Morning Wire - RFK’s Ballot Battles & Trump’s New Indictment | 8.29.24

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Several battleground states force RFK to stay on their ballots against his will, Special Counsel Jack Smith re-indicts Trump, and Vice President Kamala Harris attempts to pass several Trump policies off as her own. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Shopify: Get a $1 per month trial at https://www.shopify.com/morningwire Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Qualifying purchases will get an exclusive GOLDEN Truth Bomb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After an uphill battle to get on the ballot, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now fighting to take his name off in battleground states. Our polling from the beginning showed pretty consistently that if I got out of the race, 57% of the people who are supporting me would vote for Trump. Why are some states forcing Kennedy to remain on the ballot against his will? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 29th, and this is Morning Wire. Special counsel Jack Smith revises and refiles his indictment of former President Trump in the election interference case. Let's face it, the Democrats only ever brought this in order to have an impact on the election.

And Vice President Harris is backpedaling, embracing several of Trump's positions that she once opposed. I'm not sure that this is a woman who knows what she actually believes. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Men, it's time to take charge of your health with Emerson multivitamins by Responsible Man, a new DailyWire Ventures Company. The Emerson Multivitamin is packed with 33 key ingredients that support your immune system, sharpen your brain, while also keeping your heart and muscles strong. American made and designed for men who mean business, the Emerson Multivitam separates the men from the boys. Right now, take advantage of their Labor Day sale. Visit Responsibleman.com and use CodeWire for 50% off your order.

That's Responsibleman.com CodeWire. In the wake of his Trump endorsement, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now fighting to remove his name from ballots in at least two key battleground states. Here to discuss his Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Presta Giacomo. So Amanda, first, for months, Kennedy was fighting an uphill battle to get on these ballots. Why is he now trying to remove his name? Well, since his Trump endorsement, this is his strategy to help Trump beat Harrison November. Here he is explaining that. In about 10 battleground states, where my presence would be as a spoiler, I'm going to remove my name. And I've already started that process and urge voters not to vote for me. Our polling consistently showed by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats with whom I disagree on the most existential issues.

But so far, he's unable to do that in Michigan and Wisconsin. Now, why are those two states refusing to remove him? Okay, well, first of all, this has everything to do with politics unsurprisingly. As RFK cited himself, polling shows that he would hurt Trump in battleground states more than Harris. In fact, six recent polls cited by the Washington Post showed Harris outperforming Trump nationally when Kennedy is on the ballot. This is why we're seeing this push from Democrats to now keep his name when they were, you know, just weeks ago fighting to keep him off ballots. Right. So in Michigan, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Kennedy can't withdraw because he filed as a minor party candidate through the Natural Law Party, and they already chose their electors, and it's too late to make a change.

But simultaneously, Benson is currently working to keep left-wing independent candidate Cornell West off Michigan ballots. West would potentially siphon off votes from Harris and hurt the Democrats. A judge just over this past weekend ruled against Benson and said West will say, stay on the ballot. Benson has promised to appeal that decision. What about Wisconsin? The request was put to the state's elections commission, but that was deadlocked on a party line vote three to three, Democrats for keeping RFK on and Republicans for allowing the removal. The measure did not move forward and Kennedy's name will remain. The commission cited a state law that says a candidate must stay on the ballot once he's filed, except in the case of a death. So what's the status in the other

battleground states. Well, there's a chance his name stays on ballots in North Carolina since Kennedy's name has already been printed on ballots in more than half of the state's 100 counties. RFK filed under the We the People Party and the elections board said on Tuesday that they still hadn't heard from the party about removing Kennedy's name. So the clock is ticking down and it's unclear how the state is going to handle that. Some states have already approved Kennedy's request to remove his name like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Nevada, Florida. Florida and Arizona, and he also won't appear on Georgia ballot since he never qualified in the first place.

So most of the polling now suggests that RFK on the ballot hurts Trump. But does it soften the blow a bit now that Kennedy is openly encouraging his supporters to vote Trump? Yeah, possibly. Morning Warrior actually spoke to Brent Buchanan, president and founder of Signal Polling Group, and he shared with us his initial findings in Michigan. I am in the field right now on a survey in a district in Michigan, not the whole state. I just looked at the partials this morning, and he's getting less than 1% within this district.

So I think voters are smart enough to know that he has come off the ballot and is not running because that number was definitely not 1% in a last survey. Well, I also think independent candidate voters tend to be a little more politically engaged than maybe your average voter. So it's possible some of them have gotten the memo at this point not to vote for him. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Is your business selling a little or a lot?

Shopify helps you do your thing, however, use to Ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage? Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout, which is 36% better on average compared to the other leading commerce platforms. Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morningwire. That's Shopify.com slash morning wire. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has responded to the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling

by regrouping and filing revised federal charges against Donald Trump. Joining us now to discuss is former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy. Hey Andy. So we've had some new developments in the lawfare effort against Donald Trump. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has revised and refiled charges against him for election interference. What exactly did we just witness here? Well, I think what we we've witnessed is probably from a prosecutor's standpoint, the cleanest and most efficient way to deal with the Supreme Court's opinion in the immunity case. Remember that when the court decided the immunity decision on July 1st, which held that the president has absolute immunity for core

executive actions, and at the very least presumptive immunity for everything he does within the ambit of his executive power. The court basically directed the lower court, which be Judge Tanya Chutkin in Washington, to do a searching examination of the allegations and the indictment to sort out what allegations are based on or implicate official acts of the presidency and which ones don't. Long story short, Smith was supposed to, by this coming Friday, make his submission about what he thought the case would look like going forward. And I think he decided, rather than make a submission on Friday, he would simply supersede the indictment on Tuesday.

And what he's done is take out some of the allegations that can't stand after the Supreme Court opinion. I should be clear, he hasn't taken out any counts, like he hasn't taken out any charges, but there are certain aspects of the evidence that can't withstand the Supreme Court's opinion and had to go, so he pared them down. And that's because it relied on evidence connected to Trump's official duties, is that correct? Not just his official duties, but his duties at the core of his article to constitutional executive power. What Chief Justice Roberts said in the majority opinion was that Trump's

control over his subordinates in the executive branch exercising law enforcement authority, which is a plenary power of the executive branch, is something that Trump has absolute immunity for. So those allegations had to come out of the indictment. So where does that leave things now? What are the next steps for this case? The first thing that everybody is most concerned about, and I think rightly so, is what's the impact on the election? We're seven weeks to go. We're going to have a new president on January 25th, whether it's Trump or Harris. So I think this is really a big nothing because immunity is one of the first. few issues in federal criminal law that a litigant is allowed or a defendant is allowed to

appeal pre-trial. So whatever Judge Chuckin decides, even if she leans in Jack Smith's direction, Trump is going to be able to appeal that to the D.C. Circuit and then ultimately to the Supreme Court. So there's no way that happens between now and the end of next January. All right, so certainly no movement on that case before the election. Andy, thank you so much for talking with us. Look for the release of our full interview with Andy McCarthy over the holiday weekend. With Election Day fast approaching, Kamala Harris has reversed her stance on a number of far-left positions she once supported, and she's now embracing numerous Trump proposals, including funding for a border wall. Here to discuss the string of policy reversals is Daily Wire senior

editor, Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, quite a bit of attention this week on Kamala Harris' right-word drift. What issues did she flip on? Yeah, it really, is striking to compare Harris' current campaign platform with that of her 2020 campaign, or her time as Senator and Vice President for that matter. Harris has long been considered one of the furthest left lawmakers in Washington, something she's touted in the past, but has clearly made an effort to distance herself from many of those positions that she's held for years. For example, Harris has, for quite some time, been a champion of Medicare for All, even co-sponsoring a Medicare for All bill with Bernie Sanders when she was Senator. Here she has defended. Here she has defended.

that plan back in 2019, telling CNN she supported eliminating private health insurance plans. The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on. But now, according to campaign surrogates, Harris no longer supports Medicare for all. And here she is in 2019, calling for a ban on fracking in the United States. I am committed to passing a Green New Deal, creating clean jobs, and finally putting an end to fracking once and for all. And again, despite being one of the most prominent voices on the left for years on this topic,

the Harris campaign now says that she no longer supports banning fracking. The list really does go on. Harris has in recent days reversed her position on mandatory gun buybacks. She's reversed her stance on electric vehicle mandates, which, again, she co-sponsored legislation for in the Senate. And perhaps most notably, she has reversed her position on funding for the southern border wall. Right. Now, that was the big one. What are we seeing on immigration from Harris? Well, to put it bluntly, we are seeing a reversal of epic proportions. Kamala Harris is now promising to pass the so-called bipartisan border security bill that failed in Congress earlier this year. Now, that bill would, among other things, expand the number of border patrol and ICE agents and most importantly, allocate around $650 million in funding for,

instruction of a border wall. That is quite a noticeable turnaround for a woman who four years ago campaigned on free health care for illegal immigrants and said illegal entry into the country should not be a criminal offense. It's even more remarkable when you look at her past comments on Trump's calls for that border wall. She said the wall is a, quote, stupid waste of money that, quote, ain't going to stop illegal immigrants. She's called it unnecessary, an American, and a vanity project for Donald Trump. We don't need to build a wall. This is a crisis of his own making. And by definition, just plain speak, basic English language definition, it is not an emergency. Now, this isn't even the first Trump policy that the Harris campaign is embraced. Right. So this month, the VP famously

adopted Trump's no tax on tips proposal, as well as a child tax credit increase that her campaign slammed J.D. Vance for supporting in the past. And it's worth noting J.D. Vance actually predicted earlier this month that Harris would, quote, soon propose that we finished the border wall. He held a large rally in Michigan this week where he poked fun at Harris's new positions. Her advisors are considering just copying all of Donald Trump's policies. They're more popular. In fact, I've heard that for her debate in just a couple of weeks, she's going to put on a navy suit, a long red tie and adopt the slogan, make America great again.

The back and forth from Harris has prompted a new nickname from Donald Trump, copycat Kamala. Now, for their part, Republicans say Harris still wants to enact many of those radical positions that she's now denouncing, but is taking a more moderate approach in hopes of winning over voters. But that strategy could alienate voters who feel she's going, you know, wherever the wind blows. For example, a New York Times poll this month found that 54% of voters feel she, quote, flip-flops on the issues that matter, while a recent CBS poll showed that more than a third

of voters say they still do not know what she stands for. Well, those are some concerning numbers considering we are just weeks away from the election. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Any time. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. Security is top of mind for many Americans. Security for our country, security for our leaders, and security for our families.

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