Morning Wire XX
[0] Mask mandates loom over several school districts as the Biden administration is pushing for everyone to get yet another COVID shot.
[1] There are two studies that have suggested that a multiple booster regimen could actually weaken your immune system.
[2] What does the data show about a return to pandemic era policies?
[3] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Monday, September 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The battle for the presidential nomination is ratcheting up.
[6] with GOP candidates getting more aggressive in their attempts to dethrone the far -and -away front -runner Donald Trump.
[7] Which candidates appear to be gaining ground?
[8] And just how vulnerable is President Biden amid more Biden brand revelations.
[9] But before we get to those stories, we'd like to take a moment to remember today the 22nd anniversary of the 9 -11 terror attacks, the 2 ,97 innocent people who lost their lives that day, and all the first responders who risked and often gave their lives to protect others.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] As COVID cases and hospitalizations increase, some students from kindergarten through college are now being required to mask up yet again.
[14] Meanwhile, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are battling over a bill that would in many cases ban mask mandates.
[15] Joining us to discuss these current COVID trends is Johns Hopkins, Dr. Marty McCarrie.
[16] Dr. McCarrey, thanks for joining us.
[17] Great to be with you.
[18] So first, let's address the mask mandates up front.
[19] They're once again being floated in some schools.
[20] Can you talk to us first about the Cochran review of mask studies?
[21] It found that mask mandates do not appear to have an impact on a community level, though some like Dr. Anthony Fauci still insist they can work on an individual level.
[22] What did the review find?
[23] The Cochran Collaborative has been around for decades, and it's considered the gold standard authority in summarizing the medical literature.
[24] Everything they've put out my entire career, it's automatically considered the gold standard in medicine.
[25] But this review actually gave people results that some didn't like.
[26] They concluded very definitively that there was zero evidence that masking on a community level had any impact whatsoever.
[27] And they cited many good randomized controlled trials to support that.
[28] Now, for kids going back to school, how dangerous is COVID compared to some of the other viruses that are typically circulating this?
[29] time of year?
[30] There's no evidence that it's any more dangerous.
[31] We don't see any more pathogenic behavior in the laboratory.
[32] And in the real world, we see the same mild, common cold -like symptoms for nearly every young person who gets COVID, with the rare exception of a child who may have lymphoma or an immunosuppressed condition.
[33] And even still, RSV and influenza and the other seasonal viruses pose the same risk.
[34] And what about for teachers?
[35] Has the risk lessened over the last few months?
[36] The virus has not changed a lot, but our immune systems have changed.
[37] They've evolved to recognize the virus, and although the virus may sort of jump into the nose quicker than the immune system can respond, in other words, you can get infected, even though you're immune.
[38] The immunity prevents severe disease, and that's why we just generally don't see people get very sick with COVID in almost every age group.
[39] Now, cases do seem to be rising.
[40] again, some media outlets are making a lot of this.
[41] There isn't much reporting and tracking cases from the CDC, though.
[42] So how are we getting these numbers?
[43] Yeah, we don't get daily case counts or weekly counts like we used to.
[44] The CDC doesn't even track it.
[45] And so we have wastewater data that gives us a bit of a signal as to how common the infection is.
[46] And it's believed that based on wastewater data, for the last seven or eight weeks, we've seen about half a million new cases per day in the United States, roughly.
[47] So it's very prevalent.
[48] New vaccines have been produced and will likely be approved soon.
[49] What sets these COVID vaccines apart from what we've seen in the past?
[50] So Pfizer, Moderna, and even the company Novavax have created a new COVID vaccine that's designed to be a booster, designed for a variant strain that circulated earlier this year.
[51] And the idea was that it would be more updated.
[52] We don't have any human trial outcomes data on it.
[53] The pharmaceutical companies convinced the White House and the FDA, let us just reprogram the RNA in the vaccine, and we're not going to do a human trial because there's no time to do it.
[54] Others have argued we've had COVID for seven weeks circulating at large.
[55] Pfizer made $100 billion during the pandemic.
[56] They could afford to do a rapid trial.
[57] And if they did so, there'd be better adoption if it's effective.
[58] If you remember, last fall, there was a new bi -valent COVID booster.
[59] There was no human outcomes data that came out when they pushed it.
[60] And only 17 % of Americans said it, including those forced to take it.
[61] Now, the flu vaccine doesn't go through trials every year either.
[62] So is there a correlation here?
[63] You're right.
[64] The flu shot is the one carve -out where the FDA does not require human outcomes trials year -to -year.
[65] Now, some have argued that's probably not a good system.
[66] If we did, we'd have a better feel for how good of a match it is.
[67] But the flu shot has a 50 -year safety record.
[68] The mRNA vaccines have a much higher complication rate, including myrocarditis and young healthy males.
[69] And people are hesitant when you have such low adoption rates, doing some evidence first would help with the overall uptake.
[70] Well, the more evidence, the better when we're talking about important policies.
[71] Dr. McCarrie, thanks so much for joining us.
[72] With the Republican presidential primary in full swing and debate season upon us, the GOP field is beginning to come into focus, with just six months to go before the first votes are cast.
[73] Here with more on the state of the race is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
[74] Cabot, you've worked on presidential primaries before and have been tracking this race very closely.
[75] Where do things stand now?
[76] Yeah, it's always a dangerous game making predictions the summer before a primary.
[77] This far out, early state polling is fairly scant and there's still plenty of time for movement.
[78] But we are definitely starting to get a better idea of who the serious players are and who the future also rands will be.
[79] Based on the latest polling, the candidates with a serious shot at winning right now are Donald Trump, obviously Ronda Santis, Vivek Ramoswamy, Nikki Haley, and Mike Pence.
[80] A half dozen or so other candidates are polling at or under 2 % nationally and could still make a late surge, but they're running out of time.
[81] As we've discussed at length, former President Trump is the odds -on favorite and is currently drawing over 50 % in every major poll.
[82] DeSantis is the only challenger in double digits, averaging around 15%.
[83] while Ramoswamy, Haley, and Pence are each in the five to seven range on average.
[84] So nothing has changed at the top.
[85] Trump is still the man to beat.
[86] Yeah, that is becoming increasingly clear.
[87] Trump and his team have said that his lead is so massive that no one else can beat him.
[88] They've actually called on other candidates to drop out and coalesce around the former president.
[89] But for obvious reasons, that's unlikely to happen.
[90] For more context on Trump's lead, I spoke with Alex Conant, a veteran GOP strategist and partner at Firehouse Strategies.
[91] Certainly historically, no one has fallen when they're this far.
[92] had this late in the game.
[93] However, our politics have never been more dynamic and there's never been more uncertainty given Trump's legal challenges.
[94] I think of another candidate begins to gain momentum and coalesce the non -Trump vote, we could see a competitive race.
[95] And of that candidate beats Trump in either Iowa or New Hampshire, which if you look at the polls, is certainly possible Trump's in real trouble.
[96] One of the candidates hoping to coalesce that support against Trump is Ronda Santos.
[97] What's the latest on his campaign?
[98] Yeah, by most metrics, Santis has just had a rough start to his campaign.
[99] Before announcing his run, he was pulling in the high 20s within 10 to 15 points of Trump.
[100] But since then, he has fallen steadily and begun to lose the support of a number of important high -profile donors.
[101] Now, many strategists still believe he has the best chance of beating Trump, but there's no question that he has stumbled out the gate.
[102] While his campaign itself has struggled a bit with fundraising, his super PAC has brought in enormous amounts of money.
[103] At last count, they had nearly $100 million cash on hand.
[104] So the campaign is going to be relying on the pack for crucial ad buys and infrastructure in early states like Iowa.
[105] According to Conan, that, along with his broad name ID, means he's not out of the race yet.
[106] It's really, really hard to turn around a presidential campaign after Labor Day.
[107] That said, he continues to have a lot of name ID and a lot of money.
[108] And if he can coalesce the opposition to Trump, he could still potentially make it a competitive race.
[109] Now, the second debate is fast approaching.
[110] what are we expecting to actually see there?
[111] Yeah, there's a good chance the stage will be a bit smaller this go -round.
[112] As candidates must reach 3 % in a combination of national and state polls to qualify, which will likely disqualify governors Asa Hutchinson and Doug Berger.
[113] We also don't expect to see Trump on the stage, but it does not mean that he'll be quiet on debate night.
[114] Last month, he opted to appear in an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired the day of the debate.
[115] So there's a good chance he'll do something to stay in the news come September 27th.
[116] Right, we'll expect more counter -programming from Trump.
[117] Now, we've seen some what looks like legitimate momentum for Nikki Haley's campaign since the debate.
[118] But one other candidate who got a lot of attention last month was political newcomer Vivek Ramoswamy.
[119] Tell us more about his standing in the race.
[120] So Vivek really came out of nowhere this summer, jumping to third place in many national polls.
[121] And he seemed to benefit from his youth and the fact that people knew very little about him.
[122] And that meant his unfavorable ratings have also stayed quite low.
[123] It's hard to dislike someone you don't actually know.
[124] But as he's risen in the polls, other candidates, including DeSantis and Nikki Haley, have started to take aim at him for the first time.
[125] And by the same token, the media has also gone after him hard in the last few weeks, attacking his business record and calling out apparent contradictions that he's made on the campaign trail.
[126] Now, for his part, Ramoswamy has responded by taking the media firestorm head on.
[127] He knows that people watching those shows likely won't vote in a GOP primary, but the clear goal is to score viral moments that he can use to earn support on the right.
[128] It's a high -stakes game with risk and still potential reward.
[129] Well, we'll see if it pays off.
[130] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[131] Anytime.
[132] That was Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[133] New polling shows that a strong majority of Americans now believe that President Biden was indeed involved with his son Hunter's controversial business deals.
[134] President Biden has maintained for years that not only was he not involved in Hunter's business deals, but that he never even spoke to his son about them, a claim that has been losing credibility with recent revelations in the Biden brand scandal.
[135] Here to discuss is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[136] Hey, David, so where exactly does the American public stand on this?
[137] Good morning.
[138] A recent CNN poll found that 61 % of voters think that Joe was involved in Hunter's foreign deals, with 42 % saying they believe that the then vice president acted illegally.
[139] These are big numbers, and they show that it's not just Republican voters with concerns about this anymore.
[140] Clearly, many independents and even some Democrats think Biden lied about this.
[141] It's a big problem for Biden because obviously he needs some of those 61 % to vote for him next year, so either he has to continue his denials, which increasingly fall on suspicious ears, or admit that maybe he fudge the truth, but it's really not all that bad.
[142] Neither is a great option.
[143] Right, not at all.
[144] Now, do we know exactly when the sentiment shifted or what caused that shift?
[145] Yeah, as we've covered extensively here on Morning Wire.
[146] In the last several weeks, Representative James Comer has unearthed mountains of evidence.
[147] We had testimony from Devin Archer, Hunter's associate, that Joe attended dinners with business partners, along with almost two dozen phone calls to them.
[148] We have emerging evidence of emails from Joe to Hunter in which Joe used a pseudonym and discussed Ukraine policy.
[149] And very importantly, with the appointment of David Weiss as special counsel looking into all of this, the mainstream media had to report on it.
[150] And honestly, a lot of Americans heard the sketchy details for the first time.
[151] Meanwhile, the reaction from Democrats has been a frantic moving of the goalpost to find some innocent explanation for basic facts that the president has apparently lied about.
[152] Now, this polling comes as Speaker Kevin McCarthy is set to possibly announce a vote on a formal impeachment inquiry.
[153] Obviously, bringing an impeachment is a political risk, particularly with independence, are those numbers going to make McCarthy more confident to move forward?
[154] I suspect that these polling numbers will be a green light for McCarthy and will certainly be used by those in favor of impeachment to push the speaker in that direction.
[155] This is especially true when you take into account other recent polling that now shows most Americans think Hunter broke the law.
[156] In effect, majorities already believe some basic elements of the GOP case.
[157] If there is one hesitation that Republicans might have, it's that a formal impeachment inquiry could have hardened partisan positions and make it harder to sway Democrats and even some independents.
[158] It'll also allow Democrat politicians to ignore the meat of the allegation and focus on the process of impeachment, where they may stand on sturdier ground.
[159] Indeed.
[160] David, thanks so much for joining us.
[161] Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us.
[162] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
[163] Thank you.