Morning Wire XX
[0] The U .S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete.
[1] With Americans and American allies still stranded, what did President Biden have to say about his full withdrawal of U .S. forces?
[2] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[3] It's Wednesday, September 1st, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] With his recall election rapidly approaching and the polls tightening, California Governor Gavin Newsom is reportedly turning to Hollywood for help.
[5] What is the governor's strategy for?
[6] staying in office, and how is his Republican rival, Larry Elder, pushing back?
[7] And the sports world responds to the tragic deaths of 13 U .S. soldiers in Kabul.
[8] We'll look at what professional and local teams have done to honor the fallen soldiers.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
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[17] President Joe Biden's deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan passed on Tuesday, with August 31st marking the completion of the full withdrawal of U .S. troops from the country.
[18] But as the consequences of the withdrawal have become clear, this move has sparked a few curious backlash.
[19] Here to discuss his DailyWire's Ian Howarth.
[20] Ian, what do we know?
[21] Well, as the last evacuation plane left Afghanistan, General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U .S. Central Command, confirmed that a number of Americans who had requested and were awaiting evacuation had been left behind.
[22] Look, there's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure.
[23] We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out.
[24] And this is running counter to President Biden's earlier promise that Americans would not, under any circumstances, be left behind.
[25] So Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31st.
[26] No, Americans should understand that we're going to try to get it done before August 31st.
[27] But if we don't, the troops will stay.
[28] If we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left.
[29] And?
[30] And if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay there.
[31] We'll get them all out.
[32] So with hundreds of American citizens, as well as, many more green card holders and Afghan allies left behind in Afghanistan, people are pointing out that President Biden failed to deliver on this fundamental promise.
[33] So what's the status of the region now?
[34] Afghanistan is now under full Taliban control, and the Biden administration's rhetoric is now pivoting to present the withdrawal strategy as a success.
[35] For example, General McKenzie essentially praised the Taliban for supporting the evacuation, even though there were multiple reports that the Taliban were actively preventing Americans and other evacuees from leaving.
[36] I will tell you, the Taliban have been very pragmatic and very businesslike as we have approached this withdrawal.
[37] Yesterday afternoon, President Biden addressed the nation following the conclusion of the withdrawal.
[38] What did he say?
[39] Well, this speech was effectively a combination of his previous speeches on the withdrawal.
[40] President Biden described the withdrawal as an extraordinary success, but also used most of the speech to level blame on others.
[41] First, he blamed his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
[42] The Taliban was in his strongest military position since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.
[43] The previous administration's agreement said that if we stuck to the May 1st deadline that they had signed on to leave by, the Taliban wouldn't attack any American forces.
[44] But if we stayed, all bets were off.
[45] And then he continued to push the argument that many of those left behind chose to stay.
[46] Since March, we reached out 19 times to Americans in Afghanistan with multiple warnings and offers to help them leave Afghanistan all the way back as far as March.
[47] But we should remember that just one month ago, President Biden rejected the idea that a Taliban takeover was inevitable.
[48] Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now, No, it is not.
[49] Biden also admitted that some Americans were indeed stranded in Afghanistan, despite, as he put it, having some intention to leave.
[50] However, even that reality was presented as a success with Biden celebrating the percentage of Americans who wanted to leave who were evacuated.
[51] The bottom line, 90 % of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave.
[52] And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline.
[53] We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.
[54] And when the speech was over, President Biden did not take questions from journalists, despite no substantive mention of the ongoing strategy to rescue the Americans, green card holders, or Afghan allies, who still remains stranded in Afghanistan.
[55] So we've witnessed a major deadline pass, but there's serious work ahead.
[56] Yeah.
[57] Thanks for the update, Ian.
[58] Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[59] Coming up, California's Democratic governor turns to Hollywood for help.
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[63] The latest polls show in battled Governor Gavin Newsom and leading Republican challenger Larry Elder are running neck and neck in California's recall election, which is set for September 14th.
[64] Now Newsom is reportedly turning to his friends in the entertainment business for help.
[65] Here to give us the latest on Hollywood's involvement in the recall is Daily Wire Entertainment Reporter Megan Basham.
[66] Good to have you back, Megan.
[67] Always a pleasure to be here.
[68] So I suppose it can be expected that Hollywood is going to be backing Newsom in John.
[69] but who specifically is he turning to and what's he asking from them?
[70] Well, you know, he's kind of got two -pronged aims here and that's been shaping his requests and also who he's talking to.
[71] Since he was elected, Newsom's really gone out of his way to curry favor in the industry.
[72] To give you an example, even though he's a native San Francisco, he held his 2018 election night party in downtown L .A. And that was a star -studded event to say the least.
[73] So on the one hand, those relationships are now paying off.
[74] The most powerful of power players are answering his pleas for campaign cash.
[75] Netflix CEO Reid Hastings, for example, gave him $3 million.
[76] DreamWorks founder and former Disney chief Jeffrey Katzenberg has been circulating a fundraising letter among his industry friends.
[77] Also, in early August, he hosted a Zoom event that drew a host of notable names.
[78] Those included Rob Reiner and TV executive Byron Allen, and that also raised significant funds.
[79] And just to give you a couple more examples.
[80] Star Wars and Mission Impossible director J .J. Abrams has also been a big donor, and so is Steven Spielberg.
[81] So money -wise, those Hollywood relationships have been really good for Newsom.
[82] But part of his challenge is that many voters, of course, view him as an out -of -touch elitist.
[83] A lot of our listeners will probably remember that big controversy back in November when he was caught violating his own strict lockdown measures to dine out at that very Tony restaurant, French Laundry.
[84] Oh, yes, that was the notorious birthday party.
[85] That's right.
[86] That's exactly what it was.
[87] So while Newsom, he wants that Hollywood money, he has to be careful because Larry Elder, he's been hitting him really hard on those elite connections.
[88] Right.
[89] And those Hollywood connections might actually be a liability in terms of PR, at least with middle class voters.
[90] Yeah, that's exactly right.
[91] So he has to thread that needle really carefully.
[92] And I think he's aware of that.
[93] And more interestingly, he reportedly has a strategy for it.
[94] So Elder, as we know, is famous for being this dynamic, straight -talking black radio host.
[95] He's known as the Sage from South Central, native Angelino.
[96] And Newsom has to compete with that.
[97] So if we can believe the polls, Elder's style is appealing to a lot of minority voters who might not otherwise consider voting for a Republican.
[98] So Newsom has reportedly turned to people like Snoop Dog and John Legend, as well as comedian George Lopez, to combat that.
[99] The Hollywood reporter had a story last week that Snoop has signed on to slam Elder on social media.
[100] And you have to keep in mind, he has more than 19 million Twitter followers, so it's not nothing.
[101] Now, he hasn't done it yet, but the word is in his own good, intuitive Snoop time, he's going to bring this out and hit Elder with it.
[102] Right.
[103] And how about Elder?
[104] As a Republican, I'm guessing he doesn't have a ton of celebrity backers.
[105] You know, not a ton, but he does have a few.
[106] are not slouches.
[107] Dirty Harry himself, for one.
[108] Elder announced a couple of weeks ago that Clint Eastwood called him and endorsed him.
[109] And there's also Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter David Mamet.
[110] That's another one.
[111] He's the guy who penned one of my personal favorite movies, The Untouchables.
[112] And finally, we would be remiss if we didn't mention Mr. Walker, Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris.
[113] Insert Chuck Norris joke here.
[114] Right.
[115] I know.
[116] I really should have thought of it.
[117] I'll bring you one next time.
[118] Looking forward to it.
[119] Thanks again for being here, Megan.
[120] Thanks for having me. Daily Wire Entertainment reporter, Megan Basham.
[121] After the tragic deaths of 13 U .S. soldiers in Kabul from suicide bombings, some professional sports teams have taken action to honor the fallen soldiers.
[122] Here to discuss this Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
[123] Joe, tell us about how the sports world has responded to the attacks in Kabul.
[124] Yeah, we've seen some pretty powerful statements so far.
[125] Let's start with the New York Giants.
[126] They played their third and final preseason game against the New England Patriots on Sunday night.
[127] At the coin toss before the game, the three game day captains of the giants, Gibral Peppers, Nick Gates, and Blake Martinez, wore hats representing the U .S. Army, U .S. Navy, U .S. Marines, and the FDN