Evening Wire: Trump-Putin Summit & Space Travel Gets A Boost | 8.15.25

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President Trump arrives in Alaska to meet with Vladimir Putin.

The FBI releases new evidence suggesting Hillary Clinton was shielded from investigation.

And the fight for security in Washington, D.C.

continues.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley.

It's Friday, August 15th, and this is EveningWire.

President Trump touched down in Alaska today for his face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the president outlined his hopes for the summit.

I want to see a ceasefire rapidly.

I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today.

Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to suffer.

While the two leaders have spoken on the telephone regarding ending the war in Ukraine, this will be their first in-person meeting in years.

The summit is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Eastern, and a joint press conference is expected afterwards.

A new bombshell document from Cash Patel.

The FBI director has uncovered a newly declassified 2017 memo that details what agents say was political obstruction from the Obama, FBI, and DOJ during the 2016 election.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is following the story.

The newly released memo describes order from then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to shut down probes into the Clinton Foundation and an alleged pay-to-play scheme she set up for the Clinton Foundation.

Also revealed in the documents are demands from Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe that no investigative steps should be taken without his written approval.

Agents in New York, Washington, and Little Rock believe they had evidence for a public corruption case against Clinton, but were blocked by McCabe and others.

The discovery comes as the Justice Department weighs new investigations into whether political bias shielded Hillary Clinton while targeting Donald Trump.

President Trump weighed in Thursday from the Oval Office.

It's incredible what we're finding.

Absolute proof of guilt.

And we'll see what happens.

But Clapper and Comey and that whole group of criminals, they're criminals and they made it very tough.

You know, they did the fake Russia, Russia, Russia witch hunt that lasted for two years and

I get totally exonerated.

There was no doubt about it.

They should have done it in one day, not two years.

But it was a whole scheme to try and demean Trump so that I couldn't win an election.

And that is a criminal group of people.

They're sick people, and they're criminals, and they should be taken care of.

The battle over DC's security continues.

The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration Friday over its takeover of the city's police department, arguing the move violates the Constitution and the Home Rule Act.

The case will have an emergency hearing today.

D.C.

Attorney General Brian Schwalb is seeking a restraining order to block Attorney General Pam Bondi from controlling the police force after Bondi installed DEA head Terry Cole as emergency police commissioner.

The lawsuit calls the federal action an overreach of presidential authority and a threat to public safety.

CNN's Harry Enton says Democrats should be cautious in this situation because polling shows Americans support Trump's handling of crime.

Look at where Donald Trump is.

Way, way, way above Joe Biden.

What is that?

That's 27 points.

So Americans vastly prefer Donald Trump's approach to crime than they did to Joe Biden.

In 2023, Republicans were favored by 13 points.

Look at where they were in May of this year.

Republicans were actually favored by 16 points.

They actually gained ground on crime.

Mortgage rates dropped this week to their lowest levels since October 2024.

The new 6.58% rate is giving buyers some relief in a market squeeze by high rates and record prices.

But don't celebrate yet.

Economists say the break could be temporary, and rates are still double what they were before 2022.

The Mortgage Bankers Association expects rates to hover between 6.5% and 7% for the rest of the year.

Americans are backing off the booze in record numbers.

A new Gallup poll shows just 54% of Americans say they consume alcohol, the lowest number in 90 years.

The survey found sharp divides among women, young adults, and Republicans.

For the first time ever, most Americans now believe even moderate drinking is bad for your health.

Researchers say it marks a major cultural shift.

Gavin Newsom is jumping into the redistricting fight.

Daily Wire reporter Spencer Linquis has the details.

The California governor is pushing a partisan plan to redraw congressional maps in his state in order to wipe out any new district created by GOP efforts in Texas.

Newsom is calling for a special election in November, aiming to net Democrats five more U.S.

House seats in 2026.

The maps would take effect only if Texas and other states advance their own mid-decade redraws, staying in place through 2030.

Republicans are blasting the move as a power grab, and lawsuits are already looming.

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Two red states are offering up space for detained illegal immigrants.

Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestijacimo has the story.

Florida and Tennessee are both ramping up migrant detention as President Trump's deportation drive strains existing ice facilities.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has unveiled Deportation Depot, a 1,300-bed center at Baker Correctional Institution, just weeks after opening Alligator El Catrez in the Everglades.

In Mason, Tennessee, officials approved converting a shuttered prison into an ice site, despite fierce protests.

The move comes as Trump's enforcement surge has packed federal detention centers, fueling a rapid expansion of state-run sites to keep pace with deportations.

A Kentucky licensing office apparently offered under-the-table driver's licenses to illegal immigrants for the low price of $200.

A whistleblower out of Louisville is suing the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for allegedly firing her after she reported the unlawful behavior by her coworkers.

Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who's running for Senate in 2026, was appalled by the news.

Under Democrat President Joe Biden, we were lax with our laws.

And apparently we had some rogue employees here in Kentucky that simply refused to follow the law.

And I think it's courageous of a whistleblower to come out publicly and say that, hey, this was wrong.

And I think it needs to be addressed.

An investigation into the fraudulent licenses is underway.

President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that lightens regulations on space travel.

The order calls for a streamlined process of approving private rocket launches, in part by expediting environmental reviews.

The order also sets out to remove the federal barriers to the building of new launch sites, known as spaceports.

Elon Musk and other commercial space entrepreneurs have criticized the red tape surrounding private space operations.

The Commercial Space Federation, a trade group, released a statement commending the order, saying it will, quote, strengthen and grow the U.S.

commercial space industry.

Navigating your social security benefits is getting easier.

The new commissioner Frank Bizignano touted the reforms he's making to Social Security, including completely digitizing the 90-year-old system, rooting out fraud, and reducing wait times.

If you make an appointment to have a field office visit, it now happens in six minutes.

Unprecedented.

We are serving more people and delivering more than was ever delivered before.

in a manner with the highest possible quality and we've just begun.

Florida Congresswoman and Air Force Force veteran Ana Paulina Luna is revealing details about a mysterious airspace incursion she witnessed during her service.

Speaking on the Joe Rogan experience, Luna described how an F-16 pilot seemed rattled after the incident.

I remember kind of talking to some of the pilots about it and I was like, what was that?

And they're like, eh, we can't really talk about it.

No one really wanted to address it.

And so from what I had gathered, that had been likely a UAP.

Luna says the stigma around reporting unidentified anomalous phenomena keeps many in the armed forces silent, and she called for more government transparency.

The Pentagon insists there's no evidence of extraterrestrial life, even as sightings in the U.S.

have surged past 2,100 so far this year.

DHS Secretary Christy Noam says more than a million immigrants have left the U.S.

already this year.

Daily Wire's senior editor Kevin Phillips says the numbers.

Noam is claiming 1.6 million immigrants without legal status have left the U.S.

since Trump took office.

That number comes from the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, which admits the estimate may be overstated because it relies on federal survey data.

Independent analysts caution the drop could reflect fear of answering government surveys rather than an actual population decline.

Noam shared her perspective on the deportations Thursday on Fox.

Overwhelmingly, the world got the message.

They're leaving on their own, which is the best thing for American citizens.

Not only did 1.6 million people leave the United States that shouldn't be here, but also 2.5 million Americans became employed in the last six, seven months.

That's incredible growth for U.S.

citizens that will benefit their families and the people who love this country, who were born here, who want to be employed, and now have new opportunities for success as well.

Rabies cases are on the rise.

The surge is taking place in wildlife from Maine to Wyoming.

In Wyoming, more than 200 hotel guests may have been exposed to rabid rats inside Grand Teton National Park, while in North Carolina, a rabid fox attacked two people in separate incidents.

Experts say unvaccinated pets can contract rabies from animals like raccoons, skunks, and even bats, and then spread the nearly always fatal virus to humans.

If you believe you've been exposed to rabies, seek immediate medical treatment.

Check your itinerary.

If you're flying Air Canada, you may not be taking off.

The airline says it will cancel around 500 flights by the end of today.

That's due to a planned strike by 10,000 of its flight attendants.

The cancellations will affect about 100,000 passengers.

The flight attendants union says they want more pay for work they do outside of flights.

The walkout threatens to hit Canada's peak summer tourism season.

Nike co-founder Phil Knight did just do it.

He and his wife Penny made a $2 billion donation to Oregon Health and Science University's Knight Cancer Institute.

It's the largest known gift to any U.S.

university.

The money will double the center's size, fund research, treatment, and clinical trials under its cancer pioneer, Dr.

Brian Druker.

Knight, who built Nike on the motto, Just Do It, says his goal is to transform cancer care from diagnosis to recovery.

The Toronto International Film Festival is set to screen a documentary about the October 7th attacks in Israel.

The film was previously asked to change its name and then was disinvited over claims that filmmakers did not properly obtain permission to use footage live streamed by Hamas.

Following backlash online, the festival CEO and the film director announced in a joint statement Thursday that the documentary will be part of the festival, where it will, quote, contribute to the vital conversations that the film is meant to inspire.

The documentary, now called The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, follows retired IDF General Noam Tibon as he seeks to save his family and others from the attacks.

All right, there's your drive-home updates.

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 political maneuvering around the Russia summit, Trump's takeover of the Smithsonian Museums, and a New York team winning her vaccine exemption case.

Thanks for tuning in.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with a weekend edition of Morningwire.

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