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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Supreme Court recently ruled on two cases regarding Texas pro-life law. How have political leaders and activists responded? And what might this mean for abortion laws going forward? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's December 18th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: In his new book, Dr. Scott Atlas, who served on the COVID-19 task force under President Trump, makes some concerning claims about the government's handling of the pandemic, including allegations that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx intentionally misled the American public. And the NFL is allowing some of their teams to market themselves and their products internationally. Which team won the rights to market themselves in China? And why is this move getting some negative attention from U.S. lawmakers?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. 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.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Supreme Court released a much-anticipated ruling last Friday on two cases concerning a new pro-life law in Texas. On Thursday, the high court sent one of the cases down to a more conservative appeals court against the wishes of abortion providers. Here to discuss the reaction to the court's decision to allow the abortion ban to stand is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Charlotte, tell us what the reaction has been to last week's ruling.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So there were two cases decided on Friday. One was Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson, brought by abortion providers, and the other was United States v. Texas, brought by the Department of Justice. The question the court was answering in these cases was essentially whether the Texas law could be challenged in federal court.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In the Whole Woman's Health case, the justices ruled that the legislation is allowed to stay in effect as legal battles continue, which brought a lot of disappointment from abortion advocates who oppose the law. So as a reminder, the Texas Heartbeat Act effectively outlaws abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy when fetal cardiac activity can be detected.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: One of its most controversial aspects, the ability of private citizens to sue those who aid and abet illegal actions, was the main focus in the whole woman's health case. In its ruling, the court decided that abortion providers are allowed to continue with a lawsuit against the state, but they can only sue executive licensing officials who may take enforcement actions against the abortion providers if they violate the ban.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Okay, so that was one case. What happened with the other one?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yeah, the Supreme Court also got rid of the challenge brought by the Department of Justice against the Texas pro-life measure. So that case was just dismissed.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Obviously, this is a polarizing issue. What's the reaction been to these rulings?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Well, as you might expect, very different for the two sides. President Biden said he was, quote, very concerned by the court's decision to allow the law to remain in effect in light of the, quote, significant consequences that law has for women in Texas and around the country and for the rule of law.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated the president's commitment to abortion on Friday. The president is deeply committed to the constitutional right, recognized in Roe v. Wade. And he has argued and advocated in the past for codifying Roe through passing the Women's Health Protection Act.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And the ruling this morning is a reminder of how much these rights are at risk. And the founder and CEO of Whole Woman Health Amy Hagstrom Miller had this to say: You know, I think on paper it's considered a win because the court is allowing us to continue with the challenge. But really on the ground, it's a big loss.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: We are having to deny upwards of 80 percent of the people who come to us for care. And the law has been enforced over 100 days now.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: One of the biggest headline-making reactions to the ruling was Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, saying on Saturday that he's going to use the precedent of the Supreme Court's decision to, quote, create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in California.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: He said he was, quote, outraged by the court allowing the Texas law to stay in effect, which is interesting because of him saying he wants to use precedent from that very case to pass gun laws. On the pro-life side, of course, the rulings are generally seen as wins for the cause and states' rights.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So are we more likely now to see other states create their own laws similar to the Texas abortion ban? Yes. Actually, prior to this ruling, some states had already indicated that they planned to do just that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for the reporting, Charlotte. That's Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, some serious claims about the COVID task force from Dr. Scott Atlas. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dr. Scott Atlas, a former member of President Trump's COVID task force, is now speaking out against the government's handling of the virus. Alleging that Dr. Anthony Fauci and others intentionally misled the American people in order to gain support for lockdowns and mask mandates. Joining us now to discuss these claims is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Cabot, these are some concerning accusations. You spoke to Dr. Atlas recently. What'd you learn?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, definitely concerning. So for some background, Dr. Atlas is a medical researcher and radiologist at Stanford's Hoover Institution. In 2020, he was appointed to the White House COVID Task Force alongside Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, as well as CDC Director Robert Redfield and others.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: This task force was largely responsible for setting the overall federal response to COVID, specifically the strategy on mandatory lockdowns and mask mandates. According to Dr. Atlas, he joined the task force expecting to pore over medical data and make lockdown decisions based on the science.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But in his new memoir, he says those decisions were based not on science, but more on the personal whims of Drs. Fauci and Birx. And you asked him about those claims.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, I did. And here's what he had to say: And so I did sit in. And what shocked me, I was stunned at what I saw, frankly. And what I mean by that is these people were not acting like scientists.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I was the only one who brought in published papers from the scientific journals and recited them and went through and critiqued those studies when I was asked my opinion. And in fact, all I got was you're an outlier kind of ad hominem attack and never any data shown or discussed, never familiarity with the studies that were being published, except for these very sophomore tabulations of cases per day and cases per state that were things that you get off public websites
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So I was shocked at the lack of scientific rigor. Dr. Atlas also said he was maligned in the public for being opposed to lockdowns early on in the pandemic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I was opposed to the lockdowns because, A, it was completely illogical. You don't lock down people who are not at significant risk and then destroy them while you are not protect, you are failing to protect the people who were at high risk.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And it was really misleading the public. People that were opposed to the lockdowns, like myself, were falsely depicted as choosing money over lives. But the fact is, decades of economics literature showed that economic downturns kill people. They cost lives.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And the economic downturns of the lockdowns were so destructive, I wrote about it in the spring of 2020, we were called dangerous and we were falsely accused of saying we should allow the virus to spread without mitigation. Let it rip. This phrase herd immunity strategy, which was a lie. It was a complete distortion of what I said.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It was a distortion of what the other people were saying, like the people who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, Koldorf, Bhattacharya, and Gupta.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, as Dr. Atlas tells it, the White House task force was dominated by Fauci, Birx, and CDC director Robert Redfield. He even says they formed a pact that if one was fired, they all would resign.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They had a pact among themselves, the three of them, that if one was fired by President Trump, they would all resign, which to me, I mean, that is both stunning as well and not just revealing motivation, but revealing that, you know, the point I thought was to help the country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: OK, that's not the behavior of people are doing that. But be that as it may, what I saw was something shocking, which was in a complicated situation where science is evolving, where data is coming in, where certain things aren't completely understood.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They never once in my presence disagreed with each other. Never once. The three of them, never a single time. And another interesting note, according to Dr. Atlas, it was actually Dr. Birx, not Dr. Fauci, who was truly making decisions behind the scenes when it came to lockdowns and other COVID policies.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So kind of different than the general public perception. Dr. Fauci, first of all, he was the most visible face to the public of the task force and the federal guidance at the time.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Dr. Birx, though, was the one in charge of the medical side of the task force. She was the task force coordinator. She wrote all of the recommendations of guidelines to the state's governors. She visited personally dozens of states, spoke with their public health officials.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I visited one single state. Dr. Fauci's role was really sitting there on the task force and being intermittently asked his opinion, but he was very visible. He had his own media presence. As we know, he was on TV and in the media very, very commonly.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And so it took the look that he was in charge, but he really wasn't, but he was extremely influential. Again, these are claims from his new book, A Plague Upon Our House, which outlines his time with the administration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's fascinating stuff. Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely. That's Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The NFL is going the way of the NBA, attempting to grow viewership internationally by allowing select teams to market themselves in select foreign markets. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So Joe what going on with the NFL?
--:-- Joe Morgan: Thanks for having me on Georgia. So on Wednesday the NFL announced a new international home marketing area program granting 18 franchises the exclusive rights to market their teams and their product in eight different countries.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So each of the 18 organizations selected will have access to their assigned international markets for a period of five years beginning January 1st, 2022. Just so people know, the current marketing structure only allows for teams to market themselves in a 75-mile radius around their stadium. So this is definitely branching out.
--:-- Joe Morgan: According to the NFL press release, as part of the international HMA program, clubs will have access to international markets for at least a five-year term, during which a club will have rights to pursue activities in that international market that are consistent with what they can do in their domestic HMA, which is the 75-mile radius I alluded to.
--:-- Joe Morgan: This includes in-person and digital marketing, corporate sponsorship sales, fan events and activations, youth football activities, merchandise sales, and co-marketing relationships with other sports and entertainment properties in the market.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So basically, they have five years to try to build a fan base in a new location. Essentially. Over the past decade, the NFL has attempted to grow its game internationally, playing various games outside of the United States, including Mexico and London.
--:-- Joe Morgan: With the announcement on Wednesday, each of the 32 teams will play at least one international game over the next eight seasons. And so what's this about just trying to gain market share?
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the NBA has been incredibly successful in becoming an international brand. China is a major market for the league, and they even recently began NBA Africa. The NFL sees the NBA success, and they want to try something similar.
--:-- Joe Morgan: The eight countries chosen, by the way, are Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Australia, and China. Right. So there was some controversy there.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So in the NFL's press release, they provided a map of the world in which they highlighted the markets and which teams have been assigned to each country. For China, the Los Angeles Rams will be the lone team able to market their product.
--:-- Joe Morgan: The NFL aligning themselves with China is already problematic, but it was the actual map that drew outrage. The NFL included Taiwan, an independent country, as part of mainland China. So that map is not even subtle. They're really trying to make a point there.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, and many pundits noticed, including Senator Ted Cruz, who called the act, quote, disgraceful cowardice.
--:-- Joe Morgan: The timing is also really awkward here because all this happened just a few weeks after other high-profile athletes and athletic associations were in the news for standing up to China.
--:-- Joe Morgan: For example, we've discussed Boston Celtic Center Enos Cantor Freedom really hammering the communist Chinese government for their human rights abuses. Then over the weekend, Freedom was joined by NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins in calling on China to stop the genocide of the Uyghur people.
--:-- Joe Morgan: What is happening to the Uyghur people is one of the worst human rights tragedies in the world today. We cannot stay silent. Additionally, a couple weeks ago, the Women's Tennis Association pulled all events out of China following the handling of their sexual assault allegations by Peng Shui, which implicated a high-ranking member of the CCP.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So it was looking like sports were starting to stand up to China, but then we see this from the NFL. Right, so it makes the move stand out even more.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joe, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, you got it. That's Daily Wire sports reporter, Joe Morgan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like 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.
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