The President's Daily Brief - March 13th, 2024: Border Alarms, Hezbollah & Houthis, & Biden’s Brain

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: FBI Director Christopher Wray issues a stark warning about diverse threats at the U.S. border, including drug trafficking, violent gangs, and a smuggling operation linked to ISIS. From the Middle East, we report on the uptick in hostilities, with Hezbollah escalating attacks in Northern Israel and a significant surge in aggression from Yemen's Houthi militants. We examine the recently published transcripts of President Biden's conversation with Special Counsel Robert Hurr, reigniting debates over the president's mental acuity. In today's Back of the Brief: Despite a stalled foreign aid package in Congress, the White House declares additional military equipment is en route to Ukraine. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You talking to me? Kayak. Got that right. It's Wednesday, 13 March. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off with a warning from FBI director Christopher Ray, who sounded the alarm this week on a broad range of threats at the U.S. border, including drug trafficking and violent gangs, not to mention a smuggling network with ties to ISIS, although I think I just did mention the ISIS network. later in the show, updates from the Middle East, including a new escalation in attacks against

northern Israel by Hezbollah and the largest single day of attacks from Yemen-based Houthi militants. Plus, we'll take a look at the newly released transcripts from President Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Herb, which are, once again, putting a spotlight on the Commander-in-Chief's mental acuity. In today's back of the brief, despite the foreign aid package that's currently stalled in Congress, the White House has announced that more military hardware is on its way to Ukraine. But first, today's PDB spotlight. We're going to start off today with some sobering testimony from our nation's intelligence chiefs as they delivered their annual threat assessment to Congress.

Now, the hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee covered a range of security threats facing America from CCP-backed Chinese hacking groups to Russian aggression. But the most alarming information related to the national security risks posed by the porous U.S. border. FBI director Christopher Ray said, quote, we've had dangerous individuals enter the United States of a variety of sorts, end quote. Okay, let me just repeat that. Christopher Ray said, we've had dangerous individuals enter the United States of a variety of sorts." End quote. Okay, in the contest for least informative and least surprising statement from a senior government official directly responsible for national security,

well-raised statement is the clear winner. Ray laid out the numerous dangers posed by unchecked border crossings, including drug trafficking, human smuggling, and infiltration by violent gangs. Most disturbingly, however, Ray singled out the threat of Islamic extremists, establishing themselves within the U.S. In a line of questioning with Senator Marco Rubio, Ray confirmed that there is a smuggling network with ties to the Islamic State or ISIS that the agency is currently monitoring. Ray told the committee, quote, there is a particular network that has, and then he stopped, and then he said some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about and that we've been spending an enormous amount of

time and effort with our partners investigating, end quote. Well, that's nice to know. So ISIS, which is currently reconstituting itself in Afghanistan, has built a network that's involved in human trafficking into the U.S. I don't see how that goes wrong. As to what the network is up to, Ray said the agency still doesn't have a clear picture. He did note, however, that threats against the U.S. homeland from all foreign groups have reached new extremes. Ray said that the terrorism threat level in the U.S. was already high before the 7 October attacks by Hamas that sparked the current Israel-Hamas conflict. Since then, he said the FBI has seen an explosion and chatter and activity from these groups, including jihadist-inspired lone wolf extremists, foreign terrorist organizations,

and state-sponsored terrorist organizations. Ray said, quote, the threat has gone to a whole other level, and so this is a time, I think, for much greater vigilance, end quote. Ray's testimony comes on the heels of a report last week that found the Biden administration has spent the last year quietly operating a program that secretly flew hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into at least 43 different American cities, although the White House refuses to disclose which cities.

Now, that's on top of the several million that have already poured over the U.S. border under Biden's tenure. Ironically, the White House said their motivation for not disclosing the program was fear that transparency on the issue would create national security vulnerabilities, not to mention potential trouble for poll numbers. Director Ray was joined at the hearing by several other intel heads, including CIA Director William Burns. Outside of the border issue, Burns zeroed in on the threat post by China, including their close financial ties with the Putin regime. He noted that China continues to support Russia's industrial base, providing some level of economic security to Putin as he wages his war

against Ukraine. Separately, Burns also said there's a high likelihood that China will employ their sophisticated networks of hackers in an attempt to disrupt the upcoming. presidential election. On the issue of Russia, Burns spoke to the strategic importance of Ukraine, arguing that if the U.S. does not continue to support leaders in Kiev with fresh funds and military aid, the U.S. risks encouraging other adversaries to pursue their own territorial ambitions. Burns is particularly concerned about China's future plans for Taiwan and said they're keeping a close eye on how the U.S. handles Putin's current aggression in Ukraine. America's intel chiefs agreed that the world is currently facing a unique convergence of

foreign threats that risk destabilizing global order if we're not careful. Well, it's nice that they all agreed on that. Their threat assessment report concluded, quote, an ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors, are Chinese. challenging long-standing rules of the international system, as well as U.S. primacy within it, end quote. So, in the words of Carl the Greenskeeper in Caddyshack, we've got that going for us. Now coming up next, tensions rise in the Middle East, with a surge in attacks by Hezbollah in northern Israel, and renewed aggression from Yemen's Houthi militants. We also examined the release of

President Biden's interview transcripts with Special Counsel Robert Herr, reminding voters that it's not the age, it's the mental acuity. I'll have those stories when we come back. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deepop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on Deepop.

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to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. Welcome back. I want to turn now to the Middle East, where any hopes of a quiet start to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were dashed this week as Iran's proxies continued to carry out attacks. We'll start in Israel, where Hezbollah continues its attacks on the country's northern frontier. According to Israeli defense forces, the Lebanese group fired more than 100 Ketusha rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday morning. That's one of the heaviest barrages since October 7th. There have been no reports of injury or damage due to the attacks, and many of the rockets

were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome Air Defense System. Asbalah said the latest rocket barrage was a response to an Israeli strike. on Monday night, where the Israeli Air Force pounded a number of sites associated with the terror group in southern Lebanon. Following Tuesday's rocket attacks, Israel's national security minister slammed the Israeli defense minister, Yov-Galant, for not doing enough to stop Esbulah. The national security minister said in this statement, Galant, the military is your responsibility. What are you waiting for? We have to start attacking. War now. End quote.

The IDF announced on Tuesday that it has attacked Hezbollah around 4,500 times in Lebanon and Syria since the start of the Gaza War five months ago. The attacks have resulted in the death of over 300 Hezbollah terrorists and injured over approximately 750 of them. Now, five senior commanders who were among those killed, and dozens of terrorist cells that directed or fired anti-tank missiles and rockets at Israel have reported. reportedly been eliminated. The violence in Israel's north has displaced about 80,000 Israelis from areas near the border with Lebanon, and a similar number of Lebanese have fled their homes

on the other side. Now, turning to the Red Sea and Yemen's Houthi militants, the Pentagon said U.S. and coalition forces thwarted the largest single drone attack since the start of the war in the Red Sea this weekend. On Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced that warships engaged and shot down at least 28 unmanned aerial vehicles. No U.S. Serr-Coal Navy vessels were damaged in the attack, and there were also no reports of damage to any nearby commercial ships. Following the weekend's attacks, the U.S. carried out six strikes against the Iranian-sponsored Houthi targets in Yemen. All right, I want to shift gears to domestic politics, as former special counsel Robert Hur testified to Congress on Tuesday about his report into President Biden's handling of classified

documents. As you'll likely recall, the report caused an uproar among Democrats in our nation's capital when it was released in February for referring to Biden as a, quote, elderly man with a poor memory and for arguing that Biden's diminished mental state influenced the DOJ's decision not to charge Biden with any crimes in the document's case. Now, ahead of the testimony, a transcript of hers interview with Biden was released, adding, frankly, more fuel to the fire surrounding Biden's mental capacity. The interview was full of rather damning exchanges where Biden repeatedly confused countries and timelines of significant events, according to a report by Axios. In one exchange, Biden could not recall basic dates, such as what year he

announced he would run for president, what year he stopped serving as vice president, and what year Trump was elected. His lawyers had to repeatedly step in to offer corrections, notably Biden also struggled to remember the year his son Bo Biden died. Despite claims by the White House that her had inappropriately asked about Bo, the transcript shows that the transcript shows it was actually Biden who brought up his son. Speaking about the years between 2017 and 2018, Biden said, quote, remember, in this time frame, my son is, well, either been deployed or is dying, and so what was happening, though, what months did Bo die? End quote. Okay, that's somewhat confusing. A White House lawyer ultimately had to step in, clarifying to Biden that his son passed away in 2015.

Against such a divisive backdrop, hers hearing was predictably chaotic. Yeah, that's pretty much describes every hearing in Washington, D.C. Democrat members accuse the former special counsel of using his report as a political weapon to attack and smear Biden and to so doubt about his mental state among the American public. Well, I, for one, am just happy that the Democrats have never weaponized anything for political gain.

some also accused her of having a political bias given his appointment by former president Donald Trump and they claimed he was using his office to help Trump get elected in November. Now, when asked if his report exonerated Biden of any wrongdoing, her pushed back, noting that his job was simply to determine if there was a strong enough case to secure a conviction at trial. He felt that while there was evidence that, quote, pride and money were factors that motivated Biden's actions, he did not feel, particularly given Biden's age and mental capacity, that a conviction was probable if he took it to trial. Her, for his part, stood firm in the conclusions of his report, repeating that partisan politics did not factor into his conclusions

in any way. Now, for what it's worth, I'll just point out that every congressional or Senate public hearing is a complete carnival freak show. The goal is to get yourself on TV for a couple of sound bite moments. Both parties engage in these shenanigans, and at the end of the day, nothing of consequence ever happens. Now, the Democrats, as an example of this, well, they act aggrieved and declare that her is pursuing a political agenda, at the same time, as an example, being completely unwilling to admit that they engaged in political theater for several years. over the Russia collusion story. Now, either they completely lack self-awareness

or are too stupid to realize the irony of their claims of political theater, or they realize the irony in their claims, but believe that the American public is too stupid to pick up on their double standard. All right, coming up in today's back of the brief, the White House has announced it sending millions in military equipment to Ukraine

as House Democrats hatched an effort to break a congressional deadlock on the stalled foreign aid package. I'll be right back. In today's back of the brief, the White House has announced an emergency $300 million military aid package for Ukraine, and that's the first new package for the country since funding ran out in late December. According to senior defense officials, the package will include a number of items that the Ukrainian military is desperate for,

including ammunition, anti-aircraft missiles, and armor-piercing munitions. Defense officials have also told reporters that the package is likely to include army tactical missile systems, also known as attackums. These are long-range missiles, basically. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, quote, this ammunition will keep Ukraine's guns firing, but only for a short period. It's nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs, and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the weeks to come, end quote. Now, this new package isn't part of any new congressional authority, but it's a one-time deal based on the president's drawdown authority, which

allows him to pull equipment from current U.S. military stockpiles. According to Pentagon officials, the funds for the drawdown come from savings made by renegotiated contracts over the past several months. So in other words, this is clever Pentagon accounting. Meanwhile, some members of the House have officially launched an effort to break the impasse on the stalled foreign aid legislation. House Democrats have begun gathering signatures for what's called a, quote, discharge petition, which can bypass the Speaker's control over which bills come up for a vote. Now, for the petition to be successful, it must be signed by a majority of lawmakers, or essentially 218 members. Now, with only 213 Democrats in the House, the petition faces, obviously, an uphill battle.

Democrats would have to win over a handful of Republicans, not only to make up their numerical deficit, but also to make up for progressive Democrats who oppose military aid to Israel. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Wednesday, 13 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the BDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.