Morning Wire - Trump’s Trials Investigated & Anti-Semitism Act Fallout | 5.3.24

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Donald Trump’s Hush money trial wraps up for the week as House GOP probe the prosecution, the House passes an anti-semitism act, and Trump hush money trial yields poor ratings for legacy news networks. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Balance of Nature: "Get 35% off Your Order of Fruits & Veggies + $10 Off Every Additional Set. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/" Done With Debt: Learn more at http://www.DonewithDebt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm not allowed to testify because of an unconstitutional gag order. We're appealing to get order. And let's see what happens. The third week of Donald Trump's hush money trial wraps up in New York as House Republicans launch investigations into the prosecutors and their motivations. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Vickley, with guest host Mary Margaret O'Lahan, senior reporter at the Daily Signal. It's Friday, May 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.

In an effort to protect Jews facing persons. The prosecution the House passes the Anti-Semitism Act, but critics say it violates free speech and possibly even basic Christian beliefs. Yet again today on the floor of the House of Representatives, we had another show vote to make people feel good about themselves by passing a bill that says anti-Semitism in the title. And media coverage of Trump's New York trial doesn't pull CNN out of its rating slump. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Balance Nature is our go-te. two-way to get whole-food ingredients every day. They use an advanced cold vacuum process that encapsulates fruits and vegetables into

whole-food supplements without sacrificing their natural antioxidants. The capsules are completely void of additives, fillers, extracts, synthetics, pesticides, or added sugar. The only thing at Balance of Nature fruit and veggie capsules are fruits and veggies. Go to Balance of Nature.com and use promo code wire for 35% off your first fruits and veggie set plus $10 off each additional set. That's Balance of Nature.com promo code wire. As the criminal trial against Donald Trump continues,

allies of the former president have begun taking legal action of their own, targeting those who are prosecuting him. Here are the latest as Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot. So Trump is back in the courtroom today as the trial continues. What's the latest out of Manhattan? Well, on Thursday, the court heard testimony from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who previously represented two women,

Stormy Daniels and Playboy Model Karen McDougal, who allegedly had affairs with Trump and then accepted payments to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 election. Davidson claimed, quote, there was an understanding between him and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that those deals were intended to protect Trump's campaign.

At one point, jurors also heard a secret recording taken by Cohen in which he and Trump appeared to be discussing a hush money payment to McDougal. Now, for their part, the president's legal team cross-examined Davidson and brought up his past record of spreading what they called celebrity during, in pursuit of payouts, something they compared to extortion.

They also went after the credibility of Cohen, who is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution, reminding jurors of his long and well-documented track record of lying under oath. Right. Now, Trump was able to hit the campaign trail for the first time in weeks. Tell us about that. Yeah, Trump has been stuck in Manhattan for the majority of the last few weeks. Remember, Judge Mershan said he would face jail time if you were not present for the duration of the trial. So that leaves him to sandwich as many campaign events as possible into weekends or rare off days during the week.

At that point, on Wednesday, Trump held his first rallies since the trial began. But due to the court schedule, things were far more complicated than usual. He flew from Manhattan to Wisconsin for an afternoon event, then on to Michigan for a rally in the evening, and then straight back to Manhattan so he could be at the courtroom by 9 a.m. Thursday. Here he is speaking to those logistical challenges outside the courtroom yesterday. It was nice to be able to campaign one day without being in this ridiculous show trial. And who starts a case right smack in the middle of somebody's elections? It should be illegal because it's election interference.

All of it sort of gives an idea of the burden this trial is having on the campaign. And that's something Republicans say is intentional. Right. And now some of those Republicans have begun launching legal responses of their own. Tell us about some of those efforts. Yeah, this week, Republicans on the powerful House Judiciary Committee announced an investigation into Matthew Colangelo. He is one of the top prosecutors in the Manhattan Trump trial. Colangelo was a senior official in the Biden Justice Department before becoming a state prosecutor.

And according to Republicans, as part of a coordinated effort by Democrats to go after Trump for political purposes. Committee chair Jim Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding documents from Calangelo's time at DOJ, as well as any communications between him and New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg. who was leading the prosecution of Trump. According to Jordan, Calangelo was part of a similar DOJ investigation into Trump back in 2018 that was ultimately closed,

but is now, quote, seeking to relitigate an issue on which the federal government previously declined prosecution. Now, for their part, Bragg's office called the effort an attempt to intimidate them and influence the case,

but barring some sort of legal challenge, they will have to turn over those documents. And Jordan isn't the only GOP lawmaker challenging those prosecuting Trump, correct? Right. House Republicans have taken it upon themselves to essentially investigate the investigators. On top of that, inquiry into Calangelo, this week, New York Republican Elise Stefaniac filed an ethics complaint with the DOJ calling for a probe into Jack Smith, the man appointed by Attorney General

Garland to head the special counsel investigation of Trump. Stefanik wrote a letter to the DOJ's office of professional responsibility, accusing Smith of pushing for the trial to take place before Election Day as part of a broader effort to influence the race. According to DOJ guidelines, federal prosecutors, quote, may never select the timing of any action for the purpose of affecting any election or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party. But as Stefanik sees it, quote, Jack Smith's actions leave no doubt that the election is driving his timing decisions. For their part, the DOJ has yet to respond to that complaint, but do not expect Republican lawmakers to let up anytime soon. Yeah, this is clearly a major priority for them.

Kavit, thanks for reporting. Anytime. If you found yourself caught in a debt trap, it might not be your fault. They're called debt traps for a reason. You didn't cause inflation or make credit card companies jack up interest rates. But Done With Debt is here to the rescue. Done With Debt stands between you and your bill collectors. They negotiate a plan to get you out of debt permanently without bankruptcy and without loans.

But you need to hurry to see if you qualify because some debt solutions are time sensitive. Go right now to donewithdebt.com. That's done with debt.com today. A new bill that aims to crack down on anti-Semitism is creating a rift within the GOP. It passed the House with overwhelming Republican support, but some prominent conservatives are opposing it as an affront to the First Amendment. Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the latest. So Megan, there's been a lot of chatter about whether this bill falls a foul of free speech protections. To start, what specifically would it accomplish?

So this bill is really a response to the anti-Israel protests that we've seen on college campuses in the last few weeks, demonstrated. have been harassing Jewish students. They've been preventing them from getting to their classes, from accessing the library. And we've also seen some pretty appalling signs in verbiage, I think you can say, and that includes signs even advocating for the final solution. That is, of course, a reference to the Holocaust. So Congressman Mike Lawler, is a Republican from New York, introduced the anti-Semitism Awareness Act. This bill has broad bipartisan support and will begin the process of cracking down on the

anti-Semitism that we've seen run rampant on college campuses all across America. Now, essentially what it would do is require the Department of Education to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that was set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. A few ways that alliance defines anti-Semitism, and I'm just going to list them, accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations, making dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews, such as the myth of Jews controlling the media, questioning the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust or denying the Holocaust, using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism, including the claim that Jews

killed Jesus. So really, this bill would cut off funding of colleges and universities that allow these kinds of ideas on their campuses. Now, some prominent how? Republicans, including Elise Stefonic, through their weight behind this bill. She said that it's necessary to, quote, ensure that Jewish students and community members at America's universities feel safe once again on campus. And a lot of the House agreed with her. It voted overwhelmingly 320 to 91 Wednesday to pass the bill with the vast majority of Republicans backing it. Okay, so it has a lot of bipartisan support. Now, who's opposing it and why? Well, as far as far as, As GOP legislators go, a number of notable voices were out front registering. I would say pretty

strong opposition. And perhaps the most prominent of those was Chip Roy of Texas, who said this directly after that vote. Criminal behavior is criminal behavior. Violating people's civil rights is violating people's civil rights. But when we want to insert the government into what you're thinking and what motivates you, you are empowering that which should never be empowered. the ability of the government to police thought, to police speech, to police your views. And quite a few outspoken Jewish conservatives have also voiced opposition, including the American Enterprise Institute's Christina Hoff Summers, and Ben Shapiro, who full disclosure, is an opinion host and editor emeritus of Daily Wire. So Shapiro argued that a better approach would be to

cut off taxpayer funding for schools that are allowing things like illegal encampments and occupations of buildings and that harassment of Jewish students that we talked about. He said, quoting here, the solution is not to pass a bad bill adding yet more free speech violations to the giant free speech violation that is Title VI. Title VI is, of course, civil rights regulation that bans discrimination. Now, do we have a sense yet of how the Senate will respond to this bill? Well, it feels a little like GOP senators are waiting to maybe get an idea of which way the wind is blowing, because you're not hearing much, but Utah's Mike Lee has already signaled

that he's going to oppose it, and he's put forward an alternative bill that pretty much echoes Shapiro's suggestions. On the other side of the ledger, Florida's Rick Scott has been out front backing it in the Senate. He said this in a press release Thursday. The Senate has a responsibility to stand against hatred so our Jewish brothers and sisters can live without fear.

Okay, so it sounds like if it does pass, it will likely face some legal challenges. Yeah, it does. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Fox News Channel once again dominated the cable news ratings in April, despite Donald Trump's trial, which some thought would boost their rivals, CNN and MSNBC.

Here to help us digest the data is Daily Wire contributor, David Marcus. Hey, Dave. So first off, Fox maintains the top spot. Can you walk us through some of the numbers here? Morning, John. Sure thing. In prime time, the post-Tucker Carlson lineup at Fox News, average almost 2 million viewers. And while that's down 5% from April of last year, it still towers above MSNBC with 1.2 million viewers and CNN, which pulled about 625,000.

In the demo, a term of art that describes people 25 to 54 who advertisers prize most for their spending power, FNC again stood Supreme averaging 219,000 compared to 114,000 for MSNBC and 113,000 over at CNN. This has been holding steady for years now, and Fox has stubbornly stayed at the top of the heap, even despite challenges from other newer right-leaning outlets such as Newsmax, in particular the shows The Five and Gutfeld do what they call out in Hollywood, bafo numbers.

Yeah. There had been some thought in the industry that a Trump trial would be a boon for liberal networks whose viewers like seeing Trump in trouble. Why haven't we seen that? I think there's several reasons for this, but the main one may be that the trial itself is not televised. But also, even Trump's strongest foes have admitted that this case involving hush money paid to Stormy Daniels is really the least compelling or powerful of the four cases Trump faces. And as we touched on this week, there's not a lot of disagreement over what happened here. The entire case hinges on whether jurors think the payoffs were primarily about helping Trump win the 2016 election.

and even that may well not be illegal. So we're not exactly dealing with the crime of the century here. Right, critics say there's no crime here at all. Yeah. Going back to the trial not being televised, how have these news networks tried to make a compelling TV show out of something that isn't actually on TV? Well, John, judging by the numbers,

I'm not so sure that they have. CNN's attempted to juice up excitement with production values, including live shots of panels outside the courthouse and really roadblocking coverage to Trump trial only while the proceedings are ongoing, a savvy news consumer will understand that this is a way for the network to signal, hey, guys, this is really important. Now, in fairness, we haven't had the testimony of Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen, and those promised to be more salacious witnesses, even if they're not providing a whole lot of new information.

It does not appear that people's opinions are moving very much on these issues, possibly because so few are tuning in, but that could also go the other way. Maybe people aren't tuning in because they don't see this as a major issue or one that will sway their voting decision. Well, right now it doesn't look like this is going to be renewed for season two. I don't think so, John. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.

Before we sign off today, Mary Margaret, thanks for being here this week and best of luck with your new book. John, it's been a pleasure to be here, and I'm so excited for everyone to learn more about my new book, D-Trans, True Stories, of escaping the gender ideology cult. To hear more about that book, tune in to my interview with Mary Margaret tomorrow in an extra edition of Morning Wire. Thanks for waking up with us.

We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.