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1) Biden Loses Support With Hispanic Voters
The Topline: As President Joe Biden continues to struggle with record low approval ratings and new polling shows a shift among hispanic voters, who have typically been a key electoral stronghold for Democrats.
Quote Of The Day: “From 2010 to 2020, the poverty rate among Hispanics decreased by 36% and Latinos lead the nation in the creation of small businesses. During those 10 years, the Democrats also moved… to more of a focus on income inequality and racial equity. These are unappealing messages to people who don’t view themselves as victims, believe in the American Dream, and are largely on their way to the middle class.”
–Giancarlo Sopo, who led the Trump campaign’s hispanic outreach in 2020
Win McNamee/Staff/Getty Images
The Numbers
A new NPR/PBS poll has President Biden hitting new record lows, with 41% approval and 55% disapproval – a 20-point jump in disapproval in under a year.
Independents were crucial for Biden in 2020, but right now, just 29% approve of the job he’s doing, with 66% disapproving — a 30-point drop in the last six months.
Of every demographic, President Biden struggles the most with latinos, with 65% disapproving of the job he’s doing and only 33% approving.
Latino Approval Ratings
In 2020, exit polls showed President Biden winning 66% of latino voters nationwide. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 65%, and Obama won 71% in 2012. Since President Biden took office, latino support for Democrats has started to drop at unprecedented rates.
Another poll from The Wall Street Journal this month showed latino voters are evenly split among Republicans and Democrats for the first time in decades.
Nationwide Trend
In the Virginia gubernatorial race this year, exit polling showed Republican Glenn Youngkin won the latino vote by 10 points at 54 to 45. In the Democratic bastion of McAllen, Texas – a border town which is 85% latino – Republicans won the mayor’s race this year. Similar examples happened in Arizona, Nevada, and California.
Potential Reasons: In Miami, the emergence of an openly socialist wing of the Democratic Party is alienating voters who fled communism in Latin America. In Texas and Arizona, concerns over the economy, shut downs, and border security have harmed Democrats. Meanwhile, soaring crime and rising cost-of-living are major concerns in Latino neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas, which are issues Republicans are leaning into.
Patrick T. FALLON/PATRICK T. FALLON/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images
2) Record Number Of Drugs Seized At Border
The Topline: According to a new analysis, fentanyl has become the leading killer of young Americans, and the crisis is being made worse by policies at the southern border.
Quote Of The Day: “We have to understand that there is an unlimited amount of synthetic fentanyl that the criminal drug cartels in Mexico can make, and that they will stop at nothing to get them into the United States…”
– DEA Administrator Anne Milgram
Overdose Deaths
For the first time in U.S. history, more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses between May of 2020 and May of 2021, which is nearly double the number of overdose deaths five years ago. The CDC announced that 64% of all overdoses are related to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.
Fentanyl has now exceeded car accidents and suicides as the number-one killer of young people, ages 18 to 45, according to an analysis of CDC data performed by the nonprofit group Families Against Fentanyl. The organization says 78,795 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses over the last two years: roughly 37,000 in 2020 and 41,500 in 2021.
What It Means: Fentanyl has claimed the life of an American every 12-and-a-half minutes.
The Border
The amount of fentanyl seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection nearly tripled this year over last year. Two milligrams of fentanyl is enough to kill someone. Border Patrol agents seized 11,201 pounds in Fiscal Year 2021 and another 2,158 pounds of fentanyl since the beginning of this Fiscal Year, which began in October, which is enough to kill 3 billion people.
So far this year, DEA agents have seized 20.4 million counterfeit prescription pills containing the deadly opioid. Drug traffickers often disguise the pills as popular prescription drugs like Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax, and Adderall, which they pretend to sell at a discount over the internet.
Other narcotics — including heroin, cocaine, and marijuana— have been found to contain traces of fentanyl, as well. In fact, over four months this year, in the state of Connecticut, 39 people overdosed from marijuana that secretly contained tiny specks of fentanyl.
According to the DEA, international drug traffickers import fentanyl from China or India to Mexico. Then, they transform it into counterfeit pills, or traffic it directly across the border. America’s uncontrolled southern border makes drug smuggling easier.
National Problem
Forty-five states experienced more deaths by overdose this year than last year – and most of them by double-digits. The states with the largest increase in overdose deaths this year were Vermont, Mississippi, and California.
Critics, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), say the Biden administration’s priorities are misplaced – and that the southern border is wide open. Abbott is now heading up the construction of a border wall funded by the state and private donations.
Penn Athletics
3) Transgender Swimmer Sparks Controversy
The Topline: Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been smashing records on the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania, but Thomas’s teammates say the playing field is unfair.
Controversy
Lia Thomas, who previously swam for three years on the men’s swim team at UPenn, has gone on to crush women’s collegiate records by wide margins.
Some of the women who swam against Lia on the University of Pennsylvania swim team have said they feel extremely defeated. One swimmer told sports website OutKick the girls on the team feel discouraged because “no matter how much work they put in it, they’re going to lose.”
Many parents and fans are also discouraged. One U Penn swimmer described a recent match in which Thomas beat the next fastest female swimmer by 38 seconds. According to her, when Thomas finished first place, the crowd on the sideline was silent. When the second place finisher came in, the crowd erupted in applause.
In general, many trans athletes, and their advocates, argue that access to the sports league of their choice, based on gender identity, is a fundamental right.
Other Transgender Athletes
Earlier this year, in August, Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics. Hubbard competed on the women’s weightlifting team in the Tokyo games.
In 2019, Rachel McKinnon, a transgender cyclist, won a world championship. McKinnon later wrote in a New York Times op-ed that it’s a “human right to be able to compete.”
Another transgender athlete, Cece Telfer, won an NCAA title on the women’s track and field team at Franklin Pierce University. Telfer claimed to be the one at a “disadvantage” since Telfer’s body was going through medical changes related to taking hormones. Studies have shown, however, that biological males still have a significant advantage over females even after hormone therapy.
Some of the transgender athletes, including Lia Thomas and Cece Telfer, originally competed on the men’s teams, but it was only when they switched to the women’s teams they started breaking records and becoming stars.
Pushback
Many female athletes have spoken out. In the case of high school sports, sometimes the girls’ parents are the ones who have pushed back. In April, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the families of high school girls in Connecticut, who sued over two transgender athletes who were easily defeating their competition in girls track events. Thus far, biological females haven’t had much success in the courts.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images
Other Stories We’re Tracking
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it will hear challenges to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private employers. The decision comes after The Daily Wire and other petitioners asked the Supreme Court this week to take up legal challenges to the order. The court scheduled oral arguments to commence on January 7th and will defer any decision to stay the mandates until that date.
The Daily Wire is fighting Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate in federal court. Join us in this fight by signing our petition to OSHA, telling them that you will not comply with this mandate.