The Daily Signal - Fani Willis Trial Day 2, Navalny Dies, Biden Helped Hamas and Iran Proxies | Feb. 16

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Brian Gottstein, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Friday, February 16th. Here are today's headlines. The psychiatrist who led efforts in 2017 demanding that Donald Trump's cabinet used the 25th Amendment to force Trump out of office said she doesn't have the same concerns about President Joe Biden. That's despite a Justice Department report last week that said Biden has, quote, diminished faculties and can't remember a lot of things. This is according to a report by the Daily Signal's Fred Lucas and Roman Jankowski. Bandy X. Lee is a forensic psychiatrist who edited the 2017 book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. 37 psychiatrists and mental health experts assess a president.

Starting point is 00:00:58 She told the Daily Signal and the Heritage Foundation's oversight project that Biden's case is different. Last week, Special Counsel Robert Her released his report in a Biden's retention of classified documents, at his home and recommended against prosecuting the president because of his diminished faculties. Asked about hers report, Lee said that, quote, cognitive decline is a normal part of aging. But she concluded that the 25th Amendment question is even more relevant to Trump, as long as he wishes to be president again, but it's neither appropriate nor relevant for Biden at this time. The 25th Amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of the cabinet members to determine whether a president should be temporarily removed from office if he's deemed unfit to serve.

Starting point is 00:01:45 It requires two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to permanently remove the president. After the Her report was released, several Republican lawmakers called for using the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office, just as several Democrats pushed for using the amendment to remove Trump from the presidency. Lee told the daily signal that cognitive decline is a normal part of aging, end quote, while it may seem dramatic or concerning to the public, very high levels of cognitive decline can be present without affecting fitness for duty, as long as self-awareness is unaffected. Financial and Investment institutions, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock,

Starting point is 00:02:26 and State Street Global Advisors announced on Thursday that they'd pull out of a United Nations Climate Alliance. Climate Action 100 plus is a climate alliance formed to address global warming and describes itself as the largest ever global investor engagement initiative on climate change. The move is a major blow to environmental, social, and governance, or ESG investing. Fox Business reported that the massive investment firms pulled their money due to potential legal issues as Republicans in some states have put pressure on the companies to halt their ESG investing. The goal of Climate Action 100 plus is to force major companies to reduce,

Starting point is 00:03:07 carbon emissions to net zero emissions by 2050, a target that researchers at the Heritage Foundation say will have a negligible impact on global temperatures. The alliance was formally established in December 2017 at the UN as a way of aligning the world's largest private sector financiers of greenhouse gas producers. It has grown to include more than 700 financial institutions that are collectively responsible for $68 trillion in assets under management, according to Fox Business. And according to the Wall Street Journal, the alliance has had enormous success in its pressure campaign, with 75% of targeted companies committed to net zero emissions. Russia's opposition leader and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime,

Starting point is 00:03:58 Alexei Navalny, died Friday in an Arctic penal colony. He was 47 and had been serving a 19th. year sentence. Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny was feeling sick on Friday after a walk and later died. According to the Associated Press, Russian authorities said that the cause of death was, quote, being established. Navalny survived an attempted assassination with a nerve agent in 2020 while he was traveling in Russia. He accused Putin of being behind the attempt. Navalny's wife said in a press conference in Munich, Germany, if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin's friends, his government, to know that they will bear the

Starting point is 00:04:40 responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, and to my husband. And this day will come very soon. The budding regional war in the Middle East is a crisis of President Joe Biden's own making. This is according to a report by the Daily Signals, Tyler O'Neill. Biden's relaxation of Trump-era sanctions against Iran allowed Tehran to get a hold of at least $77 billion. in formerly frozen assets and proceeds from formerly restricted sales of energy to other nations. Iran has directed some of that money to fund its terrorist proxies across the region. Iran's proxies have attacked Israel, U.S. forces, and global shipping since the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.

Starting point is 00:05:28 We've enabled and fed our enemies and constricted our friends, Robert Greenway, director of the Heritage Foundation Center for National Defense. told the Daily Signal. Greenway, who orchestrated Trump sanctions against Tehran, warned that Biden's policies have, quote, strategically appeased Iran. Ben and Ben Taliblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Daily Signal that Iran has propped up proxies to exploit instability in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, and to benefit from the largesse of U.S. policy. Telebleu notes that this poses a problem for America, which provides aid to Iraq and Lebanon,

Starting point is 00:06:06 even though it can't prevent those governments from funneling that money to Iran's proxies in their countries. O'Neil's report shows how U.S. policies under Biden have helped the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah, and Lebanon, Iran-backed militias in Iraq, and even Hamas. The misconduct hearing for Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fannie Willis, continued for a second day on Friday. Willis has been prosecuting the case against former President Donald Trump for racketeering and conspiracy, related to his alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Willis didn't testify at today's hearing, but her father took the stand to defend her against misconduct charges. Her father said that she kept large sums of cash at home

Starting point is 00:06:53 to pay for her portion of trips she took with her boyfriend. Her office hired her boyfriend to prosecute Trump, despite his lack of experience with such cases. She's been accused of misusing her office's funds to pay her boyfriend and then go on lavish trips with them that he paid for. I don't want to be racist, but it's a black thing, John Floyd III, a retired attorney said in his testimony, according to NBC News. He said that most black folks, they hide cash, they keep cash.

Starting point is 00:07:23 Floyd is a former Black Panther activist. He claimed that there have been threats to his daughter's safety since she took office. Quote, they said they would blow up the house, they were going to kill her, they were going to kill me, they were going to kill me, They were going to kill my grandchildren, he said. 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,

Starting point is 00:07:50 where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. And also make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts. 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. have a great night, and we'll be back with you all next week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinco.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visitdailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Fani Willis Trial Day 2, Navalny Dies, Biden Helped Hamas and Iran Proxies | Feb. 16

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