The Daily Signal - Question Looms Over Next House Speaker, Trump’s Third Day in Court, Healthcare Workers Strike | Oct. 4

Starting point is 00:00:02 I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, October 4th. Here are today's headlines. The big news in Washington, D.C. this week is revolving around the question, who will be the next speaker of the House. We won't know the answer to that question, likely until next week at the earliest. What we do know is that Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan has thrown his hat in the ring as a candidate for the speakership. The congressman's office confirmed the news to the daily signal earlier today. Jordan had defended McCarthy on the floor of the House yesterday, arguing that McCarthy kept his word and should remain speaker.

Starting point is 00:00:54 After McCarthy was ousted yesterday, McCarthy announced that he would not seek re-election as speaker. Today, Jordan indicated on X, formerly Twitter, that if elected as speaker, his priorities would be securing the border, getting spending under control, fixing the institution, and unifying the party. But Jordan is not the only one running for the speakership position. Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also announced that he's running for the position as Speaker. Scalise wrote in a letter announcing his run that this next chapter won't be easy, but I know what it takes to fight and I'm prepared for the battles that lie ahead. The Daily Color News Foundation is also reporting that Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Kevin Hearn of Oklahoma is also privately gauging support for a potential

Starting point is 00:01:45 speakership bid. And even former President Donald Trump did not rule out running for House Speaker when asked about it earlier today by the press. Trump says he will do what is best for America and the Republican Party via Colin Rugg's ex-account. Trump could technically run. Trump could technically run. for the speaker position since you don't actually have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker of the House, but it doesn't appear very likely given that he's, of course, campaigning for President right now. There is expected to be a vote next week, maybe on Wednesday, for who the next speaker will be. Well, speaking of former President Donald Trump,

Starting point is 00:02:33 today is the third day that Trump is in court in New York on a fraud trial. The case was brought against Trump by New York Attorney General Letitia James. James has accused Trump of deceiving financial institutions and others by misrepresenting his wealth in financial statements. Trump has denied the claims and he accuses James of using the case to pull him off the campaign trail, calling her corrupt. Trump told reporters outside the courtroom today that he would much rather be on the campaign trail than in the courtroom via Fox News. The corrupt attorney general sued me for fraud, and then they found out they had no case. And they have no case, and today, if you read the New York Law Journal, they basically say they have no case against Trump.

Starting point is 00:03:22 But I'm here, stuck here, and I can't come pay. I'd rather be right now in Iowa. I'd rather be in New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Ohio, or a lot of other places, but I'm stuck here, because I have a corrupt attorney general that communicates with the DOJ in Washington to keep me nice and busy. Some reports have indicated that the trial could last until December, but it's unclear how much of that trial that Trump will actually be present for. Turning back to Capitol Hill for a moment, the Daily Signal broke the news earlier today that Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance is introducing legislation requiring a person's actual

Starting point is 00:04:06 biological gender on their U.S. passport. The bill is called the Ohio Republicans Passport Sanity Act. Mary Margaret O'Lahan reports that the bill would require the Secretary of State to ensure that all applications for passports and passport cards include only the gender designated as male and female. Any passport documentation that includes the unspecified X gender designation would be prohibited. Vance told the Daily signal that the last thing the State Department should be doing is wasting its time and your tax dollars pushing far-left gender ideology. He added that there are only two genders and passports issued by the United States government should recognize that simple fact. Republican Texas Representative Chip Roy has also introduced this legislation in the House in June. The lawmakers took action and introduced the bills after the State Department announced last year that, in addition to M for male and F for female, U.S. citizens will be able to select an X as their gender mark on their U.S. passport application.

Starting point is 00:05:19 According to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, X is intended to meet unspecified or another gender identity. Vance says his bill is an attempt to restore some sanity. in our federal bureaucracy. And finally, a little bit of health care news today. Thousands of health care workers went on strike. In fact, 75,000 health care workers went on strike against Kaiser Permanente. They are striking for better pay and demanding more staff to care for patients. Licensed nurse Mickey Fletchell told the Associated Press that health care workers are not being heard.

Starting point is 00:05:57 So they are striking for their patients. Kaiser Permanente hospitals and emergency rooms will remain open during the strike, though there could be some delays for care. The Associated Press reports that the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions represents about 85,000 of the health care systems employees nationally. The union approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, and for just one day in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Doctors are not taking part in the strike. Burnout is becoming a lot more common in the health care field, and according to the Associated Press,

Starting point is 00:06:36 union members say understaffing is boosting hospital systems profits but hurting patients. The union hopes the strike will bring Kaiser Permanente around to an agreement for health care workers and will meet the health care workers' demands. MedPage today reports that negotiations are underway. Speaking for Kaiser Permanente's corporate office, Wayne Davis said the son. morning that representatives of the service employees international union and management were still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement. He added that there has been a lot of progress with agreements reached on several specific

Starting point is 00:07:18 proposals late Tuesday and that the organization remains committed to reaching a new agreement that continues to provide our employees with market-leading wages, excellent benefits, generous retirement income plans, and valuable professional development opportunities. Well, with that, we are going to leave it there for today's Daily Signal, top news. Thanks for being with us. If you have never had the chance, make sure that you check out our morning show. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to be sitting down with Heritage Action for America's Executive Vice President, Ryan Walker, to dive deeper into what is happening as it relates to the House Speaker.

Starting point is 00:07:55 We're going to talk about how we got here and what happens. Next. Also, if you haven't done so, take just a moment to subscribe to the Daily Signal Podcast. It really helps us to reach more listeners when both you subscribe and when you take a minute to leave us a five-star rating and review. Thanks again for being with us today. Have a great night. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning for my conversation with Ryan Walker. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Louie and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Question Looms Over Next House Speaker, Trump’s Third Day in Court, Healthcare Workers Strike | Oct. 4

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.