--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the hosts introduce the episode]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley. Today, we're looking at the legacy of the Me Too movement, the impact of education on the upcoming election, and the California exodus extends to businesses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. And we're also giving you a chance to wake up with a healthier morning routine. Go to BalanceOfNature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. Let's dive into our top story. It's been five years since the Me Too movement swept across the Western world, but there are signs that the movement's influence has waned.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I mean, I would be jumping for joy if Me Too would have done anything.
--:-- John Bickley: We look at the legacy of Me Too and what the youngest generation has to say about its future.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: It's November 5th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Declining test scores and controversial content in classrooms have made education a top-line issue for many parents.
--:-- John Bickley: They built our education house on sand versus on rock, and when the storm came, it made it even worse.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We talk with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin about the conservative movement to revive trust in education.
--:-- John Bickley: And a new report shows that businesses are leaving California at an accelerating and unsustainable rate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What's causing the exodus, and where the companies are going?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, we are. And I think there are a few reasons for that. One is that in 2017, the kind of allegations we were talking about were very clear cut. We had accusations of rape, things like drugging women, of really egregious sexual harassment at work.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Megan, Me Too was one of the biggest cultural juggernauts of the last few years. We certainly saw it make a lot of headlines and a lot of people were held accountable.
--:-- Megan Basham: I think at that point, people across the political aisle were on board and they agreed that there needed to be a reckoning for that kind of behavior.
--:-- John Bickley: But then as the movement progressed, the claims became somewhat muddier.
--:-- Megan Basham: Some of them seem to involve women upset over sexual acts that were consensual, but where they didn't feel that the men involved behaved as respectfully as they might have wanted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We saw that, for example, in the case of comedian Aziz Ansari. There, the woman conceded that she did agree to oral sex, but she regretted it later.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then even more polarizing was that lawsuit between actress Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.
--:-- John Bickley: We all recall that in 2018 at the height of the Me Too movement Heard presented herself as a victim of domestic abuse in an op for the Washington Post And she received a lot of support in Hollywood for that Depp was effectively canceled and he lost huge movie contracts.
--:-- Megan Basham: But when a jury finally got the chance to see all of the details, they concluded that Heard was lying.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So now we're starting to see some polling that reflects some skepticism. A lot of people are saying they think that Me Too went too far.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then last month, a new Pew survey found that only about half of Americans say they support the Me Too movement now.
--:-- John Bickley: That number was around 64% in 2018.
--:-- Megan Basham: And among those who say they now oppose it, the top reasons given were that they don't think it respects due process and that it doesn't weed out false accusations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, there's also a bit of a generational shift. There's been some reporting that Gen Z just isn't as focused on this as millennials were.
--:-- Megan Basham: Right. And in the latest polling on issues that Gen Z cares about, sexual harassment and assault don't make the list at all.
--:-- John Bickley: Instead, they say they're concerned about things like jobs, the economy, cost of living.
--:-- Megan Basham: In a recent special on NBC's Meet the Press, some young college women were saying that their perception is that Me Too was about protecting famous women.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It was never Me Too when, you know, something happened on a college campus.
--:-- Megan Basham: It wasn't Me Too when someone just went to work at a regular corporate office.
--:-- John Bickley: It's not Me Too when maybe it's a Black man saying that he was assaulted.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then there's no question the movement took a huge reputational hit last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was when news broke that leaders of a Hollywood-founded Me Too group called Time's Up helped New York Governor Andrew Cuomo discredit an accuser.
--:-- Megan Basham: In that case, a host of A-list women kept quiet about the revelations.
--:-- John Bickley: That included Eva Longoria, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, really top-level people.
--:-- Megan Basham: So you saw a lot of accusations of hypocrisy stemming from that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, is it possible that some people just think the Me Too movement accomplished what it set out to do and just maybe it's not needed anymore?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, I think that's possible.
--:-- John Bickley: And I think that is a positive angle that you can look at this through.
--:-- Megan Basham: One more thing that that Pew poll that was released just a few weeks ago found was that about 60% of people say that when people report harassment or assault at work now, they're more likely to be believed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And even among those who oppose the Me Too movement, that was still the majority view.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, it's always interesting to benchmark the feminist movement over the years because it just really shows how fast the culture can change in such a short time.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- John Bickley: Debates over parents' rights and new reports showing a significant decline in students' performance in recent years have put education at the forefront in the upcoming election.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss is Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who made education reform a centerpiece of his campaign last year and now his governorship.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: First, we've recently received the national report card showing students really struggling on a national level in all the key subject matters.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: This is obviously concerning. Do you think this is more about the pandemic response or is it something deeper?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Let me back up and just put it into context about how horrific and heartbreaking these results were, particularly in Virginia.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: So when we look at fourth-grade reading and math, Virginia fell further than any other state in reading, three times further than the average, and was tied for last with Maryland.
--:-- John Bickley: And this decline is a decline that started before the pandemic.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Decisions made by previous administrations had put Virginia on a downward path And these decisions were clear They reduced the accountability by blurring what accreditation means I mean we have 85 of our schools today that hit the highest accreditation standard, and yet we had horrific test scores all year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And by the way, these NAEP scores are just the next and very loud alarm bells that have been ringing all year on tests taken last year.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And so these scores should be a wake-up call for the nation. And we've got to get to work.
--:-- John Bickley: We started on January 1st with my first executive order, which first targeted making sure we do not have divisive teaching practices in the classroom and get the politics out and get reading and math and history and science back in the classroom.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: We passed a bipartisan bill in the Virginia Literacy Act to make sure that all K through third graders can learn to read.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is critical, and particularly when you see that these averages that the NAEP scores represent reflect even worse performance in the economically disadvantaged communities where English could be a second language with kids with disabilities in Black communities and Hispanic communities.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: This is just a moment for the nation and particularly Virginia to wake up.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, you've passed a series of measures to address a lot of issues in education. One of them is requiring parental consent if a child wants to be referred to as a different gender.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Well, let me begin with getting parents back, not just at the table, but at the head of the table in their children's lives, was at the heart of the movement last year that Virginians stood up and expressed in electing me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And by the way, it wasn't Republicans versus Democrats. It was Virginians. We won the majority of the independent vote.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Democrats walked across the aisle and did something nobody expected.
--:-- John Bickley: And at the heart of it was a government that had forgotten that they worked for the people.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And so we passed a bipartisan bill to allow parents to decide whether their children wears a mask.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We passed a bipartisan bill to make sure that there's transparency in the classroom materials.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And if the materials are sexually explicit and they don't fit with your family values, you can ask for those materials to be removed from your child's curriculum.
--:-- John Bickley: And we now are working to make sure that in this most important decision where a child is questioning their birth gender, that there can be no exception to the fact that parents have to be involved in that decision.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And a previous administration had done an immense wrong to parents and to families by excluding parents from that decision specifically.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Kids deserve a parent in their life. Parents have a right to be in their children's lives, not to the exclusion of a trusted teacher or trusted counselor, but that decision must be made with parents.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And the reality, of course, is this is not controversial.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we see huge, huge support for this front.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Yes, there are a bunch of special interest groups who are disagreeing, but children do not belong to the state. They belong to families.
--:-- John Bickley: Final question. How much do you think education is going to play a role in Tuesday's elections?
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: I think it's going to play a huge role in the midterm elections.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We've seen systematically across Virginia and across the nation, this effort to water down expectations, to change curriculum away from critical reading and critical math and critical history and critical science to topics that aren't preparing our kids for life and to push parents out of their children's lives.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: And this concerted effort that has gone on across the nation has brought people together, not Republicans versus Democrats, but parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings.
--:-- John Bickley: And we're seeing it reflected in the polls.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: I think that there a clear understanding that common sense has to get back in the classroom.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, Governor, well thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Glenn Youngkin: Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Companies have been leaving California in increasing numbers over the last few years, prompting a lot of questions about the state's deteriorating business environment.
--:-- John Bickley: A new report from the Hoover Institution highlights the mass departure of companies from the state and the policies that could be contributing to the shift.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: So the report looked at over 300 California business headquarters that moved away from the Golden State between 2018 to 2021.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It found that the amount of companies leaving has gone up significantly over that time.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Last year, the monthly average of California headquarters leaving was around twice as much as it was in 2020 and 2019.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And it was about three times as high as four years ago in 2018.
--:-- John Bickley: So sort of an exponential increase there.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Where are these companies going?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The leading states that are taking in these companies are Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, Florida, and Arizona.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The report also looked at other types of data to examine the shift. This included the number of new capital projects, which are places like factories, call centers, back offices, and other facilities.
--:-- John Bickley: Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, and North Carolina were the top states for new projects like this.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: We've reported on a lot of issues that have plagued the state, but are there specific reasons discussed in the report as to why these companies are feeling the need to leave?
--:-- Georgia Howe: A lot of it has to do with policy. The report said that high taxes, regulations, and high labor costs are all contributing to the exits.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: But the other side is just the high cost of living for Californians.
--:-- John Bickley: These aren't just big businesses leaving either. Small companies are moving, as are Fortune 1000 companies, 11 of those left in the time period studied.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The departure of small businesses from the state can have a really significant impact on local economies and make it less desirable for people to live in certain regions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This can hurt school funding and community development, which takes us to the next point.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: We're seeing that businesses aren't the only ones leaving. People are packing up and moving, too.
--:-- John Bickley: After the 2020 census, California lost one of its House seats in Congress for the first time ever.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The state's net domestic migrations was 34,000 10 years ago, but last year it was 277,000.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How are the state's political leaders responding to these rather significant losses?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Well, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is still touting the state's success despite these numbers.
--:-- John Bickley: Last week, California made headlines because its GDP is now set to become the fourth largest on the planet, ousting Germany.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: But its GDP has actually gone down this year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It went down 9.5% in the first quarter of 2022 and another 0.5% in the second quarter.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: A state report pointed to declines in salaries this year from what it said were unusually high levels at the end of last year.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, lots of trends to watch out West.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Another story we're tracking this week. Benjamin Netanyahu is now Prime Minister of Israel for the third time.
--:-- John Bickley: After the previous PM conceded Thursday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And his coalition holds a 64-seat majority.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's Daily Wire contributor Yehuda Levy on what Bibi's return to power means for Israel.
--:-- Yehuda Levy: Israelis at their core are just fed up with the constant elections and the constant political stalemate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: With Netanyahu back in power and with a vast majority, this will mean stability, security, and most importantly, a national pride of a Jewish state.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: And check in on this feed or the Daily Wire YouTube channel tomorrow for the latest episode of Election Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for tuning in to Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: And don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more news and analysis.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow.
