Morning Wire - Israel Declares War & RFK’s Special Announcement | 10.9.23

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Israel declares war after thousands of Israeli citizens are killed in surprise attacks, Americans continue to see the economy in negative light, and Robert F Kennedy Jr is expected to announce a third party run. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. USA Facts: Seek clarity and ground your debates in undeniable facts with http://www.usafacts.org Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thousands of Israelis have been injured or killed following attacks by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in an assault reportedly greenlit by Iran. We discussed the latest in Israel's counteroffensive against the Iran-backed group and the U.S. response. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Vickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, October 9th, and this is Morning Wire. Rising interest rates, inflation, and now the return of student loan payments have millions of Americans increasingly struggling to pay the bills. We look at the economic headwinds facing the country and some surprising news on the jobs front.

And RFK Jr. is expected to announce a third-party run, further shaking up an already tumultuous 2024 presidential race. If you've been waiting to come to one of my public events, this will be the one to come to him. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Israel declares war after a surprised terror attack by Hamas kills hundreds of Israeli citizens and at least four Americans. Hamas launched the deadly attack on Saturday morning at the start of a Jewish holiday weekend. Reports now suggest that Iran greenlit the terrorist operation and supported it. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about what happened in Israel and the U.S. involvement in a second

major conflict overseas. Hi, Tim. Terrible news out of Israel this weekend. Walk us through what took place. On Saturday morning, Palestinian militants invaded over 20 towns and slaughtered everyone. The elderly families' children, regardless of whether they were armed. Most weren't. At least 260 dead bodies were found at a music festival near the Gaza border. Horrifying images flooded social media. One photo showed several older people lying in pools of blood at a bus stop. A video showed a Hamas militant, leading a bloody woman by her hair into a vehicle. Another video showed Hamas parading a dead woman around in the back of a truck. They had stripped her of her clothes and mutilated her body. Just horrific atrocities by Hamas. Was there any prior warning of this attack?

The Israeli military appears to have been caught completely unprepared. Security forces were unable to stem the flood of militants in the early hours of the attack. Now, hundreds of Israelis are dead. Thousands more are wounded and more were taken captive and are being held by Hamas with reports of unspeakable crimes being committed. Yeah. And we've seen reports that hundreds are Israeli women and children, correct? Right. Now, we haven't seen a terror attack against Israel on this scale before. Is that right? Right. It's the worst terror attack in modern Israeli history. On a relative scale, it's many times worse for Israel than 9-11 was for the U.S. And experts expect this to be a major inflection point in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Israel formally declared war for the first time in 50 years on Sunday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told civilians to flee from Gaza. The Israeli defense force, counterattack has largely focused on clearing out Hamas militants from Israeli territory

and dropping bombs on key targets in Gaza. Some of those targets, unfortunately, are located in densely populated areas. It's not unusual for Hamas to run its operations from civilian areas to discourage attacks using human shields. So a lot of Palestinian casualties should be expected as well. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, another Islamic terrorist group backed by Iran, is threatening more attacks on Israel from Lebanon. Netanyahu promised that the enemy will pay an unprecedented price, so the expectation is this could be a very bloody campaign. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran was behind this attack and in fact held a meeting in Beirut last Monday to help plan it. How much do we know about that? Well, according to that report, multiple officials in both Hamas and Hezbollah,

as well as European and Syrian officials, have confirmed that Iran indeed helped coordinate the attack. A lot of experts have said there's no way Hamas could have pulled off a sophisticated operation like this without Iran's help. Hamas fired so many rockets that overwhelmed the Iron Dome missile defense system, and the terror group used a combination of land, air, and sea vehicles to take over towns across southern Israel. This follows a pattern with Iran. Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a close relationship with Hamas. They've helped train and supply them. And Tehran has used its extensive terror network to push its own agenda in the Middle East.

Notably, Tehran very early came out in support of the Hamas operation. And a Hamas spokesman has said that the operation had helped from Iran. Right. Now, this follows the Biden administration unfreezing $6 billion for Iran in exchange for five American prisoners. That's a move that's earned the president a lot of criticism and blame here. Biden has since come out and said that he's offered his unwavering support to Netanyahu. What do we expect from this administration in the coming days? Well, President Biden has already promised,

weapons to Israel. And U.S. forces are moving into supply positions. It remains to be seen if the U.S. gets directly involved. Here's Secretary of State Anthony Blinken over the weekend. We have reports that several Americans were killed. We're working overtime to verify that. At the same time, there are reports of missing Americans, and there again, we're working to verify those reports. Well, a lot of questions still to be answered, and this conflict appears to be far from over. Tim, thanks for reporting. The job market has seen a surprise spike in new jobs growing by nearly twice the number expected last month. Americans' views on the economy continue to sour.

Along with rising interest rates and persistent inflation, student loan repayments are now resuming, adding yet another burden to tens of millions of Americans. Here with the latest is Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, a lot to get to on the economy, as always. Let's start with the resumption of student loan repayments this month. Yeah, so at the start of this month, the government's unprecedented three-year COVID pause on student loan repayments came to an end. That means 28 million borrowers are now facing monthly payments once more. Now, for context, Americans currently have $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.

That is equal to $13,000 for every household in the country. Now, President Biden has been desperate to score a political victory on the issue by eliminating much of that debt at the federal level. Remember, he campaigned on a promise of eliminating $10,000 for every borrower, and then attempted to erase $430 billion in debt through executive action last year. But neither of those things have happened, as the Supreme Court ruled 6'3 this year that his plan was unconstitutional. Well, and that means that millions of Americans are now going to start paying off their loans again at a very rough time. Exactly. In 2020, the last time most people made a loan payment, the economy was in a very different spot than it is today. Since then, the cost of living has skyrocketed, while a lot of folks got used to having no monthly payments.

To that point, a recent survey from Credit Karma found that 56% of borrowers say they'll now be forced to decide between paying off their loans or covering essential expenses like rent and groceries. As we noted at the top, we did just get a very promising jobs report, payroll growing by nearly twice as much as expected, adding 336,000 new jobs. But we've also seen a number of concerning economic reports just in the last few weeks. What are a few that jump out? Yeah, well, where to start. So after showing signs of recovery after COVID, the rate of small businesses going bankrupt is now at its highest point since the pandemic.

We've already seen more small businesses file for bankruptcy this year than all of 2022 combined, and they're still another quarter to go. Small business loan delinquencies are also rising quickly. They're now well above pre-pendemic levels. It's all a clear sign that rising interest rates and the higher cost of doing business, it's really taking its toll. And to make matters worse,

those high interest rates are making it harder for entrepreneurs to access capital, meaning there are simply fewer businesses being created to replace those going under. Well, there are also some concerning signs from the housing market. What are we seeing there? Yeah, this could be a whole episode in itself, but mortgage rates have now risen to their highest point in a generation, sitting around 7.5% this week. That has left many homeowners unwilling to move for fear of giving up their 3% rate, and it's also driven inventory to multi-year lows. And the homes that are for sale are now out of reach for most Americans.

A new study from Adam, a real estate data provider, found that someone making $71,000 a year, that's median national income, would be unable to afford a home and get this 99% of the country. Wow. That reality is taking a major toll on young home buyers in particular and forcing many to rent long-term or move back home. Now, all of this is having a clear impact on people's perception of the economy. What do we know about that? Well, a slew of data shows Americans are incredibly pessimistic about the economic outlook at the country. In a recent UGov poll, just 13% say they're better off this year than last,

while the separate Gallup poll shows nearly 75% say things are getting worse. And importantly, they're blaming President Biden. His approval rating on the economy has consistently hovered in the low 30s, which is especially concerning for Democrats ahead of the election, given that the economy is far and away the most important issue for voters in every single poll. Gallup found the Republicans now hold a 53 to 39 advantage on the question of which party is best suited to handle the economy, that 14 point gap is the widest on that metric in over three decades.

Well, economy has always a big issue for voters, but it sounds like it may be the issue this year. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to launch a third party candidacy for president as early as today, leaving both Democrats and Republicans wondering who an independent run might help or harm. The expected move comes as RFK Jr. has been sidelined by the Democrats who refuse to allow him to debate Biden or acknowledge his candidacy in any way. Here to discuss the implications of all this is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.

So what's leading to this expected move by RFK to go third party? And do we know how this might impact the general election? Morning. I think you hit the nail on the head. The Democrat Party has shunned RFK Jr., and for that matter, Marianne Williamson, in pretty much every possible way, almost daring to launch an independent bid, which he's now doing. The impact is complicated. Kennedy himself has said he thinks he hurts Donald Trump more than Joe Biden, given the celebrity he's

received on the part of the American right. But there are those who see this as a real threat to Biden, especially given concerns about his age next to RFK Jr's videos of feats of strength. A new mammoth poll said 76% of voters think Biden is too old, compared to only 48% who say that about Trump. Kennedy is also not the only person showing an interest in an indie run, progressive activist Cornell West has announced, and the centrist's no labels party is still floating potential candidates, including Democrat West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

Right. Now, speaking of no labels, according to the New York Times, Democrats have launched a multi-million dollar effort to keep them from running Mansion or presumably anyone else. What actions are they taking and why so much concern? To bevy of actions, including fundraising for Democrat candidates to keep them on team Biden, as well as legal actions to keep third parties off the ballot in as many states as possible. No labels, at least according to the Times, is more feared than Kennedy or West for two basic reasons. One, they're very well organized and funded with a lot of professional political capital. And also, obviously, being a Democrat, Manchin worries Biden world.

The same mammoth poll showed Biden and Trump essentially tied in favorability. So this is close. And Democrats have reason to fear that Manchin could badly go. come up the works for them. Yeah, it makes sense. Historically, with the notable exception of Ross Perrault in 1992, third-party candidates have not made much of an impact on these races. Could one of these contenders match what Perrault did and really throw this into chaos? It's possible. Perrault got close to 20 percent in 1992, though he won no states. He did have a big impact. But there was one essential difference back then, which was that both Clinton

and Bush were essentially neoliberals who supported global. and Perrault was decidedly not. He ran against free trade and open immigration, warning about the giant sucking sound of jobs going to Mexico. The differences between Trump and Biden are so stark that nobody is likely to have that kind of a wide open lane in 2024. And finally, back to Kennedy, do you think there could be some regret,

especially among Trump supporters and even to a degree Trump himself, for sort of hyping up RFK Jr.? might that come back to haunt them? It sure might. At the time, it seemed wise to pump up Kennedy when he looked like he might be gaining on Biden and causing a real problem for the president's reelection prospects. But that support never increased and, in fact, has fallen off. So with a third-party run, I think you might see some of these newfound Kennedy fans souring

on the sky on of Democrat royalty now that he might actually be taking votes from Donald Trump. We'll keep a close eye on polling and possible endorsements from here at Morning Wire. But, John, things are about to get a lot more interesting. Indeed. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.