Morning Wire - Evening Wire: Bondi Addresses Epstein & Ai Rubio Impersonation | 7.8.25

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

The death toll continues to rise in Texas, the Trump Administration attempts to close the case on Epstein, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is impersonated using Ai. Get the facts first with Evening Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The death toll continues to rise in Texas. The Trump administration attempts to close the case on Epstein, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is impersonated using AI. I'm Georgia Howe. John Bickley is on vacation this week. It's Tuesday, July 8th, and this is Evening Wire. Kerr County, Texas has been hit with another grim milestone, as the death toll ticked up over 100. Officials say at least 104 people, including 28,000.

children are dead after the catastrophic flash flooding swept through Texas just days ago. Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp, was devastated by floodwaters. Ten girls and a counselor remain missing and are presumed dead. Governor Greg Abbott vowed ongoing search efforts. The governor was in Kerr County today touring the damage. Severe storms are set to slam the northeast this afternoon. The storm path is expected to span from Washington, D.C. to New York City, fueled by tropical moisture from the remnants of tropical depression, Chantal, rain rates could hit two inches per hour, prompting flash flood watches across the mid-Atlantic and northeast. The storms are expected to bring damaging wind gusts, small hail, and major travel disruptions during the evening commute.

High humidity and a heat index topping 90 have triggered heat alerts from the Carolinas to Boston. In Washington, President Trump convened his cabinet meeting today to discuss various things, including trade, foreign conflicts, and apparently Jeffrey Epstein. During the meeting, Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed scrutiny over her previous statements regarding Jeffrey Epstein's alleged client list. First to back up on that, in February, I did an interview on Fox, and it's been getting a lot of attention because I said, I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed, meaning the first.

file along with the JFK, MLK files as well. She also addressed the missing minute from the Epstein surveillance footage. What we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night. They redo that video is old from like 1999. So every night the video is reset and every night should have the same minute missing. Bondi continued her remarks succinctly stating, that's it on Epstein. President Trump says he'll resume sending defensive weapons to Ukraine. The announcement comes just days after the Pentagon paused aid to the war-torn country.

Here's Trump making the announcement last night. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now. They're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons. You're defensive weapons primarily. His comments followed deadly Russian drone and missile barrages that killed 11 civilians and injured over 80, including children. Trump told reporters, he assured.

assured President Zelensky that the aid delay wasn't his call, and he promised defensive arms would soon resume flowing to Kiev. A potential security breach is being investigated at the State Department after AI was used to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips has more. According to numerous reports, the unidentified impersonator contacted multiple high-level officials while posing as the Secretary of State. Based on an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post, the imposter reached out to three foreign ministers, a state governor, and a member of Congress using the encrypted app signal, mimicking Rubio's voice and even his writing style with AI-generated tools.

Officials say the motive appeared to be gaining access to sensitive accounts or information. The State Department has urged vigilance and reported the breach to diplomatic security. In other news from the Hill, six major medical organizations are suing the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo has the details on the suit. The groups, which include the American Academy of Pediatrics, are accusing HHS of unlawfully overhauling vaccine policy. The lawsuit challenges Kennedy's move to cut COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women without a CDC panel votes and to replace the entire vaccine advisory committee. The groups say these changes threaten public health and they violate federal rulemaking law.

Kennedy defends the reforms as necessary to rebuild vaccine trust. ICE officials have been ambushed twice in the last five days in Texas. Two police officers have been injured in the attacks. Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret O'Lahan asked Caroline Levitt about the violence yesterday. Here's what she had to say. This administration is simply trying to enforce our laws, and we must be a nation of law and order. You cannot simply waltz across our border and live here illegally and expect to stay. We are going to enforce our nation's laws, and the men and women who are doing that are doing so in a respectful way.

They are doing so within the confines of the law, and they are just trying to do their jobs. And we condemn any violence or any calls for violence of any kind against any American. As we covered yesterday, a gunman opened fire at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas on Monday morning, injuring three. On Friday night, a group of rioters allegedly launched fireworks at an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, Texas, outside of Dallas, Fort Worth. One of the rioters apparently shot a police officer who responded to the scene, and a second allegedly firefighter. 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed facility officers. 10 people are facing charges related to Friday's incident. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lambasted federal officials over a multi-agency immigration raid on Monday.

The mayor took particular issue with the involvement of the National Guard and the inclusion of a local park in the operation area. Here's Mayor Bass. This is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looks like military operation in an American city. Now, you can spin it any way you like, but in my opinion, it's a political agenda of provoking fear and terror. Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. There were no arrests made in the operation. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino told Fox News that Bass called him, demanding that the raid be stopped.

Bovino said, quote, I don't work for Karen Bass. Four former NYPD officials filed lawsuits Monday against New York Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD. The former officials allege that Adams and the NYPD forced them out of the department after they raised concerns about visible corruption, including bribery, falsified time cards, nepotism, and skirting the rules on body cameras. The suits come as Adam faces a hotly contested mayoral race in November, with Democratic Socialist candidate Zoran Mom Dani drawing national attention. In economic news, markets closed mostly flat today as investors digested President Trump's

tariff messaging. The S&P 500 slipped just 0.07 percent. The NASDAQ edged up 0.03 percent, and the Dow took a dive, falling 165 points. Trump initially hinted at flexibility on new tariffs, then switched things up today, declaring an August 1st deadline first. and announcing a 50% tariff on copper imports. This followed yesterday's sell-off after sweeping 25% tariffs were imposed on South Korea, Japan, and others. Trump's IRS says churches can endorse political candidates from the pulpit. Daily Wire reporter, Marade Allorty, has the latest.

The IRS said the Johnson Amendment does not prohibit a church from sharing its preferred political candidates with its congregation. It said the endorsement is like a family discussion concerning candidates. The IRS has refrained from enforcing the Johnson Amendment against churches. It only launched one investigation and did not punish any churches. The statement comes after two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters sued. The group sought an exemption from the amendment. In 2017, Trump said he would abolish the Johnson Amendment.

A congressional hopeful says he'd fight for a nationwide ban on transgender medical procedures for children. Tennessee state representative Johnny Garrett says the ban would be one of the first bills he introduces in Congress. The bill would mirror Tennessee's current law banning medical transitions for minors. Garrett said protecting children should be a priority in Congress. Garrett also says he wants to finish the border wall, deport all illegal immigrants, and stop China from buying American land. In sports-related news, Republicans slam California officials for letting trans-identifying athletes compete in girls' sports. California's Education Department and Athletics Association rejected a resolution agreement to keep

men out of women's sports. Republican lawmakers criticized the state's, quote, insanity. California refuses to follow the law. The insanity continues. At the end of the day, it's our duty to protect and keep the civil rights of girls in sports. The federal government is threatening to withhold billions of dollars of federal funding if California does not keep men out of women's sports. I've been warning Newsom, Governor Newsom, and the state's supermajority for a long time, that this is going to be the consequence. And now here we are. And TSA is finally ending its shoes-off policy for airport security screening.

The nearly 20-year-old policy first appeared five years after Richard Reed failed to blow up an American Airlines flight by hiding explosives in his shoes. Starting Sunday, passengers will be allowed to keep their shoes on as they move through the checkpoint. However, passengers who trigger the alarm at the scanners or magnetometers will be required to remove their shoes for additional screening. Those are your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including the administration's attempt to close the book on Epstein, Trump's meeting with Netanyahu, and the CIA's Russia collusion probe conclusion. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back

tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.