Morning Wire XX
[0] President Biden proposes radical changes to the Supreme Court after a series of conservative rulings.
[1] Biden is pushing forward this proposal in order to rev up the left base because they're unhappy with the Supreme Court and its originalist decisions.
[2] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl.
[3] It's Tuesday, July 30th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] New evidence shows law enforcement had plenty of time to stop Trump.
[5] would be assassin.
[6] The lack of urgency is incredible.
[7] They should have been a plan in place to deal with contingencies like these.
[8] What do new texts and interviews reveal?
[9] And chaos erupts in Venezuela after President Nicholas Maduro and his opponent both claim to have won the election.
[10] I don't think there's anyone, even Maduro himself, that would argue that this was a free and fair election.
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[21] President Joe Biden this week called for radical Supreme Court reforms that would upend centuries of precedent.
[22] Here are the details on the controversial proposal.
[23] It's Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips, A Cabot.
[24] So a plan that would forever change the high court as we know it.
[25] What can you tell us?
[26] So typically the Supreme Court is out of the news this time of year, but that all changed Monday when President Biden rolled out a just stunning new proposal to overhaul SCOTUS.
[27] Writing in the Washington Post, Biden called first for a. binding ethical code that would, among other things, require justices disclose any gifts they receive and recuse themselves from cases in which they are their spouses have conflicts of interest and also restrict justices from engaging in, quote, public political activity.
[28] In addition, the president called for a new constitutional amendment that would reverse the high court's ruling this year that offered legal immunity to sitting presidents acting in an official capacity.
[29] And finally, and most controversially, Biden called for term limits for justices.
[30] Under the plan, rather than a lifetime appointment, justice would serve one 18 -year term.
[31] Those terms would be staggered, so a president would hypothetically appoint one new justice every two years.
[32] So massive changes there, particularly the term limits.
[33] Yeah, it would be among the most consequential set of reforms in the history of the court.
[34] In his words, term limits would, quote, ensure that the court's membership changes with some regularity and reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come.
[35] Here's Biden speaking yesterday at the LBJ presidential library.
[36] The United States is the only major constitutes of democracy that gives lifetime seats in their high court.
[37] Turn on it would help ensure that the court membership changes with some regularity.
[38] And what sort of response have we seen so far to the announcement?
[39] Well, Democrats, especially those on the progressive left flank, as you can imagine, cheered the proposal.
[40] For example, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin lauded the move while saying, the current court has the, quote, lowest ethical standards.
[41] And for her part, Vice President Harris quickly got on board, saying she and Biden were co -proposing the reforms, which she claimed, quote, will help to restore confidence in the court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law.
[42] But Republicans were quick to denounce the plan as a political stunt.
[43] Speaker Mike Johnson called it dead on arrival in the House, while the Trump campaign said it was tantamount to court packing.
[44] Among those in opposition is Mark Pelletta, a former Trump official and senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America.
[45] Here's what he told us.
[46] President Biden, along with the rest of the left, wants to control the Supreme Court.
[47] That's what this is all about.
[48] Destroy the Supreme Court, raise questions about its integrity, and ultimately to have it issue rulings that they like.
[49] That's why they're attacking the Supreme Court right now.
[50] Paoletta went on to take aim at term limits in particular, saying they contradict the founder's intentions for the court.
[51] When the Constitution was debated, ratified Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 said, if then courts of justice are to be considered as a bulwarks of a limited constitution against legislative encroachments, this consideration will afford a strong argument for the permanent tenure of judicial offices.
[52] And so I think the founders thought, we want these people in particular, to be completely independent, have no focus on what am I going to do?
[53] I have a lifetime appointment, and I'm going to administer justice as the Constitution, as a statute's required.
[54] So I think it's this idea of if you had a shorter time period, a term appointment, you would perhaps be influenced by that near the end of your term.
[55] All right, so the big question here, of course, do we expect these reforms to pass?
[56] And if not, why is President Biden proposing this now?
[57] Well, given Republican control of Congress, it's almost certainly going to fail this go -round.
[58] And President Biden knows that.
[59] But Democrats are thinking big picture.
[60] First, as a lame duck, Biden reportedly wants to push for major reforms that he feels will cement his legacy.
[61] If these measures pass in the future, he'll likely get credit as the first president to get the ball rolling.
[62] Second, and just as important, this announcement essentially puts Supreme Court reform on the ballot this November.
[63] And while we don't have much polling yet on the issue, Democrats are confident it will.
[64] galvanize a chunk of the electorate and give Kamala Harris something substantive to run on.
[65] A radical move by the president and VP for sure.
[66] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[67] Anytime.
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[74] Newly revealed text messages give a fuller picture of the moments that led up to the assassination attempt against former President Trump.
[75] And a new interview with local law enforcement shows how the failure to coordinate and communicate hurt security.
[76] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about.
[77] about the latest on the Trump assassination attempt.
[78] So Tim, what can you tell us about these new messages that we just saw?
[79] Right, the New York Times obtained some text messages sent by local officers on security detail for Trump's Pennsylvania rally on July 13th.
[80] These messages reveal a couple of things.
[81] First, that law enforcement first grew suspicious of 20 -year -old Thomas Crooks about 90 minutes before he fired at Trump.
[82] Previous reports have put that window at about 60 minutes.
[83] And second, as officers kept tabs on Crooks, Crooks may have been watching the officers as well.
[84] The FBI has said he scouted the area days before with a drone and spent some time at the gun range and gathering supplies.
[85] So bottom line, Crooks was somewhat prepared and security had major gaps.
[86] Now, the messages show that a local sniper ended his shift just before 4 .30 that afternoon and was the first to flag crooks on the way out.
[87] Crooks was tagged again at 510.
[88] A counter sniper with Beaver County SWAT took photos of Crooks who was standing just below his position in a warehouse.
[89] Here's that SWAT member Gregory Nicol talking to ABC News.
[90] He was looking up and down the building and just wandering around and it just seemed out of place.
[91] The photos were shared among law enforcement about 30 minutes later and the suggestion was made that Secret Service should be informed.
[92] It's unclear whether that happened.
[93] An hour after Crooks was photographed, he was dead, killed by a sniper's bullet after taking shots at former President Trump.
[94] Now, in between all this, we know of several attempts made to get Crooks, but he slipped through every time.
[95] a lot of missed opportunities.
[96] Now, local officers are also giving their side of the story to media now.
[97] What are they saying?
[98] That a lack of communication and a failure to prepare were huge failures here, not least of all by Secret Service.
[99] Here's Jason Woods, a team leader for Beaver County's Emergency Services Unit and SWAT sniper section, talking about preparations on the day of the rally.
[100] We were supposed to get a face -to -face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived and that never happened.
[101] So I think that that was probably a pivotal point where I started thinking things were wrong because that never happened and we had no communication with the Secret Service.
[102] You had no communication with the Secret Service at all on that Saturday?
[103] No, not until after the shooting, I believe.
[104] Yeah.
[105] And by then?
[106] It was too late.
[107] Beaver County SWAT members said that typically security operations like this are robust with clear lines of communication and high trust that everyone involved is doing their jobs.
[108] But that seemed to break down the day of the rally.
[109] Here's more from ABC.
[110] So how do you know if Greg's concerns about crooks are being relayed properly?
[111] We don't.
[112] It's, we have to assume that when he put that information out to command, that command took that information and did something with it.
[113] We don't know if they did.
[114] So potentially more failures to uncover as these investigations move forward.
[115] Right.
[116] Now, in some semi -related news, Elon Musk has accused.
[117] Google of suppressing news, not just about the assassination, but just Trump in general.
[118] What's the basis for his accusation?
[119] Yeah, Musk on Sunday accused Google of placing a search ban on Trump.
[120] Musk posted photos to acts that showed at Google's autopopulate, trying to complete a search for President Donald with suggestions such as President Donald Duck and President Donald Reagan, but not Trump.
[121] Google denied Musk accusations and said the suggestions were an anomaly that sometimes happens with famous figures.
[122] But Musk hasn't backed down.
[123] He's continued to share photos of Google search results for Trump that resulted in numerous positive stories about Harris.
[124] Musk also posted that the vast majority of political donations by employees of Alphabet, Google's parent company, went overwhelmingly to Democrats.
[125] Well, right or wrong, this raises a lot of questions about tech influencing our elections.
[126] Tim, thanks for joining.
[127] Good to be on.
[128] Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro was once again formally declared the winner of a high disputed presidential election on Monday.
[129] But the opposition party and U .S. officials say the supposed victory is a sham.
[130] Joining us to discuss the massively controversial election in Venezuela, and the U .S. response to it is Victoria Coates, Vice President of National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
[131] Victoria, thank you so much for coming on.
[132] Of course, happy to do it.
[133] First, what are some of the reasons that this election is being called into question?
[134] Well, there's long and undistinguished history of election interference from the Chavez and Maduro regimes in Venezuela.
[135] Venezuela had been a flourishing democracy historically.
[136] That's what the people of Venezuela are used to.
[137] And the Maduro regime has followed their regular playbook of shutting polling places early, kicking out the inspectors, and manufacturing a completely uncredible vote count that he won in a landslide when all exit polls indicate the reverse.
[138] The opposition has put forward significant evidence of just complete, unabashed voter fraud.
[139] I mean, they don't even really try to hide it at this point.
[140] And what was interesting in the lead up to this quote -unquote election is that traditional partners of Maduro like Alula in Brazil came out and said, hey, you can't do this.
[141] You cannot steal this election this blatantly and still be considered any kind of democracy.
[142] And how have U .S. officials reacted to Maduro's self -declared victory?
[143] Well, the Biden -Harris administration has reacted with rhetoric.
[144] They say they stand with the people of Venezuela, but that's not particularly credible because they're the ones who set this up.
[145] About 10 months ago, they made a deal essentially with Maduro that they would lift some of the sanctions, particularly on his energy sector, if he would allow a fair election, which he agreed to.
[146] They lifted the sanctions.
[147] And he immediately reneged on the deal and kicked the most popular opposition figure Maria Quarina Machado off the ticket, wouldn't let her run.
[148] And the administration did nothing.
[149] They want that dirty Venezuela and crude on the U .S. market to keep gas prices here low.
[150] So I think the only actual response will come out of Congress and they'll try to look perhaps the way they can reimpose sanctions on Venezuela.
[151] To be clear, the administration took no real action at all to hold Maduro accountable, to punish his regime in any way?
[152] No, they didn't do a thing.
[153] The sanctions remain at least partially listed.
[154] They did not reimpose them with any teeth whatsoever, and they've just allowed this to happen.
[155] So I think we have to take, you know, their rhetoric of solidarity with the people of Venezuela with a grain of salt.
[156] Now Maduro has become very cozy with several U .S. adversaries.
[157] What is really at stake here?
[158] Well, I mean, in many ways, John, it just, it comes down to energy.
[159] It comes down to oil.
[160] Venezuela is a significant producer.
[161] They could produce a lot more if they weren't so corrupt and had paid any attention to their infrastructure.
[162] So they're getting very, very cozy with Russia, which has been a historical partner to both the Chavez and Maduro regimes.
[163] They're very, very close with China.
[164] But their most important relationship is actually with Cuba.
[165] And so they create this kind of nexus of anti -American actors.
[166] And we can't forget at this point, actually the Iranians as well, the now deceased Iranian president, Raeisi, visited Venezuela.
[167] You know, you might wonder why do the Iranians need to go to Venezuela?
[168] Well, it means that they're plotting together against the United States.
[169] And Iran's terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, has also historically had a strong presence in Venezuela.
[170] Well, Victoria, thank you so much for joining us.
[171] That was the Heritage Foundation's Victoria Coates.
[172] Thanks for waking up with us.
[173] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news.
[174] you need to know.