Transcript of The War on Data Centers & Parasite Hits the Produce Aisle | 7.16.26

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New York's governor blocks all new data centers in the state, prompting a strong rebuke from President Trump. These hyperscale AI data centers consume enormous amounts of power, truly threatening to outpace our grid's capacity.

What does the move mean for New Yorkers, and will the political bet pay off?

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, July 16th, and this is Morning Wire.

President Trump's choice for Attorney General trades barbs with Democrats in a testy confirmation hearing.

What you're saying happens to not be true.

I did not do that.

Like, you can't accuse me of violating my ethical rules and then lie about what I did.

And cyclospora, the explosive parasitic illness outbreak, is now blowing up in dozens of states.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. New York has become the first state to impose a moratorium on future data center construction.

Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order this week imposing a 1-year freeze on all new large-scale AI data centers, leading to some mixed reactions across the political spectrum. Joining us now to break it all down is Cabot Phillips, host of Wired In. So Cabot, first, what is this order? Why was it implemented and what is it gonna do?

Yeah, so as you said, this statewide pause is the first of its kind, and it comes as the public has become increasingly skeptical of AI data center construction more broadly. You can see that in polling across the political spectrum. But as for Hochul's order, it blocks the state government from issuing environmental permits for any hyperscale data center requiring more than 50 megawatts of power, which almost all new data centers require. Hochul says the pause is intended to give state regulators more time to draw up regulations for new data center construction. Uh, she argues that right now the state is expanding too quickly and driving up utility costs for New Yorkers. Governor Hochul also wants to force these companies to either generate their own power or pay a premium to plug into the state power grid. And those ideas are gaining traction among many Democrats.

Now, this is an issue that crosses party lines, but President Trump has been particularly bullish on this. How did he respond to Hochul's moratorium?

Yeah, to your point, uh, Democrats are more likely to oppose new data centers in their area, but even Republicans, according to Gallup, 62% say that they don't want new data centers in their community. So a lot of concern right now from people in both parties, but President Trump, uh, just blasted the move with a lengthy Truth Social post. He called data centers, quote, money machines for the states that land them and argued that taxes and jobs that they create amount to, quote, liquid gold. The president said that Governor Hochul was halting these projects for, in his view, quote, political reasons, and it was going to come at the expense of her constituents who will now, in his view, miss out on millions of dollars in tax revenue. And he says that these jobs will also instead just go to states like Texas and Florida where they are more welcome. The president also called on the governor to reverse the policy and left off with a warning that Democrats, quote, must not be allowed to cause us to lose data centers, AI, and all of this incredible new technology to China. And the China point there is important.

We've heard that from a lot of Republicans, that China does not want us innovating when it comes to this technology, and that they are very happy anytime they see a U.S. data center put on pause. A huge factor in the AI race, as they point out, between the U.S. and China just comes down to raw computing power. Computing power comes from data centers, and China could absolutely come out on top if companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are throttled in developing their new models due to a lack of data centers. And President Trump is not the only one making that argument. Congressman Josh Gottheimer, for example, the New Jersey Democrat who co-chairs the House Democratic Commission on AI, actually made a similar point. He said, quote, just having a blanket moratorium saying we're just going to pack up, go home, hand AI over to China and let them beat us. Makes zero sense to me. And Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman had a two-word reaction to Hochul's order on X, saying, quote, China wins.

Now, defenders of the moratorium, though, are also pointing to the grid in New York. They're saying that it's overtaxing the grid, potentially driving up costs. Is there merit to that argument?

Well, there's no question that data centers do require a good bit of power to run. But Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright went on Fox and argued that electric prices in places like California and New York are going up not because of data centers, but because of bad Democratic energy policy.

Governor Hochul has it exactly backwards. Energy is expensive in New York and now, and now sparse because of bad Democrat policies.

Nothing to do with data centers.

In fact, that's the solution, not the problem.

Supporters of the AI industry will also point to states like Virginia, where you have more data centers per capita than any other state. They say that the tax revenue brought in by these data centers has benefited everyone across the Commonwealth and that the electricity prices in Virginia have not gone up despite the huge increase in new data center construction that we've seen. And it's worth noting that the industry is reading the tea leaves on this issue. Dozens of tech companies signed a voluntary pledge with the White House a few months ago, committing to buy, bring, or build their own power supply so ordinary residents don't foot the bill.

Although Hochul potentially is just the first, there are other Democratic states that are considering this. Which other ones are we looking at?

Yeah, there's a good chance that, uh, New York is just the first domino to fall here. Democratic lawmakers in 15 states have now introduced similar moratorium proposals, and Senator Bernie Sanders Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill of their own in Congress that would impose a nationwide pause on data center construction. Party leadership has not yet gotten behind Sanders' proposal, but it is pretty clear that it isn't the last moratorium we're going to be seeing. There could be a much bigger federal push, though it remains to be seen if that would gain momentum.

Well, and as you mentioned, it's a fraught issue across the board. Yeah. Kabet, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

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A combative congressional hearing for Trump's choice of Attorney General saw Todd Blanch fending off attacks from Democrats on a variety of fronts.

Joining us now to discuss what went down in the hearing is our DC Bureau Chief, Tim Rice. Tim, thanks for coming on.

Yeah, happy to be here, guys.

So first, big picture, how did Blanch do during this Democrat grilling yesterday?

Yeah, you know, uh, it's a great question. He did, I'll say, all right. He did pretty good. Um, You know, he did probably better than Pam Bondi, who kind of came ready to fight and was locking claws with Democrats on the committee right from the beginning. Blanche, learning from those mistakes, was a little bit more measured, a little bit more, kept it a little bit of, kept his cards close to the vest, with a few exceptions, which we can talk about in a minute. But ultimately, you know, it's sort of a 50-50. He fought with Democrats. Of course, he had to answer some tough questions about things like the Epstein files, even from Republicans. But at the end of the day, this a Republican-controlled committee in a Republican-controlled Senate whose newest member is Senator Darlene Graham, the late Lindsey Graham's sister, who was just sworn in earlier this week. So the fact that they managed to fill Lindsey Graham's seat already means that Blanche almost certainly has the votes to make it out of committee and go to the floor. So, you know, eventful but not groundbreaking. And the— there's a second part of the hearing today.

So we're going to have to see, you know, maybe the fireworks will be saved for for part 2.

Democrats have repeatedly questioned Blanch about his close ties to President Trump. Is there a legitimate conflict of interest concern there?

I think it's a reasonable question to ask, right? He wasn't just— he wasn't someone who worked in the first Trump administration. He wasn't someone who was general counsel to a Trump organization. He was Donald Trump's personal defense attorney. He represented the president in a number of suits, including the recently settled E. Jean Carroll suit, the ongoing lawsuit against The New York Times. Things that the Justice Department has now taken up. Now, things that, of course, Blanche says if he's confirmed as attorney general, he will recuse himself from. But I think, yes, these are, these are reasonable questions for lawmakers to ask. Do Democrats always ask them in the most reasonable way? No, of course not. But Blanche, I think this was really where his composure really shone through. You know, he said, I'm not going to hide it. I've known Donald Trump for many years. I was his lawyer in a personal capacity. I'm close with him. I am friendly with him. But I have also been the deputy attorney general for a long time. I have served. I have testified before this committee. I am here to convince you senators on this committee that I am up to the task and suitable for this job.

And that did really, again, shine through in the throughout the confirmation as he gave very measured and very lawyerly, I say, complimentary answers about questions like, can Donald Trump run for a third term? He said, obviously not. It's constitutionally prohibited. Can Donald Trump pardon January 6th rioters? Of course he can. The Constitution does not place any limit or asterisk on the pardon power.

Right. January 6th came up a good bit. Democrats also, as you mentioned, brought up the Epstein files. Blanche says the Trump administration has been more transparent than any past administration on the Epstein files. How persuasive is that argument?

One thing that Blanche kept stressing was the Justice Department under President Trump has not closed a single open investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, or any of their associates. So he He didn't say it out loud, but the implication was, you know, we're trying. Yes, I'm going to say that we've been the most transparent administration on this stuff. But for those of you on the committee, and certainly those on my side of the aisle who think that we could be more transparent about this, don't worry, we haven't stopped anything. The investigations are all still ongoing. A little bit of a wink wink to Republicans on the committee, almost saying confirm me and we'll see a little bit more movement on the Epstein files, which of course was one of the things that the president was most disappointed in former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Assuming he is confirmed, that Blanche is confirmed, uh, what are the biggest challenges he faces immediately?

I mean, the things that we've, that we've discussed in so far and the things that he mentioned in his hearing, the ongoing Epstein saga, again, coming from both left and right. I think dealing with the president's legal challenges. One of the things that he was questioned a lot about today was the Justice Department subpoenaing New York Times reporters pursuant to the president's suit against them. That was another area where he gave a pretty good lawyer clearly answered. Crime, law enforcement efforts, specifically at the federal level, and potentially dealing with the fallout, things like we've seen with ICE agents in Maine. But otherwise, again, it's not to say that it's an easy road ahead for Todd Blanch if he gets confirmed, but it's, it's all the issues that we're pretty familiar with right now and all the issues that Todd Blanch is very familiar with because they're the issues that the Trump administration has been pushing and responding to this entire time.

Indeed. Well, Tim, thank you so much for coming on.

Of course, John.

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Here with more on the explosive situation is Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake. So Lyndon, tell us about this parasitic illness that people primarily in the Midwest are experiencing. What is it and how many people are affected?

Yeah, so the scientific name is Cyclospora. When people are infected by this parasite, they have watery horrible diarrhea, sometimes described as explosive. So this is something that is— they think could be coming from produce during this current outbreak that has nearly 7,000 cases. As you mentioned, a lot of states in the Midwest are being affected right now, primarily Michigan. They're approaching the 4,000 case mark. But on ways it spreads, I mean, to simply put it, it can come from food that has been contaminated when an infected person with poor hand hygiene handles it. So this is something where you get human feces potentially in water or on food, and that person can then spread it that way. Person to person is very rare, so it's more coming from produce. Taco Bell is under investigation right now, checking out their lettuce. The authorities in Michigan are kind of zoning in on these pre-washed salad kits as potentially a source. It's happened very rapidly, but they're asking people who develop these horrible symptoms to kind of think back to what you've had to eat over the past 2 weeks because sometimes this explosive diarrhea can lay dormant for up to 14 days.

And what can you do to prevent this from happening?

Well, one, get better friends. Just kidding. You can hang out with people that wash their hands and take care of themselves, have good hygiene. When you're dealing with produce, you can wash your fruits and vegetables. You can try to take out outer layers of the produce, but one thing to guarantee it is to cook food at 158 degrees. Now, that is cited as the only way to destroy cyclospora. Freezing it can inactivate the parasite but does not guarantee its safety. So while lettuce is being looked at right now, other commonly impacted foods include cilantro, raspberries, basil. So again, a lot of people are choosing to throw out their produce, but health officials say don't clean out your refrigerator just yet. They're still working to find the exact cause. But something to be aware of when you're looking at produce that's maybe imported from a different country.

Now, we mentioned the epicenter of this is in the Midwest, but what other states are starting to experience cases?

Yeah, you have Ohio that has a lot of cases. New York, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky. They are all seeing an increase of this explosive diarrhea. Now, this parasite is is oftentimes found in some people during the summer months. That's when it's most common. But they have noted, yes, this is an outbreak. This is, this is spreading like wildfire into numbers that are way above average. And some of the symptoms that you may be looking for are, in addition to the diarrhea that we mentioned, you may have severe stomach cramps, bloating, vomiting, and a fever. It's rare for this specific parasite. You could have a loss of appetite even, and fatigue. That's according to the Cleveland Clinic. But on average, this is what shocking. It can last 57 days, and there have been some cases that have been reported to go on for more than 100 days. So when you see people that have been hospitalized right now, it's about 141. That is why this can be ongoing and turn into a very severe condition, dehydration. But thankfully, if it's caught and treated, it's not life-threatening.

All right, well, Lyndon, thanks so much for reporting.

Thanks.

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