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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Wire.
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--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Wednesday, February 12th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Senate has confirmed former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as President Trump's Director of National Intelligence. Yeas are 52, nays are 48. Nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered, made, and laid upon the table, and the president will immediately notify of the Senate's actions.
--:-- John Bickley: Gabbard was voted through despite strong opposition from Senate Democrats and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Gabbard faced heated questioning over her past views on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and U.S. intelligence operations. Supporters say she will focus on cutting bureaucracy and strengthening national security, while critics question her stance on surveillance and foreign policy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Senate also voted to invoke cloture for nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary. He now heads for a final confirmation vote. The delivery of Government Efficiency Subcommittee held its first hearing today, which got heated at some point.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Subcommittee chair Marjorie Taylor Greene opened the hearing by saying, quote, the American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt. The issue of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has very much become a partisan issue. Democrats saying it's wrong to let him access databases like the U.S. Treasury payment system. Meanwhile, Republicans say government spending is out of control and long overdue for an audit.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett criticizing what Doge is suggesting We know that they are trying to get rid of the Department of Education USA Consumer Financial Protection Bureau They laying off FAA workers They are going after the FDA, the CDC, the HHS, the FBI agents.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But Republicans like Rep. Eric Burleson of Missouri argue the cuts are necessary, saying we face an existential debt crisis. We're nearing $37 trillion dollars in national debt. What does that mean? That means when the EPIC, which is the Economic Policy Innovation Center, says we have 18 trillion left, that's it. 18 trillion left to take out. And we are literally at a point in which the dollar will be worth nothing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Late last night, President Trump welcomed Mark Fogel to the White House. Fogel is an American teacher who was wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for over three years.
--:-- John Bickley: Daily Wire reporter Cassie Akiva, who's been in touch with the Fogel family during the saga, has the story.
--:-- Cassie Akiva: The three and a half year nightmare for the Fogel family that started during the Biden administration has finally ended. After watching the previous administration prioritize more famous detainees like Brittany Greiner, the Fogel family clung to hope that he would be released. The main source of that enduring hope was Donald Trump, who famously met with Mark's 95-year-old mother, Malfine, at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally. She was actually set to take the stage until the would-be assassin began shooting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump did indeed remember Mark's name and welcomed him to the White House late last night.
--:-- Cassie Akiva: I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now. I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes.
--:-- John Bickley: In exchange for Fogel, the U.S. released Russian prisoner Alexander Vinnick, who pled guilty to money laundering $4 billion through a cryptocurrency exchange platform that he operated. He had been facing a 20-year prison sentence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: President Trump says he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin, quote, negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.
--:-- John Bickley: This comes after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine in his first address before the alliance Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice has more.
--:-- Tim Rice: In a social media post today Trump disclosed a call between the two leaders saying they would work together very closely Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to inform him of the conversation with Putin.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The announcement follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's address to NATO in which he said restoring Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is unrealistic and that President Trump is prioritizing diplomacy to end the war.
--:-- Tim Rice: Speaking to the Ukraine Defense Contract Group in Brussels, Hegseth emphasized the need for a negotiated peace, not prolonged conflict. Here's the Defense Secretary.
--:-- Pete Hegseth: Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hegseth warned that the U.S. is shifting focus to border security and deterring threats from China.
--:-- Tim Rice: Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant met with Ukraine's President Zelensky to discuss a rare-earth investment deal. Zelensky is reviewing the proposal and will likely respond Friday when he meets with Vice President J.D. Vance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And use code DAILYWIRE for 20% off your purchase. That's BlackRifleCoffee.com, code DAILYWIRE.
--:-- John Bickley: Mexican drug cartels are using sophisticated tunnels with rail systems to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The hidden tunnel entrances, often below storefronts and warehouses, are making the Trump administration's crackdown on drug smuggling more difficult.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As former DEA agent Michael Brown told Fox, these tunnels are very elaborate and lead to several questions. Who are the engineering firms in Mexico, right? Who has the intellectual capacity to build one of these sophisticated tunnels and start looking at those companies and those architects and those engineers, right, working it from the Mexican side?
--:-- John Bickley: But of course, that would require more cooperation from the Mexican government, which is another question.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Despite the sharp decline in illegal border crossings since Trump's return to office, authorities say cartel tunnels remain a major threat.
--:-- John Bickley: A new congressional report finds that Chinese espionage threats against the U.S. have increased over the past four years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce breaks down the findings The House Committee on Homeland Security Threat Snapshot Report obtained by the Daily Wire documents over 60 cases of China operations That includes efforts to steal military and trade secrets, as well as silence dissidents on U.S. soil.
--:-- Tim Pierce: According to the report, the FBI opens a new counterintelligence case against China every 12 hours, with 60% of all trade theft cases linked to Beijing. The report also highlights recent arrests, including one of a Chinese national accused of stealing AI secrets from Google.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Congressman August Pfluger sits on that committee. Here's what he told Morning Wire.
--:-- August Pfluger: We in Congress, especially on the Homeland Security Committee, are going to take a hardline approach, both on the legislative effort but also on making sure that the FBI continues to do their job, to do their work, to prevent these folks and the bad actors from gaining influence and surveilling American citizens or American national security interests, which is really, I think, their ultimate goal.
--:-- John Bickley: The committee criticized the Biden administration's handling of China, but praised Trump officials, including Secretaries Marco Rubio and Kristi Noem, for taking a tougher stance on Beijing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Jordan's King Abdullah II says he opposes the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza following yesterday's meeting with President Trump at the White House.
--:-- John Bickley: In a statement, Abdullah reaffirmed Jordan's commitment to rebuilding Gaza without forcing people from their houses. Abdullah praised Trump's role in brokering a ceasefire and urged continued U.S. leadership.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The meeting also covered security concerns and economic cooperation between the two nations.
--:-- John Bickley: And Disney is scaling back on DEI. A company memo confirms the removal of the Reimagined Tomorrow initiative and a shift in how executive performance is evaluated.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Disney is also adjusting content advisories on classic films and renaming employee resource groups. The changes come as other corporations, including Google and Meta, reevaluate DEI efforts under the Trump administration.
--:-- John Bickley: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some other big stories, including J.D. Vance laying out Trump's AI policy, Trump cracking down on NGOs, and Jim Jordan discusses Doge and the DOJ.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.
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