Morning Wire - Weekend U.F.O. Uncertainty & Alleged FBI Politicization | 2.13.23

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Several other unidentified flying objects are shot down in parts of the U.S., former FBI agents testify about what they say is “cultural rot” in the bureau, and new data shows 23 Baltimore schools are shockingly underperforming in subjects across the board. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  Indeed: Start hiring with Indeed: https://indeed.com/wire CarZing: Get pre-qualified and find the best deals near you: https://carzing.com/wire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We have been notified by the Department of Defense that an object flying over Lake Curran was shot down today by American military pilots. Just days after the U.S. downed a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, American fighter jets shot down several unidentified objects over the weekend. What do we know so far about the crafts? And what does all the activity in our airspace mean for national security? I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, February 13th, and this is Morning Wire.

Multiple former FBI agents have come forward to sound the alarm over what they say is cultural rot in the Bureau and attempts to weaponize it for partisan agendas. When people are seeing things that the FBI is doing, they don't trust the FBI anymore, and it makes it very difficult for us. We hear directly from the agents about their testimony before Congress. And Maryland's Department of Education

released some shocking data this month revealing stunning failures in test scores. What went wrong in Baltimore? And how's the government responding? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Looking to expand your team, Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview,

and hire all in one place. With Instant Match, as soon as you sponsor a post, you get a short list of quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed, match your job description, and you can invite them to apply right away. Visit Indeed.com slash Wired start hiring today. That's Indeed.com slash wire.

Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Cost per application pricing, not available for everyone. Need to hire? You need, indeed. A week after the U.S. military shot a Chinese spy balloon out of the sky. At least three more unidentified craft have been shot down. And airspace from Montana to Michigan was shut down over the weekend,

as a growing number of unidentified aircraft are being picked up across the continent. Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot last we talked about this topic, the U.S. had just shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. But it turns out that was just the start of this saga, which is prompting a lot of UFO talk. What is going on here? Well, on Thursday, a high-altitude object was reported by the military in the skies over Anchorage, Alaska. According to the White House, the object was traveling at around 40,000 feet. And after being surveyed by U.S. F-35s was deemed a, quote, reasonable threat to the safety of

civilians, most notably airline flights. That prompted an order from President Biden to shoot it down on Friday. Now, officials say the craft was unmanned and much smaller than the balloon from last weekend. This one was about the size of a car. Now, we don't yet know where the craft came from, but officials are hoping for answers as they try to recover the debris, which they say fell on ice sheets in northeastern Alaska. And one other interesting note, a defense official said the object did not appear to belong to a government. So right now, by definition, this is a UFO. A lot of unanswered questions here. What do we actually know about the object in this case?

Well, if the Pentagon knows exactly what it is, they aren't saying right now. Now, initially, there were reports that the object was thought to be a balloon, but over the weekend, DOD officials said that it broke into pieces upon hitting the ice, which called into doubt whether it actually was a balloon. As John Kirby of the White House National Security Council put it, quote, we're calling this an object because that's the best description we have right now. We do not know who owns it, whether it's state-owned or corporate-owned or privately owned, we just don't know. And where this gets really interesting is when you take into account

that some of the pilots who surveyed the object said it was interfering with their sensors, and others said it had no visible signs of propulsion, and they weren't sure how it was flying or staying afloat. That's according to CNN National Security Reporter Natasha Bertrand. And that turned out to be just the first object shot down this weekend. Yeah, on Friday night, another unidentified object was detected by NORAD, again in Alaskan airspace. A group of Canadian and U.S. jets monitored that craft as a cross in a Canadian airspace, at which point it was shot down by a U.S. F-22 over a portion of the Yukon and northwest Canada. This object was also about the size of a small car and was thought to be a balloon, but we're not sure exactly. Recovery efforts are

underway, but because of the remote location, it could take some time. And then on Sunday, yet another object, which we know even less about, was shot down by an F-22 over Lake Huron. Hopefully we'll get more details on that today. But in total, there are now three objects shut down in as many days. And there's more here. We also saw airspace closed in a few states over the weekend. What was going on there? Sorry to sound like a broken record, John, but again, we do not know much.

On Saturday afternoon, the FAA shut down a chunk of airspace over Montana so that U.S. fighter jets could respond to what NORAD called a, quote, radar anomaly in the area. Now, after scrambling those jets, the DOD initially said, quote, those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. Some were quick to call that incident a false alarm, but there does seem to have been something there. On Sunday afternoon, after the DOD said they couldn't locate any object,

Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale tweeted that Norcom told him that, quote, they have confidence there is an object, and it, quote, was not an anomaly. So maybe not a false alarm after all. And then on Sunday afternoon, again, the FAA closed airspace this time over Lake Michigan to, quote, support Department of Defense activities. Very vague. The airspace was opened after. after a few hours with no explanation given to the public.

So do we have any official statements on why we're seeing so much activity in our airspace right now? Well, nothing official yet. There are all sorts of ideas and possible explanations, though. According to The Washington Post, an anonymous U.S. official is claiming that the increased activity is the result of new procedures for analyzing radar and other data from our airspace. But without a public explanation from the Pentagon or White House, we just don't know yet. Well, a dramatic weekend with more questions than answers remaining. Cabot, thanks for reporting.

Anytime. That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, we hear from two former FBI agents who say the Bureau needs urgent reform. Hey, guys, producer Brandon here. Buying a car can be tough, especially in this economy. But before you walk into a dealership, you've got to check out Carzang. Carzing is an online car shopping website with millions of listed vehicles. By partnering with credit agencies, lenders, and dealerships,

Karzing provides you with everything you need before stepping foot into a dealership. Visit Karzing.com slash wire today to skip the guesswork and find the best deals near you. That's Karzing.com slash wire. Former FBI agents say the Bureau's culture largely dictated from its headquarters in D.C. is corrupt. The agents told a congressional committee and morning wire that FBI leadership and lawmakers need to act fast to save the Bureau's failing reputation. Here to discuss is Daily Wire's Tim Pierce. So, Tim, first off, tell us about the news. the hearing that took place last week. So the House Select Committee investigating the weaponization

of the federal government held its first hearing of the term on Thursday. This hearing focused on the FBI. Republicans brought in his witnesses two former FBI special agents who said the Bureau has suffered from cultural rot and politicization, especially since 2016. One of the expert witnesses was Thomas Baker. He spent over three decades with the Bureau before leaving about 20 years ago. He kept the close relationship with the Bureau as a consultant up until about two years ago. So, all told, he's been closely watching and working with the Bureau for over 50 years. Morning Wire caught up with Baker on Friday, and he said the FBI's culture started falling after 9-11 under former director Robert Mueller. The cultural change that was started by Mueller was exacerbated by the poor leadership of Comey and really came to light in the Hillary Clinton email and then the Russian collusion investigation.

And we've seen it continue these bad episodes that have come to light. in the last two or three years. Now, I should note that, so far at least, the Webinization Committee's purpose is largely a partisan one. Democrats on the Committee repeatedly pushed back against Republican criticisms of the FBI. Congressman Jamie Raskin,

a Democrat from Maryland, attacked the committee's purpose from the witness chair. Millions of Americans already feared that weaponization is the right name for this special subcommittee. Not because weaponization of the government is its target, but because weaponization of the government is its purpose.

Now, we also heard about the impact this had on FBI agents. Tell us about that. Another guest had a good perspective on that. Nicole Parker left the FBI about four months ago after joining the Bureau in 2009. Now, this is someone who stepped away from a lucrative job at a billion dollar hedge fund to become an FBI special agent. She really believed in what she was doing, and she spent over a decade at the Miami Field Office fighting white collar and street crime.

She was even part of the team that investigated the mass shooting at part of the police. Parkland. Morningwire cut up with her on Friday, and she said it was really the last couple of years that drove her out. Towards the end of my time at the FBI, it was one politicization issue after another. I would say in the last couple years in particular, it became difficult to focus on the task at hand. So they're seeing a lot of problems at the FBI. Did they have any suggestions for how it could be fixed? Well, Baker said that the legislature does have a role. For instance, he pointed to the FISA process that was abused and used to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016. When the FISA process was first designed, the FBI director and DOJ Attorney General had to sign off on every application.

That's been relaxed over the years, but Baker recommended legislation to go back to that process. There were a few other fixes suggested, but one significant change that Baker and Parker agreed on was replacing Chris Ray as head of the FBI. Here's what Parker said. I'm not sure that he's the right leader for the FBI right now. The FBI needs. needs to get back on the right track. And the morale at the FBI is very, very low. And it needs to be acknowledged and it needs to be fixed. And here's Baker's opinion. He doesn't recognize the underlying problem because each time one of these incidents happen, he points out that the miscreedance have been showing the door. In other words, it's the few rotten apples theory. But I mean, there's textbooks

written about how you change culture in the corporate environment. The first thing you have to do is recognize the problem. All right. Well, it sounds like either way, the FBI has some issues to sort out. Tim, thanks for joining us. Anytime. That was Daily Wires, Tim Pierce. Some of them don't want to go because they're not learning anything.

And some of them don't want to go because they're afraid. That was Judy Bellamy, the grandmother of a 16-year-old boy who was killed at one of Baltimore's struggling high schools. In the past month, the Maryland State Department of Education released its 22 state test results, and they show that a stunning 23 schools in Baltimore alone had zero students who were proficient in math. Georgia, we've had our team look into this and you've dug into it yourself. What did we learn about these test scores? So according to the latest statewide test results in Maryland for English, language arts, and mathematics, the percentage of students proficient in math dramatically fell short of its pre-pandemic levels. And I should note, the 2019 numbers,

so pre-pandemic were already pretty catastrophic. Only about a third of eighth-grade students were proficient in math statewide before COVID, and that number was much lower for the 150 schools in the Baltimore Public School District specifically. But according to these newly released numbers, Baltimore Public Schools now only has 7% of third through eighth graders proficient in math.

That means 93% could not pass that state test. But what's really shocking is that in at least, like you said, 23 Baltimore schools, zero students tested proficient in math. So just to give you an idea of how bad things were and continue to be, during the peak of the pandemic in 2021, Forbes magazine ran a piece about a mother who discovered her high school senior had a GPA of 0.13, which meant he failed every single class in his high school career except three, yet he ranked 62 out of 120 in his class. So in other words, that student was completely average for his school. Wow.

And the situation has reportedly gotten so dire that a Baltimore citizen filed a lawsuit last year against the city, claiming that the district is failing to educate students and misusing taxpayer funds. I reached out to that Baltimore resident, Giovanni Patterson. Here's some of what he had to say. They've been doing things like grade changing. And as a result, they haven't been, you know, good stewards of taxpayers' money. You know, the public should expect a return on their investment. Baltimore City Schools is one of the highest funded school districts in the country. And we're seeing the lowest outcomes, you know, not just in the state of Maryland, but across the nation.

So what are the people in charge of the school system saying about all this? Well, Maryland's governor, Democrat Wes Moore, delivered his first state of the state address last week. And he mentioned that his administration has made the largest investment in public education by any governor in the history of the state. And it's true, Baltimore spends a lot on education. In fact, they are the third highest for per student spending in the country at 18,000 per student. But the governor did not actually address these latest test scores. The CEO of Baltimore Public Schools, Dr. Sonia Santalises, did acknowledge the dip, saying, quote, we know we have work to do in math, but she continued, we look forward to regaining the momentum

and progress we experienced before the pandemic. Again, the numbers were pretty grim before the pandemic. Santa Lysis, who has focused a lot on equity during her tenure, has been criticized for earning close to $400,000 annually, not including some generous city benefits while she's been presiding over the city's dramatic failure. So that has made news in Baltimore. As for Baltimore City Schools,

they told the local Fox News outlet that they're taking some steps to improve these scores, including implementing professional development for teachers, expanding summer learning, and adding an extended learning period at the end of the day. Well, let's hope some of these changes work for them. Georgia, thanks for reporting. Other stories we're tracking this week.

The death toll from the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes that struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria rose to more than 33,000 on Sunday. As rescue efforts continue, Turkish officials have announced investigations into 131 people for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.