Morning Wire XX
[0] Concerns about crime have pushed Republican Lee Zeldin ahead of his Democrat opponent, New York Governor Kathy Hokel.
[1] The safer places are the Democratic states.
[2] So they have hijacked this issue and weaponized it against us.
[3] Where does the race stand today?
[4] And are other incumbents in the state also in jeopardy?
[5] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[6] It's Wednesday, November 2nd, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Documents showed that the federal government directed and coordinated with social media, companies to censor information and even jokes they didn't like.
[8] How deep was the collusion and why is it still happening?
[9] And a new report found that teachers unions spent tens of millions of dollars on political activism that many of its members don't approve of.
[10] We have the details.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[20] The eyes of the nation have turned to New York this week as the race for governor between incumbent, Democrat Kathy Hokel and Republican challenger Lee Zeldin has emerged as the biggest potential surprise of the midterm cycle.
[21] With just days to go before the election and early voting already started in the Empire State, Hokel's lead, which had been over 20 points in some polls just two months ago, has evaporated down to the margin of error, with some surveys even putting Zeldon ahead.
[22] Joining us to discuss as columnist David Marcus.
[23] Morning, Dave.
[24] What is Hockel doing to try to reverse these trends?
[25] Good morning.
[26] Word on the street and in the paper.
[27] really is that Hokel's campaign is in absolute panic mode.
[28] For the polls to have moved this much, this swiftly, it's just rare and clearly exposes a groundswell of support for Zeldon.
[29] Hokel's trying to pivot to addressing the crime problems plaguing New York, but she's sending two rather conflicting messages.
[30] One, that crime isn't actually as bad as Zelda and others make it out to be, but also that she's aggressively combating it.
[31] That's a very hard line to walk, and thus far she hasn't been very successful.
[32] Now, the candidates debated last week, and this issue was at the four.
[33] At one point, Hockel asked Zeldin why he cares so much about this issue, which Zeldon has seized on.
[34] Did the debate move the needle?
[35] The answer was very strange and gets back to this mixed message from Hokel.
[36] Zeldon already has ads up featuring her answer, and it just looks badly out of touch.
[37] Whatever one thinks of the regular stream of violent viral videos from New York City, especially in the mass transit system, they aren't made up.
[38] And talking to voters there a lot, I'd say most, in fact, see this as an existential crisis for the city.
[39] Hokel's running ads claiming she fixed bail reform, which is a very odd claim, but she won't really commit to the kind of overhauling criminal justice that Zeldon is promising on day one when he says he will declare a crime emergency and fire several progressive prosecutors who he says aren't doing their job.
[40] And it's not just the governor's race that's garnering attention in New York, there are also a spate of House races that seem to be leaning to the GOP now.
[41] Are these races influencing each other as Election Day approaches?
[42] For sure.
[43] Even Sean Patrick Maloney, who's the head of the D -Triple C, the Democrat congressional group in charge of winning House seats, is facing potential defeat in a race that should be an easy win for Democrats.
[44] They're spending a lot of money on that seat and a few others they want to hold.
[45] Meanwhile, they seem to have given up on GOP held seats such as New York 11, where Max Rose is attempting to win back his seat from Republican Nicole Nalia Takas.
[46] And yes, these races are fueling each other.
[47] Zeldon gains when people get out to vote for GOP House candidates.
[48] And those House candidates are also going to get some coattail support from Zeldon.
[49] So look, the Republicans are all in here.
[50] Now, Zeldon has gotten some help from a couple of national Republican figures, rallying this weekend with Florida Governor Ronda Santis and Virginia Governor Glenn Yunkin.
[51] Is there a risk for Zeldon in nationalizing this race, which he's so far just fought squarely over New York -focused issues.
[52] Yes, but probably.
[53] I mean, DeSantis in particular can be a polarizing figure.
[54] I mean, he's someone Joe Biden and Democrats have slung a lot of mud at.
[55] But look, Zeldon also has a base to appease, and the rally with DeSantis had about 10 ,000 people there.
[56] That's something statewide elections in New York have not seen in some time.
[57] So Zelvin's folks see more reward than risk here.
[58] So not to put you in a tough spot, but any predictions from the ground there in New York?
[59] Hey, I'm already on the record in Daily Wire saying I think Zeldon wins this thing.
[60] It's not just that polls tend to overweigh Democrat support, though that seems to be true.
[61] It's also just what you're hearing on the ground.
[62] The frustration is palpable and real, and Hogle doesn't seem to have an answer for it.
[63] Well, this will certainly be a fascinating race to watch election night.
[64] Thank you for joining us, Dave.
[65] That was Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[66] Coming up, leaked documents from the Department of Homeland Security sparked accusations of big government censorship.
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[76] An explosive new report details the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to police disinformation on social media.
[77] Joining us to discuss as Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[78] So, Megan, I thought the Biden administration's Ministry of Truth idea was scrapped.
[79] How is this not the same thing?
[80] Well, you know, this is technically different from the proposed disinformation governance board, but it's still very much in the same vein, but more expansive.
[81] Also, you have to say that this is not a proposal.
[82] It's something that's already in place and has actually been so for some time.
[83] So DHS has been monitoring social media for a while, but prior to the 2020 election, the department began partnering with big tech in a more formal way.
[84] In 2018, DHS created a sub -department called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, SISA.
[85] And Siza has reportedly been having weekly meetings with social media staffers.
[86] One example of the agenda items, Siza asked Twitter to, quote, process reports and provide timely responses to include the removal of reported misinformation from the platform where possible.
[87] So almost sounding like Siza was giving Twitter orders there.
[88] And some of the subject matter DHS has been monitoring are the origins of the pandemic, the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, racial hate, the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal, and U .S. support for the war in Ukraine.
[89] But according to the Intercept, DHS doesn't clearly define what qualifies as disinformation in all of these categories.
[90] And they report that this has created a broad opening for DHS to act out of political motivations.
[91] So, for example, some of the material they wanted censored came from accounts that were explicitly labeled as paris.
[92] So essentially, DHS was asking Big Tech to suppress jokes.
[93] And it's important to note here that the Intercept is widely perceived as a left -leaning publication, not conservative.
[94] So what were the sources that the Intercept used for this report?
[95] Well, some of the material came from official public records and some leaked memos, but a lot of it was from discovery material from a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmidt.
[96] Schmidt described on Fox News recently part of what his office.
[97] is found in those records.
[98] There's direct communication from a senior level of Facebook executive.
[99] These government officials, over 50 of them that we've been able to determine so far, have been given direct access in what's called special flagging status to almost by themselves go down and take people, you know, de -platform them.
[100] So what Schmidt's talking about here is that special portal that allows DHS to flag posts or users directly on Facebook or Instagram and request that it be taken down.
[101] or suppressed.
[102] And that portal is still active, by the way.
[103] I checked it myself this morning.
[104] One of the biggest findings, though, is arguably about the FBI agent who pressured social media platforms to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.
[105] Even after that debacle, he continued to have a hand in setting this DHS policy.
[106] So do we know whether the government was or is actively pressuring tech companies to act as censors, or did these companies pursue this partnership with the government?
[107] You know, based on this report, it appears to be a little bit of both depending on what company you're talking about.
[108] To give you one example, a text from a Microsoft executive to a DHS official in February said, I'm just going to quote, platforms have got to get comfortable with government.
[109] It's really interesting how hesitant they remain.
[110] Now, it didn't specify which companies have been hesitant, but the report shows that other big tech executives fully embraced this arrangement.
[111] Up until last week, Vigiegade set content moderation policies at Twitter as it's head of legal and policy.
[112] Elon Musk actually fired her, and their differences of opinion on censoring online speech appeared to have played a pretty big role in that decision.
[113] It turns out that while she was an executive at Twitter, Gade was also meeting monthly with the Biden administration.
[114] She also helped write a report that recommended DHS expand its effort to police the what she called information ecosystem.
[115] So has there been any response from big tech or from the Biden administration since this report came out?
[116] Nothing from the administration or DHS yet, and Twitter is the only social media company to respond so far.
[117] They said that they don't coordinate with other entities regarding their moderation decisions, and they evaluate whether posts break Twitter's rules independently.
[118] Right, well, and whatever policies they had in place before, those are probably likely to change, right?
[119] Yeah.
[120] Megan, thanks so much for reporting.
[121] That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[122] A new report highlights what it calls the dramatic disconnect between teachers' union leadership and teachers themselves.
[123] Nearly all of the money teachers' unions spent on political activity went to one political party in 2020, while less than half of their members say they support that party.
[124] Here are the details is Eric Eggers from the Drill Down podcast and the Government Accountability Institute, which issued the report.
[125] Morning, Eric.
[126] Hey, good morning, John.
[127] So GAI has issued a new report on the financial and political.
[128] activities of the two largest teachers unions in the country, what did you find?
[129] So I think there are a few big things this new report reveals.
[130] First, our new report reveals that the teachers unions have seen a dramatic increase in their political spending, while the actual work to represent their members has stayed relatively static.
[131] So, for example, over the last 16 years, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which are the two biggest teachers unions in this country, spent 74 million more on political activities.
[132] But over that same time period, spending on membership issues, or what they call representational activities, increased only $5 million.
[133] So a massive ramp up in political spending, but not much more spending on activities for members.
[134] No, that's exactly right.
[135] And your report also indicates that the increase in political spending was not evenly distributed at all.
[136] No, it wasn't.
[137] The unions gave $59 million in political contributions in that 2020 election cycle.
[138] nearly all of it, or 100 % of the money, went to Democrat or liberal organizations with some fairly radical positions, despite the fact that, and this is according to their own surveys, 57 % of union members identify as either independent or as a Republican.
[139] So a majority don't even agree with backing Democrats.
[140] You cite some radical positions supported by some of these groups.
[141] What are some examples there?
[142] One of the groups called Center for Popular Democracy got $2 million from the unions, and they brag about their efforts to harass elected officials during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, for example, among other activities.
[143] Another group, Color of ChangePack, got $100 ,000.
[144] They opposed police unions overtly, calling them, quote, killer cop organizations.
[145] That is pretty radical.
[146] You said recent news about our education system puts your report into some important context.
[147] You're talking about the most recent results.
[148] of the national testing for NAEP, which is called the nation's report card.
[149] What did that show?
[150] Yeah, that's right.
[151] Unfortunately, the test results show that the pandemic -era school closures and other educational disruptions have essentially wiped out two decades worth of progress in terms of test scores.
[152] And black and Hispanic students have been hit the hardest.
[153] Their test scores dropped seven points, where their white student scores, on average, dropped less than half that.
[154] And so given the fact that many experts say the scores among the nine -year -olds are participate in this test essentially predict the educational trajectory for these kids.
[155] Some worry that these results essentially predict an overall decline in academic success for an entire emerging generation due to the COVID pandemic.
[156] So ironically, the union spent a lot of money politically to support groups fighting for racial justice, but at the same time, they've advocated for policies like school closures that have conceptually caused irreparable harm to a generation of minority students.
[157] And not something a lot of parents will be happy to hear, I'm sure.
[158] Eric, thanks for joining us.
[159] That's Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute and co -host of the Drill Down podcast.
[160] Another story we're tracking this week.
[161] The FCC is recommending that the federal government completely ban social media platform TikTok because there is no way to prevent the flow of user data from getting back to the Chinese Communist Party.
[162] Well, that's all the time we've got this morning.
[163] Thanks for waking up with us.
[164] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news.
[165] to know.