Morning Wire - CA Schools May Recognize Islamic Holidays & Truckers Must Speak English To Drive | 9.1.26

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Islam scores new wins in the U.S. as California considers formally recognizing two Islamic Holidays, while over in New York, the governor draws backlash for donning Islamic garb days out from 911, the Department of Transportation cracks down on illegal immigrant truck drivers as well as the schools giving them licenses, and we have the latest on the rescue effort in Arizona after major flash flooding in Grand Canyon National Park. Reporting from Megan Basham, Jennie Taer & Lynden Blake. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 3068 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Fabletics - Shop now at https://Fabletics.com/wire to get 70- 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. NetSuite - For the first time ever you can try NetSuite Next for free. Go to https://NetSuite.AI/MORNINGWIRE. Built for every industry. Ready for every boardroom. Quince - Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most. Go to https://Quince.com/WIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if a few minutes with God could change the direction of your entire day? With pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers, inspiring Bible stories, and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the pray.com app today. Islam scores new wins in the U.S. as California considers formally recognizing two Islamic holidays. This is how we show truly that we are inclusive, that we value diversity, we celebrate diversity, and that our Muslim neighbors, our friends. While over in New York, the governor draws backlash for dawning Islamic garb days out from 9-11.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, September 1st. and this is Morning Wire. The Department of Transportation cracks down on illegal immigrant truck drivers and the schools giving them licenses. You have to speak English to operate a commercial motor vehicle. I didn't create that rule. President Trump didn't create that rule. That rule has been in place for decades.

And the latest on the rescue effort in Arizona after major flash flooding in Grand Canyon National Park. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. There's something about this time of year that makes you want to hit the reset button. We're getting back into a routine after summer and it usually starts with the little things, including what you wear every day. Fabletics is always coming out with great new pieces that extend beyond their traditional workout clothes.

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California is causing a stir after advancing a bill to add two new Muslim holidays to the public school calendar. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochel is facing backlash after appearing in a hijab at a New York City event just 12 days before the anniversary of September 11th. Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here now with the latest. So, Megan, we've seen a string of controversies lately involving the Democratic Party seeming to court the Islamic vote. To start, tell us about the holidays. And then I want to ask you about Kathy Hokel. Yeah. So, Georgia, this bill to recognize Eid al-Fitter and Eid al-Ada as official holidays passed the California Assembly at 64 to 1, so not close.

But there's one provision in it that has been drawing a lot of backlash. and that's because it authorizes public schools to develop curriculum to, quote, acknowledge and celebrate the meaning and importance of these holidays. So critics are saying that's basically tantamount to encouraging the celebration of the holidays themselves. So that bill will head to the state senate now. It's expected to pass and then it's going to land on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. I think we all know what's going to happen with it at that point. And then Governor Hockel appeared Friday at an event public. by the Islamic Cultural Center of New York.

So she's wearing that black hijab, as you can see, and the clip exploded over the weekend, and you can hear a little bit of it here. And I want to thank the exorcindu, to thank him for both of me to make me feel part of the family to our Gim and all the other executives for this organization. Now, I think that has stirred so much controversy for a couple of reasons.

One is the seeming inconsistency of a political, leader who built her brand on feminism, now seeming to pander to Muslim men by putting on that hijab. And then the other thing I think Georgia is simply the timing and the context of these events. So we are less than two weeks away from the 25th anniversary of 9-11 when more than 3,000 Americans lost their lives in an Islamic terror attack. And she's doing this in New York City. So I think for Hockel to wear the religious trappings of the perpetrators, of that attack in the very city where it happened. That's rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, to say the least.

Now, this isn't the first time the governors wore in a hijab, is that correct? No, it isn't. She also wore one last year at a funeral and kind of took a sharp jab from Senator Ted Cruz over that. And then she also proclaimed this last January Muslim American Heritage Month, and she ordered 16 New York landmarks, including the World Trade Center, so the very site of 9-11 to be illuminated in Islamic grain. As you might imagine, John, that decision angered. A lot of people, including some retired port authority police officers,

they lost 37 of their own on 9-11. So their association has now issued a public letter asking both Governor Hockel and New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani to stay away from this year's Ground Zero ceremony. In fact, a petition that was organized by, families of the victims of 9-11 to ask Mayor Mammatani to stay away from the Ground Zero ceremony has now nearly reached 100,000 signatures. Now, just remind us about that controversy from Mayor Mamm Dani relating to 9-11. And also we have a similar one from Senate candidate Abdul al-Sayed, correct?

Yeah, we do. And I think what you're seeing here, Georgia, is Democrats' increasing problem with candidates who have a record of voicing Islamic extremism. So a 2023 post from Mamdani is once again circulating. And in that, and I want to quote here, he wrote, nearly 3,000 New Yorkers died on 9-11. 22 years later, the death hasn't stopped. Now, he did also say that New Yorkers mourn their neighbors who died that day, but, you know, you can see that he immediately broadened it out to include the hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed, quote unquote, and the unknown millions injured and displaced. Meanwhile, you turn to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Said, and he's out explaining a post that he put up on the 20th anniversary of 9-11. So that was five years ago, but it's just now resurfaced. And in it, he said he mourned the roughly 3,000 lives lost. But he added this, quoting here, tomorrow I'll mourn roughly 1 million lives and devastation in three countries perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country. Now, he's

did later delete that tweet along with some others that downplayed 9-11 and one that seemed to suggest that a terrorist attack on a synagogue was excusable. He said in that case, hurt people, hurt people. And at the same time, he's been having to go out and play cleanup for campaigning with far-left extremist personality, Hassan Piker, who notoriously said that America deserved 9-11. So on Meet the Press, El-Said recently said that Piker's remarks were dumb, but taken out of context. Of course, it was a dumb statement. And of course, I think Hassan himself would say that was a dumb statement.

He disavowed it. But look, Georgia, I think we have to acknowledge that this kind of outlook blaming 9-11 on the United States, that's become somewhat prominent among these young DSA candidates in particular. And I could give you a number of other examples, but, you know, we just wouldn't have the time. Right. And it's a disturbing trend. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yeah, thank you.

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Hey, Jenny, thanks for coming on. So we had some major announcements from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and others yesterday that included some pretty shocking revelations. What did we hear from the administration? Yeah, so Trump administration officials announced at a press conference on Monday that it has shut down 110 trucking schools that actually helped 5,000 drivers who couldn't speak English to obtain commercial driver's licenses to then go on to drive trucks across the country. Now, the Department of Transportation has joined forces with Homeland Security investigators

and federal prosecutors at the DOJ to crack down on these issues within the trucking industry as part of the administration's war on fraud. Here's what Transportation Secretary Duffy had to say about this new effort. You have to speak English to operate a commercial motor vehicle. I didn't create that rule. President Trump didn't create that rule. that rule has been in place for decades. We have schools that know the rule and still pass people through their school who can't speak the language. And so there's 110 of them through a data analysis that are the greatest offenders. As of today, those schools are shut down. Now, in addition to the 110 schools that were shut down, Duffy announced that 160 other

trekking schools that lacked space to teach the road tests, didn't have classrooms, and they also didn't have license instructors that they shut those down as well. In one instance, one of the schools claimed its classroom was actually a school bus in a backyard. Amazing. So are the schools, you know, really to blame for this, or is it the states that hand out these licenses to illegal drivers? You know, it's interesting because this was brought up a lot. A lot of the blame was on certain states, according to these officials. They said that they're allowing these third-party testers to actually certify truck drivers without much. oversight. And that seems to be a major source of this. The feds are actually auditing these states

and those testers as part of this latest crackdown. Now, some examples of cases that show this. Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in California, they certified 36 drivers who were later cited for these English language proficiency violations, and one of their trainees went on to kill someone in Oklahoma. A separate school in Texas actually certified 58 of these drivers, and one of them ran a stop sign and killed a man in Texas. So where does the fraud angle come in? Is that these schools are just rubber stamping people and taking a fee and not actually teaching them? So basically they're passing them through knowing that they don't speak English.

And then those drivers, in a lot of cases, have gotten pulled over by state troopers, local authorities, across the country. And when that happens, those authorities can't communicate with them and see that they don't speak English, but that they have a commercial driver's license from a state. And then the Department of Transportation is really auditing this, going back, seeing, okay, well, what school is behind their driver's license that basically just rubber stamp them through? And this has become a huge moneymaker because these schools either are paid by the driver themselves or by the trucking company that wants to hire them.

So it goes pretty deep and is pretty expansive. Now, you mentioned there have been some very tragic consequences of having these unfit drivers on the road. Is that the motivation for this crackdown? It seems to be in part because federal officials who joined Monday's press conference that included Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen and Duffy with the Transportation Department, they recognized Delilah Coleman, who was in the room. She was the victim of one of these illegal immigrant truckers who caused a multi-car pile up on a California highway in 2024. And her life was forever changed from that. Delilah suffered some really severe injuries that put her in a wheelchair. She had to relearn to walk.

She has developmental delays that have placed her back in school. And she's just been on this terrible journey as a result of this issue. And so the Trump administration has really put her story at the forefront of this. Now, in addition to that story, the latest announcement also shows a significant broadening of the anti-fraud task force that the Trump administration has stood up. There was a lot of focus on discussing fraud in the trucking industry during Monday's press conference as well. We'll definitely keep tabs on this. I know you are very closely. Jenny, thank you so much for reporting. Thank you. Officials say nearly 80 people have been rescued, but at least two have died after a flash flood swept through the Grand Canyon while the area braces for more rain.

Reporter Lyndon Blake, host of That So Criminal, joins us now with the details. So Lyndon, get us up to speed. What happened over the weekend? Yeah, so this is kind of crazy to think about because you just had that flash flood video in Nepal last week, that video. that video going viral just showing the power of the water as it swept through that city. Now what's happened to the Grand Canyon out in Arizona, there were four waves of this rainfall, and it was over two creek trainages, and that resulted in that rapid onset of flash flooding. The National Weather Service said that the area gets less than 10 inches of rain per year on average, and you've got to keep in mind, there's that steep, rocky nature of the canyon itself, so it funnels that water rapidly.

So two people unfortunately found dead in this. There was a hiker that told the Associated Press that it rained several times before this intense 30-minute downpour on Saturday afternoon. This hiker had been playing to rest through the hot day. He wanted to spend the night where that flood tore through the area. It was called the Bright Angel campground. And again, he thought of Nepal, that flash flood that just happened. And he was saying that that scared him thinking that this could be a situation that he

can find himself in as well. Do we know anything about the individuals who were recovered? And what do we know about the rescue efforts? Yeah, we do know one of the victims that was found as a 46-year-old man. He was found along the Colorado River Sunday evening. There's not much about the second victim at this time. Now, I assume visitors are being asked to cancel their trips in other areas of the park. Is that correct? Yeah. So as of now, that flash floods severely damaged the only water pipeline into the canyon. So officials are saying people that live there year round, they can't use their water, their telling tourists that you cannot stay at lodges or hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park. And again, there's those emergency water restrictions issued for the residents.

Now, the area that was hit hardest does bring in over four million tourists a year. Now, it is monsoon season. Are they expecting more rain? Yeah, there's always that chance of that thunderstorm on Monday. They did have thunderstorms there, so a flood watch remains in effect the entire day. And because it's El Nino, that's when these rains can just compound on top of each other. We've seen it in Hawaii earlier this year. It's not one specific storm, but it is a storm after storm, these bands of rains that come through and they can quickly pop up at any time. A terrifying situation and a good reminder to take those warnings seriously when they say flash floods. It's pretty serious. Linton, thanks for reporting.

Thanks, guys. Another story we're tracking. The construction of Trump's ballroom has been given the green light by the Supreme Court for now. The court ruled 5-4 Monday in the president's favor, granting the administration an emergency request to block a lower court ruling that would have put key parts of the project on hold. Another story we're tracking, a Las Vegas jury has found Dwayne Keith Davis guilty of the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur. Despite not pulling the trigger, Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder and now faces life in prison without parole. Prosecutors relied heavily on Davis' own admissions of involvement in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street legend, where he admitted to being

in the white Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired. Prosecutors alleged that Davis orchestrated the hit on Shakur in the form of a drive-by shooting in retaliation for a brawl that occurred earlier that night. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13th. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, ad-free and join our mission become a member at dailywire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know. What if a few minutes with God could change the direction of your entire day? With pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers, inspiring Bible stories, and messages

created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, Pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the pray.com app today.