Monday | October 4, 2021

[0] President Biden made a rare appearance on Capitol Hill Friday to make a case for his sweeping infrastructure and social spending bills.

[1] But his plan backfired, alienating moderate Democrats.

[2] I was talking with Democrats in the elevator yesterday in Washington.

[3] I mean, they were stunned at Joe Biden coming in there and tanking their own bill.

[4] What are the next steps for the bills?

[5] And how is the impasse affecting President Biden's political agenda?

[6] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howell.

[7] It's Monday, October 4th, and this is Morning Wire.

[8] California becomes the first state to require approved COVID vaccines for all eligible children in public and private school.

[9] When will the mandate go into effect?

[10] And how will it impact schools and school enrollment?

[11] And China expands its censorship in Hong Kong, raiding a museum dedicated to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, even limiting online exhibits about the historic protest.

[12] We'll discuss China's latest.

[13] crackdown on free speech.

[14] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

[15] Stay tuned.

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[22] After growing pressure in Congress to pass at least one of two stalled pieces of legislation, President Biden met with House Democrats to try to push his agenda forward.

[23] However, lawmakers are now saying that the meeting backfired and progress is even less likely than before.

[24] Here to discuss this significant meeting as Daily Wires Ian Hauerth.

[25] So, Ian, President Biden attempted to intervene, but apparently things didn't go well.

[26] Yeah, that's what we're hearing.

[27] Can you get us up to speed here?

[28] Yeah, so as we discussed last week, The background here is that there are two bills at the center of a battle in Congress right now.

[29] The first is a largely bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

[30] The second is the far more controversial $3 .5 trillion spending bill known as the reconciliation bill.

[31] That's the bill that contains Biden's major agenda items.

[32] The issue for far -left Democrats here is that they are trying to tie these pieces of legislation together with so -called progressives in Congress demanding that the Senate passed the reconciliation bill before the House votes on anything.

[33] Right.

[34] But this is incredibly unlikely, given that more moderate Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema, aren't falling in line.

[35] So this impasse was significant enough for President Biden to feel compelled to go in person to meet with Congress.

[36] Exactly.

[37] And what shocked everyone was that President Joe Biden attended a Democratic caucus meeting.

[38] And rather than getting the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed and working on reconciliation later, he effectively whipped up support against his own bill, agreeing that one bill can only be passed with the other.

[39] And so the president sided with the progressives.

[40] Yeah, exactly.

[41] And what's the political fallout here?

[42] Well, this move by Biden is getting severe criticism for two main reasons.

[43] First, his decision to link the infrastructure bill with a huge and arguably unrelated spending bill is now being seen as the president folding to the demands of the hard left.

[44] On Friday, for example, Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted out against cinema and mansion, saying that two senators can't be allowed to defeat what 48 senators and 210 House members want.

[45] And not only is this, by definition, not very democratic, the fact that Biden's rhetoric basically Mira Sanders could raise real warning flags for the millions of people who voted for Biden as a moderate voice on the left.

[46] And secondly, for those who actually want the infrastructure bill passed, Biden's decision has effectively killed any chances of this legislation moving forward.

[47] It does seem like Democrats are in a worse spot now.

[48] What's President Biden saying?

[49] Well, Biden said that, quote, we're going to get this done as he left the meeting, but nothing much was offered beyond that.

[50] It doesn't matter when.

[51] It doesn't matter whether it's in six minutes, six days, or six weeks.

[52] We're going to get it done.

[53] According to Sarah Ferris, a reporter at Politico, Biden offered to take questions from members inside the caucus.

[54] But his staff jumped in, so yet again, no questions for the president of the United States.

[55] You know, we're hardly getting any Q &A time with this president at this point.

[56] Nearly zero.

[57] And how is all this affecting the Democratic Party more broadly?

[58] It's going to be panic stations for the party leadership.

[59] The infrastructure bill being held up is only forcing Biden's approval ratings down even lower.

[60] According to the latest polls, over 48 % of Americans disapprove of Biden's performance as president, and just 47 % approve of Biden's management of the economy.

[61] And if I can give you just a few more really telling statistics, Biden's support among Democrats has dropped from 92 % in July to 85%, while his support among black voters has dropped by more than 20 % in just a month.

[62] 20 % that's really steep.

[63] Do we have any sense of what's driving this?

[64] drop in support from his own side?

[65] It's a combination of factors.

[66] So, for example, the economy is struggling with concerns of inflation and shortages.

[67] The border crisis is ongoing, as well as the continuing fallout from the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

[68] And then there's the issue of unemployment, which Senator Joe Manchin's has been vocal on.

[69] I want to make sure that children are getting taken care of, that people are basically having an opportunity to go back to work.

[70] We have 11 million jobs that we haven't filled.

[71] Eight million people are unemployed.

[72] Something's not matching up there.

[73] And with Biden siding with the radical members of his own party, the moderate voices like Mansion are only going to get louder and more powerful.

[74] Right.

[75] You know, President Biden campaigned as a moderate, but what we're seeing so far is that he's consistently moving left.

[76] Yeah, it definitely seems that way.

[77] Ian, thanks for the update.

[78] Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.

[79] Coming up, California moves to mandate approved COVID vaccines for children at public and private schools.

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[84] On Friday, California became the first state in the country to require approved COVID vaccines for all eligible children at public and private schools.

[85] Here with the details on the order and what sort of pushback it might face is Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips.

[86] So Cabot, what do we know so far about this mandate?

[87] Well, the rollout is contingent on FDA approval.

[88] Remember, right now, they've only granted full approval to kids 16 and older.

[89] 12 to 15 -year -olds are currently eligible for the vaccine under an emergency use authorization as well.

[90] But they're expected to be fully approved soon.

[91] Once that happens, all high school and middle school students in both public and private schools would be required to get one of those approved vaccines.

[92] After that, elementary school students will be next depending on when the FDA approves them.

[93] And it's also worth note in California already has a vaccine mandate on the books for teachers, but this obviously expands well beyond that.

[94] So this is all dependent on FDA approval.

[95] Do we have any idea when that's going to come?

[96] We don't really have a way of knowing how soon the FDA is going to act.

[97] but we do know they're under pressure to move pretty quickly on this.

[98] The Biden administration is made very clear they want to get kids vaccinated as quickly as possible.

[99] And Dr. Anthony Fauci has been saying for months now that he thinks all schools should have vaccine mandates.

[100] At the moment, experts predict the approval will come sometime in the winter, which means the mandate in California would likely take effect before the next fall semester.

[101] And so what's going to happen to kids who aren't vaccinated?

[102] Well, it depends.

[103] There are going to be religious and medical exemptions, but that part of the mandate still hasn't been written yet.

[104] For those without an exemption, they'll be required by the state to complete an independent study course at home.

[105] That part had a lot of parents upset over the weekend.

[106] They said it was unfair to force them into homeschooling because of their decision not to vaccinate their children against COVID -19.

[107] Now, walk us through what both sides are saying about this.

[108] Yeah, obviously diverging viewpoints here.

[109] The general argument for those in favor is that without a mandate, schools will become hotbeds for transmission.

[110] They also point out that students are already required to get other vaccines for things like measles and mumps, and they say this is no different.

[111] That's also the general message we heard yesterday from Dr. Fauci on CBS.

[112] People need to realize that having a vaccine requirement for schools is not a new novel thing that is very peculiar or specific to COVID -19.

[113] Now, it is worth pointing out that COVID vaccine mandates for kids are not overwhelmingly popular nationwide.

[114] If you look at polling data, most adults are generally supportive of vaccines for themselves.

[115] But when it comes to vaccines for kids, there's less consensus.

[116] In most polls, around 40 to 50 % of parents say they're hesitant to have their child vaccinated for a few reasons.

[117] They say the diseases that kids are already required to get vaccinated for are more dangerous to kids than COVID.

[118] They note the fact that the COVID survivor rate for kids is 99 .99%.

[119] And they say it's a violation of personal freedom to make them choose between, a classroom education in the shot.

[120] Well, there's also the fact that mandating a brand new vaccine is pretty different than mandating vaccines that have decades of data.

[121] Yeah, that's what a lot of the parents are saying here.

[122] So what sort of legal pushback are we seeing?

[123] The governor's order hasn't been challenged in court yet, but that's just mainly because it hasn't been implemented.

[124] Legal experts say that once the FDA approves the vaccine for kids and the mandate goes into effect, there's certain to be lawsuits filed against the state.

[125] Well, we're already seeing a pretty significant drop in enrollment in public schools in California.

[126] So I'm wondering how that's going to affect this.

[127] Yeah, that's a good point.

[128] Cabot, thanks for coming on.

[129] Absolutely.

[130] That's Daily Wire Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips.

[131] China is continuing its crackdown on symbols of freedom in Hong Kong.

[132] The latest casualties, museums documenting the 1989 pro -democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

[133] Here to tell us what's happened to the Tiananmen Square museums and how they fit into China's larger aims of seizing control of Hong Kong is Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham.

[134] So, Megan, some of our listeners, particularly the younger ones, might not have a firm grasp on this history.

[135] Can you first start by giving us a quick summary of what happened in Tiananmen Square?

[136] Sure.

[137] So in 1989, about a million student -led protesters gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to demonstrate for democracy and free speech.

[138] The communist Chinese military opened fire on them, killing hundreds, possibly thousands.

[139] Estimates vary a bit on that.

[140] Well, that massacre is also known as the June 4th incident.

[141] And for obvious reasons, it has significant symbolic importance to today's pro -democracy movement in Hong Kong, and that region is struggling to maintain itself as a semi -independent territory.

[142] So these pro -democracy groups do things like organized candlelight vigils that are attended by tens of thousands of people to mark the anniversary of Tiananmen.

[143] And they've also established museums to keep its memory alive.

[144] For the last two years, supposedly because of COVID, the CCP has banned those outdoor vigils.

[145] And they've also censored social media groups dedicated to honoring those who were killed on June 4th.

[146] Now they're targeting the museums.

[147] And how specifically are they targeting those museums?

[148] So last year, China passed a new national security law that's not subject to local Hong Kong authorities.

[149] And under that law, the police now have the power to arrest centers, shut down newspapers, and investigate cultural institutions.

[150] In June, they closed at the physical location of the June 4th Museum.

[151] They seized its assets, and they froze its bank accounts.

[152] Now, that exhibit was run by a pro -democracy group known as the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic movements of China, the Alliance for short.

[153] So they were responsible for organizing the biggest Tiananmen vigils.

[154] Well, on September 25th, the Alliance announced they were disbanding after police accused them of being, quoting here, agents of foreign forces and inciting subversion.

[155] And in the meantime, as the investigation was ongoing, the museum reopened in August as an online only exhibit.

[156] When that happened, the organizers were careful to say it had been crowdfunded and was operating independently of the pro -democracy group, the alliance.

[157] So now it looks like China has restricted Hong Kong citizens from accessing that site.

[158] On September 23rd, just recently, administrators started reporting that users are unable to reach the museum's web address unless they use a VPN.

[159] And how did the online museum react to being shut down?

[160] Well, they very quickly put out a strong statement calling this a disgraceful act to erase historical memory.

[161] And what about the Biden administration?

[162] Have they commented on what's going on with these museums?

[163] They did issue a statement on the brick and mortar museum back in June when that happened.

[164] A spokeswoman said simply, the United States condemns that action.

[165] All right.

[166] Well, hopefully they'll have more to say about it soon.

[167] Megan, thanks for joining us.

[168] Yeah, my pleasure.

[169] That's Daily Wire reporter, Megan Basham.

[170] Other stories we're tracking this week?

[171] Merck announced on Friday that its new antiviral pill for COVID -19 reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by about 50%.

[172] Merck plans to seek emergency authorization for use in the U .S. A UCLA professor who is suspended and banned from campus for refusing a student request to grade black students more leniently on a final exam is suing the UC system.

[173] Accounting professor Gordon Klein is suing for breach of contract, for retaliation, and for negligent interference with his consulting business.

[174] If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five -star review.

[175] That's all the time we've got this morning.

[176] Thanks for waking up with us.

[177] We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.

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