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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe, and I'm here with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, we've got a lot to cover. Special counsel Jack Smith is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on Donald Trump's presidential immunity. Harvard's president is under fire, and Capitol Hill saw dozens of arrests as pro-Palestinian protesters took over a Senate office building. We'll dive into all of that and more.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Let's start with the Trump case. Special counsel Jack Smith is trying to bypass the appeals process by asking the Supreme Court to rule quickly on whether former President Trump is protected by presidential immunity.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right, Georgia. This is a race against the clock for Jack Smith. He's doing everything he can to try to preserve that March 4th trial date.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What would a Supreme Court ruling mean for Trump's case and his 2024 presidential run?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, if the Supreme Court rules in Trump's favor, it could potentially delay the trial and give Trump more time to prepare his defense. On the other hand, if the court rules against him, it could mean that the trial goes forward as scheduled, and Trump could face the possibility of conviction.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're joined now by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Dave, thanks for coming on.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, what is it exactly that Smith is asking of the court, and why is it so unusual?
--:-- David Marcus: Smith is asking the Supreme Court to rule directly on the question of whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for actions he took while president. To do this, the court would have to bypass the lower D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, basically skipping a step to save time.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A judge already ruled against immunity for Trump, allowing the trial to go forward. But Trump's attorneys have vowed to appeal that ruling and presumably if they lost that to appeal to the Supreme Court. So Smith just wants to get it decided now with the possible delay of months or even a year if the court says no.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Now, why is Smith so adamant that the trial occurs so soon?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right now, it's scheduled for March, just ahead of Super Tuesday. Is there a legal reason to move this fast?
--:-- David Marcus: George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley addressed this Monday. Here's what he had to say: "The only reason for that is that he is really focused entirely on trying Trump during this campaign and trying to convict him before the election."
--:-- Georgia Howe: The question is whether the Supreme Court's going to feel that that is such an urgent priority that you actually bring this case before Super Tuesday. Usually, the Supreme Court likes to hear from multiple courts of appeals. They certainly want normally to hear from at least one on these issues.
--:-- David Marcus: So it does appear that this is motivated by Smith's desire to have this trial during the election, perhaps in part so that voters can have the full story before Election Day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even though that's not quite a legal argument, but more a political one.
--:-- David Marcus: Turley did go on to say that Smith might also be concerned that were Trump to win next year's election before a trial, he could preemptively pardon himself and this would all go away.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do we have any sense of how the court might rule on this, both in regard to Smith's request to skip the D.C. court and whether Trump actually does have immunity from prosecution?
--:-- David Marcus: I mean, more or less no to both. As we've pointed out, it is a novel request. And in general, the court would want to hear from the lower courts before weighing in.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's not clear that the justices will share Jack Smith's sense of urgency regarding the possibility of Trump being elected president again.
--:-- David Marcus: To the merits, Smith invoked Watergate and a very fast decision by the court in 1974 that ruled Richard Nixon was not immune from having to produce the infamous missing recordings from his Oval Office.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If that is indeed the precedent that the court decides is controlling here, then it's very likely Donald Trump will lose this appeal and have to face trial, whether before or after voters make their decision in November.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There was also a significant development in Trump's New York civil trial, in which the former president had been expected to testify on Monday in his own defense, but then he made a last-minute decision not to appear.
--:-- David Marcus: Trump posted to his Truth Social account that he had taken the advice of his lawyers who basically said that he had more to lose than to gain by taking the stand again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Listeners will recall that Trump's testimony during the prosecution's portion of this trial was rather raucous, with yelling and Trump accusing the process of being unfair.
--:-- David Marcus: The possibility of that kind of circus occurring again was what made Monday's potential testimony so highly anticipated.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But for once, Trump valued lawyerly advice over the opportunity to make a big splash. This might also be a tacit acknowledgement that this is very serious stuff.
--:-- David Marcus: Now there's only one expert witness left for Trump. And then it goes to the judge who Trump regularly insults to decide on a punishment. And that could be millions of dollars.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It could also mean Donald Trump, once one of New York's most famous businessmen, can never do business in Gotham again.
--:-- David Marcus: The stakes are high.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dave, thanks for coming on.
--:-- David Marcus: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As pressure mounts for Harvard president Claudine Gay to resign, one major donor claims her handling of anti-Semitism on campus has cost the university $1 billion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We're joined now by Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, do we have any sense yet of what Harvard's governing board of directors is going to decide about Gay's fate?
--:-- Megan Basham: Not yet, but we do know what factors they're probably weighing right now. And one of them is that billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who is a Harvard alum and a major donor, has been leading the charge against Gay.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And what's Ackman's argument against Gay?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, he's released a letter to Harvard's governing board of directors on Sunday, in which he said that Gay has done more damage to Harvard's reputation than anyone in its nearly 500-year history.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And he also said that her failures have led to billions of dollars of canceled, paused, and withdrawn donations.
--:-- Megan Basham: That's right. And Ackman also said that he has personal knowledge that Gay's response to Congress about whether calls for Jewish genocide violate the university's code of conduct has cost the school a billion dollars.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There were protests on campus, and the protests were supportive of terrorism. You know, when you have a group of students shouting "intifada, intifada, let free Palestine from the river to the sea." The meaning of intifada means to kill Jews.
--:-- Megan Basham: Had this been another ethnic group where this kind of activity took place, Harvard would be suspending the people involved.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And this is not just a Harvard problem. It's an NYU problem. It's a University of Pennsylvania problem. The more I examine the issue, the more woke, the more left-leaning the institution, the more anti-Semitism.
--:-- Megan Basham: Ackman also highlighted allegations that came out late Sunday night that Gay plagiarized parts of her doctoral thesis.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And Gay responded to those charges on Monday, saying that she stands by the integrity of her scholarship.
--:-- Megan Basham: The whole saga has really reignited some simmering grievances about Gay's appointment, including the accusation that she's not actually qualified for the position.
--:-- Georgia Howe: National Review ran a story last year that showed she has only written 11 peer-reviewed journal articles in 20 years.
--:-- Megan Basham: Jeffrey Miller, a University of New Mexico psychology professor, said that normally, you'd have to publish that many in just one year to even get hired as a first-year tenure-track assistant professor at a decent state university.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, never mind to ascend to the presidency of a top Ivy League school.
--:-- Megan Basham: And she's also only co-edited one book. She's never actually published any books.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, that's led to accusations that Gay was a DEI hire and did not get her position due to merit.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, how about her supporters? What are they saying?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, about a quarter of Harvard's faculty signed a petition asking the university not to fire her.
--:-- Megan Basham: And they say that this is a matter of academic freedom and that Harvard's board should defend the school's independence and resist political pressure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The executive committee of the Harvard Alumni Association also released a letter saying it has full confidence in Gay's leadership.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then I don't know if you'd call this support, but certainly Saturday Night Live made light of the responses that Gay and those other two university presidents gave to Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm going to start screaming questions at these women like I'm Billie Eichner. Intersemitism, yay or nay? I'm sorry, what? Yes or no is calling for the genocide of Jews against the code of conduct for Harvard.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, it depends on the context.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That can't be your answer, you pen lady.
--:-- Megan Basham: Same question, yes or no?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, we are serious about stopping all forms of hatred, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia.
--:-- Megan Basham: The second one, MIT lady, chance to steal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And keep in mind, if you don't say yes, you're going to make me look good, which is really, really hard to do.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, I'll ask you straight up. Do you think genocide is bad?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, that sparked some widespread condemnation, with a lot of critics calling SNL tone deaf at best.
--:-- Megan Basham: According to The New York Post, former SNL star Cecily Strong was supposed to play Stefanik in that sketch. But she reportedly backed out at the last minute because she was uncomfortable with the content of it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it'll be interesting to see if Gay survives this week at Harvard.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dozens were arrested Monday after a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters flooded the atrium of the Hart Senate office building.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hi, Tim. So, starting with the protest, what can you tell us there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Police reportedly arrested about 50 protesters who had crowded onto the ground floor of Hart.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Protesting in congressional office buildings is against the law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Capitol Police said officers also arrested and charged one protester with resisting arrest after he climbed a sculpture in the center of the atrium.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The protest itself was over U.S. support for Israel's war against the terror group Hamas and, oddly, the southern border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The activists called for a ceasefire and several unfurled a banner that read "Aid to Israel equals bombing Palestinians."
--:-- Tim Pierce: They all wore black T-shirts with messages in bold white lettering that read "Invest in life and stop weapons now."
--:-- Georgia Howe: Several protesters also displayed a banner against border funding that said "border funding equals separating families."
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's a bit of what the protests sounded like.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Dozens of protesters pushing the same message showed up outside of an event for President Biden in Philadelphia.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now these protests are happening as lawmakers negotiate over funding for Israel and a few other priorities.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What's the latest on those discussions?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Lawmakers are working on a $110 billion national security bill that would tie together funding for Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid for Gaza, and additional security measures on the southern border.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden and Democrats want $61 billion of that for Ukraine, which, according to one tally, has been allocated $113 billion already.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Republicans don't like funding Ukraine's war further, especially since the fighting lines haven't budged in months, and Ukraine hasn't laid out a clear path for victory.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But enough Republicans are willing to look past that if Democrats would agree to additional funding and tighter security for the southern border.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So far, though, the White House has refused to negotiate, so all that aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza is tied up.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Is there any strategy to breaking the deadlock, or is this bill effectively dead?
--:-- Tim Pierce: The White House seems to be trying to publicly pressure Republicans into getting its way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Biden announced on Sunday that he has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to D.C. to lobby Congress directly.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And Zelensky has some meetings lined up. He's been invited to speak to the Senate, and he's also scheduled to see House Speaker Mike Johnson.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Johnson and House Republicans are leading the Republican push for immigration reform, so Ukraine's president may have a tougher time there.
--:-- Tim Pierce: But Johnson has a lot of allies in the Senate as well, such as Ohio's J.D. Vance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He explained the Republican position on the bill on CNN over the weekend.
--:-- Tim Pierce: On the Ukraine question in particular, everybody knows, everybody with a brain in their head, knows that this was always going to end in negotiation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The idea that Ukraine was going to throw Russia back to the 1991 borders was preposterous. Nobody actually believed it.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So what we're saying to the president and really to the entire world is you need to articulate what the ambition is.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn't?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, I guess we'll see who breaks first.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tim, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Good to be on.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
