Evening Wire: Hegseth’s ‘Secret Mission’ & AOC’s Ethics Complaint | 3.31.26

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Iran's revolutionary guard threatens American companies across the Middle East, Pete Hegseth

reveals his secret trip to meet the troops and AOC faces an ethics complaint over campaign

spending.

I'm daily wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Tuesday, March 31st, the seizing wire.

The Iran conflict widens beyond the battlefield with new threats against American interests

across the region, host of wired in live Cabit Phillips has more.

Iran's revolutionary guard chorus now threatening to target U.S. companies across the Middle

East starting April 1st, morning employees to leave and telling civilians living nearby

to evacuate.

The threat comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Danyahu says the war is aimed at stopping

Iran from developing nuclear weapons and the long range missiles to deliver them.

Arguing Tehran is pursuing the ability to threaten not just Israel but eventually the

U.S. as well.

The UN Security Council is also meeting today over Lebanon as three UN peacekeepers have

been killed there since the conflict began.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed today that he visited troops in the Middle East.

The secret trip involved Hegseth meeting with service members involved in Operation

Epic Fury from the pilots flying strike missions into Iran to the operator's task with

intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.

Hegseth described the experience in a press conference this morning.

The trip was in honor.

I had a chance to bear witness and I witnessed the best of America.

I witnessed warriors, a brotherhood of men and women warriors all and their commitment

to the mission.

The Pentagon is weighing a new layer of defense right in the nation's capital.

Daily Wire reporter Zach Jules has more.

Officials are considering deploying an anti-drone laser system near Fort McNair in Washington

DC, where top officials, including war Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco

Rubio reside.

The move comes after reports of unusual drone activity in the area raising concerns about

potential surveillance during a time of heightened tensions with Iran.

But the plan is not without controversy.

Aviation officials warn the powerful laser system could pose risks in the already crowded

airspace in your Reagan National Airport.

For now, discussions are ongoing, as the U.S. looks to counter a growing drone threat

on its own doorstep.

President Trump is slamming France over the country's refusal to allow U.S. planes to fly

through French airspace.

Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce says the details.

In a post on True Social Today, the President wrote that France had been, quote,

very unhelpful with respect to the butcher of Iran.

But then Trump warned that the USA will remember another reminder from the President that Europe

should not take U.S. assistance for granted.

French President Emmanuel Macron has rolled out French involvement in Iran or the Strait

of Hormuz.

In response to French obstruction, Israel's government has announced it will stop all

new defense purchases from the country.

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A federal judge has blocked an executive order from President Trump, which would have stopped

federal funding from going to PBS and NPR.

Daily Wire senior editor Virginia Kruta has the story.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington permanently blocked President Donald Trump's

executive order, ruling that the move was unlawful and unenforceable under the First Amendment.

In his opinion, Moss said that the government cannot engage in, quote,

viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of that kind, pointing to Trump's own public

statements that he wanted to defund the outlets because he viewed them as biased toward

Democrats.

NPR has argued that the administration was trying to punish it for the content of its journalism

by cutting off access to grant money appropriated by Congress.

The ruling keeps the order from taking effect and hands the administration a significant legal

defeat in its efforts to strip federal support from public broadcasting.

A political showdown is brewing between Congressman Eric Swalwell and the FBI just weeks before

California voters headed the polls. Swalwell is threatening legal action after reports that the

bureau may release files tied to his past connection with a suspected Chinese spy.

His attorneys warned the move would violate federal law and amount to election interference.

Swalwell addressed the FBI's efforts at a press conference yesterday.

The FBI against the president's political enemy at a time that we are at war

shows a distraction.

The FBI has not yet commented. The records reportedly involve Christine Fang Fang,

Fang, and alleged Chinese operative who had ties to multiple California politicians.

Swalwell denies any wrongdoing and no charges have been filed.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing a new ethics complaint over her campaign

spending. Daily wire senior editor Joel Needler has more.

A watchdog group alleges nearly $19,000 in campaign funds were used to pay a psychiatrist known

for controversial ketamine-based therapies. Expenses listed as, quote,

leadership training and consulting. The complaint argues the payments may have been used for

personal use, which would violate federal campaign finance law. Ocasio-Cortez has not responded

publicly and no findings have been made. The case has now been referred for review potentially

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A case over two middle schoolers and let's go brand and sweatshirts will head to the Supreme Court.

The case involves two Michigan brothers who were told to remove their hoodies for allegedly

breaking the school dress code. The brothers then sued, arguing that the school had violated

their First Amendment rights. Earlier this year, the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of the school,

finding that the phrase, let's go brand and fell under the First Amendment exception to vulgarity.

The phrase is a popular euphemism for an explicit insult against Joe Biden.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has called the Sixth Circuit's decision

one of the worst free speech decisions to come out of the appellate courts in years.

The Supreme Court handed down a major conservative win in a near unanimous decision today.

Daily Wire homepage editor Jordan Schroeder has more.

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1-2's date in favor of a Christian counselor,

Kaley T. Leis, who challenged a Colorado law. She said could punish her for helping

gender-confused children become comfortable with their own bodies, instead of pursuing

irreversible transgender medical procedures. The law prohibits counseling that quote,

attempts or reports to change an individual sexual orientation or gender identity.

Chili said that the law violates her First Amendment rights and has prevented her from accepting

several clients. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion that the courts failed to

apply rigorous First Amendment scrutiny in the case. Anne said, quote, while the First Amendment

protects many in varied forms of expression, the spoken word is perhaps the quintessential form

of protected speech. And that is exactly the kind of expression in which Miss Chili's seeks to engage.

Liberal Justices Sotomayor and Alina Kagan wrote a concurring opinion,

Justice Kintanji Brown Jackson, was alone to center.

Canada's House of Commons has passed a new hate speech bill, which according to critics,

removes protections for religious belief in public discourse. Daily Wire Culture reporter

Megan Basham has the story. The House of Commons just passed Bill C9,

sending the Liberal government's anti-hate legislation to the Senate. The bill became

contentious after Liberals agreed to remove a longstanding religious exemption from Canada's

hate speech law, a protection that currently shields people who quote,

in good faith, express views rooted in religious belief or religious texts. Critics say removing

that carve out could expose people to punishment for publicly voicing traditional religious views

on issues such as homosexuality or gender if those statements are deemed hateful under the law.

Supporters argue the change closes a loophole in existing hate speech protections.

Bill C9 now heads to the Senate, where the fight over the limits of religious speech in

Canada is far from over. A mural of Ukrainian stabbing victim,

Marina Zerutska, in Providence, Rhode Island, is being removed at the request of two

local Democrat politicians. 23-year-old Zerutska, who had recently fled Ukraine,

was brutally stabbed on a Charlotte train in August of 2023, allegedly by a repeat violent criminal.

The mural represented a damning indictment of the soft-on-crime policies that led to her death.

Here's Democrat General Assemblymember David Morales speaking to the press about why he thinks

the mural should be erased. Ultimately, we want to make sure that every community member that calls

Providence Home feels safe, and we can both agree that this mural behind us does not reflect

Providence's values, nor does it reflect the creativity that we want to see in our city.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, who ultimately ordered its removal, called the mural divisive.

The suspect, Dakarlas Dewan Brown, Jr. was a repeat offender with 14 prior arrests,

including armed burglary, and had recently shown signs of psychosis, conservative activists

including Elon Musk who funded the mural, so he should never have been on the streets.

And Tiger Woods has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from his latest DUI arrest in Florida.

At the already say two hydrocodone pills were found in his pocket after he crashed and overturned

his SUV near his home. Officers noted Woods showed signs of impairment, including bloodshot

eyes and slowed movements, though a breath test showed no alcohol in his system. Investigators

believe he was under the influence of medication at the time of the crash. He faces charges of

driving under the influence, property damage, and refusing a chemical test.

A California man was found dead in an out-of-service unlocked police car days after being released

from jail. Daily wire assistant editor Andy Valdas says the details.

Family and friends of 37-year-old Eric Valencia are demanding answers after his body was found

March 26 in the back seat of a police car parked outside of the Azusa police station.

Three days earlier, officers arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence,

but he was later released for a lack of evidence. Relatives said they reported him missing

after his release, and now they want to know how he got into the vehicle and why he remained

there for days unnoticed. Police chief Rocky Wendrick said the car, quote, should have been secured

that an independent firm is investigating and that Valencia's cause of death remains unknown,

pending an autopsy by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.

Preparing to launch its first manned mission around the moon in more than 50 years,

thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.

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