The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Biden Skips Dinner, Inflation Persists, FBI Director Dodges Questions About Mark Houck | July 12

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Starting point is 00:00:22 Commissions fees and expenses may apply. Read the funds or ETF's prospectus before investing. Funds and ETFs are not guaranteed. Their values change and past performance may not be repeated. I'm Samantha Sherris, and this is the Daily Signal top news for Wednesday, July 12th. Here are today's headlines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the inflation numbers for last month, and President Biden is claiming victory for Bidenomics, even as economists note that inflation remains higher than

Starting point is 00:01:04 when the president took office. First, what did the report actually say? The Consumer Price Index, a key inflation. measure rose 0.2% in June. The price measures for food, energy, all types of gas, and shelter increased slightly, while the price measures for specific types of gas decreased, as did they index for used cars and trucks. Good jobs and lower costs. That's Bidenomics in action, the president said in a statement on the report. Today's report brings new and encouraging evidence that inflation is falling while our economy remains strong. Annual inflation has fallen each of the last

Starting point is 00:01:47 12 months and is now down to 3%. Yet economists disputed Biden's rosy picture. E.J. Anthony, a research fellow at the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, noted that while inflation has slowed dramatically from 40 years highs, the economy is still in terrible shape. Real weekly The earnings are down 4.6% since January 2021, and prices are up 16% over that same time. Annual inflation has outpaced earnings gains for 26 of the last 30 months, Anthony added. He noted that inflation has settled at 3%, about 50% higher than either the 2% target or the 1.8% average from 2009 to the beginning of Biden's term. American families are having to eat the rotten fruit from the tree of government spending, he said.

Starting point is 00:02:42 Alfredo Ortiz, chief executive officer and president of the Job Creators Network, also poured cold water on Biden's celebration. Core inflation over the last year continues to outpace average wage growth, meaning Americans are still experiencing real wage destruction related to core goods and services, Ortiz said. FBI director Christopher Ray testified before the House Judiciary. Committee's select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government today, answering and dodging important questions about the FBI's record in recent years. Ray told Congress that the FBI would comply with the judge's recent preliminary injunction, ordering the federal government to stop pressuring big tech companies to censor Americans on social media. We are going to comply with the court's order, Bray said. Yet the FBI director

Starting point is 00:03:34 went on to claim that the FBI is not in the business of moderating content or causing any social media company to suppress or censor. Louisiana Republican Representative Mike Johnson, however, cited the judge's order, noting that the judge found that the FBI and other government agencies took part in a scheme similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth, threatening big tech into suppressing what the Biden administration characterized as disinformation. You need to read this court opinion, Johnson said. Also during the hearing, Ray Dodge questions about the FBI arresting Mark Howe, a Roman Catholic father and pro-life activist. Ray said the decision to arrest Howk was not his, and he would not second-guess the judgment of the career agents on the ground.

Starting point is 00:04:23 Let's take a listen to an interaction with Texas Republican Chip Roy and Christopher Ray. Do you believe that FBI agents should go to the home of a father in Philadelphia suburbs? I'm not going to second-guess the judgment of the career agents on the ground who made the determination. But your job is to second-guess and look at what they're doing. Your job is to review what they do. Your job is to protect the American people from a tyrannical FBI storming the home of an American family. I could not disagree more with your description of the FBI as tyrannical. You don't believe it's tyrannical that FBI agents were a part of storming a father's home in suburban Philadelphia? I'm the gentleman. Time of the gentleman's expired.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Arizona Republican Andy Biggs asked Ray about the presence of FBI agents or confidential human sources at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. I'm not sure there were undercover agents on scene, Ray said. He later said, I do not believe there were undercover agents on scene. President Biden is in Lithuania for the NATO summit this week. Yet the president is making news with where he is not. going. Biden opted out of a dinner with his NATO counterparts Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported. A U.S. official cited the president's busy schedule when announcing Biden's absence.

Starting point is 00:05:45 Biden has four full days of official business and is preparing for a big speech tomorrow. In addition to another day at the summit, the official said. The dinner never appeared on Biden's itinerary and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken represented the U.S. there instead. However, Axios correspondent Alexei's correspondent Alex Thompson noted that this marked the third time Biden has skipped out on a dinner with world leaders during an international trip. Biden did not dine with his counterparts in Indonesia last year, and he again skipped out on dinner in Japan in May. In private, some officials acknowledge that they make what they consider reasonable accommodations not to physically tax an aging president,

Starting point is 00:06:26 the New York Times reported last month. His staff schedules most of his public appearances between noon and 4 p.m. and leaves him alone on weekends as much as possible. Biden is 80 years old and AIDS insists he is in good health, yet critics say his schedule tells a different story. A student paper at a Roman Catholic college is raising money for its legal defense after professor sued the paper from defamation. The Irish Rover, the University of Notre Dame's student paper, is asking for donations after Notre Dame Professor Tamarra Kay sued the paper for defamation. The Irish Rover maintains that it was reporting Kay's abortion activism. As the Daily Signals, Mary Margaret Olahan reports, Kay raises complaints about two stories.

Starting point is 00:07:11 One story dated September 2022, highlighted that Kay offered on social media to help students get abortion and that she had posted a sign on her office door reading, this is a safe space to get help and information on all health care issues and access. The other story dated March 2023 covered Kay's presentation to the Notre Dame College Democrats, in which the professor reportedly spoke about her support for abortion rights. Kay claims that the reporters never spoke with her, and she insists she never said multiple quotes attributed to her. The Irish Rover is standing by its reporting. The articles discussing Professor Kay's abortion advocacy were fair and accurate in all respects,

Starting point is 00:07:53 the editorial staff wrote in a statement, the record will confirm this beyond dispute. And for our final story today, Dylan Mulvaney, the male influencer who claims to identify as a transgender girl, and whose promotion with Bud Light kicked off a firestorm of controversy for the beer giant, said he has gone to Peru to feel safe. Mulvaney spoke in a TikTok video from Machu Picchu, the picturesque Inca ruins, in Peru's Sacred Valley. I've seen a lot of llamas. The people here are so kind, he says in the video.

Starting point is 00:08:28 I feel very safe here. It's a little sad that I had to leave my country to feel safe, but that will get better eventually. Mulvaney has over 10 million followers on TikTok, Fox News reported. After Bud Light sent the influencer one custom can with his face on it, Mulvaney's promotion of the brand went viral. Americans turned on Bud Light, driving what was once the nation's top-selling beer down to the 14th, most popular beer in the country. Mulvaney has criticized Bud Light for not supporting him amid the backlash.

Starting point is 00:09:00 And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, make sure to check out our 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. we'll be sitting down with Diana Furchott-Roth, the director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Energy, Climate, and the Environment.

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The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Biden Skips Dinner, Inflation Persists, FBI Director Dodges Questions About Mark Houck | July 12

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