The Daily Signal - Fani WIllis Subpoenaed, Positive Jobs Report | Feb. 2

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Brian Gottstein, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Friday, February 2nd. Here are today's headlines. House Republicans subpoenaed Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fawney Willis over allegations that she misused federal money. Willis is also accused of firing a whistleblower in her office. She's been accused of misusing a federal grant meant for at-risk youth for her own travel and other personal expenses. The Fulton County DA has been leading a case against former President Donald Trump,

Starting point is 00:00:46 accusing him of having tried to overturn the 2020 election. The Judiciary Committee's subpoena comes after three previous requests for documents from her office. To date, you failed to comply voluntarily with any of our requests, the committee said in a letter to Willis. According to a report by Fox News, Willis's office responded to the subpoena on Friday saying, these false allegations are included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the previous administration who was terminated for cause. The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project has been seeking government records that document attempts by Chinese nationals to acquire intelligence information on sensitive American facilities. In one instance that the oversight project found, two Chinese nationals were recently caught attempting to infiltrate, the Joint Military Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,

Starting point is 00:01:42 according to a report by the Daily Signal's own Fred Lucas. The Daily Signal is the news outlet of the Heritage Foundation. By the time, police responded to a call about a Chinese man and woman conducting surveillance near a security entrance of the historic Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickham, the two had fled by car. According to police, the suspects had been capturing pictures of the entry control point. Later that afternoon, the pair appeared at another entry point. The September 29th incident represents just one of at least 14 instances since 2018

Starting point is 00:02:16 of Chinese nationals spotted attempting to either gain entry into the Pearl Harbor Base or conduct surveillance there, according to records obtained by the Oversight Project. Other incidents included Chinese nationals sending drones over the base and taking photos of the points of entry. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, investigated the incidents. The base, best known for being attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, was the only base to provide records to the oversight project's request for public records on attempted Chinese infiltration of U.S. military bases. U.S. job growth jumped significantly in January despite continued problems with inflation. According to Fox Business, the Department of Labor reported that employers added 353,000 jobs last month, nearly double economists' economic. expectations. This is a good situation, let's be honest. This is a good economy, Federal Reserve

Starting point is 00:03:15 Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday at a news conference. The chairman said he expects growth to moderate and has expected it for some time, although it hasn't happened yet. The news comes, as many experts thought job gains would cool down. However, Heritage Economic Policy expert, E.J. and Tony cast some doubt on the optimism following the release of the report. He said the real unemployment rate is much higher than the 3.7% being quoted. He stated that it's actually around 6.3 to 7.4%, and that the economy is gaining part-time jobs but losing full-time ones. And Tony said that weekly job hours are plummeting to the lowest level since the COVID lockdowns, and that aside from the abnormalities of the lockdowns, weekly job hours are at the lowest level since the

Starting point is 00:04:02 Great Recession, when we had the housing meltdown and the global financial crisis. He said that people are also buying less because not only have their work hours been reduced, but prices continue to climb faster than wages. Finally, he stated that most of the jobs growth is with foreign-born workers. According to Antony and just the last year, a net 193,000 native-born workers lost their jobs, while a net 1.2 million foreign-born workers gained them. Virginia Allen is out of the studio today. She's down on the southern border and Eagle Pass, Texas. I spoke with her earlier about what she's been seeing down there.

Starting point is 00:04:43 Well, Brian, I'm actually standing right at the Rio Grande River right now. And just off to my side, I can see the shipping containers in Shelby Park, where National Guard have created a makeshift border wall to prevent illegal aliens from entering the park. So let me just give a little bit of background on the situation here and what's going on. Shelby Park runs right along the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas. And this park used to be a major crossing point for illegal aliens. From the park, you can see right into Mexico. From where I'm standing right now, I can see sports fields in Mexico.

Starting point is 00:05:25 But I'm on the U.S. side in Eagle Pass, Texas of the border. So this park was a site that Border Patrol began to use. as sort of a funneling point that as illegal aliens cross the river, the water is a little bit shallower here, so it's easier to cross. So they crossed the river would come into the park, and then Federal Authorities Border Patrol would use the park as an area, as a staging area, before illegal aliens were put on buses and transported to formal processing facilities. Well, what happened was that the Texas National Guard in early January assumed control of the park, and they said no longer federal authorities, can you use this location, this park that's owned by the city of Eagle Pass, as a site, as a staging site for illegal aliens.

Starting point is 00:06:13 Now, the Biden administration has demanded that Texas Governor Greg Abbott surrender the park back fully to federal authorities, to allow federal authorities to, again, use it as a staging site. But Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said absolutely no chance. Well, I spent some time in the park with Texas National Guard, and they explained that right now there are hardly any illegal aliens crossing because the message has gotten out that the park is closed. They have a wire fencing that runs all along the shore. And so what used to be a very, very busy crossing site has now dropped to almost no crossings in this location. Now, Border Patrol does still have access to the boat ramp in the parks so that they can bring their boats into the water and patrol the Rio Grande, but there's no other Border Patrol agents coming and going. It's just those in the boats. And when I asked Texas National Guard about the relationship right now between Border Patrol and Texas National Guard, they said, you know, for the men and women, the boots on the ground, the relationship is still good.

Starting point is 00:07:24 It's positive. Everyone is just seeking to do their job, to do the job that they have been assigned to come here to do. So it's been fascinating to watch this situation unfold and to actually talk with the folks here on the ground who are dealing with this crisis day in and day out. You can follow all of Virginia's reporting from the border on the Daily Signal website at dailysignal.com and across the DailySignal's social media platforms. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed, where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices.

Starting point is 00:08:08 Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us to reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening, and have a great night. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by. more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Kate Trinco. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheris.

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The Daily Signal - Fani WIllis Subpoenaed, Positive Jobs Report | Feb. 2

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