Morning Wire - State of the Presidential Primary & Israel’s Ground Operation | 10.30.23

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

A GOP presidential candidate drops out while a democrat joins the race, Israel enters its second phase of the war against Hamas, and hundreds of anti-Israel protesters are arrested in New York. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Genucel: Exclusive discount for our listeners! https://genucel.com/WIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former Vice President Mike Pence dropped out of the presidential race over the weekend as the field of Republican candidates narrows. I will never leave the fight for conservative values, and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land. So help me God. Where do things stand in the GOP primary? And who currently holds the edge in the Trump-Biden showdown? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Vickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, October 30th, and this is Morning Wire. Over the weekend, Israel entered the second stage at the war against Hamas.

Where does the conflict stand now, and what is the situation for civilians in Gaza? And hundreds of anti-Israel protesters are arrested in New York, as cities in Europe see waves of mass demonstrations. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. With less than three months to go until the first votes are cast in the GOP presidential primary, the field has begun to narrow with former Vice President Mike Pence

suspending his campaign over the weekend. Here with more on the state of the race and the latest on a new primary challenge to President Biden is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Hey, Kavit. So the GOP field has winnowed down a bit here since we last spoke.

Tell us first about that. Yeah, so historically the field begins to thin out before votes are even cast. And this year is no different. Last week, GOP businessman Perry Johnson became the first candidate to suspend his campaign. Despite an enormous war chest, thanks to his personal wealth, Johnson just failed to gain any traction to the polls

and ended up actually accusing the R&C of rigging the race against him by keeping him from the debate stage. And while his departure was hardly unexpected, we did see a big name drop out over the weekend. As former Vice President Mike Pence called it quits on Saturday, while Pence had universal name recognition coming in, he struggled right out the gate to gain support from GOP voters, many of whom expressed anger over his refusal to help former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 race.

Right. Here he is breaking the news at a Republican Jewish coalition event. It's become clear to me. This is not my time. So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today. So where does the remaining field stand with Iowa fast approaching? Well, as a political junkie, I would love to report on a back-and-forth battle to the finish line. But that's just not the reality right now.

President Trump continues to hold a historic primary lead, proving essentially impervious to any attack from his opponents or prosecutors in the courtroom. The latest polls have him around 60% among primary voters, and no single candidate to this point has been able to coalesce the non-Trump vote. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared to be in the best spot to give him a real challenge, but he has continued to struggle with falling from the high 20s over the summer to the low double digits this week. He's now sitting around 12% nationally. Former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, has taken firm hold of third place.

She's polling in the high single digits. But again, there just doesn't seem to be enough non-Trump voters to go around at this point. And time is clearly running out for his challengers. Right, though it's already an election cycle like no other. So who knows? Right. So let's get to the Democratic primary. We've got a new face in the race.

Who is that? Yeah. So we've talked on the show. Polling does show that six and ten Democrat voters say they won an option besides Biden on the ticket. And this week, they got one. On Friday, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, no relation, officially entered the race. Phillips had publicly called for a Biden alternative throughout the last few months, and when none emerged, he took matters into his own hands. And it's worth noting Phillips does not appear to be running to the left of Biden. He's not offering

a far-left progressive wish list or anything. Instead, his campaign launched from New Hampshire actually focused on issues the White House has largely ignored or downplayed. For example, he specifically promised to fix the, quote, chaos at our border, not something you usually hear from President Biden or other Democrats. He went on to say that he wanted to address skyrocketing crime rates and also fight inflation. Now, it's worth noting Democrat leaders across the country were very quick to condemn him, calling him an attention seeker and rabble-rouser, but his presence does add another wrinkle to the primary.

Now, one reason we're seeing a primary challenge for Biden is because of this growing unpopularity within his own party and with independence. walk us through the numbers on that front. Yeah, he's been losing support over the last year. That much is now clear from the data. A new Gallup poll this weekend, for example, found that his approval rating among Democrats fell 11 points this month to 75%.

That might sound good, but that's actually the lowest mark in this poll since he took office. And even more concerning for Biden, from a general election standpoint, his approval rating among independents sits at just 35%. Among all Americans,

Gallup has him at 37% approval. That's about eight points low. than where President Trump was heading into the 2020 race. And also of the six head-to-head polls released in the last two weeks, there's not a single one right now where Biden leads Trump nationally. Wow, not a single one. Yeah. Now, obviously those numbers could shift from now to next November,

but there is no question that President Biden is limping into the election season. Yeah, we're not seeing a lot of momentum right now for the president. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a second stage of the war against Tamas on Saturday night. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the latest news out of Israel. So Tim, tell us about this second phase of the war.

Sure. It's the start of Israel's ground operations in Gaza. Netanyahu announced the new phase on Saturday evening after Israeli forces moved into northern Gaza. By Sunday, it looked as if the IDF had prepared to encircle Gaza City. Israeli air forces and mortar teams also dropped hundreds of bombs on military targets in the north and south. In particular, Israel began to target Hamas' extensive tunnel network that crisscrosses the country

and houses some of the terror group's main infrastructure, such as headquarters and arms and supply storage. We don't have a full picture of the pounding Gaza is taken. Detailed information is scarce since Israeli forces knocked out internet access and phone lines in the region. And the number of dead and injured Palestinians and Hamas fighters coming from Gaza's Hamas' Hamas'an health ministry aren't reliable, according to the U.S. and Israeli governments. Right. But from what is available, experts say that the operation is more restrained than they would expect if Israel was conducting a full military invasion. So this second phase may be an attempt to pressure Hamas to surrender as estimated 200 hostages rather than a full-scale invasion.

Now, what's going on with the civilians in Gaza? Has the evacuation effort been successful? Not really. There have been significant roadblocks. Hamas has made efforts to keep civilians in Gaza, and Egypt has been resistant to taking in refugees who are trying to get out. However, hundreds of thousands have been evacuated. Humanitarian groups have said the situation is severe for Palestinian civilians. Thousands of Palestinians looted the United Nations relief in works agency warehouses of tons of food and water, and the UN officials have said that they need at least 40 trucks of supplies coming into Gaza daily to keep up with demand. In particular, humanitarian groups say Gaza is about to run out of fuel. Israel searches every truck of supplies sent into Gaza, creating a bottleneck and has blocked any fuel from.

coming in. Israel is facing pressure from Arab countries and the UN to relax its blockade for humanitarian reasons, but Israel officials are concerned that any supplies sent in to Gaza may be stolen by Hamas for the war effort, especially fuel that can be used for rockets. Right. And that comes amid reports also that Hamas is hoarding some crucial supplies and even keeping it from civilians, correct? Right. According to reporting from the New York Times, the terror group appears to have three to four months worth of supplies, including food, water, and medicine for its 40,000 members stored away in the terror tunnels beneath Gaza. That includes up to 264,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel. The group has created stockpiles of supplies over the years sent by its state sponsors,

such as Iran and Qatar, and from taking it from humanitarian shipments. Now, taking a step back from Israel and Hamas, since the war broke out, there's been a significant uptick in public displays of anti-Semitism. We're now even seeing some reports of pogroms in Russia. What's going on there? Yeah, a crowd of people stormed an airport in the Russian Republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening. They gathered after word got out that a flight had landed in Mahatjala from Tel Aviv. Hundreds of people waving Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Semitic slogans stormed the airport and the tarmac reportedly looking for Jews. Some were even seen checking the passports of travelers. Russia sent security forces in to control the situation, but the plane from Tel Aviv was locked down for a bit while the crowd was outside.

Here's some of what that sounded like. Netanyahu responded in a statement that he expects Russian law enforcement to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be. The Dagestani government sent out a statement urging residents to not succumb to the provocations of destructive groups and not to create panic in society. Well, it sounds terrifying. Tim, thanks for joining us. Any time. Some 300 anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on Friday night at Grand Central Station in New York City. The New York Post reports that rioters climbed the Brooklyn Bridge, blocked traffic, and even damaged cop cars.

The protest, which at times numbered as much as 7,000 people coursed its way through the city, finally landing at the train terminal, shutting down service, and leading the police to make hundreds of arrests. Here to discuss the protest is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey, Dave. So how significant an act of civil disobedience was this for New York City? Good morning. Look, this was clearly a large protest, but it paled in comparison to the George Floyd protests in 2020 or the anti-Iraq war protests of 2004 that numbered over 100,000.

This was clearly very organized. Hundreds all had the same T-shirt saying, not in my name. So, yeah, the activists got themselves out there. what they failed to do was get the normal public out there with them. And that is significant. Progressive organizations and politicians are working very hard to conflate condemnation of Israel with the leftist parade of so-called anti-racism or LGB&T rights. But thus far, the pure atrocity of what Hamas committed on 10-7 has been a deal-breaker for a lot of people who would otherwise paint a sign and go chant truth to power on the streets.

Right. Now, in Europe, we saw a very different, scenes in which there were hundreds of thousands on the street protesting against Israel. Why did it reach that kind of critical mass there, but not here? I think there's a few reasons. These countries have larger Muslim populations, but also, obviously, the United States and Israel have a unique relationship, but they also both view themselves as unique, essential, and exceptional countries. For Americans as the global leader, and for Israel, not just as a safe haven for Jews,

but as an entity that helps to protect Jews across the globe. Europe in general, and we see this at the United Nations, expresses much more relativism in regard to this conflict. Thus far, from polling and from seeing the lackluster attempts to bring about big crowds, Americans are pretty clear about which side they're on here. Now, the demand of these protesters is a ceasefire and really an end to Israel's campaign to root out Hamas. Why is that something that both Israel and the U.S. so soundly reject? I mean, in a word, deterrence, those calling for Israel to back down here are also asking them to invite further attacks, possibly even more depraved than the atrocities we saw on 10-7.

That isn't something that Israel and its allies can accept at this point. Prime Minister Netanyahu has called this the Second War of Independence for Israel. He views this as an existential threat, and there's likely no number of protesters anywhere who can keep him in his country from pursuing its aim to destroy Hamas. Yeah, they made their commitment to doing that very clear. Finally, this has become a political challenge for President Biden, who saw a dramatic drop in public approval from Democrats over the past month. How can he thread the needle between Democrats who support Israel and those who are demanding a ceasefire? That's the $64,000 question, John.

Clearly, some deep divides exist among Democrats on this issue. We've seen this with New York Congressman Richie Torres, an ardent supporter of Israel and his neighbor, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is clearly in the Palestinian camp. Traditionally, Democrats like Biden, have been fulsome supporters of the Jewish state. But the Obama approach, which is favored by his White House, has been to appease Iran. Ultimately, this is why public support for Israel, which polling puts it around 75 percent, is so important here. That will guide Joe Biden's hand, whether he wants it to or not.

Right. Meanwhile, Israel has begun their ground campaign, so things are really getting going over there. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.