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--:-- Georgia Howe: Has the U.S. military grown weaker in recent years? An index that tracks military strength has downgraded the U.S. this year and says we're not keeping up with hostile powers. This would be a D on an A through F grading scale. What is the readiness index, and why are experts warning that we are increasingly vulnerable?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, October 19th, and this is Morning Wire. An exclusive Daily Wire Trafalgar poll shows Republicans building momentum in the Southwest. We break down the details. And a trial is underway in Arkansas that could have nationwide ramifications for minors' ability to access gender transition treatment. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: The U.S. military's preparedness has been downgraded to weak. That's according to a newly updated index on military strength. Joining us to discuss is former Marine Lieutenant Colonel Dakota Wood, a Heritage Senior Fellow and editor of the Index of Military Strength. Dakota, thanks so much for joining us, and thanks for your service.
--:-- Dakota Wood: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, first off, what is the Index of Military Strength? Think of it as a report card on how your military did in the preceding year. So, you know, you get to the end of a school year, you get your grades. You know, it's kind of a retrospective of how that year unfolded, but it does show indicators, strong or weak and history or math, what have you. So the index basically scores the military services and says, how did they do this year? Are they training enough? Do they have modern equipment or broken down stuff? Do they have enough in terms of capacity? And so we compile all that throughout the year, publish this index, and it's a report to the American people.
--:-- Dakota Wood: Now, you recently put out the 2023 results of this index. What did you find? The military is weak. So on a scale of very weak, weak, kind of a moderate level, we'll call it marginal, strong, and very strong, those five grades. And it's not an indictment of the quality of the people. We have fantastic people working in the military services. They work long hours to do great stuff, but they're using really old equipment. The military continues to shrink, and we just don't have the readiness. You know, pilots aren't flying. In the Cold War with the Soviet Union was around, an Air Force pilot would fly in excess of 300 hours a year. Today the average pilot in the Air Force is flying fewer than 120. They getting maybe one flight of about an hour and a half or so each week. You just can't maintain your skills.
--:-- Dakota Wood: Now, in dollars has there been a drastic reduction in funding or is it just an expanded need? It's both of those things, and they're not in contradiction with each other. So in this past budget year, you saw an increase of about 4% in defense spending, but if inflation is running at 8% or 9%, you're still losing ground, right? So again, it's just been a paucity of funding that hasn't been spent well, but you still have the end result of service that is too old, too small, and less ready. And meanwhile, we see things like Russia invading Ukraine and the posturing of China with respect to Taiwan, and you just can't ignore that.
--:-- Dakota Wood: Now, what about military culture? We've seen some stories this year about the proliferation of things like DEI training in the military, which some people have blamed for deteriorating culture and cohesiveness. Do your metrics capture changes like that? If my competitor, my enemy, is looking at our military, they have to believe that we not only have the ability to go to war, but we're so good at combat operations that we would actually win, that deters my competitor from doing that. If there is a belief that the United States military is distracted, well, then where is the deterrence value, right? So it's inherently damaging to the country's military posture.
--:-- Dakota Wood: Now, how do we measure up to other world powers, for example, China? It's very concerning. If we have the 292 ships, about 60 of those on average are in the western Pacific region, you know, that area near China. China's Navy is 360 ships. So China, talking about Sirius again, seriously been investing in their military. They're producing state-of-the-art equipment. They're watching what the United States has done over the last 20 years, they're taking lessons from Russia's war against Ukraine, and they're really proving themselves to have some meaningful capability. And it causes us to be concerned about whether or not our military would be able to aggregate, you know, to descend on that particular region if need be, and actually perform as expected, given all these factors that we've been discussing.
--:-- Dakota Wood: So what's the solution here? What should Congress or the administration do to address this? So part of this really is money, money to train, to fly, to shoot, to replace broken pieces of gear. And so that's part of it. On the military side, they really have to make a compelling argument. You know, how much do we need of what type of stuff to go up against a range of competitors? It costs 16 times, accounting for inflation, 16 times as much to outfit a U.S. soldier today because of body armor and optics and goggles and weapons and first aid kits and all the things than it did to outfit that same soldier during the Vietnam War. So the spending has just not kept pace with that.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, thank you so much for coming on to discuss this today. A real pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: 19 days remaining before Election Day. Exclusive new polling from The Daily Wire and Trafalgar shows clear Republican momentum in a key battleground state. Here are the latest numbers from the all-important state of Arizona. I'm joined now by Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot, we'll start with the Senate race. This one's really tightened over the last month. Where do things stand now?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We are looking at a dead heat. Our new poll found Republican Blake Masters trailing Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly 47.4 to 46.4. That is within the margin of error, making this race a statistical tie.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, we'd seen other polls throughout late September and early October that showed Masters really closing in, but this is the first poll that's been released in the last week, and obviously it shows things closer than ever. How has Masters been able to close the gap on Kelly?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, we've talked plenty about how Republican candidates are benefiting at the polls from the poor state of the economy, including that latest inflation report. But Masters is also finding a lot of success on immigration, pointing out that Kelly has routinely voted lockstep with Biden's agenda and saying it's made the border crisis worse. And you can tell it's really hurting Democrats by the way that the Democrat Kelly has shifted his stance on immigration. He now opposes Biden's decision to end Title 42 and has started calling for a billion dollars in funding for increased security at the border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I want to shift gears to the other part of this poll, which looked at the governor's race between Republican Carrie Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs. What did we find there?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Our poll has Carrie Lake in the lead 49 to 46. That is about in line with what we've seen from the last two polls out of Arizona, which both also have Lake up by three.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So after a few rocky weeks on the campaign trail for the Democrat Hobbs, we talked about the backlash over her refusal to appear in a debate. It definitely seems like she's falling behind. Now, typically, governor's races don't get as much national attention, but this one is getting a lot of attention from people outside the state who are really hoping that Lake's clear popularity in the state will help other Republican candidates on the ballot, especially Masters, who originally was viewed as more of a long shot against the incumbent Kelly, but is really gaining ground now.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Okay, so Lake ahead by about three. What else really jumped out from this poll?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So one thing that caught my attention is the performance of Masters and Lake among minority voters. We've talked plenty on the show about the Republican gains with Latino voters. And again, we saw that in this poll. 44% supported Masters and 45% of Latinos supported Lake. And also among Black voters, Lake was at 39% and Masters at 36%. That's well above where Republicans have been in past elections. So if those numbers hold on election day, or really even if Republicans get close to those numbers on election day, it's going to be very difficult for Democrats to win in the state. And more importantly, it could serve as even more confirmation that Republicans are starting to peel off a sizable chunk of a once reliable Democrat voting bloc.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for joining us. Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. For those wanting more on the midterms, tune in to this Sunday's Election Wire show. We'll talk with Trafalgar polling founder Robert Kahaley and get you all the latest from other battleground races. The video version of the show is available on YouTube and the audio is available on the Morning Wire feed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A landmark trial that began in Arkansas this week will consider whether states can ban medical gender transitions for children. The case stems from Arkansas law banning gender surgery and hormone treatments for minors. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraida Lordi is here with the details for us. So Maraida, tell us about this trial.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Hi Georgia. So this trial began Monday at the Federal Appeals Court in Little Rock, Arkansas. Judge Jay Moody, who temporarily blocked the ban last year, is presiding over the trial, which is expected to last for at least a week. The state is arguing to keep the ban and claims that doctors prescribe hormone treatments to children without an adequate assessment of the child and without making sure families are aware of the risks. The families of four transgender kids along with two doctors are trying to kill the law, saying their children won't be able to get the medical care they need if it remains.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Now, what does this gender treatment ban actually do? What are the details of the law?
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Sure. So Arkansas's law is called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act. It bans gender surgery, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormone treatments for minors, so anyone under 18. It also bans doctors from referring kids to another doctor to get their surgery or prescriptions. Doctors who violate the law could lose their medical licenses or be sued. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge says the ban is about protecting children and points out that adults can still get gender treatments like cross-sex hormones and gender surgery under the law.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Here's Arkansas State Representative Robin Lundstrom, who says children shouldn't be making life-altering decisions. Much like in Arkansas, you can't have alcohol or smoke cigarettes or have a tattoo, rent property, drive a car, because under 18, you don't have the ability of making a lot of really solid decisions.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Now, will this ruling affect laws in other states? So yes, the outcome of this case could affect laws in Texas and Alabama, which have also been blocked. In Alabama, a similar law banning puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children was blocked. The Alabama law actually made it a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison for a doctor to prescribe these hormone treatments to kids. In Texas, a judge blocked the state from initiating child abuse investigations into parents who are allowing their children to get medical gender treatments. More than a dozen states are considering similar laws.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: This trial also comes at a time when parents are really taking notice of the risks that come with a child medically transitioning. And we're also seeing more young people speaking out about regretting their medical gender transition. So what are these specific medical risks that doctors are worried about? Well, both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks, including infertility and weight gain. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density, and cross-sex hormones can cause blood clots, diabetes, strokes, heart problems, high blood pressure, and male pattern baldness, as well as increase the risk of breast cancer. If hormones are started before the completion of puberty, the child's genital development is stunted, which prevents them from experiencing sexual function even as an adult. And obviously, gender surgery is irreversible, so Arkansas's ban wants to prevent minors from making that irreversible decision.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some very serious considerations then. Maraida, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Maraida Lordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraida Lordi.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Another story we're tracking this week. Igor Danchenko, Russian national and chief source for the infamous Steele dossier, was acquitted on all charges of lying to the FBI on Tuesday. Danchenko was a central figure in the Durham probe of the FBI investigation of the 2016 election.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Record numbers of Georgia voters have turned out on the first day of early voting for midterm elections. 131,000 people have already cast their ballots in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the cycle.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more ballots to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
