Morning Wire - Trump Defamation Trial Verdict & NIH EcoHealth Grant | 5.10.23

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

A New York jury finds former President Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, The research organization accused of working with the Wuhan Virology lab in China is gets a new government backed grant, and a Texas elementary school shuts down for a two days after parents accuse the school district of overing up the sexual assault of a student. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  Cynch: Download the Cynch app and get your first tank exchange for just $10 with promo code WIRE. Visit http://cynch.com/offer for details. Fast Growing Trees: Get 15% off your entire order. Use Promo Code ‘MORNINGWIRE’ at http://www.fastgrowingtrees.com/morningwire Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A New York jury has found former President Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation despite his adamant denials. I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. The verdict is a disgrace, a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time. What happens next? And how will this affect Trump's re-election campaign? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, May 10th, and this is Morning Wire. The research organization accused of working with the Wuhan virology lab in China is back on the U.S. government payroll. It is absolutely ludicrous for the NIH or any federal agency to be shipping tax dollars to the non-compliant eco-health alliance.

What is eco-health alliance and what new research is the government funding? And a Texas elementary school is shut down for multiple days after parents say the district tried to cover up the sexual assault of a six-year-old student. Now the FBI is investigating. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Former president and current candidate Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation

by a New York jury on Wednesday and was ordered to pay his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, $5 million in damages. The lawsuit stems from an alleged incident. Carol says occurred more than 25 years ago in which she says Trump raped her in a dressing room. She never reported the alleged assault to law enforcement and initially called it a fight. She wrote about the alleged incident in her 2019 book, and when Trump denied her claim, she sued him for defamation.

Here to discuss is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus. So what exactly did the jury of three women and six men find? Good morning. The jury stopped short of finding that Trump raped his accuser, but they did find that Carol had proved her case regarding the alleged incident of sexual abuse. and that therefore, Trump's social media post calling the claim a hoax was defamatory. It's extremely important to point out that this was a civil, not a criminal case. So the burden of proof was fairly low, a preponderance of the evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt. But even for the eccentric and unconventional Donald Trump, this is uncharted territory.

Now, it was a contentious and at times somewhat ugly trial. Carol testified and from the court Trump did not. how long did the jury take to reach this decision and what may have influenced them? The jury deliberated for only three hours before returning both decisions. And yes, Carol gave very emotional testimony about the alleged attack, which she claimed began with what she thought to be harmless floating. Trump didn't testify in court, but there were video depositions. And frankly, the former president was fairly smug.

And maybe that's not shocking. At one point, insisting that Carol was not his type. and then saying the woman attorney questioning him also isn't his type. It's hard to get in the head of juries, and this was in heavily Democratic New York, but clearly they found Carol to be compelling. Yeah, apparently so. Now, we've seen some response from the Trump campaign already vowing to fight this decision. What can we expect from his team going forward?

Will they approach this as a real danger to his chances, or just another example of political targeting? Almost certainly the latter. This is, of course, just one of many legal actions facing Trump. who was indicted last month in a Manhattan court for alleged financial improprieties. He also faces potential charges in Georgia surrounding his 2020 election claims and potential federal charges in relation to the Capitol riot. Now, Team Trump wants to lump all of these things together as a massive witch fund, which is meant to keep Trump from returning to the White House. And he did get a bump in the polls after his indictment by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

So the hope is that his supporters just aren't buying these legal attacks. acts on him. Right. Now, this all comes at a time when Trump is being challenged for the nomination by Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramoswamy. It looks like Tim Scott and, of course, Ron DeSantis are also poised to enter. Will those candidates use this to their advantage? It's tricky, right? I think all of these candidates, maybe especially DeSantis, who sometimes pitched as Trump without the drama, are going to want to say something along the lines of, you know, hey, maybe we shouldn't nominate a guy who a jury says committed sexual abuse. But on the other hand, many, many GOP's, voters do believe that these are politically motivated and trumped up, so to speak, charges.

So the response probably has to be somewhat measured. Yeah. Now, I'm guessing that Democrats will not feel compelled to take such a measured approach regarding this decision. How pointed could those attacks be should Trump become the nominee? Democrats will pounce all over this. You know, there was some thinking that Bragg's indictment was overreach, and so there wasn't too much spiking of the football there, but this is likely to.

be different. There is no question that should Trump be the nominee, Joe Biden, or whoever is running against him, will be saying that a jury found Trump committed sexual abuse. They'll be saying it early and often. And even for Donald Trump, that's a pretty stark reality. Yeah, no doubt. We'll hear a lot about this case from Democrats. Meanwhile, Trump's team says they'll appeal this verdict so it may not be over. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus. Coming up, the National Institute of Health renews a controversial Lab Grant. The COVID public health emergency officially expires this week, ending some food stamp benefits

and changing how we track the virus. At the same time, the NIH has announced a multimillion-dollar renewed grant to a controversial research group. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. So Amanda, the COVID public health emergency, which was enacted over three years ago, finally comes to an end on Thursday. What changes can the public expect? So the biggest change will be a cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, known also as SNAP or food stamps.

Basically, these benefits are going back down to what someone received before the pandemic. So during the pandemic, households receiving SNAP benefits were given an extra $95 per month or potentially more depending on the household. It's estimated that up to 16 million American homes will see that additional welfare bump come to an end. There will also be some changes concerning testing and vaccines. insurers are no longer obligated to cover up to eight at-home COVID tests per month. However, Americans on Medicaid will still get those at-home tests covered until at least September of 2024. When it comes to vaccines and oral treatments, anything that's in the federal government's supply will continue to be offered at no cost. But when that supply runs out, which is expected to be early fall, the cost will depend on, for example, your insurance coverage.

Now, you mentioned that there will be changes in how we track the virus. What will those changes be? Yeah, that's right. So tracking from the CDC will still exist on COVID, but some of those metrics will no longer be tracked or tracked with less frequency. And that's because the CDC's authority to collect and receive certain types of data will change when the public health emergency ends. Starting Thursday, hospitals will start to phase out this daily county level tracking

and source data on COVID-associated deaths and positive tests will also change. Okay, now let's get into the latest development on the EcoHealth Alliance announcement, the NIH has approved a $2.3 million grant over the next four years for this research group, and that sparked a lot of controversy. Tell us a little bit about that. So this New York City-based research group is pretty controversial, largely because it's studying back coronaviruses and has ties to the Wuhan Institute of Irology. The group has been accused of awarding U.S. taxpayer funds for gain-of-function research at the WIV, something the group denies. There are many who believe this sort of gain-of-function activity, potentially

caused the entire pandemic. President Donald Trump in 2020 actually stopped this grant because of those ties. I'll note that EcoHealth has also been accused of breaking the law and abusing animals. I spoke to Justin Goodman, the senior vice president of the White Coat Waste Project, and he told me this development from the NIH's, quote, stunning failure of government oversight and accountability, and said the grant puts us at risk. By all accounts, EcoHealth has wasted money in foreign laboratories, potentially killed millions of people, broken the law, violated all kinds of grant policies, and we're still shifting tax dollars over to them for dangerous experiments around the world in 20 different countries, including what DOD money meant for weapons of mass destruction account. We really

don't know what exactly is going on with eco-health and what they're doing with their dangerous virus hunting all around the world. The president of EcoHealth, Dr. Peter Dajak, maintains that the group did not fund gain of function research in Wuhan. He's also promised to refrain from any gain of function research, stop any subcontracting to China, and promise to provide more transparency in their spending. Goodman told me the group still should not be trusted. Well, I think a lot of Americans are probably wary of any more of this research at this point. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. That was Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Prest to Giacomo. The FBI is now investigating the alleged sexual assault of a six-year-old at a Texas elementary school, after school administrators allegedly attempted to cover up the incident. Daily Wire investigative reporter Marade Allardy is here with the details for us. Marade, what do we know about this horrific story so far? Hi, Georgia. Well, this alleged sexual assault of a six-year-old girl happened in mid-April at South Elementary School

in the Plainview ISD School District, which is in northern Texas. The little girl's family says multiple boys in her class pulled her under a desk and forced her to perform sex acts during class with the teacher in the room. The boys recorded the sex acts with a school iPad. The young girl told her family that she tried to fight back, hitting one of the boys with a poetry book, but that the incident went on, quote, until they let me go. The six-year-old was also reportedly having nightmares and refusing to go to school.

She first told her family that a boy exposed himself to her in the lunch line at school, but it turned out that was not the worst thing that happened. The FBI is now working on the case along with local law. enforcement according to a statement from Plainview ISD. The case has also been submitted to the Hale County District Attorney's Office for even more investigation. Parents and community members are furious because the school initially tried to cover up the incident despite knowing about the video on the iPad. Over the past week, parents organized protests outside of the school district's administration building, and the school had to cancel classes on Monday and Tuesday of last week.

What's the school district saying? Have they given any kind of response or explanation for how this happened? Yes, the superintendent of Plainview ISD said that, quote, all of the steps that we're required to take, we took. The school found the iPad recording of the incident the day after the incident. He said a report was made and CPS was contacted. CPS is actively investigating this case. However, it appears the family was unaware of the incident at first. A state investigator also started working with local law enforcement and came to Plainview the next week, the superintendent said. He had asked that we hold confidentiality because he wanted to be sure that he was able to get the full story from each of the students, the minors that were involved in the situation. Also, the teacher who was in the classroom the day of the incident has been placed on administrative leave.

Now, what's the family saying? The family was understandably furious when they learned what had happened and that they were not informed. Here's Heather Gonzalez, an older cousin of the six-year-old girl, speaking about the district's response. Everything was no comment, I cannot tell you, no comment. So you mean to tell me abuse has been happening for a week and a half, and these kids are still at the same desk. My cousin is still at a desk with all boys having to see her abuses every day. The school district canceled classes for at least two days

due to threats of violence they said they received. The mass shooting in Allen, Texas was another reason for the canceled classes. The superintendent now says he wants to work together with the family to find a solution. For now, though, the little girls' family and other local families are protesting the school's handling of this serious situation, and it doesn't look like they will be easily satisfied. Well, there are a lot of disturbing elements to this story, but one thing that jumps out is there ought to be an investigation

into what those boys are exposed to at home that they even thought to do this. Mairead, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That was Daily Wire, investigative reporter, Marade Allorty. Another story we're tracking this week. In a video released on Twitter, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced that he will be hosting a new show on Twitter.

In the video, Carlson called out legacy media and said that the news we consume is a lie of the, quote, stealthiest and most insidious kind. He ended the video by saying the following. Starting soon, we'll be bringing a new version of the show we've been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter. We bring some other things to which we'll tell you about. But for now, we're just grateful to be here. Free speech is the main right that you have.

Without it, you have no others. See you soon. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with the news you need to know.