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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe. Today, we're discussing the passing of Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. Jimmy Carter, the longest living former president, has passed away at 100 years old. We'll discuss his presidential legacy and humanitarian work.
--:-- John Bickley: Before we dive in, a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- John Bickley: We want to have faith again. We want to be proud again. We just want the truth again. It's time for the people to run the government and not the other way around.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, has died at 100 years old. That deep and ancient antagonism can be settled without bloodshed. We discuss his presidential legacy.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire, with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, December 30th, and this is Morning Wire. Two air tragedies take the lives of hundreds of people. With one prompting an apology from Russia's Vladimir Putin. And the debate over importing skilled foreign workers divides the right as both Elon Musk and Donald Trump weigh in.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, passed away Sunday after reaching a milestone no other past president has reached, turning 100 in October. Here to discuss the passing of the former president is Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- John Bickley: So a sad day, though one marked by remembrance of decades spent doing humanitarian work. First, how did we learn about the former president's passing?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, John, really a moment to look back here on a life that ended up being more impactful in many ways after his presidency than during it. We learned Sunday from the Carter Center, which announced that the president had died peacefully that day at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The former president had entered hospice care last year after being diagnosed with cancer, so while death is always hard for a family, this was not a surprise.
--:-- Tim Rice: His son Chip Carter gave a touching statement on behalf of the family, saying, quote, my father was a hero not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. And he won a Nobel Prize for that work.
--:-- Tim Rice: Tell us about that. He and his wife Rosalind really became the faces of Habitat for Humanity. That the charity that builds homes to the poor and not just in the United States but all over the world.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For that work, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2002, and that really became more of his legacy than his single term in office, which was marked by major setbacks, including the Iranian hostage crisis, a cratering economy, and what's been infamously described as a general malaise that defined the mood of the country.
--:-- Tim Rice: Carter did have some wins as president, though, including brokering peace between Israel and Egypt with the deal that came to be known as the Camp David Accords.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, Carter's rise to the presidency is considered one of the least likely we've seen in recent decades.
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, he's often described as a peanut farmer turned president, and that's certainly true. He grew up on a farm that famously had no electricity or indoor plumbing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Carter went on to serve in the Navy and then as governor of Georgia and ended up riding an anti-Republican wave after the Watergate scandal straight to the White House.
--:-- Tim Rice: But in the end, the economic woes and foreign policy failures under his presidency created a wave of their own in the form of Ronald Reagan and his Reagan revolution.
--:-- John Bickley: Reagan's massively successful presidency ended up drawing a stark contrast with Carter's widely criticized term.
--:-- Tim Rice: But again, Carter did not go quietly into that good night. He really made a profound difference post-presidency, and his family has played a major role there too.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I mentioned Chip, but the president is survived by three other children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
--:-- Tim Rice: So quite a family legacy there.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, what do we know so far about how his legacy will be celebrated?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, we do know that the sitting president, Joe Biden, revealed last year that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy, so we expect that to happen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All the full details are still in the works, but we can expect a large presidential memorial service to honor him with various religious and charitable groups attending, as well, of course, as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
--:-- Tim Rice: And speaking of both sides of the aisle, President-elect Donald Trump has given a statement honoring Carter, which read in part, the challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.
--:-- John Bickley: So high praise there for the former president who certainly lived a long and impactful life.
--:-- Tim Rice: Yes, indeed.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks so much for reporting, Tim.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Vladimir Putin has issued an apology after Russian military forces mistakenly shot down a civilian airliner in Kazakhstan, killing dozens. The incident came just days before a separate plane went down in South Korea, killing nearly 200 people. Here with the latest is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: A pair of devastating air disasters this weekend. What can you tell us about these crashes?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, two planes going down for very different reasons. We'll start in South Korea, where on Sunday morning, a flight from Bangkok appeared to hit a flock of birds while attempting to land at a large airport south of Seoul.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That collision reportedly knocked out at least one of the plane's engines and set off a fire on the right wing, which authorities say may have also disabled the landing gear.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: When the plane circled back around to attempt a crash landing, landing gear had not been deployed, and the craft skidded off the runway eventually colliding with a concrete barrier setting off a massive explosion.
--:-- John Bickley: The footage of the crash was just horrifying. At latest count, all but two of the 181 passengers on board had been confirmed killed.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And just devastating and sadly not the only incident involving a civilian airliner this weekend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The other has political implications as well, correct?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. So just days earlier, a separate commercial jet bound for Russia took off from Azerbaijan with 67 passengers. The plane began to descend into the Russian city of Grozny and experienced a number of malfunctions and rerouted hundreds of miles off course, eventually attempting an emergency landing in a small town in Kazakhstan.
--:-- John Bickley: Video of that attempted landing shows the plane rapidly descending and then breaking apart as it hit the ground in a ball of flames.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Miraculously, 29 of the 67 souls on board survived, though. Initially, Russian officials said the crash was likely an accident. Some in Moscow said it could have been the result of a bird collision, while state news agencies initially reported the plane had been rerouted due to heavy fog.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But soon, a new story emerged. First, photos of the wreckage showed what appeared to be large holes in the exterior of the plane, and then survivors began to describe how they heard loud bangs and pops during their initial descent, followed by screams from passengers and crew who had been struck by what appeared to be shrapnel.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Within hours, officials in Azerbaijan concluded the crash was not an accident and had been caused by a missile strike from Russian air defense systems.
--:-- John Bickley: U.S. officials echoed those findings, agreeing that the plane was subject to, quote, external physical and technical interference.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That news, for obvious reasons, sparked outrage across the world, prompting a rare apology from Vladimir Putin.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, tell us about what he said.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, unsurprisingly, the Russian president stopped short of taking responsibility for the disaster. But for all intents and purposes, he did make clear that his military was to blame.
--:-- John Bickley: And then hours later, the Kremlin released a statement of their own, again failing to admit culpability, but conceding that Russian air defense systems had been engaging Ukrainian drones in the surrounding area when this incident took place.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they're sort of implying that Ukraine is to blame for the tragedy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, this all comes as President Biden has announced billions in new funding for the Ukrainian war effort.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, on Friday, White House officials said they'll soon announce an additional $1.25 billion worth of military aid, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems.
--:-- John Bickley: The package also includes plans to finalize a separate $20 billion in loans for Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets and U.S. control.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, remember, Trump has vowed to bring a swift diplomatic end to the conflict once he takes office on January 20th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And with that in mind, the Biden administration is now scrambling to get as much money out the door as possible in the next three weeks, presumably to strengthen Ukraine's standing ahead of those impending negotiations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A lot of scrutiny over the funds being sent to Ukraine in these final weeks.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Debate erupted among Republicans over the weekend after Elon Musk and other high-profile Trump advisors called for the expansion of the H-1B visa program. President-elect Trump indicated his support for the program, but did leave the door open for reforms. Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: So Megan, obviously to win the election, Donald Trump had to bring together a pretty diverse coalition of political constituencies. And on some issues, they've had some pretty different ideas about what's best for America. H-1B visas is one of those issues where the alliance is stretched pretty thin.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I think on one side of this, you have the traditional conservative and MAGA base who do tend to draw a pretty hard line on all things related to immigration. They take a very skeptical view of the H program because they say that while its ostensible purpose is to allow U companies to bring in highly skilled immigrants for jobs that would otherwise go unfilled, what it's really being used for is hiring a cheaper foreign workforce.
--:-- John Bickley: And they say that overall, it depresses American wages.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, on the other side, you have what's being referred to as the new tech right. Think people like Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and also some other Silicon Valley titans whose names you might not know, people like venture capitalist David Sachs. They believe that this program has given America a competitive edge in the global free market.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Musk, for example, said over the weekend that expanding immigration for the top 0.1% of engineering talent is essential for America to keep winning.
--:-- Megan Basham: And he said that it's thanks to H-1B that the world's great innovators, like him, have chosen to build their companies in the U.S.
--:-- John Bickley: And where does President Trump come down on this?
--:-- Megan Basham: So after a couple of days of this inter-party wrangling, he told the New York Post that his companies have hired H-1B visa holders many times and that he supports it for highly skilled workers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, a lot of media outlets took that as carte blanche support for the program, but I'm not so sure that they should have.
--:-- Megan Basham: So one, there's that caveat, highly skilled. That's really the crux of the argument. Is the program being used to fill a void that the American talent pool can't?
--:-- John Bickley: Because we do need to remember that Trump did try to reform the program in his first administration, and he has in the past been critical of it for holding down American wages.
--:-- Megan Basham: And I've got to say that as I watched this debate unfold over the weekend, it did seem to me like the two sides were often speaking past each other.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that was something that conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings also highlighted.
--:-- Megan Basham: If you take like the top 1 percent or the top 0.1 percent of the most talented engineering people from other countries, that's perfectly fine. H-1B visas for that. They're unique. They have unique talent, unique innovative skills. Fine. If you're using the H-1B program to abuse it, to recruit, you know, interns, accountants, other people that easily could be recruited from the United States of America all because you just want to do it cheaper, that's not fine.
--:-- John Bickley: So I think what a lot of people in the party want to do is eliminate the fraud in this H-1B program, retain the top engineering talent, and there's a way to do this.
--:-- Megan Basham: By Saturday, Jennings was largely proved right on this. After interacting with some accounts that were highlighting government data that shows that many companies are using the program to hire lower-skilled foreign workers for generally less than they'd have to pay Americans, Musk said that he does believe the program is broken and needs major reform.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some of his suggestions to fix it, an annual fee for H-1B visas that would make it more expensive for companies to hire from overseas.
--:-- Megan Basham: He said that that would help ensure that they're really doing it to bring in top talent, not just to hire cheap. And it would also ensure that it's really going to those roles that you can't find in the U.S.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, by Sunday morning, representatives on both sides of the aisle were voicing support for reforms like those Musk suggested.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, definitely a difficult balance to strike.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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