Morning Wire - Carlson, Fox News Part Ways & CNN Ousts Don Lemon | 4.25.23

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

America’s top cable news host Tucker Carlson parts ways with Fox News, Don Lemon is fired from CNN, and one of President BIden’s most trusted advisors is resigning after she reportedly questions the current administration’s immigration policy. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Indeed: Start hiring with Indeed: https://indeed.com/wire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. America's top cable news host, Tucker Carlson, is no longer with Fox News, after abruptly parting ways with the network on Monday. What prompted the breakup and what's next for the widely popular host? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, April 25th, and this is Morning Wire. The shuffling of staff continues at CNN, with morning news anchor Don Lemon being the latest cut. as the network struggles to find an audience. If you Google, when is a woman in her prime, it'll say 20s, 30s, and 40s.

We break down the timeline that led to Lemon's termination after 17 years. And one of President Biden's most trusted advisors is resigning after she reportedly questioned the administration's migrant policy. We are so grateful to Susan for her service over the last two plus years. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The shutdown of Silicon Valley Bank was the country. country's second biggest bank failure.

To protect your savings, you need to take action now. Consider diversifying at least some of your portfolio into precious metals. Birch gold can help you get the job done. Birch gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA and physical precious metals. Text wire to 98989898 to get your free info kit on gold today. That's wire to 989898 today. There was bombshell news from Fox News on Monday as the channel announced that the network

and its top-rated host, Tucker Carlson, have parted ways, effective immediately. We want to thank Tucker Carlson for his service to the network as a host, and prior to that, as a long-term contributor. Fox announced that Carlson's April 21st episode was his last on the network, despite the fact that the popular conservative host had the most watched show in all of cable news. Here to discuss his Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus. So this is really a shock. What do we know about why and how this happened?

Morning. We know very little. Fox released a very short statement. I mean, it could fit in a fortune cookie in which it thanked Carlson for his service on the network and said they had agreed to part ways. It had been a testy relationship. Some reporting, citing sources at the network suggested Fox owner Rupert Murdoch might have felt that Carlson had gotten a little big for his britches.

But we really don't know. For his part, Carlson gave a speech at Heritage Foundation in which he said, he at least implied that he had been disappointed in some colleagues at Fox over the past few years. You look with disdain and sadness as you see people you know become whizzlings, you see them revealed as cowards, you see them going along with a new, new thing, which is clearly a poisonous thing, a silly thing, you know, saying things you know they don't believe because they want to keep their jobs. If there's a single person in this room who hasn't seen that through George Floyd and COVID

and the Ukraine war, raise your hand. Oh, nobody? Right. know what I'm talking about. And you're so disappointed in people. And you see people going along with this and you lose respect for them. And that certainly happens to me at scale over the past three years. This comes just days after Fox News reached a historic $787 million settlement with Dominion voting systems, as we discussed here last week. Is there any indication that this move is related to that? I guess it would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn't. But on the other hand,

Carlson really was not a central figure in that lawsuit. so it's not entirely clear where the connective tissue would be there. Also, Forbes reports that the network could lose upwards of $700 million in market value with Carlson gone. So it's a strange time to take that kind of financial hit. As I mentioned, Carlson and Fox have butted heads in the past. His show got advertiser boycotts because he'd often go farther than other hosts on issues like COVID or immigration or Hunter Biden. But I should note, there's lots of speculations circulating online. We're learning, not surprisingly, that this may have come from the very top.

There's an ongoing lawsuit brought by former producer Abby Grossberg that alleges sexism in the Tucker Carlson Tonight production team. And there have been reports that that situation, along with Carlson's controversial takes on January 6th, including the idea that the federal government may have played a role, were what made Rupert Murdoch make the decision personally to fire his network's biggest star. But again, this is all speculation at this point. To put this in some context here, just how popular a figure on the right has Carlson become? There's been talks of him running for president. It's hard to overstate it. The only comparison is probably Rush Limbaugh. I did Carlson show several times the last few years, and it was unique. As soon as your segment was over, your feeds would blow up, much like when Limbaugh would read a column on air.

The breadth of reach was really obvious and stunning. Carlson also, I think, much more than anyone else, embodied what we call the news. new right, a populist conservatism that is more comfortable using government power, more pro-worker, and very much isolationist as far as foreign wars like the one in Ukraine go. And as far as a potential run at the presidency might go, those positions have a large constituency among GOP voters. Yeah. Now, this leaves the 8 p.m. slot at Fox News open. That's a highly coveted hour of television. It also comes after Fox and Dan Bongino parted ways. Do we have any sense of who might replace Tucker? Right. Everyone and their cousin is going to want that spot. Fox will start by rotating the position. Some have suggested that Jesse Waters, who currently hosts the 7 p.m. slot could be a natural choice. He's similar in style and politics to Carlson, whose show was in many ways different from Sean Hannity's at 9 p.m. There were times when Carlson would insult Senator Lindsey Graham at the close at his hour just to have Hannity interview the senator at the top of his. So, I mean, they may or may not.

want to keep that kind of dynamic going. It's very unclear. Yeah, it's complicated. What does reaction to this development look like in conservative media? I'm guessing Carlson won't be wanting for options going forward. I should think not. Aside from the very never-trump conservatives, such as Adam Kinsinger or David French, who are celebrating, most on the right seem to be taken Carlson's side here. And he's already gotten an offer on Twitter from Glenn Beck to join his outlet the Blaze. The bottom line is that with his ability to draw audience, Tucker Carlson's in a position to write his own ticket almost anywhere other than Fox. Well, very intrigued over here by what exactly Tucker does next. David, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire

contributor, David Marcus. Coming up, CNN conducts its own shakeup. Looking to expand your team, indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. With instant match. As soon as you sponsor a post, you get a short list of quality candidates whose resumes match your job description. And you can invite them to apply right away. Visit indeed.com slash wire to start hiring today. That's indeed.com slash wire, indeed. Terms and condition to apply, cost per application pricing not available for everyone. Need to hire, you need indeed. In a day that saw multiple media shakeups, CNN announced Monday that the network has parted ways with its longtime anchor Don Lemon. Just days before,

the network announced they would be adding a weekly primetime show with Gail King and Charles Barkley. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan, Basham. So, Megan, certainly some seismic disruptions in cable news this week. What's going on with CNN and Don Lemon? Well, you know, this situation is a little more clear right now than the Carlson development over at Fox. We do know, for instance, that Lemon did not see this coming. He had been in the anchor chair for CNN this morning, as usual on Monday, but then about three hours after the show ended, he posted this to Twitter, and I'm just going to quote, I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned after 17 years at CNN, I would have thought someone in management

would have had the decency to tell me directly. Now, CNN fired back at that saying that Lemon's statement was inaccurate, and they said he was offered an opportunity to meet with management, but instead released a statement on Twitter. So it sounds like not exactly amicable terms. Do we know why CNN made that decision? Well, some sites have been pointing in this direction. We know that six months ago, Lemon was bumped from prime time to a morning slot.

And we also need to remember that when CNN head, Chris Licked, took over from Jeff Zucker last year, he did promise to address perceptions that the network is politically biased. So he'd already fired Chris Saliza and Brian Stelter as part of that effort. And now Lemon, too, has made comments on the air that leadership reportedly thought were overly partisan. Just last week, for example, he had this contentious exchange with GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramoswamy over gun rights and black history.

Well, here's where you and I have a different point of view. I think we should be able to express our views regardless of the color of our skin. We should have this debate without me regarding you as a black man, but me regarding you as a fellow citizen. That's what I think we should see. whatever ethnicity you are explaining to me. Whatever ethnicity I'm about what it's like to be black. Whatever ethnicity, I'm sorry. And then there were also perceptions of sexism. In February, Lemon drew fire for saying that GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley

isn't in her prime as a woman because she's over 50. She says people, you know, politicians are something and not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry. Now, he later apologized for those remarks, but Licked reportedly told staff at an editorial meeting that Lemon's remarks were, quote, upsetting, unacceptable, and unfair to his co-hosts. And I have to note there that that was a pretty unusual move for a network head to directly criticize a star anchor by name like that, as opposed to just, you know, making a veiled reference.

And Lemon was taken off the air for a few days after that to receive training. But perhaps even more damaging, a couple of weeks ago, Variety published a report about Lemmon's alleged history of demeaning and hostile behavior toward his female co-workers. In 2008, after Kira Phillips got an assignment to Iraq that he reportedly wanted, he was suspected of sending her anonymous, threatening texts. One of those texts said, Now you've crossed the line, and you're going to pay for it. And he also reportedly called a female producer fat and mocked host Nancy Grace on the air. And then you add to that the fact that ratings for his show actually went up 5% when he was on that hiatus over the Haley comments.

Well, taken all together, this really isn't that shocking of a development. Well, definitely not a slow news day yesterday in the world of cable news. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. President Biden announced on Monday the coming departure of Susan Rice, the administration's top domestic policy advisor. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. So, Amanda, this was a pretty surprising announcement from the administration.

Tell us what we know so far. Yeah, sure. So Biden on Monday announced that Rice would be stepping down. Her last day at the White House is set for May 26th. The departure was handled with pretty standard language from the White House. Biden praised Rice's work and thanked her for her service while Rice in turn puts it on social media that she's deeply grateful to have worked with this administration. The departure is notable, though, for a couple reasons. Right.

First, Rice is a very high-profile figure within the Democratic Party. She previously served as national security advisor and ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama. She was also a contender to be Biden's VP in 2020. She's also very high-profile on the right for other reasons, namely her involvement in scandals relating to the Trump-Russia collusion hoax and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Libya back in 2012. Additionally, despite the standard language that was used here in her exit, there's

been a lot of speculation that this ouster is tied to the crisis at the border, specifically regarding unaccompanied minors. Let's get into the border issue. The administration has been taking heat over its policies and the humanitarian crisis there. Tell us how Rice is wrapped up in that controversy. Sure. Well, a New York Times report published last week uncovered Rice expressing her frustration with the flow of unaccompanied children, sometimes referred to as UCs, pouring into the U.S. under Biden and just record numbers. We're talking, hundreds of thousands of children. Rice was apparently aware of these at-risk children, and behind closed doors seemed to

blame the administration for the surge. There was actually a memo which suggested this rush of children was caused by then-President Donald Trump's enacted Title 42, a policy which allows the U.S. to expel migrants based on public health. Rice allegedly wrote on that memo, and I'm quoting here, this is BS. What is leading to voluntary separation is our generosity to UCs. Basically, there were so many illegal. unaccompanied children at the border under Biden, that the administration moved to loosened restrictions

so these children could be placed. That led to thousands of minors allegedly being exploited. And at least five Health and Human Services staffers who warned about these risks to children claim they were pushed out of their positions. It's unclear if Rice will be scapegoated for this scandal, if she was ousted for pushing back on these policies, or if her departure really is nothing to see here. So Rice's exit is set just a couple of weeks before Title 42. will expire. What do we expect to happen with respect to the crisis at that point? Well, critics have warned that this is only going to worsen the crisis at our border, likening it to a human title wave. Morningweyer spoke to Todd Benzman, a senior national security fellow

at the Center for Immigration Studies, specifically about UCs and the repeal of Title 42. He told us there have already been some 350,000 unaccompanied minors at our border under Biden, and the president's new plan, which is to use Title VIII, won't come close to stemming the tide because of all of its loopholes. The new Title VIII completely exempted unaccompanied minors says we're letting them all in, no matter what. So this could become even more of a problem for the administration. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Presta Giacomo. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.