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--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- John Bickley: Two potential terror attacks on New Year's leave over a dozen dead as the FBI expands their investigations. What do we know so far about who's behind the attacks?
--:-- Georgia Howe: An ISIS flag was located on the trailer hitch of the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, January 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. A major lawsuit by a detransitioner could shake up the youth gender medicine industry. And Bible sales boomed in 2024 amid what some data suggests might be a growing refocus on faith.
--:-- John Bickley: I think that we should find that deeply encouraging. I also think that we should think of this as not all that surprising. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The FBI has expanded their search for potential suspects in the deadly terror attack in New Orleans that left at least 15 people dead and dozens more injured early New Year's morning. At the same time in Las Vegas, a cyber truck explosion outside a Trump hotel is also being investigated as a potential terror attack.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining now to discuss the alarming sequence of events on New Year's is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Hey, John. So first, the attack on the French Quarter. We reported yesterday on what we knew then, but many more details have come to light since. What is the latest on that investigation?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, Tim, the biggest development is that the FBI has confirmed that they are investigating this not only as an act of terrorism, but they're also looking into the possible presence of a terror cell.
--:-- Tim Rice: Cabot mentioned yesterday that reports suggested several people were suspected to have been involved, and now we have confirmation that authorities are working to learn all they can about who else might have helped the suspect who carried out the attack.
--:-- John Bickley: This is all connected to suspected explosive devices found in the area, which these other suspects are believed to have helped place.
--:-- Tim Rice: We don't have many details, but local law enforcement says that surveillance footage appears to show three men and one woman placing devices prior to the vehicle attack by the known suspect.
--:-- John Bickley: The special agent in charge of the local FBI investigation, Althea Duncan, said this yesterday. We're aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That's why we need the public's help. We are asking if anybody has any interactions with Samsud Demjavar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.
--:-- Tim Rice: Now, Duncan named the known suspect there who was killed by police before he could take more lives. What else have we learned about him?
--:-- John Bickley: The suspect who drove that rented truck into the crowd and opened fire is a 42-year-old army veteran named Shamsuddin Jabbar.
--:-- Tim Rice: We usually avoid naming these individuals, but authorities are actively working to learn more about his connections, so it helps their investigation to publicize it in this case.
--:-- John Bickley: Jabbar was on active duty from 2007 until 2015 as a human resources and IT specialist. He reportedly transferred to the Army Reserve and left as a staff sergeant in the summer of 2020.
--:-- Tim Rice: He was found with an ISIS flag in the vehicle and dressed in full military gear. As we reported yesterday, officers also found an ice chest in the truck with a number of explosive devices that had not yet gone off.
--:-- John Bickley: Officials say it's clear that he was hell-bent on killing as many innocent people as possible.
--:-- Tim Rice: The death toll from the attack is now at least 15, with more than two dozen others injured, including two police officers.
--:-- John Bickley: There are a lot of claims about Jabbar circulating online, but much about his life and motives is still being investigated. So we'll have more on that as it gets more defined.
--:-- Tim Rice: Right. Now, this wasn't the only suspected terror attack on New Year's Day. What happened in Las Vegas?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, around 840 in the morning. So just a few hours after the New Orleans attack, witnesses reported a series of loud bangs and smoke coming from a cyber truck parked outside the entrance to the Trump Hotel there.
--:-- Tim Rice: Surveillance footage shows the car bursting into flames just a few steps from the glass door entrance to the hotel. One unidentified person was found dead in the vehicle, and seven others were injured in the blast.
--:-- John Bickley: At first, it wasn't clear if the blast was intentional, but police confirmed the car was seen an hour before driving by the Trump Hotel before circling back and parking at the entrance, at which point it exploded within seconds.
--:-- Tim Rice: Inside the car were a variety of explosives, including firework-style mortars, gas tanks, and camping fuel, along with what authorities describe as a detonation device.
--:-- John Bickley: ABC reports that both the truck in New Orleans and the Cybertruck may have been rented on the app Toro, although there's some conflicting reports on that.
--:-- Tim Rice: Elon Musk has responded online, saying he suspects this is a terror attack. He wrote, they have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.
--:-- John Bickley: All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. So lots of questions still to be answered there, including if there's a connection between these incidents.
--:-- Tim Rice: Indeed. Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Of course.
--:-- John Bickley: A doctor celebrated as America's best-known practitioner of youth gender medicine is being sued for medical negligence by one of her former patients.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss is Daily Wire senior reporter Mary Margaret Olihan.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Hey, John. So a major lawsuit here. First, why is this detransitioner suing?
--:-- John Bickley: Hey, Mary Margaret. So Clementine Breen is accusing Dr. Johanna Olson Kennedy of medical negligence for fast-tracking her attempted gender transition.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Clementine says she underwent puberty blockers at the age of 12, cross-sex hormones at the age of 13, and tragically underwent a double mastectomy when she was only 14 years old, forever removing her breasts.
--:-- John Bickley: Her lawyers argue that Olson Kennedy and the other medical professionals involved in her transition, they failed to adequately assess and treat her mental health symptoms and her trauma before they launched her down this path of, and I'm quoting, irreversible and life-altering medications and surgery.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: The lawsuit describes how Clementine's parents were told that she would commit suicide if they didn't allow her to get these treatments, which, as we've documented here, are dubbed gender-affirming care by far-left groups like the Human Rights Campaign.
--:-- John Bickley: So an alarming claim. Is this normal? Is this something we've heard a lot in this industry?
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Actually, yes. It's very common for doctors and therapists involved in transgenderism to tell parents this. Many detransitioners that I've spoken with have told me that their parents were asked, would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son? And that's an incredibly manipulative and terrifying question, but unfortunately many parents fall for it.
--:-- John Bickley: In Clementine's case, she ultimately realized that she could not ever fully transition to become a boy and that she regretted her gender transition.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: And this case is particularly significant given that Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy leads the Center for Trans Youth at Los Angeles Children's Hospital and is widely considered the most notable youth gender medicine clinician in the world.
--:-- John Bickley: She revealed to the New York Times that she purposefully stopped the publication of a million taxpayer study That study was on puberty blockers and their effects on American children And her reason was that the study found no evidence that puberty blockers were improving kids' mental health.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: She told the Times, I do not want our work to be weaponized. Now, advocates against transitioning children point out that Olson Kennedy appears to be trying to force science and facts to back up gender ideology rather than just show us the truth of what she found.
--:-- John Bickley: They say that this is happening far too often when it comes to child gender transitions.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Right. We've seen a pattern here. We've seen some recent action on Capitol Hill on this. How are lawmakers responding to these new revelations?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, as we reported, Congress is taking steps to block harmful trans procedures for children of military members by putting language into the NDAA that bans the use of taxpayer funds for gender transition surgeries for kids who get medical care through TRICARE.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: That's the military's health care program. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told us that this is a quote critical and necessary step in the fight against radical gender ideology.
--:-- John Bickley: He said and I'm quoting again taxpayer dollars should never be used to support procedures and treatments that could permanently harm and sterilize young people.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: That came the day after he met with the transition or Chloe Cole and our colleague Matt Walsh as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the United States versus Scirmeddy the case dealing with Tennessee's law protecting kids from trans procedures.
--:-- John Bickley: Meanwhile, lawmakers like Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama are calling on the National Institutes of Health to explain why Olson Kennedy tried to hide her findings on puberty blockers.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Here's what he had to say. At the end of the day, they don't improve mental health of children, and they're trying to prove that it did.
--:-- John Bickley: So it's just another insane idea that the left has had. You know, spending money, taxpayer money, on something that doesn't need to be spent.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: And then there's Donald Trump. He's signaled willingness to crack down on these procedures as well, correct?
--:-- John Bickley: Yes, Donald Trump has indicated interest in protecting kids from these trans procedures, especially without parental permission, which is happening.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Many of the top MAGA figures around Trump have been emphatic about this as well.
--:-- John Bickley: Tuberville told me that he's not sure a bill banning trans procedures for minors would make it through the Senate right now, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: And we'll report on what happens for sure.
--:-- John Bickley: Mary Margaret, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: New publishing reports show that Bible sales are booming, even as overall book sales are sluggish. According to pollsters, Gen Z in particular is spending more time reading scripture.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to explore what's behind the skyrocketing Bible sales is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, the Bible is pretty much always the top-selling book every year. Is this a particularly banner year?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, you know, Georgia, it really is. And for a couple of reasons. So one, we have to look at the overall picture in publishing for the last couple of years. And it has not been great. In 2023, for example, sales were down nearly 3%. And they're really not much better this year.
--:-- Megan Basham: But the Bible has been bucking that trend. As the Wall Street Journal reported in something of a viral story recently, sales for the good book are up 22% for the year so far.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that was just through October before a lot of those Christmas sales are included. And some Bible publishers saw even stronger revenues than that. Lifeway and B&H Publishing are reporting an approximate sales increase of 30%.
--:-- Megan Basham: And this is coming on the heels of an already pronounced upswing over the last few years. From 2019 to 2023, Bible sales went from 9.7 million to 14.2 million.
--:-- John Bickley: So Andrew Walker is an associate dean in the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center And he says there does seem to be something of a pendulum swing happening here When we have a society like ours today, where we have phrases like deaths of despair, expressive individualism, the loneliness epidemic, I think we should see the increase in Bible sales as an indictment on the failures of secularism.
--:-- Megan Basham: That secularism tries to tell us that we can conceive of ourselves apart from God, apart from things pertaining to eternal life and ultimate matters. But what secularism really is, it's very shallow. It's very brittle. And it doesn't offer us the type of lasting significance, the lasting purpose, the lasting meaning that all of us are really searching after.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He added that he sees signs that after years of individual spiritualism, you know, where everyone kind of defines faith for themselves, young people in particular are beginning to reconsider the value of those handed down traditions and texts, especially the Bible.
--:-- Megan Basham: In fact, one researcher found that 21% of Gen Z increased their Bible reading last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, and to that point, I recently saw in the New York Post, I believe that young men are showing a renewed interest in attending Orthodox churches specifically. Have you seen that trend?
--:-- Megan Basham: I have. And that goes along with other reports from the New York Times showing that for the first time ever, young men are actually more religious than young women.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, a part of that is because young women are following that trend we've seen for decades and becoming more secular, but church attendance among young men is actually increasing.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it immediately brought to mind for me what we've seen with the public evolution of Russell Brand, who announced that he became a Christian earlier this year. He recently said this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I wish I had known earlier. I wish I hadn't thought that I was too clever for the religion of my grandmothers. I thought that I was too smart. I thought somehow that I knew what was in the Bible even without reading it.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I think you can say that these Bible sales may be part of a broader trend that has seen popular podcasters among that young male demographic talking about Christianity. Think Theo Vaughn or Kid Rock recently discussing his faith on Joe Rogan, or even Elon Musk telling Jordan Peterson that he considers himself a cultural Christian, meaning he believes that Christian principles are good for society, even if he's not personally religious.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Walker tells me he thinks that this interest in cultural Christianity is a good thing, but he does hope that it will lead to deeper commitments.
--:-- Megan Basham: I'm of the persuasion that, you know, Christianity is the one true system of belief that's dedicated to not only relationship with God, but also becoming more human. And that's going to produce better cultures.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What I want to kind of press them further on is to not just leave this at the level of cultural Christianity, but to understand this from the perspective of conversionary Christianity.
--:-- Megan Basham: And worth noting, this trend is so strong right now. Publishers Weekly reports that religious book sales overall are up 18.5%, making it the fastest growing segment of the publishing business.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that's led one of the biggest publishing houses, Penguin Random House, to launch a new standalone entity devoted entirely to Christian books.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, I must be very on trend because I bought several Bibles for gifts on Cyber Monday. Always a trendsetter.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us we'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
