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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to the Morning Wire afternoon update. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us, Georgia. It's Wednesday, August 30th.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Hurricane Adalia made landfall at Category 3 strength in Florida's Big Bend at 7:45 a.m. this morning, smashing into the town of Keaton Beach with 125 mile-per-hour winds. Called an unprecedented event by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Adalia is the most powerful storm to hit Florida's big bend in over 125 years. It triggered evacuation orders affecting tens of thousands of people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN that the state's response has helped restore power rapidly. The amount of mutual aid that the state of Florida brought in to support power restoration is significant. And what we saw during Hurricane Ian is that they were able to restore the power rather quickly. And I expect the same to happen here as soon as the storm passes and it's safe for these mutual aid resources to come in and support that power restoration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave updates on the storm midday. The eye of Hurricane Idalia has left the state of Florida. The state is still being impacted by the storm's bands and we're seeing that particularly in the northern part of the state. So far, there have been 262,000 accounts that had lost power have been restored. And there are more than 250,000 accounts that are currently out of power and in need of restoration.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the midst of the Biden administration's chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan, top Pentagon officials were working to get the Secretary of Defense to sign a major climate change initiative. That's according to emails obtained by The Daily Wire.
--:-- Brent Schur: The emails show that in two weeks between the fall of Kabul and the final U.S. military flight out of Afghanistan, Pentagon officials were scrambling on an unrelated matter, getting Biden's Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, to finalize a climate adaptation plan. He went on to sign the plan just two days after the withdrawal, declaring climate change a major national security threat.
--:-- Brent Schur: The Pentagon confirmed to The Daily Wire that Austin did spend time during the withdrawal considering the climate initiative. His critics say his full attention should have been on getting Americans and our allies safely out of Afghanistan where 13 service members had just been killed by a suicide bomber.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That full report can be read at dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A federal judge ruled today that Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, is liable for defaming two 2020 election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss. The judge said that Giuliani violated her orders to preserve and produce relevant evidence to the case, resulting in a default judgment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Giuliani had previously argued that he was unable to preserve the information for the discovery process because the FBI had raided his apartment, taking the relevant documents and computer files. The former New York mayor has now been ordered to pay punitive damages.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A political advisor to Giuliani said the decision was a prime example of the weaponization of our justice system where the process is the punishment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In the second such incident this summer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze during a press conference today for about 30 seconds, appearing unable to answer reporter questions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The 81-year-old senator was visibly struggling to hear at the event when he was asked about running for re-election. McConnell didn't immediately respond, even when someone on his staff approached him.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Did you hear the question, Senator? Running for re-election in 2026? All right, I'm sorry, you all. We're going to need a minute.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A local news crew reporting in Chicago was robbed at gunpoint by three armed men in ski masks while coincidentally reporting on a string of robberies.
--:-- Mireya Lourdes: Here with more is Daily Wire investigative reporter Mireya Lourdes. Spanish channel Univision Chicago says that a reporter photographer team was out filming at 5 a.m. on Monday in Chicago's West Town neighborhood when the incident occurred.
--:-- Mireya Lourdes: The burglars mainly stole personal items as well as the news photographer's camera. Godina says the footage they shot was in the stolen camera and the story never made it to air.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A new report suggests that CNN is set to name a new CEO in the coming days after the network fired their last CEO over the summer following a damning profile piece and a town hall debacle involving former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Joel Needler: Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has more. As early as Thursday, CNN is expected to name former New York Times company CEO and BBC Director General Mark Thompson to be the network's next chairman and CEO.
--:-- Joel Needler: The report said that Thompson has a reputation for restructuring legacy media assets and pursuing innovative growth strategies, and that he could not be more different than the network's last CEO, Chris Licht, who departed from the company in June.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the former leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was supposed to be sentenced today for seditious conspiracy over his actions surrounding the January 6th Capitol riot. But the sentencing has been delayed because the judge in the case is out sick.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Prosecutors want 33 years in prison for Tarrio. The sentencing hearing has been rescheduled for September 5th.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
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