--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the host, John Bickley, speaks]
--:-- John Bickley: Good morning, and welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, your editor-in-chief here at the Daily Wire. Joining me today is my co-host, Georgia Howe. Georgia, thanks for being here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks, John. It's great to be here.
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--:-- John Bickley: The Supreme Court hands down a rare 9-0 decision, saying states cannot kick Donald Trump off the ballot. The state, the city, and the federal, they're all coordinated with the White House. Its weaponization never been done in this country. But Democrats are already strategizing a workaround.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I am working to revive legislation by which we could determine that someone who committed insurrection is disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 5th, and this is Morning Wire.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Texas gains more ground in their immigration battle, while a troubling report shows the Biden administration flew hundreds of thousands of migrants directly to U.S. cities from abroad. And years after decriminalizing all drugs, the state of Oregon is backtracking. It's now about four Oregonians a day are dying because of overdoses.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: President Biden, number one, stop weaponization. Fight your fight yourself. Don't use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent to try and damage your opponent so you can win an election. Our country is much bigger than that. That was President Trump reacting Monday to a unanimous Supreme Court decision that Colorado does not have the power to kick him off its primary ballot.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to break down the court's decision and Trump's response is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So for those who haven't been following the reasoning of this case, the Colorado Supreme Court had ruled that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was written to bar former Confederates from holding office, also applies to Trump because Colorado ruled he tried to commit an insurrection.
--:-- John Bickley: And we did see some pundits who are branded as conservative in major media outlets support that decision. But by a 9-0 decision, SCOTUS disagreed.
--:-- Megan Basham: And legal experts say that the reasoning they offered is broad enough in scope that it won't just apply to primary ballots in Colorado. It will also prevent officials in all states from trying to keep Trump off of their general election ballots in November.
--:-- John Bickley: So five of the conservative justices ruled that right now a candidate must be convicted of being an insurrectionist under federal statute. And if that's to change, Congress has to do it legislatively, not courts, not states.
--:-- Megan Basham: Brown, Sotomayor, and Kagan said that went too far. But Hans von Spakovsky, who is a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told me that he didn't think the liberal justices' concurrences represented much meaningful distinction.
--:-- John Bickley: Frankly, I believe that they were simply trying to put out some material to keep the criticism of them to a minimum. Because I think, again, the political left is going to be very critical of the three liberal justices for going along with this.
--:-- Megan Basham: And Amy Coney Barrett's concurrence took pains to underline the agreement on the court. She wrote, quoting, for present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity. All nine justices agree on the outcome of this case. And that is the message that Americans should take home.
--:-- John Bickley: She also said that the court's ruling on this, what she called politically charged issue, should turn the national temperature down, not up.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, Trump's team is going to be arguing in a separate case about presidential immunity later this year. Does this ruling affect his chances in that case at all?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, you know, that was a very hot topic of conversation right after this ruling came down. And most analysts are saying, no, it likely won't.
--:-- Megan Basham: They're really two totally separate cases. And these analysts are saying that it's going to be much tougher for the Trump team to persuade the court on his next argument, which is that presidential immunity shields from the insurrection charge altogether.
--:-- John Bickley: And perhaps knowing this, Trump surprisingly took up a significant amount of time in his press conference yesterday presenting his argument for immunity.
--:-- Megan Basham: Essentially, he made his case directly to the American people. If a president doesn't have full immunity, you really don't have a president because nobody that is serving in that office will have the courage to make, in many cases, what would be the right decision, or it could be the wrong decision.
--:-- John Bickley: It could be, in some cases, the wrong decision, but they have to make decisions and they have to make them free of all terror that can be rained upon them when they leave office or even before they leave office.
--:-- Megan Basham: So does this week's ruling mark the end of the Democrat effort to keep Trump off the ballots? It doesn't look like it.
--:-- John Bickley: Only a couple of hours after the ruling, Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is the ranking Democrat of the House Oversight Committee, announced that he is going to work on bringing new legislation in light of the court's decision.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it will include a resolution that declares January 6th to have been an insurrection and Trump to have engaged an insurrection.
--:-- John Bickley: But Raskin is going to have an uphill battle as Democrats don't have the votes right now. And it's pretty unlikely that Speaker Johnson will put it to a vote.
--:-- Megan Basham: All right. Well, that'll be interesting to watch.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: The state of Texas scores a legal win in its immigration battle, while a new report shows that the Biden administration has shuttled more than 300,000 illegals directly into U.S. cities from abroad. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So a federal appeals court this weekend paved the way for Senate Bill 4 to take effect as soon as March 9th. Basically, a federal judge had blocked the law, and then Texas Governor Greg Abbott appealed, and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court ruling and granted a stay for seven days.
--:-- John Bickley: Now this allowed time for the Biden administration to appeal They did on Monday and the Supreme Court hours later stayed the appeals court ruling This temporarily stops the law from going into effect until March 13th Texas has until March 11th to respond to the Biden administration.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, remind us what Senate Bill 4 does. So it permits local Texas officials to enforce immigration law. Under SB4, it would be a state misdemeanor to cross the Texas-Mexico border illegally. Those who cross illegally can be deported back to their native countries, which directly defies Biden's current catch and release policy, or that migrant would face prosecution.
--:-- John Bickley: It also targets repeat offenders. So if an illegal immigrant tries to re-enter the state, they could be penalized with up to 20 years in prison.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Abbott has argued in the past that SB4 is necessary since he says Biden is neglecting his constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting Texas and other states for that matter from the, quote, invasion at our southern border.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, left-wing civil rights groups and the Biden administration were quick to sue over that law. They're arguing that it's racist and outside Texas's purview.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, broadening out here a bit, a report surfaced on Monday about hundreds of thousands of migrants being flown directly to American cities from other countries.
--:-- John Bickley: Tell us about that.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yes, Todd Benzman, writing at the Center for Immigration Studies, reported that 320,000 inadmissible migrants had flown directly into the U.S. in 2023 alone. Now, that was mostly facilitated by the CBP1 cell phone app, which is a U.S. government program.
--:-- John Bickley: CIS was able to confirm that 43 U.S. airports have received these migrants. However, the government has refused to disclose the names of those airports.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: The report reveals that, according to the government, these under-the-radar flights of immigrants, which are facilitated by the U.S. government, are creating security vulnerabilities at dozens of U.S. airports.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, why would the U.S. government be flying migrants directly into the U.S.?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So this is part of a dramatic expansion of immigration parole programs. Historically, immigrant parolees were given legal pathways to temporarily reside in the U.S. due to major events like a war breaking out and refugees needing a safe place to reside. Or sometimes it was offered to immigrants on a rare case-by-case basis.
--:-- John Bickley: But under Biden, more than one million migrants have been granted parole, which is a legal pathway, directly into the U.S.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So if all of this is legal and above board, why aren't the locations being provided?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, CIS said government lawyers are arguing that releasing this information to the public would cause security threats.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: In his report, Benzman cited a legal filing from lawyers for Customs and Border Patrol that stated if Border Patrol does disclose the airports or how many migrants are arriving here, it would reveal operational vulnerabilities that could be exploited by bad actors, thereby undermining CBP's law enforcement efforts to secure the United States borders.
--:-- John Bickley: But Benzman said the American public has a right to know this information.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: He also explained that these so-called bad actors already do have some access to where this is all taking place. For example, airports in Boston, Chicago, and New York City have all seen huge spikes in arrivals from 2022 to 2023.
--:-- John Bickley: So 300,000 flown in in just one year. That is information that Americans would want to know.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You're welcome.
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--:-- John Bickley: Lawmakers in Oregon voted this month to reverse a controversial law that had decriminalized all drugs in the state after years of surging overdose deaths and crime. Here are the latest is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, Cabot. It really a stunning reversal out of Oregon here What can you tell us about this new law?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, so some quick background Back in 2020 Oregon became the first state in the country to decriminalize the possession of all drugs after 58 of Oregonians voted yes on the law known as Measure 110 That meant that residents in Oregon could possess everything from cocaine and meth to heroin and fentanyl with no real legal consequences.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, at the time, supporters of the measure claimed that it would remove the stigma of drug addiction and encourage users to seek treatment because, theoretically, they'd be less fearful of legal repercussions.
--:-- John Bickley: Democratic lawmakers in support of the measure also said drug laws unfairly targeted minorities and argued that decriminalization was a means of combating white supremacy in the criminal justice system.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But after three years in place, Oregon has become ground zero for the nation's drug epidemic, and many of the lawmakers who lobbied for decriminalization are now actually voting in favor of recriminalization of those same drugs.
--:-- John Bickley: Yes, a reversing course after some really dire consequences. Give us some context on what we've seen in Oregon in recent years?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, in 2019, the year before decriminalization, the state saw 280 overdose deaths. By 2021, it was 738. By the next year, that number had more than tripled to 956.
--:-- John Bickley: And we're still waiting on the final data for 2023, but at the moment, they're on pace for 1,250 deaths, meaning overdose fatalities have more than quadrupled in Oregon since they decriminalized hard drugs.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, under this new law, those caught with hard drugs were offered voluntary treatment programs instead of jail time.
--:-- John Bickley: But despite allocating tens of millions of dollars towards those treatment services, in the first two years of the program, by the state's own count, just 92 people signed up and completed those courses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: To that point, here's Republican State Rep Tim Knopp speaking with Fox. Instead of treatment that the voters thought they were going to get for their family and friends who were on drugs and addicted, they ended up getting unbridled drug use, drug sales, all over major cities across Oregon.
--:-- John Bickley: The skyrocketing overdose rates have also strained first responders and often pulled them from other duties.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In 2019, the Portland Police Department responded to what they call high-priority calls within eight minutes on average. Last year, however, it took an average of 21 minutes.
--:-- John Bickley: And that's all led to frustration among voters in Oregon, correct?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. And now we've seen lawmakers respond. Last week, the state House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to recriminalize the possession of hard drugs.
--:-- John Bickley: The new legislation will now head to the desk of Democrat Governor Tina Kotek, who is obviously facing pressure from voters and lawmakers from her own party to sign off.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, this latest reversal comes as other Democrat-controlled cities have passed similar measures cracking down on drug use.
--:-- John Bickley: Tell us about that trend.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, a fascinating trend here. So in Seattle, for example, the Democrat-controlled city council had repeatedly struck down a law that would have allowed law enforcement to pursue stronger charges against those using drugs in public.
--:-- John Bickley: But in September, they reversed course and voted 6-3 to enact that measure amid rampant drug use and violent crime in the city.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Likewise, in Philadelphia, the Democrat-controlled city council forced through a ban on so-called safe injection sites after the Democratic mayor tried to veto it.
--:-- John Bickley: And in San Francisco, voters appear set this week to pass a new law that will require recipients of public benefits to submit to mandatory random drug screenings.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So after really leading the charge to loosen drug laws, Democratic lawmakers in some cities have just been forced to reverse course amid surging overdose deaths and rising frustration from voters.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, with these results, I guess it's not surprising we're seeing these reversals.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us we'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
