Morning Wire - NCAA Changes Rules on Transgender Athletes

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

The NCAA changes its rules for transgender athletes, VP Harris pressed on the president’s controversial press conference, and how the 5G rollout is affecting airlines. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the debate over transgender athletes heating up in colleges across the country, the NCAA has issued new guidelines. Now, former Olympic decathlon gold medalist and transgender celebrity, Caitlin Jenner, is weighing in on the issue. Biological boys, I've said from the beginning, should not be playing in women's sports. We'll discuss the new policies and their implications. I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, January 21st, and this is Morning Wire. Vice President Kamala Harris attempts to clarify some of President Biden's statements on Russia and elections, but her today's show appearance becomes contentious. And major airlines are warning that the rollout of 5G technology by several telecom giants

could seriously threaten the safety of domestic and international flights. Thanks for waking up with Morningwire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Dwell. As we move into 2022, don't forget to carve out space and time for your spiritual. life. The Dwell Bible app makes it fun and easy to get into the Bible by providing a world-class listening experience of scripture. Dwell offers all your favorite versions of the Bible recorded by real human voices that are delightful to hear. Today, you can try Dwell for free

by going to Dwellap.io slash morning wire. That's Dwellap.io slash morning wire. In this new year, invest in your spiritual life. Let God's word be read over you using Dwell. In a decision similar to that of the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA announced a new approach to the debate over transgender participation in sports. Here to discuss the new policies is Daily Wire Sports reporter Joe Morgan. Morning, Joe. Good morning, John. So transgender athletes in college sports has been a hotly debated topic over the last month,

and it seems like this really came to a head with pin swimmer Leah Thomas, who set records in the women's category after competing as a male for three years. Now the NCAA is making a change to their policy. What are the changes? So the NCAA is adopting a style that is similar to the IOC. In fact, they made it clear in their press release that this change was made, really in order to mirror the policy. The organization, the NCAA, announced Wednesday that the Board of Governors voted to adopt a sport-by-sport approach to transgender participation. What that means is that each national governing body of an individual sport will determine the eligibility of a transgender athlete hoping to compete.

Okay. If a sport does not have a national governing body, the sports international federation would now be followed. The new policy begins with the 2022 winner championship. So the NCAA is really handing this off to other entities? Correct. Is this effectively passing the buck? Yeah, I mean, you could argue that. They're effectively washing their hands of the issue.

What about the testosterone requirement? Is there still that requirement to participate? Good question. The NCAA said, and I'm quoting here, transgender student athletes will need to document sports-specific testosterone levels beginning four weeks before their sports championship selections, Starting with the 2022-23 academic year, transgender student athletes will need documented levels at the beginning of their season and a second documentation six months after the first.

They will also need documented testosterone levels four weeks before championship selections. To put this into context, the IOC said in November that they are moving away from their testosterone testing approach and allowing each sports governing body to, quote, determine how an athlete may be at a disproportionate advantage against their peers, taking into consideration the nature of each sport. While the IOC is going away from their previous methods, they do appear to allow for the testing of testosterone levels by individual governing bodies. So once again, it will be up to each individual sport

to make that determination. So both the NCAA and the IOC are putting the burden on the individual sports to determine eligibility. Yeah, exactly. So was the NCAA's move actually prompted by Leah Thomas dominating in women swimming? I mean, it would appear so. In November, Thomas smashed the record

in the 200 free time and the second fastest 500 free time. Both of those times, by the way, broke Penn program records. Thomas then won the 1650 free by a whopping 38 seconds, the 500 free by 12 seconds, and the 200 free by 7 seconds. Some of Thomas's teammates spoke out, which revealed friction within the team. According to outkick one teammate who spoke out feared that she will not be able to find employment after college if she shared her honest opinion. Caitlin Jenner appeared on Fox News Wednesday to discuss Leah Thomas, as well as what the NCAA must do in order to level the playing field. I respect her decision to live her life authentically.

100%. But it also comes with responsibility and some integrity. She was born a biological boy. She was raised as a biological boy. Her cardiovascular system is bigger. Her respiratory system is bigger. Her hands are bigger. She can swim faster.

That's a known. We need to protect women's sports. All right. No doubt this will continue to be a hot button issue in women's sports. Yeah, it will. Joe, I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Sounds good to me. That's Daily Wire Sports reporter, Joe Morgan.

Coming up, the fallout over President Biden's press conference. And is 5G technology a danger to aviation? Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help protect your IRA or 401K with a precious metals IRA. Text wire to 9-8-98 to claim a free info kit on physical gold, and silver. There's zero obligation. Text the word wire to 9-9-8-98 to protect your savings

today. This week, President Biden held his first solo press conference in nearly 10 months, where he faced tough questions on his handling of inflation, COVID, and foreign policy. Vice President Kamala Harris struggled to defend the president's comments during a Thursday morning appearance

on the Today Show. Here to discuss as Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, let's start with President Biden's press conference on Wednesday. It's been highly scrutinized. What do we need to know there? Well, President Biden has taken, as you know, quite a bit of flack for not speaking to the media alone in over 300 days. So this was a pretty highly anticipated event. For much of the two-hour press conference, he stuck to calling names from a pre-approved list of reporters, but he still faced some tough questions. Did you over

promise to the American public what you could achieve in your first year in office? Why do you suppose such large segments of the American electorate have, come to harbor such profound concerns about your cognitive fitness. One of the most discussed moments came when the president was asked about the Democrats' new election bill. He said if it was not passed, the 2022 midterm elections, quote, easily could be illegitimate. Now, many critics to the president said those comments were hypocritical, given how he responded in the past to former president Donald Trump's accusations of elections being illegitimate. I'm not saying it's going to be legit. Is the increase

and the prospect of being illegitimate is a direct proportion of not being able to get these reforms passed. But the comments that drew the most attention without question came in regard to Russia and Ukraine. Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, etc. That comment immediately drew criticism from people on both sides of the aisle. Even Ukraine's president tweeted, quote, there are no minor. incursions and small nations. So the White House was in damage control mode on Thursday.

President Biden read a prepared statement trying to further clarify his remarks. And Vice President Harris appeared on Today Show to try and explain some more. Yeah, tell us about that interview. It got pretty contentious. It did. Vice President Harris talked with Savannah Guthrie, and she was pressed hard to clarify President Biden's comments on a few topics. Did the president essentially give the green light to Vladimir Putin to take a piece of

Ukraine, to take a bite out of Ukraine. The president has been very clear, and we as the United States are very clear. If Putin takes aggressive action, we are prepared to levy serious and severe costs, period. But Guthrie was quick to jump in and challenge the VP, which created some more tension. It is less than clear because 30 minutes after the news conference, the White House press secretary had to actually clarify. the president's remarks. Savannah, I'm being clear with you right now. Yes, okay. And so if you're interested, I'll continue to be clear. Guthrie also pressed Harris on the president's suggestion that the 22 elections could be illegitimate in some states. He openly cast doubt on whether

the 2022 midterm elections would be legitimate. He said it all depends, which is astonishing to hear the president question whether our elections will be legitimate. We've heard it before, but not from this president. Is he really concerned that we may not have fair and free elections? Let's not conflate issues. So what we are looking at and the topic of so much debate last night was that we as America cannot afford to allow this blatant erosion of our democracy and in particular the right of all Americans who are eligible to vote

to have access to the ballot unfettered. It's worth noting the damage control also continued when White House press secretary, Jen Saki, made a rare appearance on Fox News the next morning. So the Biden administration definitely appears worried about how this press conference landed with the American people. Yeah, it appears that way. Cabot, thanks for the reporting. Anytime. That's DailyWire's Cabot Phillips.

While air travel has been disrupted by COVID-related employee shortages and winter weather, another factor is threatening to ground thousands of flights. Here to tell us more is Daily Wires Ian Howarth. So, Ian, you've been covering this issue for some time. Can you explain why the aerospace industry is so concerned? Sure. In the past few months, chaos has erupted between telecom giants, Verizon and AT&T, and the U.S. aviation industry over the safety implications of their latest 5G technology. The root of this concern surrounds C-BAN 5G, which relies on radio waves between 3.7 and 3.98 gigahertz.

The aerospace industry is deeply worried that this radio wave could interfere with flight safety technology, which also relies on radio waves nearby in the spectrum. So if this sort of interference occurred near airports and bad weather, pilots wouldn't be able to see runways or rely on altimeter gauges. They would therefore be expected to either land somewhere else or not even take off at all. Wow, so when it comes to this debate, can you break down the arguments being pushed? Yeah, so there are three sides of this debate. The first is the telecom industry, specifically Verizon and AT&T. They're the ones who finally rolled out their new 5G technology on Wednesday,

but have had multiple concessions in response to concern, including delaying a full rollout three times now. Then there's the aerospace industry, including Boeing, Airbus, and various U.S. airlines, who have all expressed concern regarding the safety implications of this technology. And finally, there's the federal government, specifically the FAA and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the middle. For example, Buttigieg wrote to Verizon AT&T in December, offering a, quote, near-term solution for the coexistence of 5G deployment and safe flight operations, which the telecom giants first rejected before agreeing to delay. President Biden has also responded, thanking Verizon AT&T on Tuesday, for agreeing to temporarily delay deployment of 5G near airports. But then we also have to understand that this saga is having a real impact when we look at the response of international airlines.

The president of Emirates said that the airline simply wasn't aware of the impact of the issues regarding the safety of flights in and within the United States until Tuesday morning. We were aware of a 5G issue, okay? We were not aware that the power of the antennas in the United States have been doubled compared to what's going on elsewhere. He then said that they would be suspending some flights to the US before summing up the situation in no uncertain terms. I guess I need to be as candid as I normally am. and say this is one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible issue, subjects,

calling what you like I've seen in my aviation career. And Emirates aren't the early airline to respond in this way. Japan airlines have suspended flights and so is ANA and Air India. So as long as the safety of this form of 5G technology near airports remains in doubt, we should expect to see further delays as airlines wait to find out more. So, Ian, just your opinion, how long should I wait to get on a flight? Well, I think the fact is that we simply don't know, which is why a lot of these airlines are being so careful.

Right. Ian, thanks for reporting. Of course. That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth. Other stories we're tracking this week. The Democrats' national voting bill failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday night. Democrats also failed in their attempts to eliminate the filibuster. Two men in England were arrested Thursday morning as part of an investigation into the terrorist attack Saturday on a synagogue in Texas. Greater Manchester police say that two men were questioned by UK counterterrorism investigators working with the U.S.

And Peloton stock fell roughly 25% Thursday after reports surfaced that it would pause production of its high-tech bikes and treadmills. In an internal meeting, the company cited customer price sensitivity and amplified competitor activity as reasons for the following demand. If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back next week with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. When you join at DailyWire.com slash subscribe.