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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The man accused of shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO has been charged with murder, and now he's fighting extradition to New York.
--:-- John Bickley: We're going to fight this along the rules and with the constitutional protections that my client has, and that's what we're going to do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're learning more details and possible motives behind the targeted shooting. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, December 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Support for Trump's defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, grows after grassroots efforts and a few senators speak out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I've never seen a groundswell of support in my 30-year-old military like I'm seeing right now for Pete Hegseth.
--:-- John Bickley: And Syria's future is up in the air following the collapse of Assad's regime with several countries looking to intervene.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We can't control this. The Russians can't control it. The Iranians can't control it. The Turks can't control it, though they can influence things.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- [Producer Brandon speaks]
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--:-- Georgia Howe: 24 hours after the arrest of suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione, new details have begun to emerge about his background and possible motive.
--:-- John Bickley: Here are the latest developments as Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey Cabot, so a story that continues to captivate the nation. Catch us up to speed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Luigi Mangione is currently being held in Pennsylvania, where he made his first court appearance yesterday after being denied bail. The big question at the moment is when he'll be extradited to New York, where he was charged with murder.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We've also learned in the last 24 hours that Mangione's manifesto included the line, quote, to the feds, I'll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mangione was led into the courtroom for his extradition hearing yesterday. He began struggling with police, frantically shouting at reporters, have a listen.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's completely out of touch. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It's a live experience.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We also heard yesterday from a customer who was in McDonald's Monday morning and helped identify Mangione, joking with his friends at the time that he looked like the suspect. An employee taking Mangione's order overheard that customer and thought the same thing before calling police.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One of my friends, and I thought he was kidding. When the shooter, I'm assuming was the shooter, came in, he made a comment, but that looks like the shooter from New York. Wild to think this is how he ended up getting caught.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now we also learning new details on how police were able to catch their man. Tell us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, as they worked to piece together a timeline leading up to the murder investigators say Mangione took meticulous steps to evade detection. For example, he traveled to New York by Greyhound bus, meaning he was able to avoid using his real name or credit card. And he stayed in a hostel for 10 nights prior to the attack, paying with cash and wearing a mask for the duration of his trip.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But it was one crucial error that ultimately led to his capture. According to authorities, Mangione was flirting with an employee at the hostel who at one point asked him to lower his mask and show his face. He complied, and it was that smiling image captured on a security camera that was then shared with the public and ultimately used to identify him.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One little slip there. So what more do we know about his potential motive?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's now clear he was driven in large part by a hatred for corporate America and healthcare companies in particular. According to an NYPD intelligence report, Mangione, quote, appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That report also cited his opposition to what they called, quote, corporate greed. But there's also growing evidence of an apparent personal connection. According to multiple reports, Mangione had been suffering from severe chronic back pain for years, which left him debilitated at times. At some point in the last 12 months, he underwent back surgery, which was apparently unsuccessful.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Friends say following that surgery, he essentially fell off the map and became impossible to reach. So much so that on November 18th, Mangione's mother reported him missing to the San Francisco Police Department. That's where she believed that he might have been living.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: His family released a statement Tuesday saying they were, quote, shocked and devastated by the news, offering prayers for the family of Brian Thompson and all involved.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, this all comes amid a rather, frankly, shocking movement of online support for this alleged murderer. What exactly are we seeing there?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, this has really stunned a lot of people. Within hours of the shooting, before Mangione was even identified, large numbers of folks online began praising the act, not as an egregious crime, but as a heroic act of defiance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that sort of hero worship only grew once Mangione was caught. His social media accounts were flooded with literally tens of thousands of supportive messages while users flooded the Yelp account of the McDonald's where he was caught in Pennsylvania, leaving one-star reviews, calling the employees their rats and snitches for turning him in.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a lot to take into account here as we prepare for a trial that will surely draw the eyes of millions of Americans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: No doubt about that. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: As the flurry of Donald Trump's nominations have been announced, several have faced some opposition from within his own party, but there's some recent progress on that front. Here to discuss is Daily Wire senior reporter Mary Margaret Olihan.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: So Mary Margaret, which Republican senators are standing in the way of Trump's picks right now?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, Georgia. So Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins are always going to be an issue for Trump's nominees, which means that Republicans can really only afford to lose two other senators.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: So it's an issue that Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were expressing concerns about Trump Secretary of Defense pick Pete Hegseth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now Hegseth has been one of Trump most disputed choices facing an avalanche of allegations from Democrats and the media about sexual misconduct and excessive drinking, both of which he's denied. Some on the right, like TPSA's Charlie Kirk, have floated the possibility of backing a primary challenger against Ernst for not supporting Hegseth.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: That may have worked because on Monday, Ernst met with Hegseth for the second time and said she had a quote-unquote encouraging conversation with him. She said, and I'm quoting again, as I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Senate sources tell me that it's widely believed that Ernst was either tasked by Senate leadership to tank Hegseth's nomination or she sought to do it of her own accord, hoping she'd be his replacement if he were to fail.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: One source told me, and I'm quoting, it appears that she's trying to walk back her opposition to Hegseth by demanding an audit of the Pentagon, something Hegseth was already on board with before even meeting her.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That source also suggested that people are still doubtful of Ernst's sincerity to get Hegseth across the finish line.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Now, what about Lindsey Graham? Well, Lindsey Graham also expressed new support for Pete on Monday. And the fact that these two came around this week is yet another sign of Trump's consolidated influence over the Republican Party.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I spoke to Senator Tommy Tuberville about this whole process, and he tells me that he views Trump's nominees as selected by the American people who voted for Trump.
--:-- Tommy Tuberville: We've got, as I've said, people on the Republican side for some reason that they're trying to push the envelope too much. We need to get President Trump as people. And I know we're up here for confirmation, but I'm going to take President Trump's word that the people he picked are vetted and they're the type of people that he needs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's just hard to watch what's going on up here because it's Republicans versus the Democrats in the media. You know, they gang up on us up here.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Now, have Democrats shown the same kind of pushback when it's their nominees? Actually, Democrats were much more unified when it came to pushing through Biden's nominees.
--:-- Tommy Tuberville: Not right now. We got three or four of these nominees fighting to get all the Republican votes. They're fighting hard and they're having to go see senators more than once. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But some Republican senators are pushing back on the idea that they should support Trump nominees no matter what. That includes Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Tillis is up for re-election in 2026, and he says he should be asking tough questions. And Cornyn, who had reservations about Matt Gaetz and currently isn't sold on Tulsi Gabbard, suggested he's more concerned about being loyal to the Constitution than to Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: These kinds of comments triggered frustration among Trump's circle, who point out that some of the GOP senators on the fence about Trump's nominees actually voted to confirm Biden's most controversial picks, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: In fact, Lloyd Austin was confirmed 93 to 2.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what's Trump himself saying about all this? Well, Trump has surprisingly largely stayed out of it.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: He'll, of course, announce the nominees in Truth Social posts, praise their backgrounds and tout their achievements. And he's been sending his nominees to meet with Republican senators in the weeks leading up to possible confirmation hearings.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But those around him are working hard to rally support for his nominees, particularly Heg Seth. And the attitude in Trump world right now is this. The American people elected Trump and Trump picked his nominees. It's time for senators to fall in line.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Well, it sounds like things are looking more optimistic for Hegseth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mary Margaret, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Syria's future remains in limbo after the Assad regime's shocking fall. The chaos has attracted interventions from numerous players as each vies for influence over the next government Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has to balance a criminal trial in addition to Israel war effort Here to break down what's happening in Syria and Israel is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Say, Tim, so things moving very rapidly here. First, where is Syria headed?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, that's almost an impossible question to answer. To get some help with that, we spoke with Hillsdale College history professor Dr. Paul Ray, who said to know where things are headed, it's important to know where this all began.
--:-- Dr. Paul Ray: The crucial thing to understand is that Syria is artificial. You know, it goes back to the divvying up of the Near East between the British and the French after World War I. So there really isn't a country there. Maybe some sense of loyalty to the country has developed in the last century, but it doesn't amount to much.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In other words, Syria isn't a united country by any means. It's made up of a bunch of different factions that mostly control their own slices of the country. And each faction typically has much more powerful state sponsors. The U.S. has favored the Kurds, for example. The ascendant power right now is a Turkish-backed group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which is on the U.S. terror list. Right, a U.S.-designated terror group.
--:-- Georgia Howe: About the U.S., how much has it been involved so far?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Some. The U.S. still has about 900 troops in the country first stationed there in 2015 to fight the rise of the Islamic State. U.S. forces are focused on that mission again and have launched dozens of airstrikes against ISIS positions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden said over the weekend that preventing a resurgence of ISIS is one of the United States' top priorities.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But Raitt was skeptical that that intervention is necessary or useful as ISIS barely has a foothold in Syria anyway. It's too easy for Americans to exaggerate American agency, our capacity to fix things, to shape things.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The prudent thing to do is to watch and wait. And if a government emerges and it's in control of the territory, we should recognize it and our diplomats should try to work with it. Then we'll see.
--:-- Tim Pierce: What exactly are U.S. interests in Syria now?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, it's a good question. I asked Ray how to approach that. Here's what he said.
--:-- Dr. Paul Ray: Whether it's in our interest or in the interest of the Israelis depends to a great degree on the policy of Turkey. And there's no clarity about the policy of Turkey with regard to Israel.
--:-- Tim Pierce: At times, the Erdogan government has cooperated very closely with the Israelis. At other times, it has been strongly hostile to Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But he also said that Syria is notoriously hard to control. So while the Turks are in the best place to exert influence, there's no guarantee that that relationship holds.
--:-- Tim Pierce: As far as Israel is concerned, the Israelis have taken over the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria to keep the high ground from going to jihadists. Its air force has struck hundreds of sites to keep military assets from falling into the hands of terrorists.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's worth mentioning that while Israel is trying to strike a delicate balance between all these pressures it is facing externally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on trial this week on corruption charges.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Netanyahu has said the allegations are politically motivated and that forcing him to sit in court now of all times is dangerous to Israel's national security.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It definitely seems like a lot to juggle right now.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Tim, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
