Morning Wire - France’s Riots Spread Into Italy & Election Controversies Explode

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

With early voting beginning today in Texas, a wave of October Surprises sweep through key races. Historic sites in France burn to the ground as violent riots spread into Italy – prompting thousands of arrests, a rebuke from Italy’s Premier, and a national address from Macron. And, a mass casualty event at a military base in Canada leaves the nation mourning and more questions to be answered. Reporting from Megan Basham. Plus, we speak with GB News Host Bev Turner, and Vice President of the Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation, Victoria Coates. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 3149- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Lean - LEAN is a doctor-developed, non-prescription weight-loss supplement designed to support weight loss in three ways: helping convert stored fat into energy, helping maintain healthy blood sugar, and helping manage appetite and that constant food noise that can make staying on track so difficult.Go to HTTPS://TAKELEAN.COM and use code WIRE for 20% off.Quince - Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince.com/WIRE. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too.ShipStation - ShipStation brings orders into one place and automatically compares carrier rates in real time, helping businesses stay organized and save when volume spikes. Get ahead of it today with ShipStation, and get 60 days free at https://ShipStation.com, with code wire.- - -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

Okay, first, before we give you the facts of the day, run hide fight infidels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s. There's even a love story, which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out. Are you noticing your car insurance rate creep up even without tickets or claims? You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant.

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I'm Daily Wire, executive editor John Bickley, with Georgia Hal. It's Monday, October 19th. This is Morning. Historic sites in France burn to the ground as violent riots spread into Italy, prompting thousands of arrests. There is nothing that justifies it, nothing that explains it, nothing that excuses it. We are all feeling anger and shame. And a mass casualty event at a military base in Canada leaves the nation mourning and more questions to be answered. Those we lost, those who were injured, were training to defend Canada, to serve Canada. And now Canada serves them. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Here's an interesting health story. There's been growing research around weight cycling, the familiar pattern of losing weight, gaining it back, then starting the whole process over again. or fluctuating, as many refer to it. And frankly, you don't need a study to tell you how frustrating that can be. You clean out the pantry, you swear off dessert, you lose some weight. Life gets busy and suddenly you're right back where you started. So the goal isn't just about losing weight.

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Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham joins us now with the details. So, Megan, there's been a big push for early voting, especially with the No King's rallies going on over the weekend. Several states are now voting. Can you give us the 10,000-foot view of the early voting landscape right now? Yeah, Georgia. So Texas and four other states begin voting today. and there's another 12 that are scheduled to begin early voting by Saturday. And so what that really means is that early voting is underway in a good portion of the country,

including some of those states that are the biggest battlegrounds this cycle. So I'm just going to read off some of this for you. By the end of the week, 42 states including battlegrounds like Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and many others will already be in the middle of voting. And then in North Carolina, where I am, early voting opened last Wednesday, and by Friday, more than 437,000 votes had been cast. Now, that's almost 48 points above where North Carolina was at this point in the last midterm election cycle.

So what's really pushing this is the left. They have been very much out on the ground, trying to get people to vote early. In particular, we saw a bunch of no-kings rally. over the weekend. And so, you know, they're out pushing that, but the problem is a lot of people aren't considering that the candidates are still campaigning. They still have to make their case, and there's potentially more that could come out. Yeah, and the concern there is that, you know, consequential information could emerge after someone has voted, correct? Yeah, exactly, John. If you look at some of these most hotly contested races, there is still

information coming out. Like, if we turn our attention to Texas and to the Senate race there and the Democrats candidate James Tala Rico. Well, over the weekend, reporting emerged that an ex-account that Tala RICO has confirmed belongs to his father, has posted crude jokes about the crucifixion, mocked Ash Wednesday imagery, and also made derogatory comments about Republican women, including, in one case, a group that included former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake. In that case, Tala Rico's father said, quote, the afternoon shift at the strip club. So, you know, given that Tala Rico has made Christianity a big part of his campaign, and he has already said some, you know, odd things that a lot of Christian voters took some umbrage to things like saying God is non-binary.

It seems reasonable that a lot of voters may actually want to hear how he responds to this controversy before they make that final decision. And then meanwhile, if we turn to Michigan, there, another Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, spent the weekend denying his family ties to the terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. So his half-sister's old posts resurfaced, and she had written that their mother was active in the Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 1970s, and she said that the family has, quote, long been Muslim Brotherhood. El-Said denies those ties, but things got very heated just last week when NBC's Tom Llamas pressed him about that.

But I'm just telling you that like you're using hearsay evidence from a tweet. Actually, she's not serious. But you've also gone after the president for truthfulness. You've also gone after the president for truthfulness. So when people ask you a question, they all do expect the truth? And do you think, are you insinuating that somehow I was lying? I don't know. That's why I'm asking you.

And I'm telling you I was not. And then on the Republican side, if we turn over to Nevada, There, the Congressman Mark Amadai, who is a Republican, told Politico on Saturday that he would, quote, absolutely not vote for David Flippo, who is the Republican seeking to replace him. So, you know, that's the incumbent rejecting his own party's nominee. Pretty noteworthy. Realistically, though, in today's climate, do people actually regret their vote in these last few days? It seems like people are pretty dug in.

Yeah, they actually do, Georgia. There have been studies done in a number of countries that find that early voters, especially those who are lower information voters, they report lower satisfaction with their choice than people who voted on actual election day. But, you know, the sticking point is once you cast your vote in almost everywhere, that's it. You don't get a chance to redo it. Well, on that cheery note, whenever you vote, don't forget to go vote, especially if you live in some of these states. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yeah, my pleasure. I feel like a broken record talking about my Quince cashmere sweaters, but it's just a fact.

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That's shipstation.com code wire. Texas and fees apply. Thousands have been arrested and hundreds of first responders injured in France as violent rioting has resulted in the burning down of historic sites. The protests, which also hit Brussels last week, have now spread into Italy. Joining us now to discuss the mayhem in Europe as GB News host, Bev Turner. But if we thought we'd maybe witness the peak of this chaos in France last week, we were certainly wrong. We saw an iconic town hall burned down this weekend.

First, what did we see and where was this primarily taking place? It was horrendous on Saturday and Sunday, guys. I cannot explain to you how bad this has got now in Europe. Paris is inflamed. It looks like a war zone. Some of the most distressing images of shopkeepers who've built. up little businesses, maybe a corner shop, maybe a restaurant, a clothes shop, crying and trying to keep the protesters out of their shops. They're being looted. It's on fire. It is horrific.

There's lots of footage of Palestinian flags being raised, including in Marseille and Leone over the weekend. There's also been reports of what we're calling a red-green alliance of socialist and Islamist groups organizing the chaos. What do we know about who's behind all this? Very difficult to tell, but as you say, the usual suspects are there. Lots of pro-Palestine flags. Manuel Macron, the leader of France, the president of France, came out and spoke on Sunday evening to address the nation. And one might have thought he'd have mentioned migration.

He might talk about this Islamo-Marxist coalition, which is causing riots on the street. Of course he didn't. Of course he didn't. He talks about the fact that these people should be listened to, that there is context to their violence, that they are concerned about the cost of living crisis and about schools. Again, that was three weeks ago, guys. That was under the auspices of protesting about their education. That's how this started. Three weeks later, it is clearly not that. There's a lot of heartbreak and outrage over the weekend about the town hall in Lemos,

burning down historic site. What else have we seen? 140-year-old town hall in Limoge, John, as you say, deeply upsetting. It's awful. Some people have pointed out online, they aren't burning mosques. There are a lot of North African people involved in these riots and also people from Eritrea, from the Middle East as well, migrants or children of migrants, 15, 16, 17-year-olds, utterly lawless. They don't believe in France.

They don't believe in being patriotic. about that country, they're causing absolute chaos. As usual, as if on cue, so arrives Greta Thunberg to say that this is a riot for the people. She said, this is about social justice. She said it's about the complaints of she described migrants, workers and students, and she talks about the fact that this is about the climate. It is not about any of those things. It's just utter lawlessness. Now, we also saw these protests spread to Brussels last week and then Milan just a couple days ago. The media, of course, is calling it the cost of living protests.

That's very much in dispute. Georgia Maloney in Italy has had a different response than Macron and some of these others. How did she respond? Well, Georgia Maloney, of course, we know she's a close ally of President Trump. She comes out swinging and she said this is the acts of violence. Thugs. Let's wait and see what she does from a disciplinary point of view, from a law and order, from a justice point of view. How will she handle this? Because in Europe, we have nowhere near the number of police officers that you are used to in America. You know, when I'm in D.C.,

occasionally there's a domestic abuse incident. And guess what turns out? Seven police cars in D.C. It happens on a regular basis. When I'm there, I presume that you're being invaded because in London, you would rarely see seven police cars turn up for any incident, never mind a domestic abuse incident. So we are struggling in Europe. We don't have the same security that you have. And France and Italy are seeing the numbers of protesters way, way bigger than the number of police officers that they have to deal with it. It's going to be interesting to see how Maloney responds, like you said. Meanwhile, heartbreaking to see these sites that have withstood world wars wiped out in a matter of hours. Beth, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you. A massive fire broke out at a Canadian military base on Saturday. Prime Minister Mark Carney described the incident as one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime. Here to discuss the situation and more as Victoria Coates, Vice President of the Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. So, Victoria, we have a lot of things going on across the globe. But let's start with Canada. When this happened, it wasn't clear initially if this was terrorism. or if this was an accident. What do we know now about the fire and how many casualties were there?

And this is just an awful, awful story. This is the Wainwright base in Alberta in Canada, not all that far from the U.S. border. And Alberta is obviously their main natural gas source. And so from what we know, and all of this is speculative. But a live fire exercise struck a natural gas line, causing a catastrophic fire. And so far, there are estimates of between. Four and Seven who have died, but over a hundred that have had to be taken to hospitals. So that number may rise. At this point, it doesn't look like malfeasance. It looks like an accident. One hopes that that holds, but obviously the Canadian government will be looking into it in detail.

Yeah, anytime we see an incident at a base now, all of our ears perk up. So we're going to be watching with interest to see what they find out. Now, overseas, there's been some updates in the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump is dropping sanctions on Russia that were recently passed. The conflict has escalated. What is the latest and how are we responding to it? This has been a little bit misreported. The president isn't dropping sanctions.

He is waiving the new sanctions under the Lindsey Graham legislation that he can impose. He still has that tool in his toolbox. I think the problem that he has is, as we're looking back on 2026, the third largest purchaser of Russian energy products is Europe. And so, you know, that they continue to do that. They're technically supposed to phase out all natural gas purchases on January 1st of 2027. So in about two and a half months' time, they're showing no signs of doing that, that they're actually going to make good on that deadline. And I think the president, after more than four and a half years of war, doesn't think this is going to work anymore. The EU Council, the European Council, enacted its 22nd set of sanctions last week.

And there's no evidence that they're going to do any more good than the first 21. So I think President Trump is very frustrated with this. He doesn't understand why the American consumer should be bearing the brunt of it. And so he's going to waive those sanctions for, I think it's a month. He's going to look at what that ramification would be for the United States. But if he decides to, there's no reason he can't put them on. Now, before you go, we had a little piece of news back here in the Americas. War Secretary Pete Hegseth sent almost 200 troops to pay.

Panama for what he's calling jungle warfare training. So what's going on and what are they training for? This is part of the really, I think, historic shift towards the Western Hemisphere in this administration. And I think I think this is going to be remembered the way the Abraham Accords were remembered for President Trump's first term. Just a total paradigm shift. Lots of people had talked about it. No one had actually done it. So now we are very active in the Western Hem, working with increasingly friendly governments. We've got Venezuela in a very different place. Hopefully we'll have Cuba soon. And this is a case where we're actually going in to train with regional partners and allies. Panama, of course, because of the canal commands our attention is one of our key strategic assets in our hemisphere.

And so going in and doing this kind of training is a really visceral demonstration of U.S. engagement. It's a great thing. I applaud the Secretary for doing it. Well, Victoria, we appreciate you having your finger on the pulse on so many global stories. Thanks for coming on. It was great. Thank you guys. Thanks for waking up with us.

Plus, stick around for the trailer of Daily Wire's new film Confession. 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. He said there and she'll starve to death, professor. No. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly six.

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