August 12, 2024: Trump Campaign Hacked, the Controversy Behind Harris' Rally Photo, New Poll Shows Harris/Trump Standing in Battleground States, FDA Denies MDMA for PTSD Treatment, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis.

Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Monday, August 12th, and this is your daily news rundown. If you love the Unbiased approach that this episode provides and you feel more informed after listening, please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen, share the show with your friends, and if you're watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to the channel. All of those things really help me out, so thank you very much.

A couple of reminders for those that have been around for a while, but also a few things I would like to tell those that may be new here. First of all, welcome. So happy to have you as part of the Unbiased family. That also goes for those of you who have been here for a while, of course. So happy to have you all here. Number one, the first reminder, my news cycle ends around 3 p.m. every day. That's just so I can get these episodes out to you by the end of the workday. So any news that breaks after 3 p.m. will usually be covered in the next day's

episode. Number two, each episode is anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. Sometimes it might be longer, sometimes episodes might be shorter, but the sweet spot is right there between 15 and 20 minutes. And number three, and most important, always remember that listening to nonpartisan news almost guarantees you're going to hear something that you

that you don't like. But that's also the beauty in it. We want to challenge ourselves to think critically, to form our own opinions, to try to take out that implicit bias whenever we're listening and having hard conversations, and we'll be better off for it.

So those are my reminders. And now without further ado, we can get into today's stories. Former President Trump's campaign said over the weekend that some of its internal communications had been hacked back in June. This acknowledgement came after Politico, the news outlet, began receiving emails from an anonymous sender containing documents from inside Trump's campaign.

Now, the acknowledgement from Trump's campaign came just two days after Microsoft had released this report about Iran's influence in this year's election and specifically their interference in a political campaign, though Microsoft didn't identify specifically which campaign. The Trump campaign now says it was theirs. So Microsoft's report reads in part, quote,

Foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 U.S. election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity. Over the past several months, we have seen the emergence of significant influence activity by Iranian actors.

Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran's operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyber attacks more geared toward election conduct rather than swaying voters.

Recent activity suggests that the Iranian regime, along with the Kremlin, may be equally engaged in election 2024. End quote. That report then details specific activity that the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center has picked up on. And I do have that report linked for you if you want to read it for yourself. But the part that's relevant to this story is this.

Quote,

On June 13th, Mint Sandstorm also unsuccessfully attempted to log in to an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. End quote. The report also details other hacking attempts that have taken place recently, including at the county level in an unspecified swing state. But according to Politico, on June 22nd is when it received its first email from that anonymous AOL account containing internal communications from Trump's campaign.

Included in the documents was a 271-page research document that the campaign had done on J.D. Vance, dated February 23rd, another research document about Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is also in the running as a potential VP pick for Trump.

When the anonymous sender was asked how they obtained the documents by Politico, they replied, quote,

At this point, we don't know the scope of the information obtained through the hack, but again, if you want to read Microsoft's most recent report about election interference from foreign countries, it is linked in the sources section of this episode.

Continuing on the political front, a new New York Times Siena College poll released over the weekend polled voters in three battleground states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and shows Harris polling better than Trump in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Trump polling better than Harris in Michigan. Now, before we get into this, I'm first going to give you the numbers. Then I'm going to give you a little bit of context because polls can be tricky.

But this particular poll was reported by almost all of the outlets. So I wanted to touch on it and give a little bit deeper of an explanation outside of just the numbers. So the New York Times Siena College poll was conducted between August 6th and August 9th of roughly 1,900 total registered voters between Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. When asked if the election were held today, who they would vote for,

50% of registered voters in Wisconsin said Harris, whereas 46% answered Trump. So a four point difference there. In Pennsylvania, 49% said Harris, 46% said Trump, a three point difference. And in Michigan, 45% said Harris, 48% answered Trump, also a three point difference, but in Trump's favor this time. Notably, the margin of error in that poll was between four and five points.

Keep in mind that all of these polls vary. It depends on who's doing the polling. As an example, Insider Advantage and Trafalgar Group just conducted a poll, same dates as the New York Times poll, of roughly 800 likely voters in these states.

And their results showed Trump up by one in Wisconsin, up by two points in Pennsylvania, and down by only two points in Michigan. So don't put so much weight on one poll or the other. Now, to give you a little bit of context, because we all like context, the three states that were the main focus in this New York Times poll, so Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, are part of what's known in elections as the bloc.

The blue wall is the name given to 18 states that the Democratic Party won in every election from 1992 to 2012. But the reason that these three states are the focus in this election is because in the last three elections, these states have flip-flopped.

So in 2012, President Obama won these three states specifically. Then in 2016, Trump won those three states. And then 2020, Biden won those states. And as we know, the presidents that took those three states in each of those elections ended up winning their respective election. Now, that's not to say that those states are the key to the office. It's just to say that the

Those three states are important, and that's why those three states specifically were the focus of this particular poll. Staying on the Harris-Trump topic, but switching gears a little bit, let's talk about Harris' Detroit rally over the weekend and debunk some of the claims surrounding attendance.

Not going to spend a ton of time on this one, but I did get quite a few requests to clear the air, so let's do it. Harris and Walls held a rally at an airport over the weekend and posted pictures of the crowd that greeted them when they departed Air Force Two.

A Truth Social user reposted the same photo of the crowd, but seemingly zoomed in on the plane's engine, which has this sort of reflective paint and showed no crowd in the reflection. And this Truth Social user claimed that Harris's picture was fake because you couldn't see a crowd at all in the engine's reflection.

Trump then shared that post on Truth Social and wrote in part, quote, has anyone noticed that Kamala cheated at the airport? There was nobody at the plane and she AI'd it and showed a massive crowd of so-called followers, but they didn't exist. She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror-like finish on the vice presidential plane. And

End quote. Harris's campaign then posted Trump's post to X and wrote, quote, one, this is an actual photo of a 15,000 person crowd for Harris walls in Michigan. And two, Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week. Dot, dot, dot. Low energy? Question mark.

So the question has become, was Harris's crowd fake? The answer is no. Here's why. The angle of the picture looks like it was taken from inside the air hangar where the rally was ultimately held and where people were gathered. We know that there were tons of people in that hangar because we have video footage and pictures from not only rally goers, but also news networks that attended the rally.

that rally. If you want to look at some of the pictures and videos yourself, I of course have some links for you in the sources section. But all of this to say there was a crowd in Detroit. As for the exact numbers, that I don't know. The campaign says it was 15,000. Obviously campaigns, whether it's Trump's campaign or Harris's campaign, exaggerate their numbers a little bit. So we could probably take that with a grain of salt, but a crowd was there.

Also note, though, that now following this battle back and forth, there are AI generated images and videos of the crowd going around on platforms like X. So just be aware of that. But as for the original image posted by the Harris campaign, it doesn't seem to be altered in any way. And there is proof of a crowd through outside third party video footage and photos.

The next story, this one isn't so political. It's that the FDA denied a bid to allow MDMA to be used in the treatment of PTSD. MDMA is more commonly known as ecstasy or molly, and it's definitely used as a party drug, but it also has use in the treatment of mental disorders like PTSD.

One reason that MDMA has been used in therapy is because it's an intactogen, which is a class of psychoactive compounds that are differentiated from classic psychedelics in a way that they tend to increase self-awareness, which leads to introspection and personal reflection.

On top of this, studies have shown that MDMA or ecstasy or MOLLE actually diminishes the brain's fear response. So this allows people and patients to access and process painful memories that they wouldn't typically be able to.

One trial submitted by the drug maker that petitioned the FDA found 71% from the treatment group no longer met PTSD criteria after being treated with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy. That's compared to 48% from a group taking a placebo. However, as with any drug, it also comes with its downsides and its risks.

And as the FDA said, the data provided was not enough. In order for the FDA to approve a drug, they have to find that the research and data submitted by the sponsor show that the drug is safe and effective for its intended use.

Nine of the 11 FDA advisors said the available data did not show the effectiveness of the drug and expressed other concerns that included the treatment not offering long-lasting benefits, concerns about the way the studies were designed, the potential for heart problems, injury, and abuse, and whether psychotherapy contributes to treatment benefit and if psychotherapy is even necessary. So the FDA did deny that bid.

And in other news, a new violent crime survey, including 70 different major cities in the United States, showed an overall decrease in violent crime between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. So as I said, the survey, which was led by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, surveyed 70 different law enforcement agencies from 70 different major cities around the United States and

and compared the first six months of 2023 to the first six months of this year. Overall, homicides dropped by roughly 850, rapes dropped by about 1,400, robberies dropped by about 3,000, and aggravated assaults by about 7,000.

The cities that saw the biggest decrease in homicides include Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, and Philadelphia, whereas the cities that saw the biggest increase in homicides include Atlanta and Charlotte. When looking at rapes, the cities that saw the biggest decrease were Louisville and Philadelphia, whereas the cities that saw the biggest increase were Nashville, Cleveland, and Fort Worth. And those stats are available in the sources section. To

Today, the Biden administration announced a new initiative called Time is Money aimed at, quote, cracking down on all the ways that corporations add unnecessary headaches and hassles to people's days and degrade their quality of life.

End quote. Included in the effort are seven different actions. The first action is making it easier to cancel subscriptions and recurring payments. So the FDA has proposed a rule that would require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.

The second action is ending airline runarounds by requiring automatic cash refunds. This one we've actually already talked about a little bit, but this is the Department of Transportation's new rule that requires airlines to pay you back in cash should you opt for that option when your flight is either canceled or significantly changed.

The third action is making it easier to submit health insurance claims online rather than by mail. The fourth action is a rule that would require companies to let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button rather than having to go through a lengthy automated process on the phone.

The fifth action is a rule proposed by the FTC that would stop marketers from being able to use fake reviews, suppress negative reviews, and pay for positive reviews. The sixth action is a plan from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to deem certain uses of chatbots and AI voice recordings as unlawful, specifically in the banking and financial sector.

And the third action is a plan by the Department of Education to issue new guidance to schools on how they can help make school processes less time-consuming for parents. This is things like communicating with teachers, viewing school policies, and completing forms and permission slips.

Now, remember, the Biden administration or any administration for that matter oversees and has authority over the executive branch, which includes all of these agencies that we just spoke about. So it's, you know, the CFPB, the DOE, the DOT, many, many others. And what this time is money initiative means.

is that the Biden administration has essentially directed these various agencies within the executive branch to propose new rules in order to target these particular issues. Once those rules are proposed, they have to go through the rulemaking process, which is set forth under federal law, and then those rules may or may not be finalized, which is what would then lead or not lead to change in all of these areas we just spoke about.

So that's how the rulemaking process works. That's what this initiative means. And now let's finish with just a couple of quick hitters. Number one, Elon Musk will be having a conversation with Donald Trump tonight. That's Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time. That conversation will be broadcasted live on X. But if you can't catch it live and you have an interest in tuning in, I'm sure it will be available on X afterwards, probably and most likely on Elon Musk's X account.

And independent presidential candidate RFK Jr. announced that his campaign now has all of the signatures needed to get on the ballot in every state. This doesn't mean that he is currently on every state ballot, just that he's met the signature requirements for each ballot. Basically, if you are an independent wanting to run for president, each state has a minimum number of signatures needed for you to be eligible.

And then once that threshold is met, the candidate will submit their petition to appear on the ballot in each respective state. That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Have a great night and I will talk to you tomorrow.