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--:-- Georgia Howe: With the debt ceiling deadline fast approaching, President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy inch closer to a deal. What's really at stake in the debt ceiling debate and why are Democrats threatening to invoke the 14th Amendment? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: It's Tuesday, May 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: More Republican presidential candidates toss their hat in the ring as powerful party insiders strategize on how to beat Trump. It's not really about Donald Trump versus Ron DeSantis. It's about what America needs. And Fox News facing criticism on two new reports detailing the real reason they cut ties with Tucker Carlson and the company's transgender policies.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. could run out of money on June 1st, potentially defaulting on its debt for the first time in history.
--:-- John Bickley: With pressure mounting, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held another high-stakes meeting on Monday in an effort to iron out a deal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here are the latest on where each side stands as Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, last night, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with President Biden to try and finalize a deal to raise the nation's debt limit. The current figure is $31.4 trillion, which was reached in January, forcing the Treasury Department to take what they call extraordinary measures, using creative accounting to pay their bills, which Secretary Janet Yellen says will no longer be possible as early as June 1st.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Remember, President Biden, once the limit raised, no questions asked, while Republicans say they'll only raise it if Democrats agree to a number of cuts that will keep federal spending flat for the upcoming fiscal year. And that has been the big sticking point.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On Sunday, President Biden called Republican demands, quote, extreme, and said their current proposal was unacceptable.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's how McCarthy responded on Fox News Sunday.
--:-- Kevin McCarthy: I do not think it's extreme that we simply say we should spend less than we spent this year. We should pull back the unspent money from COVID. The president, it seems as though he wants default more than he wants a deal.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So despite the clock ticking, coming into this meeting, there wasn't a ton of optimism that progress would be made. All right. And to that point, was there any progress made last night? To put it simply, no.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And to make matters more bleak, it's important to remember here, if and when a deal is reached, that's not the end of it. From there, it'll take a few days for a final legislative framework to be ironed out before the final key hurdle, Congress. Any deal will have to gain the approval of the Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House, which will be a tall task given the divisions we've seen there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so the $31 trillion question, what if a deal is not reached? Well, again, both sides have been insistent that default is not an option, but with each passing day, it becomes increasingly possible.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, because the U.S. has never actually defaulted on its debt, there are disagreements on what it would look like. Most people agree that it would have a serious impact on global markets, though, as it would rattle investor confidence and likely cause the dollar to take a serious hit globally.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It would also mean the federal government would have to begin deciding which bills to pay and which to leave unpaid. Democrats to this point have said a default could leave the U unable to pay out Social Security checks or disability payments and also leave foreign companies to conduct business elsewhere due to a loss of trust in the American economy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On that note here, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Meet the Press.
--:-- Janet Yellen: My assumption is that if the debt ceiling isn't raised, there will be hard choices to make about what bills go unpaid.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, while some, including Yellen, have painted a more drastic picture of what a default would look like, Others say that it's fear-mongering to try and expedite a deal and that a default would end up looking more like a government shutdown.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To that point, we spoke with Kenny Polcari, managing partner at Case Capital Advisors.
--:-- Kenny Polcari: All that chatter about not paying seniors and not paying the military is only to do one thing, to create drama and anxiety in the marketplace. They're going to furlough government workers. They're going to shut parks down, but they're not going to stop making payments on U.S. Treasuries.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The government shutdown is very different than a default in the U.S. Treasury market. And I think that's obviously what's getting confused.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So very different perspectives on what this actually means. President Biden has hinted at unilaterally raising the limit if a deal isn't reached.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the president first floated that idea earlier in the month, saying he believes he has the power to raise the limit on his own using the 14th Amendment, which he says makes it unconstitutional for the U.S. to default on its debt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But it's worth noting, a number of legal experts say the amendment does not give the president such power. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, for example, wrote a scathing piece saying Biden, quote, may be confused about what the 14th Amendment really says.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And that such a move would almost certainly be struck down in court and bring us back to the drawing board.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So keep an eye on that angle from the president as these talks drag on.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, if he were to take that action, it would be truly unprecedented.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Coming up, the Republican presidential field expands. The Republican presidential field of candidates is set to grow this week with the announcement from Senator Tim Scott and anticipated announcement from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss all this is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, and yes, absolutely. Tim Scott is considered a long shot still, but his campaign video last week drew a lot of praise, including from Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today's kids are growing up immersed in a culture where everyone's a victim. We have to start teaching the necessity of individual responsibility.
--:-- David Marcus: Scott joins Nikki Haley as the second candidate from early primary state South Carolina.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Pence is clearly more of a known entity and at this point is still biding his time, perhaps seeing where things stand as the field fills out.
--:-- David Marcus: And then there's been the most unconventional of the candidates. entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who's been really active doing the media rounds and making some headlines in the process.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But look, clearly the biggest news will be DeSantis officially throwing his hat into the ring Everyone been waiting for this And that day apparently has almost arrived Well it been a bumpy couple of months for DeSantis Did the governor wait too long to announce
--:-- David Marcus: You know we really won't know that answer until the primaries, but the conventional wisdom is that the DeSantis strategy of sort of running for president with tours of New Hampshire and Iowa and major TV news interviews hasn't worked as planned.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Instead of building excitement, it may have confused some voters. And Trump has been hammering DeSantis the whole time.
--:-- David Marcus: DeSantis hasn't had the same official candidate stage to fight back on equal footing. And he's dropped in the Real Clear Politics average from close to 30 percent to close to 20.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But once he's in the race, this whole dynamic will likely shift.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Now, there's been much speculation about how DeSantis may handle Trump's very combative political style. Have we seen any clues? Is he going to sling mud or try to take the high ground?
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's a great question, and we don't know. The governor spoke Monday night at the National Religious Broadcaster Convention, one of the last big events before the likely announcement.
--:-- David Marcus: So a lot of politicos were watching that very closely for clues about his approach. It's a tough spot. We can all recall Marco Rubio in 2016 dropping the gloves only to be knocked out quickly by Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The fact is that DeSantis probably needs Trump voters more than Trump needs DeSantis voters. So he's going to have to be careful.
--:-- David Marcus: I think we're likely to see an approach where DeSantis says something like, look, Trump's a New Yorker who does a lot of talking. Here in Florida, I'm focused on results, that kind of thing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He'll also focus heavily on Trump's handling of COVID effectively handing policy over to Dr. Fauci, which has drawn growing criticism from the Republican base.
--:-- David Marcus: It's a hard needle to thread. Yeah. How strong a position in the polls does Trump have right now as these new contenders are jumping into the fray?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So he's typically somewhere between 50 and 60 percent, which, of course, is enough to win the nomination. But this is similar to where Joe Biden sits in the polls.
--:-- David Marcus: And for an incumbent, 62 or 65 percent, that's considered very, very low. Also, there's not a soul on the planet who doesn't already have a firm opinion of Trump already.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it's hard to see how he grows that number. What it adds up to is that Trump's position may be softer than it seems. And there could be an opportunity here for these others. DeSantis on the top of that list.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, it's widely thought that a larger field helps Trump. He sailed to his 2016 victory by carrying states with less than 50 percent because the field was so crowded.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Are we looking at a repeat of that? Maybe. There is a sense that these less likely candidates either need to get their numbers up from out of single digits or eventually drop out to create a one-on-one.
--:-- David Marcus: How that plays out may well determine who's standing under the balloons next year's Republican National Convention.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, it's all getting more intriguing by the day.
--:-- David Marcus: David, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. In a video posted to Twitter on Monday, Tucker Carlson's biographer says Fox did in fact fire the popular cable news host as part of its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, a new report on the network's transgender policies is drawing criticism from conservatives.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to tell us more about the latest Tucker revelations and what's in this new report is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, it's been about a month since Fox fired Tucker, and there have been a lot of rumors swirling around about the reason, but no definitive answers What do we know now
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well both Dominion and Fox have denied those rumors that his firing was related to the lawsuit But now Tucker biographer Chadwick Moore says that it did indeed play a role.
--:-- Megan Basham: Here's a bit of what he posted to Twitter yesterday. My sources have intimate knowledge of the situation, and they have assured me, even before this news leaked, that that is, in fact, the truth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If that is true, it would mean that a small group of people who have a controlling interest in dominion have managed to silence what is arguably the most important and influential conservative voice in the country, possibly until after the next presidential election.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, for those who aren't familiar with Moore, he was a pretty frequent guest on Tucker's show, and he spent the last year working closely with him on this biography.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Tucker retweeted Moore's post with a pair of eyes emoji. And for those who are not very online, that typically means someone is watching to see what happens next.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Moore also said that he had seen the monologue that Tucker had planned to give the Monday after he was fired. That monologue dealt with, among other things, investigations around January 6th, and particularly Ray Epps, the only person captured on video inciting people to violence at the Capitol that day, and allegedly an FBI informant who still has not been arrested or charged.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ironically, a good part of the monologue also dealt with the people and forces that are trying to silence him, like AOC and others in government.
--:-- Megan Basham: So the implication there is that Fox didn't want Tucker covering issues like that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, there was also an interesting report from the Daily Signal about Fox yesterday. It was actually broken by Mary Margaret Olihan, who's been on our show before.
--:-- Megan Basham: Can you tell us a little bit about what that report found?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the Daily Signal acquired a 2021 Fox employee handbook covering its internal transgender policies. Employees can use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. They're required to use preferred pronouns.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, we have to say that some of those policies could simply be legal requirements in New York where Fox is headquartered. But the handbook also encourages staffers to use terminology like gender affirming care because it's approved by the activist LGBTQ group, the Human Rights Campaign.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That wouldn't be a legal requirement. And the Signal notes that Fox has a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, not what you'd expect from a conservative network.
--:-- Megan Basham: What will likely be a bigger problem for Fox, though, is that the report also includes multiple anonymous sources inside the company, saying that network bosses ordered them not to be critical of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They say Tucker actually had to fight to be able to use male pronouns when covering Mulvaney.
--:-- Megan Basham: One former Fox producer said, and I'm just quoting, they want you to think it's this place that supports traditionally conservative values, but in reality, they're pushing this nonsense behind the scenes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And you have to put all of this in the context that Fox's primetime ratings are still significantly down overall since Tucker's firing.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, I'd be interested to know what the business strategy is behind all of this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 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.
