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And Bill Gates gets blowback from both sides of the aisle after testifying about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The sad thing is he basically admitted that he carried out a relationship with Epstein even after he knew that Epstein had been convicted of a sexual crime. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. For 250 years, America has been a bastion of freedom. And as we look ahead to the next 250, we're reminded that freedom is ours to defend. Today, Alliance Defending Freedom stands in courtrooms across the country to protect those freedoms we cherish. Life, free speech, religious freedom, parental rights. These freedoms are at the core of who we are as a nation. And they must be preserved. ADF is approaching a critical fiscal year-end fundraising deadline. Your support today helps ADF defend these freedoms so they may endure for many years to come. Every dollar you give will be doubled thanks to a special matching grant while funds last. Visit joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to give today. That's joinadf.com slash wire or text wire, W-I-R-E to 83848. After vowing to unleash new devastating strikes on Iran and takeover Karg Island, President Trump announced yesterday that the scheduled strikes were off and that all parties had resolved key gaps in the peace deal. Joining us now to discuss is Ben Dominic, Daily Wire Opinion Editor and host of the Big Ben show. Ben, good to see you again. Great to be with you, as always. So we have another 11th hour announcement from Trump. Let's start there. What led to this announcement that the strikes were off and where do things stand now? Well, I wish I had a good answer for you with this juncture, John, because the truth is that this surprised a lot of people in Washington, including the people who I'm talking to on Capitol Hill, and including, apparently, the Israelis. Look, this is a difficult dance because I think that the Iranian leadership is so completely screwed up in terms of the people who are in charge, that whenever they are speaking to the president, he's talking to different people and they have different approaches to the way they're talking to him. I think that they're still stalling for time. We'll see what the president does within the coming days, because I think that this is something where he might just be saying, I'm going to kick the can past this coming weekend and then decide that it's not the best timing, perhaps, to be firing away at Iran during a UFC fight. Meanwhile, he is expressing a lot of confidence that they really are close and is telling the press that yesterday. You're there in DC, as you mentioned. You're talking to a lot of people, of course. What is the mood in Washington now about this current phase of the conflict? People are just not very confident about the direction that things are going. Republicans really wanted this to be wrapped up sooner than the celebrations of America's 250th. They certainly didn't want to have it drawn on as long as it has, and they want some resolution. They feel like it's something that is pulling a lot of things that have gone their way in terms of candidate selection, in terms of redistricting, and the like, things that could have allowed them to buck the historical trends in the midterm. They feel like that's something that could go on the wayside simply because of voter concerns about some of the most basic issues, namely the price of gas, energy, and goods. We've seen inflation really wipe out a lot of the wage gains that were made under Trump, and that's something that has them very worried. I think a lot of them are in his ears saying, please, let's just find a way to finish this. At the same time, the national security folks are saying, look, if you just wrap this up without a very good deal, you could be facing the prospect of a nuclear Iran within the next couple of years. Yeah. Obviously, a lot of focus on those voters. I know you're tracking this very closely. Is there any sense that public perception has moved in either direction on the war in recent days? There is some signs of weakening support for it, but what you actually see, I think, still is an emphatic support among MAGA voters and their community. Mostly, when you dig into the actual numbers, what you see is people just want victory. They just want to win. I think that if the president does achieve something that is interpreted as that, then a lot of the misgivings that voters currently have can be pretty quickly wiped away. But whether he's able to achieve that or not is really up in the air right now. If you're going to have any hope, as a Republican, of having a good year at the end of the day in November, then you have to have this wrapped up with a sense of victory on the part of the American people. Yeah. Again, Trump expressing a lot of optimism yesterday, the second half of the day, that he really will be able to do this. We'll see. One last question. The World Cup and Iran, whose team is playing here in the U.S. over the next few days, how is the U.S. handling that situation with the Iranian soccer team? Well, they have stepped up security around them. There's a lot of restricted movement going on. Look, keep in mind, we're also having this at the same time, that the president's feud with Europe is still top of mind. Considering the major countries who he's having feuds with are sending a lot of fans over here, I think that you could see some interesting results from that. We have reporting at the Daily Wire about the surprising reactions from a number of those fans, how positive they are about America, that's certainly not shared by the leaders of their country who still view themselves at odds with Trump. Yeah, you got to see it here firsthand. And sometimes people fall in love with America. I think both people do. Ben, thanks so much for coming on. Great to be with you. When I was visiting family in Massachusetts recently, we had some really terrible weather, but that's okay because I packed several quince sweaters and they were just perfect. And I didn't even say anything, but my aunts and cousins were asking me where I got my sweaters. And I told them, you clearly don't watch my show because if you did, you'd know that they are all quince. And quince is a fantastic online retailer that sells premium quality clothing items made with natural fibers like cashmere, leather, and European linen for very reasonable prices. 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That was President Trump responding to new inflation numbers released this week, which show a jump of more than 4% the highest since 2023. Joining us now to dig into all of this is E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. E.J., thanks for coming on. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. So Trump's response there that he loved the inflation numbers, really rocketed around the internet, caused a lot of heartburn, obviously. Is that reaction justified? Well, given that the president immediately flipped after saying that to talking about how quickly the numbers are going to come down, I don't think that the president obviously likes high inflation, because then why is he so happy about, again, the numbers coming down quickly. I think the most charitable spin that we can put on this is the fact that the president was making the point. The media is gleefully reporting high inflation numbers, but he's going to enjoy when they have to report those numbers coming down very quickly. Where I have to depart from the president, though, is the idea that they are going to come down very quickly. I think high oil prices and high inflation overall is going to be surprisingly sticky, in part because we have all of these reserves around the world that we've been depleting, all these petroleum reserves, you're going to have to refill them. So you're going to replace a supply shock with the demand shock. That's going to help keep prices elevated for longer. So let's dig into these latest inflation numbers. What do they say exactly? Well, nothing good, unfortunately. We've seen a dramatic rise in energy prices, obviously, with the Iran War. But one of the things that we have seen as time has gone on, as the decades have gone past, is the fact that higher oil prices are bleeding over to other consumer prices faster and faster. In other words, if you go back to the 70s and you observe how long it took during those oil shocks for higher oil prices to kind of trickle down or bleed over into the rest of consumer prices, it took much longer than it's taking today. It's very, very clear that high oil prices are very, very quickly moving throughout the rest of the economy. Now, beyond the numbers, a lot of people feeling the pinch of these rising prices. What are the biggest places that's showing up now? And are there any areas we should expect further price increases? I think you want to distinguish between the way the government measures price increases and the price increases people are actually feeling. One quick example of that is in this last inflation report, according to the government, used car prices are coming down at a pretty quick pace. Now, it turns out the reason for that is not the raw data. The raw data shows those prices going up. But because of something called a hedonic adjustment, the government is assuming that all of these large price increases that we're seeing for the used car market are just related to quality improvements. And so they zero those out. They're assuming that the consumer is getting more so they don't want to actually have a higher price index show up in that way. In either case, I think you are going to continue to see upward pressure on things like food. We've seen certain consumer staples at the grocery store really escalate over the last couple of months. That's probably going to broaden out to even more categories, unfortunately, at the grocery store. And then again, even when oil comes down, hopefully later this year, that's what a lot of market participants are expecting, starting late this year and into next year, higher fertilizer prices today are going to start hitting even more consumer staples at the grocery store. So that again, that inflation is likely to stay sticky for quite a while. So what are some ways that consumers are coping with these rising prices? We're seeing, for example, 401k hardship withdraws hit new records. What we've seen the last several months because of the Iran war and the rate at which prices have gone up has so exceeded the increase in incomes during the last several months that the savings rate has dipped pretty precipitously. And so people are going deeply into debt. People are putting more and more on credit cards and they're unable to pay it off at the end of the month. If you were to see that pattern for an entire year and annualized rate, in other words, it'd be between 10 and 15% increase in people's balances. So to maybe end on a more positive note, are there any reasons for optimism right now for American consumers? Well, I think the optimism is largely related to the Iran war, hopefully wrapping up very, very soon. Even when we look at the market, we're getting into some difficult territory there. I don't mean in terms of overall returns on an index like the S&P 500, for example, or the NASDAQ, but increasingly, we're hearing all this news about corporate earnings, but it's just seven companies, corporate earnings, that are really knocking it out of the park. And look, as long as they keep having blowout earnings in this handful of companies, and as long as the stock keeps going up, theoretically, it's no harm, no foul. The issue becomes, once somebody misses earnings, or if you have some kind of liquidity invent, then you could have a mess on your hands. Well, as always, we appreciate you lending us your expertise, CJ. Thanks for coming on. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. You know, it's officially summer when your schedule somehow gets even busier while school is out. 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Well, you know, obviously Georgia Gates is one of the committee's highest profile interviews so far because his name appears repeatedly in those Epstein-related documents, including things like calendars, emails, photos, things like that. And before going in, Gates briefly addressed reporters. I hope my testimony is helpful to the work, important work of the committee to find justice for the victims. Now, once inside the room, Gates tried to draw a very clear line. Here's what he stated. I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated. So that is the full quote. Now, essentially what Gates was admitting there was that meeting with Epstein was wrong because these meetings came after Epstein was already a convicted sex offender. But what he denies is knowing anything about ongoing criminal conduct and he denies ever victimizing anyone. Now, what exactly did Gates say about why he was meeting with Epstein in the first place? Well, he says that he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 through people in his professional and philanthropic world. And he says that Epstein claimed that he could help raise billions of dollars for global health causes by connecting Gates with those wealthy donors. Well, according to Gates, those meetings started with three preliminary meetings in 2011 and then two more in 2012. And then the discussions became more extensive in 2013 and 2014, focusing on possible charitable giving structures like donor advised funds. But Gates says that Epstein never delivered on any of this. He said that no charitable vehicle was created, no funds were raised, and that he cut off contact with Epstein back in 2014. But again, what we have to note here is that Epstein was already a convicted sex offender by then. He had pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and Gates told lawmakers that he was aware that Epstein had prior legal issues and that the conviction was sexual in nature. But he says that he did not understand the full extent of Epstein's crimes. So that then became one of the major points of questioning why someone like Gates continued interacting with Epstein after that conviction. So top oversight Democrat Robert Garcia said Gates knew that Epstein had been convicted, knew what he had been convicted of, and that he still kept meeting with him. So basically Garcia called that a horrific judgment call. It's important to note that Mr. Gates does understand that he was around people and likely assistants and those employed by Mr. Gates that were also abused. Now, how did the other lawmakers react after this interview? You know, I would say that reactions differed, but you did hear a lot of variations on that theme, like California Congressman Ro Khanna, who described Gates for CNN's Jake Tapper as quote unquote morally bankrupt. The sad thing is he basically admitted that he carried out a relationship with Epstein even after he knew that Epstein had been convicted of a sexual crime. And this just shows some of the moral bankruptcy at the time where it's not that Gates committed any illegal act, but he was willing to overlook the sexual crime to raise money for his charities. And to a certain degree, Gates did seem to concede that he framed the meetings as a serious failure of judgment on his part that risked giving Epstein credibility. So he said that he was so focused on raising money for global health, clearly trying to emphasize that noble goal that he allowed it to override his better judgment regarding Epstein. Well, this was a highly anticipated interview and possibly just the tip of the iceberg. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yep, anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, add free and join our mission become a member at DailyWire.com. We'll be back this evening. More new should be tonight. We'll get to more on this in a moment. First, there's something refreshing about buying things that are actually built to last. Not everything has to be built to break. Not everything has to be disposable. Not everything has to be replaced every single year. Some things are worth investing in because they actually get better the longer you own them. And that's true particularly of boots. Ticovas makes handcrafted Western boots that combine classic style with everyday comfort. 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