The President's Daily Brief - President's Daily Brief - April 15th, 2022

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

It’s April 15th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. I’m your host and former CIA Officer Bryan Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. ------ First up, a Twitter takeover. The world’s richest man wants to buy the social media platform. Second, the CIA Director held his first public speech yesterday. I’m going to tell you three things that you need to know, and why some of it was flat wrong. And, as always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing issues you should know about. First, a critical ship in Russia’s Navy was sunk in Ukraine. I’ll also brief you on a new assessment of how many Russian troops it would take to hold Ukraine even if Moscow did manage to capture it. Finally, do you remember the Border Patrol agents on horseback who were accused of whipping illegal immigrants last September? I have an update. All up next on the President’s Daily Brief. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's April 15th. 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. Before we start a quick reminder to those new to the show, the brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events of the past 24 hours, all delivered to the president each morning by the nation's spy masters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy, and this is your brief. Here's what we're going to be talking about this morning. First up, a Twitter takeover. The world's richest man wants to buy the social media platform that many of us use. I'm going to brief you on why you should care even if you don't use Twitter. Second, the CIA director held his first public speech yesterday. I'm going to tell you three things that you need to know and why some of what he said was just flat out wrong.

And as always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, a critical ship in Russia's Navy was sunk in Ukraine. I'll brief you on what that means. Second, do you remember the Border Patrol agents on horseback who were accused of whipping illegal immigrants last September? I have an update. All up next on the President's Daily Brief.

Your first piece of intel this morning, there's a hostile takeover attempt at Twitter, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and others. He offered $43 billion to investors, who currently own the company. He wants to take it private. As you probably know, Twitter is a social media platform that's most well known for people sharing news, most especially breaking news and commentary. Musk is the largest individual investor of Twitter with the stake of about 9%, but now he

wants it all. Twitter's board doesn't seem interested in his offer. In fact, they're reportedly working on a scheme to thwart him. One board member in particular, a Saudi billionaire and member of the royal family has already said, no thanks. The question is why does Elon Musk want Twitter? Well, he claims that Twitter has devolved into a censorship platform, usually against conservatives or conservative stories, and he thinks that that's really bad. Perhaps the most infamous example that he might cite is Twitter's blocking of the 2020 bombshell report about Hunter Biden and his laptop, which of course said it was Russian disinformation. Well, it wasn't. They've also blocked or suspended the accounts of a wide range of conservative voices, President Donald Trump

being one, Tucker Carlson being another. For a time, I was blocked for no good reason. They later told me it was a mistake. Now, you might know that Twitter is used by a lot of people, more than 200 million each day, in fact. 13% of Americans get their news from Twitter. But what you might not know is this. Journalists and reporters rely heavily on Twitter to do their jobs. They scan the platform for stories that they later reshape and reshare with you on their mainstream outlets. We got confirmation of this about a week ago with the executive editor of the New York Times, asking his staff to cut back on Twitter usage because, to quote him here, we can rely too much on Twitter as a reporting tool.

The concern is this. If Twitter is censoring conservative voices or stories, then these mainstream media reporters likely will never see or share these same stories with you. Or maybe they know of a story like Hunter Biden's laptop, but because Twitter blocked it and the word's gotten out that somehow it's compromised material, they won't actually ever cover that story. In other words, the material has a black mark on it, a scarlet letter that people or the issues involved aren't worthy or shouldn't be shared. And here's the point. You start to believe that too. There are some very big consequences of this type of censorship.

Consider this. Sixteen percent of Joe Biden supporters would not have voted for him had they learned of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal before the election. In other words, had corporate media platforms like Twitter not censored the story or convinced all of us that it was fake news, it is very likely that Donald Trump would have won the 2020 election. The key takeaway, ladies and gentlemen, is this. Twitter censorship doesn't just stop with Twitter's users. It reaches deeply into America's TV stations and newspapers because reporters use this platform to retell their curated stories. So whatever eventually reaches your home, it is in part whatever the Twitter censors or algorithms want you to see. It means that America doesn't get to see the other side of the story. Or it convinces us that a legitimate story is just fake news. Now, I don't know what exactly Elon Musk plans to do if he gains control of Twitter,

but he said it's all about stopping this kind of censorship. And if so, good for him. Twitter has, in fact, become a platform of censorship. It's generally anti-conservative and often pro-liberal. And that's why you should care about this story. Because if Elon Musk succeeds and he remains committed to free speech, the secondary effects of how this changes America's news, newsrooms, how it affects the stories you get to hear and see? Well, that will be a very big deal

for the health of this country. Here's to hoping it happens. Hey, sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana, give it a whirl. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on...

Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. Next up, CIA director William Burns delivering his first public speech as the agency's director yesterday. He covered a lot of ground, China, Russia, Ukraine, and then something interesting, that the CIA had to reimagine itself and avoid political bias. I'm going to brief you on these three key elements of his speech, tell you where he was right and where he was suspiciously wrong. First, China. He claimed that Beijing

is the, I'm going to quote him here, the single most important geopolitical challenge of the 21st century, our greatest challenge, in fact, the most profound test the CIA has ever faced. Well, that's true. From my time of the CIA, I can confirm it. I saw it. But there's a problem. Joe Biden doesn't agree with any of this. Remember that he used. year ago in an address to Congress, Biden said that white supremacist terrorism was America's biggest threat. That was preceded by a statement in a campaign speech where he mocked the idea that China was a major threat saying, they're not bad, folks. He went on to say that China is not a competitor for us. Clearly, there is a frightening disconnect between the nation's intelligence

community and the president of the United States. That's a problem. So what explains? this disconnect. Well, if you've listened to my briefings in the past week, you know what the facts tell us about this likely disconnect. The Biden family is compromised, having taken secret cash from communist China. To this day, Joe Biden denies it. He says he's never even spoken to his son about these deals. But Hunter Biden and his emails both say otherwise. All right, regardless. Back to the CIA director's speech. Here's the second thing you need to know. Director Burns said that the U.S. intelligence community has given our Ukrainian partners, quote, effective intelligence against the Russian military. He also acknowledged that the CIA and others had

declassified war intelligence that, as he said, preempted false narratives and false flag operations by Vladimir Putin. Look, if you've listened to this podcast in the past week, I briefed you on both of those issues. First, that the provision of tactical and operational intelligence, yes, it has been given to the Ukrainians, but no, that's not a good idea. It's an escalation. Second, his claim that the declassification of Intel has somehow hindered Vladimir Putin, well, that's just false. Recall that even mainstream media outlets like NBC have reported that the declassified intelligence that he was talking about was unvetted and uncorroborated and sometimes just a guess. Often it was just flat out wrong. In other words, Mr. Burns has distributed

rumor and gossip to the American people that turned out to be fake news. But now he's calling it some type of strategic victory, altering the calculus of Vladimir Putin himself. But no evidence supports that claim. And now the final takeaway that you need to know from his speech. Director Burns claimed that the CIA must now reimagine itself to take on new threats. He later added that the agency must redouble its commitment to ensuring politics truly stop where intelligence work begins. Let's stress the first part of that statement of reimagining itself. Burns is absolutely right that clandescent operations are very hard to execute in today's modern world with things like surveillance technology in everybody's hands, which I'm talking about your phone.

Perhaps we'll talk about that another time. But what was really interesting was his quick reference to ensuring that politics stay out of intelligence work. Now, I think all of us would actually agree with him on this point. Indeed, any student of history knows what happens when a nation's spies decide the political fate of a country. Democracies die. But what Burns failed to do was moved beyond the general rhetoric and instead name names. For instance, he could have mentioned former CIA director John Brennan, who went on TV and

into Hollywood, claiming that a sitting president, Donald Trump, was a Russian traitor and would be removed from office for it. Director Burns could have also spoken about the now infamous. letter from 51 intelligence professionals claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation, when those folks knew or should have known it was not. How refreshing would it have been for Burns to remind his current clandescent staff of the importance of their oaths by calling out the former clandescent staff for failing to uphold the same? The bottom line here is that we can applaud Burns on his words, but we must judge him on his deeds, which at present there are none.

And with that, I'll let you decide what you think overall about William Burns and his speech about the intelligence community. Here's my view. He got China right, but not much else. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly, Big Board Buckslot machine by aristocrat gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale. May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. 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

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I'm reviewing low-confidence reporting that gives us a little clearer picture of what likely happened. It says those ships' radar missed an incoming missile because the ship was focused instead on Ukrainian drones that were serving as a distraction. If so, it's a great op. Now, it's important that you note that this ship had two functions in the war. First, providing air defense for other ships. And second, bombarding land targets with its arsenal of missiles. As a consequence, the Russian Navy is now more vulnerable, though the extent to which that's true is still being assessed. It's also important that you know that the Moscow wasn't just any ship.

It was the pride of the Black Sea Fleet, with a storied history and lore in the Russian military. There will be profound grief and anger over this attack in Moscow. And you should look for retaliatory strikes, brutal, I suspect. In fact, I'm hearing that a revenge campaign has already begun. I assess that you'll see what that campaign looks like today and over the weekend. But more troubling, if Putin wants to use this sinking as a justification for major escalation, doesn't matter the facts. I could see him doing it. For some historical context for where Putin could take this, look at our own history of ship sinkings or naval skirmishes that led to big wars.

Recall that the destruction of the USS Maine in 1898 started the Spanish-American War, or the Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam involving the USS Maddox, which eventually led President Johnson to ramp up our conventional forces. We all know how sadly that ended. So folks, keep an eye on this story. It could be a very consequential event. The second story on my radar, you will recall from last September when Haitian immigrants were overrunning the southern border. Our border patrol agents did their level best to hold back. Some agents were on horseback, you may remember. They were accused of whipping these migrants with their reins. Well, that turned out not to be true. Instead, a number of journalists and Democrats simply hadn't ridden a horse in a while, or ever,

to understand that there was a difference between reins and whips. Regardless, the agents were cleared of criminal wrongdoing, but still remain under an administrative investigation that could cost them their jobs. As of this morning, I can share that the administrative probe into that incident is now over. The Biden administration has compiled a 500-page report of its findings. It could be released any day now. The Board of Patrol, Council is worried. The sheer length of the report suggests bad news. If so, it'll create a political firestorm. Watch for that in the coming days. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes your morning brief, and it wraps up the PDB's first full week. I sure hope you're enjoying it. If the spirit strikes,

please send me an email. Let me know what you think. The email address for your feedback is PDB at thefirsttv.com. Again, that's PDB at the first.com. Again, that's PDB at the first TV.com. And with that, I will speak with you again next week for the latest edition of the President's Daily Brief. With luck, you're a subscriber of the podcast by now. Push the subscribe button, if not, maybe tell a friend. But most importantly, as I leave you this one, a reminder of why we are here talking about our country. 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. The truth shall make you free.

Good day.