--:-- Host: The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Extraordinary measures. That's what the Treasury Department says it's taking to pay the nation's bills now that the government's credit card has been maxed out.
--:-- Host: Will the GOP-controlled House be able to reach a funding deal with the Biden administration? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, January 20th, and this is Morning Wire. More than a year after the fatal shooting on the Rust movie set, prosecutors have completed their investigation and brought charges, including against actor Alec Baldwin. It happened because of more than mere negligence. They didn't exercise due caution. And a New York business is using facial recognition technology to deny entry to sporting events and shows. How is the tech being used, and is it legal?
--:-- Host: You're not allowed to discriminate at a hotel or a restaurant or Madison Square Garden. So why should you be allowed to use discriminatory technology? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host: The American Heart Association recommends four to five servings each of fruits and vegetables every single day. Now, that's no small task, especially given your busy schedule. Balance of nature, fruit and veggie capsules are a convenient way to consume essential nutritional ingredients on the daily. Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for $25 off your first order as a preferred customer, plus a free fiber and spice supplement. That's balanceofnature.com, promo code WIRE.
--:-- Host: On Thursday, the United States officially hit its debt limit, increasing the pressure on Congress to broker a deal before the U.S. defaults on its debt. Here with more on what happens next and what it means for the economy is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, how did we get to this point?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, a quick recap. The debt ceiling is essentially the legal limit set by Congress that determines how much debt the U.S. government is allowed to accrue. Because the federal government spends more money than it actually brings in each year, the ceiling is in constant need of raising. Since 1960, it's happened 78 times, usually without much of a fuss, including back in December of 2021, when it was raised to $31.4 trillion. Now, that was supposed to buy us a few years, but as the government has continued to spend massive amounts of money this year, it only ended up lasting about 13 months as the U.S. hit the limit yesterday morning.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so the limit hit much more rapidly than anticipated. What happens now? Well, starting yesterday, the Treasury Department began enacting what they call extraordinary measures to meet the government's financial obligations. Some people call it creative accounting, but essentially it just means the Treasury will start thinking outside the box to come up with money to pay the government's bills. It came out yesterday their main strategy this time would be pausing investments into a number of government retirement funds and diverting the money towards more pressing obligations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress yesterday that those measures will only be able to buy a few months. She ended her letter to Congress saying she respectfully urges them to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States. Now obviously a deal between Democrats and Republicans will have to get done to raise this limit. Where do we stand there?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well since we talked about this at the start of the week both sides have really dug in saying they will not budge. The White House and Democrats in Congress are demanding the limit be raised no strings attached while Republicans say they will not agree to raise the limit until President Biden agrees to major cuts to federal spending.
--:-- Host: We'll start there with Republicans. The main argument on their front is that the government has no incentive to save taxpayer money if they know the debt limit can continually be raised. But a growing number of party leaders are calling for a federal budget that, among other cuts, balances itself within 10 years in exchange for a debt ceiling increase.
--:-- Host: Here's the argument we're hearing right now from new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. I don't know if you have any children, but if you had a child and you gave them a credit card and they kept raising it and they hit the limit, so you just raised it again, clean increase, and again and again, would you just keep doing that or would you change the behavior? We're six months away. Why wouldn't we sit down now and change this behavior? That we would put ourselves on a more fiscally strong position.
--:-- Host: All right, so a strong appeal there from McCarthy. And what's been the argument from Democrats? Democrats want the limit raised with no concessions. They say it's disingenuous for Republicans to make demands tied to raising the limit. And have pointed out that when President Trump was in office, the ceiling was raised three times and the national debt increased by nearly $8 trillion.
--:-- Host: They also say that if House Republicans were serious about reducing the deficit, they would not have voted to cut funding to the IRS. Democrats say those new IRS agents would have helped bring in over $180 million in tax revenues. Here's Brian Deese, director of the White House Economic Council. This is about economic stability versus economic chaos. What needs to happen is what Congress has done time and time again, which is prudently do its job.
--:-- Host: Republicans have fired back, pointing out that back in 2011, President Obama agreed to federal spending caps in exchange for a raising of the debt limit. And President Trump made a similar agreement with Democrats and Nancy Pelosi in 2019. So there is a precedent for deals to be made between Congress and the White House.
--:-- Host: But wherever this goes, don't expect a resolution to happen soon. From what we're hearing out of Washington, it looks like a deal will not be finalized until the summer when the urgency will increase and both sides will hope to have more leverage, though. Yeah, sounds like a long battle ahead. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host: That was Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, Alec Baldwin is charged in the tragic shooting death on the set of Rust. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. It's tough to stick with your New Year's resolution, but here's one you can accomplish today. Complete your will with Epic Will. For just $119 and in as little as five minutes, Epic Will can help you create your last will and testament, living will, and even healthcare power of attorney. Their step-by-step online form makes it incredibly easy. All you got to do is fill in the blanks. Go to EpicWill.com and use promo code WIRE to save 10% off your complete will package. That's EpicWill.com, promo code WIRE.
--:-- Host: Prosecutors handed down charges Thursday for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Helena Hutchins on the set of the film Rust. Actor Alec Baldwin is facing two federal counts of involuntary manslaughter, as is the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to give us the details. So Megan, considering that Baldwin was the producer on the film and he was the one who actually pulled the trigger, it's not that surprising that he's been named in these charges, right?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, very true. Immediately after the incident, Baldwin suggested that Gutierrez-Reed was to blame for the live around being in the gun because she was the firearm safety expert and it was her responsibility. But Gutierrez attorney told Good Morning America that his client did her best to train Baldwin in safety protocols. And she says she wasn on the set when the gun was fired because no one told her there was going to be a rehearsal where a gun was going to be in use.
--:-- Megan Basham: Had they called her in, and usually they do, they call Hannah in and they say, we're about to do a scene involving a firearm. She'll go through the gun again. She'll inspect it again. And that's how it worked on this set. Well, she wasn't called back because there wasn't a scene. Now, lawyers for assistant director David Halls, who actually handed Baldwin the loaded weapon, said it was not his responsibility to check the rounds in the gun.
--:-- Megan Basham: New Mexico prosecutors clearly disagreed with all of them, and they say that their investigation determined that all three bear responsibility. So special prosecutor Andrea Reeb said in a statement, quoting here, if any one of these three people, Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, or David Halls, had done their job, Helena Hutchins would be alive today. It's that simple.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Halls has already accepted a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, and that comes with probation, no jail time. Now, how about the manslaughter charges against Baldwin and Gutierrez Reid? What do those entail?
--:-- Megan Basham: So they're being charged in the alternative, and what that means is that prosecutors are going to ask the jury to decide which of two charges they may be guilty of. So it'll either be involuntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act. Now, sounds a little complicated, but with a standard involuntary manslaughter charge, prosecutors will have to prove that some sort of underlying negligence played a role.
--:-- Megan Basham: And if so, prosecutors say that that will probably also include a misdemeanor count of negligent use of a firearm. For involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, prosecutors will have to prove that something more than just negligence was at work there. And normally, a conviction of either one of those carries a maximum prison sentence of 18 months and a fine of up to $5,000.
--:-- Megan Basham: However, if Baldwin or Gutierrez-Reed are found guilty on that second one, prosecutors say it will be attached to a firearm enhancement charge. And that will mean a mandatory sentence of at least five years in prison. Now, have Baldwin or Gutierrez-Reed responded yet?
--:-- Megan Basham: They have. Baldwin's attorney said, and again quoting, this decision distorts Helena Hutchins' tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. And then Jason Bowles, who is attorney for Gutierrez-Reed, said in a statement, these charges are the result of a very flawed investigation and an inaccurate understanding of the full facts.
--:-- Host: Well, very sad story all the way around. Yeah, it definitely is, Georgia. Megan, thanks for reporting. That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Host: New York officials are calling on Madison Square Garden Entertainment to end its use of facial recognition technology on customers. In recent months, four different lawyers were banned from attending events at the Garden and Radio City Music Hall due to their employment with firms involved in legal cases against the entertainment group. Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Brandon Dray. Okay, Brandon, this sounds a bit like Minority Report or something, some sort of dystopian sci-fi. First, how did this all start?
--:-- Brandon Dray: Hey, John. So this all began in October last year when some security guards at Madison Square Garden removed an attorney and her husband from their seats at a Brandy Carlisle concert that they had planned for their wedding anniversary. Then in November a Long Island lawyer who was trying to catch the New York Knicks basketball game was denied before he could even enter the garden.
--:-- Brandon Dray: And then also the weekend after Thanksgiving a young girl and her mother a personal injury attorney for a firm representing a client suing an MSG restaurant was turned away by security guards at the Radio City Music Hall. Kelly Conlon, the lawyer, told NBC that when she walked into the lobby, a group of security guards approached her right after she went through the metal detector, saying that she wasn't allowed to be there.
--:-- Brandon Dray: They knew my name before I told it to them. They knew the firm that I was associated with before I told them. And they told me that I was not allowed to be there. Conlon was at the Rockettes performance with her daughter's Girl Scouts crew, but had to wait outside while the rest of the troops watched the show. It was embarrassing. It was mortifying.
--:-- Brandon Dray: Now, each one of these attorneys are part of a so-called attorney exclusion list that MSG Entertainment sent out last summer to adversarial lawyers at about 90 different firms, which basically says in part that any attorney employed by these law groups are banned from entering the company's venues until, quote, final resolution of the litigation.
--:-- Brandon Dray: Companies technically have the right to decide how they conduct their business, including who they do business with, just as long as it's not discriminating against protected classes such as ethnicity, sex, religion, etc. But banning someone based on employment status alone crosses some boundaries for civil liberty advocates.
--:-- Brandon Dray: And also there's a group of politicians sounding the alarm that these venues shouldn't possess the power to weaponize facial recognition and that doing so really has nothing to do with public safety. Rather, it's used to chill free speech as well as violate privacy. If the entertainment group continues to use the technology for non-threatening purposes, then state and local officials said that it could jeopardize public support of its venues, which potentially includes losing its liquor license, a large city venue permit that expires this year, and a $43 million state tax abatement.
--:-- Brandon Dray: So there's a lot at stake here for the entertainment group. Yeah, losing its licenses and 43 million, that's not nothing. So where does the entertainment group stand on all this?
--:-- Brandon Dray: Well, they've definitely stood their ground amid all the backlash from public officials and attorneys who clearly have the legal backing to challenge the group. And look, they're aware that the policy is disappointing, as they put it. But they still defended it by saying that the litigation creates a, quote, inherently adversarial environment.
--:-- Brandon Dray: However, once these issues are resolved, they said the lawyers can go back and watch their favorite concert, team, or any other event held at their venues. All right, so stop suing us and you can come to the events. So how many lawsuits is the entertainment group involved in and what does that mean for other lawyers?
--:-- Brandon Dray: Well, NBC reported that just before the new year, court records show MSG and its properties in the state are involved in 20 active lawsuits. And lawyers have argued that it should raise concerns about how the use of this technology could spread to other classes of individuals. And even allow businesses to refuse service for people based on politics, online activity, or even where they work.
--:-- Host: And definitely lots of legal and ethical questions here. Brandon, thanks for coming on. That was Daily Wire reporter Brandon Dray.
--:-- Host: Other stories we're tracking this week. A new report from Reason Magazine reveals that the CDC was heavily involved in policing speech on Facebook regarding COVID. Confidential emails reveal the CDC kept track of posts about the virus, masks, and vaccines, and told Facebook parent company Meta to silence dissent.
--:-- Host: U.S. authorities in southern Arizona said Thursday they seized over 400 pounds of what they suspect is a chemical often used to manufacture the dangerous drug fentanyl. The seizure could be a signal that the manufacture of the deadly opioid has made its way to American soil.
--:-- Host: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
