Morning Wire - Baltimore Bridge Collapse & Diddy Allegations | 3.27.24

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Officials continue to investigate a bridge collapse disaster in Baltimore, a challenge to the expanded access of an abortion drug was heard by the Supreme Court, and what do we know about the raids on homes owned by hip hop mogul Sean Combs? Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. GDefy: Get $30 off your order of $150 or more! Use promo code: WIRE at http://www.GDefy.com NetSuite: Take advantage of no payments and no interest for six months at Http://www.NetSuite.com/MORNINGWIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The investigation into the collapse of a major Baltimore bridge continues after a massive cargo ship collided with the important thoroughfare. I'm directing my team of heaven and our three open the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as you can't be possible. How long will the bridge be out? And what are the impacts on global trade with this major hub now blocked off? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Wednesday, March 27th in this morning wire. A case challenging the broadened access of the abortion drug Miffa Pristone goes before the Supreme Court. What hints do we have about how the court might rule?

This case seems like a prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an FDA rule. And two days after the feds raided hip-hop mogul Sean Combs' homes, no charges have yet been filed. What do we know about the rules? raid and where is the famous rapper now? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. While experts anticipated rate cuts, inflation in the U.S. is still a significant economic concern. The U.S. is $34 trillion in the hole and yet we keep printing money, which just raises the prices we pay every day. You can burry your head in the sand or do something about it by diversifying

a portion of your savings into gold with Birch Gold Group. They'll help you convert your existing IRA or 401k into a tax-sheltered IRA in gold, and you won't pay a penny out of pocket. Just text wire to 989898-9-8-9-8-9-8-8 and Birchgold will send you a free info kit on gold. That's wired to 9-8-98-8-day. Early Tuesday morning, a container ship collided with a crucial bridge over the Baltimore Harbor, blocking the waterway and snarling supply lines in traffic. Officials say one body has been recovered during the search for six missing people. Here with the details on the disaster in its fallout as Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot major news out of Baltimore that could have national implications.

What's the latest there? Yeah, just some stunning images coming out of Baltimore Harbor. According to authorities, the Dolly, that's a massive container ship, was leaving the harbor on its way to Sri Lanka when it suddenly lost propulsion. Footed from the incident shows the ship's lights flickering as it drifted for a few minutes before colliding head on with a key support beam of the Francis Scott key bridge. Within seconds, nearly the entire bridge had collapsed into the water. Thankfully, the ship's crew had sent out a distress call, which prompted first responders to cut

off much of the traffic onto the bridge, but at least six construction workers repairing potholes, along with an unknown number of other drivers plunged into the river and are unaccounted for. Search and rescue crews are still working at the scene using sonar and infrared technology, as well as underwater drones to determine just how many vehicles went down with the bridge. So there's a good chance the death toll will rise. Yeah. And this bridge was a key part of Baltimore's infrastructure, correct?

Right. This was not your run-of-the-mill bridge. For context, the main portion spanned 1,200 feet, making it the third longest continuous trust bridge on Earth. It was also a key part of the Baltimore Beltway, holding four lanes of Interstate 695. It was crossed by 11 million vehicles every year. The bridge was completed in 1977 and took five years to construct, so it's going to be a

massive undertaking to rebuild. To that point, President Biden announced Tuesday that the federal government would cover the cost of reconstruction. It's my intention. We'll pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort. Officials in Washington were quick to say this was not an act of terror or cyber warfare, and that no foul play was suspected. But shortly after the news broke, a lot of folks were asking whether the bridge was in disrepair and how a structure of this size could have been brought down by a ship that was

only traveling eight knots at the time or nine miles an hour. But engineers and bridge experts say the collision was so disastrous because of the size of the ship and the part of the bridge it collided with. The Dolly was larger than the Titanic at nearly 1,000 feet and struck one of the key super columns of the bridge. Once that column was compromised, the chain reaction was inevitable. As Benjamin Schaefer, professor of civil engineering at Johns Hopkins put it, quote, no bridge pier could withstand being hit by a ship this size.

Wow. What sort of impact do we expect this collapse to have on the city and economy more broadly? Well, as you can imagine, those living in and around Baltimore are already feeling the consequences as traffic was snarled Tuesday. Keep in mind, the key bridge was one of only three crossings over the harbor. But even more important in the long term will be the impact that collapse has on the supply chain. Remember, Baltimore Harbor is among the 10 busiest ports in the country, and it's now completely shut down until further notice as debris is blocking the only entrance. that will significantly disrupt a number of industries which rely on the port.

It is the country's second largest export terminal for coal. It's also the leading port in America for sending and receiving trucks, tractors, and trailers. Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, and Subaru are all heavily reliant on facilities there. So this will impact a number of industries. Officials from the Federal Maritime Commission compared the accident to a large hurricane or earthquake hitting Baltimore and stressed that it could take years for operations to return to normal. Just a stunning sequence of events and a lot of work to be done. But thank you for reporting.

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Yeah, so basically the FACDRIESA. FDA during COVID, widely expanded access to abortion pill Miphypristone, so much so that it can now be received through the mail and without a single in-person doctor's visit. This is now the most used abortion method in the whole nation. The lapsed restrictions are a far cry from the three visits that used to be required for the pill before 2016. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, represented by the Alliance defending freedom, contends that the FDA was reckless and acted unreasonably when it removed these abortion pill safeguards. They say, according to data, Miffa Pristone sends roughly one in 25 women to the emergency room, which they argue is an unreasonably high rate. They also say it puts

doctors with conscientious objections to abortions specifically in emergency room settings in what's an impossible situation. And how did the judges seem to receive their argument? You know, we can't know for sure, but I think there were pretty clear signs that the court is going to side with Biden's FDA. But interestingly, this was due to this issue of standing, not whether the FDA acted lawfully when it relaxed these rules for Mifipristone's use. The challengers had to show the plaintiff doctors were harmed by FDA changes to proceed with the suit. Most of the justices, though, including the conservative-leaning justices, they didn't seem convinced that was shown. Instead, they seemed to side with the Biden administration that doctors who have these conscientious objections to abortion could find exemptions. from participating in those procedures, even in these emergency room situations.

The only justice who seemed to fall outside of that was Justice Alito. Here he is challenging the Solicitor General on this issue. Is there anybody who can sue and get a judicial ruling on whether what FDA did was lawful? And maybe what they did was perfectly lawful. But shouldn't somebody be able to challenge that in court? Who, in your view? Who would have standing to bring that suit? I think that with respect to these regulatory changes, it's hard to identify anyone who would have

standing to sue, but the court has said time and again that the fact that no one would have standing doesn't provide a basis to depart from Article III principles. So your argument is that it doesn't matter if FDA flagrantly violated the law, didn't do what it should have done, endangered the health of women. It's just too bad. Nobody can sue in court. The American people have no remedy for that. So I think the big question that most people have is whether this is, whether this is,

case will be a step toward outlawing abortion. Yeah, I mean, as I said earlier, it really does look like the justices will reject this challenge and side with Biden. But looking at the case on its face, conservatives say this is about putting safeguards around a drug that is known to cause significant health risks. Those on the left argue that any restriction on abortion access, particularly in this post-row environment, is tantamount to a step toward a ban. Well, we won't get an answer until decisions come down in June, but we're definitely going to be covering. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Homeland Security raided homes belonging to rapper and record producer Sean P. Diddy Combs on Monday in connection to several allegations. The producer is facing a string of

civil lawsuits accusing him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and rape. Here with more is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. So Megan, just to start, what's the nature of the allegations that prompted this raid. So a number of women and one man have made claims against Combs spanning decades now. So I'm going to run through them all and you'll want to just hang with me here a bit. The first claim came from his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie. She was 19 when their relationship began in 2005 and he was 37 at that time. Well, she filed a suit last November alleging that Combs raped, trafficked, and beat her for nearly 10 years. And that suit was settled for an undisclosed amount, but it did seem to sort of open the floodgates of other allegations.

Two other suits were also filed against him last November. One from a woman named Joey Dickerson Neal. She says that in 1991, when she was a college student, Combs asked her out to dinner. Then she says he drugged her, sexually assaulted her, and secretly videotaped that assault. The next allegation is from a woman named Eliza Gardner. She says that Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall raped both her and her friends. after they met the pair in the early 90s at a recording party. Then in December, an anonymous woman filed a suit.

She says that in 2003, when she was 17 years old, Combs and two other men, one of whom was bad boy label president Harvey Pierre, gave her drugs and alcohol and then gang raped her. So her suit characterized this as a sex trafficking scheme because Combs flew her in a private jet from Michigan to New York. And then the most recent allegation is a sexual assault, suit from producer Ronnie Little Rob Jones. He says that Combs harassed and trafficked him. Now, this suit was just filed last month, and he claims that Combs would host star-studded

sex trafficking parties that included underage girls and drugs. And he also says that Combs repeatedly groped his anus and crotch without consent and tried to, quote, groom him into accepting a homosexual relationship. So federal authorities have now acknowledged that they are investigating Combs as part of a sex trafficking probe. Now, do we know what they're looking for and or what they've found? That's not really clear yet. The raids on his homes were in Los Angeles and Miami, and several sources told the LA Times that federal authorities have interviewed at least

three women. Now, I did watch a good deal of the footage of the raids, and you can see a large number of Homeland Security agents escorting people from Combs' 17,000 square foot Los Angeles mansion. Now, at Combs' Miami property, you could see agents arriving by boat. But no criminal charges have been filed against him so far, so we don't know much about what could come next as far as Combs being arrested. But there have been rumors that Combs fled the country Monday evening

because his private plane flew from California to Antigua. But it's not clear that Combs was on that particular plane as TMZ spotted him at a Miami airport that same day. But in the meantime, other celebrities have in the past, described Combs as having what I think you can say is a fairly wild lifestyle. So R&B singer Usher described living with Combs when he was a teenager. He said this on the Howard Stern show seven years ago. I got a chance to see some things.

Yeah, but you were 13. What were you seeing? I went there to see the lifestyle. Right. And I saw it. But I don't know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at. It was pretty wild. So nobody tried to, you know, some woman didn't come along.

I don't say that. Okay. I understand. What I did say is that there were very curious things taking place, and I didn't necessarily understand. And has Combs responded to all these allegations? He hasn't responded to these raids yet, but he did put out a statement on Instagram in December when that fourth suit was filed, and I'm just going to read directly from that.

Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear. I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family, and for the truth. Well, a lot of smoke if there's no fire, but we're going to have to wait for the court documents. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us.

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