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Unsavory accusations and a criminal investigation derail the Democrat front-runner for California Governor. These allegations of sexual assault are flat, false. They are absolutely false. And protests erupt in Ireland, sparking a government clampdown as frustrations over crippling fuel costs boil over. The police in Ireland tend to allow people to kind of play out their anger. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. It's the middle of the week. You're tired and dinner feels like a chore. You can make your usual go-to meal, but you've been craving something new. Sound familiar? With our sponsor HelloFresh, you can explore both flavors from around the world without ever leaving home. It's exciting, effortless, and takes all the stress out of cooking. No recipe hunting, no ingredient sourcing, just everything you need delivered straight to your door. Our producer Brandon loves the convenience of HelloFresh. The recipes are easy to make and easy to eat because, well, they're delicious. You'll get pre-portioned ingredients like lemongrass, gochujang, and curry paste, so there's no guesswork. Just great taste. Skip the wait for takeout and have international ingredients delivered straight to your door, because in the end, nothing hits like home cooking. Go to HelloFresh.com slash Morning Wire 10 FM now to get 10 free meals plus free Nutribullet Ultra Plus 2-in-1 Compact Kitchen System, a $189.99 value on your third box. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. Disclaimer, must order the third box by May 31st, 2026. After marathon negotiations between the U.S. and Iran failed this weekend, President Trump ordered the Navy to blockade Iranian ports starting this morning. Wired in live host, Kabat Phillips is here with the latest. So, Kabat, we're going to talk about the blockade, but first, how did the negotiations go this past weekend? Yeah, on Saturday, Vice President Vance arrived in Pakistan for face-to-face talks with Iran, flinged by Special Envoy Steve Wittkopf and Jared Kushner. Chief Negotiator for the Iranians was Mohamed Bagar Ghalibov, the country's Speaker of Parliament, whom some in Washington reportedly view as the most palatable option among Iran's current crop of leaders. Now, just at the outset, these talks were on their face historic. This was the highest level meeting between the U.S. and Iranian regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But ultimately, after 21 hours of talks, Vice President Vance emerged just before dawn with the news that a deal had not been reached. We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on, and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on. And they have chosen not to accept our terms. And what exactly are the red lines there? Well, we're hoping to get more details from the White House in the coming hours on that front. But on Sunday, administration officials did tell the Daily Wire that their red lines are as follows. Freezing uranium enrichment in Iran, removing all existing enriched uranium from the country, dismantling uranium enrichment facilities, fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and removing transport fees, and an end to funding for terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. It appears the White House could offer some wiggle room on economic sanctions, but look, for the most part, they are driving a hard bargain. Here's President Trump to that point on Sunday. They haven't left the bargaining table. I predict they come back and they give us everything we want. And I told my people, I want everything. I don't want 90%. I don't want 95%. I told them, I want everything. They have no cards. And as the Iranians head back to talk over the latest proposal, President Trump announced a major military operation, seemingly to put even more pressure on them. Right. So tell us about that announcement he made. So writing on Truth Social, President Trump said that because Iran would not agree in those negotiations to give up their nuclear ambitions, quote, effective immediately the United States Navy, the finest in the world will begin the process of blockading any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. Now, US Central Command clarified that the blockade will specifically target Iranian ports and coastal areas. That means only ships coming to or from Iranian ports will be impacted. It appears all other vessels will be allowed through. Remember, to this point, the Iranians have used missiles and underwater mines to prevent foreign ships from passing through, but they have allowed their own vessels and also those who pay a multimillion dollar fee along with their allies like China, safe passage through. Trump called that strategy, quote, world extortion and leaders of countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. He then went a step further saying, quote, I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in international waters who has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. And then finally, President Trump said he had ordered the Navy to begin finding and destroying any mines blocking the Strait while threatening to quote, blow to hell any Iranian vessel who tried to stop them. So a serious message, not just to Iran, but to everyone who deals with them. Now, what does this blockade mean for the global oil trade? Well, globally, it is likely to cause prices to spike in the short term. Gulf states, they're working to find ways of getting their oil out without using the Strait, but that is a long process. And within hours of Trump's black aid announcement on Sunday, oil prices had jumped 7%. So there could be more pain at the pump. But for the Iranians, this blockade could be devastating. About 50% of the regime's revenue each year comes from oil and gas exports. So we're looking at potentially crippling economic effects. And more broadly from a geopolitical standpoint, the biggest question for many folks, especially in Washington, is what this means for China. The Iranians have largely been allowing Chinese vessels safe passage through the Strait. If the US Navy seizes those vessels, it could draw a response from Beijing, just further complicating this entire war. For more on how the Chinese might respond, though, we spoke with naval warfare expert Brent Sattler. The Chinese, of course, are hypersensitive because they rely on the energy coming out of the Gulf. It's like over half of it's coming from the Gulf countries. Not all of it from Iran, either. A lot of it from Iraq, but it still has to go through that Strait. So I think it's in China's best interest that they lean on the Iranians to relent and to let the traffic go through the Straits. But of course, this is not a president you want to test his resolve in either. So as this blockade goes into effect, we'll look to see if this already tenuous ceasefire can still hold. Well, in this next 24 hours are crucial. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Our sponsor, DeleteMe, makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Look, finding someone's personal information online has never been easier. 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Congressman Eric Swalwell suspends his run for California governor amid multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron R. Kahn has been tracking this explosion of accusations morning Cameron. So a real firestorm has broken out here with Democrats disavowing Swalwell at record speed. And of course this is all with the backdrop of the governor's race. The Democrats are very worried about the crowded field they have in California. So what's the latest here? So the latest is that this is an absolute mess in California right now and in Congress. His attorney said in an interview before the weekend that Eric Swalwell does not plan to drop out. Then Sunday night as Georgia said, Swalwell announced that he was in fact throwing in the towel. He posted on X that he's suspending his campaign and said he's quote, deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment he's made in the past. Right now he's obviously facing a wide range of claims from multiple women ranging from sexual assault to sexual harassment against women staffers. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is even looking into the sexual assault allegation. And then another report from NBC alleges that Swalwell used Snapchat to send a picture of his janitors to a 24 year old staffer. And all of this came after days of social media rumors and allegations and people wondering whether or not individuals were going to come forward. And we saw that hammer drop on Friday afternoon with this. Now Swalwell continues to maintain his innocence. He posted a video statement this weekend in which he calls these allegations quote, flat false. They did not happen. They have never happened. And I will fight them with everything that I have. They also come on the eve of an election where I've been the front runner candidate for governor in California. All right. So an adamant denial there from Swalwell. A lot of eyes are going to be on that Manhattan investigation for sure. So what does this mean for Swalwell in Congress? Well, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries put out a statement calling for him to drop out of the governor's race. But he did stop short of asking him to resign. Now it's unclear at this point if he will step down. But there are now multiple members who could potentially be facing expulsion or a resignation in the coming days and weeks. Congress does return to session today. And so we could see some motion on this. Representative Tony Gonzalez, who's a Republican out of Texas, is another one that could very likely be included in this expulsion process, as he also allegedly had an affair with a staffer who did end up committing suicide later on after that affair took place. So when we're seeing some of these things happening, what we could end up seeing is the Republicans and the Democrats each losing a member. Republican Cory Mills and Democrat Sheila Scherfelis McCormick are also possible contenders to either resign or be expelled as they're also dealing with scandals right now. Like you said, a real mess. Now, lots of chatter about the timing of these accusations and how quickly Democrats are cutting bait with Swalwell. We've noted how the polls show the two Republicans in California's gubernatorial race, they're leading the Democrats. This has been very nervous. How does this impact the California governor's race? Right. So Democrats, including the California Democratic Party Chair, Rusty Hicks, has been begging for weeks now to get more Democrats out of the race because there are so many of them currently in there. And keep in mind, California runs on a top two primary system. And the issue that kept going on was even the Democrats ran an internal poll for the state party and it came back with Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco in the top two slots. Now, when it comes to Steve Hilton, who he was just endorsed by President Donald Trump last week, he said in a recent interview with Morning Wire that he believes California is ripe for Republicans taking, saying that the state's current leadership has failed on multiple fronts. We have the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate, the highest cost of living, everything the most expensive. We have 50,000 out of 50 on business climate, according to Chief Executive Magazine, US News and World Report, 50,000 out of 50 for opportunity. It's not just California's doing badly. We're doing worse than any other state on almost every single measure. And yet we have the highest taxes. Meanwhile, we will see where these allegations lead for Swalwell, but it's not looking good for him, no doubt. Well, if nothing else, Congress will be even more interesting to monitor this week. Cameron, thank you so much for reporting. Thank you. The spike in fuel costs over the course of the Iran conflict has brought long-running frustrations in Ireland to a head, exploding into mass protests that have taken over streets across the country. Joining us now to discuss is Owen O'Malley, Associate Professor of Political Science at Dublin City University. First of all, thank you so much for joining us. So we've been monitoring this escalation of protests across the pond. Clearly, there's a lot of simmering frustration in what appears to be, I would say, a convergence of political angst here. First, what is the current situation with the protests in Ireland? So there have been a week-long protest which has shut down a lot of public transport and also roads traffic. And so a lot of the motorways around the country, the preways around the country, were just literally shut down. And the main wing road around Dublin was shut, which caused havoc. The government mess in order to try and offer a package to alleviate the fears and concerns of those protesters. And that largely seems to have worked. Partly, it's worked in that it's offered those protesters something, but also the government that stayed physically moved to remove vehicles that were blocking freeways. Now, we initially reported at the end of last week that the government refused to meet with the protesters because they weren't organizations the government officially recognized. Has that inflamed tensions? Yeah, for that note, the government didn't actually meet with these protesters and it probably escalated tensions a little bit more. But then escalated tensions more when it said it was going to bring the military in to kind of clear these roads. That was probably backfired as well by increasing tensions. Now, you see the phrase climate tyranny, a lot associated with these protests. Can you speak to us? How central is climate policy to what we're seeing this unrest? I think it's a major part of us. So a lot of the climate policies have been delivered by the European Union, taken up with a lack of see by Irish governments. And in the last government, the Green Party was a member of the government. And so it insisted that there was increases in carbon taxes. These were never popular in rural Ireland. Rural Ireland is more dependent on private transport. It also tends to have different types of home heating. So it uses the home heating oil. The home heating oil has gone up by 67% in one month partly as a result of the war in Iran. But also there was going to be a new carbon tax hike coming in on the 1st of May. So the government should have been aware that this was a problem. It didn't really head off this problem. And it almost invited the protesters to do what they did, because otherwise there was a sense that they weren't going to be listened to. Do you think this is going to lead to some changes in terms of the climate policies like fuel taxes, et cetera? I mean, the Irish government has already announced that it's taking tense sensor off the fuel duty. It's postponing the planned increase in carbon taxes. A lot of the policies that Irish governments have been introducing for the last 15 years have been ones that to try and address climate change issues, they've been very unpopular. And so all polls show that people don't really want these. But the governments have been just pushing them through and through. They've listened to these protests now, and which will probably just encourage more protests in the future. Because this seems to be the only way to be listened to, because they weren't really listening to people before the protests happened. We'll see if the concessions you mentioned do bring down the temperature this week in Dublin. Owen, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And for those of you listening to the show, now you can watch for free on Daily Wire+. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.
