Morning Wire - Mamdani Goes Viral & Fauci to be Held in Contempt? | 8.4.26

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

The Senate is poised to hold a pair of crucial votes, Zohran Mamdani sparks another firestorm over his government run grocery stores and a billion-dollar housing plan for the homeless, and the WNBA becomes ground zero for the culture war as more protesters clash over Sophie Cunningham. Reporting from Ben Domenech, Brecca Stoll, & Lynden Blake. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Submit your clips to [e-mail] for review in our All Access Live!- - -Ep. 3020- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Alliance Defending Freedom - For a limited time, every dollar you give to ADF will be MATCHED but only while matching funds last. Go to https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text WIRE to 83848 to have your gift to ADF doubled. Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.comVanta - Whether you’re a fast-growing startup or a global enterprise, Vanta is here to help you automate your security and compliance, and earn and prove trust. Get started today at vanta.com/morningwire - - -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. The Senate is poised to hold a pair of crucial votes on President Trump's pick for AG and holding Anthony Fauci in contempt. This isn't about the Constitution. This isn't about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people. We have the latest from Capitol Hill.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, August 4th, and this is Morning Wire. Zoran Mamdani sparks another firestorm over his government. government-run grocery stores and a billion-dollar housing plan for the homeless. We are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers, whether it be at sort of a library card-esque, and also we manage who's buying. And the WNBA becomes ground zero for the culture war as more protesters clash over Sophie Cunningham and more coaches weigh in. Would you welcome a biological male in WNBA?

When we talk about biological male and scientifically where we are, I think it's a total different scenario. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. I want to tell you about my friends at Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF is dedicated to protecting free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God's design for males and females. They've scored huge legal victories like helping to topple Roe v. Wade and securing a landmark free speech win at the Supreme Court just a few months ago on behalf of Christian counselor Kaylee Childs, and they're fighting some of our culture's most pressing issues, from creating model legislation to protect women's sports to efforts to dismantle mail order schemes for abortion

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Let's get you started with 20% off and free rush shipping so that you can add lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit takeleen.com and enter Wire for your discount. That's promo code wire at takelein.com. All eyes are on the Senate again today as they prepare for a big confirmation vote on President Trump's new AG. And as Senator Rand Paul pushes for a contempt vote for Dr. Anthony Fauci. Joining us from the Capitol is Daily Wire Opinion Editor Ben Dominic, host of the Big Ben show. Ben, good to have you back on.

Great to be with you. So there's a lot of headlines coming out of D.C. this week. Some familiar names in them, none more polarizing than Fauci. We'll get to him. But first, let's start with this big breakthrough deal on Todd Blanche, Trump's pick for Attorney General. what led to Republican holdouts finally agreeing to confirm it? So there were a couple of things going on here, and the dynamics at play include two key members who aren't running for re-election anymore. One because he lost his primary in John Cornyn, the other because he chose not to run for re-election in Tom Tillis.

And because of that, they have more of a flexibility to be thorns in the president's side. The dynamics here, though, are essentially this. Most of these Republicans now believe that they have a very real possibility of losing. the United States Senate. If that was the case, Blanche could probably not pass through any kind of Senate that had a Democratic majority. People know that. So the real point here was not really about Blanche himself. It was more about this fund and what would happen to it. Ultimately, John Cornyn was the one who brokered the deal. And because he has that kind of elder statesman status among his fellow colleagues, they look to him as being a member of the Judiciary Committee who they could trust on this.

He got the administration to agree to get rid of this fund to end it formally, and because of that, Blanche's nomination is going to advance out of committee. Right. Now, another major decision in the hands of the Senate is looming. It may be at least the prospect of holding Tony Fauci in contempt for pleading the fifth last week over and over again. Where do things stand now with that? Well, Brian Paul has said that he was going to hold a hearing this week that is going to vote on this contempt motion. Contempt motions are things that in the past historically were much more enforceable, but you can also consider some of the recent situations where they applied. Steve Bannon obviously was held in contempt, ultimately had to spend some time in jail, pay a fine, et cetera. And even though the Supreme Court ultimately kind of gotten rid of that whole situation for him, you know, he still had to go through that experience. Fauci is unlikely to see anything along those lines. As we've learned, frankly, with the situation that we have with this blanket pardon, something that is.

truly unprecedented in terms of how much Fauci was pardoned by President Joe Biden. We know now that the real attitude toward this that is going to matter is from state AG's Attorney General across the country, including mostly recently in Florida, are going after Fauci and plan to hold his feet to the fire. We'll see what comes of that, but probably it's going to result in a lot more of him pleading the fifth. Yeah, a lot of interest in what's going to happen in those states. Now, you've made the case that the COVID scandal is not just about Fauci and other government officials, but the legacy media as well. Can you unpack that perspective for us? Yeah, I think that one of the things that we need to appreciate about this is that when people talk about holding people accountable for the

bad decisions that they made during COVID, most of the focus is usually on politicians, on, you know, executives, governors, mayors, et cetera, and also, of course, the health bureaucracy in the country. That's all true, and it's all well-founded. You know, You think about something that's less hot politically, perhaps, than controversy about vaccines or the lab league origin or something along those lines. Think about the six feet rule. That was applied across the country by schools, by workplaces, by administrators, you know, who took that from the health officials and applied it and enforced it. And that had negative results for all of us. I think that one of the things that needs to happen, quite frankly, is for the media to go through its own experience of having,

themselves called on the carpet for the revisionist history that they like to engage in, where they say, oh, we were just listening to the authorities, we were just following the science, et cetera, even though we know, and we knew very early on that much of this was absolute bunk. And the science, Fauci himself didn't even believe some of it. Meanwhile, RFK Jr. is doing some of this. He is definitely holding the media to account. Before you go, a major primary for Democrats in Michigan tonight that could prove key in the control of the Senate that you mentioned. What do you expect to see in Michigan?

The vast majority of prognosticators, including the folks on the prediction markets, believe that you will see Democrat Abdul al-Sayed actually pull away with this nomination. Haley Stevens had been the hope of the, I say more centrist Democrats, but quite frankly, she's not a centrist at all to keep this away from someone who is virulently anti-Israel and who adopts the DSA program when it comes to virtually every stance, who is a true extremist radical. El-Sayed is somebody who, you know, has inspired a lot of people to give him money and things like that from within this new cohort. But this is going to be a true test for the DSA. If they are able to win a swing state like Michigan, one which Donald Trump himself won, of course, it would be a

real statement about their new power within the Democratic coalition. And it would give them, arguably the most radical member of the Senate, including, and that's a Senate that includes, by the way, Bernie Sanders. Right, a major, major election tonight to watch. Ben, thank you so much for coming on. Great to be with you, as always. Every company seems to be asking the same question right now. How do we use AI? It's a good question, but there's another one that doesn't get asked nearly enough.

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startup or a global enterprise, Vanta is here to help you automate your security and compliance and earn and prove trust. Get started today at vanta.com slash morningwire. That's v-a-n-ta.com slash morning wire. The socialist mayor of New York City, Zoran Mondani, is continuing to roll out his radical new programs, including new government-run grocery stores that may require IDs. Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Breka Stoll. Breka, thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. Now, we talked to you last week about Mom Donnie's government-run grocery stores. They're now coming under some new scrutiny this week over a few things, particularly that they may be requiring IDs for shoppers. So tell us what's going on.

So, Georgia, all the uproar started when a reporter asked the Momdani administration, how they were going to make sure shoppers didn't take advantage of their new government-run grocery store. And the spokesperson said they're going to have a library card-esque type of program. And of course, anyone who's gotten a library card knows you need to show oftentimes your lease, your proof of where you live, your identification to be able to obtain that card. And so that has gotten all the headlines freaking out about these grocery stores are going to need to have identification. But actually, the mayor's office called me and told me they are only going to ask for their savings card if a shopper is buying in bulk. So unusually a large amount of quantity that they're going to want to verify.

They're not going to resell. Now, what are people supposed to be proving with their IDs? Are they proving that they live in the city? Is this restricted by income? What do you have to prove with these IDs? So you mentioned they're walking it back and that seems to be exactly what's happening. In the grocery store press conference, Mom Donnie repeated over and over. This is a program for New Yorkers. But the mayor's office just recently told me that this is a program for anyone who wants to shop in these grocery stores. They are saying that anyone can come in and buy any product. And as long as it's not, you know, an unusually large quantity, they're not going to ask any details about you. And even if you're not going to make a purchase, you are free to roam

around the store. Now, part of the reason this has been so controversial is because we currently have the Save Act stalling in the Senate, which of course would mandate voter rights. and here we have this socialist mayor requiring ID for a grocery store. It seems to be a double standard there. What did they say with regards to the SAVE Act? Georgia, they told me, quote, comparisons to voter ID laws or the SAVE Act simply do not apply. This is not an identification system, nor is it a mechanism to verify who someone is, where they live, or how much they earn. It is a practical inventory management tool to ensure affordable groceries remain available for the people who need them instead of being cleared off

shelves for resale. Now, what caught my attention most about that quote was when they said, verify how much somebody earns. That has never been a part of the SAVE Act. It has always just been, do you have, are you an American citizen and can you prove it? Never asking about income. Now, Mayor Mom Donnie is also taking some heat for renewing a very controversial policy of housing homeless people in hotels. Tell us about that policy and his plans for renewing it. So, Mom Donnie is extending a contract, a $1.86 billion contract to allow homeless people to continue living in New York City hotels. Now, this crisis was exasperated in 2023 when New York City saw an influx of migrants. It was under Mayor Eric Adams administration. Migrants were staying in

hotels. They were putting money for food on credit cards and giving it to these migrants because it was an emergency situation. Mumdani, now in his term, is extending this even further. And Mom Donnie's plan seems to be that he's going to keep the current plan of keeping taxpayer dollars paying for homeless people staying in hotels. Well, we saw what happened to those hotels in L.A. when they tried that. Hopefully New York fairs a little better. Brackett, thanks for reporting. Thank you for having me. The WNBA drama surrounding trans-identifying athletes has only grown this week after so Sophie Cunningham supporters showed up in Minnesota, ultimately clashing with a group of pro-trans protesters.

Daily Wire reporter, Lyndon, Blake, is here now with the details. So, Lyndon, this drama with Sophie Cunningham has only grown since we reported on it last week. But it sounds like she has some support and some growing support. So tell us the latest. Yeah, well, she does have growing support. I think it's important as we start this segment to remember what the WMBA stands for. It stands for Women's National Basketball Association. So it's a shocking thing that you're having to get support to support women playing in the WMBA.

It's kind of silly, right? But they do have a lot of support that is kind of gaining traction for Sophie Cunningham. Jennifer Say, the founder of XXXY Athletics, hosted a pregame rally on Sunday before the Indiana Fever took on the Minnesota Links outside the Target Center. You had Riley Gaines show up. You had Michelle Tafoya, who's running for Senator there in Minnesota show up, also a big defender of women's sports. and they got to kind of clash with some pro-trans protesters. There's even this one scenario where this woman that was yelling, protect trans athletes, snatched a t-shirt out of one of the Sophie Cunningham fans' hands.

It was quite a scene all before the game started, and it kind of continued over into the Target Center. You had Riley Gaines holding up a sign that said, thank you, Sophie, you know, love a mother of a girl, a girl mom, and she was asked to put that sign down, but there was a sign saying, I thought I couldn't hate Caitlin Clark more, but now it's Sophie Cunningham,

and that sign was allowed to be kept up the entire game. And with the growing support for Sophie Cunningham and people that are saying, hey, the WMBA is for women, grows the backlash they're getting from people that are seemingly defending men playing in a women's professional sports league. And this is trickle down to the coaches.

Indiana fever coach Stephanie White was asked about this Friday, and her answer did not sit well with people on the save women's sports side of the movement. She basically said that she didn't feel like she had enough education to make a determination on if men could compete in women's sports leagues. And this is coming from Sophie Cunningham's coach. And again, I do want to say that you're seeing Sophie Cunningham continue to play her game, continue to go out there and work with her coach. So it's not causing this internal conflict, at least to the public eye on the fever.

But it was interesting to see Stephanie White, who is supposed to be there, you would think, protecting Sophie's stance and protecting her teammates back, she chose to go with the, I don't have the education to make that statement. So you mentioned Stephanie White. Have any other coaches weighed in on this? Yeah, Georgia. Other coaches have started weighing in. The big one that made news on Monday was Natalie Nicoski. She's a head coach for the Golden State WMBA team. She said, I think in just terms of how I'm seeing this, if I can answer for me, sports is about belonging. It's about inclusivity. Now, if you ask me, I've been covering sports for a long time.

I would say sports is the ultimate excluder because it's about being good at something. It's about merit. It's about who stands out. So when you hear a professional basketball coach for a women's league saying it's about inclusivity, that makes no sense to me. There would be no WMBA if you're letting men play in the WMBA.

It makes no sense. But then she doubled down. She leaned back on her ethnicity as a way to defend trans athletes, kind of how we saw Stephanie White lean back on her education or lack thereof to defend men playing. in women's sports. Nicoski said, I'm big on that because I have been criticized for my height,

for my ethnicity. I've been in those, you shouldn't belong here, conversations many times. And for me, I don't want that space, especially Golden State to ever feel like that. She said the WMBA in sports to be for all women. That includes trans athletes. Thankfully, there are some male athletes out there, former football players that are saying, are you going to let Joelle M.B. come playing the WMBA? You would never have a job again in a day in your life. You're going to let LeBron. You can let him right off into the sunset in the WMBA. Good luck ever getting a paycheck from the Women's National Basketball Association ever again. Well, and I can't help but think they'd be singing a different tune if there were male athletes trying to join.

But there's none currently, correct? Not yet. Doors wide open, though. All right, Lyndon, thanks for reporting. Thanks, guys. Now, before we go, we have a little announcement. This Thursday night at 5 p.m. Central, Morningwire is having an All-Axcess live episode again. we decided to mix it up a little bit.

In honor of back-to-school season, producer Brooke wants us to flex our educational prowess. That's right. Former Professor Bickley and recovering math teacher, Ms. Howell, will be grading clips sent in by you. It's pass or fail. Good luck. So send your clips to Morningwire at dailywire.com, and our producer team will play our favorites

on the All-Axcess live stream this Thursday at 5 p.m. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of all of our DailyWire subscribers. To enjoy the show, add free and join our mission, become a member at DailyWire.com. We'll be back later 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.