The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | House Chairmen Investigate COVID-19 Origins, Texas Gov. Calls for Investigation of NGOs in Border Crisis, Senate Votes to Ban TikTok | Dec. 15

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down:  Incoming House committee chairmen investigate public health officials, origins of COVID-19  Russian official warns ‘there will be consequences’ if U.S. sends air defense missiles to Ukraine Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calls for investigation of NGOs involved in border crisis ahead of Trump’s asylum restriction policy expiration  Senate votes to pass bill banning TikTok from government-owned devices Biden Administration announces winter COVID-19 contingency plan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Jillian Richards. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Thursday, December 15th. Here are today's headlines. My colleague Fred Lucas reports that two incoming committee chairman in the House of Representatives have begun an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Republican representatives, James Comer of Kentucky, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, asked several public health officials to hand over information on the role U.S. tax dollars. played in funding COVID-related research in China. Comer and Jordan announced Wednesday that they would request transcribed interviews from Dr. Anthony Fauci and 39 other officials after Republicans take the House majority. Comer wrote in the Wednesday statement, mounting evidence points to the virus originating from a leak at the Wuhan lab.

He noted that Echo Health Alliance, a grantee of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, passed taxpayer funds to the Wuhan lab to conduct gain of function research on bat coronaviruses. Comer added, Dr. Fauci was warned early on that the virus appeared man-made and pointed to a lab leak, and instead of blowing the whistle, may have attempted to cover it up. Russia's foreign ministry said Thursday that if the U.S. confirms its reported plans to send sophisticated air defense missiles to Ukraine, it would be another provocative move by the U.S. The official suggested this could prompt a response for Moscow. Per the Associated Press, Russian spokeswoman Maria Zakorova said in a briefing that the U.S. had effectively become a party to the war in Ukraine.

Her remarks follow news that the U.S. would provide Keeve with Patriot Surface to Air missiles, the most sophisticated missiles the West has offered Ukraine so far. Zakerova said the assistance would mean even broader involvement of military personnel in the hostilities and could entail possible consequences. The Associated Press reports that U.S. officials said earlier this week that Washington is posed to approve a shipment of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that more migrants may be released into the U.S. once former President Donald Trump's asylum restrictions are lifted. The Trump administration's Title 42 policy, which was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to expire next week.

Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has asked his state attorney general to investigate private organizations that have joined the Biden administration in facilitating the border crisis. Abbott wrote in a Wednesday letter that he's calling on Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton to start an investigation into the role of NGOs in planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders. Abbott warned that Texas is about to face record high illegal border crossings. This week, over 2,600 illegal immigrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, within a 24-hour period. Days before Abbott's request, the Heritage Foundation's oversight

project released data revealing the major role NGOs have played in trafficking illegal immigrants into the U.S. Last night, the Senate voted unanimously to ban the Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok from government-issued devices. The No TikTok on Government Devices Act, which was introduced by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, now heads to the House for a vote. The vote comes after state governments have taken measures to limit the app on state. own devices. Meanwhile, lawmakers introduced another bill to ban TikTok nationwide. Republican

Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and Democrat Representative Raja Krishnamorthy of Illinois introduced the bill on Tuesday. Listen to Rubio's remarks he shared in an interview with Tucker Carlson per Fox News. It's about millions of 16-year-old, 17-year-old, 30-year-olds, people that are on there, dumping all kinds of data that the government of China gets access to on location, your pictures, your text, your consumer behavior, what the algorithm is learning from you. And then the other thing is, and this is what's really stunning to me, the Chinese tried to interfere in our midterm elections. They were putting out videos discouraging people, and they were using the algorithms to do this, discouraging people from voting on a bipartisan basis or nonpartisan basis. And that's why I tell people, if TikTok was a Russian company, there would be an FBI raid of their headquarter. at least they would be calling for it on the left.

So I think everyone agrees our privacy danger to America, to our national security. We shouldn't have the Communist Party of China having access to a treasure trove of American data that they can use to try to influence and divide us at the same time as they collect valuable information now and for the future. The Biden administration announced its COVID-19 contingency plan for the winter. Starting today, four rapid virus tests will be available per household. The Associated Press reports that the U.S. The administration is also putting personnel and equipment on standby if hospitals and nursing homes are overwhelmed by a surge of the virus.

The administration is also urging state and local governments to encourage people to get the newest by-violent COVID-19 shots. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal 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 for the Daily Signal interview edition. Virginia Allen is sitting down with Congressman Michael Guest to discuss solutions to America's fentanyl crisis. Also, 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 all of 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 by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinco. Producers are Virginia Allen, Samantha Acheris, and Jillian Richards. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.