Morning Wire - Trump Holds Rally In PA & Senate Races Tighten | 9.5.22

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

Former President Trump swipes back at President Biden in Pennsylvania rally, swing state senate races tighten, and national security experts sound the alarm over the administration’s Iran nuclear deal talks. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former President Trump held a rally over the weekend in which he hit back at President Biden and defended MAGA Republicans. We are the ones trying to save our democracy. The danger to democracy comes from the radical left, not from the right. We discussed the event and Biden's response to the pushback against his so-called Soul of the Nation speech. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, September 5th, and this. This is Morning Wire. Senate races and multiple swing states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia, are tightening.

How are candidates closing the gap and what issues appear to be moving the needle for voters? And the Biden administration is attempting to revitalize President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran after Trump killed it. But national security experts say the move could be a grave mistake. This is such a great deal and it's such a good deal for the American people. The administration should have no problem selling it to 67% of elected representatives. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Finding great talent doesn't have to be a second job.

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Just go to Indeed.com slash wire. Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. You need indeed. Days after President Biden gave a primetime address labeling Maga Republicans a threat to democracy, former president Donald Trump responded,

escalating the war of words between the two presidents. Here with more is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. All right, Cabot. Tell us what Trump had to say. Well, on the night after Biden's speech calling MAGA Republicans an extremist group threatening the foundation of America, Trump initially responded with a post on his truth social platform, saying, quote, someone should explain to Joe Biden slowly but passionately that MAGA means make America great again.

If he doesn't want to make America great again, he should not be representing the United States of America. He went on to call the president, quote, insane or suffering from late stage dementia. All right, so some sharp words from the former president. Yeah, and he didn't stop there. On Saturday, Trump held a Save America rally in Pennsylvania with Republican Senate and gubernatorial candidates, Dr. Oz, and Doug Mastriano. The president did not take long to respond to Biden's speech, calling it, quote, vicious, hateful, and divisive,

and referring to Biden as an enemy of the state. This week, Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to give the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president, vilifying 75 million citizens plus another probably 75 to 150, if we want to be accurate about it, as threats to democracy and as enemies of the state.

Trump went on to say that the real threat to democracy came from the radical left and not the right. And that's sort of similar to the message that we've heard now from other Republican officials, in the wake of Biden's Soul of America addressed last week. For example, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted, quote, there's nothing wrong with America's soul. The American people are hurting because of your policies.

Another interesting point to note from the address is that Trump did refer to himself as, quote, the chief political opponent of President Biden, which was interpreted by some as a veiled reference to him running for office again in 2024. Now, President Biden made some comments Friday that seemed to contradict or maybe qualify what he'd said the night before. Yeah. Tell us about that. So after an event Friday, Biden gave an off-the-cuff response when asked if he viewed Trump supporters as a threat, and despite his staffers trying to prevent him from responding, answered with essentially

the opposite of what he'd said the night before. The audio is a bit tough to hear as Biden was off mic, but have a listen. Mr. President, do you consider all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country? Y'all, everyone, come on. You cannot make that case. I don't consider any Trump's court of Japanese-Discan country. He goes on to say that he does condemn those who call for the use of violence. But critics were quick to point out that just the night before,

he'd said, quote, Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. They say that these latest comments are a sign that Biden is really scrambling to reframe his message about Trump supporters because it wasn't received well. But regardless, do not be surprised if Biden's address, is a focal point for Republicans as midterms approach. Right. Well, we're in a fraught political moment here.

Cabot, thanks for coming on. Anytime. That's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, Swing State Senate Races Titan. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter available exclusively to Daily Wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

when you join at Dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MorningWire to try Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents. The Senate race in Pennsylvania has grown more contentious as Democrat John Federman is refusing to participate in a debate against his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Federman, who suffered a stroke before the primary, which has limited his ability to campaign, initially stated his refusal to debate was because of remarks made by the GOP candidates' campaign about his medical condition. But now a new reason has emerged. Here to discuss is

columnist David Marcus. So David, what is the Federman camp now saying? Good morning, Georgia. They've now admitted that Federman's physical condition after the stroke is playing into the decision not to debate. They specifically cited verbal and auditory problems that he has in hectic environments. It's a major revelation and comes at a time when Oz has been gaining in the polls. The most recent surveys have him about four points back. A few weeks ago, we saw a double-digit lead for Federman. Some of that movement may be related to the stroke, after all, part of being a senator is debating, but it also tracks a broader national trend. Right. Well, in addition to Pennsylvania, we also see in Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, there's a similar movement towards

the GOP in recent polling. How close are those races getting? All three had Democrat leads not that long ago. Now, they're getting very close. In fact, in Georgia, Herschel Walker has overtaken incumbent Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock in some polls. Blake Masters in Arizona and Joe O'Day in Colorado have seen gains, and there's a similar story in Nevada. Well, this is also coming at a time when Joe Biden is also seeing an uptick in his approval rating. So isn't it counterintuitive that the GOP candidates are gaining at the same time?

What accounts for that? It's mostly driven by the left wing of the party who had been frustrated but are buoyed by the spending package on climate that they called inflation reduction, the student debt relief, and frankly, this dark Brandon approach that we saw on Thursday night where an angry Joe Biden called out MAGA Republicans as extremists, this is great red meat for the base, but it's not clear that it helps Federman or Warnock

with moderate and independent voters. Tellingly, Federman was not present at Thursday's speech, even though it was in Philadelphia. Now, that's a pattern that we've been seeing going back to January when Stacey Abrams and Georgia seemed to avoid appearing with Biden. Are candidates still largely avoiding Biden at campaign events? There's a lot of Democrats who won't even commit to supporting Biden in 2024. So, yeah, that chilly distance is still there.

And while these Democrat candidates in tight races do want to hammer home on abortion and have had some success recently in the New York 19 special election, they appear to be avoiding association with the Biden brand. Now, we've also seen on the right there's this increasingly public spat between Florida Senator Rick Scott, who has been leading the GOP's Senate campaign efforts and minority leader Mitch McConnell, who has been critical of some of these candidates. McConnell says he's concerned about candidate quality. Is there merit to that concern?

But, you know, interestingly, a few of these GOP candidates that are currently gaining in places like Pennsylvania and Georgia, to have unique vulnerabilities. But the conflict between Scott and McConnell is more broadly about the direction of the party. McConnell's worried that this will be similar to 2010 when the GOP lost some very winnable Senate seats with unorthodox candidates. He views some 2020 candidates, particularly the ones most closely associated with populism or with Trump, people like Blake Masters or J.D. Vance as out of the mainstream and likely to lose a general election, Whereas Scott is saying, listen, this is the mainstream now. It is, in fact, McConnell who is out of step with the GOP and American voters.

All right. We'll just have to wait and see. David, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus. The Biden administration is attempting to revitalize the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. And national security experts are sounding the alarm. Joining us to discuss is Victoria Coates, Senior Research Fellow for

International Affairs and National Security in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. So, Victoria, there's a new nuclear deal that's in the works we've heard between the U.S. and Iran. What do we know about it so far? Well, what we know is rumored because while the administration's been happy to share the contents of the deal with the Russians and the Chinese, they've not seen fit to share it with the American people. And, you know, it's a very concerning series of rumors going around. The big difference between this deal and the 2050. Obama-era deal are apparently an attempts to get guarantees into it that would tie the hands of a future Republican president or Congress from ceasing compliance with the deal.

What are the potential ramifications of revitalizing that dead deal? There's nothing good that can come of this. We know that the original deal was fraudulently negotiated by the Iranians who insisted that they had abandoned any interest in a military dimension to their nuclear program. in 2002, more than a decade before the JCPOA talks commenced. Now, what we know now that we didn't know then is what was revealed in the nuclear archive, the Israelis recovered from Tehran in 2018, which revealed they had kept plans for a nuclear weapon. They kept them secret, and they had kept them very carefully, preserved them in a special bunker. So we know they always had the intention to retain the ability to create a nuclear weapon. to create a nuclear weapon should they decide to do so.

And there's no reason to think they're not doing that now as well. What's the rationale behind this deal? Why try to revive it at all? The original philosophy behind the Obama deal was that the United States had so antagonized Iran that we were the ones provoking them into potentially developing a nuclear weapon, and that if we reached out to them and relaxed sanctions on them, they would use that money responsibly to develop their country, to invest in the things the Iranian people so desperately need. Unfortunately, the opposite turned out to be the case.

And the Iranians invested every penny they got hundreds of billions of dollars under the sanctions relief and then also the palettes of cash. Every penny of that went into their military spending. And you can see the charts of the increased revenue and the increased military spending. And it's almost a dollar to dollar corollary. And that's what they're going to do again. Now, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton warned about this deal recently and said this would be a grave mistake that it would actually make Iran a better partner for Russia. How could this impact Iran's relationship with hostile powers like Russia and China? We're seeing some very disturbing developments, particularly with Russia and Iran, which have not necessarily been that close historically.

And the dangers from the Russia, Iranian growing rapprochement, there are really two main ones. In terms of sanctions busting, if we lift sanctions on Iran, I assume part of that will be that we will also say we're not going to sanction countries that do business with Iran. So we then lose any control over Russia simply shipping oil to Iran. Iran can mix it with its own stock, sell it, and then pay the Russians back. So it's a perfect mechanism for Russia to bring many, many more barrels to market. And then there's the nuclear aspect. The rumor is that the Russians will reprive the role they played in the 2015 deal as the ones who hold Iran's enriched uranium, for which they're handsomely paid. I believe they made $10 billion off the original JCPOA. But then you also have Russia basically holding the whole region hostage because if a future,

or American president or Congress were to withdraw from compliance with the deal, you know, the Russians can give the Iranians that uranium back. And that means you're basically making Israel and the Gulf nations postages to the Russians and to a deal that they didn't even negotiate. Well, clearly a lot at stake here. Victoria, thanks for joining us. That was Heritage Senior Research Fellow Victoria Coates. Another story we're tracking this week. The Republican candidate for New York Governor, Representative Lee Zeldin, is now just four points behind his Democratic opponent, incumbent Governor Kathy Hokel, according to a new Trafalgar Group poll. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.

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