Morning Wire - ABC’s Presidential Debate & Afghanistan Report Allegations | 9.11.24

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Trump faces off against the debate moderators in addition to Harris & a new congressional report accuses Biden and Harris of prioritizing politics in the Afghanistan withdrawal. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Responsible Man: Be the man America needs you to be. Shop Responsible Man, and get an exclusive discount with code WIRE at https://responsibleman.com/ Black Rifle Coffee: Give back by drinking America's coffee! Get an exclusive discount with code DAILYWIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Both campaigns held their breath last night as the nation finally saw Trump and Harris face off on the debate stage. I do believe that the American people know we all have so much more in common than what separates us. And we can chart a new way forward. We can't sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision. But I just ask one simple question, why didn't she do it? Who walked away the winner of the high stakes event? And what role did the moderators play? I think the moderators were very unfair, but it basically was three-on-one.

The worst of all the news networks, in my opinion. And it always has been. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, September 11th, and this is Morning Wire. It's been 23 years since the 9-11 terror attacks, which led to the war in Afghanistan. Now a new congressional report accuses Biden and Harris of prioritizing politics and their disastrous withdrawal. Kamala Harris wants to be the President of the United States. She wants to be commander-in-chief.

She needs to answer for this report immediately. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The current president is dead set on spending the remaining trillion dollars of his agenda before leaving office. Translation, more money printing, and soaring inflation. But there's hope. A gold IRA from Birchgold Group is the ultimate inflation hedge for your savings in uncertain times.

And for one final month, Birchgold is offering an exclusive 24-carat gold-plated truth bomb on qualifying purchases. But you need to text Wire to 9-9-8-98 to claim your eligibility before September 30th. Again, text Wire to 9-8-9-8-9-9-8 to claim your eligibility and make your purchase today. The first and potentially only debate between Trump and Harris captured the nation's attention last night as the two squared off for a consequential and at times contentious event. Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips, who was there on the scene. Hey, Cabot, so much focus and pressure on this event. First, big picture, what did we say? Well, we should say right off the top that there were no major catastrophic moments for either candidate.

Certainly, this was not like the last debate, which effectively ended Biden's candidacy. Right from the start, we saw the moderators, ABC Davis-David-Mir and Lindsay Davis playing a very prominent role. And that actually became perhaps the story of the night. Many viewers and pundits, especially those on the right, felt that as the night were on, the moderators increasingly meddled in the debate, fact-checking Trump repeatedly while failing to fact-check Harris on really almost anything over the course of the night. Even when she repeated debunked claims like the fine people on both sides and Trump's bloodbath line, the moderators also appeared to tee up some very softball questions, we'll say, for Harris. while giving particularly thorny ones to Trump.

For example, here's a question from the moderator, David Muir, to Trump regarding race. Mr. President, you recently said a Vice President Harris, quote, I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black. I want to ask a bigger picture question here tonight. Why do you believe it's appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent? I don't, and I don't care. I don't care what she is.

I don't care. At one point, Muir actually fact-checked Trump's, tone in a past statement. Trump said he was being sarcastic when he said he lost by a whisker in 2020. And Muir insisted that he did not believe he was being sarcastic, apparently attempting to read his mind in the past. I did watch all of these pieces of video. I didn't detect the sarcasm, lost by a whisker. We didn't quite make it. Now, the primary goal for Trump in this debate was to tie Harris to the policies that she's endorsed and then helped enact alongside Biden. He wanted to force her to go on the record about the various policies that she has suddenly flipped on,

including banning fracking, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and eliminating private insurance through Medicare for all, among many other things. Meanwhile, Harris spent most of the night trying to present herself as not Biden. In fact, one of the most contentious moments of the night came after she specifically tried to make that point, as Trump hammered her on her policy positions and essentially said that she'd be the same as Biden. Again, in that case, the moderators did get involved. Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump. Let's turn the page.

Vice President Harris. Thank you. Let's turn to policy. We have to move on. President Trump. Let's turn to policy, please. She has a plan to defund the police. She has a plan to confiscate everybody's gun.

She has a plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else. Okay. That's what her plan is. until just recent. I just need to respond. The former president has said something twice that I need to respond to. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

We're going to move on vice president. Now throughout the night, Trump repeatedly returned to the issues that have plagued Harris and Biden the most. The economy and inflation, he tied this to the illegal immigration crisis under Borders are Harris. Many of these people coming in are criminals. And that's bad for our economy, too. You know, you mentioned before.

We'll talk about immigration later. Well, bad immigration is the worst thing that can happen to our economy. And abortion, of course, came up early, and Harris tried to tie all state-level abortion restrictions to Trump. She referred to what she called Trump abortion bans around the country. While he said once again that he does not want any federal law on the topic, calling for it to remain in states' voters' hands. He also flipped the script and said the Democrats are the true radicals on abortion, calling for abortion up to birth and even beyond. Moderators, again, tried to fact-check him on that as well. In the end, Trump, though, said the

issue does not matter for a president because a bill will never make it that far. You'll never get the vote. There's impossible for her to get the vote, especially now with essentially 50-50 in both Senate and the House. She can't get the vote. You won't even come close to it. So it's just talk. What about the personal attacks? That was something the Harris team was clearly hoping to go Trump into. Yeah, interestingly, it was Harris who definitely went personal more often over the course of the evening. She went after Trump for being a convicted felon. She taunted him over losing the 2020 election. She even insulted his intelligence instead.

His events are boring and that folks leave early. Here are a few of those moments. I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies because it's a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice

is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. Well, I think this is so rich coming from someone who has been prosecuted. Every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent, and I'm winning most of

them, and I will win the rest on appeal. They weaponized the Justice Department. I probably took a bullet to their head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy. I'm a threat to democracy. They're the threat to democracy.

And one of the more memorable lines of the evening was Trump echoing Harris' famous debate attack on Mike Pence. She was big on defund the police. In Minnesota, she went out, wait a minute, I'm talking now. If you don't mind, please. Does that sound familiar? While Harris, for her part, suggested Trump could not handle getting fired back in 2020. Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. We cannot afford to have a president of the United States who,

attempts, as he did in the past, to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you're a disgrace. You talk about a threat to democracy. He got 14 million votes, and they threw him out of office. And you know what? I'll give you a little secret. He hates her. He can't stand her. But he got 14 million votes. They threw them out. She got zero votes. The two also traded barbs over foreign policy. If Harris saying Trump would abandon our allies for, quote, strong men dictators. And Trump's saying that Biden and Harris have proven dangerously inept on the world stage.

He said the wars in Ukraine and Israel, which again started under the Biden-Harris administration, would not be happening if he were in office. In their closing statements, Harris returned to her mantra about, quote, not going back, while Trump asked why she has not already done all the things she's now promising to do. So I think you've heard tonight two very different visions for our country, one that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past and an attempt to take us backward. But we're not going back. So she just started by saying she's going to do this, she's going to do that, she's going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn't she done it?

She's been there for three and a half years. They've had three and a half years to fix the border. they've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn't she done it? Now, we're already seeing the response to the debate from media and politicos. What have we heard so far? Well, unsurprisingly, the legacy media has declared Harris the big winner of the event. They say she maintained her poise, hit all of her crucial talking points,

and came out looking like the more reasonable and measured of the two. And it's worth noting. I spoke with a number of Trump officials afterwards, and none of them really said that Trump won or lost. Their argument was that the American people lost because the moderators displayed so much bias against Trump. And again, also worth noting after originally only agreeing to one of three debates, the Harris campaign now says they want another debate in October. Here's Trump's reaction to that new challenge. So they immediately call for a second debate because they lost. So look, when it comes to debates, the reality is you typically don't know the impact of a candidate's performance until a few days afterwards when new polling comes out.

So we'll be closely monitoring the numbers to see if either side gets a bump this week. Regardless, another historic debate in the books here. And now we'll see how the American people respond to seeing the two finally face off. Well, a big moment for both candidates will be tracking the response as the week goes on. Cabot, thanks so much for being on the scene all night and reporting for us. Anytime. It's time to take charge of your health with the Emerson multivitamins by Responsible Man, a new Daily Wire Ventures Company.

The Emerson Multivitamin is packed with 33 key ingredients that support your immune system, sharpen your brain while keeping your heart and muscles strong. American made and designed for many mean business, the Emerson Multivitamin separates the men from the boys. Right now, take advantage of their fall sale. Visit Responsibleman.com and use Code Wire for 30% off plus an additional $9 off your first order. That's Responsibleman.com, code wire. The House Foreign Affairs Committee released the results of its years-long investigation into the pullout from Afghanistan on Monday.

The report faulted the Biden administration extensively for the chaotic withdrawal that saw 13 U.S. service members killed in a terror attack. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us now on the anniversary of 9-11 to discuss the disastrous withdrawal and the terror threat that has ballooned since. Hey, Tim. So let's start with this report. What does it say? It's intensely critical of the Biden administration. It says President Biden made the decision to withdraw despite the conditions in the Doha agreement, pleas of the Afghan government, and the objections by our NATO allies.

And it ties Vice President Harris to the decision as well. For instance, it notes a statement Harris made just last month on the anniversary of the Abbey Gate terror attack that killed 13 service members. Harris's statement called the decision to withdraw, quote, courageous and right. On Tuesday, the House honored the 13 service members killed at Abbey Gate. House Speaker Mike Johnson awarded the Medal of Honor to each of them while apologizing to their families. I know many of you have yet to hear these words, so I will say them. We are sorry.

The United States government should have done everything to protect our troops. Those fallen and wounded at Abigate deserved our best efforts. The families who have been left to pick up the pieces continue to deserve transparency and appreciation and recognition. A solemn event yesterday. Now, Democrats have released their own response to the investigation. What points do they raise? The chief complaint from Democrats is that the report looks political. Here's New York Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, making that point on CNN. Do you think it's a coincidence the day before the debate? This announcement came out. This all of a sudden is concluded. Do you think it's not political when previously almost 3,000

pages of testimony. And Kamala Harris was mentioned three times and now all of a sudden he's trying to include it therein. The White House released a statement that said the GOP report is, quote, based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases. Committee Chairman Michael McCall of Texas answered some of that criticism over the weekend before the report was released. He said the report's timing that it's coming out close to a presidential election is actually due to the Biden administration's own stonewalling. Here's, McCall on Face the Nation. Now it's taken me two years to get to this point because of the obstruction.

I've had to sort of subpoena after subpoena, moved to compel, threatened to hold the secretary in contempt to get information like after action reports, all these documents, testimonies that we finally got to. Now I should note some criticism of McCall that has come from someone who used to work on the committee's investigative team. Former senior investigator Jerry Dunleavy resigned from the committee last month and alleged that McCall's investigation was far less aggressive than it should have been. According to Dunleavy, the committee has been reluctant to uncover the full scope of who was involved in the withdrawal and how much, including Vice President Harris's full role. So he suspects that there's even more damning evidence that hasn't been discovered yet.

Now, this being the anniversary of 9-11, what can you tell us about the resurgence of terror groups in Afghanistan since? that withdrawal. That's been a major concern of U.S. intelligence and national security experts. McCall described some of those concerns from his perspective on face the nation. Putin responded by invading Ukraine two months after Afghanistan fell. And then the Ayatollah reared his ugly head in the Middle East. We're seeing this. Finally, this is really important. The Bogum prisons unleashed thousands of ISIS-K prisoners. Eight of those, and that's who we know about, have been detained by the FBI in the United States that got in through the southwest border. This is a failed foreign policy colliding with a failed border policy. That, of course, follows multiple warnings now from FBI

director Christopher Ray that this is the most alarming terror environment that the U.S. has faced in some time. Definitely worthy of concern and highlighting on this particular day. Tim, thanks for joining us. Good to be on. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee helps you wake up each morning feeling dialed in and ready to make the most of your day. And now's your chance to get 20% off your purchase using code DailyWire at black rifle coffee.com. All of their explosive coffees are roasted right here in the USA by a veteran-led team of expert roasters obsessed with crafting the perfect cup of coffee. Every black rifle purchase makes it possible for Black Rifle Coffee Company to help

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