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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Wednesday, September 17th, and this is Evening Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: For the first time in almost a year, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point. Chairman Jerome Powell says the decision reflects a shift. The weakening job market now outweighs inflation fears, despite tariffs keeping some prices elevated.
--:-- Georgia Howe: My colleagues and I remain squarely focused on achieving our dual mandate goals of maximum employment and stable prices for the benefit of the American people.
--:-- John Bickley: While the unemployment rate remains low, it has edged up. Job gains have slowed and downside risks to employment have risen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There was some drama inside the boardroom. Trump's newest Fed pick, Stephen Myron, cast the lone dissent, demanding a deeper half-point cut. He was sworn in just minutes before the meeting began.
--:-- John Bickley: The move sent Wall Street rallying, with the Dow up more than 400 points to a record high. Now investors are betting on whether another cut could come as soon as October.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Secretary of State Marco Rubio isn't mincing words regarding foreigners found celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination. Rubio announced Monday that the State Department has begun revoking and denying visas to anyone caught praising the murder.
--:-- John Bickley: He called such behavior negative and destructive, adding, "we don't want pro-murder people in America." Rubio says the crackdown fits with broader efforts to block entry to foreigners tied to terrorism, censorship or hostile regimes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: ABC's Matt Gutman is facing a wall of scrutiny after referring to texts between Kirk's alleged assassin and his trans-identifying boyfriend as, "touching." Authorities say 22-year-old Tyler Robinson confessed in a series of messages to his boyfriend.
--:-- John Bickley: Here's Gutman during his live report Tuesday. "So it was this duality of someone who the attorney said not only jeopardized the life of Charlie Kirk and the crowd, but was doing it in front of children, which is one of the aggravating circumstances of this case."
--:-- Georgia Howe: And on the other hand, he was speaking so lovingly about his partner. So a very interesting and, as Pierre said, riveting press conference.
--:-- John Bickley: After a wave of backlash, Gutman posted an apology on X, writing that he was trying to underscore the jarring contrast between this cold assassination of Charlie Kirk a man who dedicated his life to public dialogue and the personal disturbing texts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He went on to say he deeply regrets that he did not make that clear and unequivocally condemns this horrific crime.
--:-- John Bickley: President Trump was welcomed today to Windsor Castle in royal fashion. The President and First Lady were treated to full royal honors in the United Kingdom.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Riding by carriage to be welcomed by King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. A total of 1,300 servicemen and 120 horses took part in the welcoming ceremony, in which the Star-Spangled Banner was played.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump is the first U.S. president ever invited to Britain for a second state visit. His first was in 2019 during his first term.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Trumps are dining with the royal family at a banquet at Windsor Castle following a visit to St. George's Chapel to lay a wreath at the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
--:-- John Bickley: On Thursday, Trump is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister's country estate, where the two leaders will sign multiple tech and energy deals and hold a press conference.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Before departing the White House, Trump had this to say. "Well, my relationship is very good with the UK. and Charles, as you know, who's now king, is my friend."
--:-- John Bickley: In what officials have described as an act of terror, a man rammed his car into the FBI's Pittsburgh office early this morning.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire reporter Zach Jewell reports. After slamming his car into the gates of the office at around 2.40 a.m., the suspect draped an American flag on the fence, then fled.
--:-- John Bickley: The FBI named the suspect as Donald Henson. FBI Pittsburgh assistant special agent in charge Christopher Giordano described Henson as dangerous with a history of mental health issues.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Giordano said, "we look at this as an act of terror against the FBI. This was a targeted attack on this building."
--:-- John Bickley: Thankfully, no one was hurt. Giordano added that Henson had previously made an incoherent complaint to the FBI a few weeks ago, which they looked into but didn't result in any federal action.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Muslim mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, told a Christian resident he is, "not welcome here." At a city council meeting last week, the resident questioned a proposal to rename a street to honor a local Muslim journalist who has praised terror groups such as Hezbollah.
--:-- John Bickley: Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hamoud accused the resident of Islamophobia and said he planned to throw a parade when the Christian man moved out of the city.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You are an Islamophobe And although you live here I want you to know as mayor you are not welcome here And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.
--:-- John Bickley: Because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence. Dearborn has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim residents of any city in the U.S.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump has extended the TikTok deadline again. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the details.
--:-- John Bickley: On Tuesday, the president again delayed a congressional ban on the Chinese-owned social media site, pushing the deadline back to December 19th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's when the Beijing-based company ByteDance must divest from TikTok or risk the platform being permanently banned in the U.S.
--:-- John Bickley: The new deadline comes amid reports of a deal being struck between the White House and ByteDance that would see the Chinese company's stake in the platform drop to less than 20 percent.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The deal would also block China's access to American users' data. Trump has faced backlash from conservatives for his handling of TikTok, as critics say the 2024 law banning the platform should have gone into effect months ago.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump's ICE chief is slamming liberal judges for creating roadblocks to deportations based solely on their personal opinions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire immigration reporter Jenny Ter has the exclusive. In a recent interview with The Daily Wire, acting ICE director Todd Lyons called efforts to block key immigration policies super frustrating and acknowledge that they impede operations targeting criminal illegals roaming the country.
--:-- John Bickley: He told us, "Every day it seems like we have some type of adverse decision that's going to affect how we're doing our job. All ICE is doing is enforcing the law the way it's written and the way Congress laid it out."
--:-- Georgia Howe: He added that the biggest frustration for ICE is not only the roadblocks impeding how we're doing our law enforcement mission, but that they're just based on someone's opinion that they don't like what ICE is doing.
--:-- John Bickley: A California age verification bill backed by Big Tech is heading to Governor Newsom's desk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has more. The bill, which aims to force Big Tech companies to verify user ages online, passed the state assembly 58 to nothing over the weekend, as both parties strongly supported the legislation.
--:-- John Bickley: While some companies have pushed back against similar bills in red states like Texas and Utah, they say the legislation in California is more reasonable.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The bill does not require parental consent for children to download apps, nor does it require photo ID uploads. Instead, the bill asks parents to input their child's age when setting up a device.
--:-- John Bickley: That information would then be relayed to apps which would be required to prevent underage users from accessing adult platforms such as gambling or pornography sites.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Israeli military on Wednesday opened another evacuation route for Palestinians to flee Gaza City The military launched its ground invasion of the decimated city this week to flush out thousands of Hamas terrorists.
--:-- John Bickley: Hundreds of thousands of Gazan civilians fled the city in recent months to humanitarian zones secured by Israeli defense forces, but hundreds of thousands more remain in the city close to the fighting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Israeli efforts to protect the beleaguered population come as the European Union moves to sanction the Jewish state over its war against Hamas.
--:-- John Bickley: Former CDC director Susan Menares testified before the Senate today, just weeks after she was ousted from her position by RFK.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here with the details is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo. Menares told senators that Kennedy put politics before public health and that she was fired for not going along with that.
--:-- John Bickley: She claims Kennedy required all CDC policy and personnel decisions to be cleared by political staff, including possible changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, which is made by a panel known as ACIP.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation, regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause.
--:-- John Bickley: He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign. GOP Senator Roger Marshall, who was an obstetrician before he joined Congress, clashed with Menardez and said that the CDC lost Americans' trust long before RFK was secretary.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The CDC is the cause of vaccine hesitancy, that you are the problem, that because of COVID and you're forcing these vaccines on people that weren't ever really proven or justified that the benefits didn't outweigh the risk.
--:-- John Bickley: And you all sat there with your hands in your pockets and you let that happen. During testimony earlier this month, Kennedy stood by his decision to oust Menares and said one of his reasons for doing so was because she told him she wasn't a, quote, trustworthy person.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- John Bickley: And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including the latest on the Kirk assassination, Trump filing a massive suit against the New York Times and Operation Viper ramping up in Memphis.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.
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