Morning Wire XX
[0] Donald Trump faces off with his former fixer in a New York courtroom, while another of his ex -attorneys agrees to a plea deal in Georgia.
[1] What I did not do but should have done, Your Honor, was to make sure that the facts, the other lawyers alleged to be true, were in fact true.
[2] We discussed the latest twists and turns in Trump's legal battles.
[3] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Vickley, with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Wednesday, October 25th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] As Israel continues its bombardment of Hamas and its efforts to get hundreds of hostages released, the UN calls for a ceasefire.
[6] And in what's being called a journalistic fiasco, the New York Times admits it put too much faith in a terrorist group when it falsely accused Israel of attacking a Gaza hospital.
[7] People, I think, with good reason, are starting to ask, so you just, you ran with what the terrorists told you?
[8] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[9] Stay tuned.
[10] We have the news you need to know.
[11] Michael Cohen, best known as the fixer for former President Trump, testified against Trump in a New York court on Tuesday.
[12] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about Cohen's testimony and how Trump's legal battles have shaped up so far.
[13] So, Tim, how did Cohen's testimony go?
[14] Well, it went about how you might expect.
[15] Cohen testified in the civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
[16] James says Trump falsified his business's asset valuation so he could.
[17] secure better loans.
[18] Cohen told the court that he and Alan Weisselberg, the former CFO of the Trump organization, played key roles in the fraud.
[19] According to Cohen, Trump would give them a dollar figure and then leave it up to them to reverse engineer and assets valuation or worth to hit that number.
[20] He said Trump would then use the false value to secure a higher loan than he should have qualified for.
[21] Now, Trump was in attendance today, even though he's not obligated to attend this trial, and he's in the middle of a primary campaign for president.
[22] It was the first time in about five years that the two men met face to face.
[23] Cohen spoke outside the courthouse later on Tuesday.
[24] This is not about Donald Trump versus Michael Cohen or Michael Cohen versus Donald Trump.
[25] This is about accountability, plain and simple, and we leave it up to Judge Angkoran in order to make all the determinations on that.
[26] And Trump is denying the charges that Cohen's making correct?
[27] Right.
[28] And Trump accuses James of prosecuting for political reasons.
[29] Over the years, he's also had a fair bit to say about Cohen, who he's called a rat.
[30] Here's what Trump had to say on Tuesday.
[31] They have no case.
[32] The witness is totally distradited already and haven't even started.
[33] You're somebody that's a felon that's saying a disgrace.
[34] Now, refresh listeners on Trump and Cohen's relationship.
[35] How far back do they go?
[36] Cohen began to work for Trump as an attorney in the mid -2000s.
[37] Cohen was a loyalist and close to the former president for over two decades, even through Trump's campaign and part of his presidency.
[38] The pair split in 2018 when Cohen was targeted by federal investigators over his role in the Stormy Daniels hush money affair.
[39] Since then, Cohen has sat for interviews with media and investigators and testified in courtrooms and in front of members of Congress about Trump's conduct.
[40] Trump has dismissed Cohen as attention -seeking and a serial wire.
[41] Now, we've also seen some big updates coming out of the Trump case in Georgia.
[42] What's going on there?
[43] Yeah, the case in Georgia is being prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fawney Willis.
[44] It's a RICO case or an organized crime case in which Trump is accused of leading a supposed criminal enterprise that tried to illegally change the outcome of Georgia's 2020 election.
[45] Willis indicted 18 others alongside Trump in the case.
[46] And what has become a growing problem for Trump, some of those people are starting to turn.
[47] Four of the defendants charged in Trump's alleged conspiracy have pleaded guilty to the charges, the most recent being former Trump attorney, Jenna Ellis.
[48] She agreed to a plea deal on Tuesday.
[49] In return, she will receive five years of probation, pay $5 ,000 in restitution, and perform 100 hours of community service.
[50] Here's some of what Ellis told the court.
[51] I failed to do my due diligence.
[52] I believe in, and I value election integrity.
[53] If I knew then what I knew now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post -election challenges.
[54] I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.
[55] Ellis's plea deal came after two other attorneys.
[56] Kenneth Cheesebro and Sidney Powell took deals last week.
[57] Another defendant, Scott Hall, pleaded guilty last month.
[58] Well, Trump's legal team is going to have their work cut out for them, given how many people are flipping.
[59] Right.
[60] Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
[61] Great to be on.
[62] Israel continued its bombardment of Hamas on Tuesday, demanding the release of all hostages amid growing calls for a ceasefire.
[63] Here with more on the ongoing hostage situation and the global response to the war's Daily Wire's your editor, Cabot Phillips.
[64] Hey, Cabot.
[65] First, what are the latest updates out of Israel?
[66] Well, in the last 24 hours, Israel has continued to step up their assault on Hamas strongholds throughout Gaza, launching hundreds of air strikes as they prepare for that imminent ground invasion.
[67] As part of those preparations, Israeli intelligence reportedly formed a special operations force tasked with tracking down every Hamas terrorist who took part in the attack earlier this month.
[68] That group has reportedly poured over hundreds of hours of footage and surveillance data to identify every single man who israel's defense minister gave two options quote be killed or surrender unconditionally we've also seen some movement with regard to the 200 plus hostages being held throughout the last day there have been ongoing talks between the u .s israel cutter egypt and hamas regarding a deal to release a larger number of those hostages remember we've already seen four leco so far right now the sticking point in those conversations appears to be humas's demand for fuel in exchange for their release Now, obviously, the war has dominated the global conversation, but we've seen two different positions beginning to emerge.
[69] Tell us about those positions.
[70] So it's interesting, we have now started to see fissures forming with regard to what Israel should do now.
[71] On one side are those who have vowed to support Israel's effort to wipe out Hamas entirely, and on the other are those now calling for a ceasefire, as well as peace negotiations.
[72] With President Biden saying negotiations cannot and should not happen until all hostages have been released.
[73] He has repeatedly affirmed Israel's right to defend itself.
[74] Secretary State Blinken has echoed those claims earlier in the week, telling the United Nations that a ceasefire would simply allow Hamas to regroup.
[75] Here he is on CBS expanding on that point.
[76] Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it's done sometime in the future.
[77] No country could accept that.
[78] So the Biden administration holding firm so far in support of Israel, what about those calling for a ceasefire?
[79] Well, this week, a number of Middle Eastern leaders, along with some European leaders, as well as two international bodies, the World Health Organization and the United Nations, called for a ceasefire, which they say will allow for more civilians to flee, more aid to enter, and hostage negotiations to continue.
[80] On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez denounced the terror attacks from Hamas, but did make a point of warning Israel against, quote, collective punishment, accusing them of violating international humanitarian law in their war on Hamas.
[81] He also went on to make these comments, which really ruffled some feathers.
[82] It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
[83] The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
[84] Now, as you can imagine, those comments and the broader sentiment that Israel should stand down, even temporarily, have outraged Israeli leaders.
[85] They say they have a duty to their people to wipe out the terror group no matter the cost.
[86] To that point, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Kohn, spoke directly to Gutierrez at the U .N. with this pointed message.
[87] Mr. Secretary General, in what world do you live?
[88] Definitely, this is not our world.
[89] So it got a bit testy.
[90] Cohen went on to compare the current situation to World War II, call him on the, quote, civilized world to unite in opposition against Tomas, who he referred to as the new Nazis.
[91] Yeah, pointed indeed.
[92] Now, coming stateside, we've seen a handful of pretty shocking polls, frankly, regarding American sentiment towards the conflict.
[93] Tell us more about that new polling.
[94] Yeah, we've talked about some of those massive protests in support of the terror groups war on Israel, and now we are starting to see some hard data showing that a significant portion, especially young people and Muslim Americans, do seem to agree with those demonstrators.
[95] According to a poll from single, for example, 58 % of Muslim Americans agree with the statement, quote, Hamas was justified in their attack.
[96] attack on Israel.
[97] And while the vast majority of adults nationwide do say the attacks were not justified, young people feel differently.
[98] According to a Harvard poll this week, 51 % of 18 to 24 -year -olds say the attacks from Hamas were, quote, justified by the grievances of Palestinians.
[99] We saw similar findings in the CNN poll, which showed that just 27 % of 18 -to -34 -year -olds feel Israel is justified in their military response against Hamas.
[100] Now, again, it is worth noting.
[101] Those findings are quite different among the vast majority of older Americans.
[102] as well as Christians and Jews, but there is a noticeable disparity in supportive Israel and abuse of Hamas based on age and religion.
[103] Yeah, stark and alarming disparity.
[104] Kavitt, thanks for reporting.
[105] Any time.
[106] The New York Times admitted on Monday that it relied too heavily on claims by Hamas when it parroted the false accusation that Israel had bombed a Palestinian hospital.
[107] The paper stopped short of issuing a full retraction offering only what it called an editor's note.
[108] The Times was not the only major media outlet to print that misinformation.
[109] Here with more on what's being called a journalistic fiasco is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[110] So Megan, like John said, last week the astonishing claim that Israel bombed a Gaza hospital and killed 500 people was everywhere, including leading publications like The Times.
[111] That story turned out to be untrue.
[112] How did so many outlets get such a big story so wrong?
[113] You know, that's a really good question because this was the biggest and most prestigious names in journalism.
[114] The New York Times, as John mentioned, kind of led the way, but Reuters, Politico, the Washington Post, CNN, I'm actually reading off of a list here, MSNBC, Axios, the BBC, they all quickly followed suit, repeating what I think we can really only call propaganda.
[115] By the following day, however, both Israeli and U .S. intelligence had conclusively demonstrated that not only had have, Hamas vastly inflated the number of casualties, but it was a misfired Palestinian rocket that caused this explosion.
[116] Now, that has prompted a lot of conversation about why these so -called mistakes seem to only run in one direction in favor of Hamas.
[117] You have critics asking whether these outlets are susceptible to misinformation for possibly ideological reasons.
[118] I talked to Drew Holden, a staff writer with the Washington Free Beacon, and he's been covering this issue pretty closely.
[119] He said this was not a one -time mistake.
[120] One thing that the media keeps doing is they're running with the death tolls that Hamas is giving them, both about the conflict more broadly and then specific to the hospital bombing as well.
[121] They keep repeating these figures that are disputed by U .S. intelligence.
[122] They're disputed by Israel.
[123] And in a lot of cases, it's many factors higher than what all other evidence seems to suggest.
[124] And yet the media is saying, oh, well, you know, the Palestinian Health Ministry is telling us these are the numbers.
[125] when in so many cases, there's no actual facts grounding those numbers.
[126] Now, another data point is AP style guidelines on this war.
[127] So even though the U .S., the EU, and dozens of other countries classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, the AP says reporters should not describe them as terrorists.
[128] Instead, it suggests using the terms fighters, combatants, or militants.
[129] So once it was clear that the story had been massively bungled, how willing were these outlets to correct their course.
[130] Well, that's been a pretty big part of the controversy here because a lot of them have seemed to sort of drag their feet on admitting that they got it wrong.
[131] As John said, it took the times nearly a week to put out an editorial statement, and even then they only partially own the mistake.
[132] Others have been resistant to acknowledging that they screwed up at all.
[133] Here's what Holden told me about that.
[134] So they're kind of holding up themselves as these fact finders, and then when we get a lot more information that seems to run entirely counter to the direction they wanted this narrative to head, they go quiet.
[135] They drop out of this conversation.
[136] They're no longer interested in talking about this.
[137] And so this is another instance of perceived bias that seems to be leading to broader distrust in the media, which if you look at polling is already at all -time lows.
[138] So not only did they run claims from a known terrorist organization, but their misreporting had very public consequences.
[139] Countries across the Arab world issued statements condemning Israel after these reports came out.
[140] Some members of Congress did the same.
[141] We saw riots over the weekend at U .S. and Israeli embassies all over the world, and all of it was based on a lie.
[142] So as Holden pointed out to me, these media outlets gave an enormous amount of ammunition to people who hate Israel to begin with, and it also gave them an excuse to go out and cause violence.
[143] Right.
[144] And even with a robust retraction, A lie like that has legs.
[145] It's hard to get it back.
[146] Yep, absolutely.
[147] All right.
[148] Well, Megan, thanks so much for reporting.
[149] Anytime.
[150] Thanks for waking up with us.
[151] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.