(upbeat music) Newly minted VP picked Tim Walz faces accusations of stolen valor as he hits the Rust Belt states with Kamala Harris. - The bottom line in all of this is gut wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he quit. - Why are some calling his military service into question? And where does the race stand now? - I'm daily wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, August 8th, and this is Morning Wire. (upbeat music) - The secret service is under fire again. This time related to the White House cocaine investigation. - And the Olympics gender policies under even more scrutiny as the two boxers at the center of a growing controversy qualify for gold medal matches. - Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee helps you wake up each morning feeling dialed in and ready to make the most of your day. And now's your chance to get 20% off your purchase using code dailywire@blackriflecoffee.com. All of their explosive coffees are roasted right here in the USA by a veteran led team of expert roasters obsessed with crafting the perfect cup of coffee. Every black rifle purchase makes it possible for black rifle coffee company to help provide funding, training and equipment to our nation's military and first responders. Head to their site now for 20% off your purchase with code dailywire. - With less than three months to go until election day, the Harris and Trump campaigns held dueling rallies in Wisconsin as both sides raced to define new Harris running mate, Tim Walz. - Here with the latest from the campaign trail and the details on a brewing campaign controversy is daily wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. So Cabot less than 90 days until the final votes are cast. Where do things stand? - Well, the race is now closer than ever. The Trump campaign had been warning the left would experience a Harris honeymoon after Biden was replaced and the Trump would likely fall behind in the polls and that has come to fruition. The average of this week's polling has Harris leading by around half a percentage point nationally and gaining ground in virtually every swing state. She's also solidified support among two demographics where Biden had really been struggling, women and voters under 30. Though it is worth noting Trump appears to have made some serious inroads with black voters. In the four latest polls this week, he's averaging 20% support among the demographic. But regardless, there is no doubt that Harris has provided a jolt to Democrats. Now the question becomes whether that surge in support subsides as the shine of a new candidate wears off. Remember, she has yet to hold a real press conference or even sit for an interview since becoming the presumptive nominee. - Right, not a single interview yet. And we've seen team Trump is targeting Harris over that lack of media availability. - Right, they say the Harris bump has everything to do with the glowing media coverage she's received. And the voters are more excited about the idea of Harris than they are Harris herself. They argue there's a reason that she felt so quickly during the 2020 race. And it's the same reason she has avoided interviews and press conferences. Voters do not like what they see when she's not reading from a teleprompter. - Now a lot of the conversation this week has centered on Harris' new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. What do we know about him? - So there's no question Walz has been received well by the Democrats' progressive base who lauded his selection as a victory for the far left wing of the party. He joined Harris for a series of battleground events the last two days and did draw much larger crowds than anything Biden was pulling in. The Harris campaign has repeatedly emphasized his 20 plus years in the National Guard saying he was the quote, "highest ranking enlisted officer to serve in Congress." But there has been major controversy in the last 24 hours over his depiction of that service and more importantly, the timing of his retirement. - Right, so tell us about that growing scandal. - Well, according to an open letter from two men who served with him, Command Sergeant's Major Thomas Behrens and Paul Herr, Walz retired in 2005 before his contract was up just after learning that his unit would be deployed to Iraq despite being the battalion's senior non-commissioned officer. According to them, Walz, quote, "slithered out the door, betraying his country, leaving the battalion and soldiers hanging without its senior non-commissioned officer as the battalion prepared for war." Behrens, who took Walz's place on the deployment, told the New York Post this week that Walz, quote, "had the opportunity to serve his country" and said, "screw you to the United States." - He abandoned us. I mean, what the hell came to leader does that? I mean, he just, as soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit. It's stolen valor is really what it is. - Those revelations cast new light on comments. Walz has made over the years that seemed to imply he had served in combat. For example, here he is in 2018, saying he would support a ban on the, quote, "weapons of war that I carried in war," despite, again, retiring immediately before his would-be deployment. - We can make sure we don't have reciprocal carry among states and we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons were. - Trump running made JD Vance, who himself served a combat deployment in Iraq, also sounded off on Wednesday. When the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. When Tim Walt was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him. What bothers me about Tim Walt is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not. I'd be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did. - Now, before you go, we saw a very consequential primary in the past few days. What's going on with the squad? - So this week, the far left anti-Israel group in Congress known as the squad lost another member. Missouri's Cory Bush was soundly defeated by fellow Democrat Wesley Bell. Bush, who routinely sided with the terror group Hamas throughout her tenure, blamed her defeat on the pro-Israel group APAC, which funded ads against her. - See, now they're about to see this other Cory, this other side 'cause I, 'cause let me say this, APAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down. - Her defeat follows the auster of her fellow squad mate, Timal Bowman, who lost his Newark primary back in June. - Well, we're also going to closely watch Ilhan Omar's primary next week. Cabot, thanks for reporting. - Anytime. - To reduce the costs and headaches, smart businesses are graduating the NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform and one source of truth. Over 37,000 companies have already made the move. Why haven't you? Thanks to popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind, flexible financing program for a few more weeks. So head over to netsuite.com/morningwire. That's netsuite.com/morningwire. NetSuite.com/morningwire. - Former Secret Service Director, Kimberly Cheetle, reportedly attempted to have a bag of cocaine found at the White House destroyed last year. The Secret Service has denied the allegation, but the report raises more questions about the agency as it weathers fallout from Trump's attempted assassination. - Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the latest alleged cover-up from the Secret Service. So Tim, what can you tell us about this report about that infamous cocaine incident? - So for listeners who may have forgotten, the Secret Service was thrown under a spotlight last year in July after a bag of cocaine was found at the White House. Officials originally thought the bag could contain anthrax or ricin, so the White House complex was evacuated. It was later found to be cocaine, and this led to days of speculation about who it belonged to and an investigation by the Secret Service. Ultimately, the story died because authorities said they couldn't determine who left it. Now, according to this recent report from Real Clear Politics, there may have been more to this story that played out behind the scenes. According to the report, then director Kimberly Cheetle tried to have the bag of cocaine destroyed. Now, it's worth noting that Cheetle grew close to the president when she served on his vice presidential security detail, and she was reportedly appointed Secret Service Director after internal lobbying from Jill Biden. At the time of the cocaine incident, a lot of suspicion about the bag was directed toward the president's son, Hunter, who has admitted to struggling with drug addiction and the use of cocaine and crack cocaine. Now, the Biden family was away from the White House when the bag was found, but Hunter had just spent several days there before the discovery. Hunter had claimed to be sober since 2021, so a bag of drugs with his DNA on it would have been a scandal. And so the allegation here is that Cheetle attempted to have that bag destroyed to protect the Biden family? Right, that's the suggestion of RCP's reporting. According to the report, the bag was not destroyed thanks to internal pressure and the fact that the White House evacuation had created such a stir. Reporters were already aware something had happened, so a complete cover-up at that point would have been difficult. Here's RCP reporter Susan Crabtree explaining. They had to test the drug. They sent it to the Homeland Security Department to get it tested. They sent it to the FBI to get it tested. It came back at, yes, it was cocaine. It was not anthrax. And then they asked the FBI or the FBI did so itself to test it and they got what I'm told by a very good source is a partial hit from the DNA. So authorities may actually have an idea of who brought the cocaine to the White House? Right, at least a pool of people in mind. And of course, if this reporting holds up, this would be a major blow to the Secret Service's credibility after the botched plan to protect former President Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally. Right, and there's reports of another assassination attempt against the former president, this time allegedly involving the Iranian government. What happened? Right, the Justice Department has filed charges against a Pakistani man for allegedly planning to assassinate Trump and other top U.S. officials. That man allegedly has ties to Iran, but was living in New York City. Federal investigators were already aware of this plot before Trump's Butler rally, where he was shot by a sniper in the ear. And according to court documents, this plot was the basis on which Trump was approved for a larger protection detail, though it's not clear how that was implemented, especially in the wake of the Butler rally. While regardless, another serious threat against Trump's life, Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. Controversy continues to plague the Paris Olympics as two fighters who allegedly failed past gender tests both make it through to gold metal matches for women's boxing. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. Hey, Amanda. So more claims being made here in more scrutiny over the Olympics screening process for women's events. First, what's the latest with these fighters? Hey, John. Well, they both have a chance for gold now. As we've covered here before, Lin Yu Ting of Taiwan and Amman Khalifa, Algeria, they both failed gender tests that were facilitated by the International Boxing Association, the IBA. The Olympics, though, no longer associates with that governing body, and Lin and Khalifa were permitted to compete in women's boxing. They've been very dominant. In fact, they both won every single round, and Khalifa has won every single judges card. Unsurprisingly, there's been a lot of outrage and debate over this whole situation, and that includes from these fighters' opponents. Two of Khalifa's opponents have made comments about the gender issue. Angela Karimi of Italy, she initially called her match unjust, and Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Homori published numerous posts on social media that related to Khalifa allegedly being male. As for Lin, Bulgarian fighter Svetlana Steneva, she made an ex gesture two times with her hands after losing to Lin. Now, that was a reference to having two ex-chromosomes as a female. And just yesterday, Lin's opponent from Turkey echoed that same protest. She made the double ex gesture with her hands after the semi-final match. All right, so some open protests from the competitors. We heard more about these gender tests from the IBA earlier this week. What did the organization say? Well, members of the IBA actually held a presser in Paris, and they said that Lin and Khalifa felt two gender tests, one in 2019 and one in 2023. Chris Roberts, the IBA CEO, he said the tests were given to these fighters after they were made aware of concerns about safety from a number of fighters, coaches, and even medical staffers. The presser turned a bit testy also when Dr. Ioannis Philopatos, who's the former chair of the IBA medical committee, told reporters that biology and nature cannot be changed. Here he is going at it with the press. Why you attack me? Why, why you attack me? I try to say that the medical result, blood result looks and say the laboratories that this boxer is male. And the head of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, he went after the Olympic committee, the IOC. He said in a press release that he doesn't understand why the IOC is "killing women's boxing." The IOC is sticking by its decision to allow Lin and Khalifa to compete against women. IOC spokesperson Mark Adams has said that the IBA gender tests are not credible because the IBA is not credible. He also says the reasoning for the gender tests is not credible. Adams really made it clear that the tests, even if the IBA is right about them, they don't matter to the IOC. When it comes to gender, the IOC goes by whatever is listed on a fighter's passport. That's it. I'll also note that aside from not testing for sex, Adams has said that testosterone levels don't really matter either. So related to this controversy, there have been reports about gender abnormalities, specifically a condition called DSD. What is that? And do we know if these boxers have DSD? First off, no one has claimed that either boxer here has this condition. So DSD stands for differences of sex development, and it's another term for intersex. Someone with DSD will have some sort of mismatch between their chromosomes and their genitals. A person could have XY chromosomes, which is the pattern typically for males, and have ambiguous genitalia, for example. But again, to be clear, we don't know if this at all pertains to these boxers. There's been a real lack of transparency here from the IOC, which has instead used a lot of its energy to scold those who are asking questions about this whole fiasco, calling them bigots and bullies. Well, many questions that people understandably still want answered, particularly with such a dangerous sport like boxing. Right. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know. (clicking)
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz military service questioned, more secret service problems and continued controversy over Olympic boxing. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.
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