Transcript of Crusader Protest in Dearborn Brews & Blanche Fights For Voter Information | 8.17.26

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www.rosarium.de The debate over Islam's growing influence in the US ratchets up with footwashing stations in airports and a potential showdown in Dearborn, Michigan this week. So both for any proposed or any existing facilities like that are simply unconstitutional and illegal. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howell. It's Monday, August 17th. This is Morning Wire.

80 days out and the key races to control the Senate are heating up while the DOJ eyes more aggressive action on voter rolls.

What I think every American should expect us to to do, which is make sure that we have elections that are fair. And as that relates to the Department of Justice, that means making sure that, that there are no constitutional legal violations, even at the state level. And the 60-day ceasefire agreement with Iran officially expires. What comes next in the standoff, and how are conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln?

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned, we have the news you need to know.

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Two separate controversies involving Islam and public facilities have erupted in Texas and Michigan. After public backlash, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport just scrapped plans for a new Islamic foot washing station, while Dearborn officials say they're bracing for anti-Islam protests.

Joining us now is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, there are a lot of moving parts to the controversy in Texas, so let's go ahead and start there. How did this foot washing station come to be?

Yeah, Georgia. So DFW had been evaluating a proposal to install these new Islamic foot washing stations that are dedicated to ritual purification before prayer. It's a practice known as wudu, and the project was registered in late July with an estimated cost around $300,000. An airport authority said that it was designed to prevent foot washing in standard sinks that were doing some damage to the airport. But Governor Greg Abbott spoke out against it on Friday, and he called it illegal religious discrimination. He said that a public facility cannot provide a special benefit to one faith while denying comparable treatment to other faiths. And he also ordered a review of the state grants for these stations and then referred the matter to the Department of Transportation. Now, within hours of that, that's when DFW scrapped the plan altogether, and they said that an accelerated review found, quoting here, insufficient operational benefit. But Some critics on the right say that Abbott is only speaking out against this now because it drew public scrutiny, and that Texas airports have had foot washing stations like this since 2019. And they're also pointing to Abbott's biggest long-term donor, who is a Muslim oil executive who was born in Pakistan.

Now, there are people who say, though, that these chapels that are being built are multi-faith spaces, and it's just that Muslims are using them more than other people. What would you say to that response?

Well, I think the problem there, Georgia, is that the required infrastructure for this kind of foot washing is pretty specific to Islam. Of course, other faiths do practice foot washing, but they don't require that strict 5 times a day foot washing ritual. So this is likely why in 2024, when George Bush Airport in Houston announced a new foot washing station with an attached prayer room, they emphasized its use for Islamic worship specifically. So the announcement said this: passengers will find copies of the Quran, prayer rugs, prayer beads, and a turban. And then it went on to say that airport chaplains are working with Houston mosques on proper measurements for the qibla, the direction toward the Kaaba in the sacred mosque in Mecca. So critics say that this is interfaith pretty much in name only. And I can also tell you, Georgia, that there have been complaints about the chapels in these Texas airports being welcoming only to Muslims. So Pastor Tom Askell, who is president of Founders Ministry and Founders Seminary in Florida, said that he's grateful that Governor Abbott is intervening this time. But he also said that this has been going on for a while, as he documented last year when he said he attempted to attend what was advertised as an interfaith prayer service at a chapel at DFW.

He said the entry was, quote, lined with Muslim prayer mats, and that Muslims in the room first ordered him to take off his shoes and then tried to deny him entry. Now, Askel told me, and I'm quoting here, 'It is clear that this prayer service was only for certain kinds of people, namely Muslims. A kafir like me was not welcome except to a chair in the back, and only if I removed my shoes.' And that incident prompted an inquiry from Congressman Chip Roy. And then in addition to that, conservative commentator and writer Kira Davis, who is also Christian said she had a similar experience back in March.

They're not really chapels, they're basically mosques with the word chapel on it, and it's mostly just prayer rugs, no crosses, a few Bibles. Very hostile environment when you go in there during prayer time.

She also said in a separate video that there was no cross in this DFW chapel, but there were many prayer rugs and directions to Mecca. And she said that it was evident to her that the Muslim men in the room would, uh, have preferred if she was not there because of her gender.

I want to talk to you about Dearborn, Michigan. How is the situation there related to this?

Yeah, so Dearborn officials are preparing for what's being billed as a quote-unquote Christian Crusader March at this Tuesday's city council meeting. Now, Dearborn has proportionately the largest Muslim population of any city in the country, and Jake Lang, who is an activist who's very open about his self-styled crusade, as he calls it, against Islam taking over the states, is promoting this event with slogans like "Stop the Islamification of America." So Dearborn has now moved its city council meeting to a larger venue, and Police Chief Issa Shaheen is urging residents not to confront these demonstrators.

These groups that are coming here are coming for one reason, and that's to provoke a reaction and generate attention.

So Shaheen went on to ask residents to come to the meeting only if they have business before the council I think needless to say, a lot of eyeballs are going to be on Dearborn to see if things do in fact get tense this Tuesday.

Yeah, I'd be concerned to be there. Megan, thanks so much for reporting.

Yeah, my pleasure.

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78 days out from midterm elections, a number of crucial Senate races are in a dead heat, and the White House is preparing to fight states resisting their election integrity push.

Wired In host Cabot Phillips is here with the latest. Hey, Cabot. So the major primaries are complete. The Senate landscape is coming into focus. Let's start there. How do things look at this point?

Well, big picture, the fundamentals would seem to imply that Democrats are going to cruise to control of the Senate. We know inflation has gone up during the Iran war. President Trump's approval rating is falling. It's now under 40% on average. And just generally, the party out of power always has the advantage in midterms. But it is still a fairly tough map for Democrats. And we've talked about it before, but it bears repeating. Democrats need to hold on to all of their current seats. And then add 4 more if they want the majority. So their best shot at a pickup right now does appear to be in North Carolina. That's where Trump critic Tom Tillis is stepping down. And the Democratic nominee is Roy Cooper, a former governor who not only has universal name recognition in the state, but also a 3-to-1 fundraising advantage over his opponent. The Republican, Michael Whatley, has actually never held public office before, and he is very well-liked in the party. He served formerly as the RNC chair, but he's facing a tough political environment. There's no doubt, especially given that Cooper left office as governor last year. And had a net favorable rating of nearly 20%.

So he was quite popular there.

Right. A lot stacked in his favor for sure. What are the other states Democrats are eyeing to flip?

So Ohio and Alaska are definitely at the top of their list. In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown is looking to take out the incumbent John Husted. Brown was voted out back in 2024 after 3 terms, but that was when Trump was on the ballot, which played a major role in GOP turnout. Now, to this point, Brown has been careful to avoid aligning himself with the socialist AOC wing of the party. But he has capitalized on the progressive populist economic message. And the polls show a dead heat there. In Alaska, the race gets almost no attention, but based on the limited polling we've got, it is also incredibly close. Incumbent Dan Sullivan is facing off against Mary Peltola. She is running in the more moderate lane, which does make sense given the fact that Trump just won Alaska by 12 points. Peltola formerly co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition, which called itself the fiscally responsible wing of the party. And unlike her far-left peers, she is generally supportive of the oil and gas industry, which again makes sense in Alaska. We're also going to be talking a lot more in the coming months about Maine, Iowa, and Georgia, maybe even Nebraska.

But for now, I really want to get to what are, in my opinion, the two most interesting races— Texas and Michigan.

Yeah. So what, what can you tell us about those?

So Michigan is fascinating because it should give us an idea of the far left's ability to win in a more politically and ethnically diverse state. Like Zohran Mamdani, Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed has won viral stardom with catchy social media ads and promises of Medicare for All. But as we've talked about on the show, there are questions about how his incredibly progressive and just woke statements are going to play with folks outside of the far left base. For example, here is a newly resurfaced clip that is getting a lot of play from Republicans this week in Michigan.

Football is very much associated with a, you know, particularly masculine and oftentimes toxic, toxically masculine culture. You really aren't allowed to show pain or vulnerability.

That's part of the sport. All right. So he's coming out as anti-football. I don't know how that's going to play in the state.

Yeah, I don't know if you know this, but a lot of people in Michigan like football. And I talked to Republican nominee Mike Rogers a few weeks back. He told me that sort of messaging might work in a primary to rile up far-left voters, but that average folks in the state in the general election are not going to be fans. The first marquee poll from Michigan came out this weekend and showed Rogers ahead by 4 points. So it is still close, but Republicans thought this was going to be much more of an uphill battle. They are now a lot more confident given El-Sayed's far-left platform.

Now, what about Texas? What are we seeing there?

Yeah, a few months ago, the general sentiment I heard from Republican strategists was, James Talarico has momentum, but this is still Texas and a Democrat ain't winning there. And it's easy to see why they would think that. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, is in the vein of these other far-left nominees, especially on social issues. Republicans have played up his support of transgender treatment for minors, his quotes about God being non-binary, him saying that he's a Christian who hates Christianity. That's a direct quote. You would think a guy like that would be getting crushed in Texas. But now, off the record at least, many of those same people are legitimately fearful that Talarico could become the first Democrat to hold statewide office in Texas since 1994. Now, polls show the race is dead even. He is raising money hand over fist. And keep in mind, the Republican nominee, Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been dogged by credible accusations of infidelity and just emerged from a bruising primary against Republican incumbent John Cornyn. I spoke to Ken Paxton last week, and he did express confidence in this race. However, he did express also that it was a work in progress to win over Cornyn loyalists within the GOP who were very upset over how that primary went down.

So it's not just Democrat hype. Texas does appear to be in play for the left.

Certainly one to watch there. Now, as these races progress, we have the White House taking on election integrity. Tell us about the latest there.

Yeah, President Trump signed an executive order calling on states to hand over information from their active voter rolls so that the DOJ could then search for potential anomalies and and root out any potential fraud. Some states have complied, but 29, along with D.C., have challenged the order in court, and federal judges have sided with at least 22 of those states, essentially saying, uh, you guys can ignore Trump's demand. But on Sunday, freshly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanch said they would be fighting back.

How far are you willing to take this fight? Because you've been ruled against now 22 times. Are you going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court, do you anticipate?

I'm—

I— we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

We're trying to work—

work out—

possibility. Of course.

Yes, absolutely.

It's a possibility.

It'll be a big deal if the Supreme Court does indeed take this up. Cabot, thank you so much for reporting.

Absolutely.

Today marks the end of a 60-day ceasefire agreement with Iran as talks between the U.S. and the regime have stalled. Meanwhile, the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner is in the Middle East working on a Gaza ceasefire plan. Kushner is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today after meeting with Hamas leadership in Egypt.

Here to discuss this and other developments in the region is Steve Yates, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former deputy national security advisor. Steve, welcome on.

Pleasure to be with you.

So where can our talks with Iran possibly go now? Is their, you know, their control over the Strait of Hormuz a foregone conclusion at this point?

I don't think that they have control over the strait. I think they have the ability to terrorize the strait, and that is forcing a particular kind of reaction from commercial insurers, and it's fewer vessels going through, but it's really America that has control over pinning them in. I think what we have not done as well is show that there are ships still going out from the non-Iran parts of that Gulf, and the escorts have worked to a degree. Our government has numbers that are somewhat impressive, but it's, it's hard when the commercial available sources have a number that's much lower than what the government has. We just have a trust gulf on what's really happening there.

Now, some analysts say that with every passing day, Iran's regime is actually proving that the Strait of Hormuz is actually less important globally than they want it to be. You know, is Iran's one card that they can play losing its value the longer this goes?

It is over time, and it just gets down to dueling analyses about whether there's short-term political pressure in the United States that's sufficient to make the Trump administration pull back, uh, or, uh, is the Trump administration committed to a long-term pressure pressure campaign in lieu of overwhelming military options in order to basically press this regime into crumbling. They cannot sustain their economy with the revenue sources they have. They don't have access to the oil of Kharga Island. They definitely are going to lose the ability to pay their troops in a certain amount of time. So really, time is on the president's side. It really comes down to the dueling narratives in Washington and around the world about where the pressure is coming from.

And as you said, you know, the, the control of the Hormuz Strait, uh, the narrative battle over that is so important and so much of, uh, the focus has been on Iran, but the truth is the US has far more control than people realize. Maybe that's a messaging point that they can strengthen. Uh, the commander of CENTCOM visited service members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln over the weekend. This comes after reports about worsening conditions on board and mental health issues. Based on what you're hearing, how concerning do you— is this whole situation to you?

Well, there's always going to be a challenge when you have long-term deployments. There was an anticipation that this might be drawing to an earlier close down to more of a maintenance operation, and this has turned out to be a more protracted embargo of the Iranian ports. And so this, this particular vessel has had a record-long deployment that will strain families at home. But when you have a vessel with 5,000 personnel on it, you just— the law of coverages mean some people are going to have a harder time than others. I think it was wildly over— overinterpreted in terms of everyone facing this existential struggle, whereas I think that the military is doing everything they can to care for the families and especially those that are deployed.

Right. And while this is all going on, uh, Special Envoy for Peace Jared Kushner is working on that Gaza ceasefire plan, meeting with Netanyahu today, as Georgia said. He actually met with Hamas leadership in Egypt yesterday. How rare is it to have that kind of direct negotiation between a terror group and a U.S. official?

It's fairly rare. Of course, when we were dealing with negotiations in Afghanistan and there were elements of Taliban getting involved back in, and the sad course of events over the long time we spent in Iraq, there were different kinds of radical elements that would get into the mix. So we had a general policy of no negotiating with terrorists. At the same time, sometimes Oftentimes there are those tied to these groups who end up in the political negotiations. In this case, it's a little bit unusual that, uh, we're going to have those Hamas leaders come to these negotiations, but ultimately it's they who have to lay down their arms. And I think that the theory is if they're involved in these negotiations with other countries at the table, that their honor is at stake with them. So they can't just say that the Americans are lying or the Israelis are manipulating the situation. These other parties are going to see what Hamas does, or most likely does not do, to honor their commitments to this deal.

Well, as always, extremely complicated, all these negotiations, and happening on several fronts at once. Steve, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you very much.

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Your country is beneath contempt.

We who love and serve Allah fought back against the Americans and the Zionists from the scourge of secular terrorism and the lands of unbelief.

Anyone gonna listen to Captain Saunders tomorrow?

The retired Delta Force soldier with the new book out? He's the polar opposite of those brain-dead protesters.

Given the current climate, should Clay Saunders even be allowed on campus?

Mr. Saunders is a close personal friend of Chancellor Friedman.

This is a decision I cannot fight.

There are 3 ways Islam will conquer the West. Through immigration, through the wombs of our women, and by using our nation's freedoms against us. Are you paying attention? Listen carefully. The great Satan America will fall. You are infidels.

The bodies of women are not pure and men's souls are unclean.

What makes them so dangerous? Their goals are not in this life.

But the next.

Anyone?

I got friends here, I can't just leave them. Do you listen to me?

In the law, we cannot run or hide from what is coming. We have to fight. I will be rewarded 10,000 times in the next life. When you die, you're nothing.

Only one way to find out.

That's the American way.

Wo gibt's eigentlich die weißen Rosen aus Athen? Und wo regnet's für mich noch mal rote Rosen?

Natürlich im Europa-Rosarium Sangerhausen mit der größten Rosensammlung der Welt. Viele tausend Rosen Tausend Arten warten auf Sie mit prachtvollen Blüten und herrlichem Duft. www.rosarium.de