The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Biden and Netanyahu Clash, Capitol Police Officer Sheds Light on Jan. 6, Congress Considers Bringing Energy Production Back to America | March 29

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Samantha Sherris. I'm Virginia Allen. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, March 29th. Here are today's headlines. The Senate voted 66 to 30 today to repeal the authorizations for use of military force against Iraq. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opposed the repeal, saying ahead of the vote, I am opposed to Congress sunsetting any military force authorizations in the Middle East. Our terrorist enemies aren't sunsetting. war against us, and when we deploy our service members in harm's way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can. Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana and Democrat Senator Tim Kane of Virginia introduced

Starting point is 00:00:58 the legislation. Young said passage of this bill with strong bipartisan support takes us a step closer to restoring the proper role of Congress in authorizing military force and affirmatively stating when conflicts are over. A broad and diverse coalition in the House supports this legislation, and I am hopeful the bill will receive prompt consideration. The political director for common defense, Navid Shah, deployed to Iraq with the army in 2011. He said that as a veteran of the war in Iraq, I saw firsthand the utter devastation the war had on ordinary Iraqis and the ordinary troops who were sent there. Keeping these war authorizations open after all these years is a sad reminder of our

Starting point is 00:01:44 country's mistake. We need to ensure it never happens again, and that begins with this repeal, and continues by requiring congressional authorization after a full public debate before America ever sends our troops into harm's way again. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clapped back at President Joe Biden in a tweet thread Tuesday evening. NBC News reports that Biden suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should walk away from his proposal to weaken Israel's Supreme Court. Biden told reporters, like many strong supporters of Israel, I'm very concerned, and I'm concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road. Netanyahu tweeted on Tuesday evening, saying, I have known President Biden for over 40 years, and I appreciate his last.

Starting point is 00:02:38 long-standing commitment to Israel, the alliance between Israel and the United States is unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us. He also said, my administration is committed to strengthening democracy by restoring the proper balance between the three branches of government, which we are striving to achieve via a broad consensus. Israel is a sovereign country, which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends. As you'll recall from earlier this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to protest reforms to the judicial system proposed by the Prime Minister. MPR reports that Netanyahu delayed his plan to implement changes that would

Starting point is 00:03:32 weaken the judiciary after opposition to the plan caused widespread disruptive protest. Netanyahu also fired his defense minister. We've reported on yesterday's show that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday morning about the debt limit. Well, President Biden has sent a letter back. The president wrote, we can agree that an unprecedented default would inflict needless economic pain on hardworking Americans and that the American people, have no interest in brinkmanship. That is why House Democrats joined with House Republicans and voted to avoid default throughout the Trump administration, without conditions, despite disagreements about budget priorities. That same standard should apply today. And Biden added,

Starting point is 00:04:20 I shared my budget with the American people on March 9, 2023. As you know, the Invest in America budget proposal I sent to the Congress builds on the record deficit reduction achieved on my watch. In fact, I put forward specific proposals for how to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years, by having big corporations and the super wealthy pay their fair share, cutting special interest subsidies like tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, some of the most profitable companies in America, and expanding Medicare's new ability to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Representative Chip Roy of Texas weighed in on the budget during,

Starting point is 00:05:02 a press conference. Here's what he had to say via the congressman's press offices Twitter. Gratified to see the speaker sent a strong message to the president of the United States that it will be the president who chooses to gamble with the possibility of default, not the United States House of Representatives. We are putting forward concrete plans. We're willing to sit down at the table and talk about what we need to do to do our job, what the American people sent us here to do. They didn't send us here to do more of the same. This is a pretty simple question. Do you think we need more Washington and less growth in America? Do you think we ought to actually shrink Washington and grow America? Because we think it ought to be the latter. We think

Starting point is 00:05:47 that the massive bureaucratic state in this town is undermining prosperity and growth, inhibiting freedom, and denying the next generation of Americans their right as an American to inherit a free and prosperous country. That's what we're looking at. It's that simple. What we're putting forward is our concrete ideas to say that we should shrink that bureaucracy so that we can get the regulatory state, the bureaucratic state out of the way the American people create the economic growth needed to get us out of the mess that leadership, so-called leadership in this town for the last two decades has created. You cannot sustain $32 trillion of debt. You can't. You can't sustain continuing to fund the bureaucracy that we all campaign against every year.

Starting point is 00:06:34 My reporting took me to Capitol Hill today, where I had the chance to talk with some representatives about a very important bill that Congress is going to be considering this week. Tomorrow, Congress is voting on HR1 or the Lower Energy Costs Act. Now, this is a piece of legislation that Republicans say is going to create further energy independence in America. It's also going to lower inflation. And here with us to talk a little bit more about that is Congressman Crawford. Congressman, explain what exactly HR1 is.

Starting point is 00:07:08 Well, it's basically a promise kept to the American people in the commitment to America. And this means that we're trying to reduce costs of energy, which has a huge impact on inflation because energy costs are direct impactor of inflation. And so we see energy costs decrease. That affects everything in our supply chain, the movement of goods, and what we're paying at the pump. We saw over the last two years we probably increased our costs at the pump by about 40%. If you had a home to heat, you paid considerably more over the last two years than you were paying. And that had to do with sort of a decision by the administration to step away from domestic energy production

Starting point is 00:07:42 and rely on foreign sources that we want to restore our own energy independence. Now, Democrats are saying that this bill will actually represent a giveaway to big oil companies. What's your response to that? Well, I mean, it's kind of the typical response you expect to hear from the Democrats when they don't have anything better to argue. The fact of the matter is these oil companies are an integral part of our energy independence. And so obviously we expect them to play a role in helping us achieve energy independence. We had achieved that status under their previous administration. And when the Biden administration came in, they reversed course.

Starting point is 00:08:16 And in the process, inflicted a lot of damage on our economy, starting with an extremely high inflation rate and more cost at the pump. Now, I know that this is an issue that you're very passionate about. actually have an amendment to this bill. Talk a little bit about that amendment. Basically, it would streamline the permitting process for pipelines. What we know about pipelines is they're much more efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transport for fuel and other liquid commodities. And so we want to make it easier through the permitting process to get those pipelines online.

Starting point is 00:08:46 And so this is what this amendment would do. So the House votes tomorrow. And then if it passes the House, it moves to the Senate. What's the likelihood this makes it through the House, through the Senate, and on. to President Joe Biden's desk and he signs it and this bill becomes the law of the land. Well, you know, we can't speculate on what the Senate may or may not do or what the President may or may not do. But what we can do is uphold the commitments that we made to our voters. And that was to take every step possible to try and restore energy independence as a part of the

Starting point is 00:09:13 commitment we made to our voters. And I think that's what we need to focus on. The mistake that I think that a lot of times we've made in the past is trying to pass a bill that we think the Senate will take. We don't need to take that approach because what we need to take that approach. What we need to do is honor our commitments, and this is part of our commitment. Last question before we let you go. How quickly would we see prices fall at the gas pump if HR1 passes? Well, I think you're going to see a reaction in the marketplace just by the mere fact that we're actually addressing this. I don't know that it will immediately impact over a sustained period,

Starting point is 00:09:47 but I would expect that you would see gas prices start to fall almost immediately. But, you know, look, if the Senate takes this up and they pass it, and they send it to the president, and he were to sign it in the law, I think you would have a sustained decline in energy costs over the course of the next two, three, four years. Congressman, thank you so much for your time today. You bet. Thank you. U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Terrick Johnson expected a relatively easy day when he arrived

Starting point is 00:10:11 at work at 7 a.m. on January 6th, 2021. Our colleague Fred Lucas reports. Johnson, who is a 23-year-old veteran of the department, eventually found a completely unprepared police force and what he faults as poor leadership with rioters stormed the Capitol that afternoon in an apparent effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden's electoral college victory over Donald Trump in the November election. Johnson, now a former officer, said he would give Capitol police leadership a grade of an F or a zero for preparedness and manpower. One possible reason for the bad management was that somebody wanted this to happen, Johnson added. He

Starting point is 00:10:53 called for further investigation saying he would gladly provide information that a Democrat dominated House Select Committee didn't request. While Capitol Police not only were under staff that day, he said the evacuation of lawmakers and staff was handled poorly. Johnson told Mike Howell, the director of the Heritage Foundation's oversight project in an on-camera interview for the Daily Signal, that my assignment that day was routine operations commander of the Capitol, and that meant I didn't have to deal with any of the demonstrations, so that made me happy, so I figured it would be an easy day for me. According to Johnson, police supervisors didn't convey a sense of being on alert.

Starting point is 00:11:34 Johnson, who says he voted for Biden in 2020 after voting for Trump in 2016, became known to some Americans because of a video showing him in uniform during the riot wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. Johnson later said he did it to stay safe while confronting rioters. He resigned from Capitol Police amid scrutiny for that decision. Johnson said he would like to see Congress investigate the preparedness and response of Capitol Police that day. We'll include a link to Fred Lucas's full report in the show notes. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signals Top News. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our

Starting point is 00:12:13 morning show right here in this podcast feed where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning. for the Daily Signal interview edition, I'll be sitting down with Jeff Smith, director of the Asian Studies Center here at the Heritage Foundation, to discuss how the Chinese government has infiltrated our lives, the Heritage Foundation's newly released report titled Winning the Cold War, A Plan for Countering China, and the U.S. fentanyl crisis. Also, make sure to take just a moment to subscribe to the Daily Signal

Starting point is 00:12:43 wherever you like to get your podcasts. Also help us reach more listeners by taking just a moment to leave a five-star rating and review. We love hearing your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great night, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow morning. 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 Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras.

Starting point is 00:13:11 Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Biden and Netanyahu Clash, Capitol Police Officer Sheds Light on Jan. 6, Congress Considers Bringing Energy Production Back to America | March 29

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