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--:-- Host (John Bickley): This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Trump lays out the end game for Iran and reverses deportation exemptions for farms and hotels. And FBI head Kash Patel uncovers an alleged Chinese plot to interfere in the 2020 election. I'm Daily Wire, executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, June 17th, and this is Evening Wire.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate as White House officials say U.S. strikes on Iran remain under active consideration. Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice has the latest.
--:-- Tim Rice: President Trump met with his national security team in the Situation Room after posting on social media that America knows where the Ayatollah is hiding, calling the supreme leader an easy target. The president's Truth Social post went on to say that American patience is wearing thin and later demanded Iran's unconditional surrender.
--:-- Tim Rice: The Pentagon is now rapidly reinforcing U.S. military presence in the region. Additional F-16, F-22, and F-35 fighter jets are being deployed, while the USS Nimitz carrier strike group is joining the USS Carl Vinson in the Middle East.
--:-- Tim Rice: President Trump explained his ultimate goal in the conflict between Israel and Iran this morning, and it's not a ceasefire. Here's the president on Air Force One when asked about his aims for the war.
--:-- President Trump: What specifically is better than a ceasefire? What are you looking for here? An end. A real end, not a ceasefire. And then something that will be permanent or giving up entirely. Is that OK, too? Are you closer? Is that possible? Is that possible? Like 24 hours?
--:-- Tim Rice: President also made clear on Truth Social early Tuesday morning that he had not reached out to Iran for peace talks in any way, shape or form, calling such claims more highly fabricated fake news.
--:-- Tim Rice: He added that Iran should have taken the deal that was on the table. It would have saved a lot of lives. The Israeli Defense Forces killed another top Iranian military leader just days after taking out his predecessor.
--:-- Nadav Shoshani (IDF spokesperson): For the second time in days, the IDF has eliminated the most senior military commander of the Iranian regime Ali Shadmani.
--:-- Nadav Shoshani: Shoshani also explained why so few Iranian missiles were fired toward Israel last night. More than a third of their missile launchers we have been able to eliminate. We have been able in many dozens of occasions to find those missiles in real time in Iran. We're intercepting them in Iran now and not intercepting them above our skies.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The Trump administration has reversed its exemptions for deportations in the farming and hotel industries. New Department of Homeland Security guidance last week exempted some industries, including farming and hospitality, from deportation operations.
--:-- President Trump: Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not.
--:-- President Trump: And you know what's going to happen and what is happening? They get rid of some of the people and then you know what happens? They end up hiring the people, the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): But after conservative pushback and new White House directives, DHS told staff Monday that it's reversed the guidance and agents must continue conducting immigration raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Chicago has officially cut off their website that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain IDs. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The City Key program was introduced by Democrats and allows illegal immigrants to get IDs regardless of legal status or criminal history. With the Biden era migrant surge overwhelming cities like Chicago, officials expanded CityKey to online applications, creating digital records that ICE is now targeting under President Trump's renewed deportation crackdown.
--:-- Anna Valencia (Chicago City Clerk): The city won't turn over any data to federal authorities and accused Trump of conducting a witch hunt to intimidate illegal immigrants.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The city also argues it's not required to comply with ICE's subpoena, but if federal agents obtain a court order, a legal showdown could follow.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): This comes just a day after Trump doubled down on his deportation efforts in Democrat-led cities like Chicago.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): New data out of the Media Research Center shows just how much left-leaning networks have leaned on the peaceful protest rhetoric. According to MRC shows on CNN and MSNBC labeled the violent anti-ice riots in LA as peaceful 211 times between June 7th and 11th.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Despite alarming videos of cars on fire assaults on law enforcement and far chaos in LA Anchors on the networks repeatedly downplayed riots Critics say the coverage reflects media bias shielding left protests from criticism even as law enforcement faced life-threatening violence.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Senate Republicans are looking to get to the bottom of what they say was a major cover-up of President Biden's mental decline. Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo has more.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: GOP lawmakers allege that Biden's inner circle and friendly media outlets concealed his deteriorating cognitive health, raising constitutional concerns over who was truly steering the ship.
--:-- Senator Eric Schmidt: The alleged cover-up a threat to the nation and to the rule of law. Tomorrow's hearing will be led by Schmidt and Senator John Cornyn and will feature former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, former DOJ official Theodore Wald, and constitutional law scholar John Harrison.
--:-- Senator Eric Schmidt: The American people deserve to know who knew what, when, what should have been seen and what should have been done about it. I chair the Senate, the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. Having a functioning president is actually kind of an important thing in our constitutional order. And I think this scandal is bigger than Watergate.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): But everybody's very eager to sweep it under the rug. And I just don't think the American people should accept that.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Meanwhile, House Republicans are pursuing a parallel investigation. Look for our interview with Senator Schmidt in tomorrow morning's episode.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The FBI has delivered thousands of pages of intelligence to Congress detailing an alleged Chinese plot to interfere in the 2020 election. Daily Wire reporter Mireya Lordi has the details.
--:-- Mireya Lordi: While the exact details are not public, a confidential source told The New York Post that the plot involved thousands of fake U.S. driver's licenses, which would have been used to register fake voters who would cast mail-in ballots for then-candidate Joe Biden.
--:-- Mireya Lordi: The FBI caught wind of the plot in August of 2020, but it appears the matter was not fully investigated. FBI Director Cash Patel has declassified the original report and sent it over to Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for additional vetting.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Disgraced former Senator Bob Menendez reported to prison today, beginning an 11-year sentence after being convicted on charges of bribery last year.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, served in the Senate for nearly two decades. He was first charged with corruption in 2015, but the original case was dropped after his first trial resulted in a hung jury.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): The second 2023 investigation found gold bars on Mercedes-Benz and nearly half a million in cash stashed in Menendez's home. The senator was found guilty of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the governments of Egypt and Qatar and abusing his position for their benefit.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Brendan Paul an alleged drug mule for the disgraced music mogul Sean Diddy Combs has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony against his former associate Combs has been accused of using his fame and fortune to coerce women including former girlfriend Cassie Ventura into so-called freak-offs at debauched parties and has been charged with racketeering and sex trafficking.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Combs' defense has argued that all sexual activity was consensual and that Combs' personal behavior, while abusive, did not qualify as trafficking or rape.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Blue-collar workers have seen wage growth of 1.7 percent since President Trump began his second term. This is the largest increase for any administration in almost 60 years and contrasts the Biden administration's negative growth.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): President Trump is the only president to report positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months since Richard Nixon in 1969.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said the only other time when wage growth has been this high was President Trump's first term. No president has done that before. And why is that? It's the president's emphasis on manufacturing. I think there's also likely a component of whether it's 12 or 20 million illegal aliens coming out of the workforce.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Kraft Heinz says it will remove all FD&C artificial dyes from its products in the U.S. by 2027. The umbrella brand Kraft also said they will not launch any new products in the U.S. with artificial colors.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has focused much of his time on phasing artificial dyes out of food and drugs, and the FDA banned red number three earlier this year after linking it to cancer in animals.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Tynes said it uses artificial colors in a small number of its products due to the FDA's previous approval, but it will start cutting them out now.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): And Anderson Cooper just hired a Hollywood super agent, a move that suggests his time at CNN may be coming to an end. The agent's clients include George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, and Brad Pitt.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Some outlets say Cooper's salary is $18 million a year, though CNN disputes that number and will not confirm an actual salary.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Cooper's move comes amid rumored budget cuts at the network and follows a slew of layoffs. The media group that owns CNN recently announced plans to restructure and cut costs across its networks.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Other CNN anchors that have left in recent years include Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, and Chris Wallace.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): All right, there's your drive home updates. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump ordering the evacuation of Tehran as strikes escalate, Trump doubling down on deportations in blue cities, and new allegations against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.
