Monday | October 18th, 2021

It’s Monday, October 18th, and this is your Morning Wire. Listen to the full podcast:

1) Battle Over Vaccine Mandates Continues

The Topline:  President Biden’s vaccine mandates for all federal and many private employers appears to already be significantly impacting some industries, including airlines. 

One group pushing back on mandates is Freedom Flyers. Formed at the beginning of September, its membership has exploded to tens of thousands, and now includes workers in other industries besides airlines, including trucking, train and subway operators. 

Quote Of The Day: “We have very credible knowledge from the top of specifically our unions that because the union leadership is pro-mandate, pro-vaccine, that they’re trying to get the rest of the group on board with that because of that’s their own personal agenda. And so we’re trying to ask why is that? Why you’re not fighting for us? Just for medical freedom. Why can’t we make our own choice?”

– Jason Kunisch, co-founder of Freedom Flyers

Blake Callahan/Getty Images

Freedom Flyers

Jason Kunisch, the co-founder of Freedom Flyers, said vaccine mandates are “medical tyranny,” adding the group has members who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. He said the group is pro-medical freedom. 

The organization is estimated to have around 85,000 members.

Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images

2) Fallout From Loudoun County Sexual Assault Allegations 

The Topline: The Daily Wire exclusive story about an alleged cover-up of a sexual assault at a public high school has led to changes in Loudoun County, Virginia. 

Background

Last week, The Daily Wire revealed the backstory behind a viral photo of a man being arrested at a Loudoun County school board meeting during a debate about a transgender bathroom policy. The man’s ninth-grade daughter was allegedly raped in a bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt three weeks earlier. 

They arrested the father, Scott Smith, for disorderly conduct, then passed the controversial policy. 

Last month, the alleged rapist was arrested for a different sexual offense at another school in the district. 

Update

School board member Beth Barts, who told the crowd on the night of Scott Smith’s arrest, “Our students do not need to be protected, and they are not in danger,” resigned on Friday. 

Barts is the same board member who previously was part of the “Anti-Racist” Facebook group that threatened to “hack” and “expose”