--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: We've got a big story breaking out of New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation Tuesday amid allegations of sexual harassment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, and I think that given the circumstances, the best way he can help now is if he steps aside and let government get back to governing.
--:-- John Bickley: What led to the dramatic downfall of the Democratic governor and what's next for the state?
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll get into all that, but first, let's get to the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Dozens of Chicago police officers turned their backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot in protest after two officers were shot, one of them fatally.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll look at what led to the police protest and what it means for efforts to defund the police.
--:-- John Bickley: And the latest Labor Department report shows a record-breaking 10.1 million job openings.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Why are businesses struggling to get new employees? And what impact is it having on the economy and American households?
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he will resign after a sexual harassment scandal engulfed his administration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cuomo's resignation announcement comes a week after a damning report from the New York Attorney General's office, which found the governor sexually harassed multiple women.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid McArdle is here to catch us up on the latest details.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Cuomo's resignation came as somewhat of a shock. What happened here?
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Right. Leading up to the press conference, the governor was not expected to step down, especially given his reputation for fighting back.
--:-- John Bickley: But Cuomo said he was resigning because he does not want to be, quote, unhelpful.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: He said he thinks the best way he can help now is if he steps aside and lets the New York government get back to governing.
--:-- John Bickley: This will mark the end of the Democratic governor's three terms in office.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Though he's resigning, Cuomo's still not admitting to anything, right?
--:-- John Bickley: That's right.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: He continued to insist that he is innocent.
--:-- John Bickley: Cuomo said he deeply apologizes to the women he offended, but pleaded ignorance and took no responsibility for acting inappropriately on purpose.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: He said that in his mind, he never crossed the line with anyone. But I didn't realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.
--:-- John Bickley: So what happens now?
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Cuomo said his resignation will go into effect two weeks from Tuesday.
--:-- John Bickley: Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will replace him, and she'll become New York's first female governor.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Hochul said she agrees with Cuomo's decision, calling it the quote right thing to do and in the best interest of New Yorkers.
--:-- John Bickley: Before he resigned, Hochul said she believes Cuomo's accusers and called his behavior towards them quote repulsive and unlawful.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Oh, so strong words.
--:-- John Bickley: Look, a lot has been alleged against Cuomo here.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Can you walk us through some of the key allegations?
--:-- John Bickley: According to Letitia James's report, Cuomo violated federal and state laws by sexually harassing 11 women, including former New York state employees and members of the public.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Among a slew of offenses, the governor is accused of kissing and groping women without consent, including their intimate body parts.
--:-- John Bickley: The first woman who publicly accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, Lindsay Boylan, who was married at the time, said Cuomo kissed her on the lips with no warning in his Manhattan office in 2018.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Investigators were able to corroborate that claim.
--:-- John Bickley: There was a lot of pressure for Cuomo to resign leading up to Tuesday.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: What does the response look like now that he's actually stepped down?
--:-- John Bickley: Many are saying he's done the right thing by stepping down.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Some are calling for Cuomo to face criminal prosecution for sexual harassment and even sexual assault.
--:-- John Bickley: Others have pointed to Cuomo's other major scandal, his coronavirus nursing home policy, and his administration's cover-up of the resulting deaths of many elderly New Yorkers.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: No doubt we're going to see some more repercussions soon.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, Maraid.
--:-- Maraid McArdle: Thanks, John.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: Up next, 30 Chicago police officers turn their backs on the mayor.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Good morning.
--:-- John Bickley: Mayor Lightfoot and the Chicago Police Department have been divided over major policy initiatives for more than a year now.
--:-- Ben Johnson: But tell us about this most recent episode.
--:-- John Bickley: It started with a routine traffic stop, correct?
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's right. On Saturday, police stopped three men for driving with expired license plates.
--:-- John Bickley: Police say the two brothers who were on probation for theft, Amante and Eric Morgan, opened fire and killed 29-year-old Ella French.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Then they shot her partner, Carlos Yanez Jr., three times.
--:-- John Bickley: He was eventually transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So really tragic situation.
--:-- John Bickley: And that shooting is what brought Mayor Lightfoot to visit the hospital.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Exactly. According to the president of the local fraternal order of police, John Catanzara, the police officer's family explicitly told Lightfoot that her presence at the hospital was unwelcome, but she came to the seventh floor of the hospital around midnight anyway.
--:-- John Bickley: Officers say that when Lightfoot talked to Yana's father, who's a retired police officer himself, he told her that she had blood on her hands.
--:-- Ben Johnson: After that, she went to talk to about 30 officers who were standing nearby, and that's when they turned their backs on her.
--:-- John Bickley: Chicago Alderman Ray Lopez captured a photo of that moment and posted it on social media, which expressed the police department's lack of confidence in the city's political leadership.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And over the past year, Lightfoot has publicly supported the political activist group Black Lives Matter and the defund the police movement.
--:-- John Bickley: Is that what driving this?
--:-- Ben Johnson: That's a major part of it.
--:-- John Bickley: In May, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police cast a unanimous vote of no confidence against Lightfoot.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Although Mayor Lightfoot said she opposes completely abolishing the police, last fall she proposed cutting $59 million from the police budget.
--:-- John Bickley: To make up for the difference, she let hundreds of empty jobs on the force go vacant, she lengthened police officer shifts to 12 hours a day, and she reduced their days off.
--:-- Ben Johnson: She also canceled the annual St. Jude's March for fallen officers.
--:-- John Bickley: Officers blame Lightfoot's policies and what they characterize as anti-police rhetoric for the sharp uptick in crime that's taken place on her watch.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And you're right, defund the police is the critical piece driving that opposition.
--:-- John Bickley: Mayor Lightfoot said in June, though, that crime is on the decline in Chicago.
--:-- Ben Johnson: What do the numbers say?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, the numbers don't bear her out.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Ella French and Carlos Llano's Jr. represent just two of at least 73 shootings that took place last weekend alone.
--:-- John Bickley: During the two years that Lori Lightfoot served as mayor of Chicago, murders have increased 57 percent and shootings have increased 65 percent.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Sexual assaults risen by 22 percent since last year.
--:-- John Bickley: So the charge here is that Lightfoot has given officers less money to fight more crime, and now morale is low.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Is this affecting police retention?
--:-- John Bickley: Yes. Police officers are voting with their feet.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Since January, 363 officers have retired from the Chicago Police Department.
--:-- John Bickley: That's more than all of 2018.
--:-- Ben Johnson: This year, you could see more officers turning their badge than any year in Chicago history.
--:-- John Bickley: And studies show that employing more police officers reduces crime.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So this is the last thing Chicago needs.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for reporting, Ben.
--:-- Ben Johnson: You got it.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: This week, the Labor Department released new data showing a record-breaking 10.1 million job openings in the month of June.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for being here.
--:-- John Bickley: So are there just too many jobs to fill and not enough workers?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Economists are calling this a labor shortage, but the problem isn't really that there aren't enough workers.
--:-- John Bickley: It's that there aren't enough workers willing to take the jobs that are open right now.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The fact is there are far more jobless Americans than there are job openings right now.
--:-- John Bickley: It's just that many people don't seem to want to work.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the obvious question, do we know why?
--:-- John Bickley: So experts point to three main reasons.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: First, many employers say that increased federal unemployment benefits have made it hard for them to find workers.
--:-- John Bickley: I spoke with one restaurant manager who was offering a $1,000 signing bonus to new servers, and he said many of his old employees are now making more money on unemployment than they would if they came back to work.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, that's a big incentive not to work.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, even the Federal Reserve admitted in a report to Congress last month that, quote, enhanced unemployment benefits have allowed potential workers to be more selective and reduce the intensity of their job search.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But that's not the only reason for the labor shortage.
--:-- John Bickley: Economists also point to continued fears over the Delta variant and difficulty finding child care.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Keep in mind, many daycares and preschools are still closed or running at a limited capacity.
--:-- John Bickley: What about employers? How are they dealing with all this?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, at first they responded by simply raising wages.
--:-- John Bickley: Service jobs that typically were going for a minimum wage are now starting at $15 or $20 an hour.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But that still hasn't worked for many employers, so now they're getting creative.
--:-- John Bickley: For example, Target is now offering to pay for 100% of an employee's college tuition starting on their first day.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: McDonald's is now including paid time off college tuition aid and even childcare benefits.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, we're seeing the same thing at small businesses too where some shops and restaurants are offering bonuses just for applying.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's a good deal.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah. So is the average family going to feel this labor shortage?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: From what we're hearing, it remains to be seen what the long-term impacts will be.
--:-- John Bickley: But in the short term, it is likely that the cost of basic goods will go up, especially at smaller restaurants and local businesses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But larger chains are also dealing with labor shortages that are affecting production and disrupting the supply chain more broadly.
--:-- John Bickley: So costs will go up across the board for small and big businesses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. We've seen lots of shortages.
--:-- John Bickley: I want to go back to your earlier point about COVID benefits playing a role in this.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: With all the job openings, are we going to see more of the benefits cut?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, so far, 25 states, all led by Republican governors, have stopped offering those benefits altogether.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For context, they amounted to an additional $300 a week on top of existing unemployment benefits.
--:-- John Bickley: Those governors argue that they were only needed when jobs weren't available, and that's no longer a problem.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Representative Kevin Brady, who heads the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, told us, quote, good intentions in an emergency can have damaging consequences in recovery, and that's exactly what happened.
--:-- John Bickley: And that's kind of the emerging narrative from Republicans here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Many on the right have also pointed out that of the 10 states that have seen the strongest economic recovery this year, nine of them are run by Republican governors who've made that decision to opt out of enhanced unemployment benefits.
--:-- John Bickley: So we can definitely expect to be reminded of that message moving forward as the midterms approach.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There's always a political tie-in, right?
--:-- John Bickley: There always is.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- John Bickley: Other big developments that we're tracking this week.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Biden says that he welcomes the Justice Department's new review of documents related to the September 11th attacks.
--:-- John Bickley: Family members of 9-11 victims put out a statement last week saying that President Biden was not welcome at memorial events this year unless he declassified documents, specifically those regarding the alleged involvement of Saudi Arabia in the attacks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Lockdowns in Australia have been extended with some extraordinarily strict rules being enforced.
--:-- John Bickley: People living in the affected areas are permitted to leave the house only for approved activities and may not travel further than 10 kilometers from home.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those who don't live with any other adults are permitted one nominated visitor, which is one person they are permitted to socialize with at their home.
--:-- John Bickley: Australians are permitted to exercise with their nominated visitor outdoors and the visitor may visit on more than one occasion, but the same person cannot be a nominated visitor for another person.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Republicans twice this week in their ongoing feud with Democrats who have broken quorum.
--:-- John Bickley: Because of the ruling, Republican Governor Greg Abbott can move forward with an order to arrest Democrats breaking quorum.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in the meantime, they will not be receiving paychecks.
--:-- John Bickley: The feud began when Texas Democrats left the state in order to block legislation they oppose.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
--:-- John Bickley: Use code MORNINGWIRE to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
