Morning Wire - Election Polling & Gender Clinic Controversy | 9.21.22

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Less than 50 days to the midterm elections and new polling shows voters’ opinions continue to shift, a new report raises serious questions about a major U.S. hospital’s gender treatment program, and Europe faces a growing energy crisis. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Less than 50 days to the midterm elections and new polling shows voters' opinions continue to shift. If the Democrats lose the House, much of what President Biden wants to accomplish in the remaining years of his presidency will be impossible. We break down the numbers that have some Democrats concerned. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, September 21st, and this is Morning Wire. An investigation by the Daily Wire raises ethical questions about the gender treatments taking place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the alleged pressure on doctors

who don't want to participate. If you were going to assert conscientious objection, you have to realize that that is problematic. And several influential economists say Europe is heading for a recession, fueled by their dependence on Russian oil and gas. There's going to be a recession and an element of stagflation.

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Just go to indeed.com slash wire. Indeed.com slash wire, terms and conditions apply. Cost per application pricing not available for everyone. Need to hire? You need indeed. After seemingly losing ground to Democrats over the last few months, new midterm polls show Republicans regaining momentum on key issues with election day fast approaching. Here to discuss is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot, we've talked a good bit about the ebbs and flows of this election cycle.

We're just really a few weeks away at this point. Where do we stand now? Well, you're right. Momentum has shifted a few times now from back in the spring when it seemed like Republicans were a shoe-in for control of Congress to this summer. when Democrats closed to the enthusiasm gap and cast doubt on a red wave. But now, as we're entering the home stretch with fewer than 50 days to go, Republicans appear to have regained some momentum in battleground states and on a variety of crucial issues. Yeah, let's get into some of these polls and those issues. So one helpful thing to do is look at polling where there's no ambiguity, specifically issue specific polling and see which party voters trust more on key topics.

And that is where Republicans are seeing some encouraging signs. A new NBC poll out this week asked voters for their top issues heading into November and found that Republicans held an advantage on the majority of those issues. For example, at this point, as we all know by now, the economy and cost of living are the top issues. In this poll, over a third of voters said it was the most important topic for them. And that's good news for Republicans because the same poll found that they hold a 19-point lead on the economy. And get this, just 28% of respondents say they think Democrats are better suited to fix it. things economically. That 19-point lead is the largest on record for that issue. Wow. And Republicans also hold record leads on crime and border security, which 19% of voters

have as their top issue. On the border, they're up by 36 points with a 56-20 advantage, and on crime, they've got a 23-point lead. So Republicans are really hoping the election comes down to the economy, immigration, and crime because there's no question at this point. They hold a clear advantage on those issues. All right. So very strong numbers on those issues. Where are Democrats performing well with voters? Yeah, look, it's not all bad news for Democrats. As far as these specific issues go, Democrats are leading on their handling of health care and, quote, threats to democracy.

But it's abortion where they're really starting to pull away. Right. According to NBC, they've got a 22-point advantage there. And look, Democrats are clearly aware of that fact. This cycle, according to the Associated Press, they've spent, get this, $124 million on TV ads pertaining to abortion. that is more than double what they've spent on any other issue. For context, back in 2018, they spent just $6 million on abortion ads.

So they clearly view this as a winning issue. Yeah, clearly. Any other interesting takeaways from the latest polling? Well, if the midterms end up hinging on support from independence, that is looking like good news for Republicans. They're up 43-37 on that front. And they also hold a three-point lead on the enthusiasm question, which tracks how motivated people are to cast

their vote. It's an especially important metric for gauging turnout in midterms, which, as we've talked about on the show, is low, typically around 50%. And what stuck out as good news for Democrats is that Biden's approval rating has continued to tick up a little bit. He's around 45%. That's the highest mark we've seen in this particular poll since last October. Now, his overall disapproval does still sit at 52%, which obviously is not good. And among independents, he's only got 36% approval. But there's at least a sliver of improvement for the president with the electorate more broadly. Well, this is shaping up to be a very interesting November. It is.

Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That's a Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, a new report on Vanderbilt University's gender clinic raises serious questions. Do you like to be the first to know about trendy news and current events? If so, you got to get the Daily Wire Plus app. Not only will you receive mobile notifications whenever something's happening, but you'll also have access to the best commentary to break it all down.

Download the Daily Wire Plus app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you. An investigative report from the Daily Wire on Tuesday raised some serious questions about the financial motivations of gender clinics, which can make massive amounts of money from transgender treatments, including on minors. Joining us to discuss the report is Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, in a lot of the debate surrounding transgender medicine, One of the angles that routinely goes unexplored is how financial incentives may play a role. Now, tell us about what this investigation found.

Hey, Georgia. So this was an exclusive investigation aired by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh on Tuesday. And as you noted, it centered on Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which is affiliated with Vanderbilt University in Nashville. That's where the Daily Wire headquarters is located, by the way. Well, it's a highly respected hospital network. work. And the audio that Walsh and his team uncovered suggests that the hospital had a pretty clear and compelling profit motive for opening its gender clinic. So its transgender health center opened in 2018. And at the time, Dr. Shane Taylor, who was a key voice in the launching of the center,

said in a lecture that was live streamed on Facebook that the clinic could prove very lucrative. And among the procedures that she highlighted were breast amputations for women who want to present as men. She said those could bring in up to $40,000. She also noted that a patient receiving opposite sex hormones can bring in several thousand dollars a year, just from a few visits. Here's Dr. Taylor detailing a few other revenue streams from so-called bottom surgeries. Actually makes money full of the hospital. I try to give you an idea of how much these bottom surgeries are making, and I think this

has to be an underestimate. This is for a vaginoplasty. They're saying, you're cool, hey, and they're saying, roughly around $20,000 for a bad enough capacity, but that doesn't include your hospital stay. That doesn't include your postdoc visits, but doesn't include your anesthesia, your OR. So I would think that this has to be a gross underestimate. And then the female to malvolum surgeries, these are huge money makers. Again, I think this has to be an underestimate that they're voting around $20,000 for a bowel

capacity. There's a different thing that I'd rather say to be up to $100,000. Dr. Winnecker, who's our servant, says that there's entire clinics where the entire clinic is supported just by their falloplasties. And that is like a fraction of the surgeries that they're doing. These surgeries are labor intensive. They require a lot of follow-ups. They require a lot of O-R time.

They require money for the hospital. Now, for those who aren't familiar, vaginoplasties are creating an artificial vagina and falloplasties are creating penises from other body parts, often taking skin from the, arm or leg. This doctor also goes on to note that under the Affordable Care Act, insurance providers are mandated to cover these procedures, so the payout for them is all but guaranteed. Now, if there is a strong financial motivation to perform these elective surgeries, that obviously raises some ethical questions. But another concerning aspect from this report is that the staff was advised against raising conscience objections to these procedures. Tell us about that.

Yeah, that's right. So in 2019, a pediatric specialist at the hospital, Dr. Ellen Clayton, gave a presentation in which she said if any Vanderbilt doctors had any religious or conscience-based objections to participating in these gender reassignment treatments or surgeries, they would face, quote, consequences. But I just want you to take home that saying that you're not going to do something because if your conscience is a, because the durable religious beliefs is not the back consequences. And but it should not be to their consequences. And I just want to put that out there.

If you don't want to do this kind of work, don't work at Vayner's. Now, it's very unclear whether Vanderbilt could face some sort of legal ramifications for a statement like that because the Supreme Court has consistently found constitutional protections for religious exemptions to providing certain types of medical care. We saw that with the Little Sisters of the Poor case, for example. There, the court found that a group of Catholic nuns did not have to provide birth control as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

And there's also a lot of federal and state statutes that protect these kind of religious objections. And just to be really clear, Vanderbilt also offers some of these transgender treatments to minors, correct? Yes, that's correct. They offer transgender treatments under their division of endocrinology, including cross-sex hormone treatment for early teens and for high school age teens, breast removal. At least that's according to video featuring hospital staff.

And how is Vanderbilt responding to this new report? Well, our Morning Wire producer has been repeatedly trying to get a comment from the hospital, but so far what their representative is telling us is that they're not yet able to provide a response. But we did get a comment from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. Here's what he said. The pediatric, Transgender Clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center raises serious moral, ethical, and legal concerns. We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain. We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation. All right, Megan,

thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Europe is heading toward an energy crisis, and some economists are predicting the continent will experience a serious recession. Here to bring us the story is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. So Charlotte, what can you tell us about Europe's energy situation? So this is becoming very serious for many European countries. For example, Germany is trying to finalize liquefied natural gas contracts with Middle Eastern producers.

Germany's gas storages are currently around 90%, but Germany's economic minister said Monday that that will probably be empty after winter. France's electric company is also working on fixing its nuclear reactors, and the country's energy regulator chief said that if there are setbacks in that process, then the country could be forced to take exceptional steps during the winter, including concentrated cuts to power. But she stressed that there will never be gas cuts for households. The Spanish industry minister made a similar statement saying that businesses,

which use a lot of power, might be forced to shut down during peak periods. this winter. Finland's grid operator also predicted outages this winter. Finland gets some power from Sweden, but now a major Swedish power company said it's putting off resuming its nuclear reactor for two months. Now, are all of these shortages due to Russia cutting off the supply of natural gas? That's a huge factor. Russia previously supplied about 40% of the EU's natural gas, but in response to Western sanctions, Russia has cut off the majority of what it was exporting. Gas makes up around 21% of the EU's main use of energy. But importantly, it's the way many households get their power.

So this is an extremely precarious position for Europe to be in. Here's economist and former Obama advisor Larry Summers discussing the situation. We are largely self-sufficient. Europe, on the other hand, is completely dependent on imports of fossil fuels. and in a decision that in retrospect looks inexplicable, Germany decided to make itself completely dependent on natural gas as the basis of its industry and the basis of heating most of its homes. And then it decided to make itself completely dependent on Russia

as a supplier of natural gas. Well, that was asking for trouble. Well, a very volatile situation in Europe. Charlotte, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence Bond. Other stories we're tracking this week. The Republican Attorney General of 24 states sent a letter Tuesday

opposing recently announced plans by Visa, MasterCard, and American Express to identify purchases made at firearm retailers. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom will reportedly run for president in 2024 if President Joe Biden does not seek re-election. Individuals familiar with Newsom's plans told the rap, no ifs, ands, or buts, Newsom will run if Biden does not. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.

If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. Thank you.