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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Amid rising economic uncertainty in the U.S. and crises abroad, President Biden's approval ratings have collapsed. What's driving the decline, and what does it mean for the president and his party?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, September 8th, and this is Morning Wire. 2021 will be the deadliest year ever at America's southern border. What's leading to the unprecedented number of deaths? And how is it impacting Border Patrol rescue efforts? And after weeks of silence, the entire board of directors, including actress Ava Longoria and super producer Shonda Rhimes, have resigned from the Hollywood anti-harassment group Time's Up. What will this mean for the Me Too movement going forward?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is brought to you by WyoTech. WyoTech, one of the nation's leading auto and diesel training schools, sees the trades as America's front lines. WyoTech is shaping young men, women, and veterans to build careers and businesses. America is built on the trades, and WyoTech is leading the way in training. Visit wyotech.edu to subscribe and donate to the future technicians of America.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Following months of turmoil in Afghanistan and rising economic uncertainty at home, President Biden's approval ratings have taken a significant dip in numerous polls. Here with details on what's causing the drop and what sort of impact it might have is Daily Wire managing editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Cabot, walk us through these polls. How big of a decline are we talking about?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Bigger than anything we've seen since President Biden took office, by far. So, according to RealClearPolitics, the president's approval rating is underwater, with 49% of Americans disapproving of his performance as president and just 45% approving.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That might not sound terrible, but when you zoom out and look at the broader context, you can see just how steep the decline has been.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Four months ago, the president was at 54% approval and 41% disapproval, while one month ago, 50% approved and only 44% disapproved. So, there's been a huge swing in just a short period of time.
--:-- John Bickley: So, he's gone from a solid positive gap to underwater in a few months.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, exactly. And we have some sense of what's causing this slide, right?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, polling data offers some insights there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, new presidents typically enjoy some kind of honeymoon phase with the American public. Right. So, it is natural for approval ratings to dip, but not dip like this. The two main reasons, according to pollsters, are Afghanistan and inflation.
--:-- John Bickley: The majority of Americans view Biden as being responsible for the debacle in Afghanistan.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, in the last month alone, we've seen on average a 20-point dip in the number of Americans who approve of his foreign policy. 20 points.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wow, that's a pretty steep drop.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's drastic. And we're seeing the same thing on the economy, too. For the first four months of his presidency, Biden was earning high marks for his economic policies. But over the summer as inflation began to impact the cost of basic goods and the economy remained locked down a lot of Americans changed their opinion.
--:-- John Bickley: Now just 45 of Americans support his handling of the economy while 50 disapprove.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I spoke earlier with Alex Conant. He's a political strategist and polling expert at firehouse strategies. He thinks these low numbers are here to stay. People want this pandemic over and they want the economy to fully reopen. Until that happens, I think you're going to continue to see the president's poll numbers suffer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What sort of impact do we expect this to have on midterm elections?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, to put it simply, an unpopular president is just bad news for the party that's hoping to retain power during midterms. Here's what Conant had to say about 2022.
--:-- John Bickley: Midterm elections are all about the president. There's a referendum on Biden. And if the president's poll numbers are in the low 40s, that's going to be a bad year for Democrats.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I think Republicans, when we look at his poll numbers right now, we should feel very confident about our chances of retaking the House and the Senate next year.
--:-- Ben Johnson: More people have lost their lives trying to reach the U.S. illegally in 2021 than in any year in U.S. history. Here to tell us why is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Ben, 2021 has seen a historic number of crossings at the southern border and now deaths. Tell us what's going on here.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Sure. So, if this keeps up, the death rate at the southern border will virtually double. Experts say in terms of the number of people who will die trying to reach the U.S. illegally, this year is shaping up to be the deadliest year in history.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That means it broke the record that was set last year. In 2020, Border Patrol agents found the remains of 253 people near the U.S.-Mexico border. This year through July, the number of bodies they've recovered increased to 383 and counting.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So, well ahead of 2020 already. Right. When people think of deaths, they often think violence, but what's the cause here?
--:-- John Bickley: The crossing itself is mostly to blame.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The vast majority succumb to the dangers of crossing the desert this summer when temperatures reached 110 degrees. The leading causes of death are hypothermia, which is heat stroke, as well as exposure and dehydration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What's really driving this? What's caused the, what, 150% increase this year?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Yeah, there are a few key factors driving up this year's death toll. For one thing, human smugglers have changed their tactics. Instead of having foot guides accompany these groups to the border, they now guide people by cell phones. That makes it easier for people to get lost.
--:-- John Bickley: A second human smugglers are notoriously indifferent to human life. They have no qualms about leaving people behind who can't keep up, and those people tend to be the weakest and most vulnerable.
--:-- Ben Johnson: For example, Border Patrol agents found a five-year-old girl from Guatemala wandering alone near the Tijuana River in June. Sometimes that's done as a distraction. For instance, surveillance footage has caught smugglers throwing babies overboard to distract Border Patrol agents while the rest of the group escapes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And finally, more people believe the promise that if they arrive on U.S. soil, they'll be allowed to stay. That's enticed more people to risk crossing the desert.
--:-- Ben Johnson: The CBP has had more than 1.5 million encounters at the border so far this year, and the increased numbers of illegal immigrants mean a larger number who won't make it.
--:-- Megan Basham: The rash of resignations continues for Hollywood anti-harassment group Time's Up. This weekend, the entire board of directors, including actress Eva Longoria and Grey's Anatomy and Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes, announced they were leaving their posts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here to explain the latest developments and how they're impacting the entertainment industry is Daily Wire entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, Megan, last time we talked about this, the news had just broken that two Time's Up leaders helped ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo discredit an accuser. But at that point, no one had resigned yet, and all the big-name actresses who were involved with the group weren't talking about the scandal.
--:-- John Bickley: The story seems to have changed a lot in the past few days.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it definitely has. So, just to review quickly from the last time we covered this, Georgia, one of Cuomo's staffers, a woman named Lindsay Boylan, claimed he touched her inappropriately and tried to kiss her.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Well, in the course of that investigation, it came out that Time's Up's then-CEO Tina Chen and chairwoman Roberta Kaplan advised Cuomo on a letter that smeared Boylan.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, pretty bad form, given that this went directly against the Time's Up mission to support women against powerful men.
--:-- John Bickley: At that point, a group of employees and volunteers published a letter blasting them. But the A-list stars involved with Time's Up stayed quiet.
--:-- Megan Basham: And that was the last time we spoke, Georgia. A few days after that, Kaplan resigned. But Chen, a former Obama staffer, hung on. But then the Washington Post obtained leaked texts that showed Chen not only advised Cuomo, she also directed staff to stand down from issuing any statements of support for Boylan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, at that point, there was no way Chen could spin what she done, so she resigned too.
--:-- Megan Basham: And those leaked texts were apparently also the final straw for all those big Hollywood names and power players who made Time Up the industry force it was Your Eva Longoria, Shonda Rhimes, Ashley Judd, and quite a few others. And they did what they needed to do to salvage their own brands.
--:-- John Bickley: In a bit of a Labor Day news dump, they announced together on Saturday that they were all collectively resigning from the board of directors.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, is this going to be the end of Time's Up?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, you know, I think probably so. The organization still has some money in the bank, and it may continue in some iteration for a while, but its reputation is destroyed, and any leadership it still has is in shambles.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, along with the board of directors resigning, the interim leaders sent out an email to the Global Division on Sunday saying basically your arm of the organization isn't going to exist going forward, so you don't even need to bother resigning.
--:-- John Bickley: And to give you an idea just how devastating all of this has been, on Monday, the editor-in-chief of the very influential trade publication, The Wrap, released an op-ed where she said this of the whole debacle.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, quoting here, The idea that powerful Hollywood women could strike a loud and decisive blow on behalf of gender equity has died. Everything that made Time's Up what it was has been quietly dissolved.
--:-- Megan Basham: Any sense of how this is going to affect the larger Me Too movement in Hollywood?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, I'm sure there's still going to be your individual accusations, but as far as influential Hollywood women formally organizing around this idea of holding predators like Harvey Weinstein accountable, I think that's probably done now, at least for a little while.
--:-- Megan Basham: The Time's Up brand has become toxic, and it's closely associated with Me Too. So, without people like Eva Longoria and Shonda Rhimes and all their A-list influence, Time's Up really doesn't have much power.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, if that's the end for Time's Up, it's a pretty awkward and abrupt ending.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yep, have to agree with you.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks again for being here, Megan.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. Over 200 Seattle police officers may be forced to resign over their refusal to comply with the city's vaccine mandate. Mayor Jenny Durkin's mandate requires all city employees to be vaccinated by October 18th or face termination. Seattle lost around 260 officers in the last 18 months over the push to defund the police.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Satanic Temple Organization is attempting to use the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act to challenge Texas' new abortion ban by establishing a, quote, abortion ritual. The group claims that the same provision that allows Native Americans to use peyote for religious rituals should entitle persons who share the Satanic Temple's beliefs about abortion to use abortion drugs like misoprostol.
--:-- John Bickley: And the NFL is bringing back league-wide social justice messaging this season. Players are allowed to wear one of the following six messages on their helmets. End racism, stop hate, it takes all of us, Black Lives Matter, inspire change, or say their stories.
--:-- 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. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. Thank you.
