Morning Wire
Willis Disqualified & Israel Strikes Houthis | Afternoon Update | 12.19.24
Thu, 19 Dec 2024
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I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, December 19th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
Fulton County DA Fannie Willis has been disqualified from the election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump. Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice has the latest.
In a two-to-one decision, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Willis' involvement created a significant appearance of impropriety, citing her relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who allegedly misused taxpayer funds during the case. While the court stopped short of dismissing the charges, it ordered the case reassigned to another prosecutor.
Trump and 18 co-defendants still face racketeering charges stemming from alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. While the ruling can still be appealed to Georgia's Supreme Court, for now, it's considered to be another major legal victory for the president-elect.
A California man has been detained after being linked to Monday's school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. Daily Wire reporter Zach Jewell has more.
Authorities say the man from Carlsbad plotted his own mass attack on a government building while communicating and coordinating with the 15-year-old shooter. FBI agents questioned the man and authorities seized firearms and ammunition from his home under a red flag law.
The Wisconsin shooter, who we are not naming due to a company policy, killed two people and wounded six others at a Christian school before taking her own life. Police say they're investigating writings that may reveal a motive. Meanwhile, Carlsbad authorities say there's no ongoing threat to the community.
Israel launched airstrikes today targeting Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen after a missile struck an empty school in Ramat Gan. The IDF says 14 fighter jets hit ports and energy sites used for military purposes.
We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East that threatens the state of Israel, and we will defend the people of Israel.
Prime Minister Netanyahu warned those who harm Israel will pay a heavy price. The Houthis have reportedly launched over 200 missiles and drones toward Israel amid rising tensions. No injuries were reported in the school strike.
Thousands of Amazon workers have walked off the job. The Teamsters Union and several thousand Amazon employees it represents launched a major strike this morning, demanding higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.
I say worker, you say power. Worker! Power! Worker! Power! I say Amazon, you say unfair.
Amazon! Unfair!
The workers, which span across seven U.S. facilities, including in Illinois, New York and California, walked out after Amazon missed a union deadline to negotiate. Amazon denies the union represents its employees, calling the strike misleading and illegal. Teamsters countered, accusing Amazon of exploiting workers and refusing to bargain in good faith.
Holiday package delays are now a growing concern.
Nissan is scaling back its diversity programs after discussions with conservative activist Robbie Starbuck. The automaker says it will end funding for pride events, cancel diversity hiring quotas, and drop mandatory DEI training. Nissan says it also plans to withdraw from the human rights campaign's corporate equality index. Starbuck called the move a victory against wokeness.
Starbuck has been behind several major company backpedals over the past year, something he spoke to Morning Wire about back in August.
normal everyday people, they're very acutely aware of their buying power and how they can vote with their dollar now. And so we've made that point very clear to these companies at this point where many companies just fear being next and they don't want to be next. So I think we're going to continue to see a cascade of these policies being removed from major companies.
George Stephanopoulos was warned against using the term rape when discussing Trump's New York civil suit, but the ABC anchor said it anyway. The new revelation could explain why Disney chief Bob Iger signed off on the settlement so quickly.
In a March interview with Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Stephanopoulos claimed Trump was, quote, liable for rape while discussing the civil suit won by E. Jean Carroll. Here's a clip from that interview.
To sit here and ask me as a rape victim to try to shame me for my political choices is wrong. And I think it's offensive.
You can repeat that again and again and again.
And I'm going to because I find it deeply offensive.
You don't find it offensive that Donald Trump has been found liable for rape. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a presidential foundation and museum for Trump. It also required an apology from the network.
And Fox News veteran Neil Cavuto is leaving the network after 28 years. Cavuto, who's been a fixture since Fox's launch in 1996, will host his final episode of Your World Today. Fox praised Cavuto's career as a masterclass in journalism and confirmed he declined to renew his contract, which ends this month. Cavuto has hosted Cavuto Live and Coast to Coast, leaving a 12-hour weekly programming gap.
Fox plans to announce permanent replacements next year.
All right, those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth reporting on the biggest stories of the day, tune into our full episode of Morning Wire every morning.