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--:-- Host John Bickley: A bombshell new report from the House Judiciary Committee shows the federal government outsourced online censorship to a team of academics. They're suggesting that, oh, you may want to look at this, you may want to take this down, you may want to filter this, you may want to limit the visibility of this. That's scary stuff. What was Stanford University's role? And what are the First Amendment implications?
--:-- Co-host Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, November 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The special counsel for the Hunter Biden investigation testified to a House committee Tuesday behind closed doors. We're concerned that those decisions were made corruptly in order to protect the Biden family. What do we know about the testimony and where does the case stand now? And as the U.S. continues to up its forces in the Middle East, a weapons deal could help Israel gain new ground in the war against Hamas. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: According to a new report from the House Judiciary Committee, the State Department and Homeland Security outsourced a program to monitor and censor Americans' online speech to Stanford University. Known as the Election Integrity Partnership, the program went into effect just before the 2020 presidential election.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So Megan, we've previously covered what's known as the Twitter files, but this is something different from that, correct?
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: Yeah, I'd say it's different, but it's definitely related. So you could think of it as something of a new layer.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So these new revelations come from the House Judiciary Committee's weaponization of government investigations. And what they turned up were emails and internal records from DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, SISA, for those who don't use that language all the time.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So these showed that SISA had begun a project with Stanford University, and it was called the Election Integrity Partnership. So we spoke to Jim Jordan, who's heading up the Weaponization Committee, about its new findings, and this is how he described it.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Stanford and other universities, particularly University of Washington, the election integrity project there at the sort of pushing of Stanford University and the government. This election integrity project became the vehicle for posting this information. I think the term is Jira tickets, which is this software where it's almost like this dashboard where everyone can see, oh, we should take down this. We should filter that. That's how it was done. But it's run through this EIP, the election integrity project at Stanford.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So essentially what would happen here is these federal agencies would submit so-called misinformation reports to the EIP. And then researchers at Stanford's Internet Observatory would analyze the content that government officials had flagged They compile it along with other examples of similar content from other social media platforms and then they create a report And this report would then be forwarded on to staffers at Twitter Facebook, YouTube, what have you, with, according to the report, specific recommendations on how these platforms should censor the posts.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And according to the House investigation, these EIP reports, which were known as Jira tickets, were secret and accessible only to select parties, including federal agencies, universities, and big tech.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: And as we've seen in these related stories, the content being censored focused almost entirely on conservatives and Republicans, including everything from facts incorrectly labeled as misinformation, to satire, to viewpoints expressed by elected representatives, including former President Trump, North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis, and also a host of conservative journalists and pundits.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And that list was very long. And meanwhile, the House report says that false information posted by Democrats and liberals was largely unreported and untouched by these censors.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So given that this kind of flagging was already happening directly between the DOJ, the FBI and social media executives, why was it necessary for DHS to enact this separate program?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Yeah, I'd say that's arguably the most controversial part of this report because the investigation found that, at least at DHS, that department understood it could not, under the First Amendment, directly ask these platforms to censor speech. So the purpose of involving the academics appears to have been an end run around that by outsourcing the censorship requests to academics.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So, for example, in one email from May of 2020, a DHS official said the department could not, quote, openly endorse a system to flag misinformation. So according to the House investigation, Stanford developed the Election Integrity Partnership at the request of SISA just after that during the summer of 2020.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And the report says that this program essentially allowed federal officials to, quote, launder their censorship activities in the hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: And it is worth noting that Stanford evidently did not want to turn these records over to the House. At first, they refused to cooperate with a subpoena and only turned over some of these JIRA tickets under threat of contempt.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Right. So basically, these records indicate that this government agency, SISA, knew it was on legally shaky ground.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: What is the remedy to all of this activity?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Yeah, I'd say that is the million-dollar question because obviously these types of revelations continue to come out and they continue to have serious free speech implications. And yet, in spite of all of this, we really don't seem to have seen much in the way of legislative solutions.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: We also spoke to Mark Hemingway, senior writer at Real Clear Politics. His wife, Molly Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist, was one of the people censored. He's looking to the Supreme Court to draw some bright lines around this kind of activity going forward.
--:-- Host John Bickley: There's this Missouri v. Biden case before the Supreme Court, and I'm sure that the court is going to take note of all this stuff as it's coming out, especially since the government appears to be playing fast and loose with a lot of technological control that they didn't even have 10 or 15 years ago.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: And so the court has a real opportunity to put a stamp on free speech debates for the decades coming forward to make it clear that this is against the law even though it should have been clear all along but to make that abundantly clear and stop this from ever happening again.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Well certainly a lot riding on that Missouri versus Biden case Megan thanks for reporting.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Special counsel David Weiss testified to House lawmakers on Tuesday. The closed door hearing marks the first time a special counsel will appear before lawmakers in the middle of an investigation. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Weiss's testimony.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So Weiss talked to the committee behind closed doors yesterday. What do we know about what went down?
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: Yeah, Weiss has been on Republicans' witness wish list for months. IRS agents who worked with Weiss's office on the Hunter Biden investigation said that Weiss, before he was given special counsel status, was blocked from bringing charges against the president's son.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Weiss's denial of those claims and other inconsistencies between him and the agents has raised plenty of questions about how the Biden investigation has been handled.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: According to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, one inconsistency was solved Tuesday. Jordan told reporters after the closed-door session that Weiss confirmed he had made a request to receive special attorney status in the spring of 2022, but the Department of Justice denied him.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Jordan says Weiss's testimony backs up what the IRS agents told Congress back in July, which is Weiss had asked for more authority to bring charges against Hunter Biden and was denied.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: All right, so a key confirmation there. So that's what we heard from Republicans. What did Democrats say coming out of the hearing?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Yeah, they have a different spin on it. Dan Goldman of New York said that Weiss backed up the story coming out of the Justice Department, which is that Attorney General Merrick Garland promised Weiss he would have full authority to investigate and charge Hunter as necessary.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: But that still looks contradictory. So Weiss has said he had full authority, but when he asked for more authority in 2022, he says he was denied.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Right. Okay, let's focus on Hunter. Where do you think Stan with all the investigations into his affairs?
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: So not much has changed about Hunter's investigation since our last update, but one of the growing storylines in the media is how Hunter's investigations will play into his father's re-elect campaign.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Of course, we're still a long way off from November 2024, but there are cracks showing up in center-left media that suggest the president's messaging around his son isn't working.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: An article in Politico just this week pointed out some pretty glaring inconsistencies and walkbacks the White House has done over Hunter Biden.
--:-- Host John Bickley: For example, the president went from claiming on the campaign trail in 2020 that he has never spoken to anyone about any of his family's business dealings to claiming this year that he has never been in business with his son. Obviously, a huge discrepancy there.
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: Right. That article revealed some new information about a business meeting with the Bidens in 2015, at least the White House's claims about it.
--:-- Host John Bickley: What did we learn there?
--:-- Guest Tim Pierce: Yeah, the Politico article went into some detail about a 2015 business meeting between Hunter and a Ukrainian energy executive in Cafe Milano in D.C. The meeting was referenced on emails found on Hunter's laptop, and they suggested that the president had attended the meeting with Hunter when Joe was leading U.S. policy on Ukrainian anti-corruption efforts for the Obama administration.
--:-- Host John Bickley: As the U.S. continues to build up its military presence in the Middle East, the Biden administration is reportedly finalizing a $320 million weapons shipment to Israel. Here with more on the deal and what it means for the war in Gaza is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: Well, this week we learned that the U.S. is finalizing the transfer of $320 million worth of precision-guided bombs and other equipment to Israel to aid in their efforts to wipe out Hamas.
--:-- Host John Bickley: This new shipment of weapons includes equipment that can convert traditional unguided bombs into GPS-guided munitions, allowing for much more precision. As service members often put it, the equipment turns, quote, dumb bombs into smart bombs.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: Now, this particular shipment was actually approved by Congress several months ago, but the State Department did not notify lawmakers that it was officially moving forward until last week.
--:-- Host John Bickley: This all comes as the White House has publicly pushed Israel to allow for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow for more civilian aid to enter.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: Now, it is worth noting, while Prime Minister Netanyahu shot down White House requests for a humanitarian pause last week, allowing to, quote, go full steam ahead, he has softened that rhetoric a bit.
--:-- Host John Bickley: During an interview with ABC this week, he implied that he would be open to short pauses in the fighting to allow for aid to enter.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there, we've had them before. I suppose we'll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don't think there's going to be a general ceasefire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: But that has done little to stifle the growing international pressure for Israel to end their war on Hamas.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: While there was near universal support from Western countries in the first week at the war. That support has begun to wane considerably as civilian casualties in Gaza have mounted.
--:-- Host John Bickley: For their part, Israeli officials have said they're trying to limit the number of civilians caught in the crossfire, but they have on numerous occasions referenced the number of civilians killed by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria during the war on terror as a sort of reminder that collateral damage is often unavoidable in war, though it's unlikely that message will assuage the growing international pressure they now face.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: Now, this also comes as the U.S. has actually increased the number of troops throughout the Middle East.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Tell us about that.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: So ever since the terror attacks of October 7th, the Pentagon has really expanded our military presence in the region, with multiple carrier strike groups and nuclear submarines deployed to the Mediterranean, along with the roughly 45,000 service members already on the ground in countries throughout the region.
--:-- Host John Bickley: That's on top of the thousands of troops stateside who have been given, quote, prepared to deploy orders.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: And while the purpose of that show of force is to deter countries like Iran or Lebanon from entering the war, it has offered new opportunities for militants in the region to attack American troops.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The Pentagon says American bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by rockets and drones on roughly 40 different occasions since October 17th.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: While those attacks have not resulted in any deaths, thankfully, 46 American service members have been wounded, with many of them suffering traumatic brain injuries.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The Pentagon responded to those attacks last week with a retaliatory airstrike on two locations in eastern Syria that are linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: So always a protracted situation over in the Middle East.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Guest Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
