The Daily Signal - Harris Chooses Running Mate, Stock Market Tumbles, Biden Convenes National Security Team Over Middle East Threat | Aug. 5

Starting point is 00:00:02 Get you and your crew to the big shows with GoTransit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at gotransit.com slash tickets. Vice President Kamala Harris will announce her pick for a running mate on Tuesday. I'm Virginia Allen and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, August 5th.

Starting point is 00:00:51 Presumed Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate tomorrow. Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is a top contender. Pennsylvania is a key swing state in this election and Shapiro has a 61% approval rating in the state, which could be a big help to Harris. Here with us to discuss more is The Daily Signal's Elizabeth Mitchell, who has been covering this. Elizabeth, welcome back to the show. Thanks, Virginia. Elizabeth, you have been covering the likely VP picks that Harris may choose.

Starting point is 00:01:24 What exactly do we know about Shapiro's record in Pennsylvania? While campaigning for governor in 2022, Shapiro promised to support school choice. However, when the House of Representatives passed a bill, including school choice scholarships, Shapiro threatened to veto it even though it was something he campaigned on. So that shocked a lot of Pennsylvania voters who support school choice and supported him because they thought that he would stand with their right to choose the education that they think best aligns with their child. Also, under Shapiro's leadership, state licensing boards adopted policies that allow them to take disciplinary action against therapists to provide what they called conversion therapy to kids who say they're transgender.

Starting point is 00:02:11 in effect what this would outlaw is if a child is struggling with gender dysphoria and they want to get a therapy about that to try to work through that but continue affirming their God-given gender, they would not be allowed to help that child with that struggle. So he's had a bit of a radical background on that topic. He also opposed a bill to protect kids from experimental transgender medical interventions. All right. So that's Shapiro's record. What do we know about the other individual? We know there's one other that right now is in that top two for possibility for this VP spot. Who else is Harris considering? And what do we know about them? The other candidate that Harris is considering at this time, it was said that he sat down with three possible VPs last night.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Those included Tim Walts, the governor of Minnesota, Mark Kelly, a senator from Arizona, and Shapiro, who we just talked about. So Harris said today that Kelly is out of consideration. It's between Waltz and Shapiro. So Waltz is considered to be a bit of a moderate option, because he's from the Midwest. He has a military background. He's been a teacher and a football coach. But he's a pretty far left background similar to that of Harris. For instance, in 2023, he signed legislation making sure that Minnesota would be what they call a trans refuge for kids who are seeking gender, what they call gender affirming care. These are those irreversible transgender medical interventions. So if a parent was in one state and their, say, ex-husband or ex-wife was in Minnesota, and that ex-husband or ex-wife had custody of the child and wanted to transition that child, the parent outside of Minnesota would not be allowed to do anything about that because of this bill. He also signed another bill protecting the right to abortion in Minnesota without limits. No limits are mentioned in that bill. Okay. Interesting to hear

Starting point is 00:04:05 his record broken down. Elizabeth, thank you for your reporting on this. We're obviously going to be watching very closely tomorrow as that official announcement comes from Harris. Thanks, Elizabeth. Thanks, Virginia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 all fell sharply today. Global markets were also down. This tumble of the stock market follows a really disappointing jobs report that the Department of Labor released on Friday, and that report triggered some major concerns over a possible coming recession. Here with us to weigh in, is Heritage Foundation Director of the Center for the Federal Budget. Richard Stern.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Richard, thanks for being with us today. Thank you so much for having me on, as always. So let's start with that jobs report that came out on Friday. What was in that report? Doom and gloom. But more specifically, though, the economy only created 114,000 jobs, but it's more than that. So if you look back to March, and really, if you look back kind of over the last two years or so, unemployment has danced around a little bit.

Starting point is 00:05:06 it's been as low as I think 3.5% as high as 3.9%. But it's kind of been moving around in that range, nothing too outrageous. All of a sudden, from March going on to now, unemployment has gone up and up and up without any kind of zigzag. And in fact, it just hit 4.3% now. So if you zoom out and you'll look at, there's something the Fed has called the Sam rule. It's basically a notion of how fast unemployment is accelerating. And so that spiked above their trigger threshold for being kind of the canary in the mind shaft of an early recession. And it's spiked with this job report, with unemployment hitting 4.3%.

Starting point is 00:05:47 And, you know, I'd encourage if any of you want to feel worse about the economy, if you go look at the Fred database and you look at the unemployment rate, you look all the way back to 1948, every spike in the unemployment rate that kind of measure is within the line of what we're going out right now is a company. by at least a minor recession. So that's kind of where everybody is looking at. I mean, there's a lot of other things that are going wrong, a lot of other things that we've talked about in the show before, that the government has been doing the sap the economy, the bureaucrats in D.C., you know, never need an excuse to steal money from you. But that's a specific kind of, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:22 last draw on the camel's back that occurred. Okay, so Richard, what I'm hearing you say is given the current jobs numbers and history, we are likely looking at some sort of minor recession in the near future. Or actually that we're in it, that we're already in the beginning part of it. That's really more kind of the thought behind that. Okay. I would say, though, historically speaking on this, you never really know at the beginning of a recession,

Starting point is 00:06:49 how minor or major it's going to be. So I don't want to scare people. It's not that what we're looking at is 2008 all over again. But at the same time, though, it's hard to know from what's happened. It's hard to be able to be confident about what the floor is. might be. So what are you going to be watching in the coming days and weeks to see are we, in fact, headed into a recession? And if we are, how severe is that recession going to be? What are the tells to be watching? Yeah. So this is one of those kinds of things about economics is that we economists

Starting point is 00:07:18 need to make sure that we keep a job. So there's always a billion things to look at, right? But, you know, I think they kind of, for everybody, they have a few things to look at here. Right. So the Fed is talking about cutting interest rates in September, which they were maybe going to do anyway because employment was looking a little higher because inflation was looking a little lower. But, you know, I think really the best thing to do, and this is what I'd say for anybody kind of, you know, wants to follow on at home, look at things that aren't kind of formal stats, but look at things that are going on the economy. So, you know, I think a perfect example on that is house prices have been falling a little bit. Prices at grocery stores continue to go up.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Gas prices are continuing to go up. You know, the tension in the Middle East right now was, of course, threatening to have gas prices go further. You don't need to be an economist. to say, that's probably not going to be good for the economy, right? You know, something like 40% of small businesses haven't been able to make their rent payments in the last few months, right? Credit card defaults among Americans have been going up. Household debt's been increasing. So, you know, those are the sort of things I'd look at, right? As when you're asking the question of, and I always ask to people, right, what is the economy? It's there really to organize all of our work to produce goods and services that are actually useful to people. It's all the economy is.

Starting point is 00:08:30 the numbers, the math, the money, all of it is there to facilitate getting the products you want and you need into your hands and doing it with as little sacrifice on your end as possible. So at the end of the day, anything that makes it harder for Americans to afford their life, anything that means that people have slower growing wages or fewer job opportunities, any of that is something that we might put the label of recession on, but that's really what matters, right? how is the economy impacting people's livelihoods? The Heritage Foundation's Richard Stearns.

Starting point is 00:09:03 Richard, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. The U.S. believes that an Iranian attack on Israel is likely coming soon. President Biden and Vice President Harris met with the national security team in the situation room of the White House today. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said over the weekend that the U.S. does not know the timing of the likely attack on Israel,

Starting point is 00:09:27 but warned it could be as soon as today. The threat of an attack on Israel follows a strike in Iran that killed a top Hamas leader. Following the assassination of that Hamas leader, Iran's Revolutionary Guard issued a statement saying, undoubtedly, this crime of the Zionist regime will face a harsh and painful response from the powerful and huge resistance front, especially Islamic Iran. The attack came just after Israel carried out an air raid. strike in Beirut that killed a Hezbollah senior commander. Biden and leaders of the G7 are focused on preventing a wider conflict in the Middle East. The Times of Israel reports that U.S. Defense Secretary

Starting point is 00:10:10 Lloyd Austin spoke with defense minister Yoav Galant. On Sunday evening, the two leaders discussed Israel's right to self-defense against threats from Iran and its proxies and the steps that the U.S. is taking to bolster protections for Israel and for its own. own forces in the region. Biden also had a call with Jordan's King Adula today. The two leaders discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East. The White House said the conversation involved talks of an immediate ceasefire and a hostage release deal. The next one to two weeks stand to be critical for Israel and the broader tension in the Middle East. There was widespread rioting in Britain over the weekend. Cars and buildings were set on fire.

Starting point is 00:10:58 and a mosque was attacked. The rioting is reported to have been spurred on through misinformation that was spread online regarding an illegal alien that was supposedly responsible for a mass stabbing at a dance event that left three girls dead and a number of others wounded. Rumors spread on social media that the suspect that had carried out the attack was a refugee and a radical Islamist. In reality, the suspect was born in Wales to Rwandan parents. The protests appear to be driven by anger over widespread immigration into the UK.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Fox News reports that on Sunday, the violence was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham, where police struggled to hold back hundreds of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for illegal aliens. UK Prime Minister Kier Starrmer has vowed that law enforcement will do whatever it takes to bring these thugs. to justice. Hundreds of arrests have been made in relation to the riots. The Quiet Skies program is monitoring former U.S. representative and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. This is according to an exclusive report from Uncover DC. The Quiet Skies program is a program of TSA and it allows TSA to identify travelers who may require additional scrutiny. As Uncover D.C. puts it, Quiet Skies is allegedly used to protect traveling Americans from suspected domestic terrorists.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Gabbard is now confirmed to be on that list, thanks to a whistleblower. Executive Director of the Air Marshall's National Council, Sonia Labasco, spoke with the whistleblower. Following the correspondence, Lobosco reportedly believes that TSA and Homeland Security are violating citizens' constitutional rights in a big domestic surveillance grab that seems to be targeting. conservatives. According to Uncover D.C., Labasco believes that Gabbard's enrollment in quiet skies is likely politically motivated. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much

Starting point is 00:13:09 for joining us here on the Daily Signal's top news. Be sure to check out the show tomorrow morning. Our interview edition, the Daily Signal is Rob Bluie is going to be sitting down with Charles Gasparino to discuss his new book, Go Woke, Go Broke, the inside story of the radicalization of corporate America. And be sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows from The Daily Signal. And if you would, take a minute

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Starting point is 00:13:52 Executive producers are Rob Louis and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Lehand, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geine, John Pop, and Joseph Von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Harris Chooses Running Mate, Stock Market Tumbles, Biden Convenes National Security Team Over Middle East Threat | Aug. 5

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