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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, a New York judge ruled the city's vaccine mandate for public employees unconstitutional. But the city says the mandate is still in place, and the legal battle is just beginning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. We'll break down what this means for public sector workers and the city's appeal. Plus, the Michigan governor's race has gone from safe to toss-up. Could newcomer Tudor Dixon oust Gretchen Whitmer?
--:-- John Bickley: We'll explore Dixon's campaign and what she's running on. And in a stunning new poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans who fear democracy is under threat say the mainstream media is to blame.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll talk to columnist David Marcus about what's driving this trend and what it means for the media.
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--:-- John Bickley: A New York Supreme Court judge overturned the city's vaccine mandate for public sector workers on Tuesday. Here to discuss the court's ruling is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Tim, let's start off with this decision's impact. Are these workers getting their jobs back?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, the petitioners will be, for now at least. The lawsuit was brought by over a dozen sanitation workers. The judge's order entitles those workers to be reinstated and given back pay.
--:-- John Bickley: The legal battle isn't over, though. Unlike in other states, the New York Supreme Court is not the highest court in the state. According to the city, it's already filed an appeal with the appellate division.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The city also says the vaccine mandate for public sector workers is still in place despite the ruling.
--:-- John Bickley: Judge Ralph J. Porzio wrote a harsh critique of the vaccine mandate. He said that, legally speaking, it qualified as arbitrary and capricious. And he accused the city of singling out public sector workers.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Porzio also said the city's commissioner of health exceeded his authority and violated the state constitution's separation of powers.
--:-- John Bickley: When did this mandate take effect?
--:-- Tim Pierce: The mandate for public sector workers was instated in October 2021 by the city's health department. A couple months later, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio followed the order up with a mandate covering private sector workers as well.
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--:-- John Bickley: Job creators want to expand in the state of Michigan. They're hearing Gretchen Whitmer say she has helped them. She hasn't helped them. And a new poll shows Americans fear democracy is being threatened. But there's a surprising amount of bipartisan agreement on who is to blame.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll look at some of the main drivers behind this trend. Plus, the first and only debate between Pennsylvania Senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz took place on Tuesday night. The debate sparked renewed concerns about Fetterman's health since suffering a stroke.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for tuning in. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: A double-digit advantage for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has evaporated in a matter of weeks, as Republican nominee Tudor Dixon has enjoyed a meteoric rise.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The latest poll from Michigan News Source and Trafalgar has her tied at 48 percent with Governor Whitmer.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here with the details for us.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Sure. So Tudor Dixon is a mother of four, and prior to launching her bid for governor, she anchored a weekly political commentary show on Real America's Voice, which is a right-leaning news network.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Since launching her bid, she has had a pretty swift rise to the top of Michigan's GOP, as you noted. She got a big boost when five candidates, including two frontrunners, did not qualify for the primary ballot.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: According to Real Clear Politics, polling averages, incumbent Governor Gretchen Whitmer initially had a crushing 18-point lead, but Dixon has been steadily gaining since the summer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And now, although Whitmer is still slightly ahead in some polls, RealClearPolitics is projecting the race will be a GOP pickup.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Trump endorsed Dixon in July, and that endorsement was extremely important for her MAGA-style campaign.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Trump's endorsement came after former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family is very powerful in Michigan GOP politics, wrote a letter to the former president, urging him to endorse Dixon and telling him that Dixon is, quote, the only one who can stand toe to toe with Whitmer.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: DeVos' family supported Dixon financially, giving at least $4 million, which was another factor that helped catapult her to the front of a crowded primary.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Okay, so Dixon has essentially run as an unapologetic MAGA Republican, but Michigan is traditionally a blue to purple state. So is that going to be a liability with Michigan voters?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Maybe. Dixon has previously said she believes Trump won the state of Michigan in 2020, even though the official count shows he lost.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In recent months, though, she's tried to distance herself from that stance, pivoting more to criticizing irregularities and the way Michigan handled voting.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: She also weathered some controversy during her career as a political commentator. On one occasion, Dixon described hijabs as oppressive garments.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In 2020 she defended YouTuber Jenna Marbles after a 2011 video of Marbles surfaced in which Marbles was dressed up in blackface impersonating singer Nicki Minaj.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Dixon stated that the Marbles impersonation video was clearly intended as comedy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some outlets have also brought up the fact that Dixon endorsed a very conservative stance on abortion, saying the health of the mother is the only appropriate exception.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: However, on the campaign trail, she's endorsed exceptions for rape and incest.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's actually a ballot measure to enshrine the right to abortion in Michigan, and Dixon has said she will respect that if it passes.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: So it does seem like she's willing to compromise on the issue of abortion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, let's talk about her campaign platform. What is she running on?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Well, Dixon has focused very heavily on culture issues as well as the economy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She's spoken out against having biological males in girls' sports, and she's also argued for getting race and gender ideology out of the classroom.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Here's Dixon talking about the recent clashes between parents and schools.
--:-- Dixon: It's very interesting in the state of Michigan. Parents are rising up and saying they want education back. They want their students to have a chance. They want to go back to the basics in education, reading, writing, and math. And they're fighting back against this woke agenda in our schools.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dixon has also proposed policies to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion administrators from public schools and repurpose their salaries to pay for armed school security.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: So overall, Dixon is staunchly conservative on just about every issue, perhaps even more so than other Republicans running elsewhere in the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, we'll have to see how Michigan voters feel about her on November 8th.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Mairead, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi.
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--:-- John Bickley: In a stunning new poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans who fear democracy is under threat say the mainstream media is to blame.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Democrats have sought to make the alleged threat to democracy posed by Republicans a centerpiece of their midterm platform.
--:-- John Bickley: And this New York Times-Ciena poll found that 71% of respondents do believe that there is a threat to democracy, but 80% of those say that the mainstream media is at least part of that threat.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to break it down is columnist David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. Look, to some degree, it's coming from all sides and both parties. Of course, for years now, Donald Trump has called the news media the enemy of the people and fake news.
--:-- John Bickley: And on the left, there are regular claims about the supposedly duplicitous nature of Fox News and other conservative outlets.
--:-- David Marcus: There's not a ton of folks out there saying the media is doing great. And clearly, since it's a full 70 percent of Americans who say that democracy is under threat, this isn't simply partisan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Both sides are very concerned about the future of the country and its government.
--:-- David Marcus: How did the mainstream media stack up against other threats included in the poll, like politicians and institutions?
--:-- John Bickley: The media is in first, I don't know, maybe it's last place by a generous country mile. 28% say Republicans are a major threat to democracy. 33% say Democrats are. Federal government was 33, Supreme Court 27.
--:-- David Marcus: That's the general range. So the media's 59% is quite an outlier.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Again, in these other examples, you can make out some clear partisan differences. Not here. It's often said that Americans can't agree on anything anymore, but they're pretty close in their disdain for and apparently actual fear of the media.
--:-- David Marcus: Do we have a good sense of what people specifically view the threat posed by the media to be?
--:-- John Bickley: I assume they don't think a bunch of news anchors are going to start a coup. So what is it?
--:-- David Marcus: Look, Americans are savvy news consumers, and they know we're living in an information age. If you can control the flow of information, you can have enormous impact on a whole host of issues.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some believe that media suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story could have swung the election.
--:-- David Marcus: Some believe that using viral videos of crime makes the problem seem much bigger than it is.
--:-- John Bickley: It really boils down to the press being a vital part of a functioning democracy. Because if voters are poorly informed how can they arrive at good decisions?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right now this is a New York Times poll. The Times itself was in the news in recent days as former opinion page editor James Bennett spoke very candidly about being forced out of his position for running a column by Senator Tom Cotton.
--:-- David Marcus: That op-ed called for the use of the National Guard during the 2020 riots.
--:-- John Bickley: What did he say the state of the paper is?
--:-- David Marcus: He was remarkably harsh, in fact, and said that by buckling to the mob, the paper of record, quote, blew the opportunity to make clear that the New York Times doesn't exist just to tell progressives how progressives should view reality, end quote.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Look, I know from having written for Bennett at The Times that he was committed to ideological diversity. The paper just wouldn't allow it.
--:-- David Marcus: It's hard to overestimate how brutal this condemnation is. He's basically calling it a biased newspaper.
--:-- John Bickley: And it mirrors things we've heard from other former Times staffers, like Barry Weiss, who called it a hostile work environment and said that self-censorship has become the norm.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So there are a lot of people in the industry now waving a red flag and saying, we have a big problem here.
--:-- David Marcus: Another question in the poll that was intriguing asked whether respondents find QAnon theories and ideas believable.
--:-- John Bickley: What did that one tell us?
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Democrats have painted QAnon as a kind of driving force behind the new right or conservative movement. This poll really shows the opposite. A mere 4% believe this stuff.
--:-- Georgia Howe: 37% said they don't. And 56% didn't know enough to say.
--:-- David Marcus: One might say that the alleged prominence of this conspiratorial group in the GOP is itself just a conspiracy theory.
--:-- John Bickley: Sounds about right.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you for joining us, David.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
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--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. A number of key midterm debates took place last night, including the first and only debate between Pennsylvania Senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The debate sparked renewed concerns over Fetterman's fitness for office.
--:-- John Bickley: Here are a few of the notable moments.
--:-- Fetterman: I believe if my doctor believes that I'm fit to serve and and that's what I believe is appropriate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Follow up. I didn't hear you say you would release your full medical records. Why not?
--:-- Fetterman: You have 30 seconds. No. Again, my Dr. L believes that I'm fit to be serving, and that's what I believe is where I'm standing.
--:-- John Bickley: Fetterman also painted Oz as out of touch with middle and lower income voters.
--:-- Fetterman: And how can a man, you know, with 10 gigantic mansions, you know, has an unwilling to talk about a willing wage for anybody?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Imagine a single mom trying with two children, trying to raise with them.
--:-- John Bickley: At one point, he seemed to give a confusing answer about his stance on fracking.
--:-- Fetterman: Mr. Oz, I do want to clarify something. You're saying tonight that you support fracking, that you've always supported fracking. But there is that 2018 interview that you said, quote, I don't support fracking at all.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So how do you square the two?
--:-- Fetterman: I do support fracking and I don't I don't I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. For more on the debates and their impact on the races, look for the new episode of Election Wire airing this Sunday and check back this afternoon for our afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for tuning in.
--:-- John Bickley: You're welcome.
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--:-- John Bickley: Morning Wire is presented by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief, John Bickley, and co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Get daily coverage of the latest developments in politics, culture, education, sports, and more. Wake up with Morning Wire and get the facts first on the news you need to know.
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