Evening Wire: U.S. Confirms Deployment of Weapons In Space & FEDs Thwart ISIS Attack? | 9.15.26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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John Bickley (0:33)

President Trump slams the Supreme Court over its mail-in voting ruling, federal agents' thwart an ISIS attack, and the US government has confirmed for the first time the deployment of weapons in space. The Gipper would be proud. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, September 15th. This is Evening Wire.

Georgia Howe (0:53)

FBI Director Cash Patel's hearing before Congress this morning turned dramatic as senators berated the director over his job performance and private behavior. Tempers flared when Senator Peter Welch questioned Patel on his response to an article from The Atlantic which claimed the director would frequently become visibly intoxicated in public.

Peter Welch (1:12)

She wrote, you were known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, in many cases in a private club at Ned's in Washington, DC.

She also wrote, you are known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas. Did the FBI ever investigate the author of that article, Ms. Fitzpatrick, following that Atlantic star?

Cash Patel (1:30)

As a US citizen, I have every right to claim the truth. She printed material. I'm taking her to court as a personal, private citizen. Let me finish.

Peter Welch (1:39)

No.

Cash Patel (1:40)

As a personal, private citizen. Because you're answering a question I didn't ask.

Georgia Howe (1:43)

Other lines of questioning fell down a strange rabbit hole as senators questioned the FBI's loosening of recruiting restrictions, including allowing applicants who had been convicted of certain crimes, including sex crimes.

SPEAKER_7 (1:55)

According to a memo issued this June, the FBI has lowered its hiring standards by dropping automatic disqualification for applicants who have stolen from fire employees, paid for sex, are engaged in bestiality. Director Patel, do you believe those who have previously stolen from employers, solicited sex, are engaged in bestiality, are qualified candidates that the FBI is losing?

Cash Patel (2:21)

We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you are a victim of these awful, heinous acts. They still have to go to the same rigorous standards and application process.

Georgia Howe (2:37)

The most fiery statements, however, came from Senator Cory Booker in his closing remarks.

Cory Booker (2:42)

We don't have an FBI director. We have a lackey here who is using government. And frankly, he's not even a good lackey. He's an incompetent lackey. He's like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He's an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn't qualify even to be an FBI agent, sir.

John Bickley (3:03)

Federal agents have arrested a 21-year-old Pennsylvania man. The FBI say he was preparing to carry out an attack for ISIS. Reporter Zach Jewell has the latest.

Zach Jewell (3:11)

Prosecutors say Jonathan Kramer was observed outside a sporting goods store north of Pittsburgh on September 12th carrying a rifle, five magazines and 190 rounds of ammunition he'd bought earlier that day. He was arrested later that day in a hotel parking lot. According to the criminal complaint, Kramer pledged allegiance to ISIS online and said he was preparing for his quote mission but still needed a weapon.

FBI Director Cash Patel said Kramer had been quote, plotting a violent attack in support of ISIS and that the agency had him on its radar for years. In 2023, when he was still a minor, he faced legal consequences over a separate thwarted mass casualty plot.

Georgia Howe (3:48)

President Donald Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court today after the justices ruled against his administration on a major mail-in voting initiative. The president took to Truth Social writing quote, Republicans just got another bad decision from the Supreme Court, saying that the court system took forever to give and then blamed it in part on no time left to implement a solution to our totally corrupt and out of control mail-in voting disaster, which is a laughing stock all over the world and where we are the only country that has to endure such a nation destroying scam. End quote. The president went on to praise justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who dissented from Monday's order. Trump called the pair legends.