Morning Wire XX
[0] Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is coming under fire over the work being conducted by a law firm that's employed him.
[1] In a Daily Wire exclusive, new documents show that this law firm is aggressively fighting against victims of sexual assault on behalf of school administrators.
[2] We'll talk to Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak about the firm's handling of the cases.
[3] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Wednesday, October 27th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] President Biden's vaccine orders for private companies are set to go into effect any day now, but businesses and unions are begging the administration to delay enforcement, warning that employee shortages will inflict more economic damage.
[6] Employees are saying, if you force this, even if it's coming from the White House, we're going to leave.
[7] We're just going to quit.
[8] And the baseball world series kicked off last night, with one of the teams hailing from Atlanta, Georgia.
[9] Earlier this year, Major League Baseball pulled the All -Star game from Atlanta to protest the state's election integrity bill.
[10] We'll discuss the politically charged development and the response from Georgia's governor.
[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] In a Daily Wire exclusive investigative report, concerning ties have been revealed between Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and a law firm that has been aggressively fighting against alleged sexual assault victims on behalf of schools and school administrators.
[21] Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak.
[22] So, Luke, you broke a story this week about Terry McAuliffe.
[23] He's the Democratic candidate running for governor right now in Virginia.
[24] What did you find?
[25] So Terry McCallif was employed by a high -dollar law firm called Hunting Andrews Curth.
[26] What I discovered is this law firm is paid by a school system to represent its interests, which include trying to have cases thrown out where girls alleged sexual assault and that school administrators failed to take action.
[27] In light of the recent scandal in Loudoun County, that's a pretty bad look for the campaign, and it highlights the...
[28] competing interests between school systems and parents.
[29] Now, these sexual assault cases are not the ones that you reported on a couple weeks ago in Loudoun County, though, correct?
[30] Right.
[31] This law firm actually works for Fairfax County Public Schools right next door, and it's actually handling multiple sexual assault cases just for that district, which really underscores how serious and pervasive this issue is.
[32] So one case I'd like to highlight is about a now 22 -year -old woman who's suing the school system and several administrators over incidents that she says occurred when she was 12 years old back in middle school.
[33] She alleges that she was raped on school grounds and medical records did find anal tearing at the time.
[34] She allegedly went to administrators about sexual harassment and claims the assistant principal said the suspect, quote, had been in enough trouble and asked her mother to, quote, not ruin a kid's life.
[35] But she says the school district did nothing and the behavior got worse, in part because she was viewed as a snitch because the perpetrators felt like they weren't going to get in trouble, so it just kind of snowballed from there until some really horrible allegations.
[36] Now, she's been making these claims since the time back in 2012.
[37] She'd also filed a complaint with a federal civil rights body, which ordered FCPS to make changes in the school district as a result, some of which Fairfax County schools failed to do.
[38] When she became an adult, just before the statute of limitations ran out, she sued her alleged rapist, the school system, and several school officials for those alleged failures.
[39] Okay, so on to Terry McAuliffe.
[40] How is he involved in all this?
[41] So first, he's actually not even a lawyer.
[42] The law firm Hunt and Andrews Kerth hired McColliffe as an advisor in 2019.
[43] Based on campaign ethics disclosure, he was compensated at least $250 ,000 recently for services related to cybersecurity slash law.
[44] Now, from 2014 to 2018, the Fairfax school system paid Hunt and, in about half a million bucks a year.
[45] From 2019 to 2021, the law firm received about 4 .4 million, 2 .5 million, and then $3 million in each of those years.
[46] So the law firm has received about $9 million from Fairfax schools since 2019.
[47] Right.
[48] They're really big legal bills.
[49] And, you know, people think about special interest as it relates to teachers' unions, which actually did give Terry McAuliffe's campaign $1 million, one of his biggest funders.
[50] Those teachers may be expecting to get policies back that are going to benefit them in terms of taxpayer money.
[51] But there's potentially a similar dynamic going on here with this law firm and the school system on behalf of administrators.
[52] FCPS pays hunting a lot of money, but it's fighting in court for an aggressive interpretation of Title IX that could actually save administrators money in terms of being sued in cases where allegedly they had some sort of negligence or failed to take action to protect kids.
[53] Now, I remember when Loudoun County apologized for its handling of the rape there, they mentioned Title IX.
[54] What was that about?
[55] Yeah, that's interesting, because the superintendent in Loudon blamed federal policy for the apparent cover -up in his district, saying that he would lobby Washington to make Title IX more favorable to victims.
[56] The thing is that the law firm connected to the state's prospective governor with support of the Virginia School Board Association and the National School Board Association, they're all actually pushing for the opposite in a case they want to take to the Supreme Court.
[57] So the law firm where McColliffe served as an advisor is involved in a Title IX case and they're arguing on the side of administrators rather than the kids.
[58] Right.
[59] And they're trying to take this to the Supreme Court where, depending on how they rule, that could set a precedent that would affect schools all over the country.
[60] So this could be a really important case.
[61] Luke, before you go, there's been an update on the Loudoun County rape case that you reported on a few weeks ago.
[62] Can you share that with us?
[63] Yeah, so on Monday, the boy accused of raping Scott Smith's daughter appeared in juvenile court where a judge determined that there were, quote, facts sufficient to believe the teen boy committed sexual assault.
[64] That's the equivalent of the guilty verdict in juvenile court.
[65] So it sounds like some justice for that victim in her family.
[66] That's right.
[67] Luke, thanks so much for reporting.
[68] Absolutely.
[69] That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Luke Rosiac.
[70] And just a reminder, this was a Daily Wire exclusive made possible by our members.
[71] So if you want to see more investigative journalism like this, please consider becoming a member over at DailyWire .com.
[72] Coming up, businesses pushed to delay President Biden's vaccine mandate.
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[78] The Biden administration is facing pushback over its vaccine order that could affect tens of millions of workers.
[79] Businesses across the country are begging the Biden administration to delay the mandate until next year over concerns about workers leaving industry.
[80] during the holiday surge.
[81] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
[82] Charlotte, welcome.
[83] Hey, Georgia.
[84] So tell us about these reports.
[85] Where is this push coming from?
[86] Right.
[87] So while vaccine mandates are moderately popular with Americans overall, the mandates are getting some pushback from business associations and union groups, some of which are calling on the Biden administration to hold off on putting forth a plan to enforce massive vaccine mandates until next year.
[88] Holidays are typically extremely busy times for travel, retail, and food industries, so the looming possibility that businesses could lose workers when they need them most is causing a lot of concern.
[89] And what was the language in the mandate?
[90] And then also, when would it go into effect?
[91] President Joe Biden said in September that he was going to introduce a COVID vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees or require weekly testing.
[92] He planned to do this through the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
[93] Legal expert Ila Shapiro explained the administration's legal reasoning behind it when he spoke to Morning Wire recently.
[94] And so just like OSHA regulates what kind of masks you wear for dusty jobs and things like that or to have railings on open pits, all sorts of safety and health regulations, it is now saying that to maintain the health and safety of the workplace, they need all the employees to be vaccinated, or Biden announced to have weekly testing.
[95] And the devil is going to be in the details.
[96] On October 12th, OSHA gave its final rule to the Office of Management and Budget, or the OMB.
[97] Once the agency finishes its review, the mandate is anticipated to go into effect soon after.
[98] This rule could impact around two -thirds of the private sector labor force.
[99] So no official date at this point.
[100] No, not yet.
[101] And what are businesses asking for, Well, the OMB reportedly had dozens of meetings with lobbyists, individuals, and labor unions last week.
[102] They were also scheduled to meet this week with groups that represent trucking and staffing businesses, realtors, dentists, and more.
[103] The National Retail Federation requested 90 days for workers to comply with the mandate.
[104] A lobbyist group, the Business Roundtable, also publicly said the White House should give workers time.
[105] So a 90 -day delay, that would basically take us until after the holidays.
[106] Right, and the U .S. Chamber of Commerce has even asked them to hold off until the holiday season has passed, too.
[107] And last week, the American Trucking Associations told the administration that a lot of drivers will likely leave their jobs rather than comply with vaccine orders, which could further damage the economy already suffering from disruptions in the supply chain.
[108] And how do workers feel about the mandate?
[109] Well, it's mixed.
[110] A recent study from Qualtricks showed that around 44 % of workers would think about leaving their jobs if they were forced to get vaccinated.
[111] But about 38 % of employees would think about departing their current workplace if the organization didn't enforce a vaccine mandate.
[112] So people feel pretty strongly about this issue on both sides.
[113] But remember, that was discussing employer mandates, not federal mandates.
[114] Right.
[115] So it seems like a lot of uncertainty.
[116] Yeah.
[117] Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
[118] That's Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence -Bahn.
[119] The 2021 World Series matchup is seen.
[120] set.
[121] And in an interesting twist, the Atlanta Braves will be representing the National League.
[122] The development has shined a new light on a politically loaded decision by Major League Baseball earlier this year.
[123] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
[124] So, Joe, we've got a World Series being hosted in Texas and Georgia.
[125] And this is causing a stir, so to give us some context here.
[126] Hey, John.
[127] So yeah, the World Series, which began yesterday in Houston, Texas has a bit of a political twist to it.
[128] The matchup is between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston The reason is that the state of Georgia was the target of a political backlash in April to have the All -Star game removed from Truis Stadium, the home of the Braves.
[129] In April, Major League Baseball announced that they would move the 2021 All -Star Game and 2021 MLB draft out of Atlanta in response to Georgia's election integrity bill.
[130] The move came in response to massive Democratic backlash to the bill intended to fix the voting process in a state that was mired in controversy during the 2020 presidential race.
[131] Democrats insisted the bill was racially discriminatory, stating that the bill specifically targeted the black community.
[132] President Biden went so far as to call the bill, quote, Jim Crow on steroids.
[133] That's right.
[134] The moving of the All -Star game was actually a huge topic of conversation at the time.
[135] Yeah, it was, and another example of politics being inserted into sports.
[136] Also, MLB moved the All -Star game to Denver, Colorado, which actually has voting laws that are more restrictive in some ways than Georgia, and it includes voter ID.
[137] That's right.
[138] But anyway, the Braves beat the 106 win Dodgers in game six of the NLCS on Saturday after winning 88 games during the regular season.
[139] So Major League Baseball took the All -Star game out of Georgia in order to punish the state for enacting a bill and make other states think twice about making similar laws.
[140] And now every eye in baseball will be trained on the very state critics of the voting integrity bill sought to punish.
[141] The Braves will get at least two games and potentially three at home in Atlanta, given the small businesses there and about a third of which are owned by minorities, an opportunity to recoup the reported one.
[142] $100 million loss from the moving of the All -Star game.
[143] So we've got a politically charged and rather ironic turn of events here.
[144] Exactly.
[145] And this time, there's not much of the critics can do to punish Georgia.
[146] And it's not like the voting laws have changed.
[147] Georgia Governor Brian Kemp made sure to highlight the situation, calling it, quote, poetic justice.
[148] I mean, it just really was awful what they did.
[149] I mean, it wasn't fair.
[150] And it's also ridiculous.
[151] There's another political layer here.
[152] the Braves will be playing a team from Texas, a state that recently enacted the heartbeat bill, which prohibits most abortions past six weeks.
[153] So, as you can imagine, there's been a lot of commentary over that fact online.
[154] Yeah, I bet.
[155] Well, Joe, thanks for coming on and enjoy the World Series.
[156] I will do that.
[157] Daily Wire sports reporter, Joe Morgan.
[158] Those are our big stories for the day.
[159] If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to MorningWire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five -star review.
[160] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[161] Thanks for waking up with us.
[162] We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
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