Morning Wire XX
[0] Special counsel Jack Smith tries to bypass the appeals process by asking the Supreme Court to rule quickly on whether former President Trump is protected by presidential immunity.
[1] This is a race against the clock for Jack Smith.
[2] He is doing everything he can to try to preserve that March 4th trial date.
[3] What would a Supreme Court ruling mean for Trump's case and his 2024 presidential run?
[4] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[5] It's Tuesday, December 3rd.
[6] 12, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Harvard's president comes under increased fire amid outrage over her congressional testimony and new allegations.
[8] And Capitol Hill sees dozens of arrests as pro -Palestinian protesters take over the Senate office building.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
[12] Special counsel Jack Smith has petitioned the Supreme Court to rule in Donald Trump's Washington, D .C., election interference trial without first hearing from a lower court.
[13] The issue centers on whether Trump has immunity for actions he took during his time in the White House.
[14] Here to impact this for us is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus.
[15] Hey, Dave.
[16] So what is it exactly that Smith is asking of the court and why is it so unusual?
[17] Morning.
[18] Smith is asking the Supreme Court to rule directly on the question of whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for actions he took while president.
[19] To do this, the court would have to bypass the low lower D .C. Circuit Court of appeals, basically skipping a step to save time.
[20] A judge already ruled against immunity for Trump, allowing the trial to go forward.
[21] But Trump's attorneys have vowed to appeal that ruling and presumably if they lost that to appeal to the Supreme Court.
[22] So Smith just wants to get it decided now with the possible delay of months or even a year if the court says no. Right.
[23] Now, why is Smith so adamant that the trial occurs so soon?
[24] Right now, it's scheduled for March just ahead of Super Tuesday?
[25] Is there a legal reason to move this fast?
[26] George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley addressed this Monday.
[27] Here's what he had to say.
[28] The only reason for that is that he is really focused entirely on trying Trump during this campaign and trying to convict him before the election.
[29] The question is whether the Supreme Court's going to feel that that is such an urgent priority that you actually bring this case before Super Tuesday.
[30] Usually, the Supreme Court likes to hear from multiple court of appeals.
[31] They certainly want normally to hear from at least one on these issues.
[32] So it does appear that this is motivated by Smith's desire to have this trial during the election, perhaps in part so that voters can have the full story before election day, even though that isn't quite a legal argument, but more a political one.
[33] Turley did go on to say that Smith might also be concerned that were Trump to win next year's election before a trial, He could preemptively pardon himself, and this would all go away.
[34] Yeah.
[35] Do we have any sense of how the court might rule on this, both in regard to Smith's request to skip the D .C. court in whether Trump actually does have immunity from prosecution?
[36] I mean, more or less, no to both.
[37] As we've pointed out, it is a novel request, and in general, the court would want to hear from the lower courts before weighing in.
[38] It's not clear that the justices will share Jack Smith's sense of urgency regarding the possibility of Trump being elected president again.
[39] To the merits, Smith invoked Watergate and a very fast decision by the court in 1974 that ruled Richard Nixon was not immune from having to produce the infamous missing recordings from his Oval Office.
[40] If that is indeed the precedent that the court decides is controlling here, then it's very likely Donald Trump will lose this appeal and have to face trial, whether before or after voters make their decision in November.
[41] Yeah.
[42] There was also a significant development in Trump's New York civil trial in which the former president had been expected to testify on Monday in his own defense, but then he made a last -minute decision not to appear.
[43] Why did he change his mind and what impact could it have?
[44] Trump posted to his truth social account that he had taken the advice of his lawyers, who basically said that he had more to lose than to gain by taking the stand again.
[45] Listeners will recall that Trump's testimony during the prosecution's portion of this trial was, well, rather raucous with yelling and Trump accusing the process of being unfair.
[46] The possibility of that kind of circus occurring again was what made Monday's potential testimony so highly anticipated.
[47] But for once, Trump valued lawyerly advice over the opportunity to make a big splash.
[48] This might also be a tacit acknowledgement that this is very serious stuff.
[49] Now there's only one expert witness left for Trump.
[50] And then it goes to the judge who Trump regularly insults to decide on a punishment and that could be millions of dollars.
[51] It could also mean Donald Trump, once one of New York's most famous businessmen, can never do business in Gotham again.
[52] The stakes are high.
[53] Yeah, very high indeed.
[54] Dave, thanks for coming on.
[55] Thanks for having me. As pressure mounts for Harvard president, Claudine Gay, to resign, one major donor claims her handling of anti -Semitism on campus has cost the university $1 billion.
[56] Meanwhile, a coalition of over 700 Harvard faculty members have released a letter supporting Gay.
[57] Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here now with more.
[58] So, Megan, we know that the Harvard Corporation was meeting Monday to discuss Gay's fate.
[59] Do we have any sense yet of what their decision's going to be?
[60] Not yet, but we do know what factors they're probably weighing right now.
[61] And one of them is that billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who is a Harvard alum and he's a major donor.
[62] Well, he's been leading the charge against Gay, and he released a letter to Harvard's governing board of directors on Sunday.
[63] In it, he said, quoting here, that Gay has done more damage to Harvard's reputation than anyone in its nearly 500 -year history.
[64] And he said that her failures have led to billions of dollars of canceled, paused, and withdrawn donations.
[65] And as John mentioned, Ackman also said that he has personal knowledge that Gay's response to Congress about whether calls for Jewish genocide violate the university's code of conduct has cost the school a billion dollars.
[66] This is what Ackman told Bloomberg.
[67] There were protests on campus, and the protests were supportive of terrorism.
[68] You know, when you have a group of students shouting intifada, intifada, let's free Palestine, and from the river to the sea, the meaning of intifada means to kill Jews.
[69] Had this been another ethnic group where these kind of activity took place, Harvard would be suspending the people involved.
[70] And this is not just a Harvard problem.
[71] It's an NYU problem.
[72] It's a University of Pennsylvania problem.
[73] The more I examine the issue, the more woke, the more left -leaning the institution, the more anti -Semitism.
[74] Ackman also highlighted allegations that came out late Sunday night that Gay plagiarized parts of her doctoral thesis.
[75] So Gay responded to those charges on Monday, and she told the Boston Globe that she stands by the integrity of her scholarship.
[76] The whole saga has really reignited some simmering grievances about Gay's appointment, including the accusation that she's not actually quite.
[77] qualified for the position.
[78] National Review ran a story last year that showed she has only written 11 peer -reviewed journal articles in 20 years.
[79] Jeffrey Miller, a University of New Mexico psychology professor, said that normally you'd have to publish that many in just one year to, quote, even get hired as a first -year tenure track assistant professor at a decent state university.
[80] So, never mind to ascend to the presidency of a top Ivy League school.
[81] And she's also only co -edited one book.
[82] She's never actually published any books.
[83] So that's led to accusations that Gay was a DEI hire and did not get her position due to merit.
[84] So how about her supporters?
[85] What are they saying?
[86] Well, about a quarter of Harvard's faculty signed that petition asking the university not to fire her.
[87] And they say that this is a matter of academic freedom and that Harvard's board should, quote, defend the school's independence and resist political pressure.
[88] The executive committee of the Harvard Alumni Association also released a letter saying it has full confidence in gay's leadership.
[89] And then, I don't know if you'd call this support, but certainly Saturday Night Live made light of the responses that gay and those other two university presidents gave to Congresswoman Elise Stefonic.
[90] I'm going to start screaming questions at these women like I'm Billy Eichner.
[91] Intersemitism, yay or nay.
[92] I'm sorry, what?
[93] Yes, or no, is calling for the genocide of twos against the code of Congress.
[94] conduct for Harvard.
[95] Well, it depends on the context.
[96] What?
[97] That can't be your answer, you pen lady.
[98] Same question.
[99] Yes or no?
[100] Well, we are serious about stopping all forms of hatred, anti -Semitism, Islamophobia.
[101] The second one, MIT lady, chance to steal.
[102] And keep in mind, if you don't say yes, you're going to make me look good, which is really, really hard to do.
[103] So I'll ask you straight up.
[104] Do you think genocide is bad?
[105] So that too sparked some widespread condemnation with a lot of critics calling SNL tone deaf at best.
[106] According to The New York Post, former SNL star Cecily Strong was supposed to play Stefonic in that sketch.
[107] But she reportedly backed out at the last minute because she was uncomfortable with the content of it.
[108] Well, it'll be interesting to see if gay survives this week at Harvard.
[109] Yep.
[110] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[111] Anytime.
[112] Dozens were arrested, Sunday after a crowd of pro -Palestinian activists flooded the atrium of the Hart Senate office building.
[113] The protesters demanded a ceasefire between Israel and the terror group Hamas.
[114] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss what went down in the Hart building on Monday and where things stand with U .S. funding for Israel.
[115] Hi, Tim.
[116] So starting with the protest, what can you tell us there?
[117] Police reportedly arrested about 50 protesters who had crowded onto the ground floor of heart.
[118] protesting in congressional office buildings is against the law.
[119] Capital Police said officers also arrested and charged one protester with resisting arrest after he climbed a sculpture in the center of the atrium.
[120] The protest itself was over U .S. support for Israel's war against the terror group Hamas and, oddly, the southern border.
[121] The activist called for a ceasefire and several unfurled a banner that read, aid to Israel equals bombing Palestinians.
[122] They all wore black t -shirts with messages in bold white lettering that read, invest in life, and stop weapons now.
[123] Several protesters also displayed a banner against border funding that said border funding equals separating families.
[124] Here's a bit of what the protests sounded like.
[125] Dozens of protesters pushing the same message showed up outside of an event for President Biden in Philadelphia.
[126] Now, these protests are happening as lawmakers negotiate over funding for Israel and a few other priorities.
[127] What's the latest on those discussions?
[128] Right.
[129] Lawmakers are working on a $110 billion national security bill that would tie together funding for Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian aid for Gaza, and additional security measures on the southern border.
[130] President Biden and Democrats want 61 billion of that for Ukraine, which, according to one tally, has been allocated $113 billion already.
[131] Republicans don't like funding Ukraine's war further, especially since the fighting lines haven't budged in months, and Ukraine hasn't laid out a clear path for victory.
[132] But enough Republicans are willing to look past that if Democrats would agree to additional funding and tighter security for the southern border.
[133] So far, though, the White House has refused to negotiate, so all that aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza is tied up.
[134] Is there any strategy to breaking the deadlock, or is this bill effectively dead?
[135] The White House seems to be trying to publicly pressure Republicans into getting its way.
[136] Biden announced on Sunday that he has invited Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to D .C. to lobby Congress directly.
[137] And Zelensky has some meetings lined up.
[138] He's been invited to speak to the Senate, and he's also scheduled to see House Speaker Mike Johnson.
[139] Johnson and House Republicans are leading the Republican push for immigration reform.
[140] So Ukraine's president may have a tougher time there.
[141] But Johnson has a lot of allies in the Senate as well, such as Ohio's J .D. Vance.
[142] He explained the Republican position on the bill on CNN over the weekend.
[143] On the Ukraine question in particular, everybody knows, everybody with a brain in their head, Jake, knows that this was always going to end in negotiation.
[144] The idea that Ukraine was going to throw Russia back to the 1991 borders was preposterous.
[145] Nobody actually believed it.
[146] So what we're saying to the president and really to the entire world is you need to articulate what the ambition is.
[147] What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn't?
[148] Well, I guess we'll see who breaks first.
[149] Tim, thanks for joining us.
[150] Good to be on.
[151] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[152] Thanks for waking up with us.
[153] We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.