The President's Daily Brief - September 22nd, 2022. Russia Escalates War, Calls for More Troops.

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

It’s September 22nd. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ Russia has announced a major escalation in its War in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of new troops mobilized. I’ve got those details — plus three things that you should be watching for. As always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, some bad news for Dirty Green Energy. An industrial battery in California caught on fire, a highway shut down, people locked inside their homes. Some important lessons, coming up.  Second, the Biden Administration committed $200M to Central American countries yesterday for humanitarian purposes. Bad timing, though: a former first lady in Honduras was just convicted for stealing the same. And finally, the last thing before I let you go. A listener question about another former US military general comparing conservatives in this country to Nazis. We’ll discuss it. ------ 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 September 22nd. 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. First up, Russia has announced a major escalation in its war in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of new troops mobilized. I've got those details, plus three things that you should be watching for. As always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, some bad news for dirty green energy. An industrial battery in California caught on fire. A highway was shut down and people were locked inside their homes. Some important lessons coming up.

Second, the Biden administration committed $200 million to Central American countries yesterday for humanitarian purposes. Bad timing, though. A former First Lady in Honduras was just convicted for stealing the same. And finally, the last thing before I let you go, a listener question about another former U.S. military general comparing conservatives in this country to Nazis. We'll discuss it. But first, let's get started with today's main brief. We've got a critical update this morning in the war of attrition between Russia, Ukraine, and the West, including the United States. But before I get into the details, I want to emphasize that this is perhaps the most important update that I've given you on this issue since the war

started. It is a major escalation and will be a critical chapter in whatever comes next, to include America and our allies getting much more involved. So with that, here's what we know. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country's first mass mobilization of troops since World War II. He and his minister of defense are calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists. After a couple of weeks of refresher training, they will be sent to the front lines. The goal, it appears, is not to advance the war further into Ukrainian territory, but hold the ground that they have. So to refresh our memories, the last few weeks have not been good for the Russians.

They have lost a lot of territory in the Northern Front, plus they're trying to hold the rest of what they've captured, which is a 600-mile-long chunk of Ukrainian ground. But clearly, the Russians aren't able to do that with the professional soldiers that they have in the country. They have suffered very heavy casualties of some of their best fighters. So they are ordering up this mass mobilization, which Putin and his Minister of Defense are calling partial rather than a nationwide draft of all eligible men and women. By the way, the exact number of reservists being called up is actually unknown.

Some press outlets are reporting 300,000, but that figure comes from the Minister of Defense, who is known for spreading falsehoods. So the all-end number could be substantially more or a bit less. Meanwhile, what we're seeing from local reporting inside Russia is that Moscow is looking for former tank drivers, combat engineers, and snipers. That suggests which groups of people have been most often killed or injured. Meanwhile, there are other battlefield requirements that we're learning about, types of personnel needed, but those are actually being held back from the press because

they are classified, at least according to reports from Reuters and others. But regardless of who they recruit, the actual biggest challenge that Putin and his military face is not the quantity of troops. In fact, there's a pool of at least 25. million Russian men that they could leverage. Rather, the issue is whether they can sufficiently train and equip this new group of fighters, plus maintain high morale. There are some doctrinal reasons for this, and it's actually really interesting. Russia puts their new recruits directly into units, and they get trained by men in those units, but that's not how we do it. We send our recruits

off to basic training programs, like at Paris Island when you join the Marine Corps. The reason for why this could be a big deal, is that as these new Russian recruits show up to their units, well, those units might be down 40% of their fighters to include their best trainers, because either they are dead or injured. So that means that the new recruits might not be very combat effective. One last final piece here before we pivot into analysis and opinion. There's a lot of speculation about how the average Russian will handle this news. You may have seen reports about young men trying to fly out of Russia in a mad scramble. I've seen these reports and there's probably some truth to them,

but I don't have high confidence in the information as of this moment. But it's something that I'll be watching for because it speaks to morale and the field. So with that, let's talk analysis and opinion. I want to offer you three critical takeaways to understand this major development out of Moscow and what it means to you. And I offer this based on what I'm reading and hearing for, from folks involved in this war. First, Putin would not be doing any of this

unless his current forces were being absolutely beat up in this war of attrition. What's now clear is Moscow has lost many of its best fighters. They're either dead or wounded. And Putin knows this, so he's trying to solve it by sheer numbers, hundreds of thousands of replacements. Second, this is a major gamble by Vladimir Putin. He could have sued for peace or pretended

that he actually won in Ukraine and then just withdrawn, but he mobilized hundreds of thousands of new troops. By doing so, he has staked the future of his country and the future of his rule on winning. So if he loses, Putin knows that he will share the same fate of Saddam Hussein in Iraq or Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, both of whom are dead. That means Vladimir Putin is more dangerous this morning than ever,

which leads to the third key take-upy, away. We are now living in a much more dangerous world. As Putin's Minister of Defense said yesterday, Russia is fighting not just Ukraine, but rather the entire West to include America and our allies. That means that we are all now at greater risk for direct attack. We are bigger targets than we were just a couple of days ago, which begs the question, where do things go from here? And frankly, I don't think anybody really knows. I've been speaking and listening to military analysts and Russian experts, and there is universal agreement that we are in absolute uncharted territory. But we do know this. Putin has all but said that Moscow will try to freeze Europe to

its knees this winter. So his goal is to force Paris and London and Berlin to call off their involvement in this war and force Ukraine to make concessions, all because the people and the economies of Europe are freezing to death. So that explains what I'm hearing this morning that these new Russian forces won't probably be used for offensive campaigns, but rather just to hold the line and wait as Europe freezes. And that's why I'll be watching for two things over the next six months. First, weather. The colder it gets, the more energy Europe will use, like natural gas. And the more of that they use, the faster that they run out of it. And that means people freeze and so too will European economies. Second, I'll be watching Russia's two big supporters,

China and India. So to refresh our memories here, those nations have dramatically increased their purchases of Russian oil and natural gas and coal, China in particular. And so long as that continues, Russia can afford losses of both humans and cash. Plus, China is a discrete provider of some really important military supplies. Unfortunately, I can't get into specifics here, but Moscow has to bust sanctions to get some very important, very critical supplies to build and replace missiles and tanks and high-tech gear. China is very critical in that process. So if Beijing cracks down and prevents that flow of high-tech parts back into Russia, well, Moscow has then got a big weapons problem. One brief final note, Ukraine has already done something similar to what

Russia is now doing. That is, of course, a mass mobilization. They did it shortly after Russia invaded in February. That's given them time to train and arm themselves with advanced weapons. mostly by you. Joe Biden has committed American taxpayers to north of $60 billion in both weapons and foreign aid. So bottom line, folks, yesterday was a big day for the war of attrition. Vladimir Putin knows he's struggling, far more than what he and his advisors likely expected when they first invaded. And so as he tries to write his ship and commit hundreds of thousands of more troops, he becomes much more dangerous. Not just because of the size or capability of this new supply of soldiers, but rather because desperate men do desperate things. Now, to be clear, Putin's

not desperate, at least not right now. But yesterday's announcement was certainly a step in that direction. Coming up, ladies and gentlemen, a closer look at what's on my radar. Two quick briefs for you, one on dirty green energy and the other on foreign aid to Central America. We'll be right back. 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.

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wind energy, amongst other things, and it burst into flames, as lithium ion batteries sometimes do. The county sheriff issued an emergency shelter-in-place order, told folks to shut off ventilation systems and close their windows out of fear that the toxic chemical smoke from those batteries would get inside of people's homes and their lungs. Meanwhile, they shut down the famous highway one along the coast for both fear of smoke and explosions. The fire is now under control, but it was a reminder to residents that lithium ion fires are notoriously bad and usually very hard to put out, all because they burn at such hot temperatures and emit toxic fumes. To the point, last year there was a similar fire of a Tesla battery in Australia. It took firefighters three days in hazmat suits

to put it out. We've also seen electric cars burst into flames during shipment to include when a cargo vessel full of battery powered cars burst into flames, sinking that ship and requiring a rescue operation for the crew of 22. So bottom line, folks, there is no such thing as perfect energy, and dirty green renewables are no different. So keep this story though in mind if you do choose to go dirty green and you have those battery packs in your garage, they are a fire danger and you should have an emergency plan to deal with it. Second up this morning, the U.S. Secretary of State announced yesterday that he is sending 200 million of your taxpayer dollars to Mexico and Central America, all for additional humanitarian assistance. Secretary Blinken said, quote,

our assistance will support the humanitarian and protection needs of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, vulnerable migrants all in Mexico and Central America, end quote. He went on to say that this $200 million is actually in addition to the 595,000, million previously provided since 2018. Now, this story might not seem all that interesting until you hear this. Also happening yesterday, as Secretary Blinken was speaking, a court in Honduras sentenced the country's former first lady to 14 years in prison, all on charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds destined for, yeah, you guessed it, humanitarian and social

programs. Miss Rosa Bonilla absconded with around one million bucks meant for low-income kids. She instead spent it on personal credit cards, her own children, real estate ventures, and so forth. Her son, by the way, Fabio Lobo, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by U.S. court back in 2017 after he pled guilty to charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. One more interesting thing. So the president and first lady that came after Miss Rosa Bonilla and her husband, well, that family was also involved in a cocaine ring that cooperated with Mexican cartels,

who in turn sent them millions of dollars in bribes. So folks, I'll let you decide how likely it is that this latest $200 million from the Biden administration will go to humanitarian causes or something else. And with that, we are about to finish this morning's edition of the president, Daily Brief. But as always, I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back. As the Krispy Chicken Sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud.

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Stay connected when it counts. Stream Fox News on Facebook. Fox One. Download today. Welcome back to the PDB, ladies and gentlemen. I've got one more thing before I let you go this morning. Allison from Rapid City, South Dakota wrote in asking about a former U.S. general comparing Republicans to Nazis. She wanted to know why this seems to keep happening. What Allison was referring to was a tweet by retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey. So last Saturday, he compared Donald Trump's rally in Ohio to rally. Rally is held by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party.

So here is what he tweeted. Quote, astonishing Trump language. The crowd is similar to a Nuremberg rally in 1936. A lawless Trump in office in 2024 would slide us into autocracy and deny us our constitutional safeguards. This is our greatest danger as a nation since 1860. Vote.

Well, Allison, we can add this tweet to the long and growing list of former military and intelligence officials in this country who compare Republicans generally and Trump supporters specifically to Nazis. Remember that back in 2018, former CIA and NSA Director General Michael Hayden compared Trump and his policies to the horrors of the Auschwitz-Burkenau concentration camp, where 1.1 million Jews were slaughtered. In the years since Hayden made that comment, we have heard and seen this same horrific rhetoric again and again. not just by former military and intel folks, but by pundits and politicians too.

That includes Joe Biden, who has called MAGA Republicans, however he defines that, as a threat to America. Allison, I've thought a lot about what's happening, about this rhetoric and where it leads. So let me share that with you. What these folks are doing is a classic political strategy. They use fear to build and encourage a base of power. And it's a classic strategy because it works. Fearful people are much easier to manipulate, to make them abandoned rational thinking, and instead embrace anxiety and panic.

And the result of all that hysteria gets people to the voting booth. But as we've talked about before, once you start that political brushfire, you don't control it. It burns wherever the mob takes it. History is full of examples of this. examples that always end in violence and death. And sadly, we might have an example of that right here in America, right now. Reporters in North Dakota are sharing details that a man named Shannon Brandt confessed to killing a North Dakota teenager because the 18-year-old victim was, quote, part of a Republican extremist

group, end quote. Mr. Brandt ran over the victim with his car repeatedly. Now, there is no indication that the victim. them was, in fact, an extremist of any kind. Indeed, there was simply a fight over politics. In the coming days, we'll see what the facts show in this case, but what history makes clear is that when people like General McCaffrey or General Hayden and frankly, even Joe Biden, when they tell their followers that the other side is evil, they're Nazis, not even human, a threat to democracy. Well, eventually, their followers really start to believe them. And that's when

people get hurt. That's when countries fall apart. So Allison, I'll tell you what I had told my own family. Be alert, be prepared, and be engaged. And that means vote for people who hold your values and understand that this rhetoric of violence and division is both unacceptable and must be confronted. Still, Allison, we're going to get through this. I have faith in that. We just have to be very, very vigilant. 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.