UNBIASED - May 15, 2024: Biden and Trump Agree to Debate, Boeing Open to Criminal Prosecution Per DOJ Court Filing, $1B Arms Sale to Israel, $2B in Aid for Ukraine, and More.
Episode Date: May 15, 20241. DOJ Notifies Boeing and Federal Court of Boeing's Breach of Deferred Prosecution Agreement, Potentially Paving Way for Criminal Prosecution (0:35)2. Biden and Trump Agree to Debate; Here's What You... Need to Know About Debate Requirements, Statements From Both, and Why Both Want to Ditch the Commission (5:19)3. Announcement Re: Tomorrow's Episode (11:45)3. Quick Hitters: TikTok Users Sue Federal Government Over 'TikTok Ban,' Biden Administration Notifies Congress of $1B Arms Sale to Israel and Announces $2B in Aid for Ukraine, House Passes FAA Re-Authorization Bill (13:24)Watch this episode on YouTube.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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM,
an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League.
Yard after yard, down after down,
the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone
and celebrate every highlight reel play.
And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL,
BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day.
With a variety of exciting features,
BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron
and to embrace peak sports action.
Ready for another season of gridiron glory?
What are you waiting for?
Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long.
Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions.
Must be 19 years of age or older.
Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance,
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.
Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Wednesday, May 15th, and this is your daily news rundown.
Now, before we get into the stories, I do just want to tell you that outside,
there could not be more noise happening. I got landscapers across the street,
we got planes flying in the air. So I'm going to hope that my microphone is good enough to where you don't pick up on that. But I just wanted to give you
a heads up as to what I'm dealing with, just in case you can't hear it. I got to get this episode
out before five. So, you know, there's only so much I can do. Anyway, let's get right into the
stories. We're going to start with a story from yesterday afternoon, which is that the Department
of Justice notified a federal court in Texas that Boeing breached a
deferred prosecution agreement, potentially paving the way for criminal charges against the company.
You may remember the Lion Air 737 MAX crash in October 2018, and then the Ethiopian Airlines
737 MAX crash in March 2019. Those two crashes happened within a six-month span. It led to
charges against Boeing and a subsequent deferred prosecution agreement. For clarity's sake,
a deferred prosecution agreement, which is sometimes called a DPA for short, allows a
defendant to avoid prosecution so long as that defendant cooperates with the terms of the
agreement. A charging document is still filed
with the court, but at the same time, the prosecutors will request that the prosecution
be postponed, giving the defendant time to demonstrate its good conduct. If the defendant
complies with the terms of the agreement, the charges will be dismissed. But if the defendant
breaches the agreement, the defendant opens themselves up to prosecution.
In certain situations, deferred prosecution agreements can be beneficial. It can give the
defendant the opportunity to right its wrongs while at the same time saving time, resources,
money. You avoid litigation costs. You don't take up the court's time. You preserve the government's
time and money, things like that. In this case, the DOJ entered
into a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing in 2021 following those two crashes in 2018 and
2019. The families of the victims of the crashes were not happy with it because it avoided Boeing's
criminal prosecution, but the agreement was formalized nonetheless. Under that agreement,
Boeing paid $2.5 billion in penalties and in
short promised to improve its safety and compliance protocols. Now, I know that I don't need to tell
you that Boeing clearly has not improved its safety and compliance protocols in the last few
years, but just, you know, just because let's walk through some of the mishaps. In September 2021,
just a few months after it entered into the agreement, Boeing disclosed that it found two empty tequila bottles inside one of the 747 jets that was being refurbished to use as the next generation of Air Force One.
A couple of months later, December 2021, the flight crew of a 737 MAX 8 plane descending on autopilot said the plane momentarily lost control when it, quote, violently rolled to the right without warning. A similar incident, almost the exact same thing,
happened a year later in November 2022. In April 2023, Boeing delayed deliveries of the 737 MAX,
announcing its supplier used a, quote, non-standard manufacturing process. In January 2024,
that whole thing happened with Alaska Airlines
737 MAX 9 flight. The door plug flew out because there were four missing bolts. In March 2024,
the FAA identified more safety issues with the engines of the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner.
And then of course, just last month, we had those whistleblower complaints come in,
which stated that Boeing took shortcuts when manufacturing its streamliner jets.
One thing worth noting, though, is although I just went over a bunch of different mishaps, the deferred prosecution agreement in this case was specific to the development of the 737 MAX plane.
So even though I just ran through a series of mishaps, only those mishaps that occurred with 737 MAX planes would technically be
in breach of the DPA. In filing its letter to the judge, the government wrote that it had notified
Boeing of its determination that Boeing breached its obligations in multiple parts of the agreement
by, quote, failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the
U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations, end quote. The DOJ also wrote, quote, for failing to
fulfill completely the terms of and obligations under the agreement, Boeing is subject to
prosecution by the United States for any federal criminal violation of which the United States
has knowledge, end quote.
Despite this letter, though, the Justice Department has not yet come out and said
it's going to prosecute the case. In fact, they don't know how they're going to proceed as of now.
Boeing has until June 13th to respond to the DOJ's letter to the judge, and then the DOJ says it'll
let the court know by July 7th how it wants to proceed with the case, presumably once
it reviews Boeing's response. Boeing has denied all wrongdoing. It said in a statement, quote,
we believe that we have honored the terms of the agreement and look forward to the opportunity
to respond to the department on this issue, end quote. Moving on to the big piece of news of the
day. President Biden and former President Trump are officially set to
debate first on June 27th and then a couple of months later on September 10th. Note that first
date though, June 27th. That is early. Typically, and I'll talk about this a lot more in tomorrow's
episode, which I'll touch on in a minute, Usually we don't see debates between the presidential candidates
until September, October-ish after the national conventions. But in this case, it's a little bit
different of a situation because one, we already know who the nominees are going to be for each
party. And two, both Trump and Biden are against the September, October schedule. And I'll touch
on that in a minute. Over the last few weeks,
the sort of tit-for-tat remarks between Biden and Trump and questions about whether they're
even going to debate, those all ramped up. But today, both Biden and Trump confirmed the debates
were on. Biden said in two subsequent posts on X, quote, I've received and accepted an invitation
from CNN for a debate on June 27th. Over to you,
Donald. As you said, anywhere, anytime, anyplace, end quote. He followed that up with another post,
quote, I've also received and accepted an invitation to debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday,
September 10th. Trump says he'll arrange his own transportation. I'll bring my plane too.
I plan on keeping it for another four years, end quote. Trump then wrote
his own post on Truth Social, which said, quote, it's time for a debate so that he can explain to
the American people his highly destructive open border policy, new and ridiculous EV mandates,
the allowance of crushing inflation, high taxes, and his really weak foreign policy,
which is allowing the world to, quote, catch on fire. I am ready
and willing to debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September. I would
strongly recommend more than two debates and for excitement purposes, a very large venue,
although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds. That's only because he doesn't get them.
Just tell me when I'll be there. Let's get ready to rumble, end quote. In a separate post, Trump confirmed his acceptance
of ABC's debate invitation for September 10th. Now, Trump's remark about Biden being afraid of
crowds stems from Biden's debate proposal laid out by Biden's campaign, which requested that
the debates occur inside a TV studio with microphones that automatically cut off when
a speaker's time is
done, and that the debate only involves the two candidates and a moderator, no in-person audience,
RFK Jr., or any other third-party candidate. And this brings me to my last point. Both campaigns,
Trump and Biden, are against the schedule and format proposed by the Commission on Presidential
Debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates is the commission that is responsible for sponsoring and producing
presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988. It was established in 1987 under the joint
sponsorship of the Democratic and Republican parties, but now both camps have their issues
with the commission. I saw a post on X
that said Biden was the only one that wanted to sort of deviate from the commission's structure,
but it's actually both of them. Biden's campaign announced earlier today it wouldn't participate
in the process that the commission had proposed, instead laid out its own terms. Biden's campaign
chair said the commission is, quote, out of step with changes in the structure of our elections and the interests of voters, end quote. Then the Republican National
Committee, this was actually last month, said it would quit the commission because of concerns
about not only the timing of debates, but also accusations of bias. Both Biden and Trump have
taken issue with the commission's proposed debate dates in September
and October, which traditionally is when these debates have occurred. But both Biden and Trump
say that this is too late, given that tens of millions of people have already cast their ballots
in early voting. Trump remarked on the bias of the commission today. He called it, he said it was
controlled by Democrats and accused the commission of messing with his sound levels at debates in the past. So both of them want to get away from the commission. Now, CNN released
its debate format and criteria today, which is as follows. It's going to be held in CNN's Atlanta
studios. There will be no audience to qualify for participation. Candidates must meet the
requirements for presidency as set forth in the constitution
the candidates must file a statement of candidacy with the federal election commission
they must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold
and must receive at least 15 in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters
that meet cnn's standards for reporting.
Those requirements have to be met by June 20th, which is seven days before the debate takes place.
So obviously Trump and Biden qualify. They've already been invited. They meet the requirements.
They're good. But what about RFK Jr., the independent candidate? Well, Kennedy claims
that he has ballot access in 13 states, though not all 13 states have
been confirmed. So if he can get on enough state ballots to equal 270 electoral votes, he'll check
that box. As far as the polling requirement, Kennedy has polled above 15% in CNN, Marquette,
and Quinnipiac polls, which are three of the polls that meet CNN standards for reporting. But he will need 15% in one more poll before June 20th to get an invite. And that's, of course,
assuming he also meets that electoral vote threshold. Prior to CNN releasing that criteria
and when this story was originally unfolding, Kennedy wrote on X, quote, President Trump and
Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head
matchup that 70% say they don't want. They are trying to exclude me from their debate because
they are afraid I would win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines
democracy. 43% of Americans identify as independents. If Americans are ever going to
escape the hammerlock of the two-party system,
now is the time to do it. These are the two most unpopular candidates in living memory.
By excluding me from the stage, Presidents Biden and Trump seek to avoid discussion of their eight
years of mutual failure, including deficits, wars, lockdowns, chronic disease, and inflation."
So that's what you need to know about the
upcoming debate. Again, that's June 27th. But speaking of presidential debates, and before we
get into quick hitters, tomorrow I have a special episode dropping. The timing is actually pretty
great. It wasn't intended, but it's pretty great. Tomorrow's episode will be all about presidential
elections here in the United States. I'm really excited about it because it's been a while since I've dropped one of these special episodes. I have a ton of new listeners
here, so I'm excited for you all to get to hear it and really learn a lot. I'll be covering the
history of presidential elections, the modern day election process, fun facts, everything in between,
so there's a ton there. Stay tuned for that. It'll be released at the normal time tomorrow,
5 p.m. Eastern time, but there won't be a daily news recap tomorrow. It's going to be a pre-recorded
episode about the presidential election. Also, I have this weird feeling that tomorrow the Supreme
Court is going to release one of their anticipated decisions. And the reason that I feel that way is
because whenever I have something going on and I can't be in front of my recording equipment
and I plan out an episode in advance my recording equipment and I, you know,
plan out an episode in advance, the Supreme Court always does something notable. The last time this
happened was Trump versus Anderson. I had, you know, I had to record that episode last minute
remotely. I was out of town. I just have a feeling tomorrow will be a similar situation, perhaps
even the presidential immunity ruling, since the justices are on a time crunch with that one.
We'll see. I hope I'm wrong. I really do, because I can't release a new episode tomorrow. But if that's
the case and the Supreme Court does release something worth talking about, I'll do my best
to get an episode out on Friday, which I obviously don't normally do. That's usually my off day from
podcasting. But to keep you guys informed, I'll try my best to make that happen. With those matters out of the way, let's finish this episode with some quick hitters.
We'll start with a group of TikTok users that have sued the federal government over the
so-called TikTok ban, alleging it violates their First Amendment rights by threatening
to shut down a communication medium that has become a prevalent part of American life. This lawsuit is not to be confused
with the lawsuit filed last week by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, though the appellate
court for the DC Circuit may end up consolidating the cases because they're just, you know, very
similar. They're based on the same law. They have a lot of the same arguments. This new lawsuit,
though, says that the ban would keep the TikTok users
from creating and sharing expressive material through their chosen publishers and keep them
from viewing content from others. The second quick hitter is that the Biden administration
told lawmakers that it plans to move forward on a new $1 billion sale of arms and ammunition
to Israel. This would be the first arms transfer since the administration put
that bomb shipment on hold last week that I told you about, though this transfer would not include
the type of bombs that the administration has pressed the pause button on. Instead, this package
would include tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, as well as mortar rounds. And from here, this
isn't a finalized thing. The leaders of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could block it by placing a
hold on the package. And in that case, the State Department would generally not proceed with it.
So it's not a formal thing. It's just something that the administration talked to Congress about.
In other congressional news, the House passed a big bill today reauthorizing the Federal
Aviation Administration's authority for five years, aiming to improve aviation safety, investing in
airport infrastructure, and enhancing protections for passengers and airline workers. The bill
passed with strong bipartisan support. It was a 387 to 26 vote, and it now heads to the president's
desk. Some of the key provisions of this bill
include authorizing more than $105 billion in funding for the FAA, $748 million in funding for
the National Transportation Safety Board, requiring the FAA to hire and train as many
air traffic controllers as possible to close a current gap of 3,000 vacancies, increase access to training
simulators in more air traffic control towers nationwide, require the FAA to install more
runway technology at large and medium hub airports to reduce the risk of runway collisions, and the
bill also included language from the Department of Transportation's recent rule that requires
automatic refunds. Obviously, this is just a small portion of the bill. The bill also included language from the Department of Transportation's recent rule that requires automatic refunds.
Obviously, this is just a small portion of the bill.
The bill is huge.
So if you want to read more about it, head to the sources section of this episode.
I have some links there for you.
And finally, the last quick hitter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced today that the Biden administration is planning to send an additional $2 billion in military aid for Ukraine. That is
what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Don't miss tomorrow's special episode.
I'll be back with you on Monday, potentially Friday, depending on what happens with the
Supreme Court tomorrow, but we'll plan for Monday. Have a great night.