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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, and welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm joined today by Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Justice Department will not investigate whether state policies were responsible for thousands of nursing home deaths in 2020. How will this impact the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan at the center of the alleged scandal? And what does this mean for the families of those who died in nursing homes during the pandemic?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining me to discuss this is Daily Wire editor Ash Short. Good to have you with us, Ash.
--:-- Ash Short: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Ash, do we know why the DOJ decided not to investigate these states?
--:-- Ash Short: No, we don't. The specifics were not made public, but what we do know is that last year, the Trump administration's DOJ requested nursing home data from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey. But the department has now decided not to investigate further.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So stepping back for a moment, what exactly do these policies say?
--:-- Ash Short: Each governor's policy was slightly different. The most well-known was Governor Andrew Cuomo's in New York. His health department in late March directed nursing homes in the state to accept patients from hospitals, even if they had tested positive for COVID-19.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Whitmer's policy, however, mandated that only certain nursing homes had to accept COVID-19 positive patients. So the claim here is that these policies resulted in more deaths. What does the data look like?
--:-- Ash Short: In New York alone, more than 15,000 patients died after contracting COVID-19 in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other adult care centers. That's about 14 percent of the nursing home population in the state. That was significantly higher than the national average, which was approximately 8 percent.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So almost double the national average, and people are blaming these policies. Right. But the DOJ decided not to investigate. What's been the reaction to that?
--:-- Ash Short: There's a partisan divide. With Democrats claiming the investigation is politically driven while Republicans are upset. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise called the decision unconscionable. He said grieving families deserve answers and accountability.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, said the decision not to investigate makes President Biden complicit in a cover of deaths of thousands of vulnerable seniors. And Janice Dean of Fox News, she lost her in-laws in New York nursing homes due to COVID-19, called the decision a terrible day for thousands of families.
--:-- Ash Short: So does this mean these states are in the clear? Not exactly. Cuomo is still being investigated by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office. Also, Whitmer is the target of a probe by the state's auditor general. And though the DOJ decided against investigating New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, it is investigating two state-run nursing homes in New Jersey.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's been a lot of focus on Andrew Cuomo, definitely more than any of the other governors. Is that fair?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, his policy was the first to make news and arguably caused the most deaths. Then we learned earlier this year that Cuomo's top aides repeatedly worked to hide the number of nursing home deaths in the state. There are thousands of families affected by this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What does this mean for them? Well, it means they may not receive the answers they're seeking, but there are still other investigations outside of the DOJ. However, the concern is that the DOJ's decision may also provide cover for other agencies to drop their investigations.
--:-- Ash Short: It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the other investigations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Ash. Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire's Ash Short. Watch Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tell his story in Created Equal, a documentary that follows his journey from the segregated South to the highest court in the land and the contentious confirmation battle he fought to get there. Streaming now for Daily Wire members at dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The drama on Capitol Hill heats up as the January 6th Select Committee finalizes its members and starts its hearings. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. Charlotte, welcome.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So a Select Committee on January 6th. Give us some background here. Didn't Congress already vote on this?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right, they did. In May, Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to open debate on forming a commission to investigate the events of January 6th. Minority leader Mitch McConnell knocked the commission, saying it would not provide new facts or healing, and that it was, from the beginning, partisan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Republicans effectively said Democrats were trying to keep January 6th in the news for political reasons. OK, so that was back in May. What's new here?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is forming a select committee to investigate January 6th. It's supposed to report on the facts and causes of the riot and include recommendations to prevent future attacks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The committee was supposed to have 13 members appointed by Pelosi and five of those appointed in consultation with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, which basically means Pelosi has a hand in every selection. So Speaker Pelosi can block Republican appointees.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right. And she quickly used that power. Though Pelosi insists that it's a nonpartisan committee, she rejected two of the Republican picks last week, Representatives Jim Banks and Jim Jordan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Is that something we see often, blocking committee picks for the other party? Not really. Last week, McCarthy called it an unprecedented step and said that this was something that has not happened before with a select committee.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So McCarthy says she's out of bounds. What reason did Pelosi give for blocking them?
--:-- Georgia Howe: She said it was because of statements that they made about January 6th.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: For example, she claimed that Congressman Banks tried to blame the Biden administration for the riots. He'll give you their statements. I think one of them was sort of the, of Mr. Banks, was that the Biden administration was responsible for January 6th. There was no Biden administration on January 6th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But let's not go into that. But Banks said that's false and said that ultimately Speaker Pelosi has more control and authority over the Capitol Police than anyone else in the United States Capitol.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Other Republicans say Pelosi is singling out Banks and Jordan because they objected to certifying the results of the 2020 election. She notes that she didn't veto Representative Troy Nels, who also objected to the results.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So there's been some action from the Republican side. What's McCarthy done?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: McCarthy pulled all five of his selections from the committee after she vetoed the two members. He said it was an egregious abuse of power and the panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, there are some Republicans on the committee. Tell us about them.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yes, Pelosi made headlines this week when she chose Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois who has been critical of former President Donald Trump. Pelosi also originally picked Representative Liz Cheney, who has spoken out against McCarthy's leadership in the investigation into January 6th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Meanwhile, McCarthy criticized Pelosi's committee on Sunday, saying that she was filling the committee with people who share her preconceived narrative and structured it to satisfy her political objectives.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Definitely lots of politics at play here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for the reporting, Charlotte.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime. Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. On Monday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited China for a series of diplomatic meetings. She's the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country since President Biden took office six months ago. Joining us to discuss the fallout is Daily Wire managing editor Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, this is the first sit-down between the U.S. and China since that really tense meeting back in March. Were things better this time around?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Not exactly. For context, at that March meeting, officials from both countries got into a heated exchange with the U.S. accusing China of grandstanding and Chinese officials accusing the U.S. of trying to incite countries to, quote, attack China.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, coming into this meeting, the U.S. tried to strike a more diplomatic tone. Secretary Sherman said the U.S., quote, welcomes stiff competition but does not seek conflict with China.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But once the meeting started, things started to go downhill. Well, tell us about that. How did the Chinese officials handle the meeting?
--:-- Georgia Howe: They started by denying any nefarious actions or human rights abuses and instead accused the U.S. of turning them into, quote, an imagined enemy. This is sort of their M.O. in meetings like this. Chinese officials will blatantly lie about their own state of affairs and deflect blame towards other powers, mainly the U.S.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Chinese officials made it clear that they think America is waging an economic war against them with sanctions and tariffs, and they issued a list of demands, calling on the U.S. to remove sanctions on their leaders, lift visa restrictions on Chinese students, and withdraw extradition requests on Chinese citizens.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So a pretty heavy list of demands. Yeah. President Biden has talked at length about the importance of a productive relationship with China. What were U.S. diplomats pushing for in the meeting?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, they trying to strike a really delicate balance here. So on one hand, they want to call out China human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and residents of Hong Kong and pressure the Communist Party to stop supporting North Korea and Iran.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But from what we're told, they're nervous about pushing too hard. One big goal of the Biden administration is to get China to cooperate on climate change policy. And it's hard to get a country with you on reducing carbon emissions when you're essentially embarrassing them on a global stage by pointing out their enormous human rights abuses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there's a lot at play here for the Biden administration. So coming out of that meeting, has anything really changed?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, if anything did change, it wasn't a change in the right direction. The Chinese vice foreign minister said afterwards that the relationship is, quote, in a stalemate and faces serious difficulties.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They were very angry that the U.S. publicly called them out for human rights violations, and they viewed it as an insult to their sovereignty for America to concern themselves with the situation in Hong Kong.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. The U.S. reacted by basically saying they weren't expecting anything positive to begin with. Secretary Sherman said after the meeting, quote, we came to these conversations not expecting any specific outcomes.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So again, neither side is giving much reason for optimism here. So what should we expect in the future?
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's hard to know. Look, the relationship between America and China is viewed by experts as the most important foreign policy issue of our time. So the stakes are only going to get higher.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: President Biden will be at the G20 summit at the end of October, and there's speculation he'll meet with China's Xi Jinping while he's there. So there might not be any more major developments until then.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Lots at stake here. We'll be watching.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Cabot, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Absolutely. Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are the top stories this morning, but there's more in the news to keep an eye on. Other big developments that we're tracking this week. The White House revealed Monday that it will not be lifting any existing travel restrictions due to concerns over the Delta variant.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The restrictions, which have been in place since 2020, have blocked entrance to the U.S. for much of the world's population. Wildfires rage up and down the West Coast, affecting air quality as far as the East Coast and the Mid-South.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The bootleg wildfire in Oregon, which began July 6th, has now consumed more than 400,000 acres and is only about 50 percent controlled, according to the U.S. Forest service. Separately, the Dixie wildfire continues in California and has consumed around 200,000 acres since it began July 14th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Officials say more homes were burned Monday and another 10,000 homes remained threatened. And for an Olympic update, on Sunday the U.S. bounced back from a slow start to the games with the swim team meddling in every event and the U.S. men's soccer team defeating Jamaica 1-0.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After a comeback win against New Zealand on Saturday, the U.S. women's soccer team will play Australia on Tuesday. And gymnastics superstar Simone Biles qualified for all of her events, keeping her chances alive for five medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Start your day informed with a deeper dive into the stories we talk about on the show with the 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.
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