The President's Daily Brief - February 17th, 2023. Biden Claims That We Are "In Contest" with China, Not Conflict.

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

It’s February 17th. 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 three briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, Joe Biden delivered an update on the Chinese balloon saga yesterday. But he said one thing about managing conflict with Beijing / that we really need to talk about. Second, some updates on Electric Vehicles, to include the fact that the Chinese Government saying that Ford Motor Company might try to steal Beijing’s technology. Third, lots of developments out of Europe this morning, including this shocker: If Germany were to be invaded right now, they would have two days worth of ammunition before running out. Later, we finish the podcast with some good news about COVID. A new study shows if you’ve never been vaccinated but previously infected, your natural immunity is just as good if not better than the shots. ----- 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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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 three briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, Joe Biden delivered an update on the Chinese balloon saga yesterday, but he said one thing about managing conflict with Beijing that we really need to talk about. Second, some updates on electric vehicles to include the fact that the Chinese government is saying that Ford Motor Company might be trying to steal Beijing's technology.

Third, lots of developments out of Europe this morning, including this shocker. If Germany were to be invaded right now, they would have two days worth of ammunition before running out. Later, we finish the podcast with some good news about COVID. A new study shows that if you've never been vaccinated but previously infected, your natural immunity is just as good, if not better than the shots. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Joe Biden held a press conference yesterday talking about China, specifically about those balloons, four of them in all. He said that the U.S. intelligence community has confirmed that only the first balloon came from China. And yes, it was to spy on us. The other three that were shot

down were likely commercial or private balloons of some sort. Now, he said a variety of other things as well, like promising to better secure the U.S. airspace, but I bring you this brief because of something he said about his view of China, and specifically how he wants to manage that relationship. He said yesterday that when it comes to competition with China, he vows to, quote, responsibly manage it so that it doesn't veer into conflict. And finally, he added something that might sound familiar to PDB listeners. he said, quote, we're not looking for a new Cold War. We seek competition, not conflict with China.

Oh, well, never mind the fact that we are already in a new type of Cold War, but that's all right. Okay, I want you to remember those words that he said, that we seek competition, not conflict with China. And we don't want our relationship to veer into conflict. So as we remember those words, I want us to remember this. on Wednesday, a member of his administration named Todd Robison testified to Congress. He's the State Department's assistant secretary that covers these Chinese issues, specifically connected to drugs. He's been involved in the teams trying to get China and Mexico for what it's worth to stop

manufacturing fentanyl, either by stopping the chemicals shipped in from China or to blow up the Mexican drug labs or arrest the cartel operators. and it sure would be nice if either of them did that. As PDB listeners know, that fentanyl that they ship into this country kills over 100,000 Americans each year. Well, on Wednesday, this Todd Robeson shared with Congress that China has actually refused to stop the shipment of these fentanyl chemicals even though they were asked to and they could have.

In fact, he said, China has refused to, quote, take basic steps that they're not taking right now that could be very helpful. Mr. Robinson added that Beijing has repeatedly declined diplomatic and congressional requests to help, and they've ended all intelligence sharing after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Oh boy, last summer. So for what it's worth, he also said that Mexico is doing this same kind of stuff, not being very helpful. The DEA apparently has identified 232 cartel members and locations of drug labs, but Mexican authorities have declined

to either arrest those suspects or destroy those labs. So those are the facts this morning with words spoken by Mr. Biden and his administration, under oath, by the way. So let me now pivot to my analysis and opinion. And let me just start with Mexico.

So folks, look, they are not and will never be a trusted partner in much of anything. Now, like most nations, they will respond. You just have to squeeze them. You have to make them hurt. And that's just how things usually go

in international affairs. Rarely do people just do things because it's the right thing to do. But the real headline here that I want you to consider are the words that Joe Biden spoke about China. Because remember, he said that we seek competition,

not conflict. And yet, one day before he spoke those words, his administration admitted on Capitol Hill under oath that China is knowingly allowing fentanyl to flood into America. They could stop it, but they choose not to, and that kills over 100,000 Americans each year. In other words, folks, Beijing has already chosen conflict, allowing chemicals to leave your country, knowing that they will kill 100,000 people is choosing conflict. That's not competition. And if there is any doubt about that, ask the family members of those who have died. So what is very clear is that Mr. Biden will not

change his fundamental view on China. And we've discussed that before. He's made his choice for whatever reason. And now you have to make your choice. The U.S. presidential election happens at the end of next year. And that is when your voice is heard in Washington, D.C. and all around the country. You will share with everyone the kind of leadership that you think this country deserves, whether it be about issues like our southern border and how to deal with Mexico and all those labs and cartel members. Or how to deal with China, a country that by all reasonable standards has chosen conflict and murder over competition. Next up, folks, for our second brief and update on electric vehicles.

And this one is actually tied back to a number of things that we discussed over this past week. So first, Ford Motor Company revealed more details about their stop production and stop shipment decision regarding their Ford F-150 lightning pickup trucks. So to refresh our memories, Ford said that there was a battery problem of some kind earlier this week, but they didn't release details. and that was frustrating for tens of thousands of folks who have ordered these vehicles. Well, according to Bloomberg News, we now have a bit more information on this. In fact, it's the truth.

The problem actually started back on February 5th, when a pickup was sitting in a lot ready to be shipped, and it started on fire, and then that spread to one or two surrounding pickups. Well, apparently that fire started from a battery. Ford technicians say that, well, they think they know what happened, but they're being pretty tight-lipped about it so far. Meanwhile, there's one government that is not being so tight-lipped about these Ford batteries. Yeah, it's the Chinese government. And you know what? You guys are going to love this.

Officials in Beijing are saying that they have concerns about their battery company called CATL or Cattle, who made an agreement with Ford to make some advanced batteries for those lightning pickup trucks and other Ford cars. Now, as you'll recall, Ford and Cattle, or CATL, announced a $3.5 billion deal earlier this week for a new factory in Michigan to make those Chinese batteries. But Beijing officials are saying not so fast. And the reason, hmm, the communists are worried apparently because they say Ford might steal their advanced battery technology, their intellectual property. And that would degrade China's advantage, they say, in the field of dirty green energy. So just as a quick reminder, China steals upwards of $600 billion of our intellectual property

each year. So it's just a little bit rich to hear Beijing now complain about the same. Anyway, senior Chinese leaders are telling this CATL or cattle that they must respond to additional inquiries into the matter and that the findings will be presented to top communist leadership. The time frame for that process isn't yet known. Ford, by the way, was surprised by this news. Their spokeswoman said, quote, we are not aware of any outreach by Chinese government officials on this matter, end quote. Although I'm not really sure what Ford thought would happen when they tied the knot with China, but there you go. Well, if you thought that Ford might be having a hard day to day, wait until I tell you about Tesla.

They are recalling over 360,000 of their electric vehicles because of a version of its self-driving software. Well, it might actually increase the risk of crashes. That's according to a notice posted yesterday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website. So if you're wondering what might happen with this dangerous self-driving software,

well, as one example, it might allow the car to travel straight through an intersection while it is in a turn-only lane, which does seem rather bad. That ain't right, Tesla says not to worry, they've got to fix. They've got some new software, and they are going to upload that to all of their cars, which sounds like a great opportunity for hackers. Yep, hackers, as we spoke about earlier this week, because folks, if you upload something to make it safer in this case, well, you can upload something to make it dangerous, too. And that is the challenge ahead for electric vehicles.

And to be fair, other smart cars, too. Anyway, more on this to come. Of that, I have no doubt. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. When we come back, I've got one more critical piece of news for you. Actually, lots of things about Europe. So hang tight. And we will be right back.

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designed, engineered, tested, and backed by General Motors. You can find your perfect fit for most makes and models and choose from three tiers of parts, including GMOE or gold and silver aftermarket parts. Visit gmparts.com for more information. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got one more critical piece of news for you this morning. There is a lot happening in Europe today. We've got wars and spies and a shocking admission that America and our partners like Jersey, Germany are running very low on ammunition. So let's start our big European update this morning with this. The U.S. Vice President, Ms. Kamala Harris, will land in Germany tomorrow,

meeting with colleagues at the Munich Security Conference, which is a gathering of very fancy people from around the world involved with diplomacy and intelligence and military affairs. The talk will center mostly on Ukraine and how to best beat the Russians. And then on Monday, Joe Biden travels to Europe. up to Poland, actually, where he will mark the one-year anniversary, almost, of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He will no doubt speak about Moscow's aggression and how the West will stand with Kiev for as long as it takes. So lots of people will be listening to all sorts of big, fancy

people talking. And, well, let's see if we see any signals of escalation or peace. But actually, there's one group of folks that will be listening very closely, and that is Chinese spies. and that's because Germany's chief of domestic intelligence, a man named Thomas Holdenvong, said earlier this week that China is actually expanding its spy activities in his country,

focusing increasingly on political espionage. Quote, China is developing wide-ranging spying and political influence operations in Germany. We must be prepared for these to increase in the coming years, end quote.

Meanwhile, Beijing will have more than just human spies running around throughout Germany. They've also got the place absolutely hardwired too with telecom equipment. Fox News reports that China's company, Huawei, has supplied 59% of Germany's 5G cellular equipment, namely the towers, along with 57% of their 4G network. And by the way, Huawei, of course, has long been suspected of being either a front company for Chinese intelligence or a very helpful partner. for those folks.

All right, well, as China's spies are listening in, what might they be learning? Well, probably two things that you should know about. First, Germany's military is an absolute wreck. And we know that because the Washington Post recently interviewed Germany's new defense chief, in fact, earlier this week. And he said that, yes, the military in his country is in bad shape. Although, that shouldn't be true, because the German military, was given a special $100 billion infusion last year to rebuild itself.

But unfortunately, well, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with that extra cash. First, there was record inflation and high interest rates, and that cut about 10% of the funds available. Then Germany struggled to place orders for this war material because they didn't have as many procurement officers as they once did, nor the purchase procedures fully in place for these massive orders. And that seems like a silly thing, but it's actually quite important. And look, it all happened because as PD listeners probably remember, after the Cold War ended, European powers gutted their militaries to enjoy what's referred to as a peace dividend. And that meant that they fired or retired a lot of people to include many of those

procurement officers and their offices. Well, that then led to this next problem. When the Germans were able to finally sort through some of these procurement issues. They tried to place orders with German defense companies, but they were told, sorry, yeah, we don't make that anymore. And that's because, as the German Security and Defense Industry Association explained, quote, we thought that we would never end up again in the situation of war in Europe, end quote, so they just tore everything down. Well, that is a real pickle. And it means that Germany is increasingly having to go abroad for military supplies, but guess what? So too is everybody else in Europe, or at least many others. And that's because they too scrapped most of their defense industry

over the past 40 years because of that peace dividend. Well, all of that European demand, again, all because of the war in Ukraine, well, it means that there are bottlenecks for production. We are seeing long lines and delays for things like large caliber weapons. Wait times for those, by the way, gone from 12 months to a little over two years. And the need here for new military gear, it's not just some fancy equipment, right? It's really for the simple stuff too, like radios. The German military uses outdated analog radios, which are now preventing German soldiers from communicating with other NATO troops. But the big problem here, folks, and it's not just in Germany, but it's throughout Europe and the United States. It's ammunition. So Ukraine has been

firing upwards of 7,000 rounds of ammunition a day, at least according to some pretty reliable estimates that I've seen. But Europe folks doesn't have the manufacturing capability to keep up. I mean, they're trying. Countries like Slovakia and France are expanding production as fast as they can at the weapons facilities that remain, but there's still a shortage. And to capture how bad this ammo problem is, a security expert at the Bonn University in Germany estimated that if Germany were suddenly in a war with Russia. They could fight for only about two days with its current supply of ammunition.

And then, well, the well would run dry. So there you have it, folks. A lot happening in Germany and Europe this morning and throughout the weekend. Although, let's hope that not too much happens over the weekend. I don't want Moscow to get any ideas because Europe would have to use like slingshots and vodka jokes to fight back.

They'd be out of ammo. 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. Exema is unpredictable. But you can flare less with ebbglis. A once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month- or longer dosing phase,

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School of Medicine. So folks, as they noted, it is the most comprehensive analysis on how long protection lasts from different sorts of immunity. And here's perhaps the most important part, folks. Ten months after getting COVID, those infected but never vaccinated still had an 88% lower risk of not just hospitalization or death, but all of the also reinfection. And that was true regardless of the COVID strain, from the original Wuhan strain to these Omicron variants. Now, the authors did note two things. First, their studies did not include people who've been infected and had the shots. In other words, some people call that hybrid immunity. And a lot of people have that. But that was not included in this study, although they're going to

continue looking into it down the road. Second, researchers noted that these vaccines, means, look, they may still be important for those of the age of 60 or those with, quote, morbidities like obesity. Now, they also said that the shots could be helpful for those never infected, which isn't many of us anymore. CDC data from last year at this time showed that 60% of us were previously infected with 75% of kids. So if you add in the last 12 months worth of infections, well, you've got some good natural immunity in the bodies of virtually every American. So I'm going to come on this, folks, but for now, let's just celebrate that for people who didn't or can't get vaccinated, this is good news. Because it turns out that your old infections

are holding up just fine. 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. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, because behind every headline is a bottom line, whether it's the funds-fuelling AI or crypto's $1 billion 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.