“Stop Nick Shirley” Act Passes & Trump Drops Economic D-Day | 8.25.26

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I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, August 25th, and this is Morning Wire. President Trump launches what he calls Economic D-Day with Iran as the tariff war heats up again with Canada. We are going to shut down Iran's oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities. And the WNBA's what is a woman problem escalates as Ennis Cantor freedom is kicked out of a game, for standing up for women's sports. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned with the news you need to know. Morning Wire is a production of the U.S. Department of State. It is solely responsible for its content. Your gift today powers the very legal battles that are defining freedom's future. Every dollar you give today will be matched by a special grant while funds last. Visit joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to make twice the impact for freedom today. That's joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848. 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Go to trustandwill.com slash wire and get 20% off. That's trustandwill.com slash wire and get your 20% off. Trustandwill.com slash wire. California Governor Gavin Newsom has just signed a controversial new law he says is intended to protect immigration workers from harassment. But critics say it will shield taxpayer-funded organizations from scrutiny and discourage journalists from investigating fraud. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the details. So, Megan, this measure has come to be known as the Stop Nick Shirley Act after the independent journalist who, of course, went viral recently for exposing the infamous Somali Learing Center, among some other similar scams. So, what exactly? What exactly is the impact of this new California law going to be? Yeah, Georgia. Well, the actual legislation is Assembly Bill 2624, and it expands California's existing Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program. And what that does is it includes staffers who are affiliated with NGOs, primarily with immigration-related services. So, think NGOs that do things like provide immigrant resettling services or legal services. If they're trying to gain legal status, health care services, things like that. And supporters say that those workers are being threatened and subjected to online harassment as a result of some of the exposure that independent journalists like Nick Shirley have done. So, they say that this program will allow these organizations and these workers to substitute confidential mailing addresses for their actual addresses in government records. But what that does is it does make it harder to track who is spending government money and how they're spending it. So, the legislation also creates civil liability around publishing certain identifying information like images of people or buildings. So, materials that can become very relevant when documenting who operates a publicly funded organization and how they're operating it. So, California Assemblyman Carl DeMeo has condemned this legislation. Here's how he described the bill. This bill would make it a crime for a citizen, journalists like Nick Shirley, to capture video or photographic evidence of fraud, wasteful spending and fraud of your taxpayer money. And posting that online would now be a crime under Assembly Bill 2624 that they just passed. Now, he said that when he tried to take part in the floor debate over that bill, Democrats cut his mic and wouldn't let him talk. Now, DeMeo mentioned Nick Shirley there. Can you give us a little more detail on why Republicans are calling this the stop? Nick Shirley Act? Yeah, sure. That's because Shirley represents the kind of journalism that has become increasingly influential, but also increasingly threatening to political establishments. He's an independent journalist who gained national attention by visiting daycares and hospices in California and Minnesota and essentially looking at places that are primarily run by immigrants, or at least many of them are. And his viral investigations exposed massive fraud in these programs. So, he's an independent journalist who gained national attention by visiting daycares and hospices in California and Minnesota and essentially looking at places that are primarily run by immigrants, or at least many of them are. So, just one example, one daycare operator, Fahima Mahmoud, later pleaded guilty to participating in two different fraud schemes that cost taxpayers over $5 million in federal funds. And then another arrest was made just yesterday of a foreign-born hospice owner in California accused of $27 million in Medicaid fraud. So, this was Shirley testifying about his work in front of the Senate last month. When we talk about fraud, we are talking about money that is being stolen from hardworking, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. This issue has nothing to do with political parties. No dollar says Republican or Democrat on it. When a fraudster commits fraud, he or she steals from all of us. Now, no Democrats were in the room to hear Shirley's testimony because they did a sort of unofficial boycott because they said this particular hearing was just about partisan political theater. So, no Democrats in attendance there. Newsom and California Democrats are insisting the law will not impact investigative journalism or silence reporters. What is their argument? Yeah, so they're saying that just filming someone or identifying a nonprofit or reporting suspected fraud in a journalistic context is not going to automatically violate the statute. California Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, who is coincidentally married to California's AG, originally introduced this bill back in April, and she said complaints about how this is going to impact journalism are just quote-unquote MAGA misinformation. Let's talk about what my bill actually does. It would add immigrant service providers to the state's Safe at Home program. This proven program already covers domestic violence victims, reproductive care, and gender-affirming care workers, among others. People who work to help immigrant communities should not have to fear being doxed for doing so. But California Republicans are pointing out that this law would allow NGOs to seek attorney's fees, and damages of at least $4,000 against a journalist. So even if a reporter could potentially win in court, the threat of that kind of litigation could be enough to chill fraud reporting in the first place. Now, what about the First Amendment? How does that square with this? Well, that is a very big question, and I think it is almost guaranteed that we're going to see a lot of legal challenges, and a lot of legal experts are predicting that this could end up before SCOTUS. But in the meantime, Assemblyman DeMeo is asking for the deal to step in and take some action here. So potentially, we could see the Trump administration move on it. All right, well, we'll continue to follow. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yeah, my pleasure. The U.S. has locked in two major financial tussles on the global stage. Joining us now with the details is Daily Wire D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice, freshly back from vacation. Welcome back, Tim. Thank you, Georgia. So happy to be back. So yesterday, the White House launched what it's calling Economic D-Day. Tell us about that. Yeah, so it's strikingly similar to how we've seen Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about Cuba in recent days and weeks. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is basically saying that the United States is going to take away any last lifeline that Iran has to exist in the world. The United States is going to make it impossible for Iran to buy things, sell things, trade, basically get any of the goods and services it needs to, you know, keep itself. It's going to make citizens happy and or, you know, capable of living. This is going to proceed as what we heard yesterday. from Secretary Besson in two stages. The first is just increased tariffs on individuals and organizations in Iran. Of course, something that the United States has been doing for a while, sanctions, I should say, not tariffs. But the second is that the United States is going to go out through diplomatic channels and try to encourage Iran's last few remaining trade partners from trading with it. So the United States is going to go to Beijing and try to convince the Chinese Communist Party, which is currently the world's biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to stop buying that oil. They're going to go to Russia and tell the Russians, the jig is up. You got to stop partnering and trading with the Iranian. Now, Secretary Besson acknowledged that this is obviously going to be a hard process. It was a very powerful speech that he gave and a very provocative agenda that he set forth. But we're still waiting on a lot of those key details, right? When do we hit that balance between? We don't have unlimited patience, but we realize this is going to take time. How exactly are they going to go about negotiating with China and Russia? At what point do the Iranians give up? And what do we do if they don't? What do we do if they truly just decide to hunker down and somehow survive this final tightening of the noose? All right, so lots of questions still to be answered on all of that. Now, we reported yesterday on these new tariffs on Canada, but there's now more developments on that front. What is the latest on our trade war with our friends up in the United States? We're going to be talking about the trade war with our friends up in the United States. Yeah, so we are really locked in a tit for tat with the Canadians. So just to back up quickly, this was the United States and Canada were in the process of negotiating a trade deal, kind of clouding these negotiations were the tariffs that the Trump administration placed on Canada all the way back a year ago. Feels like another lifetime ago. But, you know, the time had come for the trade deal negotiations. Things seemed like they were about to reach a resolution. And then over time, they were about to reach a resolution. And then over time, they were almost identical accusations. United States Trade Representative Jameson Greer says that we almost had it. But at the last minute, the Canadians asked for all sorts of unreasonable and untenable additions. And believe it or not, the Canadians have made the exact same accusation about the United States trade delegation. So you got to imagine that there's going to be a resolution at some point. I don't imagine a world in which we fully cut off trade with Canada, although I guess these days anything is possible. But I think the more likely scenario is that we have a few more days of trading barbs and threats of increasingly ridiculous reciprocal tariffs ahead of us before, lo and behold, someone strikes a deal. So final question. Vice President J.D. Vance has been on the road the past few days. Is this the start of a campaign? Look, if the vice president if you ask the vice president that he would say, of course not. You know, I'm just out here touting the president's agenda. I'm just out here touting the president's agenda. I'm just out here touting the president's agenda and getting back in touch with my roots in my home state of Ohio. For the rest of us, of course, it's the start of a campaign. It was it was it was a really good start of a campaign, I would say, unofficial, though it may be. The vice president was headlining rallies. He was talking about American industry and innovation. He was slinging hot dogs and beers at, you know, the local VFW lodge and things like that. He capped his trip off with a visit to a parish that had a Latin mass, which is sure to excite, you know, a local part of the of the Republican coalition. So, I mean, this checked all of the boxes for, you know, a not campaign trip campaign trip, which is exactly what we would expect Vice President J.D. Vance to do in this moment. He seemed like he was enjoying himself. The crowds were really going for him. So it was a really good start to this campaign, which, again, is not officially started. So I think that, again, this is buckle up, folks, because 2028 is going to be here before you know it. Well, I was going to say Cabot always says 2028 right around the corner. Tim, thanks for reporting anytime. Guys paying 70 plus dollars a month for wireless. It's overpriced. It's unnecessary. Here is the reality. My wireless company, Pure Talk, offers unlimited high speed data for just thirty four ninety nine a month. And the same plan used to cost more fifty five bucks. A pure talk keeps pushing to give you more for less. We love pure talk over here. I use it. My family uses it. Try it for 30 days. No contract, no cancellation fees. Head on over to pure talk dot com slash Shapiro. Make that switch. Save money. Keep your service. It's that simple. Pure talk dot com slash Shapiro. The WNBA is once again going viral over men and women's sports, this time after a former NBA star is booted out of an arena while he and another male colleague have now been officially told they cannot enter the women's draft. Joining us now with all this is reporter Lyndon Blake, who's been on the WNBA beat for us, along with a lot of other beats at this point. So we apparently cannot get enough of the WNBA. The online space can't get enough of this story. And there's some really serious elements to it, of course. But what is the latest here with this WNBA drama? I mean, in my world, it's officially football season. But WNBA is still dominating the headlines. The latest thing, Ennis Cantor freedom gets kicked out of the arena in Chicago on Sunday. Chicago Sky hosting the Indiana Fever. Ennis Cantor is there. He's sitting baseline. He's wearing a shirt that defines the WNBA. He's wearing a shirt that defines the women, an adult female. And Natasha Cloud, a player for the Chicago Sky, after making a bucket, comes across court, is yelling, cussing, pointing at him. Her teammates have to actually go restrain her the entire time. Ennis is kind of holding his arms up like, what's going on? He's the one that gets kicked out. She's not kicked out. Not Natasha Cloud. He gets kicked out. Now, I will say, as a fan, it seemed like he did step into the court, like right past the security guard. But when you're looking at this from a bird's eye view, you're like, what do you mean? The person that instigated this back and forth is the player who, mind you, is in the middle of a game. She went over there and, according to reports, was saying she's not going to sleep with you. Talking about Sophie Cunningham, because Ennis was there, obviously, supporting Sophie Cunningham, who is kind of, I don't think she knew what she was doing when she told ESPN in this profile piece that she didn't believe that biological men should play in women's sports. That is a stance she will always stand by. But my goodness. Hard to predict. It is hard to predict that it would turn into this. And to be clear, again, his shirt just defines a woman as the simple definition that Matt Walsh provided. Yes, that was the definition that Matt Walsh provided. And as wore on a T-shirt, seemingly there just to support the fever, Sophie Cunningham and Natasha Cloud couldn't handle it. And her coach stood up for her. She doubled down after the game, put out a post saying that trans people belong. And I want to make this clear, just like Sophie made it clear, this is not about hating trans people. This is not about that at all. I've seen other sports people today call Sophie Cunningham a transphobe. And I'm like, that is a stupid argument. Not about that. This is about biology and saying that men should not compete in women's sports. Now, just wondering, what rule did they say he violated when they justified kicking him out of the arena? So the WNBA still hasn't commented on it. So it's just that the security guard, he was escorted out after this, this little altercation. And this is kind of a sidebar. But when he was holding his hands wide, I mean, his wingspans over seven feet, you really get to see his size. You know, he's one of the men that are saying, you know, I identify as a woman now. I'm going to play in the WNBA next season. But apparently, that's coming to a halt as well, because ESPN on Monday came out with a report citing no reason, but just saying they've been told by sources that Royce White and Ines Kanter are the two men that play in the NBA who said, I'm going to be a woman and playing the WNBA are not eligible. So this is a little bit more serious. This they're actually officially saying they cannot go into the draft. They're still not making a statement yet about men in a holistic way not being able to go into the draft. Is that correct? Yeah. So technically, their bylines did not change. There is nothing in the WNBA that says defines a woman. It just says the WNBA is for a woman. And so they're saying that Ines Kanter and Royce White have been challenging because in so many other leagues, we have seen this kind of clarification because it's gotten to the point where you have to. The Olympics did it. Tennis did it. It should be done. They're doing testing to make sure these women have women chromosomes, women DNA, and can compete in women's leagues. The WNBA is not doing that. And that was the whole point of Ines Kanter and Royce White declaring for the draft to say, if you're not going to define the rules, rules are not going to define the rules, rules are rules, and we can play. I mean, while the WNBA is going to have to defend not drafting this male superstar in France at some point that I assume is going to enter this draft, maybe that's, you know, just online trolling, but it feels like that's going to happen at some point. I mean, the average salary in the WNBA right now is half a million dollars. So it's not surprising that this player, this biological man that's playing over there in the French professional leagues, why would this player not come over to America and join the WNBA? You have the gray line, and that is why people want clarity. Well, one of these three men is going to have to force their hand eventually, probably sooner than later. Lyndon, thanks for reporting. Thanks so much. Thanks for waking up with us. 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 ad-free and join our mission, become a member at dailywire.com. Also stick around after this for the trailer of Daily Wire's new film, Run, Hide, Fight, Infidels, and a begrudging thank you to a Rune parody for all the MAGA-mo information. If you're totally lost, that's okay. Don't worry about it. We'll be back this evening. evening for more news you need to know. Your country is beneath contempt. We who love and serve Allah fought back against the Americans and the Zionists from the scourge of secularism and the lands of unbelief. Anyone going to listen to Captain Saunders tomorrow? The retired Delta Force soldier with the new book out. He's the polar opposite of those brain-dead protesters. Given the current climate, should Clay Saunders even be allowed on campus? Mr. Saunders is a close personal friend of Chancellor Friedman. This is a decision I cannot fight. There are three ways Islam will conquer the West. Through immigration, through the wombs of our women, and by using our nation's freedoms against us. There are many ways Islam will conquer the West. There are many ways Islam will conquer the West.