Morning Wire - Oscar Slap Fallout & Russia Poisons Peacekeepers? | 3.29.22

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

A Russian oligarch who took part in peace talks with Ukraine may have been poisoned, Oscars ratings up amid Will Smith’s assault of Chris Rock, and liberal cities clean up homeless encampments. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Night my way. Forever. I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1st. Directed by David Frankel. A Russian oligarch and multiple years. Ukrainian peace negotiators suffer mysterious symptoms after a meeting in Ukraine's capital city.

Were they poisoned? And is this an attempt to disrupt peace talks? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 29th, and this is Morning Wire. Did the slap heard round the world revive the floundering Oscars? We have the latest numbers on the struggling program. Plus, the Academy launches a formal review into Will Smith's slap. And liberal cities across America move to clean up homeless encampments. We look at New York's ambitious new plant. Yes, we want them in shelters. The shelters are extremely safer for people who are homeless.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. The market's slow decline has now worsened. And you need to make sure that your savings are protected with alternative investments. Head your savings today before it's too late with Birch Gold. Text the word wire to 90.

89898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver today. Again, text wire to 989898 to protect your savings with birch gold today. On Monday, it was reported that Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea FC Football Club, Roman Abramovich, was the victim of a suspected poisoning during a March 3rd meeting in Kiev, Ukraine. Here with more on the stories, Daily Wire Sports reporter Joe Morgan. Joe, let's start here. Who is Roman Obramovich? Yeah, thanks for having me on, John. So Abramovich is a Russian billionaire who owns the London-based soccer club, Chelsea FC. Following the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, Abramovich attempted to sell the soccer club for $2.24 billion. That's billion with a B, John, with many believing he was attempting to unload

his assets before the government froze them. Before he was able to sell the UK sanctioned Abramovich along with six other Russian oligarchs with close ties to Putin. Right. And the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Abramovich and two others had possibly been poisoned? Correct, possibly. The journal reported that following a March 3rd meeting aimed at peace in Ukraine, Abramovich and two senior members of the Ukrainian team started experiencing symptoms that included peeling of the skin on their faces and hands, red eyes, and painful tearing of the eyes. The Wall Street Journal reported that Abramovich was blinded for a few hours, actually. Well, and there are reports that hardliners in Moscow maybe were involved.

Yeah, I mean, it's not clear, but Russia does have a history with this type of attack. and Abramovich has been involved in peace talks between Russian Ukraine. The journal reported that Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky has met with Abramovich and has asked the U.S. not to sanction him as the Russian billionaire has been part of the negotiations, as we've discussed. One of the sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Bellingcat, reported that all three individuals consumed only water and chocolate leading up to the development of symptoms

and began to experience symptoms the night after the meeting. Are these symptoms life-threatening? No, it appears that all three of the victims' lives. will be okay. As reported by the BBC, Abramovich was seen at the Tel Aviv airport on March 14th, so he appears to be doing okay. Amazingly, Abramovich has decided to remain involved in the negotiations for peace. It's worth noting that leading up to the sanctions imposed by the UK, Abramovich has denied having close ties to Putin. When Abramovich announced his plans to sell Chelsea FC, he said that all proceeds from the sale would go to a charity set up for the, quote, benefit of all victims of the war in

Ukraine. I'm quoting here, the foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. This includes providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery. This is a pretty intense story. Thanks for coming on, Joe. Yeah, I appreciate it, John. Daily Wire sports reporter, Joe Morgan. Coming up, could Will Smith slap cost him his Oscar? You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with

the facts no matter where your day takes you. Thanks to a dramatic moment when best actor winner, Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock while he was presenting an award, the Oscars generated a lot of headlines. How is the Academy responding and did the slap help the show with its recent ratings crisis? Here to give us a breakdown of how the Oscars performed, as well as some analysis, is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, first, I guess we have to address the slap. Yes, there's definitely no getting away from that. So let's just go ahead and play the clip of the infamous joke that actually caused Will Smith to storm up on stage and assault Chris Rock. Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane, too, can't wait to see it, all right?

That was a nice one. Okay. I'm out here. Oh, oh. Richard? Oh, wow. Wow. Will Smith just smack the shit out of me.

This is my name out your fucking mouth. Wow, dude. So that was definitely one of the most memorable Oscar moments ever. we've had a few statements by the Academy since the incident. What have they said? Yeah, you know, the response from the Academy has been pretty interesting. So first, it put out a statement saying it doesn't condone violence. Well, that drew criticism from a lot of people, particularly comedians, as you might expect, suggesting that that was just far too tepid a statement. So now the Academy has launched a formal review to, and I'm quoting here, explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law. So what they're reportedly going to be weighing is whether to

strip Smith of that brand new Oscar over breaching their code of conduct that was originally put in in 2017 as a reaction to the Me Too movement. Now, I doubt that they will because it seems like what they really want is for this controversy to just blow over. To give you one example on ABC's coverage of their telecast out of more than 20 articles on the website, they don't mention it at all. Right. That's a pretty notable omission. Now, I'll be honest, as I was watching it, I had to rewind it a few times because I actually thought that this has to be a publicity stunt for ratings. Well, you're not the only one who thought that. There are some conspiracy theorists out there who are still saying that. But after reviewing the clip, maybe like 50 times as if it was

the Zabruder film, I could tell you, I'm pretty sure it was real. Well, so speaking of ratings, was there a bump from last year? Yeah, there was something of a bump. But I don't think it's enough that the Academy or ABC, the network that the Oscars air on, are really breathing size of relief right now. So the early ratings are showing that this year's telecast was up by 5 million viewers. That sounds like a lot, but it was still the second least watched Oscars in history. And you have to remember that in February of 2020, that was before the pandemic was underway, and it had already hit a previous low mark.

So this is an ongoing issue, and there's no indication that the Academy, has found any significant way to shore up that audience. Now, getting to the cause of the slump, we hear a lot about how the Oscars have increasingly become a platform for politics and maybe that's driving away a lot of potential viewers. Is there evidence for that? You know, I don't think there's any way you can deny that that's a factor. We know that winners have been taking that opportunity at the platform to make political statements for decades.

But in the past, the ceremony itself wasn't nearly. as overtly partisan as it's become in recent years. I mean, at one point, the host seemed to take a jab at the entire state of Florida last night. For you people in Florida, we're going to have a gay night. So what they're referring to there is recent legislation that polling shows a majority of American support, including exclusive polling conducted for the Daily Wire.

Now, those comments are a pretty good way to alienate a huge chunk of your audience. And also, there have been a lot of what you might call activist campaigns attached to the Oscars in, say, the last five years or so. Think, me too. Oscar's So, White. That was a demand for more diversity. So a lot of those causes have explicitly politicized the show. Realistically, though, I don't know that quieting down about politics would do enough to solve that ratings problem.

Because the most significant issue the Oscars are facing is that the way we consume entertainment has really just fundamentally changed. Our viewing habits, for example, are much more fractured than they used to be. When you look at this year's Best Picture nominees that were announced in February, only one of the 10 had made more than $40 million domestically. That was Dune. Even the movies that look like they should have very broad appeal, Stephen Spielberg's remake of West Side Story would be one. Well, it still didn't perform particularly well.

So, again, that downward trend was well underway before COVID. So it may simply be the end of an era. Megan, thanks for reporting. Of course, anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he will be clearing the city streets of homeless encampments within the next two weeks. The mayor appears to be responding to New Yorker's frustration with makeshift shelters that now feel like a permanent fixture on city streets. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allardy, is here to tell us more. So, Marade, what exactly is Mayor Adams' plan here?

Yeah, so Adams said in a Friday, interview that it's time for the homeless encampments to go. We're going to dismantle those encampments, give people wraparound services. I'm not going to have an inhumane city that allows people to live in an inhumane, dangerous environment, no restrooms, no showers, no ways to take care of themselves. The mayor called it, quote, inhumane to have people living in dangerous environments like cardboard boxes on highways and in the subway. And he said he will direct city agencies to do a block-by-block analysis to identify where encampments are, then execute a plan to give services

to the homeless New Yorkers living there. Adams noted that the city can't force anyone to sleep in a homeless shelter, but he expressed hope that they can get at least some people off the streets. As for the timeline, Adams said he's looking to carry out his plan within a two-weeks period. Adams also criticized his predecessor Bill de Blasio saying the former mayor had ignored the homeless problem. About a month ago, Adams also said he will make an effort to remove homeless people from New York subway system due to recent violent incidents in the subway. No more smoking, no more doing drugs, no more sleeping, no more just doing whatever you want. No, those days are over.

Swipe your metro card, ride the system, get off at your destination. So will it now be illegal for people to sleep on the street in New York? No, and Mayor Adams specifically stated that they can't prevent someone from sleeping on the street. That's protected by law in New York. But he did say you can't build a shell. So he's really trying to thread the needle here working around local laws. And how serious is the homelessness problem in New York?

We often hear about West Coast homelessness. Right. Well, the last estimate done by the city in 2021 said about 1,100 were living on the streets. But according to the New York Times, that official number was widely seen as dubious. Recent estimates indicate there are about 50,000 homeless New Yorkers in the city, although that includes people in shelters, too. In January, New York cleared out at least 133 separate encampments. More than half of those were in Manhattan, just to give a sense of the scale of the issue.

So this strategy that Adams is suggesting of clearing out encampments, is that expected to work long term? Well, that remains to be seen, but this is definitely a trend. Several other liberal cities, which have traditionally been pretty lax about street sleeping, have also moved to get rid of encampments in recent months. For example, Los Angeles announced a ban on camping in 54. specific locations in October. One L.A. mayoral candidate, Democrat Joe Buscaino, has actually campaigned on banning outdoor sleeping in public spaces in most instances. Portland, Oregon banned camping on certain roadways in February. One caveat there, the mayor in Portland did indicate that the city

could allow some massive homeless encampments that would be managed by the city. Seattle removed multiple encampments at the beginning of this month, despite significant backlash from activists. On the East Coast, Washington, D.C. Mayor Bowser launched a pilot program in 2021 to permanently clear out camps. Boston Mayor Wu ordered a massive encampment cleanup in January. So this is definitely a trend, but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to turn things around. Right, it's really a difficult problem. Marade, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia.

That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty. Other stories we're tracking this week. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the print. rights and education bill into law Monday. The law bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. And a group of Olympians, coaches, and swimming championship alumni are calling on the NCAA to protect our women athletes and to rectify the situation created by allowing biological men to compete with women. The group of 36 former elite athletes associated with the University of Arizona wrote in an open letter

addressed to the NCAA Board of Governors, quote, we feel we are witnessing irrevocable damage to the sport. The letter accuses the NCAA of having successfully failed everyone. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show

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