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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
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--:-- John Bickley: Stormy Daniels faces off with Donald Trump in a New York courtroom as a federal judge postpones Trump's classified documents case indefinitely. Let's be honest, we're not having a trial before the election. I mean, that was sure beforehand, but it is absolutely certain now.
--:-- [Guest host identified as Bhatia Ungar-Sargon, opinion editor at Newsweek]
--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Bhatia Ungar-Sargon, opinion editor at Newsweek.
--:-- John Bickley: It's Wednesday, May 8th, and this is Morning Wire. Israeli forces take control of the Rafah crossing into Egypt as Israeli officials claim the Biden administration kept them in the dark regarding the latest deal.
--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: We want to get these hostages out. We want to get a ceasefire in place for six weeks. We want to increase humanitarian assistance.
--:-- John Bickley: And holes in the social security safety net widen as a new report gives the program just over a decade before the fund runs dry. The bottom line, unfortunately, is the same bottom line that they have every year, which is our two biggest government programs, Social Security and Medicare, are both headed towards insolvency.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: Former adult star Stormy Daniels took to the witness stand on Tuesday, giving some of the most anticipated testimony thus far in Donald Trump's New York hush money case. Daniels claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump and was paid to keep the affair quiet. Her testimony came the same day that a federal judge in Florida indefinitely postponed Jack Smith's classified documents case against Trump.
--:-- [Guest identified as David Marcus, Daily Wire contributor]
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, Dave. So let's start in New York. It was Stormy Daniels in the spotlight there. What did we learn?
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, John. It sure was. And Daniels, of course, is no stranger to spotlights. The direct testimony was handled by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, who started out by walking through Daniels' history in the adult industry, eventually moving into Daniels meeting Trump and the alleged sexual encounter. Judge Juan Mershon had warned at the start of her testimony that he didn't want things to get too salacious, but they did, leading to several objections from Trump's lawyers. And then after the lunch break, a motion for a mistrial, arguing that Daniels had crossed the line set by the judge himself. In testifying to things like the former president allegedly not wearing a condom or standing between her and the hotel door, the judge did not declare a mistrial. But this could prove to be grounds for a future appeal.
--:-- David Marcus: For once it was the prosecution not Trump who seemed to raise the ire of Judge Marshawn Now during her testimony Daniels said she was not interested in money when she signed an agreement to keep the alleged affair secret in exchange for from Cohen Do we have any idea how that played with the jury? I mean, no, not exactly. But reports from inside the courtroom suggested that Daniels, although nervous and talking very quickly, seemed to almost be performing. She cracked a few jokes, though apparently they didn't get laughs from the jury.
--:-- David Marcus: Most people think 130 large is a lot of money. One has to imagine the jury will see it as part of her motivation. Yeah. So we got some of the cross-examination before court ended on Tuesday. What was the approach from Trump's attorneys? Trump lawyer Susan Necklace, notably a woman, was frankly more aggressive towards Daniels than I think most observers expected. Right off the bat, She asked the former porn actress if her testimony had been rehearsed with prosecutors, to which Daniels said no. She pressed Daniels on all of the deal itself. It was combative and clearly meant to shake the jury's confidence in Daniels as a witness. The bottom line for Trump's team is that Daniels has said an awful lot of contradictory things about all of this over the years. Their goal is to paint her as someone who was basically after money, and I expect they'll continue with that tomorrow.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: Yeah, I'm sure they will. Meanwhile, there were two significant developments in the federal classified documents case against Trump yesterday. First, it was abruptly postponed by the judge Eileen Cannon in a court order. She cited some significant questions still to be answered about handling classified documents. So no start date for that at this point. We also saw Congress take action about that case. What happened there?
--:-- [Guest identified as David Marcus, Daily Wire contributor]
--:-- David Marcus: Representative Jim Jordan announced that Congress is launching an investigation into Jack Smith's handling of the classified documents. Donald Trump is accused of mishandling. Smith's office had previously told the court that boxes found at Mar-a-Lago were unaltered, but on Friday admitted that some of the contents had been jumbled or mixed around, which casts into question when the documents arrived at Mar-a-Lago, which ones were found together, all things that Trump's attorneys have argued compromised the prosecution. Trump wants the case thrown out. Don't hold your breath for that. But this is just another cloud over these Trump prosecutions. One almost might say stormy weather here.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: I wasn't going to, John, but there it is. All right, Dave. Thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: Trust between the US and Israeli governments fell after Hamas announced it had agreed to a new ceasefire proposal on Monday. The proposal finalized without Israeli input would leave what remains of Hamas intact. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the war in Gaza. Hey, Tim. So Biden administration allies started to champion a ceasefire deal with Hamas on Monday. What happened?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal and immediately Biden allies began to spin it as a big diplomatic win for the president. The problem is, is that wasn't true. The deal Hamas agreed to has no chance of implementation unless Israel agrees to Hamas's survival, which the Israelis have repeatedly said is not possible.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here White House spokesman John Kirby talking about that deal on Monday and saying the talks are still ongoing There has been a response from Hamas to the hostage deal We currently reviewing that response and we discussing it with our partners in the region I won't be able to comment any further on this until we know where things stand. I hope you can understand that.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Obviously, Kirby didn't get into specifics, but reports say this has caused a major rift between Washington and Jerusalem. According to the New York Times, Biden administration officials say that the ceasefire proposal agreed to by Hamas only featured minor wording changes from the framework agreed to by Israel. But Israeli officials told Axios that to them, it, quote, looked like a whole new proposal and that they felt Israel got played by the U.S. and other mediators.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Do we know how the deal was negotiated? Well, Israel's team had agreed to certain parameters around hostage negotiations and a ceasefire weeks ago, but the Israelis drew a red line at any deal that would end the war before Hamas is destroyed. CIA Director Bill Burns, who is the head of the U.S. mediation team, and his counterparts from Qatar and Egypt reworked the deal over the weekend alongside Hamas negotiators. Burns never consulted Israel on the latest changes. In fact, Israel didn't even know the proposal was being edited until Hamas said it had accepted it on Monday. But the truth is, all Hamas accepted was a proposal that it largely wrote. And now Israel feels like it was blindsided by its allies in the Biden administration.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. Now, the U.S.-Israel relationship was already tense over Rafah. Can you give us the latest on that?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Sure. Israel started a limited operation in Rafah on Monday after it had warned residents to evacuate north. Over a million Palestinians have been forced into Rafah over the course of the war, and Israel was trying to allow for civilians to get to humanitarian areas before it begins its full-scale attack on Hamas and Rafa. Israel's work has been slow, though, in part because the Biden administration has been very particular about how Israel handles refugees. Washington is still on the fence over whether it supports Israel going into Rafa right now. The president doesn't want to see operations in Rafa that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are seeking refuge there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So you wouldn't support a limited operation in Rafa?
--:-- Tim Pierce: I think I've answered the question. On top of that, the Biden administration has reportedly paused an arms shipment to Israel. Kirby refused to comment on that when he was asked about that on Monday. Republicans have pitted themselves against Biden on this. Morning Wire asked Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee for her thoughts on U.S.-Israeli relations.
--:-- [Guest identified as Senator Marsha Blackburn]
--:-- Senator Marsha Blackburn: If we want to help the Palestinian people, if we want to see a brighter future for them, we need to get rid of Hamas. It is troubling to me that the Palestinian people elected Hamas as their government. Hamas takes all the food, the medical supplies, the fuel for themselves. Let's get rid of Hamas. Let's let Israel do their job, and the United States should stand in support of them.
--:-- Tim Pierce: To that point, Israel seems ready to finish off Hamas, but one of its biggest hurdles to doing that so far seems to be reluctance on the part of Washington. Feels like things are going to get worse before they get better when it comes to U.S.-Israel relations.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: Thanks for the great reporting, Tim. Thanks, Batya.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Good to be on.
--:-- Announcer: According to an alarming federal report, Social Security funding is now set to run out by 2035 as the number of beneficiaries continues to rise at a record pace. Here are the details on the disturbing report is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, Cabot, so we see this pretty dire prediction for 2035. What are we looking at here?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well it not always the most exciting topic to discuss but it now abundantly clear that Social Security is heading towards a financial cliff That according to the federal trustees overseeing the program In a new report released this week they warned that without substantive reforms the Social Security Retirement Fund will be insolvent within the next decade. According to their projections, that would result in a mandatory 21% cut in retirement benefits for tens of millions of recipients. And it would only get worse from there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For more, here's Maya McGinnis, president of the Committee for Responsible Fiscal Budget, speaking with Fox. We know the trust funds don't have enough money to pay the benefits that have been promised. And that means when they run out in less than a decade for Social Security, if you are newly retired in Social Security, there are going to be across-the-board benefit cuts of above 20%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so what's driving this projected shortfall? There are quite a few factors. First, Americans are simply living longer than before. When the program was started in the 1930s, the average life expectancy was around 63. But today that number is 79, which is obviously good news, but that means that not only are folks drawing more money for a longer period of time, but also that there are more beneficiaries than ever. Next year, the number of Americans drawing from Social Security will hit 60 million for the first time. That is around 20% of the U.S. population.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Another problem is the ratio of workers to beneficiaries. When Social Security was first launched, there were 42 covered workers for every one beneficiary. Today, that ratio is three workers for every one beneficiary. And as a result, it's now running in a massive deficit of around $180 billion annually. And by 2033, that deficit is expected to more than double, ballooning to $400 billion annually.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So that problem is only going to accelerate in the coming years. Now, for context, over the next 75 years, the program is projected to pay out $25 trillion more than it's bringing in. $25 trillion. That is about equal to three-fourths of the entire national debt at the moment. Incomprehensible numbers at this point.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What's being done to address the problem? Well, at this point, both Republicans and Democrats agree that the current program is not sustainable, but neither side really wants to touch it. The optics of telling the elderly you want to cut their benefits are not great, especially when you consider how much more active senior citizens are in the political process. In 2020, 72% of those over the age of 65 voted. That makes them far and away the most active age demographic and dwarfs turn out among younger Americans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there's clearly a political calculus going on as neither side wants to turn off a highly engaged portion of the electorate. President Biden has promised not to cut benefits. And President Trump, after briefly saying he's open to the idea, is now vowing the same. So it's sort of a political hot potato.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So what are the policy proposals that are actually being discussed? So there are a few things on the table. First would be raising the age of Social Security eligibility to cut costs. That's a move more popular among Republicans. Now, supporters of that strategy note that life expectancy has now gone up 16 years since the program's inception, while the age of eligibility has only gone up two years. But again, that's a tough sell with folks who've paid into the program for decades and are set to retire.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For their part, Democrats generally say the solution is to keep the program as is and then make up the deficit through tax increases that they say will be targeted towards higher income Americans. On that note, President Biden has proposed a plan that would significantly raise payroll taxes on those earning over $400,000 and direct all of that revenue towards Social Security. But it would take substantial tax hikes to get anywhere close to fully funding the program, which are unlikely to pass Congress anytime soon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So for the time being, both sides appear content to just kick the can down the road as a fiscal cliff approaches. And eventually there's no more road left.
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--:-- Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: Kevin, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
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