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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm not allowed to testify because of an unconstitutional gag order. We're appealing the gag order, and let's see what happens. The third week of Donald Trump's hush money trial wraps up in New York as House Republicans launch investigations into the prosecutors and their motivations.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Mary Margaret Olehan, senior reporter at The Daily Signal.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olehan: It's Friday, May 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: In an effort to protect Jews facing persecution, the House passes the Anti-Semitism Act, but critics say it violates free speech and possibly even basic Christian beliefs. Yet again, today on the floor of the House of Representatives, we had another show vote to make people feel good about themselves by passing a bill that says anti-Semitism in the title.
--:-- John Bickley: And media coverage of Trump's New York trial doesn't pull CNN out of its rating slump. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first fruits and veggies set, plus $10 off each additional set.
--:-- John Bickley: As the criminal trial against Donald Trump continues, allies of the former president have begun taking legal action of their own, targeting those who are prosecuting him. Here with the latest is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, Cabot. So Trump is back in the courtroom today as the trial continues. What's the latest out of Manhattan?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, on Thursday, the court heard testimony from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who previously represented two women, Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who allegedly had affairs with Trump and then accepted payments to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 election.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Davidson claimed, quote, there was an understanding between him and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that those deals were intended to protect Trump's campaign.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At one point, jurors also heard a secret recording taken by Cohen in which he and Trump appeared to be discussing a hush money payment to McDougal.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, for their part, the president's legal team cross-examined Davidson and brought up his past record of spreading what they called celebrity dirt in pursuit of payouts, something they compared to extortion.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They also went after the credibility of Cohen, who is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution, reminding jurors of his long and well-documented track record of lying under oath.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Now, Trump was able to hit the campaign trail for the first time in weeks. Tell us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, Trump has been stuck in Manhattan for the majority of the last few weeks. Remember, Judge Mershon said he would face jail time if he were not present for the duration of the trial.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So that leaves him to sandwich as many campaign events as possible into weekends or rare off days during the week.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At that point on Wednesday Trump held his first rallies since the trial began But due to the court schedule things were far more complicated than usual He flew from Manhattan to Wisconsin for an afternoon event then on to Michigan for a rally in the evening and then straight back to Manhattan so he could be at the courtroom by 9 a.m. Thursday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here he is speaking to those logistical challenges outside the courtroom yesterday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It was nice to be able to campaign one day without being in this ridiculous show trial. And who starts a case right smack in the middle of somebody's elections? It should be illegal because it's election interference.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All of it sort of gives an idea of the burden this trial is having on the campaign. And that's something Republicans say is intentional.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. And now some of those Republicans have begun launching legal responses of their own. Tell us about some of those efforts.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, this week, Republicans on the powerful House Judiciary Committee announced an investigation into Matthew Colangelo. He is one of the top prosecutors in the Manhattan Trump trial.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Colangelo was a senior official in the Biden Justice Department before becoming a state prosecutor. And according to Republicans, it's part of a coordinated effort by Democrats to go after Trump for political purposes.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Committee Chair Jim Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding documents from Colangelo's time at DOJ, as well as any communications between him and New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was leading the prosecution of Trump.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to Jordan, Colangelo was part of a similar DOJ investigation into Trump back in 2018 that was ultimately closed, but is now, quote, seeking to relitigate an issue on which the federal government previously declined prosecution.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, for their part, Bragg's office called the effort an attempt to intimidate them and influence the case. But barring some sort of legal challenge, they will have to turn over those documents.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Jordan isn't the only GOP lawmaker challenging those prosecuting Trump, correct?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. House Republicans have taken it upon themselves to essentially investigate the investigators.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On top of that inquiry into Colangelo, this week, New York Republican Elise Stefanik filed an ethics complaint with the DOJ calling for a probe into Jack Smith, the man appointed by Attorney General Garland, to head the special counsel investigation of Trump.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Stefanik wrote a letter to the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility accusing Smith of pushing for the trial to take place before Election Day as part of a broader effort to influence the race.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to DOJ guidelines, federal prosecutors, quote, may never select the timing of any action for the purpose of affecting any election or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But as Stefanik sees it, quote, Jack Smith's actions leave no doubt that the election is driving his timing decisions.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For their part, the DOJ has yet to respond to that complaint, but do not expect Republican lawmakers to let up anytime soon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, this is clearly a major priority for them.
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--:-- John Bickley: A new bill that aims to crack down on anti-Semitism is creating a rift within the GOP. It passed the House with overwhelming Republican support, but some prominent conservatives are opposing it as an affront to the First Amendment.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olehan: Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the latest.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, there's been a lot of chatter about whether this bill falls afoul of free speech protections. To start, what specifically would it accomplish?
--:-- Megan Basham: So this bill is really a response to the anti protests that we seen on college campuses in the last few weeks Demonstrators have been harassing Jewish students They been preventing them from getting to their classes from accessing the library And we also seen some pretty appalling signs and verbiage I think you can say and that includes signs even advocating for the final solution. That is, of course, a reference to the Holocaust.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Congressman Mike Lawler is a Republican from New York, introduced the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. This bill has broad bipartisan support and will begin the process of cracking down on the anti-Semitism that we've seen run rampant on college campuses all across America.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, essentially what it would do is require the Department of Education to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that was set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
--:-- Megan Basham: A few ways that alliance defines anti-Semitism, and I'm just going to list them. accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations, making dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews, such as the myth of Jews controlling the media, questioning the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust or denying the Holocaust, using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism, including the claim that Jews killed Jesus.
--:-- Megan Basham: So really, this bill would cut off funding of colleges and universities that allow these kinds of ideas on their campuses.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, some prominent House Republicans, including Elise Stefanik, threw their weight behind this bill. She said that it's necessary to, quote, ensure that Jewish students and community members at America's universities feel safe once again on campus.
--:-- Megan Basham: And a lot of the House agreed with her. It voted overwhelmingly 320 to 91 Wednesday to pass the bill with the vast majority of Republicans backing it.
--:-- Megan Basham: OK, so it has a lot of bipartisan support. Now, who's opposing it and why?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, as far as GOP legislators go, a number of notable voices were out front registering, I would say, pretty strong opposition. And perhaps the most prominent of those was Chip Roy of Texas, who said this directly after that vote.
--:-- Megan Basham: Criminal behavior is criminal behavior. Violating people's civil rights is violating people's civil rights. But when we want to insert the government into what you're thinking and what motivates you, you are empowering that which should never be empowered. The ability of the government to police thought, to police speech, to police your views.
--:-- Megan Basham: And quite a few outspoken Jewish conservatives have also voiced opposition, including the American Enterprise Institute's Christina Hoff Summers and Ben Shapiro, who, full disclosure, is an opinion host and editor emeritus of Daily Wire.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Shapiro argued that a better approach would be to cut off taxpayer funding for schools that are allowing things like illegal encampments and occupations of buildings and that harassment of Jewish students that we talked about.
--:-- Megan Basham: He said, quoting here, the solution is not to pass a bad bill adding yet more free speech violations to the giant free speech violation that is Title VI. Title VI is, of course, civil rights regulation that bans discrimination.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, do we have a sense yet of how the Senate will respond to this bill?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, it feels a little like GOP senators are waiting to maybe get an idea of which way the wind is blowing because you're not hearing much. But Utah's Mike Lee has already signaled that he's going to oppose it. And he's put forward an alternative bill that pretty much echoes Shapiro's suggestions.
--:-- Megan Basham: On the other side of the ledger, Florida's Rick Scott has been out front backing it in the Senate. He said this in a press release Thursday The Senate has a responsibility to stand against hatred so our Jewish brothers and sisters can live without fear
--:-- Megan Basham: OK so it sounds like if it does pass it will likely face some legal challenges.
--:-- John Bickley: Fox News Channel once again dominated the cable news ratings in April despite Donald Trump's trial, which some thought would boost their rivals, CNN and MSNBC. Here to help us digest the data is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, John. Sure thing. In primetime, the post-Tucker Carlson lineup at Fox News averaged almost 2 million viewers. And while that's down 5% from April of last year, it still towers above MSNBC with 1.2 million viewers and CNN, which pulled about 625,000.
--:-- David Marcus: In the demo, a term of art that describes people 25 to 54 who advertisers prize most for their spending power, FNC again stood supreme, averaging 219,000 compared to 114,000 for MSNBC and 113,000 over at CNN.
--:-- David Marcus: This has been holding steady for years now, and Fox has stubbornly stayed at the top of the heap, Even despite challenges from other newer right-leaning outlets such as Newsmax, in particular the shows The Five and Gutfeld do what they call out in Hollywood boffo numbers.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. There have been some thought in the industry that a Trump trial would be a boon for liberal networks whose viewers like seeing Trump in trouble. Why haven't we seen that?
--:-- David Marcus: I think there's several reasons for this, but the main one may be that the trial itself is not televised. But also, even Trump's strongest foes have admitted that this case involving hush money paid to Stormy Daniels is really the least compelling or powerful of the four cases Trump faces.
--:-- David Marcus: And as we touched on this week, there's not a lot of disagreement over what happened here. The entire case hinges on whether jurors think the payoffs were primarily about helping Trump win the 2016 election. And even that may well not be illegal.
--:-- David Marcus: Right. Critics say there's no crime here at all. Going back to the trial not being televised, how have these news networks tried to make a compelling TV show out of something that isn't actually on TV?
--:-- David Marcus: Well, John, judging by the numbers, I'm not so sure that they have. CNN's attempted to juice up excitement with production values, including live shots of panels outside the courthouse and really roadblocking coverage to Trump trial only while the proceedings are ongoing, a savvy news consumer will understand that this is a way for the network to signal, hey, guys, this is really important.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, in fairness, we haven't had the testimony of Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen, and those promise to be more salacious witnesses, even if they're not providing a whole lot of new information.
--:-- David Marcus: It does not appear that people's opinions are moving very much on these issues, possibly because so few are tuning in, but that could also go the other way. maybe people aren't tuning in because they don't see this as a major issue or one that will sway their voting decision.
--:-- David Marcus: Well, right now, it doesn't look like this is going to be renewed for season two. I don't think so, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Before we sign off today, Mary Margaret, thanks for being here this week and best of luck with your new book.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olehan: John, it's been a pleasure to be here and I'm so excited for everyone to learn more about my new book, D-Trans, True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult.
--:-- John Bickley: To hear more about that book, tune in to my interview with Mary Margaret tomorrow in an extra edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
