Morning Wire - Trump Mug Shot & Border Gates Open | 8.25.23

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Trump posts his mug shot on X, the border gates are open, Wall Street firms abandon New York and mask mandates on the rise. 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/ Consumer Tax Advocate: http://www.CovidTaxRelief.org is helping all types of businesses and nonprofits receive up to twenty-six thousand dollars per employee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dozens of gates along the southern border have been found welded open as illegal immigration numbers are again surging. The point of the wall is to keep people out with all of these doors open. It's not going to do that. What's fueling the new influx of migrants? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, August 25th, and this is Morning Wire. A staggering number of financial firms are saying goodbye to Wall Street and taking billions of dollars of assets and their taxpaying employees. with them. What's causing this mass exodus and how is it affecting New York's bottom line? And are mask mandates making a comeback? What's the Biden administration's official stance as we enter our fourth COVID season? And as expected, former President Trump turned himself in to Fulton County officials

Thursday night for his fourth indictment. Over the course of the day, a crowd merged on the county jail, including groups of supporters and members of the press. The former president was officially processed and for the first time ever, forced to pose for a mugshot. Trump also took a moment to address the press and his supporters. Really believe this is a very sad day for America. This should never happen. It's election interference. We did nothing wrong at all.

And we have every right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest, that we think it's very dishonest. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. A recent report revealed that more than 100 gates along the southern border have been welded open for months. The open points of entry are frequented by traffickers

and attract immigrants from all over the world. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to give us the latest on the border crisis. So Tim, first off, why are all these gates welded open and what's being done about it? Hey, Georgia. For context, according to the New York Post, the Biden administration is responsible for ordering at least 114 floodgates to be welded open

along Arizona's section of the southern border. The gates were apparently opened to help water flow during the monsoon season, as well as provide a pathway for antelope migration. But the rainy season came late this year, and immigrants had weeks of opportunity to pass through the 12-foot wide gates completely dry. It's unclear who gave the order to weld them open. The post report says orders came from multiple agencies, including the National Park Service. And how many people are thought to have used the gates for a legal entry? The gates allow an estimated 1,400 immigrants to pass through unimpeded daily. Human traffickers and drug cartels apparently drive busloads of immigrants

up to the Mexican side of the border and kick them out to cross through. Many don't even face border patrol on the other side since the agency is already stretched so thin. Overall border numbers are rising. The Biden administration celebrated lower border numbers for a couple of months in May and June, but fresh numbers out for July show a 33% increase in total immigration, much of that driven by illegal immigration into Arizona specifically. According to government data, border officials processed over 180,000 immigrants last month. about 130,000 of those were caught entering the U.S. illegally. Arizona's Tucson sector was responsible for about 40,000 apprehensions, a record for that section of the border.

So as the weather cools down, we could be headed back to the record numbers we saw last year, it sounds like. Have there been any updates to the Border Patrol strategy recently? Well, there are some court cases pending that could have an effect. A legal challenge against one of Biden's major border policies kicked off in court yesterday. Texas sued the Biden administration over what it called an unprecedented expansion of legal immigration pathways. The lawsuit says the federal government has abused its use of parole programs to allow immigrants into the country. Parole should only be given on a case-by-case basis and when there is a clear benefit to the United States. The Biden administration has argued

that its use of parole is on a case-by-case basis, and the benefit to the country is a decrease in illegal immigration, like what we saw in May and June. Outside of the legal battles, Congress may be trying to force the Biden administration to complete the border wall. The Democrat-led Senate passed a bill last month that would make the Biden administration restart construction on the wall. But in what could undercut the legislation, the Biden administration has begun auctioning off millions of dollars worth of border wall supplies that were left to sit and rust along the southern border. The New York Post reported that about $2 million worth of steel bollards have been sold off so far. Republicans have estimated that $300 million worth of supplies was left at the border when Trump

left office. Now, the border is obviously going to be a major issue in the 2024 race. How did Republicans approach it on Wednesday night during the first primary debate? It wasn't a major topic, but most of the criticisms were leveled at President Biden. Senator Tim Scott suggested flooding the border with more agents. Let's fire the 87,000 IRS agents and higher or double the number of border patrol agents. Florida Governor DeSantis gave one of the most memorable lines of the night. Drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border. That's going to be the last thing they do. We're going to use force, and we're going to leave them stone-cold day.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he would send illegal immigrants back to their home countries. I just want to clarify, would you send those people back? Of course. You'd have to. Since Trump skipped the debate, Pence was left to answer for the failure to finish the wall while he was in office. Look, we secured the southern border of the United States of America and reduced illegal immigration and asylum abuse by 90%. When Joe Biden took over, he threw open the southern border of the United States. And the wave of humanity, the wave of fentanyl that's been eloquently described here is a wave of human tragedy across this country. And as we reported yesterday, Trump skipped the debate to sit for an interview with Tucker Carlson.

They did cover some immigration, though. and Trump is retreading the path of his 2016 victory. He said immigration will be his top priority, his first day in office. Well, it continues to be one of the absolute top issues for a lot of Americans, probably more now than ever. Tim, thanks for joining us. Great to be on. Wall Street investment firms are fleeing from New York in staggering numbers and taking a trillion dollars in assets with them. The mass exodus began in 2019 and coincided with hundreds of thousands of individuals escaping New York during the COVID lockdowns.

Here to discuss the implications of this draining of the financial sector as Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Morning, Dave. Do we know what's driving these moves away from America's Financial Center? Morning. And where do I start? Taxes in Gotham are high. The cost of living is exorbitant. Crime is rampant. There's a migrant crisis, a homeless crisis, a drug crisis, and the cumulative effects have just made New York an unattractive place to do business. And you mentioned the lockdowns. During COVID, a lot of companies, especially, white-collar companies found out that they can really do business from anywhere. So why not pick up and move to a place where your employees feel wealthier and safer? That's exactly what 158 big firms did, taking a trillion dollars out of the city's economy and potentially billions in tax

revenue. That's a lot of money. Do we know where these companies have been moving to, and if so, has it followed the sort of migratory patterns we saw during COVID? Bingo. The top choice is Florida, just as it was for citizens who fled New York during the lockdowns. There, companies find lower taxes and higher quality of life. Icon capital management, which handles $22 billion in assets, moved to the Sunshine State, as did Elliott Management and ARK Investment Management. These are very big firms, and it's important to note that financial firms are responsible for a full quarter of all personal income taxes in the city.

So, I mean, if this keeps up, there's real potential for a doom loop. Yeah. Just how bad could this problem get at a time when, as you mentioned, New York is grappling with so many problems? Look, it's pretty bad already, but the real fear is that New York City could lose its cachet, if you will. Wall Street is synonymous with American finance, and for well over a century, having actual real estate in the Financial District of Manhattan was a sign that a firm was serious and important. If that image of the city is pierced, then really the less significant reason to have a two-one, two phone number and fancy fidey digs, you know, will be gone, aside from pizza and bagels, of course, but even they only go so far, John. What plan does the city and the state have in terms of trying to stem the flow before that

happens? What levers do they actually have to pull here? It's a big lift. Basically, the city needs to get a lot more competitive, which means tax incentives, yes, but also obviously just cleaning the place up. At the end of the day, no matter what, New York is going to be a more expensive place to do business than a Nashville or Dallas to other places attracting these firms. So New York has to have a unique appeal that used to be restaurants, nightlife, parks, and theater. All of these are in decline, and a bite of the big apple isn't sweet enough anymore to keep these companies from heading south for good. Given the billions in tax revenue that the city's losing, is there any way to replace it, or is this just going to make the job of turning

the ship around even harder? Of course it will. The migrant crisis alone is costing the city millions of dollars every month. And even if the federal government helps to bail it out of that disaster, is the city supposed to ask for more money from Joe Biden to put a band-aid over the bleeding wound of these firms leaving? Real change to turn around New York's fortunes won't happen quickly, but it has to start now. And so far, to be blunt, it just hasn't. Yeah, clearly there's a lot of changes that need to be made here. David, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. As the school year kicks off and flu season approaches a handful of institutions are re-embracing mask mandates.

Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allardy, is here with the details. So Marade, mask mandates are making a comeback? On a very limited basis, yes. For example, Morris Brown College, which is a private, historically black liberal arts school in Atlanta, announced a two-week mandate on Sunday. There are no active cases on campus yet. However, several students at the other three colleges included in the Atlanta University Center system, besides Moran University,

Morris Brown tested positive for COVID after students returned to campus for the fall semester last week. Morris Brown students must also practice social distancing. They can't have parties or large gatherings, and they must get their temperature checked when they arrive on campus. They also must comply with contact tracing efforts and isolate for at least five days if they test positive for COVID. They are the first college to make headlines for their restrictive COVID policy, but we

may see more embrace restrictions if hospitalizations begin ticking up. The college announced the mask mandate in an Instagram post, but started limiting comments after more than 100 people commented. Now, not entirely surprising to see that in academia. Also, maybe just as predictably, though, we're seeing mandates in Hollywood, too. Tell us a little bit about that. Right. A major Hollywood movie studio brought back its mask mandate as well. Lionsgate in California reinstated its mask mandate for most of its Santa Monica office employees after several employees tested positive for COVID. Lionsgate Studio is also doing contact tracing and giving out free COVID test kits, same as the Atlanta University.

They're also asking employees to self-screen for COVID before coming to work. So these institutions are bringing back mandates after previously dropping them. What prompted that? Well, Lionsgate Studios' decision comes as LA officials say COVID cases are rising in the area. The CDC's website also says hospital admissions and deaths from COVID have ticked up nationally this week. However, the current COVID variant, which has descended from Omicron, has been spreading for months. And experts have said it's not any more dangerous than previous variants. Even so, the White House is putting out warnings about COVID as we head into the colder months.

Right. And what has the Biden administration been saying? Are they still pushing the vaccine just as hard as they were last year? Absolutely. The Biden administration is recommending that many people get not just the COVID booster shot, but also a flu shot and a shot for RSV, which is a respiratory virus that can be. dangerous for babies and elderly adults. One doctor who's an advisor to the CDC even compared an annual COVID booster to a seatbelt in a car, saying it's just good to keep using it. Back in December, some areas like New York City and Los Angeles strongly encouraged people to wear masks again as they warned about what they called a triple-demic of COVID, the flu, and RSV.

We shouldn't be surprised if we start to see health officials call for a return to masks this year as well. Well, no, thank you. Maire, thanks so much for reporting. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.