Dem Postmortem Misses & Sanctuary Cities Draw Fire | 7.22.25

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary Episode: Dem Postmortem Misses & Sanctuary Cities Draw Fire | 7.22.25 Release Date: July 22, 2025 Host: John Bickley & Georgia Howe

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1. Democrats’ 2024 Election Postmortem: Overlooking Key Factors

Georgia Howe initiates the discussion by addressing the Democratic Party's introspection following their 2024 presidential election loss. Despite the significant roles of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the campaign, the Democrats are reluctant to place blame on them.

John Bickley emphasizes the importance of scrutinizing Biden's performance:
“If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline, I think you're missing the point.” [00:11]

Cabot Phillips, Daily Wire’s senior editor, elaborates on the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) approach:
“After interviews with more than 200 campaign officials in all 50 states, the DNC's report is now nearing completion and... is avoiding some of the biggest factors in this race...” [02:40]

Phillips criticizes the DNC for not addressing critical issues such as Biden’s preparedness for reelection and Harris’s suitability as a running mate. He cites John Bickley’s concern:
“If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline and the fact that he was not prepared to run, much less even govern... they're not addressing.” [03:51]

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2. Financial Struggles Within the Democratic Party

The conversation shifts to the Democratic Party's financial woes. Cabot Phillips compares the fundraising prowess between the Democrats and Republicans:
“According to the latest FEC filings this week, the RNC now has $80 million in their war chest, while the DNC has just 15 million.” [05:13]

He highlights that much of the DNC’s funds are raised from deep-blue districts, which are less competitive in upcoming elections. This financial disparity poses significant challenges for the Democrats in maintaining political influence and mounting effective campaigns.

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3. Implications for Upcoming Midterm Elections

Discussing the potential impact on the midterms, Cabot Phillips notes historical trends but also current polling data that shows a narrower Democratic advantage:
“For the last two midterms with GOP presidents, they were heading the polls by seven points... now, Democrats have just a two point advantage for 2026.” [05:44]

However, he also mentions a slight decline in former President Donald Trump's approval ratings:
“His average approval rating sits at 45% with 52% disapproval… Americans are less enthused about his handling of the economy in his second term.” [05:08]

Despite this, Trump's formidable war chest of over $600 million and his ambition to reach $1 billion by midterms indicate a robust Republican strategy aimed at retaining Congressional control.

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4. Sanctuary Cities and the Shooting of Off-Duty Border Patrol Agent

The episode delves into the alarming shooting of an off-duty Border Patrol agent in New York City, used to critique sanctuary city policies.

Doug Schoen provides a detailed account of the incident:
“The agent was shot in the left cheek and right forearm. He returned fire and hit the man in the chest...” [08:13]

Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, condemns sanctuary cities:
“There's absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City.” [09:46]

Cabot Phillips reinforces this stance by stating:
“Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.” [10:09]

The discussion highlights that both suspects were previously deported illegal aliens, underscoring the administration's stance that sanctuary cities enable dangerous individuals to remain in the country. Doug Schoen adds that officials like Tom Homan advocate for increasing ICE presence to combat these issues:
“If local officials won't help the administration, ICE is going to flood the zone with officers...” [10:01]

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5. Cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show: Financial or Retaliatory?

The podcast transitions to the unexpected cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late-night show by CBS. Mairead Elordi, Daily Wire’s investigative reporter, provides insight into the potential reasons behind this decision.

Kristi Noem shares the official statement from CBS:
“CBS said the decision was purely financial. The last episode will air in May 2026.” [12:02]

However, Mairead Elordi hints at underlying tensions:
“Colbert slammed his own network... I am offended and I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.” [13:05]

Tom Homan, film critic and host of Hollywood in Toto podcast, argues that declining viewership and rising costs were primary factors:
“There were multiple reports saying they cost CBS more than $40 million... this is a format that has existed for decades that is dying.” [13:54]

He further explains the shift in audience preferences towards podcasts and YouTube-based shows, which offer more flexibility and often a non-partisan edge:
“Podcasts and also YouTube based shows are essentially the new late night... they do it longer form they'll be funnier often and they don't really have a decided partisan edge to them.” [14:18]

Mairead Elordi concludes that the cancellation signifies broader changes in the media landscape and marks the end of an era for traditional late-night television.

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Conclusion

The Morning Wire episode provides a critical examination of the Democratic Party's challenges post-2024 elections, highlighting internal missteps and financial struggles that may influence upcoming midterm results. Additionally, the discussion on the recent shooting of an off-duty Border Patrol agent underscores the ongoing debate over sanctuary city policies and immigration enforcement. Lastly, the abrupt cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late-night show serves as a reflection of shifting media consumption habits and the financial pressures on traditional television formats. Through insightful analysis and compelling quotes, hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe deliver a comprehensive overview of pressing political and cultural issues.

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Notable Quotes:

• “If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline, I think you're missing the point.” — John Bickley [00:11]
• “Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.” — Cabot Phillips [10:09]
• “CBS said the decision was purely financial.” — Kristi Noem [12:02]
• “Podcasts and also YouTube based shows are essentially the new late night.” — Tom Homan [14:18]

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For more insights and daily updates on politics, culture, and current events, tune in to the Morning Wire by The Daily Wire.

Transcript

[Georgia Howe]

Democrats are digging into their 2024 presidential election loss, but they're refusing to blame Biden and Harris.

[John Bickley]

If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline, I think you're missing the point.

[Georgia Howe]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, July 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.

[Tim Peerce]

An off duty Border Patrol agent is shot in New York, and now sanctuary cities are under fire as ice prepares to flood the zone.

[Cabot Phillips]

Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.

[Georgia Howe]

Hard Stop and CBS cancels Stephen Colbert's late night show. Was it budget cuts or retribution?

[Mairead Elordi]

This kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's big fat bribe.

[Tim Peerce]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wires. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to.

[Doug Schoen]

Know.

[Christian Toto]

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[Tim Peerce]

It's been one year since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, and Democrats are still grappling with what went wrong.

[Georgia Howe]

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the party's power struggle and give us a fascinating post mortem. So Cabot, it's amazing to think just a year ago President Biden was at the top of the Democratic ticket and how times have changed.

[Cabot Phillips]

Yeah, it's important to note though, political years are like dog years. So that was basically seven years ago.

[Georgia Howe]

That happened now. A lot has happened since then, but Democrats are now trying to figure out what went wrong. What are the main theories?

[Cabot Phillips]

So after every election season, each party spends the next year producing an extensively detailed postmortem on what went right, or in Democrats case, what went poorly. After interviews with more than 200 campaign officials in all 50 states, the DNC's report is now nearing completion and according to a recent New York Times story, is avoiding some of the biggest factors in this race, namely whether Joe Biden should have run for reelection in the first place, if he should have dropped out earlier, and if Kamala Harris was the right pick for his replacement. For more on that controversial decision, I spoke with Doug Schoen, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked on the campaigns of both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

[John Bickley]

If you don't focus on Joe Biden and his cognitive decline and the fact that he was not prepared to run, much less even govern, I think you're missing the point. Moreover, the fact that Kamala Harris was so ill prepared that with the expenditure of over a billion dollars, she actually lost votes, not gained votes, it tells you that the party has pretty serious problems that by what we see and hear, they're not addressing.

[Georgia Howe]

So if they're not blaming Kamala or Biden, who are they blaming?

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, they're reportedly putting much of the blame on outside groups, primarily the Future Forward PAC that was the largest Democratic super PAC in 2024. They say those groups spent too much money on advertising and not enough on grassroots organizing. They also claim that the billion plus dollars they spent on advertising should have focused more on attacking Donald Trump as opposed to propping up Kamala Harris. But the Future Forwardback is disputing those claims. They're pointing out that just 13% of their advertising budget went towards ads that were positive about Kamala, while the rest attacked Trump. Here's shown to that point, the result.

[John Bickley]

Was bad because Biden was infirm and Kamala Harris, as she has always been, does not have great credibility to be a national candidate. She had low ratings as vice president, and ultimately she was not prepared to sustain a presidential campaign. The other issue, Cabot, that I'm concerned about is will the Democrats face the facts about immigration and the fact that their failure to deal with the problem frontally during the Biden administration and thereafter was one of the major contributing factors to their defeat.

[Georgia Howe]

Now the party is also having some money troubles. What's going on with their financials?

[Cabot Phillips]

So typically it's much easier to raise money when you're not the party in power. Give us money to fight back is a more potent pitch than give us money to maintain the status quo. But the GOP has been running laps around the Democrats in fundraising this year. According to the latest FEC filings this week, the RNC now has $80 million in their war chest, while the DNC has just 15 million. And much of the money they have raised is coming in deep blue districts that Republicans aren't going to have any chance of winning anyway.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, what does all this mean for midterms? Or is it too early to say?

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, historically, the party out of power enjoys big gains in midterms, but right now, polling of generic ballots shows Democrats with just a two point advantage for 2026. For context, at this point, for the last two midterms with GOP presidents, they were heading the polls by seven points. But the good news for Democrats is that according to at least some polls, President Trump's popularity appears to be waning a bit in the last month or so. At the moment, his average approval rating sits at 45% with 52% disapproval with, which is still better than any time during his first term, but a bit of a dip since inauguration. And perhaps more importantly, Americans are less enthused about his handling of the economy in his second term. That was where he scored his highest marks in the first term, but he's now 12 points underwater on the economy. However, though on the other side, some consolation for Republicans, Trump and his allied PACs have more than $600 million in their war chest right now. Trump wants to hit a billion by the time midterms roll around. He's ready to spend that money and hit the campaign trail to maintain GOP control of Congress, so he's certainly not resting on his laurels. With midterms fast approaching, we'll be there very soon.

[Georgia Howe]

Yeah, well, probably wise. A lot can change, cab. But thanks for reporting.

[Cabot Phillips]

Absolutely.

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[Georgia Howe]

An off duty Border Patrol agent was shot twice in a New York City park over the weekend. Officials say this is just the latest incident to highlight the dangers of illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.

[Tim Peerce]

Here to talk about the shooting and more is Daily Wire reporter Tim Peerce. Tim so let's start with this really alarming situation in New York. What exactly happened?

[Doug Schoen]

So this all went down in a park in upper Manhattan on Saturday night. The Department of Homeland Security released tape of what happened. The footage is pretty grainy, but in it you can see two people on a moped approach, another two sitting by a rock near the Hudson River. One man gets off the moped and draws a gun. He approaches the couple on the rock. One of the people on the rock reacts and there is an exchange of gunfire. And one of the people attacked turned out to be a Border Patrol agent who was sitting next to a friend. According to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the agent drew his service weapon when he realized that he was being robbed, but the man off the moped shot first and hit the agent in the left cheek and right forearm. The agent returned fire and hit the man in the chest. The assailant was able to get up, get back on the moped and take off. The agent was then taken to a nearby hospital where he is being treated.

[Tim Peerce]

All right, so the suspect fired first. The off duty officer then returned fire. What do we know so far about the attackers?

[Doug Schoen]

Well, both suspects have been arrested. The man with the gun is suspected to be a previously deported illegal alien from the Dominican Republic. He was arrested at the southern border in 2023 and then released into the country under the Biden administration. He is wanted in Massachusetts for armed robbery. He has also been charged with kidnapping and witness intimidation in New York, but clearly he's been allowed to roam free. The second suspect is also a Dominican national who entered the country illegally, once again under the Biden administration. He also has a rap sheet and an order for deportation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that these suspects were allowed to stay in the country because of sanctuary city policies.

[Kristi Noem]

There's absolutely zero reason that someone who Is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City. Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today fighting for his life because of the policies of the mayor of this city and the City Council.

[Doug Schoen]

Border czar Tom Homan said that if local officials won't help the administration, ICE is going to flood the zone with officers to take illegals like these off the streets.

[Cabot Phillips]

Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want. More agents in the community and more agents in the work site.

[Doug Schoen]

President Trump also chimed in. He posted on Truth Social over the weekend that, quote, democrats have flooded our nation with criminal invaders. He said those aliens must all be either thrown out or immediately prosecuted.

[Tim Peerce]

All right, so as to this threat from Homan to flood the sanctuary cities with more agents, what cities do we expect him to target?

[Doug Schoen]

Well, no surprises here. Cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles will be top of the list. And that is due to comments like these from LA Mayor Karen Bass over the weekend where she refused to say whether any illegal aliens in her city should be deported.

[Karen Bass]

Even people who are US Citizens have been detained. Immigrants who have their papers and were showing up for their. Their annual immigration appointment were detained when they showed up doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. So they should not be deported. I don't think they should stay. Well, this is a million undocumented. No, Let me just tell you what I think we need is comprehensive immigration reform. I served in Congress for 12 years and didn't get it. Well, and didn't get it.

[Doug Schoen]

Speaking of California, the anti ICE attitude runs through the state government as well. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Governor Gavin Newsom personally solicited funds for an anti ICE group, the Immigrant Defenders Law center, that wants to defund police and recently launched a bail fund for illegal aliens arrested by ice.

[Tim Peerce]

So they're actively working to get suspects back on the streets.

[Doug Schoen]

Exactly.

[Tim Peerce]

Tim, thanks for reporting.

[Doug Schoen]

Thanks for having me on.

[Tim Peerce]

Stephen Colbert's Late show was canceled last week, marking the end of the classic late night program that began in the 1990s.

[Georgia Howe]

The cancellation has sparked conspiracy theories and comes at a volatile time for cbs. Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here now with more Summer. Tell us about the decision to cancel the show.

[Kristi Noem]

Hi, Georgia. Yes. So the Late show with Stephen Colbert was canceled last week, and CBS said the decision was purely financial. The last episode will air in May 2026. And after that, CBS said Colbert will not be replaced. Colbert announced the end of his decade long show to his audience Thursday night.

[Mairead Elordi]

Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the late show in May.

[Christian Toto]

And.

[Mairead Elordi]

Yeah, I share your feelings.

[Kristi Noem]

Just days before his show was canceled, Colbert slammed his own network. During his opening monologue, he criticized CBS's parent company Paramount Global for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Trump over Kamala Harris's 60 Minutes interview. Trump claimed CBS deceptively edited Harris word salad answer to make her look better. Trump's legal team called the settlement a win for the American people over the fake news media. But here's what Colbert had to say.

[Mairead Elordi]

While I was on vacation, my parent corporation Paramount paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit. As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended and I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help.

[Kristi Noem]

Colbert called the settlement a big fat bribe because he noted Paramount Global is trying to get the Trump administration's FCC to approve an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.

[Georgia Howe]

So do people think those comments are really what got him fired?

[Kristi Noem]

Yes. There's a lot of speculation about that online and the timing looks pretty bad. However, we spoke to film critic and host of Hollywood in Toto podcast, Christian Toto. And and he said the cancellation is not so shocking when you look at the Late Show's sagging numbers.

[Tom Homan]

I mean, there were multiple reports saying they cost CBS more than $40 million. That's a massive amount. And we've seen the revenue numbers from late night TV decline and decline. This is a format that has existed for decades that is dying. They've got a show that's costing them an exorbitant amount of money. They've got a host who has aggressively repelled more than half the countries.

[Kristi Noem]

Tota also noted that Colbert is just not that funny anymore.

[Tom Homan]

He's got the mannerisms, he's got the timing. There's a good comedian lurking within there. But the end of the day, if you look at a show like the Late show, the purpose, the Prime Directive isn't really funny anymore. It's, you know, getting a monologue out. It's pushing an agenda. It's hitting the right target, so to speak. You know, he went on and on and on about the Russian collusion situation. And when there was the revelation that it was all a hoax, there was no apology, no mea culpa. I think podcasts and also YouTube based shows are essentially the new late night. You know, a rebel comedian like Tim Dillon or Theo Vaughn, you know they will attack these subjects in a very similar fashion and they'll do it longer form they'll be funnier often and they don't really have a decided partisan edge to them.

[Kristi Noem]

What's notable here too is that Colbert's show is the highest performing of all the late night shows with just under 2 million watchers except for Gutfeld on Fox which dominates late night TV with 3 million nightly viewers and of course leans conservative. Gutfeld has also picked up more younger viewers while the left leaning late night audiences tend to skew older.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, it's definitely the end of an era and maybe a sign of the times. Mairead, thanks for reporting.

[Kristi Noem]

Thanks Georgia.

[Tim Peerce]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.