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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, January 18th, and this is Morning Wire. 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.
--:-- Georgia Howe: World leaders are back in Davos again to discuss global issues and initiatives. But this year, a major focus is on rehabilitating their image with the populist right. What's behind the new PR push and does it signal a real change in direction?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Megan, just looking at the theme for Davos this year, it's about rebuilding trust. Does this mean the organization is aware they might have a PR problem?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, on the surface, that theme refers to a survey that the WEF released last Sunday before this gathering. And it shows that the public's confidence in institutions like government and media and academia has seen a pretty massive decline in the West. So the UK registered the most distrust overall, but the US is most distrustful of innovation. In particular, this survey found that resistance to tech innovations like AI is especially strong on the right. Though it did also find that the public trusts businesses to introduce innovations much more than it trusts governments or nonprofits.
--:-- Megan Basham: But still, you know, going back to your question based on some of the invitations that went out this year, it does seem like the forum might be aware that perception of them is high among conservatives in particular. So to give you just one example, there's Kevin Roberts who is the president of the Heritage Foundation. He has heavily criticized the forum in the past. He's characterized it as hostile to American values. But this year, he was actually invited to sit on a panel on what to expect from a possible Republican administration.
--:-- Megan Basham: Author Larry Taunton is in Davos this week, and he's covering the event for his podcast, ideas have consequences. I asked him if he's getting the sense that the forum is trying to rehabilitate its image. And he said, again, only at a very surface level, though he does believe that they are concerned about what might happen if Republicans retake the White House.
--:-- Megan Basham: I don't think they're worried so much in that regard because they recognize, unfortunately, probably accurately, that those of us who are protesting are farmers and they're truckers and they're red state Americans. They're generally not people in power. Now, Trump does frighten them. He frightens them a lot. And why is Trump so uniquely frightening to them? Well, it's in the sense that Trump represents a rising populist sentiment that we're really seeing across the Western world.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and now Germany and Argentina. And that populist sentiment is pretty at odds with a lot of the forum's agenda. So perhaps as an appeasement, they invited the new Argentinian prime minister, Javier Malay, to speak. And he is a Trump admirer, and he offered some pretty pointed words in his speech at Davos on Wednesday.
--:-- Megan Basham: Today, I'm here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is endangered because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty. Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well-meaning individuals willing to help others, and others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism.
--:-- Megan Basham: We're here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause. Do believe me? No one better placed than us, Argentines, to testify to these two points. So certainly this flies in the face of issues that are continuing to be prioritized at Davos this year. Things like environmental regulation and controlling disinformation and misinformation, which of course inevitably means policing speech.
--:-- Megan Basham: So does inviting Roberts and giving Millet a high-profile speaking slot suggest the WEF might change course? You know, Taunton told me he's seen no indication of that on the ground, but he does think that giving Millay this forum is part of that PR issue that you brought up. They knew what they're going to get with him, but what they do is they kind of tolerate him and they clap, but he won't change anything about what they think or what they're going to do.
--:-- Megan Basham: So it's their way of looking very diverse. So Taunton believes it's essentially brand management, you might say. It's hard to even imagine what it would take to change people's opinions about the WEF at this point.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The annual gathering of the World Economic Forum is underway in Davos, Switzerland, with the theme of rebuilding trust in the future. The event known for drawing world leaders, business titans, and other global elite has become increasingly controversial, with critics saying it promotes a socialist agenda.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more about this year's Davos meeting is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, just looking at the theme for Davos this year, it's about rebuilding trust. Does this mean the organization is aware they might have a PR problem?
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Unless Congress can reach a deal on a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the government could partially shut down tomorrow. Here to discuss the fraught situation in Washington is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, it seems like we've had threats of a shutdown nearly every other month for some time now. What's going on this time?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Little context here. Congress has to agree annually on a budget for the next year or the government shuts down. The current deadline for a deal is this Friday the 19th, but the two sides have been unable to pass anything, with the Republican-controlled House wanting budget cuts and the Democrat-controlled Senate wanting increased funding.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But in the past few weeks, we have seen some signs of movement with new House Speaker Mike Johnson agreeing to a preliminary deal last week with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Yeah, so tell us about those deals and the pushback they're drawing.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So last week, Johnson and Schumer agreed on the outlines of a $1.7 trillion budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That deal, while praised by President Biden and leaders of both parties in the Senate, faced almost immediate pushback from hardline conservatives in the House who said that Johnson betrayed them. They accused the Speaker of going back on his promise to make substantial budget cuts and vowed to vote it down in the House.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So when it became clear the deal would not pass by this Friday's deadline, congressional leadership made another deal, this time on what's called a continuing resolution. That measure would essentially push the budget deadline back to March and allow both sides to iron out details on specific portions of the budget piece by piece.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But even that resolution could be struck down if enough members vote against it by Friday's deadline. Because Republicans hold such a slim majority in the House, the reality here is that Johnson can only afford to lose a few votes on any piece of legislation, which gives those hardline conservatives quite a bit of leverage.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, and that's resulted in quite a bit of pressure on the new speaker. Yeah, that is putting it lightly. Remember, when Johnson took over last year, he won over skeptical Republicans by assuring them that he would make meaningful cuts to the budget once in power.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: While Johnson conceded that this current proposed budget with Schumer, quote, will not satisfy everyone, he claims it is, quote, the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in a decade. But members to his right disagree. They have routinely said that they would only agree to a spending deal that not only cut the federal budget, but also included measures to secure the southern border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: To that point, here's Bob Good, chair of the powerful House Freedom Caucus, speaking to Fox. We ought to also secure the border as a condition of continuing to fund this government. Why don't we give more money, billions of dollars for that matter, to a Department of Homeland Security that is facilitating the border invasion that is literally destroying the country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Republicans in the House, including Chip Roy of Texas, have now even tacitly threatened to hold a vote to oust Johnson if he does not agree to their terms. But it is worth noting, a number of moderate Democrats have said off the record that they would cross the party line to vote for Johnson's deal and would even vote to keep him in power if hardline conservatives tried to remove him, the way they did McCarthy last year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And it's also interesting, President Biden has actually expressed at least some willingness to bend on the immigration front. While he still refuses to use the term crisis to describe the situation, he told reporters this week that, quote, we have to make major changes at the border and that he's, quote, prepared to make significant alterations on that front.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, a lot of Biden's voter base in blue cities certainly sees this situation as a crisis could become a bipartisan issue.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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