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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, September 16th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As conservatives rallied together following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the FBI says they're investigating radical left-wing groups for potential ties to the killer. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the details.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, we already have a suspect in custody, but now we're hearing about some of his potential ties. What do we know so far?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, authorities seem totally confident right now that Tyler Robinson acted alone in pulling the trigger. DNA evidence found on a screwdriver and towel left at the scene have matched with the 22-year-old. But now they want to know if he coordinated this attack with anyone else, or even shared plans ahead of time with potential collaborators.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Among those being investigated by law enforcement is the far-left pro-transgender group Armed Queers Salt Lake City. They deleted their Instagram account shortly after the shooting, but a membership form online listed their core principles, which included, quote, the armed and militant protection of queer and trans communities, trans liberation and an organized revolutionary movement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The bureau is also looking into a number of social media users who seemingly displayed potential foreknowledge of the assassination. For example, one leftist user on X wrote beforehand, quote, it would be funny if someone like Charlie Kirk got shot on September 10th. Again, that came a week beforehand.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Another post read, quote, Charlie Kirk is coming to my college tomorrow. I really hope someone evaporates him. Literally, let's just say something big will happen tomorrow. And then according to FBI Director Cass Vittel, Robinson told at least one person beforehand that we know of what he planned on doing. He had a text message exchange. He the suspect with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Vittel then went on to say that Robinson wrote a note ahead of time detailing his plans. That note was destroyed, but thankfully recovered by the bureau.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, we also heard from a number of Trump administration officials yesterday. What did they say?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, Vice President J.D. Vance filled in to host the Charlie Kirk Show Monday, offering encouragement to listeners, vowing to carry on Charlie's legacy, and sharing an emotional tribute to his fallen friend.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Books that I've read to my kids, going up to their bedroom and kissing them and hugging them before bed, I just realized that all of these moments that I get to have, Charlie is not able to have them anymore. And Charlie's kids and his beautiful wife are not able to have them anymore. And maybe the best way that I can contribute and the best way that I can honor my dear friend is to be the best husband that I can be.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Vince also brought on Caroline Leavitt and other White House staff, including Deputy Chief Stephen Miller, who vowed to channel his, quote, righteous anger to go after those responsible.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It is a vast domestic terror movement. And with God as my witness we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify disrupt dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people It will happen and we will do it in Charlie's name.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in a really just powerful moment, VP Vance offered strong words for anyone celebrating Charlie's death.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder. There is no unity with someone who harasses an innocent family the day after the father of that family lost a dear friend. There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk's assassination. And there is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers, who argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck because he spoke words with which they disagree.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And to that earlier point that Stephen Miller made, it's worth reiterating something we've talked about on the show, and that is the legacy media's just clear reluctance to address the shooter's political ideology and the role that it could have played here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Despite the now overwhelming evidence that he was a leftist who hated Charlie Kirk for his conservative views, a nationwide poll conducted this Sunday showed that more Americans believe the shooter was on the political right, not the political left.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So clearly the truth is not getting out. FBI Director Cash Patel once again sought to clarify that point on Monday. His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology and even more so in these last couple of years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So it seems obvious that the muddying of the waters from the media in those early days after the shooting is clearly playing a role with average Americans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And as we continue to see so many folks still celebrating Charlie's death, it's worth going through some of the polling data on this topic. For example, a recent YouGov poll showed that only 3% of self-identified, very conservative Americans view political violence as ever acceptable. For very liberal Americans, though, that number is 25%. So they're eight times more likely to say that political violence is justified.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, that's a trend we saw really accelerate since 2016.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by PrizePix. You and I make decisions every day. But on PrizePix, being right can get you paid. Don't miss out on any of the excitement this season on PrizePix where it's good to be right.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Radical left candidate Zoran Mamdani just got a major endorsement for New York City's mayor. Meanwhile, he's just dropped his new plan to replace officers with mental health teams. Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So Amanda, Mamdani just landed a major endorsement from New York's Democrat governor, Kathy Hochul. First, why is her endorsement so significant?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, this could get the Democrat Party establishment behind Mamdani. Hochul notably kept her distance from him during the New York City mayoral primary. Mamdani is an open Democratic socialist, and he has some extremely far-left ideas, including government-run grocery stores.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: With this endorsement from Hochul, there's a lot of speculation that we'll see other prominent Democrat leaders throw their support behind him too now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So why is Hochul backing Mamdani, has she said?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, she didn't say this in her New York Times op-ed, but she's facing the political reality that she needs to be on good terms with the future mayor. It does look like Mom Dani is probably going to win barring some major shakeup.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So this is someone she'll likely have to work with very soon. She also running for reelection in 2026 Some politicos think that she just so disliked by folks in the suburbs and most of upstate New York that she really going to have to lean on the urban vote and that where Mom Donnie has really strong support
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, in the op-ed, what were the reasons she cited for why she's supporting him?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Hochul said that she's backing Mom Donnie because he's focused on affordability as she is. And unsurprisingly, she also really zeroed in on Trump.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: She said that she wants the next mayor to be someone who won't surrender one inch to President Trump. And she complained about the abhorrent and destructive policies coming out of Washington every day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She added that they must not allow Trump to control New York City like the, quote, king he wants to be.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So some familiar rhetoric there. Has Trump responded to this at all?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, he did. On Monday morning, he said that Hochul endorsed the, quote, little communist Zoran Mamdani, and he called it a rather shocking development and a very bad one for New York City.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: In this recent post, Trump said that Washington is going to be watching the situation, and he added that he sees no reason to be sending good money after bad.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that right there does suggest that there'll be less cooperation with the feds when Hochul requests federal dollars for her state or New York City specifically.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You know, it was just months ago that Hochul was thanking Trump for billions of federal dollars that she had asked for to help reconstruct Penn Station. That relieved New York taxpayers of a $1.3 billion burden.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Perhaps that federal help is not as easily obtained in the future.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, just a day after Hochul's endorsement, Momdani dropped a new version of his controversial plan to replace police officers with mental health teams for some emergency calls. What do we know about that plan?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, Mondani first announced back in April that he wants to create a citizen-led Department of Community Safety.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, this agency would deploy social workers, so-called violence interrupters, typically people with criminal histories, and mental health teams to respond to nonviolent 911 calls.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It would cost the city about $1.1 billion total, and it would shift some NYPD funds as well as adding new costs.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: His newly refined version of this agency, which was announced yesterday, it tries to moderate this idea somewhat. So, for example, Mamdani clarified that he wants to keep police staffing where it's at instead of making any cuts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: His opponents, by the way, want to boost police forces. Mamdani is largely viewed as anti-police, and he's trying to combat that image.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Back in 2020, he called the NYPD racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety, and he demanded that they be defunded.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, this idea of community policing, it was widely panned by law enforcement experts back in April. For one thing, they say a mental health crisis might start out as nonviolent, but that could easily escalate if ill-prepared people attempt to intervene.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: While Democrats need to tread carefully because they were really punished for the defund the police movement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You're welcome.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: After a two-week public trial, Brazil's five Supreme Court justices sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for an alleged coup attempt. The Trump administration is now threatening severe consequences. Joining us now to discuss is Andres Martinez Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America at the Heritage Foundation.
--:-- Andres Martinez: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So we seen Brazil former president Jair Bolsonaro who many have likened to Trump in the past He was convicted late last week. First, for those who have not been tracking this pretty remarkable case, what was the argument against him?
--:-- Andres Martinez: Well, what the Supreme Court in Brazil was alleging is that the ex-president of Brazil was organizing a sort of coup to undermine the electoral outcome from the elections in 2022 that would perpetuate him in power. And the allegations are that he utilized the military and other public institutions in effort to affect that change and preserve his mandate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And for this, he's now sentenced to 27 years in prison.
--:-- Andres Martinez: There are already reports about government officials considering amnesty for Bolsonaro. That's something we've seen with past leaders in coup attempts in Brazil. Why is amnesty on the table and what would need to happen for him to go free?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Well, there's a significant amount of discussion around amnesty in this case, in particular because it's highly controversial. There's really a lot of doubt about the veracity of these accusations.
--:-- Andres Martinez: A lot of questions about the evidence being insubstantial and the conclusions that were drawn from that by, again, a court which has also been at the center of a lot of controversy really being brought into question by the public and the Brazilian political class in general.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Because this is a case which has a lot of question marks around it, and particularly with this sentencing, which is dramatic over 25 years for this person who just a few years ago was occupying the top office in Brazil, is very controversial at the moment.
--:-- Andres Martinez: So a lot of Congress in Brazil and others are exploring very actively the need to take action to bypass this here, this sentencing. If that happens, if Bolsonaro is granted amnesty, will he be able to run again for office in the future?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So under this conviction, he is no longer able to run for president. And that's certainly significant as far as its impact because he remains the most popular figure on the right in Brazil, certainly, and was certainly in discussions for being a leading figure.
--:-- Andres Martinez: And again, this is part of why there are a lot of questions about whether or not justice was being followed here in this case or whether there was a political motivation around these upcoming elections.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Speaking of that, the political criticisms Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in response to the ruling that the U.S. will, and I'm quoting, respond accordingly to this witch hunt. That's the language they're using. Why does the administration view this as a witch hunt and what actions do you expect them to take?
--:-- Andres Martinez: Well, like I said, I think that there's a lot that hasn't been answered as to the gap between the allegations, which the Supreme Court has brought, and the evidence that has been revealed as far as the complicity of the former president of Brazil.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And at the same time, there are a lot of very serious questions about political bias by the court itself, which has not just in this case, but in several others, shown itself to be a very political entity, including with a high profile battle with Elon Musk and the platform of Twitter then.
--:-- Andres Martinez: But really, there's a disconnect, I think, that a lot of people see and this administration certainly sees between the pursuit of justice and the political priorities that we see the Supreme Court in Brazil pursuing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that's what the administration is really seeking to counter, leveraging the United States economic heft and influence in that country.
--:-- Andres Martinez: But it's clearly going to be a very significant challenge here. We'll see if the amnesty path is an out here, but there's a lot of political interests really at play here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Indeed. We'll see if this talk of amnesty actually turns into action.
--:-- Andres Martinez: Meanwhile, it appears economic sanctions are in the works in the White House.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Andres, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Andres Martinez: Thank you.
