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--:-- Georgia Howe: I don't think anyone expects that Joe Biden getting across the table from Xi Jinping is going to land to deep, intelligent or breakthrough kind of talks. We discuss the precarious relationship between the two world powers. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 7th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: The federal fraud and money laundering case against Sam Bankman-Fried in New York City has begun. So that's both parts of the argument. One, that customers were duped. And two, that there were people inside the company who knew exactly what was going on. And Planned Parenthood comes under more scrutiny after a recent report suggests that clinics are recklessly providing teens cross-sex hormones.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After a turbulent summer that saw escalating tensions between the United States and China, officials in each country say they're committed to opening new lines of communication, setting the stage for high-stakes meetings between President Biden and China's Xi Jinping.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here with more on the ever-evolving U.S.-China relationship is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, you could spend hours on this, but we'll go with the 30,000-foot view. So for the first two years of President Biden's tenure, there was a sort of stalemate between the U.S. and China. There was the normal posturing by both countries, but the two sides expressed an openness to meeting and diplomatic ties were maintained. That really changed, however, last February during the Chinese spy balloon saga.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After that incident, the two countries canceled meetings that had been scheduled and Beijing cut off most communication with the White House. Over the next few months, any goodwill seemed to go out the window as tensions really escalated from there. Then as we entered the summer months, the White House ramped up their diplomatic efforts in Asia, drawn closer with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and India, all with the clear intent of boxing out China and driving a wedge between Beijing and the rest of the region.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And those efforts really sparked anger in Beijing. Exactly. Look, it's no secret that Xi's ultimate goal is total control of Asia. So, they're not happy with the U.S. making inroads in the region and offering countries there an alternative ally.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Over the summer, Beijing called America, quote, a wolf in sheep's clothing, going so far as to say the U.S. wanted to, quote, resurrect the specter of the Cold War. Xi responded by cozying up more closely to Vladimir Putin. And the leaders have met a number of times this year, while China has now become Russia's top trading partner amid sanctions from the West.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And importantly, Xi has also increased his efforts in our neck of the woods, making inroads in Latin America, including Brazil and Venezuela, while also expanding their espionage operations out of Cuba. It's about as close to Cold War as you can get.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But as things seemed on the verge of spiraling further, the two sides appear to have cooled off a bit. Yeah, so it seems there's some positive momentum on diplomatic talks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, earlier in the month, the two sides began expressing a new willingness to reopen relations, for conversations at least. At the moment, the White House is negotiating a visit from China's top economic policy aide that would mark the highest ranking member of the CCP to visit Washington since Biden took office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it worth noting there was also movement last week when China helped facilitate the release of a U service member who had inexplicably fled into North Korea in July and been detained ever since. While the Chinese did not mediate the release directly, White House officials said they were still helpful in coordinating the release of the 23-year-old who was eventually flown to China and then transported to U.S. diplomats at the embassy in Beijing.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But again, there are those cautioning that this was hardly a show of goodwill. I spoke with Stephen Yates. He's a former deputy national security advisor in the Bush White House. When Beijing brings someone to the table or does what needed to be done, they turn around with the other hand and say, now I want you to give ground in another area or do something for me. It's very transactional in past practice.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And so I would wonder what Beijing seeks is a compensation for having helped get this American out.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, as usual, it is difficult to say why Xi acts the way he does, but many experts point to China's worsening economic downturn as a potential catalyst for them opening up for talks. Remember, the Chinese economy has seen lagging GDP growth this year, and their real estate sector is still in crisis, partly because of Western sanctions and other efforts to send business elsewhere in the region.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Yates on that front. I think there's a lot of evidence that the Xi government and the Communist Party government in China is feeling heat internally in terms of the economic decline. I think, unfortunately, that pressure results in Xi appealing to nationalism and external conflict as a way to divert attention away from, say, his disappearing foreign minister and his disappearing defense minister and these kind of unfortunate things domestically.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And that, I think, is part of the reason we see an uptick in pressure on Taiwan and a little bit of the Chinese wolf warrior treatment of American diplomats.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, a complex political game playing out here. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The federal case against disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried began in New York City this week. The 31-year-old crypto whiz kid has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Joining us now is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, Georgia. So where do we stand so far on the SBF trial?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, Tim. So Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF as he's known, is charged with seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit these crimes.
--:-- Tim Pierce: At the heart of the case is whether or not SBF used money from his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to buy luxury real estate, donate to political campaigns, and prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I should point out that the hedge fund was run by his on-and-off-again girlfriend at the time, Caroline Ellison.
--:-- Tim Pierce: After a leak of Alameda's financials last year, SBF's empire collapsed almost overnight. Investors lost billions of dollars.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So now SBF is on trial, and one of the big worries for him and his legal team is how many former colleagues will flip on him in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Has anyone like that stood trial yet?
--:-- Georgia Howe: In fact, yes. The defense team got a taste of what could come on Thursday when former FTX developer Adam Yetadaya, a college classmate of SBF, testified.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yetadaya presented himself as an ex-loyalist. He had even texted to reassure Bankman-Fried when employees started to run for the exits that quote, I love you, Sam. I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That feeling didn't last long. Yetadaya resigned from FTX a few days later.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He told the court that he'd learned Alameda had used customer deposits from FTX to repay loans to creditors. Yetadaya said the situation to him seemed like a flagrantly wrong thing to have done.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what's SBF's defense?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Bankman-Fried's attorneys say their client is being made into a cartoon villain, essentially for running a risky business that didn't work out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Lead defense attorney Mark Cohen said in his opening statement that SBF was a math nerd who may have made poor business decisions but didn't steal money.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Bankman-Fried and his friends, quote, were building the plane as they were flying it, according to Cohen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He said that nobody could be everywhere and do everything that SPF was expected to do.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Has anyone stepped up to defend him? He's been pretty open about his ties to very influential figures.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, he was the third-largest donor to Democrats last year. We're talking tens of millions of dollars, over $40 million just in 2022.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He was one of the largest donors to Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign with a $5.2 million donation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And he claims he's also donated to Republicans supposedly through untraceable methods, but that's hard to confirm.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But for all he spent, it doesn't seem like most people want to defend SBF, at least not publicly, except for one person, author Michael Lewis, who wrote a book on SBF and saw much of FTX's collapse up close.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Lewis on 60 Minutes. This isn't a Ponzi scheme. Like, when you think of a Ponzi scheme, I don't know, Bernie Madoff. The problem is there's no real business there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The dollar coming in is being used to pay the dollar going out. And in this case, they actually had a great real business. If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn't been a run on customer deposits, they'd still be sitting there making tons of money.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, it's worth noting here the reaction of FTX CEO John Ray, who was appointed by a court to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Ray wrote in a note to the court several days after taking over, quote, Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He went on to call the situation unprecedented.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, plenty of trial left to go, hopefully a Hollywood picture eventually.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An investigative report by the Washington Free Beacon reveals that teens seeking cross-sex hormones can get them from Planned Parenthood on the first visit after only a brief consultation.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Joining us to discuss is investigative reporter Maraida Lordi.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Hi Georgia. Well essentially the Washington Free Beacon published the story of one 18-year-old who recently self-diagnosed as trans and was able to obtain cross-sex hormones in a matter of minutes from his local Planned Parenthood.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There are a lot of notable things about this case, but probably most important is that he had a record of developmental disorders, including autism and a long history of anxiety and depression.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: For his protection, his parents requested that his name not be printed. So it's not clear where on the autism spectrum he was but it sounds like he was relatively high but certainly emotionally troubled.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the article, he was expelled from three different special needs schools due to behavioral problems and those problems were attributed to an impulse control disorder.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So how long did this man identify as trans before seeking treatment, and what led him to Planned Parenthood?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So according to his parents, he had a history of cycling through fads. For example, they say last year that he was involved with what they describe as an alt-right group chat, but in December of last year, he lost interest in that and announced he was trans.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So his parents suspected that this might be a fad too, but regardless, it seems they were very supportive because they sought out the gender clinic at Children's National Hospital, which is the only clinic in the country that specifically focuses on autistic children with gender dysphoria.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Unfortunately, the wait for an evaluation at Children's National was a year, and their son was not willing to wait that long.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So when he turned 18, he waited for his parents to be out of town, and then he went to a local Planned Parenthood where he was able to obtain cross-sex hormones in less than an hour.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to his parents, his phone location showed up at Planned Parenthood at 11 a.m., and the prescription was available for pickup at the pharmacy at 11:39 a.m.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So very minimal screening, if any, in that time window.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah. Well, that is the draw of Planned Parenthood. So traditionally, the organization has been all about access, whether it's abortion or birth control or cross-sex hormones, they pride themselves on not gatekeeping.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: You ask for something and they give it, period. And people can debate the merits of that argument for some treatments.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The issue in this case is that this teen was uniquely vulnerable and his parents worry the clinic did not have the capacity in such a short time, or maybe at all, to safely screen his unique case before greenlighting powerful drugs.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Plus, Planned Parenthood falls under even more scrutiny because it receives taxpayer funding.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, that's been a huge issue in the past.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Right. So, Laura Edwards-Leeper was quoted in the article. She co-founded the nation's first pediatric gender clinic at Boston Children's Hospital in 2007.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Edwards-Leeper is a vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood, but she says she's concerned that patients see the organization as a fast way to work around the system to get pills.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: According to Edwards-Leeper, Planned Parenthood has, quote, taken on something that they are not equipped to handle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She says they are out of their depth, especially with autistic and developmentally delayed teens and adults.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Do we know what the protocol is at Planned Parenthood for screening and or educating about risks regarding these medications specifically?
--:-- Georgia Howe: We don't, and that's because they aren't standardized across states.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Just to give an example, according to Aaron Siberian, who reported this for the Washington Free Beacon, branches in some states and locations warn that testosterone can cause vaginal atrophy, while many others do not.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to Edwards-Leeper, vaginal atrophy is a major side effect that should always be discussed.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So that, combined with the shocking brevity of the appointment, suggests a real potential for risk and poor outcomes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. I think people forget how powerful these drugs are.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Maraida. Thank you for listening this morning.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Our mission here at Morning Wire is to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you stand with that mission and enjoy this show, please consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire. Bye.
