellison.
--:-- Liz Collin: He took over the case and charged the three officers with aiding and abetting murder.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Thomas Lane, Alex King, and Tutau. They're serving prison sentences that range from three to nearly five years now.
--:-- Liz Collin: And Derek Chauvin, you'll recall he's the officer convicted of second and third degree murder. He's serving a more than 20-year prison sentence in a federal prison in Arizona.
--:-- Georgia Howe: His legal team has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case after the state Supreme Court here in Minnesota declined.
--:-- Liz Collin: Nelpha News can now confirm that these new documents are under review by the attorneys representing the imprisoned officers to see what they could possibly mean in their cases moving forward.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, you've also reported on some statements that the medical examiner who performed Floyd's autopsy made.
--:-- Liz Collin: Yeah, Sweezy, the prosecutor who filed the lawsuit, had a rather revealing conversation with the medical examiner.
--:-- Georgia Howe: His name is Dr. Andrew Baker. This all happened the day after George Floyd died.
--:-- Liz Collin: And she says, he called me later in the day on that Tuesday and he told me that there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd's neck.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.
--:-- Liz Collin: And then she said he, talking about Dr. Baker here, went on to say, Amy, what happens when the actual evidence doesn't match up with the public narrative that everyone's already decided on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Then Sweezy says that Dr. Baker remarked, this is the kind of case that ends careers.
--:-- Liz Collin: All right.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Liz, thanks so much for coming on today.
--:-- Liz Collin: Thank you, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Alpha News reporter Liz Collin. Her documentary on this topic, The Fall of Minneapolis, will be out November 16th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, let's move on to the latest on President Biden's $105 billion aid package.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee is joining us to discuss the proposal.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: I was not surprised to find that Joe Biden would tie everything, including the kitchen sink, to aid for Israel, because he knows that there's a strong desire to deal with that on the Republican side.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But when he talks about border security, I've already seen the language.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: And what it is, is more billions of dollars more of taxpayer money that would go to the resettlement of people inside the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The language that he slipped into the last document that I saw, what he wants to see is the ability to reprogram all of ISIS funding.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: And ISIS, the only law enforcement agency we have that actually deports people, deports people with criminal records, deports people that shouldn't be here in America.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Joe Biden wants the ability to reprogram all of their budget into resettlement programs.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: What I want them to do is use those funds to deport criminals that have come into this country, particularly violent criminals that are coming into this country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We ought to be thinking about our national security first and foremost.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: That's not where the Biden administration is, nor is it where they have been.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And they've made our country far less safe as a result.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: And I think even my Democrat colleagues are beginning to wake up about this, at least in private.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They're sharing their concerns as well because of the number of people that we've seen come here illegally from Iran.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: It's Iranian funding, it's Iranian know-how that's been deployed by Hamas and is being deployed by Hezbollah.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All of this is coming from Iran, all of this because Joe Biden has enriched Iran to the point that they could do this again.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: Now, you've recently sounded the alarm about President Biden directing $30 million to a Palestinian relief group that's been accused of harboring Hamas and helping fund the ongoing war.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What is going on with that issue?
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: Look, this is just one example of the Biden administration carelessly deploying U.S. taxpayer dollars in a way that can enrich people that are terrorists, that hate America.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration has been willing to do this time and time again.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: But I'd like to highlight what I think is the greatest oversight by the Biden administration, and maybe it's not an oversight, perhaps, and I think actually it is intentional based on some statements that have come from the White House.
--:-- Georgia Howe: From the point in time that Joe Biden took office, what we've seen is an unwillingness to enforce the sanctions that are in place against Iran.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: During the Trump administration, we were successful at driving Iran's foreign reserve accounts down to below $8 billion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We had to burn off the pallets of cash that you may recall that the Obama administration delivered to Iran.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: This was under Jack Lew, then Treasury Secretary, that now, ironically, Jack Lew has been put forward as the Biden administration's candidate to be ambassador to Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What an insult.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: We drove those funds, though, down to below $8 billion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joe Biden comes into office in 2021, starts looking the other way on sanctions enforcement, and what we've seen is a massive enrichment of Iran.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: The estimates are as high as $80 to $90 billion of illicit oil sales that Iran has been able to generate since Joe Biden took office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're all aware of the fact that the Biden administration okayed Iraq's payment of $10 billion to Iran earlier this year.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: And then most of the attention most recently has been on the $6 billion ransom payment that Biden wanted to pay to the Iranians.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the $6 billion is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of our funding.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: And the result has been, again, 2014, 2015, you saw the violence coming out of Gaza into Israel under Obama.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Biden comes back into office. We get the 11-day war in 2021 from, again, Gaza into Israel.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: I flew over there right after that happened to see the damage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And now we have the worst slaughter of Jews that we've seen since the Holocaust, again, under Joe Biden.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: While they look the other way and allow Iran to enrich itself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And again, if anybody thinks that this isn't Iranian funding, Iranian technology and Iranian know-how behind Hamas, they need to wake up.
--:-- Senator Bill Hagerty: Well, Senator, thank you so much for talking with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Great to be with you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Senator Bill Haggerty.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
