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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Loudoun County schools are in the news again, this time for shocking messages posted to a private parents Facebook group where members schemed about doxing political rivals.
--:-- John Bickley: I would say to all of them, you need to come out today, find a microphone and ensure that everybody knows that you disavow this kind of activity.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We have an exclusive report. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's May 13th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: In a landmark election, voters in Chile overwhelmingly rejected a new left-wing rewrite of the country's constitution. What caused the dramatic conservative shift in voting? And controversial St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced that she's stepping down after calls for her resignation and efforts to remove her.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Two summers ago, Loudoun County, Virginia, made national headlines for a series of controversies in the local public schools, including the rape of a freshman girl by a boy who wore a skirt and used the girl's restroom. Many viewed Loudoun as emblematic of the culture wars playing out across the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak has uncovered a disturbing new wrinkle to the Loudoun County story.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Hey, Georgia. So what did you find?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Luke, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So I found that activists with close ties to local politicians were coordinating in a secret Facebook chat called the Loudoun Love Warriors to, quote, disassemble the lives of conservative neighbors.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Now, who exactly were they targeting and which politicians were they coordinating with?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Love Warriors were trying to protect local leaders in Loudoun from facing consequences for the rape cover-up, including Commonwealth Attorney Buda Biburai and multiple progressive members of the Loudoun County School Board.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Their strategy was to dox and get fired anyone who posed a threat to those leaders.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Quotes from their chat include, somebody going to get hurt on their side and I hope I get to do it. I'm so ready to show up with guns, lol. And if he had said that expletive about black kids or autistic kids, I would shoot him.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: One member posted a picture of himself with a gun and the caption, quote, all this love is waiting for you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A group member also made a handwritten list of 115 Loudoun residents they called bigots, mostly private citizens, and described them with individual labels such as pedophile, psychopath, and antichrist.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: They said they wanted to curb stomp Alicia Brand, a sexual assault survivor who had advocated for the ninth-grade rape victim.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's what Alicia told us.
--:-- Alicia Brand: I was terrified when I saw what the Loud and Love Warriors had threatened me with. Curb stomping is such a violent act. I can't imagine hating people so much that you would resort to threatening violence.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Now who was in charge of the Love Warriors group?
--:-- Georgia Howe: A lead participant was a campaign staffer for Bibari named Andrew Pihonak. Pihonak is a gay man who spent weeks trying to destroy the life of a 65-year-old man whose wife was dying of cancer after claiming the man told the school board that gay children should be killed.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: The man had quoted Matthew 18, saying, If a man or a woman causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for a millstone to be put around the neck and thrown into the lake.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Reviewing comments from the group, it seems like the group had really worked itself into a frenzy believing that conservative neighbors wanted them dead.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: And in the words of one group member, reciprocation is our only move.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Commenters in the group suggested that Bibberi's soft on crime policies could work in their benefit.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Quote, I don't even think you go to jail the first time, just fine in community service. So worth it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One member said of assaulting a dad named Scott Maneo, a parent who sued the school district for racial discrimination against white students.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Mineo eventually lost his job after the group members repeatedly wrote to his employer, calling him a white supremacist.
--:-- Georgia Howe: WJLA 7 News spoke to one of the members of that Facebook group, Heather Gottlieb, who sent some of those emails.
--:-- Heather Gottlieb: We are standing up for those in our community that are disenfranchised, those in our community that are bullied, students, teachers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I mean, we've been doing this for a couple of years.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: So no one in this group actually committed physical violence, though, but there was a lot of doxing and efforts to get people fired, it sounds like.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right. The group was pretty fixated on keeping the school board members in place.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: A school board employee named Kristen Gorzik, the aide to school board chairman Ian Sorotkin, was a group member and pointed out the stakes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's going to be extremely difficult for these school board members to hang in. She said. We really need to hold the line.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: The group even targeted the lawyer who represented the ninth-grade rape victim. And then decided to run against Bibari for prosecutor.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That lawyer is a lifelong Democrat and former public defender, but they said she was a problem and obsessively researched her.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: What are officials saying now that this group's been exposed?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Democrat Party chairman put out a statement saying, quote, anyone who makes, condones, or tolerates violent rhetoric of any kind is not welcome in the Loudoun County Democrat Committee. Those involved will be asked to resign.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: However, there's no indication that school board chair Ian Sorotkin or Prosecutor Buda Bibari have fired their staff members who were in the group.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Meanwhile, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday that they're investigating the threats.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears says elected officials, including Bibari, need to disavow these tactics.
--:-- Georgia Howe: When you hear what this group is trying to do, they're trying to destroy lives. They're going to make sure you definitely have loss of employment. You will possibly lose your life. There's nothing but hate in that group.
--:-- Luke Rosiak: Well, Luke, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you, Luke. That was Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: This week, right-wing candidates scored an overwhelming victory in Chile in a crucial election to decide who will rewrite the nation's constitution. The stunning results come after years of leftward drift in the South American country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So this all dates back to 2019, when Chile was rocked by a series of violent riots and protests with left-wing demonstrators demanding mass social and economic reforms.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The movement was led in large part by the country's resurgent communist party, which essentially called for a political revolution.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Facing overwhelming public pressure, the government agreed to hold a vote and begin the process of rewriting the nation's constitution, which had been in place since 1980.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As part of that process, voters elected a constitutional assembly to write a new document. That assembly was overwhelmingly leftist and presented a first draft last year that included a number of pretty radical provisions.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The new constitution would eradicate the country's Senate and replace it with a more, quote, equitable regional chamber.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It would replace the country's healthcare system with a single government-funded service, and it would create a parallel court system for indigenous Chileans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But when the draft went to a vote in 2022, it failed overwhelmingly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That prompted the election of a new constitutional assembly, which took place Sunday.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so this election was really the culmination of years of political battles.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. And the conservatives came out on top.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yes, they did. That's putting it lightly. 34 of the 51 spots on that new assembly were won by members of the country's various right-wing parties.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That gives them an all-important supermajority, which will allow them to offer a new draft constitution that will likely scrap the vast majority of the reforms that leftists have been calling for.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For more on that, I spoke to DeLeo Paya, who founded one of Chile's largest right-wing parties and spent 16 years as a member of Congress there.
--:-- DeLeo Paya: As a whole, we elected 34 of the 51 members of the assembly. With this addition, that gives the right two-thirds to basically control and have veto, veto override, whichever way you want to look at it, power and control of the new convention.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what's behind the apparent shift among voters in the course of just a few years?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, there have been a few factors at play. First, many felt that the left just overplayed their hand.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Voters initially supported their promise to reform the government in a more equitable way, but the constitution they presented was far more radical than most Chileans were comfortable with.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And according to Paya, the vote was also a referendum on Chile's left-wing president, Gabriel Boric.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Boric appointed a number of Communist Party members to his cabinet and supported the controversial first draft constitution and has become deeply unpopular this year with an approval rating in the mid-30s.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I think it is quite evident that this result implies a rejection of the government itself. And a desperate cry of help by vast sectors for Chilean society.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Pai says Chileans have also been plagued by two issues very familiar to Americans, high crime and poor border security.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: 87% of Chileans say crime has gotten worse in the past year, and there's been a substantial increase in carjackings, homicides, and burglaries.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And there's also been an influx of illegal immigration, especially from Venezuela, where hundreds of thousands of migrants have fled across the border after the collapse of the socialist state.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The crime crisis and protecting our borders to control immigration, those two things were very, very much present in people's minds when they voted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in those two fronts, the current government is held responsible.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So now the question becomes whether the conservatives will be able to present a constitution that can win the support of Chileans and address their growing concerns, or whether it'll fail and start this entire process over again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, fascinating political shifts going on in Chile. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime. That's Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- [Theme music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amid growing calls for her resignation in a campaign by the Missouri Attorney General to have her removed, Kim Gardner, the controversial St. Louis Circuit attorney, has announced that she will be resigning on June 1st.
--:-- Ash Short: Gardner was elected after promising to reform the criminal justice system. But after six years in office, she chose to resign as the Missouri legislature was looking to strip most of her power.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to discuss the resignation is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: So Ash, how did we get here with Kim Gardner?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Gardner came into office promising to hold police accountable, reduce the jail population, reduce punishment for low-level offenses, and use more diversion programs.
--:-- Ash Short: But she really wasn't able to accomplish anything in six years. She couldn't keep or hire qualified staff.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There were numerous ethics violations lodged against her office and she couldn't seem to win the high-profile cases she did prosecute.
--:-- Ash Short: Why wasn't she effective?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Gardner blames everyone else, including judges, police, and anyone who resisted or criticized her agenda.
--:-- Ash Short: But others say that kind of pushback is normal and that Gardner was just a bad manager, at least according to one former employee.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Her reforms, however, were in line with many other progressive prosecutors around the country who are also seeing issues with their reforms.
--:-- Ash Short: We spoke to Barry Latzer, a criminologist and author, who said the limited available data show these type of reforms just aren't working.
--:-- Barry Latzer: We have to keep in mind who's most affected by this kind of policy. Minority communities, the low-income communities where most of these low-level crimes occur are most impacted.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And then people won't feel comfortable walking in the streets, taking their children to school, going shopping, they're going to feel afraid because disorder breeds fear.
--:-- Ash Short: And worse still, disorder also encourages more serious offenses. It's just a very ill-advised series of policies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it doesn't surprise me that prosecutors such as San Francisco's and now St. Louis's have run into trouble.
--:-- Ash Short: The public doesn't understand why offenders shouldn't be prosecuted and incarcerated.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Gardner also made some nationwide headlines for some very high-profile cases.
--:-- Ash Short: What were some of those?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. So Gardner first made headlines for her decision to prosecute Mark McCloskey and his wife for waving guns in the air on their own property as Black Lives Matter protesters approached their home.
--:-- Ash Short: A lot of people saw that as an attack on law-abiding citizens in favor of left-wing activists.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In another high-profile case, she declined to prosecute 21-year-old Daniel Riley, who was out on bond for a robbery and didn't have a valid driver's license when he crashed into a teenage volleyball player, causing her to lose her legs.
--:-- Ash Short: Gardner's critics argued that this tragedy could have been avoided had Riley been locked up in the first place.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In that case, she was accused of being soft on crime.
--:-- Ash Short: What ultimately caused Gardner to resign?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, in her resignation announcement, Gardner blamed a variety of factors, including racism.
--:-- Ash Short: But she had made that claim before in February after her longtime ally, St. Louis Mayor Tashara Jones, said she lost faith in Gardner.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Gardner also mentioned during her resignation that she had been taking nursing classes on the side, which is technically illegal for her to do while holding public office.
--:-- Ash Short: Latzer also reminded us that elected officials like Gardner have to be reelected, which means they have to maintain a fragile coalition of voters.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In Gardner's case, that base is progressives who want lighter sentences for criminals, but also moderate voters who tend to push the DA at the ballot box if they perceive an increase in crime.
--:-- Ash Short: That's a hard balance to strike.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it sounds like she has a new nursing career lined up.
--:-- Ash Short: Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You're welcome. That was Daily Wire senior editor, Ash Short.
--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
