Morning Wire XX
[0] A new bombshell report alleges that U .S. and U .K. military contractors were involved with spreading approved political narratives online after Brexit and the 2016 U .S. elections.
[1] The most alarming thing that we saw was the regular stream of communication between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the largest tech companies in the country.
[2] This isn't crazy conspiracy theory.
[3] We've already had four federal judges rule that they, believe this activity violates the First Amendment.
[4] What is the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, and how did it skirt the law?
[5] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[6] It's December 2nd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
[7] A record number of homeowners say they own a firearm.
[8] What's motivating Americans to pull the trigger on gun ownership?
[9] And one Florida school district tries a zero -tolerance policy for cell phones with surprising results.
[10] More student engagement in the academics as well as the social aspects of school.
[11] So all around a huge improvement.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
[14] We have the news you need to know.
[15] According to a new whistleblower report government agencies in the U .S. and UK coordinated with private military contractors to control and censor speech on social media.
[16] Independent journalist Matt Taibi and Michael Schellenberger testified before Congress on Thursday about the operation, calling it part of the censorship industrial complex.
[17] Here with Morris Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan, Basham.
[18] So, Megan, this report comes to us from the same investigative reporters who broke the story about a number of government agencies who'd been pressuring Twitter, now called X and some other platforms to censor Americans over things like the election and COVID.
[19] They called that the Twitter files, but they're calling these latest revelations the C -T -I -L files.
[20] What does that stand for and what's the difference between this and the Twitter files?
[21] So the records revealed in this reporting center on an anti -disinformation group known as the Cyber Threat Intelligence League.
[22] So that's where we get that CTIL.
[23] And it began as a volunteer project involving data scientists and former defense and intelligence staffers, but it was formally leveraged by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security against Americans.
[24] Essentially, Schellenberger, Taibi, and some other independent journalists say that this was the germination of things like the Twitter files.
[25] And while the Twitter files showed that the government was coordinating with big tech to censor speech, these latest records also detail a proactive attempt to covertly drive public discourse.
[26] So according to records that a whistleblower leaked, the CTIL partnership was part of the British and American government's reaction to Brexit and the 2016 election.
[27] Now, what do you mean when you say they attempted to drive public discourse?
[28] Well, CTIL members spoke of recruiting sock puppets to disseminate the government's preferred narratives on social media, and they tried to infiltrate informal networks of people opposed to things like lockdowns.
[29] So Taibi said that the records show the anti -disinformation operatives plan to, quote, go on offense to disrupt speech by using fake personas and spy tactics, things like how to use burner phones and fake emails.
[30] And DHS actually helped train them in this.
[31] Trainees were given an instruction book called the Big Book of Disinformation Response, and this is leaked from a CTIL training video.
[32] Basically, we're using many of the same techniques as the bad guys, but we're doing it in the good way.
[33] We're helping people to understand the reality of complex situations.
[34] We're helping them to avoid confusion, and we are helping to make simple, repeatable, hopefully viral concepts that can saturate the information space in the same way bad guys do.
[35] A whistleblower told Taibi and Schellenberger that FBI and DHS operatives also regularly attended CTIL virtual meetings and that the initial greenlight for this CTIL partnership came straight from the White House.
[36] And that would be the Obama White House at that time.
[37] That's correct.
[38] The whistleblower claims that one of CTIL's leaders is a former British intelligence analyst who was, quote, in the room at the Obama White House in early 2017.
[39] And she was given instructions to create a counter disinformation project to stop a, quote, repeat of 2016.
[40] Now, I think the question a lot of people will have is, is this actually legal?
[41] Well, you know, the training was very clear that this was a way to sort of.
[42] circumvent U .S. law.
[43] In another leaked video, a CTIL trainer says the Defense Department would be most effective at running an anti -d misinformation operation, but that the DOD is expressly forbidden from operating against U .S. citizens.
[44] So this was something of a workaround solution.
[45] This came from another leaked video.
[46] The people that do it overseas are typically the CIA and the NSA and the Department of Defense.
[47] But again, I'm already talked about that.
[48] Intel collection agencies are not legally allowed to do those things by the United States.
[49] Americans have a healthy distrust of their government, and it just wouldn't look good.
[50] But we need to help them out by deciding, you know, what kind of things can we do proactively?
[51] Yes, education's great for the kids that are in school now, but what do we do with John and Jane Q citizen that actually, you know, watch Fox News and believe pandemic.
[52] What do we do with those guys?
[53] So I think what's important to stress here, is that Taibi and Schellenberger testified before Congress Thursday that this was a very partisan effort.
[54] It appears to have been targeted almost exclusively at the political right.
[55] Well, very disturbing.
[56] Hopefully this gets the coverage it deserves.
[57] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[58] Anytime.
[59] According to a new study, gun ownership rates among the U .S. electorate have never been higher, with the majority of American voters now saying someone in their home owns a firearm.
[60] Here with Moore's Daily Wire's Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips.
[61] So, Cabot, give us some context first, and then we'll get into what's behind this surge.
[62] Yeah, well, according to a new survey from NBC, 52 % of American voters now say they or someone in their household owns a firearm.
[63] That is the highest number on record and marks a significant increase over the last decade.
[64] The same poll in 2019 found that number to be 46%.
[65] While a decade ago in 2013, it was down at just 42%.
[66] So a double -digit spike in just 10 years.
[67] The trend becomes especially noticeable during the pandemic when 60 million firearms were sold across a three -year span.
[68] For context, from 2005 to 2020, the number of guns sold annually tripled from 7 .8 million to 21 .8 million.
[69] All told, an estimated 15 million households purchased a firearm for the very first time between 2020 and 2022.
[70] For more on the trend, I spoke with Stephen Katowski, a Second Amendment expert and founder of The Reload.
[71] I think that there was kind of a perfect story, created in 2020 where we saw a lot of chaos from a lot of different angles that gave a lot of different people, a lot of different reasons to buy a gun, you know, just across demographics, across the ideological spectrum, across the political background, you name it.
[72] There was something that happened during that time frame, whether it was the COVID shutdowns, George Floyd, the rioting that happened after that.
[73] All this stuff, I think, contributed to people going out buying a gun for the first time, who'd never actually considered doing so before.
[74] Now, what sort of demographic breakdowns do we see in this data?
[75] Well, historically, there has been a clear partisan divide when it comes to gun ownership.
[76] And that does continue to hold true.
[77] So looking at the latest numbers, we see 66 % of Republican households reporting firearm ownership compared to just 41 % of Democrat households.
[78] But if you zoom out, just 30 % of Democrat households reported owning a gun back in 2013.
[79] So clear increase there.
[80] We saw a similar 11 % uptick among Republican households.
[81] So the trend is hardly reserved to just one party.
[82] We're seeing a spike across the spectrum.
[83] And from a racial standpoint, the spike is being driven largely by black Americans.
[84] According to polling data, while gun ownership rates for white households increased by a modest 3 % since 2019, among black households, they skyrocketed by 17 % in the last four years alone, rising from 24 % to 41%.
[85] Here's Katowski on the shift.
[86] I think there's been an ongoing trend in America where you're seeing a new kind of gun owner come up.
[87] Somebody who's younger, you know, do you have more women buying guns?
[88] You have more minorities buying guns than has been the case in the past.
[89] It's moving from a more rural association with firearms into a more suburban and urban association.
[90] And from a culture that was primarily focused on hunting to one that's primarily focused on self -defense.
[91] All right.
[92] So to the big question, why?
[93] is this happening?
[94] Yeah, based on polling data, the vast majority of gun owners say that self -defense is the leading factor in buying a gun.
[95] For example, a Pew survey this year found that 72 % of gun owners cited protection as a key reason for firearm ownership.
[96] That's more than double the next closest reason, which is hunting.
[97] Here's Katowski on that front.
[98] There's a tendency in America for people to want to have basic security for themselves.
[99] And when they feel that society or the government isn't providing that for them.
[100] That takes the form of them wanting to do it themselves.
[101] And in America, obviously the top option for that is to go out and buy a firearm.
[102] It's like buying a fire extinguisher.
[103] It's not necessarily that they feel they will have to use it, but I think a lot of people want to have that option.
[104] You see that reflected in polling when people are asked why they buy guns as well.
[105] Well, certainly eye -opening trends we're tracking here.
[106] Kappet, thanks for reporting.
[107] Anytime.
[108] A Florida school district recently banned students from using cell phones for the entire school day, which puts in place a stricter rule than a new state law requires.
[109] The results are making headlines.
[110] Here to give us the details is Daily Wire contributor, Charlotte Pence Bond.
[111] So Charlotte, give us a little background here.
[112] What was the Florida law that instigated this?
[113] Hi, Georgia.
[114] Earlier this year, Florida passed a law that looked to change how students use their cell phones at school and banned the use of cell phones during class.
[115] It also put the onus on schools to teach six to twelfth graders about the negative effects of social media on mental health, how social media manipulates behavior, and how to safely use the internet.
[116] The law also notably went after TikTok in particular banning use of the social media site on devices that the district owns or even on the district's Wi -Fi.
[117] But Orange County Public Schools decided to make a stricter rule and entirely banned cell phones the whole day.
[118] That means no phone use in hallways or during lunch.
[119] Now, I'm curious how they enforced that.
[120] First, what was the result?
[121] One of the county's teachers said students are more talkative and more collaborative without the distraction of their cell phones in class.
[122] Lisa Rodriguez -Davis, another teacher interviewed by Fox News, said that now that the ban has gone into effect, the school hasn't seen as much of an issue with kids using their phones for TikTok dances at school anymore.
[123] And it's been a positive development for the learning environment.
[124] She said it has also reduced online bullying.
[125] There's just no pictures, kids taking pictures of each other and posting them, and there's no access to all that.
[126] And middle school, not everybody has a phone.
[127] So it really levels the field as far as if you don't have a phone, I don't have a phone, kind of like a uniform.
[128] Everybody's the same.
[129] It doesn't matter who has the newest or the best or who doesn't.
[130] And sometimes when kids first come into middle school, they're very nervous about making friends and things like that.
[131] And now they're actually speaking to each other instead of being shy and just staring at Now, as a former middle school teacher, this seems like it would be hard to enforce, especially in places like hallways and the lunchroom.
[132] How did they deal with that?
[133] The motto is, if we see it, we take it.
[134] And then they hold the phones until the end of the day.
[135] Certainly a rule like this requires a lot of vigilance on the part of the staff, but it appears to be working.
[136] Now, are parents on board with this rule?
[137] It's a mixed bag.
[138] Some parents and students told the New York Times that they thought having no phones allowed in class was a good idea, but they didn't like the restriction lasting the entire school day.
[139] Parents were concerned about their kids being able to reach them when they weren't in class.
[140] Rodriguez Davis posted a TikTok video teasing parents who were upset about the new rules.
[141] Yes, I am the teacher that took your child's cell phone.
[142] I understand she was having a hard time with the math problem, but it's a test.
[143] Yes, emergencies do happen, but a TikTok video is not an emergency, and we have had her do about five this week.
[144] It's a trend that we may see more of as kids, teachers, and parents start to experience positive outcomes.
[145] Around 77 % of schools had banned cell phone use during school time in the 2019 -2020 school year, and that was an increase of almost 7 % from 2017 to 2018.
[146] So it looks like this may be catching on.
[147] Well, sometimes I wish someone would take my phone for the whole day.
[148] Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
[149] Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, Charlotte Pence Bond.
[150] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[151] Thanks for waking up with us.
[152] We'll be back this afternoon with an extra.
[153] edition of Morning Wire.