The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | FBI Director to Be Held in Contempt of Congress, Sonic Boom that Shook DC, Chinese War Ship Nearly Collides | June 5

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer pledges to hold the FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.  The U.S. Capitol put on alert when a small private business airplane flew into restricted airspace.  A Chinese Warship comes dangerously close to colliding with a U.S. ship and a Canadian ship in the waters of the Taiwan Strait.  Three GOP candidates are expected to announce their bids for the presidency this week.  Billionaire and Twitter CEO Elon Musk weighs in on a Daily Signal story involving the protection of women’s sports.  A group of school children were interrupted while singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol.  Relevant Links https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/03/elon-musk-supports-girls-who-spoke-out-against-trans-identifying-student/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujwHyvDSi1A  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the Daily News Top News for Monday, June 5th. Here are today's headlines. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has pledged to hold the FBI Director Christopher Ray in contempt of Congress. Here's what we know. On May 3rd, Comer subpoenaed the FBI for a document that Comer says contains potential incriminating information against President Joe Biden. The document allegedly includes details involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national exchanging money for policy decisions. The FBI has offered for Comer and ranking member Jamie Raskin to review the document, but Comer says that's not enough. Comer has asked the FBI to hand the document over to the Oversight Committee to review and for investigation. The FBI said Friday that it has continually demonstrated its commitment to working with the committee to accommodate its request. From scheduling briefings and calls to now allowing the chair and ranking member to review information in person.

But Comer says given the severity and complexity of the allegations contained within this record, Congress must investigate further. The investigation is not dead. This is only the beginning. according to Comer. Also, according to Comer, the contempt of Congress hearings will be initiated on Thursday. The U.S. Capitol was put on alert on Sunday afternoon when a small private business airplane flew into restricted airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration tried to contact the pilot but did not receive a response. When the pilot did not respond, the North American Aerospace Defense Command authorized two F-16 fighter jets to intercept the small

aircraft. The fighter jets took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland around 3.30 p.m. on Sunday. The jets were authorized to fly at supersonic speed to catch up with a small plane. The jets flew so fast that they broke the sound barrier, causing a sonic boom that was heard all over D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia. It sounded like this. The fighter jets used flares to try to get the attention of the pilot, but to no success. The pilot flying the plane is reported to have passed out. The plane crashed in the mountainous terrain near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia. Four people, including the pilot, were on board and were killed in the crash.

According to the New York Times, the aircraft was owned by Encore Motors of Melbourne, which is a Florida-based company. John Rumpel is 75 and runs that company. The New York Times reached out to him on the phone and Rumpel said he knew the passenger. daughter, two-year-old granddaughter, and her nanny were on board. The plane took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island. Law enforcement reached the site of the crash on Sunday night, but they found no survivors. A Chinese warship came dangerously close, declining with a U.S. ship and a Canadian ship in the waters of the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.

The U.S. military released a video of the incident that shows the Chinese ship cutting in front of the path of the American destroyer known as the USS Chung Hun and Canada's HMCS Montreal. The ships were conducting routine duties. The Chinese ship came within 150 yards of the U.S. and Canadian ships, forcing the U.S. ship to slow down so it would not risk hitting the Chinese ship. U.S. Indo-specific command called China's maneuver unsafe. China is defending its actions. Earlier today, China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China did not break any laws and asserted that the U.S. needs to reflect on the mistakes they made.

The incident comes as tensions remain high between China and America over Taiwan. Taiwan is a self-governing democracy, but China claims it as one of its territories. America says the Taiwan Strait is part of international waters, but China claims the Taiwan Strait is in its economic zone. U.S. and Chinese defense officials have both accused one another of flaming tensions in the Taiwan Strait. With the death-sealing debate over and the deal signed, much of the news in Washington has shifted to the presidential election of 2024. And this week, three GOP candidates are expected to announce their bids for the presidency. Former Vice President Mike Pence filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission today. He is expected to officially announce his candidacy in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday. And former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is also expected to announce his candidacy tomorrow in Manchester, New Hampshire.

North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam is also expected to announce his candidacy for presidency on Wednesday. He released his first campaign ad this morning. Of course, the GOP candidates who have already announced include former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramoswamy, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. The candidates getting most of the attention in the news are Trump and DeSantis. These candidates have consistently ranked highest in polling data among GOP voters. billionaire and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has weighed in on a Daily Signal story involving the protection of women's sports.

Over the weekend, Musk said it was incredibly unjust that a Vermont high school girl named Blake Allen was suspended from school for feeling uncomfortable with a man changing in the women's locker room. Daily Signal senior reporter Mary Margaret Olin has brought us and kept us up to speed on this story beginning last fall, and she joins us now. to explain this latest development. Mary Margaret, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. So those who aren't familiar with Blake Allen's story and what happened to her. Give us some context.

What happened at this Vermont public school? Yes, so Blake Allen is a high schooler from Vermont. When we filmed with her and recorded with her, she was about 15 years old. She and her classmates did not want a biologically male student who identified as transgender to be changing in their locker room with them. That student was playing on their volleyball.

team too and identifying as a transgender girl. They didn't like that either, but they drew the line at the fact that this student was in their locker room changing while they were undressed. And so they spoke out about it. And for speaking out about it, the school district punished Blake and her father by removing Travis Allen, her father, from his position as a soccer coach, and by punishing Blake in a way that could have affected her future college scholarships, whether she got study abroad or summer grants, different things that she was hoping for. And the family felt they were very unjustly punished by this. And before this happened, we had gone up and highlighted their story.

We did a mini documentary with the Daily Signal that brought a ton of light to these girls' stories. We were very excited about that. Afterwards, when they had spoken out a little more, they were punished. And so then the Allens went and worked with Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that sticks up for a lot of people like the Allen's, just Americans who are unjustly punished. and they sued the district. We found out this week that Vermont had settled with the Allens, was going to pay them a big chunk of money,

and reinstate Travis Allen to his position as soccer coach, and remove any vestige of punishment from Blake's school record, which is a huge win for the Allens. I believe Alliance Defending Freedom hailed it as a massive victory. And so over the weekend, Riley Gaines, who, as we know, is a prolific advocate, speaks up for women's sports, She posted a screenshot of our story on Twitter, and she praised the Allens for speaking up.

She praised Blake for speaking up and talked about what an important thing is for people to pursue legal action over these things. And Elon Musk weighed in and said it was incredibly unjust that the Allens had been put in this situation. And what do you think that means to have a figure who has the presence of the Twitter following like Elon Musk, who frankly, you know, he across the eye,

people on the left and the right, listen to what he has to say, respect him, watch what he has to say, for him to speak out on an issue like protecting women's sports and say what happened to Blake Allen was incredibly unjust. What is Musk's engagement on this issue meet? It's a huge game changer. Having someone like that, that is secular. You know, we wouldn't describe him as religious or left-leaning or right-leaning. He's just kind of Elon Musk, the billionaire, tech giant, having someone like that way in on an issue like this and say this is incredibly unjust that brings all kinds of people who would never have heard this story. It brings this story onto their radar, brings the Allen's onto their radar in a way that we would

never have been able to do. You know, you can write news all day long, but you might not reach a certain segment of the population. And so that was huge. Elon Musk brought that onto these people's radar. Also, everything he says goes viral. So, you know, that brought a ton of people to see the Daily Signal. It brought a ton of people to see the Allen story to Riley Gaines, her message.

So kudos to Elon Musk for being brave enough to step into the spotlight and say, this is wrong, this is unjust, because he might have helped the Allen's and Riley Gaines more than he knows. Well, and with the 142 million, over 142 million Twitter followers that he has, who knows how many people are now aware of this situation and what happened to Blake Allen. even Riley Gaines as well in her sharing it in her advocacy for protecting women's sports. But we'll be sure to leave a link in the show notes, Mary Margaret, to your reporting on this and the documentary that you did about Blake. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. A group of school children were interrupted while singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol.

The Daily Signal was among the first report last week that a children's choir, based in Greenville, South Carolina, was interrupted mid-song. Video of the incident shows the children's singing the anthem and many Capitol visitors standing around listening. In the background, someone is seen talking to a female Capitol police officer. Then, before the student choir finishes singing, the man who had been talking with the officer tells the choir director the children must stop. The founder and director of the rushing brook children's choir, David Rashback, told the daily signal he was shocked when he was informed the children had to stop singing. Capitol Police told the daily signal demonstrations and musical performances are not allowed in the U.S. Capitol.

But the choir director said he had received permission for multiple congressional offices, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the children to sing in the Capitol. Here's a portion of the student's performance before they were told they could not continue. In a joint statement between McCarthy and Republican reps, William Timmons, Joe Wilson, and Russell Fry, the lawmaker said the children's choir was welcome. by the Speaker's Office to joyfully express their love of this nation while visiting the Capitol. And we are all very disappointed to learn their celebration was cut short. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode of the Daily Signals, Top News.

If you haven't gotten a chance, be 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. The Daily Signal's Rob Bowie is going to be sitting down with Dan Schneider of the Media Research Center to discuss their report on the weaponization of the Department of Homeland Security. And make sure you subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read and appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks again for joining us on this Monday and we'll see you're right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

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