--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- 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.
--:-- John Bickley: It's debate week and Trump and Biden are gearing up to go toe to toe on the national stage. Biden is 10 points down nationally, and we're doing even better in the swing states. We get the latest from the campaign trail ahead of the big event.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor in chief John Bickley with this week's guest host, Carol Markowitz, host of The Carol Markowitz Show.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: Great to be here. It's Monday, June 24th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Newly revealed documents show the Biden administration citing support for Trump connection to the military and religious faith as red flags for domestic extremism. And two years since the Dobbs ruling, the pro-life movement in America has seen both setbacks and big wins. These states that protect life are doing what they can to empower women to offer them real choice.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Brandon: Hey, guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee is a veteran-founded company that's doing their part to honor both current and former military personnel, as well as first responders. They support such organizations as the Wounded Warrior Project, Adopt-a-Cop, BJJ, and the Burn Institute.
--:-- Brandon: Right now, you can get 25% off your first subscription order when you verify your military ID online. Just go to blackriflecoffee.com, create an account, and verify your ID. Visit blackriflecoffee.com to learn more.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: As millions of Americans prepare to watch the first presidential debate this week, the race for the White House appears to be tightening. Here to discuss how each campaign is preparing for Thursday night and where the race stands now is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, Cabot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So you were on the campaign trail this weekend, and we'll get to that in a second. But first, set the scene for us. Give us the latest polling snapshot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we talked about President Trump's polling advance throughout 2024. At one point, Biden was trailing on average nationally by four and a half points. But things do appear to be getting tighter. The RCP polling average now shows Trump with a 0.9% lead in a head-to-head race, with nearly every national poll this month showing neither candidate outside the margin of error, meaning they are essentially tied nationally.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The Biden camp had been hoping for a wave of support following Trump's conviction last month. And while that didn't appear to happen, it does appear he gained one to three points nationally. So it's not nothing.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Now, Trump got more good news over the weekend on those all-important battleground states where this contest is ultimately decided. Tell us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, The Hill and Emerson released their monthly battleground polling and found Trump once again ahead in every single battleground state. So national polls tightening, battleground states remaining in Trump's control. He's up four in Arizona and Georgia, three in Wisconsin and Nevada, two in Pennsylvania, and one in Michigan.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, those are all states Biden won just three and a half years ago. And perhaps most shocking, the poll found Trump and Biden tied in Minnesota, a state with Biden carried by seven points in 2020 that, get this, has not gone Republican since 1972.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: If those numbers are anywhere near accurate the White House will now be on the defensive in states they were likely taking for granted headed into November.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now as we mentioned at the top you were on the campaign trail this weekend in D and heard from President Trump What stuck out to you?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So I attended the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference, where Trump and a number of other Republican lawmakers made their case to evangelical voters. I got the chance to talk with hundreds of those voters over the weekend, and it was interesting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What stuck out is that, yes, this was an evangelical event. So you think the issues on the top of their mind would be abortion or religious freedom. And those did certainly come up. But time and time again, the top issues they wanted to talk about were the economy and immigration.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That might be anecdotal, but it lines up with nearly every poll we've seen this year. Gives you an idea of how dominant and just inescapable those two issues are in this race.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here's some of what I heard from Trump on that topic. I will end the Biden inflation nightmare and we will end it very quickly. I will stop Biden's trillions and trillions of dollars in wasteful spending and rapidly terminate the Green News scam.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On immigration, Trump read off a list of names of Americans who had been murdered this year by illegal immigrants and took aim at Joe Biden. It's the worst border anywhere of any country, anywhere in the world at any time. In less than four years, Joe Biden has obliterated the borders of the United States.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, this all comes with the first presidential debate coming this week. you'll be on the ground in Atlanta for that event. What do we expect to see?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. To this point, both campaigns have been fairly open about their strategies. President Biden is hunkering down at Camp David this week to prepare. His campaign says they will focus less on Trump's policies and more on his qualities and controversies.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Expect to hear him repeatedly bring the conversation back to January 6th, Trump's recent conviction and the supposed threat he poses to democracy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, for their part, the Trump campaign has told the press they want to show their man is the, quote, steadier hand. And the plan is to focus on the policy failures of Biden, specifically on the economy and immigration.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But no one will be surprised if Trump ditches that game plan and hits Biden for his age and mental fitness, things he brings up in every campaign rally.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: You can also expect to see Trump hit Biden on the barrage of cases brought against him by the Biden DOJ and Democratic allies.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the weaponization of the legal system, certainly a key argument in this campaign.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We'll have a lot more this week on that debate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Cabot, thanks for reporting. anytime.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: The free smoked brats for a year. That's goodranchers.com with promo code WIRE. Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: New legal discoveries show that a now disbanded anti-terrorism board in Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security described Trump supporters, those with military ties, and religious people as posing a greater threat of domestic extremism than other groups.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: Here to discuss how this board's decisions came to light and the backlash against them as Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, Dave.
--:-- David Marcus: So first, who unearthed this and what did they find here?
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, John. This was uncovered through legal filings by America First Legal, a group that has been taking a very active role in a whole slew of legal questions surrounding the Biden administration.
--:-- David Marcus: In this case, they worked with former Trump director of national intelligence Richard Grinnell and obtained internal documents from this Homeland Security expert group, as the board was known.
--:-- David Marcus: The board included several heavy hitters such as James Clapper and John Brennan Both listeners may recall were among the 51 signatories of the infamous intelligence expert letter that argued we now know falsely that Hunter Biden laptop was likely disinformation
--:-- David Marcus: The documents reveal that this board advised that support for Trump, connection to military service, and strict religious observance are all possible signs or red flags or red hats, if you will, that the person might be a domestic terrorist or a threat to become one.
--:-- David Marcus: That describes an awfully big swath of American citizens. It sure does. Easily tens of millions.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, these kinds of claims have been made in the past, including a few years back by FBI Director Christopher Wray, but often without a lot of hard evidence.
--:-- David Marcus: Did we see any more backup for this assertion in the board's documents? Not really. It's still pretty vague.
--:-- David Marcus: For example, the board's notes state that, quote, it seems that most of the domestic terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president, end quote, which is kind of a big assertion for the word seems.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. They went on to say, quote, if you ask researchers to dive into indicators of extremism and terrorism, they might indicate being in the military or religious. This being identified as an indicator suggests we should be more worried about those, end quote.
--:-- David Marcus: Again, this is vague experts might say something. And many people find that an insufficient amount of evidence or data for the government to start taking an interest in so many Americans.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Now, what was America First Legal's reaction to what they discovered? What did they say the significance of this is?
--:-- David Marcus: AFL argues that this is all very clearly politically motivated and really an attempt to go after the supporters of the Biden administration's main political opponent, namely Donald Trump.
--:-- David Marcus: Their executive director, Gene Hamilton, said to Fox News that, quote, all efforts to weaponize the federal government against political opponents of the ruling regime should be stopped, end quote.
--:-- David Marcus: And also that he looks forward to exposing more records in the coming days.
--:-- David Marcus: The broad concept behind America First Legal, which also focuses on the border and what they call Biden's lawfare, is the argument that a vast number of unelected bureaucrats are ignoring the law and pushing a political agenda.
--:-- David Marcus: And there is no doubt that the kind of rhetoric and analysis used by the board here is right out of the Biden campaign playbook. Essentially, Trump is dangerous and so are his supporters.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of campaign rhetoric.
--:-- David Marcus: Do we have any response from the Biden administration about these revelations, especially as concerns are growing about terrorism coming across the southern border?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, Assistant Press Secretary for the administration, Andrew Bates, was asked if the White House believes that Trump fans, the military and the devout are a significant threat to the country's security and simply said no.
--:-- David Marcus: And then to go ask DHS about it. And to your point, yes, it's becoming more and more difficult for Biden to convince people that the Proud Boys and January 6 rioters are our greatest threat at a time when it seems like once a week the government is tracking down people on the international terror watch list in the United States illegally.
--:-- David Marcus: That will be a key tension to watch as the terrorism and border issues continue to converge.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, an alarming convergence for sure.
--:-- David Marcus: Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: Today, the country marks two years since the Supreme Court overturned half a century of legalized abortion nationwide with its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: Daily Wire investigative reporter, Maureen Delordi is here to break down both the wins and losses for the pro-life movement since June of 2022.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Hi, Carol. Well, since Dobbs, a total of 24 states have passed bans on abortion at 15 weeks or earlier. Heavy limits on abortion are currently in effect in 21 states like Texas Florida and Tennessee to name a few In Iowa Wyoming and Montana the bans have been blocked than are in court for now
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Do we have any data on whether these pro laws have worked to curb abortions? We do. Obviously, the main goal of the bans is to prevent unborn babies from being aborted, and that's exactly what we're seeing happen.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: According to a November analysis by the Institute of Labor Economics, state abortion limits have resulted in nearly 32,000 more births per year since the overturning of Roe.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: The analysis also found that births have increased in every state that has these laws.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: We spoke to attorney Erin Hawley, who served as co-counsel with Mississippi on the Dobbs case and is senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: She believes that legally, Dobbs has more staying power than Roe did. So it's long been acknowledged that Roe is not on sound constitutional footing.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: In contrast, I think Dobbs gets the constitutional analysis exactly correct. What Dobbs says is that the Constitution nowhere protects the right to abortion. And so that means the states and the people have the ability to protect life.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Holly also explained that thanks to Dobbs, she said many state abortion laws now, quote, just need to be rational rather than meet the undue burden standard. The undue burden test really hamstrung states. Again, you could not really protect life at all up until viability.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: So I think the shift to, you know, allowing the legislature to protect the health and safety of women and more children is really huge.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Now, we've also seen some losses on the pro-life side since Dobbs. Can you speak to that?
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Yes. So one big issue is the ballot box. The public's reaction to the Dobbs ruling boosted the Democrats five months later during the 2022 midterms.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Voters in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania ranked abortion over inflation or crime as the most important issue in exit polls.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: This year, Democrats are hammering the abortion issue and have seized on personal stories of women who were prevented from obtaining an abortion in their home state.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Misinformation has also spread about women allegedly suffering miscarriages or other adverse outcomes due to state abortion bans.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Abortion ballot initiatives in Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas also did not go the way pro-life advocates hoped.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: This November, more of those will appear on the ballot in South Dakota, Colorado, and Florida.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Then at the Supreme Court, it unanimously ruled against a group of pro-life doctors who were pushing for more FDA restrictions on the abortion pill Mifepristone.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: The court is also set to rule soon in a case about Idaho's strong abortion limits. This is the first time the court has considered whether a state abortion ban is constitutional since the demise of Roe.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: So taking into account these wins and setbacks, what's next for the pro-life movement?
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Well, pro-life advocates point to the many state laws limiting the procedure as beacons of hope. But they also say they really want to work to change the hearts and minds of pro-abortion Americans, not just past laws.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Meanwhile, women are sharing the stories about how overturning Roe saved their baby's lives.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Here's one story that was shared during a video press call with Susan B. Anthony, Pro-Life America. A mother, Nisha, smiled as she described how George's heartbeat loss saved the life of her baby boy, whom she gave up for adoption after initially considering abortion.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: She said she picked the adoptive parents and she gets to see her son. She says she has never seen a baby so happy and that his adoptive parents nurture him and do everything she wishes she had the time to do.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Nisha added on the call that she does not think adoption is discussed enough and thinks the organizations that help moms are not promoted as much as abortion.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: So many personal stories from moms whose babies were saved as the pro-life movement looks to the future.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: We'll definitely have a clearer picture of what the next few years will look like for the pro-life movement come November.
--:-- Maureen Delordi: Mairead, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Carol. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Carol Markowitz: We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
