The President's Daily Brief - February 10th, 2023. Biden Blames His Staff For The Classified Documents Found in His Homes

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

It’s February 10th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, Joe Biden says it’s not his fault that he had classified material at his home and office. No no. I’ll tell you though who is. Second, an update to the China Balloon Saga this morning, with an assessment by a Democrat Senator from Montana that is spot on. Third, some updates on the War in Ukraine, with mostly bad news for Kiev. Finally, American taxpayers will be funding a new wind farm. But this one it’s not in America. It’s in Mexico. Later, we close out the podcast with an observation I had on a recent report about Afghanistan and it says that the Taliban won’t be bought off by Western money. Apparently that came as a shock to some folks in DC. Which only proves that The Smart People aren’t very smart at all.  ----- 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 February 10th. 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. A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I've got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, Joe Biden says it's not his fault that he had classified material at his home and office. No, no. But I'll tell you, though, who he thinks is at fault. Second, an update to the China Balloon saga this morning with an assessment by a. a Democrat senator from Montana that is actually spot on. Third is some updates on the war in Ukraine,

with mostly bad news for Kiev. Finally, American taxpayers will be funding a new wind farm out there, but this one, it's not in America. It's in Mexico. Later, we close out the podcast with an observation that I had on a recent report about Afghanistan. And it says that the Taliban won't be bought off by Western money. And apparently that came as a shock to some folks in Washington, D.C.

which only proves that the very smart people back there aren't very smart at all. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Joe Biden says that it's not his fault that there was classified material at his home and office. It's his staffer's fault. That is what Mr. Biden claimed on Wednesday night when he was interviewed by PBS News. So the interviewer asked Mr. Biden how it was possible that his personal office in Washington, D.C., and multiple locations at his home in Delaware, could have had an untold number of classified documents and other material

so recklessly stashed around. Well, he said it's not his fault. It's the fault of his staff who packed up his materials over the years, namely one woman named Kathy Chung. Ms. Chung has long served as Mr. Biden's executive assistant. So here's the exact quote of Mr. Biden blaming others. as they packed up my offices to move them referring here to Ms. Chong and other lower-level staffers, they didn't do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through

every single piece of literature that's there, end quote. All right. The PBS interviewer then asked if we should expect more documents to be discovered, to which Mr. Biden said, quote, there may be something else, I don't know, end quote. Oh, that's reassuring. And by the way, he also confirmed that amongst the classified documents found were materials dating back to 1974. That's when he was first elected senator from Delaware in what became a lifelong government career. So there's the latest on the Biden intel scandal.

If I might shift here to analysis and opinion, I don't think any of us are shocked with this sort of a shuck and jive move, right? Politicians do it all the time on both sides of the aisle. They are never to blame for anything. But it's just egregious to blame your staff when the classified material was sitting in a plastic tote in your garage and in your personal home library. At some point, you have to own that, as in immediately, when the stuff is sitting next to your weed whacker in your garage. No staff member should get the blame at that point. But then again, I'm talking about a politician. I would like one that has morals and leadership.

Well, that's not to be found apparently in Mr. Biden and his excuse this morning. And apparently it's not to be found in Washington, D.C., either, or probably in other capitals around the world. Let's move on to our second brief this morning, and it has to do with a Chinese spy balloon saga. More details were released yesterday from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. intelligence community. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Reuters News Service are saying that Washington, D.C. knows the name of the company that manufactured that balloon. It's a Chinese company with very close ties to the Chinese military. Now, neither Ms. Sherman nor Reuters News are providing a name, although the Wall Street Journal is saying that it's a company called Shu Zhu Rubber Research and Design Institute. But regardless, Ms. Sherman is saying that the Biden administration is so upset with Bayesian,

and this, you know, potential rubber company, that they may target that company with sanctions, maybe. So here's that quote from the State Department, in fact, quote, we will explore taking action against these PRC entities linked to the Chinese army that supported the balloon's incursion into the United States airspace, end quote. So if you're wondering why they're just going to explore taking action versus actually taking action, well, that's because Ms. Sherman said that, Biden's team wants to still work with China on other issues like climate change, even during what she described as a, quote, difficult time, end quote. So, folks, that's what you should expect to hear from Mr. Biden in terms of the extent of his likely response to this balloon saga.

Now, I should note one thing that was said yesterday at a Senate hearing about this whole mess, a Democrat senator from Montana, a guy named John Tester, said this about Beijing. quote, China tends to push the envelope all the time until a line is set down. So, folks, I actually want to end on that, pivoting now from facts and data to analysis and opinion. So first, Senator Tester is spot on, right? In my experience in dealing with Chinese issues, there is only one thing that they respond to or listen to. and that is if we punch them in the face and we make them bleed, right? They don't listen to our words or our requests, right?

I can't get into details, but I will say from personal experience, Beijing officials will and do laugh in our face. The only time that they don't laugh, the only time that they take us seriously is when we make them bleed, whether it's one of their officials who has an accident or a vehicle or a building that mysteriously goes boom. Or maybe something unfortunate on one of their islands that they created in the South China Sea. That's when they respond.

And that's when they realize that they've gone too far. So this threat by Ms. Sherman to maybe explore taking action against Beijing, well, it's just pathetic. And it's yet one more example of why China has just eaten our lunch for decades, with, to be honest, both Republicans and Democrats. And I'll tell you, they're going to keep eating us alive or decades more to come until we have some leaders who are willing to knock a few teeth out in Beijing. And then if we do that quietly without bragging,

then we offer to have lunch with them where gentlemen can sit down and manage our disagreements. In other words, strength gets you respect, folks. It really matters in everything, frankly, but especially in international affairs. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. When we come back, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you. So hang tight, and we will be right back. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money.

Because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds-fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings, there's a money-side to every story. And when you see the money-side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.

Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15. per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. For this third brief, we're going to focus on a few different updates in the war of attrition in Ukraine. And that's because early reports this morning suggest that Russia might have started the launch of its spring offensive, right? It's a launching of operations that's actually been predicted for months now to retake parts of the east and south. of Ukraine that it lost over the past, well, four or five months. So we'll see whether or not this is an actual offensive, but either way, we should see a ramp up in warfare over the next two or three weeks, especially leading up to February 24th.

That's the one-year anniversary of Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine. And let's actually start this third brief with how things are going for Russia. So on the personnel front, I've got something that you might not know. The Russians are using prisoners as their front-line soldiers. About 40,000 prisoners in total, actually, working on behalf of Russia's Wagner Group, which is their paramilitary group with fighters all around the world. And if you didn't know about this prisoner deal,

here is what Moscow promised these guys. They said, look, we'll release you from prison if you agree to fight on the front lines in Ukraine for six months. And if you live, you get your freedom, and some cash. If you die, well, at least it wasn't in prison. And so around 40,000 prisoners heard that pitch and said, all right, I'll do it. That's according to assorted media outlets, the U.S. government and folks, frankly, that I know in the Pentagon. But those days of recruiting prisoners might be coming to an end. Yesterday, the founder of the Wagner Group said on the

social media platform telegram that, quote, the use of prisoners as completely stopped. end quote. So the reason for that is allegedly, Ward is getting back to the prisons that most guys aren't making it to six months. It is a slaughter of these largely untrained men. So the rest of them back in prison are saying, you know, three squares behind bars, not such a bad option. All right, meanwhile, let's switch to Ukraine. All right, they're getting some bad news this morning. First, the American company SpaceX is acknowledging that it has limited the use of its Starlink satellite connections in Ukraine. And the reason for that is President Zelensky apparently broke his promise. SpaceX CEO Gwen Shotwell told reporters on Wednesday that the satellite links were only supposed to be

used to, quote, keep the banks going, the hospitals, and keep families connected. And we knew that the military was going to use them for communications. And that's okay. But our intent was never to have them use for offensive purposes. It was never intended to be weaponized. However, the Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement. Now, what she's referring to here are the use of drones. Ukraine has leveraged these satellite links to communicate and operate their drones, which in turn are obviously blowing up Russian fighters and material. So this CEO is saying that Starlink is going to be taking actions to limit that activity, to limit how their satellite would be used. Quote, there are things that we can do and have done. Meanwhile, some other

bad news for Kiev, especially if Moscow is in fact launching that spring offensive that I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago. Well, unfortunately, the tanks that were promised to Ukraine have not arrived yet and probably won't for a long while to come. So let's understand this challenge here, and let's actually start with this. Russia started this war with about 12,000 tanks, and Ukraine started with about 2,000 tanks. And that's why Ukraine's President Zelensky has been beating the drum for American and European partners

provide more to help fill that gap, both in terms of the numbers, but also the quality of tanks. Well, so far, only Germany and Poland have approved substantial deliveries of these tanks to Kiev, around 200 from Germany and about 75 from Poland. And that includes a mixture of both new and older models.

This is according to some analysis, pretty good stuff done by the Wall Street Journal. But then that begs the question, what explains why these other European partners who made these promises are not actually delivering on them? Well, let's go through the list of countries and their reasons because, boy, I'll tell you, it impacts you here in America and everybody else who's listening all around the world.

First, let's consider the country of Portugal. So they promised four tanks, but they've since said that all of them need special. repair. Meanwhile, Denmark has said that it only has 44 tanks in total, and you know what, we can't spare any of them. Meanwhile, their neighbors in the Netherlands are saying, you know what, same here. We only have 18 tanks, and you know what? We lease those from Germany. So that's why both of those countries, Denmark and the Netherlands, are actually saying that instead they'll pay to repair some of these old junker tanks held by private collectors and companies throughout Europe. Okay, moving on.

We've got Spain, who for their part, is saying, yeah, we have some of these Leopard 2 tanks, but they're not in good shape, and they need substantial repair. Finally, there's Britain and France, which have the biggest armed forces amongst these European NATO allies. They've got around 220 tanks each, but apparently most of those tanks aren't battle-ready either. So with that, folks, let me now pivot from facts and data this morning to opinion analysis. And I want to focus on this tank issue. So starting last spring, I briefed you all on how European militaries are a shell of what they used to be.

And the reason why is that about 30 years ago, the European governments, they embraced this idea called the peace dividend. In other words, the Cold War came to an end. And they decided they could redirect all their military spending to social spending because the threat was gone, they thought. Well, America over the years has tried to get them to commit more of their GDP. to military spending. 2% is the NATO standard. But they refused, especially the leftist governments

throughout Europe, especially Germany and France. And so now here we are. Here they are. With Ukraine asking for help, and the continent of Europe is, well, they're in such a pathetic shape that they're having to offer up either nothing or some old busted equipment

like we're in Havana and the best they got to some sort of 1954 Chevy Bel Air. Now, to be fair, European governments are now very quietly admitting that they screwed up and they're trying to fix it. So case in point, three weeks ago, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, announced that he's actually tripling his military budget over the next number of years. And that's nice, but those leftist elements that I just mentioned, they are still very strong all throughout Europe. And they are dragging their feet at this idea of rebuilding the militaries in any country. In fact, we see this especially in Germany. So all in all, folks, this war of attrition continues in Ukraine.

In fact, with Europe offering Kiev's more junk, and it means that America and its taxpayers are going to have to step up. It is you, my dear listeners, who will be on the hook to provide the financial and war material for this conflict, which it appears it's going to be going on for every long time to come. And speaking of being on the hook for things, that takes us to our fourth and final brief of the morning. American taxpayers are on the hook to pay for a new wind farm,

but it won't actually be in America. Instead, you, my fellow taxpayers, are going to be funding a wind farm in Mexico. Oh dear. So here's what we know. On Wednesday, the president of Mexico announced that the U.S. government would be providing interest-free loans and grants to the Mexican government to build a wind farm in southern Mexico. So for this brief, you might want to grab a map, either on your phone or computer or in your mind.

And I want you to look for the skinniest part of Mexico, as it were. It's down in the southern area. So if you look to the east, you're going to see the state of Veracruz. It's on the Gulf of Mexico side of the country. Now, that area is a generally flat basin nearest the coast, that as you move west, it actually gets squeezed by the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the north and the Sierra Madre Mountains and the south. And between those two ranges as you move west, you get into a really narrow gap called the Chevella gap. And once you squeeze through there, you pop out on the other side

into the Pacific Ocean. So years ago, that gap and that passage were very important for trade. In fact, before the Panama Canal, it was the only way to move goods unless you wanted to sail all the way down south to South America and up. Well, in the years since then, that gap has, well, will obviously become a lot less important. But the Mexican government has long thought, you know, that would be a great place for a wind farm. And that's because at that chivala gap, the winds consistently blow from October through February,

and they can move pretty darn fast, anywhere from 25 to 100 miles an hour. And that takes us to our latest news south of the border. On Wednesday, the Mexican president, Mr. Lopez Obrador, says that the American taxpayers will build a wind farm in that gap, actually for wind farms. Quote, this is an agreement from the United States to help address the problem of climate change. They will be with us on March 19th.

That is the U.S. proposal. It is likely that it will be John Kerry who will be there to announce the wind farms. By the way, this is on top of a previous commitment made by the Biden administration to build five solar farms in the northern part of Mexico. that's actually a part of a $48 billion dirty green energy investment scheme that was announced last month by the U.S. State Department. According to Brian Nichols, who's the senior State Department official responsible for Mexico, he said, quote, I'm optimistic that if we work creatively together, we can achieve raising that kind of money, end quote. So he's referring to the solar farms and the 48 billion in investments from what he hopes to be both the U.S. government and private industry. So if I might offer my opinion on this one, I want you to keep this money and these projects in mind the next time you hear folks in D.C. Say that the U.S. budget couldn't possibly spare any cuts.

Because if you believe that, I've got a wind farm to sell you. Four of them, actually. And some solar farms, too. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go. So back on August 24th, I briefed you on a big old pot of money, $7 billion sitting in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York. It belonged to the government of Afghanistan, but with a Taliban now in control, the U.S. government is refusing to hand it over. Instead, they've decided to split it up. There's $3.5 billion set aside for lawsuits related to Afghanistan's role in the 9-11 terror attacks, which of course leaves the other. other 3.5 billion for what the Biden administration has said they're going to use for, quote,

the benefit of the Afghan people. Now, so far, they've used a little bit of that money to help replace some old damaged currency called the Afghani. But that means that there are still billions of dollars left to be spent. Well, according to media reports and a source of mine on Capitol Hill, the Biden administration has been trying to use that cash as leverage to get the Taliban to do stuff, such as respect women, or please don't push gay folks off of buildings, or could you please not blow up statues and art? In other words, America's leadership, including the folks in the White House, they're hoping that the Taliban would stop being the Taliban,

teasing them with this 3.5 billion carrot. But those hopes have, quote, come crashing down, end quote. Those are the words of John Sopko. He's at the U.S. Special Inspector General. for Afghanistan reconstruction. In other words, what he's saying, and indeed as he explained, the Taliban refused to stop being the Taliban. They refused to stop embracing radical Islam. Meanwhile, consider this next quote from Alex Zerdin. He's the former U.S. Treasury attache who worked at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. He's now a senior fellow at a Democrat think tank called

the Center for a New American Security. So here's what he said about the Taliban's refusal to work with us. The U.S. and international community need to figure out additional incentives and punitive measures to impact Taliban behavior because what we've done so far has done little to sway them. So folks, I want you to consider those two statements, especially that one by Mr. Zerdin, as I pivot now to analysis and opinion. It has been 20 years now, over 20 years, since radical Islamic terrorists based in Afghanistan with Taliban support attacked the United States. And we spent 20 years fighting that enemy to understand that enemy.

And we see now this former senior U.S. official who served at the embassy in Kabul. He is absolutely befuddled and disappointed that the Taliban won't be persuaded to change their ways because we've got a couple billion dollars in cash to throw at them. Right, folks, this is why we failed in Afghanistan, or one of the reasons. your government as it turns out is led by not very smart people right who after 20 years have not learned a single thing about radical Islamic ideology or those who embrace it all right it should be obvious but let me state it islamic radicalists are not interested in our money they are interested in our deaths and not just of our people in our governments in our way of life and the death of any other faith beyond Islam. In other words, they're interested in global jihad to create a new global

Islamic caliphate, and we have known that for 20 years now. Well, not all of us have known that, apparently, not Mr. Zerdin, formerly of the U.S. Treasury Department, who again served at the embassy in Kabul. So the next time that you're feeling maybe not smart enough or not good enough to run America's foreign policy, let me assure you. you that you are. You are, in fact, smarter than most anybody in Washington, D.C., certainly smarter than that former U.S. Treasury attache, because you, my friends, have what he does not. You, my friends, have common sense. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here.

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 eight verse 32 and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free good day