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--:-- John Bickley: The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
--:-- John Bickley: As migrant numbers continue to max out border facilities, thousands continue to flood across daily with more on the way. If you can get your feet anywhere in South America, then you cross the Darien Gap and you get on a bus and you're in Costa Rica 12 hours later. And then from there, you can be anywhere in the United States in about a week. Our new routes through South and Central America, making trips to the U.S. easier.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, September 20th, and this is Morning Wire. The Marines have located the missing F-35, but a lot of questions remain. We discuss what's known and unknown about the troubling case. And YouTube has demonetized all Russell Brand content, cutting off the comedian's ability to make money on the platform. If you're in a situation in which a social media company such as this can deprive people of their monetization, You've got to realize the dirty road that leaves it down. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: I believe the border is the tip of the spear of the things that we need to change. I say that as a Texan. I say that as an American. I say that as someone who saw 2,000 people flooding across the Eagle Pass out of the United States, It's a Darien Gap that's filled with thousands of people, thousands crossing something like 20,000 on the southwest border this weekend alone. That needs to stop.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Texas Congressman Chip Roy responding to the crisis on the southern border. Joining us now is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce to talk about the rising immigration numbers and the odds that we see a new peak soon.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, John. Hey, John. All right, so what are we looking at here? What are the numbers along the southern border look like? It appears they're somehow getting even worse.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Official totals for August aren't out yet, but leaks to the press have given us an idea of what to expect. Griff Jenkins at Fox News reported that in the four days from the beginning of Friday to the end of Monday, an average of 9,000 immigrants a day crossed the southern border. His colleague at Fox, Bill Malugin, reported that in a 24-hour period, upwards of 9,700 migrants crossed the border. It's important to note that neither of those numbers included gotaways. So the real number of immigrants that entered the country is certainly higher.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The record for daily crossings was set back in May before the repeal of Title 42. Then it was above 10,000 a day. So if these reports are accurate, we aren't far off from breaking that. And not a number we ever wanted to see again.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, it wasn't long ago that the Biden administration was touting a 70% drop in illegal immigration. What happened to that? What's caused this reversal?
--:-- Tim Pierce: A couple things. First, the Biden administration has expanded immigration parole programs to take in tens of thousands of immigrants legally. Second immigration has historically been seasonal with more coming as temperatures cool off. The drop happened in the middle of summer when temperatures were at their height. Now it picked back up again.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Over the weekend a freight train loaded with what appeared to be hundreds of immigrants was filmed leaving Zacatecas, Mexico, on its way here. And further south in Panama, there's what is called the Darien Gap, which is a strip of undeveloped forest and swamp connecting north and south America. The increase in foot traffic through the gap is incredible. A decade ago, only a few hundred people crossed through that gap in a year. This year, it's estimated that 400,000 people will cross that gap.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Oh, 400,000. Yeah, it really is stunning. And it's a dangerous crossing that typically takes a person five to 10 days of hiking through mud and forest across.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Morning Wire spoke with independent journalist Michael Yan, who has spent months on the Panama and Colombia sides of the gap. Here's what he's seen take place.
--:-- Michael Yan: The routes through the jungle are now much shorter and much easier, and they're still extremely dangerous. Even as I talk right now, there'll definitely be people dying.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Jan said the numbers of crossers are growing. These camps are getting bigger. They're much more efficient. The flows are very fast. So the assembly line is wider, shorter, and faster. 82,000 people last month came through, according to the Panamanian government. Those are unimaginable numbers to most people.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Darien Gap immigrants are usually looked after by a bunch of volunteers and NGOs on the Panama side after the hike. And operations down there are expanding with the increase in foot traffic. Now, the Darien Gap is thousands of miles away, 2,000 miles away from the U.S. border. What is driving these migrants to take this long journey to the U.S.? Obviously, it depends on the individual, but clearly these people are confident that they're going to get into the United States. Otherwise, why risk the journey?
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's, of course, due to the Biden administration's lax immigration policy. But another factor that's getting some attention since our reporter Spencer Lindquist highlighted it a couple of days ago is developments like Colony Ridge outside of Houston that appear designed to draw illegal immigrants. It's believed to be one of the largest enclaves of illegal immigrants in the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We actually asked Texas Congressman Chip Roy about Colony Ridge, and here's what he had to say.
--:-- Chip Roy: My staff is pushing on the Department of Homeland Security and Texas DPS to get us additional information on this. It's highly concerning. I had a report given to me this morning. I'm not in a position to fully articulate exactly what's happening other than it is problematic and a continuation of these wide open border policies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, a lot of questions about Colony Ridge and our immigration policies in general that still need to be answered. Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the missing F-35 is found. The Marine Corps says they finally located a downed F-35 fighter jet that went missing Sunday after a pilot was forced to eject during an emergency mishap. Here with more on what we know about the incident and the frantic search for debris is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's not every day the US military asks the public for help in finding a missing million stealth fighter But that is exactly what happened this week On Sunday morning two F were on a training mission out of Joint Base Charleston when one of those planes suffered some sort of emergency mishap we still don know what leading the pilot to safely eject presumably fearing the plane was about to go down But rather than crashing the plane kept on flying It was on autopilot at the time and continued on its path undetected by our military.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This F-35 had special radar absorbing paint and a unique shape that allows it to largely avoid radar detection, which is great when you're trying to evade enemy combatants, but problematic when your pilot ejects and you're trying to find where your plane went.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. So those stealth capabilities actually ended up working against the military trying to locate the plane, right? Yeah, that is exactly what happened. Now, F-35s do have transponders which help locate the craft. But according to a base spokesman, the plane's transponder was either not working or turned off, quote, for some reason that we have not yet determined.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That left military officials scrambling to find the ghost plane, even issuing an embarrassing plea to the public for any information on its whereabouts. Thankfully, though, by Monday evening, search crews had located the plane's wreckage about 70 miles north of the base, where it appears to have clipped a number of trees before crashing into a field.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, good thing no one was hurt. Do we have any idea what actually went wrong? So military officials have given no word to the public on what led up to the crash. They've only been using the word mishap to this point. The plane appears to have exploded on impact, leaving little debris, but investigators are combing through what's left to try and find answers.
--:-- John Bickley: The Marine Corps responded to the incident by grounding all flights across the entire branch for 48 hours to, quote, discuss aviation safety matters and best practices. The announcement comes after two other crashes in recent weeks. In late August, an F-18 fighter jet crashed outside San Diego, killing a Marine. And then three days later, an Osprey went down during a training exercise in Australia, killing three more Marines and injuring 20 others.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And while those other incidents did not involve F-35s, there have been a number of other mishaps that did, raising concerns within the military.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the new F-35s first came into service in 2015. And while they are still considered arguably the world's most effective fighter jet, they have been plagued with issues since being rolled out. There were other crashes in the last few years in Utah, South Carolina, California, and elsewhere. And while the crash rate for F-35s is roughly in line with other craft in our arsenal, the exorbitant cost of this plane does make their mishaps more frustrating.
--:-- John Bickley: The F-35 is considered the most expensive weapon system on the planet. All told, the program's estimated lifetime price tag is, get this, $1.7 trillion with a T. So this is a very, very expensive plane. And a lot of people are going to be watching the investigation into this latest crash, hoping it was a one-off incident and not indicative of a broader problem with the plane itself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. There was some frustration with those tax dollars. Yeah.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime. Time.
--:-- John Bickley: Comedian and podcaster Russell Brand has been banned from making money off the video platform YouTube over allegations published in the media this past weekend. Here to discuss the development and the fierce backlash to YouTube's move is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hey, Amanda. So YouTube has completely demonetized brand. Tell us what we know about that so far.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: So YouTube, which is owned by Google, they announced on Tuesday that brand has been blocked from making any money on all channels that may be owned or operated by brand. So what this means is the big tech company has suspended all ads on its content. YouTube said through a spokesperson that brand violated their responsibility policy Here a direct quote from the company If a creator off behavior harms our users employees or ecosystem we take action to protect the community Brand has about 6.6 million subscribers on just his main channel, and it's been estimated that he makes around $1 million in ad revenue annually from these videos. So a good bit of money there.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Yeah, certainly. And YouTube has given no indication on how long this ban will be in effect. All right. So to recap, Brand has not actually been criminally charged with anything at this point. But since the publication of these allegations that date back over a decade, he's now barred from making money on YouTube.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Exactly. And unsurprisingly, there's been a swift and strong reaction to that move. Yeah. Tell us more about that. Let's start in the UK. That's where Brand first blew up on scene. Piers Morgan quickly criticized YouTube. He said the big tech company seems to have already convicted Brand despite Brand's denials and before he's been through due legal process. He added that he fears this will, quote, only fuel the conspiracy theorists.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: British journalist Julia Hartley Brewer also strongly disagreed with the big tech platform. Here she is on Talk TV. It's not YouTube's job to sit as judge and jury on Russell Brand and allegations of sex assault. It's not their job. And the idea that these are the people who we want is sitting as judge and jury. I mean, someone sitting in California deciding what happens in this country. No, sorry, not having it. It's an outrageous move.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The co-founders of The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boring, they also both reacted pretty strongly to this. Here's what Shapiro said, quote, Allegations are now convictions in the court of social media, complete with removal of all income. Boring said that this is a terrible decision and sets a terrible precedent. He added, quote, social platforms should not act as extra legal arbiters of guilt and innocence.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: So a lot of pushback. So we went over these sexual assault allegations in detail on yesterday's show. Have there been any updates into this matter?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: So Brand's four female accusers, whose names we still don't know, they relayed their allegations to the media when they were reached out to. But as of now, there aren't any criminal investigations into those claims. However, there has been a complaint made to the London police, and they've confirmed that they are looking into that. That complaint apparently dates back to 2003, so two decades ago.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: And updates into Brand, both his agent and publisher have cut ties with him. The BBC, which employed Brand during the time of these allegations, they've gone ahead and removed some past content with Brand. And as for Brand himself, after posting his video strongly denying these allegations on Saturday, he's been off social media.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Stunningly swift series of cancellations over these allegations. Yeah, very swift.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. Lawyers representing Hunter Biden said in a letter to the presiding judge Tuesday that they expect their client to plead not guilty to federal gun charges. The attorneys have also requested for the first court appearance to take place by video. Hunter was charged by special counsel David Weiss on multiple charges related to falsifying information in order to purchase a firearm.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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