A Senate hearing on political violence highlights radical Left ideology, a brewing power struggle within DHS shakes up ICE leadership, and NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s lead slips amid criticism for his polarizing policies and past comments.
It’s Wednesday, October 29, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire:
Senate Addresses Left-Wing Violence
Topline: Daily Wire host Michael Knowles testified in front of members of the Senate on Tuesday about the growing trend of ideologically motivated violence and its threat to the First Amendment.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and his Republican colleagues believe the threat of violence coming from radical leftists, including “Antifa,” is on the rise and will only continue to be an issue unless political leaders and the media are forced to face that fact.
The purpose of Tuesday’s Senate hearing was to present extensive evidence to shine a spotlight on the problem. The assassination of Charlie Kirk prompted this hearing, and it has made this issue of political violence impossible to ignore.
But even with legacy media outlets being forced to cover Kirk’s assassination, critics say they’ve worked hard to bury evidence pointing to the ideological motives of the suspect in the case. The suspect was a leftist who called Kirk’s conservative views “hateful” – and who was in a romantic relationship with a male who identifies as a female.
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As Schmitt said, there is still a strong need to ensure the efforts to bury that reality aren’t successful. Inviting a high-profile figure like The Daily Wire’s Knowles to speak was part of the strategy, as he has a large platform and firsthand experience with the kinds of threats coming from the Left.
Knowles specifically spoke to how past administrations refused to list things like the Black Lives Matter riots and massacres by transgender individuals as leftwing violence in official government records.
“Consider the Covenant School massacre in Nashville, for instance, in which a trans-identifying shooter murdered Christian children at school after leaving a manifesto outlining ideological motivations, such as gender ideology. That incident, according to authorities, lacked an ideological motive,” said Knowles.
“The Black Lives Matter riots — overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead and over a billion dollars’ worth of property damage — likewise fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence,” he continued. “Even an attack by Antifa operatives that targeted me personally for my conservative political views appeared in official records and data sets as nothing more than ‘obstructing law enforcement.’”
Knowles said that the tide has somewhat begun to turn with things like the assassination of Kirk and the multiple attempts on Trump, forcing “honest” liberals to acknowledge the truth about where most of the violence is coming from.
“On September 23, no less an emblem of American liberalism than The Atlantic magazine admitted that fact in an article, based on a recent study, under the headline, ‘Left-Wing Terrorism Is On The Rise,’” said Knowles. “Less honest liberals, including members of Congress, have nevertheless persisted in denying this fact. Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton reacted to a leftist’s assassination of the most prominent proponent of civil debate on the American Right by blaming the Right.”
A YouGov poll just last month found that 26% of young liberals say it is “sometimes justified” to resort to violence to achieve political goals. Only 7% of young conservatives said the same.
An Administration Divided On Deportation
Topline: A major leadership shakeup at ICE is exposing internal divides over the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.
ICE leadership is being moved out of multiple offices across the country. They’re being replaced with Border Patrol leadership. The swaps have happened in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Denver, El Paso, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, and New Orleans.
The Trump administration has already shifted when it comes to who is in charge of the mass deportation campaign. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino has been put in charge of operations in places such as Los Angeles and Chicago, where Border Patrol agents are making arrests alongside ICE.
Quality versus quantity: There have been significant internal divisions within the Department of Homeland Security over how the administration should conduct its operations and mass deportation arrests.
The division centers on differing priorities: Corey Lewandowski, a senior advisor in a temporary position in the administration, wants to maximize the number of arrests and deportations. ICE Director Todd Lyons and border czar Tom Homan advocate for focusing on arresting hardened criminals.
Quality camp: Lyons and Homan’s camp is very concerned about public perception. Border Patrol and ICE are under a lot of scrutiny. They want to show the public that they’re getting hardened criminals off the streets and keeping Americans safe. It’s also about making sure ICE officers feel good about the work they’re doing and that they’re making targeted arrests.
Quantity camp: Bovino was involved in some of the more controversial raids, including Home Depot parking lots and car washes. Those raids drew big protests in places like Southern California and Chicago. Bovino has faced significant scrutiny for this. He was testifying in court on Tuesday about his alleged use of tear gas during an operation in Chicago.
ICE is also facing backlash, but it wants to minimize that and get officers back to quality work.
Who is winning? The internal announcement of the Border Patrol takeover of operations came from Lewandowski. He notified Homeland Security officials about the leadership changes at ICE. His being the source of the announcement suggests that his camp is winning the fight.
Lewandowski has, in some ways, more power than Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, sources tell The Daily Wire. His control at DHS has become a point of contention for many in the administration.
Mamdani Slips In Final Days
Topline: Socialist candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, continues to hold a commanding lead, but Andrew Cuomo’s attacks and other controversies are beginning to chip away at it.
Mamdani is up by ten points. Andrew Cuomo, the former New York Democratic governor now running as an independent, was polling 20 points behind Mamdani, but Cuomo recently cut that lead in half. A Suffolk University Poll released Monday shows Mamdani leading Cuomo 44% to 34%. Current NYC Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race and endorsed Cuomo on Thursday, giving Cuomo a boost.
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the founder and CEO of the Guardian Angels, is in third place with 11% of the vote.
Opponents of Mamdani, some of whom view him as a communist, have pressured Sliwa to drop out to improve Cuomo’s chances. President Trump is among those who have leaned on Sliwa. But none of the pressure appears to have moved him. The odds are still in Mamdani’s favor, but it’s a much closer race than it once was.
In-person early voting started on Saturday, and Election Day is on November 4.
Mamdani’s controversies: Mamdani raised eyebrows when he tearfully spoke about his aunt, saying she was victimized in the wake of 9/11 because she is a Muslim and wears a hijab.
“My aunt stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” said the Democratic candidate.
When Mamdani was pressed about the claim, he admitted the story wasn’t about his aunt but a different relative. He also suggested questioning his story is Islamophobic.
“I was speaking about my aunt, I was speaking about Zehra Fuhi, my father’s cousin – sadly passed away a few years ago,” said Mamdani later when pressed to clarify. “For the takeaway for my more than ten-minute address about Islamophobia in this race and in this city to be the question of my aunt tells you everything about Andrew Cuomo.”
Mamdani has also been accused of being antisemitic. Recently, a 2023 video resurfaced of Mamdani attacking the NYPD: “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” said Mamdani. “Especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to capitalist interests over here.”
A segment of New York City is not happy about Mamdani likely becoming mayor. The city is liberal, but Mamdani is seen as radical and outside the mainstream. His proposals include massive tax hikes, a “freeze the rent” policy, replacing cops with social workers in some cases, government-run grocery stores, decriminalizing “sex work,” etc.
As for the frontrunner’s successes in his campaign, Mamdani is doing well with residents under age 40, and he has made genuine efforts to reach out to immigrant communities in the city. The latest numbers show that nearly 40% of all NYC residents are foreign-born. The city’s changing demographics are definitely a significant factor in this election.
