Morning Wire - Evening Wire: Government Shutdown Scramble & A Groundhog's Shadow | 2.2.26

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Congress rushes to end the government shutdown, Trump threatens to sue Trevor Noah, and Punxsutawney Phil gives winter-weary folks some chilling news. Get the facts first with Evening Wire. - - - Ep. 2612 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Privacy Policy: morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Congress rushes to end the government shutdown. Trump threatens to sue Trevor Noah and Punksitani Phil gives us winter-weary folks some bad news. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Monday, February 2nd, Groundhog Day, and this is Evening Wire. Lawmakers are scrambling to end the current government shutdown. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcan has the latest. The partial government shutdown was in full swing on Monday, as there was division in the after the Senate passed five funding bills on Friday, separate from Department of Homeland

Security funding as part of a deal between the White House and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. DHS funding was swapped out for a continuing resolution that covers money for the agency through February 13th, whereas the other bills covered funds through the end of the fiscal year in September. Schumer and other Democrats are asking for sweeping changes to ICE and Border Patrol following the Alex Pretty shooting, including the ending of masking for agents and the use of judicial warrants as opposed to administrative ones, which could make some arrests much more difficult. President Trump threatened Monday to sue Grammy host Trevor Noah over an Epstein jab he made during the show.

Daily Wire Entertainment reporter Amanda Harding has the story. While hosting the annual award show on Sunday, Noah joked that Trump won a Greenland because he could no longer visit Epstein's private Caribbean island. That is a Grammy that every artist wants. almost as much as Trump wants Greenland. Which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein's island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.

In a true social pose, Trump responded, quote, I can't speak for Bill, but I never have been to Epstein Island nor anywhere else. And until tonight's false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the fake news media. Noah, a total loser,

better get his facts straight and get them straight fast. It looks like I'll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless dope of an MC and suing him for plenty of money. Ask little George Slopidopoulos and others how that all worked out. Also as CBS, get ready, Noah.

I'm going to have some fun with you. Speaking of the Grammy, singer Billy Elish got a huge round of applause from her fellow entertainers last night when she used her award acceptance speech to declare that Americans live on stolen land and to slam ice. No one is illegal on stolen land.

We just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting and our voices really do matter, and the irese is all I want to say. Sorry. While Eilish was cheered by the Grammy's crowd, her comments have also sparked backlash, including from Florida Governor Ronda Santis. He suggested she, quote, step up and forfeit her Southern California mansion since it's supposedly on stolen land. The anti-ice chaos hit new levels last night in Portland,

where hundreds of protesters marched through downtown, shutting down roads and prompting federal agents to move in with tear gas and peasant, Soper balls. Fox 12 Oregon reports that the pro-immigration group, Portland Contra Las Deportaciones, held a rally at City Hall in the afternoon, then marched to the ice facility. Footage from the showdown has circulated online. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday the arrests of two more individuals tied to the anti-ice mob that stormed a Minnesota church last month. Daily Wire Immigration reporter Jenny Tair has more. Federal authorities nabbed Ian Davis-Austin and Jerome DiAngelo Richardson, who are both accused of taking part in a coordinated attack on

City's Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The demonstrators believed one of the pastors was a top ICE official in Minnesota. The latest arrest come just days after the feds arrested X CNN host Don Lemon for his alleged role in the protest. Lemon claimed that he was merely covering the demonstration as a journalist. He was later released and appeared at the Grammys Sunday night where he received a standing ovation. Lemon faces charges of conspiracy to the right of religious freedom at a house of worship and violations of the Face Act, the law that prohibits the disruption of worship services. The Biden administration infamously weaponized that law against peaceful anti-abortion protesters. President Trump dismissed concerns

about instability in China after purges of its military reached inside President Xi Jinping's inner circle. Trump was asked over the weekend about Beijing's stability after the government announced a corruption investigation into its top-ranking military. official and close Xi ally. As far as I'm concerned, there's one boss in China that's President Xi. That's the person I'm healing. I think President Xi is the boss. I watch it very closely. He's highly respected in China. He's the boss. China's Ministry of National Defense announced on January 24th that the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission is suspected of, quote, grave violations of discipline

and the law. The head of the military's joint staff department is also under investigation, according to the announcement. Trump's interim cybersecurity chief, Madhu Gatumukala, is under fire for mishandling sensitive documents by uploading them to chat GPT. Daily Wire reporter's actual reports. Gatumukala triggered an automated cybersecurity alarm in July of last year when he uploaded sensitive contracting documents to chat GPT.

Although the documents were not classified, it triggered an internal investigation at DHS, as any text uploaded to the large language model could be used for training, which could influence outputs for other users. ChatGPT is now allowed for most DHS employees, but at the time, Gotto Macala had pushed for a special allowance to use the application. Now that the information has come to light, many speculate that Gotto McCalla's time at DHS may be close to an end. News out of the housing market as trends move in favor of buyers. In the highest rate since 2019,

more than 60% of home buyers in the past year paid less than asking price. for an average discount of around 8%. This is a complete reversal from just a few years ago when nearly two-thirds of homes sold at or above asking price. Buyer-friendly markets are especially pronounced in the southern states, particularly Florida and Texas, where new construction has increased the home supply, bringing down prices.

As interest rates also creeped down from relative highs in the past two years, market conditions continue to entice new prospective buyers. A new social media platform called Multbook, designed for AI agents only, is raising concerns online, including from tech billionaire Elon Musk. Daily Wire reporter Amanda Press, Jacamo has more. MoteBook, a project by Peter Steinberger,

allows for AI agents to interact with each other without any human prompting. The machines can create posts, they can comment and interact with one another, while humans can only observe their interactions. The project has exploded online in recent days over some of the conversations from the machines, like the talks of creating an AI-only language. One user highlighted on X, quote, In just the past five minutes, multiple entries were made on MOLPUC book by AI agents proposing to create an agent-only language for private communications with no human oversight were cooked.

This prompted billionaire Bill Ackman to respond, quote, This is frightening. He also asked Elon Musk, his thoughts, and the ex-owner responded, concerning. Others online weren't really buying the hype and criticized Mold Book for likely being influenced by human. and marketing efforts. A Tennessee Senator has declared war on what she's calling the woke Nashville power company after a week-long outage. Daily Wire Senior Editor Virginia Cruta has the story.

Senator Marsha Blackburn is gunning for the Nashville Electric Service as thousands of Nashville residents remain without power, more than a week after winter storm fern wreaked havoc on the area. Blackburn argued that NES had spent more time focusing on DEI initiatives than on preparing for winter storms. She said, quote, The Nashville Electric Service held 102 DEI-related training sessions by the end of 2024. They should have been using those resources to trim trees and bury utilities.

This is what happens when companies put woke politics over the needs of the people they serve. Blackburn also sent a letter directly to NES demanding answers regarding the still unfolding situation in her home state and a detailed plan explaining how it planned to prevent similar debacles in the future. Belgian authorities have opened an investigation into the 2025 arrest of Lois McClatchie Miller and Billboard, Chris Elston. Daily Wire Congressional reporter Breckis Stoll has more. Miller, a British citizen in Elston, a Canadian, were in Brussels interviewing passerby about radical gender ideology in June. They were holding signs that read, children are never born in the wrong body, and children cannot consent to puberty blockers.

When a threatening crowd began to form, Miller called the police. Officers arrived on the scene only to arrest and strip search Miller in Elston, who were then held in custody for four hours. Belgian authorities have not yet disclosed the scope of the criminal investigation, leaving open the key question of whether it's focused on misconduct by the police officers or the campaigners themselves. Miller and Elston have spent the past year petitioning the government to offer an apology and financial settlement for what they call an unlawful detention. President Trump announced Sunday that the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will close for about two years on July 4th for renovations. Daily Wire assistant editor Andy Valdez

has more. Trump announced on Truth Social, quote, if we don't close, the quality of construction will not be nearly as good, and the time to completion, because of the interruptions with audiences from the many events using the facility, will be much longer. The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result. Trump noted that the decision to close the center for two years is totally subject to board approval. Trump, who chairs the board, overhauled the board's members last year. The new board has reformed the lineup at the center to remove some events, such as, those inspired by DEI.

And the tradition of Groundhog Day continues in Pung Satani, Pennsylvania. German descendants have marked the occasion in the Western PA town since the late 1880s, and the holiday gained national attention after the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray, which I still love. Legend has it that whether or not

the Groundhog sees a shadow on the ground will forecast a long winter or an early spring. Let's listen in on the festivities from this morning. It is my job this February two to look to the skies and report back to you that there is a shadow here on my ground. Six more weeks of winter abound.

Well, here in Nashville, I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping that Punksitone Phil is wrong. Yeah, he used to be a fan of Phil, but he's losing me here. Those of your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to Dailywire.com. And in case you missed it today, we covered some major stories, including President Trump's new message to anti-ice blue cities, a watershed ruling on medical gender transitions for minors, and Trump weighing in on the new Epstein files and the fate of Don Lemon.

Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.