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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 9th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Good morning, Georgia. Thanks for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: NASA announced this week that it's launching a planetary defense mission that involves firing a spacecraft at an asteroid. I mean, we've left footprints and tire tracks and things like that on various bodies, but this will be the first time humanity has changed a celestial motion.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. We'll discuss the details of NASA's historic mission and its implications for the safety of the planet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden faces increasingly grim poll numbers, with new polling showing him at his lowest point yet. Well, look at what happened. September 1, the net. Minus two, the disapproval above the approval. And now, minus five. So essentially going in the wrong direction. Not good. Clearly underwater at this point.
--:-- John Bickley: What's driving the drop in the president's approval? And are Democrats standing by him despite the decline?
--:-- Georgia Howe: And ESPN once again made headlines this week over how it handles employees after one of its reporters gave her opinion on some hot-button issues.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help. Protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA. Text WIRE to 989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver. There's zero obligation.
--:-- John Bickley: NASA recently announced that it's launching a historic defensive mission, which could have huge implications for the safety of our planet. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So, what's going on with this new NASA mission?
--:-- Georgia Howe: This week, NASA announced that they're going to be launching a spacecraft to hit an asteroid on purpose. They want to test what they're calling a method of planetary defense to see if they can change the path of the asteroid.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So this sounds like the movie Armageddon. Yeah, sort of, although I don't think Bruce Willis is lacing up his space boots anytime soon.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Oh, too bad.
--:-- Ian Howarth: NASA are calling this mission the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART for short, and it's set to start on November 24th at 1.20 Eastern. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is going to be launched from California and will be aiming for two asteroids which orbit the sun and sometimes come close to Earth.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, do these two asteroids pose a potential threat to Earth?
--:-- Ian Howarth: No, NASA said that these asteroids won't come close enough to Earth to pose a threat. What they want to do is test this defensive technique. These asteroids are apparently prime candidates for a tool which could help save us from a dangerous asteroid in the future.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And how would that actually work?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, there are two asteroids being targeted. The first is Didymus, which is about a half mile in diameter. And the second is Dimorphos, which orbits Didymus and is about 500 feet across. The DART mission is going to try and hit Dimorphos, the smaller asteroid, at almost 15,000 miles per hour.
--:-- John Bickley: And the goal here is to change the orbit of the smaller asteroid around the bigger asteroid by about 1%. While this seems like a lot, it would be enough to drastically adjust the course of an asteroid that actually threatens Earth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: What's really cool here beyond the fact that we might not have to rely on Hollywood to save us from deadly asteroids is that this will be the first time humanity has changed something in space. Wow, they got to get this right.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So how likely is it that we're going to actually have to use this technology in the future?
--:-- Ian Howarth: So NASA actually released a bunch of data on this subject. They said there were 26,815 near-Earth asteroids that we know of, with almost 10,000 of these being larger than 500 feet. 891 of these are larger than a kilometer, or around two-thirds of a mile.
--:-- John Bickley: According to NASA, there are also 15,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than this, which are still yet to be found. But it's actually not unusual for asteroids to pass this close to Earth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: NASA said that 14 known asteroids passed closer to the Earth and the Moon just in the past 30 days, and 127 passed closer to the Earth and the Moon in the past year. But most don't pose a threat, even when we consider the objects that actually hit Earth, and NASA haven't detected an asteroid which poses a risk over the next 100 years at least.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But it is nice that we might have an option beyond handing Bruce Willis the nuclear codes if we do spot an asteroid hitting our way.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Ian, thanks so much for coming on.
--:-- John Bickley: That's Daily Wire's Ian Howarth. Coming up, new polling spells trouble for President Biden.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be the first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news. And you'll get content from all of your favorite Daily Wire shows.
--:-- John Bickley: Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts, no matter where your day takes you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Following the widely criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid growing economic uncertainty, President Biden's approval rating continues to sink, with a new poll showing fewer Americans than ever approve of the job he's doing.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with details on what's causing the drop and how Democrats are responding is Daily Wire managing editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, Cabot, walk us through the numbers here. What sort of drop are we looking at?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, the drop we've seen this month is dramatic, to say the least. That poll you mentioned comes from Quinnipiac and shows that just 38% of Americans approve of the job the president's doing right now. For context, that same poll had him at 42% approval three weeks ago and all the way up at 50% in February. So, pretty big drop.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, pretty precipitous there. Is this a dip that's normal for a president in the first year of his term?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yes and no. A certain honeymoon phase is typically experienced when presidents take office. But a dip in approval this drastic is not something we typically see.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to polling, one in four people who approved of Biden in the winter no longer do. So that's more than just a slight drop off. So a quarter have lost faith in him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah. What are the main reasons?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there are a few key issues, but it's worth noting that he is under 50% approval on every major issue in the poll. But the areas where he performs the worst are immigration, foreign policy, and the economy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On immigration, just 25% of Americans approve of the job he's doing. A big part of that has been the border crisis. People have responded negatively to the images they've seen showing record numbers of migrants flooding across the border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On foreign policy, nearly twice as many Americans disapprove as approve of the job he's doing. He's at just 34% approval there. The president's handling of Afghanistan is the main thing cited there when people were asked what they don't like.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What about the economy?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we've started to see a huge dip there as well. Some people might be surprised by that when they see the falling unemployment rates and record numbers of job openings. But the impacts of inflation are really starting to be felt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And you can kind of see that in the poll here. Prices on everything from cars to appliances are soaring and food prices are now at record highs, jumping almost 10% in the last year alone.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And the bad news for Biden on that front, the economic part, is that there aren't really any signs that inflation is going to taper off anytime soon, with many experts saying it's going to get worse in the coming months.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Look, obviously, a president's approval impacts his party. How are Democrat leaders responding to this downturn? Are we seeing any signs of cracking in unity?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The party leadership in D.C. is still standing by the president publicly, but we are starting to see signs that things could change on that front. This week, leading Democrats expressed frustration over the president's role in killing the infrastructure bill. And we started to see candidates distance themselves as well around the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat nominee for governor in Virginia, was caught on a recent conference call saying, quote, the president is unpopular and we've got to plow through.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And we've also heard reports of other Democrat candidates saying they don't want Biden campaigning with them because he's unpopular in their districts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So that's going to be the next thing to watch as midterms approach how they handle the fact that the leader of their party is not particularly popular.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: How is this all affecting the midterms?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, midterms are typically viewed as a referendum on the president. And obviously that's bad for Democrats with how unpopular Biden is right now.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That Quinnipiac poll and another last week from Gallup have Republicans with a three-point lead when it comes to who voters want to see gain control of Congress.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So don't be surprised if you start seeing Democrats in vulnerable districts taking occasional shots at Biden or more likely simply just keeping their distance.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, President Biden's got his work cut out for him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, Cabot.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An ESPN employee is once again in the news after giving her opinion on something other than sports. Sage Steele was off the air this week after discussing the COVID vaccine, women in sports media, and former President Barack Obama.
--:-- John Bickley: Bringing us the latest updates is Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So, Joe, give us the rundown here. What exactly did Steele say that caused so much backlash?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure. I mean, I'll start with this. Steele has not been one to go along with the left-wing narrative in her career. She was reportedly iced out of a June 2020 ESPN special on race after two colleagues said that the biracial Steele, quote, would not be accepted by the Black community.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So last week, Steele went on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler's podcast. She discussed ESPN's vaccine requirement. For those that don't know, all employees must have been vaccinated by September 30th, calling the mandate sick and scary.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I respect everyone's decision. I really do. But to mandate it is sick. And it's scary to me in many ways.
--:-- Joe Morgan: And these comments presumably have Steele in hot water with ESPN. Just slightly, yeah. On Tuesday, Steele issued an apology and ESPN came out with her own statement saying they're, quote, having direct conversations with Sage and those conversations will remain private.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Also on Tuesday, front office sports reported that Steele will not be on air for the remainder of the week and that her comments did have something to do with it.
--:-- Joe Morgan: But I do want to note this because I think it's important. Front office sports also reported that Steele has tested positive for COVID, which obviously could be one of the reasons behind her absence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Got it. But Steele discussed more than just the COVID vaccine. Oh yeah. On the podcast and it was wide ranging. She spoke on former President Barack Obama who came up when Steele recalled a colleague asking her to choose to identify as either black or white.
--:-- Joe Morgan: When you fill out your census, I'm like, well, I don't know when the last time I filled out my census was, but if they make you choose a race, she's like, where are you going to put it? I go, well, both. She's like, well, you can't. She goes, well, Barack Obama chose black and he's biracial. I'm like, well, congratulations to the president. That's his thing. I think that's fascinating considering his black dad was nowhere to be found, but his white mom and grandma raised him. But hey, you do you. I'm going to do me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Steele also dove into women working in sports media and how they deal with inappropriate comments from athletes, putting some of the onus on women to be aware of the way they present themselves.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So when you dress like that, I'm not saying you deserve the gross comments, but you know what you're doing when you're putting that outfit on too. Women are smart. So don't play coy and put it all on the guys when we, and again, I'm not saying anybody deserves anything. Yes. But we need to be responsible as women too, because we know what we're doing when we put certain things on. And then return to certain text. Are you expecting somebody who's not going to see you if you go to dinner with this guy? Like, that's on us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what's been the reaction from the left to Steele's comments?
--:-- Joe Morgan: Well, they're not pleased. Former ESPN anchor and the Atlantic writer Jamelle Hill called Steele's comments clown behavior. Keith Olbermann called for ESPN to take her off the air. Former ESPN colleague Carrie Champion said Steele, quote, clearly has issues with women.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Issues with women. That's an interesting take. I seriously doubt this is going to be the last time we're going to discuss this.
--:-- Joe Morgan: All right. Well, Joe, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, anytime. That's Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Other stories we're tracking this week. The World Health Organization has approved a malaria vaccine for at-risk children. The WHO Director General called it a historic moment and said, using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.
--:-- John Bickley: And Playboy magazine debuts its first ever male cover model on its October issue. While Playboy has featured male covers before, beauty influencer Brett Minrock is the first male to don the iconic bunny suit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The magazine is celebrating its cover as a milestone for the LGBT community.
--:-- John Bickley: And a 100-year-old man is on trial in Germany this week, accused of war crimes related to serving as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp near Berlin between 1942 and 1945.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The defendant, identified as Joseph S., is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder. 100-year-old survivor Leon Schwartzbaum, who was imprisoned at the same concentration camp, was able to attend the trial as a visitor.
--:-- John Bickley: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back next week with the news you need to know.
