Morning Wire - Biden Pushes New Voting Law

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

President Biden delivers a politically charged message on Jan. 6, federal vaccine mandates reach the Supreme Court, and the exodus from blue states continues. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden addressed the nation Thursday in a highly scrutinized speech that compared the events on January 6th to Pearl Harbor. We'll break down the messaging from the White House and hear how Republicans are responding. I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, January 7th. This is Morning Wire. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on a federal vaccine mandate that impacts some 85 million Americans. We have a preview of the case, when to expect a ruling, and what's at stake in the High Court's decision? And the U.S. census results are in. The U.S. population barely increased in 2021, the lowest increase since our nation's founding.

But it's where Americans are choosing to live that may surprise you. We have details on which states people are flocking to and which states they're fleeing. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The Daily Wire is proud to announce our exclusive partnership with Good Ranchers, the 100% American Meat Company. With Good Ranchers, you help support local American farms and ranches while getting steakhouse quality cuts.

They win on quality, price, and mission. Head on over to Good Ranchers.com slash wire or use code wire at checkout to get their biggest offer ever. $30 off your first order plus free express shipping. Visit good rancher.com slash wire today. Yesterday on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol Riot, President Biden delivered a scathing address, railing against former President Trump, calling on Democratic. to pass election reform.

Here with more on the speech and how Republicans reacted is Daily Wires Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, tell us about this address. Well, the speech was part of a larger ceremony honoring Capitol police officers and looking back on the riot. President Biden started by calling the event an attack on democracy, comparing the rioters to Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. He also compared the day to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, saying in the same way America banded together against fascism after that attack, We must do the same now.

But I also know that our darkest days can lead to light and hope from the death and destruction as the Vice President referenced in Pearl Harbor can to triumph over the forces of fascism. Next, he shifted gears and after praising the Republicans who still, quote, want to be the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, and the Bushes, went after, unsurprisingly, President Trump, accusing him of lying about the results of the election to fuel outrage and saying he didn't do enough to prevent the riot as it was unfolding. He's not just a former president. He's a defeated former president. Defeated by a margin of over seven million of your votes in a full and free and fair election. There are simply zero

proof the election results for an accurate. Now, one interesting part on that note was that he didn't actually call out President Trump by name. He told reporters afterwards, that that was intentional because he wanted to, quote, avoid a political battle, which given the overall theme of the speech was deemed hypocritical by a lot of people. Yeah, I can imagine. Now, the vice president also weighed in. What did we hear there? Yeah, Vice President Harris spoke just before President Biden,

and she had a largely similar message comparing the riot to Pearl Harbor and going a step further and comparing it even to 9-11. Dates that occupy? Not only a place on our calendar. but a place in our collective memory. December 7th, 1941, September 11th, 2001, and January 6th, 2021.

And while President Biden alluded to the need to pass the Democrats' election reform bill without actually saying in a name, Wright's President Harris was much more direct, closing her speech with this call to action. Here in this very building, a decision will be made. about whether we uphold the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections.

Let's be clear, we must pass the voting rights bills that are now before the Senate. That message was generally echoed by Democrat leaders across the country. Throughout the day, they painted the riot as an unprecedented attack on democracy and said the response should be the passage of their election bill, which right now is going to be a tall order politically speaking. Yeah, as a quick refresher, what's in that bill? So at the moment, each state decides their own voting laws, which means rules on mail and ballots and early voting can vary quite a bit from state to state. This legislation would essentially override state election laws and federalize the entire process.

Among other things, the bill would allow for same-day voter registration. It would require states to offer at least two weeks of early voting. It would allow anyone to vote by mail for any reason and also restore the rights of felons to vote. And maybe most controversially, it would loosen voter ID requirements and allow people to vote without an ID. In its current form, the bill does seem unlikely to pass as Republicans have universally opposed it in the House and Senate. They call the measure unconstitutional and federal overreach. But this does seem to be the next big battle that Democrats are ready to wage and they're kind of using January 6th as a starting point. And more broadly, how did Republicans react to the president and the vice president's speeches?

So the most common message we heard from Republican leaders was that the Capitol riot was undeniably wrong and should be condemned, but that Democrats in the media had exaggerated its impact. Many pointed out how comparing the riot to something like Pearl Harbor, which killed thousands of people, would not actually do anything to bring people together. They also pointed out that while Democrats routinely implied the riot was deadly, President Biden mentioned that during his speech, the only person killed was a rioter trying to enter a barricaded door in the Capitol. Governor Ronda's. Sanchez, for example, said January 6th was like a Christmas day for Democrats in the media who

wanted to push their narrative further. He also took aim at those comparing the attacks to 9-11 and Pearl Harbor. If you're rioting, hold accountable. But let's just be clear here. When they try to act like this is something akin to the September 11th attacks, that is an insult to the people who were going into those buildings. And it's an insult to people when you say it's an insurrection. and then a year later, nobody has been charged with that. So the main message from Republicans was basically this was bad, but it wasn't Pearl Harbor. And they also said the Democrats are just trying to push this and exaggerate things for their own political agenda. Got it. Cabot, thanks for reporting.

Anytime. That's Daily Wires, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, the Supreme Court hears arguments on the federal vaccine mandates. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA. Text wire to 98989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver. There's zero obligation. Text the word wire to 98989898 to protect your savings today.

The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today over two federal vaccine mandates, the mandate for health care workers and the OSHA mandate for private employers, which would impact some 85 million Americans. The Daily Wire is among those suing the Biden administration over the OSHA mandate. Here to explain how that case got to the Supreme Court and what to expect is Daily Wire General Counsel Josh Hur. Thanks for coming on, Josh. Good morning. So first, if you would catch us up on this OSHA case.

How did we get here in what's at stake? Yeah, today's the big day. As a reminder, OSHA's mandate would require businesses with over 100 employees to require those employees to show proof of vaccination or other. otherwise be tested weekly and wear masks in the workplace. The Daily Wire was the first in the country to oppose this mandate in court. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the mandate, and the Sixth Circuit lifted that stay. Now it's before the Supreme Court with dozens of private parties and most of the 50 states asking the court to reinstate a stay. And there have been some unexpected turns in how this has been handled, right? There have.

The court, in an unusual move, set an expedited schedule with oral argument taking place today. Although there were dozens of parties, the court limited the argument time to one hour and shows two representative petitioners to argue. Those were, on the one hand, a coalition of 28 states, including, for example, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. And on the other hand, a coalition of businesses called the National Federal. of independent business. So there are two different parties making oral arguments, and each one of them will have 15 minutes today to make their case to the court. Not a lot of time there. So what should we expect? Any sense of how this might go? It's impossible to know for sure what the court will do or when, but the mandate is scheduled to go into effect on January 10. That's next Monday.

OSHA will start enforcing it in earnest on February 9. It's fair to assume that the court set oral argument for today so that it could make a ruling before Monday. So if there's going to be another stay, we can expect that to probably happen today or over the weekend. Is there a reason to believe the court will put another hold on the mandate? As far as the merits are concerned, there is a host of constitutional and statutory reasons that the court could grant a stay. The petitioners will argue that this mandate is not, quote, necessary to protect workers from a, quote, grave dangerous. There will probably be some back and forth on the meaning of the word necessary and whether unvaccinated coworkers are really the kind of grave danger from which Congress was trying to

protect workers when it passed the OSHA Act. Another avenue the court could take is the major questions doctrine, which requires agencies making decisions of, quote, vast economic and political significance to have specific and clear direction from Congress itself before implementing such a policy. The argument here is that Congress created OSHA to protect workers, but never specifically told OSHA that it could essentially shut people out of the workforce if they don't take a vaccine, much less of vaccine suffering from as many breakthrough cases as we're seeing today. There are several other potential objections the court could make, such as a Commerce Clause challenge,

and we'll be watching the hearing closely for any indication of what they might be thinking. Right. Well, Josh, thanks for walking us through all that, and we'll be sure to have you back on when the court rules. Happy Friday. Thank God for it. Daily Wire General Counsel, Josh Hur. The exodus from blue cities and states may have started in 2020 when the pandemic hit, but it continued through at least July of last year, with more people moving to Republican-governed states like Florida and Texas. Recent census data shows that Americans are moving out of cities with spiking crime

and moving into states that have lifted many of their COVID restrictions. Daily Wire investigative reporter Marade Allorty has the details for us. So Marade, tell us about the numbers. Sure. So as you mentioned, new U.S. census data released late in December shows a massive trend of people leaving blue states. The states with the biggest losses, California and New York, the biggest gains, Texas and Florida. Breaking down the numbers, New York saw about 319,000 people say goodbye. That's nearly 2% of the state's total population.

And nearly 262,000 people moved out of California, close to 1% of its population. Meanwhile, Texas saw a huge gain of more than 310,000 people. Florida saw similar gains welcoming 211,000 new people to the Sunshine State. Other states which enjoyed a large number of new residents were Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Tennessee, and Idaho. Other states with a large number of fleeing residents were Illinois, home to a crime-ridden Chicago, and Massachusetts. Okay, so a significant trend there of solidly liberal states failing to retain residents.

Do we know why people are opting to migrate out of these blue areas? We do know some of the driving factors, yes. Part of it is the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Businesses and workers have struggled with the high cost of living in cities like New York and Los Angeles. especially with many employees working from home. Many relocated to cities and states for the cheaper living costs and lower taxes, which they found in Texas and Florida. Another big factor, crime.

Chicago saw its deadliest year in 25 years, topping 800 murders, according to the Chicago Police Department. Crime has spiked in other major cities around the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, and Washington, D.C. And another factor is the extremely stringent COVID restrictions in some of these cities like New York, where the governor just recently re-implemented the indoor mask mandate. New York also does not allow the unvaccinated to dine indoors,

go to the gym, or attend indoor entertainment venues. Los Angeles has a similar vaccine mandate, and Chicago's new vaccine mandate for restaurants and other indoor venues just went into effect this week. So for unvaccinated residents, some are now thinking, why should I pay to live in a city I can't enjoy? Right.

Now, does the census data show any other notable trends? Actually, yes. Another interesting fact here is that the U.S. population grew by less than 400,000 people, the lowest rate since the nation's founding. This happened because of several things, including less international migration, decreased fertility, and more deaths, partly due to COVID. For years, people have been sounding the alarm about the declining U.S. birth rate, and it continued to decline during the pandemic. A lot of changing demographics here. It looks like citizens are voting with their feet. Marade, thanks for reporting. That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade, alert. If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.

That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.