Morning Wire - Trump’s X Interview & Tim Walz’s Military Record | 8.13.24

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Elon Musk hosts Donald Trump in a highly anticipated X interview, Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance hits the legacy media circuit, and we talk to the man who replaced Tim Walz after he left the military. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Babbel: For a limited time, get 60% off your Babbel subscription at http://www.babbel.com/wire Balance of Nature: "Get 35% off Your Order + FREE Fiber & Spice Supplements. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump and Elon Musk sit down for a highly anticipated interview. Again, it's about the American dream. You don't hear about the American dream anymore, Elon. You don't hear you're the American dream and the truth says. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, August 13, and this is Morning Wire. Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance goes on a whirlwind media blitz. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is scripted. She doesn't have her policy positions.

out there. And as stolen valor claims stack up against Tim Walls, we talked to the man who replaced him in Iraq. It was cowardly to just be like, I'm not going to go. I mean, you can't pick and choose where your nation wants you to go. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. I've been learning to speak German with Babel and I can't wait until I visit Germany and easily order my favorite German cuisine. Spassal anyone? Babel is designed by real people for real conversations and their quick 10-minute lessons are ready to get you talking your new language in just three weeks. And now there's a special limited-time deal for our listeners.

Get up to 60% off your Babel subscription at babble.com. That's spelled B-A-B-B-B-E-L-com slash wire for 60% off. Rules and restrictions may apply. Former President Donald Trump returned to social media platform X on Monday with a highly anticipated live interview with the company's owner, billionaire Elon Musk. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestige. Giacomo. Hey, man. So let's get right to this interview. Set the scene here for us. Hey there, John. Well, first, this conversation lasted around two hours, and it garnered more than a million live listeners throughout the stream. So big numbers there. And it covered a wide range of topics like immigration, government waste, foreign policy, free speech. And of course, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It did start about 40 minutes late. And Musk said that was due to a cyber attack. But once they got rolling, Musk opened up by asking about the assassination attempt on Trump's life.

if Musk actually publicly endorse Trump when that happened. Here's some audio on that topic. You can't fake bravery under such circumstances. The courage is instinctual or it is not. It's not a rehearsed action. And so I just want to say that I think a lot of people admire your courage under fire there. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

The incredible thing, though, when you talk about the odds, you had to be exactly at that angle. And the bullet came whizzing by hitting my ear. when you think of the odds of that, I say an act of God. It's a miracle that it happened. And I'm honored by it. I'm honored by it. Trump also went after Harris and the Democrats for what he called a coup against President Biden. And he took a swipe at Harris for basically refusing any questions from reporters since she became the effective Democrat nominee.

And by the way, you think Biden could do this interview? Do you think that Kamala could do this interview? would take a pass on you. No, they could not. So they don't need Elon screaming out questions. It's pretty sad that somebody that does this for a living can't answer a question or is afraid to do an interview. Another standout moment was when Musk explained that he is a moderate politically who strongly supported Barack Obama.

He now, though, feels that it's imperative Trump wins this election. So this is to people out there who are in the moderate camp to say, I think you should support Donald Trump or president. And I think it's actually a very important junction in the road and we're in deep trouble if it goes the other way. Well, I want to thank you. And, you know, I actually always did think of you as somewhat left. I must say that.

So it's even more of an honor to have your endorsement. Now, this was a big return to this social media platform for Trump, who was controversially banned following the Capitol riot in 2021. What did Trump say about that? Right. Trump was permanently banned from the platform while he was still serving out his. final days as president. That was, of course, before Musk bought the platform. Musk has been a fierce advocate for free speech, and he reinstated Trump's ex account almost as soon as he took it over.

As for Trump, other than posting his mugshot last summer, the former president has not posted to X until yesterday. He published a flurry of posts ahead of the interview. His very first post, asked the American people, are you better off now than you were when I was president? He also published numerous videos, here's some audio from one of the ads he posted. They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away you freedom. They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They're not coming after me. They're coming after you.

And I just happen to be standing in their way and I will never be moving. And ahead of this interview, we actually saw the EU Target Musk about this particular issue. What happened there? They threatened Musk on Monday that he needs to censor quote unquote harmful content or else his company could be punished. The letter comes after posts on X highlighted the alarming events in the UK involving migrants and Muslim gangs. Notably, Musk back in December said that the European Commission offered X in a legal secret deal to basically quietly censor speech without telling anyone and this way X would not be fined. Musk said he shot that deal down, but other platforms did accept that. And as he made very, very clear yesterday, he's definitely not backing down.

I actually can't repeat what he posted, but it amounted to a giant no to the EU's demands. Musk clearly not intimidated by the EU's threats. Meanwhile, Trump back on Twitter. Yeah, in a big way. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Hey, guys, producer Brandon here. Balance of Nature is my go-to source for whole food ingredients.

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The Republican nominee for vice president sat for interviews on ABC, CBS, and CNN, and touched on issues ranging from abortion to the border. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Vance's media circuit and the Democratic tickets, noticeable absence from the airwaves. So, Tim, how have these interviews gone so far for Vance? Generally, he's been good at fending off hostile questions and turning the focus back on the Harris Wall's ticket. A consistent theme throughout the interviews was Vance defending and explaining his pro-family approach to politics. With Margaret Brennan of CBS, he said he wanted to expand the child tax credit, for instance. CNN's Dana Bash was one of the most hostile to Vance and spent much of her time questioning Vance's attacks on Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls. Here's an exchange about Walls's stolen valor controversy.

I've seen a lot of statements from veterans, including those you serve with saying, it's just untoward. to be criticizing somebody who served for 24 years. Dana, I'm not interested in the ad homonym. I've heard from a lot of veterans groups who criticized Tim Walts. The question is, he said he served in war, and he didn't. That is a dishonesty. I really, I couldn't care less what one or the other person says about it. I care about what the truth is.

The truth is that Tim Walz didn't tell the truth. And importantly, Dana, this is about Kamala Harris's judgment. And I think that when you ask, why has Kamala Harris a last, the border to be wide open. Why is Kamala Harris supported policies that have promoted the increase in inflation? I think it goes to the heart of her judgment, and I think that that's what we should be talking about. Now, what about the platform that Trump and Vance are running on? Did we learn anything new about their policies? Nothing new, but this was a good test of Vance's ability to be a spokesman for Trump's priorities. Another hostile exchange was prompted by ABC's Jonathan Carl.

Carl defended Harris's border record and pushed Vance on Trump's plan to deport illegal aliens. If you're not willing to deport a lot of people, you're not willing to have a border when there are 20 million illegal aliens in our country. But 10 million people, this is like, I mean. What, John, I think it's the wrong attitude to take of it. Okay. So they're going to knock on doors and ask people for that paper. Again, but I do. Let me imagine.

I think there's a wrong, this is the wrong attitude towards it, right? There's 20 million people here illegally. You start with what's achievable. I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and, frankly, if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the legal immigration problem. And abortion was a topic in every interview. Here's Vance defending Trump's position on that. What the president has said very clearly is that abortion policy should be made by the states,

right? You, of course, want to make sure that any medicine is safe, that it's prescribed in the right way and so forth. But I think that what we really want is when states and voters in those states make decisions. We, of course, want the states and the federal government to respect those decisions. And that's what President Trump has said, is consistently we need to get out of the culture war side of the abortion issue. We need to let the states decide their specific abortion policy. Now, many have noted that Vance's appearances on these shows sort of highlights the lack of media scrutiny on Harris and Walls. So far, neither have sat for any interviews like these ones that Vance has been sitting for. Did that come up at all? That's right. Harris and

Walls have been noticeably absent from the media. And that's opened up a lane of attack from the Trump campaign, one that Vance hit on throughout these interviews. Here he is on CNN. Are you going to debate Tim Walz? Of course. I want to debate Tim Walts. I think it's important. And I think that it goes to a very fundamental difference between the Trump Vance ticket and our opposition. We believe in talking to the media. We believe in answering questions. We believe in debating. I think it's really important. I mean, look, I'm asking the American people to make me their vice president. It's really important. to stand before the American people to make that case, and I'm going to keep on doing it in whatever form I get the opportunities.

Even with this public pressure from Republicans, Harris and Walls have studiously avoided tough questions from the media. The most they've promised is a potential sit-down by Kamala Harris sometime next month. Right. Well, so far, they've been allowed to stick to scripted rallies and campaign commercials. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. The military record of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walls has come under intense scrutiny. Walls has claimed to have retired at a higher level than he did, and that he carried, quote, weapons of war in war, despite retiring before his battalion was deployed. Thomas Barron's became the command sergeant major after Walls left,

and he's been drawing attention to this issue for years. The following is an excerpt of our interview with Barron's. Tom, first of all, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your service. You are welcome, thank you. Let's start with what prompted your involvement in this entire. story, which is really taken over the national headlines. By 2016, you'd begun to call attention to the fact that Tim Walls was mischaracterizing his military service. What was he saying? And what did you initially do about it? Well, it originally started even way before that. I mean, when we actually

got deployed, he got elected to Congress. I mean, he was retired command sergeant major this and that. And I'm in the first district where he was our congressman. And he early did see this advertising out there and brought it up to my colonel. I said, you know, I just can't, what are we going to do with this guy? I mean, he's lying about his rank. And I did the right thing. I wrote a letter, personal letter as a constituent to him in Congress. I said, thank you for your 24 years of service. Thank you for doing what you do for veterans. You didn't achieve the rank of command sergeant major. Please refrain from doing that from now on. You just set the record straight, tell everybody that, well, I made a mistake, whatever you got to do,

but I never heard a response. I sent it to all of the people that were, you know, on the committees that he was on it, like the Armed Services Committee, and never heard a word back from anybody. And then two years later, he's run for governor and it was like August. It was like, feet's sake. Now I got to, you know, get off my tractor and go make a banner to put up my bin and do whatever.

They try to get the public out there knowing that you're a fraud. And it got suppressed by the media then. They got brought out more in 2022. but you know, now it's where it's at. So you initially reached out to him personally, got no response back, and then you started to feel when he ran for governor that maybe you had to take this up a notch in terms of public awareness. And the media, you say, just ignored your claims.

Well, they not only ignored it. I mean, the Star Tribune reporter, I sent this to him. He got back to me. He said, well, I vetted your story. It's true. We're looking at publishing an article. and this was like late October of 18. Then he got back to me and he said, well, my editor mixed it because they said it's too close to the election and they didn't want to influence the election.

And maybe not exact words, but pretty close. And I thought to myself, what the hell is this? North Korea, I couldn't believe it. I was like, you know, this is a true story. This should influence the election. People should be able to read this and determine if this is who they want to vote for governor. And they just hit it. Now you've characterized this as him abandoning his men.

What was the impact of him leaving? How did that impact these particular men? There's a lot of them, hundreds of them, under his command, correct? I think it's like a depleting balloon and something like that happens. It's like the wind is taken out of the sails. Everything is like, okay, we're full steam ahead. We're getting ready. We got our leadership in place.

We're going to get ready. We're preparing for war. And all of a sudden, the sails are straight up and down with no wind in there. I mean, that's it. You're just done. Everybody was in just shock. Who does that? Who leaves their kids hanging on something like this? And so you filled that role. You took over and led that battalion. Can you tell us about that? What was that experience like? Well, it was an absolute honor to even have that brought out to me. It was like, now I can serve my country in a greater capacity. I was like, okay, I'm on board. I went around to the unit, said, well, he's, He's mom here. Let's get ready and let's go. Look for the rest of our interview with retired command sergeant major Thomas Barron's to be released later this week.

Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.