Morning Wire - Saturday | September 25, 2021

Episode Date: September 25, 2021

Five for Fighting’s lead singer speaks out about the Afghanistan crisis, Texas takes steps to build its own border wall, and a whistleblower sounds the alarm on CRT in Colorado schools. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has had profound implications for the arts, with all live music in the country now banned. We'll talk to Grammy nominee and lead singer of Five for Fighting John Androsic about his new song protesting the U.S. withdrawal and why the rest of the music industry has remained largely silent. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's September 25th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire. In a bold and unprecedented move, Texas has decided to bypass the federal government and begin to build its own border wall.

We'll look at how the project is being funded and hear from Texas Governor Greg Abbott about its progress. And the debate over controversial race and identity teaching in schools rages on. In a Daily Wire exclusive, we speak to a whistleblower about one school district's promotion of concepts connected to critical race theory. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Bet Online. Football season is back, and Bet Online is the number one spot for all your sports betting needs. Right now, new Bet Online users can earn up to $1,000 in bonus cash just for signing up. With the earliest betting lines and the largest selection of prop bets available online,

sign up now and start this season off a winner with Bet Online. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has had profound implications for the arts, with all live music in the country now banned. Grammy nominated artist and lead singer for Five for Fighting John Androsic is using his talents to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis. You might recognize that Five for Fighting song by John Androsic. He joins us today to discuss his new song and the puzzling silence he's witnessed in the music industry

regarding the unfolding tragedy in Afghanistan. So you put out this song, Blood on My Hands, in late August. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for that song? Yeah, sure. I think like all of us, we were horrified by the images

coming out of Afghanistan. And when our 13 soldiers were killed, I was just so angry. I felt that was preventable and went up to my piano and banged on the piano like I do. And it just hit me that I couldn't believe the world

we're living in where private citizens have to risk their lives to go rescue our citizens that our government left behind. And finally, when President Biden came out with the extraordinary success line.

I was very scared for that Orwellian narrative. And the song finished itself. The music industry has been relatively quiet about Afghanistan. What do you make of that? You know, I think it's disappointing. There was a folk singer from Afghanistan, Fawad Andari, who was killed by the Taliban. The first couple of days was dragged from his house and killed.

And, you know, you would think the folk singer would be on the cover, Burlington, but I haven't seen anything. And if it was a Republican president, certainly Donald Trump, there would be a dozen protest songs and it'd be on every channel, as it should be. Now, the title of the song is Blood on My Hands, and you assert in the song that Americans are complicit. Expand on that message a little more, because I think sometimes people aren't quite sure how to interpret that. Look, we're all Americans, okay? It doesn't matter who our president is. We're Americans. So it's on us. We elect our leaders. And there's been no accountability.

No one's been fired. Nobody's resigned. So it is on us. And if we don't keep this message on the front foot, then it's our fault. And did you have any trepidation about speaking out on this issue? You know, I was warned by everybody to not do it. But I thought about the women and children, you know, as we speak, being raped and hunted in Afghanistan. And any problems I get from releasing this song are trivial to them.

So I'm happy to be. put it out and whatever comes my way, as I said, it really doesn't mean much in the big picture. And have you thus far gotten any criticism or blowback from the music industry? Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's always, you know, people just, you know, sniping at you. But I think for the most part, they've just ignored it because they don't want Afghanistan in the news. And that's disappointing because, you know, Georgia, this is a moral issue. It's a moral issue. We abandon our own citizens. We abandon our allies. We broke our promise. There's no accountability, and it shouldn't matter who the president is to address that issue.

Before I let you go, I hear you have your guitar hooked up. We'd love to hear a little bit of your song if you have time. Sure. Got blown on my head. That was awesome. John, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Thanks. Have a great day.

Coming up, Texas bypasses the Biden administration and takes steps to build its own border wall. If you're with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile, you're paying too much. Switching to Pure Talk saves the average family over $800 a year. Right now, get unlimited talk, text, and six gigs of data for just $30 a month. Find the plan that's right for you at PureTalk.com. Texas is preparing to build its own barriers on the state's border with Mexico after President Biden halted all construction on President Trump's border wall earlier this year. This month, Texas state officials gave a moment.

multi-million dollar contract for the border wall's construction, which comes as Texas deals with an ongoing immigration crisis. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Alorty, is here to give us more on this. So, Marade, it seems like Texas is saying, look, we need a border wall now and we can't wait anymore. Is that right? Yes, that's exactly right. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has blamed Biden for the border crisis, saying that Texas has had to, quote, step up and address this challenge. So in June, Abbott pledged $250 million in state money to start building a border wall and other barriers. And he also started a crowdfunding effort to fund the project. As of the end of August, the public had donated $54 million

for a wall, so it seems to be a pretty popular project. Fifty-four million? Wow, yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, right. A few weeks later, state officials awarded an $11 million contract to a design firm and an engineering firm who will work together to begin the wall's construction. And finally, Abbott just signed a bill that includes another $750 million for border barriers. Governor Abbott spoke to Morning Wire about the project recently, and here's what he said. We've already hired the contractor agents to be in charge of this. They tell me that because of the expedited process that we're using here in Texas, we're going to be able to do it even faster than the Trump administration was able to get the wall up.

This is no guarantee, but I was told we may see some elements of the wall go up before the end of this calendar year. Abbott's office has said it identified 73 miles of border that may need a barrier. So yes, this is the first time a state has said, you know what, the situation at the border is so bad that we can't wait for the federal government to help us anymore. We need more border barriers now. Okay, so first of all, is this even legal? Does Texas have the authority to build its own wall at the border?

So that's not entirely clear, especially since there's really no precedent for this. some immigrant advocate groups have already threatened to sue Texas for building its own wall, saying that securing international borders is the job of the federal government. But some, like Don Huffeins, a former Republican state senator who's running against Abbott, says the governor has had the power to secure the Texas border for years. So what exactly has the Biden administration's stance been on building new border walls? Yeah, so Texas's decision comes after Biden, on his very first day in office, paused all border wall construction projects,

and canceled the national emergency that Trump declared to build the border wall. Of course, during his campaign, Biden made a lot of promises to undo Trump's policies on immigration. As we've highlighted here, the situation at the border has actually gotten worse just than the last few weeks. Right. The crisis has continued up and down since even before Biden took office. But in the past week or so, the influx of migrants from Haiti, more than 14,000 migrants, has escalated things. The situation was already bad back in July when border authorities encountered more than than 212,000 migrants. That's the highest number since March 2000, so over two decades. So, you know, I talked with Governor Abbott and Congressman Gonzalez recently, and they

discussed the administration flying some of the Haitian migrants back home, but they both said it's nowhere near enough and that thousands are being allowed to stay. Has the Biden administration done any more to address the crisis with the Haitian migrants? You know, other than those flights, not a whole lot. And in terms of the broader problem of hundreds of thousands of migrants searching the border, we haven't really seen a solution there either. Many are closely watching the short-term situation at the Del Rio Bridge, but the immigration crisis is certainly not going to disappear as much as this administration might hope. Well, Marade, thanks for the reporting.

Of course. Investigative reporter, Marade El Lorty. A whistleblower from inside the school district at Jefferson County Schools in Colorado is shedding light on the controversial ideologies being taught in the public school system. Here to tell us more as Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. So Charlotte, tell us what happened here. Hey, John. So an anonymous whistleblower from inside the Jefferson County School District was so concerned about the mismatch between what was happening inside the school system's

bureaucracy and what officials were telling the public that they reached out to me. To give some background, Chief Academic Officer at Jefferson County Schools, Matt Flores, said in a Denver Post article earlier this year that the 1619 project isn't taught at the schools. The school system also denies using critical race theory. But the whistleblower told me that isn't true, and the district does incorporate specific doctrines associated with critical race theory that explicitly teach kids and staff to look at one another based on the color of their skin. Interesting, yeah. So what are some of those doctrines? So documents provided to the Daily Wire show that the graduation expectations at the school imply that students are expected to become activists on behalf of left-wing ideologies.

For example, they say that students will develop cross-cultural skills and cultural self-awareness through study and travel in order to advocate for diversity, inclusion, and equitability. It says students are being trained to advocate for those things. Yeah, it does. And it says students will use multiple lenses, including social justice and intersectionality in order to become responsible global citizens. Social justice and intersectionality, it uses those terms. Yeah, and when it comes to how controversial issues are handled, the official district policy says teachers may express their own viewpoints and opinions. However, they have the obligation to be objective and to present the several sides of an issue impartially. Okay. Jefferson County's own site appears to take a definitive stance on controversial issues.

For example, its resource page for students and families includes titles like the 1619 Project and Ibrahims Kennedy's book, How to Be an Anti-Racist, both of which take a comprehensive. controversial far-left stance on racial issues. Other school districts like Fairfax County and Virginia have actually taken steps to change their own controversial issues policy from one that says not to push one side of a controversial issue to a new anti-racist policy. And keep in mind, the term anti-racist comes from Ibrahims-Kendee's writing and is associated with specific concepts from critical race theory. Right. And it requires activism against so-called systemic racism.

Right. So those are kind of the broad concepts that we're seeing in other districts, too. But what specifically did you hear from this administrator? Well, I wanted to know what the wake-up signs were that this was happening in the school system. They told me that last fall, the department forced all of the educators to take equity training focused on intersectional theory. The district leadership was also reading the controversial book, White Fragility, and confessing their racism. Really? Yeah, the whistleblower said that speaking out or voicing disagreement would make them lose their

job and that people who do not confess to their racism are considered racist. Are any parents pushing back against this? Yeah, actually they are. They said they get many complaints from conservative families, but those are typically pushed aside and hidden. They told me that homophobia and questions about CRT are considered to be equivalent crimes, so anyone who questions critical race theory is just dismissed as immoral. So that could really discourage people from coming forward.

Oh, you're right. I think so. Unfortunately, this kind of culture in schools isn't exactly uncommon. In many cases, parents don't even know that it's going on. Well, Charlotte, thanks so much for the reporting. You got it. Daily Wires, Charlotte Pence Bond. Another story we're tracking this week. A new bill was filed in Florida that closely mirrors the Texas Heartbeat Act,

which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. House Bill 167 blocks a physician from performing an abortion, if a fetal heartbeat is detected and allows private civil enforcement of the law. If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to MorningWire 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.

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