The President's Daily Brief - August 8th, 2022. Democrat Mayors Finally Start Addressing Illegal Immigration. Pelosi Visits Taiwan, China Responds.

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

It’s August 8th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ First, Democrat Mayors are blasting Republican Governors in Texas and Arizona this morning for bussing illegal migrants into their towns. We’re going to look at the numbers and you can decide whether or not their outrage is warranted. As always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, China conducted war games over the weekend, all because of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. I’m going to explain the latest, and how it could dramatically impact your life. Second, there was a lighting strike in Cuba late last week that actually could lead to more illegal migrants at our southern border in the future. I’ll explain that curious connection.  And finally, one last thing before I let you go. A quick update on my request for direct-to-consumer beef providers, and also I share the replies that some of you’ve gotten from your Senators and Representatives. ------ 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

It's August 8th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. First up, Democrat mayors are blasting Republican governors in Texas and Arizona this morning for busing illegal migrants into their towns. We're going to look at the numbers and you can decide whether or not their outrage is warranted. As always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, China conducted war games over the weekend, all because of Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. I'm going to explain the latest in how it could dramatically impact your life. Second, there was a lightning strike in Cuba late last week that actually could lead to more illegal migrants at our southern border in the future.

I'll explain that curious connection. And finally, one last thing before I'd let you go. A quick update on my request for direct-to-consumer beef providers. and also I share the replies that some of you have gotten from your senators and representatives. But first, let's get started with today's main brief. The illegal migration crisis continues this morning impacting communities all around the country, and that now includes Washington, D.C. and New York City. The mayors there, in fact, are for the very first time describing it as a humanitarian crisis.

But that's a little bit odd, because there's nothing new about the crisis. First, the numbers aren't new. We've broken record after record in the past couple of years. May in particular was bad. 240,000 illegals just in one month. Meanwhile, the response to what we do with these illegals, well, that's not new either. Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security has been busing and flying illegal migrants

all around the country, often at times in the dead of night. In fact, if you recall last October, then-press secretary, Gen Saki confirmed that there were flights occurring at midnight to 4 a.m. to cities from the border areas to areas all throughout America, often with no input from mayors or residents. So why we can reasonably ask are the mayors of Washington, D.C. and New York City now describing this as a humanitarian crisis? Well, in a word, politics. Starting last April, the governor of Texas got fed up with the federal government not doing more to stop illegals from entering his state. So he came up with Operation Lone Star, which, amongst other things, started busing illegal

migrants away from his overrun cities to other cities. Now, to be clear, that's no different than what Joe Biden was and is doing. But perhaps it's because the Texas governor was focused on sending migrants to two cities in particular, Washington, D.C. and New York City. So how many illegals has the governor bust into those cities? Well, there are competing claims, but since April, the best guess is around 6,000 were bused to Washington, D.C. from Texas, and a few hundred, maybe a thousand or so, to New York City. Well, as Texas was doing that, Arizona's governor took notice, and he decided to do the same thing. He sent around 1,000 illegals to D.C. as well, give or take, and a low hundreds to New York City. Well, that has led to the last. That has led to the

latest outrage. D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said that the influx of illegals is a, quote, humanitarian crisis, end quote. She said her homeless shelters are being overrun, and she blasted both the governors of Texas and Arizona for engaging in what she called political theater. Meanwhile, she asked for federal assistance with this humanitarian crisis. The National Guard specifically is what she wanted, but the Pentagon just turned her down over the weekend. So not to be outdone, New York City's mayor Eric Adams reacted in the same angry manner as D.C.'s mayor. And here's what he said. Quote, we need help, and we are reaching out to the federal government to tell them that we need help, end quote. And he added that the governors of Texas and

Arizona were engaged in stunts, in political ploys, and that both are shameful. Now, putting aside that Biden is doing exactly the same thing, busing and flying illegals without the consent of mayors and citizens, I'd like to focus on one number here to really help you understand this fight between the governors and the mayors. And that number is 7,000. That is the number of illegals, more or less, that have been bused from the Texas border to D.C. and New York City. It's a number that's created a humanitarian crisis, in their words, overwhelmed their services. And, in fact, it's a number that requires the National Guard. But, 7,000 is an interesting number for another reason. According to Customs and Border Patrol data,

there were about 7,000 encounters of illegal migrants per day at the border each of the past several months. So let me say that again. For the mayors of Washington, D.C. and New York City, 7,000 illegals over three months is a humanitarian crisis. Their service is overwhelmed. But that's what border states deal with every single day. Not every three months, every day. And if we break that down, comparing border cities to major cities in this country, well, New York and Washington, D.C. have millions of residents. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is busing thousands of illegals every month into towns with 15,000 or fewer residents. So those are the facts. And if I were briefing you in the White House this morning, here would be my

assessment and my recommendation. Look, we all know the expression out of sight, out of mind. Well, that's how many Americans, especially Democrats running these major cities, view the illegal migration crisis. They don't see it. They just put it out of their mind. Now, to be charitable and fair, there are lots of things to be concerned about. So if you're a mayor, not in a border state, you probably think about, well, other things. But what the governors of Arizona and Texas are doing, it's called a forcing function. It's forcing people, the nation, really, to feel the pain, to see the burden that they experience every single day. Now, some people might be upset at these governors for trying this foreseen function,

but remember two things. Joe Biden is quite literally doing exactly as they are. In fact, his own press secretary has acknowledged it. Again, no consent from the affected towns. Second, for folks critical of the governors, any anger that you might have should actually be directed at the federal government, at the president. It is his job to protect the border.

But you know what? He's not. And so those record number of illegal migrants have to go somewhere. Well, for D.C. and New York, at least they're mayors, they're saying, not in my backyard. Well, that's certainly rich, isn't it? Because they describe themselves as being sanctuary cities. And in fact, they proudly proclaim that. But suddenly they aren't feeling so charitable once that sanctuary gets too expensive.

So the bottom line for my optic is that while there may be a political calculus to what the governors are doing, I think what's far more important is that it's a forcing function. They are rattling the cages of people who think that illegal migration is a border state issue, or, you know, maybe it's even a good thing to have no borders and all these illegal migrants. Indeed, it's forcing Democrat mayors now to plead with a Democrat president to do something. And until he does, it spreads the pain. around the burden of caring for these folks and so whatever you think of the actions of the governors of texas and arizona they are certainly doing just that they are certainly spreading the pain around

coming up a closer look at what's on my radar two quick briefs for you one on china and the other on cuba plus some emails from listeners we'll be right back yama va resort and casino at san manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavat Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

You in? Must be 21 to enter. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way bad. 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. As always on the PDB, I'm watching a few other stories this morning. Put these two on your radar. First, China continued its war games around Taiwan this weekend, a response to Nancy Pelosi's visit last week. We're not sure this.

This morning, Beijing is done, flying the drones and jets over Taiwan's territory, or if instead, they'll keep it up for a while. But this morning, I want to share with you the latest and why that we should care. Because if this gets out of hand, we will all be living like it's the year 1822, not 2022. So let's dive into this. I'll explain those dates, but quickly some history up front. As listeners will recall, there was a civil war in China about 100 years ago, give or take, and the communists unfortunately won, and their adversaries, the nationalists, fled to Taiwan, where they have been living ever since.

Now, China has long vowed to retake Taiwan by force, if necessary, and the current president of China has said that he's going to do exactly that during his presidency. So when Pelosi traveled there, it made the communists very angry just based on that history, but there's a lot more going on. So the president, President Xi, is up for re-election this October, give or take a month. And he's got a lot of young, very angry members of the Communist Party who want either war with the U.S. or to take back Taiwan now.

In other words, he's got a very vocal group on his right flank, and he's got to appease them. Meanwhile, the Chinese public is absolutely outraged over Pelosi's visit. There were countless posts on Chinese social media outraged that Pelosi's plane wasn't shot down, that she was actually allowed to touch Taiwanese soil. which they consider Chinese soil. So if you combine those two things, an angry populace and an angry set of hungry young communist advisors

about to vote on the new president, well, that gives you a very combustible situation. And that's why the war games have been so aggressive these past couple of days. The Chinese have flown over 60 planes so far in or right up to Taiwanese airspace, plus over a dozen ships. And here's the important piece

and the thing that I want you to remember. Beijing promised yesterday to keep pushing further into Taiwanese borders during upcoming war games. That is new. And it raises the risk of war. So let's see if this latest war game wraps up today or later this week. But either way, the future is looking very dicey this morning. Now, the reason that you should care about this is twofold. The first being the most obvious.

America has more or less agreed to defend Taiwan in case China. invades. And that means that you and your families might pay a very dear price, if so, from high taxes to fund the war effort to the lives of your military aged children. But second, Taiwan has something that America desperately needs. Semiconductor chips. So these little guys are basically the brains that make every device and modern society work. Cars, phones, electricity plants, name an electronic device and rest assured there's a semiconductor chip in there. somewhere. But we got a problem. Taiwan controls 63% of the world's foundry supply of these chips. That's according to the White House. Another 18% or so comes from South Korea. The U.S., unfortunately,

we're only at about 10%. So that means if there's a war in Asia between China and the U.S., over 80% of those critical computer chips are at jeopardy or they're gone. And along with it, 80% of the critical products that we need and use every day. again, cars, phones, hospital equipment, electricity supplies, all of it. Now, it's true that we could rally for a while without a new supply, but you can guarantee that those existing chips would be cannibalized for the war effort. In other words, life would be a lot more like 1822 than 2022. At any rate, this is a developing story that could go at a bunch of different directions,

and I'm going to keep a very close eye on it this week especially, and I will keep you posted as always. And finally, one more thing on my radar this morning. Early last week, I briefed you on Cuba and rise in their illegal migrants coming across our southern border. Over 150,000 this year, in fact. So to recap that brief, the reasons for people leaving the island included exhaustion, you know, basically living under a communist regime, but also a lack of electricity, food, water, and jobs. In other words, people are growing desperate. Well, I have an important update on that, especially the electricity part. And depending on how the next couple of weeks go, it could make things far, far worse,

especially for our southern border. There was a lightning strike on Friday that hit an oil storage tank in the Cuban city of Matanzas. It ignited. Over a thousand people were injured in the blast. Cuba declared an emergency. They called in help from Mexico and Venezuela. Even American officials offered to help. Well, as that first fire burned, a second tank exploded over the weekend.

That hurt even more people, firefighters, the Cuban. energy minister. Now, as bad as all of this is, there's a real concern for what happens next. Because this burning fuel was supposed to power the electricity plants, plants that were already shutting down for upwards of 12 hours a day in some parts of the island. So the question is what will happen in a week or two when these plants consume the fuel that they have on site, but then they need that extra fuel that is, unfortunately, now burning. Now, there is a Russian tanker carrying crew that's expected at Matanzas this week. But the terminal there is offline, obviously, and it's the only port that can handle such large tankers. Now, it's possible to transfer the fuel

from the large tanker to smaller ones, but that is a process that's very expensive and it's very dangerous. So make sure you put this one on your radar, because we could see an uptick in protests and violence on the island, all because of the lack of electricity. We could also see a mass migration event, well, depending on how the Cuban government manages the fallout. Events that could mean more Cubans on our southern border. Regardless, I will keep you posted. And with that, one more thing before I let you go. Actually, two things this morning.

The first is a quick update on my request for beef companies that you all recommended to help out our ranchers. And the second was the responses that some of you are getting from your senators and representatives. We'll be right back. This is a Bose moment. You've been there before. Somebody's apartment, small talk that's going nowhere,

plastic cup that's almost empty. It's not great. Then someone hits play on a Bose speaker. Heads nod, feet tap, one person dances than everyone does. Awkward becomes electric. When Bose sound fills the room, you don't just hear the music. You feel it. Your life deserves music.

Your music deserves Bose. Find your perfect product at Bose.com. This episode is brought to you by Well, Welch's fruit snacks. Big news for your kids' lunchbox. Welch's fruit snacks are now made without any artificial dyes. A snack parents can feel good about and the same delicious taste kids can't get enough of. All made with no artificial dyes. Try Welch's fruit snacks today. All right, ladies and gentlemen, one more thing before I let you go. But actually this morning, it's two things. So first, a couple of weeks back, I asked you all to send me recommendations on ranchers or companies

that sell beef direct to consumers. All because some of our ranchers are facing really hard times with the lack of feed, or they can only get very expensive feed. And some folks are unfortunately having to sell their herds. Well, I have hundreds of recommendations, and I'm going through those now, which is so great to see. Thank you. And I will have some options for you guys very soon. But just know in the meantime that I have seen all of your notes,

and I will be replying to each of you as soon as possible. All right, that takes us to the second. thing before I'd let you go. Over the past couple of months, a number of you have written to me saying that for the first time in your lives, you reached out to your senators or your representative about a bill or an issue that we discussed here on the PDB. And that makes my heart sing because it's exactly what we should be doing. It's our government and it should be responsive to us. So what are these politicians saying to you all? Well, it's a pretty mixed bag. Let's take an example, do you remember last week when we discussed China and carbon dioxide emissions? I encouraged

you all to go to Senate.gov and House.gov, find your senators and representative and ask them three questions. First, do you agree that China is the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, more than the U.S. and Europe combined? The answer, by the way, is yes. At any rate, moving to The second question, do you agree that China is increasing, not decreasing, its carbon dioxide emissions? The answer once again to this one is yes, by the way. That takes us to question number three. If yes to both of those questions, how will this $370 billion climate change bill lower global emissions if you can't stop China and the others from increasing theirs? In other words, their actions are negating ours.

Now, those are questions and answers that we really need to discuss and hear because that $370 billion bill just passed the Senate yesterday with a full vote in the House later this week. Well, Richard in Florida, he sent out notes and he got a little bit back. In fact, something from Senator Rick Scott of Florida. Unfortunately, he got a boilerplate response about climate change, but nothing more. In fact, didn't answer any of those three questions. Meanwhile, Jonathan in Utah, he said that Mitt Romney just flat out ignored his question. Same thing with Mike Lee. And that's generally what many of you relayed to me.

There were some great responses, so I don't want to minimize those. Mac in Oklahoma, you had a great response from your representative. But still, it leaves me with a distinct impression that some of your representatives and senators are ignoring you. And that folks makes me cranky. So if you're wondering why they are ignoring you or just sending you these boilerplate responses, I have worked on Capitol Hill and I will tell you a little bit of a secret. Politicians in D.C. listen mostly to two groups of people, those with money and those who are organized and make noise. In other words, potential donors and big blocks of potential voters.

And so that is our challenge to be one or both of those. those things. So how do we tackle that challenge? Well, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. One thing immediately, but second, something a bit longer term. First, I want you all if you haven't to reach out to your elected representatives and ask them those three questions about China and climate change, most specifically this bill that's $370 billion that will likely be voted on and passed later this week. So do that and send me whatever you get back. Good, bad and ugly. And then I'm going to use my little perch here and on Twitter to make some noise for you. Because lots of fancy people follow me on Twitter.

And so I'm going to use what you send me. And then I'm going to politely ask them to respond. But I'm going to do it in public. Because those people serve you and you deserve good service. Ah, but you say, Brian, what if they don't? What if they ignore even you? Well, that gets to my longer term plans. Let me explain.

When I started the PDB, I had no plans to do this section of the podcast, you know, to answer questions and such. You know, instead, I wanted to provide the news, some analysis and perhaps a touch of opinion, but I didn't have much of an interest in advocacy. And, you know, I still don't. But what makes me very cranky is being ignored or that you all, my PDB family, are being ignored. It's disrespectful.

And because I'm old school, disrespect has to be dealt with, even if it's served cold. So as the PDB grows, I'm going to use this podcast on occasion to make some noise for you all. But I want to be clear. I don't intend to demand that you all vote one way or the other, or demand that a senator or a representative vote for or against a bill. That's not my job. But what is my job, I think, is helping you get the response you deserve, one way the other, because that demonstrates the respect that you deserve. So stick with me, and over time, we are going to grow this organized block of voters here on the PDB, and if politicians disrespect us by not responding or giving you all boilerplate

gibberish, then we will turn our herd of voters into a stampede. That is my promise to you. So folks, let's build this herd, tell a friend about the PDB, and let's make this government of ours by, for, and of the people. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Good day.