Recovery and investigation efforts are underway for the helicopter and plane collision, three of Trump’s nominees face questions in confirmation hearings, and illegal immigrants push schools to the breaking point. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.Vanta: Get $1,000 off Vanta at https://vanta.com/morningwire.
President Trump addresses the tragic plane collision in D.C. as more details about the crash come to light.
This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history.
What caused the crash and what do we know about the passengers on board?
I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, January 31st, and this is Morning Wire. Three of the president's most controversial nominees make their case to the Senate, resulting in several contentious back and forth.
Tell them you're proud of what you did, Mr. Mattel. They're right there. They're guarding you today. Tell them how proud you are.
That's an abject lie and you know it. I've never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement.
And local school systems are breaking under the strain of educating illegal immigrants.
Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
Whether you're a startup founder navigating your first audit or a seasoned professional scaling your GRC program, proving your commitment to security has never been more critical or more complex. Businesses use Vonta to establish trust by automating compliance needs across frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 7001, centralized security workflows, and proactively manage vendor risk.
A new IDC white paper found that Vonta customers achieve $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. Get $1,000 off Vonta at Vonta.com slash Morning Wire.
Victims of Wednesday's fatal plane crash are still being retrieved from the Potomac as more details come to light about the cause of the crash.
Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearce is here to update us on the investigation into the crash above Reagan National Hatem. So we know a lot more than we did yesterday about this crash. What have we learned so far?
Well, recovery operations are now into a third day. The belief is that there are no survivors from the crash. And the goal now is to recover the bodies of all the victims. 64 people were on the plane and three soldiers were in the helicopter. So all 67 are sadly now presumed dead. Here's President Trump giving an update on the crash in a press conference at the White House on Thursday.
The work has now shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors.
As we reported yesterday, a massive rescue and recovery operation was launched immediately after the crash. What do we know about the recovery process?
Well, the plane reportedly broke into three parts, and one or more of the segments landed upside down in waist-deep water. The helicopter also landed in water. Divers have been attempting to retrieve victims from inside the fuselage, many of whom are still buckled in their seats. But there have also been human remains removed from other locations in the river.
Extremely painstaking and I'm sure heart-wrenching process. Now, we noted yesterday that investigations were underway about what led to this crash. What do we know now on that front?
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the American Airlines Flight 5342 was originally slated to land on Runway 1, one of DCA's longest runways, but the control tower diverted them to Runway 33. In order to make that work, the pilots had to deviate slightly from their path. They collided with the helicopter just seconds later.
Now, this is a recording of air traffic control as they witnessed the collision.
Change to turf, runway 33, runway 33, clear to land. Oh, did you see that? American 3130, go around, turn left, and 250, climb Anthony 3000.
This has raised larger questions about the amount of traffic congestion around Reagan. In a White House presser, Trump suggested that the air traffic controllers, as well as the pilots of the Black Hawk helicopter, may have been at fault.
The FAA did reveal that the number of air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the crash was not normal for the quantity of aircraft, with a single controller monitoring both planes and helicopters. Trump also seemed to imply that lower standards as a result of the Biden administration's DEI policies might have played a role.
There was some warnings, but the warnings were given very, very late. It was almost as they were given a few seconds later there was a crash. Should have been brought up earlier. But the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going. I can't imagine people with 20-20 vision not seeing what's happening up there.
That said, the investigation has really just gotten started and no definitive evidence has come out yet. And that was the message of officials with the National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday as well. The NTSB is ultimately responsible for investigating the crash, and they said in a press briefing that they haven't determined anything for certain.
We're here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned.
but they need to verify a lot of information before they can give facts to the public.
Right. Now, we've also learned a little bit more about some of the victims here. Tell us about that.
Yeah, we've learned that about a third of the passengers were either figure skating athletes or coaches or their family members. According to U.S. Figure Skating, they were all on a return trip from a competition in Wichita. Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan broke down while talking about the tragedy at the skating club of Boston, which lost members in the crash.
My response was to be with people I care about and I love and I needed support. So that's why I'm here. And I don't know, a little bit at a time.
The Kremlin reported there were Russians on board the flight as well, including former world figure skating champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Namov. President Trump said Thursday their bodies will be returned to Russia.
Well, our prayers are certainly with their families and those involved in the recovery process. Tim, thanks for joining us. Good to be on. It was a busy day on Capitol Hill Thursday with confirmation hearings from three of President Trump's most notable cabinet nominees, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips hosted the Daily Wire's live coverage. So Cabot, let's start with the hearing for Trump's nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel. Give us an overview of how that went.
Yeah, from what we're hearing out of Washington, Patel has the best shot of the three to win confirmation, mainly because he's more of a known commodity on the right, having served previously as chief of staff for the DOD under the previous Trump administration. He was also a DOJ prosecutor before that.
Despite some furious questioning from Senate Democrats who expressed major concerns over his supposed support of January 6th rioters, things went pretty smoothly, all things considered. Patel kicked things off by vowing to address the public's erosion of trust in the FBI.
We must tackle violent crime. The priority of the FBI, if I'm confirmed, will be to ensure that our communities are protected. The second way we do this on equal track is aggressive constitutional oversight from Congress. The public trust can only be restored if there is full transparency, and I am committed to that full transparency.
Democrats went on to question Patel on past statements he'd made about the FBI more broadly, specifically comments from last year in which he called for the Bureau's headquarters to be shut down and turned into a, quote, museum of the deep state. Here's Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar hitting him on that.
Just answer the question if he said that the FBI headquarters where they investigate cyber crime and terrorism should be shut down and open as a deep state, as a museum. Did he say that the headquarters should be shut down?
The best attacks on me are going to be false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations. The only thing this body is doing is defeating the credibility of the men and women at the FBI.
Now, we also had the first day of Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation. She's Trump's pick for director of national intelligence. How did things go for Gabbard?
Well, the Trump administration is expressing confidence publicly that she'll get the necessary votes. But behind closed doors, there are real concerns that she might not even make it to the floor for a vote. First, she's got to make it out of the Intel Committee, where Republicans do hold a slim 9-8 majority.
But that vote could be held behind closed doors, meaning Republicans on the fence about Gabbard would have, you know, a lot more freedom to vote no. For Gabbard's part, though, she came out swinging with a fiery opening statement, taking on that criticism of her head on.
Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States. Accusing me of being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet. The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate, was also asked a lot of questions about her past comments supporting former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Early on in the hearing, she was asked numerous times to call him a traitor, something she refused to do. Here's an exchange she had on that topic with Senator Michael Bennett.
Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?
As someone who has worn our uniform in combat, I understand how critical our national security is.
Apparently you don't. Gabbard was also pressed about a 2017 meeting she had with Syria's then-president Bashar al-Assad. For what it's worth, she claims that she pressed Assad during that meeting about his human rights record.
I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime, but today we have an Islamist extremist who is now in charge of Syria, who danced on the streets to celebrate the 9-11 attack, and who has already begun to persecute and kill and arrest religious minorities like Christians in Syria.
Now, lastly, we had the second day of RFK's hearings. What did we see there?
Well, once again, there was a heavy vaccine focus from Democrats, while Republicans were still looking for confirmation that RFK will implement Trump's policies on issues that pertain to life, despite his personal views on abortion. Contributions from pharmaceutical companies to lawmakers was also a big topic of discussion. Here's RFK and Senator Bernie Sanders going at it on that front.
The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it's in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. Oh, no, no, no. And protecting their interests.
Oh, I thought that that would come. No, no, no. I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry.
They came from workers. In 2020. In 2020, you were the single largest receiver of pharmaceutical money.
So now, again, we wait to see whether these three make it out of committee. At that point, they'll head to the Senate floor for another round of debate and then a final vote.
Well, Democrats have been open about the fact that they're hoping to block at least one of these. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
Anytime.
Donald Trump has rolled back Joe Biden's policy barring ICE from entering sensitive areas like schools and churches.
Many school districts have come out swinging against this, and one progressive group has made a controversial case for why. Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak joins us now to discuss. Hey, Luke. So we've been covering the worst first arrests by ICE, but there's a lot more going on with immigration. What's going on with illegal immigrant children in schools?
Hey, John. So the Century Foundation, which is an influential progressive group helmed by a member of Barack Obama's Domestic Policy Council, said school districts should resist deportation efforts because illegal immigrants bring in money for their budget. In other words, they're kind of saying the quiet part out loud.
More than a million Americans withdrew their children from public schools in the last couple of years, feeling let down because of COVID, critical race theory, and other issues. That would have meant layoffs for teachers and administrators, except that illegal immigrants have largely replaced them.
Century said it makes financial logic for school districts to stand in ICE's way, saying the task is simple. Keep students in school, maintain enrollment and funding. Let me read verbatim from this education policy group. Immigrant students have helped keep the public school district budgets from shrinking due to declining enrollment.
Public schools in the United States lost more than 1 million students between 2019 and 2022. These enrollment losses can lead to significant layoffs. However, English learner enrollment has grown significantly, making up for some losses and bringing enrollment-dependent funds back to public schools.
All right, so here's an admission that each illegal immigrant is essentially a big check for teachers' union members.
Exactly. We spend a lot more educating a child that doesn't speak English than we do for Americans. In Fairfax County, Virginia, the cost is $20,000 per American, but $25,000 a year for school for English learners because the extra teacher's required. So what makes financial logic for teachers actually means ruin for taxpayers? That's caused huge problems throughout the country.
Fairfax went from a budget surplus to a $300 million budget deficit, which is now threatening cuts to the fire department. leaders never point out in these pain discussions about the deficit is that the county school spent $158 million teaching English to migrant children last year, more than half the deficit. That's an unexpected cost, rising $70 million in just the last few years.
And now people in this county, which is one of America's wealthiest, are being told they can't afford basic services like fire.
Yeah, I mean, you look at an enrollment chart for, say, Denver, which came out swinging against this new Trump policy, and it's remarkable. The schools had been hemorrhaging students for years, but then they get that godsend. A lot of new students who require a lot of very labor-intensive services, even though their parents pay very little in taxes.
And since illegal immigrants can't afford private school, I guess they're basically captive customers in a sense, correct?
Yeah, and they don't need to bother with upping the quality of schools to lure back Americans. There are also questions about whether schools are essentially defrauding taxpayers. In Fairfax, they say that more than one in five students needs these English learner services. So they're either
totally failing to actually teach them English for years, or they're falsely claiming they still don't speak it to keep getting that extra cash.
No matter how you slice that, this is problematic, to say the least. Luke, thanks so much for digging into this and coming on. Absolutely, John.
Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.