--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Evening Wire. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Wednesday, June 18th.
--:-- John Bickley: Good evening, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A war of words is underway between President Trump and Ayatollah Khomeini as Israel continues to knock out Iranian targets. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the latest.
--:-- Tim Pierce: President Trump says Iran is now totally defenseless and that he's weighing whether to launch a U.S. strike. Here he is speaking to reporters earlier today. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate. And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before? All this death and destruction.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The president's comments come after reports that Iran is prepping missiles to strike American bases. They also come in response to Ayatollah Khamenei rejecting Trump's call for surrender. Iran warned the U.S. overnight that any military involvement in its conflict with Israel would trigger an all-out war.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump had previously said the U.S. knows exactly where Khamenei is hiding, calling him an easy target, but added not for now. Meanwhile, U.S. fighter jets and carrier groups are headed toward the region as Israel continues to strike Iranian targets, including Iran's internal security headquarters.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Iran's strikes against Israel have lost steam in recent days, leading experts to question the regime's stockpile. After firing over 200 rockets in the early days, Iran's latest volleys have dropped to just a few dozen.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Israeli strikes have destroyed dozens of Tehran's launchers and silos, crippling Iran's attack capability. Israel's defense forces say they've wiped out nearly 40 percent of Iran's ballistic missile launchers and over 70 air defense batteries.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Knesset member Simcha Rothman spoke to Morning Wire. We all saw what happened, sadly, with the Biden administration, who basically, instead of helping us to finish the war faster and eliminate our enemies faster, basically put a weapons embargo on the state of Israel. So once this was removed, we see the success in all fronts. And I think the world is a better place today than it used to be and we could.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on transgender medical procedures for minors. Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan reports from D.C.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that blocking puberty blockers across sex hormones and so-called gender transition surgeries does not violate the Constitution. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts slammed the idea that these risky experimental treatments are a right, saying that Tennessee's law applies to all minors regardless of sex.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The law holds doctors accountable for trying to transition kids with possible license revocations and fines while giving families the right to sue for harm. It comes after Daily Wire host Matt Walsh exposed disturbing practices at Vanderbilt's gender clinic.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Morning Wire spoke to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scrametti shortly after the decision came down. Here's what he told us. This is a really important ruling. This is an issue that's come up very quickly. It affects an increasingly large number of kids. And the evidence that keeps coming in shows more and more that there is a huge risk to kids from these procedures with very little, if any, benefit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: More than 20 states have passed similar laws, and this ruling paves the way for their full enforcement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump is giving TikTok's Chinese owner one more chance to find an American buyer. Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice has the details.
--:-- Tim Rice: The White House says that ByteDance has 90 days to sell, an extension it says ensures TikTok users can keep the app without letting the Chinese Communist Party spy on Americans. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said Trump does not want TikTok to go dark, but insists any deal must protect U.S. data.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Federal Reserve has once again held interest rates steady. The rates will stay in the 4.25 to 4.5 percent range. The Fed left rates alone in January, March and May, but cut rates at its final three meetings last year.
--:-- [Audio clip of President Trump speaking]
--:-- President Trump: I think he hates me, but that's OK. You know, he should. He should. I call him every name in the book trying to get him to do something. I've been nice to him. I do it always. I don't know how to sell. I've been so nice to him, fellas. You wouldn't believe. Let's have dinner. Too late. I call him too late. Come on, too late. Let's have dinner. I do it every way in the book. I'm nasty. I'm nice. Nothing works.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Trump blasted the feds in action, saying it's costing the U.S. economy billions while Europe races ahead with 10 rate cuts.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, Senate Republicans held the first congressional hearing investigating the cover-up of President Biden's decline. The majority of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not call a single witness of their own and walked out of the hearing in protest.
--:-- Senator Eric Schmidt: The Democrats' boycott of the meeting was deeply disappointing.
--:-- Senator John Cornyn: Congress had a responsibility to determine who was making decisions in the Biden White House. This was a constitutional crisis bigger than President Biden bigger than any single election and one that cannot be absolved by the collective apology of the press and an election where the president party lost.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The FBI says it snabbed another illegal immigrant who escaped an ICE detention facility last week. That brings the total number of captures to three of the four.
--:-- Georgia Howe: An armed crew of nine were caught on camera terrorizing a Colorado apartment complex earlier this month. The subjects are suspected Trande Aragua members, and their actions resemble violence previously committed in the area by the Venezuelan gang.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Authorities are still searching for a man suspected of killing his three daughters in Washington state. The suspect, Travis Decker, has been on the run for three weeks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The British Parliament took the first step toward making abortions legal till birth in England and Wales. Yesterday 379 to 137 vote in the House of Commons approved an amendment that prevents women from facing prosecution over aborting a child after the legal limit even up to the moment of birth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A volcanic eruption in Indonesia is causing evacuations and flight cancellations. Multiple eruptions send ash and gray clouds thousands of feet into the sky. The danger zone was expanded to a five-mile radius from the mountain.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The cancellations affected thousands of tourists, but some airlines say they plan to reschedule flights as soon as the clouds clear. So far, no deaths have been reported.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The volcano most recently erupted in March and a previous eruption in November killed nine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Basketball turns to fisticuffs on the WNBA court. Three players were ejected after a fight in last night's game between the Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A Texas man landed in hot water this week, not just for his felony charge, but also for his T-shirt. What made you think that was a good shirt to wear to court this morning? Sammy Morris showed up to court in Jefferson County wearing a T-shirt that read, and I'm quoting world's best farter. I mean, father.
--:-- Judge Raquel West: I can read it. I see what it says at the bottom. You're in felony court. You need to dress appropriately to felony court. And that's not appropriate.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, those are your drive home updates. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump's call for Iran's surrender, a preview of today's hearing on the cover up of Joe Biden's decline and an interview with Don Jr. and Eric Trump on the 10th anniversary of the fateful escalator ride.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news you need to know.
