--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Host John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible. Financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Trump pulls ahead once again in the latest New York Times poll as both candidates prepare for this week's make-or-break debate. What can we expect from each candidate and who has the most to gain and lose? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, September 9th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So our entire election depends on the idea that the 20 million illegal aliens who've been smuggled into the country that broke our border laws, that they're going to tell the truth on a federal form? Amid growing concern over illegal immigrants voting in elections, House Republicans tied government funding to a new measure requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And the world watches Brazil as protesters flood the streets in support of free speech after the country bans Elon Musk's social platform X. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: With just two months until the presidential election, a slew of new polls is bringing bad news for Kamala Harris' campaign, and comes just days before her first presidential debate. Here with more is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice. Hey, Tim. So what's going on with these polls?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, hey John, it was not a good weekend for the Harris campaign. A New York Times-Siena poll released yesterday found former President Donald Trump leading Harris 48% to 47%. Now, that may not seem like much, but bear in mind that Democrats generally need to lead by several points to be in a position to secure enough electoral votes to win.
--:-- Tim Rice: Trump won in 2016 after trailing by a pretty wide margin at this point in the campaign. And the more you dig into the data, the worse things look for Harris. More than 60% of likely voters said that the next president needs to represent a major change from President Joe Biden. But only a quarter say that Harris represents that change. And 47% of voters say that Harris is too liberal, despite her recent efforts to disavow her past positions and rebrand herself as a tough-on-crime moderate.
--:-- Tim Rice: One other finding that's sure to have the Kamala camp on edge, 28% of likely voters said they needed to learn more about Harris, while just 9% said the same about Trump. That really raises the stakes for tomorrow night's debate.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Right, all the pressures really on her tomorrow. Now, that's not the only poll showing Harris behind, right?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, that's right. Also yesterday, 538 pegged Trump's odds of winning the electoral college at 63.8%, a new high compared to Harris 36.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The Harris campaign is working to manage expectations ahead of tomorrow debate with campaign chair Jen O Dillon reminding voters that Harris entered the race as a quote unquote underdog and that a lot can change between now and November
--:-- Tim Rice: The Trump campaign meanwhile, is sounding very optimistic, with Trump spokesman Jason Miller declaring, quote, the honeymoon is officially over and Kamala Harris has been exposed as a radical left individual who owns the destruction of our economy and our border.
--:-- Host John Bickley: This is clearly good news for Trump, but is it maybe a bit too early for his campaign to start celebrating?
--:-- Tim Rice: Definitely. Harris is still polling slightly ahead of Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three battleground states that almost certainly will decide the election. Remember, Trump likely just needs to win one, while Harris likely needs all three.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that both campaigns are fighting to lock down the Latino vote in Philadelphia, which could determine who wins the state. Biden carried Pennsylvania by just 80,000 votes in 2020, although Trump did make inroads among Philadelphia Latinos in the last campaign.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Of course, this week, all eyes are on Philadelphia for a different reason. How are the campaigns preparing for tomorrow's big debate?
--:-- Tim Rice: The New York Times has reported that Harris has gone all in on prep, holding up for five days in a Pennsylvania hotel on a mock debate set, facing off against the campaign staffer dressed in full Donald Trump regalia.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Trump is taking a more informal approach, meeting with his advisors for quote-unquote policy time, during which he brushes up on the same points he made in his first and only debate with Biden.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Trump will likely try to attack Harris on policy lines, tying her to unpopular Biden-Harris administration policies and digging her for not articulating policy positions of her own.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Harris has reportedly decided to abandon Biden's strategy of attacking Trump as an existential threat to democracy and will instead attempt to paint him as an out-of-touch elitist.
--:-- Host John Bickley: This is shaping up to be a make-or-break week here, particularly for Harris. Tim, thanks for reporting.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: House Republicans want to tie election reforms to a budget bill this month, setting up a potential government shutdown battle. The reforms would aim to block non-citizens from registering to vote. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the budget battle brewing on Capitol Hill and the concerns over illegal immigration that's driving it. Hi, Tim. So first, what is House Speaker Mike Johnson after here?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, John. This could set up a high-stakes government shutdown fight just weeks out from the election. Johnson and Republicans in the House want to use a stopgap funding bill to get the Senate to strengthen election laws, in particular by requiring proof of citizenship as part of voter registration.
--:-- Host John Bickley: House Republicans in this session have prioritized election security, a major issue for former President Trump. I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don't get it, and if they don't get it in the bill.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Why are Republicans focused on a proof of citizenship requirement above other election integrity measures?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, the requirement is well-suited for Republicans to tie it in with another high priority for them, the crisis at the southern border. We've seen several states recently purge their voter rolls of thousands of non-citizens who somehow registered to vote.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Texas removed 6 non-citizens from its rolls, Alabama removed over 3, Louisiana removed about 600, including 138 non-citizens who appeared to have actually cast a ballot in an election.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now these may or may not seem like big numbers, but elections are often decided by slim margins. Here's Florida Senator Rick Scott explaining that on Fox Business last week.
--:-- Tim Pierce: We have got to make sure non-citizens don't vote. We just saw that what it was, Virginia, Alabama, Texas just cut off 16,000 people off their voter rolls that were non-citizens. My last election was won by 10,000 votes. This is important.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Now, these funding battles can be tricky to navigate. The party perceived to be shutting down the government is typically the one that is punished in the next election.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That obviously makes this funding battle particularly risky ahead of a presidential election.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Here was Scott painting Democrats as a shutdown party if they don't support this requirement.
--:-- Host John Bickley: It's not us. We're saying we want to fund government and we ought to do it through next year so the next president has the opportunity to make sure he fixes the budget. And we ought to make sure non-citizens don't vote. It's pretty simple.
--:-- Host John Bickley: If Chuck Schumer doesn't believe in those things, then let him make that decision.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Now, we've seen more and more headlines about the immigration issue recently and its impact on communities. What can you tell us about that?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Right. We're starting to see more and more pretty localized stories propelled into the national media because of how alarming and sometimes just outlandish they are.
--:-- Host John Bickley: We've reported several times now about the gang activity in Colorado.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Then there's what has happened in Springfield, Ohio. According to the latest census, the city is made up of less than about 60,000 residents, but local officials estimate that about 20,000 Haitians have moved in, mostly since the pandemic, and residents are complaining about what those migrants have done to the community.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Here's what one Springfield resident told the city commission last month.
--:-- Tim Pierce: I don't even want to seem like I'm coming down on the immigrants because it's the people that's bringing them down here because wherever they're at, that's what they're used to, bro. They're in the park, grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with them and eating them.
--:-- Host John Bickley: It's been pretty shocking for many residents whose neighborhoods have dealt with an influx of these migrants.
--:-- Host John Bickley: We're hearing reports now from more communities across the country, seemingly every week.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Brazil's decision to ban the social media platform X sparked massive protests in the capital city of Sao Paulo over the weekend. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris's past statements on online censorship have come under increased scrutiny. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here with more. So Megan, we reported last week that the Brazilian government shut down X because Elon Musk wouldn't censor citizens' speech. People are clearly up in arms about it. What's the latest?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, Georgia, I can tell you that if you look at that video from Sao Paulo this past Saturday, what you'll see is thousands of Brazilian citizens flooding the streets.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Now, estimates vary on just how many were there, but certainly you can see that main thoroughfare of the Capitol completely packed on Saturday.
--:-- Megan Basham: So most of the protesters wore the green and yellow of the country's flag, but you also saw quite a few sporting T-shirts and waving flags with Elon Musk's face on them.
--:-- Megan Basham: So the protesters called this an Independence Day rally. And those who participated said it was in support of free speech, of course, but also democracy more broadly.
--:-- Megan Basham: This was one of the speakers, Gustavo Gaier, a member of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies.
--:-- Megan Basham: We will never bend our knees to no dictator. We will fight for our democracy no matter what cost. Brazil is now a beacon of hope for every single person who loves freedom and democracy in the world. Learn from Brazil. This is how we fight dictatorship.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Now what about Brazil former president Jair Bolsonaro. Obviously he's a major figure in the protest as well.
--:-- Megan Basham: Right he is. So Brazil former right president has very much made free speech one of his key issues ahead of the country municipal elections that are coming this October.
--:-- Megan Basham: But officially, Bolsonaro has been banned from running again until 2030 because of what the current administration claims was an attempted coup.
--:-- Megan Basham: So for those who don't remember, in January 2023, Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress and the presidential palace after what they claim was a rigged election.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: And that's part of why the current government under left-wing President Lula says that online speech has to be policed because they say that's how Bolsonaro supporters organized before and because they say that incident proves that Bolsonaro is a threat to democracy.
--:-- Megan Basham: So you can really see some parallels to American politics there in Brazil in the last couple of years.
--:-- Megan Basham: And that same judge, de Mores, who led the charge against Elon Musk and X, also spearheaded a criminal investigation into Bolsonaro for some financial malfeasance and allegedly falsifying his COVID vaccine records.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Now, Bolsonaro has denied all of this and called the investigation a witch hunt.
--:-- Megan Basham: And part of the reason many analysts say that the Brazilian government banned X was not just because Musk refused to censor speech, but because he would not cooperate in censoring support of Bolsonaro. So specifically political speech.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Yeah. Now, we talked last week about how the Biden administration has stayed very quiet about what's happening in Brazil. Are there any new developments there?
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, not yet. So obviously a number of news outlets have asked the White House for comment. And so far they haven't provided one, not even anything coming from the U.S. State Department.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: And some former Bolsonaro officials are calling them out on that, saying that the U.S., and I'm quoting here, has a responsibility to be a reference point for democracy, for rule of law, for freedom in the hemisphere.
--:-- Megan Basham: What's happening in Brazil has really shined a light on Kamala Harris's position on censorship. When running for president in 2019, she threatened to hold social media platforms accountable if they didn't police or censor what she called misinformation or hate.
--:-- Megan Basham: And if you profit off of hate, if you act as a megaphone for misinformation or cyber warfare, if you don't police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable as a community.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: There are rumors that if Kamala Harris wins the election, she may appoint Minnesota's current attorney general, Keith Ellison, to be USAG. And he has clearly signaled his support for Brazil's decision to ban X.
--:-- Megan Basham: Just last Monday, right after that decision came down, he tweeted this. Thank you, Brazil, in Portuguese.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: The Trump campaign immediately responded, calling Ellison a radical and a natural fit for Harris. while unpopular political speech is exactly why we have the First Amendment.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host Georgia Howe: Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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