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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Wire. It's Friday, December 29th.
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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with John Bickley. Today, we're covering the latest developments in politics, culture, and more.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Maine's Secretary of State Shinnah Bellows has unilaterally decided that Donald Trump is not eligible to appear on the state's presidential primary ballot.
--:-- John Bickley: Bellows, a Democrat, said that the January 6th riot was violent enough, potent enough, and long enough to constitute an insurrection.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins says Bellows' decision should be overturned and that voters should have the right to vote for Trump.
--:-- John Bickley: In Colorado, the state court also ruled that Trump is not eligible for the ballot. Both decisions are being challenged.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Loyola law professor Jessica Levinson believes that the Supreme Court will and must weigh in on these state challenges.
--:-- Jessica Levinson: We need from the U.S. Supreme Court guidance about what the federal constitution says. They're the last word on the federal constitution. They're the only ones that can provide the ultimate word on that. And so all of this I think at least before the general is screaming out for the Supreme Court to say here who is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and here who is not.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A similar effort to remove Trump from the ballot in California has failed. The Secretary of State there did place the former president on California ballot.
--:-- John Bickley: A federal judge who was appointed by former President Barack Obama upheld Republicans' redrawn congressional maps in Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Back in October, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered new congressional maps to be drawn following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on a case concerning Black voters and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
--:-- John Bickley: On Thursday, the judge found the new maps to be in compliance. In his order, Judge Jones said that his court finds that Georgia's General Assembly fully complied with the court's order requiring the creation of Black majority districts in the regions of the state where vote dilution was found.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The decision makes it likely that the GOP will maintain their 9-5 advantage in the state's 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
--:-- John Bickley: The Biden administration is threatening to sue Texas over its new state law that makes it a crime to illegally enter the state.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The new Texas law empowers state officials to take more active measures to secure the border. The Biden Justice Department, though, sent a letter Thursday to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and says the state is interfering with the federal government by attempting to enforce immigration law at the state level.
--:-- John Bickley: Texas Republicans, however, say that The Biden administration has forced their hand by failing to take appropriate action to stem the record influx of migrants across the border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine vetoed a bill today that would have restricted both transgender medical treatments for minors and participation of biological males in girls' sports.
--:-- John Bickley: DeWine joins Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson as the only two Republicans to veto such legislation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In a press conference earlier today, DeWine said that the decision as to whether a minor should have access to these types of treatments should not be made by the government, but by parents and doctors.
--:-- Mike DeWine: Were I to sign House Bill 68 or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most, the parents.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ohio's legislature, which is currently under a Republican supermajority, can override the governor's veto with a three-fifths majority vote.
--:-- John Bickley: An Israeli airstrike has reportedly killed 11 high-ranking leaders in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Israel bombed the Damascus International Airport on Thursday night, killing 11 of the Iranian military leaders. That's according to Saudi Arabian media outlets.
--:-- John Bickley: The Jerusalem Post reports that among the dead is Noor Rashid, that's eastern Syria's commander of the Revolutionary Guard.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The strike comes as Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, is reportedly speeding up its transfer of precision weapons to Hezbollah.
--:-- John Bickley: Israel is rumored to be preparing for a defensive war against Hezbollah in the north. The militant group has already launched dozens of rockets and missiles at northern Israel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The new Willy Wonka film starring Timothee Chalamet, released on December 15th, has stacked up more than $100 million in domestic box office ticket sales.
--:-- John Bickley: That beats DC's Aquaman sequel and the musical remake of The Color Purple. Wonka focuses on the backstory of the famed fictional chocolatier and is based on the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The 1971 Wonka film starred Gene Wilder, while the 2005 Tim Burton remake starred Johnny Depp. The new film earned $39 million in its opening weekend and is continuing to bring in solid numbers at the theaters.
--:-- John Bickley: And Seattle has closed the Black Lives Matter Garden, the last vestige of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, as it was called.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The zone was established in 2020 as a result of the George Floyd riots. City officials called the garden makeshift and stated it needed to be closed for maintenance as well as public health and safety concerns related to homelessness and drug use.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And tune in tomorrow morning for a special episode of Morning Wire.
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--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
