(upbeat music) Kamala Harris proposes caps on grocery prices in an effort to take a bite out of inflation. Why do economists say price controls will lead to rationing not lower inflation? - This would lead to even more disastrous outcomes. It could even lead to grocery stores going out of business and people not being able to get food. - I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief, John Bickley, with Georgia Hal. It's Friday, August 16th, and this is Morning Wire. (upbeat music) - Donald Trump holds a lengthy press conference on inflation and does his best to define his opponent. - People don't know who she is. She's a radical left socialist. - And multiple people are arrested in connection with Matthew Perry's death, including members of his inner circle. - The fall of 2023, Mr. Perry fell back into addiction, and these defendants took advantage to profit for themselves. - Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned, we have the news you need to know. - Hey guys, producer Brandon here. 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What can you tell us? - Yeah, so to this point, the Harris campaign has offered surprisingly few details on specific policy proposals. But today the VP will give a speech laying out her economic agenda. And as part of that plan, she's calling for a historic federal ban on "price gouging" in the grocery and food service industries. The move is part of a broader effort to sort of shift blame for inflation at higher prices away from the Biden-Harris administration. And onto corporate America. We are still waiting for the details of what exactly qualifies as price gouging, or even where the authority comes from to force businesses to lower prices. But in a press release announcing the move, the Harris campaign said they would quote, "set clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries." The campaign added that they would impose "harsh penalties on corporations that fix prices and also launch federal investigations into price gouging in the food industry." And so still a lot of unanswered questions there. What sort of responses are we seeing so far from this announcement? - Well, far left progressives have long called for federal price controls across the economy, including for groceries. So as you can imagine, they celebrated the proposal. But economists across the political spectrum have cast doubt on the legality. And just as importantly, the effectiveness of such a move. From all that, I spoke with Carol Roth, a former investment banker, and New York Times bestselling author. - The food service industry, particularly grocery stores, they operate on a one to 3% profit margin. And somehow she's blaming them for inflation, which is silly. So the idea that she is gonna somehow institute some type of price caps, that would be a price control. And if anybody has studied history or economics, you know that a price control leads to rationing. It is something that is done in socialist types of societies. It always has a bad outcome. - Now, if this is past, and that's a big if, is this proposal something that would actually stand up in court? Well, again, we'll have to wait and see the exact details first. But the short answer is probably not. Beyond rent controls in a few areas of the country, there's just very little precedent for the federal government mandating certain prices in the free market, at least to this extent. But this is a campaign pledge. So in the short term, the legality of the plan doesn't really matter. We've already seen the Biden-Harris administration pass things like student loan forgiveness, which they knew were likely to be shot down by the Supreme Court. But remember, it gave them the chance to essentially argue, look, we're trying to help the country, but the big bad conservatives on the Supreme Court won't let us. There is clear political calculus here, and the Harris camp is betting this policy will be popular with voters, even if it's not really feasible. - And is it fair to say that the message being delivered here from Harris is effectively that inflation is not her fault? - Oh, that's exactly what they're doing. Now, since taking over the nomination, Harris has made a clear attempt to distance herself from the policies of her own administration, which she is VPN, arguing that she was not actually the borders are in charge of the immigration crisis. And now that inflation is not only the fault of big corporations, but not actually as bad as people believe. To that point, the Biden-Harris administration has been celebrating the latest inflation numbers, which did show price increases slowing, but according to Roth, that will be a difficult sell with voters. - I don't think that most individuals, most American citizens are sitting around and hanging on what the CPI report says, nor do they have any context to this. I think what they understand is that they were feeling pretty fit in 2020 before COVID. And then once Biden got into office after the emergency was over, they're like, oh, wait a second, I'm gaining weight. I gained five pounds. And then the next year I gained 10 pounds. And okay, well, maybe this year I'm only gaining three pounds, but I'm still up 18 pounds, and now I have to wear elastic pants. Nobody's saying, oh, wow, look, I only gained three pounds this year. So I think that's the kind of analogy that they're seeing in terms of the compound effect of inflation. - Well, the economy was a major topic in the press conference Trump held yesterday as we're about to discuss. Kevin, thanks for reporting anytime. - Your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does, and optimizing your metabolic health helps with weight management, improved energy levels, better sleep and more. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. I love my Lumen. I just breathe into it first thing in the morning and it tells me what's going on with my metabolism in real time. Take the next step in improving your health today. Go to lumen.me/wire to get 15% off your Lumen. That's l-u-m-e-n.me/wire for 15% off your purchase. - Trump held a press conference at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday, drawing a sharp contrast with Vice President Harris. Harris has barely faced the press since taking over as the presumptive Democratic nominee over three weeks ago. - Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Trump's presser. So Tim, what was this conference about? - Yes, since the media has let Harris skate by with little scrutiny, Trump is attempting to define her himself. This press conference was about highlighting Harris's progressive record while laying out what a second Trump term could look like. The economy was a big topic yesterday. Here's Trump on inflation under the Biden-Harris administration. Look at that, up 46% eggs. Wow, school lunches, up 65%. How can a family afford that? Bacon is through the roof. They're all through the roof, the milk. Everything is bad. And we're gonna straighten it out. We're gonna bring prices way down and we'll get it done fast. And with her, it's just tall. So she is saying, when she gets in, she's in now. And she's still saying, "If you elect me, I'll do this. "Why didn't she do it?" - To help sharpen his attacks on Harris, the Trump campaign has brought back Corey Lewandowski, who managed Trump's 2016 campaign, as well as a few other Trump world veterans. - And is this race still extremely tight in the polls? - Trump and Harris are neck and neck. The latest poll from Fox News shows Trump leading by 1.50 to 49. That's mainly due to Trump's eight-point lead with independence. Nikki Haley said a few days ago on Fox News that Trump needs to focus on his new opponent instead of complaining. Trump said yesterday he's open to having Nikki Haley on the campaign trail with him. - I appreciate her advice. I have to do it my way. You know, I think she's a good woman. I'd love to have her go around the campaign. I think this is a different kind of a race. All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's gonna destroy our country. - After his presser, Trump held a fighting anti-Semitism event and met with Israel advocates. Notably, Trump entered the room alongside Miriam Adelson, the billionaire who funds the Preserve America PAC. The PAC reportedly spends $18 million a week in battleground states for Trump's reelection. But just days ago, Trump was reportedly upset at Adelson for employing anti-Trump Republicans. Any tension between the two appears to be resolved now though. Now anti-Semitism and Israel are campaign issues that could be particularly damaging to Harris because of the infighting it has caused in the Democratic Party. Just as an example of that, dozens of anti-Israel protesters disrupted the afterparty of a get-out-the-vote event for Harris in New York City. The protesters busted barricades, stormed a restaurant, and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. Here's what that sounded like. - Now our children and body bags are gonna come down you. (crowd cheering) - Now, how is Harris navigating the divide among Democrats over Israel? - Well, at a recent rally in Arizona, she appeared to call for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a demand of Democrats left-wing base. - I have been clear, now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the Hamas deal done. Now is the time. - Military experts have recognized that as the only chance for the terror group survival, and Israel has rejected a permanent ceasefire over and over again. Harris has also tapped Nazrina Barzi as her Muslim voter outreach chief. Barzi served in Harris' VP office as a senior advisor and has long been a friend to the more radical wing of the Democratic base. For instance, Barzi has supported groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, which is called Israel's war against Hamas, a genocide. But this attempt to court the Democrats left-flank has also backfired. A pro-Palestinian activist group said this week that in a private meeting with Harris, she committed to an arms embargo against Israel. Harris' campaign was forced to publicly deny that alleged commitment. - Well, it sounds like a difficult rift to manage for her. Tim, thanks for reporting. - Good to be on. Multiple people have been arrested in connection to the overdose death of actor Matthew Perry, including his personal assistant and two doctors. - Law enforcement sources have told multiple outlets that five people, two of whom were doctors, have been charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, which was found at high levels in Perry's system when he died. Here to discuss the latest developments is Daily Wire Senior Editor Ash Short. So Ash, what do we know about these arrests? - So we know five people were arrested for conspiracy and that the two doctors were the original sources of Perry's supply. And these included individuals in his inner circle, including Perry's personal assistant, Kenneth Iwanasa, who appears to have been in cahoots with doctors to extract as much money as possible out of Perry. We also know that authorities believe the drug became so expensive that Perry found new sources, including one woman known as the ketamine queen of Los Angeles. And how much were they charging that Matthew Perry wasn't able to afford it? - Prosecutors allege that physicians Salvador Placencia charged Perry $2,000 for a vial that cost approximately $12. In one two-week period in October of 2023, Placencia received $32,000 from Perry's personal assistant, including $21,500 in cash. - Wow. Now if these drugs were legally prescribed and Perry took them willingly, what crime were these five individuals committing? - What made them potentially culpable is text messages between the group discussing how to get more money from Perry. One text sent by one of the doctors read, quote, "I wonder how much this moron will pay." Here's what U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada had to say at a press conference about the arrest. - These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. The defendants also exchanged messages shortly after Perry's death, discussing ketamine as the reason he died before the toxicology report came back. They also tried to cover up their involvement in Perry's death, Estrada said. - On October 28th, after reading news reports on Mr. Perry's death, the defendant Sonia wrote a text message to defendant Fleming, saying, quote, "Delete all our messages." Like once, after Mr. Perry's death, a independent placenta falsified medical records and notes to try to make it look like what he was doing was legitimate. It was not. - Now, for people who don't remember, can you explain how ketamine played a role in Perry's death? - So when Perry died, the LA County medical examiner found extremely high levels of ketamine in the actor's system, levels high enough to be used for general anesthesia during a surgery. Perry was on a ketamine infusion therapy, but his last session was more than a week before he died, so his death couldn't be the result of that treatment. Perry had written in his memoir, released the year before his death, that he was using ketamine as part of an experimental treatment that helps with depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, chronic pain, and more. Perry had always been open and honest about his history of abusing drugs. - Well, very sad that his inner circle was so predatory. Ash, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. (upbeat music) - Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. 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Kamala Harris proposes caps on grocery prices, Donald Trump seeks to define his new opponent in a lengthy press conference, and multiple people are arrested in connection with Matthew Perry’s death. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
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