Morning Wire - Biden’s Palestinian Refugee Plan & Campus Chaos Continues | 5.2.24

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

The Biden administration plans to bring Palestinians to the U.S., colleges crack down on anti-Israel protests, and RFK jr qualifies for another state ballot. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Zbiotics: "The drink before drinking with ZBiotics. Get 15% off your order with promo code WIRE at http://www.ZBiotics.com/Wire" Shopify: "Get a $1 per month trial at https://www.shopify.com/morningwire" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Biden administration plans to fast track the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza into the U.S. Under no circumstances, we bring thousands of refugees from Hamas control terrorist epicenters like Gaza to America. We just can't do it. Meanwhile, the State Department is opening migrant recruitment centers in several Middle Eastern countries. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with guest host Mary Margaret O'Lehann, senior reporter for The Daily Signal. It's Thursday, May 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. Police and protesters clash on college campuses across the nation

as officials point to the involvement of non-student agitators. There are definitely agitators influencing, radicalizing some of these kids, how to hunker down better, how to dismantle cameras, how to barricade doors. And RFK Jr. qualifies for the ballot in California. He now has the attention of both Trump and Biden. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. With vacation, weddings, birthdays, and reunions, there's so much going on.

Get the most out of your spring plans by stocking up on Zbiotics now. Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. Zbiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Go to Zbiotics.com slash wire to get 15% off your first order with code wire at checkout. That's Zbiotics.com slash wire. use code wire checkout for 15% off. Joe Biden seems determined to create the conditions for an October 7th style attack right

here in America. It's going to happen. That was Donald Trump referring to the Biden administration plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza into the U.S. Here to talk about the resettlement policy and its potential impacts as Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Hey, Tim. So what can you tell us about these reported plans?

The talks took place between top officials at a number of executive agencies. The goal appears to be to resettle Palestinian refugees with American ties in the U.S. CBS News was the first to report on the proposals, which would take Palestinians currently in Egypt and offer them resettlement here in the U.S., but only if they have immediate family members who are permanent residents or citizens here already. And by what means would the Palestinians get to the U.S.? Several options were raised, but one proposal suggested the United States Refugee Admissions Program. The program began in 1980, and and has resettled millions of refugees in the U.S.

However, it has had its critics. Former President Donald Trump cut refugee admissions to the lowest level ever in 2020 after the COVID pandemic hit. The administration saw the program as a security risk at the time. And to that point, are there, in fact, risks associated with using the program in this case?

Morning Wire asked the director of the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, Laura Reese, about that. Here's what she said about the potential danger. It's considerable. I mean, intelligence community leaders have testified multiple times over the years in Congress that terrorists exploit the refugee process to get into countries that they are seeking to get a foothold in, including the U.S. And when we look back just at 2021, when President Biden had its very careless evacuation from Afghanistan

and allowing unvetted people on the planes and brought them direct. to the U.S., as well as military bases around the world. So the administration has lost the benefit of the doubt. So some big potential risks here, but Palestinian welfare is a priority under this administration. President Biden has faced significant heat from his left flank to pressure Israel and look out for Palestinian interests. For example, he's currently projected to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a project to deliver aid to Palestinians that could put U.S. troops in direct danger from terrorists. Biden also wants to build up immigration infrastructure in the Middle East. Here's Reese again. We know that the Biden administration is now fully funded,

thanks to Congress, on the ability to set up shop overseas and to process more refugees to the U.S. For example, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services just announced that it is opening international field offices in Qatar and Turkey, for example. The State Department was just funded by Congress over $3.4 billion for migration and refugee assistance for quote-unquote vulnerable populations. It's basically a slush fund. And the president does not have a good record at vetting. who they are bringing into the U.S.,

and so we need to keep a close eye on what they're doing going forward. Now, connected to this refugee discussion, the House Homeland Security Committee recently released data on migrant flights into the U.S. Remind us what we've learned so far about those migrant flights. Sure, so according to data released

by committee chairman Mark Green, Florida is by far the most popular landing spot for these flights. From January through August of last year, about 200,000 migrants flew into the U.S. through this program. Roughly 80% of them flew into Florida to one of four cities, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, or Tampa Bay. Governor Ron DeSantis's office told Morning Wire in a statement this week that Biden's parole program is unlawful and constitutes an abuse of constitutional authority.

Florida is currently suing the Biden administration over the program. Clearly, the Biden administration is making resettlement of migrants into the U.S. a major priority. Correct. Tim, thanks for joining. us. Thanks for having me on. Chaos continues at universities across the country as police have begun cracking down on anti-Israel protesters. But despite the ramp up and arrests, protesters say they have no plan to leave America's campuses. Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham is here now to discuss. So, Megan, there have been a lot of developments with these protests in just the last 24 hours.

What do we know now? Well, I'd say the biggest headline right now comes out of UCLA, which actually canceled classes Wednesday after a clash between these anti-Israel protesters and some counter-protesters the night before. If you look online, you will see videos circulating, showing kicking, punches thrown, assaults with two-by-fours. And then as you and I talked about on Wednesday, Mary Margaret, police did clear out Columbia's Hamilton Hall after protesters stormed that building. And some explosive news is that NYC Mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC that the wife of a convicted terrorist was seen among those protesters. Now, he didn't name her,

but there are reports that it was the wife of engineer Sami al-Aryan, who played guilty in 2006 to contributing services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And then if we kind of step back, I would say the broader picture is that we're really just starting to see police being more proactive in addressing these encampments and building seizures. We've seen more than a thousand arrests at schools

all across the country in the last two weeks. And a big chunk of those came from Columbia and UCLA, but then there were also 79 arrests Monday at U.T. Austin. Now, 57 people had been arrested at that school the week before, but Travis County attorney Delia Garza dropped all those charges. And how about the statements we're hearing from local officials that many of these protesters aren't actually students but professional agitators? Yeah, there is mounting evidence that that is often the case. So the Washington Free Beacon, for example, just reported that an anti-Israel NGO that's known as the People's Forum actually met with Columbia activists in their offices just before they stormed Hamilton Hall. And then another revelation regarding that, the People's Forum is funded in part by Goldman Sachs.

That investment banking firm, its charitable arm, gave them a $12 million grant. And then another outside group, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, has been behind. some of these protests at UT Austin. So whether there's students or professional protesters, what exactly are they saying they want from the schools? Well, in a lot of cases, they're saying that they want the schools to divest, which of course means to withdraw any financial investments

from companies that do business with Israel. They say they want a ceasefire in Gaza. They want the U.S. to stop supplying foreign aid to Israel, really things that university officials would have no control over. But I think it's also note, that some of these campus protesters are not simply agitating against actions taken by Israel. They're also specifically showing support for Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist

organization by our own State Department. Some Democratic lawmakers, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have insisted that these demonstrations are peaceful, but we are seeing other Democrats like California Governor Gavin Newsom explicitly acknowledging that violence and destruction of property are taking place. So this was GOP Senator Tom Cotton speaking about that at a press conference on Wednesday. It's time to stop these anti-Semitic pro-Hamas mobs today. And if liberal college administrators won't take action, the mayors and the governors of these campuses should. And so should Joe Biden.

So far, the president hasn't done that directly. and this was what White House press secretary, Coringe Jean-Pierre, said Wednesday when asked why the president failed to do so. He is monitoring the situation closely, so is his team. And I would just add that no president, no president has spoken more forcefully about combating anti-Semitism than this president. But some critics say Biden is staying silent on the issue and not looking into who's funding these protests, specifically because young left-wing voters will be particularly important to his reelection chances. And so they say he doesn't want to risk alienating them. Well, regardless, a lot of people unhappy with how he's handled this so far. Megan, thanks for coming on.

Anytime. With the general election fast approaching, third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to draw double-digit support in national polls. Now, Democrats and Republicans are targeting him head on. Here to discuss how each side is responding to Kennedy's presence in the race as Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot. So first, walk us through the numbers on RFK Jr. Well, it's becoming clear that Kennedy is simply not going away.

With six months to go until Election Day, Kennedy continues to pull in around 10% of the vote nationally, with a number of polls this month showing him as high as 16%. And unlike most third-party challengers over the last few decades, RFK has the money and name recognition to stick around. He's already on the ballot in battleground states like Michigan, and his campaign says they are on pace to gather enough signatures to appear on all 50 ballots. Now, even if he maintains just 5 to 8% support, it will have a significant impact on the race. Right, it continues to be a very tight one.

Which party appears to benefit most from his candidacy? So conventional wisdom says Kennedy's presence would benefit of Republicans. He initially ran as a Democrat before switching to independent and has traditionally left-wing views on things like abortion, gun control, and climate change, as well as that Kennedy name, which is synonymous with the Democrat Party. And throughout the winter, it seemed he was, in fact, pulling the majority for support from disaffected Democrats, with most polls showing Trump's lead expanding over Biden by one to three points when Kennedy was on the ballot. But a number of polls in the last month have shown now the opposite effect happening,

with Biden gaining ground in a three-way race. A recent survey from NBC, for example, found Trump in the lead by two. points in a two-way race. But when Kennedy was included, it was Biden in the lead by two. Kennedy has long been critical of the COVID vaccine and what he calls the deep state, two topics popular with Republican voters. And it does seem that he's making inroads on the right. To that point, a politico analysis of FEC data shows that Kennedy donors are far more likely to have donated to Trump than Biden in the last election. As a result, the Trump campaign has broken their silence on Kennedy and started targeting him much more directly in recent days.

Yeah, how are Trump and Biden responding to this persistent popularity of RFK? Yeah, initially, you could tell which party was more concerned by him based on how each side responded. While the Trump campaign avoided going after him almost entirely, Democrats launched a full court press. The DNC labeled him a conspiracy theorist and even launched a multimillion dollar effort to combat him that included a series of legal complaints to the FEC. And for his part, President Biden hosted over a dozen members of the Kennedy family for an endorsement ceremony at the White House. But now Trump has begun to directly address the subject, posting on his truth social app that Kennedy is a Democrat plant who's, quote, far more liberal than anyone running as a Democrat. He elaborated on that post in a radio interview with John Fredericks. He's extremely liberal. He's more liberal than anybody.

They say he hurts Biden. I think I'm not sure that that's true. I think he probably hurts both. Now, for his part, Kennedy called for a debate with Trump and Biden. And while that seems unlikely, it is becoming increasingly clear that Kennedy has the attention of both. candidates. So now the question becomes which one he benefits come November. Right. He certainly is a wildcard. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. Is your business selling a little or a lot? Shopify helps you do your thing. However, you chiching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million

order stage. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout, which is 36% better on average compared to the other leading commerce platforms. Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morningwire. That's Shopify.com slash morningwire.