America's Talking - Episode 81: AG Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Investigate Biden Over Classified Documents

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Join The Center Square’s Executive Editor Dan McCaleb and D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss Attorney General Merrick Garland saying Thursday he has appointed Robert Hur as special counsel to lead the investigation into President Joe Biden after classified documents were found at Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center and at his home in Delaware. President Joe Biden touted falling food prices Thursday, but the latest federal data shows the price of food is actually on the rise and has been for more than a year. The Department of Defense has officially lifted the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. service members. --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America's Talking: An interview podcast hosted by Austin Berg. Guests include professors, journalists, artists, business and nonprofit leaders, authors, and more. Everyday Economics: Join economist Dr. Orphe Divounguy and Chris Krug as they discuss global markets, inflation, and everything else that will help you understand the economic world around you. Future of Freedom: Future of Freedom is a bi-weekly podcast highlighting the work of the non-profits which are shaping the future of the freedom movement. Listeners will hear civil, intellectual conversations about why the organizations exist, what their mission is, and how they work to achieve it. Hosted by Scot Bertram. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the America In Focus podcast, powered by the Center Square. America In Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. To support great podcasts like this one, please donate by clicking the link in the show description. Joining me today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. How are you, Casey? Doing well, Dan. How are you? Doing well, thank you.

We are recording this on Friday, January 13th. Casey, lots of news to cover this week. Why don't we start with the classified documents that have been found at President Joe Biden's office and in his garage? The Attorney General, Merrick Garland, said yesterday, Thursday, that he has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate. Tell us about what's going on here. And this, of course, comes after the FBI raided Donald Trump's former president Marlago home. last year looking for classified documents. Yeah, at this point, I want to know, Dan, do you have classified documents in your home? I have classified Center Square documents that you are not to lock, Steve, see in my home, Casey. Gotcha. Yeah, it must be that donation money. I just realized that we get donations for this, but I never, you know, I never, you know,

trickles down to the hardworking Americans who keep this thing running. But that's okay. No, I'm just kind of making light of this, but it's funny because it seems like nowadays just about anybody has classified documents or has gotten themselves in trouble with how they handle it. You know, Hillary Clinton, of course, her handling of the classified emails of things potentially cost her the election or Donald Trump. And then last year, Trump himself was also incriminated allegedly for having some classified documents. And now it's President Joe Biden. So as you said, Merrick Garland appointed this special counsel. This is, in some ways, this isn't that.

It shows the severity or the seriousness of this case and the political headache. It's going to be an illegal headache. It's going to be for Biden. But Mayor Garland was really statutorily obligated to appoint this special counsel. It makes it, I think, more likely that we'll get some real substantive investigation than such a handpick. You know, Merrick Garland's are pretty closely connected, handpicked to political appointee. Of course, he's still going to have some pool. But having someone a little bit more removed, you know,

we'll make it more likely we get an honest investigation. Of course, he's still, you know, within the administration, you know, the DOJ investigating the president. We've seen that, you know, DHA has been less, increasingly less trustworthy. All the polling shows that Americans trust in federal law enforcement has eroded. But there's a quick timeline I can run you through when it comes to Biden. So Garland did this press conference and he said that in November, last year, the National Archives Office of the Inspector General, they reached out to the DOJ,

and they said, you know, the IG told the DOJ that they had been informed by the White House that these classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy. So that's just, you know, it's a center here in D.C. They were actually in Biden's office there. So, like, that's not good, right? So that's a first batch of classified documents. Let me just add to these. These are documents.

They back to Biden's. term as vice president under President Obama. These aren't current documents that he's accumulated since he's been president. These go back. Right. Right. Because, you know, and he, of course, he had that gap where he was not in office, right? He was vice president. Then he wasn't, you know, in the White House and now he's president again. So during that time, you know, you don't just have unlimited access to classified documents just because you were in the White House, right? So even after that holding on to those documents is, well, to use the words Mary Garland used, it's quote, not authorized. And I think that that phrase really stood out to me because that is,

you know, Garland admitting that what Biden did was wrong. Now, how serious the legal implications are and who's to blame if it's really Biden himself or if they can find someone else to blame this on. You know, that remains to be seen. But if Biden has some kind of plausible deniability, something like that. But there's been some really interesting developments this week. Biden in a press conference admitted that he had classified documents, not just in, not in his office in D.C., but in his home. So, you know, Garland said that there was also classified documents found last year in Biden's home. The FBI actually went to Biden's home. So there's a lot of question like, why didn't the FBI raid Trump? I don't know if he called a raid or not, but Garland said

that the FBI went to Biden's home because of these documents. And so he said, okay, but then actually, just yesterday, another classified document was found in Biden's home. So these things are multiplying. I mean, who knows? At this point, there's been three batches. There could be more to come. These were in Biden's private residence. And so Biden admitted that, actually, in a kind of testy exchange. change during, he went out there to give a speech on inflation and immediately got asked about these classified documents. And he admitted that he had him in his garage. So, one of the things about the story that interests me is, you know, Democrats have been calling for the former President Trump to be charged for having classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in

Florida. These two cases are a little bit different. But how does the Biden case now affect the Trump case. How can the DOJ possibly seek charges against former President Trump when current President Biden did the same thing? Yeah, this is a case of politically, mutually assured destruction, right? So either how many costs? Politically, mutually, what was that? What did you say? Mutually assured destruction. Mutually assured destruction. Interesting. Right. That's like the nuclear policy or the the nuclear thought or the thought are on nuclear weapons that we have with Russia, you know, the idea is we both have so many that if either of us fires one,

we're both going to be totally erased from the face of the earth because there's so many. So the biggest deterrent from using new weapons is that you know you yourself will be destroyed in the fallout and the repercussions of the decision. And so politically it's a similar thing here. The Biden administration has a decision to make either have, Having classified documents in your home is a super-duper serious crime that needs to be prosecuted fully to the extent of the law, or it's not that big deal. We can look the other way.

And, you know, Biden and Trump's fates are intertwined at this point. And I think it's going to raise some interesting questions with how the Democratic Party views Biden and his future. So because of Biden's age, it may be that, you know, having Biden be a one-term president and just making him a sacrificial land would be a low price to pay to ensure that Trump never has another shot at the White House. So from the Democratic Party's perspective, it may be, you know, hey, Biden wasn't probably going to get another term anyway. Let's just take him, let him go down and let Trump go down in that same ship, that classified documents ship with him. We were really

thinking about replacing him anyway with someone younger. So I think this could be really serious for Biden. This is not a small thing. There's a really good chance. He broke the law. Of course, there's some allegations, and we're not going to say definitively until the investigation is complete. But I think there's a really good chance the law was broken here, both in Trump and Biden's case. And now their faiths are intertwined politically. That's a hot take there, Casey. I don't necessarily agree with you. I don't see either one being charged. But I mean, what do I know, right? I just gave you a softball there, Casey. Come on. Well, yeah, I know. I was on it. It was just, I had so many opportunities to respond. I couldn't pick one. I think that's, you know, what do I know? One of the most insightful

things you've said, I don't know if I guess, no, I'll say, you know, Petraeus got into a lot of trouble for this. And I actually agree with you that they may not get charged. So, but that's different from whether they actually broke the law. I mean, because presidents are treated differently. Like, you know, Hillary Clinton probably broke the law too. But it just kind of went away when you're, when you're not really in the White House anymore, some of those big charges just kind of disappear. But Petraeus got in trouble for this kind of thing. I don't know. It's going to be a political way.

I mean, you remember when I watched Mary Garland's press conference, it really reminded me of when Comey gave that press conference about Hillary Clinton. I'm sure you remember that just days before the 2016 election. And I think he gave what he thought was an innocuous press conference and said, we're looking into this. But I think that really, that could have cost. Hillary Clinton in the election, that press conference, and just the specter of potential criminal activity that really helps Trump if he's going to run against Biden because it gives him cover.

Anything they accuse him of, he's like, you had classified documents by your Corvette in the garage, which Biden admitted to. Trump has totally claimed innocence for the most part on this in kind of a Trumpian way. It's deny everything. But Biden is basically admitted to it. And so I can totally see them in a debate where Trump says he's innocent and the FBI is out to get him. And then he throws in Biden's face, you admitted to it. You're the criminal.

And so while legally they may have like similar cases and similar amounts of evidence politically, they're a little different because Biden has already admitted to a lot of the things that he is accused of. Interesting. Well, it will continue following this developing story at the center squidsquare.com. So please listeners continue to follow us in our reporting on this interesting. matter. Let's do move on, though, Casey. More inflation data was released this week that shows that rising costs have slowed somewhat. President Biden went to Twitter yesterday, Thursday, to tout that fact. But in his tweet, he said food prices are coming down as well. Well, you did a

fact check on that. That's actually not true. Food prices continue to rise. Yeah, I mean, I got to give you a shoutout, Dan, you sent me this tweet, and you said, is this true? And in the tweet, here's, I'll read the tweet to you. It says for the six month in a row, yearly inflation is down. It might be rising in economies around the world, but it's coming down here. Okay, it's true that inflation did decrease, or consumer prices did decrease 0.1% in December. And then he went on to say, and gas prices, food, and more are following. That adds up to a break for families and proof that my plan is working. And as you said, I did a fact check on this because I really found it pretty misleading. Gas prices, yes, are down. You know, they hit record high surpassing $5 per gallon over the

summer. But if you look at food prices, food prices, I mean, not only have they absolutely soared since Biden took office more than even the already high inflation, but they're actually, they increased in December. I mean, it's not like they were increasing it, but they did now decreasing. This is a, I'll read this so that people, I purposely quoted this. So people knew I wasn't just trying to make something up or politicized. This is a quote from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The food index increased 0.3% over the month of referring to December, with the food at home index increasing 0.2%. So both, you know, the food index overall and then food at home, which is want at groceries versus, you know, takeout.

Actually, food away from home, you know, increased as well. So the food away from home rose 0.4% actually, actually more. So food, you know, if you go out to eat, it costs more. If you go to the grocery store, it costs more. Grocery store or food at home has risen 11.8% in the last year. And food away from home has risen 8.3% in the last year. So these are just the numbers. I mean, I went through and broke down some categories we can get into.

but I think I'm curious you, Dan, this is kind of more even your idea. Do you, you know, he could make some kind of argument that, well, they're following. The food prices are increasing less quickly than they were before, which is true. But it seems like kind of a political semantic thing going on here. Yeah. And of course, food, everybody needs food. It's not a discretionary thing that you have to buy. So it's particularly over the past year, it's been hitting lower and middle income Americans the most.

Casey had a question for you. Do you think President Biden goes grocery shopping? There is no chance that that man goes grocery shopping. Why do you say it like that? I just. Well, of course, you know, presidents are busy. But we can't lose the president on all seven. That's all I'll see.

All right. You're just shocked by way that way. You set that up. We have been following inflation over the past years. So we'll keep reporting on it. Hopefully the trend of lower inflation continues. But we'll see there's no doubt it's impacting everyday Americans. Casey, you also wrote an interesting story this week about federal debt and the deficit last year.

you're a good headline on the story. I'll take credit for the headline, even though I didn't write it. Feds borrowed $4 billion per day in 2022, totaling $10,000 per household. Essentially, your story says the federal debt soared by $1.4 trillion in 2022. The national federal debt is now above $31 trillion. Tell us about this. Yeah, 31 trillion, it's almost 31 and a half trillion now. So it's well on its way to 32 trillion already. It surpassed 30 trillion last year and 31 trillion in the same year. So it hit a couple of big milestones. The federal debt is, regardless of which party's in charge in the last 20 years has absolutely soared. I mean, we had basically a balanced budget before the year 2000. We're around the year 2000. And now we are $31 trillion in debt. The deficits are. projected by the Congressional Budget Office to be some of the highest percentages of GDP ever, I think, something like over 6%, which is really high historically. So what we saw happen here is that in 2020, because of the pandemic and all the federal spending, just a ton of federal spending to respond to the pandemic to help the economy.

and of course so much other stuff was jammed into those spending bills, as always is. But the deficit passed, I think, $3 trillion. And then in 2021, it was $2.8 trillion. And then last year it got down to $1.4 trillion. So Biden's really celebrated that. But I have been quick to point out in reporting that while, of course, you know, $1.4 trillion is a significant decrease from the heart of the pandemic. It is not a good new normal.

First off, is a deficit ever good new normal. But before the pandemic in 2019, the deficit was less than $1 trillion. So we're still, you know, 50% higher deficits than before the pandemic. And you could argue that last year, the pandemic was mostly over. And yet we still maintained a lot of those spending levels. So whether or not we can get the deficit back under a trillion this year, I don't know. I honestly don't think it's likely. But that over $10,000, it's actually, it's over $10,000 per household.

And that's just in one year. So you imagine, yeah, do you imagine, Dan, you know, every year for the next decade, you rack up $10,000 of debt? I mean, you're not heading in a good direction. And, of course, part of the reason for inflation was the federal government printing more money because of this debt. Congress last year passed several spending bills on top of the budget, the normal national budget, President Biden signed them into law. And the more you spend, if you're not taking in

the revenue to offset that spending, that's only going to go through the roof. Right. I mean, the federal money supply has really significantly increased in the last couple of years also as part of this. I mean, the Fed is printing more money than normal. We'll just put it that way a lot more. And part of it is, yeah, to handle this debt, It's how they ease the economic stress of the debt. And it's pretty complicated process. But there's no doubt that there's a direct tie between rising federal debt, rising federal money printing, and that those high food prices we just talked about in the story before this. I mean, this has everyday implications for Americans.

It's not, it's a tax. You know, a lot of economists talk about inflation. It's just another tax. It's a way of because of regular Americans pay for. it and everything they buy. It's like a hidden sales tax because it's applied to just about everything and the federal government is the one who benefits. Even if the money doesn't go directly to the federal government, it may go to your grocery store because they have to cover their costs. The one who's benefiting is the federal government because they created the inflation or at

at least helped create it by printing the money. So they're benefiting financially and our regular Americans are paying the price. And that's why we cover it. We cover the taxpayer perspective at the cuntersquare.com and inflation really is a tax issue because federal spending, is being supported by inflation as Americans go shopping for everyday stuff. Casey, I don't expect you to have to answer this question because I certainly don't. But at what point does the national debt get so high that you reach a breaking point? How does you answer that question? Yeah, well, that is a question that nobody really knows.

I mean, economists speculate. We are in unknown territory. We are a really unique nation and that we have such economic power. We also have such military progress around the world. I mean, even the countries that own a lot of our debt, like China. I mean, they don't have, you know, what kind of power. There's questions about like how to enforce that kind of thing. A lot of the debt, U.S. debt is actually owned by Americans.

That's the thing a lot of people who support, you know, the debt, like allowing more debts point out. So the answer is no economist really knows. We're definitely an uncharted territory. And what the thing I think about is when you study history, you look at the great empires of history, one of the things that really got them was that they got too much debt and they weren't able to sustain their empire. Thank you, Casey. Let's move on, though. The Department of Defense this week lifted its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military.

This has been an ongoing fight for those military members who either had religious or. or medical or other objections to getting the COVID-19 vaccine, felt like they were being singled out. Many were discharged. Many others were disciplined. But now the Department of Defense has lifted that mandate. Tell us about your reporting here. Yeah, this has been a really interesting story to watch

because even as much of the rest of the economy has lifted a lot of these restrictions, the military remains steadfast in it despite the fact that, you know, a lot of of service members were filing lawsuits. They were saying that their religious exemptions or different kinds of exemption requests were not being taken seriously. A lot of, you know, service members were actually discharged. Even Navy SEALs, a group of Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit that was seeing some success. It hasn't, you know, completely cleared the courts. But so this was being really heavily legally challenged. It was pretty controversial. The Pentagon has stood firm. But then in December, in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, Congress included a provision basically giving the Pentagon

30 days to rescind their mandate. And so this was basically Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, you know, making this official. He's in a memo to this effect, which made it official. But one thing this point to point out is it did not reinstate those discharge for refusing to take the vaccine. Right. So there's still going to be. I think on the ongoing legal battles for those who are discharged. It is pretty interesting that, you know, when you have a law that only hear a major policy that's only in effect for a couple of years, that totally can change someone's life or in their career, especially a Navy SEAL.

I mean, Navy SEAL is a Navy SEAL. I mean, he's worked so hard. It's extremely difficult to become a Navy SEAL. It's extremely expensive to train someone to the point of becoming a Navy SEAL. So these guys are looking for restitution. I think that more and more evidence is emerging, showing that, some of these guys were not really given individual consideration that there was kind of just a rubber stamp disapproval or rejection of a lot of these requests and that I think that'll help

him in court. But that's the next step of this. But overall, the mandate is lifted going forward. And dozens and dozens of lawsuits were filed over that mandate. And attorneys who brought the cases on behalf of the military members who do not want to get the vaccine, but were disciplined, discharged, maybe. Those lawsuits are going to continue, they say, because what didn't happen this week, along with ending the vaccine mandate for military members, those who were discharged weren't, they weren't welcomed back with open arms. They didn't get their jobs back. So the attorneys tell the Center Square that they're going to continue with those lawsuits, because because their clients faced real repercussions and real harm.

So we'll continue to follow those lawsuits. Casey, time for one more story, and I'm going to begin by asking you a personal question. Is that okay? Oh, great. What everyone wants to hear. Let's go. Do you have a gas stove or an electric stove? I'm a gas stove, a gas stove guy.

My wife loves to cook. She's an excellent cook, and she prefers the gas stove. She says it's better. and I think it looks better. So I'm gas stove, guy all the way. Maybe that explains some of my, you know, mental deficiencies, but I'm assuming based on that that you do have a gas stove. I do have a gas stove, yes.

Right. Yeah, yeah. It shows. At various times, in my career, when I've moved around the country, I've had an electric stove and I just do not like electric stoves. But tell me, what is your wife going to do if the federal government takes away her gas stove. Oh, they can come pry it from our cold dead hands, Dan.

No, it's funny. This has become such a big story this week. And then immediately, you know, some of the, some liberal politicians were blasted because they were, you know, taking this gas stove ban more seriously. And then people were quick to point out videos in their, they had taken in their kitchen where they had gas stoves, right? So it was kind of a classic political hypocrisy kind of story of the day thing going on. But either the Biden administration, this regulatory group has really backed off of this ban now, whether it was never really that serious in the first place or whether the political blowback was so strong that now they're backing off.

I don't know. But they've kind of come out and said, whoa, okay, this is probably not really going to happen. Don't worry. It was not clear whether they kind of got caught red-handed considering something really unpopular or whether maybe something was blown out of proportion a little bit. But Americans like their gas stove, not to mention. You know, natural gas is a really clean form of energy. I mean, we're talking about clean energy. And I'm sure that the natural gas lobby was a part of promoting this band.

I'm sure they didn't like it either. But I agree with you, Dan, gas cooks better, the electric stove. You don't really know how hot it is. It turns red, but what does that even mean? I don't know. I don't know either, but Casey, that's all the time we have this week. A reminder to our listeners, you can find all of the Center Squares podcast at America's Talking.com.

Take a look. please subscribe there is no cost this has been the america in focus podcast for kacy harper i'm dam mcaleb we'll talk you next week