DOJ Sues Maine & ADHD Study Revelations | 4.17.25

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a lawsuit against the state of Maine for defying Trump's

transgender ban on males and women's sports. The state of Maine is discriminating against women

by failing to protect women and women's sports. Pretty basic stuff.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.

It's Thursday, April 17th, and this is Morning Wire. A new report exposes glaring media bias in its coverage of two illegal immigrants in Maryland, one deported by the Trump administration and the other convicted of murdering a Maryland mother of five.
A person took my daughter so violently and so gruesomely and so graphically. These are the kind of criminals President Trump wants to remove from our country.
And new studies have thrown into doubt everything we thought we knew about ADHD. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
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After a months-long standoff, the Trump DOJ has filed a civil lawsuit against Maine's Department of Education over its transgender sports policies. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter, Maraid Elordi.
So, Maraid, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this lawsuit yesterday. What are the details of the suit? Hey, Georgia.
So the suit says that Maine is openly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law by allowing males and girls sports. It says that girls are being displaced from podiums.
They're losing opportunities for advancement to regional and national competitions and missing out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition. Bondi said at the press conference that Maine officials, specifically Democratic Governor Janet Mills, forced the DOJ's hand here.
We don't want to be suing people. We want them to comply with the law.
And that's what we're doing. We have given them opportunity, Maine, and opportunity over and over again.
The Department of Education, HHS, they went and sat down with them in person, multiple meetings and got nowhere. Governor Mills famously got into a public spat with President Trump.
Mills said she wouldn't stop allowing males and girls sports and told Trump she'd see him in court. And that's exactly where this has ended up.
So what exactly is the administration seeking in this suit? Well, first and foremost, they want Maine to comply with Title IX rules and keep female sports female. But Bondi also noted that the suit seeks to remedy past wrongs on this issue.
The AG also made clear that there are other states in her sights for refusing to protect women's spaces. Here's Daily Wire reporter Mary Margaret Olihan in an do with Title IX.
We took away funding from Maine as well. We decided to go a different direction in our grants because we saw one reason.
They allowed a 6'1", 245 giant man who had violently murdered his parents with a knife and the family dog serving life in prison, and he chose to identify as a woman. So guess where he's being housed? In a female prison in Maine.
After Bondi announced the suit, she invited some female athletes to speak, including Maine skier Cassidy Carlisle. The fact that our governor can look the women of our state in the eyes and say, I'm not going to fight for you, is heartbreaking and it's betrayal.
Now, has Maine's Governor Mills responded to this lawsuit yet?

Yes, the governor put out a statement shortly after the suit was announced.

She criticized the Trump administration for the, quote, unprecedented campaign to pressure the state of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law.

Mills also accused the administration of politically motivated investigations into Maine that had predetermined outcomes.

Well, this may well end up at the Supreme Court. Maraid, thanks for reporting.
Thanks, Georgia. Hey guys, producer Brandon here.
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It's appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens.

Nobody knows this more than the woman standing to my right, Patty Morin. Patty no longer has her daughter because of the failed Democrat Party's open border.
That was White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt yesterday before she introduced the mother of Rachel Morin. Rachel was a mother of five from Maryland who was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
The moment comes as a new study by the Media Research Center found a glaring bias from legacy media in their coverage of the story versus their coverage of an illegal immigrant deported by the Trump administration. Joining us to discuss is Tim Graham, Newsbusters Executive Editor and Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
Hey, Tim, thanks so much for talking with us. Sure.
So look, we wanted to talk about your new report looking at the media bias in terms of the coverage of two different individuals from Maryland. That's Maryland mother Rachel Morin, who's a legal immigrant rapist and murderer, was just convicted this week.
We also have the story of the so-called Maryland father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He's an illegal immigrant with alleged ties to MS-13.
What did you find in terms of the media's approach to these two stories? So we have added up about 65 minutes on ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted to the guy they call Maryland Man, the Maryland Man. Well, he's actually, he's an El Salvadoran.
He's an illegal alien who's been living in Maryland for a decade, but he was deported. Compare that to then the trial that just went on in Maryland with Rachel Morin, a mother of five who was murdered by an illegal alien.
And so you have 65 minutes on the illegal alien mistakenly deported. You have zero seconds on the Rachel Morin trial.
You know, I looked at this on PBS NewsHour today. Went into Nexus, put in the words Rachel Morin, and you get zero.
And for us, what it means is the definition of news is if it's negative about Trump, it's a big story. If it sounds like a Trump talking point, it is forgotten.
It is ignored. They didn't want to talk about Lake and Riley, Jocelyn Nungere.
Yes, when you have illegal immigrants, rape a woman or in Nungere's case, a 12 year old, and then murder them. You can't say, you know, we don't cover rapes and murders.
You're not going to say that. It's a matter of who is the rapist and the murderer that somehow turns it into a zero-second story.
And the family really believes that they can say this is the Biden administration failing to control the border. And once again, it's not just a Trump talking point.

It's an anti-Biden talking point. So we have the media angle on this, and then there's the political side of it.
We have Democrat Maryland Senator Chris Van Holland. He's traveling down to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia's release.

Have we seen mention from the senator of the rape of Marin? Has he taken any action in the past related to her case? I believe that Marin's family has said they've never been in contact with Senator Van Hollen. This is the way media bias compounds upon itself.
Because the Washington Post, is the Washington Post going to ask Senator Van Hollen a question about this? You know, is any or any of the local media here in the D.C. area, the D.C.
NPR station, is anyone going to ask him the question about what he has done or whether he's been in contact with the Marin family? And just, yes, the extreme solicitude that you're going to actually fly to El Salvador like you are the most righteous person and then utterly ignore the rape and murder of a constituent of yours. It's mind-boggling, but that's the way that media bias compounds.
Now, you mentioned NPR there. Trump is pushing to defund NPR and PBS.
Do you think this is a good, healthy step for the country, or is this an attack on the independence of journalism? For decades now, I have taken it upon myself to document the horrible bias on PBS and NPR. We've been very active on that.
We were there with Newt Gingrich in 1995 when they talked about zeroing it out. It is so long overdue.
It is an outrage that conservative taxpayers should have to send money to Washington so they can be smeared as little Hitlers. We are long past time for the federal money to dry up for public radio and TV.
And if they want to make this sort of outrageous liberal content, they should get more outrageous liberal donors like George Soros to pay for it. And their coverage just adds more fodder to those calling for their defunding.
Tim Graham, thanks so much for joining us. My pleasure.
Thanks. New research on ADHD is raising questions about how doctors are treating Americans, particularly children.
Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presses-Giacomo. Hey, Amanda.
So a new report by the New York Times on ADHD is garnering a lot of attention, unsurprisingly.

What did it find?

Yeah, so one of the biggest takeaways is that scientists have been clinging to this idea that a biomarker, like a specific gene,

could lead to a direct diagnosis of ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But research now suggests that that's false.

ADHD is just a collection of symptoms that can be subjective and arbitrarily diagnosed. Children and adults can temporarily experience these symptoms.
They can come and they can go, and they're largely associated with your environment. Additionally, children who are put on ADHD medications, which is some version of amphetamine, they were found to have short-term relief of symptoms.
Compared to kids with no intervention at all, there was no difference long-term. And children placed on these meds overall, they didn't show a boost to their academics.
The only difference was in behavior. Now, that was really shocking since very often children are put on these medications to boost their school performance.
Okay, so these studies show no long-term success from these medications. What about risks? What risks do they pose? Well, some studies have shown that long-term use is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly hypertension and arterial disease.
It can also stunt growth, which is very concerning since so many children are put on these medications. Kids who took ADHD meds were found to be shorter than those who were never on the medications, and they never made up for that growth loss, according to longer-term data.
Wow. Now, how many Americans are actually put on these drugs? What are the latest numbers? Well, we're talking about millions of children.
Numbers from the CDC show that 7 million kids have been diagnosed with ADHD, and the leading treatment is some form of medication. Studies have shown that boys in particular are more frequently diagnosed than girls, almost by a two-to-one ratio.
In fact, 21% of all 14-year-old boys and 23% of 17-year-old boys have been given an ADHD diagnosis. Additionally, there's a growing number of adults on these medications.
The largest increase in first-time diagnosis is actually with people age 30 to 44. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. talked about this growing trend during his confirmation process.
15% of American youth are now on Adderall or some other ADHD medication. Even higher percentages are on SSRIs and benzos.
We are not just over-medicating our children. We're over-medicating our entire population.
Kennedy is asking HHS to research potential risks of these medications. That order notes that millions of children are on these medications, and it says that that poses a, quote, dire threat to the American people and their way of life.
So unsurprisingly, a lot of questions being asked about these medications. Do we have data on other means of treating these symptoms? Yeah, so new research actually shows that having a busier schedule or times of higher environmental demand, that can alleviate symptoms of ADHD.
The Times report noted that jobs or college courses that were demanding and interesting helped reduce ADHD symptoms.

Other anecdotal evidence found that people who say they did experience these symptoms,

they felt relief when they found a way to channel it in a field that they found interesting and that they excelled at,

which tracks with the latest research.

Further, addressing the overall over-reliance on medications for children,

RFK is looking at how our technological habits can impact overall health.

He's also looking at physical activity and nutrition.

Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. the overall over-reliance on medications for children, RFK is looking at how our technological habits can impact overall health.
He's also looking at physical activity and nutrition. Those factors could certainly play a role in ADHD symptoms.
Certainly urgent that we address this over-diagnosing and over-medication of our children. Amanda, thank you so much for reporting.
You're welcome. Thanks for waking up with us.
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