The Daily Signal - Matt Gaetz Report Coming, SCOTUS Takes Up TikTok Case, Foreign Influence on Elections | Dec. 18

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. The House Ethics Committee is going to release a report on Matt Gates. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal's Top News in 10 for Wednesday, December 18. It's almost Christmas, but that does not slow down the news or the drama in Washington, D.C. Matt Gates was back in the headlines today. News broke that the House Ethics Committee is going to release its report on Gates. The committee began an investigation into Gates in the spring of 2021 over accusations that Gates had been involved in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.

Starting point is 00:01:14 Gates has denied these allegations. Gates was serving as a member of Congress up until when Trump tapped him to serve as his attorney general. But after it became clear that Gates likely did not have enough support in the Senate to be confirmed, he withdrew his nomination last month. But with Gates in the spotlight recently, Democrats have called for the release of that investigation that was done by the House Ethics Committee and have even tried for that report to be released, but Republicans had blocked it. But now, word is out that the House Ethics Committee

Starting point is 00:01:46 plans to release that report in the coming days after all lawmakers have left Washington, D.C., and gone home for Christmas. Gates sounded off about the release of that report on X. He wrote today, the Biden-slash-Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing, fully exonerated, not even a campaign-finding. violation. And this is true, as the New York Times reports, the Justice Department chose not to prosecute Gates after investigators concluded they could not make a strong enough case against him in court. Gates went on in the lengthy post on X to defend himself against some of the allegations that have come up against him. He wrote, My 30s were an air of working very hard and playing hard too.

Starting point is 00:02:34 It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank, and smoked, more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now. Matt Gates made one last jab at his former colleagues for releasing the report, defending himself, saying, but at least I don't vote for CRs that insert expletive over the country. As my colleague Elizabeth Mitchell mentioned yesterday, members now have the text of the over 1,500 page continuing resolution that is slated to fund the government until the middle of March. They have to pass it by midnight Friday in order to avoid a government shutdown. But a lot of people are unhappy about this CR or continuing resolution after that text was released.

Starting point is 00:03:21 And one of those people that is unhappy is Elon Musk, who bluntly stated on X, this bill should not pass. House Speaker Mike Johnson needs it to pass because there's no more time for debate before members leave Washington, D.C. and go home for Christmas. Today, Johnson said on Fox News that he doesn't like the bill either, but still, it has to pass. We got to get this done because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come in, roaring back with the America First agenda. That's what we're going to run with gusto beginning January 3rd when we start the new Congress, when Republicans, again, we're in control.

Starting point is 00:03:57 And all of our fiscal conservative friends, I'm one of them, will be able to finally do the things that we've been wanting to do for the last couple years. Right now, Democrats still control depends. And that's the problem. So we've got to get this thing done so we don't have the shutdown. So we get the short-term funding measure. And we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending. The fight continues.

Starting point is 00:04:20 So stay tuned. The Supreme Court agreed today to take up two major cases. First, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case aimed at challenging a law that might ban TikTok. The law would require TikTok to separate from its parent company Bite Dance or else be banned in the U.S. Bite Dance is a Chinese company that is subject to information sharing laws in Beijing, meaning that the CCP has access to TikTok user data. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have supported TikTok bans because of the threat that China poses to the U.S. And Congress passed a law requiring TikTok to either divest or be banned in the U.S.

Starting point is 00:05:03 and so far the courts have held that law up. CNBC reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia's Circuit ruled earlier this month that the DOJ had offered persuasive evidence demonstrating that the divestment law is narrowly tailored to protect national security. But now the Supreme Court is going to weigh in. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10th, just nine days before that law is set to take effect. Secondly, the Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a case between South Carolina and Planned Parenthood. South Carolina is working to prevent Planned Parenthood from participating in the state's Medicaid health program. South Carolina wants to block Planned Parenthood from participating in this Medicaid program

Starting point is 00:05:48 because the state does not want anything to do with an institution that funds abortions. A lower court blocked South Carolina from cutting off the funding to Planned Parenthood. Now the Supreme Court will weigh in. Back on Capitol Hill, the Committee on House Administration held a hearing today on prohibiting foreign interference in U.S. elections. Experts testified before members of Congress and explained that foreign money is flowing into U.S. elections and that this should be a concern for lawmakers. Caitlin Sutherland is the executive director of Americans for Public Trust.

Starting point is 00:06:24 She gave the specific example of a Swiss billionaire who has injected significant funds into U.S. elections. A significant source of foreign cash is flowing into our politics from Swiss billionaire Hans-Jorg Weiss, who is not a U.S. citizen, but whose goal is to, quote, reinterpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics, end quote. According to the New York Times, Mr. Vease's, quote, political activism is channeled through a daisy chain of opaque organizations that mask the ultimate recipients of his money. But Sutherland went on to explain that further investigation has shown that some of this money has been filtered into groups such as the 1630 fund that funds

Starting point is 00:07:06 the leftist agenda. The threat posed by China, Russia, and Iran also were central to the conversation and discussion during the hearing earlier today. Bradley Bauman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy told lawmakers that America's representative government threatens our enemies. China, Russia, Iran, in particular, and also North Korea, they have a problem with us, I'd say because of our existence and our power. And by existence, I mean our representative democracy presents a threat to autocrats who want to retain their self-serving grip on power. And it conveys to the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian people that there's a more appealing governance model.

Starting point is 00:07:45 So just by being ourselves, our small D democratic selves, we threaten their autocratic grip on power. Bauman went on to warn that these adversaries want to determine who represents the American people in Washington, in an effort to control policy decisions. Foreign influence in U.S. elections remains a significant concern, and judging by the hearing today, that concern is not going away anytime soon. Now let's hit our news flashes for the day. First up, the public is slowly learning more about the 15-year-old girl who killed two people at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday,

Starting point is 00:08:23 before she turned the gun on herself. Authorities have found a six-page manifesto, reportedly written by the shooter and it's titled War Against Humanity. In the manifesto, the shooter expresses admiration for other school shooters like the Columbine shooters. The manifesto seems to reveal a girl who was bullied and felt very alone. The shooter referred to humanity as filth in that manifesto and called her divorced parents scum. She claimed that she was brought up to hate people in society and wrote, all of you and the world have done is pick on me and tease me. A link to the Washington stand piece is in today's show notes if you want to dig a little bit

Starting point is 00:09:06 further into that story. Lawmakers held a hearing on the Face Act this afternoon. The Face Act stands for the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The hearing was focused on looking at the ways the Biden-Harris administration weaponized the face act against pro-life Americans. The Daily Signal's Elizabeth Mitchell covered that hearing today, and you can check out her full report on the Daily Signal website, daily signal.com. Doctors and health officials gathered at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. this morning for an event focused on discussing needed reforms to public health. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is spearheading the Make America Healthy Again movement under the incoming Trump administration, which has pulled together a very unique coalition of policymakers.

Starting point is 00:09:54 The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, spoke at the event today and said Americans have lost trust in health institutions and in science in general. But Redfield said that he is optimistic that Kennedy can play a big role in restoring that trust. The Inspector General of the Department of Energy is asking the Biden administration to push pause on a loan program over fraud concerns. The Biden administration has a $400 billion energy loan program that specifically gives loans to green energy projects. And the Washington Free Beacon reports that the Energy Department's loan program office has been rushing to give those loans to green energy companies before Biden leaves office. But now this program might be put on pause following a warning from the Inspector General that the loan program poses a significant risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. With that, we're going to leave it there for today's episode. Thanks for joining us here for the Daily Singles, Top News in 10.

Starting point is 00:10:53 Today's episode was edited by Tyler O'Neill and produced by Joseph Bonsbekovsky and John Pop. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on brand new shows from the Daily Signal podcast. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

The Daily Signal - Matt Gaetz Report Coming, SCOTUS Takes Up TikTok Case, Foreign Influence on Elections | Dec. 18

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