--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
--:-- Georgia Howe: The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
--:-- [Music transitions to a serious tone]
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump is putting state officials on notice, warning them not to interfere with his deportation operation. ISIS doing their job, they're prioritizing just as the president said they would, and they're going to continue every day. Will sanctuary cities cooperate and how has the public's opinion shifted? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, January 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: As President Trump revs up his administration, Democrats are slamming the brakes on his cabinet confirmations. We tried to cooperate with the Democrats. The cooperation has not been forthcoming. So I guess it's going to be the hard way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the federal employee purge has begun with DEI agencies and staffers first on the chopping block. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- [Producer Brandon speaks in a brief, upbeat tone]
--:-- Producer Brandon: Hey, guys, producer Brandon here. Did you know that 80% of resolutions fail by February? You, however, can beat the odds and improve your health with Lumen, the world's first handheld metabolic coach. By simply breathing into your Lumen each morning, you'll discover if your body is burning fats or carbs. The app then provides personalized nutrition plans and lifestyle guidance based on your unique metabolism. Take the next step in improving your health. Go to lumen.me slash wire to get 20% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot me slash wire to get 20% off your purchase. Thank you, Lumen, for sponsoring this episode.
--:-- [Music transitions back to a serious tone]
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Trump administration wasted no time this week in implementing the president's immigration agenda. Just days after Trump took office, hundreds of illegal aliens have been arrested and U.S. troops have been dispatched to the southern border. Here to talk about the furious pace set by Trump on immigration is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, we've seen a constant stream of news on immigration since Trump took office on Monday. What's the latest? One of the big items that dropped yesterday was that immigration officials have already detained more than 300 illegal aliens for deportation.
--:-- [Audio clip plays of Tom Homan on Fox News]
--:-- Tom Homan: Right now, as we said repeatedly, the president Trump's been clear. We're concentrating on the worst first, the public safety threats and that's security threats. And just yesterday, in the last 24 hours, ICE arrested over 308, 308 serious criminals. Some of them were murderers. Some of them were rapists. Some of them raped a child. Some were a sexual cell of a child.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So even before his cabinet is in place, Trump's immigration agenda is well underway. And it's had an impact, too, not only on those arrested and deported, but we've seen cases of self-deports by aliens who have left the country voluntarily rather than waiting for ICE. We see the impact as well in places such as Chicago's Little Village. commonly referred to as the quote Mexico of the Midwest It known as a bustling shopping district but recently foot traffic in Little Village has plummeted by half.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wow. So it sounds like an aggressive start to Trump's second term. What about the self-designated sanctuary jurisdictions? How are they responding?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, there were quite a few defiant statements made during the transition by local leaders of these jurisdictions, and many will presumably stand by them, but some have softened. For instance, the Denver mayor just a few weeks ago was threatening to deploy police to stop federal immigration agents from entering the city. He's now saying the city will work with immigration officials at least to deport violent criminals.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This comes as the Department of Justice has directed federal prosecutors to look into local officials who try to get in the way. But perhaps as persuasive as the DOJ, recent polls say that Americans back Trump's deportation agenda. Listen to this clip of CNN poll analyst Harry Inton explain.
--:-- Harry Inton: There's real uniformity here. That's what I really think you see. You see real uniformity. Deport all immigrants who are here illegally. 55% of the New York Times. Marquette, 64%. CBS News, 57%. ABC News with a slightly different question, 56%. So what you're seeing essentially here is a very clear indication that a majority of Americans, in fact, when they're asked this blunt question, which I believe gets at the underlying feelings, do in fact want to deport all immigrants who are here illegally.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's no arguing with these different numbers because they're all essentially the same across four different pollsters. Well, and we've seen a huge shift in opinion take place over just the last four years, obviously dovetailing with unprecedented levels of illegal immigration. Now, what action is Trump taking on the border itself?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump has already made good on his promise to use the military to help secure the border. It's not clear how many troops will end up on the border, but according to CNN, the Pentagon has directed an initial wave of about 1,500 troops to assist border personnel. Now, that's on top of about 2,200 troops that were already stationed at the border to help out with logistical and bureaucratic work while border agents do the actual enforcement. According to CNN, up to 10,000 troops could be sent to the border by President Trump.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, this was the number one issue for a lot of voters, and Trump is acting on that mandate. Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As Marco Rubio gets to work at the State Department, the rest of Trump's cabinet picks are still working their way towards confirmation, while some are being stalled by Democrats. Here are the latest on that front is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: So there's been lots to watch on the cabinet beat. What's the latest with Trump's nominees? Well, John, after a pretty smooth week of hearings, Democrats are starting to drag their feet on confirming Trump's nominees. Pam Bondi, Trump's pick to be attorney general, was supposed to go up for a vote yesterday. But on Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pushed the hearing for at least a week. They didn't give a reason why, and they don't have to.
--:-- Georgia Howe: [interrupting] This was a little bit surprising. Bondi had a few clashes with Democrats during her hearing, but otherwise it went pretty smooth. But it seems like because hearings went so smooth, Democrats are now trying delay tactics to keep Trump from confirming his nominees.
--:-- Tim Rice: Democrats have tried on numerous occasions to extend questioning beyond the scheduled hearing day. And these delays are starting to add up. By this time in 2009, Barack Obama already had eight cabinet secretaries confirmed. And by this point in 2017, Trump had three cabinet secretaries installed including his secretaries of defense and homeland security. Certainly a stark contrast there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Speaking of the Defense Department, what's the latest on Pete Hegseth? Well, the legacy media has spent the past few days salivating over a new story about Hegseth. NBC was the first to report the story in which Hegseth's ex-sister-in-law claims that he physically abused his ex-wife.
--:-- Tim Rice: Now, judging from the headlines on NBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, you'd think this was a pretty open-and-shut story. There's just one problem. Samantha Hegseth denies that her ex-husband ever abused her. She signed legal documents to that effect and, when reached for comment by NBC, denied it once again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And while the headlines all kind of imply this was Hegseth's ex-wife's sister, it's actually Hegseth's brother's ex-wife. Hegseth's lawyers have dismissed her as, quote, an anti-Trump, far-left Democrat who was divorced from Mr. Hegseth's brother and never got along with the Hegseth family.
--:-- Tim Rice: So it doesn't look like this will do much to derail Hegseth's road to heading up the Pentagon, but it just shows that he's not out of the woods yet and still has some opposition to his confirmation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, as we've reported, Hegseth is facing the hardest journey out of really all of Trump's nominees. Any other nomination news to note?
--:-- Tim Rice: We have a much lighter hearing schedule this week, and the main event was definitely Tuesday's hearing for Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick for ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik spent the majority of her time talking about China and its influence on the UN, saying specifically that the United States needed to work more with smaller countries to fight Chinese influence in the global South.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She also urged lawmakers to exercise caution with the new Syrian government and said that countering Iran would be one of the Trump administration's top priorities. And she spoke out about the UN's role in funding terrorism through its Relief and Works Agency. Trump had cut off American funding to the agency just before Stefanik's hearing.
--:-- Tim Rice: We should never tolerate any U.S. taxpayer funds going towards terrorism. As in my question with the ranking member Shaheen, I was one of the members that voted to defund UNRWA. I was one of the leaders in standing for that important appropriations vote, which there is a bipartisan consensus on with significant members, Republicans, as well as some Democrats who voted to defund it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All in all, Stefanik really showed that she knew the ins and outs of the U.N. and seems poised to be pretty easily confirmed. All right, so a good hearing for Stefanik and at least some signs of progress on an otherwise slow-moving week. Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Rice: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump has signed an executive order intended to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion employees from the federal government. It's part of his larger anti-DEI agenda. Here with more on the president's action against DEI is Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: So, Spencer, first off, tell us about this memo killing DEI. So that executive order is now being implemented by the Office of Personnel Management, which is sent a memo ordering agency heads to, quote, send a notification to all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close and end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The memo also gave agency heads an email template to send to bureaucrats, stating that the DEI actions of the previous administration, quote, divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Now, this represents a lot of employees, and some of these programs are pretty entrenched. Are they acquiescing, or is there a lot of pushback?
--:-- Georgia Howe: There definitely an expectation in the Trump administration that a lot of these agencies will try to keep DEI alive In order to circumvent this the memo also instructs agency heads to quote send an agency notice to employees informing them of the closure and asking employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Now, beyond just trying to root out DEI, Trump has also addressed the work-from-home situation. That represents a huge portion of government workers, even still. What is he saying there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, that's right. He also signed this order requiring most employees to work in person. The measure on remote work is a significant change from the status quo because only about 50 percent of all government workers currently work in office every day. About 10 percent of federal workers have fully remote positions as of right now.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: This will be unpopular with the workers, but has a lot of support from politicians on both sides of the aisle. For example, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia has been pushing for a return to in-person work to boost public transit ridership in Northern Virginia to avoid a budget deficit. Likewise, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has for years now pushed the White House for workers to return due to the economic impact of empty buildings in downtown D.C.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here she is back in 2023. The federal government represents one quarter of D.C.'s pre-pandemic jobs and owns or leases one third of our office space. We need decisive action by the White House to either get most federal workers back to the office most of the time or to realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government, by nonprofits, by businesses and by any user willing to revitalize it.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Trump also reinstated an executive order from his first term called Schedule F, which was implemented in 2020. Employees designated F are career bureaucrats who previously had a lot of protections. This executive order strips these employees of certain employment protections that make them very difficult to fire. This is a part of an effort to prevent bureaucrats from stonewalling or undermining Trump's agenda, which was an issue during his first term.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The goal is to allow the president to fire those who have a role in the policymaking process, and this could affect nearly 50,000 federal employees. It's something that Russell Vogt, Trump's pick for Office of Management and Budget, supports. Here he is at his confirmation hearing Wednesday.
--:-- Russell Vogt: Schedule F is a different classification. It is meant to ensure that the administration, the president, has people who are working for him that are actually going to do the policies that he ran on, that he's articulating. And the order states that, quote, there have been numerous well-documented cases of career federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: The order now faces a legal challenge from a federal employee union. All right. Well, we're going to keep an eye on the fight over DEI as well as these civil service protections. Spencer, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hey, thank you for listening this morning. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- [Music transitions to a serious tone]
--:-- Georgia Howe: The left is on the run, but your stubble isn't going anywhere. Sharpen up with Jeremy's Razors, the official razor partner of the UFC. A damn good shave for people who know men are men and act like it. Shave boldly, live freely. Go to jeremysrazors.com today.
