Morning Wire - Trump’s Blue City Ultimatum & Transgender Malpractice Verdict | 2.2.26

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

President Trump declares blue cities will only get help if they ask, two so-called gender-affirming medical providers are found liable for malpractice, and the president addresses the latest Epstein Files drop and Don Lemon’s indictment. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2611 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: NetSuite - Get the free business guide, Demystifying AI, at https://Netsuite.com/MORNINGWIRE ZocDoc - Go to https://Zocdoc.com/WIRE to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning 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

60% of the vans on Amazon come a vendor independent like Sac Magic. Hello, here Camille of Sac Magic. Our compresses, show of fraud are fabriced in Quebec, and our presence on Amazon enlarge our clientele to world

entire. Trouve of little enterprises like on Amazon.com. President Trump draws a hard line on anti-ice riots, saying out-of-control blue cities must police their own streets or say please.

The crime-bridge cities are all Democrat and run cities. And if they want help them to ask for it, because if we go in, all they do is complain. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, February 2nd. This is Morning Wire. In a landmark malpractice verdict, a New York jury awards millions to a woman

who underwent irreversible gender surgery as a minor. And the president fields questions on the new trove of Epstein files and the fate of Don Lemon. Wolf was a third-grade writer, was conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to hurt me, politically or otherwise. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

Every business is asking the same question. How do we make AI work for us? With NetSuite by Oracle, you can put AI to work today. Our sponsor NetSuite is the number one AI-powered cloud ERP, trusted by over 43,000 businesses worldwide. It's a unified suite that brings together your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth. And that connected data is what makes.

makes your AI smarter, so it doesn't just guess it actually knows your business. With the new NetSuite AI connector, you get total flexibility to use the AI of your choice and connected directly to your actual business data. Unlike bolted-on tools, this is AI built right into the system that runs your business, helping companies earning millions or even hundreds of millions stay ahead of the competition. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, demystifying AI at net suite.com slash morning wire. The guide is free to you at NetSuite. Newsweek.com slash morningwire. NetSuite.com slash morning wire.

Over the weekend, President Trump warned blue cities that they're on their own to police mass protests or riots unless they politely ask the federal government for help. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us now to talk about Trump's pullback from these deep blue cities, hey, Tim? So what was the president's message over the weekend? Right. As Georgia said, Trump spoke to Democrats who run essentially all of America's major cities. And he said that if they want federal help to stop unrest, they have to say, please, first. Here he was talking about that on Air Force One over the weekend.

If they want help, they can ask for it. And they're going to need help. Los Angeles, as an example, we went in, we solved it. The chief law enforcement officer in Los Angeles said they couldn't have done it without the federal government. A week later, he said they didn't need the federal government, you know. So we don't want that. If they want help, they'll ask, but they have to say, please. On True Social on Saturday, he was careful to note that federal buildings would still be protected by ICE, Border Patrol, and if necessary, the military.

But to local and state officials, quote, you must protect your own state and local property. In addition, it is your obligation to also protect our federal property, buildings, parks, and everything else. We are there to protect federal property only as backup. As you pointed out, this message was posted on Saturday. That's a day after we saw these protests across the nation against. ICE. Were those protests particularly violent? What did we see over the weekend? Yeah, there were anti-ice protests all over the U.S. over the weekend that began with Friday's National Day of Protest Against Ice. Thousands of people were in the streets from Los Angeles to New York City, and in essentially

all cases the protests were encouraged by Democrats. And yes, there was some violence. The president even noted one example in his true social post. In Eugene, Oregon, rioters attacked a federal building. Police eventually declared a riot and broke it up, but not before demonstrators broke windows, entered the building and scared the workers inside. In Los Angeles, activists clashed with local law enforcement similar to what has happened in Minneapolis. In certain places, organizers of these protests are facing pushback, though. In Texas, for instance, Governor Greg Abbott has called for an investigation into the Austin public school system after administrators there allegedly allowed students to skip class to join Friday's protests. Abbott called it political

indoctrination and said that Texas's education commissioner would investigate. Now, you mentioned Oregon there, and we have a report on Daily Wire about a nurses union in the state that's apparently holding trainings for its members to learn how to fight ICE. What's going on there? Yeah, not behavior you would typically expect from medical professionals to say the least. This story was broken by the Daily Wire's Amanda Presta Giacomo, and she reported that the Oregon Nurses Association is promoting training sessions to resist ICE and Border Patrol agents in hospitals. Now that nurses group represents about 15,000 nurses across the state, so this training

is significant. In an email obtained by the Daily Wire, ONA wrote to its members that, quote, intimidation and the use of force create fear that keeps immigrant communities from seeking care until conditions become life-threatening. This fear directly interferes with our ethical, professional, and legal duties, and endangers lives rather than protecting public safety. These trainings are ostensibly on nurses' legal and moral obligations to patients if immigration officers should happen to enter one of their facilities, but the email said that the trainings would not be recorded or posted online, which did raise some questions from those who received it. When the Daily Wire reached out to ONA, a spokesman defended the trainings saying that

the federal government is, quote, increasingly overstepping its authority and treading on the rights of local communities in Oregon, including patients, hospitals, and health care providers. Well, yet another example of this mass organization to resist or fight ICE, as that group said. Tim, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. Raise your hand if you've been putting off a dental cleaning, an annual checkup, or honestly, any kind of doctor's appointment. Yeah, my hands up too. But now our sponsor ZocDoc is here to help.

ZocDoc is a free app and website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors so you can find someone you love. Whether you're looking for dermatology, dentistry, primary care, eye care, or one of the other 200-plus specialties offered on ZocDoc, you can easily search by specialty or symptom to build the care team that's right for you. View thousands of verified patient reviews to get a real sense of who your doctor is. Then check their real-time availability and book instantly. No phone tag, no waiting around. Appointments made through Zoc-Dog happened fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking.

Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to Zocdoc.com slash wire to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. That's ZOCDOC.com slash wire. Zocdoc.com slash wire. Thanks Zocdoch for sponsoring this message. In a landmark malpractice verdict, a young woman has won a $2 million judgment against the doctors who performed a double mastectomy on her when she was just 16 years old. The case is expected to have a reverberating impact across public policy. Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham. So Megan, let's start with the basics. Who is the plaintiff in this case and what were his or her claims? Yeah, the plaintiff is Fox Varian and she is

22 years old, but back in 2019, she was only 16 years old and because of some mental health issues that she was having, she then identified as a boy. So she was referred to psychologist, Kenneth Einhorn and plastic surgeon Simon Chin in Westchester, New York. And both doctors agreed to cut off Varian's breasts. A jury found Einhorn and Chin liable for fail. willing to consider other possible explanations for Varian's mental health issues, things like depression, ADHD, autism, or body dysmorphia. Instead, the jury found that the doctors rushed to approve this irreversible surgery. So Varian was awarded roughly $1.6 million for past and future suffering, and then she also received an additional $400,000 for future medical costs.

So $2 million you'd think would be enough to scare a lot of hospitals and insurers. Now, what sort of precedent does this set for the issue of transitioning minors. We know that about half of states still do allow this. Yeah, so technically the jury here did not rule on the ethics of these surgeries or treatments in general. What they did was they ruled on whether the doctors in this specific case met the appropriate standard of care. And the key reason that they found that they did not meet the appropriate standard of care is because they concluded that these doctors skipped some important evaluation steps. But that notwithstanding, some major legal experts like Jonathan Turley are saying that this case could be a model for other lawsuits over such surgeries performed on

minors. And he points out that there are more than two dozen similar cases right now in the legal pipeline. One of those is Prisha Mosley's. She's suing the hospital and doctors that put her on cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers when she was underage and then agreed to cut off her breasts when she was 18. She put out a video statement Saturday after news of Varian's verdict broke. No one deserves to be lied to, especially as a child, about the nature of medical transition, the risks, the harms involved, and Foxvaryon deserved everything she got. And then we also have cases like Chloe Coles against Kaiser Permanente. That's set for trial next year. And Cole is alleging similar rushed approvals without adequate mental health support. And then we had Lela Jane, who

had a mastectomy at only 13 years old, she's suing for fraud. She says that her doctors hid the fact that 80 to 90% of kids who believe they are transgendered will eventually just naturally choose to detransition. And she says that medical practitioners terrified her parents with this false choice. Essentially, they said let her transition or she could very well commit suicide. So last summer, she testified before the California State Assembly. Listen to my voice. Testosterone did this. My vocal cords are so large, I can't scream. Don't you dare trivialize what happened to me. So if we see additional wins in some of these other cases for plaintiffs like Mosley, Cole, and Jane,

the political battle over this may no longer really be relevant because hospitals and insurers are going to increasingly find it difficult to justify offering these kind of treatments given the litigation risk that they pose. Now, this has become an albatross issue for Democrats. Is this a sign that maybe the trans craze is. is coming to an end? Well, certainly what we can see in polling, Georgia, is that it is very unpopular with the American public,

not just in the courts. So a recent Pew poll found that 56% of Americans support banning so-called gender-affirming care for youth, and that includes a majority of independence. And even 35% of Democrats now support banning, and that's up nine points since just 2022. So a pretty quick swing there. Nevertheless, we do have 19 blue states

that are currently suing HHS over its effort to stop these practices when it comes to children. Well, this could become a watershed case. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yep, my pleasure. Washington is a buzz amid a series of major developments, including the release of more Jeffrey Epstein files and the arrest of Don Lemon. The president reacted to many of those headlines over the weekend on Air Force One. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcan joins us now with the details.

Morning, Cameron. So where to begin? Let's start with Trump and Air Force One. What did we hear from the president? So the first thing we heard was some of his thoughts on the latest dump of the Epstein files. I was down at the DOJ last week when they announced that 3.5 million files in total have been released another 3 million just this past week on those.

They redacted every woman in those photos with the exception of Galane Maxwell. Obviously, this came after Congress passed the Epstein Files transparency. Act in November. Now, Democrats have scrutinized the president in terms of his relationship with Epstein and his name being mentioned in the files. Now, the president has said in terms of this latest dump that it was, quote, the opposite of what people were hoping. Here's what he had to say. This guy, Wolf, was a writer, was conspiring with Epstein to do harm to me. And I didn't see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were hoping. In Congress, the Clintons could be held in contempt this week

over the House Oversights Committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein as the Clintons refused to testify before Congress. Now, in the committee-level vote, several Democrats did side with Republicans on the matter. Now, as we mentioned at the top, the president did address a lot of major storylines happening right now that are front and center in D.C. He commented on the arrest of Don Limited. He commented on the arrest of Don Lemon in particular. Refresh our audience on what's going on with that case. Don Lemon was released without Bond late last week after he was indicted by a Minnesota grand jury for his alleged role and an anti-ice church disruption in Minnesota during the middle of a service. Now, the president slammed the former CNN anchor, a longtime Trump critic. Here's that from the

president. He's a sleaze bag. Everyone's known that. He's a washout. Probably from his standpoint, the best thing that could happen to him. He's getting, you know, he had no viewers. He had, he was a failure. He was a failed host. Daily Wire White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Olin, has been closely tracking this story. Here's what she told us. We got a hold of the indictment on Friday, and it really shows how Don Lemon and the eight

other co-conspirators allegedly worked with the protesters to storm a Minnesota church on January 18th, leaving these terrified worshippers pretty much trapped from leaving the building. So he was arrested on Thursday evening charged with conspiracy to violate the right of religious freedom at a house of worship and violations of the face act. And before he allegedly stormed into the church, according to this indictment, Lemon had attended a pre-op briefing where organizers advised him of their target. And I'm quoting here, provided instruction on how the operation would be conducted once they arrived. Then when they got into the church, he allegedly oppressed, threatened and intimidated the congregation and the pastors by quote, physically occupying most of the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the church, engaging in menacing and threatening behavior, chanting and yelling loudly at the pastor and congregation,

and physically obstructing them as they attempted to exit and or move about within the church. Lemon is ratcheting up his own media tour as CNN is reporting that he'll be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. Now, speaking of the media, before we let you go, we had another major development related to Trump and the media. The White House is obviously thrilled about this. The new documentary featuring Melania. A lot of buzz about that. Tell us about that. Yes, the First Lady's self-titled documentary earned $7 million this weekend,

which is considered to be great news for a documentary-style film. Unsurprisingly, according to Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave it a 10% whereas actual audiences gave it a 99%. I briefly stopped by the premiere at the Kennedy Center on Thursday. It was a who's who of Washington, and this film has definitely generated a lot of intrigue. Well, certainly just five years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see a positive portrayal of Melania on the big screen.

But here we go. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And for those of you listening to the show, now you can watch for free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.