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Cabot Phillips
Wayfair Every Style, Every Home.
Georgia Howe
Democratic socialists flex their power with another major win while polling tightens on key
Cabot Phillips
senate seats, the 29 year old corporate
Larson Jensen
attorney turned barista has defeated Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette.
Georgia Howe
I'm Georgia Howe. John's on vacation this week. It's Thursday, July 2nd and this is Morning Wire. After years of chasing Silicon Valley unicorns, venture capitalists are now betting on American dominance.
Larson Jensen
Started Harpoon ventures back in 2018, which is an early stage venture capital firm to invest the national interest of the United States and our allies to create an investment firm that was purely based on investing in these types of technology areas.
Georgia Howe
And the WNBA produced the meme of the summer after the latest attack on Caitlin Clark. The Phoenix Mercury's Eliza Thomas appears to put her fist on Caitlin Clark's throat as they scrambled for a loose ball during a game on Wednesday night. Thanks for waking up with MORNING wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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Georgia Howe
83848 A 29 year old barista just unseated a 15 term Colorado Democrat in the latest win in a socialist hot streak inside the Democratic Party. Joining us to discuss is Cabot Phillips, host of Wired in. So Cabot, this run of wins from socialists extends way beyond Mamdani's win. What do you make of this trend and is this faction now dominant in the Democratic Party?
Cabot Phillips
Yeah, when Mamdani won there was this idea that, you know this sort of trend was going to be confined to these far left cities like LA, New York, Washington, D.C. but we're now starting to see this socialist takeover take place in cities and states that you would not traditionally expect, like here in Colorado. The Socialist wing of the Democratic Party is undoubtedly gaining serious momentum ahead of the midterms. Many are comparing this to the Tea Party wave that we saw around 2008 to 2012. Now, Tuesday night, Democratic Socialist Milat Kiros unseated Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who had held the Denver seat since 1997. And it was not particularly close. Kiros has a nearly double digit margin of victory with 93% of the votes counted. But as you said, this is not a fluke. Democratic Socialists have now won more than 30 primaries this cycle, roughly half of the races they've entered. A year ago, the group had only two members in Congress. But the engine behind all of it is of course, New York City Mayor Zoran Mandani. Since taking office in January, he has played kingmaker in his state. His endorsed DSA candidates pulled off a clean sweep in last week's primary elections. And now we're seeing a similar wave take place in Colorado. And Mamdani right now no doubt is one of the most popular Democratic figures in the country.
Georgia Howe
Now, do all of these Socialists share the same platform? And if so, how different is it from the more mainstream Democrat platform?
Cabot Phillips
Well, there are certainly similarities that they all have. For example, almost all of them support Medicare for all tax hikes on what they call the top 1%, but in practice would be closer to the top 25%. They also support things like abolishing ICE. And most recently universally, they have a hardline anti Israel stance. Kiros, for example, wants to double the corporate tax rate, abolish ice. She supports a sweeping amnesty and citizenship plan for all all illegal immigrants. She also wants to impose an arms embargo on Israel and completely cut off US Funding for the Jewish state. She also did an interview with live streamer Hassan Piker where she said that October 7 terror attacks were quote, inevitable due to the supposed Israeli apartheid. And in the past, she has even gone as far as saying that the US was essentially complicit and responsible for the 911 attacks because of their foreign policy in the Middle East.
Georgia Howe
So how are the establishment leaders in the Democratic Party responding? Are they leaning in or are they concerned about this?
Cabot Phillips
Well, we don't really know yet. There are certainly those who are expressing outright panic. Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, for example, said that these new candidates have no place in the Democratic Party. Former DNC chair Jamie Harrison told the newcomers, quote, if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don't run for our nomination. Former mayor of Chicago and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said the party has, quote, lost the plot by electing radical candidates. And when these DSA candidates started winning, it looked like a civil war was brewing inside the Democratic Party. Many of them wanted top Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer removed from leadership. But that tension seems to have cooled a little bit. Alexandria Acosta Cortez, for example, over the weekend backed Jeffries to stay on as House minority leader. But despite this somewhat truce, polling seems to show that the base has moved towards the dsa. Marquette, for example, had numbers showing that these new socialist candidates are more popular than the congressional leadership among Democratic voters. And a Fox News poll found that more than half of Democrats say Capitol socialism is not working. And it's also worth pointing out we're now seeing Democratic leaders seemingly respond to that ground wave of support for socialism on the left. In a way, they're kind of scared of getting eaten by this wing. And to that point, there are reports that Kamala Harris personally called Zoran Mamdani and also reached out to a number of pro Palestinian activists to try and make amends. And we also saw Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker come out on CNN and say that he thinks the strategy that we've seen from these socialist candidates, quote, is the recipe for winning in 20 and beyond. So don't be surprised if you see more of these Democratic lawmakers start to align themselves a bit with this movement because they are certainly growing in power.
Georgia Howe
Now, turning to the election in November, where does the polling show we are right now?
Cabot Phillips
Well, first, it's important to note that all of these socialist candidates who've won are picking up blue seats again. They're winning primaries in safe blue districts. But starting with the Senate, New York Times poll recently surveyed six of the top battleground states. Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, all of which are currently held by Republicans. Back in 2024, Donald Trump won five of those states, four of them by at least 10 points. Today, those same six races are a dead heat, tied at an average of 47 to 47. Now, that might look bad, but all things considered, it's actually pretty good news for Republicans. Democrats need to do way better than a tie in these races to take the chamber. They have to win four of those Republican held seats while still holding on to their own seats in states that Trump won, Georgia and Michigan. And according to this most recent New York Times poll, they are only leading in two states, North Carolina and Maine, where they lead by seven and two points respectively. Republicans are currently ahead in Alaska, Ohio and Iowa and then tied in Texas, all while Trump's approval rating is at an all time low. So that's where the good news comes in. Things have been pretty rough for Republicans over the last few months with the war in Iran and with inflation. And so if the race actually is this close, despite all of that bad press, Republicans are confident now that they have a few months as voters start to tune in to these elections following the Fourth of July, where they can start to win people over and hold onto their majority in the Senate.
Georgia Howe
All right. Well, Cabot, we're going to continue to monitor, of course. Thank you so much for coming on.
Cabot Phillips
Absolutely.
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Cabot Phillips
Wayfair.
Georgia Howe
Every style, every home. Amid rising tensions with China and a renewed emphasis on rebuilding American manufacturing, a growing number of investors are putting money behind companies that they say are critical to US national security and American prosperity. Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham is here now to explain. So, Megan, venture capitalism used to be associated pretty heavily with more of the social media and consumer technology side of Silicon Valley. So it's very interesting to see investors suddenly so interested in American security. Do they think that's where the next boom is?
Megan Basham
Yeah, it is really interesting, Georgia. And yes, they do. As you said, traditionally, venture capital has been about finding the next Silicon Valley unicorn. So meaning companies that can scale rapidly and can generate enormous returns. These new funds, they certainly do to still make money for investors. But they also have another stated goal of investing in strategic technologies that strengthen America's position against adversaries like China. So one example is Harpoon Ventures, which sort of pioneered this approach and is closing its fourth round of funding. Founder and managing partner Larson Jensen says Harpoon was built around the idea that technological leadership and and national security have really become inseparable.
Larson Jensen
Our view is that every technology wave throughout the course of American history, really, or certainly over the past 50 years since Venture capital has been around, has, you know, every technology wave of consequence has impacted national security, national security, and geopolitics in a very significant way. We lost track of investing in hard technical problems that set our country up for success.
Megan Basham
So Jensen told me that as a two time Olympic swimmer and a former Navy seal, he saw a gap in the market for a sort of Team USA venture firm, and he wanted to fill that gap.
Georgia Howe
So what kinds of companies are they actually investing in?
Megan Basham
Yeah, it's a broad portfolio, but the common theme is hard technologies that America either needs more of or that we currently depend too heavily on foreign countries for. So that would include things like artificial intelligence, biohealth, semiconductors, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, drone technology is a really big one. Nuclear energy, critical minerals, space infrastructure. I could go on and on, but you know, what brings it all together is that rather than investing in something like a photo sharing app, they're looking for companies that are developing infrastructure that underpins both America's economy and also its military. So one phrase that Jensen repeatedly uses is critical technologies, meaning those industries that determine not just the economic success of the United States, but also our geopolitical power. But bottom line, Jensen told me that they are stressing that they contract with tech companies that are building real things for the private sector and the commercial sector. So that means that all of these factories and jobs will be American factories and jobs.
Georgia Howe
Now, I guess the big question is, are they making money with this approach? You and I did a lot of reporting a few years ago on ESG investing, and that kind of ideological investing proved to be kind of a bust in cases they were sued for it. So is this actually different?
Megan Basham
Yeah, I actually asked Jensen about that, and he told me that the difference here is that these are investments in concrete technologies, not speculative promises that diversity is going to increase profitability or that lower carbon emissions are eventually going to create some of these longer term rewards. Instead, he says these firms are very well positioned to succeed in this political climate, and also that they have the wherewithal to succeed under any administration, whether Democratic or Republican. So he said that the Pentagon has in some ways reorganized around this VC trend. And as proof of that, another firm that is doing this work is the massive and influential Andreessen Horowitz. So their investment initiative is called American Dynamism, and they launched back in 2023 with a $600 million fund and then they injected another 600 million into it the following year. But basically it's the same philosophy as it focuses on funding and scaling technology startups that directly support the United States national interest. And in 2026, they raised another, almost $2 billion for this fund. So you have to guess they wouldn't keep doing this if it wasn't successful. And Jensen told me that while the people investing in these funds do want to make money, they're also patriots who want the US to succeed on the global stage. And this is, this is one way they feel they can help ensure that
Georgia Howe
it does, while in, in the immediate term, it does create jobs on the ground here for the US which we definitely need. Megan, thanks for reporting.
Megan Basham
Yeah, my pleasure.
Georgia Howe
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Georgia Howe
the WNBA is once again making headlines for the wrong reasons. Caitlin Clark, the league's biggest star, was targeted on the court by another player in a moment that immediately went viral. The league's response to the altercation has fans fuming. Daily Wire's Lyndon Blake joins us now. So, Lyndon, this started with an altercation on the court, but it quickly spiraled into a huge meme. Can you first just describe what happened?
Lyndon Blake
Okay, well, I can't believe this was only a couple of days ago on June 27th. That's in this altercation between Alyssa Thomas for the Phoenix Mercury and Caitlin Clark with Indiana Fever happened. There was a scramble for the ball on the court. Caitlyn was laying her back on the court and that's where Alyssa Thomas had a fist and she had it on Caitlyn's neck. It kind of like she dug down into it before standing up and going on with the play. The issue was there was no foul called. You get fouls called and back basketball all the time for just tipping somebody. And there was no foul called here, which led to an uproar. You had the Indiana Fever coach being like, this is insane because Caitlin gets cheap shots all the time and she never gets these calls. And it seems like she's being bullied by officials in the league. After the game, they reviewed the tape and they said, yeah, this was a flagrant 2 foul, meaning this is a Bad one. This was a very aggressive foul. And then Alyssa Thomas had to serve a one game suspension after that.
Georgia Howe
Now, how did the league respond to all that criticism?
Lyndon Blake
So after Alyssa served her one game suspension, the league was kind of quiet. But then Alyssa Thomas spoke up to reporters recently saying, since this incident, she's been receiving death threats and she's been called racial slurs. So the league on Wednesday said that, hey, that we want to protect all players. You cannot use hate speech and stuff like that. But then there's the argument, okay, but if we're going to protect all players, there should have been a call called on Caitlin Clark. So again, it is this debate that has gone on since Caitlin Clark has been in the league. She is one of of the best of all time, the most dynamic college basketball player and women's college basketball to watch. She's completely dominated the league. The Fever have set home attendance records, viewership records, overall attendance records since Caitlin Clark has been on their team. But yet she is the one that ends up not getting fouls called and really getting beat up on the court night in and night out. And this is also gotten people talking. You have Emmanuel Ocho, who I am a fan of, but I'm not a fan of what he said about Caitlin Clark. Here's what Emmanuel Ocho had to say.
Cabot Phillips
The W at this junction in time would be better without Caitlin Clark because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive. Caitlin got the necessary eyes there, but now that the eyes are there, we don't necessarily need her anymore.
Lyndon Blake
You have people going to games, celebrities sitting courtside. So no, she's not a distraction. She just needs to be protected on the court like other players are.
Georgia Howe
Now, there is a lot of speculation from outsiders at least, and you'll hear commentators talk about this. They'll say the elephant in the room is that Caitlin is white, she's Catholic, she's not lgbt, and that the league is treating her this way or allowing her to be treated this way because they don't want their biggest star to have her background. Would you say that's accurate or is that an unfair portrayal of the league?
Lyndon Blake
I think that that statement comes from the online troll community. I don't think the refs are looking at it that way. I just think that there are these shots that maybe sometimes that are just not getting called on her that should be. And I look to other people that are saying that. Look at the Locke. Caitlin is beloved and protected by her teammates night in and night out. She's a good team. Player, very respected by her teammates from all backgrounds. So I just don't buy into that narrative.
Georgia Howe
Now, speaking of teammates, Sophie Cunningham also went viral this week. Tell us why Sophie was all over Twitter.
Lyndon Blake
Okay, so the incident, the actual action of the meme, happened before the Caitlin Clark altercation, but post Caitlin Clark altercation with the Phoenix Mercury, it has gone viral. So earlier in that series with the Phoenix Mercury, Dejana Bonner, very famous WNBA player, was getting into it with Sophie Cunningham. This is over a technical foul that was called on Caitlin Clark. And Sophie was talking to the refs. Why didn't Duana Bonner have a technical foul called, too? And Sophie starts pointing at her being like, where's, where's the call on her? And Dana said, why are you pointing at me? Or made some comment about the point that she didn't like. And so Sophie admitted she was like, that just made me keep pointing. And she was like, I'm glad I got my nails done. So she held the point for like 20 seconds. And she's tall. She's like towering over the refs, holding the point. And that has become the meme of the summer of just anything you can think of that has been the meme. So, you know, it's a tough thing to watch that altercation with Caitlin Clark and Alyssa Thomas, but it ended on a somewhat higher note with this meme coming out from that series.
Georgia Howe
Right. And if even I've seen that meme, you know, it's big. Lyndon, thanks so much for reporting.
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Georgia Howe
Another story we're tracking. Team USA is staying alive. Last night we advanced to the round of 16 in the world cup after winning a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The men's team will now play Belgium on July 6th in Seattle. Getting even this far was considered a major long shot. And each game now is win or go home. But should we continue our winning streak? The quarterfinals will take place in Los Angeles on July 10th 10th. The semifinals in Dallas July 14th. And a win there would send the US to New York for the championship game on July 19th. The farthest team USA has ever made it in the World cup was semifinals back in 1930. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show ad free and join our mission, become a member at DailyWire.com, we'll be back later, later this evening with more news you need to know.
Cabot Phillips
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
Georgia Howe
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy. See terms.
Date: July 2, 2026
Hosts: Georgia Howe (with John Bickley on vacation)
Guests/Contributors: Cabot Phillips, Megan Basham, Lyndon Blake, Larson Jensen
This episode focuses on three major stories:
Segment Start: [02:14]
Major Primary Upset in Colorado:
Socialist Momentum Spreads:
Kingmaker Role of Zoran Mamdani:
Platform Details ([04:00]):
Establishment Response ([04:49]):
Democratic Leadership Shifts:
Notable Moment:
Segment Start: [06:35]
Segment Start: [08:35]
Venture Capital’s New Focus:
Harpoon Ventures and 'Critical Technologies':
Difference from Previous Ideological Investing (ESG):
Patriotic Motive:
Segment Start: [14:02]
Controversial On-Court Incident ([14:28]):
League & Player Response ([15:21]):
Broader Context for Clark ([15:59]):
Notable Quote:
Online Speculation on Race, Religion, and Orientation ([17:09]):
The ‘Pointing Meme’—Sophie Cunningham ([17:33]):
Segment Start: [18:52]
For more detailed coverage, listen between:
Podcast original reporting by The Daily Wire. Ad content, podcast intros/outros, and sponsor reads omitted for brevity.