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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire, and I'm here with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, December 11th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, John.
--:-- John Bickley: We've got a lot to cover today. First, the news that's been making waves in the higher education world. Liz McGill, the embattled president of the University of Pennsylvania, has resigned. We're going to break down what led to her resignation and what it means for the future of higher education.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining me now is Megan Basham, our culture reporter. Megan, thanks for being here.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, what led to McGill's resignation?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, there's no question that pressure from donors was likely the biggest factor here. And that actually started well before Hamas' terrorist attacks on October 7th and those remarks that McGill made to Congress last week.
--:-- Megan Basham: So back in late September, donors had written to McGill expressing concerns about Penn's plan to host the Palestine Rights Literature Festival. And they pointed to speakers like Mark Lamont Hill, who had previously called for Israel's eradication. And he used slogans like "from the river to the sea," which of course refers to the annihilation of Israel.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then even more controversial, the event was sponsored by Islamic Relief Worldwide, which is a group suspected of funding Hamas that has been condemned by the State Department for anti-Semitism.
--:-- Megan Basham: Jewish students, meanwhile, reported an increase in verbal harassment in the lead up to that festival, and someone spray painted a swastika on campus.
--:-- Megan Basham: So McGill's reaction to all of this was to release a statement about concerns over the festival that did condemn anti-Semitism, but she allowed the event to go on.
--:-- Megan Basham: So that was when mega donors like former Chinese ambassador John Huntsman and hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asnes said that they were closing their checkbooks to Penn until it made meaningful changes in leadership.
--:-- Megan Basham: So this was already an issue on donor radar before October 7th. What happened since then?
--:-- Megan Basham: Right. And at that point, Jewish students and faculty said that anti-Semitism on campus ramped up exponentially. Two students complained to the Department of Education about harassment. One of them said that as she was walking by a pro-Palestinian protest wearing a Star of David, the protesters started screaming at her. They called her a dirty little Jew.
--:-- Megan Basham: University staff began receiving emails with anti-Semitic threats. Those are currently being investigated by the FBI.
--:-- Megan Basham: Meanwhile, a Jewish civil rights group filed complaints with the Department of Education.
--:-- Megan Basham: And so when Congresswoman Elise Stefanik then asked McGill if calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes harassment and McGill responded that it was a context decision, that was really the last straw for a lot of people, and not just on the right.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, publicly condemned her remarks. So did Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. And then financier Ross Stevens announced that he was pulling his $100 million grant to the school.
--:-- Megan Basham: At that point, McGill tried to do damage control. She recorded this video apology.
--:-- Megan Basham: I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It's evil, plain and simple.
--:-- Megan Basham: But that didn't really move the needle. The board of the Wharton Business School, which is affiliated with Penn, called on McGill to resign.
--:-- Megan Basham: And on Saturday night, she ultimately did so.
--:-- Megan Basham: Is there a good chance that we're going to see the presidents of Harvard and MIT resign as well?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, there's certainly a lot of speculation that they will. And hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who is a Harvard alum, has been leading the charge against those two remaining presidents.
--:-- Megan Basham: He says he's meeting with Harvard's board this week. Sunday morning, he posted this video of Dr. Phil calling on both presidents to resign.
--:-- Megan Basham: I grow increasingly appalled at the anti-Semitism permeating so much of our country, especially by so many students at our elite universities, which have become left liberal woke hotbeds, fostering intellectual rot.
--:-- Megan Basham: How dare you sit there and play semantics with this congressional panel when you know what was done that day and what is being supported against your Jewish students?
--:-- Megan Basham: Every single one of you must resign immediately.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I think you can say that Right now, Harvard's Claudine Gay is certainly under the most pressure, but MIT's Sally Kornbluth is certainly not out of the woods here.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, this would be a huge shakeup if all three stepped down.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, Megan, for reporting on this developing story.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: New data from the federal government shows a cooling labor market with fewer job openings last month, spurring optimism that the Fed will soon lower interest rates for the first time since 2020.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And we're going to break down what that means for the average household.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining me now is Cabot Phillips, our senior editor. Cabot, thanks for being here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So let's start with the latest job numbers. What did we learn?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, on Friday, the Labor Department released their November jobs report showing that the U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs last month, with health care and government jobs leading the way for new hires by a wide margin.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, while those numbers are fairly strong, historically speaking, they do represent another month of cooling.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, in 2021 and 2022, we saw one of the hottest job markets on record with around 446,000 jobs added monthly over that span.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This year, that number has been cut nearly in half to around 232,000 jobs each month.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the report is simply more proof that the job market in America has slowed down considerably.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But when the latest report came out Friday, all three major stock indexes actually jumped to their highest points of the year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That is because the trend makes it more likely that the Fed will choose to cut interest rates in the near future.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Explain to us how the labor market plays into that decision.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, remember the Fed has raised rates at a record pace in their attempt to slow inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It sounds counterintuitive, but they want to see fewer jobs being added, slower wage growth, and higher unemployment because it's a sign that rate hikes are having their intended purpose, and that is slowing down the economy as a whole and hopefully in turn the rise of inflation.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For more on that relationship, I spoke with Carol Roth, former investment banker and New York Times bestselling author.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The narrative around rates coming down in 2024 is being driven by a few different expectations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Underlying most of that is headline inflation continuing to come down towards the Fed's 2% target, although it won't necessarily need to reach that level before cuts could begin.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There are also expectations that the economy may weaken, so the Fed's policy path is trying to balance managing inflation but not destroying the economy in the process, and higher rates puts more pressure on the economy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, zooming out, many of the things the Fed is looking to see before rate cuts have begun to happen.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Not only has the rate of hiring cooled considerably, but the number of job openings is dropping as well.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The number of job openings last month fell by 617,000 to their lowest point since October of 2021.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: While the pace of wage growth also dipped to 5.2%. That's about 15% slower than what we saw last summer at its peak.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And finally, the number of people quitting their jobs has also been cut by almost a third from a record high back in the spring.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And again, that's just yet more evidence that workers are less confident in this labor market strength, which means the Fed is more likely to begin lowering rates.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it's worth mentioning, it's still not a given that they'll cut rates in the near future.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Fed Chair Jerome Powell has signaled that he'd be more likely to cut rates when hiring, spending, and investments show a steep decline.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But to this point, it's been more of a gradual dip.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So while economists are pretty confident the Fed will not keep raising rates, the question becomes if and when they will lower them.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So what sort of impact could lower rates have in the short term?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So put simply, it would just mean that borrowing money would become a lot cheaper.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That is good news for small and large businesses who've really cut back on new investments as higher interest rates have cut into their profit margins.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Falling rates are also likely to have a positive effect on your 401k.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then there's the housing market, where the impact of rate hikes has been perhaps the most noticeable this year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The number of new sales and homes in the market have hovered around record lows this year, as millions of Americans have been reluctant to give up that 3% mortgage rate to take on a 7% or 8% rate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: If those rates do come down even by just a point or two, it'll be a very welcome shot in the arm for the housing market and likely cause a jump in new inventory.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, Cabot, for breaking down the latest job numbers and what they mean for interest rates.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden's son, Hunter, has been indicted in California on a new round of tax evasion charges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And we're going to discuss what this means for the Biden campaign and the 2024 presidential race.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining me now is David Marcus, our contributor. David, thanks for being here.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, are these fresh charges breathing new life into the effort to bring a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives?
--:-- David Marcus: Morning. And yes, absolutely. These charges in California, which arguably came to be only because of the testimony of IRS whistleblowers Joe Ziegler and Gary Shapley, deal much more directly with money Hunter received from Burisma Energy in Ukraine as well as Chinese communist companies.
--:-- David Marcus: So it's much more connected to the allegations against Joe Biden of participating in influence peddling than the original Delaware suite of charges.
--:-- David Marcus: House Republicans were, dare I say, pouncing over the weekend and do seem prepared to vote in favor of a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.
--:-- David Marcus: Even some of the GOP representatives, such as the New York moderates, who have been skeptical about impeachment, they now seem to be on board.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, there seems to be a shift in tone there.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, the White House and Biden campaign are pointing to the fact that Joe Biden is not mentioned in the indictment.
--:-- David Marcus: But do these charges bring Hunter's alleged crimes kind of closer to the orbit of the president?
--:-- David Marcus: Yes. And again, that is because this case is much more directly tied to the foreign firms that Republicans under the leadership of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer claim paid for influence over Joe Biden.
--:-- David Marcus: And though they haven't proven it yet, they allege that Joe Biden received some of this income.
--:-- David Marcus: And special counsel David Weiss has said that the investigation is ongoing.
--:-- David Marcus: Yes, still. And that leaves open the possibility of those Farrah charges, which would potentially mean not just more jail time for Hunter Biden, but also stand as evidence that he was engaged in lobbying, which makes the charge of influence peddling significantly stronger.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Politically, how do these new charges change the dynamic in the 2024 presidential race, or do they change it at all?
--:-- David Marcus: That's always hard to say, but as we've pointed out several times before on the show, John, the Biden campaign never wants Hunter to be the story.
--:-- David Marcus: And it's remarkable. It was only back in July that the failed plea deal almost put this scandal completely to bed.
--:-- David Marcus: The White House and the campaign both want to paint this as a story of a loving father whose son was in the throes of addiction.
--:-- David Marcus: But when you look at this indictment, showing that Hunter paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to prostitutes while not paying his taxes, some voters may look at this all and ask, how much did Joe Biden know about it or question whether he enabled some of it?
--:-- David Marcus: If the House does indeed pull the trigger on an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, then this is all set to become much more interesting.
--:-- David Marcus: And it's already interesting enough. Get ready for more.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, David, for joining us on this developing story.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week, deadly tornadoes ripped through Tennessee Saturday evening, leaving in their wake massive damage and at least six people dead.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And we spoke to the owner of Hendersonville Barbers, which was impacted by the storm.
--:-- John Bickley: He said he feared he lost everything until he saw the flood of support.
--:-- John Bickley: A moment like this, you realize exactly what kind of people we are.
--:-- John Bickley: And this will be a testament, the success of this area of the country will be a testament to exactly what we are as a people.
--:-- John Bickley: And in this tiny shop, it's exactly a testament to what we are.
--:-- John Bickley: So I don't got fear or stress.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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