France Loses Control & Will ICE Be at Polling Sites? | 10.20.26

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Democrats sound the alarm on the possibility of ICE presence at the polls. We separate the facts from the fear-mongering. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, October 20th, and this is Morning Wire. French authorities admit they've lost control as riots expand across the country. The end goal here really is, frankly, it's the destruction of France. It's the destruction of Western civilization. And Elon Musk announces he's giving every child in America a share of SpaceX. Is this the future of billionaire philanthropy? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. A devout Orthodox Jew invited about a dozen friends to pray in his home. His city required him to get a permit and then recruit him to the U.S. Senate. He recruited his neighbors to spy on him. It may sound impossible, but it actually happened in University Heights, Ohio, to a man named Daniel Grand. 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The first is that Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, and President Trump himself have all said that there are no plans for ICE agents to be deployed to polling places on Election Day. Now, the reason Democrats and activist groups are talking about it is that the president has, in a very President Trump way, at one point over the summer mused, I think a journalist asked him or something, and he said, ah, you know, maybe we're thinking about it. We're looking into sending them. It might happen. But ultimately, and the second reason it's important to make this clarification is that they can't do that. Federal agents, with one exception that we can talk about in a second, are not allowed to be at polling places on Election Day. In fact, there are federal laws that govern that local law enforcement can't even be within a specific distance to a polling place unless they are actively stopping a crime. And for federal officials, the bar is even higher. Federal officials are not allowed to be dispatched to polling places unless they are protecting the polling place and the voters they are in from attacks by enemies of the United States. That's actually what it says in federal law. It's pretty intense. Yeah, a very, very high bar to clear. So, yes, there are now federal poll watchers, which are volunteers or agents appointed by the Justice Department. They go usually when states request them. Attorney General Todd Blanch has said that his department is going to send around a thousand of these poll watchers to different polling places. We don't know where. We don't know if that's finalized. But again, this is not ICE. They are there just to monitor. This is illegal. It's part of the Voting Rights Act. These are legally allowed and federally appointed watchers. And at every given moment in every state, right, because remember, states, not the federal government, adjudicate how elections work, so every individual state has its own rules governing polling places and things like that. And if these federal observers do come, they will have to follow state law wherever they go. Now, somewhat related, and despite the lack of federal presence at these polling locations, the Trump administration has actually been trying to crack down on illegal non-citizen voting. And Harmeet Dhillon, who's with the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, actually appeared on 60 Minutes just this past Sunday talking about this. She had some interesting moments that I want you to respond to, Tim. Take a listen. There are people who feel that the point is to sow distrust, about the whole election system. There are very few people who are non-citizens who end up voting, very, very few. And so, therefore, what's the purpose? The point is actually the opposite of what you were saying. It's not to sow distrust. The distrust is there. And so, all of these kinds of crimes are being prosecuted now for the first time, really, in volume. Now, are these actions just sowing more distrust, or is it helping to shore up trust in elections? Yeah, it's a great question, Georgia, because the whole non-citizen system is being prosecuted now for the first time, and voting thing is very tricky. I always like to say that it happens more than Democrats are willing to admit and less than certain Republicans like to suggest. So, in this instance, I think Harmeet Dhillon is more correct than Leslie Stahl. But this does get to an interesting point, right? So, I outlined all the reasons why ICE agents cannot and will not be going to polling places. But what this sort of broader Trump administration investigation is getting at is trying to prevent non-citizens from voting. Now, Democrats are saying that these things are part and parcel, right? How can the Trump administration, say that they're trying to stop non-citizens from voting without violating federal law and sending ICE agents to polling places? Of course, that's not how it works. They can be investigating illegal voting on one hand and not break federal law by sending ICE agents to polling places on the other, right? So, when you hear someone like California Governor Gavin Newsom say, this is just trying to depress turnout, that's sort of what he's referring to. These are two distinct things. But on the other hand, when you hear Republicans and conservatives sort of cheekily responding to those objections, and saying, well, you know, what's the problem? Illegal immigrants can't vote. So, what is the problem if there would be ICE agents at the polls? That's also a little bit too simple because no one's saying necessarily, not all the critics are saying that the ICE agents are there to stop people from illegally voting. Their argument is that just by being there, ICE agents will deter Latino or African-American voters from even coming to the polls, even those who are here legally. Well, we appreciate you coming on and straightening things out for us. Meanwhile, election integrity is certainly a key issue. The issue for the Trump administration is very clear. Tim, thanks so much for coming on. Anytime, guys. There's a point in every growing company where you realize the systems that worked when you were small don't work anymore. Suddenly, you've got controls in one place, vendor risk somewhere else, customer commitments buried in contracts, and someone is trying to make sense of all of it before the next meeting. This is exactly the kind of problem that Vanta was built to solve. 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The only way to get 20% off is go to joindelete.me.com slash wire and enter code wire at checkout. That's joindelete.me.com slash wire code wire. A French official has said it, the police have lost control in several cities across France. Meanwhile, Fox News reports that of 54 groups involved in these protests, only about one in three are actually student youth groups. 38 of these organizations include adult-led congregations. Joining us now is Niall Gardner, U.S.-European foreign policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. Niall, thanks for coming on. It's great to be here. Thank you. So these riots in France just seem to be escalating. How did we get to this point, and who's actually behind these riots? Well, those are excellent questions. And what we're witnessing right now in France, really, is a descent into barbarism and savagery. The police practically lost control of several major cities over the weekend. And I expect that the violence is actually going to get even worse in the coming weeks. And it's already spreading to other European countries, including Italy and Belgium. In terms of how France got here, I think it's the result of decades of open borders, mass migration policies, and the inflow of large numbers of third-world migrants. And we're now seeing second- and third-generation migrants taken to the streets, looting and rioting. But in terms of the overall organizers of these riots, those who are orchestrating this, it's a combination of communist and Islamist groups who make up the vast majority of those groups who are behind the violence that we are seeing. And the end goal here, really, is, frankly, it's the destruction of France. And there are reports this morning from France that some of the rioters and looters were even carrying AK-47s, submachine guns. This is based on. This is based on information provided by France's internal security agency, actually. And so it's absolutely horrifying what we're seeing. We're seeing this uprising and also clear evidence of terrorist activity. I do fear that the violence is going to be escalating significantly in the weeks ahead. This is just the beginning, really. Now, Macron has taken a lot of criticism for his handling of this, with some people thinking he's been too. standoffish and that his actual condemnation was weak. What's your opinion of his stance? He's been absolutely appalling, actually, Macron. In fact, I describe him as completely useless. In fact, he only issued a statement on the rioting yesterday in his address to the nation. And we've seen violence unfolding in France for several weeks now. And we've had schools on fire, large numbers of teachers being attacked. And Macron was missing in action, nowhere to be seen. He's actually now heading to the Middle East. And on Friday night, he was dancing with his wife at a Celine Dion concert the day before Paris was literally burning in the largest scale of violence we've seen in many decades. So this is the French president, absolutely weak-kneed and useless, clueless. He doesn't really know what he's doing. We do need to see, in fact, I think the French military, don't we? We do need to see, in fact, I think the French military, don't we?