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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm your host John Bickley.
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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
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--:-- John Bickley: Attorney General Merrick Garland was in the hot seat Wednesday as several senators questioned him about politically sensitive investigations at the DOJ. Apparently on your watch, this Justice Department is targeting Catholics, targeting people of faith specifically for their faith views. And Mr. Attorney General, I'll just say to you, it's a disgrace.
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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, March 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. U.S. senators hope to make rail disasters, like last month's derailment in Ohio, a thing of the past with a newly introduced bill. So we actually would increase the penalties, make it so that if a train company causes what happened in East Palestine, they actually suffer some real consequences.
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--:-- John Bickley: And the migrant crisis in the Big Apple continues to grow as the city's hospital system is stepping in with a $90 million stopgap measure. We discuss the details. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: The American Heart Association recommends four to five servings of fruits and vegetables every single day. Now, that's no small task, especially given your busy schedule. Balance of Nature fruit and veggie capsules are a convenient way to consume essential nutritional ingredients on the daily. Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. That's balanceofnature.com, promo code WIRE.
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--:-- John Bickley: Attorney General Merrick Garland testified Wednesday before the Senate, where Republican members grilled him on the Biden Justice Department's response to a number of hot-button issues, including abortion, fentanyl, and protests at the homes of Supreme Court justices. Here with the highlights from the heated testimony and more on what we learned from the Attorney General is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, Republicans in the House are already investigating the politicization of the DOJ, and now in the Senate, they're getting their turn to speak with Attorney General Garland firsthand. Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing for the Justice Department, calling on Garland to offer testimony to the new Congress for the first time.
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--:-- Cabot Phillips: That testimony comes at a perilous time for the DOJ, which has been accused at times by both parties of becoming increasingly political in recent years. And as expected, Republican senators grilled Garland on a number of issues, accusing him of employing a, quote, two-tiered system that treated people differently based on their beliefs and was driven by politics.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Garland came out the gate denying those allegations, saying, quote, we treat like cases alike. We don't have one rule for Democrats or Republicans. Now, one example of alleged bias that came up involved the protests at the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, despite the fact that such demonstrations are banned under federal law, hundreds of protesters have appeared at the private residences of Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas. Despite that fact, the Biden Justice Department has yet to charge a single person under the law.
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--:-- Cabot Phillips: Republicans say it's a clear example of political bias that would be treated differently by the DOJ if liberal justices were the ones being threatened at their homes. For example, here Texas Republican Ted Cruz in a particularly heated exchange asking why no one has been prosecuted.
--:-- Ted Cruz: How do you decide which criminal statutes the DOJ enforces and which one it doesn't? The United States marshals know that they have full... I recognize you want to give a separate speech. No, I don't want to give a... How do you decide which statutes you enforce and which ones you don't? The marshals on scene make that determination in light of the priority of...
--:-- Ted Cruz: The marshals do not make a determination over whether to prosecute you. The attorney general makes a determination. And you spent 20 years as a judge and you're perfectly content with justices being afraid for their children's lives. And you did nothing to prosecute it. Let's shift to it.
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--:-- Ted Cruz: So Garland's answer is essentially that it's up to the marshals guarding the justices to make an arrest or not. And that he cannot prosecute people if they aren't arrested. But Republicans say that's absurd. And that as the nation's top law enforcement official, he could ensure his employees were making arrests if he wanted them to.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, we also saw a similar line of questioning from Senator Cruz on abortion protesters. We did. Republicans say the DOJ has unfairly targeted pro-life demonstrators while doing little to track down those responsible for the dozens of violent attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers around the country.
--:-- Ted Cruz: Why do you send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be prone life, but you don't devote resources to prosecute people who are violently firebombing crisis pregnancies?
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--:-- Cabot Phillips: It is a priority. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley extended that line of questioning in another heated moment.
--:-- Josh Hawley: Philadelphia District Attorney declines to prosecute. Private suits dismissed. You use an unbelievable show of force with guns that liberals usually decry, you're happy to deploy them against Catholics and innocent children. And then you haul them into court and a jury acquits them in one hour.
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--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, all of this comes as a new report is shining light on the DOJ's raid of former President Trump's residents. What did we learn about that this week?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So on Wednesday, we learned that the FBI resisted DOJ demands to raid Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago. That's according to a new report from the Washington Post. They say that when DOJ prosecutors initially requested the raid, two senior FBI officials tasked with conducting it resisted.
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--:-- Cabot Phillips: They argued the raid was unnecessarily combative and they worried how it would be perceived by the public. So they proposed the agency instead ask Trump's permission to search his property. But ultimately, the DOJ officials won out and that led to the unprecedented raid of his home in August.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, that report also says that months before the raid, FBI officials had begun warning the DOJ to slow down and use caution in the Trump investigation given the potential blowback, but that they were basically ignored by the DOJ.
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--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Coming up, Senators target railway safety issues with new legislation. Looking for a reliable or safe propane supplier for your home or business? Look no further than Cinch. Cinch delivers propane grill tanks right to your door on your schedule. No long-term commitments or subscription required. Plus, delivery can be completely contactless. Go online to cinch.com, that's C-Y-N-C-H dot com, or download the Cinch app to order. Use promo code WIRE to get your first tank exchange for just $10.
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--:-- John Bickley: Some members of the U.S. Senate are introducing legislation aimed at preventing rail disasters like last month's derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The move comes amid a political blame game playing out in the public Here with more details is Daily Wire managing editor Greg Wilson.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Hey Greg, So some action from the Senate including both Ohio senators. First, what is this bill they introduced? Well, it's called the Railway Safety Act of 2023, and it would require new safety procedures for trains hauling hazardous materials like the Norfolk Southern train that derailed on February 3rd.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: The bill would impose new safety requirements on railroad companies and stiffer penalties for violations of them. What are some of the key specifics of the bill? To start, all trains would have to have at least two crew members on board, which is currently not a requirement, although it's important to note the East Palestine train had a crew of three.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Those hot bearing detectors we've heard about, the track bed sensors that alert the train crew when a wheel is overheated, they would be required every 10 miles. In the East Palestine crash, the sensors were 20 miles apart, and by the time the crew was alerted to the overheated wheel, it was too late to avoid disaster.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: The new regs would also hit railroads in the wallet for violations. Currently, safety violation fines imposed by the Department of Transportation are capped at $225,000. The bill would raise that maximum to 1% of a railroad's annual profits, which in some cases could amount to tens of millions of dollars.
--:-- Greg Wilson: So potentially a massive increase in fines there. How likely is this bill to pass? What kind of support does it have? It's bipartisan, as you noted. It's sponsored by the senators from the two states most affected by the derailment, Ohio's J.D. Vance, a Republican, and Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, as well as Pennsylvania Democrats Bob Casey and John Fetterman, and a handful of other senators from both parties.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: Vance, the freshman senator elected last November, has been the most outspoken in the wake of the accident. He spent several days in East Palestine and criticized the Biden administration for what many say was a sluggish response to the disaster. In recent days, he's called for a bailout for residents and businesses in East Palestine modeled after the federal Paycheck Protection Program put in place after COVID lockdowns.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Vance says the railroad should pay for it, but the money could at least be fronted by the federal government. All right, so Vance is criticizing the response to the disaster. There's also been a lot of buzz about who's to blame for it going wrong in the first place. Some Biden officials have claimed that deregulation under the Trump administration may have caused the derailment.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: That's right. The White House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have all blamed deregulation by the Trump administration for the train derailment. Here's Buttigieg doing just that.
--:-- Pete Buttigieg: Well, one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: But a closer look has shown that's simply false. Even some left-leaning outlets and their so-called fact-checkers have shot it down. Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post, not a paper known for providing cover to Trump, sought to, in his words, quote, examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Kessler looked at breaking systems, staffing, and safety inspection regulations changed under Trump and found, quote, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident.
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--:-- Greg Wilson: Well, let's hope some of the steps being taken will help prevent this kind of disaster in the future. Greg, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Greg Wilson: Thank you.
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--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire Managing Editor Greg Wilson. New York City's migrant crisis continues to grow worse as more and more asylum seekers make their way from the southern border to our nation's largest city. New York City's public hospital system will spend more than $90 million through the end of spring to put the migrants up at Manhattan hotels. Here to discuss this development is columnist David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: So Dave, this problem seems to be abating. What will this new influx of cash pay for exactly?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. The funds will be used to pay four midtown Manhattan hotels to house migrants as they continue to course into Gotham. Two of these are four-star hotels, so obviously the price tag looks pretty steep.
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--:-- David Marcus: As we've discussed before on the show, not only is New York City a sanctuary city, meaning it has to take migrants in. It also has a right to shelter law, which means the city has to provide housing. This is an all-hands-on-deck effort, frankly, at a time when the city has many other priorities that need to be attended to.
--:-- David Marcus: Why would the public hospital system be charged with this task? The migrants aren't seeking medical care, but rather housing. So what's the connection? It's a good question. New York City Health and Hospital Corporation is in charge of this effort, in part because under normal circumstances, they're tasked with handling parts of the, shall we say, domestic problem of homelessness and the mentally ill.
--:-- David Marcus: So you can see the overlap. Also, unlike the Office of Management and Budget, a city agency, spending by H&H does not need the approval of the city controller, which means Mayor Eric Adams can basically give them a blank check. I see.
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--:-- David Marcus: And where is the money coming from to pay for this blank check? Is this all coming from the hospital system? Office of Management and Budget is helping with some of the funds, apparently, but $90 million is a big budget line for any agency or even set of agencies.
--:-- David Marcus: And it's leaving New Yorkers and public officials wondering what this cash is being taken away from, whether in treatment or services for native New Yorkers. Look, there's no money growing on trees in Central Park, so people want to know, how is this getting paid for?
--:-- David Marcus: And of course, at the end of the day, the answer is local taxpayers and businesses. You can shuffle the funds under three plastic cups all you want. But at the end of the shell game, it's still tax revenue. Right.
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--:-- David Marcus: Now, it was just last month that some of the migrants complained about being moved from the Midtown hotels to a shelter at a Brooklyn Ferry terminal. Is this a signal the city's just sort of giving in to these demands?
--:-- David Marcus: It's not entirely clear. In fact, nothing about this whole process, which has been going on for six months now, actually works. It all seems to change every day. As we reported here, about three weeks ago, the city started sending migrants on buses to Canada.
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--:-- David Marcus: Now some of them have returned to New York because it turns out Canada is very cold and they didn't like that. The city government really seems to be flailing, looking for any solution it can throw against the wall. But so far, nothing is sticking.
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--:-- David Marcus: It's an unprecedented and unexpected situation in New York that stems directly from the record number of people crossing the border. Until the Biden administration gets that under control, hard to see where this stops.
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--:-- John Bickley: David, thanks for joining us.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Other stories we're tracking this week. After hours of deliberation Wednesday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval for two RSV vaccines for older adults, one from Pfizer and the other from GSK. The FDA could grant formal approval within a few months.
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--:-- John Bickley: Congress moved one step closer to giving President Biden the authority to outright ban TikTok, citing national security concerns. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to approve the bill on Wednesday, and the bill now needs to be taken up by the House.
--:-- John Bickley: All 24 Republicans supported the potential law, while all 16 Democrats opposed it. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
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--:-- John Bickley: Well, that's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
