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--:-- Host Georgia Howe: 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.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Democrats are digging into their 2024 presidential election loss, but they're refusing to blame Biden and Harris. If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline, I think you're missing the point. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: It's Tuesday, July 22nd, and this is Morning Wire. An off-duty Border Patrol agent is shot in New York, and now sanctuary cities are under fire as ICE prepares to flood the zone. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. Hard stop.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: And CBS cancels Stephen Colbert's late-night show. Was it budget cuts or retribution? This kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's Big Fat Bride. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host Georgia Howe: It's been one year since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, and Democrats are still grappling with what went wrong. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the party's power struggle and give us a fascinating postmortem.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, it's amazing to think just a year ago, President Biden was at the top of the Democratic ticket and how times have changed. Yeah, it's important to note, though, political years are like dog years. So that was basically seven years ago that happened. Now, a lot has happened since then, but Democrats are now trying to figure out what went wrong. What are the main theories?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So after every election season, each party spends the next year producing an extensively detailed post-mortem on what went right, or in Democrats' case, what went poorly. After interviews with more than 200 campaign officials in all 50 states, the DNC's report is now nearing completion. And according to a recent New York Times story, it's avoiding some of the biggest factors in this race, namely whether Joe Biden should have run for re-election in the first place, if he should have dropped out earlier, and if Kamala Harris was the right pick for his replacement.
--:-- Doug Schoen: If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline and the fact that he was not prepared to run, much less even govern, I think you're missing the point. Moreover, the fact that Kamala Harris was so ill that with the expenditure of over a billion dollars she actually lost votes not gained votes. It tells you that the party has pretty serious problems that, by what we see and hear, they're not addressing.
--:-- Doug Schoen: So if they're not blaming Kamala or Biden, who are they blaming? Well, they're reportedly putting much of the blame on outside groups, primarily the Future Forward PAC that was the largest Democratic super PAC in 2024. They say those groups spent too much money on advertising and not enough on grassroots organizing.
--:-- Doug Schoen: They also claim that the billion plus dollars they spent on advertising should have focused more on attacking Donald Trump as opposed to propping up Kamala Harris. But the Future Forward PAC is disputing those claims. They're pointing out that just 13% of their advertising budget went towards ads that were positive about Kamala, while the rest attacked Trump.
--:-- Doug Schoen: The result was bad because Biden wasn't firm and Kamala Harris, as she has always been, does not have great credibility to be a national candidate. She had low ratings as vice president, and ultimately she was not prepared to sustain a presidential campaign.
--:-- Doug Schoen: The other issue, Cabot, that I'm concerned about is will the Democrats face the facts about immigration and the fact that their failure to deal with the problem frontally during the Biden administration and thereafter was one of the major contributing factors to their defeat.
--:-- Doug Schoen: Now, the party is also having some money troubles. What's going on with their financials? So typically, it's much easier to raise money when you're not the party in power. Give us money to fight back is a more potent pitch than give us money to maintain the status quo. But the GOP has been running laps around the Democrats in fundraising this year.
--:-- Doug Schoen: According to the latest FEC filings this week, the RNC now has $80 million in their war chest, while the DNC has just $15 million. And much of the money they have raised is coming in deep blue districts that Republicans aren't going to have any chance of winning anyway.
--:-- Doug Schoen: Now, what does all this mean for the midterms, or is it too early to say? Well, historically, the party out of power enjoys big gains in midterms. But right now, polling of generic ballots shows Democrats with just a two-point advantage for 2026. For context, at this point, for the last two midterms with GOP presidents, they were ahead in the polls by seven points.
--:-- Doug Schoen: But the good news for Democrats is that according to at least some polls, President Trump's popularity appears to be waning a bit in the last month or so. At the moment, his average approval rating sits at 45% with 52% disapproval, which is still better than any time during his first term, but a bit of a dip since inauguration.
--:-- Doug Schoen: And perhaps more importantly, Americans are less enthused about his handling of the economy in his second term. That was where he scored his highest marks in the first term, but he's now 12 points underwater on the economy.
--:-- Doug Schoen: However, though, on the other side, some consolation for Republicans. Trump and his allied PACs have more than $600 million in their war chest right now. Trump wants to hit a billion by the time midterms roll around. He's ready to spend that money and hit the campaign trail to maintain GOP control of Congress.
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--:-- Host Georgia Howe: An off-duty Border Patrol agent was shot twice in a New York City park over the weekend. Officials say this is just the latest incident to highlight the dangers of illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. Here to talk about the shooting and more is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearse.
--:-- Tim Pearse: Hey, Tim, so let's start with this really alarming situation in New York. What exactly happened? So this all went down in a park in Upper Manhattan on Saturday night. The Department of Homeland Security released tape of what happened. The footage is pretty grainy, but in it you can see two people on a moped approach another two sitting by a rock near the Hudson River. One man gets off the moped and draws a gun. He approaches the couple on the rock, One of the people on the rock reacts, and there is an exchange of gunfire.
--:-- Tim Pearse: One of the people attacked turned out to be a Border Patrol agent who was sitting next to a friend. According to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the agent drew his service weapon when he realized that he was being robbed. But the man off the moped shot first and hit the agent in the left cheek and right forearm. The agent returned fire and hit the man in the chest. The assailant was able to get up, get back on the moped, and take off. The agent was then taken to a nearby hospital where he is being treated.
--:-- Tim Pearse: All right, so the suspect fired first the off-duty officer, then returned fire. What do we know so far about the attackers? Well, both suspects have been arrested. The man with the gun is suspected to be a previously deported illegal alien from the Dominican Republic. He was arrested at the southern border in 2023 and then released into the country under the Biden administration. He is wanted in Massachusetts for armed robbery. He has also been charged with kidnapping and witness intimidation in New York, but clearly he's been allowed to roam free.
--:-- Tim Pearse: The second suspect is also a Dominican national who entered the country illegally, once again under the Biden administration. He also has a rap sheet and an order for deportation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that these suspects were allowed to stay in the country because of sanctuary city policies. There's absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City.
--:-- Tim Pearse: Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today fighting for his life because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the city council. Border czar Tom Homan said that if local officials won't help the administration, ICE is going to flood the zone with officers to take illegals like these off the streets. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want, more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite.
--:-- Tim Pearse: President Trump also chimed in. He posted on True Social over the weekend that, quote, Democrats have flooded our nation with criminal invaders. He said those aliens must all be either thrown out or immediately prosecuted.
--:-- Tim Pearse: All right, so as to this threat from Homan to flood the sanctuary cities with more agents, what cities do we expect him to target? Well, no surprises here. Cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles will be top of the list. And that is due to comments like these from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass over the weekend, where she refused to say whether any illegal aliens in her city should be deported.
--:-- Tim Pearse: Even people who are U.S. citizens have been detained. Immigrants who have their papers and were showing up for their annual immigration appointment were detained when they showed up doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. So they should not be deported? I don't think so. They should stay? Well, this is what I— A million undocumented— No, let me just tell you. What I think we need is comprehensive immigration reform.
--:-- Tim Pearse: I served in Congress for 12 years. And didn't get it. Well, and didn't get it.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Speaking of California, the anti-ICE attitude runs through the state government as well. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Governor Gavin Newsom personally solicited funds for an anti-ICE group, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, that wants to defund police and recently launched a bail fund for illegal aliens arrested by ICE.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: So they actively working to get suspects back on the streets. Thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Stephen Colbert Late Show was canceled last week marking the end of the classic late program that began in the 1990s. The cancellation has sparked conspiracy theories and comes at a volatile time for CBS. Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here now with more.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Yes, so the Late show with Stephen Colbert was canceled last week and CBS said the decision was purely financial. The last episode will air in May, 2026. And after that, CBS said Colbert will not be replaced. Colbert announced the end of his decade-long show to his audience Thursday night.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the late show in May. And Yeah, I share your feelings. Just days before his show was canceled, Colbert slammed his own network during his opening monologue. He criticized CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Trump over Kamala Harris's 60 Minutes interview.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Trump claimed CBS deceptively edited Harris's word salad answer to make her look better. Trump's legal team called the settlement a win for the American people over the fake news media. But here's what Colbert had to say. While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help. Colbert called the settlement a big fat bribe because he noted, Paramount Global is trying to get the Trump administration's FCC to approve an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: So do people think those comments are really what got him fired? Yes, there's a lot of speculation about that online, and the timing looks pretty bad. However, we spoke to film critic and host of Hollywood in Toto podcast, Christian Toto, and he said the cancellation is not so shocking when you look at the late show's sagging numbers.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: I mean, there were multiple reports saying they cost the CBS more than $40 million. That's a massive amount. And we've seen the revenue numbers from late-night TV decline and decline. This is a format that has existed for decades that is dying. They've got a show that's costing them an exorbitant amount of money. They've got a host who has aggressively repelled more than half the country.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Toto also noted that Colbert is just not that funny anymore. He's got the mannerisms. He's got the timing. There's a good comedian lurking within there. But at the end of the day, if you look at a show like The Late Show, the purpose, the prime director isn't really funny anymore. It's, you know, getting a monologue out. It's pushing an agenda. It's hitting the right target, so to speak.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: You know, he went on and on and on about the Russian collusion situation. And when there was the revelation that it was all a hoax, there was no apology, no mea culpa. I think podcasts and also YouTube-based shows are essentially the new late-night. You know, a rebel comedian like Tim Dillon or Theo Vaughn, you know, they will attack these subjects in a very similar fashion. And they'll do it longer form. They'll be funnier often. And they don't really have a decided partisan edge to them.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: What's notable here, too, is that Colbert's show is the highest performing of all the late-night shows with just under two million watchers, except for Gutfeld on Fox, which dominates late-night TV with 3 million nightly viewers. And of course, leans conservative. Gutfeld has also picked up more younger viewers while the left-leaning late-night audiences tend to skew older.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Well, it's definitely the end of an era and maybe a sign of the times. Thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know. Thank you.
