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--:-- John Bickley: Donald Trump goes back to Washington and gets an important show of solidarity from Republicans on the Hill. We're going to bring back our jobs. We're going to bring back common sense to government. We're going to have strong borders. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Friday, June 14th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Newly revealed evidence which the FBI wanted withheld from the public provides insight into the motive behind the tragic murders at a Christian school in Tennessee. And the Supreme Court delivers two significant rulings on abortion pills and the power of a controversial federal agency. So at stake here was the way in which the majority of abortions in states where it is legal are conducted. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: Donald Trump was in Washington, D.C. on Thursday afternoon to meet with Republican lawmakers and other major figures in the upcoming election. The events were a sign of unity, though not every GOP member of Congress chose to attend. Here to discuss the meetings and what they could mean for the presidential race is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, Dave. So what were the expectations going into these meetings and were they accomplished?
--:-- John Bickley: Morning, John. As you say, this was really meant to show that all Republicans in Congress, or at least the vast, vast majority, are solidly backing Trump and are singing from the same hymn book on major policy issues heading into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which is now just a month away.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Here's some of the issues Trump stressed in remarks later in the day, flanked by U.S. senators. There's tremendous unity in the Republican Party. We want to see borders. We want to see strong military. We want to see money not wasted all over the world. We don't want to see Russian ships right off the coast of Florida.
--:-- John Bickley: The mood was quite festive. Apparently, members saying happy birthday to the former president, Representative Mark Amodi of Nevada said it was, quote, a pep rally and mandatory fun for everyone, end quote.
--:-- David Marcus: This was also the first time that Trump met Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and the campaign released a photo of the two of them. This is significant because Youngkin has been viewed as critical of Trump in the past, isn't viewed as hyper MAGA and yet was there to show his support.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah This was also the first time that Trump and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had spoken since January 6th And that was a relationship that until quite recently was icy enough to sink the Titanic So again this is pretty strong symbolism Yeah indeed
--:-- David Marcus: There was one moment when Trump appeared to be helping to soothe hurt feelings within the GOP congressional delegation. What can you tell us about that?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, so Marjorie Taylor Greed was interviewed by CNN after the meeting and had this to say. He said, are you being nice? He was joking. Are you being nice to Speaker Johnson. And I said, and he said, OK, be nice to him. And I nodded my head.
--:-- David Marcus: Listeners will remember that it was Green who threatened to try to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, not much more than a month or two ago. Trump more or less stayed out of that battle, though he did express support for Johnson and the Donalds being the one to patch things up here, just further solidifies that he's not just the leader of a wing of the GOP. He's just flat out the leader of the GOP.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah. As you mentioned, there were a handful of holdouts who chose not to meet with Trump. Who were they and how significant is that now?
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Senators Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins all made a fairly public point of skipping the meeting with Trump. This really is the last of the GOP never Trump brigade, especially with both Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger gone from the House.
--:-- John Bickley: Ultimately, Trump's runaway victory in the Republican primary sent a clear message to elected officials that this was who voters wanted. There are a few others, notably Maryland GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan has yet to say he'd vote for Trump, at least so far. But that's an increasingly isolated position in the grand old party.
--:-- David Marcus: And in fact, Trump told Fox News that he is endorsing Hogan, notwithstanding Hogan's reticence to reciprocate. Look, it's an aggressive move that puts the ball in the Maryland Terrapin Senate nominees court.
--:-- John Bickley: Right now, it was a busy day for Trump as he also met with the business roundtable, which included a number of heavy hitters in finance and tech. Who exactly was there? And is Trump continuing to gain more support in these sectors?
--:-- David Marcus: Heavy hitters indeed, John, and with very deep pockets. Attendees included Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and Citigroup's Jane Frazier. It comes in the wake of Trump's successful fundraisers that we covered with big oil and big tech in Texas and California, respectively.
--:-- John Bickley: And not unlike the more moderate senators who stood alongside the former president today, the message here does seem to be that supporting Trump is not the kind of scarlet letter in the business world that it might once have been. And that was really the purpose of the whole day for Team Trump.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah, indeed. Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Warning to parents, the following might not be appropriate for younger ears. The writings of the shooter who murdered six people, including three children at Nashville's Covenant School, are finally starting to come out after being kept under seal for more than a year. The Daily Wire exclusively obtained images of four pages from the journal, which was recovered by Nashville police at the scene of the shooting last March.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more information on what those pages show us is Daily Wire Investigations editor, Brent Schur.
--:-- Brent Schur: Hi, John. So the writings we obtained reveal a very troubled woman who's obsessed with being a man. The specific pages we obtained are a journal entry titled My Imaginary Penis. And in it, she expresses a lot of frustration about being a girl, and she voices anger at the forces she sees as preventing her from changing her sex Now there are a few passages I think are especially important and you could read the full unredacted entries at dailywire
--:-- John Bickley: She writes about the torture of being a girl and how going through puberty was a life sentence for her. She also expresses a lot of resentment towards kids who are now able to be treated with puberty blockers, saying she'd killed to have had that opportunity.
--:-- Brent Schur: The journal also reveals that it wasn't until her 20s that she decided, and this is a quote, that changing one's gender is possible. But the journal indicates that this determination only made her angrier that she didn't have that ability.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, so this was written on March 11th, that's 16 days before the shooting, and her clear obsession at that point is gender ideology.
--:-- Brent Schur: Yeah, I think that's undeniable based on reading her writings. We've long known that she identified as transgender, but this is perhaps the most thorough illustration of her mental state in the days leading up to the shooting.
--:-- John Bickley: And she expressed a lot of anger, including at Christianity and her parents. In the journal entry, she says she no longer believed in religion because of her parents' views on gender identity.
--:-- Brent Schur: Here's the quote. Parents actually believe religion can change nature. That could explain why I don't practice religion anymore. Now, these comments seem very relevant to her motive given she attacked a private Christian school when she once attended.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, and I think that's what's causing so much outrage over all this. The FBI reportedly warned Nashville police not to release these writings, warning that their publication could lead to false narratives. Officials also broadly said that the writings didn't lead to any clear conclusion about her motive. But now that we're starting to see what was in it, That's just obviously not the case.
--:-- Brent Schur: Now, what do we know about how her gender issues were being treated? So we do know where she was being treated. It was reported last week by the Tennessee Star that she had been seeing mental health doctors at Vanderbilt University for 22 years. That's since she was six years old.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah. And it's also been reported that Nashville police have asked Vanderbilt to hand over all information about what treatments and medication she'd undergone. We've asked Vanderbilt about this, and they haven't commented to us or anyone, but we know, thanks to Daily Wire reporting in the past, that Vanderbilt is a gender-affirming operation.
--:-- Brent Schur: So doctors are blowing the whistle on just how harmful this sort of treatment can be. Just last week, the American College of Pediatricians came out against the affirmation strategy, explaining that with gender dysphoria, like what the shooter suffered, there's almost always underlying mental issues.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's physician Andre Van Moel. Gender dysphoria carries with it the overwhelming probability of underlying mental health issues, adverse family dynamics, adverse childhood experiences, and autism spectrum disorder that usually predate the gender dysphoria itself.
--:-- Brent Schur: So that applies directly to the Covenant shooter, who writes in the journal about being autistic, as well as conflict she had with her parents. but all her focus was directed towards dysphoria and how it was treated could be how we arrived here, according to doctors.
--:-- John Bickley: Gender-affirming health care has neither been shown to be safe nor effective nor of more help than harm. Physicians take an oath to do no harm and gender-affirming health care is documented to lead to harm.
--:-- Brent Schur: So I think going forward, there's going to be a lot of attention directed at Vanderbilt and exactly how it was treating her.
--:-- John Bickley: Brent, great reporting. Thanks for coming on.
--:-- Brent Schur: Yeah, of course.
--:-- John Bickley: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill Mifepristone sending it back to a lower court Daily Wire investigative reporter Mireille Alordi is here with the details.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Hi, John. Well, this ruling means that mifepristone pills can continue to be mailed to patients without seeing a doctor in person. This was a unanimous 9-0 ruling by the Supreme Court justices. They rejected a lawsuit from a group of doctors who are opposed to abortion and who are pushing for more restrictions on mifepristone, which is the most common abortion drug.
--:-- John Bickley: It's one of two drugs taken together to cause an abortion. The case, called FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was the first major abortion case to come before the Supreme Court since 2022 when the court overturned Roe v. Wade.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: So why did the court reject this case? Can you give us some of the details on that?
--:-- John Bickley: Of course. So in the opinion of the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the doctors who brought the case lacked standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration's regulations around the abortion pill, since these doctors don't personally prescribe mifepristone themselves.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Kavanaugh said that because of this, the link between the FDA's regulatory actions and the doctor's alleged injuries from mifepristone is, quote, too speculative.
--:-- John Bickley: Kavanaugh did acknowledge that many citizens, including the plaintiff doctors here, have sincere concerns about and objections to others using mifepristone in obtaining abortions, but he said that alone does not give them standing to bring a case.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: And what's the reaction been to this ruling from the plaintiffs and pro-life leaders? They're mostly expressing their disappointment and vowing to keep fighting.
--:-- John Bickley: Attorney Aaron Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the doctors, said the plaintiffs were disappointed the court did not agree with them on the, quote, lawless removal of common sense safety standards for abortion drugs.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Hawley noted, however, that the court emphasized that federal law fully protects doctors against being required to provide abortions or other medical treatment against their consciences.
--:-- John Bickley: Kristen Wagoner, president, CEO, and general counsel of ADF, previously sounded the alarm on how dangerous abortion drugs can be for women. Here's Wagoner on ABC in March.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: The FDA itself recently has said, and even in the data most recently in 2021, says that emergency room visits will increase as a result of their decision to not only remove the in-person visits before a woman is induced into labor in her dorm room or in her home, but in addition to that, that thousands of women have suffered severe complications because of taking this drug.
--:-- John Bickley: Dr. Ingrid Skop, a board-certified OBGYN and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said she's seen firsthand that mail-order abortion drugs harm her patients.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: She said that abortion advocates and corporate media ignore their stories as they shamelessly promote mail-order distribution of dangerous drugs without a single in-person doctor visit. And she said as a tragic result, she expects to see more women need blood transfusions, emergency surgery, and other emergency measures.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, before you go, we had another significant ruling from the Supreme Court on Thursday. Tell us about that.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Right. So in another nine to zero decision, the court also ruled on a Starbucks labor dispute. The coffee company was forced to rehire a group of employees known as the Memphis Seven, who said they'd been fired after they tried to unionize. Starbucks said they fired the group because they allowed a TV crew into the store after hours, which was against policy.
--:-- John Bickley: The National Labor Relations Board intervened at the time and got a judge to force Starbucks to rehire the employees. But on Thursday, the high court sided with Starbucks saying the NLRB needed to meet a higher standard of proof of harm before forcing the company to rehire the employees.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Well, both big cases and as far as the abortion pill case, definitely a disappointment for the pro-life movement.
--:-- John Bickley: Marie, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Mireille Alordi: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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