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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, January 30th, and this is Morning Wire. Just weeks after taking power in the House, the GOP is launching investigations into the political weaponization of several federal agencies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is about the First Amendment, something you guys used to care about. What is the committee looking for and what do Democrats have to say about the effort?
--:-- John Bickley: And new questions are being raised about President Biden's classified document scandal following the discovery of an email on Hunter Biden's now infamous laptop. What was the subject matter, and why is it being called highly suspicious?
--:-- 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: Over the weekend, Memphis police released body cam footage capturing the fatal beating of Tyree Nichols, a 29-year-old man, at the hands of five police officers. The dramatic video led to nationwide demonstrations and murder charges against the officers involved.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the video comes from an incident back on January 7th, when Tyree Nichols, a 29-year-old black man from Memphis, was pulled over by officers, all five of whom were also black, after driving recklessly.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, the original story coming from police was that after being removed from his vehicle, Nichols resisted arrest and then reached for their guns and fled on foot after being tased. When they called up to him, police say they handcuffed him after a brief scuffle and that he soon began complaining of shortness of breath, at which point he was taken to a hospital where he died three days later.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But Nichols' family says their son was unrecognizable when he arrived at the hospital and had actually died from wounds suffered after being beaten. And the hour of footage released on Friday appears to justify those claims.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So by now, many listeners have probably seen at least some of that footage, And you're right, it is very difficult to watch. You can see Nichols being pulled over and quickly removed from his car and then pulled to the ground. Though he appears subdued within the first 30 seconds or so officers can be heard on video threatening to break his arm and knock him out as they start to scuffle with him
--:-- Cabot Phillips: About a minute in one officer deploys his taser As Nichols begins to scream he then breaks free running down the street away from the police officers The footage then shows the officers catching up with Nichols and then knocking him to the ground. At this point, multiple officers begin to punch and kick him in the head and stomach. One officer even begins hitting him with a baton. Another officer picks Nichols up and then holds his arms behind his back as other officers begin taking turns punching him in the head.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At this point, he's finally handcuffed and dragged semi-conscious to a police car and propped up against the door. After the beating stops, officers can be heard on body cam footage laughing about the incident, bragging to one another about how many, quote, haymakers they landed on him.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So unsurprisingly, the release of this footage has sparked a lot of outrage. What sort of reaction have we seen across the country?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, oftentimes when videos like this come out, there tend to be disagreements about whether officers were in the wrong or if force was justified. But throughout the weekend, there was pretty overwhelming bipartisan consensus that the officers in this case were in the wrong and that this looked a lot more like a group beating than a lawful arrest.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even many of those who pointed out that Nichols did run from police after initially being tased still seemed to agree that excessive force was ultimately used.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Shortly after the footage came out, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and cities around the country. A lot of people were really bracing for violence this weekend. What did those protests actually look like?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So it depends on the city. In New York City, for example, thousands of people gathered in Times Square. Ultimately, three people were arrested on charges varying from assault on a police officer to damaging police cars. In Memphis, hundreds of protesters shut down a highway, and hundreds of others gathered in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But it's worth noting, unlike the riots of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, these demonstrations were actually overwhelmingly peaceful.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Part of that could be attributed to Nichols' mother, Rovon, who had this message for demonstrators at a vigil on Thursday night.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I want each and every one of you to protest in peace. I don't want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that's not what my son stood for.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And it's also worth pointing out that the story is different from other recent cases like George Floyd and Eric Garner, and that not only was the victim Black, but as we mentioned earlier, all five officers involved were also Black.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So many leaders said Nichols' death was more the result of poor training and overly aggressive officers than racism. However, there were still those who attempted to argue that the incident was ultimately the result of white supremacy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, CNN ran a headline that read, quote, the police who killed Tyree Nichols were Black, but they might still have been driven by racism.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And President Biden called it, quote, yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain and the exhaustion that black and brown Americans experience every single day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, so a version of the systemic racism argument there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What sort of response have we seen from the Memphis Police Department?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The five officers involved in the beating were fired last week after the department's investigation into the death concluded. They now each face second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, and official misconduct charges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The department also announced on Saturday that they would be disbanding the city's so-called Scorpion unit, which all five officers were a part of. Started in 2021, that unit embedded groups of police in the city's highest crime areas. Officers usually drove unmarked vehicles and made hundreds of arrests.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So some moves there from the department to attempt to de-escalate the situation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. And meanwhile, there are reports that the department's been struggling for years to hire enough officers to effectively police the city.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So another angle to keep an eye on there. And so a tough situation made even tougher with this tragic case.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- John Bickley: Now fully in control of the House the GOP is launching a series of intensive investigations. Chief among these efforts is the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government a wide-ranging inquiry into alleged abuses of Americans' First Amendment rights.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, what's the goal of this new committee?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, the Republicans behind it say they want it to be like the Senate's Church Committee of the 1970s. Back then, Democratic Senator Frank Church of Idaho led an extensive probe of U.S. intelligence agencies and the IRS, and it uncovered decades of malfeasance by U.S. officials.
--:-- Tim Pierce: As for targets, the U.S. intelligence community seems to be in the crosshairs, as well as the executive branch departments such as Homeland Security and the Justice Department.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, what specific issues will the subcommittee be looking into?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Essentially, they're trying to determine if there's a systemic political bias in these federal agencies. FBI election interference will be a major theme.
--:-- Tim Pierce: For example, the Mueller investigation into what we know now were false allegations against Trump's campaign. They'll also look at the FBI's meetings with big tech companies ahead of the 2020 election, as well as the Bureau's raid on former President Donald Trump back in August.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The committee will also look at the White House and Justice Department's connection with the National School Boards Association.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Ohio Congressman and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan describing the effort earlier this month.
--:-- Jim Jordan: A ploy. It's not a ploy when the Department of Justice treats parents as terrorists, moms and dads who are simply showing up at a school board meeting to advocate for their son or daughter. It's not a ploy when the FBI pays Twitter $3 million. Not one, not two, $3 million to censor American citizens. It's not a ploy when the Department of Homeland Security tries to set up a disinformation governance board because we all know that the Department Homeland Security can tell what's good speech and what is bad speech.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Dozens of whistleblowers have come talk to Republican staff on the Judiciary Committee, don't think this is a ploy. And Jordan has already begun requesting interviews with witnesses.
--:-- Tim Pierce: His targets include one current and one former FBI employee, a couple people associated with the National School Board Association, and Nina Jankiewicz, the former head of the now disbanded DHS Disinformation Governance Board.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, what are Democrats saying about this committee?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, one big difference between this select committee and the church committee is that the two major parties won't be working together on this one.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Democratic lawmakers have collectively lampooned the select committee in the press. They've accused Republicans of doing it for politics or to amplify conspiracy theories about the federal government.
--:-- Tim Pierce: New York Congressman Jerry Nadler is the top Democrat opposite Jordan on the Judiciary Committee. Here's what Nadler had to say earlier this month.
--:-- Jerry Nadler: It aims to undermine the safeguards of our democracy and to embolden MAGA extremists who would rather see our institutions fail than to see Democrats and President Biden succeed. Make no mistake. The Destroy Democracy subcommittee will enable the House Republicans to interfere with the free operation of businesses they do not like, to inhibit the fight against domestic terrorism and to settle political scores on behalf of Donald Trump.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, we have reported before there is a lot of growing concern about this. We'll see what comes out of the investigation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire's Tim Pierce.
--:-- John Bickley: Joe Biden's classified document scandal is raising new questions about the kind of access his son Hunter may have had to America's secrets.
--:-- David Marcus: So this is an email from Hunter Biden to his business partner Devin Archer and it contains very detailed information about Ukraine a 22 memo that Hunter said he created after doing research This was at a time when Biden and Archer were courting Burisma for very lucrative contracts, and when then-Vice President Joe Biden was taking over the Ukraine portfolio.
--:-- John Bickley: Johnson wants to know if any of the documents found in Joe Biden's possession pertain to the information in the 1300 word email between the partners. If there is a connection, that would certainly pour gasoline on this scandal.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, definitely would. Now, this is also around the time when Joe Biden admits he pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Victor Shokin by threatening to withhold aid. Is that also connected to these suspicions surrounding the email from Hunter?
--:-- David Marcus: Well, that's a huge question. And I reached out to Miranda Devine, who told me that, And I'm quoting here, whatever it was that Hunter was offering, Joe was desperate enough for it not to come out that he forced Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's former president, to get rid of prosecutor Victor Shokin, who at the time had issued a warrant to seize Burisma owner Mikola Zlochevsky's property in Kiev and said in an interview later that he had been planning to subpoena Hunter and Devin.
--:-- David Marcus: So, yeah, there's a lot of threads that intertwine here and none of them look good.
--:-- David Marcus: Do we know if Hunter Biden would have had access to the classified material found in Biden's home in Wilmington? And if so, do we know anything about what these documents are? I mean, we have a photo of him in the Corvette that was kept in the garage where some of these documents were found. Clearly, these are things that he could have been shown or just stumbled on while cleaning the garage or something.
--:-- David Marcus: These new revelations come in the wake of Mike Pence also finding a dozen classified documents in his home. Is this taking some of the heat off the White House? Absolutely.
--:-- David Marcus: However, there are some key differences. First and foremost, with Biden, we see a pattern of behavior stretching back over a decade with material found in five separate locations. Also, some of Biden's documents were from when he was a senator. And unlike a president or vice president, there's really no occasion when a senator should have classified material in his home.
--:-- David Marcus: Senators like Ted Cruz have expressed shock that it was even possible for Biden to get these documents out of the basement of the Capitol. It's also worth noting that this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen turned down a request from House Republicans to obtain financial documents related to Hunter.
--:-- David Marcus: So there are still enormous looming questions about this scandal.
--:-- John Bickley: Indeed. Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: That was Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. U.S. lawmakers still have questions after Pfizer issued a response to a now viral video released last week that questioned certain aspects of the company's research process.
--:-- Senator Mike Lee: So we can either have them come in and speak to any of the committees I serve on or any of the other Senate committees. Or if they'd like, they can issue a more public statement. They can come and brief all of us. I'll take their answers in whatever form they want to submit them. But they need to be answers and they need to be simple and accurate.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, that's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
--:-- Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
