Morning Wire XX
[0] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced early yesterday morning that he's resigning from his post.
[1] I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world.
[2] But them's the brakes.
[3] Why did Johnson finally give in to pressure to resign?
[4] And what does it mean for U .S.-UK.
[5] relations?
[6] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl.
[7] It's Friday, July 8, and this is Morning Wire.
[8] Job creation, higher retail sales, and more new homes.
[9] listings.
[10] What are the reasons red states are enjoying a post -pandemic boom that continues to evade blue states?
[11] And people inside the Biden administration are questioning the loyalties of the U .S. ambassador to Mexico, especially on the issues of immigration and energy.
[12] Is the ambassador more aligned with Mexico's interests than our own?
[13] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
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[26] Boris Johnson's days as prime minister of the United Kingdom are officially numbered as the scandal plagued former London mayor resigned on Thursday as leader of the Conservative Party.
[27] Speaking of parties, it was reports of parties at Johnson's residents during the pandemic lockdowns that first landed him in hot water with the public.
[28] But the last straw seemed to have been a more recent scandal that he just couldn't withstand as ministers began resigning.
[29] Joining us as columnist David Marcus.
[30] Morning, Dave.
[31] What was this latest flap that Johnson got into.
[32] Good morning.
[33] So it was a lie.
[34] There was a party official Chris Pinscher who was accused of groping two men.
[35] Johnson said he knew nothing about, you know, a separate set of allegations.
[36] And then a letter came out that showed he was personally briefed on it.
[37] There just wasn't a way to spin it.
[38] And as you mentioned, ministers, you know, the equivalent of cabinet members started resigning a handful really in the early hours of Thursday.
[39] And that was it.
[40] He announced his resignation.
[41] So he's resigned as head of the party, but will remain prime minister for the time being.
[42] How does that work exactly?
[43] Right.
[44] So unlike a president, the prime minister is the head of the legislature, the House of Commons.
[45] It's the party that wins the prime ministership, not any individual candidate.
[46] So the Tory party, conservative party, will have to find a new leader, and that could take a few months.
[47] So it'll be a strange interim period where Johnson is still dealing with huge issues like Ukraine and relations with Europe.
[48] Now, the announcement on Thursday was rather sudden, as late as Wednesday night, it appeared that Johnson would dig in his heels and fight.
[49] What happened?
[50] What changed?
[51] Yeah, on Wednesday night, Johnson fired his housing secretary, Michael Gove, for disloyalty, which was widely viewed as an act of defiance from a PM who was going to stick it out, you know, that he'd surround himself with stalwarts.
[52] But by Thursday morning, there just weren't enough left.
[53] A popular young conservative named Nadim Zahawi told Johnson he too would resign.
[54] and the writing was on the wall.
[55] What will this mean for relations between the United States and the U .K., particularly at this time of high global tension?
[56] I mean, the special relationship, as it's known, between the U .S. and U .K., is really pretty politics -proof.
[57] It's a strong tie regardless of who or what party is in power on either side of the pond.
[58] But that having been said, on some issues, particularly the war in Ukraine, Johnson was a vital ally to Joe Biden.
[59] and when other powers in Europe wanted a softer approach to Putin.
[60] And Putin may be the big winner here, given that there's this power vacuum in the UK and a really embattled president in the United States.
[61] But Johnson did make a point of showing support for Ukraine.
[62] And let me say now to the people of Ukraine that I know that we in the UK will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes.
[63] What will the legacy of Boris Johnson be?
[64] He was a very colorful character for the normally, you know, stayed British political scene.
[65] How will he be remembered?
[66] Yeah, it's complicated.
[67] It's a little hard to tell from state side, but in a lot of the coverage, you almost get a tragic sense.
[68] He doesn't seem to be reviled by people.
[69] He just couldn't control his impulses, whether it was throwing illegal ragers at 10 -downing or, you know, lying about Pinscher.
[70] My sense is that he's viewed as a flawed man, a flawed prime minister, but someone who wanted to do good.
[71] And that's really what he said in his resignation speech.
[72] Well, we'll see what the next chapter holds for the UK.
[73] Thanks for joining us, David.
[74] Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[75] Coming up, Red States lead the way on economic recovery post -pandemic.
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[81] As the American economy struggles to return to its pre -pandemic levels, new data shows that not all states are struggling the same.
[82] According to Labor Department data, red states have recovered far better than their blue counterparts.
[83] Here are the details is DailyWire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[84] Cabot first, give us a breakdown of the numbers and then we'll get into what's driving the discrepancy.
[85] Well, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution, by pretty much every economic metric, states led by Republicans have far outpaced those led by Democrats in the wake of COVID lockdowns.
[86] Now, since February of 2020, red states have not just returned to pre -pendemic levels.
[87] They've actually added 341 ,000 jobs.
[88] During that same time period, blue states have lost 1 .3 million jobs.
[89] So enormous discrepancy there.
[90] Another study from Moody's analytics looked at 13 economic metrics to Judd's post -pandemic recovery.
[91] And they found that of the 15 states with the best recovery, 11 were red.
[92] And of the 10 worst states, eight were blue.
[93] Definitely numbers that are hard to ignore.
[94] What's causing this very different outcome?
[95] So there are a few main things that experts are pointing to.
[96] The first is something that we've talked about a good bit on the show here.
[97] It's migration.
[98] Over the last two and a half years, 46 million people moved to a different zip code.
[99] that's the most on record.
[100] And the states gaining the most people, led by Florida and Texas, were almost entirely red, while the states losing the most people, most notably California, New York, and Illinois, are almost all blue.
[101] And if you look at the data from each of the states, what really jumps out are tax rates.
[102] The average state income tax in the 10 states that gained the most residents was 3 .8%.
[103] And in the 10 states that lost the most people, it was 8%, more than double.
[104] So there seems to be a pretty clear correlation there with people seeking out low -taxed.
[105] tax rates, which are just more likely to be found in states run by Republicans.
[106] Yeah, that makes sense.
[107] And it's not just people moving to these states, it's also companies.
[108] Exactly.
[109] We've seen a growing number of large corporations moving their headquarters or at least huge parts of their operation out of blue states to red ones.
[110] We all remember Tesla moving their HQ from California to Texas, but we've seen plenty of other instances, construction company Caterpillar, hedge fund giant Citadel, and also Oracle, all companies fleeing blue states for red ones.
[111] So how much of this can be attributed to changes brought on by COVID?
[112] Yeah, a good bit.
[113] One main reason people have been moving at such a high rate is because of the rise of remote work during COVID.
[114] Historically, people have been tied to jobs in large cities, which tend to be in blue states.
[115] But now that millions of people can work from anywhere, they're seeking out places with more economic opportunity, lower crime, and lower cost of living, which right now are red states.
[116] And that influx of people is really helping those states not just recover from the pandemic, but thrive.
[117] For example, while blue states like Illinois are in massive debt and facing bankruptcy concerns, Florida just closed out the fiscal year with a $20 billion budget surplus, the largest on record.
[118] We saw something similar in Tennessee with the lowest unemployment rate ever and a record year for job growth.
[119] So a big part of that is because of the tax revenue generated by all of the people and businesses that are moving there.
[120] Now, what about the rule of lockdowns?
[121] I was just getting to that.
[122] So because Red States almost across the board had fewer COVID restrictions and allowed businesses to open up much sooner than their blue state counterparts, they are rebounding quicker.
[123] In states like New York and California, where much of the economy was forcibly shut down for well over a year, a lot of businesses went under permanently.
[124] In red states, though, where lockdowns were much shorter, fewer businesses went under.
[125] And according to researchers at Vanderbilt and the Georgia Institute of Technology, there was a direct correlation between states with fewer pandemic restrictions like mask and vaccine mandates and school closures and population growth.
[126] So another area where people chose red states over blue and we're seeing the economic consequences now play out.
[127] All right.
[128] Well, good stuff as always, Cabot.
[129] Thanks for joining us.
[130] Anytime.
[131] That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[132] The U .S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, came under national scrutiny this week when anonymous Biden administration officials expressed concerns to the New York Times that Salazar was undermining U .S. interests abroad.
[133] Here to tell us more is Daily Wire.
[134] contributor Corinne Murdoch.
[135] So Corinne, first off, one of the major issues has been Salazar's soft stance on the border.
[136] Tell us about that.
[137] Hi, Georgia.
[138] That's correct.
[139] Salazar has not made much headway on mitigating illegal immigration.
[140] If you recall, President Joe Biden nominated Salazar to the position last June, about three months after initial reports of a border crisis began.
[141] One of the first red flags out of the gate came last July during Salazar's confirmation to the post.
[142] In his speech, Salazar didn't acknowledge that the border issues were unprecedented.
[143] We're bound together because the issues of migration have brought us together historically through the push and pull of the history of migration into this country.
[144] It's an issue which still bedevils this country in terms of how we deal with a sustainable, orderly migration system.
[145] Salazar acknowledged that it would be impossible to improve migration without Mexico's assistance, but critics pointed out that he hasn't been willing to hold Mexico's president accountable for cooperation and instead has, at times, appear to side with Mexico's president over the U .S. Most recently, he wasn't able or perhaps wasn't willing to convince Lopez overdore to attend the summit of the Americas, which was supposed to be an opportunity to discuss illegal immigration.
[146] Back in May, Salazar and Mexico's Minister of Foreign Affairs announced 20 projects to modernize ports of entry.
[147] The goal was to expedite crossings and secure those entrances, but those are legal entry points, and they aren't slated to start until the end of next year.
[148] Salazar has been comparatively quiet about illegal crossings.
[149] Salazar has condemned illegal crossings on a few occasions, but that rhetoric is sparse.
[150] Now, I understand there was also concern about Salazar siding with Mexico's president about some controversial issues, for example, like election fraud.
[151] Yes, most recently, Salazar backed President Oberdor's claims that the 2006 election was stolen from him.
[152] Salazar admitted to the New York Times this week that he believed those Mexican citizens who claimed they witnessed fraud all those years ago.
[153] In doing so, he directly undermined the official U .S. and EU position on the matter.
[154] Both the U .S. and the EU took the official position that the 2006 Mexican election was clean.
[155] In light of recent events in the U .S., Salazar's willingness to question election results is seen as particularly concerning for the Biden administration.
[156] Salazar also openly challenged the integrity of a U .S.-linked non -profit watchdog group called Mexicans against corruption and impunity.
[157] That group opposed Lopez Oberdor and denounced his claims of fraud back in 2006.
[158] The U .S. had given millions to that nonprofit for investigative journalism.
[159] And lastly, Salazar has directly undermined the Biden administration's agenda regarding energy production in Mexico.
[160] President Lopez Obrador wants to reform Mexico's energy sector to give the Mexican state broad control over domestic energy production.
[161] That arrangement would undermine American energy companies operating in the region and make it harder for them to compete.
[162] Despite that disadvantage, it would create for American companies, Salazar told reporters that Lopez Obrador was right to seek these reforms.
[163] So how did Salazar get this job?
[164] What made him an appealing nominee for Biden?
[165] Actually, Salazar was, in a lot of ways, an obvious pick for Biden.
[166] Salazar has had a long successful career within the Democratic Party.
[167] He served as Colorado's Attorney General and then Senator before serving as Obama's Secretary of the Interior.
[168] Salazar was also slated to lead Hillary Clinton's transition team in 2016, had she won.
[169] On top of that, Salazar was a partner at Wilmer Hale, which is one of the top law firms in the country and a favorite recruiting ground for past presidential administrations.
[170] While with Wilmer Hale, Salazar did legal work for major corporations like 3M, Target, and Facebook.
[171] So in many ways, his resume was impeccable, but it seems the administration may not have fully vetted him for loyalty.
[172] All right.
[173] Well, Corinne, thanks so much for coming on.
[174] Thank you for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, Corinne Murdoch.
[175] Other stories were tracking this week.
[176] Shenzhou Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, was shot and gravely injured Friday while campaigning for his party in the city of Nara.
[177] Abe was rushed to the hospital in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.
[178] Officials say a suspected shooter was apprehended.
[179] President Biden's approval rating reached a new low this week, according to a Monmouth University poll, with just 36 % of Americans approving of his performance in office.
[180] Progressive Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, is receiving intense backlash after charging Jose Alba was second -degree murder.
[181] Alba was arrested in New York City and sent to Rikers Island after defending himself from a career criminal attempting to rob his bodega last week.
[182] The Federal Reserve plans to raise the interest rates another three -quarters of a point later this month to aggressively combat inflation and cool the economy.
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