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--:-- John Bickley: Good morning, I'm John Bickley, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe, co-host of Morning Wire. It's Friday, November 22nd.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to the show. We've got a lot to cover today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. Let's start with the news. Congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration for attorney general amid damaging reports about his past.
--:-- John Bickley: Every single pick that Donald Trump makes is going to be a distraction. They don't want to confirm any of these people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Who did Trump pick to replace him?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Cabot, you've been saying all week that Gates was going to face an uphill battle. What ended up happening?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, the moment this pick was announced, Washington just went into a frenzy. While Trump's base and diehard MAGA lawmakers were ecstatic, saying Gates would bring historic reforms to the DOJ, there were plenty of Republican lawmakers who expressed immediate reservations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They feared his lack of experience in the courtroom or law enforcement, and his checkered past made him unqualified to be the nation's top law enforcement official.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, Gates huddled with Republican senators the last two days to lobby support for his confirmation. But when it became clear that not enough support would materialize, he pulled out, saying on X, quote, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition.
--:-- John Bickley: For his part, Trump said, quote, I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gates. He was doing very well, but did not want to be a distraction for which he has much respect.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, you mentioned that there were some reservations. What were the main reasons why Republican senators weren't on board?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So as we've talked about before, Gates really prides himself on being a sort of rabble rouser on the right. His podcast is called Firebrand, and that Firebrand style has made him plenty of enemies in the GOP, including those who were upset about his role in ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and also single-handedly holding up pieces of legislation in the House.
--:-- John Bickley: But beyond that, there were also concerns over his personal life. Gates has been the subject of a long-running House ethics investigation involving allegations that he had sex with a minor while in office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The findings of that report were going to be released to the public last week, but ultimately were kept private because he resigned from the House to try and become attorney general.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So it sounds like Trump hit the ground running and found a replacement very quickly. Who did he end up picking?
--:-- John Bickley: That right. On Thursday night Trump appointed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to the position.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Bondi previously worked on Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial and earned a reputation in Florida as a hardline conservative on immigration and crime specifically.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In a statement announcing the pick, Trump said, quote, Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years where she was very tough on violent criminals and made the streets safe for Florida families.
--:-- John Bickley: He went on to say the Bondi will shift the, quote, partisan DOJ's focus back to its original mission, fighting crime and making America safe again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The move was cheered by the GOP base. Now we'll see how Senate Republicans respond.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So what does this mean now for Gates? Well, he could technically return to Congress in January as no special election has been held yet to replace him.
--:-- John Bickley: But again, that would open the possibility of that ethics report being made public. So that does seem unlikely.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And remember, Florida has an open Senate seat left by Marco Rubio, who was tapped for Secretary of State. Some are already lobbying Governor DeSantis to appoint Gates for that position.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And of course, there are rumblings that he could make a move for the governor's office once DeSantis is term limited out in 2026.
--:-- John Bickley: So a lot of possibilities here to track.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, and it sounds like a lot of possibility for reshuffling in Florida specifically.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah.
--:-- John Bickley: If you're looking to cut your current cloud bill in half, head to Oracle.com/MORNINGWIRE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And if you're an entrepreneur looking to boost conversions up to 50%, check out Shopify at shopify.com/morningwire.
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--:-- John Bickley: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is on a path of escalation as the end of the year approaches.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In recent days, President Biden has lifted restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. arms, and Moscow has reformed its nuclear doctrine and fired the first ICBM of the war.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire reporter, Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- John Bickley: So catch us up on the latest in this war.
--:-- Tim Pierce: There's been some major changes in how the war is being fought on both sides recently. It started with Russia receiving 10,000 additional troops from North Korea, with a possibility of up to 90,000 more on the way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden then relaxed some restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. assistance. Administration officials have said the move was calculated to deter further involvement from North Korea.
--:-- Tim Pierce: For Ukraine, Biden approved the use of long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia. The provision of landmines and for U.S. contractors to enter the country.
--:-- John Bickley: Ukraine quickly took advantage of the new parameters with a missile strike on Russia's Kursk region that reportedly wounded a top North Korean general.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ukraine is trying to hold on to gains it made in Russia's Kursk region, while Moscow currently holds about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, mainly in Crimea and the Donbass.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And what about the fallout? How is Russia reacting to these changes?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Moscow isn't happy. After Biden loosened Ukraine's use of long-range weapons, Putin issued changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The new doctrine now says Moscow will consider any attack by a non-nuclear state that is backed by a nuclear state to be a joint operation, and one that could warrant a nuclear response.
--:-- John Bickley: In addition to that, Russia appears to have launched a number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Up to this point ICBMs hadn't been used in the war in Ukraine. That changed on Thursday.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to Ukrainian officials, Russia sent some into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
--:-- John Bickley: Military experts told the Wall Street Journal that the use of the missiles for this strike didn't make much tactical sense but were likely meant as a warning against further escalation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Putin put out his own statement on the attack.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's what he said through an interpreter. The Russian forces have carried out a combined strike on one of the military industrial facilities in Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: And this included the test of a novel, intermediate-range Russian missile system. A ballistic missile with a non-nuclear hypersonic payload was used.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Recently leaked plans from Germany show that Berlin wants 800,000 troops ready in case World War III breaks out.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Worth noting that the Germans are taking that risk seriously.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, clearly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what's been the response in Washington to all this?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, allies of President-elect Trump say that Biden is doing this to escalate the war and limit Trump's options for a negotiated peace.
--:-- John Bickley: Biden allies say that the president is rushing aid to Ukraine because of concerns that Trump could scale it back once in office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Either way, it's about Trump.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Of course, administration officials give a different account and say that Biden's changing stance is purely a response to what's happening on the ground in Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: It's worth noting that we haven't heard much from Trump himself on this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: His incoming national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said earlier this month, though, that taking restrictions off Ukraine would be one tool he'd look at to pressure Russia to negotiate.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Waltz on NPR on how to get to a peace deal. First and foremost, you would enforce the actual energy sanctions on Russia.
--:-- John Bickley: Russia is essentially a gas station with nukes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Putin is selling more oil and gas now than he did pre-war through China and Russia.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And you couple that with unleashing our energy, lifting our LNG ban, and his economy and his war machine will dry up very quickly.
--:-- John Bickley: I just spoke with the Speaker of the Parliament of Lithuania. She said, what do you want me to do? Go back to buying from Russia?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Because we've constrained our energy supplies.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So I think that will get Putin to the table. We have leverage like taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine as well.
--:-- John Bickley: And then, of course, I think we have plenty of leverage with Zelensky to get them to the table.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So responses to this have been all over the map, but it may be that we won't get a good view of how Trump views this until he takes office in January.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right, and he's the most important piece that's going to change here.
--:-- John Bickley: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Good to be on.
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--:-- John Bickley: President-elect Donald Trump promised this week that he's committed to ensuring America has a free, fair, and open media.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Megan, there's been a lot of discussion about how Trump is going to handle the media this time around, just given how contentious his relationship has been with some of these outlets.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Trump said this during an interview with Fox News, and it came up as a result of his meeting with MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the pair have long been known for being virulently anti-Trump. But on Monday, they announced that they went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him the first time they had spoken to him in seven years.
--:-- Megan Basham: This meeting, President Trump was tearful. He was upbeat. He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.
--:-- John Bickley: We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump's actions and words in the coarsening of public debate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials, January 6th were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, Brzezinski and Scarborough framed this meeting as a journalistic effort to mend fences so that they're better able to report what's happening inside the new administration.
--:-- John Bickley: But unnamed sources in MSNBC told CNN that that was not the whole story.
--:-- Megan Basham: These sources say the two hosts are concerned that they could face retribution from Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, has Trump indicated that he would go after MSNBC in some way or another?
--:-- Megan Basham: No, he hasn't. And that was what he told Fox. He described this meeting as cordial.
--:-- John Bickley: He said that he appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication and that though Scarborough and Brzezinski disagreed with some of his cabinet appointments, he hopes to have more contact with them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Of course, that said, Morning Joe could face retribution from their own fans. Viewership has reportedly dropped 12 percent since the news broke that they were trying to cozy up to Trump.
--:-- Megan Basham: But for Trump's part, he also said that he expects to have similar meetings with other legacy media outlets, including those he described as being very hostile to him in the past.
--:-- John Bickley: In fact, he said he believes he has an obligation to the American public and to our country itself to be open and available to the press, even though, he added, some of those outlets have treated him, quote, badly beyond comprehension.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that said, he added that if they continue to treat him unfairly, then their access may end.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, in that vein, do we know how Trump is going to handle things like White House briefings?
--:-- John Bickley: You know, that's a really good question because there are only 49 seats in that briefing room.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And typically, legacy outlets and wire services that tend to lean left have had priority access to those seats.
--:-- Megan Basham: But during his first term, Trump's administration provided press credentials to some conservative and religious outlets that had not traditionally been included before.
--:-- John Bickley: In fact, I worked for the evangelical Christian outlet World Magazine at that time, and I was one of those who was welcomed into some of those briefings.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that was very different from the Obama administration.
--:-- Megan Basham: So there are reports that we could see this kind of shift again to an even greater degree in Trump's second term.
--:-- John Bickley: And there are some pretty well-known Trump supporters like Fox News contributor and former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer who are openly pushing for him to do this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Fleischer says that the major outlets like CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, all of those, he says that they have historically dominated the briefings even though they have much smaller audiences now, possibly due to a loss of audience trust, so that they no longer have the influence that they once did.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Fleischer says the Trump White House should assign some of those seats to reporters from conservative media outlets, podcasters, the more respectable social media influencers, basically people who are, and I'm quoting here, more in tune with the news consuming habits of the country today because Fleischer says they're not part of an activist press corps that's out to damage Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it would be fantastic to have a more balanced press pool.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Stay tuned.
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