Trump’s Hush Money Win & FEMA’s Head Grilled | 11.20.24
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Donald Trump's legal team is celebrating after prosecutors in the Hush Money case ask for a years-long delay. This is largely based on the Supreme Court's immunity decision in July. We break down the potential ways the case moves forward. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, November 20th, and this is Morning Wire.

FEMA's director is grilled on Capitol Hill after her agency was caught skipping homes with Trump signs. Even though it's all these practical things, the part about avoiding Trump homes, that's not a best practice, that's not commonplace. Is that what you're saying? That is nowhere in our policy. And the media melts down as President-elect Trump confirms he will use the military to assist in deportations.

And if other countries say they won't take them back, hold on to your britches because here they come. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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Sign up for Cloaked today by visiting cloaked.com and receive 20% off your subscription with code dailywire at checkout. That's cloaked.com for 20% off with code dailywire. If you're concerned your identity is exposed, check for free by calling 1-855-752-5625. New York prosecutors have asked to delay Donald Trump's hush money case until after he leaves office in 2029. And Trump's attorneys are looking to dismiss the case altogether.

Here with the details is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice. Hey, Tim, so this is a pretty big update in this case. First question, is this definitely a win for Trump? Well, certainly in the short term. Sentencing for this case, which involves Trump's alleged hush money payments to an adult film star, was set for next week. So Trump very quickly went from facing four years in prison to enjoying four more years in the White House.

Prosecutors now say they need time to decide how Trump's reelection impacts their case now that the Supreme Court has ruled presidents have what's called presumptive immunity in cases like these.

It's now up to Judge Juan Merchan to decide whether to grant this stay or dismiss the case outright. Trump's defense team is pushing for the latter, saying that prosecutors used certain evidence that was made inadmissible by the Supreme Court's immunity decision. All right, so the options are a delay or a dismissal. Do we have any sense of which way things will go?

It's hard to say because this is an unprecedented situation. We talked to former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy about this, and he made that point. McCarthy also noted that shifting political realities could affect how New York prosecutors approach the case.

The goal of the prosecution was to bruise Trump up in the run up to the election. And the election's over, you know, so that goal that they had, which I think gave him an incentive not only to prosecute him, but try to give him a meaningful sentence, that really is no longer operative because we're in this post-trial phase. So

They're not as hot to proceed as they were prior to the election. So that's got some practical consequence to it. Now, all that sounds pretty good for Trump, but McCarthy says he's still in a somewhat tricky situation.

That's because, contrary to Democrats' rhetoric, Trump isn't technically a convicted felon, and he won't be until he's formally sentenced. But if Trump wants to dismiss the case by citing prosecutor error, he'll need to appeal, which would require him first being convicted, which he probably doesn't want. Are you still with me? Yeah, but I kind of wish one of us had gone to law school at this point. So is there any way out of this? Believe it or not, yes. I'll let McCarthy explain.

The middle ground here is that his post-trial motion relies on immunity

And if Judge Merchan were to find that Bragg so violated the principles laid out by the Supreme Court that the conviction has to be vacated or the guilty verdicts have to be vacated, then they would be vacated. Trump wouldn't be a convicted felon. There'd be no reason to go on with an appeal. And presumably Merchan would drop the case. So there were a lot of competing interests at play here. Tim, thanks for reporting. You bet.

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All eyes were on FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell yesterday. Criswell was grilled by lawmakers investigating the agency's instruction to relief workers to skip the homes of Trump supporters.

Here with the details on the fiery hearing is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, a really stunning story that has outraged millions of Americans. Now it sounds like lawmakers are taking some action. What can you tell us? So first, a quick refresher. This all stems from the Daily Wire's exclusive reporting earlier this month. Our reporters reviewed internal correspondence showing that a FEMA official had ordered relief workers to skip the homes of Trump supporters as they surveyed damage following Hurricane Milton.

That story prompted an immediate response from lawmakers, including those on the House Oversight and Transportation Committees, which called FEMA Administrator Dan Criswell to testify yesterday. Ahead of that hearing, we caught up with Congressman Mark Green, who sits on the Transportation Committee, to hear about the purpose of these hearings. How long was this guidance in place? Who put this guidance together? Who approved it? How many Americans were caught in other natural disasters and have been impacted?

These are all questions that we as American people and, of course, we as a committee deserve answers to. Now, higher-ups at FEMA initially pleaded ignorance, saying they were shocked and horrified by our reporting, but assuring Americans it was an isolated incident. And that is more or less what we heard from Administrator Criswell yesterday, who tried to downplay the incident throughout her testimony.

I do not believe that this employee's actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA. But according to Marnie Washington, the official who was fired after sending out that directive, this was not an isolated incident. She told multiple outlets that similar directives were given throughout Florida and North Carolina. Here's Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan grilling Criswell on that point.

Administrator Criswell, is Ms. Washington lying to us? Washington has. She said it's common practice. You said it's reprehensible and isolated. Both statements can't be true. So someone's not giving us the facts. I'm kind of trying to figure out who's not telling the truth. The actions that Ms. Washington took were unacceptable.

Well, you had another employee. Now, they remain anonymous, but I think one of my colleagues pointed this out earlier. A FEMA official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ms. Washington likely received, quote, very clear guidance from her supervisors. Is that not accurate? Is that person lying too?

Later on, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds cited an anonymous report from a separate FEMA official who said relief workers routinely avoid conservative areas around the country. But again, Administrator Criswell repeated her denial. We are working with the inspector general to determine whether or not this is broader than this. But the evidence that I have seen so far shows that this was an isolated incident and it has not gone beyond what this one employee did. So was there bipartisan concern about this?

So there were a few Democratic members who did express serious concern over the story, but a number, including ranking member Jamie Raskin, defended Criswell and essentially argued that FEMA does fantastic work and that the story was being blown out of proportion.

We could be here today celebrating the workforce of 22,000 FEMA workers, but instead we're invited to focus on one so-called intermittent employee in Florida whose team encountered what she called political hostility while canvassing door-to-door for FEMA in Florida. Thereupon, as I understand it, she made the judgment that her workers were unsafe.

So FEMA is saying this is an isolated incident, but Republicans in Congress are clearly skeptical. Regardless, don't expect this story to go away anytime soon. Right. Well, people want to know if this goes up the chain. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. President-elect Donald Trump confirmed this week his intention to use the military to help mass deport illegal aliens from the U.S. Trump's announcement comes as a Homeland Security memo revealed that Venezuelan gang Trend de Aragua now has a presence in 16 states.

Here to talk about Trump's deportation plan is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearce. Hey, Tim. So first, what would using military force for deportations actually look like? Well, Trump has confirmed that he plans to declare a national emergency and activate the military, but that still isn't much detail on how a militarized deportation effort would work. Depending on how the military is used, Trump may need congressional approval, or he could need the approval of state governors if he wants to federalize the National Guard.

Then there are the drug cartels that operate south of the border, and many Republicans in Congress have said the U.S. military needs to be used to deal with them. Here's Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, on Trump's priorities after he takes office.

Well, look, I think the president's been clear on the stage. As far as the deportation operation, we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats because they pose a big danger to the United States. He's got three rails. We'll do the deportation operation with the priorities I just talked to you about. That would be the priorities. Second thing is secure that border. Lock that border down and catch a release and secure the border. The third rail is we've got over 300,000 missing children.

Now, Trump's opponents are already preparing to undermine his immigration agenda, despite that being a key part of his platform. And that's a key reason why he won. Where are the efforts being made so far to undermine him? Right. Critics have made some pretty extreme claims about what Trump's deportation plan could be. During a panel on CNN, one of the guests, Julie Roginsky, co-founder of Lift Our Voices, said that American troops could end up shooting American citizens.

I'm telling you right now, practically speaking, is that there will be people, American citizens, who will prevent these little kids from being dragged out of these shelters. There are. And what's going to happen to these people? What is going to happen to the military when the military opens fire on us? No one's. We're way down a rabbit hole here. Another guest on the same panel, Paul Rykoff, compared Trump's deportation effort to internment camps for American Japanese citizens during World War II.

Trying to ask them to sort through who's who and implement a policy like this, hold on, here in the United States is like nothing we've ever seen. Actually- Hold on, maybe the only precedent we have is internment camps during World War II against Japanese Americans.

And some elected officials are now pledging to do what they can to obstruct deportations. Here's Boston's Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu promising not to cooperate. Look, elections have consequences and the federal government is responsible for a certain set of actions and cities. No individual city can reverse or override some parts of that. But what we can do is make sure that we are doing our part to protect our residents in every possible way.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already started on legal action to get more information about the airline used for deportation flights. The leftist group said that the information would be key to understanding the roadmap Trump wants to use to deport millions of illegal aliens.

Now, in a related story that's made a lot of headlines, a Homeland Security memo leaked to the public revealed that Trinidad and Tobago members have spread to at least 16 states now. It caused a lot of alarm for good reason. What do we know about that? Yeah, it's part of a larger movement by gangs and cartels and other criminal organizations south of the border to expand into the United States.

Those groups have made an aggressive push, especially in the last few years, and have taken advantage of lax border policies underneath the Biden administration. Morning Wire spoke with Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw about this, and here's what he said.

This entire business has become very much a market. And in any market, there are people who do certain things and specialize in certain things. You're not going to see Sinaloa members as the drug dealers on the streets of whatever city you're living in. You're going to see local gang members who grew up there on the streets, who have made deals with cartels, and you take their shipments from the cartels. The cartels are ultimately facilitators.

And they hire whatever facilitator they need in whatever area they need. Crenshaw is hoping to get a lot more help on this in the next Congress. He's likely to get it, too, as important as the immigration is to the incoming Republican administration. Right. It's been Trump's top issue for nearly a decade now. 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.

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