Morning Wire - Biden to Visit Israel & House Speaker Floor Vote | Afternoon Update | 10.17.23

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

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I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, October 17th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. The White House announced Monday that President Biden will be traveling to Israel this week as the country prepares for a ground operation in Gaza. Here with more as Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. The visit from Biden comes after the administration deployed a second aircraft carrier to the region last week to join the USS Ford Strike Carrier Group that's already positioned there. The administration's beefed up military presence in the region include sending fighter jets from the Air Force and a rapid response force of 2,000 Marines. The mobilization comes after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded thousands more in terror attacks a little over a week ago. The White House says Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday to demonstrate his steadfast support for Israel in the face of Hamas' brutal terrorist attack and to consult on next steps. This visit comes as Israeli forces

killed a top commander in Hamas's Al-Kasan brigades in an airstrike earlier today. The commander, Amin Nafal, was said to be one of the dominant figures in Hamas. As of now, the House still has no speaker. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan failed to receive the 217 votes necessary to become Speaker of the House in the first floor vote.

This comes after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in voting for a different candidate. No person having a reason, having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected. Pursuant to Clause 12A of Rule 1, the chair declares the House in recess, subject to the call of the chair. A handful of Republicans voted instead for names like Steve Scalise and ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, both of whom have since put their support behind Congressman Jordan. There were a number of other votes from GOP holdouts, including for former

Representative Lee Zeldin. A second vote is expected later this afternoon. Former President Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, the former British spy and man behind the infamous discredited steel dossier. The Steele dossier, paid for by Democratic operatives, was used by the U.S. government as evidence to gain FISA approval to spy on Trump's 2016 campaign. That eventually snowballed into the false Russia collusion narrative. Now Trump is seeking damages from Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence in a London court, claiming that he, quote, suffered personal. and reputational damage and distress, and that OBI violated British data protection laws. Police in Brussels have shot and killed a suspected Islamic extremist who was accused of killing two Swedish citizens on Monday in Belgium. The deceased suspect was reportedly a Tunisian man

living in the country illegally and who indicated in a social media post that he belonged to ISIS. Belgium, which is home to NATO's headquarters, was hit hard with ISIS suicide bombing attacks in 2016, when multiple terrorists detonated bombs in Brussels airport and a metro station in the city. Dozens of people were killed and more than 300 people were injured. The two Swedish citizens who were shot on Monday were there for the Belgium-Swedon soccer game. Here's another soccer fan reacting to the attack. It's crazy, of course. It's a hit against democracy.

It's a hit against the freedom of speech. And to be a target of a country like Sweden, It feels sick. The United States government secretly delivered a long-range army tactical missile system to Ukraine, and now the embattled country says it is used the heavy weaponry to attack Russia. The missiles were delivered sometime within the last few days, though details were scant due to security implications. U.S. ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told Scripts news

that this is part of NATO's objective in securing Ukraine wins on the battlefield and helping the country get through winter. Our focus right now primarily is on air defense and ammunition, as is the focus of the other 50 countries that are helping Ukraine with weapons. And that was the topic of conversation last week. Lastly, I'll say a group of countries has come together to start training Ukrainians on those F-16s so that we can get their pilots ready for the moment comes when they'll have F-16s to use as well.

Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing on Tuesday to meet with president of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. Putin's first major international trip since invading Ukraine. The two will be joined this week by 130 other countries from around the world to discuss China's belt and road initiative. The multi-day summit has been overshadowed by the Hamas terrorist attack and Israel's response. China's Communist Party has condemned Israel in recent days, claiming their actions have not been proportionate. And the Bentke app, DailyWire's new entertainment company, launched this week. Bent Key became the number one downloaded Kids app on Apple's App Store on Monday,

the same day that DailyWire co-founder Jeremy Boring unveiled the new venture, beating out other apps like YouTube Kids and Paw Patrol Academy. The Bent Key app launched with over 150 episodes of 18 shows, including four Bent Key originals, with new episodes airing every Saturday. All right. Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com and for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to our latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.