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--:-- Host: John Bickley: President Biden tries to strike a hopeful tone in his final speech to the U.N. despite escalating conflict abroad. I know many look at the world today and see difficulties and react with despair. But maybe because all I've seen and all we have done together over the decades, I have hope.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: How did the president frame his much-critiqued foreign policy legacy?
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, September 25th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: Left-wing groups funded by George Soros are bragging about their ability to sway upcoming elections. We want to spotlight those who have taken the final step in the immigration journey and have become naturalized citizens. And could the winner of battleground state Pennsylvania be determined by an unlikely voting bloc? I want you to know we are courting the Amish vote. The Amish, if they are mobilized, could literally save Western civilization.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: All eyes are on New York City this week, where world leaders are convening for the 2024 United Nations General Assembly, and where Joe Biden has delivered his final speech to the group as president. Here are the latest on the meeting as Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Say, Tim, First, what did we hear from President Biden yesterday?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, hey, John. Obviously, the two issues dominating the conversation this week are Gaza and Ukraine, both of which President Biden touched on in his Tuesday address. He called for greater peace and stability in the Middle East and said that the world must not flinch from the horrors of October 7th. He went on to mention the civilians killed and taken hostage by Hamas, but quickly pivoted, calling for a ceasefire and seemingly critiquing Israel's conduct in the war.
--:-- Tim Rice: Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands of kills, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding in the tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation. They did not ask for this war that Hamas started. I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal. It's been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. Now is the time for the parties to finalize his terms. Bring the hostages home.
--:-- Tim Rice: What's drawn the most scrutiny from the speech are Biden's comments about Afghanistan. He defended his decision to withdraw, calling it a hard decision, but the right decision. His comments came just hours after Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee moved to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify on that withdrawal.
--:-- Tim Rice: Of course, there been a lot of scrutiny around that operation which left 13 American service members dead and saw Afghanistan fall once again under Taliban control. Right. Now, you mentioned Ukraine. What did Biden have to say about that?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, he didn't break much new ground. He reiterated his administration's commitment to Ukraine and called for continued Western support of its fight against Russia.
--:-- Tim Rice: Good news is Putin's war has failed at his core aim. He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free. He set out to weaken NATO, but NATO is bigger, stronger, more united than ever before. But we cannot let up. We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away. And we will not let up on our support for Ukraine. not until Ukraine wins just a durable peace.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: Now, looking on during Biden's speech was Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelensky. He's stateside to speak at the UN and meet with Biden and Harris at the White House on Thursday. But his visit has already been marred in controversy. On Sunday, The New Yorker published an interview in which he called J.D. Vance too radical because Vance has criticized the U.S. aid to Ukraine. And then on Monday, Zelensky took an Air Force jet to Pennsylvania, where he effectively did a campaign-type event for Democrats. He appeared in a munitions plant with Josh Shapiro, the state's Democrat governor, and now a Harris campaign surrogate. Between the interview and the taxpayer-funded junket to a swing state, many Republicans are accusing Zelensky of attempting to meddle in the presidential election.
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, I saw a lot of criticism online about that yesterday. Speaking of the election, how's Trump spending this week? He's been making appearances in swing states, speaking in Pennsylvania on Monday night and Georgia on Tuesday afternoon. His speeches have been mainly focused on the economy, but in the spirit of this week's General Assembly, he's gotten in a few points about foreign policy too.
--:-- Tim Rice: If we would have had four more years, everything, this would be such a different country right now. We would have had no inflation. You wouldn't have Russia attacking Ukraine. You wouldn't have had October 7th with Israel. The Middle East is blowing up. We could be very close to World War III with these characters that don't have any idea what they're doing. But what a shame in Afghanistan. What a disaster. That was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, I believe.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: Clearly Trump does not agree with Biden that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a success. Clearly not.
--:-- Tim Rice: Meanwhile, Biden's final big speech at the UN. Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Rice: Anytime. I'm always watching MMA, looking for fighters to break out some solid BJJ technique. With PrizePix, I can stack up the stats of multiple fighters on things like their average number of successful takedowns and simply bet on whether they'll hit more or less. To give it a try, download the PrizePix app today and use code MORNINGWIRE to get $50 instantly when you play $5. That's code MORNINGWIRE on PrizePix for $50 instantly when you play $5. PrizePix, run your game.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: As immigration becomes a key priority for voters, Republicans are warning that the Democratic Party could be using immigrants as a political tool to change America's electorate. Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist found that left-wing organizations funded by a Democrat megadonor are openly touting their efforts to naturalize non-citizens and then mobilize them as voters.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: So one of the organizations I focused on in my report is the National Partnership for New Americans. It a George Soros nonprofit and they said that immigration could quote sway the outcome of national state and local elections The organization works to naturalize noncitizens calling them a sleeping political giant It also maintains demographic reports of the key swing states that will decide the outcome of our presidential election.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: So the group is overtly making clear that this is about changing the electorate for political purposes. Yes, that's right. What do the actual numbers look like? Could immigration actually change the outcome of a national election?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: It certainly looks like it, especially because large numbers of foreign nationals have become citizens in key swing states, and those states have an outsized role in deciding the presidency. For example, in 2020, Biden only won Arizona by 11,000 votes. Meanwhile, more than 62,000 voting-age non-citizens have been naturalized since the election.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: That's according to a demographic breakdown from New American voters. Georgia is another swing state that could be disproportionately affected by mass immigration. Biden beat Trump by just 12,000 votes there in 2020, but another 86,000 individuals have become citizens since that election.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: While Biden's margin was larger in 2020, Trump won Michigan in 2016 by less than 11,000 votes. But over the last four years, just under 60,000 foreign-born residents have been naturalized in the Great Lakes state. So there's potential for a serious impact because of activist groups like this.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Definitely, and there are several groups doing this. There's also the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, another Soros-funded organization. It also works to naturalize immigrants and then encourages them to vote. But then it goes a step further. This group, which, by the way, has received nearly $7 million from the Open Society Foundation, also tries to stop deportations.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Soros' foundation gave $500,000 to the center in 2021 to fund efforts to, quote, dismantle the infrastructure of criminalization, detention, and deportation of immigrants. So significant funding behind these efforts and illegal immigration, they're a focus for that group.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Politically speaking, who does this appear to benefit most? The existing data indicates that mass immigration is almost certainly going to benefit the Democratic Party. One analysis of the 2018 midterms found that 90% of congressional districts with a higher than average foreign-born population went for the Democrats.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: And Pew polled immigrant voters in seven different states and found that the demographic overwhelmingly favored the Democratic Party in each state. The U.S. also has 51.6 million foreign-born residents as of right now, marking an all-time high, due in large part to the Biden-Harris administration's immigration policies.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: It's also quite notable that these organizations are being funded by Soros. So it appears that he is confident that this effort to remake the electorate will help the Democrats. Now, this effort, of course, is coming after years of unprecedented illegal immigration through our southern border. Democrats say any talk of illegal immigrants affecting elections is a conspiracy. What's the reality there?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Well, even if illegal immigrants are successfully prevented from fraudulently voting, illegal immigration could impact our congressional apportionment process. That's a fact that many, including Elon Musk, have pointed out. Since the census doesn't account for citizenship, Democratic areas could benefit from higher population growth, even if that growth is driven by illegal immigration.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: That would eventually give some blue states more electoral votes. And if there was full amnesty for illegal immigrants, that could fundamentally alter the state of play in several key states like Texas.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Well, clearly mass migration has the potential to impact our elections going forward one way or another.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Spencer, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Thank you for having me on.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: The GOP is making a play for the Amish vote, a group that has historically stayed out of mainstream politics but could play a key role in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So Amanda, the right is courting the Amish on a really grassroots level this election cycle. First, what are the traditional voting patterns of Amish Americans?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Hey, Georgia. Amish Americans generally don't vote in presidential elections but they are religious they have large families and they socially conservative So when they do vote they overwhelmingly register as Republicans
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now there are nearly 400 Amish in the U.S. and they live in rural areas, predominantly in Ohio, Indiana, and of course, Pennsylvania, where there are about 87,000 Amish people. Pennsylvania's Lancaster County has the largest Amish community in the nation with about 44,000 Amish residents.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, in 2016, there were about 15,000 eligible Amish voters in Lancaster County, but only about 1,000 of them voted in that presidential election. By 2020, that tripled to about 3,000 votes. So a significant increase, but still relatively low voter turnout, despite some GOP efforts to get a hold of that voting bloc.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: But now there is a renewed effort to get out the Amish vote. Yeah, there is. So both parties are now pouring tons of resources into Pennsylvania more generally. It's currently a toss-up between Harris and Trump right now with a lot of pundits saying whoever wins Pennsylvania is going to take the White House.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Remember, Trump lost PA in 2020 by just about 82,000 votes. Scott Pressler, a conservative activist who leads a PAC called Early Vote Action, is specifically targeting the Amish with mail-in ballots. Here he is speaking to a conservative conference about that.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: When I go to the Amish and I tell them that they can have a private, secret ballot that is sent to their homes and they don't have to drive their buggy to town and go to a polling location to have that stigma from their community. They love the idea of mail-in ballots.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And how epic would it be if a tool of the Democrats was used in order to get out the Amish vote and win and elect Donald J. Trump?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And do we know how effective Pressler's efforts have been so far? Well, we really won't know that until the votes start coming in. but Pressler and his team have been in PA since last week. They plan to stay there and register voters with the main focus on the Amish for a total of 40 days.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Pressler is a highly effective grassroots activist. He's not working directly for the RNC since he has his own PAC now, but RNC co-chair Laura Trump praised Pressler and said he's registered more voters than anyone else she knows of.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Pressler also has the support of Donald Trump Jr., who put out a video of Pressler earlier this year and advocated for efforts to register the Amish to vote. And while Pressler still has weeks left in PA, the activist says his team's effort in Pennsylvania more broadly have already helped to flip Luzerne County red with respect to voter registration.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: There are now 87,415 registered Republican voters with a razor-thin 83-person lead over Democrats. That's significant because Luzerne County was considered a Democrat stronghold. Currently statewide, Democrats are holding the slimmest lead in voter registration over Republicans in decades.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: There's also another element playing into all of this. Conservatives say the Amish are under threat from big government policies in PA, specifically when it comes to farming. Earlier this year, an Amish farmer named Amos Miller in Lancaster County had his farm raided by the state, and he was banned from selling raw milk products.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Pennsylvania outright bans the sale of some raw milk products like butter and yogurt and mandates permits for others. This was a pretty high profile case that got the attention and support of Donald Trump Jr. and RFK Jr., who is now a surrogate for Trump.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, it will be very significant if the Amish in Pennsylvania get activated.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You're welcome.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Hey, thank you for listening this morning. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Host: John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
