Morning Wire - Tulsi Gabbard Confirmed & Cartel Drug Tunnels | Afternoon Update | 2.12.25

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

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hot cocoa for sleep. Head to shopbeam.com slash wire and use code wire at checkout for up to 40% off. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Wednesday, February 12th, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update. The Senate has confirmed former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as President Trump's Director of National Intelligence.

Yaser 52, Nayser 48 nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered, made and laid upon the table, and the president will immediately notify of the Senate's actions. Gabbard was voted through despite strong opposition from Senate Democrats and minority leader Mitch McConnell. Gabbard faced heated questioning over her past views on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and U.S. intelligence operations. Supporters say she will focus on cutting bureaucracy and strengthening national security, while critics questioned her stance on surveillance and foreign policy. The Senate also voted to invoke cloture for nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary.

He now heads for a final confirmation vote. The delivery of government efficiency subcommittee held its first hearing today, which got heated at some point. Daly Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips, has the latest. Subcommittee chair, Marjorie Taylor Green, opened the hearing by saying, quote, the American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt. The issue of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has very much become a partisan issue, Democrats saying it's wrong to let him access databases like the U.S. Treasury payment system. Meanwhile, Republicans say government spending is out of control and long overdue for an audit.

Here's Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett criticizing what Doge is suggesting. We know that they are trying to get rid of the Department of Education, USA, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They're laying off FAA workers. They are going after the FDA, the CDC, the HHS, the FBI agents. But Republicans like Rep Eric Burleson in Missouri argue the cuts are necessary, saying we face an existential debt crisis. We're nearing $37 trillion in national debt. What does that mean? That means when the epic, which is the Economic Policy Innovation Center,

says we have 18 trillion left. That's it. 18 trillion left to take out. And we're spending $2 trillion in debt every year. We are literally at a point in which the dollar will be worth nothing. Late last night, President Trump welcomed Mark Fogel to the White House. Fogel is an American teacher who is wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for over three years. Daily Wire reporter Cassie Akiva, who's been in touch with the Fogel family during the saga, has the story.

The three-and-a-half-year nightmare for the Fogel family that started during the Biden administration has finally ended. After watching the previous administration prioritized more famous detainees like Brittany Griner, the Fogel family clung to hope that he would be released. The main source of that enduring hope was Donald Trump, who famously met with Mark's 95-year-old mother Malfeen at his Butler-Pensilvania rally. She was actually set to take the stage until the would-be assassin began shooting. President Trump did indeed remember Mark's name and welcomed him to the White House late last night. I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now.

I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives of passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. In exchange for Fogel, the U.S. released Russian prisoner Alexander Vinnock, who pled guilty to money laundering $4 billion through a cryptocurrency exchange platform that he operated. He had been facing a 20-year prison sentence. President Trump says he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin, quote,

negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. This comes after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth has ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine in his first address before the alliance. Daily Wire Deputy Managing editor Tim Rice has more. In the social media post today, Trump disclosed a call between the two leaders saying they would work together very closely. Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to inform him of the conversation with Putin.

The announcement follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegset's address to NATO in which he said restoring Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is unrealistic and that President Trump is prioritizing diplomacy to end the war. Speaking to the Ukraine Defense Contract Group in Brussels, Hegsef emphasized the need for a negotiated peace, not prolonged conflict. Here's the defense secretary. Any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be

deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5. Hegeseth warned that the U.S. is shifting focus to border security and deterring threats from China. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Ukraine's President Zelensky to discuss a rare earth investment deal. Zelensky is reviewing the proposal and will likely respond Friday when he meets with Vice President J.D. Vance. This episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Head to BlackRifelcoffee.com and use code DailyWire for 20% off your purchase. That's blackriffelcoffee.com code daily wire. Mexican drug cartels are using sophisticated tunnels with rail systems to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

The hidden tunnel entrances, often below storefronts and warehouses, are making the Trump administrations crackdown on drug smuggling more difficult. As former DEA agent Michael Brown told Fox, these tunnels are very elaborate and lead to several questions. Who are the engineering firms in Mexico, right? Who has the intellectual capacity to build one of these sophisticated tunnels? To start looking at those companies and those architects and those engineers, right, working it from the Mexican side. But of course, that would require more cooperation from the Mexican government, which is another question. Despite the sharp decline in a legal border crossing since Trump's return to office, authorities say cartel tunnels remain a major

threat. A new congressional report finds that Chinese espionage threats against the U.S. have increased over the past four years. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce breaks down the findings. The House Committee on Homeland Security's Threat Snapchat report obtained by the Daily Wire documents over 60 cases of China-backed operations. That includes efforts to steal military and trade secrets as well as silence dissidents on U.S. soil. According to the report, the FBI opens a new counterintelligence case against China every 12 hours with 60% of all trade theft cases linked to Beijing. The report also highlights recent arrests, including one of a Chinese national accused of stealing AI secrets from Google.

Congressman August Fluger sits on that committee. Here's what he told Morningwire. We in Congress, especially on the Homeland Security Committee, are going to take a hardline approach, both on the legislative effort, but also on making sure that the FBI continues to do their job, to do their work, to prevent these folks and the bad actors. from gaining influence and surveilling American citizens or American national security interests, which is really, I think, their ultimate goal. The committee criticized the Biden administration's handling of China,

but praised Trump officials, including Secretary's Marco Rubio and Christi Noem, for taking a tougher stance on Beijing. Jordan's King Abdullah II says he opposes the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza following yesterday's meeting with President Trump at the White House. In a statement, Abdullah reaffirmed Jordan's commitment to rebuilding Gaza, without forcing people from their houses. Obdala praised Trump's role in brokering a ceasefire

and urged continued U.S. leadership. The meeting also covered security concerns and economic cooperation between the two nations. And Disney is scaling back on DEI. A company memo confirms the removal of the Reimagined Tomorrow initiative and a shift in how executive performance is evaluated. Disney is also adjusting content advisories on classic films and renaming employee resource groups.

The changes come as other corporations, including Google and Meta, re-evaluate DEI efforts under the Trump administration. Those are your drive home updates this afternoon. To learn more about these stories, go to DailyWire.com. And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some other big stories, including J.D. Vance laying out Trump's AI policy, Trump cracking down on NGOs, and Jim Jordan discusses Doge and the DOJ. Thanks for tuning in. back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.