Morning Wire - Suspected Terror Probed & Talarico Courts Christians | 3.13.26

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Domestic terror fears grow after attacks at a Michigan synagogue and a Virginia campus, Democrats believe they have found a new rising star in Texas, and we have the “skinny” on the 98th Annual Academy Awards this Sunday. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2679- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsor:Quince - Go to https://Quince.com/WIRE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.- - -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

I'm scared to death for my friends. I mean, I've never seen anything like this. Michigan and Virginia are shaken after a pair of alarming attacks as communities remain on high alert. I want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community. That's a terrible thing. We're going to be right down to the bottom of it. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howell. It's Friday, March 13th.

This is Morning Wire. Texas Democrats believe they have a rise. star in James Talarico as their Senate nominee. But Republicans say not so fast. If I had a dollar for every time someone said they're going to turn Texas blue, I could buy Fox News. And it's not going to happen this year, especially not with this character. And the 98th Academy Awards take place this Sunday. We discussed the headliners and the headlines consuming Hollywood. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. I am very excited to tell you about our sponsor today, Quince.

Quince is an online retailer that sells high-quality, classic clothing and home items made of real materials like cotton, cashmere, silk, linen, leather, and they sell them for extremely reasonable prices. Today, I am wearing a leather jacket from Quince. It's one of multiple that I own, and it was such an amazing buy. This cost me about $250, which is a fraction of what I've spent on some other jackets that I own, and the quality is extremely comparable to some much more expensive jackets. So if you're like me and you have a taste for luxury, but you also love a bargain, you need to check out Quince.

Please use Quince.com slash wire to support our show. Plus, that link will get you free shipping and 365-day returns. That deal also extends to Canadians as well. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E-com slash wire for free shipping and a whole year to decide if you like your items. That's quince.com slash wire. Concerns over terrorism grow after attacks at Old Dominion University and a synagogue in Michigan. Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce is here to talk about what took place on Thursday morning, Tim. So what have we learned so far about these attacks? Well, we'll start with the attack at Old Dominion University. According to authorities, a former National Guardsman stormed into an ROTC class on campus

and killed a retired military officer and wounded two others before he was taken down by students in the class. The attacker has been identified as Mohamed Baylor Jaloh. During the attack, Jaloh shouted Alahu Akbar. According to authorities, he has a criminal record and links to terrorism. Jaloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017 for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He was released from prison in December 2024. The FBI is investigating this incident as a terror attack. Now there was another incident at a synagogue in Michigan yesterday. Very alarming there. What can you tell us about that?

Right. So the good news here is that authorities say nobody, but the attacker was killed. A security guard at the Temple, Israel in Bloomfield, Michigan engaged the attacker soon after the gunman arrived. That quick action may have saved dozens of lives, including those of many children. Authorities have feared that something like this attack could happen. Here was Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bischard on Thursday. The chief and I have been communicating for almost two weeks. Every time I've gotten some intelligence from the national level, I've been sharing. We've been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening. So there was no lack of preparation. In addition, all Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out. Jewish congregations in the state are already taking extra security measures because of this, with officials in Michigan labeling this an anti-Semitic attack.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a statement called the attack heartbreaking and said anti-Semitism and violence have no place in Michigan. What do we know so far about the attacker in this case? So the attack began with the gunman driving his vehicle full of explosives into the entrance of a preschool at the synagogue. His car reportedly continued down the interior hallway before a security guard shot and killed him. As for the gunman himself, he has been identified as Iman Gossalay, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who lived in Dearborn, Michigan. And as we've reported before, concern for terrorism is very high right now. Now, President Trump did speak in Kentucky on Wednesday and address the war with Iran. What did we hear from him?

Right. During this speech, Trump touched on a lot of familiar themes, but one of his cheap topics was Operation Epic Fury. Now, the operation just began two weeks ago, and not all of its objectives are met, but the president has already declared victory against the Iranian regime. Well, it's only good if you win, you know, you can only only... And we've won. Let me say we've won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the in the first hour it was over. Trump also took a few shots at his predecessors, presidents, Obama and Biden. The operation is still ongoing, even though Iran has almost no capacity to fight back. And the president said that that is because he can't count on another U.S. president to finish the job.

We're not going to count on having competent presidents. We have to assume we're going to have incompetent ones like the one we had last time that couldn't walk off his stage, remember? Well, as you've laid out, Trump remaining confident but committed to finishing the job. Tim, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me. Democrats believe they found a new rising star in James Tala Rico. Tala Rico heavily emphasized his Christian faith to beat Jasmine Crockett in the Democrat primary for a Texas Senate seat.

Many in the party are now hoping his pitch could help them take back Christianity from the right. Here with more as Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. So, Megan, it's been a while since I've seen the legacy media and Democrats so excited about a candidate and a Christian candidate, no less. Why is James Tala Rico generating so much interest? Yeah, that's a really good question, Georgia, because Tala Rico was actually generating a lot of interest even before he beat Jasmine Crockett in that primary to run for that Texas Senate seat. He is one of the few openly religious. candidates on the left. And so, you know, he's generating interest, I would say, honestly, on both sides. On one side, very positive, and on the other side, much less so. And part of the reason that there's so much interest in him on both sides is because in speeches, in interviews, in social media posts, he will frame his views almost exclusively through the lens of Christian theology. In fact, this was what he said on the floor of the Texas House to defend his opposition to a bill

that would have protected girls' sports from accepting biological males. Trans children are God's children, made in God's own image. There's nothing wrong with them, nothing at all. Bullying children, it's a sin, a special kind of sin. And so for that reason, you're seeing a lot of enthusiasm from the media who feel that he is a Democrat who may be able to draw some of those all-important evangelical voters, even in a conservative state. So MS Now, which is formerly MSNBC, said that his quote, unapologetic embrace of his Christian faith sets him apart from other rising Democratic stars.

Vox said that he's reclaiming Christianity from the right by teaching Democrats a better way to talk about faith. And then the New York Times said that he poses a new kind of threat to Republicans thanks to his matter-of-fact critique of how faith has come to be expressed in the American Church. Although, as you alluded to, it's also garnered some backlash. I can imagine attempting to use the Bible to talk about having men compete in women's sports and support that might rub people the wrong way. Yeah, I think it would be hard to overstate the backlash as well, Georgia. And I'm not just talking about from conservative pundits and Tala Rico's opponents. I'm talking about pastors and theologians. You're hearing a lot of them out there quite alarmed about what. Tala Rico is saying and claiming out on the campaign trail. So Andrew Walker, a theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in an essay published in The Daily Wire that Tala Rico's arguments are not just heretical, but would be unrecognizable to any historic expression of

the Christian tradition. Now, for example, Talariko has said that God is non-binary to defend his support for providing transgender surgeries and puberty blockers to children. He has appealed to the Gnostic text, the Gospel of Thomas, which, to be clear, is not recognized in any biblical canon. He's appealed to that to argue that Jesus was a radical feminist and that Christianity is a feminist religion. And then on the Joe Rogan show, he said the immaculate conception proves that God endorses abortion. God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. That's how I come down on that side. out of the issue. And keep in mind, he's appealing to the virgin birth to defend some really extreme abortion positions. And I think that's why you're seeing so much pushback from pastors and

theologians. In fact, there was a viral post from Dallas megachurch pastor Josh Howardton, in which he unequivocally called Tala Rico a heretic. Now, he did have success in that Texas primary. Is that evidence that he can be successful with some of the moderates that Democrats, that Democrats want to woo over to their side? I don't think so. We have seen this movie before. Texas has not seen a Democrat win statewide election since 1994. So I am not expecting Tala Rico to win this seat, but we'll see.

Regardless, a candidate to keep an eye on. Megan, thanks for reporting. My pleasure. The 98th Annual Academy Awards are coming up this Sunday, and obviously I'm very interested in what everyone's going to be wearing. Georgia, maybe you should handle this segment. Well, this is my fifth year in a row doing our Oscars segment, so that's correct. Daily Wire reporter Lauren Bear joins us from our new lifestyle channel Upstream.

So Lauren, just to start, the new fashion trend that everyone is looking for on this red carpet this year is something we're calling heroin chic. Can you unpack that a little bit? Yes. Okay, so first of all, so fun to be here with you guys talking about a topic that we are detailing over on Upstream. The Oscars are this Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. To set the scene, I used to live down the street from the Dolby, and they close the entire block. Traffic is way worse than normal, and it's just everyone starving themselves for what my friend used to call Hollywood Prom Night. So this year, Conan is going to be hosting for the second year in a row, and we're set to see performances from all sorts of stars.

notably, my mom will love this, Barbara Streisand is going to be on hand to honor the late Robert Redford, who I love. They were co-stars in the way we were back in the day. And ballet icon, Misty Copeland, will perform during the musical moment for Best Picture nominee sinners, which B2Dubs got a record 16 nominations. They just shattered history for the Oscars. But I have homework to do because I have not seen any of the best picture nominees. Well, you and the rest of America, yeah. However, I really come for the red carpet. So just be prepared to be shocked at how skinny Hollywood looks now.

Now, you wrote an article for Upstream about the alarming shrinkage of Hollywood bodies and the Ozambic craze. Obviously, we were all around in the early 2000s, so we've seen this before. But we are back in skinny territory. Tell us who you are going to have your eyes on at the end. the Oscars. Everybody. Not everyone's copping to using it, but so much of Hollywood is on the shrinkage train. Different shrinkage than on Seinfeld, if you remember that episode.

I was in the pool! So maybe you've heard of Ozempic. It's the thing everyone can't stop talking about. It's a GLP1 hormone mimicking drug that is meant to regulate your blood sugar. It's used by diabetic patients. And it has like a weight loss side effect. So of course, all of Hollywood is right in there on that train, just shooting, shooting drugs and popping pills to lose weight.

So you might be feeling like a tiny bit of whiplash after the body positive movement when we were all doing Megan Trainers all about the base. And we were like, everybody has their different bodies and it was all a beautiful utopia. That is over. now we're doing like even faces of that movement like Amy Schumer Lizzo, Megan Traynor herself, are all dropping down to half their size. Now something that you unpacked in your article on upstream was that a lot of these celebrities who are appearing extremely thin also have a financial stake in the thinness

industry and people may not may or may not be surprised to see lots of, of these pharmaceutical ads during the Oscars. Can you unpack the financial side of Oscars night? Companies are making tons of money off of us watching the Oscars, even just stars walking on the red carpet. So, you know, there will be stuff in the swag bag that will Google. We'll Google, like, what are those shoes? What are this makeup? Stuff like that, including weight loss drugs to look like our favorite celebrities. So even if Oprah's not there, she has a book out that's about the weight loss drug that she is taking. And she already made a bunch of money off of us from Weight Watchers. Then there's Serena Williams, even if she's not there. She's associated with Roe.

You'll see her in ads where she's using Roe saying that she lost all this weight. Her husband was an early investor in Roe as a company. So they're making tons of money. They already have millions. They just need the rest of your millions. Well, I'm going to be honest, the only Oscar movie that I've seen, I think probably as sinners. That's the only one I've seen. But, you know, every year I say that I hate the Oscars and I still, I do want to watch and I'm going to watch. Lauren, thanks for coming in. Thank you so much. Thanks for waking up with us.

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