Morning Wire - Murdaugh Found Guilty & Garcetti Accusations | 3.3.23

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh is found guilty of murder, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti challenged over sexual harassment under his watch, and China population collapses due to its one child policy,. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. PureTalk "Get 50% OFF your first month! Enter promo code: WIRE at PureTalk.com" Epic Will "Get 10% OFF your Will! EpicWill.com/WIRE"     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a marathon six-week trial in less than three hours of deliberation, Alec Murdoch was found guilty of the double murder of his wife and son. The state versus Richard Alexander Murdoch defendant, indictment for murder, verdict guilty. We take a look at the strongest evidence against the defendant and preview his sentence. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, March 3rd, and this is Morning Wire. For 600 days, former L.A. Mayor, Eric Garfield, Garcetti has been waiting to be confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to India, but a sexual harassment

scandal could thwart his confirmation. Naomi's treatment by Rick Jacobs, by Mayor Garcetti, and by others in his office, has been horrific. And after decades under the one-child policy, China is now desperate to stave off a population crash. What strategies are they pursuing? And why are China's young men fleeing the country? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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The defendant is remanded to the custody of the Collison County Sheriff's Department, and he may be taken away. After less than three hours of deliberation, disgraced South Carolina attorney Alec Murdoch was found guilty Thursday of murdering his wife Maggie and youngest son, Paul. He now faces a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison. Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire's senior editor, Ash Short. So, Ash, this was an extremely fast decision from the jury. what evidence ended up convicting Murdoch? Well, the prosecution argued on Wednesday that Murdoch was the only person with the means, motive, and opportunity to kill his family, and that he was at the crime scene within minutes

of the murders. They also pointed to the fact that Murdoch's extensive criminal activity was just coming to light right at the time of the murders. The prosecution painted Murdoch as a man spiraling out of control and suggested that his wife was on the verge of confronting him about his secret drug addiction. Here's a clip from the prosecution. This defendant, on the other hand, has fooled everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him, everyone who thought they knew who he was.

He's fooled them all. And he fooled Maggie and Paul too. And they paid for it with their lives. Now, I've spoken to several people who've been following the trial pretty closely, and they were shocked that none of the jurors thought that there was any reasonable doubt. What kind of evidence pointed to not guilty? Well, the defense pointed out that there was no direct evidence to tie Murdoch to the crimes, no eyewitnesses, no murder weapon, no bloody clothing.

That alone you'd think would make this a really tough conviction. The defense also pointed out that the investigation was sloppy. Police failed to secure the crime scene. They never took fingerprints or foot and tire impressions. They also failed to take DNA samples from Maggie and Paul's clothes, but they did take samples from Murdoch's clothes at night. They also raised evidence pointing to multiple assailants, including the fact that Maggie and Paul were shot with two different weapons. There was also some interesting unexplained physical evidence.

For instance, there was brown hair found in Maggie's hand when she died, which couldn't belong to Alec or their son Paul, who were redheads. There was also DNA under Maggie's fingernails that didn't belong to Alec. We still don't know who it belonged to. On the other hand, cell phone evidence puts Alec at the scene of the crime just minutes. before the murders took place, and he lied to authorities about not being there for years. He blamed his lies on paranoia due to his alleged opioid addiction. There's also the matter of the weapons involved. A rifle and a shotgun were used in the crimes, and it seems unlikely that a single killer would have used the two different weapons for each victim. Well, there was also the

really interesting angle regarding the victim, Paul, and some legal issues he was having. Right. The murdered son, Paul, was actually being prosecuted for the victim, the death of a young woman from a few years before and had allegedly been receiving threatening messages relating to that death. Paul was allegedly responsible for a boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach in 2019. He had been indicted for causing her death and was facing prosecution at the time of his murder. Another theory is that Alex drug dealers may have targeted the family. He was apparently using upwards of $60,000 worth of drugs per week at the time of the murders. So this was a really messy case.

And the final verdict may also have come down to poor presentation by the defense in the final arguments. A lot of people on Twitter were pointing out that Murdox attorney Jim Griffin seemed disorganized and even half-hearted during the closing arguments. In the end, the jury sided with the prosecution. Well, it was a shockingly fast verdict. Ash, thanks for keeping us up to date. You're welcome. That was Daily Wire senior editor, Ash Short. Coming up, scandal in the L.A. mayor's office may sink Eric Garcetti's

ambassadorship. According to a recent poll, 62% of Americans who think about their own death a lot of the time don't have a will. That's kind of like being afraid your house will burn down, but not having homeowners insurance. Don't put it off any longer. For just $119 and in as little as five minutes, Epic Will can help you create your last will and testament, living will, and even health care power of attorney. Their step-by-step online form makes it incredibly easy. All you got to do is fill the blanks. Go to epicwill.com slash wire to save 10% off your complete will package. That's epicwill.com slash wire. President Biden's pick to head U.S. communications with India is in trouble. Former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti was first nominated to be ambassador to India almost two years ago,

but lawmakers and the White House are about to lose patience with his failure to get through a Senate confirmation process. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to fill us in on the state of Garcetti's nomination and what 600 days without an ambassador to India means for U.S. foreign policy. Tim, welcome. Why has Garcetti's nomination been held up so long? Well, this goes back to his time as mayor of Los Angeles. Lawmakers are concerned that Garcetti ignored inappropriate or possibly abusive behavior by one of his top advisors while in office, and they think that should be disqualifying. But to some, it's still an open question if Garcetti knew about the alleged behavior of his former deputy chief of staff, Rick Jacobs. The allegations against Jacobs range from making racist comments

to sexual harassment. The case has been investigated a couple of times now, but each investigation reached different conclusions. Los Angeles tasked a city attorney to look into the allegations in 2020 after it was sued by one of Garcetti's security detail. The police officer said Jacobs made numerous remarks about his physique and touched him in provocative and unwelcome ways. Since the lawsuit, former staffers have come forward with their own stories about Jacob's behavior. Garcetti's former head of communications, Naomi Sellegman, said last year that Garcetti's silence enabled Jacob's predatory behavior. We again and again and again saw him doing it, kissing people on the lips, grabbing people from behind, making inappropriate comments in front of the mayor.

Now Jacobs, who is gay, defended himself to the city's investigator. He said a kiss on the mouth was a common way to greet people as a gay man, as was his other questionable behavior. Now, the city's report ultimately cleared Jacobs, and by extension, Garcetti, of any wrongdoing. But Republican Senator Chuck Grassley decided to look into the allegations himself after Garcetti was nominated to be ambassador to India. Grassley's investigators concluded that not only were the accusations against Jacobs true, but Garcetti most likely knew about his advisor's misconduct and ignored it. For example, there is even a picture of Jacobs grabbing another man's crotch right next to Garcetti included in the report. Several credible whistleblowers approached my office about concerning allegations that he was aware of and enabled his deputy chief of staff, Rick Jacobs, to sexually harassed several employees within the mayor's office.

They allege that Rick Jacobs made crude sexual remarks and gestures towards staff and others. They alleged that he made blatantly racist remarks towards Asians and other. minorities. Okay, so senators have had about 600 days to mold us over. What are they saying? Well, it's not necessarily a partisan issue. Some Republicans like Susan Collins are open to an ambassador Garcetti. Then there are Democrats such as Mark Kelly who seem to believe Grassley's investigators and so they think Garcetti should be replaced. What's clear is that Garcetti really wants the job, and he and his parents have hired a group of lobbyists to argue his case on Capitol Hill. But Garcetti's aggressive lobbying has ruffled some feathers, too.

Kelly came out against Garcetti after a few power brokers reportedly threatened to cut him off from Democrat donors. But this game of lobbying has been going on for, what, two years now? What's changed? Well, the White House seems to think that it's make or break time for Garcetti. If the Biden administration can't get their man through in the latest push, the president may pull Garcetti to get a less controversial person to fill that ambassador slot. But for now, at least, the White House is standing behind their guy. Here's White House Press Secretary Corrine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday. You know, Eric Garcetti was voted out in a bipartisan way out of committee, and so clearly he has had bipartisan support, which is very important in this process. And we encourage and look forward to the Senate, you know, moving forward with his nomination on the floor.

So why is this suddenly seen as such a pressing issue for the White House? In short, it's tensions with China. India is widely seen as a key ally in the east to counter China's influence. And tensions between the U.S. and China have encouraged. increased quite a bit recently. You have uncertainty about Taiwan, constant trade disputes and concerns over TikTok, the spy balloon fiasco, and then suspicion over COVID and the pandemic. The White House now seems to think it needs a Senate-approved official in New Delhi to shore up ties between the U.S. and India before things with China get worse. Well, I guess we'll see if that guy turns out to be Garcetti.

Tim, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. After decades of enforcing draconian measures like the infamous one-child policy, China is now scrambling to encourage a baby boom. The move comes as the country faces a severe population crisis. Here with more on how the Communist Party is trying to incentivize births is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, what can you tell us?

Well, a decade ago, the idea of the Chinese Communist Party encouraging a new baby boom would be outlandish. Remember, from 1980 to 2015, the country implemented a brutal one-child policy, which restricted the vast majority of Chinese families from having multiple children out of the fear of overpopulation. The policy, which often relied on forced abortions and sterilizations, was hugely effective at slowing population growth, but for obvious reasons, created a slew of other cultural, economic, and social setbacks. Right. So tell us about the impact of those laws. Well, first, there was an enormous gender imbalance created. Because of the cultural preference for male children, millions of families, will never know the true number, aborted female babies with the hope of making their one and only child a son who could carry on their family line and also provide financial support down the road. That contributed to China having the largest gender disparity

of males to females of any country on earth. For much of the early 2000s, for every 100 Chinese girls born, there were 130 boys being born. For more on that, I spoke to Fushian Yi, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who's one of the leading experts on Chinese population trends. He told me the country currently has 30 million more young men than women, which is creating a crisis of young men unable to find wives. As he described, that's led the parents of many young women in the country to demand enormous dowries in exchange for marriage. And it's forced many men to leave the country in search of a wife. So they ended up with a huge gender disparity and also a plummeting population, it sounds like. Right. Over the last three decades,

China's birth rate began to plummet. And then last year, for the first time, since the widespread Chinese famines of the 1960s, the country saw a population decline. Overall, there were fewer births in China last year than at any point since 1790. The Chinese Communist Party is now going to great lengths to increase the nation's birth rate. In the past, the government would help cover hospital bills for new parents and offer paid parental leave, but only for married couples. Now, though, a number of provinces are offering the same funding for single mothers, something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago when mothers faced fines for having children at wedlock. Elsewhere, government officials are pleading with healthy college students

to donate to sperm banks, and the Chinese government has even promised to begin subsidizing much of the costs for couples seeking in vitro fertilization, which wasn't even legal in the country until 2001. It all gives you an idea of just how seriously Chinese officials view this problem. Now, from the government's perspective, there's also an economic side to this. Tell us about that. Yeah, for decades, China had the world's largest workforce, which helped make them into a global manufacturing powerhouse, as their sheer numbers gave a huge advantage to their economy. But with such low birth rates as older workers retire, there simply are not enough people to replace them.

And more importantly, as life expectancy goes up, we're talking about hundreds of millions of people who will soon need to be taken care of. For context, in 2020, around 14% of the country's population was over the age of 65. By 2050, that number is expected to be 35%. Right now, there are five working age people for every one senior citizen,

By 2050, there will be 1.6. Wow, so a real crisis if they don't turn it around. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips. Another story we're tracking this week. As he had promised to do, Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, signed legislation on Thursday banning doctors

from performing transgender medical treatments on minors, such as sex change surgeries and the use of puberty blockers. Lee also signed another law restricting drag shows from taking place in public or not. front of children. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.