--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible. Financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.
--:-- John Bickley: Record inflation, skyrocketing gas prices, and the immigration crisis are further shaking Americans' confidence in President Biden. Now new data shows the impact it could have on the midterms. Are Democrats facing a looming red wave in November? And what is the party doing to prevent it? I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, April 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: None of the four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were found guilty. We hear from a reporter who was on the ground for the trial. And as violent crime becomes more common on America's streets, even police are not exempt. The number of law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty so far this year has surged compared to the last two years.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Indeed. News travels fast, but hiring can take forever. Find quality candidates fast with Indeed. Instead of spending hours on multiple job sites, you need one powerful hiring partner that can do it all. And with Indeed's Instant Match, over 90% of employers get quality candidates as soon as they sponsor their first job post. Start now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com slash wire. Offer valid through April 30th. Indeed.com slash wire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: With midterm elections fast approaching, new nationwide data spells trouble for Democrats on a variety of important voter metrics. Now, party leadership is scrambling to regain their footing in key battleground states. Here are the latest numbers and how President Biden's job approval is impacting the midterms is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So typically pollsters track two key metrics when it comes to midterms, voter enthusiasm and presidential approval ratings. Because midterm elections have lower turnout than presidential cycles, remember, only about four in 10 registered voters actually show up to the polls. Pollsters keep a close eye on enthusiasm levels within each party because it's typically the more enthusiastic voters who actually are motivated enough to get to the polls when there isn't a nationally known figure on the ballot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And on that front, Republicans have been dominating all year. If you look at tracking polls in October, they held an 11-point lead in the number of voters saying they're, quote, very interested in the midterms. Then it rose to a 14-point lead in January. And now Republicans this week hold a 17-point lead on voter enthusiasm. 17, it's risen that much.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, and that type of lead, it's worth noting, is showing up in polls across the board. It's not just one single poll. For context, the last time we saw an enthusiasm gap this wide was back in 2010, which happened to be the year Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the House during Obama's first term.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Democrats had been hopeful recently that the State of the Union address and loosened COVID measures and the nomination of Ketanji Brown-Jackson would improve the standing of Democrats, but really the opposite has actually happened.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now you brought up the State of the Union. Tell us about the role President Biden is playing in all of this. Yeah we said on the show multiple times how midterms are typically a referendum on the president and that becoming even more noticeable this month.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example one poll from Pew Research found that 71% of Republican voters say their midterm vote this year will be, quote, against Joe Biden. And more broadly, as the president's approval ratings have continued to sink, the gap between voter preference for the midterms has grown, with Republicans now leading by anywhere from two to 10 points in most polls.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The president's approval has hovered in the high 30s and low 40s, which has Democrat leaders, especially members of Congress, up for reelection, very nervous.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What sort of impact are those low approval ratings having at the state level? Well, we don't have a ton of polling data to go on right now at the state level, so it's helpful to look at recent history for some indicators on trends for this November.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, in 2018, there were 10 Senate races that took place in states where Trump's approval rating was below 48 percent. Democrats won all 10 of those races. Similarly, in 2014, Democrats lost 14 of the 15 states where Obama's approval rating was at 42 percent or less.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the clear moral of the story is voters are much more concerned with the president's approval than they often are with the actual senator or congressmember on the ballot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And what do we know about his approval in those key battleground states? So this year, there are going to be a lot of races where Democrat incumbents are threatened, but the states getting the most attention are Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, President Biden has won all of those states in 2020, but the margins were already incredibly slim, and he's struggling in polling there. The most recent polling in Arizona shows him at just 40% approval. That's an all-time low so far. In Wisconsin, it's 43%. Pennsylvania, it's 40%, another all-time low. And in Georgia, it's just 34%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And those polling struggles are almost certain to drag down Democrat incumbents and really lift the chances of Republican challengers.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for the reporting. Anytime.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, the jury in the Gretchen Whitmer case reaches a verdict. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news. And you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
--:-- John Bickley: In October 2020, the FBI arrested six men for an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Two of the men pleaded guilty and four others pleaded not guilty and went to trial. Defense attorneys claim that the plot originated with and was entirely driven by FBI informants. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce covered the trial from the courthouse, and is here to break down the verdict for us.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks, Georgia. All right. This is a high-profile case here involving a Democratic governor and the FBI. So tell us about this verdict.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the four men actually committed what was alleged. The jury acquitted two men, Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris. The other two defendants, Barry Croft and Adam Fox, received a split verdict, and prosecutors have indicated they plan to try the case against them again.
--:-- Tim Pierce: What everyone is talking about, though, is how this looks for the FBI. There were a total of 10 charges leveled against the four men, and the jury wasn't willing to convict on a single one. The case was particularly notable because it was used by Democratic politicians on the campaign trail to justify claims that right voters were inciting violence.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now for those who have tracked it closely, tell us about the case. What exactly did the FBI allege?
--:-- Tim Pierce: This goes back to October 2020. Federal agents arrested six men on charges of conspiracy to kidnap the governor. At the time, Whitmer had instituted some of the strictest COVID restrictions in the country, and there was lots of backlash.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Ty Garbin and Caleb Franks, who were members of the militia group Wolverine Watchmen, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and testified for the prosecution at trial in exchange for a plea deal. The other four said the alleged conspiracy was a setup by the FBI.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The defendant said they were illegally manipulated by federal agents, a defense known as entrapment. Caserta's attorney, Mike Hills, had some strong words after the verdict calling FBI agent Jason Chambers and informant Dan Chappell, quote, predators.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Defense attorneys presented their clients as keyboard warriors and social outcasts who were preyed upon by federal agents. They also admitted that their clients made horrible statements during the summer of 2020, but insisted that it was the FBI and not their clients who created the alleged conspiracy.
--:-- Tim Pierce: However, federal prosecutors had a different take. Prosecutors portrayed the defendants as a group willing to commit an act of extreme violence against Whitmer.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So this case also had some ties to national politics, especially when it broke right ahead of the 2020 election. Can you tell us a little about that?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, if you'll remember, this quickly became about Donald Trump. Within a few days after the conspiracy went public, Governor Whitmer was accusing President Donald Trump of inciting domestic terror.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hate groups heard the president's words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit.
--:-- Tim Pierce: For his part, Trump took the wait-and-see approach, saying at a late October rally, quote, people are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't.
--:-- Tim Pierce: On Friday, Whitmer appeared to challenge the jury's decision. A statement by our chief of staff called for accountability for extremists and a rejection of the, quote, normalization of political violence.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So is this case over? Where do things stand with the two defendants with the split jury?
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's a good question. Technically, the cases against Croft and Fox can be tried again, and prosecutors have suggested that that's exactly what they want.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. Well, very interesting case. Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- John Bickley: The number of police officers shot in the line of duty in 2022 is on pace to break the record set just last year. Police have been wounded and even killed both on and off duty. Here to fill us in on the details is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Thanks for joining us, Ben.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Of course. We've covered this issue a few times. It's obviously a very important issue. How does the number of police shot this year compare with previous years?
--:-- Ben Johnson: There's been a double-digit increase in the number of police shot for each of the last two years. In the first three months of this year, 101 police were shot in the line of duty, according to the Fraternal Order of Police.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The number of officers wounded by gunfire as of April 1st is 46% higher than the same period last year and almost two-thirds higher than this time in 2020.
--:-- Ben Johnson: A total of 16 law enforcement officers had been killed by hostile gunfire. A particularly concerning statistic is the fact that almost a third of these victims were shot in ambush attacks where the gunman lies in wait for the police.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Ambush attacks have claimed five officers' lives in 2022. That's certainly concerning.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Is there any sense anti-police violence is leveling out?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Unfortunately, no. At least five officers were shot on March 31st. A domestic violence suspect in Lebanon Pennsylvania shot three officers killing Lieutenant William Loeb a 40 veteran of the department In what sounds like a twist from a movie he was 30 days away from retirement.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The danger doesn't even end when the police officers clock out. An off-duty police officer was shot the morning of March 31st in Englewood, California.
--:-- Ben Johnson: That evening, 51-year-old Deputy Darren Almanderas was coming out of a Houston grocery store when he saw suspects allegedly stealing a catalytic converter in a parking lot. The off-duty officer approached the three suspects when he was shot and killed.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Police have charged two men and a 17-year-old boy with his murder. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez remembered Almanderas, who served the department for 23 years during a press conference that evening.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Today we've lost another hero here in our community, sadly. Our deputy was pronounced deceased a short while ago, and our hearts are broken.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Two days later, another off-duty officer encountered three other men allegedly stealing catalytic converters in the parking lot of a Houston movie theater. The suspect shot him. Thankfully, that officer survived.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So do we know anything about what's to blame for this rise in anti-police shootings?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Police generally blame two things, an anti-police narrative in the media and soft on crime policies that lower disincentives to crime.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Patrick Yeos, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, says it's no coincidence more police have been shot over the last two years.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Well, look, the two years of anti-police rhetoric has certainly taken its toll on our profession. And former Louisville Police Sergeant John Mattingly, the author of the book 12 Seconds in the Dark, told me a revolving door criminal policy can endanger the police who come into contact with violent offenders.
--:-- Ben Johnson: We are dealing with the same people over and over. And as they become emboldened, as they get let out realizing, they're not going to do anything to me, as they hear all this rhetoric from the left and from the progressives about, you know, the police are bad, the police are at fault.
--:-- Ben Johnson: They know there's not going to be much done to them. There's one additional aspect of this anti-police crime wave that's worth mentioning. Sheriff Gonzalez reminded people that if criminals are increasingly willing to shoot police officers with all the extra penalties that that entails, that means they have no fear of shooting any American.
--:-- Ben Johnson: You know, we're tired of this crime in our community. We're tired that people aren't even safe to go out to the grocery store. This is a cop. This is a cop that's just out with his family. It could be any one of us.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for the report, Ben.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Thanks for covering it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire's Ben Johnson.
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an unannounced visit to Ukraine's capital city, Kiev, on Sunday. In his meeting with Ukraine's president, Johnson walked the city's war-torn streets and pledged to provide more support for the embattled country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Russia lost another military leader in its invasion of Ukraine. A funeral for Colonel Alexander Bespolov was held in Russia on Friday. He was reportedly the ninth of Putin's colonels lost in the Russia-instigated war.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, please consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to Daily Wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
--:-- [Theme music starts playing]
