--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- 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. It's Wednesday, September 27th, and we're back with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us, John. 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.
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden joined striking United Auto Workers on the picket line just one day before Donald Trump was set to meet with the union. Stick with it, because you deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits. Let's get it! What does the strike mean for the economy, and why are union workers so important to both parties?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: Hunter Biden's laptop is again at the center of legal claims, but this time it's Hunter who's making the allegations. What is Hunter claiming and who is he accusing? And pressure from a Daily Wire investigation into a controversial development in Texas is prompting the state's top officials to act.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: I'm joined now by Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, first off, what's the latest on the strike?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, well, when we first talked last week, the United Auto Workers Union, which has over 400,000 members, had begun striking at plants in Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Remember, UAW leaders have staggered the walkouts, ordering members to strike at random at plants across the country. It's all part of their plan to gain leverage by inflicting maximum damage on the big three automakers, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, the union has begun its second stage of strikes, with thousands more employees walking out at 38 facilities across 20 states. Here's UAW President Sean Fain on the latest move.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We're not going to wait around forever for a fair contract at the big three. We can and will go all out if our national leadership decides the companies aren't willing to move.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, remember, the union has a litany of demands in this strike, including a 36% pay raise over the next five years, the return of pension funds, health care for retired union members, and controversially, 32-hour work weeks with 40 hours worth of pay. Auto execs say they're willing to offer pay bumps, but they've bristled at a number of the demands, saying they're unreasonable and would put their companies out of business.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For their part, though, union leaders say they're willing to remain on strike for the long haul. And on Tuesday, they gained the support of President Biden.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. So tell us about that. What does Biden want to happen here?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So this appears to be the first time in history that a sitting president has joined strikers on a picket line. So it certainly consequential. And he wants this thing resolved.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Biden who by the way may have felt pressure to make an appearance here after Trump announced that he go earlier in the month met with workers outside a GM warehouse in Detroit urging them to quote stick with it. Wall Street didn't build the country. The middle class built the country. We built the middle class. That's a fact. So let's keep going. You deserve what you've heard.
--:-- John Bickley: And while the visit got a lot of attention in the media, Biden did catch some flack over the length of his visit. In total, he spent about 12 minutes on the picket line and just an hour total on the ground in Michigan before boarding Air Force One for a fundraiser in California later in the evening.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, from a political perspective, while Biden's message focused on his supportive unions and the middle class, the visit does go well beyond that. He has a clear incentive to bring the strike to a close for political purposes.
--:-- John Bickley: First, the strike is impacting battleground states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all of which he'll obviously need to win to secure a second term. And then there's the economic element. According to the Anderson Economic Group, the strike cost our economy $1.6 billion in the first week alone.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And that was before walkouts extended to 20 other states. So you can do the math. At a time when the economy is in a precarious spot and we're still dealing with the effects of those lingering supply chain backups, Biden can ill afford a months-long strike. That would give Americans just one more thing to contend with.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, we've also seen a number of Republicans make appearances on the picket line. Tell us about that dynamic.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, this is interesting. So in the last few decades, union members and organized labor as a whole have largely supported Democrats, but that support has started to waver in recent years, especially in this case, as auto workers and other manufacturers fear that President Biden's push for electric vehicles poses an existential threat to their industry.
--:-- John Bickley: While the UAW endorsed Biden in the 2020 race and has been largely supportive of Democrats, they've actually withheld their support so far in 2024 and have yet to endorse him. Republicans have taken notice and are looking to capitalize, seeing sort of a window of opportunity with blue-collar workers, especially men who have increasingly become more reliably conservative at the ballot box in recent years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, for example, joined the picket line Monday, while Ohio Senator J.D. Vance expressed solidarity with the union as well. And most notably, President Trump is heading to Michigan this evening to speak with union members while his primary counterparts appear on the debate stage.
--:-- John Bickley: So this strike is clearly becoming a new political battleground for both parties.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, especially since 2016.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, Hunter Biden goes on the offense over the infamous laptop. On Tuesday, Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani and one of Giuliani's lawyers, alleging that the pair violated his privacy rights.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. So, David, an interesting and sort of surprising turn of events here. What exactly is Biden alleging?
--:-- David Marcus: Good morning. The suit has some very dramatic language, including the charge that Giuliani was responsible for the, quote, total annihilation, end quote, of Biden's digital privacy when he gave the laptop to the New York Post back in October of 2020.
--:-- John Bickley: The suit claims that Giuliani did not have the right to disseminate the information on the hard drive through the news media. There also a less clear or specific allegation that Giuliani may have tampered with or altered the data on the hard drive, but no evidence of that was provided.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Let's start with how Giuliani ended up with the laptop. How did he obtain it and did he have a right to give it to the news media?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Giuliani got it from John Paul MacIsaac, the owner of the computer repair shop, who had a policy that if items brought in were left there for a certain period of time, they became property of the store, much as is the policy with abandoned storage units.
--:-- John Bickley: Mac Isaac is also being sued by Hunter for giving Rudy the laptop in the first place.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, Giuliani's argument is basically finders keepers with a little more legalese. He argues that he had every right to give the data to the New York Post, and the Post agreed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We all remember what happened next. The story was censored by social media and condemned by members of the intelligence community. Some very fine journalists were smeared. And two years later, basically everyone now agrees the laptop is authentic.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. One of the most glaring instances of politically motivated censorship we've seen in decades.
--:-- David Marcus: Absolutely. So speaking of authenticity, you also mentioned that the suit suggests manipulation of the laptop. We've heard this before. Did Hunter's team actually provide any hard evidence of that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: No. And we have heard it before. Hunter's position has been that he has no idea if it's his laptop. He said it might be, or it might be Russian disinformation, or it might have been hacked.
--:-- John Bickley: But look, there was an independent analysis of the laptop data done based on what Mac Isaac called an exact copy of what he gave Giuliani and what Giuliani gave to the Post. And it found no evidence of any tampering or manipulation.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Now, Hunter has also sued the IRS. Could part of the calculus of these lawsuits be to muddy the waters, sort of win or lose, present the laptop as somehow untrustworthy?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yes, absolutely. And this is an effort that began in October of 2020. Having spoken to people at the New York Post at the time, they were very confident in the authenticity of the laptop, especially when after a week, nobody in Biden world was flatly saying, it's not real, it's a fake.
--:-- John Bickley: Instead, the 55 intelligence experts said it had all the, quote, earmarks of Russian disinformation, a claim parroted by Joe Biden in a presidential debate.
--:-- David Marcus: And the media spent two years dawdling before begrudgingly admitting that it was real. Hunter's attorneys badly want that idea back, that nobody can really know if it's Hunter's accurate laptop or not.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But honestly, John, that shit may have already sailed. This is now set to be a slow slog that will certainly have its impact on the 2024 election.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, what's turning out to be a heavily litigious 2024 election. Sure is.
--:-- David Marcus: Dave, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: Texas officials are beginning to take notice of a massive land development north of Houston named Colony Ridge that has reportedly become a hub for illegal immigrants and cartel activity.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist, who has traveled to Colony Ridge and has been speaking to state and federal officials about the massive development.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Hello, Spencer. So the Texas governor appears to be taking some action here. So it seems that way. On Monday, the Republican Party of Texas passed a resolution by a vote of 61 to 0 calling on Abbott to convene a special session to investigate at Colony Ridge.
--:-- John Bickley: Later that day the governor indicated that his office is looking into the development and that he may call for that special session to potentially pass laws preventing the mass settling of illegal immigrants in Texas.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: He addressed the issue in an interview with Dana Lesh. Serious concerns have been raised about what's going on in this Colony Ridge area. And so we're getting all the baseline information so we can find out exactly what we can do and what we must do.
--:-- John Bickley: Part of it can be using current law enforcement, but part of it may require new laws, whatever it takes. Abbott also says that he's ordered an investigation from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and that he's looking for answers from the developers.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: We issued subpoenas to the developers to find out what's going on financially, and we will gather all of that information and put it together. We asked the governor's office for clarification on these subpoenas because, as we reported earlier, Colony Ridge developer William Trey Harris has donated $1.4 million to Governor Abbott's campaign.
--:-- John Bickley: Harris also donated to U.S. Congressman Morgan Luttrell and state representatives Ernest Bales and Briscoe Cain. So Abbott is now publicly talking about this issue. What are we hearing from other Republicans in the state?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Well, we should first mention that GOP Congressman Brian Babin has been leading the way on raising the alarm about Colony Ridge. So he's clearly gaining support on this issue. As we've reported, Congressman Chip Roy has called the questions raised by the development to be extremely troubling. He's also said that it's the result of the open borders crisis and that he's looking into the matter.
--:-- John Bickley: Other Texas Republicans are also now joining Babin in calling for action, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Once I get a little bit more legal foundation on this to see what we can do, I'm going to ask Governor Abbott to look at addressing some of these issues in a special session if we can.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also addressed it. He said that while he doesn't see a clear path for his office yet, the legislature really needs to step in and take action on Colony Ridge.
--:-- John Bickley: We can maybe affect the financing or the financial aspect to some degree, but I don't think right now the legislature has given me any authority to do anything about it. He also said that his office is looking into deceptive trade practices and said, and this is a direct quote, that it is completely insane that they can set up these villages with illegal immigrants.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So there's some positive movement here. Several locals have told me that to this point, elected officials have offered lip service, but not action. I think some are now hopeful that this time could be different.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, we'll see what steps are ultimately taken here. I'll be tracking it closely.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: That was Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist.
--:-- [Music transitions to the end of the show]
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that former President Donald Trump had committed fraud while growing his real estate empire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The suit, brought by New York's attorney general, claims that Trump and his company lied to a number of banks and insurers by inflating asset values. The ruling also claims that the former president overestimated his net worth in important paperwork.
--:-- John Bickley: Meanwhile, the federal probe into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents before becoming president has grown. Sources close to the matter told ABC that as many as 100 witnesses have been interviewed so far, with some as recently as last week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
--:-- [Theme music plays]
--:-- Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
--:-- American Home Shield: Save $50 when you join American Home Shield. Visit http://www.ahs.com/MorningWire
