Evening Wire: Putin Pushes Ukraine & Texas’ Democrat Dragnet | 8.12.25

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Russia seizes more territory in Ukraine ahead of the summit with Trump.

Inflation comes in cooler than expected.

And Texas is seeking national arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.

I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Tuesday, August 12th, and this is Evening Wire.

Ahead of the summit with the U.S., Russian forces are pushing ahead with one of their biggest gains of the war in Ukraine.

Today, Moscow's troops pushed about six miles past the front lines in the Donetsk region, closing in on nearby towns.

Fighting continues elsewhere in Donets, with drones striking and hitting residential areas and reports of major damage to civilian areas.

A Ukrainian monitoring group says the advance could help Russia tighten its grip on the region ahead of Friday.

Meanwhile, President Trump says he plans to press Putin to end their three-year war during their Alaska meeting.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.

The president says he'll know within two minutes if a deal is possible and is prepared to walk away if not.

Speaking at the White House, Trump confirmed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky won't be part of this summit, but promised a follow-up meeting, including both leaders if talks go well.

It's the worst thing that's happened, by far the worst that's happened since World War II.

So I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him, you've got to end this war, you got to end it.

Trump hinted that any peace deal could involve territorial changes, a step that would require a nationwide vote in Ukraine to approve.

He expressed frustration with that process, saying he'll try to get some of that territory back for Kyiv.

The meeting will be Trump's first with Putin in his second term and the first face-to-face between a U.S.

president and the Russian leader since the war began.

Inflation has once again come in cooler than experts projected, despite Trump's tariffs taking effect.

The Consumer Price Index rose just two-tenths of a percent in July and is holding steady at 2.7% year over year.

Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed three-tenths of a percent on the month and 3.1% annually, with shelter costs driving most of that increase.

But energy prices fell more than 1%, while food prices remained flat.

Stocks rallied on the news, with all three major indexes up in morning trading.

President Trump has nominated his replacement to head up the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and he may be familiar to Morningwire listeners.

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the details.

Economist and frequent Morning Wire guest E.J.

Antonio will replace Erica McIntarfer, who Trump fired earlier this month after major downward revisions to recent jobs data.

In a Truth Social post, Trump called Antoni, quote, highly respected, and said he would ensure economic numbers are, quote, honest and accurate.

Antoni has in the past criticized the agency's data collection methods and says restoring public trust will require both consistent and accurate reporting.

McIntarfer's dismissal followed revisions showing job gains in May and June were overestimated by more than 250,000 combined.

The Biden administration nixed plans for the president to tour a ship two years ago over concerns about his ability to walk.

According to Fox News, an unearthed email chain reveals that an event in July 2023 was originally set to have President Biden board a vessel in a Pennsylvania shipyard, but the plans were rearranged due to, quote, how many steps were involved to get on the ship.

During this time, the Biden White House rebuffed questions regarding the president's fitness to serve, insisting he was perfectly capable of fulfilling the office.

A new whistleblower report claims that Democratic Senator Adam Schiff directed the release of classified information to target President Trump.

The whistleblower, who served under Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, says that Schiff pushed for the leaks in a meeting after Trump's election in 2016.

FBI Director Cash Patel declassified the whistleblower report, which is a summary of several interviews with the FBI, and said in a post on X, quote, We found it.

We declassified it.

Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives.

ICE officials in Houston have apprehended more than 350 gang members in the first six months of the Trump administration.

The suspects come from 40 different gangs, including Trende Aragua and MS-13.

Notably, this is more arrests than in the entire year of 2021 under the Biden administration, when 115 gang members were arrested in the Houston area.

In an announcement this morning, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, quote, quote, President Trump and Secretary Noam unleashed ICE to dismantle transnational criminal terrorist gangs.

The days of unchecked gang violence are over.

A man was shot and killed in Washington, D.C.

yesterday, just hours after President Trump declared a crime emergency in the district and federalized local law enforcement.

Daily Wire reporter Amanda PrestiGiacomo has the details.

Law enforcement responded to a shooting in northwest Washington around 7 p.m.

last night.

They found the victim unconscious, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

He was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.

The incident took place within walking distance of two shootings President Trump referenced yesterday as he announced the government's takeover of D.C.

police.

Here's the president talking about one of those incidents.

They robbed his car, they shot him, they killed him like there was nothing to it.

Preliminary police data suggests yesterday's shooting would be the 100th homicide of this calendar year.

CNN's Dana Bash is taking heat for calling January 6th the most violent moment in recent history in Washington, D.C.

I should note that the most violent moment in recent history in D.C.

was January 6th.

And it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump.

And it included the people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement.

Critics, however, were quick to remind Bash about D.C.'s record homicide numbers in 2023 and the destruction from Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.

Bash made the comment while covering President Trump's announcement to federalize police and deploy the National Guard to combat surging crime.

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo is proposing what he's calling Zoron's Law to protect rent-stabilized housing from the wealthy.

Democrat candidate Zoron Momdani lives in rent-stabilized housing in Astoria.

Cuomo says Mom Dani was abusing the system by living in an apartment meant for people who need affordable housing.

I'm going to propose not to rent that apartment by law, except to a person who actually needs affordable housing.

Mom Donnie has made affordable housing a key policy of his campaign.

He's promised to freeze rent if elected.

Mom Donnie responded to Cuomo during his five boroughs against Trump tour.

He said he lives rent-free in Cuomo's head.

Texas Republicans are seeking nationwide civil arrest warrants for Democrats who fled the state.

Daily Wire's senior editor Joel Niedler has more.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to, quote, domesticate arrest warrants in California and Illinois to force the lawmakers to return to Texas.

Arrest warrants were issued last week.

The Democrats will not be detained and returned to Texas unless a state court recognizes the warrants in California and Illinois.

Democrat leaders in both states have voiced support for the Texas Democrats.

The lawmakers left the state to block passage of a redistricting map that favors Republicans.

The Attorney General said the state would pursue, quote, every legal remedy to force the lawmakers to return.

A pilot and all three passengers survived a fiery plane crash Monday in Montana.

A small plane was landing when it slid and crashed into another plane.

Everyone survived with minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

Thankfully, the other plane was empty.

Video from the scene shows both planes on fire.

Emergency crews put out the fire and cleared the site within a few hours.

And Swifty's Brace Yourselves.

I know Cabot is.

Taylor Swift has announced her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl.

She made the announcement in a teaser for her boyfriend Travis Kelsey's podcast.

Fans celebrated the new album on social media, and the Empire State Building lit up orange.

The appearance for the podcast is Swift's first interview since 2023, when she and Kelsey had just started dating.

She released her most recent album last year.

The video teaser of the podcast features Swift revealing a blurred album cover to Kelsey and his brother.

So I wanted to show you something.

Okay.

What do we got?

We got

a briefcase.

Yep.

Mint green.

TS on it.

Yep.

What's in it?

This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.

TS twice.

Those are your drive home updates this evening.

To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.

And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump taking unprecedented action to take over crime-flagged DC, Trump's controversial new deal with chip makers, and the Border Wall Project getting a big infusion of cash and materials.

Thanks for tuning in.

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

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