American prisoners released from Russia, gender controversy in boxing at Olympics, and JD Vance stresses Harris failed border policies. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
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In the biggest prisoner swaps since the Cold War, several Americans are released by Russia in exchange for Kremlin spies and criminals. We have the details on who was released and from which countries. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl. It's Friday, August 2nd, and this is Morning Wire. The debate over allowing men into women's sports comes to a head in Paris in the Olympic boxing ring as a female fighter leaves the ring in tears after just seconds. It's unfair to let athletes who have failed sex tests and have male physiology to compete in women's sport and maybe especially in women's boxing where there's also a safety concern. And Senator J.D. Vance visits the southern border to hammer Kamala Harris on immigration. They are begging the American president and vice president for leadership and their own borders are "ignores" them. That is a scandal, that is a disgrace, and to every American watching this, it will stop. But only if you elect Donald J. Trump President. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire, stay tuned, we have the news you need to know. More than a dozen prisoners, including American citizens, were released by Russia on Thursday as part of the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. The American citizens along with Russian dissidents, journalists, political prisoners, and also a number of human rights advocates. While the Russian prisoners released included a number of suspected spies and even a convicted assassin. Here's President Biden speaking at the White House, flanked by family members of those set free. Russian authorities arrested them, convicted them in show trials, and sends them the long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever, none. And now their brutal ordeal is over and they're free. So tell us more about the American citizens who were released. So first there was Evan Gerskovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested while working in Russia in March of 2023. He was accused by prosecutors of obtaining "secret information" regarding the Russian military, and despite a lack of any evidence presented the public, charged with espionage and then sentenced to 16 years in a brutal penal colony. Then there's Ausu Kramashova, a Russian-American journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe. She was arrested last June while visiting her mother after allegedly failing to register her American passport. But authorities later accused her of spreading what they called false information about the Russian military and sentenced her in July to six and a half years in the penal colony. And finally there was Paul Whalen, a 54-year-old retired Marine who was arrested back in 2018 while attending a friend's wedding in Moscow. He allegedly accepted a flash drive from a Russian friend after being told to contain photos of his travels, but Russian agents quickly swooped in and arrested him, claiming the true contents were classified military information. He was sentenced to 16 years in a brutal work camp where he's been forced to sow industrial garments. A lot of celebration about those releases. And what about on the other side? Well, among the eight prisoners Russia received were just hardened criminals and convicted spies. There's no other way of putting it. For example, Germany released Vadim Krasikov, a man convicted in 2021 of assassinating a former Chechen rebel in a public park, allegedly on orders from the Russian government. Slovenia released two alleged sleeper agents while Norway set free a Russian man who entered the country posing as a Brazilian academic before being arrested for espionage. Now for their part, the Biden administration handed over three men charged here in the U.S. That included two convicted computer hackers who helped steal tens of millions of dollars. And even a Russian security operative plotting to steal U.S. technology and electronics. That's a very different kinds of prisoners being released by each side. Exactly. And that does bring up a good point while everyone is certainly relieved these Americans are coming home. There are still critics of deals like this on both sides of the aisle. They argue the swaps are lopsided because the West typically releases legitimate convicted criminals and spies while the Russia hands over journalists and dissidents who are overwhelmingly innocent of any real crime. In their view, these swaps only incentivize Russia and other adversaries to detain Americans in the future. One of those critics is Donald Trump, who posted on social media this week, quote, "Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals at anything, but especially hostage swaps. They are extorting the United States of America." There are also those who say President Biden was willing to make this lopsided deal because he wanted to score a diplomatic victory ahead of his DNC address later this month. That point, the first night at the convention when Biden will speak is expected to focus on the president's legacy and accomplishments. With the optics of this kind of deal, always a factor, but more so at this particular moment, 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. A female boxer from Italy pulled out of a fight after just 46 seconds and openly wept in the ring at the Paris Olympics after she was forced to compete against a boxer who failed past gender tests. Here to discuss is daily wire reporter Amanda Prestajakamo. Now, Amanda, we covered this controversy earlier this week and there were a lot of eyes on this fight between Italy's Angela Carini and Algeria's Iman Khalif. What ended up happening there? Well, unfortunately, what happened is exactly what most people expected. Carini, who is a female, was reportedly pressured not to actually take this fight with Khalif over safety concerns. Khalif was disqualified from the 2023 world's file match after a governing body said that the fighter had mail XY chromosomes and elevated testosterone levels, but Khalif was admitted to the Olympics. Carini did go into the ring yesterday and unfortunately was just immediately pummeled with a flurry of blows from Khalif within the first 10 seconds. Her headgear got knocked out of place and she went to her coach 30 seconds in to try to regroup. But when she came back to fight, Khalif landed another blow that was just too much for Carini and she called it in just 46 seconds. Carini was overcome with emotion and you could tell she was upset. She did not shake Khalif's hand and she openly wept in the ring and reportedly yelled, "This is unjust." Has Carini issued a statement since then? Well, she was in tears speaking to reporters after the fight, she said that she was heartbroken over it and that she had never been hit so hard in her life. Carini actually had blood on her shorts and it looked like Khalif had probably broken her nose during those 46 seconds. Now when Carini was asked directly if she thought Khalif should be disqualified, she said that it wasn't her place to judge and that she just did her job and left with her dignity intact. Her coach, however, did comment directly, this is a quote from him, "Many people in Italy tried to call and tell her, 'Don't go please, it's a man, it's dangerous for you.'" Adding to this controversy, there were past opponents of Khalif who've spoken out about their experiences. After a 2022 bout, a Mexican fighter named Brianda Tamara said that Khalif hurt her and that she had never felt such power in her 13 years of boxing. She also posted on X, here's a quote, "Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely." Now I've seen video of that fight that's gone viral and it's pretty hard to get through. Right. Now shifting to a related topic here in the US, the Biden-Harris administration's changes to Title IX officially went into effect yesterday. Can you remind us what specifically changed? So the administration has effectively rewritten Title IX to include gender identity and is now compelling schools to allow males who identify as female to compete against girls and sports and also use girls' locker rooms in their bathrooms. Schools that banned these male athletes from competing in female sports, they would be in violation of Title IX and that could cost them their federal funding. Now the rewrite has already been blocked in 26 states and we're going to see continued legal battles over this. This agenda, which is supported by Biden and Harris, it's actually not very popular with the American people, polling shows that a majority want sports eligibility to be dictated by biological sex and not gender identity. Harris, who's the Democrats effective 2024 nominee, she's a proponent of so-called transgender rights and has even promoted transgender medical treatments for minors, which are often irreversible. Now as for Trump, he's routinely brought up the Democrats positions on transgender issues, specifically concerning female sports, and on Thursday, he posted a video of that Karini fight and he wrote in all capital letters, "I will keep men out of women's sports." So you know, you can bet we're going to see more of this discussion as we get closer to the election. Right, this has become kind of an activating issue for a lot of people. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. JD Vance visited the U.S. Southern border on Thursday and spoke with residents and officials of Cochise County, Arizona. In short remarks from the border, Vance blamed the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris for a broken border and a flood of deadly drugs. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to recap Vance's trip to the border. Hey Tim, so what was Vance's main message in Arizona? The goal here was to identify Vice President Harris with the Biden administration's border policies. Vance spent the better part of his remarks attacking Harris over the state of the border, the massive influx of immigration we've seen in recent years and the deadly fentanyl trade being fueled by Mexican drug cartels. Here's Vance. Kamala Harris came into office making promises and she kept those promises to open the American Southern border. They stopped deportations on day one. They stopped construction of the border wall on day one. They reinstated, catching release and they stopped remain in Mexico. So all these asylum claimants who come to our border, they can now get released into our country because they're not forced to stay in Mexico while we adjudicate their asylum claims. And then Vance spoke about fentanyl and drew a personal connection between the drug problem and his own experience with a mother who was struggled with drug addiction. And we have to remember that as terrible and idiotic as these policies were, they cause real human beings to suffer. A lot of you know my story and I have been a little kid waiting at the bedside of his mother angry that his mom took something that she shouldn't have taken. But praying to God, please Jesus, let her wake up. And the unfortunate truth is because of the poison that Kamala Harris has let come into this country, there are a lot of those prayers that won't be answered because when you take fentanyl, you don't wake up. It takes your life. So there are a lot of kids out there who have been deprived of second chances with their moms and dads. There are a lot of moms and dads out there who will never see their kids walk down the aisle because of what Kamala Harris has unleashed at this border. How is the Harris campaign responding to this line of attack? They're trying to hit it head on. Her campaign cut an ad that attempts to establish Harris as the pro border security candidate. Here's some of what that sounded like. Kamala Harris prosecuted transnational gang members and got them sentenced to prison. Trump is trying to avoid being sentenced to prison. There's two choices in this election. The one who will fix our broken immigration system and the one who's trying to stop her. Now changing voter perception here with her four years in the Biden administration and with a direct role in its immigration policies seems like a steep climb for Harris, especially when her opponent is Donald Trump, whose signature issue since 2016 has been tougher immigration policies, right? This is a consistent criticism we've seen from Republicans and particularly Trump. Any idea yet if this is having a much of an impact or really changing voters minds since Harris took over for Biden? There's not much data on how voters are responding to this yet, but we have seen a very consistent drum beat from Republicans on this issue. For example, here's Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin blaming Biden, Harris and Democrats for immigration issues that have strained parts of his state. Yeah, it's again, starts at the top with the Biden Harris administration's lackadaisical approach to the violence that is coming across the border and we see it every single day. Drug overdoses, murders, sexual assaults, and of course suspected terrorism activity. And expect a lot of that kind of messaging between now and the election. Yeah, deservedly. So it is a top issue for voters. Tim, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know. (upbeat music) (clicking)
American prisoners released from Russia, gender controversy in boxing at Olympics, and JD Vance stresses Harris failed border policies. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
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