Morning Wire XX
[0] After two years of interrupted learning and mask mandates, education has emerged for the first time as a top issue for voters.
[1] We examine the emergence of school board moms as an important voice in upcoming elections.
[2] I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[3] It's Wednesday, March 16th, and this is Morning Wire.
[4] A new study shows that Americans are putting COVID behind them as they begin to move on with their lives at home, at work, and at school.
[5] And Disney Angers fans on both sides of the political aisle after speaking out on Florida's new parental rights law.
[6] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[7] Stay tuned.
[8] We have the news you need to know.
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[18] Widespread frustrations with the way school boards handle the pandemic appear to be having a major political and cultural impact nationwide.
[19] Here with more on how school COVID policies have shifted parents' political views and given rise to so -called school board moms is Daily Wires Cabot Phillips.
[20] So Cabot first, tell us about this phenomena and then we'll get into the political ramifications.
[21] Yeah, so coming into COVID, a lot of parents were fairly apathetic about school board meetings and classroom curriculum.
[22] But there's been an undeniable shift that happened during and now after lockdowns.
[23] The first main reason for that shift is remote learning.
[24] While parents used to have limited options for finding out exactly what was being taught in class, during COVID, the classroom came to them.
[25] Teachers' lessons plans were on full display for them to hear every day, and many parents were surprised and shocked at times by what was being taught or the highly sexualized or politicized materials that were often being assigned.
[26] Now, obviously, this motivated a lot of parents to take action, but it's moms in particular who've really been getting involved.
[27] And a big part of that is because they were the ones who disproportionately ended up staying home with their kids when schools were shut down.
[28] So they were the ones more likely to hear what was being taught.
[29] Right.
[30] We covered on this show in the past how women were really driven out of the workplace because of these lockdowns.
[31] And now you're saying that this has gotten them more involved in what's happening in schools.
[32] Yeah, that definitely played a role.
[33] And as more parents became frustrated over what was being taught, they started to also become frustrated by the fact that schools were remaining closed.
[34] even though other businesses were starting to open up.
[35] Many parents really blamed school board officials and teachers' unions for keeping things shut down.
[36] For example, one poll showed that just 15 % of Americans thought teachers' unions were making it easier for schools to open up.
[37] So once schools did return to in -person learning, there was already some underlying resentment there towards teachers' unions and school board officials and things like that.
[38] And then came the mask mandates, which in many districts lasted longer for students in elementary school than for the rest of society, including politicians.
[39] Now, that perceived hypocrisy really angered a lot of parents and drove them to get more involved with their local school districts than ever before.
[40] On that note, I talked to Blythe Asher.
[41] She's a mom in Los Angeles who voted for Biden and Governor Gavin Newsom, but she says the mask mandates have driven her and other moms to take action against the Democrat -controlled school board there.
[42] Not only myself, but, you know, many of the moms in my elementary son's classes, as we went from just being regular moms to going out and protesting, mask mandates, and really listening and attending Zoom school board meetings.
[43] So what kind of impact do we expect this to have going forward on politics, especially with midterms coming out?
[44] Yeah, a big part of that just depends on how schools handle existing mask mandates and other COVID protocols.
[45] Polling is clear that Americans are ready to return to normal life.
[46] And polling is also clear that Americans are.
[47] increasingly viewing education as one of the most important issues for them, and that's especially notable for moms.
[48] So obviously continued mandates at schools goes against what most Americans want right now.
[49] To that point, Nicole France, a mom to five kids in Ohio, had a message on midterms.
[50] The moms that I know in my community that have been speaking out against these, you know, overreached measures to, quote, protect our kids, I believe they're going to remember this last couple years and when it's time to come vote in November.
[51] Keep in mind, Democrats held about a 15 -point advantage among women back in 2020.
[52] So even a marginal shift among voting habits there could have a huge impact on midterms this November.
[53] That makes sense.
[54] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[55] Anytime.
[56] That's Daily Wires, Cabot Phillips.
[57] Coming up, Americans have moved on from the pandemic.
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[61] A new poll shows that Americans are done with pandemic restrictions, even as the federal government and numerous cities and states continue to enforce mandates.
[62] The poll comes as mask mandates remain for many of the nation's school children as well as on airplanes.
[63] Here to discuss the new poll and COVID -19 updates in general as DailyWire Senior Editor Ash Short.
[64] All right, Ash, are Americans done with the pandemic?
[65] Well, according to this study, they are.
[66] The survey, which was conducted by Axios Ipsos, found that 64 % are now in favor of lifting all federal, state, and local government COVID restrictions.
[67] And that's a steep increase from early February, when only 44 % said the same.
[68] What was interesting, though, about this poll is that it seems like people.
[69] people think COVID is less of a risk because governments and employers are either removing mask and vaccine mandates or signaling that they will be.
[70] So some are changing their views on the risk based on the signals from the government.
[71] Yeah.
[72] And there's some evidence for this recently with the Omicron variant.
[73] When mask mandates were put back in place during the winter when Omicron was raging across the country, people were more likely to say COVID was still a risk, even though the variant, while more transmissible, was far less dangerous.
[74] Right.
[75] So this poll showed perceived risk rather than actual risk.
[76] What is the current actual risk of COVID?
[77] It's still not entirely clear since two years into the pandemic.
[78] The CDC still isn't providing reliable data that accurately shows the difference between people who die because of complications due to COVID -19 and those who died and merely tested positive for the coronavirus.
[79] So when Axios and Ipsos caution that 1 ,000 people a day are still dying, quote, from the virus, End quote.
[80] We should be careful to note that we don't actually know how many people each day are dying from COVID versus with COVID.
[81] And that's been a major problem throughout the pandemic.
[82] Yeah, it has.
[83] In December, even Dr. Anthony Fauci told people that Omicron probably wasn't causing a spike in hospitalizations and deaths over the holidays and that it was because of how the CDC was presenting data.
[84] The CDC said they were going to change this, but it's been weeks without any update.
[85] Back in February, the CDC admitted there was a problem with how the data was reported and said they would update it, but it's now mid -March and there's been no change.
[86] So back to the mandates, you said they were being removed in many places, but where are they still in place?
[87] Well, Hawaii will become the last state to eliminate the requirement for proof of vaccination, but city employees in Honolulu will still be required to comply with the state's vaccination requirements.
[88] There are also some localities that are still working to lift various mandates, but we're restrained.
[89] restrictions are still heavily in place are schools and airlines.
[90] The Biden administration just extended the travel mask mandate through at least April 18th.
[91] Then there are places like New York City, where the mask mandates were lifted for most schools and proof of vaccination was lifted from businesses.
[92] But strangely, children under five were still required to mask up, even though evidence has always showed that children are in the lowest risk category for COVID.
[93] Right.
[94] Well, Ash, thanks for keeping us informed.
[95] Anytime.
[96] time.
[97] That was DailyWire Senior Editor, As Short.
[98] As we reported yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to sign a bill that bans teacher -led discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity before the fourth grade.
[99] In response, Disney announced that it's paused all political donations in Florida, a move intended to punish the lawmakers behind the new bill.
[100] Governor DeSantis, who has reportedly received significant donations from Disney over the past four years, fired back at the company last week, accusing it of hypocrisy.
[101] Here to explain what led to Disney's showdown with DeSantis is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham.
[102] So, Megan, at first, Disney was keeping a very low profile about this legislation, but then CEO Bob Chapic shifted gears a few days ago.
[103] What happened?
[104] Well, Chapic famously came from outside the studio system to head Disney.
[105] So he rose through the ranks of the company's consumer products and parks division.
[106] So there's been a lot of talk about his sort of lack of understanding of Hollywood and just how far left studios have become today.
[107] And he's known for being a political moderate.
[108] He hired a former Bush administration appointee to run Disney's communications.
[109] That would be one example.
[110] And Chepik also made it very clear when he took that top job that he wanted to avoid involving the company in political entanglements.
[111] So in keeping with that goal, when LGBT activist staffer started complaining that he wasn't addressing, the Florida bill, he sent out an email saying that Disney was going to speak through its content and this is their terminology, welcoming culture.
[112] So that memo went on to say, and quoting here, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds and are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide.
[113] So clearly Chepic wanted to keep Disney out of this.
[114] And what changed his mind?
[115] Well, that's a bit of a complicated story.
[116] So along with a lot of internal outrage from activist employees, Chapic was put in a difficult position by Disney's former CEO, Bob Iger, who stepped down as executive chairman at the end of 2021.
[117] Now, Iger is known for being a left -wing Democrat, very different than Bob Chapic, and he tweeted that the bill would, quote, put vulnerable young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.
[118] So under Iger, Disney had taken a lot of public stances on some pretty hot button issues.
[119] He opposed President Trump's Muslim travel ban, and he also opposed Georgia's heartbeat abortion law to give you just a couple of examples.
[120] Now, at the same time that Iger put out that tweet, divisional and studio heads also undercut Chapic's neutral position.
[121] Peter Rice, who's the chairman of Disney's general entertainment content, who incidentally is reportedly vying to replace Chapic, he put out a statement of his own.
[122] And he said, again quoting, the law is a new and painful iteration.
[123] of a history of discrimination against an already vulnerable group.
[124] Personally, I see this law as a violation of fundamental human rights.
[125] So at that point, staffers at Pixar, that's the animation studio owned by Disney, they also put out a statement claiming the company had censored gay and trans content in their films.
[126] So finally, on Friday, Chapic backed down.
[127] He apologized for his earlier statement.
[128] He pledged to donate $5 million to the gay activist group, the human rights campaign.
[129] and he promised to halt political donations in Florida for the time being.
[130] Now, it's been notoriously difficult for companies to fully satisfy these activist demands.
[131] So what was their response to Chapix's new message?
[132] Yeah, it has been difficult, and this is a great example, because mostly they're still criticizing the company and asking for more, which really illustrates how these big corporations are in something of a no -win situation when they get involved in political activism.
[133] Already, the human rights campaign has publicly rejected that donation, though it did say that it's now in talks with Chapic about how Disney can put, quoting here, real muscle into lobbying against laws like this.
[134] So they're kind of saying it's too little too late.
[135] Yes, that's exactly what they're saying.
[136] To give you one example, HBO talk show host John Oliver also piled on.
[137] He slammed Disney's latest efforts as actively insulting, and he said the company is morally bankrupt for donating money to Republicans like DeSantis in the first place.
[138] Now, we touched on this yesterday, but a poll that was commissioned by Daily Wire actually asked people how they felt about Disney's actions in this case.
[139] What did that poll find?
[140] Yeah, so that poll found that 68 % of Americans thought Disney was wrong for opposing the bill.
[141] And they actually agreed with a statement that the bill would protect children from inappropriate topics that are better discussed with parents.
[142] A plurality.
[143] of respondents also said that they're now less likely to purchase Disney products as a result of that corporate activism.
[144] So all around a bad PR situation for Disney.
[145] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[146] Absolutely anytime.
[147] That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
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