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When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing. So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing. Whether you want to create flyers for that thing, make presentations for that thing, or design merch for that thing. You can do anything so people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing. The celebration of America's 250th anniversary should be a unifying moment, but partisan division has put a big concert on the National Mall in doubt. We look at how the president is responding as well as anti Trump sentiment resurfacing in the NFL. Some things are bigger than football, and this is one of those things. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. Georgia Howe is off today. It's Monday, June 1st, if you can believe it. And this is Morning Wire. A catastrophic blue origin rocket blow up has dealt the Bezos owned company a major blow and has complicated NASA's plans for its moon base. We talked to an astronaut about what went wrong and the fallout from the dramatic failure.
B
It's probably going to take at least a year and probably longer before they can start operating again.
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And Graham Platner, the Democrats leading Senate candidate in Maine, is hit with yet another wave of controversies. Yeah, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer and that's what campaigns are for. Thanks for waking up with Morning wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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Wire@takelean.com as America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday next month, what was supposed to be a unifying patriotic celebration on the National Mall appears to be collapsing amid partisan divide. Meanwhile, a separate Trump related controversy has erupted in the NFL. Joining us with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Good to see you, Megan.
D
Hey, John.
A
So first, what's happening with these America 250 celebrations? Gotta say, this feels like it's getting kind of ugly.
D
Yeah, John, as you know, the Trump administration has been planning a series of large scale events leading up to the 250th anniversary on July 4th. Well, one of the centerpiece attractions was supposed to be something called the Great American State Fair. So a multi week event on the National Mall that would feature exhibits from all 50 states, nightly entertainment and it would culminate, culminate in a concert titled Freedom 250. But days after announcing the lineup, media criticism started to swirl and several of the artists, including Martina McBride, Poison, frontman Brett Michaels and members of the Commodores dropped out. And some of these artists released statements saying they didn't want to be viewed as endorsing a political cause or candidate. But one of the artists who is staying in says it's going to be a night to remember.
A
There's a situation. It's going down. America is turning two fitty. We're gonna bring back the 90s. Put your dancing shoes on ice, ice baby. I always say the greatest rapper of all time. Meghan.
D
Yeah, maybe.
A
Now President Trump has responded to all this and he's been rather forceful in his response. What have we heard from him now?
D
Yeah, so Trump fired back on Truth Social and he suggested that he might cancel the concert series entirely. And instead he has floated the idea of replacing it with a massive America is rally on the mall. And he's busy promoting an upcoming UFC fight in front of the White House in honor of America's 250.
B
It's never happened before and you'll never see it again. This would be the highest rated event, maybe one of them ever in sports.
D
I think this culture warring against Trump is really starting to weary a lot of Americans. Half the country did vote for him. He won fairly and I think a lot of the public are tired of being told that their president may not be honored in the same way that other presidents have been. In fact, even the country can't be honored with a straightforward patriotic concert because Trump is the president during our 250th anniversary.
A
Indeed, it does feel like there's a real sense of frustration from at least half the country about this pattern. So let's turn to a very much related controversy. Jackson Dart. This consumed the NFL reporting for the last few days. What's going on here?
D
So, last week, Jackson Dart introduced President Trump at an event outside New York City.
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And without further ado, I'm grateful, I'm honored, I'm pleasured to introduce the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump.
D
Now, that sparked immediate uproar with even teammate Abdul Carter publicly criticizing the move.
A
Jackson is one of our leaders. He represents all of us. And that goes for anybody who wears a Giants uniform. But if he chooses to align himself with a man like President Trump, it's my responsibility to not only show my teammates that I'm against that, but to show the world.
D
Carter later clarified that they talked and are good. And Dart addressed the team, noting that politics is sensitive for an NFL quarterback in a big market.
A
Obviously, this was a unique opportunity. I've always loved this country.
D
Coach John Harbaugh called it a learning opportunity. And Trump responded by thanking Dart, praising his popularity, and hinting that there will be future White House visits. But you know, John, this is very similar to the criticism the US Hockey team had to endure after their visit to the White House. Yeah, and one other instance, a Major League Baseball executive admitted to discriminating against a Catholic player. Sean Hudson, the director of community relations for the Washington Nationals, said the team avoided using outspoken Catholic pitcher Trevor Williams in certain teams. Social media content. Hudson was let go from the team over the weekend.
A
And more examples of how everything is fodder for, you know, partisan division these days. Meanwhile, I'd like to think that most of us are still truly excited to celebrate our country's 250th. Megan, thank you so much for coming on.
D
Absolutely. Thanks, John.
C
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Jeff Bezos, Private space company Blue Origin is reeling from a failed rocket launch. The company's new Glenn rocket exploded late last week in a massive fireball during a test launch. No one was injured, but authorities have warned Floridians to watch out for any wreckage that might wash ashore. Joining us now to discuss is Leroy Chow, a NASA astronaut who spent 229 days in space. Leroy, thanks for coming on.
B
Yeah, my pleasure. Great to be here.
A
So you've launched from Cape Canaveral, where this whole incident took place. The video of the Blue Origin rocket exploding is pretty spectacular. Some people described it like a nuclear bomb going off. It really was. For those who haven't seen it, can you walk us through what happened and what stood out to you?
B
Sure. They were setting up to do a static hot fire test. And basically what that is is you're lighting up all the engines. You're testing the engines with the rockets securely held down on the launch pa. You're checking the propellant system, you know, the propellant delivery, everything. And this is just something you do before you actually go launch, try to launch a satellite or something else. And so they're preparing for that test. Something went wrong, obviously very wrong. And, you know, it was a catastrophic failure. The whole rocket exploded. And even worse than losing the rocket, it really, really damaged the launch pad. And that's the only launch pad they had for launching the new Glenn rocket. Blue Origin had gotten the permission to modify that launch pad, that launch complex, specifically for New Glenn. They have plans to do more, but that's the only one they had completed so far. Yeah. So it's a pretty big loss for Blue Origin.
A
Yeah, indeed. Now, this is connected to NASA, obviously. The new Glenn rocket was intended to take Amazon LEO satellites into orbit, but it was also intended as part of NASA's Artemis program for the moon base. Can you explain that? What are the implications for NASA from this incident?
B
Yes, NASA had very recently awarded contracts to Blue Origin to build rovers that would, you know, astronauts would eventually use and could also operate autonomously on the surface of the moon. They also, of course, Blue Origin has been working for a number of years, as has SpaceX on a lander to take humans, to take Americans back to the surface of the moon. So this puts all of that a little bit in jeopardy because they were all, all the Blue Origins vehicles were supposed to launch aboard New Glenn. Now that doesn't mean there aren't other options. Could certainly probably integrate those payloads onto a Falcon Heavy rocket. SpaceX, I mean, they are rivals, but you know, in the Artemis team, all the contractors are going to help each other. They could certainly look at getting a rocket from United Launch alliance or, you know, possibly other sources. So they're not dead in the water, but it's a significant hit for sure.
A
Now, the competition side of this, the satellites are obviously a direct competitor to Starlink with SpaceX. How much do you think this hurts Blue Origin's overall goals for their space oriented programs?
B
Well, it certainly sets them back at least a year, probably more like a year and a half, but yeah, so they don't have that many satellites in orbit. And of course they were counting on New Glenn to start building that constellation. You know, they're already significantly behind Starlink. Everybody is. Starlink, it was the last entrant to the game and really leapfrogged everyone and dominated the low latency Internet satellite system.
A
Yeah, it's really remarkable. You mentioned what went wrong here. You know, Blue Origin has called this an anomaly. Seems like a bit of an understatement to me. What is your assessment? Do you feel like this is a much larger issue and this is going to take a long time to unpack for them, or is there no way to know now?
B
There's no way to know right now. I'm sure they have, you know, high speed video that they're going to be looking at. They're going to be looking at all the telemetry. They had a lot of data flowing from the rocket and the launch site to the control center. And so they're going to be looking at all of that to find the clues of what went wrong. And I suspect fairly quickly they'll determine the root cause. But it's going to take a while to get the FAA happy and recertify the vehicle as ready to go fly again. And a mishap, an anomaly. We have a way of understating things in the aerospace world and my favorite is when you have a rocket falling apart and exploding during flight. We call it unscheduled rapid disassembly. Well now it expl.
A
That's quite a euphemism if I've ever heard one. Leroy, thank you so much for joining us and lending us your expert insights. We really appreciate this.
B
My pleasure. Great to be with you.
D
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Platner, an outsider Democrat Senate candidate in Maine, is facing a fresh wave of allegations, including sexting with other women and having an account on a platform notorious for sexual predators. Maine voters will head to the primary polls on June 9th 9th. Joining us now is John Featherston, host of the podcast All Politics is Local, which is true, and a senior reporter at the Main Wire. That's no affiliation. We do like the name John. Thanks for coming on.
E
Thanks for having us. We get, we get a lot of questions about our is the Main wire and the Morty Wire the same?
A
So, yes, maybe it should be. So we have yet more controversy surfacing around Graham Platner. Let's start with the latest on him. What are these new claims made about him?
E
Well, it's rumored and I tried to ask him about it on Sunday about his affiliation with a pedophile site. It is referred to as Kik. His tattoos seem to match up to his other tattoos. And I was actually even looking at his tattoos on Sunday, trying to match them up, tried to ask him questions. He definitely ran away, held an event that was the least attended event, but every day it's a controversy. I asked him earlier in the week also about his, you know, him lying about that Susan Collins sent him to war. And then I followed up and asked Susan Collins about it.
D
I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country, but the fact is that was Platner's decision to serve. He was not drafted.
E
It's just one controversy after another here up here in Maine.
A
We also heard from Platner's wife, Amy Gertner on Sunday about his alleged text messages with other women. She called media coverage of these texts shameful and gossip. What's going on there?
E
So the allegations are, is that he was sending any inappropriate text messages to other women, asking them, you know, to, to hook up with him even after he was married. So that in, in itself creates quite the controversy as well. And his wife knew about it and she told the campaign to get ahead of it and evidently they did not. You know, all spare and love, war and politics. And when you decide that you're going to run for United States Senate. And you know, and she even she know because she brought that there were controversial comments. It, you know, it's fair play.
A
So we've now heard about, you know, staff departures with some of this ugly info coming from them. Apparently, Platner's online behavior, his personal controversies. Do you think voters are starting to see this as part of a larger pattern with him?
E
I've noticed in the definitely in the last 10 days that his crowd sizes are smaller. His appeal isn't as good. He did hold a rally on Memorial Day in Portland. It felt more like a Bernie Sanders event than it did a Graham Platner event. I've driven by some places, even in the neighborhood that I live in, where I saw Platner signs, and I'm not seeing Platner signs right now, but obviously they either got picked up or they got blew away and weren't replaced. So I do start. I'm starting to see cracks. But what really stunned me is about Sunday's event. There weren't 100 people at this event where he is, you know, consistently got over a thousand people. So it was a beautiful day. So weather wasn't an issue. It was an outside event in a very easily accessible place. People just weren't there.
A
Platner is the clear leader from the Democrats side right now and is pulling ahead of the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, for now. Given his resilience to the scandals so far, what do you expect next Tuesday? And if he is the nominee, can he actually end up beating Collins?
E
I don't think he can beat Collins. Collins, you know, institutional knowledge of Maine and her ties with local communities. She has great constituent services. She has great relationships with police fire all throughout Maine. She's very good at that. Platner came out of the box red hot. You don't see that momentum now. He's obviously going to win the primary because Governor Janet Mill suspended her campaign. But I think that's going to be interesting theater with this going forward. Does Mills reactivate her campaign at some point because of all the delegations against Platner? But Susan Collins is a proven person. She's won multiple elections up here in Maine. I don't think she's going to have a problem going forward.
A
Well, a fascinating case. This guy has gotten a lot of national attention. I expect that's going to keep up in the coming months. Thank you so much for coming on.
E
Thanks for having me.
A
Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of all of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show ad free and join our mission become a member@dailywire.com we'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.
Morning Wire — "America’s Birthday Blues & Bezos’ Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly"
Episode Date: June 1, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley (Daily Wire Executive Editor; Georgia Howe is off)
Key Guests: Megan Basham (Daily Wire Culture Reporter), Leroy Chiao (NASA Astronaut), John Featherston (Maine Wire/All Politics Is Local)
This episode of Morning Wire delves into America’s bumpy road to its 250th birthday, exploring how partisan divisions are threatening national celebrations, how Trump-related controversies have spilled into the NFL, and how even patriotic festivities can't seem to escape the current climate wars. The episode also covers Blue Origin’s catastrophic rocket explosion and its ripple effect on NASA plans, as well as new scandals dogging Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Quote (Megan Basham, 03:14):
“Days after announcing the lineup, media criticism started to swirl and several of the artists... dropped out. Some of these artists released statements saying they didn't want to be viewed as endorsing a political cause or candidate.”
Quote (Trump, via Megan Basham, paraphrased, 04:46):
"It's never happened before and you'll never see it again. This would be the highest rated event, maybe one of them ever in sports."
Quote (Megan Basham, 04:54):
"I think this culture warring against Trump is really starting to weary a lot of Americans... a lot of the public are tired of being told that their president may not be honored in the same way that other presidents have been.”
Quote (Jackson Dart, 05:38):
“And without further ado, I'm grateful, I'm honored, I'm pleasured to introduce the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump.”
Quote (Abdul Carter, 05:58):
“But if he chooses to align himself with a man like President Trump, it's my responsibility to not only show my teammates that I'm against that, but to show the world.”
Quote (Jackson Dart, 06:23):
“Obviously, this was a unique opportunity. I've always loved this country.”
Quote (John Bickley, 07:04):
“And more examples of how everything is fodder for, you know, partisan division these days.”
Quote (Leroy Chiao, 08:41):
“They were setting up to do a static hot fire test... something went wrong, obviously very wrong. And, you know, it was a catastrophic failure. The whole rocket exploded. And even worse than losing the rocket, it really, really damaged the launch pad.”
Quote (Chiao, 09:54):
“So this puts all of that a little bit in jeopardy... they're not dead in the water, but it's a significant hit for sure.”
Quote (Chiao, 11:01):
“Well, it certainly sets them back at least a year, probably more like a year and a half... they’re already significantly behind Starlink. Everybody is.”
Quote (Chiao, 11:43):
“We have a way of understating things in the aerospace world and my favorite is when you have a rocket falling apart and exploding during flight. We call it ‘unscheduled rapid disassembly.’”
Quote (John Featherston, 13:55):
“Well, it's rumored ... about his affiliation with a pedophile site. It is referred to as Kik. His tattoos seem to match up to his other tattoos. And I was actually even looking at his tattoos ... tried to ask him questions. He definitely ran away…”
Quote (Featherston, 15:46):
“I've noticed in the definitely in the last 10 days that his crowd sizes are smaller... what really stunned me is about Sunday's event. There weren't 100 people at this event where he is, you know, consistently got over a thousand people.”
Quote (Featherston, 16:51):
“I don't think he can beat Collins... Susan Collins is a proven person. She's won multiple elections up here in Maine. I don't think she's going to have a problem going forward.”
The tone throughout is brisk, skeptical, and at times, openly frustrated with the current climate of relentless partisan division and manufactured outrage in the culture and media. The hosts and guests maintain a fact-driven, slightly sardonic outlook, while still offering room for expert context and local political insights. This episode is essential listening for anyone trying to understand not just the news headlines, but the underlying currents of culture, politics, and technological rivalry shaping the country as it turns 250.