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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire, and I'm here with my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, everyone.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking about President Trump's first joint address to Congress since retaking the White House. And, as you might have heard, every Senate Democrat voted against keeping men out of women's sports. We'll get to that in a bit. But first, let's talk about the Xfinity five-year price guarantee. You get five years of the most reliable Wi-Fi with our best equipment included for a price that stays exactly the same. Restrictions apply. New residential customers only. Taxes and fees extra and subject to change. Most reliable Wi-Fi based on OpenSignal Awards USA. Fixed Broadband Experience Report, August 2024.
--:-- John Bickley: President Trump strikes a triumphant tone in his first address to Congress since retaking the White House. The golden age of America has only just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What priorities did the president lay out and how was he received by both houses of Congress?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm here with Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot, so all eyes on Washington last night as Trump gave his joint address. And the evening was many things. It was raucous, funny, at times intense. What did we hear from the president last night?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, we heard a lot. At one hour and 40 minutes, it was the longest address to Congress in American history. Now, much of that was due to interruptions from Democrats. We'll get to that in a bit. But a lot to cover.
--:-- John Bickley: The theme of Trump's address was, quote, "renewal of the American dream." The president took the podium and kicked things off with a simple message. To my fellow citizens, America is back.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, typically, a president's first address to Congress is largely focused on what they're going to do in the future. But Trump started things off by listing off what his administration has already accomplished in the six weeks since he took office.
--:-- John Bickley: As we expected, he started by touting the record decrease in illegal border crossings last month. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossings ever recorded. Thank you.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.
--:-- John Bickley: Next, Trump went on to laud the accomplishments of his administration, while pointing out especially egregious examples of government waste that his administration has uncovered. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Nobody knows what that is. $1 million to promote LGBTQI in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.
--:-- John Bickley: And as we expected, Trump took aim at DEI policies, vowing to force the federal government and corporations to implement merit-based hiring strategies. We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. Our country will be woke no longer.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And the president also used the address to break news on multiple fronts. First, he announced that reciprocal tariffs on our trading partners would officially go into place on April 2nd. Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That's reciprocal back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.
--:-- John Bickley: And then he announced for the first time the capture of one of the masterminds behind the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Tonight I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump went on to address the war in Ukraine following that contentious meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky last week. According to Trump, he says Zelensky is willing to come back to the negotiating table and end the war swiftly.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians, he said. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll get to the response from Democrats in a minute. But first, let's talk about the special guests who joined Trump in the gallery. The tributes were heartwarming and, in some cases, heartbreaking.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us now to highlight some of the personal stories shared with the American people last night is Daily Wire managing editor Tim Rice. So, Tim, there were laughs and tears. What can you tell us about the president's guests?
--:-- Tim Rice: Absolutely, Georgia. And, you know, there's way more to recap than we have time for, but I'll do my best to highlight some of the most notable moments. We have to start with one of the most tender moments of the night.
--:-- John Bickley: DJ Daniel, a young Texas boy who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018 and who dreams of being a police officer. He was in the audience dressed in a police uniform given to him by the Houston Police Department.
--:-- Tim Rice: Trump shouted him out and mentioned that he had been made an honorary cop by a number of police departments. And then Trump surprised him with a very special honor.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'll be honest, I shouted out loud when it happened. Here's some of that incredible moment.
--:-- Tim Rice: I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump also told the story of Peyton McNabb, a female high school athlete who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a male player who was allowed to play on the girls team spiked a volleyball into her head.
--:-- Tim Rice: It was a shot like she's never seen before. She's never seen anything like it. Peyton is here tonight in the gallery, and Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls' team, or they will lose all federal funding.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Also in attendance was Jason Hartley, a high school senior who comes from a family of military service members and law enforcement.
--:-- Tim Rice: As a boy, Jason lost his father, who was a Los Angeles County Sheriff. His dream is to be accepted to West Point.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's what Trump said to him.
--:-- Tim Rice: I'm pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the Corps of Canada.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The gallery erupted with that unexpected good news.
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, I got chills when Trump spoke about Mark Fogle, another one of his guests. As we reported here, Mark was detained in a Russian prison for years until Trump worked to have him released.
--:-- John Bickley: What was that moment like?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, what a remarkable story. And it ties into the first assassination attempt. As our own Cassie Akiva has reported, Trump promised Mark's mother, Malfine, that he would get her son back if he was reelected.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He made that promise just minutes before taking the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a would-be assassin fired at him.
--:-- Tim Rice: Tonight, Trump said that God spared him that day so he could make America great again. But I imagine Malfine thinks God saved Trump so he could bring her son home.
--:-- John Bickley: After 22 days in office, I did just that. And they are here tonight.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As fate would have it, Mark Fogle was born in a small rural town in Butler, Pennsylvania. Have you heard of it?
--:-- Tim Rice: I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally. That was not pleasant.
--:-- John Bickley: And that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage. And I told her I would not forget what she said about her son.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky. Corey Comparatore was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and above all, a protector.
--:-- Tim Rice: Corey Comparatore's wife, Helen, and two daughters, Allison and Kaylee, were also in the audience. Corey, of course, was in attendance at the Butler rally and who was killed by Trump's would-be assassin.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump has made it a point to honor a comparatory since then, including over the summer at the Republican National Convention. And of course, again tonight.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And then there were others who lost daughters to illegal immigrants and gang members. Trump honored Lakin Riley's mother and sister and Jocelyn Nungary's mother, Alexis.
--:-- Tim Rice: Lakin was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden open southern border. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat sanctuary city, a disaster, before ending the life of this beautiful young angel.
--:-- Georgia Howe: With us this evening are Lakin's beloved mother, Allison, and her sister, Lauren.
--:-- John Bickley: And it's worth noting that at least three Democrat senators, Mark Kelly, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Richard Blumenthal, did not stand for Riley's family.
--:-- Georgia Howe: While some really unforgettable tributes last night.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for sharing these stories.
--:-- John Bickley: The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act failed to garner a single Democrat vote on Monday, falling below the 60 votes it needed to advance in the Senate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us now is Sarah Parshall Perry, Senior Legal Fellow at Heritage. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So first, can you lay out the details of the act? What exactly this vote was about?
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: It was actually simply an amendment to Title IX that would have centrally codified Trump's executive order preventing biological males from participating in women's sports.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Very simple. Use the structure of Title IX itself and simply would have made very clear that male and female individuals are biologically distinct and that schools have to keep their athletic scholastic programs separate.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: Unfortunately, the bill fell short of the threshold of 60 votes needed to end debate by nine votes. In fact, 43 Democrats and then two phenomenal independents who caucused with them, voted against the bill.
--:-- John Bickley: Essentially, Democrats Democratic, and they did exactly what, unfortunately, we all anticipated they were going to do.
--:-- Georgia Howe: While there is Democrat resistance like this, conservatives have seen some major wins in this arena. There's one supposed win that I wanted you to drill down on for us. The NCAA announcing a policy change that appears to better protect women's sports.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: Some say this is actually deceiving. Can you unpack that for us?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, absolutely. It looks like a win. In theory, it talks about individuals who are assigned male and female at birth. Well, that's a misnomer right there. We know individuals are not assigned sexes. They are clinically verified to be male or female, except in rare instances where there are developmental disorders of sexual function.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: But that is less than 1% of the entirety of the population. There are no, quote, transgender athletes in American collegiate athletics. There are only males and females.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And there are, of course, no enforcement mechanisms in this particular policy. What they've done is exactly what they did before and what they've done now since the beginning of the transgender contagion. And that is to essentially send everything back to the membership governing sports bodies and say, OK, now you can enforce this.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: And what enforcement looks like, no one can tell because there are no enforcement mechanisms. There's $1.28 billion at stake in the funding that goes to the annual revenue that funds these particular member colleges and universities. That's on the line.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And of course, these schools are incentivized to make sure they are trans inclusive because they want a cut of the pie.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: And what about the Olympics sports? There have been some reports that we might see some changes there, some pressure from the White House. Where does that stand now?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, what we're seeing is essentially increasing international calls to be able to make sure that male and female athletics are separate. As goes America, I believe so goes the rest of the world.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: And Trump himself has made calls for international sports governing bodies to make sure that we don't see a repeat of individuals injured like we have in past events, whether at the collegiate level or on the international stage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm hopeful that now that we've seen the rest of the developed world back off of what this really was in terms of a transgender contagion and the trans early trans often with an ignorance toward biological reality. And in light of the fact that 79% of Americans, including 67% of Democrats, support sex-separated sports, that the Olympic Committee will take a nod considering America's presence in the International Olympic Games on a grand scale and will ultimately toe the line on common sense and biological reality.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: That truly is an 80-20 issue, as you just highlighted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sarah, thank you so much for talking with us.
--:-- Sarah Parshall Perry: Thanks, John. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: And if you're you enjoyed what you heard this morning, share this episode with a friend.
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--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us, everyone.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be right back after this break.
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