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--:-- Host (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.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): 45,000 longshoremen officially go on strike, hitting picket lines from Boston to Texas. Who's going to win here in the long run? You're better off sitting down and let's get a contract and let's move on with this world. How long before the strike leads to empty shelves and higher costs of goods?
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, October 1st, and this is Morning Wire. Americans across the Southeast deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as President Trump visits the devastation firsthand. We're here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene. How has the federal government responded?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And J.D. Vance and Tim Walls face off on the debate stage tonight. What do we expect from the VP candidates? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Host (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. That's balanceofnature.com, promo code WIRE.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Tens of thousands of dock workers walked off the job on the East Coast this morning in a massive strike poised to throw the supply chain into chaos. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraida Lordi is here with the details.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So Maraida, we've been reporting this strike was coming and now it's here. Hi, Georgia. Yes, this morning at midnight, about 45,000 union workers with the International Longshoremen's Association went on strike. Workers abandoned their jobs at 36 major ports along the East and Gulf coasts, including major shipping areas like the Port Authority in New Jersey, Baltimore, and Houston.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Negotiations between the union and port ownership broke down over the summer, and the two sides are still at an impasse. The union is demanding higher wages and is against port automation. On Monday, the dock worker union reaffirmed that it planned to strike and said port ownership continues to block a fair and decent contract.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: The union said ocean carriers enjoy rich billion dollar profits while dock workers are crippled by inflation due to unfair wage packages. I talked to a disgruntled union member at the Philadelphia dock worker local yesterday and I asked where they'd be picketing. He told me, unfortunately, the only time anyone wants to know where we work is when we're on strike. We haven't been on strike in 50 years.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: One longshoreman tried to explain how massive the impact will be. We're talking about 20 million containers a year. That's 55,000 containers a day that will not enter this country or leave this country. How will this strike affect Americans and the economy in general?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So this is a huge strike that chokes off nearly half of all U imports and will cost the economy billions of dollars a day. Depending on how long the strike lasts Americans could see shortages and delays past the election and into the holiday season. Bananas, coffee, cocoa, pharmaceuticals, clothing, furniture, vehicles, and even Christmas decorations are among the products that will be affected.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: As far as American exports, beef, poultry, pork, eggs, and cotton will be impacted as well. According to industry insiders, even a one-day strike would snarl supply chains for six days. A longer strike would take weeks or months to recover from. If we do see shortages, we are also likely to see price spikes, which is the last thing American families need right now.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Right. Now, what's the Biden administration saying about all of this? So as we've reported, the Biden administration can step in and stop big strikes like this that threaten national security or health. But Biden says he's not going to do that.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Earlier this month, the National Retail Federation, which represents 177 trade groups, sent a letter to the president warning a strike would devastate the economy and urging him to step in and broker a deal. On Monday, Biden's Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, admitted the strike was not her priority.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Here she is on CNBC. Where have you been kind of focused and hearing on what would happen if the strike goes, let's say, longer than a week? Again, I have not been very focused on that. Okay, so not too much concern from the administration there.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Of course, this strike could throw a wrench into the election. How would it affect voters? Well, problems with the economy usually hurt the party in charge. Kamala Harris has struggled to win over voters with her economic message. And we should note, too, Trump has more working class support than any Republican presidential candidate in decades.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Harris is still winning the union vote, but by a slim margin compared to Democratic candidates in the past. Back in the 90s, Bill Clinton won the union vote by 30 points. Kamala is currently only up nine points. When it comes to trade school grads, Trump is actually leading that vote by 31 points. By contrast, Bill Clinton won trade school grads by seven points.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: So overall, a huge rightward shift among traditional blue collar workers. Well, the last thing we need right now is more inflation. So hopefully they can reach a deal quickly.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Maureen, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Stop giving your money to woke corporations that hate you. Get Jeremy's Razors Precision 5 instead. Available now at jeremysrazors.com, walmart.com, and Amazon Prime.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Hurricane Helene has devastated the Southeast. killing more than 120 people in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hey, Amanda. So this was an absolutely devastating storm, and the fallout has been massive. What do we know about the effects so far?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Well, as we've reported, the storm hit Florida as a Category 4 with 140 mile-per-hour winds on Thursday, breaking records for storm surge along the Gulf Coast. Here's one Cedar Key resident surveying the devastation. However bad we imagined it would be when we were fighting this thing in the darkness, it's so much worse in the daylight.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: This recovery will be measured in years and years, not months. It's unbelievable. The storm continued to dissipate as it moved up through Georgia on its eventual 800-mile path, but it caused historic flooding and left entire communities underwater and millions without power and sometimes without cell service.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Damage estimates have reached up to billion. And despite the already high death toll, unfortunately, there are continued recovery operations underway in numerous states and that number is expected to significantly climb.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Now, North Carolina was hit particularly hard. What do we know about the damage and recovery efforts there?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Right. Officials in the area have said they suffered biblical-level flooding with comparisons to Hurricane Katrina. Parts of western North Carolina took on 30 inches of rain. Towns like Lake Lure and Chimney Rock were effectively washed away.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Drone footage shows Biltmore Village, the commercial area near the Biltmore Mansion, completely underwater. In Buncombe County, where the city of Asheville is located, at least 35 people have been confirmed dead. The county manager says they're in desperate need of drinking water, and what they've received so far is just not nearly enough.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: As of yesterday, the county is still largely without power and struggling with communications. The local sheriff said that there are at least 600 missing persons reports. Additionally, Asheville residents are having to line up for hours just to try to get gasoline for their cars or food from a grocery store.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Here's one resident speaking to ABC 13. This lady here, she came in line and she only had like $2 to get her gas and she just wants to get home. I mean, she cut in front of everybody, but you got to understand that, but you don't know what her circumstances are.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: So I gave her 85 cents to go with what she had, and maybe that'll help get her enough to get home. The latest numbers indicate that at least 46 people have been killed in North Carolina, and that ranges in age from just four years old to 75. Just absolutely tragic.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: What sort of response have we seen from the federal government, from Biden and Harris so far?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Well, Biden was at his home in Delaware over the weekend, but he made it back to the White House on Monday to give a press conference on federal relief efforts. He said federal agencies have deployed 3,600 officials to assist in recovery efforts, and he told survivors he'd be there with them as long as it takes.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: But he hasn't gotten there just yet. He plans to visit some of the affected areas in North Carolina on Wednesday or Thursday. He said going now would be a distraction to relief efforts due to his motorcade and other security measures.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: And Harris, she held a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend and departed on Monday morning to Washington for a briefing from FEMA. She said at the rally on Sunday that she and Biden will provide whatever help local leaders need in the coming days and weeks.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: As for former President Trump, he actually visited on Monday the hard-hit area of Valdosta, Georgia, where he was briefed on the devastation and handed out relief supplies. Trump met with volunteers and he thanked first responders for their efforts.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: He also spoke about the need to restore communications as quickly as possible. Trump said he and Elon Musk are working on just that. We want to get Starlink hooked up because they have no communication whatsoever. And Elon, Elon will always come through. We know that.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: So many devastated communities. Let's hope more help is coming quickly.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Amanda, thank you so much for reporting. You're welcome, John.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The highly anticipated vice presidential debate will take place tonight with J.D. Vance and Tim Walls squaring off in New York City. Here to set the scene for us is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A. Cabot. So what can we expect to see from each candidate this evening?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's interesting. The two men are obviously very different, but do have one big thing in common. They were each picked to appeal to voters in working class communities, particularly in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So in many ways, this debate will center on which candidate best appeals to those voters tonight. We start with J Vance who despite being 20 years younger does seem to have the experience advantage. While Walls has yet to make a single solo appearance on network TV, Vance has sat down for dozens of national interviews and they are typically combative.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In his words, he loves a good debate. From what we're hearing out of his camp, Vance's goal is to convince voters that Walls is a far-left liberal. He wants to refute this folksy, sort of all-shucks depiction of Walls in the media and argue that he may talk like a moderate, but he is no moderate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And how do we expect him to do that? So Vance has signaled that he is going to hone in on Walls' voting record in Congress, and more importantly, his tenure as governor of Minnesota.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Expect to hear plenty about his failure to respond to the BLM riots for several days, allowing Minneapolis to burn in 2020. And laws he signed making Minnesota a so-called refuge state to allow minors from other states to receive transgender medical treatments.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Minnesota has also seen a mass exodus of residents under his tenure, as violent crime and the cost of living have just exploded in recent years. That'll likely come up as well. And don't be surprised if his handling of COVID is also discussed by Vance.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As Governor Walls enacted some of the strictest lockdowns in the country. And it's interesting, when I went to Minnesota to talk with residents about him, that specific topic, COVID, came up over and over.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, here's a businessman named Greg Urban, whose bar was forced to close permanently during the pandemic. Tim Walls set up a snitch line to where if you saw a COVID violation, you could call in and he would dispatch his COVID police that he had set up.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there's instances where Tim Walls put people in jail for as much as 90 days for violating one of his orders. I mean, he wasn't messing around with this. He wanted this state locked down so tight and he would use his jails to do that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And also here's some of what I heard from Minnesota voters during a focus group that we conducted. He despises small business, does nothing to help small business, but tax and regulate.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As governor, when Minneapolis was burning down, he failed to call out the Minnesota National Guard because he didn't want to offend Black Lives Matter. And as a result of that, he failed the basic test of a president or a governor, which is protecting the public safety.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And one more thing that'll be interesting to watch for, will Vance bring up the stolen valor accusations against Walls? Remember, the governor has repeatedly made misleading and at times downright false claims about his military service, including claims that he carried a weapon of war in war despite never having served in combat.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Vance is himself a combat veteran and has attacked Walls on that topic in the past. We'll see if he brings it up tonight in person. So there could be some fireworks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And what about on the other side? What are we hearing from Walls about this debate?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, for his part, Walls has been setting a very low bar for himself. While sort of hyping up Vance, saying that his legal background gives him an advantage.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, here he is on MSNBC when asked about his own debate prep. Look, he's Yale law guy. I'm a public school teacher. So we know where he's at on that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And look, when Walls was interviewing with the Harris campaign, he reportedly told the VP that he was a, quote, bad debater. And according to a CNN report this week, he is, quote, fighting nerves and worried about letting Harris down.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But in all likelihood, that is all a bit of political maneuvering, if you tell people you won't do well, even an average performance seems like a victory.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On the trail, Wallace has sought to paint Vance as an elite who abandoned his working-class Middle America roots rather than a true American success story. So expect to hear that same attack this evening.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And of course, it is a safe bet that most of his time will not actually be focused on Vance, Harris, or even himself, but on Donald Trump.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Kevin, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
