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--:-- John Bickley: The office of Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant. For the first time in history, the House of Representatives has voted to remove its speaker from office. We break down the timeline leading up to the ouster and what it means for the chamber moving forward. I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, October 4th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Concerns over national security are growing as China continues to try to buy up American farmland. China is food insecure. So they are trying to figure out how to go take what we have so that they don't need us. That's leverage. Food security is national security. And as New York's infrastructure buckles under an influx of illegal migrants, city and state officials are walking back their pro-immigration stance. We want them to have a limit on who can come across the border. It is too open right now.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: On Tuesday, in an unprecedented moment, Congress voted to oust Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Here with more on what led up to the removal and what happens now is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we've talked on the show about some of the Republican infighting we've seen out of Congress, and it came to just a dramatic head yesterday. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed from his post after just nine months in power. The word historic gets thrown around a lot, but it could not be more accurate here. Throughout American history, a Speaker of the House has never been removed in this way.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The saga began formally on Monday evening when Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor. That then triggered a vote Tuesday afternoon, which only required a simple majority to determine McCarthy's fate. Now, originally, Democrat leaders had implied they'd be willing to save McCarthy, offering their votes in exchange for a number of concessions on future bills.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As one Democrat member put it, quote, I'm not a cheap date. but McCarthy announced Tuesday morning that he would not seek the help of his Democrat counterparts, implying he was confident he had the complete support of his caucus and was willing to go to a vote.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, but that vote ultimately did not turn out in his favor. No, it did not. So before the vote early yesterday morning, Democrats convened and announced that their entire caucus would vote against McCarthy. And because of Republicans' slim nine-member majority, that meant it would only take a handful of GOP holdouts to put the nail in the coffin for McCarthy. And ultimately, they did.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In the end, the House voted 216 to 210 to oust him, with eight Republicans joining all 208 Democrats in opposition to McCarthy. Among those eight were South Carolina's Nancy Mace, which was sort of a surprise, as well as Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Eli Crane, Matt Rosendale, Tim Burchett and Bob Good
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right so eight breakaway Republicans while all the Democrats voted in lockstep Right So give us some context What led up to the ouster of McCarthy
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well since he assumed the Speaker gavel McCarthy has faced considerable pushback from hardline conservatives in the House. They've expressed anger over a lack of action on the border, continued funding to Ukraine, and McCarthy's handling of the debt ceiling negotiations earlier in the summer. But that anger boiled over this weekend when McCarthy agreed on a deal with Democrats to temporarily avoid a government shutdown.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Gates and his allies said that agreement opened the door for more reckless spending. And really, it was their last straw. Here he is speaking on the House floor before the vote. I don't think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, it's worth noting, McCarthy allies say that Gates and the other GOP members who voted against him were lashing out because of personal grievances or were simply hoping to gain publicity. Right. They accused the holdouts of having no real plan beyond just taking out McCarthy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: To that point, there are rumblings in Washington that DOP leadership may look to expel Gates for his role in the saga. So keep an eye on that in the coming days. We could see some revenge. Yeah, it wouldn't be surprising.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So what happens now that McCarthy has been forced out? Yeah, that's the big question. So in the interim, North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry was named the temporary speaker. However, he will not have the full power of the office and is basically just there temporarily to oversee the election of a new speaker. that elections should come in the coming weeks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now the question becomes who that ultimate replacement will be. Some names floated so far have been House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, or Ohio's Jim Jordan. But really, it's anyone's guess at this point. What we do know, however, is that another battle for the Speaker's gavel is coming and gear up for quite a bit of political theater. Yeah, more theater to come.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, Congress raises the alarm about China purchasing property in the U.S. A recent Senate Agriculture Committee hearing discussed growing national security concerns associated with China's acquisition of American farmland. Here to discuss the hearing is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So Amanda, first off, how much of our farmland does the CCP own right now? Well, the Department of Agriculture estimates that Chinese entities own around 400,000 acres of U.S. farmland. Now, that equates to around $2 billion. This is a fraction of foreign-owned farmland, but it's been dramatically increasing over the past decade.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And of course, China is increasingly adversarial toward the U.S. Even more troubling, the real number could be much higher than that 400,000-acre estimate from the government. There's a pretty antiquated paper-based reporting system for foreign-owned land. If someone owns less than 10 acres, that doesn't have to be reported, nor does someone leasing land.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Here's Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin on that. Right now, we don't know the full extent of the risk at hand. Outdated reporting systems and a lack of auditing at both a state and federal level leave us with incomplete information and many questions.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, is the primary concern that this could affect our food supply down the line? That's a major concern. There's also risk associated with spying, particularly when the CCP is targeting farmland near military bases and sensitive technology. And of course, there's an economic concern. Agriculture is the backbone of many state economies.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Another thing that jumped out during the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing was commentary from Republican Senator James Lankford He emphasized risks associated with crime human trafficking and safety This is a problem that emerged in Oklahoma after a marijuana law was passed. In 2018, my state passed a medical marijuana law. And what we saw was a rush to be able to buy a farmland in our state.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: What we have found is Chinese criminal organizations are partnering with Mexican cartels to be able to facilitate the distribution of marijuana nationwide. And they're using Oklahoma as the source for that. And this has all kicked in just since the 2018 vote. Our listeners might remember when four Chinese nationals were executed on an Oklahoma pot farm just last year. Right. A disturbing story.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what's being done about this? Is anyone proposing any legislation? I think both sides of the aisle are taking this issue far more seriously than they did just a year ago. A prime example of this is in North Dakota. There was a Chinese group called the Fufeng Group that was in the works to acquire 300,000 acres of farmland, which, by the way, happened to be within 12 miles of Grand Forks Air Force Base.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: That project was canceled after national security concerns were raised. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, now a GOP presidential candidate, he initially supported that project and now he opposes it. There are also now dozens of states, including North Dakota, which restrict foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. In Florida, for example, Ron DeSantis has banned Chinese officials from buying farmland in the state, as well as property within 10 miles of military installation or critical infrastructure facilities.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, most of these laws, like the one in Florida, they've been passed by Republican legislatures. But there is an increasing number of Democrats who now agree that Chinese ownership is a national security concern. Here's Democrat Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania on that issue. I hope many of our colleagues agree that Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own zero, zero agricultural land in our country. I believe that. I mean, they're taking back our pandas. You know, we should take back all of their farmland. You know, this is really a national security issue, and it's a food security issue.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it sounds like some states are taking this on, as well as Congress. What about federally? Are we seeing the Biden administration get on this? The administration seems to be really behind on this. It was just last year that President Biden's National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, dismissed these concerns. He called it a, quote, home ownership issue.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Kirby has since expressed that the administration is willing to work with Congress on this. You know, that was in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon incident. But, you know, time will tell. Well, it sounds like there is some pressure building. Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: New York City hospitals are strained and lines of potential patients sometimes stretch out the door. Meanwhile, city and state officials have called on President Biden to close the southern border before New York's welfare programs break from the strain. The growing crisis is pushing some Democrat political leaders in the state to reverse their positions on immigrant policies. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim. First, how are New York City's hospitals managing this strain? They struggling Hospitals and clinics in the city are being overwhelmed by the number of migrants falling sick some needing extensive treatment for conditions such as cancer The immigration laws in New York and New York City especially are exceptionally favorable to migrants For instance part of the reason why the city is such an attractive destination is because it promises housing to any illegal immigrant that shows up.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Mayor Eric Adams has tried to ease some of those rules to help the city cope, but it still can't manage its legal obligations at times. For instance, at one point over the summer, dozens of men, mostly from Africa, ended up spending a night on the sidewalk because the shelters ran out of room. And as for the strain on hospitals, over the past year, medical centers in the city have received close to 30,000 visits from illegal immigrants, including about 300 births.
--:-- Tim Pierce: About a quarter of the total visits have been to one hospital, Bellevue in Manhattan. Just how many immigrants are we talking about? How many is the city actually coping with right now? So somewhere around 61,000 immigrants were living in shelters across the city last month. Those immigrants have come from all over the world, and that's in addition to almost the same number of homeless living in the city as well.
--:-- Tim Pierce: In total, nearly 120,000 immigrants have made their way to the city since spring of last year, some on buses paid for by Texas or El Paso, but mostly on their own, possibly to take advantage of New York's illegal immigrant friendly legal structure. Yeah.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, we've covered before the mayor's changing rhetoric on this, but he's made a couple of notable moves lately. Right. Tell us about this latest action from him. Well, he's doing something a bit unusual. He's traveling thousands of miles south. The mayor is going to spend four days assessing the immigration wave on the ground in Mexico, and then he's going to visit one of the busiest thoroughfares, the Darien Gap that connects North and South America.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He's making the trip to talk to immigrants directly and try to convince them not to come to his city. New York has already tried to pass leaflets along the southern border to deter immigrants, but evidently Adams feels he needs to step up his efforts. He has lately become a vocal critic of Biden's border policies and called on the administration and New York State to do more to help New York City.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's Adams' chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, on New York's PIX11. The federal government needs to do its job. We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate, and the president to do its job. Close the borders. And until you close the borders, you need to come up with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them throughout our 50 states.
--:-- Tim Pierce: We have 50 states. Now, we're also seeing some dramatic shifts in stance from the governor, also a Democrat. What is Governor Hochul saying now? Right. She has moved significantly to the right on border security since she took office in 2021. Here's what she said on Face the Nation over the weekend. We are one of the most diverse places on Earth because of our welcoming nature and it's in our DNA to welcome immigrants. But there has to be some limits in place, and Congress has to put more controls at the border and not in this budget threat, shutdown threat.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Talk about eliminating positions for border patrol when we actually need to double or quadruple those numbers. So get back to work and do your jobs. It's quite a change from a couple years ago when she was promising immigrants a safe haven and boasting about New Yorkers' big hearts and open arms. Yeah, now we're seeing pretty hawkish rhetoric coming from the Democratic side of the aisle.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks for reporting. Great to be on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
