Big Banks Face Discrimination Allegations & The Pope’s Cancer Diagnosis | 10.15.26

OK, first, before we give you the facts of the day, Run Hide Fight Infidels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the '80s and '90s. There is even a love story which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch, go check it out. You know what's wild? Most people are still overpaying for car insurance, just because it's a pain to switch. That's why there's Jerry. Jerry is the only app that compares rates for over 50 insurers and minutes. And it helps you switch fast, with no spam calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1300 a year. Before you renew your car insurance policy, do yourself a favor. Download the Jerry app or head to jerry.ai/wire. [MUSIC PLAYING] Concerns about affordability loom large as the election clock ticks down. The top light number was driven by a surge in energy prices, which we believe will be temporary. But there's a whole bunch of good news in the report. We take a look at the latest economic news and how the White House is responding. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor, John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 15, and this is Morning Wire. [MUSIC PLAYING] A bombshell federal report finds that nine of America's top banks, debanked conservatives and religious groups. Now we know, based on investigations that we're covering that time frame, that they actually had policies in place that they were enforcing in a viewpoint discriminatory way. And the Pope reveals he's been diagnosed with lung cancer. I think in this day and age, the Pope can't sneeze without the well immediately knowing about it. So I think it's within the Vatican's best interest to be this transparent. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. [MUSIC PLAYING] People disagree about a lot in this country. Taxes, health care, education. But wherever you land politically, I think most of us agree on this. Better information leads to better decisions. That's the mission of USAFAX to make government data clear and accessible, because public data should be easy to access, trust, and understand. So we can use it to make informed decisions. Read and sign our open letter to support public data at USAFAX.org. The final inflation report before the midterms came in hotter than expected on Wednesday. Here with more on the economy is wired in host Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, first of all, how bad were the numbers? They were not great, Georgia. Prices rose 3.7% on an annualized basis up from 3.4% in August. And unfortunately, slightly above what economists had expected. Prices climbed 0.6% in September alone. And of course, won't be news to anyone. The biggest driver of those increased prices is energy. Gas spiked 9.1% last month alone and accounted for over half of the overall increase. On the year zooming out, energy costs are up more than 20% from a year ago, as the Iran war continues to disrupt oil supplies going into its eighth month. But prices are also rising for airfare, clothing, used cars, medical care, and consumer goods. The one silver lining groceries were actually down a bit, dipping 0.1%, so some very minor relief when compared to August. But Americans have consistently said that their paychecks cannot keep up and to that point, wages grew just 3% over the past year. And after adjusting for inflation, average hourly paid fell 0.5% in September. So not great news. - Obviously, the midterms looming over all of this. How is the White House responding to the numbers? - Their message is what we've heard consistently that the spike is temporary and tied to the war, which they say is coming to an end very soon. But again, they've had that message for quite some time. Now voters will see how they're feeling about that. Trump's National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, called the headline number, quote, "disappointing," but said there is some good news in the report and he tried to highlight that, have a listen. - The top-line number was driven by a surge in energy prices, which we believe will be temporary. Food prices were flat to down. Drug prices dropped about as much as they have, since World War II, because of all the efforts present Trump's making to lower drug prices as energy prices normalize, as we get things more under control over the next few weeks, as we have over the last couple of weeks, then energy prices will be back where they were in the summer. - And that message is the general sentiment that we've heard echoed by White House officials. But again, the question is, if it is already too late for Republicans in the midterms, we're less than three weeks out at this point. Early voting already underway in a number of states as Trump's approval rating has hit its all-time low, even on the economy, which used to be a relatively high number for him for years, that was his calling card, his approval on the economy. Now, Democrats, as you can imagine, have honed in on this issue in recent weeks. They're candidates like Abdul El-Sayed. Hardly go a sentence on the trail without bringing up the cost of living and the cost of housing, and offering their solutions to voters' top issue heading into November. It's really remarkable, two years ago, this time we heard Republicans honing in on the economy. Now, it's flipped, it's Democrats with that message. Now, there are some signs that Republicans are not completely dead in the water on this particular issue, when asked about who they trust more with the economy. A number of polls do still have Americans saying that they trust the Republicans more, but the headwinds of what they're feeling about President Trump's handling will be tough for the GOP, and President Trump offering $5,000 to every American if Republicans keep the House and Senate might also be a nice sweetener there as well. - Now, seniors, at least, are getting a little bit of relief to us about the new adjustment to Social Security. - Yeah, they're getting a small raise in Social Security checks to keep pace with inflation. The Social Security administration announced a 3.6% cost of living adjustment for 2027. That's the largest bump in four years. So, for the average retiree, that means about $75 more in their monthly Social Security checks starting in January. Now, Trump's circle was quick to tell that news, and senior advocacy groups also applauded the adjustment, but argued that it's not enough considering other increased costs for retirees are facing. But, again, it's worth pointing out that's only going up because inflation is going up. So, good news for senior citizens, not so much for everyone else. Zooming out, Social Security benefits have still lost 14% of their purchasing power compared to 2016, even with these automatic payment adjustments. One advocacy leader said this increase is still not enough for most seniors' quote to even tread water financially. Older voters will still be a plurality of the vote this November, and they're also much more likely to vote than younger voters. Both Republicans and Democrats have avoided any talks of reform for the program. Despite projections that it's going to run dry by 2032, and for now both parties seem content on kicking the can down the road. - All right, we'll surely a topic we're gonna have to keep coming back to. Cabot, thanks for reporting. - Absolutely. - Every job has worked that actually requires your attention and work you would happily hand off to somebody else. 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Get your free guide at NetSuite.com/MorningWire. NetSuite.com/MorningWire. Here's an interesting health story. There's been growing research around weight cycling, the familiar pattern of losing weight, gaining it back, then starting the whole process over again, or fluctuating as many refer to it. And frankly, you don't need a study to tell you how frustrating that can be. You clean out the pantry, you swear off dessert, you lose some weight. Life gets busy and suddenly you're right back where you started. So the goal isn't just about losing weight, it's about building a routine that you can actually stick with. That's where our sponsor, Lene, from Brickhouse Nutrition, comes in. Lene is a doctor-developed non-prescription weight loss supplement designed to support weight loss in three ways, helping convert stored fat into energy, helping maintain healthy blood sugar, and helping manage appetite, and that constant food noise that can make staying on track so difficult. 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Joining us now to discuss the legal implications is Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom. Jeremy, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me on. So we have some pretty alarming revelations coming out of this report that was just released. For first, what are the top line takeaways here? - Well, debanking is no longer shrouded. We know that the big banks were debanking people for political and religious reasons. At the behest, sometimes with the Southern Poverty Law Center, sometimes on their own sense of what's good and right. And it's really kind of astonishing. how widespread we see that the banking problem was based on this report. Yeah, what banks were involved in this and the findings here? Well, the OCC regulates the biggest banks in America, so it's JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, PNC Bank, Wells Fargo. I mean, you name a big bank. They are under the jurisdiction of the OCC, and we're investigated as part of this. And to be clear, this is both individuals and businesses, is that correct? Yeah, organizations and individuals were debanked, the OCC found. Yeah, for reasons that banks should never be relying on, to debank people. And a lot of it is rooted in reputation risk, and that concept, which is very elastic, you can do almost anything you want with it. And the banks did, sadly, and basically said, if your views are outside of some perspective that we don't like, then we're going to deprive you of financial services. So the report is anonymized, so we don't know who they're actually investigating, but these are real people. In some instances, you can read them and say, I know exactly who they're talking about, because I've read that debanking report. But the banks were clearly engaging in viewpoint discrimination and the deprivation of services. And the OCC uncovered that, in the banks were telling our clients, extremely vague evasive reasons for why they were losing their accounts. Now we know, based on investigations that were covering that time frame, that they actually had policies in place that they were enforcing in a viewpoint discriminatory way. Now, what was the smoking gun that proved they were engaging in viewpoint discrimination? Was there one? Well, some of the banks said they were depriving people of services because they sold MAGA merchandise or because they had Christian beliefs about marriage and family. So there was a host of reasons that were listed in the report for why people were losing services, but there were some pretty blatant viewpoint-based denials listed right there on the report. You mentioned right-wing ideologies. Were there any left-wing ideologies that they also clamp down on? Very few, skewed very heavily right of center. Is there potential legal ramifications now based on this report? Are there actions that can be taken by some of the entities that were targeted? What's possible some of the people who were targeted can say, "You know what, that's me." Now that I know it was because of my views, perhaps there's a private rate of action that could be filed, but I think there's also more enforcement opportunities both at the federal and the state level through state attorneys general and other avenues, but I think the real reform that's needed is regulatory and legislative reform. Congress needs to pass a law that says it's illegal to deprive people of financial services based in their constitutionally protected activity and expression. That's for the agency that issued this report. Do they have the authority to take further action based on their findings? Yeah, it's the office of the comptroller of the currency. They do have additional authority, they have authority to issue rules in guidance for the national banks to reign these kinds of behaviors in, and in their report they're talking, they mention that they're considering additional rules and guidance that they will be putting out, but I think there's other enforcement opportunities as well by other federal agencies and even state entities. Certainly very troubling findings here. Let's hope steps are taken to prevent this kind of targeting in the future. Jeremy, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, it's my pleasure. Thank you very much. Pope Leo the 14th was diagnosed with lung cancer after a surgery on Tuesday. The public was told the procedure was to remove a nodule found on his lung, but resulted in the biopsy of the lungs entire lower left lobe. Here to discuss the implications of the diagnosis is Matt Fried host of Pines with Aquinas. Matt, thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks. So last we heard the Pope is recovering from his surgery. What have we heard? We've heard that, as you know, he had lung cancer. It looks like they got it early that they cut it out, that the Pope is doing well, that is walking around, that is had lunch and dinner. I believe they even created a chapel for him on his floor in which he celebrated holy mass. So from all we can tell, they got this early and he seems to be doing well. There's an upcoming trip to South America, a two week trip that he had planned, which we're not sure where they'll undertake or not. Now, it was pretty fast for them to get this pathology report back, but do we know at this point what stage the cancer is in? They haven't told us the stage of the cancer, so we don't have that information yet as far as I know. My understanding is that they caught this early, but I think we're going to have to wait to find out. Now, as for the way that this has been handled, this has been very public. A transparency has been a major focus during this last couple of days, and I think we're seeing something that's maybe a little unique from the papacy. Is this normal to have this much information coming out so quickly? I think in this day and age, the Pope can't sneeze without the world immediately knowing about it, so I think it's within the Vatican's best interest to be this transparent. If the Holy Father doesn't show up to his Wednesday audience, then rumors might begin and then something might run away from them. So being this transparent, I think it's a really good idea. Is this something that Pope Leo is known for being open about his plans? I don't know. I mean, he seems pretty straightforward about things, even playing Wordl with his brother, and just like random facts like that that he seems very free to share about. But again, I just think it's the right move to be transparent because Word's going to get out that he went to the hospital for an operation, and so if you're not transparent about that, rumors are going to start, and things might end up getting much worse, so I think it's good that they were straightforward about it. Like I said earlier, we don't know the stage that the cancer is at, and so hopefully we'll know that in the coming days. Now, he's only been on the job for about a year now. How long is the average tenure of hopes? Because I mean, they usually get into the job later in life. Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know the average, but John Paul II, for example, got Parkinson's disease towards the end of his life. And even though he was able to retire, he chose to be a witness of what it was like to be a suffering man till the end of his days. Pope Benedict XVI, who was his successor, obviously, chose to resign. He felt that the job was above the strength that he had to carry it out. But what's interesting is the previous Pope that resigned was over 500 years ago. So it's unusual for a pope to resign, and obviously we shouldn't be getting ahead of ourselves and suggesting that that might be happening. But that answers your question, I think. Yeah. And how has the Catholic community responded this week? Yeah, well, graciously, thank God. I think a lot of people are praying for Pope Leo. I saw a comment just yesterday on Substack that said, "I'm going to be praying my rosary for Pope Leo, who's with me." So a lot of support. Well, from what we've heard, this is potentially very curable if it's in those early stages. You're welcome. Before you go, Daily Wire has just announced a brand new movie coming this November. Stick around for the trailer of our new film confession. Thanks for waking up with this. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, add free and join our mission, become a member at DailyWire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know. Professor. Let me out! You will remember your duty. This isn't heroin. In useless sight. You sit there and shake because you're dependent on drink. Your sick is all over you. Have you ever seen a child start a death professor? No. I am. This episode is brought to you by Aloy Health. A widening part, a ponytail that suddenly feels smaller, more hair in your brush, and somehow an entire wig in the shower drain. Hair changes can feel deeply personal. Almost 40% of women experience hair loss during menopause and hormones may be driving it. Aloy offers prescription solutions for the scalp, lashes, and brows. All through menopause specialized doctors. 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