Come for Morning Wire’s Afternoon Update’s straight news, but stay for the Rapid Reactions The following five stories, and more, can be heard on today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update podcast. Click here to listen. 

1. Dems Try To Censor In Censorship Hearing

Congress hosted a House Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing today featuring testimony from Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other public figures. Almost immediately, Democratic members on the committee motioned to effectively censor RFK, Jr. from speaking:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Has Just Put a Motion Forward to Censor Robert F. Kennedy Jr from Further Testimony

This is wild… pic.twitter.com/buNN8NeKCj

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 20, 2023

A vote ensued after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) moved to table the motion, and another Republican, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), made a point of order to ask, “Is it the custom of this committee to censor viewpoints that we disagree with from witnesses?”

By a 10-8 vote, the GOP majority’s motion to table succeeded, allowing the hearing to continue as planned. Here’s Rep. Massie:

.@RepThomasMassie denounces censorship attempts, @RobertKennedyJr responds to attacks pic.twitter.com/yDM3D9Ru2i

— Tom Olohan (@tolohan) July 20, 2023

 That hearing led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) was, according to the Weaponization panel, convened to “examine the federal government’s role in censoring Americans, the Missouri v. Biden case, and Big Tech’s collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech.”

The two other witnesses at the hearing were Breitbart News Politics Editor Emma-Jo Morris and D. John Sauer, special assistant attorney general at the Louisiana Department of Justice. Morris, then with the New York Post, broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, which was censored on social media under suspicion of being “Russian disinformation.” It has since been verified.

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Emma Jo Morris:"I can't even believe this is a conversation. This is not controversial or taboo. We live in the United States of America, and you have the right to say whatever you want, to print whatever you want, and to read whatever you want!"

Robert Kennedy Jr: "A govt that… pic.twitter.com/CtXYWRfOZ7

— Becker News (@NewsBecker) July 20, 2023

Rapid Reaction: They just can’t help themselves. Democrats get in a room for a hearing about Big Tech and Big Government working together to censor President Joe Biden’s opponents, and what happens? They rush right out of the gate to censor Biden’s top political opponent.

RFK, Jr. has been called every name under the sun — including fascist. Yet the Left has a strange definition of “anti-fascist” these days.

To a progressive, if you are anti-fascist, you must express your solidarity with the government and big corporations on the social justice issue du jour — in Kennedy’s case, vaccines.

Anyone who fails to do so — according to the Left’s logic — must be subjected to browbeating, cancelation, and intimidation. Those who don’t fall in line must be doxxed and have their employers contacted, and anybody sponsoring their business or paying for their product is to be skewered as a bigot worthy of societal banishment — all in the name of tolerance, freedom, and justice.

It makes no sense. And unfortunately, that is the point.

Read more here.

2. Bombshell Evidence Of Biden Family Corruption

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a bombshell document on Thursday detailing an alleged bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian business executive.

According to Grassley, the document shows that a Ukrainian oligarch claimed he was “coerced” into making a payoff to the president and his son. The New York Post reported that the owner of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky, told the FBI informant in 2016 during a meeting that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden.” House GOP members had previously threatened FBI Director Christopher Wray with contempt of Congress for not sharing this document earlier, forcing Wray and the FBI to release it.

Rapid Reaction: Writer Julie Kelly had a great reaction to this unbelievable news: “I know this is hard to believe, but Joe Biden and the media lied about this (and many other related stories.)”

“VP Biden used US tax dollars to blackmail Ukrainian president into firing the state prosecutor investigating Burisma bc owner was bribing Joe and Hunter Biden to do so,” she said, going off the evidence.

I know this is hard to believe but Joe Biden and the media lied about this (and many other related stories.)

VP Biden used US tax dollars to blackmail Ukrainian president into firing the state prosecutor investigating Burisma bc owner was bribing Joe and Hunter Biden to do so: https://t.co/UxXiGp3hbJ

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) July 20, 2023

This evidence also calls into question just why exactly former President Donald Trump was impeached for inquiring about Biden family corruption in Ukraine.

Conservative communications professional Greg Price laid out the timeline as follows, based on the whistleblower’s claims:

2015: Burisma pays a $10,000,000 bribe to VP Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to have prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired.

2018: Biden brags publicly about getting Shokin fired.

2019: Trump gets impeached over a phone call with Zelenskyy asking him what happened to the prosecutor.

2015: Burisma pays a $10,000,000 bribe to VP Joe Biden and Hunter Biden to have prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired

2018: Biden brags publicly about getting Shokin fired.

2019: Trump gets impeached over a phone call with Zelenskyy asking him what happened to the prosecutor. pic.twitter.com/3LCMffERk0

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 20, 2023

Here’s the video referenced by Price:

Here’s Joe Biden bragging about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired when he was VP. The FBI doc alleges that Burisma paid Biden & Hunter millions to get this prosecutor fired, among other things. This feels like a smoking gun admission. pic.twitter.com/28bIvlHSw2

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 20, 2023

3. ICE Released 80% Of “Paroled” Illegal Aliens Into U.S. Without Immigration Summonses

Homeland Security admitted in a court filing that prior to the expiration of Title 42, 80% of illegal aliens apprehended and released into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s “parole” program were not given immigration hearing summonses by ICE. These illegal immigrants were told to check in with ICE within 60 days but were never actually given a legal notice. Data show that of those given a summons, roughly 40% of illegal immigrants actually go back to check in with ICE.

Rapid Reaction: As this author wrote yesterday, once illegal immigrants are in the country, they’re hard to track down — even if they are given a free smartphone and told to pinky-promise they’ll come back for their court date.

In April of 2023, it was reported that the immigration system is so overwhelmed, there is a 10-year waiting list for illegal aliens to appear in court. By that time, it’s likely that the D.C. Establishment will have passed an amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens in the country already.

Millions have flooded the country in the past two and a half years alone. Deportations have been at record lows for much of the Biden presidency.

In fact, the Biden administration has made it a priority to only deport “criminal” illegal aliens. So, rather than be proactive and deport all illegal aliens, authorities are advised to wait for illegal aliens to commit crimes before nabbing them. If those illegal aliens don’t get busted for committing crimes, then they’re virtually able to stay forever.

Read more here.

4. Parental Rights Victory In Virginia

A big win for parental rights in Virginia this week: The Virginia Department of Education is moving to prohibit school staff from using a different name or pronoun for students without parental permission. The new policies revealed on Tuesday also mandate that students must be on athletic teams and use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex. GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin has made parental rights a cornerstone of his administration:

.@GovernorVA Glenn Youngkin:

“My message to parents: You have a fundamental right, enshrined in law by this General Assembly, to make decisions with regard to your child’s upbringing, education and care. And we will protect and reassert that right”pic.twitter.com/xsxsQHNtao

— American Principles 🇺🇸 (@approject) January 17, 2022

Rapid Reaction: Youngkin, of course, made battling the Left’s disastrous policies that degrade Virginia’s quality of education a core part of his 2021 campaign late into the game. That pivot helped him win the gubernatorial office. So far, he has delivered as promised. He has also taken a chainsaw to DEI initiatives in his state.

Read more here.

To listen to the audio version of Afternoon Update, click here. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

A senior FBI official allegedly informed Twitter that the abandoned laptop believed to have belonged to Hunter Biden was real on the same day the New York Post broke news about the device’s contents in a story that Twitter went on to censor, according to newly-released testimony.

Laura Dehmlow, the section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), spoke with the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government this week, House Judiciary Republicans announced on Thursday.

Citing her testimony, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a new letter that the FITF attended a previously scheduled meeting with Twitter on October 14, 2020 — the morning of which the Post published its “smoking-gun” email story — and during that discussion, a Twitter employee asked FITF about the authenticity of the laptop.

🚨 BIG BREAKING NEWS 🚨

Testimony reveals the FBI knew the Hunter Biden laptop was authentic, but when asked by a social media company about the laptop’s authenticity the FBI said “no further comment.”

The rest is history. pic.twitter.com/LzjS5cSBS6

— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 20, 2023

“I remember having a conversation with or being involved in a conversation with Twitter, and I honestly can’t recall if this was repeated to me — I might have been a few minutes late to the meeting — or if — or if I was — I actually overheard it,” Dehmlow said, according to an excerpt of her testimony.

“But it was — it was relayed to me later that somebody from Twitter — I don’t recall who. I’m not sure who. Somebody from Twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real,” she added. “And one of the FBI folks who was on the call did confirm that, ‘yes, it was,’ before another participant jumped in and said, ‘no further comment.'”

Jordan claimed Dehmlow’s testimony further showed that it was an analyst in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division embedded in FITF who had begun to explain that the laptop was real before being cut off.

On the instruction of FBI counsel, Dehmlow refused to reveal which FBI official made the decision to stick with “no comment” going forward, but she did state that it was not her call, the chairman said. The FITF also had a meeting with Facebook later on October 14, 2020, during which the social media giant was only told “no comment” when a similar question was posed about the laptop’s authenticity, according to Dehmlow’s testimony.

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Another excerpt shows that Dehmlow said she was “pretty certain” that then-FITF Section Chief Brad Benavides and individuals on the Russia unit were aware at that time the laptop was real.

In the hours that followed publication, Twitter blocked the New York Post report with details of Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings and his father’s possible ties to them from being shared, claiming the story violated its rule against sharing “hacked” materials. Facebook, too, took steps to limit the spread of the story, which came just weeks before Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, was elected President of the United States.

While Democrats in Congress have downplayed the temporary social media clampdown on the story, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) accusing his GOP colleagues of whipping up a “faux scandal about this two-day lapse in their ability to spread Hunter Biden propaganda on a private media platform,” Republicans have raised concerns about there being a coordinated effort involving Big Tech and government agents to suppress damaging information about the Bidens in the run-up to the 2020 election. In addition, current and former Twitter and Facebook executives have conceded that cracking down on the story was a mistake.

As Jordan contended in his letter, the same FBI personnel who were warning social media companies about a potential Russian “hack and leak” operation in the run-up to the 2020 election knew that the laptop was not Russian disinformation, as was suggested in a letter from former intelligence officials. He cited recent testimony by Internal Revenue Service supervisory agent Gary Shapley, who has emerged as a whistleblower in the Hunter Biden criminal case, asserting that the FBI verified the authenticity of the laptop in November 2019.

Hunter Biden has said in the past that he did not know whether he was the owner of the laptop abandoned at a Delaware repair shop before it was seized by the FBI, and his legal team has reportedly been looking for possible distorted or fabricated data linked to the first son.

Jordan’s letter was addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, requesting information and documents from the bureau, including the identities of the officials who dictated how the bureau would respond to inquiries about the laptop, with an August 3 deadline. An FBI spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the bureau received the letter, but had no further comment.