--:-- [Upbeat music plays in the background]
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--:-- John Bickley: California's took to the polls Tuesday in a series of significant primary elections in one high-profile recall vote for a controversial district attorney. We unpack all the results and what they mean for the political direction of the state. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, June 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The debate over Roe v. Wade makes its way to Wall Street, where activist investment firms are pressuring big businesses to promote abortion access. And the largest migrant caravan ever is making its way north through Central America, bound for the U.S. border. We discuss the causes and consequences of the caravan.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by The Pearl Source. June is officially Pearl Month, And there's no better time to buy beautiful and timeless pearl jewelry for that special someone in your life from the Pearl Source. The Pearl Source cuts out the middleman by eliminating those crazy markups by jewelry stores and sells directly to you at up to 70% off retail prices. The Pearl Source offers free two-day shipping on every order and a 60-day money-back guarantee with free return shipping, so it's risk-free. For a limited time, Morning Wire listeners can take 15% off your order with promo code MORNINGWIRE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Californians made some important decisions about the political direction of the state on Tuesday. A primary race for the mayoral candidate in Los Angeles pitted two very different visions for the city. One vocally law and order former Republican Rick Russo and the other left-wing progressive Democrat Karen Bass. Also up for a vote was California's next governor, with incumbent Governor Gavin Newsom among the candidates.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to tell us about the results is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. So Charlotte, tell us about what happened in these primaries.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In the L.A. mayoral primary, neither Democrats Rick Caruso or Karen Bass got the necessary votes above 50 percent to avoid a runoff election. But Caruso was actually coming out ahead in the Tuesday night results. Now, we also had the recall election for arguably the most controversial D.A. in America, San Francisco's Chesa Boudin.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What happened there?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yes. In a decisive outcome, voters chose to recall San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, with the yes votes coming in at 61%. In the gubernatorial primary, Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom came in first with Republican Brian Dolly as the second place winner. So they'll face off in November.
--:-- John Bickley: So quite a significant development there. Charlotte, thanks.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: For more context, we spoke to Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi about what led up to the Boudin recall and its implications. Now, Mairead, you've been tracking this. It's a very drastic measure to recall a DA. How did we get here?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Sure, so Boudin's critics say that since becoming district attorney in 2019, he has overall failed to control crime in San Francisco. Even former prosecutors who worked in Boudin office like Brooke Jenkins who left the DA office last October have come out and said he's not fit to be DA.
--:-- John Bickley: [Speaking in the background] What we felt is that he was personally intervening in a number of cases, including our own cases, which involve very serious and violent offenders, in order to garner them lenient sentences.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: In an interview with California reporter Alex Michelson, Boudin responded by accusing Jenkins of, quote, blatant lies and dishonesty. I was elected to make changes to the office. And there are folks like her who are fiercely resisting any kinds of changes. They want to go back to the failed tough-on-crime policies of the 1990s, and that's not going to work for San Francisco voters.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A major criticism of Boudin that comes up time and again is that he's lenient with criminals. For example, looking at his record on drug charges, there were nearly 500 fentanyl deaths in San Francisco in 2021. But Boudin did not prosecute a single drug dealer for fentanyl-related charges that year.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Over the entire year, Boudin convicted a grand total of three drug offenders in 2021, including one for heroin and two for meth. According to the San Francisco Standard, Boudin has routinely reduced the charge for drug offenders from drug felony charges to accessory after-the-fact charges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In at least one case, one individual was arrested five separate times over the course of a year for dealing substances, including fentanyl, and all of his charges were consolidated into two accessory felony charges.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Another individual had four drug dealing arrests over about six months, and he was charged with two accessory misdemeanors and ended up spending just two days in jail. In fact, 80% of Boudin's narcotics convictions in 2021 were classified as accessory charges.
--:-- John Bickley: [Speaking in the background] Yes, and the data bears that out. Murder rates in the city have risen sharply since 2019 when Boudin took office, from 41 murders in 2019 to 56 in 2021.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Plus, and this is what really hurts Boudin, many criminals are repeat offenders. According to the security service manager for SF Safe, a group that works with San Francisco police, the same suspect may be tied to over 100 burglaries in one area.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An April poll by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that crime was one of the top four issues California voters are worried about, along with homelessness, housing affordability, and gas prices.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Well, it'll be interesting to see if these other cities start pivoting away from these policies.
--:-- John Bickley: Mairead, thanks for reporting.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi. Coming up, Wall Street wades into the debate over abortion. Do you have a will? You might be shocked to learn how many people don't. Creating a will is fundamental to protecting yourself and your family because if something happens to you and your spouse, the state will decide what happens to your kids and your assets. Take control. Go to epicwill.com, promo code WIRE. Epicwill.com where you can secure your future in as little as five minutes with a complete will package starting at $119. And when you use promo code WIRE, you'll save 10%.
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--:-- John Bickley: Wall Street has been joining the debate over Roe v. Wade with activist investment firms pressuring big businesses to use their influence to protect abortion access. Recent shareholders meetings for Lowe's, TJ Maxx, and Walmart have included proposals to take action on the issue.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to explain how these companies are responding to demands that they address the abortion issue is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, it's not immediately clear how abortion laws have to do with business processes at TJ Maxx or Walmart. What arguments are activists making for why these companies must take action on abortion?
--:-- Megan Basham: They're saying what happens with Roe and abortion access in general impacts female employees. So on that basis, they're asking these big companies to study what it might cost them in employee hiring and retention if that right to abortion is overturned and abortion is restricted in some of those states.
--:-- John Bickley: Got it. And first, who are these activists and then how are they pressuring these companies?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, in terms of who, this is actually coming from investment firms. So once again, the issue is coming down to ESG, that's environmental, social, and governance investing. And that's that politically motivated investing philosophy that you and I have talked about before, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So here's how the process is working. A few activist investment firms are using their holdings in these big companies to put forward proposals related to abortion at shareholders' meetings.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, I want to note that I'm not using activist pejoratively here. We're talking about firms that openly acknowledge that they are trying to advance political and social goals with their investment strategies. So David Stocks, executive director at Educational Foundation of America, said his firm strategically filed its abortion proposal at Lowe's because it's a nationwide retailer with a large female employee base.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He said, because these big companies are the deciders of healthcare benefits for all these people, they are now thrust into this issue whether they want to be or not.
--:-- Megan Basham: So after these firms put these proposals forward, Institutional Shareholder Service, known as ISS, began recommending that asset managers vote to approve them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, our regular listeners are going to recognize the name ISS from a Sunday episode we did on ESG investing. ISS is a proxy service that provides social credit scores for companies and some hedge funds, mutual funds, other investment firms that own shares of multiple companies also pay ISS to vote on their behalf at shareholder meetings.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I asked Jerry Boyer, Forbes contributor and senior fellow in business economics at the Center for Cultural Leadership, about ISS's involvement in this. Here's what he told me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Talked to a number of CEOs and CFOs, et cetera, and they all feel like they're mostly dealing with ISS. BlackRock's getting a lot of attention, and I do hear CEOs talk about BlackRock kind of being in their business a lot, but probably the bigger intrusive political force, but less visible, would be the proxy services, especially ISS.
--:-- Megan Basham: So the big three funds, BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, that hold enough shares to have decision-making power in these companies, were also pressured to vote for these recent abortion-related proposals. Though so far, they're refusing to comment on how they voted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, these proposals have failed, but we're certainly going to see more of them.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, how about the other side? Are we also seeing pro-life investors similarly using their holdings and companies to put forward proposals that align with their beliefs?
--:-- Georgia Howe: You know, not really, not that I'm seeing. And part of the reason for that could be that so far, big business actually seems fairly resistant to getting involved in the abortion debate.
--:-- Megan Basham: And along those same lines, a major PR firm advised clients like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and AT not to issue any public statements on Roe. When the reporter who broke that story asked the companies how they felt about that advice none responded and none were willing to say that they disagreed with it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that said, some big companies like Amazon and Tesla are throwing some support behind abortion advocates by announcing that they're planning to pay for female employees to travel to other states to terminate their pregnancies if it's outlawed in their home states.
--:-- Megan Basham: Right, we did a story about that.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. A caravan of thousands of migrants is making its way north through Mexico toward the U.S. in what may become the largest single group of people to appear at once at the southern border.
--:-- John Bickley: According to some estimates, the caravan contains some 11,000 people and could amass as many as 15,000 before it reaches the U.S.-Mexico border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: DataWire's Tim Pierce is here to tell us about the situation. Tim, what do we need to know?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, John, this has gained a lot of attention recently. The caravan took off Monday from Tapachula, a city on Mexico's border with Guatemala. From there, it's an over 2,000-mile journey to the border of Arizona if the caravan sticks to what's known as the coastal route, as has been reported.
--:-- John Bickley: Quite the track. Where are these people coming from and what's motivating them?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, the largest number of migrants in this group are reportedly from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. But El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are also represented in the group. The caravan even includes migrants from India, Bangladesh, and a handful of African countries.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As for what's motivating them, Fox News on Monday reported that some migrants in this particular caravan are citing Biden's decision to push for appealing the Trump-era health code known as Title 42.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I spoke to Mark Morgan. He helped lead the U.S. Border Patrol under both Trump and Obama. He says focusing on these large caravans is missing the larger picture.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm not too overly concerned about the caravan because right now, currently at our border, we're apprehending an equivalent of a 15,000-person caravan every two days.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Morgan also said that even though recent debates over immigration policy have been dominated by the fight over Title 42, it's important to remember that the immigration crisis has been going on for well over a year now. We're setting record months, month after month after month. We've had over 800,000 guideways under this administration that the stats could go on and on and on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So even if Title 42 stays in place, we're already in the middle of the worst catastrophic crisis in our lifetime. And then there are those late night flights. There are reports that those flights, which are dispersing migrants across the country, are only getting more frequent.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, of course the flights are going to increase. And this administration, instead of doing what they need to do to reverse course and to secure our borders and stem the flow of immigration, everything they're doing is just to get better and more fast at processing and releasing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On top of that, the U.S. and one of its main immigration partners, Mexico, have had a bit of a falling out this week over the summit of the Americas. The summit fumbled on its first day when Mexico pulled out because Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were excluded, further straining U.S.-Mexico relations.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So yet another setback that might make it even harder to find a solution.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for reporting, Tim.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire's Tim Pierce. 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, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code Morning Wire to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
