--:-- [Theme music fades out]
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--:-- John Bickley: All eyes on President Biden last night as he delivered a much scrutinized State of the Union address to Congress. You need America, the land of possibilities. You need a vision for the future and what can and should be done. We know that President Biden didn't just create this border crisis. He invited it. We discuss the highs and lows of the president's high stakes speech.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, March 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Amid a dramatic rise in subway crime, New York's governor authorizes hundreds of National Guardsmen to patrol the subway system.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We went from the subways are safe to we need the effing army to search everyone on their way to the subway station pretty fast.
--:-- John Bickley: And the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the collusion of big government and big banks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: On Thursday night, the embattled President Biden gave his third State of the Union address, hoping to reset his reelection bid for the White House. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Hey, John. So there was a lot riding on this address. It was billed by both sides of the aisle as Biden's most important speech of his lengthy political career. Did he pull it off? I imagine that answer depends on which side of the chamber you were sitting on.
--:-- John Bickley: The president's own party showed solidarity throughout the night in supporting him and mustered up a lot of enthusiasm at times, even breaking out in chants of four more years on a few occasions.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Republicans, on the other hand, made clear that they were not impressed by his remarks, staying seated most of the night and occasionally letting their disagreement be heard with boos.
--:-- John Bickley: But as for the big question a lot of people had going into this, could President Biden keep up his energy and focus for the entire speech? He did manage to keep a pretty forceful tone, at times very forceful, in fact, for over an hour, which many questioned whether or not he'd be able to pull off.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: But there were also many stumbles and garbled words throughout the speech. What were the main messages of the night and how did they land? Well, the president opened up by talking about Ukraine funding and the threat of Russia.
--:-- John Bickley: He used that to quickly turn to his go-to January 6th threat to democracy theme. January 6th lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a great gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: The president also expectedly hammered the issue of abortion. There was a pretty memorable moment when Biden lectured and even seemed to threaten the Supreme Court over the Roe v. Wade ruling.
--:-- John Bickley: And with all due respect justices women are not without electoral power excuse me electoral or political power you about to realize just how much Biden has been polling pretty poorly on the economy About 60 percent of Americans describe the economy as bad right now.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So that was a major topic of discussion. Biden's message was largely about how the economy is actually good and on the mend.
--:-- John Bickley: He also predictably went after the rich and corporations for not paying their fair share. Meanwhile, the border, which is the number one issue for Americans right now, also came up.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Biden, who rescinded Trump's border policies during his first days in office, blamed the growing crisis on Republicans over inaction in Congress.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, there was a standout moment on the border, actually. What happened there?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yes, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wore a MAGA hat and a Lakin Riley t-shirt, challenged Biden to say Riley's name during the address. Riley, who was just 22 years old, was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant.
--:-- John Bickley: Biden held up a pin with Riley's name on it, which Green handed to him, and did in fact say she was murdered by an illegal. Though he seemed to call her Lincoln Riley and sort of downplayed the tragedy of her death.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Not really. I... Lincoln, Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That's right.
--:-- John Bickley: But how many of thousands of people being killed by legal?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Lastly, I'll note that Biden also announced that the U.S. military will be building a port off of the coast of Gaza to facilitate humanitarian aid.
--:-- John Bickley: This was clearly an overture to the far left of the Democratic base. Biden has been seeing a drop in support from that wing of the party.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: This was really evident during the recent primary in Michigan, where uncommitted votes really surpassed expectations.
--:-- John Bickley: And even tonight, there was a large pro-Palestinian protest attempting to block the president's motorcade route.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Those protesters were holding a sign that read, Biden's legacy is genocide.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, shifting to post-speech, Republicans had Alabama Senator Katie Britt give the GOP response from her kitchen table last night.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: What case did she make?
--:-- John Bickley: Britt, who is just 42 years old and a rumored VP contender for Trump, she talked about the hardships Americans are facing right now.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: She leaned into her experience as a wife and a mother, discussed the tough economy and Biden's rescinding of Trump's policies at the border.
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden inherited the most secure border of all time. But minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: He halted construction of the border wall. And he announced a plan to give amnesty to millions.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, former President Trump also reacted. He live posted on Truth Social during the speech, but also gave a pre-bottle.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: What did he say there?
--:-- John Bickley: Yes, he who shall not be named. I have to note, Biden did not say Trump's name during this entire speech, though he did refer to him many times.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Trump's live posting covered a range of things. And in Trump's pre-bottle, he really zoned in on the border.
--:-- John Bickley: From his very first day, Joe Biden allowed an invasion of our country, resettling dangerous illegal aliens from all over the world into American communities to prey on our people.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: The latest victim of Joe Biden's premeditated border invasion is Lakin Riley. Joe Biden refuses to even say her name, but she will never be forgotten, not by great Americans.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, one clear takeaway here is that the general election has begun.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has authorized hundreds of National Guardsmen to patrol the city transit system as crime on the subways has skyrocketed.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey Dave, so just how many National Guardsmen is the governor sending in and what is she hoping they can achieve?
--:-- John Bickley: Morning, John. Hochul activated 750 members of the National Guard, as well as 250 state and Metropolitan Transit Authority police to assist the NYPD in protecting strap hangars in the city's ubiquitous subway system.
--:-- David Marcus: They'll be on patrol and also assisting in checking riders' bags. To put this in perspective, this is the largest increase in subway security since the response to 9-11.
--:-- John Bickley: The city has 472 subway stations, so this is basically adding two cops to each one.
--:-- David Marcus: And the governor's hope is that this massive display of force will be a deterrent to anyone of a mind to commit a criminal act.
--:-- John Bickley: Biggest escalation since 9-11. Wow. Just how bad has the subway crime situation gotten to require this overwhelming response?
--:-- David Marcus: It's bad. In recent weeks, there was a brutal slashing of a conductor. A 65-year-old man was kicked onto the tracks in Penn Station.
--:-- John Bickley: There were also three murders in a five-week span between January and February.
--:-- David Marcus: As to the impact, there's no city in the country that relies on its public transit as much as Gotham. Not even close.
--:-- John Bickley: As it turns out, I interviewed a Brooklynite at the beginning of 2023 who said then he wouldn't let his wife or daughter ride the subway.
--:-- David Marcus: He got them Ubers. And now it's apparently 45% worse than that.
--:-- John Bickley: Part of the problem with subway crime is the number of mentally ill people who use it not only for travel, but sort of as de facto homes.
--:-- David Marcus: Is the governor also addressing that issue, mental illness?
--:-- John Bickley: Yes. Hochul announced $20 million in funding for school-based mental health programs and outreach to the mentally ill.
--:-- David Marcus: But the real problem here is there are people who refuse services, preferring to remain on the street and in the subway system.
--:-- John Bickley: There's very little way for police or any civil authority to force them to get help unless and until they commit a crime.
--:-- David Marcus: And even then, given the bail reform laws and progressive DAs like Alvin Bragg, it's difficult to compel them to get any treatment.
--:-- John Bickley: In fairness, this is a problem that has perplexed New York City and other major cities for quite some time.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, it has. Some have noted that it was the New York Times that had a meltdown over an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton in 2020, urging the use of National Guard during the George Floyd riots.
--:-- John Bickley: Have the Times or the left reacted in the same way here?
--:-- David Marcus: Absolutely not. It really is remarkable. James Bennett lost his job as head of the opinion page for running that column.
--:-- John Bickley: And here Hochul is essentially doing exactly the same thing, not writing a column about it, mind you, but actually doing it.
--:-- David Marcus: And there is nowhere near the same level of outrage.
--:-- John Bickley: There have been a few groups, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, protesting the move.
--:-- David Marcus: But I have to tell you, John, to an awful lot of New Yorkers of every political stripe, the Giuliani playbook is being looked back on with fondness for a time when the subways were safe as houses.
--:-- John Bickley: Meanwhile, desperate times. Indeed.
--:-- David Marcus: Dave, thanks for coming on.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: A new report from the House Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government finds that federal law enforcement agencies asked major banks to monitor customers who oppose gun control and support strong border policies.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well listeners may remember Georgia that last summer you and I talked about the fact that the House had been investigating whether Bank of America had voluntarily turned customer data over to the feds in connection with January 6th.
--:-- John Bickley: At that time FBI whistleblowers alleged that B of A had given the agency the records of a huge list of customers who were in D.C. on or around that date, or who used debit or credit cards to purchase a firearm around that time.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, the whistleblowers claimed that this was all done without warrants or probable cause.
--:-- John Bickley: So this report and the resulting hearing were the result of that nearly year-long investigation.
--:-- Megan Basham: And what did they end up finding?
--:-- John Bickley: So they found that the FBI worked with not only Bank of America, but also many other financial institutions who voluntarily shared customer banking records with federal law enforcement outside of the normal legal process.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then this may be the most explosive revelation. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center created an intelligence report titled Domestic Violent Extremists Likely Emboldened in Aftermath of Capital Breach.
--:-- John Bickley: And they shared it with about 650 private financial institutions.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, that document identified certain viewpoints that the FBI said could correspond with being a violent extremist.
--:-- John Bickley: It included things like opposition to gun control legislation, support for measures to control the border and crack down on illegal immigration, opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
--:-- Megan Basham: And they then asked banks and other financial institutions to search customer transaction records for evidence of these beliefs and then share that data with them.
--:-- John Bickley: They also created a secret portal for a select group of major banking institutions that allowed for ongoing back-channel information sharing.
--:-- Megan Basham: As the House report put it, support for typical conservative policies may result in an individual being labeled by the FBI as domestic violence extremists likely to pose an increasing threat.
--:-- John Bickley: This was what committee chair Jim Jordan said in the hearing on Thursday.
--:-- Megan Basham: We've seen the censorship. Now we see what's happening with big banks and big government relative to your financial data.
--:-- John Bickley: Big government's not supposed to use big tech to censor Americans.
--:-- Megan Basham: And big government shouldn't be working with big banks to target Americans for behavior that is legal and constitutional.
--:-- John Bickley: So in essence, the report claims that the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies weaponized financial institutions against conservatives.
--:-- Megan Basham: So now that this activity has been exposed, are lawmakers addressing it at all?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, New York Representative Elise Stefanik has introduced a bill titled the Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act.
--:-- Megan Basham: It would ban banks and credit card companies from using a code to track gun purchases, something she says would create a backdoor gun registry.
--:-- John Bickley: But that doesn't really address the broader terms the FBI and other agencies were asking banks to search.
--:-- Megan Basham: So it's not clear yet if Republicans are proposing legislation for that, as the report notes that they don't yet know how federal officials may have acted on that information.
--:-- John Bickley: But Brian Knight is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and he testified at the hearing that some banking-specific law may be necessary.
--:-- Megan Basham: Under current lawless, once the bank has that data, government has that data. So preventing the collection at the bank level is your first best option.
--:-- John Bickley: And Jordan Peterson, who is a Daily Wire personality, also testified that this kind of practice can quickly lead to a social credit type system like the one that they have in China, where people with disfavored views can find it very difficult to carry out financial transactions.
--:-- Megan Basham: This allows you purposefully to be shut out of all activities that can be virtualized. Merely being in the presence of someone with a low social credit score means that your own score can be lowered.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, surveillance of political views should be scary for every American.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us.
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--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
