Morning Wire - Texas School Shooting & Political Response | 5.26.22

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

More details emerge about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas, the red hot housing market shows signs of cooling off, and the firing of a Princeton professor sparks debate. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More details have emerged about the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers. We'll discuss what authorities have revealed about the most deadly school shooting in the history of the state, as well as the response from political leaders. Families are broken apart. Hearts are forever shattered. All Texans are grieving with the people of Evaldi, and people are rightfully angry about what has happened.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, May 26th, and this is Morning Wire. As mortgage rates go up, the high prices of homes are beginning to come down. We take a look at the latest housing data and what it means for buyers and sellers. And a tenured Princeton professor loses his job, but the reason for his dismissal is sparking debate. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Everyone knows that no summer barbecue is complete without the right sauces and dressings.

Make sure you're fully stocked up this summer with Tessame's amazing selection of dressings and dipping sauces. All of their products are manufactured here in the United States, and they have a wide variety of kosher, whole 30, and keto products. Whether you're in the mood for a creamy avocado ranch or a light refreshing lemon garlic dressing and marinade. There's a Tassimaze product for every occasion. Go to tessamaze.com, that's T-E-S-E-M-A-E-S dot com, and use promo code Wire to join the Tessam-M-A-M-A-S family today. Use promo code Wire to get 20% off your purchase. 21 people are dead, including 19 school children, after a gunman opened fire in an elementary

school outside San Antonio, marking the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook. Here with more on what we've learned about the shooter and how the country has responded is Daly Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, just a horrific situation here. What's the latest? Well, the Daily Wire doesn't name mass shooters, but the suspect in this case was an 18-year-old who lived locally there in Yuvaldi. From what we've been told so far,

the rampage started after he shot his grandmother at her home in town, leaving her in critical condition. He then sped to the nearby Rob Elementary School, crashing his truck through a barrier there before storming into the school, where he began firing at teachers and students. Officials say he barricaded himself in a classroom, and that's where the main massacre took place.

All of the 19 students murdered were in the same fourth grade classroom. But it's worth noting that there are still numerous victims in critical conditions, so the death toll could continue to climb. ABC News spoke to the shooter's grandfather who said this all still has not sunk in. I didn't know he had weapons or nothing or this or that there. But I wouldn't know. I wouldn't report it. Throughout the evening, parents from the school waited at a local government building where they found out whether their child had survived or not.

Throughout the night, parents could be heard screaming and weeping as it became clear that their kids weren't coming home. Hard to even imagine that. Now, we saw some details of the heroic officers who stepped in to stop the shooting. What do we know there? Yeah, the shooter's neighbors had called the police after seeing his wounded grandmother in her yard. So thankfully, police had already been dispatched and responded directly to the school. The hero of the day was an off-duty member of the Border Patrol's elite tactical unit, Bortak, who happened to be nearby when the shooting.

shooting broke out. He rushed into the school without backup and engaged with the shooter, killing him despite being wounded himself. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the shooter had been active on social media the day of the shooting, posting once saying that he was about to shoot his grandmother, then again that he'd shot his grandmother, and then final post saying that he was about to go shoot in elementary school. Now, as we noted yesterday, President Biden gave an address in the hours following the shooting. What did he say? He started the address with more of a consoling message, offering support to victims, as well as calling for unity and prayer around the country.

To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. So tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them and give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel right now. But then he shifted gears and did start to go more political, focusing on gun control. The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a little. a gunstore and buy two assault weapons. It's just wrong. What in God's name do you need an solvent for except to kill someone? Now, there was also some controversy at the press conference with Texas officials. What happened there? Yeah, Governor Abbott appeared yesterday at a press

conference with Texas law enforcement and other elected officials in the state to give an update on the shooting. And midway through the event, former congressman and presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke approached the stage and began shouting at Abbott. and others, including Ted Cruz, accusing them of, quote, doing nothing to stop mass shootings before being led away by police officers. Excuse me. Excuse me.

You're out of line and an embarrassment. Sir, you are out of line. I can't believe you're a sick son of a bitch. It would come to a deal like this to make a political issue. That was the mayor of Yuvaldi, Don McLaughlin, yelling at O'Rourke there at the end. And while some applauded the move, praising O'Rourke for drawing attention,

to gun laws, there were a lot of people who said it was insensitive. They called it a publicity stunt aimed more at garnering attention for his gubernatorial campaign than actually combating gun violence. But regardless, tensions are high right now, as you can imagine. Right. And just a tragic situation. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. 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. The overheated and expensive housing market is showing signs of cooling down. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. All right, Charlotte, first, what trends are we seeing in the housing market? Well, new data shows that the hot housing market, which sent home prices sky high could now be changing course. April sales dropped for the third straight month and existing home sales slipped 2.4% month over month, and that's according to the National Association of Realtors. The short supply of homes for sale, which has been a big problem, is now on the rise and demand for homes seems to be going down as fewer people are touring homes. Redfin reported that 15% of people selling a home in April reduced their asking price. A year ago,

only 9% of homeowners did a price drop. So some indicators of some cooling off, is this primarily related to hikes and interest rates? That's likely a big part of it. The Federal Reserve has tried to calm down the housing market by increasing rates over the last few months. In December, the average 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.11%. And recently, the number's been over 5%, the highest rates since 2009. But the prices aren't going down immediately. While they're dropping, most homes are apparently still selling for more than their asking price, and they're selling very quickly. Some experts say that it's also going to take some time to get through the high demand created by a shortage of inventory over the past several

years. Basically, there's a backlog of buyers lined up to get homes. But once that backlog of buyers runs out, the housing market could drop further. And taking a step back, the rise in interest rates means that Americans are spending significantly more of their paychecks on housing now than just a few months ago. In December, the average American household would have to pay 24% of its monthly income to pay a mortgage on the average priced home in the U.S. By May of 2022, the average American would have to spend 34% of their income to pay for the same house. It's a pretty steep increase there. Yeah, and that's according to Black Knight, a mortgage tech and data provider. And again, that's the biggest number we've seen since 2000.

six. So when you consider how Americans are being pinched on all sides by inflation, it makes sense that a lot of buyers may start delaying their home purchase. So the big question that keeps coming up, are we in a housing bubble? Will we see collapsing home values? It depends on who you ask. Some experts are saying we've seen similar conditions in the lead up to past housing bubbles. Mark Zandi, a chief economist of Moody's analytics, told Fortune that increasing mortgage rates should create year-over-year growth of home prices to go down to zero by this same time period next year. Right now, year-over-year growth is up 19.8%. If that happens, it would be the slowest home price growth rate since April 2011 to April 2012.

Is this regional or is it happening in every area? Well, Zandi said he is anticipating that some of the most overpriced housing markets in the U.S. will actually go down between 5 to 10% over the next year. Specifically, he pointed to Charlotte, North Carolina and Phoenix, Arizona as locations where this correction of house prices could happen. But those cities aren't alone. An analysis provided by Moody's analytics to Fortune found that 96% of regional housing markets are overvalued, some by more than 30%. That said, there are still other analyses out there that predict that home prices will hold steady and may even increase in the next year. So time will tell how this all plays out, but we are certainly in a historic time right now for homebuyers.

Yeah, and that's true for so much of the economy right now. Charlotte, thanks for bringing us this story. Thanks for having me on. That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond. Princeton University fired a professor for what it claims it found during a sexual misconduct investigation. But supporters of Professor Joshua Katz say the investigation and firing were retaliatory and were only pursued because the professor, professor publicly criticized the school's political response to the death of George Floyd. Here to discuss the situation is Daily Wire senior editor, Ash Short. So, Ash, walk us through

what happened here. Well, in 2020, some faculty wrote proposals to combat racism at Princeton and a student group calling itself the Black Justice League issued a set of demands for the university. At that time, Katz wrote an op-ed in the influential online magazine Quillette, pushing back on many of the demands, saying these suggestions would cause civil war on campus, including one that would provide benefits to junior professors of color, specifically because of their skin color, and another that would create a veritable star chamber capable of punishing people for behaviors deemed inappropriate by a committee of heavily biased members. In the op-ed, cats called the student group, quote, a small local terrorist organization that made life miserable for the many,

including the many black students, who'd did not agree with this member's demands. End quote. His op-ed led to a backlash on campus, and he became a lightning rod in the free speech debate. That's when the campus newspaper wrote an article detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Katz. So Katz was fired subsequent to that article in response to some of the controversy around

it? No, he was fired for his alleged failure to be totally forthcoming about a consensual relationship he had with a student 15 years prior, that he had already been investigated and punished for. But after his article was published, there was renewed interests in the relationship and a new investigation was initiated. It's the timing of the new investigation that's raising eyebrows,

especially since he wasn't accused of any crime, merely having a relationship against school policy. And what were the sexual misconduct allegations? Well, in 2018, two years before Katz wrote that article, he was investigated for a consensual relationship he had with a state, student 10 years earlier. After that investigation, he was suspended without pay for one year and put on probation for three more. But after his op-ed was published, the previously litigated relationship came under new scrutiny once again. The woman in that relationship did not participate

in the original investigation, but after the campus newspaper reported on it, and it was revealed that cats made other female students uncomfortable by taking them to dinner, something he did with many students, male and female, the woman filed a formal complaint, and Princeton launched a new investigation. Now, what new information were they investigating? They were looking into claims that Katz discouraged the woman from seeking counseling through campus health services way back when they were dating because he worried it would disclose their relationship. She also claimed he pressured her not to participate in the 2018 investigation. The school also alleged that he wasn't completely forthcoming about the relationship during the 2018 investigation.

So they fired him now? Yes, his attorney, Samantha Harris, said that even though Princeton insists the firing was due to the new investigation, she doesn't think anyone believes Katz would have faced this scrutiny had he not published that article in 2020. The editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper even admitted that the students who reported it had worked on it for months before publishing, meaning they began digging into his background, right after his op-ed was published. So what happens next for Professor Katz?

I wouldn't be surprised if he takes legal action against Princeton. A professor at the University of Central Florida faced a similar situation where the school went looking for allegations against him after he posted something on Twitter that angered students and staff. The professor, like Katz, had tenure, so his allegations against the university went to mediation. The UCF professor won because it was clear the university went looking for a reason to fire him after the backlash against his tweets.

The school never attempted to correct the professor's alleged behavior, something that would have needed to be attempted before firing a professor with tenure. Katz's situation is similar, so he might have a legal case. All right, well, we'll keep an eye on this. Ash, thanks so much for reporting. You're welcome. That's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Ash Short. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.

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