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--:-- John Bickley: In a dramatic turn of events, a group of over 20,000 Russian mercenaries marched toward Moscow over the weekend in revolt against the regime of Vladimir Putin. Why did the group call off the mutiny and how does the showdown affect Putin's control over Russia? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. Georgia Howe is on vacation. It's Monday, June 26th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: New bombshell evidence released by a powerful House committee has the White House playing defense over questions about President Biden's ties to his son's dubious business dealings. It's not up to you how I answer the question. I just answer the question by telling you my colleagues at the White House counsel has dealt with this and I would refer you to them. And the House Armed Services Committee moves to block the Pentagon from funding organizations that police online speech. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: In a stunning development in Russia, a mercenary group led an armed mutiny against Vladimir Putin over the weekend, seizing a number of cities while demanding new leadership for the authoritarian country. Here are the details. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it is hard to overstate the magnitude of what we just saw this weekend. The main player here is Yevgeny Purgosian, head of the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company with tens of thousands of mercenaries. Now, in the past, Purgosian has been viewed as a close ally and confidant to Putin. The Russian leader has used Wagner mercenaries in conflicts around the world, and Wagner forces have been on the front lines in Ukraine since the invasion began last year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But in recent months, that alliance has begun to fray, as Wagner troops have been killed by the thousands and clashed with Russian military leaders on strategy for the war. And on Friday, those tensions came to a head in a major way when Pogosian released a statement accusing Russia's defense minister of deadly airstrikes on Wagner fighters in Ukraine. And in an extraordinary move, Pogosian called on his forces to, quote, march for justice to stop Russia's, quote, evil military leadership.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Specifically, he wanted to remove the country's defense minister and military chief of staff. In response, the Russian government issued an arrest warrant for Pogosian, accusing him of armed mutiny against the state. And that's where things really escalated. Yeah, that is an understatement. Progoshin responded by ordering his soldiers to seize two large cities in the southern part of the country near the Ukrainian border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Video posted to social media showed tanks and troops moving unopposed into the city, taking control of the regional military headquarters there, as well as airstrips and other government facilities. Progoshin then ordered his troops to march on Moscow. As the convoy approached within a few hundred miles, Putin offered a somber address to the nation, calling for unity and accusing the Wagner group of a, quote, stab in the back of our country and our people before threatening to destroy all those who marched against him.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But hours later, with the convoy just 125 miles from Moscow and a civil war seemingly imminent, Prigozhin made a stunning announcement that a deal had been reached and ordered his troops to turn around. Tell us about that deal. What led to the stand-down?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well around 8 Saturday evening it was announced that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had helped broker a deal between Putin and Prigozhin As part of the deal mutiny charges against Prigozhin would be dropped though he will be forced to leave the country for a sort of exile in Belarus. In exchange for peace, Wagner forces who joined the rebellion will also be granted legal immunity, and those who did not take part will be offered contracts to join the Russian military.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But given what we've seen for Putin over the last few decades, there's still no guarantee that he won't seek retribution against those who rebelled. despite any assurances he's giving publicly. Regardless, now that a deal has been reached, the question becomes how much this revolt weakens Putin's grip on the country. And that ends up really being the question here. What does this all mean for Russia and Putin moving forward?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So it's certainly a blow to Putin's power. Last year, he was vowing to seize Ukraine's capital. And then 16 months later, he's being forced to defend his own capital from mercenaries that he created. This sort of uprising against Putin would have been just unthinkable a few years ago and really shows how the relative lack of success in Ukraine is dragging on its popularity within the country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, the Russian economy has suffered greatly under the weight of sanctions brought on by the invasion, and the war itself has been far bloodier and more costly than Putin had originally promised. So there's clear fatigue here among the Russian populace. U.S. officials said this week they've been monitoring the internal power struggle and were unsurprised by the uprising, saying it's a clear sign of Putin's waning power.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here's Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Meet the Press. We've also seen rise to the surface profound questions about the very premises for this Russian aggression against Ukraine that Pergosian surfaced very publicly, as well as a direct challenge to Putin's authority. So I think we've seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade. It is too soon to tell exactly where they go.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Officials have said off the record that Putin's willingness to strike a deal shows just how fearful he was of how a potential conflict might play out. They say this is the most tangible threat to his power since he took over. The expectation is that he'll take steps in the coming months to try and assure the Russian people that he's still in total control. And remember, there's also the possibility that Purgosian isn't truly out of the picture and could continue organizing support for another rebellion in the future. We just don't know.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the world will be watching his next move.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the White House is put on the defensive amid new revelations about the alleged Biden bribery scandal. The fallout has intensified over bombshell allegations set forth in a pair of whistleblower testimonies released last week. The allegations, which raise serious questions about President Biden's involvement in his son's business affairs, has some lawmakers raising the possibility of impeachment. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here with the details.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, I'm Tim Pierce. First, what are these new allegations?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, IRS whistleblowers have alleged that a Department of Justice stifled investigations into what could be serious misconduct by the Biden family over their business dealings. Testimony from two IRS agents suggests that the charges against Hunter, two misdemeanor tax charges and a felony gun charge, are quite soft relative to what the evidence warranted. They say evidence supports multiple felony tax charges against the president's son.
--:-- Tim Pierce: They also say the DOJ ordered investigators to forego leads into Joe Biden, such as this one. After leaving the vice presidency, Joe Biden allegedly walked in on a business meeting between Hunter and Chinese executives at the Four Seasons Hotel in D.C. Remember, President Biden has repeatedly insisted that he knew nothing about his son's business dealings.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The whistleblowers also alleged that Delaware District Attorney David Weiss was blocked from bringing charges against Hunter two separate times, once in Washington, D.C. and once in California. Weiss requested special counsel status to bring charges but he was denied. But the most damaging allegation comes from a WhatsApp message that IRS investigators obtained On July 30th 2017 Hunter allegedly messaged an executive of the Chinese energy company CEFC, quote, I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And we know from congressional investigators that less than 10 days after that message was sent, CEFC accounts wired over $5 million to accounts associated with Hunter Biden. The president and his son obviously facing serious accusations with some pretty incriminating evidence, if this is authentic.
--:-- Tim Pierce: As you noted, President Biden has repeatedly said that he knows nothing about Hunter's business dealings. How have the Bidens responded?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hunter's attorney put out a statement calling the whistleblower testimony misleading, but notably not disputing the evidence. He said, quote, Any verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So he's trying to blame Hunter's addiction problem there. Here's George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley's reaction on Fox News Sunday. The statement that you just read from the Hunter Biden team was astonishing. They did not deny that the message was sent. Instead, they invoked a sort of 7% solution. He was an addict.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, this isn't like a purse snatching in Times Square. He was at the center of an influence peddling scheme that stretched around the world, involved dozens of LLC corporations and accounts, and generated millions of dollars. You can't just wave a flag here and say, well, that's the addict. That's Hunter being Hunter.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The White House appeared to struggle to come up with an answer on Friday. A statement from the White House counsel's office claimed that Biden, quote, was not in business with his son. National Security Spokesman John Kirby and White House Press Secretary Corrine Jean-Pierre were bombarded with questions over these allegations from reporters across the news spectrum, not just conservative outlets.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But neither had much of a response. Your statements from that podium, you stated that the president stands by his comment from the 2020 campaign that he never once discussed his son's overseas business dealings with his son. and you stood at that podium and you reaffirmed that. Do you stand by your reaction? What I will say is nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. And I will leave it there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Anything else, I will refer you to the White House counsel. Now, the Department of Justice has been called out on this as well. How has the DOJ responded? Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that Weiss had authority to bring whatever charges he wanted wherever he wanted to bring them. Garland also denied he was ever asked to make Weiss a special counsel. And Weiss himself has told the House Judiciary Committee the same.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So the whistleblowers are directly contradicting those claims. What kind of pressure is the Biden administration facing over this? Well, it's increasingly intense. Republicans on Capitol Hill want to run this to ground. Congressman Jordan said on Sunday that impeachment may be warranted. There are some members of your committees that are talking about impeachment. Is that on the table?
--:-- Tim Pierce: It sure is. If the facts show that there's high crimes, misdemeanors, bribery, treason, whatever, if the facts show that there is crime there that warrants impeachment, then our duty compels us. But we have to first get all the facts on the table. But you're right, they're piling up.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, we'll see what congressional investigators can turn up. Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: The House Armed Services Committee voted Thursday to block the Department of Defense from funding organizations that police online speech. Here to tell us what impact this new House rule will have is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan some of our listeners may remember that a couple of months ago we covered revelations that the DOD was funding organizations that promote online censorship That included some that created advertising blacklists of conservative news outlets. How does this new rule address that?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, and that was quite the bombshell when that came out, especially because it tied into the Twitter files that showed that the FBI, CIA, really just nearly every major department in Washington had been partnering with social media companies to clamp down on disfavored speech. So the DOD argued that misinformation and disinformation can create national security threats.
--:-- Megan Basham: But conservative critics shot back that a lot of that speech turned out to be correct and that these companies have demonstrated a notable political bias against the right. And this new rule directly addresses that complaint. Right, it does. It was added to the annual defense bill, and it seems to be what I would call the first step in responding to those concerns.
--:-- Megan Basham: It prohibits the DOD from contracting with any entity whose purposes, and I'll just quote what the bill said, advising on the censorship or blacklisting of news sources based on subjective criteria or political biases. Now, that includes those who are doing it under the auspices of fact checking.
--:-- Megan Basham: Republican Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia sponsored that amendment. And here's what he said right before the vote on Thursday. While the media monitors claim to be nonpartisan, the reality is they serve to steer advertising away from conservative news sites, we should not be subsidizing censorship by proxy. I'm going to ask that my colleagues support Amendment 2842.
--:-- Megan Basham: All right, so McCormick's argument was that the Pentagon should not be in the business of censorship. I mean, that was the upshot, but I will say that his pitch was a little bit more complex than that. So the amendment centered on military recruiting, which is way down across all services.
--:-- Megan Basham: And McCormick argued that recruits tend to be the sort of people who read those conservative news sites. So in helping suppress advertising on those sites, McCormick was arguing that the Pentagon was shooting itself in the foot on meeting its recruitment goals. So I would say it was not purely a vote on free speech principle. It also had that interesting pragmatic angle, but it will prevent the DOD from funding these speech monitoring organizations going forward.
--:-- Megan Basham: So how about these misinformation monitoring companies that were receiving Pentagon contracts? Have they had any reaction to this? Nothing yet on this specific amendment, but in the past, they've argued that they operate in a nonpartisan manner and that their work is vital to national security.
--:-- Megan Basham: So one of the companies, NewsGuard, for instance, received around $800,000 in 2021 to, among other things, offer solutions to hoaxes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, they say they've also helped the Department of Defense stop hostile foreign governments, including China, Russia and Iran, from spreading false narratives online.
--:-- Megan Basham: And they insist that they operate in an objective and transparent manner. But critics say that these fact checking and ratings groups like Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard operate in a way that is clearly politically biased and specifically designed to damage those disfavored outlets.
--:-- Megan Basham: So free speech advocates are cheering the committee's move. Michael Benz is himself a former State Department official who is now the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. And that's a group that lobbies against online censorship. He said that this new rule will, quoting here, send shockwaves through the censorship industry.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, we'll all be watching to see the impact this has. Thanks, Megan.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime.
