Morning Wire XX
[0] House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised to release tens of thousands of hours of footage from January 6th and has already posted the first installment.
[1] What new information has the footage revealed?
[2] And why are some pushing back against its release?
[3] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Monday, November 20th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] Elon Musk has announced what he's called a thermonuclear lawsuit against left -wing media watchdog group Media Matters.
[6] And as the Iowa caucus approaches, the once crowded race for the GOP nomination continues to shrink, while President Biden faces growing headwinds.
[7] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[8] Stay tuned.
[9] We have the news you need to know.
[10] Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has pledged to release over 40 ,000 hours of footage from the events of January 6th, 2021.
[11] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us now to talk about the tapes release.
[12] Hey, Tim.
[13] So what is Johnson's plan and what have we seen?
[14] far.
[15] So Speaker Johnson released only an initial tranche of footage on Friday.
[16] He says that the rest of the footage will be released on a rolling basis.
[17] Now, the footage already released has raised some issues.
[18] So the official story from the Democrat -led January 6th committee characterized the events at the Capitol as a violent uprising that threatened the Republic.
[19] Vice President Harris even like in January 6 to 9 -11 and Pearl Harbor.
[20] But what's clear from the footage released is, while of course there were pockets of violence, many of the people who entered the Capitol that day appeared to have been peaceful.
[21] The video released Friday shows dozens of protesters walking the Capitol, greeting or just passing by police.
[22] But nobody would ever have known that just based off the footage the January 6th committee released, which really highlighted the moments where things got more violent and chaotic.
[23] All right, so to that point, speaking of the January 6th committee, why did it not release these tapes?
[24] That's a good question.
[25] One of the Democrats on the committee, Jamie Raskin, appeared on CNN Sunday and said the committee held the footage because of security concerns.
[26] The reason why the Capitol police have opposed releasing tens of thousands of hours from every House office building, every Senate office building, every part of the Capitol is because it's like giving a diagram to future insurrectionists and terrorists and anybody who wants to invade our body.
[27] I should note that Johnson is sympathetic to those security concerns, but evidently he thinks the committee took them way too far.
[28] Now, this was a highly contested and controversial move, but obviously Johnson and Republicans are saying it's really important.
[29] What is the goal of releasing more of the footage?
[30] What's the rationale?
[31] Yeah, that really gets to the heart of the issue.
[32] Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah says, there are serious questions around what happened on January 6th that weren't investigated thoroughly.
[33] One, he pointed to specifically, is the number of undercover agents that the FBI or other law enforcement agencies had in the crowd.
[34] A New York Post report in September said the FBI actually had to do an audit to find out how many plainclothes agents were in the crowd because the agency had lost track.
[35] An FBI director Christopher Ray has also refused to answer the question every time it's been posed to him, which has just heightened the scrutiny.
[36] Aside from that, Congressman Barry Laudermalk of Georgia, who led the Republican audit of the January 6 committee's work, has said there are issues that haven't been addressed with the Capitol Police.
[37] politicization of the police force, as well as serious failures in the intelligence division added to the chaos, but according to Loudermilk, those issues were ignored by the committee.
[38] Will the release of these tapes have legal implications?
[39] Will they impact any court cases over January 6?
[40] We'll have to see.
[41] It should help the public to better understand what each person charged did that day, and maybe it'll drive some sort of public pressure in response.
[42] There are concerns that the release of the tapes could be a disaster for, as of yet, uncharged people associated with January 6th.
[43] Internet sleuth could identify more people and bring the Department of Justice down on them.
[44] But Johnson says part of the reason the tapes are being released on a rolling basis instead of all at once is because the faces of private citizens are all being blurred.
[45] Of course, for a skilled investigator, a blurred face may be a hurdle, but it's still not impossible to come up with likely suspects based on clothing or some other detail.
[46] That said, the blurring appears to be the compromise Johnson made between the protesters' interests and the public interest in the tapes.
[47] We'll see what happens as the rest of the tapes are released.
[48] Meanwhile, 40 ,000 hours is a lot.
[49] It's going to take a long time.
[50] Tim, thanks for joining us.
[51] Thanks for having me. Elon Musk announced this past weekend that he plans to file a thermonuclear lawsuit against the left -wing media watchdog group Media Matters.
[52] The group had published an investigation claiming that ads on X, formerly known as Twitter, are appearing next to racist content.
[53] Here with more is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[54] So, Megan, before we get into the lawsuit, what exactly did Media Matters claim in its report.
[55] Essentially, what they're saying is that X is running ads for major clients like IBM, Oracle, Apple, a number of others, alongside content that praises Hitler and some other neo -Nazi posts.
[56] And because of that report, IBM, Apple, Disney, Discovery, just a whole host of major companies have announced that they're suspending ad buys on the platform.
[57] But Musk and ex -executive say Media Matters created and rigged several accounts specifically to attract this kind of content.
[58] In essence, they say these accounts sought out that neo -Nazi and white supremacist kind of posts and then engaged with them.
[59] And then, according to Musk, they just repeatedly refreshed their feeds to find what he called rare instances of ads next to that kind of objectionable content.
[60] And one ex -exec explained that ads follow the people and that in this case, Media Matters research team was going to actively look for this content.
[61] And he said that's how user targeting works.
[62] And so Musk says media matters is deliberately misrepresenting what happens on his platform.
[63] And he posted on Saturday that the split second court opens on Monday, X -Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack.
[64] Right.
[65] But I mean, this isn't the first time groups like Media Matters have made accusations like this.
[66] Why did this particular report spark such a big backlash from advertisers.
[67] Yeah, that's very true.
[68] And I do think we have to look at the subtext of media matters reports, as well as some of the subtext from a lot of those bigger news outlets.
[69] And that's that they disagree with Musk's position on free speech.
[70] He has said that even if something is distasteful, provided it's not illegal, X is going to allow it.
[71] They may limit its reach, but they're not going to ban it outright.
[72] And in fact, in response to the Media Matters report, Musk said, and I'm quoting, for speech to be truly free, we must also have freedom to see or hear things that some people may consider objectionable, and we will not allow agenda -driven activists or even our profits to deter our vision.
[73] So that was interesting.
[74] But I think the reason this last Media Matters report really struck a chord is that it came out just as Musk himself said something that was pretty controversial.
[75] So on Thursday, a user posted, quoting, Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.
[76] And Musk responded that this was, quote, the actual truth.
[77] Now, in a follow -up post, a short time later, he clarified that he was talking about the Anti -Defamation League.
[78] Though that civil rights group was once primarily focused on anti -Semitism, it has been pretty widely acknowledged that it often now functions more as an all -purpose progressive activist group.
[79] And for example, it has aligned with Black Lives Matter, which argued that the wealth and success that some white people possess is due to racial privilege.
[80] And that's also a charge that anti -Semites have leveled against Jews as well.
[81] So Musk has said in the past that the ADL are quoting again, ironically, the biggest generators of anti -Semitism on X. But Musk's clarification didn't stop some massive coverage of his comment, including a statement of condemnation from the White House.
[82] But I do think it is also worth highlighting that media matters are not really objective analysts here.
[83] They define themselves as political progressives whose mission is to police specifically conservative misinformation.
[84] And the group has rejected what Musk says about his own motives being free speech, and they impute their motives to him.
[85] And in fact, this was what Media Matters President and CEO Angelo Carrison told MSNBC about that on Saturday night.
[86] And that's not what it's about it all.
[87] None of his conduct suggests that that's what his ownership and his execution of Twitter of X really is.
[88] It really is about taking these ideas and leveraging the power of a social media apparatus to help evangelize them and spread them.
[89] Well, as you said, not surprising media matters is going after Musk here.
[90] And again, not surprising he's fighting back.
[91] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[92] Anytime.
[93] With less than two months remaining until the Iowa caucus, the GOP primary field continues to narrow as candidates look to gain ground on frontrunner Donald Trump.
[94] Here are the latest from the campaign trail and where President Biden stands and his re -election effort is Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips.
[95] All right, Cabot, we've had some movement here set the scene for us.
[96] Yeah, so we'll start nationally and then work down to the state level.
[97] The GOP primary field has narrowed since we last spoke with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott dropping out last week.
[98] His departure makes this essentially a four -man race right now between.
[99] Trump, Ronda Santis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramoswamy.
[100] Now, to this point, the big story of this race has been the lack of a race, as former President Trump has continued to dominate the polls in historic fashion, pulling in well over 50 % of GOP voters nationwide.
[101] Harvard poll this week saw him climb even higher, hitting 67 % nationally.
[102] No one else in that poll even garnered double digits.
[103] And it's also worth noting in the last week, Trump did pick up two very big endorsements from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and also New House Speaker Mike Johnson.
[104] Right.
[105] So there's not much movement at the top, but we have seen an increasingly competitive battle for second place, correct?
[106] You're absolutely right.
[107] Now, while Ron DeSantis came into the race widely considered the top challenger to the former president, his grip on second place has become a lot less secure.
[108] Since kicking off his campaign, DeSantis' polling numbers on average nationally have been cut in half and influential donors have begun wavering, while Nikki Haley has appeared to pick up some steam in recent weeks.
[109] The former UN ambassador is making a similar argument as DeSantis.
[110] saying, basically, I'm a Trump alternative who can beat Biden.
[111] To that point, her team has touted a number of polls that show her beating Biden in a general election by wider margins than any of her GOP counterparts.
[112] Haley and DeSantis are now actively battling for second in Iowa, while in the next two states on the schedule, New Hampshire and then her home state of South Carolina, Haley has climbed into a solid second place.
[113] Her strategy now appears clear, pull off a second or third place in Iowa, and then hope the field starts to narrow out before New Hampshire and South Carolina, where she'll look to consolidate the support among those looking for a Trump alternative.
[114] The question, though, is just whether there will be enough non -Trump voters to secure a victory.
[115] Right, his base continues to stand pretty firmly with him.
[116] Now, let's get to President Biden, who is no doubt watching the GOP race closely.
[117] Where does he stand now in the polling?
[118] Well, we've talked extensively about the uphill battle he's facing.
[119] There's just no doubt he's limping into this reelection campaign.
[120] The president was already getting failing grades on all the most important issues to voters.
[121] inflation, immigration, national security, etc. But this ongoing war in Gaza is now providing another stumbling block to his reelection odds.
[122] While Biden has to this point stood with Israel in their war on Hamas, that position is increasingly unpopular with two crucial Democrat voting blocks, young people and progressives on the parties far left.
[123] And all of those struggles have become clearly evident in just every bit of polling data we have.
[124] Yeah, let's get to some of those polls which have really raised eyebrows among Democrats in Washington.
[125] Yeah, and for good reason.
[126] Biden's approval rating has not been above 50 since August of 2021.
[127] He's currently sitting well underwater with approvals in the high 30s and low 40s.
[128] Historically, very few incumbents have secured a second term with numbers like that.
[129] And in head -to -head polls against his most likely opponent, it's more bad news.
[130] In nine of the last 10 national polls, Biden is trailing Trump.
[131] And importantly, Trump is now regularly crossing the all -important 50 % threshold, something he'd failed to do throughout the summer.
[132] And for his part, Biden has yet to secure more than 50 % in any poll since, get this, July.
[133] Not exactly where you want to be coming into a re -election campaign.
[134] And then, of course, the X Factor here is a potential third -party candidate.
[135] We still don't know exactly how many states RFK Jr. will be on the ballot.
[136] But polling does indicate he could bring in double -digit support nationally.
[137] Then throw in someone like Joe Manchin running third party and things get even crazier.
[138] We just don't know what it's going to look like come November.
[139] Right.
[140] Could be a real mess.
[141] Cabot, thanks for reporting.
[142] Anytime.
[143] Thanks for waking up with us.
[144] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.