--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the host, John Bickley, speaks]
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire, with my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, folks.
--:-- John Bickley: It's Monday, March 24th, and we've got a packed show for you today. Democrats are facing angry voters as a massive rift opens up between the far left and more moderate members. Will the party's leadership consolidate or continue to splinter?
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. We'll be discussing the brewing intra-party conflict and how voters are responding to it.
--:-- [Music transitions to a softer tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Let's start with the numbers. Historically, there's often a sort of buyer's remorse with voters, but that has not happened this year. Trump's approval ratings have held steady around 48 percent, which is well above where he stood during his first term.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Democratic popularity has only plummeted since Election Day. Last week, CNN found that just 29% of Americans view the party favorably, a 20-point drop from 2021.
--:-- John Bickley: And over the weekend, things got even worse. A new Quinnipiac poll showed that just 21% of Americans approve of Democrats' job performance in Congress, which is the lowest mark in the history of the poll.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And even more concerning for the left, only 40% of Democrats approve of the job their leaders are doing in Congress.
--:-- John Bickley: The best example of this infighting came last week during the Democrat debate over whether to shut down the government. Rank and file members in Congress wanted to kill the Republican spending bill and stick it to Trump, forcing a shutdown.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer opted to support the deal and keep the lights on, which resulted in a wave of backlash from prominent Democrat lawmakers like AOC and Nancy Pelosi, and importantly, from voters.
--:-- John Bickley: To give you an idea of their anger, Schumer had to cancel his upcoming book tour due to security concerns.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And now that anger has been evident at town halls across the country.
--:-- [Audio clip of a raucous town hall meeting plays]
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, here's the message from one voter at a rowdy town hall for Arizona Democrats Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.
--:-- Voter: We're not willing to get in the mud with them. Maybe it's time we start getting a little bit dirtier with our messaging.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And here's another raucous event for Democrat House member Sean Caston, which had to be shut down by police after angry protesters attempted to rush the stage.
--:-- Voter: What you're saying is, I'm not going to get my way when my people are being slaughtered, and I want you to stop funding them. If you'd like to run for office, run for office. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You're the most soulless piece of crap I've ever seen.
--:-- John Bickley: So how are Democrat lawmakers responding to this anger coming from within their own party, their own voters?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, there seem to be two main strategies emerging. First, there are those who say the party needs to listen to its far-left base and double down on their opposition to Trump, doing just everything possible to prevent his agenda from being implemented.
--:-- John Bickley: In that camp are Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who kicked off their "fighting oligarchy tour" last week, hitting Tempe, Las Vegas, and Denver in recent days, and drawing crowds in the tens of thousands.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the problem for Democrats in that camp is that the far-left vision for America they're describing just doesn't seem all that popular with Americans right now.
--:-- John Bickley: Remember, polling shows that Americans are still widely supportive of Trump's policies on legal immigration, foreign policy, transgenderism, and DEI.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the progressive wing is fighting to go further left. What is the other faction calling for?
--:-- John Bickley: So on the other side are Democrats who feel November's results were a clear rebuke of progressive ideologies and governance. They say the party has to shake that woke label and moderate on social issues while embracing a more old-school blue-dog Democrat approach.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Leading the charge on that front is, ironically, California's Gavin Newsom, one of the nation's most far-left governors.
--:-- John Bickley: He launched a new podcast where he's been having very friendly chats with hardline conservatives like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He's openly criticized his party as being elitist and out of touch, while conceding that he understands why folks supported Trump in November.
--:-- John Bickley: He even went as far as saying he opposes trans-identifying males in women's sports and called on Democrats to stop using gender-neutral language like Latinx.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it's worth noting, polling continues to show a real split on which strategy voters want.
--:-- John Bickley: The latest numbers from Gallup have 45% of Democrats wanting the party to become more moderate, 29% say more liberal, and 22% say hold the current course.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Democratic voters are just as divided as their leaders on how to approach these next four years.
--:-- John Bickley: And in the meantime, the infighting continues. It's hard to see how these two sides end up aligning anytime soon.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more upbeat tone]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Kevin, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: What's the secret behind wildly successful businesses? It's not just great products or brilliant marketing. It's the unsung hero, the business behind the business.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's time to make those business goals a reality. For millions of entrepreneurs, that hero is Shopify.
--:-- John Bickley: Upgrade your business and get the same checkout we use with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morningwire, all lowercase.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Shopify.com slash morningwire.
--:-- [Music transitions to a softer tone]
--:-- John Bickley: This is as important as the November election, and that was for the soul of America. This is for the soul of Wisconsin.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Your vote for Brad Shemmel will keep Wisconsin and America winning.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Super Bowl champ Brett Favre endorsing the conservative candidate in an election that will determine whether liberals or conservatives control Wisconsin's top court.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Already the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, analysts are calling it the first referendum on Donald Trump's presidency.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, Megan, you don't typically see a single state judicial race garner this much national attention. What's so significant about this seat?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's because this is a rare chance to flip the ideological balance of the highest court in a key swing state.
--:-- Megan Basham: So depending on how things play out on April 1st, Wisconsin's Supreme Court could go from a 4-3 liberal majority to a 4-3 conservative one, and that will, of course, have a lot of ramifications on national policy.
--:-- John Bickley: Arguably, the biggest factor here is congressional redistricting.
--:-- Megan Basham: So after the 2020 census, Republicans who controlled the legislature drew Wisconsin's congressional maps. Democrats cried gerrymandering and they sued.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then in 2022, the liberal court threw out the GOP's maps and adopted new ones that had been drawn by Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat.
--:-- Megan Basham: And that new map helped Democrats flip one congressional seat in 2024.
--:-- John Bickley: So if conservative candidate Brad Schimmel wins, he will likely uphold those GOP-drawn maps that help cement the very slim margin that Republicans have in the House right now.
--:-- Megan Basham: On the other hand, if liberal Susan Crawford wins, the court is likely to strike down those Republican maps again, meaning Democrats will have a greater likelihood of winning more seats in the state.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I imagine this court could also impact the GOP's chances of taking the state in the presidential election as well.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, absolutely. And election integrity legislation, like voter ID, has also been a very big focus here.
--:-- John Bickley: We have to remember that Trump won Wisconsin in 2024 by less than a percentage point.
--:-- Megan Basham: So these were the issues that Elon Musk stressed during an X space late Saturday night.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In my opinion, that's the most important thing, which is a big deal, given that the congressional majority is so razor thin, it could cause the House to switch to Democrat if that redrawing takes place.
--:-- John Bickley: And then we won't be able to get through the changes that the American people want.
--:-- Megan Basham: Republicans also see a conservative court in Wisconsin as a potential firewall that could shield Trump's policies from state-level challenges.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Think things like lawsuits over federal overreach or immigration crackdowns.
--:-- John Bickley: So on Truth Social yesterday, Trump called Crawford a radical left Democrat.
--:-- Megan Basham: And he said she's insistent on bringing hardened criminals that we remove to faraway places back into our country and allowing men into women's sports and open borders.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, this election is on Tuesday, April 1st, so we're going to have you back on to discuss the results.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime.
--:-- [Music transitions to a softer tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Immigration authorities may soon receive help from the IRS. Reports of the new agreement come as thousands of law enforcement officials are expected to be redirected toward President Trump's mass deportation agenda.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the administration's new tactics on immigration.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, Tim.
--:-- John Bickley: So before we get to immigration, I actually wanted to talk about a story you reported on over the weekend, Trump's actions on security clearances, those revoked for a number of high-profile public officials, the most high-profile.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. President Trump officially revoked the security clearances of a number of people late Friday that included top Biden administration officials, as well as some of the president's top antagonists, those who brought and supported the court cases he faced during the election and who pushed Russian collusion conspiracies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some of the most prominent names on that list included Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Liz Cheney, and over a dozen others.
--:-- Tim Pierce: It's worth noting that Biden blocked Trump from intelligence briefings back in 2021.
--:-- John Bickley: A what goes around comes around situation here.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah. So on to the issue of immigration, the IRS is reportedly near an agreement to help Homeland Security locate illegal aliens.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How will that work?
--:-- Tim Pierce: The IRS and ICE are near an agreement that would essentially allow immigration agents to cross-check information on aliens with IRS databases.
--:-- John Bickley: To be clear, DHS would not have access to IRS systems, but agents would be able to verify with the IRS whether the home addresses agents have for illegal aliens are correct.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Trump administration has tried before to get the IRS to help locate illegals, but the agency has always resisted because of the sensitivity of taxpayer information and because it didn't want to run afoul of federal law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But this way, the IRS can keep complete control over its taxpayer database.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Got it.
--:-- John Bickley: How much will this help Trump's deportation efforts?
--:-- Tim Pierce: It should be a useful tool for ICE. Illegal immigrants often do work in the U.S. and file tax returns that include information such as where they live, who they work for, and their income.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's some pushback against this, but it's worth pointing out that while Democrats don't agree with Trump's immigration agenda, the president is picking up a little bit of support across the aisle.
--:-- Tim Pierce: For instance, here's Senator Bernie Sanders on ABC saying Trump is right to shut down illegal immigration.
--:-- John Bickley: Is there anything that you think Trump has done right?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah. I mean, I think cracking down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger. Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I happen to think we need comprehensive immigration reform, but I don't think it's appropriate for people to be coming across the border illegally.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to Reuters, the Department of Homeland Security is in the middle of a massive reshuffle to focus resources on deportations.
--:-- John Bickley: It's like what the Biden administration did for January 6th, taking a bunch of agents off their usual beats to investigate alleged rioters.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump has taken that strategy and is using it to carry out his deportations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Really a story of two very different priorities there.
--:-- John Bickley: And now there's news that Trump will roll back Biden's use of parole to allow aliens into the country.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. The parole program you referenced was started under Biden and applied to aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
--:-- John Bickley: The CHNV parole program, as it was called, let 30,000 immigrants a month from those countries apply for entry to the U.S.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And since 2022, over half a million entered the country, sometimes on flights set up by the federal government.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Trump ended that program on his first day in office.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But over the weekend, DHS issued an order revoking legal status for those aliens who entered the country through it.
--:-- John Bickley: The order encourages them to self-deport within 30 days or risk deportation.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Sounds like there's going to be a lot more people eligible for deportation in the next few weeks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Good to be on. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- [Music transitions to a softer tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Before we go, we want to remind you to check out our sponsors. Lumen, the world's first handheld metabolic coach, helps you gain insight and stay on track when it comes to improving your health.
--:-- Georgia Howe: By simply breathing into your Lumen each morning, you'll discover if your body is burning fats or carbs.
--:-- John Bickley: The app then provides personalized nutrition plans and lifestyle guidance based on your unique metabolism.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Take the next step in improving your health. Head to Lumen.me slash wire for 20% off your purchase.
--:-- John Bickley: And if you're an entrepreneur looking to upgrade your business, Shopify is the platform for you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Upgrade your business and get the same checkout we use with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morningwire, all lowercase.
--:-- John Bickley: And finally, if you're looking for a natural way to support your health, Balance of Nature has got you covered.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, plus get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice.
--:-- John Bickley: That's balanceofnature.com, promo code WIRE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, folks. We'll be back tomorrow with more news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: And don't forget to follow us on social media for the latest updates and behind-the-scenes peeks into our show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: See you tomorrow.
