Anti-Trump Rhetoric Draws Scrutiny & Is Camp Mystic Safe To Reopen? | 4.28.26

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode: Anti-Trump Rhetoric Draws Scrutiny & Is Camp Mystic Safe To Reopen?
Date: April 28, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley & Georgia Howe

Episode Overview

This Morning Wire episode tackles three major national stories:

1. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Assassination Attempt – Discussion focuses on the attack against President Trump, the perpetrator’s motives, and the media’s role in escalating rhetoric.
2. US-Iran Tensions – Updates on Trump’s hardline stance, the crumbling Iranian regime, and frustrations with European allies.
3. Camp Mystic Controversy – A look at the heated debate surrounding the reopening of an all-girls Christian camp following a deadly flood, highlighting regulatory and family concerns.

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Segment 1: Anti-Trump Rhetoric & the White House Assassination Attempt

Timestamps: 02:43 – 07:53

Key Discussion Points

• Arraignment and Charges

  • The man who stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was charged with attempted assassination of President Trump, firearm offenses, and interstate crimes.

  • Law enforcement made clear the suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, meticulously planned the act, booking a hotel stay weeks in advance and traveling cross-country by train to avoid weapon security checks.

  • Additional charges may be forthcoming, according to statements from Jeanine Pirro.

    “Let this be a message to anyone who thinks that Washington, D.C. is the place to act out political violence... we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
    — Jeanine Pirro (03:54)

• Media’s Role in Political Violence

  • Georgia Howe and John Bickley are joined by Ben Domenech (Daily Wire Opinion Editor) to explore the claim that legacy media is fueling political extremism through normalization and amplification of anti-Trump rhetoric.

  • Ben Domenech argues that outlets give significant airtime to voices openly wishing for Trump’s demise and recounts recent high-profile incidents, including:

    • ABC’s “The View” commentators claiming the shooting would “expose Republicans and cabinet members in the Trump administration to the experience of being in a school shooting.”
    • Jimmy Kimmel’s joke about Melania Trump as an “expectant widow.”
    • CBS’s Norah O’Donnell reading vitriolic passages from the attacker’s manifesto during an interview, which sparked a sharp on-air rebuke from Trump.

    "You shouldn't be reading that in 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead, let's finish the interview.”
    — President Trump to Norah O'Donnell (03:39)

    “The legacy media has featured these not as things that are objectionable, but just interesting takes on the news at large... They promoted people who have crossed the line.”
    — Ben Domenech (05:54)

• Will Media Change?

  • Both hosts and Domenech express doubt that legacy media will reflect or self-correct, predicting they will “go right back to doing the same things.”

    “I think they're going to go right back to doing the same things. They won't even take a beat.”
    — John Bickley (07:28)

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Segment 2: US-Iran Tensions and Diplomatic Deadlock

Timestamps: 09:08 – 13:17

Key Discussion Points

• Breakdown of Talks

  • President Trump has broken off talks with Iran, dismissing negotiations and emphasizing continued pressure via a US-led blockade.

  • US authorities declare that Iranian regime’s leverage is “crushed,” and internal power struggles are intensifying.

    “Your president is holding the line. That’s what he does incredibly well… Economic Fury… is working with Iran.”
    — Bev Turner (09:48)

• Operation Economic Fury

  • The US Navy’s actions against Iranian oil shipments are hurting Iran’s economy, forcing them to use antiquated tankers and exacerbating internal chaos.

    “When Trump says they are tearing each other apart inside their buildings, he's right about that. And that plays to the strength of America.”
    — Bev Turner (09:48)

• Stalemate on Hormuz Strait

  • Iran proposes reopening the Strait of Hormuz but postponing nuclear talks, which Trump rejects, wanting the strait open for Western commerce but not for Iranian revenue.

  • European allies are described as disengaged, frustrating US leadership and potentially straining alliances.

    “No sign of Europe doing that, John, at the moment. So incredibly frustrating situation for President Trump because he’s on his own…”
    — Bev Turner (11:27)

---

Segment 3: Camp Mystic Reopening Controversy

Timestamps: 13:53 – 16:32

Key Discussion Points

• Background

  • Nearly a year ago, 27 campers and counselors died in a catastrophic flood at the all-girls Christian Camp Mystic in Texas.
  • The camp’s owners plan to reopen, despite an ongoing investigation and objections from families and state officials.

• Regulatory Action

  • Texas Department of State Health Services issued an 11-page letter citing nearly two dozen major safety violations—including a failed flood warning system and inadequate evacuation planning.

    “They missed the official flood warnings the night of the disaster and they did not have a detailed evacuation plan and… waited too long to try to get those children out of the cabins.”
    — Lyndon Blake (14:12)

• Family Outrage

  • Families of victims (calling themselves “Heavens 27”) and politicians like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are demanding the camp not be reopened until all investigations and legal matters are resolved.

  • Some families lack closure, as one victim's body remains unrecovered.

    “The families are honestly in disbelief that the camp would try to reopen this summer…”
    — Lyndon Blake (15:24)

• Camp’s Response

  • The camp released a statement pledging to review and address regulators’ concerns, but shows “no indication that they will halt their efforts to reopen.”

    “A lot of that area is still hurting. We'll continue to follow the story to see what happens in the coming days.”
    — Lyndon Blake (16:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Media Complicity Debate

  “They have featured and promoted and entertained the likes of people like Hasan Piker and others who have openly called for the deaths of Republicans…”
  — John Bickley (05:54)

• On the Prospect of Media Self-Reflection

  “It would be stunning behavior... to actually look in the mirror and start considering the idea that when they promote the message that the president… should end up dead… that’s something they should stop doing.”
  — John Bickley (07:28)

• On the Pressures Facing Trump as Iran Talks Stall

  “He’s on his own, as we know, the rest of the world is not helping him in this regard. And his patience might start to run even thinner with Europe as well.”
  — Bev Turner (12:18)

---

Useful Segment Timestamps

• White House Assassination Charges & Manifesto Media Debate — 02:43–07:53
• US-Iran Blockade Status — 09:08–13:17
• Camp Mystic Safety and Legal Battle — 13:53–16:32

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This episode delivers pointed criticism of mainstream media's treatment of political violence, candid evaluations of US-Iran diplomacy, and a nuanced look at the tension between regulatory, legal, and human concerns in the aftermath of a major tragedy. The tone remains urgent, analytical, and at times, openly critical of the legacy press and political adversaries.

Transcript

[Alliance Defending Freedom Representative]

If you're listening to the Daily Wire, you know how important the fight for fundamental freedoms is. We're Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry advancing free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life and parental rights. We've helped secure major victories, including at the Supreme Court. And we're actively defending issues like women's sports and free expression. We rely on your support to keep going. Right now, every dollar you give will be matched. Go to joinadf.com wire or text wire to 83848 to double your impact.

[Daily Wire Host]

Today,

[Georgia Howe]

The DOJ hits. The latest would be Trump killer with assassination charges. As the media comes under fire for its incendiary rhetoric.

[John Bickley]

The political violence and rhetoric has got to stop. They're just as guilty as a lot

[Georgia Howe]

of people on X. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, April 28th, and this is Morning Wire.

[News Anchor]

President Trump cuts off talks with Iran as the US Blockade crushes the regime's last remaining leverage point.

[Daily Wire Host]

The president's red lines with respect to

[Alliance Defending Freedom Representative]

Iran have been made very, very clear,

[Daily Wire Host]

not just to the American public, but also to them as well.

[Georgia Howe]

And the legal proceedings on the Camp mystic tragedy are beset with controversy while victims families speak out.

[Lyndon Blake]

You failed her, did you not, Mr. Eastland?

[News Anchor]

I wish we had more. Affirmat. Thanks for waking up with Morning wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

[Daily Wire Host]

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[News Anchor]

The man who stormed the White House Correspondent's Dinner Saturday night was arraigned yesterday and hit with charges of attempted assassination of President Trump.

[Georgia Howe]

Joining us now with the newest developments in the case and the media's role in all of this is Daily Wire opinion editor Ben Domenech, host of the Big Ben Show. Ben, thanks for coming on.

[John Bickley]

Of course. Always a pleasure.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, let's start with the charges and what we've since learned from the doj. So what's the latest there?

[John Bickley]

The charges in this case are really not at question in the sense that, you know, the shooter clearly did what he did. He left a manifesto that explained what he was going to attempt to do. It did so, by the way, in terms that I think many people would find familiar to the expressions of people who hate and call for the death of Donald Trump and other Cabinet officials. The initial charges against Cole Thomas Allen, who appeared in court has include attempting to assassinate the president, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and transporting a firearm and ammo in interstate commerce. But there are also charges that Jeanine Pirro indicated would be filed in the future. I don't think that these are going to be the full extent of what he ends up facing. Here's Pirro, who was running through the list of charges and details about the shooter.

[Jeanine Pirro]

Today we have Cole Allen, another individual charged with crossing state lines, coming from California with a firearm with the intent to commit a felony here in the District. Let this be a message to anyone who thinks that Washington, D.C. is the place to act out political violence. And if you are willing to do so with a firearm and cross state lines, we will find you. We will track your steps from the inception of your plan, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

[John Bickley]

In looking at his pattern of behavior, it seems clear that he was someone who planned this well in advance. He booked his stay at the Washington Hilton, according to Peter Hero, as early as April 6th. And that's something that allows for an incredible amount of time to plan ahead, but also allowed him to take a train across country, presumably to transport weapons and to avoid the additional security that is in place, of course, if you use an airplane. But I think that in this case there's going to be, you know, a pretty clear cut case against this gentleman. And we'll we will find out, I think through the course of, of the trial that will come the true nature of all the different manners in which he hated the President. People are already piecing it together from social media and we're going to learn more when the DOJ really has the chance to sink their teeth into it.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, there's also been a lot of scrutiny of the media. President Trump had this now viral back and forth with CBS News host Norah o', Donnell, and he called her a disgrace after she read some of the smears against him in the manifesto.

[Norah O'Donnell]

I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that. Because I'm not any of those things, Mr. President. And I was never. Excuse me, Excuse me.

[Bev Turner]

Me.

[Norah O'Donnell]

You shouldn't be reading that in 60 minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead, let's finish the interview.

[Georgia Howe]

You wrote an op ed for the Daily Wire where you actually laid out the case for why the media is complicit in this assassination attempt. What's your argument there?

[John Bickley]

They have featured and promoted and entertained the likes of people like Hasan Piker and others who have openly called for the deaths of Republicans who have applauded the murder of a healthcare executive by Luigi Manigioni and, and have continually played up into the rhetoric that says that the president himself should be someone who is taken out. Something that is echoed now by Democrat politicians. The legacy media has featured these not as things that are objectionable, but that are just interesting takes on the news at large. And they promoted people who have really crossed the line into territory that I believe is unacceptable. We saw within the space of just a couple of days, ABC News, for instance, which is the promoter of the program, the View have on common commentators who said that there were good sides to this shooting, that it would expose Republicans and cabinet members in the Trump administration to the experience of being in a school shooting. You had the joke that led into this White House correspondence dinner from Jimmy Kimmel just a few days earlier, who referred to Melania Trump as an expectant widow. She has called for the cancellation of his show. In response. A lot of these legacy media organizations continue to entertain and promote the likes of messages that we could hear echoed in that very same manifesto, even to the point of treating it with the kind of authority and seriousness that Norah o' Donnell used in what I think was quite frankly an embarrassing interview.

[Georgia Howe]

Do you think outlets like ABC are going to make changes as a result of this?

[John Bickley]

I think it would be stunning behavior on the part of any of these legacy media organizations to actually look in the mirror and start considering the idea that when they promote the message that the president of the United States should end up dead for the good of the country, that that's something that they should stop doing. I think they're going to go right back to doing the same things. They won't even take a beat.

[Daily Wire Host]

Yeah.

[Georgia Howe]

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to agree. Ben, thanks so much for coming on.

[John Bickley]

It's always great to be with you.

[Daily Wire Host]

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[Georgia Howe]

President Trump has called off talks with Iran, saying it's not worth flying diplomats 18 hours to Pakistan to speak to nobodies. But the White House says the US Blockade is doing its work, crushing what's left of the regime's last leverage point.

[News Anchor]

Joining us now with the latest is Bev Turner, host of the Late Show Live at GB News. Bev, great to see you.

[Bev Turner]

Great to see you, John.

[News Anchor]

So President Trump says that every day this Iranian regime is just getting weaker. The holdouts within this really chaotic power structure, they're losing their last cards, particularly with the US Navy restoring more of the commercial shipping all the time. So where do things stand now? Will Trump get the deal he's Demanding.

[Bev Turner]

Look, your president is holding the line. That's what he does incredibly well. Obviously, we had the distraction over the weekend of the potential assassination attempt, so this has fallen off the agenda a little bit now. What we're hearing, John, as you say, is that the IRGC behind the scenes are fighting amongst themselves. I had one report that during the last communications, the last negotiations in Pakistan, there were 77. Zero different men who went from Iran to those negotiations. And guess what? They all want that top job. So when Trump says that they are tearing each other apart inside their buildings, he's right about that. And that plays to the strength of America. Economic Fury. This is what this is, of course, Operation Economic Fury, and it appears to be working with Iran. We understand they're holding their oil now in these ancient tankers. Who knows how good they are for a country which survives on its oil sales. That is, of course, not ideal for them. So the temperature is lifting on Iran. The pressure is being maintained by America. We know we wanted it tied up by now, John, but I think he's realistic that this is not going to be over soon, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks. But who is in charge? Who knows, John? In a way, that becomes their problem.

[News Anchor]

Like you said, a lot of this has fallen under the radar. With all the attention on what happened in D.C. i know you were there, front and center for the chaos this weekend. Iran has given the US a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in the war, but then postpone nuclear negotiations for later. Is that some progress?

[Bev Turner]

It sounds like it could be progress, but as we know, this is going to be the sticking point. And actually, President Trump does not want the straits open for the sake of Iran's revenue. He doesn't want them open because Iran takes the revenue, but he wants them open so that goods and services and oil still make it to the west and to America. It's this horrible pinch point which President Trump has to work out. Does he cause more damage to Iran or does it continue to actually cause damage, in a way to the American economy and to the Western economy as well, and of course, to Europe, because Europe's patience with this is growing thinner by the day. They are not, however, stepping up to the plate to help. They could. They could say, all right, let's get involved. Let's help you with the Strait of Hormuz. Let's get it open. Let's increase the pressure militarily on Iran. No sign of Europe doing that, John, at the moment. So incredibly frustrating situation for President Trump because he's on his own, as we know, the rest of the world is not helping him in this regard. And his patience might start to run even thinner with Europe as well.

[News Anchor]

Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Europe. I wanted to ask you about that. So there really is no sign of additional action, more action being taken by European allies?

[Bev Turner]

I mean, listen, our prime minister is in big trouble at home. There are talks of a rebellion against him by some of his backbench MPs, some of his cabinet ministers. Even the headlines in the UK Are saying that the prime minister is living on borrowed time, that he's a dead man walking. As far as he's concerned, the last thing on his mind right now is the Iranian war, which he said from the start is not his war.

[News Anchor]

Yeah, it's unfortunate to see. And you mentioned borrowed time. It does feel like the Iranian military leadership is on borrowed time with that fuel building up and that money being drained from their resources. Bev, thank you so much for coming on.

[Bev Turner]

My pleasure. Thanks.

[Daily Wire Host]

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[News Anchor]

Less than a year after a catastrophic flood killed 27 campers and counselors, an all girls Christian summer camp in the Texas hill country is now trying to reopen.

[Georgia Howe]

Joining us now with the latest updates on the tragic story is Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake. So Lyndon, tell us what are the most recent updates with this Camp mystic story?

[Lyndon Blake]

Yeah, it's hard to believe. It's almost been a year since this tragedy happened in the early morning hours of July 4th last summer where there's 27 campers and counselors lost their lives. So the latest in this situation is regulators in Texas. They're actually trying to put a stop to the reopening of Camp mystic again nearly a year after those 27 were killed at the Christian summer camp. So the Texas Department of State Health Services sent camp mystic an 11 page letter listing almost two dozen problems and these are not minor issues of why the camp should remain closed. The regulators pointed out some major flaws in the camp's flood warning system that came under criticism during this tragedy last summer. Evacuation plans and the poor training of staff and campers in the correct safety procedures. So this letter was sent right after a three day court hearing in which Camp Mystics owners and staff acknowledged they missed the official flood warnings the night of the disaster and they did not have a detailed evacuation plan and they waited too long to try to get those children out of the cabins.

[Georgia Howe]

Now the family members of these campers that lost their lives are appalled that this camp is rushing to reopen so quickly. What have they said?

[Lyndon Blake]

Yeah, well, one girl still hasn't been recovered. So that family still doesn't even have the closure from this horrible situation from again nearly a year ago. So the families are honestly in disbelief that the camp would try to reopen this summer. Try to go on while you still have people that are suffering and haven't found the closure from last year's floods. So the families are known as Heavens 27. They were joined by several, several state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in their calls to stop the reopening before the state health department issued its letter. So they were hoping to at least delay it until the investigations into the flooding had been concluded. But right now, Camp mystic plans to reopen its Cypress Lake campus. And that's a portion of the property where lives were not lost. But families are still concerned that evidence relevant to the pending lawsuits and investigations could be destroyed in any cleanup effort.

[Georgia Howe]

And what is the camp saying for themselves?

[Lyndon Blake]

Yeah, so the camp issued a statement through its attorney saying it's carefully reviewing the notice and working with the agency to address the issues, showing no indication that they will halt their efforts to reopen the camp. So a lot of that area is still hurting. We'll continue to follow the story to see what happens in the coming days.

[Georgia Howe]

All right, well, Lyndon, thanks for reporting.

[Lyndon Blake]

Thank you guys.

[News Anchor]

Thanks for waking up with us. And for those listening to the show, you can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire. Plus, we'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.

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