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--:-- John Bickley: The Biden campaign goes on the attack, launching a multi-million dollar ad blitz highlighting Trump's New York conviction. In the courtroom, we see Donald Trump for who he is. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, June 18th, and this is Morning Wire. The U.S. Surgeon General calls out social media as dangerous to children. Could warning labels soon be seen in your social media feed? Is that going to be slapped onto the front of your home screen on your iPhone? When you are clicking into Facebook, who knows? And a Texas doctor trying to protect children from a sex change program is now being charged by the Biden DOJ. It's my opinion that this is a politically motivated investigation. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: Amid persistent polling struggles, the Biden campaign is launching an aggressive ad campaign targeting Donald Trump and his felony conviction last month. Here to break down the controversial strategy and how voters have responded to the guilty verdict so far is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, Cabot. So a major ad buy from the president's campaign that's really turning heads here.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, it's interesting. So throughout the Trump trial in New York last month, President Biden himself, for the most part, steered clear of talking about the case or using it to go after Trump. But since the guilty verdict, he has invoked the trial frequently at rallies and on social media and now on TV. This week, Biden's camp announced a whopping $50 million ad campaign to promote what is undoubtedly the most aggressive messaging we've seen to date from the White House.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This election is between a convicted criminal who's only out for himself and a president who's fighting for your family. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Remember, throughout the winter and spring, Biden officials said they wanted to avoid spending their time and money talking about Trump and would instead win re-election by focusing on their own record. But that strategy doesn't exactly work when the overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of the job you're doing on the economy, immigration, crime, foreign affairs, virtually everything.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the new strategy appears clear. Keep the focus on Trump and make voters uncomfortable with the idea of sending a convicted felon to the White House. That theme will almost certainly be central to President Biden's message in next week's debate as well. But it's just unclear just how many voters can be swayed by that topic. For example, while most polls show the conviction does make voters slightly less likely to back Trump the issue itself is very far down the list of the most important topics for voters CBS for example found that 55 of voters said it was not a factor in their vote, while only 28% said it was a major influence.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For context, 81% of voters said the economy was a major influence on their vote. Crime and immigration were also well above 60%. So if the sole focus of the election were Trump's felony status, Biden might be the frontrunner, But it's closer to the ninth or 10th most important issue for voters. And that is a problem for the incumbent. Right. And this all comes as the president is fending off criticism of his own this week, most notably with regard to his age and mental fitness. Right. They are on the defensive when it comes to his age. That's been an issue all year, but has really come to the forefront following those viral clips of Biden appearing lost and confused during his visit to Europe. And then again this weekend when footage leaked of him giving this meandering and really confusing answer during that high-profile fundraiser Saturday night.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: You know, my son says, you know, we all have various short-term descriptions for your jobs, for what you accomplished. He should say Joe Jobs. Now, we talked yesterday about the White House effort to deflect on this issue by reminding voters that Trump is also older. And Monday, we saw another wrinkle in response to concerns over Biden's age. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said videos showing Biden looking confused or lost were, quote, deep fakes. Remember, that's the term for manipulated videos generated by AI.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how how desperate how desperate Republicans are here. And instead of talking about the president's performance in office, we're seeing these deep fakes. Jean-Pierre did not actually give any evidence or examples of deepfakes being spread. But that could be the new argument moving forward from the Biden campaign. Regardless, an issue that is not going away anytime soon. Clearly not.
--:-- John Bickley: Kevin, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: The U.S. Surgeon General has called for warning labels to be placed on social media platforms to warn parents about the risks to their children's mental health. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy made the call in an opinion article published Monday for the New York Times. Here to discuss what he said is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: Hey Ash, so what's the story here?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, Dr. Murphy explained that social media has shown to have a negative effect on young people's mental health, citing surveys that found adolescents said social media makes them feel worse about their bodies. He also cited studies that the warning labels on cigarettes have changed behavior, and a survey of Latino parents who said a surgeon general warning would lead them to limiting or monitoring their children's social media use.
--:-- Ash Short: Does Murthy actually have the authority to do this? Can he just place the label?
--:-- John Bickley: No, he can't just make an announcement and add a warning label. It has to be approved by Congress. And so far, no one has introduced any such legislation in either the House or the Senate. So Dr. Murthy is probably hoping his op-ed will lead to that. But Stephen Kent, media director for the Consumer Choice Center, suggested that such a label would have little effect.
--:-- Ash Short: Take a listen. Now, there are two types of labels that we've seen in the consumer space in the past, and that is the sort of think twice before buying type labels. You might see that on Red Bull or energy drinks and stuff like that that are loaded up with all sorts of interesting ingredients. And then there's be careful before using this labels, which are much more commonly associated with tobacco products and alcohol. And this would probably fall into the latter category The problem is that the Surgeon General neither really defines what sites are and are not social media Is Discord social media Is Facebook the definition of social media? And has he really offered any input on where that label is going to go in a social media app? Not really.
--:-- Ash Short: So what about the argument that warning labels have worked somewhat in the past? Sure, they worked in the past for cigarettes, but as Stephen explained, today we're inundated with warning labels on everything. We have seen this sort of ubiquitous rise of warning labels on everything from video games to television to energy drinks to soda. And in the words of Kip Vakuski at Vanderbilt University, their ubiquitousness is causing people to not take it seriously. And because we are a rather litigious society, that's why these labels exist, so that companies can sort of shirk any kind of legal blowback any time a product goes wrong or has bad health outcomes.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, this wasn't the only thing that Dr. Murthy suggested to curb the dangers of social media, correct?
--:-- John Bickley: Right. Dr. Murphy made sure to say that a warning label itself would not make social media safer and noted that he had made recommendations last year for Congress to enact legislation that would, quote, shield young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content. Now, some of those recommendations included measures that would prohibit social media companies from collecting sensitive data from children and restricting features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll. which he said contribute to children overusing the platforms.
--:-- Ash Short: He also suggested legislation that would require those social media companies to share all of their data on health effects with public and independent scientists, which could raise privacy concerns and concerns of government control. So what are the solutions? Is there any viable solution to this issue? One of the Surgeon General's recommendations was for parents to limit kids' screen time, and Stephen seemed to agree. To have the public think twice about using these apps or letting their kids use these apps too soon, there has to be a cultural change in the household and on the family level for this really to take effect and change people's social media habits.
--:-- Ash Short: I think an ideal outcome is a future where there's more social pressure not to have your kids on social media and people wondering, why are you letting your kid wander around on these websites? That would actually change, I think, the country and the trajectory of the mental health crisis we're seeing with young people in a more substantive way.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, very complicated issue that's on a lot of parents' minds right now. Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration has charged the surgeon who blew the whistle on a child sex change program at Texas Children's Hospital with four felonies. Dr. Eitan Haim is facing 10 years in prison. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with more.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, what exactly is the nature of this indictment against Dr. Haim?
--:-- John Bickley: So they're related to HIPAA violations. In May 2023, Dr. Heim provided what he says were redacted records to independent journalist Chris Rufo. He and Rufo say these records prove that Texas Children's Hospital, which is the largest children's hospital in the state, was secretly carrying out transgender procedures on kids. So I'm reading here from the U.S. attorney's press release. The four indictment alleges Haim obtained personal information including patient names treatment codes and the attending physician from Texas Children Hospital electronic system without authorization He allegedly obtained this information under false pretenses and with intent to cause malicious harm to the hospital
--:-- Megan Basham: So Rufo, however, says that nothing Haim shared with him would have constituted a HIPAA violation and that the documents did not include the names of any patients or any other identifying information. He says these records were all carefully redacted. So Haim and Rufo are alleging that this is an ideologically motivated prosecution on the part of the DOJ.
--:-- Megan Basham: OK, so let's dive into that. Why do Haim and Rufo believe this is political for the Biden administration?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, essentially because Biden has been so outspoken in support of the transgender movement generally. He's heavily promoted a number of transgender initiatives, including Trans Day of Visibility. And he issued an executive order in 2022 to protect transgender procedures, even as 20 states have now banned or severely restricted that practice. Now, Texas is one of those states. In May of 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office would launch child abuse investigations against those who facilitate sex change procedures on kids. And just after that, Texas Children's CEO announced the hospital was shutting down its gender clinic. But the documents Haim gave Rufo showed that only three days after that announcement, Texas Children's implanted an 11-year-old girl with a device that provided cross-sex hormones.
--:-- Megan Basham: And Haim said that the hospital, in fact, increased its rate of gender procedures and quoting here, potentially hundreds more children received hormone interventions for gender dysphoria. So this was what he told Fox News at the time. So they were giving every indication to the public that they were shutting down this program. But I worked there. I did surgery there. I knew categorically this was untrue. They not only continue the program, but expanded it behind closed doors. And especially as a doctor, trust is the most important currency we have. And the fact that they were lying to the public is an egregious violation of medical ethics.
--:-- Megan Basham: It's worth noting that whistleblower testimony has been instrumental in halting transgender treatments on minors across the world. So in the UK, for example, clinicians tipped off journalists that Britain's primary gender youth clinic was failing to properly evaluate and follow up with minors who were being given these treatments. And then Texas outlawed this practice entirely in September last year. Now, with Haim facing these indictments, has he expressed any regrets about blowing the whistle?
--:-- John Bickley: None so far. So on June 6th, right after he learned that an indictment was coming, Haim posted this on X. I refuse to back down or to be silenced, but to win, we enter the arena. For us, that's federal court. And then he said this on the Dr. Phil show just a few months ago. It was important for me as a doctor, you have a responsibility to take care of patients. And you go into medicine because you want to do that. You want to protect patients from the diseases that affect them. But you never imagine that you have to protect these patients from the hospitals. And when I knew that the hospital was lying to the public about this program, I have a responsibility to do something about it. I have a responsibility as a surgeon and then as a person.
--:-- Megan Basham: So as of right now, his legal fund has raised well over $650,000. There are certainly a lot of people out there who feel he did the right thing. We'll have to see if the legal system agrees. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. Bye.
