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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Monday, October 17th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A new CBS News poll this week found that 65 percent of Americans say that the U.S. economy is getting worse compared to only 15 percent who believe it's getting better.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As midterms approached, nearly half of respondents, 48 percent, said that Democratic policies had harmed the economy, and just under one-third, 29%, said they'd helped.
--:-- John Bickley: [chuckles] President Biden claimed at an ice cream shop over the weekend that the U.S. economy is doing well, especially compared to the rest of the world, despite record high inflation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm not concerned about the transfer of dollar. I'm concerned about the rest of the world. Our economy is strong as hell.
--:-- John Bickley: [smirks] That's quite a statement, Georgia. President Biden's son Hunter's real estate company received a $40 million investment from a Russian oligarch, Yelena Batarina. That's according to new emails revealed by the Daily Mail.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The business connection between Batarina and Hunter was previously flagged by a Senate report after she wired $3.5 million to a company linked to Hunter.
--:-- John Bickley: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has previously defended Hunter while saying the matter is for the DOJ to handle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Of course, the president's confident that his son didn't break the law. But most importantly, as I said, that's a matter that's going to be decided by the Justice Department, by the legal process. It's something that no one at the White House has involvement in.
--:-- John Bickley: A new mainstream poll found that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ranks number one in terms of highest net approval rating among all major American politicians.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Caps-Harris poll comes as DeSantis announced that Florida's GOP has a quarter million more registered Republican voters than Democratic voters.
--:-- John Bickley: When I got elected governor in November of 2018, there were close to 300 more registered Democrats in the state of Florida than Republicans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I can report that we now have over 300 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
--:-- John Bickley: Starting Monday, Americans can buy hearing aids over the counter without a prescription thanks to a bipartisan law signed in 2017 by former President Trump and an order by President Biden to help expedite implementing the law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A large majority of the models will be available for under $1,000.
--:-- John Bickley: Police officers in Northern California believe they prevented another murder after arresting a potential serial killer over the weekend, suspected of murdering six men and wounding one woman over the last 18 months in a string of late-night shootings.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A 43-year-old suspect was arrested on homicide allegations, according to Stockton Police Department officials.
--:-- John Bickley: According to the Nigerian government, more than 600 people have been killed in historic flooding.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Over 2,500 people have been injured and more than 1.3 million people have been displaced. Those numbers are expected to rise.
--:-- John Bickley: And Ukraine is claiming that its Air Force shot down 37 out of 43 Kamikaze drones launched by Russia Monday morning against Kiev, Ukraine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One drone hit a residential building in the city, killing at least four with more hospitalized and trapped under rubble.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest episode of Morning Wire every morning.
