--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley, Daily Wire editor-in-chief, and we're here to bring you the facts first on the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thousands of Kaiser healthcare workers walked off the job yesterday, kicking off the largest healthcare strike the U.S. has ever seen. What do we want? Mayor Contreras! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Mayor Contreras! When do we want it? Now!
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. What are the strikers demanding and where do negotiations currently stand?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Amanda, first, tell us about the scope of this strike. Where is it happening and who is it going to affect?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health providers, is based in California. And that's where most of these union employees are on strike, an estimated 68,000 of that total, 75,000 workers. Healthcare workers are also on strike in Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a lot of states. What about nurses? Doctors and most registered nurses are not part of this strike.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: That's right, Georgia. Kaiser is bringing on thousands of temporary non-union workers to try to fill in those gaps. But protesting workers do make up 40% of Kaiser's total staff, spanning from a coalition of eight different unions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what are their demands exactly? What are the workers asking for?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, they want higher pay. Unions are trying to secure a nearly 25% pay raise for its members, in addition to medical coverage for retirees and other perks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a big ask. What about the staff shortages and employee burnout? The healthcare system was already stretched prior to the pandemic and it now under even more strain.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: That's right, Georgia. Workers say their patients have had to deal with significantly delayed care or have even been turned away.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, that's a pretty harsh claim. What's Kaiser saying?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Kaiser is saying they already pay their employees higher wages than most other healthcare entities in the nation, citing their comparatively low attrition rate of 7%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a pretty strong argument. Where do the negotiations stand right now?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Negotiations are still ongoing, but Kaiser has already offered raises as high as 16% over four years. And they say they will hire 10,000 more people in union roles by the end of 2023 to fill vacancies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for reporting, Amanda.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- [Short music break]
--:-- Georgia Howe: As the dust settles following the unprecedented ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the battle to replace him is heating up.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, the speaker's gavel is up for grabs now. First, tell us what we've heard from now former Speaker McCarthy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, there was chaos leading up to that historic vote to remove McCarthy. And now we've got more chaos. It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this whole saga.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. While some had questioned if McCarthy would simply run again, he announced Tuesday evening that he'd make no such effort.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The now former speaker did, however, have quite a bit to say about the eight Republicans who voted to oust him.
--:-- John Bickley: And what about the Democrats? Did McCarthy go after them too?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, his outrage was hardly reserved for those eight GOP members. He also went after Democrats, particularly former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
--:-- John Bickley: This part was interesting. So according to McCarthy, Pelosi promised him when he took power in January that she'd offer support if a small number of hardline conservatives tried to remove him.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It would only take a dozen or so Democrats to prevent his removal. But ultimately, that support never came as every Democrat voted against him.
--:-- John Bickley: McCarthy said it was proof the Democrats cared more about political games than protecting the functionality of Congress.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Immediately after the vote, though, McCarthy allies did get a little revenge. Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry ordered Pelosi to vacate her special hideaway office that's tucked inside the Capitol building that she'd been using for years.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. So, what comes next?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, in the short term, North Carolina Rep Patrick McHenry is serving as the temporary speaker.
--:-- John Bickley: And when will the House begin debate on a new speaker?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: McHenry said the chamber will begin debate next Tuesday, and then the first votes will be held Wednesday.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for reporting, Cabot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks, John.
--:-- [Short music break]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, if you read the New York law journals, they basically say they have no case against Trump. But I'm here, stuck here, and I can't complain.
--:-- John Bickley: I'd rather be right now in Iowa. I'd rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina. This is election interference. They made up a fake case, and the judge already knows what he's going to do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He's a Democrat judge. With the civil fraud trial against Donald Trump in New York's Supreme Court completing its third day, even some of Trump's longtime critics are arguing that the punishment he's facing is unfairly harsh.
--:-- John Bickley: The judge, Arthur Ingram, already decided that Trump was guilty last week and is now determining if he'll face a whopping $250 million fine and, more importantly, be barred from doing business in New York.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey, Dave.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, the Washington Post, of all places, has a column up arguing that the treatment of Trump is just too draconian. Is that a surprise?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. Yes, the column by moderate writer Ruth Marcus was a bit of a surprise, as it really does call out the extraordinary and unprecedented nature of this punishment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what argument is being made?
--:-- David Marcus: As you've reported here, Trump's assets could wind up in receivership or even sold out from under him once he exhausts his appeals.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amusingly, Marcus, it's no relation to me, goes to great lengths in several instances in this column to make clear that she detests Donald Trump, but goes on to say that legal experts say the decision was overly punitive.
--:-- David Marcus: And even went so far as to suggest that Trump is being singled out here not on the basis of the law but on the basis of politics, which is a very serious charge for her to be throwing at the judge, especially in the austere and left pages of the Washington Post.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, indeed it is. And she isn't alone. Legal experts like Andy McCarthy have weighed in on this as well.
--:-- David Marcus: What are we hearing from McCarthy and other legal minds on the judge's actions thus far?
--:-- Georgia Howe: McCarthy penned an op-ed in The Messenger, a centrist outlet, in which he shared Marcus's concerns and went a bit further, pointing out that the judge is where he is because he is a loyal Democrat and naturally hates Trump.
--:-- David Marcus: And that in fining Trump's attorneys $7,500 each for supposedly doing their job in an unprofessional manner, McCarthy wrote that, quote, in tone and substance, this is real venom, end quote.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And again, this isn't coming from a virulent Trump supporter who weekends at Mar-a-Lago. McCarthy is quite clear that he thinks Trump may well be guilty, but he's concerned, as we all should be, that the punishment here is not so much justice as it is revenge.
--:-- David Marcus: Here's how he put it in an interview with Fox. It's a tenet of Western law that the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. And if you wanted to tell me that Trump should get fined a couple of million dollars for a pattern of exaggerating his assets, I don't really think I'd have a big problem with that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you want to tell me they should ruin a two to three billion dollar real estate empire that's done business for decades in New York and was regarded as an iconic business before Trump became a political enemy of Democrats, and now they're trying to ruin this guy over this, I think that's way, way out of whack.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, Trump has not been quiet in this process at all. He offered up even more fiery remarks on Wednesday. He called the whole case a witch hunt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do these extremely harsh penalties boost his claim?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, they do. Democrats claim that all of these trials are just the legal system working in a normal way, that nobody is above the law. Trump claims that he's being maliciously targeted for political reasons and that it's tantamount to election interference.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Being able to point to these moderate voices saying, whoa, guys, this is going a little too far, certainly gives more credence to Trump's side of the story, especially to a GOP electorate who are already pretty well convinced that our legal system is operating under two tiers of justice.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Is all the controversy around this case something that could further erode trust in our legal institutions, which has already plummeted in recent years?
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's hard to see how it wouldn't. Gallup found that trust in the legal system among Americans dropped from a stunningly low 20% in 2021 to an astonishing 14% in 2022.
--:-- David Marcus: I don't know if I even want to see this year's number, assuming it's not zero at this point. If 85% of Americans don't think justice is meted out blindly and equally, then politics is irrelevant.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It doesn't matter what laws we make or have if judges and prosecutors are intent on abusing them. And from the perspective of some pretty centrist and moderate observers, this treatment of Trump in the fraud case could well make this problem worse.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Meanwhile, day four of the trial gets underway today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for joining us, Dave.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
