The President's Daily Brief - January 23rd, 2023. The FBI Searched President Biden's Home and Found Even More Classified Documents

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

It’s January 23rd. 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 big briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, the FBI searched Joe Biden’s home in Delaware late last week and they found more classified material. Meanwhile, Mr. Biden says he has no regrets about how he’s handled the growing scandal. We’ll talk about all of that. Second, a record number of illegal migrants crossed the southern border last month. I’ve got the details, to include the fact that an increasing number of those migrants are on the terrorist watch list. Third, get out those maps because we’re heading to Africa this morning. From Senegal in Western Africa, to Zambia in Central Africa, and then down to South Africa, where we’ve got an energy crisis to talk about that has ripple effects all the way to Ukraine — and maybe the United States.  Later, we close out the podcast with listener feedback, and this one’s a teaser for episode coming up this Friday, a show dedicated to you telling me that I’m wrong. It’s going to be fun. ----- 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

Yamava 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. It's January 23rd. 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 three big briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, the FBI searched Joe Biden's home in Delaware late last week, and they found more classified material. Meanwhile, Mr. Biden says that he has no regrets about how he has handled the growing scandal. We'll talk about all of that. Second, a record number of illegal migrants crossed

the southern border last month. I've got the details to include the fact that an increasing number of those migrants are on the terrorist watch list. Third, get out those maps because we are heading to Africa this morning from Senegal in Western Africa to Zambia in Central Africa and then down to South Africa, where we've got an energy crisis to talk about that has ripple effects all the way to Ukraine and maybe the United States. Later, we close out the podcast with listener feedback, and this one is a teaser for the episode coming up this Friday, a show dedicated to you telling me that I'm wrong,

and it's going to be a lot of fun. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Late last week, and for the very first time, the FBI searched the home of Joe Biden for more illegally held, classified information. And guess what? They found a bunch more. So here's what we know.

On Friday, the FBI conducted a search of one of Mr. Biden's personal homes, this one in Delaware. It's the same home that the White House had previously said was thoroughly searched by his attorneys and that there was nothing left to find. In fact, on January 12th, White House

Press Secretary said that, quote, the search is complete. Well, that wasn't true. On Friday, the FBI found more, and I want you to listen very carefully to the phrasing here. The Department of Justice said that they, quote, seized six items consisting of documents with classified markings, end quote. The items, they said, included documents from Mr. Biden's time as vice president and, get this, also as senator. But Mr. Biden has not been a senator since 2009. means that he unlawfully held classified documents in various places, various states, and in multiple

buildings for over 14 years. Now, let's talk about that wording. The Department of Justice is saying that they found six items. Some media outlets are reporting six documents, but that is not true. The items could be folders or binders, boxes, envelopes, even thumb drives. So we don't know how many more documents we're really talking about here. Nor do we know how sensitive these classified materials are. But we do know that it is unlawful to possess

all of this material. And believe it or not, we also know that Mr. Biden doesn't really care. So here's why. Late last week, Mr. Biden was asked about his assessment of how this scandal is unfolding and he said,

quote, I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It's exactly what we're doing. So there's no there, end quote. And he went on to say that, quote, we found a handful of documents that were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the National Archives and the Justice Department, end quote. Okay. To be very clear, folks, we do not have a simple issue of documents filed in the wrong place, as Mr. Biden is now saying. Those documents were filed. as it were in his garage next to a Corvette and a weedwhacker.

All right. So they weren't filed at all. Classified material has to be filed inside of a secure government facility, not some rubber made storage bin next to the Corvette. All right. Now, as Mr. Biden is saying that he has no regrets and there's nothing to worry about here, a poll from ABC News came out yesterday showing that 64% of Americans disagree with him. They say that his handling of this. scandal and the classified material was inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Mr. Biden has a growing number of fellow Democrats who also think what he has done is inappropriate. Last week, I mentioned representatives Adam Schiff and Elon Omar plus Senator Debbie Stabenow. We now have others to add to this list. Senator Tim Kane of Virginia, he was the vice presidential pick for Hillary Clinton. Well, he's saying that he now supports an investigation into Mr. Biden over this intel scandal. Same is true for Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He said yesterday that Biden, quote, should have a lot of regrets, end quote, not none, and that Biden was irresponsible for what he did.

Finally, the American people are also saying that Congress should investigate this scandal, not just the FBI or Department of Justice. According to a Yahoo News, U.gov poll out yesterday, about two-thirds of Americans are in favor of Republicans in the House investigating the Biden-intel scandal. In fact, and believe it or not, 52% of Democrats want Congress to get involved. So that is the latest, my friends. Let me now pivot to some brief analysis and opinion. So first, I'll tell you, as I promised y'all, this scandal is going to grow. And that's because of what we're finding and what we're not finding.

So to the former, we have at least. Several dozen classified documents we're now talking about, many of which are top secret. But how many more could we be dealing with? Could it be hundreds, thousands? The answer to both is, yeah. And that's because the six items discovered on Friday could be binders with lots of documents or thumb drives with thousands of documents. Which then leads to the second question, what are we not finding? what's hidden or more importantly been given away or lost or god forbid have been sold because we know that

mr biden's son hunter was in close contact with governments from around the world including and i can't believe this is true a former spy chief in china meanwhile we know that hunter has had physical access to the garage and likely biden's personal office in dc so we have to ask Did Hunter steal some of those documents? Or more horrifically, did Joe Biden give him those documents or encourage him to even sell them? Now, that might sound conspiratorial, but we do know from the infamous Hunter Biden laptop that there is reference to 10% of the revenue from Hunter's forum business deals going to the big guy, which the laptop also notes is Joe Biden. So it raises the very reasonable question here of how nightmarish is the scandal going to get because the evidence suggests that it's going to get really bad.

And that's why, my friends, this is absolutely a scandal. And it's why 64% of Americans are absolutely right to say that Congress should investigate this crime. The special counsel should too. Although that 64%, I don't know why that number isn't 100. 100% of us, it should be, because the PACs warrant that degree of universal alarm. Speaking of crimes, let's move on to our second brief of the morning. The U.S. government released official numbers for illegal border crossers for the month of December, and it is one for the record books again.

The Customs and Border Protection folks revealed that last month, more than 216,000 migrants were stopped at our southern border. that is an 11% increase from November, which was also a record. So overall, we are now at the highest number of illegal border crossings in a given month since Mr. Biden moved into the White House two years ago. Meanwhile, Fox News is reporting that we are on pace to set another record. The number of people arrested on the border who are on America's terrorist watch list. 38 suspected terrorists have been caught so far this year.

Last year, it was 98. In 2019, by the way, the number was zero. And just in case anybody has forgotten, the 9-11 attacks were carried out by 19 people. Finally, I would note that these 216,000 folks are just the individuals arrested. Border Patrol sources are saying that there are another estimated 1.2 million known

gotaways over the past two years, which of course means that there are hundreds or thousands potentially of more terrorists now floating around America. Or should I say bust and flown around America? The new governor of Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs announced last week, that she has signed a contract for, and I can't believe this is true, the use of a 737 aircraft. Illegal migrants simply have to tell the state of Arizona where they would like to go

and either they can get bused at a cost of $82,000 per bus, or they can now catch a flight. Ms. Hobbs is defending this new, shall I say, Arizona Airlines effort by saying, quote, if we're spending money to bus people, why not just get them to their final destination via aircraft? End quote. Governor Hobbs added in a follow-up press statement that, quote, we're sending migrants to cities they actually need to go to and be connected with their sponsors, and we're doing it in a more cost-effective way by looking at all. travel options, not just buses. The spokesperson for Governor Hobbs did not provide details on how many

migrants have traveled under this new airplane contract or how much it'll cost. So there you have it, folks. Record numbers of illegals. We have record numbers of terrorists and American leaders who are spending your taxpayer dollars to spread the problem all throughout the country. And who knows, maybe a terrorist or two. Well, I'll keep you posted, but from my optic, and this is just my opinion, folks, this is outrageous. It's no way to run a country. And well, actually, then again, maybe that's the point. If you were looking to destroy a nation, this is exactly the kind of stuff that you would do. You would hire planes to fly illegals around the country that may or may not have been properly vetted. It sounds so absurd to say,

and yet it's happening. Just thought experiment. Can you? imagine going back in time 20 years ago right after 9-11 and presenting this to people, they would look at us like we were crazy. And you know what? It is crazy. This moment is absolutely absurd. All right. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. Maybe lower our blood pressure a little bit. When we come back, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you. So hang tight and we will be right back. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. And we are starting off in Africa. So grab those maps on your computers, your phones, or in your minds, and come with me to the country of Senegal. Now, to help us find it.

Do you remember when we talked about Mali last week, that country? Well, look directly west of Mali to the western coast of Africa, and you're going to see Senegal. Now, it is a very beautiful country. They've got desert and sand dunes in the north, more lush and tropical. areas in the south and some beautiful beaches on the coast near the capital city of Dakar. It is there that the U.S. Treasury Secretary landed late last week. Miss Janet Yellen kicked off her African tour in what she said was definitely not about competing with China, but let's be honest, it was definitely about competing with China and Russia for purposes of both influence and trade. So let's actually focus on that last part, the trade.

So back in 2009, the United States actually was a larger trade partner to Africa than China was. But then Beijing passed us by and never look back. Let me just put some numbers to that. As of 2021, the U.S. exchanged about $45 billion worth of goods with sub-S.-African countries. In comparison, China does about seven times that, 282 billion worth of trade. And that was up actually 11 percent as compared to last year. year. Now, most of the trade with African nations for both the U.S. and China has to do with commodities. So, for example, the country of Angola exports a lot of oil to the world. Zambia exports copper.

Congo, as PDB listeners know, exports cobalt for those dirty green batteries. South Africa, by the way, sends the world a lot of gold and diamonds, coal, and iron ore. Okay, so what do we sell them? Well, America exports things like machinery, especially for mining and farming. China does the same, plus electronics and textiles. But the big difference between us and why the U.S. Treasury Secretary is there is that America focuses a lot on trying to get involved in the internal affairs of all these countries. As Secretary Yellen said, America prioritizes, quote, transparency, good governance,

accountability and environmental sustainability. But that's not true of China. They could care less what these countries do with their environment or their people. In fact, there are lots of cases of Chinese government officials or Chinese businessmen bribing local or national African officials to secure contracts or vote against American interests. More on that later. All right, let's get back to Senegal. Secretary Yellen did her best to impress the leaders.

and people of that country. She helped inaugurate a solar farm in a very tiny village. And then she spoke about how America's approach to our diplomatic relations is better than the Chinese. Because Beijing, she said, they might offer you all some shiny deals,

but they come with, quote, a legacy of debt, diverted resources and environmental destruction. And to be fair, she's not wrong about that. In fact, if you want to do your own research on this, check out a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. As Chris and Louisville, Kentucky highlighted for me, Chinese infrastructure deals have often been disastrous for African nations.

So to read more, the article on the Wall Street Journal is entitled, China's global mega-projects are falling apart. Yikes. All right, let's get into our spy jets this morning, leave Senegal and take off for the country of Zambia. Now, we've talked about this place before. It is just south of the Congo. It's really rich in things like copper that we need. It also has very productive farm ground, including tobacco, on the eastern part of the country.

And of course, it is famous for its grasslands full of zebras and lions and elephants. Which, speaking of, let me tell you a personal fun story, I almost hit a bull elephant with a truck that I was driving in Zambia once. So I was down on the Zambisi River past Victoria Falls near Lake Corrid. And I will tell you, you don't want to surprise a bull elephant when you round a corner at dusk. It tends to end very badly. Now, thankfully, I was driving a very fast truck and my spy school training kicked in. Normally, though, it's to escape the Russians, not an elephant, but nevertheless, all as well that ended well there.

At any rate, Miss Yellen was in Zambia's capital of Lusaka over the weekend, and she was there to talk about solar panels and debt. So to the former, she's talking about using your taxpayer dollars to fund a big solar farm. And it would help offset the lack of electricity from Lake Kariba, which as PDB listeners know, has been drawn down so low that the hydro dam isn't producing much electricity. And that's led to blackouts, which have affected the copper mines that we buy copper from. So we'll see if that solar project moves forward. But the big conversation in Lusaka was about dead.

debt. Zambia has been terribly mismanaged by Zambian leaders, but also frankly taken advantage of by China. Well, Zambia has racked up $15 billion in debt, about half of which is owned by China, largely to build infrastructure projects, but also to buy a $200 million presidential jet. All right. So now they've got a new government, and they're trying to restructure all of that debt. Part of the negotiations about that debt include what's being called a debt for nature swap. The World Wildlife Fund has confirmed that it and others are in talks with Zambia to help pay down the debt if the country puts more of its nature into, say, national parks or easements, including areas near the famed Victoria Falls.

So we'll see if that idea takes off or not. And speaking of, let's take off to our final stop in Africa. morning to the country of South Africa. That's where Ms. Yellen is at this morning, although I'm not sure if she can see much of anything down there because the lights in South Africa are largely off these days. There's in fact no electricity for six to eight plus hours per day because the nation's electricity provider called S-com is unable to properly maintain the country's coal-fired power plants and the one very important nuclear plant.

So off the lights go. Okay, so what's going on? Well, ESCOM has been sort of a play toy of the national government, which is totally run by a party called the African National Congress or ANC. Now, it's a socialist, leftist, communist-friendly party, still very close to China and Russia. And they have turned the public utility of ESCOM into a piggy bank to enrich the ANC, including former South African president, Jacob Zuma. And that's just the start of the problems. The company also suffers from banditry, sometimes with local staff and technicians serving as the bandits.

Plus, the company has been hobbled by racial quotas with staff hired in no small part because of their race rather than merit. That's all because of the history in that country of something called apartheid. In other words, they've got wildly unqualified people trying to run coal plants, and to a lesser extent, the nuclear plant, all because of what we might call affirmative action. Well, no matter the reason, things are so bad at the utility that the recent CEO quit because allegedly somebody tried to kill him with poison. According to Reuters news, that makes him the 11th CEO in just the last 10 years.

Now, this mess in South Africa could have global implications, and it's why I'm bringing it to you. Its mining industry feeds a substantial percent of the world's demand for things like iron ore and gold and diamonds, but the big one that we should care about is coal. South Africa has dramatically increased its exports of coal to Europe, up 720% last year, because Europe, as you all know, well, they're struggling to find new sources of energy following the war in Ukraine. So if the lights go out in South Africa and coal mines can't send their stuff to Europe, well, that creates energy pressures on, well, lots of nations and people, including you and me, as our utility prices tend to go up as America companies export more of our coal and natural gas to Europe. So all in all, I imagine that Secretary Yellen will be discussing those issues and others, from energy to corruption to coal for Europe.

Now, for what it's worth, and this is just my opinion and analysis here, I don't hold out much hope for this visit to Johannesburg or the capital of Pretoria. South Africa is deeply aligned with China and Russia, in part because the ANC is filled with communists. Plus, they don't like America because of our old support for the apartheid government from decades ago. And to that point, South Africa announced last Thursday that they would conduct joint. naval drills with Moscow and Beijing starting in mid-February. They'll be engaged in exercises off the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay, which is right in the middle of the key shipping lane that drops south along the Indian Ocean, loops around the Cape of Good Hope, and then heads west across the Atlantic. 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. got one more thing before I let you go. Boy, I tell you, we've got a great week ahead. Lots of awesome stuff to talk about. We've got, for instance, the crisis in Peru shutting down copper mines, or how about this one? Hollywood is shipping jobs to Mexico. All right, here's another interesting story. There are efforts right now to mine the Pacific Ocean seafloor to benefit the dirty green energy revolution. And of course, we've got the great show coming up this Friday. where we talk about how Brian is wrong. Yep, it's the show where I bring you all your emails saying that I'm wrong about something,

either domestically or abroad, especially when I offer my counsel and opinion. Now, it's just one little taste of what's to come. I got an email that was quite thoughtful, maybe even philosophical. So Heidi out in Orham, Utah, wrote into my personal website, which is Brian Dean Wright.com, and here's what she said. Quote, you frequently use the phrase, you decide what's true after you put forth your facts and analysis. And I like that you let people decide, but consider saying something different, like you decide what you think is true, or you choose what you want to believe. And the reason that I offer this suggestion is that we're living in a time with this absurd notion that we can all have our own personal truth.

like I was born female, but my truth is that I'm a man, and therefore men can have babies. And that is not true. I can think that or believe that, but that doesn't make it true. You know, something is either true or it's not. There is no my truth. So the best that someone like me can hope to do, and what I would encourage you to change, Brian, is to tell us, well, listen to your counsel, and then choose what to believe, not. my truth. I know it's a silly semantic thing, but I think it's meaningful, at least. Well, Heidi,

I loved this email because setting aside your recommendation, it really demonstrates how this podcast is different. It's because you all as listeners are different and you're awesome. What I have seen again and again in all of your emails is that you folks are thoughtful, You're introspective, you're philosophical, and you're just flat out smart. And I don't mean just book smart, although, yes, I have doctors and PhDs as listeners. I mean that you all have a commitment to logic and reason and common sense. And just in my humble experience and perspective, that's pretty unusual for podcasts. Other shows that I've listened to are, well, mostly just screamers.

And what it tells me is that we've built something. something pretty amazing, you and I. This is a community of really smart people who want something different. And what I'm trying to do, not perfectly, is build something where I present facts and data to the best of my knowledge and then offer my counsel and advice, but ultimately just defer to you. But as Heidi said, maybe I need to tweak my language on that a bit, something for me to think about Heidi, so thank you. But nevertheless, I love you all. Just great. By the way, thanks to everybody else who's writing in, feel free to send in more submissions to me on why Brian is wrong. Just remember, put that in the subject line. And you got to send that email to me to my personal

website, that's Brian Dean Wright, or to the PDB email, which is PDB at thefirsttv.com. I sure hope you do. I love reading your note. 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.