The Daily Signal - Columbia University President Resigns, Trump Warns of ‘Kamala Economic Crash,’ Walz’s 1995 DUI | Aug. 15

Starting point is 00:00:00 Biden and Harris spoke on stage together for the first time today since Biden dropped out of the race. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Scleaddle Top News for Thursday, August 15th. Let's hit the campaign trail. For the first time since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, he and Vice President Kamala Harris held a joint event. This event took place earlier today at Prince Georgia's Community College in Maryland, and the focus of Harris and Biden's remarks was Medicare and drug prices per the Washington Post. This is a fight. All of us have been fighting for a long time taking on Big Pharma.

Starting point is 00:00:48 We pay more for prescription drugs. It's not hyperbole. We pay more for prescription drugs than any advanced nation in the world. The Daily Signal's Elizabeth Mitchell covered that event. She joins us now. Elizabeth, thanks for being here. Thanks, Virginia. So one of the big points that Biden and Harris discussed at this event was a deal that was

Starting point is 00:01:07 just announced this morning, Medicare and pharmaceutical companies have reached an agreement on lower drug prices for 10 key drugs. And the Biden and Harris administration, they say that this is likely to save American taxpayers $6 billion on prescription drug costs. What exactly did Biden and Harris have to say about this agreement? Biden said that by 2026, prices will go down for all 10 of those drugs. Additionally, he said eventually he wants this type of deep. to expand to not just these 10 drugs, but to all drugs. He said that this will save money for taxpayers and reduce the budget by reducing spending on drugs. However, I talked to Heritage Health expert Bob Moffitt about this and he said actually the opposite

Starting point is 00:01:55 is true. Well, short term, this deal that Biden has proposed seems appealing by lowering drug prices right now, especially for senior citizens, long term, it will drastically raise taxes. And it also reduces plan options for elderly Americans. Okay. Interesting. Interesting analysis. I encourage anyone to check out your piece, Elizabeth, in today's show notes for a deeper

Starting point is 00:02:22 dive into those comments. I do want to get your thoughts, Elizabeth, on just that dynamic on the stage because this was the first time, like I said, that we had Biden and Harris appearing side by side since Biden dropped out of the race, endorsed Kamal Harris, and Harris became the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2024 presidential election. What exactly was the atmosphere, did it appear between Biden and Harris? Harris gave a brief introduction to the president's speech that was very approving of his history as president over the past four years. She said that America has Joe Biden to thank for what he's done for, Medicare prices and taking on big pharma. And both Harris's speech and Biden's speeches were

Starting point is 00:03:12 met with lots of thank you Joe cheers from the crowd. There was also an interesting moment where Joe Biden kind of went into campaign mode for a little bit and called Donald Trump, Donald dump, kind of taking a page out of Trump's own book of coming up with nicknames for his opponents. Never a dull moment on the campaign trail. Elizabeth, thank you for your coverage. We appreciate it. Thanks, Virginia. Tomorrow, Harris is expected to give a speech laying out her economic agenda. So in anticipation of that speech, former President Donald Trump is working to tie Biden's record on the economy to Harris. During a speech in North Carolina yesterday, Trump said,

Starting point is 00:03:53 She really needs to explain the present suffering she has caused along with Joe Biden. And Trump added, by the way, they are a team. Trump went so far as to say that if Harris is elected, the result will be a Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style depression. Trump hit Harris hard on inflation as well, per Forbes. Kamala has declared that tackling inflation will be a day one priority. Think of it for her, but day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Why hasn't she done it? The current inflation rate is 2.9%, a low since the 7% back in 2021, but more than double

Starting point is 00:04:41 the 1.4% of 2020. Trump mentioned a few of his economic plans during the speech, including if elected, Trump said that he would end the tax on Social Security. Governor Tim Walls is under scrutiny for an incident that happened decades ago. In 1995, when Walls was 31 and living in Nebraska, one night, he was pulled. hold over for driving 96 miles per hour. After failing a sobriety test, he was arrested and charged with a DUI. Walls reportedly did admit in court that he had been drinking. The incident was resolved when Walls agreed to plead guilty to charges of reckless driving, which is a misdemeanor, and he paid

Starting point is 00:05:25 $200 in a fine. But in 2006, the Walls campaign repeatedly told the press that Walls had not been drinking that night. Instead, the campaign maintained that Walls had failed the sobriety test because of a misunderstanding related to hearing loss due to Walz's service in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walls was allowed to drive himself to the jail that night. Both of those claims were and are false. Wals has since clarified the details of the case and during his 2018 campaign for governor of Minnesota, he confirmed that he had been drinking and driving that night. The Daily Beast actually interviewed the cop that arrested Walls back in 95, and the headline of the piece reads, I arrested Tim Walls for DUI. He told the truth, then came the lies. The Harris campaign

Starting point is 00:06:18 has not commented on that interview, according to CNN. The president of Columbia University has resigned. The resignation follows a spring filled with pro-Palestine protests on the New York campus. President Manish Shafiq testified before Congress in the midst of those protests at Columbia University, and she refused to say if the phrase from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, should be considered anti-Semitic. In a letter to the student body announcing her resignation this week, the president said she was stepping down because of the period of recent turmoil on the campus, and she continued, this period has taken a considerable toll on my family as it has for others in our community. Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point

Starting point is 00:07:07 would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead. I'm making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins. The school has announced that the CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, will serve as the interim president. Kansas Attorney General Chris Kobach says that he thinks thinks the federal government has a thumb on the scale of this election. The Daily Signal's Fred Lucas broke the news on this story. And according to Fred Lucas, specifically that thumb on the scale that Kobach is referring to is an executive order on elections that Biden signed back in 2021. That order aims to register as many Americans to vote as possible. But the

Starting point is 00:07:57 concern is that it specifically targets likely Democratic voters to register them to vote. Now, Kobach is leading a multi-state lawsuit to strike down President Joe Biden's 2021 executive order on elections. Specifically, in the lawsuit, Kobach said that President Biden's executive order has sought to convert the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization and to turn every interaction between a federal bureaucrat and a member of the public into a voter registration pitch. The suit goes on to say that that exceeds any authority executive entities have under federal law, violates the Constitution, threatens states attempt to regulate voter registration,

Starting point is 00:08:41 and thus ultimately undermines the voter registration system set up by the states. The Biden-Harris administration has argued that the order, which also calls for agencies to partner with private organizations, promotes voting rights, according to Biden and Harris. Critics refer to the order as Biden Bucks because it puts taxpayer-funded resources behind turning out likely Democratic constituents. You can check out Fred Lucas's full report in today's show notes. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. Make sure that you hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on any shows from The Daily Signal, whether our morning interview editions or our afternoon top news. And if you would, take a minute to leave the Daily Signal podcast, a five-star rating and review. We love hearing your feedback. Have a great rest of your Thursday. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning for our interview edition. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Lehand, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, John Poplar. and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Columbia University President Resigns, Trump Warns of ‘Kamala Economic Crash,’ Walz’s 1995 DUI | Aug. 15

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.