<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The FBI broadens its investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination, New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani scores a major endorsement, and the White House threatens Brazil after its Supreme Court sentences the “Trump of the Tropics.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s Tuesday, September 16, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:</span></p>
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<h2 style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;"><b>FBI Probes Larger Plot In Kirk Assassination</b></h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-972675 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Kirk-Probe-Widens.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<p><b>Topline:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> As conservatives rally following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the FBI says it’s investigating radical left-wing groups for potential ties to the killer. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Among those being investigated is the far-left pro-transgender group Armed Queers Salt Lake City. It deleted its Instagram account shortly after the shooting, but a membership form online listed its core principles, which included “the armed and militant protection of queer and trans communities,” “trans liberation,” and an “organized revolutionary movement.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Bureau is also investigating a number of social media accounts that seemingly displayed foreknowledge of the assassination. In one instance, a leftist X user wrote a week before Kirk’s killing: “it’d be funny if someone like Charlie Kirk got shot on September 10th.” According to FBI Director Kash Patel, suspected assassin Tyler Robinson told at least one person beforehand what he planned on doing.</span></p>
<p><b>What they’re saying:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> White House Deputy Chief Stephen Miller vowed to channel his “righteous anger” to go after “networks” of leftists in a special edition of The Charlie Kirk Show hosted by Vice President JD Vance on Monday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It is a vast domestic terror movement, and with God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have&#8230; throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks&#8230; and we will do it in Charlie’s name,” Miller </span><a href="https://x.com/avaricum777/status/1967627688711250054"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Establishment Dems Begin To Fall In Line With Mamdani</b></h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-972677 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Hochul-Backs-Mamdani.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<p><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong>Topline:</strong> New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed far-left NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a sign that the Democratic Party establishment is moving behind the 33-year-old radical.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hochul notably kept her distance from him during the New York City mayoral primary – Mamdani is an open democratic socialist and has some extremely far-left ideas, including the establishment of </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/05/us-news/socialist-nyc-mayoral-candidates-city-run-supermarket-plan-under-fire/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">government-run grocery stores</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. But Hochul’s flip could draw other prominent Democratic leaders into Mamdani’s camp.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hochul said in an </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/opinion/hochul-endorsement-mamdani.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">op-ed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in The New York Times that she’s backing Mamdani because of his focus on “affordability” and resisting President Donald Trump.</span></p>
<p><b>Step back:</b> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Mamdani is favored to be New York City’s next mayor, barring some major shakeup – so Hochul will likely have to work with him. She is also running for re-election in 2026, but is so disliked by folks in the NYC suburbs and most of upstate New York that some politicos </span><a href="https://nypost.com/2025/09/14/us-news/ny-gov-kathy-hochul-expected-to-endorse-zohran-mamdani-this-week-sources/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">believe</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> she’s trying to lean harder on the urban vote, where Mamdani has strong support.</span></p>
<p><b>Trump weighs in:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> On the heels of Hochul’s endorsement, Trump </span><a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115207991871277413"><span style="font-weight: 400;">labeled</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Mamdani the “‘Liddle’ Communist” and described his frontrunner status as a “rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City.”</span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Lengthy Prison Sentence For Jair Bolsonaro Strains U.S.-Brazil Relations</b></h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-972679 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Trump-Of-The-Tropics-Convicted.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<p><b>Topline:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> After a two-week public trial,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Brazil’s five Supreme Court justices sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison after he was found guilty of an attempted coup. The Trump administration is now threatening severe consequences.</span></p>
<p><b>Expert opines:</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Andres Martinez-Fernandez, senior policy analyst for Latin America at The Heritage Foundation: “This is a case which has a lot of question marks around it, and particularly with this sentencing, which is dramatic, over 25 years, for this person who just a few years ago was occupying the top office in Brazil, is very controversial at the moment. So a lot of Congress in Brazil and others are exploring very actively the need to take action to bypass this sentencing.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in response to the ruling that </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">the United States would “respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Martinez-Fernandez: “There&#8217;s a disconnect, I think, that a lot of people see, and this administration certainly sees, between the pursuit of justice and the political priorities that we see the supreme court in Brazil pursuing … and that’s what the administration is really seeking to counter, leveraging the United States&#8217; economic heft and influence in that country. But, it&#8217;s clearly going to be a very significant challenge here.”</span></p>

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Morning Brief: Kirk Probe Expands, Hochul Backs Socialist Mamdani & U.S. Rips Bolsonaro Sentence

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Morning Brief: Kirk Probe Expands, Hochul Backs Socialist Mamdani & U.S. Rips Bolsonaro Sentence