Morning Wire - Anti-Israel Riots & High Inflation Spending | 10.19.23

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Protests and riots erupt as Biden visits the Middle East, the President’s choice for US ambassador to Israel faces scrutiny on Capitol Hill, and Americans are spending more as inflation remains high. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. ZipRecruiter: "Try ZipRecruiter for FREE: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Wire" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anti-Israel and anti-U.S. riots erupt in the Middle East, just as President Biden visits the region. What's fueling the protest and did the president make any progress on his high-stakes trip? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 19th, and this is Morning Wire. Controversy on Capitol Hill over President Biden's choice for the U.S. ambassador to Israel. We discuss what the nominee's critics and supporters say. It's vital we have a strong American ambassador in Jerusalem. Mr. Liu is precisely the person we need. It's bad for the United States.

It's bad for Israel to have an Iran sympathizer as our ambassador to that country. And despite persistent inflation, Americans' spending is still through the roof. People are not going to pay their credit card loans. They're not going to pay their mortals. You're not going to pay their honor loans. You're already starting to see that. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

On Wednesday, President Biden touched down in Israel amid the country's ongoing war against Hamas, and as anti-Israel and anti-America riots erupted in surrounding countries. Here to discuss as Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot, so a lot has transpired in the last 24 hours. Walk us through some of the latest developments out of the Middle East. Yeah, so Biden's trip came as tensions in the Middle East are at their highest point since the terror attacks of October 7th. That is in large part due to an explosion at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday evening,

which we discussed yesterday. Throughout the day, Tuesday, social media was awash with claims that Israel had bombed that facility, and Palestinian officials claimed the alleged airstrike had killed over 500 civilians. Within hours of that newsbreaking, mass riots had formed outside of American embassies across the Middle East. In Turkey, for example, the U.S. consulate was attacked with fireworks and Maltov cocktails as a mob attempted to breach the compound. The riot was eventually broken up with tear gas and water cannons, but not before over 40 police officers were injured.

A similar scene unfolded at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which really looked like a war zone Wednesday night, as rioters set fire to the compound and clashed with police while crowds chanted FU America. The State Department ordered an evacuation of all non-essential employees in the city and issued a separate level four travel advisory ordering Americans not to travel to Lebanon. Similar riots broke out in Baghdad, Jordan, Iran, and Tunisia with the alleged attack on that Palestinian hospital, seemingly serving as the catalyst. So the Middle East is really heating up right now. Yeah, it really is. And now it's clear that Israel was actually not responsible for that incident.

Exactly. So despite headlines from the New York Times, Washington Post, and countless other legacy media outlets who blamed Israel for the tragedy, all evidence now points to the explosion being caused by a misfired rocket from within Gaza. On Wednesday morning, the White House announced that, quote, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts, and open source information, Israel is not responsible for the explosion. Videos released by the IDF show a large number of rockets being launched from within Gaza,

while most make their way into Israel, one can be seen sputtering out and crashing into the vicinity of the hospital, setting off a series of secondary explosions. The Israeli government has also released a series of intercepted radio conversations in which Hamas terrorists can be heard discussing the failed rocket attack, blaming it on members of the Palestinian Islamic Shihad, that's a separate terror group operating in the region. During his meeting with Prime Minister Nanyahu, President Biden addressed that tragedy saying, quote, the other team was responsible for the attack, referring to Hamas.

I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion as a hospital in Gaza yesterday. And based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But look, there are still those who continue to insist the attack actually came from Israel. Leading the charge on that front is Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Taleb, who tweeted shortly after the explosion, that, quote, Israel just bombed, the back. Baptist hospital killing 500 Palestinians. Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Talib has not only left that post up,

she has continued to double down. Speaking of a large protest outside the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, she again repeated that now debunked claim. Continue to watch people think it's okay to bomb a hospital with children. And we should note that protests spilled into the Capitol Wednesday afternoon as protesters held a demonstration in the House office building. Capitol Police made a number of arrests before restricting access to the building for the remainder of the day. And remember, Taleb was facing pressure from TOP lawmakers over her response to the initial terror attacks on the 7th.

And this latest defense of the terrorists really further turns up the heat. There are rumblings in Washington that Republicans in Congress could make an attempt to expel her. So keep an eye on that in the coming weeks. Yeah, we certainly will. Now let's get to the president's meeting with Israeli leaders. What did we see on that front? Well, the president was clear that he was there to reiterate America's support of Israel. In public remarks, he offered condolences to these Israeli people

before urging the country to show restraint and their desire to retaliate, referencing the mistakes America made following 9-11. I caution this while you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it. After 9-11, we were in rage in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes. And coming out of his meetings with top officials there, Biden announced that Israel had agreed, to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through the Egyptian border,

with the understanding that all materials would be subject to inspections and must go to civilians and not Hamas. Biden also announced $100 million in U.S. funding for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, but there are questions about whether that money will ultimately be seized by Hamas. Now, the trip was supposed to include a stop in Jordan, but following the hospital attack, Jordanian officials who blamed Israel, expressed outrage and canceled their meetings with Biden. And so he ultimately flew directly home last evening.

Yeah, so still a lot left up in the air for President Biden. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Any time. In the aftermath of the bloodiest day in Israeli history, the Biden administration has nominated Washington veteran Jack Liu to serve as the new ambassador to Israel. But critics say that Lou is soft on Israel's enemies and is not the right man for the job.

Jack Liu is an Iran sympathizer who has no business being our ambassador. Here to discuss the political reaction to the Biden nominee as Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. Hey Amanda. So first, tell us about this nominee, Jack Liu. So Lou is a senior member of the Obama administration. He served as chief of staff and then Treasury Secretary during Obama's second term. He's been in Washington for decades, starting as a legislative aid in the 70s and then becoming

special assistant to Bill Clinton in the 90s. This ambassador position has been vacant since July, and Lou is nominated by Biden last month. And the clear rush to have this hearing now is due to this conflict between Israel and Hamas, the terror group, correct? Exactly. And Democrats are saying it's why Lou must be confirmed quickly, too. There were reports when say that American citizens are still stranded in Gaza with little help from the embassy. And remember, during the initial attack, Hamas took nearly 200 hostages, including at least 13 Americans.

The U.S. is expected to work closely with Israel as it goes into Gaza to get them back. Now, for Lou's part trying to shore up this confirmation, he's called Iran a threat to Israel's existence and says he'd fully support Israel against Hamas. Here's some of his opening statement from the confirmation hearing on Wednesday. At this moment, there is no greater mission than to be asked to strengthen the ties between the United States and Israel, to work toward peace in a region that has known so much war and destruction. Now, there has been some pushback against Liu because of his past work in the Middle East, specifically in connection to the Iran nuclear deal. Can you unpack that for us? Yeah, sure thing. So this was a big point of contention. Lou was a key player in that controversial 2015 Iran deal negotiated by the Obama administration. Critics said that deal gave Iran a clear

path to nuclear weapons and freed up frozen assets their regime could use to finance terror groups. Here's Republican Senator Tom Cotton criticizing Lou for his role in that deal. He helped Iran evade American sanctions, and he lied to Congress about it. He defended the Obama administration's refusal to use our veto with the United Nations in the final days of the Obama administration to protect Israel from anti-Somatic resolutions. I know Democrats are saying that we need to confirm Jack Liu quickly to show our support for Israel. I would say it's the exact opposite. We need to defeat Jack Liu's nomination to show that we have a lot of.

a new approach to Iran. Another GOP Senator, James Reich, similarly went after Lou during the hearing on Wednesday. This whole thing's about Iran. And holding hands with Iran under the table doesn't work for me. And now with the claims that Iran was involved in some ways with the October 7th assault, these claims about Liu have particular weight, correct? Absolutely. The Wall Street Journal released a report after the terror attacks,

claiming that senior Iranian officials helped, plan the invasion. But that report cited senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another terror group backed by Iran. U.S. officials have not corroborated those claims. Although even if they weren't directly involved, Iran has been arming and training Hamas for years and at minimum enabled the attacks. All right. So where are we now? What's expected to happen with Liu's nomination? Well, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on this next week, and it looks like Lou has full support from Senate Democrats. This should be enough to get him over the finish. line, although we won't know for sure until the vote. Right. Well, a crucial position,

particularly at this moment. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Though inflation remains high, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a stronger than expected jobs report in August. We also saw a surprising uptick in consumer spending in September. Joining us to discuss the latest numbers and what they mean for the U.S. economy is managing partner of case capital advisors, Kenny Polkari. Kenny, thanks so much for coming on. It's a pleasure to be here. So first off, where does inflation stand right now? Can you go over some of the recent numbers?

Yeah, so inflation has come down. Let's be fair. Inflation has come down, right? It spiked to a high of 9.4% about a year ago. It has been steadily coming down. But the fact is that inflation still exists. So prices continue to go up just at a slower pace, right? There's a difference between deflation and disinflation.

Deflation is when they actually start. to go negative, we haven't gotten there. Disinflation is when the pace of price increases just starts to slow, which is where we are now. I think the latest CPI number was 3.7%, which was a tad bit higher than what they had expected, which again is not good because that just suggests that inflation is starting to rear its ugly head again and could potentially start to push its way higher. Now, paradoxically, or maybe not, retail sales actually ticked up in September. So Americans are still shopping. There was also a hiring surge in August. Those are some of the indicators I know Wall Street types like to look at. What do those indicators tell you? So it's very interesting.

Let's talk about the hiring surge. You know, we were expecting 150,000 new jobs on the first Friday when they report that number. In fact, she came out at 350. Do you realize that 150 jobs were part-time jobs? They weren't full-time jobs. They were part-time jobs. Now, does that mean that People are now going out getting two jobs because they have a full-time job. Now they get a part-time job just to keep up. I would suggest that is the answer, right? That people, that the part-time jobs are an increase because people are trying to struggle ahead. Your other part of the question was...

So we had the hiring surges and then retail sales. Okay, so retail sales came out yesterday. So we were looking for up two-tenths. It came in and up seven-tenths. And they were going, oh, look at how great the consumer is. The consumer is so strong. Let me tell you something. The consumer is spending more money, but they're actually buying less.

because of what inflation has done. So you're going to go out. You're spending $10 or $20 more at the grocery store every time you go or you're spending $10 more to fill up your car. You didn't buy more gas. You bought the same 16 gallons of gas. But because you paid more, you are spending more, but you're not buying more.

And that's the issue. And so I think yesterday's number while they kept talking about, look how strong the consumers. I actually think that that's a falsehood. Because I know about you, I'm not necessarily buying anymore, but I feel like I'm spending more money. just trying to buy the stuff we need, right? Those are more to family.

Although the one exception to that might be the miscellaneous store retailers, that things like office supplies, florists, gift shops, those were up 3%. So any... Yeah, you know, that was a curious number. And I didn't, I haven't been able to really figure that out, the miscellaneous stuff, you know, is it, I was trying to think, okay, is it the holiday? It's not really the holiday yet, although we're coming at this season. It was a Valentine's Day.

It was a Valentine's Day. So why the uptick and things like that? I, for one, cannot explain that. Right. Well, it'll be interesting to watch that number as we get into the holidays. Kenny, thanks so much for joining us in studio today. You're very welcome. It's a pleasure to be here.

That was Kenny Polkari, managing partner of Case Capital Advisors. 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.