Transcript of Trudeau Calls It Quits & Biden’s Drilling Ban | 1.7.25

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling it quits amid plummeting approvals and rising discontent within his own party.

Their only objection is that he is no longer popular enough to win an election and keep them in power.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, January seventh, and this is Morning Wire. President Biden says offshore for oil drilling is band baby band just two weeks before leaving office.

This move really is a slap in the face to everybody, especially future generations.

And as New York Governor Cathy Hochul imposes a controversial toll plan, Trump and others fail to oppose it.

This is a cash grab that will cost people thousands of dollars to commute.

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

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his plan to resign after nearly a decade in power.

Here with the latest on the significant development of DailyWire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice. So Tim, a big announcement, though maybe not so shocking. How did we get here?

Well, Georgia, Trudeau has been bleeding support as Canadians blame him for a tanking economy and skyrocketing inflation. He's caught flack for his left wing environmental policies, which have led to soaring energy costs and has pushed for increased immigration, which has fueled a housing crisis. Towards the end of last year, polls showed Trudeau's support dip to around 20%, which means he's leaving office as one of the least popular figures in Canadian politics. Calls for him to resign picked up towards the end of the year as several figures in his government resigned, including Deputy Prime Minister, Christian Freeland, one of his closest allies. Trump's threat of imposing tariffs on Canada also took a toll on Trudeau. So no one was really surprised when he announced his decision to resign in Ottawa yesterday morning.

I intend to resign as party leader, as Prime Minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best in that election.

Now, Canada's parliamentary system is different from ours. Can you explain what happens when a Prime Minister resigns?

Yeah. As Trudeau said, he's stepping down not just as Prime Minister, but also as party leader. First, the liberal Party needs to elect a new leader. Parliament, which was supposed to resume on January 27th, will be suspended until March 24th. At that point, there will be another election where the new liberal party leader will likely face off against rising conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev, who's been one of Trudeau's harshest critics. Here was Polyev's reaction to Trudeau's resignation.

Justin Trudeau is finally leaving. But what has really changed? Every liberal MP in power today and every potential liberal leadership contender fighting for the top job helped Justin Trudeau break the country over the last nine years. Now, while leaderless liberals focus on saving their jobs and fighting each other for power, the country spirals out of control, and out of Out-of-Control Housing Emergency, an out-of-control migrant crisis, and out-of-control $62 billion dollar deficit, not to mention, tariff threats from the United States.

Polyev ended his remarks by calling for Canadians to make a change in the upcoming election.

This cannot go on. We need a carbon tax election now to choose between the NDP liberal, costly coalition that taxes your food, punishes your work, doubles your housing costs, and unleashes crime and drugs in your community authority, or common sense Conservatives who will ax the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime.

So Polyakov is clearly gearing up for a campaign, and some of his rhetoric is sounding a little bit Trumpian. Is that accurate?

Absolutely. Actually, Polyakov has drawn a lot of comparisons to Trump, and that side of him really came through in a recent interview with Canadian psychologist and Daily Wire plus host, Jordan Peterson.

Wokeism seeks to divide people into these different groups and groups, and we see the results in a 250% increase in hate crimes. But we're going to get back to the basic principle that people are judged based on their individual character and humanity rather than by their group identity. That is actually, ironically, the most unifying thing we can do to bring our country back together. As Lincoln put it, to bind up the nation's wounds.

While a Canadian politician I'm quoting Lincoln, that's not something you hear every day.

No, and certainly not something you'd expect to hear from Trudeau.

Right. Well, we're going to be keeping an eye on this upcoming election. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Anytime.

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In a sweeping executive order Monday, President Biden announced a permanent ban on offshore drilling in large portions of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Here are the specifics. It's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Kabbit, Phillips. Hey, Kabbit. So a move that's turning heads in Washington and abroad. Tell us more.

Yeah, on Monday, just two weeks before leaving office, President Biden issued a stunning executive order that will ban offshore oil and gas drilling permanently along the entire East Coast, the coasts of California, Washington and Oregon, and other enormous swaths of the Atlantic Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska's Bering Sea. All told, the order will more than 625 million acres from being drilled. For context, that is a chunk of land larger than all of Mexico and Spain combined. In a statement announcing the move, President Biden said, My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time, that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation's energy needs. It is not worth the risks.

All right, so could President Trump reverse this order?

Well, it'll be very difficult. That's because Biden's order invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a 1953 law that grants the President a fairly broad authority to block any oil and gas development in federal waters. And importantly, that law does not specifically give future presidents the power to overturn such action. So any reversal, if it's even legally possible, would likely have to come through new legislation passed in Congress. Regardless, though, President Trump told Hugh Hewitt yesterday that he will work to overturn It's ridiculous.

I'll unban it immediately. I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately. We have oil and gas at a level that nobody else has, and we're going to take advantage of it.

So is Trump sounding confident that he can reverse at least some of this. What political reaction have we seen to this move?

Democrats argue that we already have plenty of oil and gas reserves that are currently being tapped into. They say America is already at all time highs in oil production under the Biden administration, which is true, and that nearly all of the land included in the order is not currently being drilled anyway. For their part, Republicans say it's insane to handcuff ourselves in the future by making oil-rich areas untouchable for future generations. They also argue the timing of the move makes it clear Biden is trying to hamper oil and gas production under President Trump's second term. They basically question why Biden waited until the last days of his presidency if this was such a pressing matter. For example, Trump press secretary, Caroline Levet, called the order a, quote, disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail. For more from those who opposed the order, I spoke with Faith Burns, a Fellow for Energy Policy at the Right of Center, Americans for Prosperity.

Well, it definitely puts us at a disadvantage. The one thing that it does is basically it guarantees that energy prices will stay high. If anybody If anybody was going to do anything to make sure that future generations don't have a shot at the American dream, this would be what to do. Because if you take over 600 million acres of land area outside of even the ability to have oil and gas drilled there, then that means there's going to be a limited space where you can look for oil and gas. It goes back to the supply and demand concept. If the demand is high and the supply is low, then the price of your product is going to be high. Energy is the foundation of everything in our economy.

With less than two weeks left in office, President Biden still attempting to make consequential changes. Now we'll see if President Trump is able to reverse them. In his famous words, drill Ruby Dreh.

Yeah, a lot of people hoping he does just that.

Kevin, thanks for your work. Anytime.

New York Governor Cathy Hochul's first in the nation congestion pricing for residents and commuters in Midtown Manhattan has officially gone went into effect, sparking backlash from both sides of the aisle.

Here to discuss the toll and blowback is Daily Wire reporter, Amanda Prestig-O'Kammo. So, Amanda, this New York congestion toll just went into effect this past Sunday. Give us the specifics and also Hochul's reasoning for implementing it.

Hey, Georgia. This toll imposes a $9 charge on vehicles entering Midtown Manhattan and below that's south of 60th Street during peak hours, which are pretty much all day long. On weekdays, peak hours are considered 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and on weekends, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. And there's still a toll on off hours, though it is reduced. It's also worth highlighting that $9 is just the starting point. By 2028, the toll jumps to $12, and by 2031, you're looking at a $15 charge. For those who regularly drive into this area, the toll will be costing them thousands of dollars a year. Now, Hochul argues that this is needed to bring down carbon emissions and to reduce traffic and fund New York's troubled public Transportation, specifically the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or the MTA. The state wants to bring in $500 million per year during the first three years, and eventually $1 billion when the toll hits $15.

Now, Hochul was against this just as recently as June, so did she explain why she's reversed course?

Well, initially, she argued publicly that it was too burdensome for New Yorkers, especially at a time when we're dealing with inflation. Behind the scenes, though, Hochul was responding to vulnerable Democrats in her that were worried about their upcoming elections. They thought the toll would be used against them and hurt Democrats' election prospects. So it follows that after the election, Hochul changed her mind on the tax. This time, though, she landed at that $9 starting point. When she announced the told, she actually gave some interesting spin, and she told New Yorkers that she was actually saving them money.

You heard that correctly.

It was $15 before, and now it is $9. That is a 40% reduction.

This lower toll will save daily commuters nearly $1,500 annually.

So some politician math for you right there. Commuters were not paying this toll at all, and now they're paying that $9 toll, and that somehow saves them 40%.

So That spin, though, clearly didn't work. There's been very intense opposition to this program, both from Republicans and Democrats, actually. Tell us about that.

Yeah, it's basically some climate activists, the MTA and Hoka, versus everybody else. New Jersey's Democrat governor, Phil Murphy, for example, he has sued to try to stop the toll program. Toals could end up costing some Jersey residents who commute to New York City an estimated $5,700 per year. Separately, the United Federation of Teachers, which is typically a Democrat ally, has also filed suit. The New York Farmers Bureau has spoken out against the toll, and Manhattan residents have filed a class action lawsuit. Additionally, Congressional Republicans have found some support from Democrats in an effort to try to stop the toll program. President-elect Donald Trump, who will likely have some big-name Democrat supporters, he bowed this past summer to rescind the federal approval for the program. Firefighters are against the toll, too. This comes despite Hochul and the MTA, specifically arguing that it will cut down traffic and therefore, cut down emergency response times. Firefighter unions say that the tax will unfairly cost firefighters personally, as well as all other residents, and actually slow response times. Here's the President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

All we were asking for was an exemption for our members bringing vehicles into the zone. Those vehicles are regularly used to transport firefighters to and from their detail to another firehouse, and there's a shortage in one spot, and they need them somewhere else. We were denied at every turn.

Union leaders also say that firefighters frequently use their personal vehicles for transporting their heavy equipment. They say that if they're forced to buy additional firetrucks to avoid that, it'll cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Despite all of this, Hochult has not budged on the issue, and Mayor Eric Adams, likewise, has not offered firefighters support. His office said in a statement that they don't expect the tax to impact emergency responses.

Well, we're going to see very soon if that's true. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome.

Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.