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--:-- Host (John Bickley): The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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--:-- Host (John Bickley): Let me now turn to Afghanistan. We will continue our close cooperation to get people out as efficiently and safely as possible. We are currently on a pace to finish by August the 31st. The sooner we can finish, the better. With the president deciding to stick with his deadline, what is the administration's plan for evacuating thousands of Americans and allies remaining in the country?
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 26th, and this is Morning Wire. The new governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has released new data about previously unrecorded COVID deaths in the state. What information was hidden and who was involved in the alleged cover-up? And the Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump-era immigration program known as Remain in Mexico must be reinstated. Why did the Supreme Court rule against the Biden administration? And what does this mean for immigration policy going forward? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host (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. Text the word WIRE to 989898 to protect your savings today.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen as Western forces withdraw from the country despite an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Here to discuss is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth. Morning, Ian.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Morning, Georgia.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): So Ian, what's the latest from Afghanistan?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, the biggest news since we last spoke came when the U.S. began pulling troops out of Afghanistan, with President Biden deciding against extending his own deadline of all forces withdrawing from the country by August 31st. According to some reports, the U.S. military is turning away some U.S. allies from the airport, and the withdrawal of troops is expected to be complete by Friday. This is after a Taliban spokesperson said that Biden's deadline was a red line for them, and that there would be consequences if they didn't leave by August 31st. So he's sticking with his deadline, even though several U.S. allies are pushing for an extension.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Yes, and this is causing a real rift in these relationships, given that President Biden moved unilaterally over this withdrawal, all while thousands of American citizens, Afghans, and other personnel remain stranded in Afghanistan.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Biden delivered a short speech on Tuesday from the White House and began by discussing his Build Back Better agenda. Biden then moved on to discuss Afghanistan, celebrating the number of people who have been evacuated since the withdrawal began. He then claimed that the US was aligned with its allies on the withdrawal strategy. The G7 leaders and the leaders of the EU, NATO and the UN all agreed that we will stand united in our approach to the Taliban But this just isn't supported by what we're seeing from US allies with reports that the leaders of France Germany and the United Kingdom can trust the United States anymore under Biden leadership
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): According to some outlets, the G7 had an agreement in place to extend the deadline, which means that Biden effectively undercut his own allies. The attempt by the Biden administration to present a united front was also undermined a few days ago when sharp criticism of Biden by France's President Macron was reportedly scrubbed from the official transcript.
--:-- Ian Howarth: What is the Biden administration's strategy moving forward? They've moved on from the early days of the withdrawal, with the goal being to deflect blame onto either the Afghan government forces or the Trump administration, and are now trying to sell the withdrawal as a success story, touting the numbers of people evacuated in the past few weeks. And there's also a wording element here, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushing back on the notion that people are stranded in the country. First of all, I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, homes. But as accounts continue to come in from those trying to escape, the reality on the ground appears to be quite different. We're stranded at home. We can't get to the airport. When we try to get to the airport, we either get beaten up or we're afraid for our lives.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): What details do we actually have about the people that are waiting to be evacuated?
--:-- Ian Howarth: According to the Pentagon, there are more than 10,000 people still waiting to be flown out of the country. But with troops already being removed from the region and the Taliban instructing Afghans not to leave, it's looking more and more likely there will be an unknown number of people left after President Biden's August 31st deadline. It's also important to understand just how precarious the situation in Kabul really is. As the commander of Joint Forces Command from 2013 to 2016 put it, just one mortar round or missile strike on the airport's one runway and the evacuation is basically over. In other words, the hopes and lives of thousands of people are still hanging by a thread.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Ian, thanks for the update.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Coming up, a troubling revelation from the new governor of New York. Before the internet, private citizens were actually private. Now, all your data is crawled, collected, and aggregated by big tech without your consent. That's why, at The Daily Wire, we protect our privacy with ExpressVPN. And you should, too. Visit expressvpn.com slash wire to get three extra months free. Expressvpn.com slash wire.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): This week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed that her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, had underreported the state's COVID death toll by over 12,000 victims. Here with more on this breaking story is Daily Wire managing editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, give some context here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah. Yeah. So as most people remember, at the start of the pandemic, Governor Cuomo forced nursing homes to accept elderly patients from hospitals, whether they were COVID positive or not. Now, that policy was an immediate disaster and left thousands of senior citizens dead. And in January, we found out that Cuomo's office had covered up the true number of nursing home deaths because he thought the data would hurt him politically. According to an attorney general's report, he intentionally undercounted the number of nursing home deaths by 40%.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Right. Now, we thought that was the end of the cover-up, but on Wednesday, we found out even more.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Kathy Hochul, who became governor this week after Cuomo resigned, said Cuomo's downplaying of the COVID death toll was even worse than we initially thought. Worse by a lot. When he left office on Monday, the state had reported 43,400 deaths. But according to Hochul that number is actually 55,500. So a huge difference. Cuomo was underreporting COVID deaths in the state by 12,100 victims. He being accused of using that manipulated data to tout his handling of the crisis. And for the most part, it worked. Early on, he was praised as a decisive leader with his daily PowerPoint press conferences and primetime speeches. You'll remember he even wrote a book on the lessons he learned during COVID. But now that's all aged pretty poorly.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): How did it take so long for this to come to light?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's the question a lot of people are asking right now. It really was all about how they defined COVID death. We now know that Cuomo's administration only counted laboratory-confirmed COVID deaths for their tally. That means they ignored cases where people died at home, in hospice care, or even in prison. More importantly, it means they did not count people who died without ever testing positive, which was a lot of people in the early days of the pandemic when tests weren't always available. According to Hochul, this was an intentional manipulation of data meant to downplay the truth. And the truth was that New York fared horribly during COVID. Ironically, the states that Cuomo attacked for supposedly not taking the pandemic seriously, mainly Florida and Texas, ranked 21st and 25th in COVID deaths per capita, while New York, Cuomo state, was second worst behind only New Jersey.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): What else are we seeing from Hochul so far?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, as you can imagine, she obviously wants to distance herself from Cuomo, who, after being celebrated for most of 2020, is now deeply unpopular in New York. She's promised increased accountability, most notably through a new COVID reporting system that she says will give a more accurate look at COVID data, because according to polling, right now, people in New York do not trust the state government.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Has anyone else been implicated in this scandal?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yes. So in that initial attorney general's report on the cover-up, Howard Zucker, the state's health commissioner, was pretty heavily implicated. And from what we're told, Hochul could now be removing him for his role in the scandal.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Well, keep us updated as we find out more.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Daily Wire managing editor, Cabot Phillips.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): This week, the Supreme Court ruled that a Trump administration immigration program known as Remain in Mexico must be reinstated. Here to discuss what this means for the border and the Biden administration is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. Charlotte, welcome.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Hi, Georgia.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): So the Supreme Court upheld a key Trump administration policy. Tell us about it.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right. This is a major ruling. The court ruled against the Biden administration Tuesday and in favor of a previous policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols. The point of the program was to make sure that people coming to this country illegally who are seeking asylum have to remain in Mexico as they wait for their hearings. Prior to this policy, when migrants were released into the U.S. while waiting to be processed, oftentimes they wouldn't show up for immigration hearings or even put in applications for asylum. So this policy aimed to address that issue.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The Supreme Court held that the Biden administration failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memo ending the program was not, quote, arbitrary and capricious.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: That's right. And how did this end up at the Supreme Court?
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Well, multiple states actually sued the administration over it.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In April, the attorneys general of Missouri and Texas filed a lawsuit over the suspension of the policy. And earlier this month, a U.S. district judge sided with them and ruled that the policy should be reinstated. The Biden Department of Justice took the decision to a circuit court but they were denied. The legal challenge ended this week with the Supreme Court decision.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): In the original August ruling, the federal judge said that Biden's Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, went against administrative law in ending the program. The judge said Mayorkas didn't acknowledge its benefits or consider warnings by DHS personnel that getting rid of the policy, along with other policies, would lead to a resurgence of people trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Since the program began under the Trump administration, tens of thousands of people have been sent back to Mexico while they await their hearings. And just give us a little perspective. What are the latest numbers at the border?
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Sure. In July of this year, there were, once again, record numbers of illegal crossings at the southern border. The Department of Homeland Security announced that Border Patrol encountered over 200,000 migrants. In July of last year, that number was around 40,000. So that's about like a five-fold increase.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yeah. And with the Delta variant, there's also concern in the border towns about more viral spread due to high immigration numbers.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Right. According to a DHS document given to President Biden earlier this month, migrants are tested for COVID when they leave Border Patrol custody. And if they test positive, they quarantine in the U.S. The document also said that over 18 percent of migrant families and 20% of unaccompanied minors who came into the country recently tested positive for COVID when they left Border Patrol.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So it's not an insignificant number.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): And what's next for the Remain in Mexico policy? Is it back?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yes, for now. The DHS issued a statement saying that it disagreed with the ruling and would continue to vigorously challenge the order. It did say, however, that the department will comply with it as the appeal process goes on, and that it started discussions with Mexico about the policy.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Other stories we're tracking this week. A new U.S. intelligence report on the origins of the coronavirus is inconclusive on whether the virus jumped from animals to humans or resulted from a laboratory accident. The report was ordered by President Biden in May and delivered to the White House on Tuesday.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Chicago's leading police union is pushing back against vaccine mandates, vowing to take the issue to court if necessary. The president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police said the union is, quote, 100% against mandated vaccines for its members. This after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that all city employees will absolutely be required to get the shot.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): And on Wednesday, an ABC News staffer filed a lawsuit against Michael Korn, claiming that the former top producer of Good Morning America sexually assaulted her and another producer on the show.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): 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. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
