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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 26th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's get right into it. The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After three weeks, the House has a speaker again. The status quo is unacceptable. Inaction is unacceptable. And we must come together and address the broken border. We have to do it.
--:-- John Bickley: What do we know about Congressman Mike Johnson and what hurdles will he face on day one?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. So, David, we saw a lot of twists and turns, but now we have a speaker. Tell us, who is Mike Johnson and how was he finally able to break this deadlock?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. Johnson won the vote securing all 220 GOP votes after the three-week standoff that we've seen since Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker. He's considered to be a strong conservative, a strong supporter of Donald Trump, who endorsed Johnson after helping to scuttle the chances of Tom Emmer, a candidate many in the GOP viewed as too moderate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: His goal is to unite the party and get back to work, which can now happen. But at the same time, he's staring straight into a potential government shutdown next month, which was the root of McCarthy losing the speakership in the first place.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Now, what was the reaction from Democrats to Johnson assuming the gavel? After all the talk of a potential compromise candidate gaining some Democrat support, did they wind up with a speaker that was actually further to the right than McCarthy?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrats were quick to paint Johnson as a MAGA extremist, specifically focusing on his claims that Trump won the 2020 election. But honestly, that was likely to be their reaction to just about any Republican speaker.
--:-- David Marcus: And frankly, if they had wanted to avoid this, they could have voted to keep McCarthy in place. This is going to be an issue in the 2024 congressional race.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Part of the resistance to Jim Jordan as speaker for example was that had he become speaker it could have hurt moderate Republican members in swing districts Johnson they hope does not have the same kind of baggage in part since nobody really knows and that they perceived Jordan as having
--:-- David Marcus: And do we have any sense of how Johnson might approach that shutdown deadline given that GOP hardliners are still demanding significant spending cuts in order to vote to fund the government?
--:-- Georgia Howe: We really don't. One of the sticking points is Ukraine funding, and Johnson has expressed a lot of skepticism about that. But it's hard to know if he'd be willing to shut down the government over it.
--:-- David Marcus: He certainly will attempt to deal with Democrats on a funding package, but there isn't a lot of interesting compromise coming from the Democrats who are confident that a government shutdown will be blamed on Republicans and accrue to the Democrats' political benefit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This was a big reason why McCarthy refused to shut down in the first place. Johnson has an ambitious list of appropriations that he wants to pass in the coming weeks, including bills on energy and health and human services, among others.
--:-- David Marcus: His larger goal will be to reach a consensus in the GOP caucus for a bill to fund the government and then attempt negotiations with the Senate and the White House. For now, the threat of a shutdown, that's still very much on the table.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, a very big win for Republicans just getting past that speaker hurdle. David, thanks for reporting.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, the latest from on the ground in Israel. As it continues its campaign to root out Hamas, Israel faces not only the terrorist threat from within its own borders, but growing pressure from its political enemies.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss the latest from on the ground in Israel is Aryeh Lightstone, former senior advisor to the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Aryeh, thank you so much for coming on.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I appreciate it greatly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So first of all, there's, of course, a lot of interest in the attempt to rescue hostages. There's still more than 10 American hostages and over 200 hostages total. What is the latest on the hostage situation?
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Yeah, I mean, this is the greatest X factor of all. And I'd say that there are at least three different permutations. They've released four different hostages so far. And yesterday was a catastrophe post the release of one of the hostages because the media interviewed her.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The government allowed the media to interview her. Her husband is still a hostage, and they allowed this to be a media ploy on behalf of Hamas.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: The media narrative immediately turned into, oh, Hamas didn't treat them so poorly while being kept in a tunnel underground away from your family for three weeks without knowing if you're alive or dead.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what you immediately see, which we've seen throughout the course of this war, it's more about how the media plays it than what the result of the war is.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Right. What are the totals, the estimated number of hostages still in the terrorist's hands?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, well, there are at least another 100 bodies that haven't yet been identified in Israel and be a process of elimination once they're found to be deceased, murdered in Israel, then they can go off the prospective hostage list.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: The guesstimate is anywhere between 215 and 230 with more than 10 Americans, more than 30 other nations being represented.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And here is the fear that exists in Israel, in addition to all of the other fears that are here, is that they will separate Israelis from non-Israelis and they will separate Jews from non-Jews.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: It's a deep felt fear here in Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, as to the ground operation, why hasn't Israel started the ground war yet? Can you describe some of the forces that work there?
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Yeah, there are at least three meaningful challenges here. Number one is the location the identity and the well of the hostages There is not a doubt that they will be used as the first sacrifices with a meaningful Israeli invasion
--:-- Georgia Howe: The second is this U.S. administration is doing everything humanly possible to stop Israel from doing a land invasion of Gaza.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: And you can see that both in terms of the speed and the timing of the funding for resupply for Israel, but also the pattern of Western leaders who show up in Israel day after day after day, knowing that Israel will not begin a ground offensive while that happens.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then you've got the third issue that existed for the first 10 days. It does not exist anymore, which is Israel never contemplated having a 400,000-person strong standing army. It just was not equipped for that.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Israel has been fighting battles with fighter planes and Iron Dome, not with soldiers and tanks. So it's taken a little while for the supply chain to catch up.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The supply chain is fully caught up. You have the other two issues now of the U.S. support slash handcuffs and the hostages where Israel, as opposed to Hamas, cares about the lives of each and every person, both Palestinian and certainly not Palestinian, whereas Hamas uses them as shields.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Right. Now you've been traveling all over Israel. What's the mood on the ground there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The mood is resolute. Israel understands that they have a job to do. Israel knows that they're capable of doing the job. And the Israeli people are practically begging their leaders to let them go do that job.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: There's enormous frustration with having sat out. They know the job that they need to do. They will not live with Hamas on its border any longer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And there's tremendous prayer and fear and hope that the hostages are able to come back.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Well, what we all certainly hope to see.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Aryeh, thank you so much for talking with us.
--:-- Aryeh Lightstone: Thank you for having me, Ezra.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Aryeh Lightstone, former senior advisor to the U.S. ambassador to Israel.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Attorneys for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal to the contentious and highly publicized case concerning the death of George Floyd.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo, who spoke with Chauvin's attorney.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hey, John. So Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, he was sentenced in 2021 to over 20 years after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in George Floyd's death.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After some failed attempts for an appeal at the state level, Chauvin's team is asking the Supreme Court for a new trial, and there are a few arguments the defense is making, namely that Chauvin did not get a fair trial and therefore his Sixth Amendment rights were infringed.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: I spoke to Chauvin's attorney, Bill Moorman, and he said the location of the trial, Minneapolis, where the incident occurred, effectively guaranteed an unfair trial.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Our primary argument is that due to the riots that took place in Minneapolis, every juror who was impaneled had a stake in the outcome of the trial because no juror would want to see their communities burned again in riots.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Virtually all the jurors during Bordeaux questioning expressed concerns about another riot breaking out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On a related note, a Mormon said that there were things that happened during the trial that could have prejudiced the jury too.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: He noted the city of Minneapolis announced a $27 million settlement with George Floyd estate in the middle of that trial
--:-- Georgia Howe: There was also that notorious moment when Democratic Representative Maxine Waters told BLM protesters in Minneapolis that if there is no guilty verdict they should stay on the street get more active, and quote, get more confrontational.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Right, that sparked a lot of blowback at the time.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, and the National Guard was also deployed by Governor Tim Walz just before the trial, and Moorman argued that was done to prepare for another riot in case Chauvin were to be acquitted, potentially sending another clear message to the jury that they better convict.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: And the last argument I'll mention is the argument of potential juror misconduct regarding a specific juror, Juror 52.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Mormon talking about that. Almost immediately after trial, Juror 52 was on a radio show.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: He said he was really happy with the messages sent to the Minneapolis Police Department because during his life, he had had 50 encounters with the Minneapolis Police Department, all of them negative.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, he filled out a juror questionnaire prior to trial saying, to the best of my recollection, he was at least neutral in the Minneapolis Police Department.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: And then the other thing that's even more disturbing is video evidence was found on the internet that Juror 52 participated in a get-off-our-necks BLM rally in Washington, D.C. in August of 2020.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So again, he answered questions prior to trial saying he had not been at any protests.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Chauvin's attorney told me this case should be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, especially because of what Mormon said are the nationwide implications of the trial's outcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As a result of the trials up here in Minneapolis, and particularly Mr. Chauvin's case, If a police officer gets caught up in an ambiguous situation trying to arrest a suspect who's resisting arrest and something happens where the suspect dies, police officers are concerned that they're now going to be charged with second-degree murder.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: And looking at a 20 to 40-year sentence for that, which is essentially a life sentence. So police officers are extremely concerned about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what are the odds this is actually heard by the Supreme Court and what would happen from there?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Well, the court only hears about 100 appeals out of the 7,000 or so cases it's asked to review annually.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So we'll have to see what happens there, especially given the political nature of this case. If the Supreme Court agrees to review the case and agrees Chauvin did not get a fair trial, the former officer would get a new trial.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: But remember, there was also that federal civil rights conviction, and Chauvin is serving over 20 years concurrently with his state sentence for that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So that would be a separate legal action following a potential acquittal from a new trial.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Well, certainly a consequential case even three years later. We'll see where this petition leads.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In a developing story, more than 20 people have died and dozens more are wounded after mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday night.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Law enforcement say a shooter opened fire at multiple locations, including a restaurant and a bowling alley. That prompted shelter-in-place orders and a manhunt for the suspect.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Photos of the suspect show a white male with brown hair and a beard wearing a brown sweatshirt and armed with a rifle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Authorities say he was last seen in a 2013 white Subaru Outback.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll have more updates on this story this afternoon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
