Morning Wire - U.S. China Diplomatic Talks & FTX Trial Update | 10.7.23

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

U.S. diplomats attempt better relations with China, trial of Sam Bankman-Fried has begun, and Planned Parenthood offers cross sex medications. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Officials in the U.S. and China say they're committed to opening new lines of communication, as tensions between the countries are driving them further apart. I don't think anyone expects that Joe Biden getting across the table from Xi Jinping is going to land to deep, intelligent, or breakthrough kind of talks. We discuss the precarious relationship between the two world powers. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 7th, and this is a Saturday, edition of Morning Wire. The federal fraud and money laundering case against Sam Bankman-Fried in New York City has begun.

So that's both parts of the argument. One, that customers were duped and two, that there were people inside the company who knew exactly what was going on. And Planned Parenthood comes under more scrutiny after a recent report suggests that clinics are recklessly providing teens cross-sex hormones. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

After a turbulent summer that saw escalating tensions between the United States and China, officials in each country say they're committed to opening new lines of communication, setting the stage for high-stakes meetings between President Biden and China's Xi Jinping. Here with more on the ever-evolving U.S.-China relationship is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Cabot, before we discuss the meetings, first, give us some context on the power struggle this year. Yeah, you could spend hours on this, but we'll go with the 30,000-foot view. So for the first two years of President Biden's tenure, there was a sort of stalemate between the U.S. and China. There was the normal posturing by both countries, but the two sides expressed an openness to meeting and diplomatic ties were maintained.

That really changed, however, last February during the Chinese spy balloon saga. After that incident, the two countries canceled meetings that had been scheduled, and Beijing cut off most communication with the White House. Over the next few months, any goodwill seemed to go out the window, as tensions really escalated from there. Then as we enter the summer months, the White House ramped up their diplomatic efforts in Asia, drawn closer with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and India, all with the clear intent of boxing out China and driving a wedge between Beijing and the rest of the region. And those efforts really sparked anger in Beijing. Exactly. Look, it's no secret that Xi's ultimate goal is total control of Asia, so they're not happy with the U.S. making inroads in the region and offering countries there and alternative ally.

Over the summer, Beijing called America, quote, a wolf in sheep's clothing, going so far as the same, the U.S. wanted to, quote, resurrect the specter of the Cold War. She responded by cozying up more closely to Vladimir Putin, and the leaders have met a number of times this year, while China has now become Russia's top trading partner amid sanctions from the West. And importantly, she has also increased his efforts in our neck of the woods, making inroads in Latin America, including Brazil and Venezuela, while also expanding their espionage operations out of Cuba. It's about as close to Cold War as you can get. But as things seemed on the verge of spiraling further, the two-sides, appears to have cooled off a bit. Yeah, so it seems there's some positive momentum on diplomatic talks.

Tell us more about that. Yeah, earlier in the month, the two sides began expressing a new willingness to reopen relations, for conversations at least. At the moment, the White House is negotiating a visit from China's top economic policy aid that would mark the highest ranking member of the CCP to visit Washington since Biden took office. And it's worth noting there was also movement last week when China helped facilitate the release of a U.S. service member who had inexplicably fled into North Korea in July and been detained ever since. While the Chinese did not mediate the release directly, White House officials said they were still helpful in coordinating the release of the 23-year-old, who was eventually flown to China and then transported to U.S. diplomats at the embassy in Beijing.

But again, there are those cautioning that this was hardly a show of goodwill. I spoke with Stephen Yates. He's a former Deputy National Security Advisor in the Bush White House. When Beijing brings someone to the table or does what needed to be done, they turn around with the other hand and say, now I want you to give ground in another area or do something for me. It's very transactional in past practice. And so I would wonder what Beijing seeks is a compensation for having helped get this American out. So what's behind this new openness to diplomatic relations? Walk us through the timing here. Well, as usual, it is difficult to say why she acts the way he does. but many experts point to China's worsening economic downturn as a potential catalyst for them opening up for talks.

Remember, the Chinese economy has seen lagging GDP growth this year and their real estate sector is still in crisis, partly because of Western sanctions and other efforts to send business elsewhere in the region. Here's Yates on that front. I think there's a lot of evidence that the Xi government and the Communist Party government in China is feeling heat internally in terms of the economic decline. I think unfortunately that pressure results in Xi appealing to nationalism and external conflict as a way to divert attention away from, say, his disappearing foreign minister and his disappearing defense minister and these kind of unfortunate things domestically. And that, I think, is part of the reason we see an uptick in pressure on Taiwan and a little bit of the Chinese

Wolf Warier treatment of American diplomats. Well, a complex political game playing out here. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. The federal case against disgraced FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, began in New York City this week. The 31-year-old Crypto Wiz Kid has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering. Joining us now is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Hey, Tim, so where do we stand so far on the SBF trial?

Hey, Georgia. So Sam Bankman-Freed, or SBF, as he's known, is charged with seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit these crimes. At the heart of the case is whether or not SBF used money from his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to buy luxury real estate, donate to political campaigns, and prop up his hedge fund Alameda research. I should point out that the hedge fund was run by his on and off again girlfriend at the time, Caroline Ellison. After a leak of Alameda's financials last year, SBF's empire collapsed almost overnight. Investors lost billions of

dollars. So now SBF is on trial, and one of the big worries for him and his legal team is how many former colleagues will flip on him in exchange for immunity from prosecution? Has anyone like that stood trial yet? In fact, yes. The defense team got a taste of what could come on Thursday when former FTX developer Adam Yetadaya, a college classmate of SBFs, testified. Yetadio presented himself as an ex-SPF loyalist. He had even texted to reassure Bankman-F freed when employees started to run for the exits that, quote, I love you, Sam, I'm not going anywhere. Don't worry. That feeling didn't last long.

Yet Adia resigned from FTCS a few days later. He told the court that he'd learned Alameda had used customer deposits from FTCs to repay loans to creditors. Yet Adia said the situation to him seemed like a flagrantly wrong thing to have done. Now, what's SBF's defense? Bankman Freed's attorneys say their client is being made into a cartoon villain, essentially for running a risky business that didn't work out. Lead defense attorney Mark Cohen said in his opening statement that SBF was a math nerd, who may have made poor business decisions but didn't steal money.

Bankman Fried and his friends, quote, were building the plane as they were flying it, according to Cohen. He said that nobody could be everywhere and do everything that SBF was expected to do. Has anyone stepped up to defend him? He's been pretty open about his ties to very influential figures. Yeah, he was the third largest donor to Democrats last year. We're talking tens of millions of dollars, over $40 million just in 2022. He was one of the largest donors to Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign with a $5.2 million donation, according to the Wall Street Journal. And he claims he's

also donated to Republicans supposedly through untraceable methods, but that's hard to confirm. But for all he spent, it doesn't seem like most people want to defend SBF, at least not publicly, except for one person, author Michael Lewis, who wrote a book on SBF and saw much of FTX's collapse up close. Here's Lewis on 60 Minutes. This isn't a Ponzi scheme. When you think of a Ponzi scheme, I don't know, Bernie Madoff,

the problem is there's no real business there. The dollar coming in is being used to pay the dollar going out. And in this case, they actually had a great real business. If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn't been a run on customer deposits, they'd still be sitting there making tons of money. Now, it's worth noting here the reaction of FTX CEO John Ray, who was appointed by a court to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings.

Ray wrote in a note to the court several days after taking over, quote, Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information has occurred here. He went on to call the situation unprecedented. Well, plenty of trial left to go. hopefully a Hollywood picture eventually. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire reporter, Tim Pierce. An investigative report by the Washington Free Beacon reveals that teens seeking cross-sex hormones can get them from Planned Parenthood on the first visit after only a brief consultation. It was also revealed that there are no standard protocols for discussing risk or side effects at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Joining us to discuss is investigative reporter Marade Alorty. Marade, you've been following this story. What did they find? Hi, Georgia. Well, essentially, the Washington Free Beacon published the story of one 18-year-old who recently self-diagnosed as trans and was able to obtain cross-sex hormones in a matter of minutes from his local planned parenthood. There are a lot of notable things about this case, but probably most important is that he had a record of developmental disorders, including autism and a long history of anxiety and depression. For his protection, his parents requested that his name not be printed. So it's not clear where on the autism spectrum he's, was, but it sounds like he was relatively high functioning, but certainly emotionally troubled. According to the article, he was expelled from three different special needs schools due to behavioral problems, and those problems were attributed to an impulse control disorder. So how long did this man identify as trans before seeking treatment and what led him to planned parenthood? So according to his

parents, he had a history of cycling through fads. For example, they say last year that he was involved with what they describe as an alt-right group chat, but in December of last year, he lost interest in that and announced he was trans. So his parents suspected that this might be a fad too, but regardless, it seems they were very supportive because they sought out the gender clinic at Children's National Hospital, which is the only clinic in the country that specifically focuses on autistic children with gender dysphoria. Unfortunately, the wait for an evaluation at Children's National was a year, and their son was not willing to wait that long. So when he turned 18, he waited for his parents to be out of town, and then he went to a local Planned Parenthood where he was able to

obtain cross-sex hormones in less than an hour. According to his parents, his phone location showed up at Planned Parenthood at 11am, and the prescription was available for pickup at the pharmacy at 1139 a.m. So very minimal screening, if any, in that time window. Well, that is the draw of Planned Parenthood. So traditionally, the organization has been all about access. Whether it's abortion or birth control or cross-sex hormones, they pride themselves on not gatekeeping. You ask for something and they give it, period. And people can debate the merits of that argument for some treatments. The issue in this case is that this teen was uniquely vulnerable and his parents worry the clinic did not have the capacity in such a short time or maybe at all

to safely screen his unique case before greenlighting powerful drugs. Plus, Planned Parenthood falls under even more scrutiny because it receives taxpayer funding. Right. That's been a huge issue in the past. Right. So Lara Edwards Leeper was quoted in the article. She co-founded the nation's first pediatric gender clinic at Boston Children's Hospital in 2007. Edward's Leaper is a vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood, but she says she's concerned that patients see the organization as a fast way to work around the system to get pills. According to Edwards Leaper, Planned Parenthood has, quote, taken on something that they are not equipped to handle. She says they are out of their depth, especially with autistic and developmentally delayed teens and adults.

Do we know what the protocol is at Planned Parenthood for screening and or educating about risks regarding these medications specifically? We don't, and that's because they aren't standardized across states. Just to give an example, according to Aaron Siberium, who reported this for the Washington Free Beacon, branches in some states and locations warn that testosterone can cause vaginal atrophy, while many others do not. According to Edwards Leeper, vaginal atrophy is a major site of physical. that should always be discussed.

So that, combined with the shocking brevity of the appointment, suggests a real potential for risk and poor outcomes. Right. I think people forget how powerful these drugs are. Marade, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. Thank you for listening this morning. Our mission here at Morning Wire is to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you stand with that mission and enjoy this show,

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