The President's Daily Brief - April 24th, 2024: Ukraine Aid Rush, Tik Tok Trouble, & Baltimore's Bridge Blowback

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: The Senate passes $95 billion in foreign aid as the Biden administration readies a $1 billion military package for Ukraine ahead of presidential approval. TikTok under fire: the U.S. government moves to ban the video-sharing app in the U.S. unless Chinese stakeholders divest. Baltimore's bridge debacle: an in-depth look at the city's legal action against a cargo ship's owners for the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Campus unrest: GOP calls for the National Guard to shield Jewish students amidst growing tensions. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's the secret behind 15 million nights of improved sleep, and that's a lot of nights of improved sleep. Fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. And honestly, who doesn't want all that? Get up to 40% off at shopbeam.com slash PDB and use code PDB. It's Wednesday, 24 April. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

Let's get briefed. The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill on Tuesday, and the Biden administration is wasting no time in getting much-needed military equipment to Ukraine. According to reports, the White House is already preparing its first billion-dollar weapons package that can go out as soon as the legislation receives the president's signature. Now, when I say go out quickly, I mean almost immediately, because according to a brief report from VOA, while the Congress was still debating and stalling and generally not moving on the aid package, the White House instructed

the Department of Defense, the DoD, to go ahead and move and stage an unspecified amount of military equipment to Poland and Germany to ensure the prompt delivery of needed resources once an aid package was eventually passed. Later in the show, after a brief reprieve, Chinese-owned TikTok is back in the news, with the House of Representatives passing new legislation that would prevent the video-sharing app from operating in the U.S. if the company doesn't sell at stake within a year. Plus, we'll dive into the latest on Baltimore's Francis Scottkey Bridge collapse, exploring the city's lawsuit against the cargo ship owners for allegedly leaving port in an, quote, unseaworthy condition. And in today's back of the brief, I'll bring you an update on the campus chaos,

with Republican lawmakers now demanding that the White House call up the national guard to protect Jewish students. But first, today's BDB spotlight. The Senate overwhelmingly passed the foreign aid bill in a 79 to 18 vote on Tuesday night. The $95 billion in war-time support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan received broad bipartisan support in the chamber, with both majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell speaking out in favor of the legislation. Speaking from the Senate floor on Tuesday, McConnell called the bills a, quote, test of American resolve and our willingness to lead. It will now head to the White House, where it will likely get President Biden's prompt signature.

However, it appears that the White House didn't wait around for the legislation to pass before instructing the DoD to stage an unspecified amount and type of military materials to Poland and Germany. According to a VOA report, this happened a few weeks ago, the idea being apparently that the White House assumed that at some point an aid package would be passed, and they wanted to ensure the military resources could then get to Kiev straight away. Now, in addition to this pre-stage support, the U.S. is also preparing a billion-dollar military aid package, which is just a small fraction of the 60-plus billion earmarked for Kiev, and that's according to a Reuters' report. report. That aid package is said to include Bradley fighting vehicles, Stinger Air Defense Munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, tow and javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that Ukrainian forces can immediately put into the field. Officials have also said that the U.S. will likely send its first shipment of long-range

attack-hams or army tactical missile systems. The missiles have a range of approximately 190-mile, and will allow the Ukrainian military to hit deep into enemy lines. Now, the good news doesn't end there for President Zelensky. It's starting to look like the next few months are going to be resource-rich for Ukraine, as the U.S. isn't the only nation preparing to send more weapons and equipment to the embattled country. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom unveiled its largest ever military support package to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion, with a total value. of some $620 million. The new package will fund ammunition, air defenses, drones, and engineering support.

The government said the drones, quote, will be procured in the UK, and the funds will support a scale-up in domestic defense supply chains, end quote. More than 400 vehicles, including 162 armored vehicles, will also be delivered, as well as 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition. All right, coming up, TikTok faces renewed scrutiny as the House votes on legislation that could shut down the app in the U.S. unless its Chinese owners divest within a year. That's bad news potentially for the White House and Biden campaign team. They may need to find a new app for targeting their young voters. Also, we'll bring you the latest on the lawsuit facing the owners of the cargo ship implicated in the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott.

key bridge, as the city claims the ship was unfit for sea. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip. Right. Kayak. Got that right. Welcome back. The technology war between the U.S. and China is heating up as Congress takes steps to target the CCP-backed social media behemoth, TikTok. You know, I used the word behemoth a couple weeks ago on the PDB, and I got some high praise from listeners,

so I thought we'd roll it out again, maybe every couple of weeks, just sneak in the word behemoth. Anyway, over the weekend, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would either force a sale of TikTok or otherwise ban its use within the U.S. Now, millions of toddlers and tweens, teenagers, and 20-somethings are right now gasping at the very very important.

very thought. The app owned by China-based bite dance has long been a target for American politicians on both sides of the aisle due to its ties to China's Communist ruling party. Some 170 million Americans reportedly use the app, and that's almost as many as listened to the PDB, and other Chinese cybersecurity laws, the company is required to share all-user data with the CCP upon request. The legislation, which was tied to four and eight packages for Israel and Ukraine, would give bite dance up to a year to sell the app. If they can't find a willing buyer in that time, well, the app would be banned from American app stores, and that's according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The bill, which is supported by President Biden, will now head to the Senate

where it's expected to pass sometime this week. Democrat Senator Mark Warner summed up the feelings of most of his colleagues in both parties, saying, quote, the idea that we would give the Communist Party this much of a propaganda tool, as well as the ability to scrape 170 million Americans personal data, it's a national security risk, end quote. Officials in China, however, and you'll be surprised by this, are none too pleased with the direction that Congress is heading. They claim, and it's a claim without evidence, that they have never asked by dance to provide U.S. user data and have indicated they will firmly oppose any U.S. efforts to force a sale of the company. The irony here is obvious, or hopefully it's obvious,

given that the CCP banned Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, more than a decade ago, not to mention that the Chinese regime doesn't allow TikTok inside China. Still, Chinese officials are responding by tightening the screws regarding access to American social media companies. Earlier this week, the CCP forced Apple to close a loophole that allowed Chinese citizens to bypass the sensors and access already banned services by using a VPN or virtual private network. Hmm. If I say that last sentence slowly, it almost sounds like Apple is cooperating with the Chinese regime in censoring what the Chinese population can see and read and listen to. I'm sure that's not the case.

And when I'm sure that's not the case, I mean, yeah, Apple is aiding and abetting CCP censorship efforts in exchange for continuing to make money off the Chinese market. Observers also see it as clear evidence that China is willing to take retaliatory actions against American tech companies. Now, it's worth noting that while American politicians are behind the effort, they have their work cut out for them when it comes to convincing the public, particularly young Americans, that a TikTok ban is beneficial. It's rather sticky political territory heading into election season, particularly for Democrats who've leveraged the app's ecosystem

of young content creators to push out their message. Elon Musk also highlighted that divide when he tweeted his opposition to a ban on Friday. Musk said, quote, TikTok should not be banned in the U.S., even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to

freedom of speech and expression, end quote. Hmm? Well, I suppose it all just depends on how you feel about being in bed with the Chinese Communist Party. And China is definitely the big spoon in this scenario. All right, shifting gears. I want to provide a brief update on the situation in Baltimore following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month. As you'll remember, a nearly thousand-foot cargo vessel struck the supports of the Francis Skykegee Bridge in Baltimore in the early morning hours of 26 March, causing most of the 1.6 mile long crossing to crumple instantaneously into the waters. The video of it happening was shocking. The collapse killed six construction workers and forced a closure of one of the busiest ports in the United States. Now, officials for the city of Baltimore say they know who should be held

responsible. On Monday, the city filed a lawsuit against the operators of the container ship, claiming that the ship's owner, Grace Ocean, and its manager, Synergy Marine, engaged in gross and potentially criminal negligence. Officials said the companies knew that the cargo vessel was, quote, clearly unseaworthy. Reports by the Associated Press have indicated that the operators of the vessel were aware of multiple electrical problems, among other potential warning signs, before leaving port, but decided to press forward anyway. The court filing from city officials said, quote, for all intents and negligence, cause them to destroy the key bridge and single-handedly shut down the port of Baltimore, a source of jobs, municipal revenue, and no small amount of

pride for the city of Baltimore and its residents, end quote, yeah, not to, not to mention the six deaths. The ship's owners, who are based in Singapore, have been busy this past month, attempting to convince a court to limit their potential liability over the catastrophic incident to about $43.7 million, really, the cost of the ship and its freight at the time of the collision. That's all. The Baltimore City Council has countered that the operators should be on the hook for whatever damages the court ultimately determines appropriate. It's still unclear what the total economic cost attributed to the incident will be, however, it's fair to say it will be a large magnitude above and beyond $43.7 million. The port of Baltimore ranks ninth among U.S.

harbors for both tonnage and the dollar value of foreign cargo that comes through the port. It also serves as the top hub for U.S. imports and exports of cars and light trucks, as well as heavy farm and construction machinery, imported sugar, and imported gypsum. The port handled a record 52.3 million tons of international cargo in 2023, and that's worth about $80 billion. Officials have been working nonstop since the accident to slowly get shipping traffic unblocked. On Friday, the city opened a third temporary channel for boats to enter and exit the area. However, it can only handle about 15% of pre-collapse commercial activity. Officials hope to open a fourth channel by the end of the month that will reportedly allow most traffic back into the port. All right, up next, in the back

of the brief, GOP legislators urge the White House to deploy the National Guard amid rising U.S. campus turmoil in order to safeguard Jewish students. I'll be right back. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with visible. It's one-line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot. Powered by Verizon for $25 a month. Taxes and fees included. Plus, for a limited time, new members pay just $20 a month

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As we've previously reported on the PDB, a prominent rabbi at Columbia University in New York has urged Jewish students to leave the Manhattan campus amid heated protests where over 100 people have been arrested. Two Republican lawmakers are now calling on the Biden administration to activate the National Guard in order to protect the students. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote on X, quote, the nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop today before our Jewish brethren sit for Passover Cedar tonight. If Eric Adams won't send the NYPD and Kathy Huckle won't send the National Guard, then Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these mobs, end quote. Cotton went on to blame Democrats for the unrest, saying that radical anti-Israel protesters have always been part of the party's

base. If you'll remember, Cotton also called for the deployment of the National Guard against chaotic protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Those two, of course, were described by Democratic, says, mostly peaceful protests. Also, Senator Josh Holly wrote, quote, Eisenhower sent the 101st to Little Rock. It's time for Biden to call out the National Guard at our universities to protect Jewish Americans, end quote. Now, in another blow to Columbia University, the school has now lost its first major donor over the protests, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. In a statement through his foundation to combat anti-Semitism, Kraft said, quote, I am. am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I am not comfortable

supporting the university until corrective action is taken." Now, in reality, the likelihood that President Biden, in an election year, would authorize the National Guard to stand guard on campuses that are chock-full of progressive Democrat voters is, well, it's somewhere in the zero-per-cent range. So it's clear the Republicans are obviously engaging in some political showmanship here. What really needs to happen is actual visible leadership from the president denouncing anti-Semitism, not a statement issued by a deputy press secretary, but a brief speech, how about to the nation from the Oval Office? And also, we could use some actual visible leadership from university presidents, who thus far have allowed

themselves to be bullied by a minority of student activists and outside agitators and organizers. Now, here, I'm giving the university presidents the benefit of the doubt in saying that they've been bullied. I mean, perhaps, well, perhaps some of these university leaders don't disagree with the protesters. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Wednesday, 24 April. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show AdFree, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

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