Morning Wire - Evening Wire: Senate Mulls DHS Nominee & Tesla’s Michigan Plant | 3.18.26

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Markwayne Mullen fields fiery questions in his DHS confirmation hearing, the Fed holds firm on the interest rate, and Tesla teams up with LG to open a new battery plant in Michigan. Get the facts first with Evening Wire. - - - Ep. 2688 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3  - - - Today’s Sponsor: Fast Growing Trees - Visit https://fastgrowingtrees.com to get 20% off your first purchase when using the code WIRE at checkout. - - - 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

Don't miss the Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters. Merrill Street, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are back. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. I did not hire you, and all I need to do is find my time until you fail. On May 1st, icons. I'm going to make something of this job. Rain. Be the bridges I burn.

Night my way. Forever. I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1st, directed by David Frankel. Mark Wayne Mullen Field's fiery quest. questions at his DHS confirmation hearing, the Fed holds firm on the interest rate, and Tesla teams up with LG to open a new battery plant in Michigan. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive

Editor John Bickley. It's Wednesday, March 18th, and this is Evening Wire. President Trump's nominee to replace Christy Noem as Secretary of DHS fielded questions from the Senate today. Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen first caught fire from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who chairs the committee on Homeland Security. You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. Everybody in this room knows that I'm very blunt

and direct to the point. I simply address that I said I could understand because of the behavior you were having. I can understand why the neighbor did what he did. As far as my terms is the snake in the grass, sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems. It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.

Mullen also walked back comments calling Alex Pretti, who was shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minnesota, a, quote, deranged individual. I went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That's my fault. That won't happen as Secretary. And Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri asked Mullen to frame the department's purpose and the effect of the current shutdown.

Ten days ago, there was a shooting at Old Dominion University that left one person dead, two people critically injured. The gunman had potential terror. Is this a good time for the Department of Homeland Security to be shut down and unfunded? It's the worst time and it's devastating to the morale of the men and women we have tasked to take care of all of us. They had that mission mindset, but they don't have the pay to follow it up. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard also testified before the Senate today, with questions mostly focused on the Iran operation. Here's Gabbard on the damage assessment,

far. The ICSS is the regime in Iran appears to be intact but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities. Iran's strategic position has been significantly degraded. Democrat senators pressed Gabbard on whether the intelligence community warned that Iran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking regional allies. Gabbard declined to discuss internal briefings, saying only that officials continue to provide the best objective intelligence available. Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field overnight, leading oil prices to jump on Wednesday. Daily Wire Foreign Affairs reporter Cassia Akiva has more.

The South Pars gas field is the world's largest facility of its kind and a key resource that Iran shares with Qatar. People familiar with the matter said Israel aimed to disrupt a major source of funding for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Qatar's foreign ministry condemned the attack, and Iran's military joint command responded with vows to escalate the war in, quote, new ways. The Federal Reserve is once again hitting the brakes on interest rates, holding them steady at around 3.5 to 3.75%. Wired in live host, Cabot Phillips, has more.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced the decision earlier this afternoon, citing the unpredictable economic impacts of the Iran conflict and rising oil prices. While some policymakers still expect a rate cut later this year, divisions are growing, with several officials now signaling no cuts at all, surging, energy costs, sluggish growth, and recent jobs reports are raising concerns about stagflation. So for now, the Fed is waiting and watching. The White House sent a proposal Tuesday afternoon to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce says the latest.

The draft funding bill was sent to the U.S. Senate less than a day after Senate Democrats released their own proposal, which took 18 days to draw up after the last White House draft. In a letter to senators, the White House offered concessions on body cameras, immigration enforcement at certain sensitive areas and identification for officers not in undercover roles, among other issues. A White House official described the counterproposal as reasonable and serious. The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for just over a month after Democrats objected to aspects of President Trump's immigration agenda. As American allies continue to rebuff President Trump's call to arms in the Strait of Hormuz,

the president teased a tactical shift. In a post on Truth Social this morning, the president said that we should let the countries that use the straight, unlike the U.S., actually be responsible for it. The president added, quote, that would get some of our non-responsive allies in gear and fast. The president's comments highlight a glaring disparity. While the U.S. Navy has historically secured the waterway, the primary beneficiaries are Asian and European powers, including China, India, Japan, and South Korea. A new bill from Congresswoman Mary Miller takes aim at reckless and inhumane practices of the abortion industry.

Daily Wire homepage editor Jordan Schroeder has more. Miller's bill, the Clean Water for All Life Act, would ban taking an abortion pill without the physical presence of a health care provider. The legislation would also prevent the remains of unborn children being flushed into the public water system. According to Miller,

the aftermath of home abortions could harm the American public. The proposal comes as use of the abortion drug, Miffa Pristone, has soared to become the most common means to kill an unborn child. The Illinois Republican told the Daily Wire, quote, The murder-for-profit abortion industry has completely ignored the dangerous and unethical disposal of pre-born baby remains and toxic chemical waste produced by abortion pills. Fast-growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants and over 2 million happy customers.

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Terms and conditions may apply. The race to be Maine's next senator is heating up with a fresh. its hack ad making the rounds online. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcan has more. Main Democratic governor, Janet Mills, is targeting her populist primary opponent for the U.S. Senate with a new ad highlighting past comments about women in sexual assault. Did you know Graham Platner wrote that women worried about rape need to quote,

Not get so f*** up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to. Platner's campaign dismissed the ad with his campaign manager releasing a statement to the mid-coast villagers saying that it is a quote, desperate attempt for relevance from the governor who is trailing an oyster farmer in every recent poll. Platner, who is backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, has remained competitive in the primary despite the controversy, while Mills has the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. National Republican Senator-Centeryl told Samantha Cantrell told the Daily Wire, quote,

It doesn't matter how the Chuck Schumer versus Bernie Sanders proxy war ends because both of these candidates will lose to Susan Collins. Tesla is partnering with LG for a new battery plant in Michigan. The facility in Lansing, Michigan, once meant to produce batteries for general motors, will now help to bolster Tesla's energy storage supply chain. GM sold its stake in the venture back to LG last year as the automaker has pulled back on electric car production. Ford Motor Company likewise has decreased their EV ambitions, retrofitting a battery plant in Kentucky to switch from auto batteries to stationary ones for homes and businesses. The new Michigan plant will produce lithium iron phosphate batteries,

which have previously only been available on a large scale from foreign producers. Advanced AI chipmaker NVIDIA has restarted production on one of its most advanced processors to sell in China. Daily Wire, Senior Editor Joel Needler, has more. CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that with approval from the United States, NVIDIA would sell the H-200 processors in China. The H-200 chip is just one generation behind NVIDIA's most advanced. advanced processors, the chipmaker won U.S. approval for the venture with an agreement to pay a quarter of its profits to the federal government. The agreement comes after lengthy negotiations

between NVIDIA executives and the Trump administration over the extent to which the world's premier AI chipmaker should do business in China. National security experts are concerned that allowing Beijing access to advanced chips could harm the United States technological edge over its geopolitical opponent. Amazon is planning to dramatically reduce its business with the U.S. Post Office. DailyWire Lifestyle editor Madeline Frye Shultz has more. Amazon is currently the USPS's largest customer, sending more than a billion packages a year, amounting to 15% of all post office package deliveries. Amazon's contract with USPS expires in October, and the tech giant plans to scale back its usage by at least two-thirds before then. An Amazon spokesperson states that it had

been negotiating with the post office for over a year and has been unable to reach an agreement. The USPS is already on track to lose money this year and will soon have lost its biggest buyer. And March Madness begins tomorrow. Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake is here to get us up to speed on the tournament. Thursday's tip-off marks one of the most exciting days on the sports calendar. You have 64 teams in a single elimination basketball tournament vying for the ultimate prize, a national championship. A true blue blood, meaning NCAA basketball royalty, is the favorite to win this year's title. I'm talking about the Duke Blue Devils.

They are the tournament's number one overall seed after only losing two games this season. The first games tip off at 12-15 Eastern, so if you're filling out a bracket, which is some of the people's favorite part of the whole tournament, you have less than 24 hours to get it done. Good luck. 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 big stories, including the grilling rift between Trump and NATO, the fallout from the Homeland Security shutdown, and the battle over the Operation Epic Fury narrative here at home. Thanks for tuning in.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Porning Wire.