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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm joined today by Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us, Georgia.
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--:-- John Bickley: The man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare's CEO continues to gain notoriety, even as evidence stacks up against him. We were able to match that gun to the three shell casings that we found in Midtown at the scene of the homicide. We break down his path from murder suspect to online cult figure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A controversial federal agency at the center of censorship allegations is now set to close down. And Chicago residents are fed up with the city's immigration policy and costly plans to offset a budget shortfall. Chicago is out of the business of funding illegals. We are out of the business of prioritizing non-American citizens on top of the American citizens who go out in this cold weather every day to make money to pay their taxes.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: As evidence continues to mount against suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione, so too does the amount of online praise he's receiving. Here with the latest on the shocking story is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, first off, where is Mangione now? Well, he remains in a Pennsylvania state prison. The 26-year-old from a wealthy and influential family in Maryland is currently fighting extradition to New York. Leading his defense will be Thomas Dickey, a Pennsylvania attorney who's handled a number of murder trials and insists that his client will plead not guilty. I haven't seen any evidence that says that he's a shooter. The fundamental concept of American justice is a presumption of innocent. And until you're proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. And I've seen zero evidence at this point.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But Mangione's legal team will have their work cut out for them as evidence continues to tie him to last week's heinous crime. Police announced yesterday that shell casings found at the crime scene matched the firearm Mangione was carrying when he was caught. They also say fingerprints found at the scene belong to Mangione as well. Now, anyone who's gone on social media has probably seen the memes and the comments. Mangione actually has a lot of support. That's actually become one of the biggest aspects of this whole story. Tell us more on that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's hard to overstate just how much of a cult figure Mangione has become for a significant chunk of Americans. Many have compared him to Robin Hood, others to a new Che Guevara, while thousands more have offered to pay for his legal defense, saying he should be released whether he committed the crime or not. Mangione lawyer addressed those offers on CNN The Supreme Court says you know all these rich billionaires can give all kinds of money to candidates and that free speech So maybe these people are exercising their right to free speech and saying that the way they supporting my client Now it not just anonymous social media users. There's some pretty prominent people who are saying this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. A number of prominent folks in the entertainment industry, academia and late night comedy have come out in support of the alleged killer. British actress Jamila Jamil, for example, posted a shirtless photo of Mangione to her nearly 4 million Instagram followers with the caption, a star is born. Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz said she felt, quote, joy when she heard the news. She also shared a picture of a smiling star emoji with the caption, CEO down. Elsewhere, Julia Alexieva, a professor at UPenn, which Mangione attended, posted a TikTok video dancing happily with the caption, have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. And then there's late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who gleefully shared messages from his producers talking about their love for Mangione.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Please tell me you're as obsessed as I am with this handsome CEO killer. Yes, so many questions like, can I fix you? And Veronica says, I need him so bad. No, like so bad. So, so bad. Okay, so I would visit him in prison and bake him cookies, maybe, perhaps more, but I haven't thought that far ahead.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Elsewhere, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren offered a seemingly sympathetic view on the crime, saying she understood why people were taking his side. Speaking to the Huffington Post, she said, quote, The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practice of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system. She added, quote, violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far. Her Democratic colleague Bernie Sanders echoed those sentiments calling the murder unacceptable, but saying, quote, the outpouring of anger at the healthcare industry tells us that millions of people understand healthcare is a human right, and you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed healthcare for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, for obvious reasons, this hero treatment has sparked major concerns over copycat killers. At that point, the NYPD released a statement saying there is, quote, an elevated threat facing executives in the near term. Well, that's very scary for them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Global Engagement Center, a controversial State Department agency at the center of censorship allegations is now set to close down. But a new effort is underway to save it. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the details.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, before we get into why the Global Engagement Center now looks like it's going to be shut down, for those who haven't been tracking this story, can you quickly remind listeners about its background and why it's been so controversial?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure. So the Obama administration originally launched the GEC as part of a counterterrorism initiative. But then after Trump took office in 2017, its purview expanded into combating ostensible disinformation. That was part of that now debunked Russia collusion narrative. Well the argument was that this was necessary to prevent foreign governments from targeting Americans with propaganda campaigns But critics say the federal government essentially started using the GEC to engage in censorship against voices that might threaten the power of the entrenched political establishment.
--:-- Megan Basham: Mike Benz, a former State Department official, discussed last week with Joe Rogan the government push for widespread censorship in the name of so-called misinformation. They were afraid that social media rising all of these right-wing populist parties to power would effectively collapse the entire rules-based international order unless there was international censorship, because Brexit would give rise to Frexit if Marine Le Pen won, and she was massively overpowered on social media versus Macron. If, as I mentioned, Italy, there was going to be not just Brexit, there's going to be Frexit, Spexit, Italexit, Grexit, Grexit. So the entire EU would come undone, which would mean all of NATO would come undone, which would mean there's no enforcement arm for the IMF or the World Bank or international creditors, which would mean it would be like the ending scene of Flight Club, where the credit card company buildings all collapse just because you're allowed to post on the internet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And they talked about that quite openly in 2017 as they were creating this whole censorship infrastructure. So critics say that the GEC is yet another arm of this censorship apparatus. Now, what's the actual evidence that that was the GEC's mission?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, the GEC became involved in policing social media content from American citizens. To give you just one example, before Elon Musk bought the platform, it gave Twitter a list of 5,500 users it had pinpointed for suppression because it said they were suspected Chinese accounts engaged in state-backed coordinated manipulation. But it actually turned out that most of those accounts belong to ordinary Americans. In fact, a few were CNN journalists. The GEC also funded initiatives that asked Twitter and other platforms to consider suspending tens of thousands of accounts suspected of spreading foreign disinformation. But again, it turned out that many were just ordinary citizens sharing ordinary domestic policy views. And then some of its activities sought to suppress conservative media specifically. For example, the GEC directed funds to third-party watchdog groups that created advertising blacklists of mostly conservative news organizations. And that included The Federalist, The New York Post, and The Daily Wire, which of course produces this program. And it's for that that the Daily Wire, the Federalist, and the state of Texas are suing the GEC for violating freedom of speech and of the press.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, presumably, Republicans taking over the White House and the Senate is what's prompting the potential end of this agency?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yes, though right now there is a bipartisan effort to save it. So the GEC was not included in the latest draft of the defense authorization bill. That means right now it is set to expire in less than two weeks. And then on top of that, on Monday, as part of that Daily Wire lawsuit, the State Department notified a federal court that the center is substantially likely to be terminated on December 23rd and its employees reassigned. But Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas have been actually pushing to extend the GEC's authorization. Though, I will say that Cornyn certainly seems to be in the minority of his party in backing the agency. And by the way, he hasn't publicly commented on why he wants to keep it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In contrast the House Committee on Small Business called the GEC potential shuttering a win for free speech and Main Street America and said its termination means that there is quote one less way for unelected bureaucrats to violate Americans' First Amendment rights. Although if the GEC's staffers are just getting reassigned elsewhere, you have to wonder what their new roles are.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The massive influx of migrants under the Biden administration has strained the resources of many of America's major cities. And now residents in Chicago are tearing into Mayor Brandon Johnson over the city's spending to house and feed illegal immigrants. Johnson was met with outrage by residents as the city considers imposing a $60 million property tax to make up for a $1 billion budget shortfall. Here to discuss is Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Linkwist.
--:-- Spencer Linkwist: So tell us about the situation in Chicago. So Chicago residents were clearly outraged at the mayor over both his handling of immigration, but also the city's consideration of that new property tax hike. The city of Chicago said that as of April of this year, it had accepted 39,000 migrants. And that figure meant that it had taken in more migrants than almost any other city in America, behind just New York and Denver. And of course, that came with a very hefty price tag. So some of these residents were clearly upset with how Mayor Johnson has handled the influx.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's what one Chicago resident had to say to the mayor at a recent City Hall meeting. So I got a great way of how we can, what we can do with this budget. First, let's start with cutting off illegals, getting free everything. Free housing, free schooling, free food. Yeah, let's start with that. That'll save us a lot of money. What, $600 million? Let's start there. Then let's start with you, your salary. You are going down in history as the worst mayor in America. Let's start with cutting yours. You're making too much money.
--:-- Spencer Linkwist: Another Chicago resident, a woman who had immigrated to the United States, also criticized the mayor's handling of the migrant influx, saying, quote, quote, these people came with a wide door open, and they feel entitled to many things that nobody has. There are U.S. citizens suffering from poverty. There are U.S. citizens on public aid, and these people are here just enjoying the benefits, becoming delinquents, and they have no consequences.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what exactly is the scope of these services that Chicago is providing for migrants, and what kind of costs are we actually talking about here?
--:-- Spencer Linkwist: Well, it's a lot. It comes with more than a half a billion dollar price tag, in fact. So in August of 2022, Chicago started a program called the New Arrivals Mission, and it provides shelter and services for migrants. Altogether, that program supplied food, temporary emergency shelter, urgent medical care, education, vaccines, and case management and resettlement support to those migrants. That program has gone on to cost about $575 million since 2022. That system is now being phased out in part because of that strain that it's put on the city's budget.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Johnson said in October that the move is, quote, in line with the sharp decline in migration to Chicago and our current budget realities. But he also added that the city is, quote, shifting to a more cost-effective, equitable, and strategic approach that addresses homelessness for all who need support in the city of Chicago.
--:-- Spencer Linkwist: So we'll have to see if those moves actually help the city's bottom line. And meanwhile, a lot of growing frustration from residents there. Not hard to see why.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Spencer, thanks for reporting. Thank you.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, thank you for listening this morning. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
