Morning Wire - Russia Invades Ukraine | 2.23.22

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

The White House issues sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, Biden narrows his list of Supreme Court nominees, and Washington state’s controversial school policies on gender identity. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden announces a first wave of sanctions against Russia as Putin moves troops into breakaway districts in Ukraine. Putin has bigger plans. He has more aggression in mind and it will take a united Europe to lead the effort to confront that. Will sanctions and a unified response by NATO be enough to quell a full invasion of Ukraine? I'm John Bickley with Georgia Hal. It's Wednesday, February 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. President Biden is making his list of Supreme Court nominees and he's quietly reaching out to Republicans for their support.

But there's already controversy around his advisory board and the prominent role race is playing in the process. And in Washington State, a new education policy can prohibit teachers from informing parents about their child's gender identity. What's the intent of the policy, and why are some teachers concerned? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Naturally, it's Clean. When it comes to cleaning your home, you want a cleaning product that is safe, effective, and affordable. Naturally It's Clean provides the most effective hospital-grade cleaning products for your home while reducing the use of harmful chemicals. Their secret, powerful plant-based enzymes, nature's solution to cleaning. Today, you can receive 15% off your essential four-pack at NaturallyIt'sclean.com slash morning wire. When you use the promo code, wire. That's naturally it's clean.com promo code, wire. Russian military aggression towards Ukraine has escalated rapidly in recent days, culminating in a dramatic movement. by the Russian regime and a major shift in messaging and response from the White House.

Here to tell us more as DailyWire's Ian Howarth. Ian, a lot has happened with Ukraine over the last 24 hours. What's the latest? Well, first off, the White House is now calling the movement of Russian troops in eastern areas of Ukraine an invasion. After they've been hesitant for some time to use this language, this changed on Tuesday morning. First, the Biden administration's principal deputy National Security Advisor said that this was, quote, the beginning of an invasion, and then the White House confirmed with Fox News that they were indeed defining what is going on as an invasion. So this really is a significant change in messaging. Yeah, it is. And the Ukraine-related news has now really started pouring out of Eastern Europe.

Ukraine's government confirmed that two soldiers were killed in a shelling attack by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday. Putin gave a press conference on Monday in which he claimed that Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, which isn't true, by the way. and when Leaves-Mayer was asked during an interview what Putin's objective was, his response was pretty clear. Completely destroying Ukraine. You must know Russia was, is and will always source of threat for Ukraine and democratic countries in world. But the big news from yesterday, of course, is Biden's first press conference since the White House confirmed that Russia was invading Ukraine. Right. So what can you tell us about that speech? Well, first it was pretty brief, less than 10 minutes, and he didn't take any questions from journalists before leaving.

But he did touch on a few key points. The first was that Putin's rewriting of Ukraine's history was, quote, bizarre, and that Russia's latest military action violates international law. Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare? new so-called countries on territory that belong to his neighbors. This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community. The second is that the U.S. would respond to this invasion by imposing sanctions, which he said would go far beyond those imposed in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea. So he announced sanctions. Who exactly would the sanctions target?

Well, one is going to be a full set of blocking sanctions against two Russian financial institutions. which would look to cut off the Russian government from Western funding. He also said he would target some individuals. Starting tomorrow and continuing in the days ahead, will also impose sanctions on Russians' elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well. And Biden also confirmed Germany's announcement

that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project would not go ahead. And beyond sanctions, did Biden discuss any other actions? He did. Biden announced additional defensive moves and support for Ukraine, such as authorizing U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen Baltic allies. But he was also careful to emphasize that these were defensive moves and make a clear distinction between defending Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO and other NATO states. Let me be clear. These are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message,

zone, that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory. And Biden concluded by claiming that Putin would be surprised that Western countries were working in unison and that Russia should be judged on its actions, not its words. The U.S., Biden said, was ready to respond with, quote, unity, clarity, and conviction, regardless of Russia's next move. Well, things related to Ukraine have been less than clear and unified at this point, but we'll see what comes next. Thanks, Ian. Thanks, John. DailyWire's Ian Howers.

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. President Biden has reportedly begun the interview process to find the successor to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Here with more on who the president is considering and what he's doing to win Republican support for the eventual nominee is Daily Wires Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, what do we know about the interview process so far?

Well, for the last month, White House officials have been pretty tight-lipped about things, but this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Biden had formerly begun interviewing candidates. Now, during the 2020 campaign, he drew a lot of attention for promising to nominate a black woman to the court if an opening were made available. and earlier this month he said he'd follow through on that promise. And that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. According to the president's team, he is on track to make this pick actually by the end of February. So very soon, just ahead of his March 1st State of the Union address.

So we should have more concrete answers here in the coming days. And what do we know about the potential nominees? So according to President Biden, he's narrowed the list down to four main contenders. and he's done a, quote, deep dive on each of them. Among the four are Leandro Kruger, a member of California Supreme Court, and Juliana Michelle Childs, a federal judge from South Carolina. But the presumptive favorite right now, according to multiple reports from within the White House, is D.C. Circuit Court judge Katanji Brown Jackson.

Now, the D.C. Circuit Court is often considered a breeding ground for Supreme Court picks because it often hears cases with national implications. And Jackson is also just 51 years old, meaning she could serve for. for decades to come, which obviously is a big plus for Democrats. And one more nugget here, pretty interesting. If you look at the political betting markets, which actually have a pretty good track record predicting things like this in the past, Judge Jackson is far and away the favorite. So there seems to be growing consensus around her as the pick, but again, we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, we're still waiting on the pick, but there's already been

some controversy this month surrounding just the nomination process, specifically with who the president has tasked with helping him make this pick. So what can you tell us about that? Yeah, the president set up a board of advisors to help with his decision, and among the members he appointed was Minion Moore. In some ways, Moore is not a surprise. She's a veteran of the Clinton administration and close confidant of Vice President Harris. But she's also a board member of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation and has been a vocal supporter of the defund the police movement and critical race theory. So with the resume like that, obviously a lot of people on the right are concerned about what kind of nominees she may recommend. But more than the Broadly, we've definitely seen some backlash to the president's decision in general to only interview black women for the job. For example, one recent ABC poll found that 76% of Americans want him to, quote, consider all possible nominees for the job, while just 23% supported the nomination of a judge based largely on skin color. So once the decision is made, what happens next? That is when the fund begins. The nomination would first be sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee,

who, after having time to research the pick themselves, would hold a hearing with a nominee to grill them on their judicial philosophy and qualifications, all that fun stuff. And then after that, the Senate holds a vote to confirm or oppose the nomination. Now, technically, Democrats don't need any Republican support as all they need is a simple majority,

which would be there based on the tiebreaker vote from Vice President Kamala Harris. However, the White House reportedly once bipartisan support for their pick in a supposed effort to show people that the court isn't a problem. political institution. But from what we're told, those efforts aren't making a ton of progress right now. So whatever happens, the next few weeks are going to get pretty interesting. Yeah, sounds like it. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That's DailyWire's Cabot Phillips.

A new policy in Washington State requires teachers to hide students' gender transitions from their parents, unless the students say it's okay for their parents to know. Now teachers say the effects of these policies on children are starting to show. Daily Wire investigative reporter Marade Allerty did some digging on this and is here to tell us what's going on. So, Marade, if a student says, I want to change my gender, but you can't tell my parents, there's not much the teacher can do. Yeah, that's right. Teachers in Washington State pretty much have their hands tied.

So this policy comes down from the state's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, or OSPI, the main agency overseeing public education in Washington State. In its guidelines on how to handle transgender students, OSPI warns that, quote, sometimes transgender students may not want their families to know that they're transgender or that they use a different name, pronouns, and gender designation at school. The agency goes on to add that, quote, often this is because they are concerned about a lack of familial acceptance and that this could impact their safety and well-being at home. What ages are we talking about here? What grade levels does this apply to?

These guidelines apply to K through 12. So potentially all the way down to kindergarten? Yeah. And the result, well, when a student claims their parents won't accept them if they change their gender, teachers have to essentially obey the child and hide what's going on from the child's own parents. OSPI says that students have the right to be treated consistent with one's gender identity. And I'm quoting here, schools are strongly encouraged to ask the student which name, pronouns, and gender designation should be used when communicating with parents and guardians before such communications take place. They say this is to avoid unintentionally outing the student at home. So strong encouragement from the state to hide what's going on with children from their parents.

That's right. So now, how is this affecting real teachers and students in Washington? Well, it's already causing situations where parents don't know their child has transitioned at school. Some teachers actually don't agree with the idea of hiding kids' gender transitions from their parents, and they're starting to sound the alarm. One teacher I talked to actually broke down on the phone when she was describing how helpless she felt. One anecdotal tidbit this teacher shared is that she's overheard students asking each other, what are you going to be regarding their gender identity?

She also shared that teachers at her school in Washington were told by school counselors to use students preferred pronouns and names and were instructed not to tell parents. Last year, this teacher said that she made the mistake of calling up a parent and telling them that their child wanted to adopt a new name and gender. identity asking the parent whether that was okay. And the parent responded, definitely not, were Christians. The teacher later got reprimanded by the principal and counselor for telling the parent. At the beginning of this year, the school made a point of spending time going over the guidelines on parental notification around gender identity in detail. So clearly cracking down on this, really enforcing this. Exactly. Now, I had the chance to ask Washington's OSPI about this. They told me,

disclosing a student's new gender identity to parents could violate privacy laws if the student hasn't given permission. Based on their guidelines, the school makes the call on whether the student's family is, quote, harming them. Now, Washington State is not the only state with a controversy around students and gender identity, right? That's right. North Carolina is another one. It now allows students to change their name and sex on state records without parental consent. This is heightened concerns among some about schools tacitly encouraging children to change their identities behind parents. backs. Parents in California, New York, Texas, and Florida have actually accused schools of pushing their kids to change genders. So the bottom line is that this is poised to become an even bigger issue around the country. And it sounds like parents and even some teachers are starting to really push

back on some of these policies. Thanks, Maraid. Thanks, John. Daily Wire investigative reporter Parade Allorty. Other stories we're tracking this week. On Tuesday, a Georgia jury found the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery guilty of federal hate crimes. Prosecutors argued that the three men were motivated by, quote, pent-up racial anger, whereas the defendants argued the men had recognized Arbery from security footage. On Monday, Colombia's constitutional court decriminalized abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. The decision will allow women to seek out an abortion without being prosecuted. Mexico's Supreme Court made a similar move in September,

in Argentina's Congress legalized abortion in 2020. And Britney Spears has reportedly secured a $15 million book deal with Simon and Schuster for a tell-all memoir. 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 tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire. newsletter. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at Dailywire.com slash subscribe.