Government Gridlock Persists & Louvre Heist Intrigue | 10.22.25

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Speaker 2 Senate Republicans have already voted 11 times to get our government back and open for business.

Speaker 4 President Trump presses Democrats as the shutdown grinds on, while another intelligence official is referred to the DOJ for charges. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

Speaker 4 It's Wednesday, October 22nd. This is Morningwire.

Speaker 3 Blue state governors form their own shadow public health alliance in an attempt to resist Trump's health agenda.

Speaker 6 The federal government is withdrawing from the space of providing scientific-backed advice that many people have always counted on.

Speaker 4 And officials in France are still asking who'd done it after one of the boldest heists of the century left the Louvre missing priceless jewels.

Speaker 8 It had to be an inside job or inside information. How did they know how thick the glass was? Was there an alarm on there?

Speaker 3 Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
We have the news you need to know.

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Speaker 3 President Trump is applying more pressure on Democrats as the government shutdown stretches on. Meanwhile, a major political opponent of Trump is referred for charges.

Speaker 4 Daily Wire D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice is back with another update from our nation's capital.
Hey, Tim. So the shutdown is continuing.
We'll get to that in a second.

Speaker 4 But first, former CIA Director John Brennan has been referred for charges. What are the claims against him?

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's right, John. Similar to James Comey, he's in hot water over statements he made during the probe into the alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

Speaker 5 House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan announced that his committee was recommending the charges yesterday.

Speaker 5 Jordan said he's referring Brennan to the Justice Department for prosecution, saying that he, quote, knowingly made false statements during sworn testimony last year.

Speaker 5 The Judiciary Committee says Brennan lied when he denied using the discredited steel dossier in drafting an intelligence assessment in 2017, specifically the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference.

Speaker 5 Jordan's referral follows the indictment of former FBI director James Comey for similar charges.

Speaker 5 So another key player from the intelligence community now potentially caught up in some serious legal trouble.

Speaker 4 Right, and we'll track that case very closely. Now, we also had Trump in typical Trump fashion surprise lawmakers yesterday with this Rose Garden lunch.
You had reporters on the ground there.

Speaker 4 Tell us about that event. Why did it cause such a stir?

Speaker 5 Yeah, well, partially because no one really knew what the lunch was about until it kicked off, not even the Republicans who were joining the president.

Speaker 5 A reporter asked Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana what the purpose of the lunch was, and he said, I have no idea. But Chuck Schumer and the Democrats saw things through a much more sinister lens.

Speaker 7 Senate Republicans, they're headed to the White House today, not for negotiations, not to work on any path out of a shutdown or to avert a health care crisis, but for a Rose Garden pep rally with Donald Trump.

Speaker 7 Republicans may not have time to fix people's health care, but apparently they got plenty of time for a mini pep rally with Donald Trump.

Speaker 5 Now, there certainly was a pep rally element to the lunch, as Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan reported from The Rose Garden.

Speaker 11 It's all beautiful now, white with yellow umbrellas, and we had YMCA blaring over the speaker system while we waited for the president's remarks.

Speaker 11 We saw Tim Scott, Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, James Langford, Bill Hagerty, Jim Banks, you name it, all of these senators kind of milling milling around to the rose garden.

Speaker 5 But despite that festive atmosphere, Trump and Senate Republicans were clear that they were there for business, the business of reopening the government.

Speaker 5 Here's what the president had to say about that.

Speaker 2 From the beginning, our message has been very simple. We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs.
They've never done this before. Nobody has.
You always vote for an extension.

Speaker 2 Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats need to vote for the clean, bipartisan CR and reopen our government. It's got to be reopened right now

Speaker 11 we're not doing that they're they are the obstructionists and the reason they're doing it is because we're doing so well trump also praised senate majority leader jon thune who spoke with the press after the lunch concluded mary margaret was there here she is again he really stressed that republicans are united on trump's team and that's that's really the message he seemed to want everyone to leave today with is that republicans particularly in the senate are on the same team and that is Donald Trump's team and they're not backing down.

Speaker 11 But he said that at the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that Republicans are united and they believe profoundly that we need to get our government open, whereas Democrats really just want to talk about subjects unrelated to the government.

Speaker 5 One other thing we should note, Senate Republicans are planning to hold a separate vote on paying troops and federal law enforcement agents for the remainder of the shutdown.

Speaker 5 Now, it's not clear if Democrats will join them in that, but there's a chance that if they manage to get essential workers paid, it actually might empower both sides to dig in and keep the shutdown fight going for a whole lot longer.

Speaker 4 Something tells me we'll be checking in with the DC team again real soon on this. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Speaker 5 You bet.

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Speaker 4 More than a dozen Democrat governors have signed on to a new health alliance and a direct challenge to the Trump administration's federal health agencies.

Speaker 3 Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestijacimo. So, Amanda, we have this new health group called the Governor's Public Health Alliance.

Speaker 3 What exactly is this group and who has signed on?

Speaker 13 Yeah, so the alliance was launched just last week and it's being pitched as non-partisan and all about the science. The general claim is that the Trump administration and HHS Secretary Robert F.

Speaker 13 Kennedy Jr. in particular, they're anti-science and therefore this organization is necessary to protect Americans.
However, so far the Governor's Public Health Alliance is strictly partisan.

Speaker 13 Only Democrat governors have signed on.

Speaker 13 Now, as for what the alliance will actually do, it's going to dole out medical guidance that will likely challenge federal agencies like the CDC and FDA, or at the least, lobby the feds on these matters.

Speaker 13 It will make public health guidelines and offer best practices on vaccines and other public health measures.

Speaker 13 And these allied states are going to share medical statistics and data and advice on preventative care and buy up vaccines and supplies in bulk.

Speaker 13 The Wall Street Journal actually called the alliance a shadow public health alliance and said that this is the largest move to date to create an alternative public health universe outside of the federal government.

Speaker 13 Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, he unsurprisingly signed on to this association, and he claims that Trump and Kennedy have turned the CDC into a misinformation machine.

Speaker 13 Here's Pritzker earlier this month going after the Trump administration for researching the spike in autism and announcing an association between Tylenol use during pregnancy.

Speaker 14 If your doctor recommends acetaminophen,

Speaker 8 you should ignore the recommendation of the president that you fight like hell not to take it. Contrary to RFK Jr.'s bigoted evaluation, autistic people are not tragedies.

Speaker 4 Blaming vaccines or medicine for autism is not just wrong, it's harmful.

Speaker 13 Gavin Newsom also signed on. He said extremists in the Trump administration are trying to weaponize the CDC and spread misinformation.

Speaker 13 Other states in the alliance are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and the territory of Guam.

Speaker 13 The residents in those states make up about one-third of the U.S. population.

Speaker 3 Now, is this particularly about vaccines or are there other causes that they're focusing on?

Speaker 13 Yeah, I mean, it's mostly about vaccines. The governors who signed on to this have really highlighted vaccine access, and they've attacked Kennedy for challenging orthodoxy.

Speaker 13 There was also mention of abortion access as well. And we also know that the association is primarily funded by a nonprofit called Governor's Action Alliance, known as GovAct.

Speaker 13 The nonprofit claims to be nonpartisan, but it supports Democrat causes and it generally teams up with Democrats to expand Medicaid and bolster so-called abortion and voting rights.

Speaker 13 For example, it's behind the Reproductive Freedom Alliance. That's a coalition of 23 Democrat governors working to expand abortion.
Govekt is also behind the Governors Safeguarding Democracy Alliance.

Speaker 13 This was sort of a resist Trump 2.0 effort that was launched just days after Trump won the 2024 election.

Speaker 3 How has the Trump administration responded?

Speaker 13 So HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon, he called out Democrat governors for destroying public trust in public health.

Speaker 13 He noted that Democrat states they imposed unscientific school closures, toddler mask mandates, and vaccine passports during the COVID era.

Speaker 13 He said the Trump administration is trying to rebuild that trust by grounding every policy in rigorous evidence and gold standard science, not the failed politics of the pandemic.

Speaker 13 Some critics on the right have also highlighted Democrat policies on gender, specifically pertaining to young children. They view these as harmful and overtly, you know, anti-science.

Speaker 3 Amanda, thanks for reporting.

Speaker 4 You're welcome.

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Speaker 3 Investigators are still scrambling for clues after priceless jewels were stolen from the world's most famous museum during a daring broad daylight heist.

Speaker 4 Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the rather stunning details. Hey, Cabot, so we've got a real-life Oceans 11.
A lot of people made that comparison. It's a legitimate comparison.

Speaker 4 Tell us about this.

Speaker 10 If you made a new oceans remake and this was the plot, a lot of people might not believe it, but this is all real. So here's the scene.

Speaker 10 On Sunday morning, about a half hour after the Louvre in Paris first opened its doors, four thieves arrived in a construction truck with an electric ladder attached to it and then a bucket on top for the men to use.

Speaker 10 Then two men posing as construction workers ascended to a second floor facade atop the museum.

Speaker 10 They then used a special disc cutter to slice holes through the windows and then gain entry to the famed Galerie des Epillon.

Speaker 4 I think it's pretty good pronunciation. That's right.

Speaker 4 I think that's pretty good.

Speaker 10 So that gallery is home to some of France's most priceless crown jewels. And then with stunned patrons watching all of it unfold, those men smashed open two display cases and removed nine objects.

Speaker 10 Those included a large brooch, a pair of emerald earrings, a necklace, and other jewelry belonging to Empress Marie-Louis. That's the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Speaker 10 From there, the thieves then joined their accomplices out on the street where they escaped on a pair of motorbikes fleeing along the banks of the River Seine.

Speaker 10 All told, the entire operation lasted no longer than seven minutes. This was very fast.
As the heists went on, museum visitors were ordered to evacuate immediately.

Speaker 10 Many said they thought that there was a terrorist attack going on or that there were flames consuming the building. Here is some of the video that was taken taken by one of the patrons.

Speaker 10 You can hear a lot of the chaos going on.

Speaker 10 Friends, President Emmanuel Macron released a statement immediately after, calling the heist a, quote, attack on a heritage that we cherish.

Speaker 10 Now, the biggest concern at the moment is that the jewels may never be recovered.

Speaker 10 Experts say the thieves certainly know how likely it is that they would be caught if they put them on the black market.

Speaker 10 And so that means it's a real possibility they could simply remove all of the precious stones and then melt down the metal and sell all of them piecemeal.

Speaker 10 Keep in mind, one of the TRs alone had more than a thousand diamonds separate. So you can do the math on how much money they would get.
To that point, one official said the heist was not an art crime.

Speaker 10 In their view, it was, quote, a commodity theft. According to museum officials, the jewels are, quote, of inestimable worth.
And it's worth noting, the hall actually could have been even larger.

Speaker 10 In their haste to get away, the thieves abandoned their attempts to also steal the crown of Empress Eushani, which contained nearly 2,500 diamonds and more than 50 emeralds, though it was damaged as part of the robbery.

Speaker 4 All right, so their hall could have been even more massive than it was. So what are we hearing now from investigators?

Speaker 10 Well, the country's interior minister, Laurent Núñez, said the robbery was, quote, a major, highly organized operation that was carried out by a team that clearly had done a lot of scouting.

Speaker 10 But at the moment, if authorities have any leads, they're not telling the public.

Speaker 10 And as you can imagine, that has led to all sorts of speculation on the part of the general public over the last few days.

Speaker 10 For example, many folks are wondering if this could have been part of an inside job. Did someone on the museum staff give information to these robbers?

Speaker 10 The country's foreign minister even said that they were not ruling out the possibility of an inside job. Others have questioned why these specific jewels in particular were taken.

Speaker 10 Keep in mind, in the same room that they hit, there's a display case that houses the famous Regent Diamond. That's a $60 million stone.

Speaker 10 Even some French officials have expressed confusion over why these thieves, who clearly had done their research, seemingly ignored such a prime target that was just a few feet away.

Speaker 4 All right, so a lot more questions to be answered and a lot of work for investigators, it sounds like. Now, this isn't the only high-profile museum heist we've seen recently.
This is a bit of a trend.

Speaker 10 Tell us about that. Far from it.
We have seen a growing number of heists, very similar to this one.

Speaker 10 For example, just last week, thieves stole a number of collectible clocks from yet another museum in France. And remember, this is only the latest heist to hit the Louvre.

Speaker 10 A diamond-studded sword was stolen back in 1976. And of course, most famous of all, the Mona Lisa was lifted all the way back in 1911.
Ultimately, she was located about two years later.

Speaker 10 But with each hour that passes now, investigators are fearful that this story will not have that same happy ending.

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, let's hope they get these back. We were laughing at the beginning.
This is so wild, but it's obviously very serious for the French people. Kevin, thanks for reporting.
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe.
We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.