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--:-- John Bickley: Special prosecutor John Durham alleges that a tech executive used access to servers to find dirt on Donald Trump before and after he became president. That is the big concern, and it looks like it may have continued on into after President Trump takes the oath of office and he's the sitting president of the United States. We speak to former Congressman Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan about the allegations that they say lead directly to the Clinton campaign.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, February 16th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: New polling shows that a majority of Democrats do not want a second term of President Biden, but instead would prefer another Democrat run for president in 2024. We take a look at the issues facing Democrats and Republicans in upcoming elections. And the FDA is putting a halt on approving drugs that have been developed and tested in China. and the reason may surprise you.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up at Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA. Text WIRE to 989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver. There's zero obligation. Text the word WIRE to 989898 to protect your savings today.
--:-- John Bickley: On Friday, Special Counsel John Durham revealed more details connected to charges against Michael Sussman. Sussman is a lawyer who represented the Clinton campaign, who is being charged with lying about that affiliation when he presented evidence to the FBI.
--:-- John Bickley: On at least two occasions, Sussman met with intelligence to bring information about supposed Russian collusion, information which later was proved false. Durham also found that some of the information provided to the CIA in 2017 appeared to include protected White House communications.
--:-- John Bickley: So, John, we reported on the Durham court disclosures on Monday, but some new details have emerged since then. So what's the latest in this case?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, well, the latest is that the tech executive cited by Durham as helping to provide the data on Trump responded late Monday. That executive is Rodney Jaffe. He worked for Newstar at the time. He admitted through a spokesperson that a report on Trump was indeed provided to the CIA.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, it appears so. Now, Jaffe has not been charged with anything, is that correct?
--:-- John Bickley: Yes, only Sussman, at least so far, and Sussman is pleading not guilty.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the New York Times says that what Durham has alleged is not technically spying. But some others, like the Wall Street Journal, say it's clear. They say Trump really was spied on. And they call the Russian collusion story, quote, one of the dirtiest tricks in U.S. political history.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah and the journal is definitely not alone in that conclusion So what the response been from political leaders?
--:-- John Bickley: Well the White House and Hillary Clinton have refused to comment so far but several Republicans have responded including Jim Jordan He's the top-ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.
--:-- Jim Jordan: I asked him about what new information came out of the Durham probe, and here's what he said. Well, I think the fact that they were spying on the executive office of the president and the language that Mr. Durham used, You talk about they were creating the Clinton campaign and the folks spying on the president's Trump's campaign. We're attempting to create an inference and a narrative. Those are the terms that were used. And so, I mean, you used to call that framing somebody. That's the takeaway I had. They're trying to frame the president of the United States.
--:-- John Bickley: I also talked with the congressman who headed up the House Intelligence Committee when this all began back in 2016, Devin Nunes. Nunes, who's now the CEO of the Trump Media and Technology Group, told me that even he is surprised by some of Durham's findings.
--:-- Devin Nunes: Well, I would say even for me, it was shocking. So we knew there was spying on going. We knew they were running spies into the campaign. But what we never knew is that they would be able to compromise servers and take Internet data from President Trump specifically. But then I think more shocking is actually taking and scraping information from the White House, which is supposed to be the most protected communications architecture in the world.
--:-- John Bickley: Nunes also said the use of Sussman to push the false claims was part of a larger strategy of concealing the political motives behind it.
--:-- Devin Nunes: The way I would look at this is that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Party tried to layer in lawyers so that they could have that break to never have to tell people what they actually had done if they got into trouble. I think that's probably part of what's taken Durham so long is they had to pierce that veil of having those lawyers as the break. I know that was something we only see so much in these court filings, but that's clearly something that Durham had to break through was that legal veil. Now that that's gone, Sussman has already been indicted and clearly the other lawyers that were involved in this have to be on Durham's target list. So it doesn't sound like Durham is done yet.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, we'll have to see where the investigation goes. Coming up, new polling suggests Democrats are turning away from Biden. Where your day takes you.
--:-- John Bickley: As new polling shows President Biden sinking to record lows in popularity, Democrat leaders appear to be distancing themselves from key 2020 campaign promises, including defunding the police and strict COVID mandates and the president himself.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with the latest is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, let's start with the latest polling data. There was a pretty shocking poll from CNN that showed that Democrats are really pulling away from the president right now. So tell us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we've known for a while now that President Biden's support was sinking among independents, but that new poll shows just how deeply he's struggling with his own party as well. 51% of Democrat voters now say they'd prefer another candidate run in 2024.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, typically ahead of midterm races the party in power is quite reliant on the president to rally support for down ballot candidates but that not looking like it going to be the case this year given how weak his support is within the party And more broadly stepping back for context both Donald Trump and Barack Obama had almost twice as much support from within their own parties at this point in their presidency.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there are some clear fractures forming. Now, looking back at Biden's first year, what sort of trends are we seeing more broadly? Well, he's right now struggling worse than ever before. If you look at the rolling average of national polls, his approval rating sits at just 41 percent and his disapproval is at 54 percent.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, those are not weighed down by any outlier either. So far this month, he has not had a single poll where he's been above 43 percent approval. Now, whenever you look at polling data, it's helpful to zoom out for a context. And the context here really shows how quickly this decline in favor with voters has been. At this point last year, he was at 54 percent approval and just 37 percent disapproval. And even as recently as August, he was at 51% approval.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So we're talking about around a 20-point swing in the wrong direction in just a matter of months. And are there any issues where he's still seeing broad support? For a while, the clear answer to that question was COVID. Even while his performance on the economy and foreign policy dropped during the summer, the majority of Americans did still support his handling of COVID. But even that has now changed, with just 44% of Americans approving on that front.
--:-- John Bickley: And I don't mean to pile on too much, but there really aren't any clear things right now that the American people are happy about with Biden. CNN published another poll last week asking Americans what they thought he was doing well. And 56 percent of respondents could not name a single thing that they approve of from the president.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, it does seem like the Democratic Party is responding to this polling data given their recent shift on a few issues. So let's talk about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, they're definitely aware of this. If you look at the polling on which party voters prefer in the midterms, Democrats had held a clear advantage all year. It was not until November that things flipped, and now Republicans have a commanding lead in generic congressional ballots.
--:-- John Bickley: Democrat leaders, again, they're very aware of that shift in voter sentiment. And you can tell because they've started to reverse course on a number of issues that they campaigned on in 2020. They've reversed course on mask mandates and lockdowns after calling for them all year. They've gone largely silent on critical race theory and Black Lives Matter as those issues have started to get a lot more unpopular in polling.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And they've even pulled back on campaign planks like defunding the police, especially this week as crime continues to rise and 13 police officers were shot in just one 24-hour span. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually had some strong words for defunding the police this weekend on ABC. Defund the police is dead. That causes a concern with a few in our caucus. But public safety is our responsibility.
--:-- John Bickley: So lots of indicators that Democrats are aware of how unpopular President Biden is and also how unpopular a lot of their key policy positions have become. And they're trying to right the ship for the midterms.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, I guess we'll see if that strategy works. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime. That's Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- John Bickley: As Western drug companies seek to introduce drugs into the U.S. that were developed in China, the FDA is signaling it may not approve. Here to tell us how this could impact the drug industry is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So, food and drug regulators in the U.S. are wary of some drugs that have been developed in China and they could end up putting off approving dozens of medicines. Authorities at the FDA are worried about the standard of studies looking at medicines developed in China They also worried that U patients haven been part of the studies for those medicines The issue of medical standards in China is obviously a major one So how could this impact drug makers in the West, like Eli Lilly and Novartis, which were potentially going to make billions of dollars in sales by transferring these drugs from China to America.
--:-- John Bickley: This could definitely affect the strategies of some drug makers in the West, like Eli Lilly and Novartis, which were potentially going to make billions of dollars in sales by transferring these drugs from China to America. For example, Lilly was hoping to push out a China-developed lung cancer immunotherapy and offer it at a lower cost than similar medicines that are already for sale.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In a document posted online last week, FDA staff said the data from the clinical trial, which was done solely in China, quote, are not applicable to the U.S. population and U.S. medical practice. On Thursday, FDA advisors voted against supporting the FDA's approval of the drug from Lilly and its Chinese partner Inevent Biologics.
--:-- John Bickley: So the FDA is concerned about the quality standard of these medicines. Yeah, the quality of the medicines and the studies used to test them, which, by the way, isn't exactly unwarranted. A report published in the British Medical Journal in 2016 found that more than 80% of clinical trial data put forward for new drug registrations in China were, quote, revealed as fraudulent or substandard by the country's drug regulator.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: But actually, this hesitation is kind of a new shift for the FDA. In 2019, the FDA approved a lymphoma treatment that had mainly been tested in China with some participants in the U.S. That year, Richard Posner, director of the FDA's Cancer Drugs Division, spoke at a medical conference and said the FDA would accept Chinese-only drug study outcomes if the data were quality.
--:-- John Bickley: Some experts in the industry consider that wording as providing a kind of go-around for China-tested medicines to be accepted in the U.S. without going through longer trials in America. But the FDA and the advisory panel appear to be more concerned with the lack of diversity of the participants in these types of studies.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: On Thursday, Positor spoke about the shift, saying, quote, Over the past two or three years, this country has experienced tremendous social change. He said they, quote, clearly heard from all patient groups that they want faces like theirs. He said that, quoting again, single countries' submissions is a step backward in achieving the racial diversity that we need in the United States.
--:-- John Bickley: So we'll be watching to see what action the FDA takes or doesn't take when it comes to these studies. Well, what they decide could have some major implications on drugs and drug prices.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yeah, it could.
--:-- John Bickley: Charlotte, thanks for the reporting. That's Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week prince andrew has agreed to settle a sexual assault lawsuit brought by virginia jufri according to a letter from her attorney the amount of the settlement has not been disclosed jufri claims prince andrew sexually abused her when she was under 18 years old jufri settled a lawsuit against jeffrey epstein for 500 000 the prince was scheduled to be deposed in march after a judge rejected his request to dismiss the case a letter from Jufri's attorney says, quote, Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Miss Jufri.
--:-- John Bickley: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening and give us a five-star review. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you liked this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter available exclusively to Daily Wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
