Russia is developing a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, according to a report from CNN. What would it do to our satellites in orbit if they were nuked? And what would it mean for the economy if a nuclear attack were to take place in space? Alex Blumberg talks about the implications of such an attack, and why it would be bad news for the U.S. government and its allies. Plus, what would happen if a nuke was detonated in space and how would it affect our satellites and other satellites passing through it? Alex talks about what a nuclear detonation in space would mean for our satellites, and what it would do to the economy and space travel if it were to happen. This episode is brought to you by Zero Dark Sparty, a podcast on the dark side of history and culture, produced by Gimlet Media and edited by Annie-Rose Strasser. Please consider pledging support by becoming a patron patron patron of ZeroDarkZero. Thanks to Pale Fire and Mossy Creek Productions, and our sponsor, Ajinomoto. We'll be looking out for your support throughout the rest of the year, and we'll be keeping you up to date with the latest episodes throughout 2019 and beyond. Subscribe to our new podcast releases throughout the year. Learn more about our sponsorships and support our efforts to make quality, high-quality episodes throughout the coming year. Stay tuned for more episodes in 2020 and beyond! Subscribe, rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your favourite podcast listening platform, and stay tuned for the latest releases, and much more! Subscribe and subscribe to our newest episodes on social media! and social media, including TikTok to stay up to the latest in the newest episodes, including the latest podcasts, and the latest podcast releases and the newest podcasts you get the latest updates on the most up to let you know what s going on around the world, the most awesome places on the highest podcast you can vlogs and the most exciting places in the best vids you can be your most authentic, the coolest place on the best place on your feed? most authentic podcast in the most amazing place in the coolest podcast on your favorite podcast the most authenticest place on earth! , the most profound podcast on all things coolest podcast on earth, the ultimate podcast on everything you hear about it, the greatest podcast on it all, and so much more.
00:00:00.000So yesterday there was a big announcement from the House Intelligence Committee.
00:00:03.000The House Intelligence Committee chair went on X and tweeted out a statement suggesting that there was a serious national security threat the American public had to be made aware of.
00:00:12.000And this freaked everybody out because when you make vague national security related threats, And you suggest that they are serious enough that they need to be declassified.
00:00:20.000Everybody starts to have a little bit of palpitations.
00:00:23.000Well, as it turns out, what exactly was happening here?
00:00:25.000It appears that there is intelligence suggesting that Russia is going to attempt to put nukes in space.
00:00:56.000It is not yet in orbit, and it's not even clear how far the technology has progressed, according to one of those officials.
00:01:02.000So, there are a few issues that we need to cover here.
00:01:04.000One is, what would it mean if Russia actually were to do this?
00:01:07.000Second is, why are we finding out about this now, not when, you know, it's actually about to happen or when it has happened?
00:01:14.000There's something a little bit funny about that, politically speaking.
00:01:17.000So let's talk about what exactly this would mean.
00:01:20.000First, it means that presumably there would be a serious threat to America's satellite communications technology, all of our satellite technology, period.
00:01:30.000So if you were to detonate a nuke in space, it does not exactly have the same ramifications as if you Detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude.
00:01:38.000For example, if you detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude, that comes with the possible threat of EMP, electromagnetic pulses, which could take out, fry all of your electronics.
00:01:47.000You've seen some of the kind of horror movies about that possibility.
00:01:50.000If you detonate a nuclear weapon close to the ground, obviously you devastate the immediate area around the blast.
00:01:55.000And then there are also radiation clouds that travel and kill lots of people.
00:01:59.000If you detonate in space, one of the things about a nuclear weapon is that a nuclear weapon
00:02:04.000feeds on the air around it, obviously.
00:02:06.000The explosion requires oxygen in order for it to continue expanding.
00:02:10.000So if you do it in a vacuum, if you do it in space, it doesn't have quite the same impact.
00:02:14.000Effectively, what you do is you blast out radiation, and that radiation is going to
00:02:20.000significantly damage or degrade pretty much all of the satellites within the immediate
00:02:24.000orbit, and it's going to create a sort of perennial hot spot in that place where satellites
00:02:28.000that pass through it are going to be significantly damaged.
00:02:31.000There's a good piece by Lieutenant Colonel Tony Vinson who's an active duty scientist in the US Air Force as well as the director of advanced physics courses at the Air Force Academy and he wrote this piece back in September of 2022 talking about what exactly would happen if you detonated a nuclear weapon in space.
00:02:46.000And what he says is that the threat of nuclear explosions in space is marginalized because the potency of their effects is not widely known, and the likelihood of nuclear attack in space is assumed to be negligible, but that assumption is wrong.
00:02:57.000What he says is that, effectively speaking, what would happen is nuking the economy.
00:03:02.000It would really be more of an economic attack than, say, a physical attack killing millions of people, for example.
00:03:07.000So what he writes is he says a nuclear explosion in space disproportionately hurts the United States as the largest single investor in space capabilities.
00:03:15.000The United States nets almost $200 billion per year of real gross output from its space assets.
00:03:19.000Even though military satellites are designed to withstand a harsher charged particle environment, radiation hardening is not a magic cloak of invincibility.
00:03:26.000Military space assets will be degraded over time from the artificially amped radiation belt created from the nuclear detonation.
00:03:32.000Meanwhile, commercial satellites in low Earth orbit will be the first to fail from continually passing through these particle hotspots.
00:03:38.000Most satellites with a line of sight to the nuclear detonation would be destroyed from the resulting x-rays.
00:03:43.000Military space capabilities for command and control along with reconnaissance assets may still function for a period following the detonation, but the economic impact of degraded informational space products will be immediate.
00:03:54.000So in other words, the things that are not shielded up there are going to get fried almost immediately, they'll degrade really fast, and that will have a pretty significant economic impact.
00:04:01.000Now, does that mean that the United States would then be in World War III nuclear war?
00:04:05.000Because what we're not talking about here is the Russians putting, presumably, nuclear weapons up there in order to fire a nuke from space at the United States, for example.
00:04:14.000talking about them putting a nuclear weapon up there in order to do economic damage.
00:04:17.000That you're a state under significant pressure like Russia is economically speaking or in
00:04:21.000terms of security and so your best indirect approach to really escalate things without
00:04:26.000killing a lot of people because if they kill a lot of people then the United States really will have
00:04:30.000to unleash its war machine against the Russians which we have not done so far despite all
00:04:46.000The United States military capacity, put aside nuclear weapons, is why mutually assured destruction exists, the US military capacity is much larger than that of the Russians.
00:04:53.000We're not talking about any of that right now.
00:04:54.000What we are talking about If the Russians were to actually fire a nuke at the United States, that is not the same thing as nuking a bunch of satellites in space, which would do economic damage and would presumably come along with an escalation of American efforts against Russia short of nuclear weapons.
00:05:10.000So the real question here is when you look at this capability, yeah, is that a risk?
00:05:19.000Should we try to figure out ways of hardening our satellites or replacing them with new satellites that are significantly more hardened to this risk?
00:05:27.000But is this the kind of serious national security threat that requires everybody to go on panic mode for a full day yesterday where everybody is thinking, oh my God, I need my bunker.
00:05:38.000Do I need to do my drop and tuck exercises from the 1950s?
00:05:44.000Get under my desk and wait for the nuclear explosion?
00:05:47.000Well, no, that's not what this threat means kind of at all, which raises the other question, which is exactly why was this made into a giant threat?
00:05:54.000And there are a lot of people who are quite suspicious of why this was made into a giant threat.
00:05:59.000We'll get to more on this in just one second first.
00:06:02.000Pure Talk believes in American values, and that free should mean, you know, like free.
00:06:06.000So when you switch to Pure Talk today, you'll get a free Samsung 5G smartphone.
00:06:11.000There's no 4-line requirement, no activation fee, just a free Samsung that's built to last with a rugged screen, quick charging battery, and top-tier data security.
00:06:18.000Qualifying plans start at just $35 a month for unlimited talk, text, 15 gigs of data, and a mobile hotspot.
00:06:24.000Pure Talk gives you phenomenal coverage on America's most dependable 5G network.
00:06:27.000It's the same coverage you know and love, but for half the price of the other guys.
00:06:30.000The average family saves almost $1,000 a year.
00:06:33.000So, I challenge you to choose a company that actually doesn't hate your guts and shares your values.
00:06:39.000customer service team help you make the switch today.
00:06:42.000Go to puretalk.com slash Shapiro to claim your eligibility for your free brand new Samsung 5G smartphone and start saving on wireless today.
00:06:50.000Again, go to puretalk.com slash Shapiro to switch to my cell phone company.
00:07:02.000So, as folks know, I have a sympathy for the idea of giving more aid to Ukraine.
00:07:07.000I don't think that amount of aid has to be $60 billion.
00:07:10.000I don't think that that bill that has been put forward by the Senate is a particularly wonderful bill.
00:07:14.000It includes $10 billion of aid to the Gaza Strip, which is filled with people who presumably would be in positions of administration who are terrorists.
00:07:22.000There's a lot that's wrong with that bill.
00:07:25.000As a general proposition, I don't believe that the United States has an interest in allowing Russia to simply walk into Kiev and take over the entirety of Ukraine.
00:07:32.000I think that has significant negative geopolitical ramifications for the United States and American citizens.
00:07:38.000With that said, scaring the American people into greenlighting an aid package by releasing information about a serious national security threat that lives in Canada, but no, you can't meet her, that doesn't seem like a great tactic to get people in your corner.
00:07:52.000In fact, it's probably going to alienate more people than it draws.
00:07:56.000According to CNN, when members of Congress downplayed the immediacy of the threat, an anti-satellite weapon placed in orbit around the Earth would pose significant danger to U.S.
00:08:02.000nuclear command and control satellites, according to Hans Christensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
00:08:10.000Earlier on Wednesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner of Ohio, ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill when he issued that cryptic statement, announcing that the panel had, quote, information concerning a serious national security threat.
00:08:21.000And when this notice went out, by the way, I was watching, and my immediate Mentality went to, okay, is there like an immediate terror threat in the United States that we need to know about?
00:08:32.000Is there about to be a major secondary attack by the Russians on, say, a Baltic state?
00:08:37.000And then it turns out that what they're talking about is the possibility of a new Russian military capability that would do economic damage to the United States, but would not actually launch us into World War III.
00:08:46.000And I thought, well, that seems a little bit overblown in terms of just leaking that out there to scare everybody.
00:08:52.000Within hours, the Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, attempted to tamp down the situation, telling reporters, quote, there is no cause for alarm.
00:08:59.000He said that he'd known about the intelligence since at least January.
00:09:02.000He said, we want to assure everyone that steady hands are at the wheel working on it and there is no need for alarm.
00:09:07.000Jim Hines, the committee's top Democrat, said in a statement, the classified intelligence product the House Intelligence Committee called to the attention members last night is a significant one, but it is not in fact a cause for panic.
00:09:16.000The National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, he said, you know, I can't say that Americans have nothing to worry about, but I'm not sure why everybody is sort of in panic mode.
00:09:25.000Just a quick follow-up, just to put this to rest.
00:09:27.000Obviously the House Intelligence Chair speaking out about a imminent, or he doesn't say imminent, serious national security threat.
00:09:34.000The lack of your ability to say anything has the potential to raise distress for some Americans.
00:09:39.000In the simplest of terms, can you tell Americans that there's nothing they have to worry about right now in terms of what he describes as a national security threat?
00:09:46.000Look, I think in a way that question is impossible to answer with a straight yes, right?
00:09:54.000Because Americans understand that there are a range of threats and challenges in the world that we're dealing with every single day.
00:10:03.000And those threats and challenges range from terrorism to state actors.
00:10:08.000We have to contend with them in a way where we ensure the ultimate security of the American people.
00:10:16.000So, again, when I see This sort of alarmism emerging, that makes me less likely to support a foreign aid bill.
00:10:26.000Again, were I in Congress, I'm not sure how I would vote on this foreign aid bill.
00:10:29.000I'd probably vote no based on the size and scope of it, and I'd want to see the underlying information.
00:10:33.000But even were I inclined to vote for the foreign aid bill, I'd now be less inclined to vote for the foreign aid bill because I don't like pressure tactics like this.
00:10:39.000Apparently, according to Politico, it's possible that Turner was attempting to raise alarms about Russia's advancements in space as a way of underscoring the need for lawmakers to approve additional aid to Ukraine.
00:10:48.000The Senate passed the supplemental bill, including $60 billion in aid for Kiev, and it's currently under review by the House.
00:10:54.000Now, meanwhile, the White House is trying to play a bit of a different game with regard to this foreign aid bill.
00:10:58.000Speaker Johnson has suggested that he needs a one-on-one meeting with President Biden.
00:11:02.000said yesterday that he has no plans to meet with the Speaker of the House, which is weird
00:11:05.000because if you want to get something done on foreign aid, presumably you'd want to meet
00:11:08.000with the person with whom you are going to have to negotiate to get that done.
00:11:12.000Kareem Jean-Pierre said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:11:40.000And he made really clear how important it was to get that bipartisan negotiated legislation coming out of the Senate, how important it was to move that forward.
00:11:52.000Okay, so why won't he meet with Johnson then?
00:11:53.000If he thinks that it's really important, why not try to convince Johnson?
00:11:57.000I mean, first of all, it'd be good politics.
00:12:00.000He could come out and he could say, listen, I spoke with Speaker Johnson and he doesn't have a coherent defense of his position.
00:12:05.000It's very weird that Biden won't speak to him.
00:12:06.000The reason that Biden won't speak to him is because he thinks for some odd reason that he's winning this thing in the court of public opinion and or He knows that the headline coming out of any meeting between Biden and Johnson is likely to be about his senility, not about Johnson's positions on this particular issue.
00:12:21.000Meanwhile, the Biden administration is just trying to ramp up the pressure from the outside, suggesting that if you wanted to pare back the bill, or if you had amendments to the bill, or if you wanted to pass a slightly different version of the bill that strips out certain things and adds other things, that this would somehow be a giant failure.
00:12:57.000Have you guys worked through, you know, plan B's or other ways to try and get around a speaker who said unequivocally this isn't happening?
00:13:05.000It's not about getting around the Speaker, Phil.
00:13:07.000It's about working with him and through him.
00:13:10.000And he's going to have to show some leadership here.
00:13:12.000Obviously, we're going to keep our consultations and our conversations with Congress going.
00:13:16.000We're obviously going to keep engaging them.
00:13:18.000But the Speaker's got a choice to make here.
00:13:21.000This is, as the President said, an inflection point.
00:13:24.000And we've got to wait and see if the Speaker's going to be up to that moment.
00:13:30.000So, you know, again, I think this is a bad tactic if they actually want to get the aid passed.
00:13:34.000What they should do is sit down with Johnson.
00:13:36.000He's the person they have to negotiate with.
00:13:38.000But again, I think a lot of this is grandstanding.
00:13:40.000Right now, our political system is entirely broken because there is more incentive in both sides grandstanding than in actually getting things done.
00:13:46.000And that's true across the aisle, pretty much everywhere.
00:13:50.000We'll get to more on this in just one second.
00:13:52.000First, during this new year, it's important to slow down and think about how we can lift up and help other people.
00:13:55.00080% of what you want is now treated as a sign of treason in some way.
00:13:59.000We'll get to more on this in just one second.
00:14:01.000First, during this new year, it's important to slow down and think about how we can lift up and help other people.
00:14:05.000Because of economic decline, high unemployment, skyrocketing food prices, too many families have little or no access to
00:14:11.000Many businesses and informal economies like day labor and local markets have eliminated jobs or closed permanently, leaving a lot of people with no way to earn money.
00:14:18.000Local ministry partners, feeding centers, hospitals, and schools are experiencing rising numbers of malnourished kids, but there is a way that we can help.
00:14:25.000For over 40 years, Food for the Poor has served communities throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
00:14:30.000Through a network of trusted ministry partners and local churches, Food for the Poor supplies non-perishable food items and protein-rich meals to kids and families suffering from hunger.
00:14:38.000With the help of their generous donors, they're able to provide food, housing, health care, education, fresh water, emergency relief, and a lot more.
00:15:03.000That's plate 251555 or foodforthepoor.org slash Shapiro.
00:15:08.000So the Democrats are simply gonna demagogue this thing without sitting down and trying to see
00:15:12.000what they can get out of the Republicans.
00:15:13.000Corine Jean-Pierre, she is saying that Republicans are siding with Putin and Iran.
00:15:16.000Which again, listen, I wish that Republicans would articulate better their reasons for opposing the bill.
00:15:21.000Because you're seeing, as I've discussed on the show the past few days, a wide variety of rationales.
00:15:25.000You have Tom Cotton, who's extremely hawkish.
00:15:27.000Extremely anti-Iran, extremely anti-Putin, Tom Cotton, the senator from Arkansas.
00:15:31.000And he has said that he's opposing the bill because of all the pork in it and because it provides aid to some places we don't want the aid going.
00:15:39.000And then you see some people who are making the argument that basically Ukraine doesn't deserve defense at all.
00:15:43.000And Democrats are jumping onto that argument and then they are using that as a stand-in for the entire Republican argument.
00:15:48.000So the lack of unity in a message from Republicans about why they oppose the bill is actually giving an opening to Democrats to claim that Republicans oppose the bill because they actually like Vladimir Putin.
00:15:59.000House Republicans are still at it right now, siding with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Tehran against our defense industrial base, against NATO, against Ukraine, against our interests in the Indo-Pacific.
00:16:13.000Lack of clarity and messaging is not Republicans' friend here.
00:16:16.000They have now offered a bunch of different rationales for why they oppose the bill.
00:16:20.000And they really need to come around like one rationale.
00:16:22.000So originally the rationale is we oppose the bill because we want border control provisions in the bill.
00:16:28.000And then when the border control provisions that came out of the Senate were insufficient,
00:16:31.000they said, we don't want any border control provisions in the bill because Joe Biden has the authority
00:16:36.000Okay, well, if that was the argument in the first place, then why link it to border provisions in the bill?
00:16:41.000And why not pass a version in the House that already has border provisions in the bill
00:16:45.000so that people aren't kind of shooting in the dark.
00:16:46.000It feels like the Republicans in the House are moving around the goalposts a lot.
00:16:50.000Just to be honest with you, from the outside, if you're just somebody who's watching this casually, what it looks like is, Republicans said, OK, we want some Ukraine.
00:16:57.000We're okay with some Ukraine aid, we're good with Israel aid, we're good with Taiwan aid,
00:17:01.000but we're not going to give all this money away until we secure our southern border.
00:17:04.000And so the Senate said, OK, fine, we're going to put together this entire crap package, including border stuff.
00:17:10.000And then the Republicans announced, well, that's insufficient.
00:17:13.000And the Senate was like, well, then we'll just strip out the border stuff and we'll do just the aid package alone.
00:17:17.000And then the Republicans like, well, there's not border stuff in there.
00:17:19.000OK, well, if you're going to do that, then what you actually ought to do in the House is do what the House was designed to do.
00:18:24.000All acts of sexual violence are horrific.
00:18:27.000We should all be fighting to end it here at home and all around the world.
00:18:32.000So while the resolution on the floor today rightfully denounces any sexual violence by Hamas, I am disturbed that it completely ignores and erases any sexual violence and abuse committed by the Israeli forces against Palestinians, especially children.
00:18:47.000Sexual violence and abuse committed against children?
00:18:54.000And she's a terror supporter, but she's a ridiculous, terror-supporting, horrific human being.
00:19:00.000Even Democrats look at Rashida Tlaib for the most part and think that she's a crazy person.
00:19:04.000But they're much more unified just in terms of their governing strategy than Republicans are.
00:19:09.000And what that means is that because Republicans are unable to come up with a governing strategy, Because they can't actually unify over virtually any issues other than simply opposing what the left wants.
00:19:21.000But I want a unified Republican agenda on the table on each of these things.
00:19:25.000And I think there is an 80% consensus among Republicans, not the online Republicans, among Republicans generally, for the following things.
00:19:32.000Enough aid to Ukraine to prevent Russia from taking Kiev.
00:19:35.000Allowing enough time for a negotiated solution that freezes the lines in place to actually be reached and enough pressure on the Russians so that they don't feel that tomorrow they're going to be able to run into Kiev if they just hold out long enough the way the Taliban held out long enough in Afghanistan then took the whole country.
00:19:51.000I think most Republicans are in favor of that.
00:19:52.000I think the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of aid to Israel.
00:19:55.000I think the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of securing the border.
00:19:59.000So start with that and then put forward a bill like that and then force as much of that through as you can in the Senate.
00:20:21.000So it cuts away at the actual seriousness of the real Republican agenda items.
00:20:26.000The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, for example, yesterday, He said, we're not gonna get jammed into passing this foreign aid bill that doesn't secure the border.
00:20:33.000But it was many Republicans who were claiming that Joe Biden doesn't need any more legislation in order to secure the border.
00:20:59.000Some are actual fiscal arguments that are made by people like Thomas Massey or Rand Paul,
00:21:05.000who suggest basically we should not do foreign aid to anyone.
00:21:09.000I take them a little more seriously than people who I think are fronting on that, who are perfectly fine with giant entitlement programs that completely bankrupt the U.S.
00:21:16.000economy, but they're very keen not to give foreign aid to Israel, for example.
00:21:20.000But there's certain people like Rand Paul, who's just a small government guy, wants to restructure entitlements and all the rest.
00:21:24.000And his general perspective on this, presumably, is that we should not spend money in places we shouldn't spend money.
00:21:31.000Okay, that's fine and that's dandy, but that's not the actual position of the Republican caucus at this point, which has itself refused to restructure entitlements in any way, shape, or form.
00:21:39.000Did you know that a baby's heart begins to beat at just three weeks?
00:21:42.000At five weeks, it can be heard on ultrasound.
00:21:43.000In some cases, the heartbeat can be the baby's only defense in the womb, which is where preborn steps in.
00:21:49.000Preborn rescues 200 babies every day from abortion simply by providing moms with free ultrasounds that allow her to hear her child's heartbeat and see their perfectly formed body in the womb.
00:21:58.000By six weeks, the baby's eyes are forming.
00:21:59.000By 10 weeks, a baby is able to suck his or her thumb.
00:22:02.000Preborn needs our help to save these precious souls.
00:22:04.000For just 28 bucks, you could be the difference between the life or death of a baby.
00:22:08.000If you become a monthly sponsor, you'll receive stories and ultrasound pictures of the lives you helped to rescue.
00:22:34.000Again, the confused messages coming out of the Republican Party, it's one reason why despite the unpopularity of the Democratic Party, Republicans are cruising for a bruising in November.
00:22:43.000I think people are whistling past the graveyard.
00:22:45.000I don't mean that Donald Trump is cruising for a bruising.
00:22:46.000Right now, he is set to win election over Joe Biden if the election were held today.
00:23:15.000He has abdicated his responsibility, he's breached the public trust, and he's disregarded the laws Congress has passed.
00:23:22.000But much more has to be done, of course, to secure the border, and what the Senate produced this week is silent on that issue.
00:23:28.000Senator McConnell and I have spoken about this in frank sessions, and let me be clear here again this morning.
00:23:33.000The Republican-led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border.
00:23:45.000It's time for Washington to start showing some love to Americans.
00:23:48.000On Valentine's Day, this is a good day to point this out.
00:23:50.000We need to listen to the American people and their needs and take action.
00:23:54.000And that's why House leadership will continue to govern with Americans' interests at heart.
00:24:11.000Like, make Democrats say what they are for.
00:24:13.000Right now, Democrats are saying what Republicans are for.
00:24:16.000Why don't Republicans make Democrats say what Democrats are for at this point?
00:24:19.000Because the truth is, what Democrats are for at this point is basically opening up the borders.
00:24:23.000If you take a look at what they are now considering, apparently ICE has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of the Senate border bill.
00:24:34.000So Democrats were not claiming that there was a shortage of resources at the border.
00:24:38.000Then, when Republicans killed the bill, Democrats are now claiming that they take Republicans' claims seriously and now they're just going to release, en masse, people into the United States.
00:24:48.000So they're actually threatening American security because the Republicans wouldn't pass their border bill.
00:24:53.000Which, by the way, should be a pretty good Republican talking point.
00:24:56.000So in other words, you won't secure the border and your threat not to secure the border is that if we don't join you, you're going to further unsecure the border.
00:25:03.000That seems like a pretty good place for Republicans to come around.
00:25:06.000But again, it's all convoluted and discombobulated in terms of coordination at the top levels.
00:25:11.000There is a lack of congressional leadership.
00:25:13.000And the congressional leadership that there is, is incapable of getting its own party into line.
00:25:17.000And Democrats are way better at this than Republicans.
00:25:20.000According to the Washington Post, The bipartisan border bill Republican lawmakers opposed last week would have provided $6 billion in supplemental funding for ICE enforcement operations.
00:25:29.000The bill's demise has led ICE officials to begin circulating an internal proposal to save money by releasing thousands of detainees and cutting detention levels from 38,000 beds to 22,000 beds, the opposite of the enforcement increases Republicans say that they want.
00:25:42.000Now, again, if you're telling me that they can't find any money anywhere in that $7 trillion budget to maintain beds, by the way, those beds are not even full.
00:25:51.000They're releasing people right now into the interior after a very short period of time.
00:25:55.000That is an amazing blackmail attempt by the Democrats.
00:25:57.000They're trying to basically blackmail Republicans into going along with an open border and threatening them with an even more open border if they don't do it.
00:26:03.000I mean, that's truly an amazing thing, and Republicans would be able to run on that if these issues were disaggregated.
00:26:39.000We'll get to more on this in just one second.
00:26:40.000First, are you struggling with back taxes or unfiled returns this year?
00:26:43.000The IRS is escalating collections by adding 20,000 new agents.
00:26:47.000Well, that's great, except for it being terrible.
00:26:50.000Along with hiring thousands of new agents and field officers, the IRS has also kicked off 2024 by sending over 5 million pay-up letters to people who have unfiled tax returns or balances owed.
00:26:59.000These guys are not exactly your friends.
00:27:01.000Do not waive your rights or speak with these Asians on your own without backup.
00:27:04.000Tax Network USA, a trusted tax relief firm, has saved over a billion dollars in back taxes for their clients that can help you secure the best deal possible.
00:27:11.000Whether you owe 10 grand or 10 million bucks, they can help.
00:27:13.000Whether it's business or personal taxes, whether you have the means to pay, or whether you're on a fixed income, Tax Network can help finally resolve your tax burdens once and for all.
00:27:21.000Seize control of your financial future right now.
00:27:43.000Closer to home, the Super Bowl was celebrated on Sunday.
00:27:48.000I say celebrated because it's essentially the only national holiday we have left since the left has declared that Thanksgiving is actually a day of reminiscence about the evils of European colonization of the continent and that July 4th is actually about the evils of American white supremacy and all the rest of it.
00:28:04.000So Super Bowl Sunday is really the only national holiday we have left.
00:28:07.000Which says not very much about our common culture, frankly.
00:28:11.000124 million people watched the Super Bowl the other day.
00:28:14.000And then there was the Super Bowl victory parade.
00:28:16.000So the Super Bowl victory parade happened in Kansas City, of course, because the Chiefs beat the 49ers.
00:28:20.000But a mass shooting broke out at the Super Bowl parade.
00:28:23.000According to The Sun, the victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs' second straight Super Bowl championship has now ended in tragedy.
00:28:29.000Police reported that shots had been fired near Union Station and asked fans to leave.
00:28:35.000Josh, again, we're looking at live images.
00:28:37.000Earlier it appeared that law enforcement was moving folks around in a certain area, but it's really hard to discern exactly what's happening just based on the images that we're seeing.
00:28:48.000What are you hearing from law enforcement sources about what happened there?
00:29:17.000It's still too early to determine whether reports of shots fired here actually were related to this celebration or whether this was just happening nearby.
00:29:27.000Okay, so, police are still trying to figure out exactly what the motives are.
00:29:31.000The fact that we don't know the identity of the shooter, and the police clearly do, I mean, we have pictures floating around online of the identities of the shooter, and the police will not release that.
00:29:39.000Whenever the police are very reticent to release the identity of a person implicated in a murder, You can fairly guarantee that politics are coming into play.
00:29:46.000According to CNN, police are working to figure out who opened fire and why after one person was killed and 20 more wounded at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory rally.
00:29:55.000Children were, in fact, among those shot.
00:29:57.000About a million people were gathered Wednesday, just steps from Union Station in downtown Kansas City.
00:30:43.000It's never about understaffing of the police department.
00:30:45.000It's always about guns, as though you can just get rid of guns across the United States with a magic wand or something.
00:30:51.000So here is Democratic Representative Jason Crow of Colorado calling for more gun control because it's always more cowbell for the Democrats whenever somebody gets shot.
00:30:59.000It's the fault of the instrument, not the fault of the person.
00:31:02.000The gun violence in this country is not being resolved, even despite the steps that have been taken by lawmakers.
00:31:09.000I mean, the few steps, the very small steps.
00:31:51.000And my job is not to just send thoughts and prayers.
00:31:55.000My job is to legislate and to try to solve problems.
00:31:58.000And that's why I've been pushing very hard to try to solve it.
00:32:01.000And that's why people should be pushing their members of Congress and others to join with us to do the same.
00:32:07.000Okay, so it is worthwhile at this point pointing out the Democrats have introduced zero legislation that would have stopped what happened yesterday in Kansas City.
00:32:16.000The weapons used were semi-automatic handguns.
00:32:18.000Democrats have proposed no laws that would get to the confiscation, which is what you would require, of semi-automatic handguns because it would violate the Second Amendment, as they well know.
00:32:26.000So they're basically just railing against the wind.
00:32:29.000Well, we can talk about that, or we can talk about some of the heroes who actually tried to stop this thing.
00:32:33.000So, there is video of the shooters trying to flee, and members of the crowd tackling them, which is amazing stuff.
00:32:39.000I mean, again, there are real everyday heroes out there.
00:34:22.000Again, there are people out there who jump into action when something goes wrong.
00:34:25.000But if you are going to speak about broader systemic crime problems in America's major cities, you do have to point out that one of the big problems in America's major cities is that the governing bodies in these cities are incredibly soft on crime, incredibly soft on crime.
00:34:37.000In fact, yesterday, Brandon Johnson, who is the mayor of Chicago, he announced that they were going to change how they actually identify crime occurring in Chicago.
00:34:47.000They're going to cancel a deal With a software called ShotSpotter.
00:34:54.000ShotSpotter operates a network of acoustic sensors across the city where if a shot is fired, the police are immediately notified of that so they can get to the scene.
00:35:02.000He's canceling that because he says it's racist.
00:35:06.000The city put out a statement saying, quote, moving forward, the city of Chicago will deploy its resources on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend in violent crime.
00:35:15.000Yes, everyone can feel it in Chicago, that current trend downward in violent crime.
00:35:18.000Things are getting so much better in Chicago, which is why nobody is traveling to Chicago these days, except for illegal immigrants, by the way.
00:35:25.000Here is what Brandon Johnson announcing at this idiocy.
00:38:12.000Yeah, good luck with this particular argument.
00:38:13.000In just one second, we'll get to the continuing threat of Joe Biden's senility to his re-elect chances.
00:38:17.000First, right now is your chance to get 30% off Daily Wire Plus annual memberships during our President's Day sale when you use code DW30 at checkout.
00:38:25.000Your Daily Wire Plus membership is your backstage pass to conversations with the smartest, most trusted talent in America.
00:38:31.000It's your front row seat to the Daily Wire's upcoming hit movies and series, like The Pendragon Cycle, Mr. Bircham, Snow White and the Evil Queen, and more.
00:38:37.000It's your inside access to ad-free, uncensored news and opinions that matter to you.
00:38:40.000You get it all and so much more with your Daily Wire Plus membership.
00:38:43.000Right now, it is 30% off during our President's Day sale.
00:38:51.000Meanwhile, we have some news from Joe Biden's senility challenge, which is what's happening for his 2024 reelect.
00:38:57.000So apparently, you remember, during his terrible press conference last week, Joe Biden got very angry, got very angry because of the special counsel's suggestion that he couldn't remember when his son died.
00:39:31.000Because Joe Biden will bring him up in any context as his get-out-of-jail-free card for literally everything.
00:39:36.000According to NBC News, quote, Her never asked that question, according to two people familiar with Her's five-hour interview with the President over two days last October.
00:39:43.000It was the President, not Her or his team, who first introduced Beau Biden's death, they said.
00:39:48.000Biden raised his son's death after being asked about his workflow at a Virginia rental home from 2016 to 2018, when a ghostwriter was helping him write a memoir about losing Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
00:39:58.000Investigators had a 2017 recording showing that Biden had told the ghostwriter he found classified stuff in that home.
00:40:04.000Biden began trying to recall that period by discussing what else was happening in his life.
00:40:08.000It was at that point in the interview he appeared confused about when Beau died.
00:40:11.000Biden got the date correct, but not the year.
00:40:14.000So, presumably he was trying to use that as an excuse for why he was confused and upset, but it was 2017, and actually Beau had died already a couple of years prior.
00:40:23.000And it was Biden who raised it, and then blamed her for asking the question.
00:40:28.000Yeah, things are not going well for Joe Biden.
00:40:31.000He happens to be, by the way, just an awful, I mean, I say it all the time, he really is a garbage president.
00:40:35.000In fact, Joe Biden today announced that the Department of Homeland Security is going to shield Palestinians in the United States illegally from deportation and loosen work requirements to funnel them into American jobs.
00:40:49.000He provided most Palestinians in the United States with, quote, deferred enforcement departure for at least 18 months.
00:40:55.000Memorandum ensures that most Palestinians cannot be deported from the United States over the next year and a half.
00:41:02.000Also, DHS is advised to offer employment for non-citizens whose removal has been deferred for the duration of such deferral.
00:41:12.000And loosen regulations so Palestinians in the United States on F1 student visas can hold American jobs.
00:41:16.000If you overstayed your visa by your Palestinian, now Joe Biden wants to keep you here indefinitely.
00:41:22.000Now all of this again is a pander to Dearborn, Michigan.
00:41:25.000He thinks he's going to lose Michigan.
00:41:26.000And the only way that he's going to maintain Michigan is by pandering super duper hard on the Israel-Palestinian issue.
00:41:33.000Which presumably is also why he is now attempting to push forward a quote-unquote peace plan that would effectively amount to endless war in the region by unilaterally proposing a Palestinian state.
00:41:44.000So in other words, you get to kill 1,200 Jews and you get a state.
00:41:47.000Is the new logic from the Biden administration.
00:41:50.000There was no Palestinian state prior to that because there is no actual governing body in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip that is not a giant terror group.
00:42:00.000There's no actual rule over those areas in any serious sense by any of those governing bodies.
00:42:06.000Which is why, but kill 1,200 Jews and Joe Biden will give you a state is the logic.
00:42:09.000According to the Times of Israel, the United States and several Arab partners are preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and Palestinians that includes a firm timeline for a Palestinian state.
00:42:19.000Now, I'm not sure exactly how you would have a firm timeline for a Palestinian state, given the fact that you would have to hit markers for that timeline.
00:42:29.000Such as, you know, not teaching all your kids to murder as many Jews as humanly possible, which is exactly what is taught in Palestinian schools, unfortunately.
00:42:37.000Officials told the Post that they hope to make the plan public once Israel and Hamas agree to a temporary truce aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and freeing the hostages still held by the terror group in the Strip.
00:42:48.000During that report, during the pause, steps would be taken toward implementation of the proposal, including forming an interim Palestinian government that could also rule over Gaza.
00:42:58.000But that's Joe Biden's shtick, pie-in-the-sky nonsense.
00:43:00.000He's incredibly, incredibly bad at this particular job.
00:43:03.000So, meanwhile, in the funniest story of the day, remember Rachel Dolezal?
00:43:09.000So, Rachel Dolezal was the lady who pretended that she was black for years and years.
00:43:14.000She had changed her name to Nkechi Diallo.
00:43:18.000After being publicly smeared, and actually exposed, not smeared, as Rachel Dolezal.
00:43:23.000She's a white lady from, like, Kansas, and she had pretended to be a black lady, and then she'd actually become the head of the Specan Washington NAACP or something.
00:43:32.000And then she was exposed for all of that and became a national punchline, obviously.
00:43:35.000Well then, she became a teacher at an elementary school in Arizona, because that's who you would invite as a crazy person to teach your small children in elementary school, apparently.
00:43:44.000Well, it turns out now she's been fired again.
00:43:47.000Well, because she had an OnlyFans account.
00:43:51.000So it turns out that not only is she a crazy person masquerading as a person of another race, also she is prostituting herself on OnlyFans.
00:43:59.000According to the school district, we only learned of Ms.
00:44:03.000Nkechi Diallo's OnlyFans social media post yesterday afternoon.
00:44:06.000She is no longer employed by the Catalina Foothills School District.
00:44:10.000So apparently, I mean, talk about a life story here, Diallo, I do love that we just, you know, randomly go with people's new names, genders, all the rest of it.
00:44:19.000Diallo lost her role teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University and launched an account on OnlyFans in 2021 after struggling to find work.
00:44:26.000She made 600 posts in the year since and shared hundreds of paywalled adult videos and photos.
00:44:32.000So that is a life story that is going very poorly, that particular life story.
00:44:36.000So best of luck to Rachel Dolezal in all of her newest efforts.
00:44:40.000Meanwhile, Donald Trump, his legal drama continues.
00:44:45.000So the Trump state prosecutions are apparently reaching a kind of turning point in two separate cities.
00:44:51.000You've got the court going in New York and you also have the court going in Atlanta, Georgia.
00:44:56.000According to CNN, Trump is expected to show up in court in New York for procedural hearing ahead of that trial over the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
00:45:04.000Remember that this is Alvin Bragg's idiotic prosecution of Donald Trump for a state charge on the basis of violation of federal campaign finance law all about how he should have declared as a campaign finance expenditure his payment to Stormy Daniels or some such nonsense.
00:45:21.000So he's gonna be in New York at that evidentiary hearing.
00:45:23.000And then, meanwhile, a judge is holding an evidentiary hearing in Fulton County, Georgia, because District Attorney Fannie Willis was shtooping the prosecutor who she hired who had no actual prosecutorial experience.
00:45:35.000According to the Associated Press, should District Attorney Fannie Willis be removed from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump because of her personal relationship with a special prosecutor?
00:45:44.000Lawyers were set to battle over the question during a hearing in Atlanta on Thursday.
00:45:48.000The DA for Georgia's Folsom County had hired an outside lawyer named Nathan Wade to help investigate whether Trump and his allies committed crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
00:45:57.000Wade has led the team prosecuting the case since an indictment was returned in August.
00:46:00.000If she were removed, it would seriously diminish the chances of Trump's conviction in that particular case.
00:46:07.000Not only... I mean, it would look like a political prosecution.
00:46:09.000Not only that, it would certainly delay the trial to beyond the election.
00:46:13.000So, well done, Fannie Willis, for effectively getting Trump off in that particular case.
00:46:18.000I mean, listen, that case is also a botchery.
00:46:21.000The legality behind the case makes no sense, as we've explained many times on the show, but Fannie Willis, it's not that that's letting Trump off the hook there, it's that Fannie Willis was shtipping the guy that she hired with the taxpayer money, so that is a bigger problem.
00:46:35.000And I think the Democrats' hopes that Donald Trump is going to somehow be defeated by his legal cases, I find that very hard to believe.
00:46:42.000And right now, if the election were held today, Donald Trump would win.
00:47:14.000Remember, he lost to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote by a significant percentage, and he still won the election.
00:47:20.000At this point in time, it should be worth noting, in the last two election cycles, Joe Biden was up almost six points in the RealClearPolitics polling average, and Hillary Clinton in 2016 was up almost five points in the RealClearPolitics polling average.
00:47:31.000Meanwhile, Donald Trump today is up a point and a half.