Morning Wire XX
[0] It's Super Tuesday week and the two top presidential contenders are expected to run away with it.
[1] Why is Team Trump more optimistic than ever about November and will calls for Biden to step aside, ease up or grow louder?
[2] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[3] It's Monday, March 4th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] A key hearing wraps up as new evidence sheds more light on the allegations that could derail the Georgia case against Trump.
[5] You can draw the inference, as I've suggested on Bradley, that what he said in the text message, Defense Exhibit 26 is true.
[6] And two high -profile legal cases against journalists have advocates warning that the First Amendment is under attack.
[7] There's not a lot of room for optimism because you can't win in front of a D .C. jury or a D .C. judge.
[8] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[9] Stay tuned.
[10] We have the news you need to know.
[11] Hey, guys.
[12] Producer Brandon here.
[13] Do you know that MRNA vaccines are used on most pigs?
[14] The mystery continues to grow in the meat industry, which is why we're more and more thankful every day for our Good Ranchers subscriptions.
[15] During their say -o -to -Mrana sale, Good Ranchers is offering you a free 10 -pound Easter ham with any subscription.
[16] Their ham is absolutely fantastic, and unlike the pork at the grocery store, it's guaranteed to be free of any mRNA vaccines.
[17] Right now, go to Good Ranchers .com and use our code wire to get a free Easter ham and $25 off your first box.
[18] That's Good Ranchers.
[19] Come, code wire.
[20] Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and Donald Trump is expected to sweep the Republican primary contests, all but ensuring his general election rematch against President Joe Biden.
[21] Trump's challenger, Nikki Haley, has failed to pick up ground in the polls after her second place finish with 40 percent of the vote in her home state of South Carolina two weeks ago.
[22] Meanwhile, new polling shows significant good news for Trump against Biden.
[23] Here to talk about what's at stake tomorrow and where the general election race stands as Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[24] Hey, Dave.
[25] So can Trump all but in this tomorrow?
[26] Morning, John.
[27] And yes, for all intents and purposes, he can and is likely to.
[28] He technically won't have the total number of delegates he needs, but close enough.
[29] And really, barring a huge surprise, the longest general election in American history will begin on Wednesday, whether Haley officially drops out or not.
[30] To put that in perspective, Trump didn't secure the nomination in 2016 until May 26.
[31] For Biden in 2020, it was June 5th.
[32] So this year, we will likely get three months of bonus general election, and the polling for that matchup is already coming in hot and heavy.
[33] Yeah, it is.
[34] Trump racked up some more delegates over the weekend, most notably at the Michigan Caucus.
[35] If he cruises as expected, can Haley stay in the race?
[36] The short answer is yes, because the campaign still has money.
[37] It reported raising a hefty 12 million in February, despite if not exactly, disqualification.
[38] disappointing than at least stagnant performances in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
[39] So she can run ads and do appearances, but the question is whether the news media and society in general are going to pay much attention.
[40] This weekend, she was projecting confidence and refusing to say what might happen if she loses, including whether she would endorse Trump.
[41] But barring a miracle, that's not going to be a hypothetical anymore in just a few days.
[42] Yeah.
[43] A New York Times -Sin a poll got a lot of attention this weekend with some saying it's the worst poll yet for Biden.
[44] What numbers jumped out of that survey?
[45] So the top line was Trump with 48 percent and Biden with 43, which is very bad for Biden, especially since in 2020, Trump never really led in the polls at all, and it was still a squeaker election.
[46] But the more you dive in, the worse it gets.
[47] For example, among working class voters of color with no college degree, Biden's slim lead is 47 to 41 percent.
[48] But Biden won 72 percent of that demographic in 2020.
[49] Another shocking stat showed that 10 percent of Biden voters, that is to say people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 say they won't today.
[50] Put simply, if that holds up, Donald Trump will be president of the United States, possibly in a landslide.
[51] Now, the poll also showed that among Democrats only roughly half said that Biden should be the nominee with another half saying he should not.
[52] How much of a problem is that for Biden?
[53] And could it increase talk of replacing him on the ticket?
[54] I mean, look, you can't spin that as a good number.
[55] And it's a problem, not least because among voters under 45, it's even worse.
[56] The Biden team has responded to calls for him to step aside with almost a measure of indignance, basically saying, according to the New York Times, that Democrats should, quote, get over it, end quote.
[57] They say they have a strong record of accomplishment to run on, but polling on almost every policy issue suggests that voters do not share that assessment, at least not yet.
[58] And that kind of brings us back to the three bonus months of general election campaigning that we're about to embark on, John.
[59] Biden doesn't appear to have a lot of things on his side right now, but he does have time, eight long months of it.
[60] Yeah, and we'll be here to document every twist and turn of it.
[61] Dave, thanks for coming on.
[62] Thanks for having me. of text messages and fiery closing arguments wrapped up an evidentiary hearing into potential misconduct from Fulton County DA Fawney Willis.
[63] Willis is hoping to prosecute former President Trump and 18 others for alleged election interference.
[64] Here to discuss the latest developments as Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[65] Hey Amanda.
[66] So let's start with these text messages between Terrence Bradley and Ashley Merchant.
[67] First, remind us of the circumstances here and how these texts are significant.
[68] Oh, yeah.
[69] So Merchant is a lawyer for Michael Roman.
[70] He's a co -defendant in Willis's case against the former president.
[71] And Bradley is the former law partner friend and divorce attorney of Nathan Wade.
[72] Willis is accused of having a romantic relationship with Wade before she hired him a special prosecutor in this Trump case and then financially benefiting from that relationship.
[73] As for these texts, they allegedly revealed that Bradley offered Merchant information about Wade and Willis's affair, specifically that it started back in 2019.
[74] Now, this is significant because it would place Willis hiring Wade as special prosecutor after their affair had started.
[75] That would create a conflict for Willis, and importantly, it contradicts sworn statements and testimony from both Willis and Wade.
[76] Right.
[77] And what do these texts actually say?
[78] One text exchange includes merchant asking Bradley point blank if he thinks the affair started before Willis hired Wade in the Trump case.
[79] Bradley responds, quote, absolutely.
[80] It started when Willis left the DA's office and was a judge.
[81] in South Fulton.
[82] Now, Willis was a judge in South Fulton in 2019.
[83] Other texts from Bradley say that he felt Willis and Wade would publicly deny the affair and called them both, quote, arrogant as F. Bradley also suggested Wade is not qualified for the role as special prosecutor, writing of Wade, quote, never in his life has he ever prosecuted a felony.
[84] The timeline from Bradley's texts aligned with testimony from Willis's former friend Robin Yerty.
[85] Yerty said under oath that the affair started.
[86] in 2019.
[87] The text also seemed to correspond with cell phone data submitted by Trump's legal team.
[88] Wade apparently made dozens of visits to Willis's home before he was tapped as special prosecutor.
[89] Trump's team says the data also show that Wade stayed overnight on two of those occasions.
[90] Bradley was asked about these text messages while he was on the stand.
[91] Tell us about his testimony there.
[92] I mean, to put it plainly, Bradley's demeanor was completely different on the stand than how he was interacting with Merchant in those texts.
[93] He clearly did not want to testify or discuss any of those messages.
[94] He routinely responded by saying he did not recall.
[95] And he even suggested the information he gave Merchant was merely speculative or even false.
[96] Okay, so we also had closing arguments for the hearing on Friday.
[97] How did those arguments go?
[98] Well, interestingly, Willis was in the courtroom when her office gave closing arguments.
[99] She seemed really engaged and at times was not.
[100] along.
[101] Basically, her office argued that no actual conflict was established, and they really emphasized that it's rare for prosecutors to be kicked off these cases, and the onus is on the defense.
[102] Willis did abruptly leave the courtroom when Steve Sadow, Trump's lawyer, made his closing pitch.
[103] Here's some audio of that.
[104] Whose motive in this case is the strongest Bonnie Willis, Nathan Wade?
[105] What happens if the relationship started before November 1st?
[106] they get disqualified.
[107] Who has the best motive of anyone to lie?
[108] They do.
[109] Who has the most at stake to lie?
[110] They do.
[111] Who wants to stay on this case for whatever the financial reason may be?
[112] They do.
[113] Finally, when can we expect a ruling on Willis's potential disqualification?
[114] And do we have a sense of how Judge McAfee will rule?
[115] McAfee said he hopes to have a ruling within two weeks.
[116] He said at the close of court on Friday, that he has several legal issues to sort through and several factual determinations to make.
[117] Despite what seems like some pretty clear evidence of at least an appearance of a conflict here, it's unclear which way McAfee will rule.
[118] He's been pretty lenient on Willis, especially during her really heated testimony, but potentially McAfee could disqualify Willis and Wade or the entire DA's office from moving forward with this Trump case.
[119] And it could be even worse than that for Willis.
[120] Some legal analysts have argued that Willis should be prosecuted for lying under oath or even disbarred.
[121] Yeah, well, the fate of one of the key cases against Trump could hang on his ruling.
[122] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[123] You're welcome.
[124] First Amendment advocates are raising concern over legal action taken against two journalists.
[125] A judge is holding veteran broadcaster Catherine Harage in contempt for refusing to divulge her sources.
[126] Meanwhile, on Friday, the FBI arrested investigative journalist Steve Baker on charges stemming from his coverage of January 6.
[127] Here with more is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[128] So, Megan, why don't we start with Harwich?
[129] Why is she being held in contempt?
[130] So she was most recently an investigative reporter with CBS, and she'd worked there for the last four years.
[131] But these contempt charges actually stem from 2017 when she was with Fox News.
[132] She had written a series of stories about Dr. Yangping Chen, who is the president of the University of Management and Technology in Arlington, Virginia.
[133] And that school is just four miles from the Pentagon.
[134] and it also takes funding from the Department of Defense.
[135] So the FBI had investigated Chen for potential ties to the Chinese military and for potentially lying on her immigration forms, but they never charged her.
[136] Then in 2018, Chen sued the FBI for violating her privacy rights and she's accusing the agency of leaking information to Harwich.
[137] So in the course of this civil suit, Harwich has refused in order to divulge her sources, citing her First Amendment rights as a member of the press.
[138] U .S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who is an Obama appointee, is fining her $800 a day until she complies.
[139] He wrote in the order that he, quote, recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society, but he also said that the court has its own role to play in upholding the law and safeguarding judicial authority.
[140] Now, have Fox or Harwich responded?
[141] Not yet, but CBS has, which is interesting because the company just laid Harage off a couple of weeks ago.
[142] And they took an unusual step of confiscating her records relating to confidential sources, but they then returned them when her union SAGAFTRA stepped in.
[143] Now, that notwithstanding, a CBS spokesman said the company is fully supportive of Catherine Harrod's position in this case, and they said that no journalist should be punished for maintaining a source's confidentiality.
[144] The spokesman also said the judge's order should be, and I'm quoting, concerning to all Americans who value the role of the free press in our democracy.
[145] All right.
[146] Now, let's turn to the Blaz's reporter Steve Baker.
[147] Why was he arrested?
[148] So he's being charged with several misdemeanors stemming from his presence in the Capitol on January 6th.
[149] They include disorderly and disruptive conduct in the Capitol building and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
[150] Now, Baker was not working for the Blaze at the time of the riot, but he says he was in the Capitol as an independent journalist covering the protests.
[151] bolstering that claim, he licensed the footage that he took that day to a number of media outlets, including the New York Times.
[152] The FBI's affidavit, on the other hand, highlights comments that Baker made during and after the riot, where he said that he, quote, 100 % approved of what happened today, referring to January 6th.
[153] And he also used a swear word in reference to Nancy Pelosi and said he regrets not grabbing a laptop from her office.
[154] Baker has said that these remarks, some of which he called jokes, have been taken out of context.
[155] He told Morning Wire that the FBI's case is politically motivated.
[156] I had, you know, look, I had no love for whether I was in Pelosi's or near Pelosi's office or near McConnell's office.
[157] But this is exactly what the DOJ does with all of these people.
[158] Ultimately, the biggest crime that every one of these J6 defendants commit, whether it's Stuart Rhodes, the founder of the oathkeepers, or it's a grandmother who took a selfie inside the Capitol for 10 minutes, or it's me, they go and they get language that was used, words that was used, speech that was used, and then they tie that in and make that speech representative of their behavior.
[159] I should also note that Baker's coverage of J6 and its aftermath has been fairly extensive, so much so that House Republicans have given him access to some previously unseen footage of the, that day.
[160] And in response to Baker's arrest, Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans are going to make more than 5 ,000 hours of footage from the Capitol public.
[161] And he says that the House will release all 40 ,000 hours over the course of the next two months.
[162] Well, certainly, anytime the courts go after journalists, all of us in the news business pay particular attention.
[163] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[164] Anytime.
[165] Thanks for waking up with us.
[166] We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.