A PBS affiliate appears to be running political ads targeting Senate Republicans, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr wants answers.
PBS Kansas recently ran an ad urging viewers to &#8220;call your senators today&#8221; and &#8220;tell them to vote no&#8221; on the Trump administration&#8217;s rescissions bill, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-rescissions-package-would-end-billions-in-woke-wasteful-spending-congressman-says">targets</a> funding for PBS and NPR.
The ad included photos of the state&#8217;s two Republican senators, Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, along with their office phone numbers.
The PBS channel also asked viewers to &#8220;donate today!&#8221; to PBS Kansas.
The FCC chairman stated that the agency is investigating the situation, since PBS is barred from airing certain political ads.
&#8220;Federal law prohibits noncommercial stations — including PBS ones — from accepting money in exchange for airing political issue ads,&#8221; Carr wrote in a post on X. &#8220;I’ve asked the FCC’s enforcement team to determine whether or not that happened here.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Federal law prohibits noncommercial stations—including PBS ones—from accepting money in exchange for airing political issue ads.
I’ve asked the FCC’s enforcement team to determine whether or not that happened here.
I would encourage PBS &amp; NPR to focus more on how they managed… <a href="https://t.co/hRhm3IGeED">pic.twitter.com/hRhm3IGeED</a>
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1943466263100997826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I would encourage PBS &amp; NPR to focus more on how they managed to lose America’s trust. That is their problem, not Congress’s work to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars,&#8221; Carr said.
Brendan Jaspers, political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Senate Republicans, also slammed the ads.
&#8220;The Progressive Bias Syndicate (PBS) is running issue ads against Senate Republicans using taxpayer dollars — to request MORE taxpayer dollars,&#8221; Jaspers posted on X.
&#8220;It’s an egregious effort by PBS to prop up the failed Democrats who fund their propaganda. Pull the ads immediately,&#8221; Jaspers said.
The Trump administration&#8217;s recessions bill would codify the Department of Government Efficiency project&#8217;s proposed roughly $9 billion in spending cuts.
Besides PBS and NPR, the spending cuts package also targets funding for USAID, which has disbursed tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, which is supposed to promote conflict resolution worldwide.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump warned that he would withhold his endorsement from any Republican who votes against the cuts.
He emphasized defunding PBS.
&#8220;It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN &amp; MSDNC put together,&#8221; Trump posted on Truth Social.
&#8220;Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,&#8221; Trump said.

US-POLITICS-MEDIA-PROTEST

PBS Runs Ads Targeting Republicans, FCC Chairman Demands Answers

PBS Runs Political Ads Targeting Republicans, FCC Chairman Demands Answers

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE

Media

National Public Radio (NPR)

Politics

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Federal agents are under attack as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement operations, a Trump supporter targeted by the Biden administration scores a major win for free speech, and the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence is heating up.
It’s Friday, July 11, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="ICE Agents Come Under Fire &amp; Meme-Maker Walks Free" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnY2qKBbuO0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ice-agents-come-under-fire-meme-maker-walks-free-7-11-25/id1576594336?i=1000716804397" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Anti-ICE Violence</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945717" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: ICE agents are under attack across the United States as they carry out President Donald Trump&#8217;s deportation agenda. The rise in violence has sparked calls to tone down the rhetoric as political battles rage over immigration.
In Southern California on Thursday, feds conducted immigration raids at two Glass House Farms, a state-licensed marijuana facility that is allegedly employing illegal immigrants, including children. After getting word of the immigration operations at a cannabis farm in Camarillo, approximately 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, around 500 protesters arrived to confront federal authorities. The standoff quickly turned violent as federal agents attempted to disperse the crowd with smoke canisters, and news helicopter video captured the moment when one man appeared to fire a handgun at authorities.
This week, at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, a group of people clad in black, military-style clothes used fireworks to lure out ICE officers while a gunman waited in the woods. One ICE agent was shot in the neck. He’s thankfully expected to recover. Ten people linked to the attack have been <a href="https://x.com/RochelleAz/status/1942950921719394470">charged</a> with attempted murder.  
In Oregon, three more people are facing charges after they allegedly assaulted officers at an ICE facility in Portland. The officers were kicked, punched, and attacked with an &#8220;incendiary device.” In McAllen, Texas, two police officers and a Border Patrol agent were hospitalized after a gunman fired dozens of rounds into a Border Patrol facility. And also this week in San Francisco, anti-ICE protesters attacked ICE agents in an apparent attempt to stop their black van from leaving the area.
“The attack on ICE officers, you&#8217;ve covered it many times, is up nearly 700 percent now,” Border Czar Tom Homan <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=535014">told</a> Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer. “The rhetoric against the men and women of ICE is skyrocketing, especially by members of Congress. We have senators, we have congresspeople that compare ICE to the Nazis, compare ICE to racists, and it just continues. So the public thinks, well, if a member of Congress can attack ICE, why can&#8217;t we?&#8221;
“Donald Trump&#8217;s modern day is scooping folks up off the streets,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz <a href="https://x.com/AlphaNewsMN/status/1923906506472243685">said</a>. “They&#8217;re in unmarked vans wearing masks being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
Some say this radical rhetoric is actually part of a larger strategy by the Democrats to provoke ICE and cut down support for Trump’s most popular issue. 
“What they’re betting, and if you believe that, the idea of trying to provoke an overreaction on the part of ICE is part of the strategy,” RealClearPolitics Chief Content Officer Andrew Walworth <a href="https://youtu.be/bZghs7pNFf4?t=383">said</a>.
The attacks may be having an effect — Trump’s overall approval on immigration appears to be <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval_immigration-8659.html">falling</a>.
&nbsp;
<h2>Doug Mackey</h2>
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945713" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: A Trump supporter who was targeted by the Biden DOJ over memes he posted online had his case tossed by an appeals court, scoring a major victory for free speech. 
Douglass Mackey had a popular pro-Trump account on Twitter, now called X, during the 2016 election. He went by the alias Ricky Vaughn, inspired by Charlie Sheen’s character in Major League. Just days after Joe Biden took office in 2021, Mackey was arrested and he was prosecuted by the Justice Department over memes he posted four years prior. One of the memes in question mocked Hillary Clinton supporters and said they could text their vote and avoid the polls. Similar jokes were made online about Trump supporters. 
The DOJ claimed this was a mass conspiracy, voter suppression, and election interference. Mackey was facing 10 years in prison. He was eventually convicted in NYC and sentenced to seven months behind bars. He was able to avoid serving jail time as he appealed the case, and on Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed Mackey’s conviction and directed a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
“I didn&#8217;t expect that it would be such a resounding victory,” Mackey told The Daily Wire. “It&#8217;s extremely rare for a case, number one, to be overturned on appeal. Number two, it&#8217;s extremely rare for the Circuit court, the appeals court, to actually overrule the jury and say, no, the verdict was wrong, you have to enter a judgment of acquittal. [It] just goes to show how weak and non-existent the government&#8217;s case against me was.”
Though Mackey was ultimately acquitted, this legal saga was more than four years of his life, which really took a toll on his family and friends. Mackey told The Daily Wire his wife was pregnant during the trial and she actually had an emergency C-section while Mackey was in New York being sentenced. On the financial side, Mackey said his legal fees totaled north of a million dollars. Moving forward, Mackey plans to file a civil lawsuit against the DOJ. 
“As the Circuit Court ruled, this case was brought without sufficient evidence,” Mackey said. “So based on that, we have to assume that they brought this case for political reasons, because why else would you bring this case? So I think it&#8217;s egregious. I think that it&#8217;s weaponization and politicized justice and I think it&#8217;s misconduct.”
&nbsp;
<h2>AI Arms Race </h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945715" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The race to develop advanced artificial intelligence is heating up, and some tech giants are sparing no expense. Earlier this week, Meta paid $200 million to poach one of Apple’s leading AI developers for its new &#8220;Superintelligence Lab.&#8221; Meanwhile, deep fakes are becoming a major security issue.
Investment in artificial intelligence has been growing exponentially in the last decade. According to an <a href="https://edgedelta.com/company/blog/ai-investment-statistics">analysis</a> by Stanford University, nearly a trillion dollars was poured into developing tools like ChatGPT between 2013 and 2022. Many of these AI tools have been wildly successful and have been incorporated into all parts of our daily lives: individualized search and chat tools, big data analysis that quickly sequence genomes and help doctors diagnose diseases, large language models that can quickly and accurately translate text and audio into different languages &#8211; the list goes on. In 2025, global investment in AI is expected to reach $200 billion per year.
Despite overseas efforts to catch up, U.S. companies currently lead the field. There are some prominent newcomers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, but all of the Big Tech names that most people would recognize, like Amazon, Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. 
Apple’s AI offerings have generally underperformed relative to its competitors — there are rumors that they might outsource the integration of LLM features into Siri to other firms. However, Apple has a lot of experience building smartphones and personal computers, and much of their research has been focused on making smaller AI models that could be built into their hardware instead of relying on a connection to external servers. 
Those efforts appear to have caught Mark Zuckerberg’s attention, and he is reportedly now trying to poach their top talent with very lucrative contracts. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Ruoming Pang, the head developer of Apple’s AI models, was leaving the company to join Meta for a cool <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/07/meta-reportedly-recruits-apples-head-of-ai-models/">$200 million</a>. According to industry scuttlebutt, he may be just the first of many to jump ship from Apple  – Sam Altman of OpenAI says his employees have received similar offers.
“[Meta] started making these giant offers to people on our team,” Altman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUG0pr5hBo">said</a>. “100 million dollar signing bonuses… so far none of my top employees have decided to take them up on it.”
Meanwhile: In May, “unknown actors” got ahold of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ contact list and posed as her to contact senators, congressmen, and prominent businessmen. That same month, the FBI issued a PSA warning that “if you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.”
A similar scheme was attempted in June; a cable from the State Department revealed that at least five people received text and voice messages imitating Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The Rubio impersonator created a Signal account using an official-sounding email address as his display name and reached out to at least five people, including members of Congress and foreign dignitaries. An investigation is ongoing in both cases. However, because of how ubiquitous AI voice cloning has become, it could be hard to pin down a suspect.
“Deep fake audio is extremely simple to produce,” Leah Siskind, an AI Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told The Daily Wire. “Typically it only requires about 30 seconds of recorded audio and you can use tools that are online, that are free, that are extremely user friendly. You don’t need much technical knowledge to learn how to produce these audio fakes, and what they’ll do is they’ll use AI to train to train on, they’ll look for patterns in your accent, your tone, your pitch, your breathing patterns, all within that 30 second audio clip, and from that they’ll be able to produce a very realistic mimic of your voice.”

MRN 7.11.25 Thumbnail V1

Morning Brief: Anti-ICE Violence, Meme Madness, And What’s Next In The AI Arms Race

Artificial Intelligence

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Memes

Morning Wire

Defense Department Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson torched The Atlantic over a hit piece claiming that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is making policy changes that will effectively &#8220;sideline&#8221; women in the military.
Staff writer Missy Ryan shared the article along with the following tease line, on X: &#8220;NEW: Will Pete Hegseth&#8217;s &#8216;War on Woke&#8217; sideline women in the military? A team appointed by Hegseth to look at fitness/combat standards will review and possibly redo the &#8216;women in combat&#8217; study that led to the integration of ground combat roles 10 yrs ago.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Will Pete Hegseth&#8217;s &#8216;War on Woke&#8217; sideline women in the military? A team appointed by Hegseth to look at fitness/combat standards will review and possibly redo the &#8216;women in combat&#8217; study that led to the integration of ground combat roles 10 yrs ago. <a href="https://t.co/HlQo4B1Bzi">https://t.co/HlQo4B1Bzi</a>
— Missy Ryan (@missy_ryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/missy_ryan/status/1943298384762425494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The article suggested that Hegseth was so driven to remove &#8220;woke&#8221; culture from the military that he was willing to undo years of &#8220;progress&#8221; that had ultimately led to women serving in combat roles.
Wilson responded first by mocking the outlet for apparently updating the article with a new headline, and suggested that its first effort had not been &#8220;woke&#8221; enough.
&#8220;.@TheAtlantic headline wasn&#8217;t woke enough so they changed it,&#8221; she posted, sharing screenshots of the original and the update, in side-by-side format.
The original headline read, &#8220;Will Pete Hegseth&#8217;s &#8216;War On Woke&#8217; Sideline Women?&#8221; — and the updated version read, &#8220;The Backdoor Way That Pete Hegseth Could Keep Women Out Of Combat.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAtlantic</a> headline wasn&#8217;t woke enough so they changed it. <a href="https://t.co/2gKhbWctoy">https://t.co/2gKhbWctoy</a> <a href="https://t.co/jL6xMhYD6j">pic.twitter.com/jL6xMhYD6j</a>
— Kingsley Wilson (@PressSecDOD) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSecDOD/status/1943336054389436886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In a follow-up post, Wilson noted that she had given the outlet a comment for the story — but that it had been selectively edited prior to publication.
&#8220;.@TheAtlantic also didn&#8217;t want to run my whole statement because it would have discredited their story,&#8221; she said, sharing the full statement: &#8216;Military standards across the board have largely been ignored by leadership of the past. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to basics and restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards for combat arms positions will be elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn&#8217;t care if you&#8217;re a man or a woman. We will not compromise our standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda—this is common sense.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAtlantic</a> also didn&#8217;t want to run my whole statement because it would have discredited their story:
“Military standards across the board have largely been ignored by leadership of the past. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to… <a href="https://t.co/6I2rK5CGqo">https://t.co/6I2rK5CGqo</a>
— Kingsley Wilson (@PressSecDOD) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSecDOD/status/1943336313417015519?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The only part of Wilson&#8217;s statement that was used was her description of  to goal standards for combat positions: &#8220;elite, uniform, and sex neutral, because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman.&#8221;

President Trump Visits Fort Bragg To Honor U.S. Forces

Defense Department Press Secretary Torches The Atlantic For Selectively Editing Statement

Combat

Military

Pete Hegseth

The Atlantic

Women

Joy Behar said on Thursday that she had a mind to just stop paying federal income taxes altogether if President Donald Trump and his administration continue to make cuts with regard to what those taxes will ultimately fund.
Behar joined her cohosts on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;The View&#8221; for a discussion about the recently passed &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill&#8221; — and the cuts that came with it — and argued that she should only have to continue paying state taxes &#8220;if they want the states to take care of everything.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;d like to know, why am I paying federal taxes if they&#8217;re not going to do anything, by the way? Is there anybody that can tell me that?&#8221; Behar asked. &#8220;If they want the states to take care of everything, I&#8217;ll pay state taxes, and not federal taxes. Watch the IRS come after me now.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Whoopi Goldberg seems to suggest that Secretary Marco Rubio has been replaced by someone else, a &#8220;new Marco&#8221;: 
&#8220;People are imitating. You don&#8217;t know who Marco is anymore. You don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s Marco you talking to or, you know, some kind of new Marco.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/6axwN1N29A">pic.twitter.com/6axwN1N29A</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1943328869571842543?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin jumped in to talk about the role played by the National Security Council — and its acting head, Secretary of State Marco Rubio — when it came to parceling out aid, and cohost Whoopi Goldberg immediately made reference to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marco-rubio-impostor-uses-ai-to-deceive-high-ranking-officials">recent story</a> about an individual using AI to impersonate Rubio to contact various foreign and domestic officials.
&#8220;People are imitating Marco,&#8221; she pointed out. &#8220;You don&#8217;t know who Marco is anymore. You don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s Marco you&#8217;re talking to or, you know, some kind of new Marco.&#8221;
Goldberg recently raised eyebrows when both she and cohost Sunny Hostin claimed that black Americans in 2025 were facing more discrimination and worse circumstances than people living under the thumb of Iran&#8217;s Islamist regime.

ABC’s “The View” – Season 25

‘Watch The IRS Come After Me’: Joy Behar Says She’ll Skip Federal Taxes If Trump Keeps Making Cuts

'Watch The IRS Come After Me': Joy Behar Says She'll Skip Federal Taxes If Trump Keeps Making Cuts

Donald Trump

Joy Behar

Taxes

The View

Questions mount over the DOJ and FBI’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, fueling public suspicion, the Supreme Court clears the way for Trump’s mass government layoffs, and a deadly “screwworm” is spreading through cattle in Mexico.
It’s Thursday, July 10, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Epstein Questions Remain &amp; Deadly Screwworm Dangers" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xu2kRDcFpl4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
&nbsp;
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epstein-questions-remain-deadly-screwworm-dangers-7-10-25/id1576594336?i=1000716643324" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
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<h2>The Curious Case Of Jeffrey Epstein</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945081" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Days after the Trump administration declared the Epstein investigation closed, public outrage continues to grow. Now, some Republicans are calling for the removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Trump administration released a now-infamous <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline">memo</a> Sunday night saying the Jeffry Epstein case was closed, but that is clearly not what many in the GOP base wanted to hear. Some conservative radio hosts and influencers, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill, have made clear they don’t believe the official story.
According to their memo, the Department of Justice determined that Epstein’s death was a suicide after reviewing the existing evidence in the FBI&#8217;s possession — critics want to know why they didn’t seek to gather more evidence. 
“I&#8217;m not surprised to hear that within the existing case files, they didn&#8217;t find anything,” Mike Howell, President of the Oversight Project, told The Daily Wire. “The FBI didn&#8217;t fulsomely investigate the Epstein [case] &#8230; They should have investigated with this new leadership &#8230; You had the richest and most powerful people in the world descending on an island where a known massive sex trafficker was. This goes out to the nature of the global elites and their relationship with the intelligence community and law enforcement, which appears to be very preferential. These are massive questions about the functioning of our country and the rule of law, not only the safety of young women.”
For years, the president and his allies have vowed to present evidence on this case to the American people. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, for example, said on the campaign trail that they would declassify the “Epstein Files.” FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino also vowed to prioritize transparency on the case. 
But perhaps the most vocal of all was Attorney General Pam Bondi, who made public statements claiming that there were “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn” as well as other co-conspirators in the case whose names would be made public. In an interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/attorney-general-bondi-under-siege-after-doj-reveals-no-epstein-client-list">Fox News</a> earlier this year, Bondi went so far as to claim that she had a list of Epstein’s clients “on my desk” – the DOJ now claims that document does not exist.
&nbsp;
<h2>SCOTUS Sides With Trump Administration, Permits Mass Layoffs</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945079" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for President Trump to move forward with plans to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
In February, shortly after taking office, President Trump ordered federal agencies to develop plans to implement the recommendations of the DOGE to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Several federal employee unions and activist groups sued, arguing that the executive did not have the authority to restructure the federal workforce without congressional approval. In May, Judge Susan Illston of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide injunction, pausing the Trump administration’s plans.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court stayed the injunction, while it did not preclude future court cases challenging the legality of specific layoffs. The court’s ruling will allow the Trump administration to implement its proposed workforce reductions.
“There are [going] to be more lawsuits, but I do think [Trump’s] got enough running room to really start going forward with this,”  Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire. “What people ought to realize is how stupid so many of these lawsuits are. Reductions in force … Almost every president has done that. Heck, Obama did it. And nobody thought it was some kind of legal issue or problem until now, when folks are raving about it and saying that President Trump is somehow doing something wrong.”
Interestingly, the stay appears to have divided the court’s liberal members. While her reasoning differed from the majority decision, Justice Sonya Sotomayor signed a concurrence in favor of it. The court’s most junior member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, signed a pointed dissent calling the majority decision “not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”
“Brown Jackson is really at the far end of the spectrum and that the other justices are getting tired of her,” von Spakovsky said. “I disagree often with what Justice Kagan and Sotomayor put in their decisions, but they at least try to have a legal basis for what they&#8217;re saying … she just doesn&#8217;t have the legal acumen to be on the court.”
&nbsp;
<h2>Flesh-Eating Maggots Threaten Livestock</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945083" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: A flesh-eating maggot has appeared in Mexico, with <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/article/screwworm-maggots-flies-texas-20421558.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com">outbreaks</a> within 700 miles of the United States&#8217; southern border. The pests are spiking fears about potential devastation to U.S. cattle and other livestock. 
A species of parasitic fly, the New World screwworm, spread to Mexico late last year after decades of efforts by the United States to keep the pest out of North America. The adult screwworm lays its eggs in the wounds or other openings (eyes, nostrils, etc) of warm-blooded animals like cattle, other livestock, and sometimes even humans, and consumes their flesh, leading to severe tissue damage or even death – the most recent Mexican outbreak has seen at least <a href="https://mexicobusiness.news/health/news/mexico-confirms-eight-screwworm-myiasis-cases#:~:text=Mexico%20confirms%20eight%20cases%20of,often%20causing%20significant%20tissue%20damage.">eight cases</a> of human infections. They wreak havoc on livestock, in particular – a screwworm infestation can kill a cow in a matter of days. 
On May 11, immediately after the outbreaks were detected, the Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread">suspended</a> live cattle, horse, and bison imports through America&#8217;s ports of entry along the southern border with Mexico. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has repeatedly said the screwworm <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread?utm_source=chatgpt.com">poses</a> a serious threat “to our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain.” 
After implementing those restrictions, the Department of Agriculture announced its next step to eradicate the screwworm: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fly-factory-texas-flesheating-screwworm-cattle-5eb62edc42bcfce40cdbea27b5f8b60c">breed billions of flies</a>, sterilize them, and release them into Mexico and southern Texas. Female screwworms only mate once, so flooding an area with sterilized males is an effective way to prevent wild flies from reproducing. The United States has already done this once – the New World screwworm’s historic range extended into much of North America before it was systematically <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fly-factory-texas-flesheating-screwworm-cattle-5eb62edc42bcfce40cdbea27b5f8b60c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eradicated</a> decades ago – and this method is said to be much safer, more effective, and more environmentally friendly than spraying the pests. 
The Department of Agriculture is also <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread">monitoring</a> Mexico’s animal health controls and improving surveillance and detection of screwworm, including providing traps, lures, and technical expertise to Mexico, among other measures.  In a press release issued on June 30, the department said it&#8217;s now consistently conducting sterile fly dispersal, releasing more than 100 million flies each week. They also have teams working with Mexico to observe this and say they’ve not seen “a notable increase in reported screwworm cases in Mexico, nor any northward movement of the pest over the past eight weeks.” 
However, 19 different cattle groups <a href="https://www.r-calfusa.com/19-cattle-groups-urge-usda-to-maintain-ban-on-mexican-livestock-imports-amid-screwworm-threats/">sent a letter </a>to Rollins, urging the USDA to keep the ban on Mexican imports in place, as they claim this risk still persists.

MRN 7.10.25 Seg Head 3

Morning Brief: Epstein Threatens To Derail Bondi, SCOTUS Hands Trump A Win. Meanwhile, In Mexico …

Morning Brief: Epstein Threatens To Derail Bondi, SCOTUS Hands Trump A Win. Meanwhile, In Mexico ...

brooke rollins

Jeffrey Epstein

Mexico

Pam Bondi

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville warned that if men were feeling let down by the Democratic Party, it was because Democrats had effectively &#8220;erased them&#8221; from society.
Carville made the comments during a recent podcast appearance with host Dan Koh on &#8220;The People&#8217;s Cabinet&#8221; — and he argued that while it had been wise for former Vice President Kamala Harris to choose a male running mate, but that simply asking Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) to go from state to state &#8220;screaming&#8221; about how masculine he was had been ineffective at best.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: James Carville goes on 4-minute rant about how *BADLY* Dems have communicated to men🚨
&#8220;Let’s say you work in an Atlanta tire shop, 9–10 hours a day. You’re changing tires &#8230; You’re working your *ss off. It’s hot! Okay? You go home. You want a cold beer, you want a… <a href="https://t.co/XlNBYCJjEv">pic.twitter.com/XlNBYCJjEv</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1942987821502865850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;If you ever want to understand the problem we have with younger men, listen to NPR for five minutes, four times a day, and you will understand,&#8221; Carville said, reflecting on recent polls that show a drop off in male support for Democrats.
Carville, known to many in political circles as &#8220;The Ragin&#8217; Cajun&#8221; due to his excitable nature and thick Louisiana accent, explained that Democrats had done men a disservice by adopting buzzwords and phrases like &#8220;the future is female&#8221; or &#8220;the woman is never wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;Men are like, ‘S***, do I count?'&#8221; Carville continued. &#8220;&#8216;What about my life? I mean, we’re only 48% of the voting population.'&#8221;
&#8220;Let’s say you work in an Atlanta tire shop, nine, 10 hours a day. You’re changing tires,&#8221; Carville explained. &#8220;You’re working your ass off. It’s hot. You go home. You want a cold beer, you want a hamburger, and you want to watch the football game. No. No. You can’t do that. Not football. No. No hamburgers. How many calories does that have? Do you know what that does? Beer? No. You should be drinking a nice fruit spritzer or something.’ They’re like, ‘Oh, get off of my back,’ right? And then, ‘If you have sex, you must wear a condom.’ We just never communicated with them.&#8221;
Carville concluded by saying that at the end of the day, the party would have to meet men where they were instead of constantly subjecting them to lectures.
&#8220;I understand we’ve had tectonic societal shifts, demographic shifts in this country, but there are no television shows about these people anymore. They’ve been erased from the culture,&#8221; he said of men in general. &#8220;We’ve just erased them. &#8216;You don’t exist. No one sees you. No one cares about you. You’ve had it made all your life.&#8217; And a lot of these people say, ‘I got it made? What are you talking about?’ And we just lecture people too much. As opposed to saying, ‘Man, you work hard.'&#8221;

27th SCAD Savannah Film Festival – Portraits

James Carville Warns Democrats Who They’ve Failed To Reach: ‘Men Are Like, S***, Do I Count?’

James Carville Warns Democrats Who They've Failed To Reach: 'Men Are Like, S***, Do I Count?'

Democrats

James Carville

Tim Walz

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has made it clear over the course of several interviews that he does not want to talk about New York City&#8217;s Democratic mayoral frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani.
Shortly after Mamdani — a self-described Democratic Socialist — bested disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to win the Democratic primary, ABC&#8217;s Jonathan Karl asked Jeffries whether he was prepared to endorse his fellow New Yorker.
Jeffries, at the time, said that he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/spin-cycle-how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-mamdani">did not know</a> Mamdani well enough yet to throw his weight behind the campaign — and he mentioned one sticking point in particular that he believed would have to be addressed before he could do so: Mamdani&#8217;s position on Israel.
&#8220;Globalizing the Intifada, by way of example, is not an acceptable phrasing,” Jeffries said. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward. With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the city of New York, which has been an unacceptable development.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hesitated when pressed by <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JonKarl</a> about endorsing Democratic New York City mayor contender Zohran Mamdani.
&#8220;I have never had a substantive conversation with him. That’s the next step in terms of this process.” <a href="https://t.co/XdRBpVxN5K">https://t.co/XdRBpVxN5K</a> <a href="https://t.co/hM0H4CywiC">pic.twitter.com/hM0H4CywiC</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1939335443935281620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
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When Jeffries appeared on ABC&#8217;s midday talk show &#8220;The View&#8221; about a week later, the hosts asked him whether he planned to join those in his party — like Mamdani — who were calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be defunded. Jeffries tiptoed around the question, saying that he believed there should be &#8220;oversight&#8221; when ICE agents were using more aggressive tactics, but he did not directly answer the question.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hakeem Jeffries is asked if he will embrace calls from his own party to DEFUND ICE.
He doesn&#8217;t rule it out — then pivots.
The man flat out refuses to ever answer the question that is asked. <a href="https://t.co/a6MVIobH4M">pic.twitter.com/a6MVIobH4M</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1942271084553986184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
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One day later, on MSNBC, Ari Melber asked Jeffries about Mamdani directly, wondering whether he believed the socialist&#8217;s surprise win over &#8220;establishment&#8221; Cuomo was good for the Democratic Party.
Instead of addressing whether or not Mamdani&#8217;s win was good for the party, Jeffries explained how he had &#8220;outworked&#8221; and &#8220;out-communicated&#8221; his opposition. He then pivoted to claim President Donald Trump — whose second term has seen falling gas prices and egg prices as well as rising jobs numbers and lowering inflation rates — had done nothing to address the high cost of living that most Americans were facing.
Melber immediately called him out, saying, &#8220;Respectfully, I see the pivot. You know, you&#8217;re good at this. That&#8217;s how you got this job.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
He’s at it AGAIN — Hakeem Jeffries pivots so hard from question about Mamdani that even MSNBC’s Ari Melber calls him out:
&#8220;Respectfully, I see the pivot. You know, you&#8217;re good at this. That&#8217;s how you got this job.&#8221;
😂😭 <a href="https://t.co/hlOb0NJgQl">https://t.co/hlOb0NJgQl</a> <a href="https://t.co/hsN7yj0eAc">pic.twitter.com/hsN7yj0eAc</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1942713734520267243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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And on Wednesday morning, CNN&#8217;s Wolf Blitzer pressed Jeffries about new reports indicating that Mamdani&#8217;s allies planned to mount a primary challenge against him. Jeffries waved away the question, and attempted — as he usually does — to turn the topic to Trump.
&#8220;I have no idea what these people are talking about!&#8221; Jeffries said, clarifying that his sole focus was on pushing back against President Trump&#8217;s agenda. &#8220;We are going to continue to focus our efforts as we did on the House floor in connection with Donald Trump’s one big, ugly bill on pushing back against the extremism that has been unleashed on the American people.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here we go again — Hakeem Jeffries flips out when asked about Mamdani’s supporters trying to mount a primary challenge against him —
Then rants about Trump:
“I have no idea what these people are talking about! The problem is Donald Trump!&#8221;
🍿😭 <a href="https://t.co/IPk4PzD43a">https://t.co/IPk4PzD43a</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Pyaoh281Q">pic.twitter.com/7Pyaoh281Q</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1942972349877469597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jeffries&#8217; senior advisor Andre Richardson added, &#8220;If Team Gentrification wants a primary fight, our response will be forceful and unrelenting. We will teach them and all of their incumbents a painful lesson on June 23, 2026.&#8221;

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Hakeem Jeffries Really Doesn’t Want To Talk About Zohran Mamdani

Hakeem Jeffries Really Does Not Want To Talk About Zohran Mamdani, Like At All

Hakeem Jeffries

MSNBC

Wolf Blitzer

Zohran Mamdani

Axed MSNBC host Tiffany Cross claimed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump was &#8220;kidnapping people&#8221; off the streets of America and sending them off to &#8220;concentration camps.&#8221;
Cross joined a panel discussion on &#8220;CNN NewsNight&#8221; with host Abby Phillip, and she argued that the Trump administration was using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — with the help of the Army National Guard — to &#8220;disappear&#8221; people the way the Nazi regime did in Germany.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CNN&#8217;s Tiffany Cross repeatedly accuses President Trump of disappearing people and sending them to Nazi style concertation camps.
&#8220;We&#8217;re talking about it like it&#8217;s no big deal that they are kidnaping people and transporting them to concentration camps&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/vKLbbSLQT2">pic.twitter.com/vKLbbSLQT2</a>
— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasMHern/status/1942808618958553530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I think this is the challenge I have with even talking about this,&#8221; Cross said. &#8220;We are normalizing a government agency disappearing people. We’re normalizing — we’re talking about it like it’s no big deal that they are kidnapping people and transporting them to concentration camps, both domestic and foreign.&#8221;
New York Post Editor-at-Large Kelly Jane Torrance objected to the terminology, saying, &#8220;I think that’s kind of insulting to Jewish Holocaust survivors.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it’s insulting what they’re doing. It is not insulting to the Jewish Holocaust,&#8221; Cross protested. &#8220;I find it insulting that you could even fix your mouth to defend this disgusting behavior.&#8221;
&#8220;Are there gas ovens at these —?&#8221; Torrance attempted to get a straight answer out of Cross, to no avail.
&#8220;It doesn’t matter! It’s a concentration camp what they’re doing and they are disappearing people, claiming that these are people who have committed the most harsh crimes, but according to the reporting less than 10% of these people have committed harsh crimes so to do the victim Olympics and decide who had it worse I can tell you I can participate in that too,&#8221; Cross claimed.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s be accurate and honest,&#8221; Torrance challenged her.
&#8220;The fact that we&#8217;re presenting this like it&#8217;s political fodder that a government agency is disappearing people, it is not a political point, it is nothing to do with Jewish people,&#8221; Cross claimed — despite the fact that she&#8217;d been the one to draw the direct comparison when she invoked the concentration camps — and then blamed Torrance for trying to &#8220;make yourself of somebody else the center of attention.&#8221;
&#8220;Tensions are so heightened, using that kind of language is not helpful,” she said.
&#8220;Tensions are heightened because this BS administration is kidnapping people. It has nothing to do with my language. It has to do with the actions that are being taken by this administration,&#8221; Cross objected, refusing to let the point go.
Border czar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/were-not-going-to-stop-homan-says-ice-will-keep-deporting-illegals-amid-ambush-attacks">Tom Homan</a> would disagree with Cross, however. He told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, during an appearance on &#8220;The Story,&#8221; that rhetoric like Cross&#8217; was what was driving violent ambush attacks against ICE agents — and he did not believe it was likely to stop.

2025 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture Presented By Coca-Cola – Day 3 – Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

CNN Lets Axed MSNBC Host Rant About Trump ‘Kidnapping People’ And Using ‘Concentration Camps’

CNN Lets Axed MSNBC Host Rant About Trump 'Kidnapping People' And Using 'Concentration Camps'

Tiffany Cross

President Donald Trump fields questions on tariffs, Ukraine, and Jeffrey Epstein during his sixth cabinet meeting, fallout continues from the Central Texas floods, and the Trump administration rejects amnesty but hints at flexibility for some illegal immigrant workers.
It’s Wednesday, July 9, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-buries-epstein-farm-labor-finds-future-7-9-25/id1576594336?i=1000716460444" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h2>Trump Convenes His Cabinet</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-944393" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline:  President Trump provided new details on tariffs, support for Ukraine, and Jeffrey Epstein during a wide-ranging cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Cabinet meetings traditionally take place behind closed doors, but on Tuesday, President Trump spent nearly two hours taking questions from reporters. While many questions addressed the recent flash flooding in Texas, the president also spent a considerable amount of time discussing his plans for new tariffs.
In April, President Trump announced a 90-day pause on his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs to offer countries a chance to negotiate lower rates — but warned that any country that didn’t come to the table would be hit with massive tariffs on July 9. However, despite early signs of optimism from our trading partners, the reality is that we have yet to see the “90 deals in 90 days” that the White House initially promised. 
To date, the only countries with formal, finalized trade agreements are the United Kingdom and Vietnam. 
The White House insists it is approaching the finish line with the European Union, India, and Cambodia, among others, but the administration clearly needs more time. On Monday, the president signed an executive order extending the tariff deadline to August 1. In an effort to expedite negotiations in the meantime, Trump sent letters to more than a dozen countries, stating that without a deal, they would face enormous tariffs on August 1, and if they raised rates in response, the United States would increase them even further. 
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also announced that the United States government had collected “about $100 billion in tariff income thus far this year” and projected that that figure could rise to well over $300 billion by the end of the year.&#8221;
Meanwhile, since taking office and that disastrous White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Trump administration has significantly cut its military and financial support for Ukraine. Trump said that he was worried Zelensky would avoid peace talks if he knew the United States would send an endless supply of weapons, and there were those in Washington who believed Russian President Vladimir Putin would be more willing to come to the table if support was cut off.
But with Moscow stepping up its attacks on population centers in Ukraine and Putin repeatedly backing out of peace talks, Trump has reversed himself and announced that the United States would resume weapons shipments to Ukraine. Trump later added that he’s seriously considering even harsher sanctions on Moscow.
“We want to put defensive weapons because Putin is not treating human beings right,” Trump told reporters. “We get a lot of bullsh** thrown at us by Putin — you want to know the truth. He&#8217;s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.&#8221;
President Trump also turned heads with his remarks on Jeffrey Epstein – the Trump administration essentially closed its case on Epstein this week, saying there is no evidence that he was murdered, had a client list, or blackmailed powerful individuals. 
That decision has dominated the headlines, but the president seemed irritated, even <a href="https://x.com/9mm_smg/status/1942628135263989932">exasperated</a>, when asked about it.“Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you wanna waste the time… I can’t believe you’re asking a question about Epstein at a time like this.”
&nbsp;
<h2>Tensions High In Texas After Flash Floods Kill Over 100 People</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-944395" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.9.25-Seg-Head-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: While rescue and recovery operations continue in Texas, some are already asking why communities were so unprepared for the natural disaster.
The tragedy that has killed more than 100 people, with many still missing, has left officials to face tough questions. Searches are underway throughout Central Texas. Rains and flash flood warnings have hindered progress, and officials have had to not only look for those missing, but also protect the emergency responders and volunteers that have joined the search crews.
“In the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2yquWcGJ9g&amp;t=2938s">said</a> on Tuesday. “We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for. Know this also, there is very likely more to be added to that list.”
Press conferences have started to become testy, however, with local and national reporters pushing officials to answer increasingly pointed questions about their disaster response, including but not limited to, “Was the emergency manager awake?”
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice defended the decision not to issue an evacuation order before the flooding, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgKRuDsTEyk&amp;t=1303s">arguing</a> that “evacuation is a delicate balance, because if you evacuate too late you then risk putting busses, or cars, or vehicles, or campers on roads into low water areas trying to get them out which then can make it even more challenging, because these flash floods happen very quickly.”
Critics have claimed that recent cuts to the National Weather Service led to the organization being understaffed and less prepared. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz characterized those allegations as “partisan finger-pointing” and claimed that the local NWS office had surged “additional manpower” in anticipation of possible flooding. The NWS union, which has generally been very critical of the recent cuts, has also said that the reductions did not impact the response.
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<h2>To Deport, Or Not To Deport</h2>
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Topline: The Trump administration is again signaling a shift in how it is addressing illegal immigration in the farming industry. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been authorized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue worksite raids on farms to sweep for illegal immigrants. That directive was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/politics/homeland-security-immigration-raids-resume">issued</a> in June, shortly after the administration announced a pause on those raids, as well as raids at hotels and restaurants. Since then, the Trump administration has sent additional signals that it is attempting to balance its commitment to deporting all illegal aliens with more immediate economic concerns, including potential workforce shortages.
“We’re going to take care of our farmers and hotel workers, but we&#8217;re working on it right now,” President Trump said. “We have a lot of cases where ICE would go into the farm, and these are guys that are working there for 10 to 15 years, no problem. … The farmers know them. It’s called ‘farmer responsibility’ or ‘owner responsibility,’ but they&#8217;re going to be largely responsible for these people, and they know these people…They can be here legally. They can pay taxes and everything. They&#8217;re not getting citizenship, but they get other things. And the farmers need them to do the work.”
That approach has caused backlash among some of the president&#8217;s more ardent supporters, many of whom favor a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal aliens living and/or working in the United States.
In June, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins <a href="https://x.com/BrookeLRollins/status/1934240461717143696">expressed</a> her full commitment to the America First agenda, but said deportations were being “prioritized” in a way to avoid “severe disruptions to our food supply.” On Tuesday, after being questioned by Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan, Rollins elaborated that the Trump administration will offer illegal immigrants working on farms “no amnesty under any circumstances. Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce.”
Some reports, mostly out of California, said illegal immigrant farm laborers stopped showing up to work out of fear of deportation, and crops had gone unharvested. One <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/01/ice-raids-crops-california-farms">report</a> cited numerous farm supervisors who stated that the number of workers dropped dramatically since raids began in California; one supervisor claimed that only 80 of 300 people showed up to work, while another saw a drop from 80 workers to 17. Recent estimates by the Department of Agriculture suggest that about <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor#:~:text=Roughly%20Half%20of%20Hired%20Crop,unauthorized%20is%20highest%20in%20California.">40-50%</a> of crop farmworkers are either in the country illegally or lack proper work authorization.

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Morning Brief: Trump Says No Amnesty For Illegals & Texas Flood Fallout

Cabinet

California

Farming

flooding

Floods

illegal immigrants

Russia

Tariffs

Ted Cruz

Texas

Trade War

Ukraine

Ukraine-Russia War

weapons

&#8220;The View&#8221; host Whoopi Goldberg was shocked to admit that President Donald Trump is not at fault for the massive flash floods that have devastated central Texas, killing more than 100 people when the Guadalupe River rose some 26 feet in about 45 minutes.
Goldberg, who still refuses to speak Trump&#8217;s name aloud on the ABC midday talk show, actually stepped in to stop cohost Joy Behar when she pointed the finger at the president during Tuesday&#8217;s broadcast.
Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin addressed those who were attempting to politicize the flooding, claiming that President Donald Trump&#8217;s efforts to streamline the federal government — mainly through the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — had had a negative impact on the National Weather Service&#8217;s ability to accurately predict the floods and warn residents in time.
&#8220;I think after action reports are really important but politicizing and pointing fingers is not the answer,&#8221; Griffin said.
&#8220;Yeah, but Trump does it all the time. He immediately — he immediately starts the blame game,&#8221; Behar objected. &#8220;So maybe Ms. Leavitt should talk to her boss.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Whoopi says she&#8217;s shocked to admit that the Texas flooding was NOT Trump&#8217;s fault: 
&#8220;I&#8217;m shocked that this is coming out of my mouth. I&#8217;m not pointing a finger at the man in the White House. I&#8217;m saying there&#8217;s a state that&#8217;s in trouble and has been. And it doesn&#8217;t seem like… <a href="https://t.co/0ik2sHHFsL">pic.twitter.com/0ik2sHHFsL</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1942620029813473587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Goldberg jumped into the conversation, saying that she believed people should have been more prepared simply because that particular area was prone to flash flooding and had flooded quickly in the past. She argued instead that any failures were at the state level rather than the federal level.
&#8220;It&#8217;s important, I think, for everyone to understand — and I&#8217;m shocked that this is coming out of my mouth. I&#8217;m not pointing a finger at the man in the White House,&#8221; Goldberg said. &#8220;I&#8217;m saying there&#8217;s a state that is in trouble and has been. And it doesn&#8217;t seem like anything is changing. And maybe we need to get on top of that.&#8221;

SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

Whoopi Goldberg ‘Shocked’ To Report That Texas Flooding Is NOT Trump’s Fault

Whoopi Goldberg 'Shocked' To Report That Texas Flooding Is NOT Trump’s Fault

Whoopi Goldberg

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt set the record straight on Monday after multiple media outlets had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dana-bash-blames-climate-change-donald-trumps-administration-for-texas-floods">blamed President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration</a> for what they claimed was a lack of necessary staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS).
Multiple reports have circulated — in the wake of devastating flash flooding in central Texas — suggesting that Trump&#8217;s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government through the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had led to a shortage of key staffers in the Texas NWS offices responsible for warning the local population in the event of a flood.
Leavitt pushed back, saying that the offices in question were, in fact, fully staffed.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> dispels the fake news around National Weather Service staffing in the wake of the weekend&#8217;s devastating Texas flooding: &#8220;The San Angelo office was fully staffed with 12 forecast meteorologists &#8230; The San Antonio office was operating with 11 forecasters.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/sk5rPG1Tv1">pic.twitter.com/sk5rPG1Tv1</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1942278778329203130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Are there concerns within the White House or from the president himself that the cuts that happened under Musk while he was advising DOGE, including the National Weather Service?&#8221; one reporter asked.
&#8220;I think I&#8217;ve already addressed that &#8230; and what I can tell you is that these offices were fully staffed,&#8221; Leavitt explained. &#8220;The San Angelo office was fully staffed with 12 forecast meteorologists, there were no vacancies. The San Antonio office was operating with 11 forecasters, and &#8230; the union themselves said that there was adequate staffing, so I think those words speak for themselves, and the numbers speak for themselves.&#8221;
&#8220;This was a once-in-a-century flash flood, a tragic natural disaster, and the administration is doing all that we can on the ground to help these families during this time of need,&#8221; she added.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he planned to visit the flood-ravaged state in the near future, but wanted to wait until his presence would not be a hindrance to relief efforts.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

‘These Offices Were Fully Staffed’: Karoline Leavitt Corrects The Record On National Weather Service

'These Offices Were Fully Staffed': Karoline Leavitt Corrects The Record On National Weather Service

Karoline Leavitt

The Daily Beast tried to accuse Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of vacationing in Athens while Texas experienced massive flooding, despite being told the senator returned to the U.S. as quickly as possible.
&#8220;A bulls*** piece published by a bulls*** rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas,&#8221; Macarena Martinez, communications director for Cruz, <a href="https://x.com/macamrtz/status/1942294143365202406">said</a> on social media. &#8220;The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible. I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter.&#8221;
By Friday afternoon, Cruz had spoken with President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the senator said on social media.
By Sunday, Cruz was on the ground in Texas.
&#8220;Texas is grieving right now,&#8221; Cruz said at a press conference today. &#8220;The pain, the shock of what has transpired the last few days has broken the heart of our state.&#8221;
The Daily Beast&#8217;s hit piece comes after multiple outlets have tried to blame conservatives for the flooding in Texas. CNN anchor Dana Bash <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dana-bash-blames-climate-change-donald-trumps-administration-for-texas-floods">said</a> climate change and the Trump administration were to blame for the flooding, and actress Rosie O&#8217;Donnell <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/libs-dragged-for-blaming-texas-flood-disaster-on-trump">said</a> Trump gutted &#8220;early warning systems&#8221; that could have prevented the tragedy.
But meteorologists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/theres-no-evidence-to-suggest-doge-cuts-caused-texas-flood-devastation-meteorologists-say">say</a> the flooding was caused by rare circumstances, not federal cuts to the National Weather Service.
&#8220;Just looking at the actual warning services that NWS provided during the event, they were solid and provided the level of warning and alerts that the public should expect to receive for an event such as this,” Alan Gerard, a former director of the Analysis and Understanding Branch in the National Severe Storms Laboratory at NOAA, <a href="https://balancedweather.substack.com/p/balancedwx-special-tragic-flash-flooding" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said.</a>
At least 90, including 28 children, have been declared dead from the flooding. Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-shares-plan-to-visit-site-of-texas-flood-damage">announced</a> plans to visit the scene of the tragedy later this week.

Death Toll Rises After Flash Floods In Texas Hill Country

Daily Beast Tries To Use Texas Tragedy To Attack Ted Cruz

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