Big Banks Face Discrimination Allegations & The Pope’s Cancer Diagnosis | 10.15.26

Georgia Howe (0:00)

Okay, first, before we give you the facts of the day, Run, Hide, Fight, Infidels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s. There's even a love story which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out.

SPEAKER_2 (0:17)

People disagree about a lot in this country. Taxes, healthcare, education. But wherever you land politically, I think most of us agree on this. Better information leads to better decisions. That's the mission of USA Facts, to make government data clear and accessible. Because public data should be easy to access, trust and understand, so we can use it to make informed decisions. Read and sign our open letter to support public data at usafacts.org.

Georgia Howe (0:50)

Concerns about affordability loom large as the election clock ticks down.

Kevin Hassett (0:55)

The top-line number was driven by a surge in energy prices, which we believe will be temporary. But there's a whole bunch of good news in the report.

John Bickley (1:02)

We take a look at the latest economic news and how the White House is responding.

Georgia Howe (1:06)

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 15th, and this is Morning Wire.

John Bickley (1:20)

A bombshell federal report finds that nine of America's top banks debanked conservatives and religious groups.

Jeremy Tedesco (1:27)

Now we know, based on investigations that were covering that time frame, that they actually had policies in place that they were enforcing in a viewpoint discriminatory way.

Georgia Howe (1:36)

And the Pope reveals he's been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Matt Fradd (1:40)

I think in this day and age, the Pope can't sneeze without the world immediately knowing about it. So I think it's within the Vatican's best interest to be this transparent.

John Bickley (1:47)

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

SPEAKER_2 (1:54)

People disagree about a lot in this country. Taxes, health care, education. But wherever you land politically, I think most of us agree on this. Better information leads to better decisions. That's the mission of USA Facts, to make government data clear and accessible. Because public data should be easy to access, trust and understand, so we can use it to make informed decisions. Read and sign our open letter to support public data at usafacts.org.

John Bickley (2:24)

The final inflation report before the midterms came in hotter than expected on Wednesday.

Georgia Howe (2:29)

Here with more on the economy is Wired In host Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, first of all, how bad were the numbers?

Cabot Phillips (2:34)

They were not great, Georgia. Prices rose 3.7% on an annualized basis, up from 3.4% in August, and unfortunately, slightly above what economists had expected. Prices climbed 0.6% in September alone. And of course, won't be news to anyone. The biggest driver of those increased prices is energy. Gas spiked 9.1% last month alone and accounted for over half of the overall increase.

On the year zooming out, energy costs are up more than 20% from a year ago as the Iran War continues to disrupt oil supplies going into its eighth month. But prices are also rising for airfare, clothing, used cars, medical care and consumer goods. The one silver lining groceries were actually down a bit, dipping 0.1%, so some very minor relief when compared to August. But Americans have consistently said that their paychecks cannot keep up. And to that point, wages grew just 3% over the past year. And after adjusting for inflation, average hourly pay fell 0.5% in September. So not great news.

John Bickley (3:33)

Obviously, the midterms looming over all of this. How is the White House responding to these numbers?

Cabot Phillips (3:37)

Their message is what we've heard consistently, that the spike is temporary and tied to the war, which they say is coming to an end very soon. But again, they've had that message for quite some time now. Voters will see how they're feeling about that. Trump's National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, called the headline number, quote, disappointing, but said there is some good news in the report, and he tried to highlight that. Have a listen.

Kevin Hassett (3:58)

The top line number was driven by a surge in energy prices, which we believe will be temporary, but there's a whole bunch of good news in the report. Food prices were flat to down.

Drug prices dropped about as much as they have since World War II because of all the efforts President Trump's making to lower drug prices. As energy prices normalize, as we get things more under control over the next few weeks as we have over the last couple of weeks, then energy prices will be back where they were in the summer.