LA Anti-ICE Riots & Biles Trans Backlash | 6.9.25

Summary

Morning Wire: LA Anti-ICE Riots & Biles Trans Backlash | Episode Summary

Release Date: June 9, 2025
Host/Author: The Daily Wire
Presenters: John Bickley (Editor-in-Chief) and Georgia Howe

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1. LA Anti-ICE Riots: Escalation and Response

Background and Escalation

The episode opens with a chilling overview of recent events in Los Angeles, where anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protests have spiraled into violent riots. The unrest was triggered by false claims that ICE had conducted a raid at a Home Depot store in Paramount, a situation that rapidly descended into chaos.

Government Response

In response to the escalating violence, President Donald Trump mobilized the National Guard to quell the riots. John Bickley summarizes the situation:

"Chaos erupted over the weekend in the Los Angeles area as some anti ICE protesters turned to violence after false claims that ICE had conducted a raid of the Home Depot in the city of Paramount."
[01:46]

As the situation worsened, Northern Command prepared to deploy 500 Marines to maintain order. However, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized this move, arguing that the deployment of federal troops was exacerbating the situation.

Mayor Karen Bass’s Stance

Karen Bass condemned the federal response, stating:

"What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration. When you raid Home Depot and workplaces... deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation."
[02:20]

She urged peaceful expression of anger, emphasizing that the actions were more about advancing an agenda than ensuring public safety.

On-the-Ground Reporting with Alex Michelson

Veteran LA reporter Alex Michelson provided an in-depth account of the turmoil, highlighting instances where local law enforcement struggled to maintain control:

"There is no doubt that there were times when things were out of control... my own colleague on Fox 11... their vehicle was destroyed... criminals taking advantage of a situation and creating chaos."
[03:30]

Michelson pointed out the organized nature of the protests, noting coordination through social media and a lack of cooperation from state Democratic leaders with ICE operations, which contributed to the unpredictability and danger of the riots. He concluded that the conflict shows no signs of abating and may intensify further.

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2. Trump vs. Elon Musk: A Brewing Political Feud

Social Media Sparks the Feud

The episode delves into the public falling out between former President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. Initially allies, their relationship soured over Musk's criticisms of Trump, particularly on social media platforms.

Key Developments

John Bickley introduces the segment:

"After their public falling out, President Trump is warning Elon Musk to stay out of the midterm elections as he pushes forward on the passage of his signature budget bill."
[06:40]

Cabot Phillips, Daily Wire senior editor, elaborates on the feud:

"Musk, who once said he 'loved Trump as much as a straight man can love another man... continued to slam President Trump over the weekend... Trump responded by calling him, 'the man who has lost his mind.'"
[07:03]

Musk's provocative suggestion of forming a new political party, tentatively named the America Party, aims to represent the "80% in the middle." This move has caught Trump's attention, with the President warning of "very serious consequences" if Musk challenges Republican contenders in future elections.

Future Implications

Despite the tension, there are indications of attempts to mend fences. Cabot Phillips notes:

"Top advisors for the two men have been in communication all weekend, trying to keep things from escalating further... President Trump said there was, 'no reason to repair the relationship,' which he assumed was over."
[08:33]

However, the potential establishment of a third party by Musk could significantly impact the 2024 midterm elections, introducing a new dynamic into an already polarized political landscape.

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3. Transgender Athletes in Women's Sports: Simone Biles vs. Riley Gaines

The Spark of Controversy

A heated debate erupted between Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines over the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports. This feud highlights the ongoing tensions surrounding gender identity and fairness in athletics.

Incident Breakdown

Georgia Howe introduces the segment:

"An online debate erupted over the weekend between Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. The issue, transgender athletes in women's sports."
[10:26]

Amanda Presto Giacomo provides detailed reporting:

"The controversy began when Riley Gaines... commented on a social media post celebrating a girls' softball state championship win by a team featuring a boy who identifies as a girl. Gaines criticized the team turning off comments, suggesting bias."
[10:46]

Biles retaliated by labeling Gaines as "truly sick and a sore loser," and paradoxically criticized Gaines's physique, despite Gaines's average height:

"Tell Gaines to, 'bully someone your own size, which ironically would be a male.'"
[12:27]

Public and Media Reaction

The backlash was swift and polarized. Gaines received support from online communities advocating for fairness in women's sports, leading to calls for brands like Athleta to discontinue their association with Biles. Conversely, legacy media and left-leaning pundits defended Biles, with publications like USA Today hailing her as a hero.

Polling Insights

Amanda highlights that public opinion significantly favors Gaines's stance:

"A February 2025 New York Times Ipsos poll found that about 80% of respondents felt that biological males should not be allowed to compete in women's sports. That includes 67% of Democrats and 64% of independents."
[13:46]

This statistic poses a political challenge for Democrats, whose base may not align with the broader public sentiment, potentially impacting their support in this issue.

Strategic Implications for Democrats

The intense debate puts Democratic leaders in a precarious position, as they must balance advocacy for transgender rights with the majority public opinion favoring fair competition in women's sports. Some Democrat strategists are reportedly urging party members to reconsider their stance to align with voter preferences.

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4. Economic Update: Private Sector Job Growth Under Trump

Job Market Performance

Amidst political turmoil, the Trump administration showcased positive economic indicators. John Bickley reports:

"The latest labor report showed 139,000 jobs added in May. That is the third straight month we've seen gains that exceeded expectations."
[09:12]

Private Sector Dominance

A key highlight is the significant contribution of the private sector to job growth:

"All net job growth came from the private sector since Trump took office. Now, 99.8% of new jobs have been in the private sector."
[09:12]

In contrast, under the Biden administration, approximately 25% of job creation was from government roles, emphasizing a shift towards private sector strength under Trump's policies.

Implications

This robust private sector growth is portrayed as a cornerstone of economic success, reinforcing the administration's focus on fostering business investments and reducing reliance on government-driven job creation.

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Conclusion

This episode of Morning Wire delivers a comprehensive analysis of pressing issues ranging from civil unrest in LA and political feuds involving high-profile personalities to contentious debates in sports and positive economic news. Hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe, supported by insightful contributions from reporters like Alex Michelson and Amanda Presto Giacomo, provide listeners with a nuanced perspective on the challenges and developments shaping the current socio-political landscape.

"Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire... Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know."
[00:55]

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Note: This summary intentionally excludes advertisements and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions of the episode.

Transcript

[John Bickley]

President Trump sends the National Guard to LA amid violent anti ICE riots.

[Riley Gaines]

Move back, move back, move back.

[Georgia Howe]

How did the situation spin out of control? And what's next in state leaders standoff with the Trump administration?

[John Bickley]

I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, June 9th, and this is Morning Wire. I'm not naked about you. I just wish you well.

[Georgia Howe]

The fallout from the Trump musk feud continues as Trump tells the Tesla CEO to stay out of the midterms.

[John Bickley]

And the trans sports debate reaches fever pitch after Olympian Simone Biles takes aim at a prominent women's sports advocate.

[Riley Gaines]

The most heartbreaking part about this for me is the platform that she has and the amount of young girls who look up to her.

[Georgia Howe]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

[Karen Bass]

See?

[Georgia Howe]

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

[Cabot Phillips]

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[Georgia Howe]

Chaos erupted over the weekend in the Los Angeles area as some anti ICE protesters turned to violence after false claims that ICE had conducted a raid of the Home Depot in the city of Paramount. The to quell the riots, President Trump mobilized the National Guard.

[John Bickley]

By Sunday, things spiraled even further out of control, with hordes of protesters blocking interstates, burning cars and injuring officers. In response, Northern Command said they were ready to send in 500 Marines to help keep the peace. But LA's Mayor Karen Bass said the troops are making things worse and Trump is really to blame for all the chaos.

[Karen Bass]

What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration. When you raid Home Depot and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you cause fear and you cause panic. And deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation. But we need to be real about this. This is about another agenda. It's not about public safety. So I call on all Angelenos to continue expressing your right, your anger, your outrage, but to do it peacefully.

[John Bickley]

Joining us now with more is Alex Michelson, veteran LA reporter and anchor on Fox 11, who's of course been on the ground there as the situation has unfolded. Alex, thanks so much for joining us.

[Alex Michelson]

Thank you.

[John Bickley]

So a lot of chaos and confusion there leading up to this mobilization on Saturday, and there have been several people detained and at least two officers injured as a result of some of that violence. Now, Trump responded by sending in the National Guard, as we noted. Governor Newsom insists that was not necessary. But what have you seen? Were things out of control where local law enforcement were not able to contain the situation?

[Alex Michelson]

There is no doubt that there were times when things were out of control in this situation and the local law enforcement didn't have a total handle on what was going on. There were moments where things went really south. I mean, and an example of that is my own colleague on Fox 11, Matthew Seedorf and his photographer Sam Dubin were out reporting in Paramount and their vehicle, their news vehicle, was destroyed with people punching out the windows, spray painting f ice on it, slashing the tires, stealing stuff from their vehicle as they were out doing their job. So that's an example of criminals taking advantage of a situation and creating chaos and a situation that was unsafe for my own colleagues to be out there and report the news.

[John Bickley]

Will this continue? Does it feel like there's an operation in LA in terms of protesters organizing to continue these kinds of demonstrations?

[Alex Michelson]

Oh, I mean, there's a clear operation of protesters organizing. That's something that the U.S. attorney here, Bill Asale, who's a Trump appointee, has been clear about that saying that the, the operations aren't that unusual. What's unusual is that there's this, this organized opposition where people rally via social media saying ICE is carrying out an operation here. Everybody show up and try to get in the way to stop the operation. So that is happening. We also know that a lot of the state's Democratic leadership is opposed to this concept and speak out against it consistently. And we know that the state is also not cooperating with ICE on these raids, which sometimes makes the whole situation more dangerous because I can't tell local law enforcement about what's happening. So they're in the dark. And, and you've got a situation that, that can spiral out of control as it did this weekend, and we don't see that conflict stopping anytime soon. In fact, in a lot of ways for both sides, there's incentive for it to intensify.

[John Bickley]

Let's hope things don't get even more violent. Alex, thank you so much for coming on.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Sure.

[Alex Michelson]

Thank you very much.

[Cabot Phillips]

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[Georgia Howe]

After their public falling out, President Trump is warning Elon Musk to stay out of the midterm elections as he pushes forward on the passage of his signature budget bill.

[John Bickley]

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with more. Hey Cabot. So let's start with the social media feud heard round the world. Tim and I talked about this briefly last week, trying to just kind of keep up with what happened. More has taken place over the weekend. Catch us up to speed.

[Kevin]

Well, Musk, who once said he, quote, loved Trump as much as a straight man can love another man, that's a real quote, continued to slam President Trump over the weekend. He tweeted Friday that he would, quote, apologize profusely as soon as there is a full dump of the Epstein files. Remember, he said that Trump was implicated there. Trump responded by calling him, quote, the man who has lost his mind. Some reports even said the president asked his aides if the outburst could be related to alleged drug use on Musk's part. But for the most part, Trump largely stayed out of it over the weekend. Multiple times his quotes regarding Musk sounded more like a disappointed father than a betrayed ally. Musk did delete a number of the tweets Going after Trump, including the one accusing him of being on the so called Epstein list. But now he's floating an idea that could anger Trump and the White House even more. Writing on X, the billionaire asks his followers if it was, quote, time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle. When his audience responded favorably, Musk said it was, quote, fate and that he would name it the America Party. Now, it's easy to think that Musk is just joking around here, but this is a man who spent nearly $300 million on the 2024 race. So if he did launch this third party, he could have an enormous impact on the midterms. And that has gotten Trump's attention. Speaking to ABC about Musk, the President said, quote, he'll have to pay very serious consequences if he funds challenges against Republicans in 2026.

[John Bickley]

So what happens next with this relationship?

[Kevin]

Yeah. According to numerous reports, top advisors for the two men have been in communication all weekend, trying to keep things from escalating further and shore things up between the two. For his part though, President Trump said there was, quote, no reason to repair the relationship, which said he, quote, assumed was over. But look, the reality is this is a man who has made amends with more than a few enemies. His own vice president once compared him to Hitler. So all hope is not lost for the Trump Musk romance.

[John Bickley]

So you're saying there is a change now, While this feud was still getting a lot of attention over the weekend, the White House was actually directing their attention to something else. Immigration, the economy. What are they focused on?

[Kevin]

Right. Despite all the action on social media, it was really business as usual for the administration. Their main focus was the anti ice riots. You just discussed with Alex. President Trump said on the campaign trail that he would not allow the wide scale civil unrest we saw under President Biden, specifically with the BLM riots. And he is now clamping down hard. Not just deploying the National Guard, but threatening to even mobilize Marines who've been stationed nearby. In a truth social post, Trump said, quote, these radical left protests by instigators and often paid troublemakers will not be tolerated. Also from now on, masks will not be allowed to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide and why? And finally, the White House got more good news on the economic front. As the latest labor report showed 139,000 jobs added in May. That is the third straight month we've seen gains that, well, exceeded expectations. And importantly, if you look at where those jobs are coming from. All net job growth came from the private sector since Trump took office. Now, 99.8% of new jobs have been in the private sector. For context, one in four jobs created under the Biden administration were in government.

[John Bickley]

A massive shift toward the private sector under the Trump administration. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

[Kevin]

Absolutely.

[John Bickley]

An online debate erupted over the weekend between Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. The issue, transgender athletes in women's sports.

[Georgia Howe]

Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presto Giacomo joins us now with the details. So, Amanda, first, what sparked this very viral feud between Biles and Gaines?

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Yeah, so the controversy began when Riley Gaines, who's an advocate for women's sports, she commented on a social media post from the Minnesota State High School League. Now, that post celebrated Champlin Park High School's girls softball state championship win. However, the team's star pitcher is a boy who identifies as a girl, and he pitched a shutout in a 6 nothing victory. Now, commenting on that celebration post on X, Gaines noted that the team turned off its comments she wrote, to be expected when your star player is a boy. Now, Biles weighed in by calling Gaines truly sick and a sore loser, and she accused Gaines of bullying. But then, despite being known for being part of the body positivity movement, she made fun of Gaines's physique, telling Gaines to, quote, bully someone your own size, which ironically would be a male. Now, for the record, Gaines is 5 5, which is average height for a female. Interestingly, though, some Twitter users dug up an old tweet from Biles in which she once acknowledged men's innate advantages over women. In 2017, she wrote, quote, good thing guys don't compete against girls or he take all the gold medals. Now, Gaines also noted that Biles and other gymnasts suffered under Larry Nassar, suggesting that that same system that failed them then, it's now failing female athletes by putting them in vulnerable positions, like allowing men in their locker rooms. On Saturday night, Gaines released this video.

[Riley Gaines]

Response, I guess in an attempt to be inclusive and virtuous, decided to sell out all women and girls who have dreams to achieve and to succeed and to specifically personally attack and body shame me.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, this has clearly struck a nerve just based on how widespread the response has been, including from legacy media outlets who are now weighing in. What have we seen there?

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Yeah. So both women have received their share of support online with the support for gains. There's this building outcry now for brands like Athleta to drop Biles as an ambassador for female athletes. Now on the flip side of that, legacy media and a lot of left wing pundits, they voiced their support for Biles. Unsurprisingly, there were a number of op eds, including one from USA Today cheering her on as a hero. But if you take a step back from social media, you can see that this issue really is a tough spot for Democrats. While the issue is important to a portion of their base, it's a political loser for them. By all polling the American people, even in liberal states, they overwhelmingly support gains. Here, they want female Sports protected. A February 2025 New York Times Ipsos poll, for example, found that about 80% of respondents felt that biological males should not be allowed to compete in women's sports. And that includes 67% of Democrats and 64% of independents. So you have to wonder if Democrats say celebrity class, if they're going to make this harder for some candidates, like for example, Gavin Newsom, to back down from these positions. Which, by the way, some Democrat strategists are reportedly begging the party to do.

[Georgia Howe]

Right, but might be hard to communicate that pivot to celebrity activists at this point. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

You're welcome.

[John Bickley]

Before you go, a quick programming note. You asked for it, so we're bringing it back. Morning Wire's afternoon update show is coming, coming back with a few slight tweaks. Look for Evening Wire in your podcast feeds on weekdays at 5pm Eastern Time starting today.

[Georgia Howe]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.

[Cabot Phillips]

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[Alex Michelson]

Watch Parenting. Available exclusively on Daily Wire. Plus, we're dealing with misbehaviors with our son.

[John Bickley]

Our 13 year old throws tantrums.

[Kevin]

Her son turned to some substance abuse.

[Alex Michelson]

Go to dailywireplus.com today.