UNBIASED - Kari Lake Leaked Audio, First U.S. Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution, Columbia University Attack, Biden Admin Pushes Back on Immigration Proposal for Student Workers, and More.

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

1. FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAY (1:27) New Hampshire Primary: Winners & Losers, Why Biden Wasn't on the Ballot, Haley's Future Plans, and More (1:27) Biden Admin Pushes Back on University of California Proposal to Hire Undocumented Students on Campus (4:31) Jeff DeWit Resigns Amid Leaked Bribe Audio (8:01) Senior FDIC Attorney Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography and Exploitation Charges (13:03) Alabama Carries Out First Execution By Nitrogen Hypoxia (14:34) Ohio Legislature Overrides Governor's Veto of Transgender Bill (18:14) Former Trump Adviser, Peter Navarro, Sentenced to Four Months (19:34) Columbia University Attack: What We Know and What We Don't (20:35) 2. ONE LINERS (23:37)3. NOT EVERYTHING IS BAD: Good News of the Week (24:47)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!Watch this episode on YouTube.Subscribe to Jordan's weekly free newsletter featuring hot topics in the news, trending lawsuits, and more.Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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call the Conax Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. I'm your host, Jordan, and I hope you enjoy the show. Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Friday, January 26th, 2024. This episode was recorded yesterday around 4.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Today is what I'm calling free-for-all Friday. Typically, I like to break this up into segments, right? I'll do, you know, a deep dive and then I'll do quick hitters. And every Friday I do Not Everything Is Bad That's Staying The Same. But I didn't really feel there

was a story I wanted to deep dive into. So it's pretty much just eight stories that are varying lengths. Some are shorter than others, but yeah, I just kind of felt like doing it that way today. So free for all Friday is what I'm calling it. Then we'll do one-liners, which you really liked from last episode. So I would like to keep including that. And then we'll finish with not everything is bad which is my friday good news to leave you feeling a little more positive a little bit lighter going into the weekend before we get into the stories let me just give you the episode reminder to go ahead and leave me a review if you love what you hear and if you haven't already you can do this on any podcast platform

you listen on or if you're a youtube watcher you can actually just click thumbs up on every single video of mine and that shows your support as well. So without further ado, let's get into today's stories. President Biden and former President Trump won their respective parties in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, which I'm sure you heard about, but I want to talk about some other details that haven't been talked about as much, including the fact that President Biden wasn't actually on the New Hampshire ballot. Instead, he managed to secure roughly 60% of the votes just through write-ins. Now, the reason that he wasn't on the ballot, which I did cover briefly in a past episode, the January 16th episode, is because following the 2020 election, the Democratic

National Committee decided to make South Carolina its first election primary. And according to the Democratic Party, this move was made because South Carolina is more representative of Black voters, and it's also a more reliable predictor of which Democratic nominee will ultimately end up on the general election ballot. But what this move effectively meant is that New Hampshire would no longer be the party's first primary. And keep in mind, we're talking only about primaries here. Caucuses and primaries serve the same purpose, but they are different. So Iowa's caucus being the nation's first is a non-issue.

It's New Hampshire's primary that's the issue here. That's what's competing with South Carolina. The thing is, New Hampshire has a law called HB 73. It was enacted in 1975, and it gives New Hampshire Secretary of State the power to schedule the state's primary on whatever date that ensured it would be the nation's first primary. So that is exactly what New Hampshire did. It scheduled its primary this year to happen before South Carolina's primary, even though the DNC scheduled South Carolina's primary to be the first in the country. So the DNC was like, well, we're not going to count your primary. And President Biden took the DNC's side and purposely did not put his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot because of this.

But that, of course, it didn't prevent people from, you know, writing in President Biden's name, which is ultimately how he ended up winning. So that's the story with that. But I also want to mention that President Biden had two challengers, a man named Dean Phillips. He's a representative of Minnesota and a woman named Marianne Williamson. She's an author and spiritual advisor. Now, Dean Phillips received about 20% of the votes. Marianne Williamson received about 4% of the votes. As far as Republicans go, Donald Trump saw 54% of the votes. Nikki Haley saw about 43% of the votes. Nikki Haley did say after her loss that she does plan to continue to compete in South Carolina and beyond that, but Donald Trump and President Biden have both said that it's clear in their eyes that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. From here, in the

short term at least, the Democratic Party will hold their first or next primary, I guess I should say, in South Carolina on February 3rd. The Republican Party will hold their next caucuses in Nevada and the Virgin Islands on February 8th. And then the Republicans will make their way to South Carolina on February 24th. The second story I have is that the Biden administration is reportedly pushing back on a new potential policy out of the University of California that would allow undocumented students to hold jobs on campus. So here's what's happening. The university's board of regents is considering implementing a new policy

that would allow the hiring of immigrant students who don't have the legally required work authorization. And this proposal, just as a side note, it's not new. It's actually been being discussed since at least 2022, but it's getting closer to potentially being adopted. So it's being talked about more and more. But the issue with it, according to the Biden administration, is that it contradicts federal law, which prohibits this kind of work authorization. Specifically, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 makes it unlawful for a person or entity to hire or recruit, quote, any alien knowing that such person is unauthorized to work, end quote. So what the Biden administration doesn't want, especially in an election year, is for the university to implement this policy because then

the Biden administration would have to sue them and challenge it as contradictory to federal law. And that just wouldn't be a good look for the administration given their immigration policies. And I also do want to mention that the individuals that the university is trying to employ are those that were brought into the United States as children. They would have been allowed to work under DACA, but in 2021, a federal judge found DACA unlawful and blocked new applicants from enrolling. So this is sort of the university's attempt at trying to get around the blockade in a way, I guess you could say. Now, you might be wondering if this is a direct contradiction of federal law, what authority does the university have to even implement such a policy? Well,

the argument from the legal scholars within the university is that the federal law at issue does not apply to the states. And the particular precedent that they cite to is Supreme Court precedent. It was a case that said unless a federal law mentions the states explicitly, the federal law doesn't bind state government entities. But as we know, and as we've talked about, we have the supremacy clause, which effectively invalidates any state law that directly contradicts federal law, because federal law, when in contradiction with state law, supersedes. And in fact, one of the reasons that this policy hasn't yet been implemented is because there are multiple outside legal opinions, which were specifically solicited

by the university's office of the president, that have cast a little bit of doubt on their argument regarding that Supreme Court precedent. But anyway, the point is, the new policy, if it's implemented by the university, would have to be challenged by the Biden administration, and they don't want to do that in an election year because it would kind of just go against everything that they stand for. So according to four university officials, the Department of Homeland Security has been sort of pressing the university to reconsider it and consider not implementing this policy right now. The Board of Regents discussed the proposal yesterday behind closed

doors and it was being said they could potentially vote on it. But as of the time that this episode is being recorded, we don't yet know if it was approved or if it was even voted on. The third story is this resignation of Arizona's GOP chair Jeff DeWitt. So Jeff DeWitt resigned on Wednesday following this leaked audio in which he appeared to attempt to bribe Carrie Lake to not run for Senate. So I'm going to play a snippet of the audio so you can get a feel for what it was, but first I just want to provide a little bit of context. This audio was recorded last March. At the time, Carrie Lake had lost a bid for Arizona governor and was getting ready to run for Senate. She's a Republican. Jeff DeWitt is also a

Republican. Jeff DeWitt is actually Arizona's Republican party chair. Now in the call, you'll hear DeWitt sort of trying to convince Lake not to run for Senator because the Republicans were, at the time, seeking GOP nominees that would that would be more viable in general elections. Now, this is following the midterms when Republicans didn't do as well as they had expected to. So DeWitt and the people who wanted Lake out were afraid that because of Lake's strong stance in support of Trump, her claims about election interference and just conspiracies generally, she didn't have a great shot. So here's a snippet of the audio. Is there a number at which I can be bought?

That's what it's about. You can take a box for a couple of years. No. And then go right back to what you're doing. No. 10 million, 20 million, 30. No, no, no. A billion? No. This is not about money. This is about our country. I am not going to let these people who hate our country tell me not to run. You should call them and tell them to get behind me. So what's going on? What is, I'm assuming this is our friend. This is, this is, this is back east. They, there are very powerful people that want to keep you out. I know they do. But they're willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.

So, this conversation never happened. This is crazy, though. They should want me. I'm a great candidate. People love me. These people are corrupt. Well, maybe you're right. They are right. They are corrupt.

Maybe you're right. This is a wrap. Don't go. Did you ever know? I don't get myself in trouble. This, if you say no, which is fine. It's your choice. Don't tell people. So shortly after that audio leaked, Lake was at a Trump New Hampshire primary victory party, and she told an NBC reporter, quote, he's got to resign. We can't have somebody who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party, end quote. And DeWitt ultimately did resign just hours after Lake told the reporter that, and he released a statement that said in part,

quote, in light of the recent revelation that Carrie Lake has released a selectively edited audio recording of our private conversation, I must clearly address this deceptive tactic. The recording from over 10 months ago is not only taken out of context, but also undermines the integrity of private discussions critical for party leadership. As chairman, my primary duty is to strengthen our party, which often involves challenging dialogues and strategic decisions. These conversations are meant to assess and enhance the viability of our candidates. The truth is, when I took the helm, our party was in disarray, financially unstable, organizationally weak, and lacking a momentum. Today we have made significant improvements in acquiring a new office headquarters, legal victories for election

integrity, and historic fundraising achievements. Contrary to the notion of me being an enemy of Lake's, this conversation was recorded while I was actually employing Lake in my private company. This act of recording was not just a betrayal of trust, but also a violation of the fiduciary responsibilities of an employee. Contrary to accusations of bribery, my discussions were transparent and intended to offer perspective, not coercion. I genuinely believed I was offering a helpful perspective to someone I considered a friend. I said things I regret, but I realized when hearing Lake's recording that I was set up. I believe she orchestrated this entire situation to have control

over the state party, and it is obvious from the recording that she crafted her performance responses with the knowledge that she was recording it, intending to use this recording later to portray herself as a hero in her own story. This morning, I was determined to fight for my position. However, a few hours ago, I received an ultimatum from Lake's team. Resign today or face the release of new, more damaging recording. I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk.

I am resigning as Lake requested in the hope that she will honor her commitment to cease her attacks, allowing me to return to the business sector, a field I find much more logical and prefer over politics. And the statement goes on, I just read you a little bit of it, but that is what he had to say about the leak. Now, while we're on the topic of the government, let's talk about my next story, which is about the senior FDIC attorney that pled guilty to sexually exploiting children. Mark Black, a senior attorney with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has pled guilty to one charge of sexually exploiting children after he was found to be a member of two online groups dedicated to finding prepubescent girls and convincing them to live stream themselves engaging in sexually explicit content. Black was hired by

the FDIC back in 2013. He worked there up until his suspension amid this investigation, but according to court documents between January 2018 and October 2021, Black was a member of these groups that would covertly record the children's conduct and share the videos with his co-conspirators. Specifically in July 2019, Black induced a prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit content on a live streaming app while screen recording the activity. The same month, Black and a co-conspirator groomed another prepubescent minor to engage in sexually explicit acts. Black's co-conspirator allegedly hacked into the girl's

live video feed and recorded the sexual acts before sending them to Black. Black pled guilty on Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement. He's currently scheduled to be sentenced on April 30th. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison. The fifth story is about the country's first ever execution by nitrogen hypoxia. At the time that this episode is being recorded, the execution is set to go forward Thursday night, obviously notwithstanding any unforeseen events. So if it doesn't go forward for whatever reason, just know that this episode was recorded prior to it being called off, but it is scheduled for Thursday night. For those that have been with me since the beginning,

know I have a particular interest in the death penalty. Ever since my death penalty in the law class in law school, I just found it incredibly fascinating. And a fun fact about me is that I actually had the chance to speak to a death row inmate. His name is Kenneth Reams. We talked on the phone in one of my classes, and I was able to ask him some questions. It was definitely a memorable experience. But anyway, a different Kenneth, this one, his name is Kenneth Eugene Smith. He is scheduled to be the first death row inmate to be executed through a method called nitrogen hypoxia. Nitrogen hypoxia has never been used when it comes to executions,

but it's basically where the inmate has a respirator mask placed over his face, the oxygen is replaced with pure nitrogen gas, and the deprivation of oxygen leads to unconsciousness and ultimately death. Now, it's said to be a more humane way to execute, given that the gas is odorless, colorless, and supposedly painless, but the issue is, up until now, it's never been used, so there's not really, you can't really definitively say one way or the other. But the reason that nitrogen hypoxia is being used now is because this man, Kenneth Smith, went through a botched execution in 2022. That execution was attempted using the lethal injection, but officials weren't able to place the IV. So this time around, they're using a

different method. Now, each state differs in their execution methods. Alabama's primary method of execution is the lethal injection. In the event that the lethal injection is unavailable, nitrogen hypoxia is a backup method. Why would the lethal injection be unavailable, you ask? Well, without getting too deep into the depths of the history of the lethal injection, execution drugs have been getting increasingly harder to obtain. The United States used to source them from Europe, but when Europe banned the death penalty, protection execution drugs have been getting increasingly harder to obtain the united states

used to source them from europe but when europe banned the death penalty we started sourcing them here at home from various compounding pharmacies but in doing that it led to other issues like lack of potency contamination issues things like that so on top of the lack of availability the contamination and other issues were causing quote-unquote botched executions. Because of this, some states like Alabama put their executions on hold, which led to these states sort of seeking out these other methods of execution. So earlier this year, following the adoption of a nitrogen hypoxia protocol, Alabama's

Attorney General asked the state Supreme Court to set a date for the first nitrogen hypoxia protocol, Alabama's attorney general asked the state Supreme Court to set a date for the first nitrogen hypoxia execution. Kenneth Smith challenged his execution under the Eighth Amendment. He argued that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. He's essentially being used as an experiment. But on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States did allow the execution to go forward. Now, again, at the time that this episode is being recorded, the execution hasn't yet taken place. Typically, these executions happen around 6 p.m. Eastern time, and that's actually when his execution is scheduled for. If the execution ends up going forward and there aren't any unforeseen issues, I will most likely post a video to social

media discussing more details like, you know, his final meal, his last words, whether the new method worked as it was intended to, things like that. But that is where we're at as of now. The sixth story. Ohio's legislature overrode the governor's veto on Wednesday of a bill that blocks physicians from performing, quote, gender reassignment surgery or prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to assist a minor with gender transition. The bill also bans transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams at all levels, so elementary school through college. And Ohio's governor, who is a Republican, had vetoed the legislation,

saying that he had talked to many parents of transgender kids who told him that gender-affirming care saved their children's lives. So in vetoing the bill, he said, quote, parents have looked me in the eye and have told me that but for this treatment, their child would be dead. Ultimately, I think this is about protecting human life, end quote. Following the governor's veto, the bill went back to the House, where the House voted 65 to 23 to override the veto. It then went to the Senate on Wednesday, where it passed 23 to 9, and set the stage for the law to take effect in 90 days. This passage makes Ohio the 22nd state with a law that restricts minors

access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and also the 24th state that bans transgender athletes from playing on women's school sports teams. Story number seven, Trump's former advisor Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in jail on Thursday for contempt of Congress. Navarro was convicted back in September on two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee, which was investigating January 6th at the time. Navarro was supposed to testify in front of the committee. He never showed up. He was also supposed to provide certain documents, but didn't provide them. Now, prosecutors had originally asked that Navarro be sentenced to six months for each count, so totaling one year in jail, plus a $200,000 fine, but the

judge instead opted for four months and a $9,500 fine. Navarro quickly appealed this case the same day to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He also filed a motion to stay the sentencing while the case is on appeal, but the judge hasn't yet ruled on that because Navarro has a week to submit a brief regarding that issue, and then following that, the judge, you know, will rule at some point thereafter. on social media talking about a recent attack at Columbia University. Some social media accounts have called it a terror attack. Some have called it a chemical attack. Some have said the attackers were Columbia students. Others have said they weren't. There's all kinds of narratives swirling, but it hasn't really been reported on by the media. So let's talk about the facts. First, the undisputed facts. There was a pro-Palestine rally happening at Columbia University, and what we know is that two people approached the rally and sprayed a

quote, foul-smelling substance, end quote. This led to the protesters obviously smelling a terrible smell, but also experiencing symptoms like headache, nausea, and burning eyes. According to the NYPD, the victims refused medical attention at the scene, but at some point thereafter, at least three students sought medical attention. I've seen reports that say anywhere from three to eight students. The school's provost said that the NYPD is taking the, quote, lead role in investigating what appears to have been serious crimes, possibly hate crimes, end quote. The NYPD's forensics lab also has possession of some of the clothing worn by these students and is working to determine what the clothes can be tested for, if anything. So those

are the undisputed facts. Now this is where we don't have definitive answers. Neither Columbia nor the NYPD have confirmed whether the two individuals were students of Columbia. Columbia has said that it identified the perpetrators and banned them from campus, but did not go as far as to say whether they were students. Neither Columbia nor the NYPD have confirmed whether these two were members of the IDF, though that is a storyline that is swirling. Not only did the Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace

say that the two perpetrators were members of the IDF, but some social media sleuths have identified one of the men from a previous interview he did with CBS, where he was wearing a Columbia University hat. His name is Menajem Perez, and they say he is a former IDF soldier from Florida who tried to rejoin the IDF when the war broke out in October. Independent news outlets and outlets within Columbia University, but not the university itself, have reported that the chemical agent that was sprayed is called Skunk, which these various outlets say is a chemical that the IDF uses specifically in the West Bank for crowd control purposes. Students at Columbia held an emergency walkout protest on Wednesday. They were basically

protesting the university, saying the university is not doing enough about the attack, that just banning these two people from campus is not enough. So that is what we know. And again, this is being investigated by the NYPD. They haven't released much information at this point. They have not yet declared it a hate crime. So there's not much we know for certain as of this moment. Now let's get into one-liners. One-liners is my new segment where I give you some headlines. I tell you what's going on, doesn't necessarily deserve more than one line. So let's get into it. Number one, the defense in E. Jean Carroll's defamation case rested on Thursday after Donald Trump very briefly took the stand, saying he stood by his testimony in his deposition,

that he never instructed anyone to harm E. Jean Carroll, and that he stands by his denial of Carroll's sex abuse allegation. Two, CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet with Israel, Egypt, and Qatar in Europe in the coming days to discuss a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Three, Florida's House of Representatives passed a bill banning social media for kids under the age of 16, regardless of parental approval. This bill now heads to the state Senate. And number four, Johnson & Johnson will pay $149.5 billion to Washington state to settle claims that it helped fuel the state's opioid crisis, and $700 million to settle investigations brought by more than 40 states over its talcum-based baby powder.

And now for some good news. I don't know about you, but I am ready for it. An 11-year-old boy is hearing for the first time ever after receiving a breakthrough gene therapy. Assam Dam was born deaf because of an incredibly rare abnormality in a single gene. Basically, not to get too scientific, but this one defective gene prevents the production of autofurlin, which is this critical protein for the sound-sensitive cells of the inner ear called hair cells, to be able to convert sound vibrations into chemical signals that are then sent to the brain.

In deaf people, this gene abnormality only accounts for about 1-8% of those that suffer with hearing loss at birth, so it's incredibly rare. The therapy involves partially lifting the eardrum and injecting a modified yet supposedly harmless virus which transports working copies of the autofurlin gene into the fluid of the cochlea. From there, the hair cells then begin making the protein that it was once deprived of, and it eventually works properly. Dom received the treatment on October 4th, 2023 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and four months in, his hearing has improved to the point where he only has mild to moderate hearing loss and can hear for the first time ever. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. I hope

you have a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the playoffs. We're almost at the Super Bowl. That's crazy. And go Lions, as always. And I will talk to you on Tuesday.