Morning Wire - Evening Wire: Senate Grills MAHA Pick & Anti-ICE Arson Attack? | 2.25.26

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Trump’s MAHA pick for surgeon general is grilled by the senate, an Idaho woman is behind bars for attempted arson involving an ambulance, and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani faces criticism on multiple fronts. Get the facts first with Evening Wire. - - - Ep. 2651 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text “WIRE” to 83848 to send a note of encouragement to Gabby Stout. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy 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

The Senate grills Trump's Maha pick for Surgeon General. An Idaho woman is behind bars for an alleged arson attempt involving a stolen ambulance and the Department of War butts heads with its AI provider. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Wednesday, February 25th, and this is Evening Wire. President Trump's pick for Surgeon General and a maha favorite Dr. Casey Means was grilled by the Senate Health Committee today. Means is an outspoken critic of the medication.

first health model and recently published a book about lifestyle interventions. She's also supported parents' rights to choose which vaccines their children's receive. Here's means defending parents' rights to pass on the hepatitis B vaccine, typically given shortly after birth. I do think that this administration is committed to making sure we have the safest vaccine schedule and that parents have the opportunity to have shared clinical decision-making on specific vaccines with their doctor so they can make the best decisions for their family. This is not a condemnation of the vaccine generally, which I am very supportive of.

However, I do believe that the thrust towards parents wanting to have the ability to have shared clinical decision making with their doctor is important when there are conditions like hepatitis B where there's differential risk amongst different populations. An Idaho woman is behind bars for what appears to be attempted arson. After authorities say she stole an ambulance and used it to ram a building housing DHS offices, Police say 43-year-old Sarah Elizabeth George took the ambulance from outside a hospital in Meridian late February 18th and then drove it into the entrance of a building that houses DHS and ICE offices. Investigators allege she poured gasoline inside the lobby before running back outside. She now faces federal charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.

The investigation is ongoing. The Trump administration is loosening restrictions on shipments of Venezuelan oil into Cuba. Daily Wire Foreign Affairs reporter Cassia Akiva has more. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department issued new guidance saying it will look favorably on U.S. companies applying for licenses to resell Venezuelan oil to private businesses in Cuba. This comes amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Cuba caused by a halt in Venezuelan oil shipments following the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in January. Only private Cuban companies will be able to buy this oil, and they are prohibited from selling it to the Cuban government or military. Meanwhile, President Trump has been pressuring Cuban leaders to strike a deal, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has opened talks with Raul Castro's grandson,

Rayo Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, aiming to encourage economic reforms and a more friendly relationship with the United States. The Cuban government says several people are dead and more are injured following an exchange of gunfire off its northern coast. A speedboat from Florida entered Cuba's territorial waters on Tuesday, when a Cuban government ship approached it, those on board the speedboat opened fire and wounded the Cuban ship's commanding officer. Authorities apparently fired back, killing four, and wounding six. U.S. officials have confirmed that the speedboat was a civilian vessel and not part of the military.

The Jeffrey Epstein connections have led one prominent Ivy League professor to resign. Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake has the details. Former Harvard president and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced today that he will full step away from the university at the end of the academic year. Summers has long been known to have been a close associate of Epstein exchanging frequent correspondence and visiting Epstein's infamous island on several occasions. The release of Epstein documents last November revealed that the two frequently emailed about women, politics, and projects related to Harvard.

Summers served as president from 2001 to 2006, but still maintained employment as a professor of economics. While denying any legal wrongdoing, Summers has faced significant. criticism from students and faculty alike. ICE will continue to have access to data from a less than obvious source, the IRS. Daily Wire Reporter's actual has the details. A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to continue a policy that permits the IRS to share certain taxpayer address information with ICE.

Immigration advocacy groups had sought a preliminary injunction to block the policy, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower-class. decision denying that request. The dispute began in early 2025 after reports that ICE was seeking the last known addresses of roughly 700,000 undocumented immigrants from the IRS. On April 7, 2025, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security formalized the arrangement in a memorandum of understanding, outlining how ICE could request address information under federal law. The new arrangement allows the IRS to provide a taxpayer's last known address if ICE submitted a valid request related to a non-tax criminal investigation.

War Secretary Pete HECSeth reportedly threatened Anthropic this week after the AI company tried to set limits on military use of its model. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce says more. Anthropic is the first AI company to receive entry to the military's classified systems, and its AI model, Claude Gov, has been integrated for military use. According to the New York Times, Anthropic leadership is told the Pentagon that its model cannot be used to surveil Americans nor in autonomous weapons without, human oversight. Heg Seth told Anthropics chief executive in a Tuesday meeting that the law should be the only limit on military conduct. Heg Seth has given Anthropic until the close of business on

Friday to ascend to the Pentagon's demands. If not, Hexeth threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act, which would allow the military to use Claude Gov for free. It would also put Anthropics government contracts at risk. I'd like to introduce you to Gabby Stout. She's a high school junior in North Carolina who was inspired by Charlie Kirk and wanted to honor his legacy by painting a message on her school's spirit rock. But after school officials gave Gabby permission, they reversed themselves, censoring Gabby's message and publicly accusing her of vandalism. The accusation even aired in local news. Gabby was punished for standing up for the biblical values that Charlie spent his life defending. Now, our friends at Alliance defending freedom are representing Gabby in court to hold the school

district accountable for violating her constitutional rights. We want to make sure Gabby knows she's not standing alone. With just a few minutes, you can go to join ADF.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 and send her a quick message of support. That's join ADF.com slash wire. Send Gabby an encouraging note or verse that will lift her spirit today. Gabby's courageously standing up for the values that Charlie fought for and that the Daily Wire stands for, including free speech. Go to join ADF.com slash wire or textwire to 83848 for Alliance Defending Freedom

today and support Gabby. Texas Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez is facing mounting pressure from his own party to resign despite a razor-thin-house majority. Here with more on the scandal engulfing his campaign as Daily Wire Immigration reporter Jenny Tare. Recently revealed text messages indicate Gonzalez did in engage in an extramarital affair with a married staffer. Gonzalez is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with 35-year-old married mother Regina Santos Avilis who went on to commit suicide last year. Gonzalez, a 45-year-old husband and father of six, has denied the allegations. Santos-Avio-Ve committed suicide last September by dowsing herself in accelerant and setting herself on fire at her home in Uvaldi, Texas.

Last week, the San Antonio Express News published text messages allegedly sent between Gonzalez and Santos Avila, which showed Gonzalez making sexual requests of the staffer, including requests for her to send, quote, sexy photos. In one exchange, the staffer replied, this is too far, Tony. In another message, she wrote, this is going too far, boss. Santos Avila's widow, Adrian Avelis, told the Express news, Tony abused his power. He should have held himself to a higher standard as a congressional leader. The scandal has hobbled Gonzalez's reelection campaign with polls showing him trailing GOP challenger Brandon Herrera. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani says he does not believe anyone should be charged after a mob

surrounded NYPD officers and flung snowballs at them. Mom Dani says that he disagrees with calls to charge those responsible, despite two officers having to go to the hospital because of it. While he acknowledged the injuries, he said this. Look, I've seen the videos of this snowball fight. I think that it was a snowball fight. The mayor's comments are at odds with other New York officials, including police commissioner Jessica Tisch.

She called the mob's actions, quote, disgraceful and criminal. Tish went on to say that NYPD detectives are investigating the matter. Speaking of Mom Dani, the New York mayor is under-scrifice. for his plan to spend $70 million on a, quote, feasibility study for his government-owned grocery store project. Daily Wire economics reporter Breckistole has more. The study follows a statement from Mondani that the city will need to raise taxes on New Yorkers and the new big ask immediately drew criticism. According to city sources who reviewed the preliminary budget documents, Moundani proposes to use the $70 million simply to scout potential locations for

the five grocery stores he pledged to open. Another source fumed over the decision, calling it, quote, ridiculous to move forward with funding the project, while the mayor at the same time spells doom over the $5.4 billion budget gap plaguing New York City. A Democrat insider said, quote, Mamdani is going to be the first mayor to spend money on a study on how to do his job. Former Vice President and Borders are Kamala Harris handed on Tuesday at a possible return to the presidential campaign in 2028. DeLewire political reporter Cameron Orkin has the story. Harris spoke with podcast host and author Sharon McMahon and was asked point blank about whether she planned to run for president for a third time. Will you run again?

I haven't decided. You're still thinking about it. I might. Early polls, according to CNN, chief data analyst, Harry Enton, have not been kind to the twice-failed candidate. He told host John Berman that Harris polling at just 18 percent second to Governor Gavin Newsom was an precarious position if she intended to drop in on a Democratic primary. In addition to Newsome, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Representative Alexandria Cassio-Cortez are polling at 13 and 12 percent, respectively. And the daughter of imprisoned free speech

activist Jimmy Lye attended President Trump's State of the Union address last night. Daily Wire Senior Editor Joel Needler has the story. Claire Lai's father is now serving a near-life sentence in Hong under Beijing's national security law. Lai founded the newspaper Abel Daly and openly challenged the Chinese Communist Party by commemorating Tiananmen Square and defending the freedoms promised under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. He was arrested in 2020 for, quote, collusion with foreign forces. His imprisonment and Claire's subsequent appearance puts direct pressure on UK Prime Minister Kirstarmer, who holds a legal responsibility to defend British citizens detained abroad

and to enforce Britain's treaty commitments to Hong Kong's autonomy. Fear is growing over Britain's credibility and whether lies ongoing imprisonment signals to hostile regimes that there are little to no consequences for detaining British citizens. All right, those are your drive-home updates. To learn more about these stories, go to Dailywire.com, and in case you missed it earlier today, we covered some major stories, including President Trump's fiery state of the union address, the state of tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down several,

and the nation's largest bank officially acknowledging that it did debank the president. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morningwire.