Morning Wire XX
[0] Californians took to the polls Tuesday in a series of significant primary elections and won high -profile recall vote for a controversial district attorney.
[1] We unpack all the results and what they mean for the political direction of the state.
[2] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[3] It's Wednesday, June 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] The debate over Roe v. Wade makes its way to Wall Street, where activists' investment firms are pressuring big businesses to promote abortion access.
[5] And the largest migrant caravan ever is making its way north through Central America, bound for the U .S. border.
[6] We discuss the causes and consequences of the caravan.
[7] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[8] Stay tuned.
[9] We have the news you need to know.
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[17] Californians made some important decisions about the political direction of the state on Tuesday.
[18] A primary race for the mayoral candidate in Los Angeles pitted two very different visions for the city.
[19] One, vocally, law and order, former Republican, Rick Russo, and the other, left -wing progressive Democrat Karen Bass.
[20] Also up for a vote was California's next governor, with incumbent governor Gavin Newsom among the candidates.
[21] Here to tell us about the results is Daily Wire's Charlotte -Pence Bond.
[22] So, Charlotte, tell us about what happened in these primaries.
[23] In the L .A. mayoral primary, neither Democrats, Rick Caruso, or Karen Bass, got the necessary votes above 50 % to avoid a runoff election.
[24] But Caruso was actually coming out ahead in the Tuesday night results.
[25] Now, we also had the recall election for arguably the most controversial DA in America, San Francisco's Chesa Boudin.
[26] What happened there?
[27] Yes.
[28] In a decisive outcome, voters chose to recall San Francisco DA Chesa Boudine, with the yes votes coming in at 61%.
[29] In the gubernatorial primary Democratic and incumbent Gavin Newsom came in first with Republican Brian Dolly as the second place winner.
[30] So they'll face off in November.
[31] So quite a significant development there.
[32] Charlotte, thanks.
[33] For more context, we spoke to Daily Wire investigative reporter Marade Allorty about what led up to the Boudin recall and its implications.
[34] Now, Marade, you've been tracking this.
[35] It's a very drastic measure to recall a DA.
[36] How did we get here?
[37] Sure.
[38] So Boudin's critics say that since becoming district attorney in 29, he has overall failed to control crime in San Francisco.
[39] Even former prosecutors who worked in Boudin's office, like Brooke Jenkins, who left the DA's office last October, have come out and said he's not fit to be D .A. Here's what she had to say.
[40] What we felt is that he was personally intervening in a number of cases, including our own cases, which involve very serious and violent offenders, in order to garner them lenient sentences.
[41] In an interview with California reporter Alex Michelson, Boudin responded by accusing Jenkins of, quote, blatant lies and dishonesty.
[42] I was elected to make changes to the office.
[43] And there are folks like her who are fiercely resisting any kinds of changes.
[44] They want to go back to the failed tough -on -crime policies in the 1990s, and that's not going to work for San Francisco voters.
[45] A major criticism of Boudin that comes up time and again is that he's lenient with criminals.
[46] For example, looking at his record on drug charges, there were nearly 500 fentanyl deaths in San Francisco in 2021.
[47] But Boudin did not prosecute a single drug dealer for fentanyl related charges that year.
[48] Over the entire year, Boudin convicted a grand total of three drug offenders in 2021, including one for heroin and two for meth.
[49] According to the San Francisco standard, Boudin has routinely reduced the charge for drug offenders from drug felony charges to accessory after the fact charges.
[50] In at least one case, one individual was arrested five separate times over the course of a year for dealing substances, including fentanyl, and all of his charges were consolidated into two accessory felony charges.
[51] Another individual had four drug dealing arrests over about six months, and he was charged with two accessory misdemeanors and ended up spending just two days in jail.
[52] In fact, 80 % of Boudin's narcotics convictions in 2021 were classified as accessory charges.
[53] Keep in mind, drug overdose deaths outpaced COVID deaths in 2021 in San Francisco.
[54] So residents are saying that this leniency is resulting in more crime in general.
[55] Yes, and the data bears that.
[56] out.
[57] Murder rates in the city have risen sharply since 2019 when Budin took office from 41 murders in 2019 to 56 in 2021.
[58] Plus, and this is what really hurts Budin, many criminals are repeat offenders.
[59] According to the security service manager for SF Safe, a group that works with San Francisco police, the same suspect may be tied to over 100 burglaries in one area.
[60] An April poll by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that crime was one of the top four issues California voters are worried about, along with homelessness, housing affordability, and gas prices.
[61] Well, it'll be interesting to see if these other cities start pivoting away from these policies.
[62] Marade, thanks for reporting.
[63] Thanks, Georgia.
[64] That was Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty.
[65] Coming up, Wall Street wades into the debate over abortion.
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[74] Wall Street has been joining the debate over Roe v. Wade with activist investment firms pressuring big businesses to use their influence to protect abortion access.
[75] Recent shareholders meetings for Lowe's, TG, J. Max and Walmart have included proposals to take action on the issue.
[76] Here to explain how these companies are responding to demands that they address the abortion issue is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[77] So, Megan, it's not immediately clear how abortion laws have to do with business processes at T .J. Max or Walmart.
[78] What arguments are activists making for why these companies must take action on abortion?
[79] Well, they're saying what happens with Roe and abortion access in general impacts female employees.
[80] So on that basis, they're asking these big companies to study what it might cost them in employee hiring and retention if that right to abortion is overturned and abortion is restricted in some of those states.
[81] Got it.
[82] And first, who are these activists and then how are they pressuring these companies?
[83] Well, in terms of who, this is actually coming from investment firms.
[84] So once again, the issue is coming down to ESG.
[85] That's environmental, social, and governance investing.
[86] And that's that politically motivated investing philosophy that you and I have talked about before, Georgia.
[87] So here's how the process is working.
[88] A few activist investment firms are using their holdings in these big companies to put forward proposals related to abortion at shareholders' meetings.
[89] Now, I want to note that I'm not using activist pejoratively here.
[90] We're talking about firms that openly acknowledge that they are trying to advance political and social goals with their investment strategies.
[91] So David Stocks, executive director at Educational Foundation of America, said his firm strategically filed its abortion proposal at Lowe's because it's a nationwide retailer with a large female employee base.
[92] He said, because these big companies are the deciders of health care benefits for all these people, they are now thrust in.
[93] into this issue whether they want to be or not.
[94] So after these firms put these proposals forward, institutional shareholder service, known as ISS, begin recommending that asset managers vote to approve them.
[95] Now, our regular listeners are going to recognize the name ISS from a Sunday episode we did on ESG investing.
[96] ISS is a proxy service that provides social credit scores for companies and some hedge funds, mutual funds, other investment firms that own shares of multiple companies also pay ISS to vote on their behalf at shareholder meetings.
[97] So I asked Jerry Boyer, Forbes contributor, and senior fellow in business economics at the Center for Cultural Leadership about ISS's involvement in this.
[98] Here's what he told me. Talk to a number of CEOs and CFOs, et cetera, and they all feel like they're mostly dealing with ISS.
[99] BlackRock's getting a lot of attention, and I do hear CEOs talk about Black Rock, kind of being in their business a lot, but probably the bigger, intrusive political force, but less visible, would be the proxy services, especially ISS.
[100] So the big three funds Black Rock, Vanguard State Street, that hold enough shares to have decision -making power in these companies were also pressured to vote for these recent abortion -related proposals.
[101] Though so far, they're refusing to comment on how they're.
[102] they voted.
[103] Now, these proposals have failed, but we're certainly going to see more of them.
[104] Now, how about the other side?
[105] Are we also seeing pro -life investors similarly using their holdings and companies to put forward proposals that align with their beliefs?
[106] You know, not really, not that I'm seeing.
[107] And part of the reason for that could be that so far, big business actually seems fairly resistant to getting involved in the abortion debate.
[108] And along those same lines, a major PR firm advised clients like Coca -Cola, Starbucks, and AT &T, not to issue any public statements on Roe.
[109] When the reporter who broke that story asked the companies how they felt about that advice, none responded and none were willing to say that they disagreed with it.
[110] Now, that said, some big companies like Amazon and Tesla are throwing some support behind abortion advocates by announcing that they're planning to pay for female employees to travel to other states to terminate their pregnant.
[111] if it's outlawed in their home states.
[112] Right.
[113] We did a story about that.
[114] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[115] Absolutely.
[116] That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[117] A caravan of thousands of migrants is making its way north through Mexico toward the U .S. in what may become the largest single group of people to appear at once at the southern border.
[118] According to some estimates, the caravan contains some 11 ,000 people and could amass as many as 15 ,000 before it reaches the U .S.-Mexico border.
[119] DataWire's Tim Pierce is here to tell us about the situation.
[120] Tim, what do we need to know?
[121] Yeah, John, this has gained a lot of attention recently.
[122] The caravan took off Monday from Tapachula, a city on Mexico's border with Guatemala.
[123] From there, it's an over 2 ,000 -mile journey to the border of Arizona if the caravan sticks to what's known as the coastal route, as has been reported.
[124] Quite the track.
[125] Where are these people coming from and what's motivating them?
[126] Well, the largest number of migrants in this group are reportedly from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
[127] But El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are also represented in the group.
[128] The caravan even includes migrants from India, Bangladesh, and a handful of African countries.
[129] As for what's motivating them, Fox News on Monday reported that some migrants in this particular caravan are citing Biden's decision to push for appealing the Trump -era health code known as Title 42.
[130] I spoke to Mark Morgan.
[131] He helped lead the U .S. Border Patrol under both Trump and Obama.
[132] He says focusing on these large caravans is missing the larger picture.
[133] I'm not too overly concerned about the caravan because, right?
[134] Right now currently at our border, we're apprehending an equivalent of a 15 ,000 person caravan every two days.
[135] Morgan also said that even though recent debates over immigration policy have been dominated by the fight over Title 42, it's important to remember that the immigration crisis has been going on for well over a year now.
[136] We're setting record months, month after month after month.
[137] We've had over 800 ,000 godaways under this administration that the stats could go on and on and on.
[138] So even if Title 42 stays in place, we're already in the middle of the worst catastrophic for crisis in our lifetime.
[139] And then there are those late -night flights.
[140] There are reports that those flights, which are dispersing migrants across the country, are only getting more frequent.
[141] Well, of course, the flights are going to increase.
[142] And this administration, instead of doing what they need to do to reverse course and to secure our borders and stem the flow of ill immigration, everything they're doing is just to get better and more fast at processing and releasing.
[143] On top of that, the U .S. and one of its main immigration partners, Mexico have had a bit of a falling out this week over the summit of the Americas.
[144] The summit fumbled on its first day when Mexico pulled out because Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were excluded, further straining U .S.-Mexico relations.
[145] So yet another setback that might make it even harder to find a solution.
[146] Right.
[147] Thanks for reporting, Tim.
[148] That was DailyWire's Tim Pierce.
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