Morning Wire - Round Two Of Iran Negotiations & Virginia Votes On Redistricting | 4.21.26

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

The clock is ticking on the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran as officials from both countries head back to the negotiating table, Virginians vote on a redistricting referendum that would drastically favor Democrats, and President Trump signs an executive order clearing the legal barriers to study psychedelic drugs for medical treatment. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2744- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Equip Foods - you’ve heard our team talk about Equip’s Prime Bar - but we’ve become huge fans of their Prime Protein, too. Voted the cleanest protein on the market by Men’s Health and this comes as no surprise when you see the short ingredient label. Morning Wire listeners will get 25% off one-time purchases, or 40% off first subscription orders for a limited time by heading to https://equipfoods.com/morningwire and using code MORNINGWIRE at checkout.ZipRecruiter - Post jobs FOR FREE at https://ZipRecruiter.com/WIREComcast - Learn more about how Comcast is investing in a more connected America at https://ComcastCorporation.com/investment- - -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

The clock is ticking on the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran as officials from both countries head back to the negotiating table today. Going into these negotiations, we have significant leverage that we didn't have the last time. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, April 21st, and this is Morning Wire. Virginians head to the polls today for a referendum that could reshape the state's congressional map and tilt the balance of power in Washington. This could be the way that we actually decide which party is going to control Congress in in 27. And President Trump is clearing the way for psychedelics research. The pitch, helping Americans overcome addiction and PTSD, particularly veterans. In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering,

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A U.S. diplomatic team led by Vice President Vance is expected to head to Pakistan today to meet with an Iranian team that may or may not show up. Daily Wire contributor, Tim Pierce, is here to give us the latest on the war in Iran. So, Tim, after the negotiations to end the war fell apart over the weekend, we're now down to the wire to reach a deal before the ceasefire ends. What's going on? Yeah, the ceasefire is scheduled to end at 8 p.m. tonight, eastern time. And it's not even clear how serious the Iranian side is about reaching a disfair. deal in these negotiations. And most of that appears to be due to the Iranian regime being split between a moderate and a hardline faction that are really not cooperating. Cabot covered a lot of

that confusion yesterday. What seems apparent on the U.S. side today is that the White House is frustrated and President Trump is out of patience. With the two-week ceasefire set to expire, according to Bloomberg, Trump said that he is highly unlikely to extend it. And Trump threatened on Sunday that if Ron rejects a U.S. peace deal, the United States will, quote, knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran. Well, and we're seeing a lot of contradictory messages coming out of Tehran. Who do we believe at this point? Yeah, it's hard to tell.

The reports and information coming out of Iran are all over the map. For instance, there are reports that Iran's parliament speaker will be in Pakistan to negotiate as long as Vice President Vance shows up, and he seems to want a peace deal. But Iran's foreign ministry held a press conference on Monday morning and categorically denied that Iran was confirmed to attend the talks. On top of that, Iranian President Masoud Peseshkin has been defiantly posting about the United States on his ex-account. Here's a snippet from yesterday. Quote, honoring commitment is the basis of meaningful dialogue, deep historical mistrust in Iran towards U.S. government conduct remains, while unconstructive and contradictory signals from

American officials carry a bitter message. They seek Iran surrender. Iranians do not submit to force. That message was posted after the U.S. seizure of an Iranian tanker over the weekend. The Iranians had claimed that the ship was a merchant vessel, but the ship, the Tuska, has been under sanctioned since 2018, and there are reports that the ship was carrying dual-use equipment that could be used for a military purpose. Now, despite the contradictory messages coming from Iran, the White House has been bullish about these meetings, correct? Yeah, it's worth noting here that the White House has not called off the talks, and it's become

common in these negotiations for Iranian officials to say one thing in public and then something completely different in private to the Trump administration. And Pakistan, for its part, has clamped down on security in Islamabad to address concerns about safety on the Iranian side. Pakistan has flooded its capital city with security forces ahead of these expected talks. So while the rhetoric is all over the map, there are some pretty convincing signs that serious negotiations are set to take place. Now, going into these talks, President Trump has gone on the offensive on his truth social, seemingly implying that he's being undermined here at home. What has he been posting? Right. He had several lengthy posts yesterday, essentially blaming the media and the Democrats

for undermining the military effort, both in their own ways. On the Democrats, he said they are trying to pressure him into accepting a bad deal with Iran by holding him to a strict six-week timeline for the conflict. On the press, Trump said, quote, the anti-America fake. news media is rooting for Iran to win, which echoes complaints that he has had about war coverage, that he says paints Iran in a much stronger position that it is in really with its military destroyed. Well, hopefully the president can secure a good deal. Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. Did you know the average employer gets around 250 resumes for every single job opening? Well,

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Joining us now to discuss is Jason Sneed, the executive director of the Honest Elections Project. Jason, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. So you've said that whoever wins this vote today will likely be the party that controls Congress next. How so? Well, right now, Virginians are going to the polls to decide whether or not the state is going to have a 6-5 map that more or less reflects the current. breakdown of the Virginia electorate or a pretty radical gerrymander that would turn that into a 10-1 map

and flip four seats from Republicans to Democrats. And now we're watching the money pour in hand over fist. We're at almost $65 million that have been poured into this special election to flip those seats. And the result of this, again, is going to be a net pickup of at least four seats in Congress for the Democrats, which follows what they did in California last year with Prop 50. This attempt to gerrymandered these states into into essentially guaranteed slots for Democrats in Congress. They're saying that they have to stop the MAGA power grab, that they have to stop Donald Trump. That's really what the message is all about. It's all about stopping Trump. And I think that's actually persuasive, unfortunately, for a fair number of folks here in Virginia. Right. Now, this referendum vote that just needs a simple majority

to pass, I should add, it's only temporary, at least in theory. Can you unpack that for us? Well, we have to remember that the only reason that we have to go to a referendum in the first place is because a few years ago, the left actually passed a different constitutional amendment to end partisan gerrymandering in the state of Virginia. So what they're doing is, according to them, quote unquote, temporarily undoing that fix and allowing the legislature to redraw maps in a highly partisan fashion. And if you do that once, I think you've established the precedent that you're going to continue to do it again and again. And after the next census, we expect that blue seats like California, for instance, are going to lose seats in Congress and lose electoral votes. And that is going to translate into an effort in other states to try to make up for those losses by gerrymandering states like Virginia. So I don't think this is going to be temporary by any stretch. Now, your group has filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing this election is illegal.

What is your hope for that challenge? Well, my first hope is that Virginians, the voters themselves, will actually see through what. what's going on here. They'll see that this is a very clear attempt to rig the rules and to redraw the maps for partisan gain, and they'll say no to this. But if they do end up voting for this, then we still have this court challenge. And I think it's important to understand that regardless of how the voters vote today at the polls, we still have to have the rule of law and we still have to have the constitution of the state of Virginia be respected. The Supreme Court of Virginia has a chance to say, actually, the rule of law will prevail in this state and order that.

that this entire effort be declared void, because again, the legislature ignored multiple laws and constitutional provisions in order to get this referendum today. If it is not overturned, if this is voted into effect, does this set a dangerous precedent for the state? Oh, there's no question about this. And this is only one of many things that have gone on this legislative session to try to permanently skew election rules here in Virginia for the left. In fact, this state passed more legislation in the election space than any other state. And it has been an extraordinary sprint to the far left for the Virginia legislature. And Governor Spanberger has signed a fair number of these bills into law. It really reflects a comprehensive attempt to push politics

to the left permanently in Virginia. And this is one of the most brazen efforts that I've ever seen, especially in the gerrymandering context, where, again, the left says the gerrymandering is a threat to democracy everywhere until they get the opportunity to do it, and then suddenly they will do it aggressively. And this attempt to turn this state into a 10-1 map is only the latest example following in the footsteps of Illinois and New York and California. So this does set a dangerous precedent, not just for Virginia, but for the entire country. I think we're seeing what the left does in general, which is play for keeps, and there is really no rule that they are not prepared to try to undo if it stands between them and political power.

Well, Virginians out deciding the fate of this map today, we'll see soon if Democrats are poised for a major advantage or not. Jason, thank you so much for joining us. Sure. Thank you. From small towns to big cities, Comcast is connecting millions of Americans to affordable, reliable, and secure Wi-Fi at prices that are clear and consistent with a new five-year price guarantee.

Backed by AI, innovation, resilient design, and cybersecurity technology, the Comcast network is built to keep families and businesses connected and their deal. data safe. Learn more about how Comcast is investing in a more connected America at Comcast Corporation.com slash investment. President Trump signed an executive order on Saturday clearing the legal barriers to study psychedelic drugs for medical treatment. Some psychedelics like Ibogaine have shown promise for PTSD and severe addiction. Joining us to discuss the move is FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCarrie. Dr. McCarrie, thanks for coming on. Great to be with you. So what exactly did the president's order do?

Well, it did a couple things. It said that the FDA will be issuing national priority vouchers for a rapid and expeditious review of new products that are psychedelics. That is, what we call in medicine perception-altering drugs or serotonin-2A agonists. These are drugs that have been known as street drugs, but doctors have found tremendous therapeutic value in some of the clinical studies. The second thing it did, we made it known that the FDA has cleared the first ibogaine product in an investigational new drug registration. That allows human trials. It paves the way for more studies.

And so those two announcements were from the FDA, and there was a third announcement that we're going to see $50 million in research to go to these types of studies, to try to unlock why some veterans are describing profound. and dramatic stories of benefit. And finally, the DEA and the FDA are going to work together to create a pathway so that people can get access to these drugs, not in a pharmacy shelf or behind the counter, but in a controlled medical setting with supervision. So I've anecdotally heard some pretty remarkable stories about IboGain specifically. What does some of the preliminary research say about what it can do and who is it for? Well, first of all, there are

It really is no good therapy right now for somebody who's suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and some forms of addiction. Nothing really works that well. We've seen some preliminary data in the New England Journal of Medicine and other prestigious journals, that there can be an up to 30 to 40 percent remission rate for some of these difficult to treat conditions. We also have the data from individuals that are telling dramatic stories of how they were, suicidal and they were able to get their life back. We don't know exactly how these drugs work. But there seems to be a description that during the treatment, individuals are able to almost relive some of the experiences that haunt them, at times understanding them better,

or reconciling with those involved, or getting some closure. Now, for people who haven't heard, so Ibogan, you mentioned that it can be considered, a street drug, but it's not really something people take casually. Can you describe a little bit of what it's like when people take ibogaine? So in this class of medications, it's a rough experience on the body. Nobody finishes the treatment and says, oh, I'd like to do that again. These are traumatic experiences where somebody is nauseous. They're reliving sometimes some terrible memories. They are in some sort of tremor sometimes. And that's why if the FDA does officially approve these drugs, it will be under the condition that it's under close medical

supervision. There are many people who perceive that they might be candidates for these medications. It's really going to be up to an individual physician to have that conversation with them. There is a sense of urgency because we are still losing veterans to suicide at a very high rate. As a matter of fact, more veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have died after those wars than during those wars. So even though the wars have ended, our men and women still keep dying. And that's because the battle may continue to rage in their brain

in a sort of biochemical imbalance that we are just beginning to understand. Now, doctors have traditionally treated PTSD in veterans with antidepressants known collectively as SSRIs. Almost 90% of vets have been treated with an SSRI. but the results are not very good for some of these more severe conditions like PTSD. So given the magnitude of the problem, we owe it to our nation's veterans to move with a sense of urgency in evaluating these products known as psychedelics.

Well, from the anecdotes I've heard, it can be life-saving for those types in particular. Dr. McCarrie, thanks for coming on. Great to be with you. Thanks for waking up with us and for those listening to the show. you can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.