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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
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--:-- John Bickley: After a week of counting ballots in Los Angeles, progressive Democrat Karen Bass overtook moderate Democrat Rick Caruso to win the mayor's race. How did Bass win? And how did new changes to the election rules impact the race? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, November 18th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Senator Chuck Schumer is once again pushing citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. But some are questioning his rationale for the move. And surging violent crime across the country is now affecting college campuses. What's being done to keep students safe?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do you have a coffee lover on your holiday shopping list? Well, Black Rifle has all the best brewing gear, thermoses, mugs, and apparel designed for folks who love country and coffee. Right now, you can go to blackriflecoffee.com and use promo code WIRE for 10% off coffee merchandise, apparel, or when you sign up for a Coffee Club subscription.
--:-- John Bickley: Imagine the joy of a pre-scheduled coffee delivery, your favorite roasts at your door when you need them. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Go to BlackRifleCoffee.com with promo code WIRE for 10% off. Black Rifle Coffee supporting veterans and America's coffee.
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--:-- John Bickley: After more than a week of counting, the Los Angeles mayor's race was called Wednesday night, and Democratic Representative Karen Bass defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso. Here to give us the rundown of the election is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So, what happened here? This was a close race, especially because Caruso held a lead during the first two days of the counting. But Bass was projected to be the winner on Wednesday with Decision Desk HQ calling it for her with around 53% of the vote. Caruso had around 47%. Both Bass and Caruso are Democrats, but Caruso used to be a Republican and was widely seen as the conservative choice.
--:-- John Bickley: What do we know about Rick Caruso?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: We know he was a registered Republican for decades, and not just any kind of Republican. Caruso served as a senior advisor to President Trump. It's true. And now he's taking a page straight from the Trump playbook, running false, ugly ads against Karen Bass, blowing that right-wing dog whistle. But even despite those attack ads, Caruso actually got a lot of celebrity and even very progressive endorsements.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I mean, I'm thinking of Cenk Uygur. He's the progressive host of The Young Turks. Right, he was endorsed by Katy Perry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian, Chris Pratt, as well as Hollywood mega hitters like Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarantos and his wife Nicole Avant.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Avant actually served as the ambassador to the Bahamas under President Obama, and she became passionate about cracking down on crime after her mother was shot and killed by an intruder in her Beverly Hills home last year. But ultimately, Bass dominated by wide margins with the mail-in ballots, and she was able to pull a six-point win.
--:-- John Bickley: Upon winning Bass put out a statement saying the people of Los Angeles have sent a clear message it is time for change and it is time for urgency. She also promised to solve homelessness and to make the city affordable for working families.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For his part, Caruso said in his concession statement that his run, quote, made an indelible impact on this city and its people that will last far beyond the campaign trail or election day.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Now, there's some interesting data regarding the ballots coming in post-election day that some LA journalists are asking questions about. Tell us about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, so some flags have been raised over the fact that Caruso led on election day by 51% to 49%, but that lead disappeared when mail-in votes were counted. Each subsequent day after the election, the ballot skewed dramatically towards Bass at a consistent rate of 60-40.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: A split like that might be expected in a purple area because Republicans are known to prefer in-person voting. But this is a puzzling trend in a deep blue city where the vast majority of voters are Democrats. But some people are chalking this up to the city's attempt to be more inclusive by loosening the rules so more people can vote.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what are the vote-by-mail rules in L.A.? They're very loose. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that made it so that all registered active voters in the state have to be sent a ballot to their last known address no matter what. And voters have up until election day to postmark their ballot. However, ballots without a postmark or with a non-legible postmark are also still eligible to be counted per the CalVote regulations.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Essentially, all ballots are accepted. Proponents of so-called inclusive vote-by-mail rules say they help get votes from low-propensity voters who might not otherwise show up on Election Day. Critics, however, say it opens the door to fraud or, at the very least, ballot harvesting.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for reporting, Charlotte.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. Coming up, the Democrats' Senate leader calls for amnesty for all illegal immigrants. It is officially turkey frying season, but before you break out that turkey fryer, you've got to call Cinch. Cinch is a propane grill tank home delivery service that delivers right to your door on your schedule. Go online to cinch.com or download the app to order. Use promo code WIRE to get your first tank exchange for just $10.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's C-Y-N-C-H dot com. Or download the Cinch app. Use promo code WIRE to get your first tank exchange for just $10. Visit Cinch.com slash offer for details.
--:-- John Bickley: Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for every illegal immigrant in the United States as issues at the border continue to surge. Here to walk us through Schumer's remarks is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hi, John. So the senator's calling for full amnesty for all illegal immigrants. His rationale was low birth rates. So you specifically cited Americans having fewer babies than ever before, as well as a worker shortage. Now more than ever, we're short of workers.
--:-- John Bickley: We have a population that is not reproducing it on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we're going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the dreamers and all of them, because our ultimate goal is to help the dreamers, but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrats have been on board with amnesty for decades, but these remarks from Schumer are notable. He's calling for a pathway to citizenship, which would likely include voting rights and therefore drastically change the electorate.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Right. This is one of the more overt calls for this from a Democrat in a leadership position we've heard. How are Republicans responding to calls for amnesty like this?
--:-- John Bickley: While some Republicans certainly are on board for procuring cheap labor through immigration measures, we've seen this new wave of conservatives publicly accuse Democrats of basically trying to import new voters to change the electorate.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Blake Masters, a Republican candidate who was just edged out in a Senate bid in a border state of Arizona, he made this charge in May. They're doing this so that someday they can amnesty these people and make them voters. Who they expect to vote Democrat. This is an electoral strategy for the Democrats. Their policies are so bad and so unpopular that this is the only way they think they can shore up political power in the future.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Schumer cited 11 million or however many illegal immigrants are in the country. What is the number or estimated number now?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: That's a good question. We really don't know, but Schumer there, he's citing something that's super old. That's an outdated estimate of about 11 million. But a 2018 Yale study bumped that to 22 million. So that's double right there. And remember, under the Biden administration, many Trump-era immigration rules have been rolled back. Some have projected that another 5.5 million illegals have crossed the southern border on Biden's watch. So the number could be as high as 28 million or so. But again, no one really knows.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, we have to discuss the backdrop here. As we've highlighted in the past, there are glaring issues at our southern border. What's the latest with the border crisis?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Okay, so right now it's estimated that nearly 8,000 migrants enter the U.S. each day. That's according to data that was obtained by NBC News in September. There's also this issue of fentanyl. Mexico is the primary source of illicitly manufactured fentanyl pouring into the U.S. And of course, the humanitarian crisis we're seeing. And things might get worse.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Earlier this week, a federal judge blocked the use of Title 42 as a result of ACLU litigation. Title 42, enacted under Trump, allows the U.S. to immediately expel migrants on the basis of public health. This was over COVID-19 concerns. A former border judge this week estimated that border crossings without Title 42 will jump to 18,000 per day. That's almost double what we're seeing now.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Amnesty measures in the past, including ones Schumer has supported, have been followed by an uptick in border crossings. Well, it's already unsustainable at the border. We can't see any more of a surge.
--:-- John Bickley: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Yeah, thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: The surging crime rate across the country has begun to show up in a new corner of our society with a spate of violence and other criminal activity on the nation's college campuses. A shocking triple murder at the University of Virginia, which took the lives of three football players last week, and a quadruple homicide at the University of Idaho have focused national attention on this growing problem. Here to discuss is columnist David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. The suspect in the UVA case has been caught and charged. Police had a good amount of information about him early on, but in the Idaho case, the killer is still at large. And while police say that it doesn't represent a wider threat to the community, that's probably scant assurance to the people who live there, especially given the horrible nature of the crime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Police say it was committed with an edged blade. This comes just months after you may remember a father was killed in his hotel lobby visiting his child at Marist College in New York. So yes, there's been a trend and it's a pretty awful one.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, beyond these high-profile cases, how much do we know about crime rates and levels at our colleges? Is this something that experts have been looking into?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, absolutely. According to Paul Morrow a retired New York City Police Department inspector there a 1990 piece of federal legislation called the Clary that requires college campus crime numbers be tracked and followed. But there are some problems. For example, he cites that Columbia University reported no aggravated assaults in 2021. But the NYPD numbers for the precinct in which the school is situated show far more cases.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it's not clear that we have very accurate data. But these high-profile cases, as well as a general sense of ill-ease, have led students, parents, and faculty to a number of schools to demand more action from those schools. What kind of actions are being demanded? And do the schools actually have the capacity to provide the kind of security that's being asked for?
--:-- David Marcus: Some colleges like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore are creating their own new police forces and others have been beefing up their police or security. It's tricky because colleges don't want some huge crackdown on campuses. We tend to think of campus security as folks who tell students not to smoke grass in the quad or settle petty criminal squabbles. Trying to turn these into policing operations that can handle brutal murders is not going to happen. So there really does have to be a working and transparent relationship with local police forces who are equipped to deal with these kinds of things.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, that makes sense. Now, meanwhile, last month, Harvard reported that crime was down 10% in 2021. So is this a problem facing all colleges or are the Harvard numbers just an outlier?
--:-- David Marcus: Again, there are questions about how these numbers are reported. Did crime take place on a campus, near to it, adjacent to it? And more broadly, inside of Harvard's numbers, there's still some pretty troubling signs. Rapes went up from 16 the previous year to 22 in 2021, and motor vehicle thefts also skyrocketed. Murders obviously get the most attention, but we need to see better data on a whole host of criminal activity, not just to understand what is happening, but of course, to stop it or mitigate it as much as possible.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, some schools are helping to raise awareness among students with guides to staying safe from crime that offer tips on how to do so. What kinds of things are they advising?
--:-- David Marcus: It's pretty common sense stuff along the lines of if you see something, say something. But some schools like Penn State, for example, also offer alerts that can tell students if there's criminal activity. And generally, they're urging students to be mindful of their surroundings, or as my dad used to tell me, to keep their wits about them.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us, David.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to impeach progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Krasner has clashed with conservatives over the years over his lenient approach to crime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, take a minute to leave us a review and more importantly, share our podcast with a friend. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
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