Morning Wire XX
[0] President Biden announces new gun control measures, including reclassifying so -called ghost guns.
[1] This stuff doesn't really stop the violent crime, but it allows them to say, see, we're against gun trafficking.
[2] We'll discuss what the president is proposing and the political backlash.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Tuesday, April 12, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] In a surprising move, Elon Musk, Twitter's largest show.
[6] turns down a position on the platform's board of directors.
[7] We'll tell you why and how the social media giant is responding.
[8] And Colorado passes a controversial new abortion law claiming that a fetus in the womb has no human rights.
[9] We'll take a look at the new law and how U .S. abortion laws compare to the rest of the world.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] This show is brought to you by Good Ranchers.
[14] Over 85 % of the grass -fed sold in stores and online is imported from overseas.
[15] You're paying a premium for imported goods that don't even get USDA graded.
[16] That's why you should get all your beef, chicken, and seafood from Good Ranchers.
[17] Good Ranchers deliver steakhouse quality to your door.
[18] So head on over to good ranchers .com slash wire or use code wire at checkout to get their biggest offer ever.
[19] $30 off your first order plus free express shipping.
[20] Visit good ranchers .com slash wire today.
[21] After promising to enforce strict gun control measures during his campaign, President Biden on Monday announced a series of new regulations cracking down on gun manufacturers and banning certain firearms.
[22] Here with more on how the new order will impact gun owners and what it means for the future of the Second Amendment is Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips.
[23] All right, Cabot first, tell us about the president's announcement.
[24] Well, the president announced a new rule that cracks down on the ability of Americans to buy gun parts and build firearms at home.
[25] What the president calls ghost guns or what firearm owners typically call gun kits, will now be reclassified as firearms under the Gun Control Act.
[26] That means manufacturers will have to become federally licensed if they want to sell them.
[27] And anyone wanting to buy one of those gun kits will now be forced to undergo a federal background check.
[28] Another part of the announcement that kind of went under the radar was a portion that now requires federally licensed gun dealers to take any firearms without serial numbers into their inventory so they can now be serialized.
[29] Those rules, as you can imagine, set off quite the firestorm on social media on Monday.
[30] Yeah, tell us about that.
[31] What kind of response did we see?
[32] Well, supporters of the president's new order claim homemade firearms are dangerous because they don't have serial numbers, meaning it's harder for the federal government to keep track of who owns what.
[33] They also say that with violent crime rising nationwide, something has to be done, and they feel guns are largely to blame, so they support increased regulation.
[34] Obviously, Second Amendment supporters view it differently.
[35] Right.
[36] What did they have to say?
[37] Well, their main argument was a constitutional one.
[38] They say Americans have the right to make their own firearms under the Constitution.
[39] and that courts have routinely ruled in their favor on the issue.
[40] They also say that the only people who will actually end up following the law will be, by definition, law -abiding Americans, not criminals, using guns illegally in the first place.
[41] For example, Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky slammed the proposal on Monday saying, quote, the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to prevent you from making your own firearm.
[42] This is a fact that has been recognized for 200 plus years.
[43] Also, Article 1, Section 1 says Congress makes laws not potis.
[44] Now, there were some other comments the president made that really got attention yesterday regarding what he labeled assault weapons, correct?
[45] Yeah, coming into the week, we were expecting that ban on ghost guns, but it was his call for, quote, an assault weapon and high -capacity magazine ban that really caught some people off guard.
[46] And I know it's controversial, but I got it done once.
[47] Ban assault weapons and high -capacity magazines.
[48] This all comes the same week, President Biden has nominated a new director for the ATF after some controversy over his previous nominee.
[49] What can you tell us about this new nomination?
[50] Yeah, so quick refresher, the ATF oversees the majority of firearm regulation in the U .S. So the director role is hugely influential over Second Amendment rights.
[51] The president initially nominated David Chipman back in September, but you'll remember he failed to gain enough support after facing massive backlash over what many, including actually a few Democrat senators, viewed as more radical views on gun control.
[52] So the president this week nominated Stephen Dettelbeck, a former federal prosecutor from Ohio.
[53] Now, Biden reportedly made the pick because he viewed Dettelback as less controversial than Chipman, but gun rights activists are still unhappy with the selection.
[54] They point out how he's previously supported a total ban on so -called assault weapons, as well as far -stricter universal background checks and red flag laws, all things not popular with Second Amendment crowd.
[55] So now Biden has to hope that all 50 Democrats in the Senate stand by the pick and help push his nomination through, but it's not going to be a shoeing.
[56] So we'll be keeping a close eye on Democrats, specifically in states with more of a pro -second amendment streak.
[57] They're the ones who will be feeling the most pressure to vote against confirming him.
[58] But definitely not to keep an eye on there.
[59] Yeah, definitely something to watch.
[60] Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
[61] Anytime.
[62] That's DailyWire's Cabot Phillips.
[63] Coming up, Elon Musk turns down an offer to join Twitter's board.
[64] You can get this show and all of the content you love, wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app.
[65] Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows.
[66] Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you.
[67] Billionaire Elon Musk was set to join the board of Twitter after buying a 9 % stake in the company last week, but the story shifted late Sunday night when Twitter announced Musk had changed his mind.
[68] There's a lot of speculation about what caused the Tesla CEO to back -out.
[69] out, and much of that has to do with some of Musk's own cryptic tweets over the weekend, which he has since deleted.
[70] Here to discuss the latest development, and what it means for free speech on Twitter, is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[71] So, Megan, this seemed to come as a pretty big surprise for Twitter.
[72] What happened?
[73] Well, you know, I think what it really comes down to are those limitations that the board seat was going to place on Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist.
[74] So in exchange for having that seat on the board, he was going to have to contractually agree to not buy more than 14 .9 % of Twitter and abide by certain code of conduct rules.
[75] Now, he's already the company's biggest shareholder, and this would have kept him from seizing even more control and potentially launching a hostile takeover.
[76] And it also would have put some speech shackles on him as far as being able to be publicly critical of the company.
[77] So as many people are pointing out, Musk is one of the few people in the world who has the bank account to just buy Twitter outright if he wants to.
[78] With that board seat off the table, he's going to be unconstrained.
[79] So here's biotech entrepreneur and investor Vivek Ramoswamy speculating about just that on Fox News.
[80] I was a little disappointed when I saw them agree to give him one board seat because I know how the managerial class plays this game.
[81] He's going to be one of 12 on the board subject to constraints about what he can and can't say, what he can and can't do.
[82] how much more he can and cannot buy up to 14 % per the standstill agreement.
[83] I think he's going to be much more effective now as the top shareholder by far, driving change as a voice from the outside.
[84] As of now, is there any indication that Musk is planning on buying even more control of Twitter?
[85] Oh, yes, I would say there definitely is.
[86] So on Monday morning, Musk amended his SEC filing to declare his intentions to be an active investor.
[87] and that amendment also allows him to purchase more shares.
[88] So as we know, Musk is never one to shy away from making some waves on social media.
[89] And over the weekend, he posted a couple of things on where else, Twitter, that seemed to suggest he's got something up his sleeve as far as opposing those restrictive speech policies that Twitter's been pretty aggressively enacting over the last couple of years.
[90] And it also suggests he's maybe thinking about using that new power to drive some other changes.
[91] So over the weekend, he liked a tweet that said, quoting here, let me break this down for you.
[92] Elon became largest shareholder for free speech.
[93] Elon was told to play nice and not speak freely.
[94] So he liked that.
[95] And then he personally tweeted and later deleted a series of pretty provocative posts.
[96] One proposed that Twitter could turn at San Francisco headquarters to a homeless shelter since, quote, no one shows up anyway.
[97] And he also posted a poll.
[98] asking his followers if the company should delete the W in Twitter.
[99] 57 % of respondents voted yes on that, by the way, if you're wondering.
[100] And now, how is Twitter responding to all of this?
[101] I would say very cautiously.
[102] So CEO Parag Agrawal said the company will, quote, remain open to Musk's input.
[103] But then he also put out a memo to Twitter employees warning that there will be, quote, distractions ahead.
[104] Right.
[105] Well, at the very least, we could be in for some good drama.
[106] Yeah, I think so.
[107] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[108] My pleasure.
[109] That's Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[110] Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, recently signed a controversial abortion bill which codifies abortion access in the state.
[111] Here to tell us more about the measure is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[112] So Charlotte, first, tell us what's in this bill.
[113] Sure, so this act is known as the Reproductive Health Equity Act, and it specifically codifies into law the idea that a fetus does not have of human rights prior to birth.
[114] The law states a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state.
[115] A summary of the bill explains that it bans state and local public entities from interfering in a woman's reproductive decisions.
[116] So in Colorado, a fetus isn't recognized as a human with rights at any point in a pregnancy.
[117] Correct.
[118] Governor Polis released a statement about the bill on Monday, saying, in the state of Colorado, the serious decision to start or end a pregnancy with medical assistance will remain between a person, their doctor, and their faith.
[119] So the state will not intervene on behalf of an unborn person because in Colorado, they're not legally defined as a person.
[120] Now, we recently reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom was pushing for more protections for abortion in response to other states moving to ban it.
[121] Is that the case with Paulus as well?
[122] Yeah, the text of the law actually talks about that.
[123] It also specifically references Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which is the Mississippi case that the Supreme Court is set to decide on this summer that could potentially reverse Roe versus Wade.
[124] Just a side note on that, observers have noted that the only time the word women appears in the bill is in reference to the name of that lawsuit.
[125] Everywhere else, it uses the term pregnant individual.
[126] So that as well has been interpreted as evidence that this bill is intended as another shot fired in the culture war.
[127] So just returning to your earlier point, this law reinforces women's access to abortion up to the point of birth in Colorado, so no need to demonstrate a threat to the mother's life, nothing.
[128] That's correct.
[129] In that way, Colorado's standard actually goes much further than the precedent set by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey because it doesn't take into account those factors like viability or age of gestation.
[130] Is this more extreme compared to other states?
[131] How does Colorado compare to other places?
[132] Yeah, Colorado is pretty unique.
[133] Even the most progressive states generally limit abortion at the point of viability, which is around 20 to 24 weeks.
[134] And even that is very late by international standards.
[135] This actually came up in December when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Dobbs case.
[136] Here's Chief Justice John Roberts pointing out just how extreme the United States viability standard is compared with the rest of the world.
[137] I'd like to focus on the 15 -week ban because that's not a dramatic department.
[138] from viability.
[139] It is the standard that the vast majority of other countries have.
[140] When you get to the viability standard, we share that standard with the People's Republic of China in North Korea.
[141] Is that accurate that our abortion laws are comparable to North Korea and China?
[142] Yes, it is in terms of allowing abortion later in pregnancy.
[143] According to a recent report by the Family Research Council, the U .S. is one of only six countries that allows abortion on demand through the entire nine months of pregnancy.
[144] The others are China, North Korea, South Korea, Canada, and Vietnam.
[145] And only three European countries allow abortion after 14 weeks.
[146] So the vast majority of Europe is much stricter in many ways than this Mississippi law that's now in question.
[147] So Colorado is way outside the mainstream on this.
[148] Yeah, it looks that way.
[149] Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
[150] That's Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence -Bond.
[151] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[152] Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that Americans will need to decide their own risk level for COVID for themselves.
[153] There will be a level of infection.
[154] This is not going to be eradicated and it's not going to be eliminated.
[155] The U .S. Postal Service will no longer deliver to a neighborhood in Santa Monica, California, because of repeated attacks on Postman.
[156] Though the first of multiple attacks occurred in January, no arrests have been made at this time.
[157] And Alabama's governor has signed a new preventing doctors from offering gender transition treatments to patients under the age of 19.
[158] Alabama is the second state to impose a ban on the treatments, but the first to propose criminal penalties for offending doctors.
[159] A similar measure in Arkansas was blocked by a federal judge.
[160] If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to daily wire members.
[161] Use code Morning Wire to try a reader's pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.