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--:-- John Bickley: Fireworks outside the new york courtroom where closing arguments and trump's hush money case wrapped up will the jury believe michael cohen's testimony and when can we expect the verdict I'm daily wire editor-in-chief john bickley with guest host michelle tafoya host of the michelle tafoya podcast it's wednesday may 29th and this is morning wire
--:-- Michelle Tafoya: Israel continues its efforts to root out Hamas as tanks enter the city of Rafah. We have made clear that we oppose any full-scale military operation in Rafah. We haven't seen them do that yet. And a fire at a lithium-ion battery warehouse has been burning for nearly two weeks, calling into question the safety of battery storage sites. We knew this was a battery storage facility. there's some toxic gases and some high heat that are attributed to that. So we called in extra support with the hazmat units and the bomb squad to give us extra tools.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Black Rifle Coffee is a veteran founded company that's doing their part to honor the last of the greatest generation who fought at D-Day while they're still here with us. Co-founder Evan Hafer and his team will parachute into Normandy in World War II uniforms with a series of jumps from June 4th to June 6th. A portion of every purchase you make at BlackRifleCoffee.com goes to support veteran and first responder causes. From providing funding and equipment to first responders to helping veterans fight cancer, your money goes a long way toward giving back to those who serve our nation. Visit BlackRifleCoffee.com to learn more.
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--:-- John Bickley: Closing arguments took place on Tuesday in Donald Trump's hush money trial. While outside the courthouse, the Biden-Harris campaign brought in a Hollywood heavyweight to harangue the former president just a day before the jury is likely to begin deliberations. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche and prosecutor Joshua Steinglass gave the summations, while outside actor Robert De Niro made his surprise appearance. Here to discuss the day's events as the trial winds down is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, John. So let's start with the defense's closing argument. What was stressed in their final chance to sway this jury.
--:-- John Bickley: Morning, John. Defense attorney Todd Blanche gave a summation of about two hours that ended with 10 reasons why there is reasonable doubt in this case. I won't list them all, but among them are that there's no evidence Trump knew about the invoices in question that Michael Cohen created, no evidence of an attempt to defraud, no agreement involving Trump to influence the 2016 election, and finally that Cohen is the, quote, human embodiment of reasonable doubt, end quote. Blanche punctuated that by saying that if Tom Brady is the GOAT greatest of all time QB, Cohen is the GLOAT greatest liar of all time. All of this was along the lines of what legal experts were expecting. And the fact is that if jurors accept just one of these 10 reasons, then they should find that there is reasonable doubt in the case. Blanche was scolded at one point by Judge Mershon for suggesting that Trump could go to jail But other than that It was a pretty smooth two hours So that the defense Now the prosecution summation went on much longer What did we hear from Steinglass As we discussed yesterday, Steinglass tried to minimize Cohen's role in the prosecution and really focus on the rest of the evidence. At one point, he referred to Cohen as the, tour guide of the documentary evidence. He also sought to minimize Cohen profiting off of being Trump enemy number one over the past few years, saying he didn't want the jury to feel sorry for him, but that it really was all he had left. The prosecutors know Cohen's credibility is a problem, and their argument in the alternative is basically, we want you to believe him, but you can convict even if you don't believe everything he said.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, in some ways, the real fireworks were outside the courthouse where the Biden campaign brought in Robert De Niro and others for a press conference. How did that go down?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, about an hour before court began, there were reports that the Biden campaign would hold a presser outside of the courthouse. And then things really got weird when it became clear that it would be movie star Robert De Niro appearing along with some of the J6 Capitol Police. Sort of an analyze this cop land mashup, I guess, with no shortage of raging bull. Car alarms started going off. There was heckling, cursing back and forth between the taxi driver star and Trump fans. It really was just a bizarre spectacle. Here's some of what it sounded like. President Biden has also announced that he'll be speaking from the White House after the verdict. Has that and this press conference raised eyebrows about the political weaponization of the trial? Absolutely. Biden comms chief Michael Tyler was asked specifically about that. And here's why he said the event outside the courthouse took place. You all are already here. It's easy to talk about the choice in this election when the entire news media is camped out here day in and day out. So we're talking about the choice that voters are going to have in this election and the threat embodied by the man who is in that building right now. Others, like Donald Trump Jr., who also spoke outside of court, said this was blatant politicization of the trial. And look, it's an official campaign event, so that really is inherently political. It was perhaps telling that Fox News took the strange press conference live while CNN and MSNBC barely showed it or mentioned it at all. That's a very bad sign for a Democrat communications team. And it may come down to the fact that the more liberal networks understood exactly what it looked like. Yeah, optics are everything.
--:-- John Bickley: Dave, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Despite growing international pushback, Israel is continuing their military advance on Gaza, putting more political pressure on President Biden. Here with more from the Middle East is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, on Tuesday, Israeli troops pressed on with their ground assault of Rafah, with tanks and troops slowly moving building by building through one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. Remember, Rafah is the largest remaining Hamas stronghold. And according to Israel the terror group is intentionally hiding out among the million or so refugees who fled the fighting That reality has led to a growing number of civilian casualties now which has sparked mounting condemnation from the international community So it's clear that international support for Israel has begun to wane as this conflict drags on. And that pushback only intensified this week amid a deadly strike that killed civilians. What have we learned there that we can actually trust?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, so late Sunday night, the Israeli military launched an airstrike targeting two senior Hamas leaders, including the terror group's commander of operations in the West Bank. And while those two men were killed, the strike ignited a deadly blaze in a nearby refugee camp that reportedly killed dozens of civilians, including women and children. Prime Minister Netanyahu called the incident a, quote, tragic mistake and vowed to investigate, but Israeli officials say Hamas is ultimately to blame. The country's military spokesman expressed, quote, deep sorrow for the loss of civilian life, but noted that the strike used the smallest munitions possible, 37-pound bombs, which he says, quote, could not have ignited a fire this size. He added that Israel was investigating whether secondary explosions in the area were linked to, quote, weapons stored in a compound next to our target. That, again, would be par for the course. Hamas has been proven to intentionally store weapons in other materials near civilian populations, essentially daring the Israeli military to go after them. Knowing if civilians are killed, Israel will be blamed. And that is, again, what happened this week. And all of this comes amid a debacle regarding the American supply pier in the region. What is going on there?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah. So if you'll remember, during his State of the Union address, President Biden announced that America would offer aid to Gaza through the land, air, and sea. As part of that effort in the sea, he ordered the U.S. military to construct a floating pier off the coast of Gaza that would theoretically allow supply ships to access the region and avoid those constricted land routes through Egypt. But that project has been a logistical disaster from the get-go. It was initially expected to cost around $180 million, but ballooned to upward of $320 million as construction continued this month, drawing outrage from lawmakers at home. And after only roughly one week of being in operation, on Tuesday, the structure fell apart in choppy waters. So it'll now need extensive repairs, driving the cost even higher and providing yet another headache for President Biden, who, again, is already struggling to appease the different factions within his party regarding Israel. Indeed, it just seems like one bad mistake after another.
--:-- John Bickley: And speaking of President Biden, we saw a bombshell report this week regarding his stance toward Iran. What do we know on that front?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, for context, Iran has been defying sanctions and steadily expanding their stockpile of enriched uranium in recent months. and is now getting dangerously close to converting that uranium to nuclear weapons. In light of those developments, a number of European allies led by France and Britain are reportedly preparing to offer a public rebuke of the regime, censuring them at an upcoming meeting of nuclear powers and calling for new sanctions. But according to the Wall Street Journal, behind the scenes, the Biden administration is now pressuring allies against confronting Iran publicly and is urging them to vote no against those measures. The report says Biden is worried that a public rebuke would drive Iran away from the negotiating table and reduce the likelihood of a diplomatic solution. Remember, he has been clear about his desire to revive the Obama era Iran nuclear deal. Now, critics of Biden say Iran has already proven they can't be trusted to make a good faith deal and that a show of power and unity from the West is the only way to curtail their nuclear endeavors. Indeed.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for the reporting. Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: Firefighters in California continue to monitor a storage facility for lithium ion batteries nearly two weeks after it caught fire The blaze sparked an evacuation warning and renewed safety concerns over California aggressive green energy agenda Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss the San Diego County fire.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, John. So a lot of listeners might be surprised that they haven't heard about this yet. First, how did this fire begin? We're not sure. As far as we know, crews still aren't allowed in the building where the fire first started. Officials are concerned that though the fire calmed down over the weekend, it could still reignite. After all, when the fire originally started back on May 15th, fire crews thought they had it under control after about a day of work until it reignited, and then it continued to burn for another week and a half. And why has this fire been so hard to put out? Because of how lithium-ion batteries burn. Overheating a battery can cause what's called thermal runaway, a chain reaction in the battery that heats it up faster than it can cool down. This can just ruin the battery, but it can also cause it to combust. Once that happens, the way the chemicals and metals react to the fire can keep it burning even after you douse it with water. Gateway Storage Energy in Ote Mesa, where this fire happened to start, serves as an energy storage for California's electrical grid. And once one battery combusts, it can burn for weeks and spread to others as well. In this case, firefighters dumped millions of gallons of water to contain the fire, but that carries its own risks. Water damages batteries, and damaged batteries can spark and ignite too.
--:-- John Bickley: Got it. With California's green energy goals, it will likely need a lot more of these battery storage facilities. What's the level of risk here for this technology? That's sort of unclear, at least as compared to other energy sources like fossil fuels. Morningwire spoke to Daniel Turner of Power of the Future to explain. If you give me a well that produces 500 barrels of oil a day and it catches on fire, I can give you the environmental impact statement. I can tell you what it's going to do to the air and what it's going to do to the water and what we have to worry about because it's required of the fossil fuel industry. But none of these things are required of the green industry because we're told they're green and therefore they are environmentally friendly and therefore there are no risks. So the risks of the batteries are somewhat hazy because we don't understand them nearly as well as we understand other energy systems. And what do events like this mean for the future adoption of these types of batteries? In this case, probably not much. Gateway storage is in a pretty isolated area. But if something were to happen in a more populated area, the backlash could actually set the push to adopt batteries far back. Turner said that part of the problem here is government forcing the issue. It's a different type of danger, and it's a danger that our firefighters aren't trained on, that our hazmat units are not trained on. And so the response to EV or lithium problems is not growing because the EV push is accelerated faster than society is adopting it. So that's the danger. Now, this particular fire could be out soon or it could burn for weeks more. We'll just have to wait and see.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, let's hope they can keep it contained. Tim, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know. Being in debt is a lot like sinking in quicksand. It's easy to feel trapped and helpless. And the harder you struggle, the deeper in debt you go. If you feel trapped in debt, you need to talk to Done With Debt. Done With Debt stands between you and your bill collectors. They negotiate a plan to end your debt permanently without bankruptcy and without loans. But you need to hurry to see if you qualify because some debt solutions are time sensitive. Go right now to donewithdebt.com. That's donewithdebt.com today.
