Piers Morgan (9:18)

I'm Piers Morgan, the host of the Piers Morgan Uncensored podcast. We do big interviews and we do big debates about whatever's getting people talking. We make news, we make noise, and we make a little bit of trouble too. Come and see what all the fuss is about. You can listen to Piers Morgan Uncensored on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mike Baker (9:45)

Welcome back to the pdb as global attention zeroes in on tomorrow's Face to face between President Trump and Russian President Putin, Trump used a Wednesday virtual call with Ukraine, Ukrainian President Zelensky and top European leaders to lay out a potential roadmap to secure a ceasefire. The more than hour long conversation was built in Kyiv and across Europe as perhaps the last shot at shaping Trump's approach before he sits down with Putin. The aim the president outlined matched Ukraine and Europe's talking points, but that's against the ongoing reality of Putin flatly rejecting any unconditional halt to the fighting. As we discussed earlier this week, the Kremlin has been on a military offensive now in eastern Ukraine, angling for fresh leverage, perhaps at the negotiating table, or just angling for more land. Two sources familiar with the discussions said Trump downplayed expectations, calling the first encounter a quote, feel out, I'd frankly come up with a different term, but told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz that a ceasefire remains his immediate target. Macron, described by one source as taking, quote, very tough positions, warned that even agreeing to meat was a very big thing to give to Putin. Now that's a remark that reportedly did not sit well with Trump, who's been pushing to end the war since his return to office. Zelensky, in turn, repeated his mantra in the meeting that Putin cannot be trusted and that he had no right to surrender Ukrainian land as part of any potential ceasefire. Trump Meanwhile, said territorial questions were, quote, for Putin and Zelensky to decide. While conceding that land swaps would likely be a part of any deal, Mertz later claimed Trump, quote, largely agreed that Russia shouldn't receive legal recognition for occupied territory. Other leaders on the call, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, pressed their own priorities. Ruta was described by the sources as, quote, very active. In the exchange. Maloney offered several points, though details were withheld. Sturmer underscored the need for credible security guarantees for Ukraine, while von der Leyen called the virtual session overall, quote, very good. According to the sources, Trump said he was taking the process, quote, one day at a time. His advisors insists the administration are being optimistic, telling the sources, quote, but we're not crazy. This is hard. Oh, well, that's good to know. One advisor added that the Kremlin's ceasefire foot dragging is exhausting and that, quote, this is where the art of the deal becomes possible, end quote. Who are these advisors? After Wednesday's call, Zelensky, appearing alongside Merzen Berlin, pitched a trilateral summit with himself, Trump and Putin. Now, Trump is reportedly on board with that plan. Putin, although, is not still refusing to recognize Zelensky as a legitimate president of Ukraine after his term expired under martial law. Still, Trump said that if Friday's meeting goes well, he wants a near immediate follow up. But with Zelenskyy present, the president also warned of, quote, very severe consequences if Putin refuses to end the war, without specifying whether that meant new sanctions or tariffs. Zelenskyy told reporters that Putin's long standing claim that sanctions won't hurt is all bluff, a view echoed by European capitals. Last Friday's deadline for Trump's threatened new Russia sanctions came and went without any action. But one EU sour secondary sanctions do remain on the table, especially after the White House's recent 25% tariff that was slapped on India for buying Russian oil. No such tariff was slapped on China, and China is the largest consumer of Russian oil and gas. Whether Friday's face to face yields even the outline of a ceasefire will be clear soon enough. For now, allies are left to guess how far Trump is willing to push and how much Putin is truly prepared to give. Well, while I don't know how far Trump is willing to push, I would venture to guess that Putin is truly prepared to give nothing. Okay. Shifting back to the war in Gaza, after nearly 21 months of largely ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli citizens during their brutal 7 October attacks. The UN will finally put the terror group on their blacklist of state and non state parties guilty of sexual violence. Oh, well done un. It only took almost two years to make that obvious decision. I wonder, was it all the video taken by Hamas showing their own barbaric actions that confused the un? If only they had had more clues. According to a report from the Jerusalem Post, a draft report written by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was distributed to members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, ahead of a special discussion on sexual violence related to the war scheduled for the 19th of August in New York. The annual report tracks organizations and countries that have committed sexual violence as a weapon of war and says Hamas engaged in a deliberate pattern of abuse during these 7 October massacres, as well as against hostages being held inside Gaza. It's a notable shift for the un, which declined to include the terror group on the blacklist in 2024, claiming there was insufficient evidence directly linking the group to reported sexual assaults. At the time, Israeli officials were understandably incensed by the glaring omission, calling it blatant antisemitism. Israeli officials noted that a UN report issued in March of 2024 had already detailed the extreme acts of depravity carried out by Hamas terrorists during the attack. That 24 page report was compiled by a team from the UN's Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence and Conflict and found numerous instances of sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli citizens on October 7, well as evidence of ongoing abuse against the hostages being held by Hamas. Bukutes defended last year's decision, arguing the blacklist was based only on, quote, UN verified information. Oh, he claimed a more comprehensive investigation was well needed to determine if Hamas belonged on the blacklist. Yes, what shall we do? I do get tired of putting the UN and the word feckless in the same sentence. A turning point came last month with the release of the Project Dinah report by researchers at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. The report documented evidence of rape, sexual assault and deliberate mutilation of Israeli victims by Hamas. The report described the abuse as a systematic, deliberate and premeditated weapon of war used by the Hamas militants. The extensive report was based on the testimony of a survivor of an attempted rape at the Nova Music Festival. Interviews with 17 eyewitnesses, conversations with therapists who treated victims and the public published testimonies of 15 hostages who were released from captivity in Gaza. Researchers found that sexual violence occurred at no fewer than six locations during the 7 October attacks and continued to be perpetrated against hostages while in captivity, showing a clear pattern of intentionality on the part of hamas meeting the UN's rather high threshold for inclusion on the blacklist, at least a high threshold for Hamas. That report was sent directly to the office of the UN Secretary General and helped corroborate findings of an independent commission of inquiry put out by the Secretary General in September of 2024 regarding the UN's decision to finally acknowledge the horrific sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists. An unnamed Israeli government source told the publication Net. Not only is this good news that the UN is finally adding Hamas to the blacklist, but it also shows that when serious, thorough work is done, the UN cannot ignore. End quote. But it appears the UN continues to hold Israel to a different standard. The UN draft report warned Israel that they could soon find themselves on the same blacklist alongside Hamas. In a letter to Israel's UN Ambassador, Danny Danone, Guterres officially put Jerusalem on notice, saying he had grave concerns over allegations of sexual violence committed by Israeli security forces against Palestinians in multiple prisons, a detention facility and a military base. Guterres outlined steps the Israeli government must take to avoid being blacklisted in next year's report, including issuing directives against sexual violence, creating enforcement and disciplinary systems, investigating every credible complaint, and granting the UN free access to Israeli facilities for monitoring and humanitarian aid. Israel's UN ambassador rejected the allegations as unfounded, absurd and based on biased publications, and called on Guterres to remove Israel from any consideration for listing. Denon suggested the UN was attempting to create a gross moral equivalence between Hamas's barbarity and isolated cases in Israel that have since been prosecuted by the military. He called on the UN to keep their focus on the horrific war crimes perpetrated by Hamas and on the immediate release of all the hostages. End quote. All right, coming up next in the back of the brief, a whistleblower claims that Adam Schiff authorized classified leaks to smear Donald Trump and expected to be tapped as CIA director if Hillary Clinton won. Say it ain't so. No offense, but the king of disinformation from the Russia hoax couldn't organize panic in a doomed submarine and he imagined he would have the integrity, the character and the ability to to lead the world's preeminent intelligence service. Well, more on that story when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment of your time to talk about protecting your hard earned assets. Now, you've probably noticed out there in the world. There's a little bit of turmoil in the economy, right? You got trade wars. Well, you got tariffs back and forth. 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Mike Baker (21:32)

In today's back of the brief bombshell, whistleblower allegations say that in 2016, Senator Adam Schiff, then the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, approved leaks of classified material to damage Donald Trump and was convinced that he'd be rewarded with the CIA's top job if Hillary Clinton had won. The whistleblower, a veteran Democratic Committee staffer, says this was part of a calculated effort to topple the Trump campaign and his then administration. It's the latest layer in our earlier coverage on former CIA Director John Brennan, ex FBI Director James Comey, and the Justice Department's strike force investigation into intelligence abuses. According to the whistleblower described as friends with both Schiff and then committee chairman Devin Nunes, Schiff was, quote, particularly upset after Trump's 2016 victory. Well, yeah, it did, as I recall, take him several weeks to unass the fainting couch. In FBI interviews In September and December 2017, the whistleblower claimed Democratic leaders on the panel believed Russia had, quote, hijacked the election and that leaking classified material was the way to, quote, fix the constitutional crisis. Let me put it another way. Democratic leaders were so incensed about Trump's victory that they convinced themselves that the world was ending and the only way to save it was to break the law. Look, this has been the case all along. Frankly, if you paint your adversary as Hitler, you can justify any of your own actions and feel righteous at the same time. The staffer said he first heard in October 2016 that Schiff was being considered for a senior intelligence post in the Clinton administration, an opportunity, of course, that evaporated after her loss. And in a June 2023 FBI interview, the whistleblower alleged Schiff later convened an all staff meeting where he laid out a plan to leak derogatory information about Trump to secure an indictment. The whistleblower says he objected to the plan, calling it, quote, unethical and treasonous, but was told by others that, quote, they would not be caught. From there, he alleges, a system was put in place. Sensitive intelligence flowed to Schiff, who decided what to pass along to the press. Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell was allegedly a frequent participant with colleagues, saying he had, quote, a reputation for leaking, in one instance, a document seen only by Schiff and Swalwell. Well, and perhaps Swalwell's former Chinese Ministry of State Security friend with benefits, Fang Fang, appeared in the media almost verbatim within a day. The whistleblower says he was later invited to take part in a mock grand jury session as part of a potential case into ship's alleged leaks, but was ultimately told the Justice Department would not investigate further, citing the Constitution, speech or debate clause. He argued that that protection didn't apply to Schiff. Soon after, he was fired for what he called a, quote, perceived lack of party loyalty for refusing to take part in the leaks. The allegations were first reported by Just the News and confirmed on X by FBI Director Cash Patel, who posted, quote, now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people, end quote. Now, whether these latest claims trigger legal action or, well, because it's Washington, D.C. nothing happens. They do mark yet another chapter in a saga that shows no signs of ending anytime soon. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Thursday, 14 August. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me@pdbhefirsttv.com of course. To listen to the show ad free, just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB Premium couldn't be simpler. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.