--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now that the Hunter Biden laptop has been validated, President Biden is facing mounting pressure to respond to claims of influence peddling by his son and conflicts of interest in Ukraine and Russia.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Disney is facing a walkout by its LGBT employees, while its conservative staff are complaining about a hostile work environment. How is Disney's embattled CEO handling the internal conflict?
--:-- John Bickley: And U.S. senators begin their questioning today of President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Following a New York Times report confirming the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, President Biden is under growing pressure to answer questions about his son.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, sure. So back in September of 2020, just a few weeks before the election, the New York Post published the contents of a laptop that they said belonged to Joe Biden's son, Hunter. It included salacious texts and photos, as well as emails, which appeared to show that when Joe Biden was vice president, his family, namely Hunter Biden, leveraged that position to secure multimillion dollar business deals with companies in Ukraine and China.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On that note, one email, for example, showed Hunter receiving 20% equity in a Shanghai based company, along with a line in an email that says, quote, 10 held by H for the big guy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hunter's business partner, Tony Bobulinski, has since publicly stated that the big guy referenced in that email is Joe Biden, and the 10% cut was being saved for him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And that story was immediately censored online after publication.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Exactly. Twitter wouldn't allow the story to be shared by anyone on the platform and even went so far as suspending the New York Post's account for two weeks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Facebook also used its algorithm to intentionally prevent the story from spreading, while other social media outlets slapped fact checks on anyone who shared the story, calling them, quote, false.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Most media outlets either ignored the story altogether or labeled it an attempt at Russian disinformation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One MSNBC host, for example, implied the story was a form of international espionage, while Politico ran a headline in October of 2020 that said, quote, Hunter Biden's story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former Intel officials say.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The article included a letter signed by over 50 former senior intelligence officials, assuring Americans that the contents of the original New York Post article was likely Russian disinformation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Miranda Devine, the reporter who initially helped break the laptop story for the New York Post, spoke with Morning Wire last week.
--:-- Miranda Devine: Just after we published our first story about the laptop, claiming without looking at the laptop, they claimed that in their expert opinion, the laptop and the material we were publishing was Russian disinformation had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation Now they should hang their heads in shame but they don There no remorse There no apology. Their reputations have not suffered one iota.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, in addition to further confirmation that the laptop was indeed authentic, Hunter Biden is also under criminal investigation for tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign lobbying violations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Has the White House responded to those allegations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They're definitely under growing pressure to do so because for the last year and a half, they've mostly refused to talk about it altogether.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And when they have talked about it, they've basically brushed it off as fake news or Russian disinformation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Biden campaign advisor Simone Sanders, for example, said anyone who shared the story was promoting, quote, Russian misinformation, while White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki implied the same on her Twitter account using that same term.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: President Biden himself even called the story, quote, a bunch of garbage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But again, now that we have confirmation that the story is accurate, the president and others in his administration are not answering questions on the topic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And that's where the pressure is really starting to mount here. People even in the media are demanding answers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the heart of this story centers around potential conflicts of interest with President Biden and his son.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What do we know there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, President Biden said back in 2020 that no one in his family would hold any business role that would, quote, appear to be in conflict with his job as president.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But critics say he hasn't always kept that promise.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, in 2013, his son Hunter went on a trip with then-Vice President Biden to Beijing.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Just 12 days later, Hunter was listed as co-owner of a newly registered investment firm there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, keep in mind, it's incredibly difficult to register a business in China as an American, so that raised eyebrows.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The timing of it didn't look good.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Then, despite having no experience in the energy sector, Hunter scored a million-dollar-a-year salary to sit on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And this happened at the exact same time Vice President was heading up the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So again, a lot of people saw that as a conflict of interest or just blatant corruption.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the other important part of this story involves alleged payments from Russian oligarchs to the Biden family.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What do we know about those allegations?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This part actually comes largely from a Senate investigation and not that New York Post story.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The investigation found a $3.5 million payment from the richest woman in Russia to a company that has close ties to Hunter Biden.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And it's worth noting that even though now many Russian billionaires and oligarchs have been sanctioned by the United States because of the war in Ukraine, the woman who made that payment to Hunter's company, despite being the richest woman in Russia, has not been sanctioned.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that raised a whole new set of questions, with many people asking why she hadn't been sanctioned and whether there was a potential conflict of interest given those past business ties to Hunter Biden's company.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the New York Post actually asked Jen Psaki about that specific instance on Friday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here was her response.
--:-- Jen Psaki: How is President Biden navigating conflicts of interest when it comes to sanctioning people who have done business with his family? And can you explain to us what this $3.5 million was for?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I don't have any confirmation of the accuracy of that report, so I have no more further details.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the pressure is without a doubt mounting on the president to explain this to the American people.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But right now, it's been mostly silence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, well, it looks like with, you know, renewed interest in this topic, there's going to be more pressure.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime. That's Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- [Music transitions]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, conservative employees at Disney break their silence.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, this seems to have become a case of dueling letters. First, we had some Disney staffers who released that letter asking the company to issue a public statement condemning Florida's bill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's the bill that would prevent teachers from talking about sex and gender identity with young kids.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now we have a second letter from the conservative employees. What are they saying?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, what I can tell you is that I have spent a lot of time in text threads and on the phone with Disney employees at all levels over the last couple of days.
--:-- Megan Basham: And the conservatives in the company are really not happy about recent events.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So a group of them published this open letter Monday claiming that Disney has become a hostile work environment for anyone whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive.
--:-- Megan Basham: They say they've watched silently as Disney villainizes and condemns people who share opinions like theirs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'll just quote a bit from their letter here. Left-leaning cast members are free to promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources.
--:-- Megan Basham: They call their fellow employees bigots and pressure Disney to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what specifically are the conservatives asking for?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, really, as you read the full breadth of the letter, what they really want is for the company to just stay out of politics.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So one engineer I spoke to described this open letter as kind of a last-ditch effort to appeal to senior leadership that may not agree with us, but lack the courage to say anything because they feel all alone themselves.
--:-- Megan Basham: And do we have any reason to believe that the senior leadership is listening?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I know at least one is because I spoke with him.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, this was a high-level Disney executive who would only talk to me on background.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So that means the condition of anonymity, which really does kind of tell you something, that despite being very high up in the company, this person too is worried about his job if he should speak out.
--:-- Megan Basham: But what he told me is that unlike former Disney CEO Bob Iger, the new chief Bob Chapik really did intend to shift gears away from being politically outspoken.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He says Chapik truly is something of a conservative, but that he faced a Disney deep state of people left over from Iger's tenure who were intent on undermining that politically neutral goal.
--:-- Megan Basham: So those employees took to social media and they leaked comments to Hollywood trade publications, Think Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and that prompted Chapek to reverse course.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So this executive told me that that capitulation is really only going to embolden the activists.
--:-- Megan Basham: Bit of vivid language here. What he said was, quoting directly, they're not going to stop.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Chapik really has two choices, just castrate himself or stand up to them.
--:-- Megan Basham: Frankly, it really doesn't look like he's going to stand up to them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to an inside source just yesterday, Disney's chief human resource officer announced that Disney is planning to oppose an order from Texas Governor Greg Abbott that relates to medical transitions for kids.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, this order would ban sex change surgeries and other medical transitions on children, and Disney is opposing that ban
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now from a business perspective is Disney concerned about how parents might feel about that?
--:-- Megan Basham: It's interesting you mentioned that because this executive did tell me that Disney C is aware of polling done by the Daily Wire that shows that 64% of Americans and 68% of parents, Disney's key customer base, support Florida's anti-grooming bill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He also said that they know that a plurality of people say that Disney's stance against this bill is going to make them less likely to buy Disney products.
--:-- Megan Basham: But he said that the company is really just more afraid of their employees creating bad press right now than they are of their consumers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right. Well, it'll be interesting to see if a drop in sales changes that.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Absolutely. Anytime. That's Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham.
--:-- [Music transitions]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Confirmation hearings for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Katanji Brown Jackson began on Monday.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Hey, Georgia. So Katanji Brown Jackson has a lot of experience in the judicial system.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Jackson served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer, who she's replacing.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: And just last April, the Senate confirmed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do we expect her to receive bipartisan support?
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: It's looking like she won't be getting much Republican support, but she doesn't need it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrats can confirm her without any bipartisan support.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: In his opening statement, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri brought up his concerns about Jackson's record on child pornography charges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to Hawley, Jackson has a pattern of going easy on distributors of child pornography, repeatedly handing down reduced sentences for these criminals.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: United States v. Hawkins. This was a child pornography case where the defendant distributed multiple images of child porn, possessed dozens more, including videos.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The federal sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of 97 to 121 months in prison.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Prosecutors recommended 24 months in prison.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Judge Jackson gave the defendant three months in prison.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: According to her defenders, Judge Jackson's record shows she generally gave child pornographers more lenient sentences than the sentencing guidelines.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But those sentences were based on recommendations given by probation offices.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Okay, so aside from some questions about child pornography sentencing, are there any other issues of concern with Judge Jackson?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Jackson is backed by a pretty interesting judicial activism group, Demand Justice, which was behind a very aggressive campaign to get Justice Breyer to retire to make room for a Black female justice.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: That group has ties to the progressive consulting group Arabella Advisors and Demand Justice's top priority is to pack the Supreme Court by adding four more justices.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One of their board members recently called the Constitution kind of trash and this group has explicitly endorsed Jackson.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: All right, well, Mary Margaret, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was culture reporter Mary Margaret Olihan. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
