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Chapter 1: What discounts are available for Babbel?
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Chapter 2: Who is the new FBI director confirmed by the Senate?
Kash Patel is confirmed as FBI director, Mitch McConnell won't seek re-election, and taxpayers may get a Doge dividend. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, February 20th, and this is your Morning Wire Afternoon Update.
Kash Patel was confirmed as director of the FBI today. The Senate voted mostly along party lines 51 to 49 to confirm President Trump's pick to head the bureau. Only two GOP senators voted no, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. Patel will serve a 10-year term replacing Christopher Wray.
Morning Wire spoke to Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who believes Patel is the perfect choice to reform the FBI.
He's not there to destroy the FBI. He's there to get them back on mission focus.
He's there to support the field agents, to put them back on mission focus of protecting the American people, not taking directive orders from a Democrat party that's wanting to investigate students for showing up to school board meetings or classifying Catholics, and I'm not joking when I say this, as a possible terrorist because they disagreed with the Democrat agenda.
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Chapter 3: What is the impact of hostages being released by Hamas?
This morning, Hamas released the bodies of four hostages as part of the ceasefire agreement. Daily Wire reporter Cassie Akiva has more on the exchange.
Israel received the bodies of four hostages held by Hamas today after the terror group paraded them on stage in front of cheering crowds and upbeat music. The hostages included 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, 31-year-old Shiri Bibas, and her two young children, four-year-old Ariel and Kafir, who was only nine months old when he was kidnapped.
On stage was a picture of the four fallen hostages with an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a vampire and a missile with a sign stating they were killed by USA bombs. The coffins were received by Red Cross representatives who transported them to the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza where they were checked for hidden explosives.
They were wrapped with Israeli flags in a small ceremony where a rabbi recited Psalm 83. Once the bodies are officially identified, families will be given the final confirmation and can proceed
Chapter 4: Why did Mitch McConnell decide not to seek re-election?
Kentucky Senator and former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not seek re-election. The powerful senator got a standing ovation after announcing his decision in a short speech on the Senate floor this morning. Today is his 83rd birthday. McConnell stepped down from his leadership role last year after encountering some health challenges.
McConnell is the longest-serving Kentucky senator, having served seven terms in the upper chamber after being first elected back in 1985. Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has announced he will run for McConnell's seat.
Chapter 5: What were the highlights of J.D. Vance's CPAC speech?
Vice President J.D. Vance kicked off the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, today just outside D.C. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips reports.
The vice president took questions on a variety of topics, including immigration, the economy, and foreign policy, where he received a standing ovation for his high-profile speech in Munich, Germany last week, in which he called out Europeans for censorship. Later, he warned drug dealers to get out of our country and had a message of support for young men.
My message to young men is don't allow this broken culture to send you a message that you're a bad person because you're a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you're competitive.
The cultural message, and I think the president's and mine is the exact opposite, but our cultural message is I think that it wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same.
We actually think God made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men and as young women, and we're going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that.
Elon Musk is also scheduled to speak at CPAC later this afternoon.
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Could American taxpayers receive a Doge dividend? Daily Wire deputy managing editor, Tim Rice has details.
President Trump announced Wednesday night that he's considering giving taxpayers 20% of the money being saved by Doge as a tax break. Speaking at an investment conference in Miami, Trump praised Doge's efforts under Elon Musk, highlighting $55 billion in savings already achieved. The proposed plan would allocate another 20% of these savings to reduce the national debt.
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